run in their mindes that they cannot lay them by If it go any thing farre they are almost alwayes assaulted with Temptations to Blasphemy to doubt whether there be a God or a Christ or the Scriptures be true or whether there be a Heaven or a Hell and oft tempted to speak some blasphemous words against God and this with such importunity that they can hardly forbear and oft times they are tempted to make away themselves When it goes so farre they are next to the loss of the use of reason if it be not prevented Now to those that finde that Melancholy is the Cause of their Troubles I would give this advice 1. Expect not that Rational Spiritual Remedies should suffice for this Cure For you may as well expect that a good Sermon or comfortable words should cure the falling Sickness or Palsie or a broken head as to be a sufficient Cure to your Melancholy fears For this is as reall a bodily disease as the other Only because it works on the spirits and phantasie on which words of advice do also work therefore such words and Scripture and Reason may somewhat resist it and may palliate or allay some of the effects at the present but as soon as time hath worn off the force and effects of these Reasons the distemper presently returns For the Humour hath the advantage 1. Of continuall presence 2. Of a more necessary naturall and sensible way of working As if a man be in an easie Lethargy you may awake him so long as you are calling on him aloud but as soon as you cease he is asleep again Such is the case of the Melancholy in their sorrows For it is as natural for Melancholy to cause fears and disquietness of minde as for Phlegme in a Lethargy to cause sleep Do not therefore lay the blame on your Books Friends Counsels Instructions no nor all on your Soul if these Troubles be not cured by words But labour to discern truly how much of your Trouble comes this way and then fix it in your minde in all your Enquiries Reading and Hearing that it is the other part of your Trouble which is truly Rational and not this part of it which is from Melancholy that these means were ordained to remove though God may also bless them extraordinarily to do both Only constant importunate Prayer is a fit and special means for the Curing of all 2. When you have truly found out how much of your Disquietness proceeds from Melancholy acquit your soul from that part of it Still remember in all your self-examinations self-judgings and reflections on your heart that it is not directly to be charged with those sorrowes that come from your Spleen save only remotely as all other Diseases are the fruits of sin as a Lethargick dullness is the deserved fruit of sin but he that should charge it immediatly on his soul should wrong himself and he that would attempt the Cure must do it on the Body 3. If you would have these fears and troubles removed apply your self to the proper Cure of Melancholy 1. Avoid all passions of sorrow fear and anger as much as you can and all occasions of discontent and grief 2. Avoid much solitariness and be most commonly in some cheerfull company Not that I would have you do as the foolish sinners of the world do to drink away Melancholy and keep company with sensual vain and unprofitable persons that will draw you deeper into sin and so make your wound greater instead of healing it and multiply your Troubles when you are forced to look back on your sinfull loss of time But keep company with the more cheerfull sort of the Godly There 's no mirth like the mirth of Believers which faith doth fetch from the bloud of Christ and from the Promises of the Word and from experiences of Mercy and from the serious fore-apprehensions of our everlasting Blessedness Converse with men of strongest faith that have this heavenly mirth and can speak experimentally of the Joy of the holy Ghost and these will be a great help to the reviving of your spirit and changing your Melancholy habit so far as without out a Physitian it may be expected Yet sometimes it may not be amiss to confer with some that are in your own Case that you may see that your Condition is not singular For Melancholy people in such distresses are ready to think that never any was in the Case as they are in or at least never any that were truly godly when you hear people of the most upright lives and that truly fear God to have the very same complaints as you have your self it may give you some hopes that it is not so bad as you before did imagin However be sure that you avoid solitariness as much as you well can 3. Also take heed of too deep fixed musing thoughts studying and serious meditating be not duties for the deeply-Melancholy as I shall shew more in the following Directions You must let those alone till you are better able to perform them lest by attempting those duties which you cannot perform you shall utterly disable your self from all Therefore I would advise you by all means to shake and rowse your self out of such musings and suddenly to turn your thoughts away to something else 4. To this end be sure that you avoid Idleness and want of imployment which as it is a life not pleasing to God so is it the opportunity for Melancholy thoughts to be working and the chiefest season for Satan to tempt you Never let the Devil finde you unimployed but see that you go cheerfully about the works of your Calling and follow it with diligence and that time which you redeem for spiritual exercises let it be most spent in Thanksgiving and Prayses and heavenly Conference These things may do much for prevention and abating your disease if it be not gone too far but if it be you were best have recourse to the Physitian and expect Gods blessing in the use of means and you will finde when your Body is once cured the disquietness of your Minde will vanish of it self 2. The second part of this Direction was That you take notice how much of your disquietness may proceed from outward Crosses for it is ordinary for these to lye at the root and bring the heart into a disquiet and discontent and then trouble for sin doth follow after Alas how oft have I seen that verified of the Apostle 2 Cor. 7.10 The sorrow of the world worketh death How many even godly people have I known that through crosses in children or friends or losses in their estates or wrongs from men or perplexities that through some unadvisedness they were cast into or the like have fallen into mortall Diseases or into such a fixed Melancholy that some of them have gone besides themselves and others have lived in fears and doubting ever after by the removall of the disquietness to their consciences How
forsake all and lay down thy life for Christ Is it not better venture thy self in the same way as thou hast gone in as well as others do and as so many of thy forefathers have done before thee Under such sinfull Deliberations as these we usually continue long before we fully Resolve And many demurres and delayes we make before we conclude to take Christ on the terms that he is offered to us Now I make no doubt but most or many Christians can remember how and when God stirred their Consciences and wakened them from their security and made them look about them and roused them out of their natural Lethargy Some can tell what Sermon first did it Others can remember by what degrees and steps God was doing it long The ordinary way appointed by God for the doing of it first is the instruction of Parents And as I have fullier manifested in my Book of Infant Baptism if Parents would do their duties they would find that The Word publikely preached was not appointed to be the first ordinary means of Conversion and Sanctification but commonly Grace would be received in childhood I speak not of Baptismal Relative Grace consisting in the pardon of Original sin nor yet any infusion of Habits before they have the use of reason because I suppose it is hid from us what God doth in that But I speak of actual Conversion and I prove that this should be the first ordinary way and time of Conversion to the children of true Christians because it is the first means that God hath appointed to be used with them Deut. 6.6 7 8. Eph. 6.4 Parents are commanded to teach their children the Law of God urgently at home and as they walk abroad lying down and rising up and to bring them up in the admonition and nurture of the Lord and to train up a child in the way he should go and then when they are old they will not depart from it Prov. 22.6 And children are commanded to Remember their Creator in the dayes of their youth Eccles 12.1 And if this be Gods first great means then doubtless he will ordinarily bless his own means here as well as in the Preaching of the Word From all this I would have you learn this lesson That you ought not to trouble your self with fears and doubts lest you are not truly Regenerate because you know not the Sermon or the very time and manner of your Conversion but finde that you have grace and then though you know not just the time or manner of your receiving of it yet you may nevertheless be Assured of Salvation by it Search therefore what you are and how your will is disposed and resolved and how your Life is ordered rather then to know how you became such I know the workings of the Spirit on the soul may be discerned because they stir up discernable Actings in our own spirits The souls Convictions Consideration Resolutions and Affections are no insensible things But yet the work of Grace usually begins in common Grace and so proceeds by degrees till it come to special saving Grace even as the work of nature doth first producing the matter and then introducing the form first producing the embryo before it introduce a Rational soul And as no child knows the time or manner of his own Formation Vivification or Reception of that soul so I think few true Believers can say Just such a day or at such a Sermon I became a true Justified sanctified man That was the hour of your true Conversion and Justification When you first preferred God and Christ and Grace before all things in this world and deliberately and seriously Resolved to take Christ for your Saviour and Governour and give up your self to him to be saved taught and governed and to obey him faithfully to the death against all Temptations whatsoever you should lose or suffer by it Now I would but ask those very Christians that think they do know the very Sermon that converted them Did that Sermon bring you to this Resolution Or was it not only some troubling rowsing preparation hereto I think some desperate sickness or the like Affliction is a very usual means to bring Resolutions to be downright and fixed with many souls that long delayed and fluctuated in unresolvedness and lay under meer uneffectual Convictions Obj. But this runs on your own grounds that saving Grace and common Grace do differ but in degrees Answ I think most will confess that as to the Acts of Grace and that is it that we are now enquiring after and that is all the means that we have of discerning the Habits Yet remember that I still tell you That there is a specifical Moral difference though grounded but in a gradual Natural difference Yea and that one grain of the Spirits working which turns the Will in a prevalent measure for Christ together with the illumination necessary thereto deserves all those elogies and high titles that are given it in the Word so great a change doth it make in the soul Well may it be called The New Creature Born of the Spirit The Workmanship of God The new Life yea The Image of God and The Divine Nature if that Text be not meant of the Divine Nature in Christ which we are Relatively made partakers of in our Union with him When you are weighing things in the balance you may add grain after grain and it makes no turning or motion at all till you come to the very last grain and then suddenly that end which was downward is turned upward When you stand at a loss between two highwayes not knowing which way to go as long as you are deliberate you stand still All the Reasons that come into your minde do not stir you But the last Reason which Resolves you setteth you in motion So is it in the change of a sinners heart and life He is not changed but preparing towards it while he is but Deliberating Whether he should choose Christ or the world But the last Reason that comes in and Determineth his Will to Christ and makes him resolve and enter a firm Covenant with Christ and say I will have Christ for Better or Worse this maketh the greatest change that ever is made by any work in this world For how can there be greater then the turning of a soul from the creature to the Creator so distant are the Terms of this change After this one Turning act Christ hath that Heart and the main bent and endeavours of the life which the world had before The man hath a new End a new Rule and Guide and a new Master Before the Flesh and the Devil were his Masters and now Christ is his Master So that you must not think so meanly of the Turning Determining Resolving act of Grace because it lieth but in a gradual difference naturally from common Grace If a Prince should offer a condemned beggar to marry her and pardon her and make her
Lord Jesus will forsake them as they have forsaken him the Prayers of his Saints will be fully turned against them and his Elect shall cry to him night and day till he avenge them speedily by making these his enemies to lâ—ck the dust and dashing them in pieces like a Potters vessel because they would not that he should reign over them And then they shall know whether Christ be not King of Kings and Lord of Lords Perhaps you may think I Digress from the matter in hand But as long as I speak but for my Lord Christ and for Doing Good I cannot think that I am quite out of my way But to return nearer to those for whose sakes I chiefly write This is that sum of my advice Study with all the understanding you have how to do as much Good while you have time as possibly you can and you shall find that without any Popish or Pharisaical self-confidence to be the most excellent art for obtaining spiritual Peace and a large measure of comfort from Christ To that end use seriously and daily to bethink your self What way of expending your Time and Wealth and all your Talents will be most comfortable for you to hear of and review at Judgement and take that as the way most comfortable now Onely consult not with flesh and blood make not your flesh of your counsel in this work but take it for your enemy expect its violent unwearied opposition But regard not any of its clamours or repinings But know as I said before that your truest spiritual comforts are a Prize that must be won upon the conquest of the flesh I will only add to this the words of Blessed Dr. Sibs a man that was no enemy to Free Grace nor unjust Patron of mans Works in his Preface to his Souls Conflict Christ is first a King of Righteousness and then of Peace The Righteousness that he works by his Spirit brings a Peace of sanctification whereby though we are not freed from sin yet we are enabled to combat with it and to get the victory over it Some Degree of Comfort follows every Good Action as heat accompanies fire and as beams and influences issue from the Sun Which is so true that very Heathens upon the discharge of a good Conscience have found Comfort and Peace answerable this is a Reward before our Reward Again In watchfulness and diligence we sooner meet with Comfort then in idle Complaining Again Pag. 44 45. An unimployed life is a burthen to it self God is a pure act always Working always Doing and the nearer our soul comes to God the more it is in action and the freer from disquiet Men experimentally feel that Comfort in Doing that which belongs unto them which before they longed for and went without And in his Preface to the Bruised Reed There is no more Comfort to be expected from Christ then there is Care to Please him Otherwise to make him an A better of a lawless and a loose life is to transform him into a phancy nay into the likeness of him whose works he came to destroy which is the most detestable Idolatry of all One way whereby the Spirit of Christ prevaileth in his is to preserve them from such thoughts Yet we see People will frame a Divinity to themselves pleasing to the flesh sutable to their own ends which being vain in the substance will prove likewise vain in the fruit and a building upon the sands So far Dr. Sibs It seems there were Libertines and Antinomians then and will be as long as there are any carnal unsanctified Professors DIRECTION XXVI 26. Having led you thus far towards a setled Peace my next Direction shall contain a Necessary Caution lest you run as far into the contrary extreme viz. Take heed that you neither trouble your own soul with needless scruples about matters of doctrine of duty or of sin or about your own Condition Nor yet that you do not make your self more work then God hath made you by feigning things unlawful which God hath not forbidden or by placing your Religion in Will-worship or in an over-curious insisting on Circumstantials or an over-rigorous dealing with your Body THis is but the Exposition of Solomons Be not Over-wise and be not Righteous â—vermuch Eccl. 7.16 A man cannot serve God too much formally and strictly considering his service much less Love him too much But we may do too much Materially intending thereby to serve God which though it be not true Righteousness yet being Intended for Righteousness and done as a service of God or Obedience to him is here called Over-much-Righteousness I know it is stark madness in the prophane secure World to think that the doing of no more then God hath commanded us is Doing too much or More then needs as if God had bid us do more then needs or had made such Laws as few of the foolish Rulers on earth would make This is plainly to Blaspheme the Most High by denying his Wisdom and his Goodness and his Just Government of the World and to Blaspheme his holy Laws as if they were too strict precise and made us more to do then needs and to reproach his sweet and holy ways as if they were grievous intolerable and unnecessary Much more is their Madness in charging the Godly with being too Pure and too Precise and making too great a stir for Heaven and that meerly for their Godliness and Obedience when alas the best do fall so far short of what Gods Word and the necessity of their own souls do require that their Consciences do more grievously accuse them of Negligence then the barking World doth of being too precise and diligent And yet more mad are the World to lay out so much Time and Care and Labour for Earthly Vanities and to provide for their contemptible bodies for a little while and in the mean time to think that Heaven and their Everlasting Happiness there and the escaping of everlasting damnation in Hell are Matters not worth so much ado but may be had with a few cold wishes and that it s but folly to do so much for it as the Godly do That no labour should be thought too much for the World the Flesh and the Devil and every little is enough for God And that these wretched souls are so blinded by their own lusts and so bewitched by the Devil into an utter Ignorance of their own hearts that they verily think and will stand in it that for all this They Love God above all and love Heavenly things better then Earthly and therefore shall be saved But yet Extremes there are in the service of God which all wise Christians must labour to avoyd It is a very great Question among Divines Whether the common rule in Ethicks That Virtue is ever in the middle between two extremes be sound as to Christian Virtues Amesius saith No. The Case is not very hard I think to be resolved if you will
men willing that so they may be saved Answ God having created the world and all things in it at first did make them in a certain nature and order and so stablish them as by a fixed Law and he thereupon is their Governour to govern every thing according to its nature Now mans Nature was to be Principled with an Inclination to his own Happiness and to be lead to it by objects in a Morall way and in the choice of means to be a free agent and the Guider of himself under God As Governour of the Rational creature God doth continue that same course of Ruling them by Laws and drawing them by ends and objects as their natures do require And in this way he is not wanting to them His Laws are now Laws of Grace and universal in the tenour of the free Gift and Promise for he hath there given life in Christ to all that will have it and the objects propounded are sufficient in their kinde to work even the most wonderfull effects on mens souls for they are God himself and Christ and glory Besides God giveth men natural faculties that they may have the use of reason and there is nothing more unreasonable then to refuse this offered Mercy He giveth inducing Arguments in the written Word and Sermons and addeth such Mercies and Afflictions that one would think should bow the hardest heart Besides the strivings and motions of his Spirit within which are more then we can give an account of Now is not this as much as belongs to God as Governour of the Creature according to its Nature And for the Giving of a New nature and Creating New hearts in men after all their rebellious rejecting of Grace this is a certain Miracle of Mercy and belongs to God in another Relation even as the free chooser of his Elect and not directly as the Governour of the universe This is from his special Providence and the former from his General Now special Providences are not to be as common as the General nor to subvert Gods ordinary established Course of Government If God please to stop Jordan and dry up the Red Sea for the passage of the Israelites and to cause the Sun to stand still for Joshua must he do so still for every man in the world or else be accounted unmercifull The sense of this Objection is plainly this God is not so rich in Mercy except he will New make all the World or Govern it above its Nature Suppose a King know his subjects to be so wicked that they have every one a full design to famish or kill themselves or poison themselves with something which is enticing by its sweetness The King not only makes a Law strictly charging them all to forbear to touch that poison but he sendeth special Messengers to entreat them to it and tell them the danger If these men will not hear him but wilfully poison themselves is he therefore unmercifull But suppose that he hath three or four of his sons that are infected with the same wickedness and he will not only command and intreat them but he will also lock them up or keep the poison from them or will feed them by violence with bitter food is he unmercifull unless he will do so by all the rest of his Kingdom Lastly If all this will not satisfie you Consider 1. That it is most certain that God is Love and infinite in Mercy and hath no pleasure in the death of sinners 2. But it is utterly uncertain to us how God worketh on mans will inwardly by his Spirit 3. Or yet what intollerable inconvenience there may be if God should work in other wayes therefore we must not upon such uncertainties deny certainties nor from some unreasonable scruples about the manner of Gods working Grace deny the blessed Nature of God which himself hath most evidently proclaimed to the world I have said the more of this because I finde Satan harp so much on this string with many troubled souls especially on the advantage of some common doctrines For false doctrine still tends to the overthrow of solid Peace and Comfort Remember therefore before all other thoughts for the obtaining of Peace to get high thoughts of the Gracious and Lovely Nature of God DIRECTION IV. 4. Next this Be sure that you deeply apprehend the Gracious Nature Disposition and Office of the Mediator JESUS CHRIST THough there can no more be said of the Gracious Nature of the Son then of the Father's even that his Goodness is Infinite yet these two advantages this Consideration will add unto the former 1. You will see here Goodness and Mercy in its condescension and neerer to you then in the Divine Nature alone it was Our thoughts of God are necessarily more strange because of our Infinite distance from the Godhead and therefore our apprehensions of Gods Goodness will be the lesse working because lesse familiar But in Christ God is come down into our Nature and so Infinite Goodness and Mercy is incarnate The man Christ Jesus is able now to save to the utmost all that come to God by him We have a Mercifull High Priest that is acquainted with our Infirmities 2. Herein we see the Will of God putting forth it self for our help in the most astonishing way that could be imagined Here is more then meerly a Gracious inclination It s an Office of saving and shewing Mercy also that Christ hath undertaken even to seek and to save that which was lost to bring home straying souls to God to be the great Peace-maker between God and man to Reconcile God to man and man to God and so to be the Head and Husband of his people Certainly the Devil strangely wrongeth poor troubled souls in this point that he can bring them to have such hard suspicious thoughts of Christ and so much to overlook the Glory of Mercy which so shineth in the face of the Son of Mercy it self How can we more contradict the Nature of Christ and the Gospel-description of him then to think him a destroying hater of his creatures and one that watcheth for our halting and hath more mind to hurt us then to help us How could he have manifested more willingness to save and more tender compassion to the souls of men then he hath fully manifested That the Godhead should condescend to assume our Nature is a thing so wonderfull even to astonishment that it puts faith to it to apprehend it For it is ten thousand times more condescension then for the greatest King to become a Fly or a Toad to save such creatures And shall we ever have low and suspicious thoughts of the Gracious and Mercifull Nature of Christ after so strange and full a discovery of it If twenty were ready to drown in the sea and if one that were able to swim and fetch them all out should cast himself into the water and offer them his help were it not foolish ingratitude for any to say
use of Infallible signs of Sincerity and take not those for certain which are not ANd to that end remember what I said before that you must well understand wherein the Nature of saving Faith and so of all saving Grace doth consist And when you understand this write it down in two or three lines and both at your first trial and afterward when ever any doubts do drive you to a Review of your Evidences still have recourse only to those Signs and try by them What these Signs are I have shewed you so fully in the forecited place in my book of Rest that I shall say but little now Remember that Infallible signs are very few and that whatsoever is made the condition of salvation that is the most Infallible evidence of our salvation and therefore the fittest Mark to try by And therefore Faith in God the Father and the Redeemer is the main Evidence But because I have elsewhere shewed you that this Faith is comprehensive of Love Gratitude Resolution to Obey and Repentance let me more particularly open it to help you in the Triall To prove any Grace to be saving it is necessary that you prove that salvation is fully promised to him that hath it Now if you will know what it is that hath this promise I will tell you 1. As to the Object 2. The Act. 3. The degree or modification of the Act. For all these three must be enquired after if you will get Assurance 1. The Object is principally God and the Redeemer Christ And secondarily the Benefits given by Christ and under that the means to attain the principal Benefits c. 2. The Act hath many Names drawn from Respective and Modall differences in the Object as Faith Desire Love choosing Accepting Receiving Consenting c. But properly all are comprised in one word Willing The Understandings high estimation of God and Christ and Grace is a Principal part of true saving Grace but yet it is difficult and scarce possible to judge of your self by it rightly but only as it discovers it self by prevailing with the Will 3. The Degree of this Act must be such as ordinarily prevaileth against its contrary I mean both the contrary Object and the contrary Act to the same Object But because I doubt School-termes do obscure my meaning to you though they are necessary for exactness I will express the nature of saving Grace in two or three Marks as plain as I can 1. Are you heartily willing to take God for your Portion and had you rather Live with him in Glory in his favour and fullest Love with a soul perfectly cleansed from all sin and never more to offend him Rejoicing with his Saints in his everlasting praises than to enjoy the delights of the flesh on earth in a way of sin and without the favour of God 2. Are you heartily willing to take Jesus Christ as he is offered in the Gospel that is to be your only Saviour and Lord to give you pardon by his bloudshed and to sanctifie you by his Word and Spirit and to govern you by his Laws Because this General containeth and implieth several Particulars I will express them distinctly Here it is supposed that you know this much following of the nature of his Laws For to be Willing to be Ruled by his Laws in General and utterly Unwilling when it comes to particulars is no true Willingness or subjection 1. You must know that his Laws reach both to heart and outward actions 2. That they command a holy spiritual heavenly life 3. That they command things so cross and unpleasing to the flesh that the flesh will be still murmuring and striving against obedience Particularly 1. They command things quite cross to the inclinations of the flesh as to forgive Wrongs to Love Enemies to forbear Malice and Revenge to restrain and mortifie Lust and Passion to abhor and mortifie Pride and be low in our own eyes and humble and meek in spirit 2. They command things that cross the interest of the flesh and its inclination both together I mean which will deprive it of its enjoyments and bring it to some suffering As to perform Duties even when they lay us open to disgrace and shame and reproach in the world and to deny our credit rather then forsake Christ or our duty to obey Christ in doing what he commandeth us though it would hazard or certainly lose our wealth friends liberty and life it self forsaking all rather then to forsake him to give to the poor and other good uses and that liberally according to our abilities to deny the flesh all forbidden pleasures and make not provision to satisfie its lusts but to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof and in this combate to hold on to the end and to overcome These are the Laws of Christ which you must know before you can determine whether you are indeed unfeignedly willing to obey them Put therefore these further questions to your self for the trial of your willingness to be ruled by Christ according to his Laws 3. Are you heartily willing to live in the performance of those holy and spiritual Duties of heart and life which God hath absolutely commanded you and are you heartily sorry that you perform them no better with no more cheerfulness delight success and constancy 4. Are you so throughly convinced of the worth of everlasting Happiness and the intollerableness of everlasting misery and the truth of both and of the soveraignty of God the Father and Christ the Redeemer and your many engagements to him and of the necessity and good of obeying and the evil of sinning that you are truly willing that is have a setled resolution to cleave tâ— Christ and obey him in the deerest most disgracefull painfull hazardous flesh-displeasing Duties even though it should cost you the loss of all your worldly enjoyments and your life 5. Doth this willingness or resolution already so far prevail in your heart and life against all the Interest and Temptations of the world the devil and your flesh that you do ordinarily practise the most strict and holy the most self-denying costly and hazardous duties that you know God requireth of you and do heartily strive against all known sin and overcome all gross sins and when you fall under any prevailing temptation do rise again by Repentance and begging pardon of God through the bloud of Christ do resolve to watch and resist more carefully for the time to come In these five Marks is expressed the Gospel-description of a true Christian Having laid down these Marks I must needs add a few words for the explaining of some things in them least you mistake the meaning and so lose the benefit of them 1. Observe that it is your willingness which is the very Point to be tried And therefore 1. Judge not by your bare knowledge 2. Judge not by the stirrings or passionate workings of your Affections â— pray you forget not
them in terror and amazement Like men after a flash of lightning that are left more sensible of the darkness For no wise man can expect that such Joyes should be a Christians ordinary state or God should so diet us with a continual feast It would neither suit with our health nor the condition of this Pilgrimage Live therefore on your Peace of conscience as your ordinary diet when this is wanting know that God appointeth you a fast for your health and when you have a feast of high Joyes feed on it and be thankfull but when they are taken from you gape not after them as the Disciples did after Christ at his Ascension but return thankfully to your ordinary diet of Peace and remember that these Joyes which are now taken from you may so return again however there is a place preparing for you where your Joyes shall be full DIRECTION XXII 22. My next Direction is this Spend more of your time and care about your Duty then about your Comforts and for the exercise and increase of your Graces then for the discovery of them And when you have done all that you can for Assurance and Comfort you shall finde that it will very much depend on your Actual Obedience THis Direction is of as great importance as any that I have yet given you but I shall say but little of it because I have spoke of it so fully already in my Book of Rest Part 3. Ch. 8 9 10 11. My Reasons for what I here assert are these 1. Duty goeth in order of nature and time before comfort as the Precept is before the Promise Comfort is part of the Reward and therefore necessarily supposeth Duty 2. Grace makes men both so ingenuous and Divine as to consider Gods due as well as their own and what they should Do as well as what they shall Have still remembring that our works cannot Merit at Gods hands 3. As we must have Grace before we can Know we have it so ordinarily we must have a good measure of Grace before we can so clearly discern it as to be certain of it Small things I have told you are next to none and hardly discernable by weak eyes When all waies in the world are tried it will be found that there is no way so sure for a doubting soul to be made certain of the truth of his Graces as to keep them in Action and get them increased And it will be found that there is no one cause of Christians doubting of the truth of their Faith Love Hope Repentance Humility c. so great or so common as the small degree of these Graces Doth not the very language of complaining Christians shew this One saith I have no faith I cannot believe I have no love to God I have no delight in Duty Another saith I cannot mourn for sin my heart was never broken I cannot patiently bear an injury I have no courage in opposing sin c. If all these were not in a low and weak degree men could not so ordinarily think they had none A lively strong working Faith Love Zeal Courage c. would shew themselves as do the highest Towers the greatest mountains the strongest windes the greatest flames which will force an observance by their greatness and effects 4. Consider also that it is more pleasing to God to see his people study him and his will directly then to spend the first and chiefest of their studies about the attaining of comforts to themselves 5. And it is the nature of Grace to tend first and chiefly toward God and but secondarily to be the evidence of our own happiness We have faith given us principally that we might believe and live by it in daily applications of Christ We have repentance that it might break us off from sin and bring us back to God We have Love that we might Love God and our Redeemer his Saints and Laws and waies We have Zeal that we might be quickened in all our holy duties and we have obedience to keep us in the way of our duty The first thing we have to do with these Graces is to use them for those holy ends which their nature doth express And then the discerning of them that we may have Assurance followeth after this both in time and dignity 6. And it is a matter of farre greater concernment to our selves to seek after the obtaining of Christ and Grace then after the certain knowledge that we have them You may be saved though you never get Assurance here but you cannot be saved without Christ and Grace God hath not made Assurance the Condition of your salvation It tends indeed exceedingly to your comfort and a pretious mercy it is but your safety lieth not on it It is better go sorrowfull and doubting to Heaven then comfortably to hell First therefore ask what is the Condition of salvation and the way to it and then look that you do your best to perform it and to go that way and then try your performance in its season 7. Besides as it is a work of farre greater moment so also of quicker dispatch to Believe and Love Christ truly then to get Assurance that you do truly Believe and Love him You may believe immediatly by the help of Gods Grace but getting Assurance of it may be the work of a great part of your life Let me therefore intreat this one thing of you that when you feel the want of any Grace you would not presently bend all your thoughts upon the enquiry Whether it be true or no but rather say to your self I see trying is a great and difficult a long and tedious work I may be this many years about it and possibly be unresolved still If I should conclude that I have no Grace I may be mistaken and so I may if I think that I have it I may inquire of friends and Ministers long and yet be left in doubt It is therefore my surest way to seek presently to obtain it if I have it not and to increase it if I have it and I am certain none of that labour will be lost to get more is the way to know I have it But perhaps you will say How should I get more Grace that 's a business of greater difficulty then so I answer Understand what I told you before that as the beginning of Grace is in your Understanding so the heart and life of it is in your Will and the Affections and passionate part are but the fruits and branches If therefore your Grace be weak it is chiefly in an unwillingness to yield to Christ and his Word and Spirit Now how should an unwilling soul be made willing Why thus 1. Pray constantly as you are able for a willing minde and yielding inclinable heart to Christ 2. Hear constantly those Preachers that bend their doctrine to inform your understanding of the great necessity and excellency of Christ and Grace and Glory and to perswade
he be not sound in his Religion and so needs not a Conversion to a sound faith but onely to a soundness in the faith The suddenness of the News must needs make those Violent Commotions and Changes in the one which cannot ordinarily be expected in the other who is acquainted so early with the truth and by such degrees 5. But suppose you heard nothing of Sin and Misery and a Redeemer in your Childhood or at least understood it not which yet is unlikely yet let me ask you this Did not that Preacher or that Book or whatever other Means God used for your Conversion reveal to you Misery and Mercy both together Did not you hear and believe that Christ dyed for sin as soon as you understood your Sin and Misery Sure I am that the Scripture reveals both together and so doth every sound Preacher and every sound Writer notwithstanding that the slanderous Antinomians do shamelesly proclaim that we preach not Christ but the Law This being so you may easily apprehend that it must needs abate very much of the Terrour which would else have been unavoydable If you had read or heard that you were a sinner and the Child of Hell and of Gods 〈◊〉 and that there was no Remedy which is 〈◊〉 a Preaching of the Law as we must not use to any in the world nor any since the first promise to Adam must receive Yea or if you had heard Nothing of a Saviour for a year or a day or an hour after you had heard that you were an Heir of Hell and so the Remedy had been but Concealed from you though not denied which ordinarily must not be done then you might in all likelyhood have found some more terrours of soul that hour But when you heard that your sin was pardonable as soon as you heard that you were a sinner and heard that your Misery had a sufficient Remedy provided if you would accept it or at least that it was not Remediless and this as soon as you heard of that misery what wonder is it if this exceedingly abate your fears and troubles Suppose two men go to visit two several Neighbours that have the Plague and One of them saith It is the Plague that is on you you are but a Dead man The other saith to the other sick person It is the Plague that you have but here is our Physician at the next door that hath a Receipt that will cure it as Infallibly and as easily as if it were but the prick of a pin he hath cured thousands and never fail'd one that took his Receipt but if you will not send to him and trust him and take his Reâ—eâ—â—t there is no hopes of you Tell me now whether the first of these sick persons be not like to be more troubled then the other and whether it will not remove almost all the fears and troubles of the latter to hear of a Certain Remedy as soon as he heareth of the disease though some trouble he must needs have to think that he hath a disease in it self so desperate or loathsome Nay let me tell you so the Cure be but well done the less Terrours and despairing fears you were put upon the more Credit is it to your Physician and his Apothecary Christ and the Preacher or Instrument that did the work and therefore you should rather praise your Physician then question the Cure DOUBT III. BVT it is common with all the world to consent to the Religion that they are bred up in and somewhat affected with it and to make Conscience of obeying the precepts of it so do the Jews in theirs the Mahometans in theirs And I fear it is no other work on my soul but the meer force of Education that maketh me Religious and that I had never that great Renewing work of the Spirit upon my soul and so that all my Religion is but meer Opinion or Notions in my Brain ANSWER 1. ALL the Religions in the world besides the Christian Religion have either much errour and wickedness mixt with some Truth of God or they contain some lesser parcel of that Truth alone as the Jews Onely the Christian Religion hath that whole Truth which is saving Now so much of Gods Truth as there is in any of these Religions so much it may work Good effects upon their souls as the knowledge of the Godhead and that God is Holy Good Just Merciful and that he sheweth them much undeserved Mercy in his daily providences c. But mark these two things 1. That all persons of false Religions do more easily and greedily embrace the false part of their Religion then the true and those they are zealous for and practice with all their might because their natural corruption doth befriend it and is as combustible fewel for the fire of Hell to catch in but that Truth of God which is mixt with their Error if it be practical they fight against it and abhor it while they hold it because it crosseth their lusts insomuch that it is usually but some few of the more convinced and civil that God in providence maketh the main Instruments of continuing those Truths of his in that part of the wicked world For we finde that even among Pagans the Prophaner and more sensual sort did deride the better sort as our prophane Christians do the godly whom they called Puritans 2. Note that the Truth of God which in these false Religions is still acknowledged is so small a part and so oppressed by Errors that it is not sufficient to their salvation that is to give them any sound Hope nor is it sufficient to make such clear and deep and powerful Impressions in their mindes as may make them Holy or truly Heavenly or may overcome in them the Interest of the world and the flesh This being so you may see great reason why a Turk or a Heathen may be zealous for his Religion without Gods Spirit or any true Sanctification when yet you cannot be so truly zealous for yours without it Indeed the speculative part of our Religion separated from the Practical or from the hard and self denying part of the Practical many a wicked man may be zealous for as to maintain the Godhead or that God is merciful c. or to maintain against the Jews that Jesus is the Christ or against the Turks that he is the only Redeemer and Teacher of the Church or against the Papists that all the Christians in the world are Christs Church as well as the Romans and against the Socinians and Arrians that Christ is God c. But this is but a smal part of our Religion nor doth this or any heathenish Zeal sanctifie the heart or truly mortifie the flesh or overcome the world They may contemn Life and cast it away for their Pride and Vain-glory but not for the hopes of a holy and blessed Life with God This is but the prevalency of one corruption against another or
Passions by sanctifying Grace and by putting both Promises and dreadful Threatnings into his word I say if God by all these means hath given you several motives to obedience take heed of separating them Do not once ask your heart such a question Whether it would obey if there were no Threatning and s no â—ear Nor on the otherside do not let Fear do all without Love Doubtless the more Love constraineth to duty the better it is and you should endeavour with all your might that you might feel more of the force of Love in your duties But do you not mark how you cherish that Corruption that you complain of Your Doubts and Tormenting Fears are the things that Love should cast out Why then do you entertain them If you say I cannot help it why then do you cherish them and own them and plead and dispute for them and say you do well to Doubt and you have Cause Will this ever cast out Tormenting Fears Do you not know that the way to cast them out is not to maintain them by distrustful thoughts or words but to see their sinfulness and abhor them and to get more high thoughts of the Lovingkindness of God and the tender mercies of the Redeemer and the unspeakable Love that he hath manifested in his sufferings for you that so the Love of God may be more advanced and powerful in your soul and may be able to cast out your Tormenting Fears Why do you not do this instead of Doubting If Tormenting Fears and Doubtings be a sin why do you not make Conscience of them and bewail it that you have been so guilty of them Will you therefore Doubt because you have slavish fears Why that is to Doubt because you Doubt and to Fear because you Fear and so to sin still because you have sinned Consider well of the folly of this course DOUBT VII BVT I am not able to Believe and without Faith there is no pleasing God nor hope of salvation I fear Vnbelief will be my ruine ANSWER 1. I Have answered this Doubt fully before It is grounded on a Mistake of the Nature of true Faith You think that Faith is the Believing that you are in Gods favour and that you are Justified but properly this is no Faith at all but onely Assurance which is sometimes a fruit of Faith and sometimes never in this life obtained by a Believer Faith consisteth of two parts 1. Assent to the Truth of the Word 2. Acceptance of Christ as he is offered Which immediatly produceth a Trusting on Christ for salvation and a Consent to be Governed by him and Resolution to obey him which in the fullest sense are also acts of Faith Now do not you Believe the truth of the Gospel And do you not Accept of Christ as he is offered therein If you are truly willing to have Christ as he is offered I dare say you are a true Believer If you be not willing for shame never complain Men use rather to speak against those that they are unwilling of then complain of their absence and that they cannot enjoy them 2. However seeing you complain of unbelief in the Name of God do not cherish it and plead for it and by your own cogitations fetch in daily matter to feed it but do more in detestation of it as well as complain DOUBT VIII BVt I am a stranger to the witness of the spirit and the Joy of the Holy Ghost and Communion with God and therefore how can I be a true Believer ANSWER 1. FEeding your Doubts and Perplexities and arguing for them is not a means to get the Testimony and Joy of the Spirit but rather studying with all Saints to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge to comprehend the height and bredth and length and depth of his Love and seeking to understand the things that are given you of God Acknowledge Gods general Love to Mankind both in his Gracious Nature and Common Providences and Redemption by Christ and deny not his Special Mercies to your self but dwell in the study of the Riches of Grace and that 's the way to come to the Joy of the Holy Ghost 2. I have told you before what the witness of the Spirit is and what is the ordinary mistake herein If you have the Graces and holy operations of the Spirit you have the witness of the Spirit whether you know it or not 3. If by your own doubtings you have deprived your self of the Joy of the Holy Ghost bewail it and do so no more but do not therefore say you have not the Holy Ghost For the Holy Ghost often works Regeneration and Holiness before he works any sensible Joys 4. You have some hope of salvation by Christ left in you You be not yet in utter despair And is it no Comfort to you to think that you have yet any Hope and are not quite past all Remedy It may be your sorrows may so cloud it that you take no notice of it but I know you cannot have the least Hope without some answerable Comfort And may not that Comfort â—e truly the Joy of the Holy Ghost 5. And for Communion with God let me ask you Have you no recourse to him by Prayer in your straits Do you not wait at his mouth for the Law and direction of your life Have you received no holy desires or other Graces from him Nay are you sure that you are not a member of Christ who is one with him How can you then say that you have no Communion with him Can there be Communication of Prayer and Obedience from you yea your own self delivered up to Christ and a Communication of any life of Grace from God by Christ and the Spirit and all this without Communion It cannot be Many a soul hath most near Communion with Christ that knows it not DOUBT IX I Have not the spirit of prayer When I should pour out my soul to God I have neither bold access nor matter of Prayer nor Words ANSWER DO you know what the spirit of Prayer is It containeth 1. Desires of the soul after the things we want especially Christ and his Graces 2. An addressing our selves to God with these Desires that we may have help and relief from him Have not you both these Do you not Desire Christ and Grace Justification and Sanctification Do you not look to God as him who alone is able to supply your wants and bids you ask that you may receive Do you utterly despair of help and to seek to none Or do you make your addresses by Prayer to any but God But perhaps you look at words and matter to dilate upon that you may be able to hold out in a long speech to God and you think that is the effect of the spirit of Prayer But where do you find that in Gods Word I confess that in many and most the spirit which helpeth to Desires doth also help to some kind of
expressions Because if a man be of able natural parts and have a tongue to express his own mind the promoting of holy Desires will help men to expressions For a full soul is hardly hindred from venting it self And experience teacheth us that the spirits enflaming the heart with holy Affections doth very much furnish both the Invention and Expression But this is but accidental and uncertain For those that are either men of unready tongues or that are so ill bred among the rude vulgar that they want fit expressions of their own minds or that are of over-bashful dispositions or especially that are of small knowledge and of little and short acquaintance with those that should teach them to pray by their examples or that have been but of short standing in the School of Christ such a man may have the spirit of Prayer many a year and never be able in full expressions of his own to make known his wants to God no nor in good and tolerable sense and language before others to speak to God from his own Invention A man may know all those Articles of the Faith that are of flat necessity to Salvation and yet not be able to find matter or words for the opening of his heart to God at length I would advise such to frequent the Company of those that can teach and help them in Prayer and neglect not to use the smallest parts they have especially in secret between God and their own souls where they need not so much as in publick to be regardful of expressions and in the mean time to learn a Prayer from some Book that may fitliest express their necessities or to use the Book it self in Prayer If they distrust their memories not resolâ—ing to stick heâ—â— and make it a means of indâ—lâ—iâ—â—â—â—eir laâ—iâ—ess and negligence much less to reproach and deride those that express their desires to God from the present sense of their own wants as some wickedly do deride such but to use this lawful help till they are able to do better without it then with it and then to lay it by and not before The Holy Ghost is said Rom. 8.16 to help our Infirmities in Prayer but how 1. By teaching us what to pray for not always what matter or words to enlarge our selves by but what necessary Graces to pray for 2. By giving us Sighs and Groans unexpressible which is far from giving Copious expressions For Groans and Sighs be not words and if they be Groans that we cannot express it would rather seem to intimate a want of expression then a constant abounding therein where the spirit doth assist Though indeed the meaning is that the Groans are so deep that they are past the expression of our words All our speech cannot express that deep sense that is in our hearts For the Understanding hath the advantage of the Affections herein All the thoughts of the mind may be expressed to others but the Feelings and fervent Passions of the soul can be but very defectively expressed Lastly All have not the spirit of Prayer in like measure nor all that have it in a great measure at one time can find it so at pleasure Desires rise and fall and these earnest Groans be not in every Prayer where the Holy Ghost doth assist I believe there is never a Prayer that ever a Believer did put up to God for things lawful and useful but it was put up by the help of the spirit For the weakest Prayer hath some degree of good Desire in it and addresses to God with an endeavour to express them and these can come from none but onely from the spirit Meer words without desires are no more Prayer then a suit of apparel hang'd on a stake is a man You may have the spirit of Prayer and yet have it in a very weak degree Yet still I would encourage you to bewail your defect herein as your sin and seek earnestly the supply of your wants But what 's that to the questioning or denying your sincerity or right to salvation DOUBT X. I Have no Gifts to make me useful to my self or others When I should profit by the Word I cannot Remember it When I should Reprove a Sinner or Instruct the Ignorant I have not words If I were called to give an account of my Faith I have not words to express that which as in my mind And what Grace can here be then ANSWER THis needs no long Answer Lament and amend those sins by which you have been disabled But know that these Gifts depend more on Nature Art Industry and Common Grace then upon special saving Grace Many a bad man is excellent in all these and many a one that is truly godly is defective Where hath God laid our salvation upon the strength of our Memories the Readiness of our Tongues or measure of the like Gifts That were almost as if he should have made a Law that all shall be saved that have found Complexions and healthful and youthful bodies and all be damned that are sickly aged weak children and most women DOUBT XI O But I have been a grievous sinner before I came home and have fallen foully since and I am utterly unworthy of Mercy Will the Lord ever save such an unworthy wretch as I Will he ever give his Mercy and the blood of his Son to one that hath so abused it ANSWER 1. THe Question is not with God what you have been but what you are God takes men as they then are and not as they were 2. It is a dangerous thing to object the greatness of your Guilt against Gods mercy and Christs Merits Do you think Christs satisfaction is not sufficient or that he dyed for small sins and not for great Do you not know that he hath made satisfaction for all and will pardon all and hath given out the pardon of all in his Covenant and that to all men on Condition they will Accept Christ to pardon and heal them in his own way Hath God made it his great design in the work of mans Redemption to make his Love and Mercy as Honorable and wonderful as he did his Power in the work of Creation and wil you after all this oppose the greatness of your sins against the greatness of this Mercy and Satisfaction why you may as wel think your self to be such a one that God could not or did not Make you as to think your sins so great that Christ could not or did not satisfie for them or will not pardon them if you Repent and Believe in him 3. And for Worthiness I pray you observe There is a twofold Worthiness Righteousness There is a Legal Worthiness and Righteousness which consisteth in a perfect obedience which is the performance of the Conditions of the Law of Pure Nature and Works This no man hath but Christ and if you look after this Righteousness or Worthiness in your self then do you depart from Christ and make
him to have dyed and satisfied in vain you are a Jew and not a Christian and are one of those that Paul so much disputeth against that would be Justified by the Law Nay you must not to much as once imagine that all your own Works can be any part of this Legal Righteousness or Worthiness to you Only Christs Satisfaction and Merit is in stead of this our Legal Righteousness and Worthiness God never gave Christ and Mercy to any but the unworthy in this sense If you know not your self to be unworthy and unrighteous in the sense of the Law of Works you cannot know what Christs Righteousness is Did Christ come to save any but sinners and such as were lost what need you a Saviour if you were not Condemned and how come you to be condemned if you were not unrighteous and unworthy But then 2. there is an Evangelical personal Worthiness and Righteousness which is the Condition on which God bestows Christs Righteousness upon us and this all have that will be saved by Christ But what is that Why it hath two parts 1. The Condition and Worthiness required to your Union with Christ and pardon of all your sins past and your Adoption and Justification it is no more but your hearty thankful Acceptance of the Gift that is freely Given you of God by his Covenant-grant that is Christ and Life in him 1 John 5.10 11 12. There is no worthiness required in you before Faith as a Condition on which God will give you Faith but onely certain means you are appointed to use for the obtaining it And Faith it self is but the Acceptance of a free Gift God requireth you not to bring any other Worthiness or Price in your hands but that you consent unfeignedly to have Christ as he is offered and to the ends and uses that he is offered that is as one that hath satisfied for you by his blood and merits to put away your sins and as one that must illuminate and Teach you Sanctifie and Guide and Govern you by his Word and Spirit and as King and Judge will fully and finally Justifie you at the day of Judgement and give you the Crown of Glory Christ on his part 1. Hath merited your pardon by his satisfaction and not properly by his sanctifying you 2. And sanctifieth you by his Spirit and Ruleth you by his Laws and not directly by his bloodshed 3. And he will justifie you at Judgement as King and Judge and not as Satisfier or Sanctifier But the Condition on your part of obtaining Interest in Christ and his benefits is that our Faith which accepteth him in all these respects both as King Priest and Teacher and to all these ends conjunctly But then 2. The Condition and Worthyness required to the Continuation and Consummat on of your Pardon Justification and right to Glory is both the Continuance of your faith and your sincere obedience even your keeping the Baptismal Covenant that you made with Christ by your Parents and the Covenant which you in your own person made with him in your first true Believing These indeed are called Worthiness and Righteousness frequently in the Gospel but it is no worthiness consisting in any such works which make the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace of which Paul speaks but onely in faith and such Gospel works as James speaks of which make the Reward to be wholly of Grace and not of Debt Now if you say you are unworthy in this Evangelical sense then you must mean if you know what you say that you are an Infidel or Unbeliever or an Impenitent obstinate Rebel that would not have Christ to reign over him For the Gospel calleth none Unworthy as non-performers of its Conditions but only these But I hope you dare not charge your self with such Infidelity and wilful Rebellion DOUBT XII THough God hath kept me from Gross sins yet I finde such a searedness of Conscience and so little aversness from sin in my minde iâ— that I fear that I should Commit it if I lay under Temptations and also that I should not hold out in Tryal if I were called to suffer Death or any grievous Calamity And that obedience which endureth meerly for want of a Temptation is no true Obedience ANSWER 1. I Have fully answered this before If you can overcome the temptations of Prosperity you have no cause to doubt distrustfully whether you shall overcome the temptations of Adversity And if God give you Grace to avoid Temptations to sin and fly occasions as much as you can and to overcome them where you cannot avoid them you have little reason to distrust his preservation of you and your stedfastness thereby if you should be cast upon greater Temptations Indeed if you feel not such a Belief of the evil and danger of sinning as to possess you with some sensible hatred of it you have need to look to your heart for the strengthening of that Belief and Hatred and fear your heart with a godly preserving Jealousie but not with tormenting disquieting doubts Whatever your Passionate Hatred be if you have a settled well-grounded Resolution to walk in obedience to the death you may confidently comfortably trust him for your preservation who gave you those resolutions 2. And the last sentence of this Doubt had need of great Caution before you conclude it a certain Truth It s true that the Obedience which by an ordinary Temptation such as men may expect would be overthrown is not well grounded and rooted before it is overthrown But it s a great Doubt whether there be not Degrees of Temptation Possible which would overcome the Resolution and Grace of the most Holy having such assistance as the Spirit usually giveth Believers in Temptation And whether some Temptations which overcome not a strong Christian would not overcome a weak one who yet hath true Grace I conclude nothing of these Doubts But I would not have you trouble your self upon confident conclusions on so doubtful Grounds This I am certain of 1. That the strongest Christian should take heed of Temptations and not trust to the strength of his Graces nor presume on Gods preservation while he wilfully casteth himself in the mouth of dangers nor to be encouraged hereunto upon any perswasion of an Impossibility of his falling away O the falls the fearful falls that I have known alas how often the eminentest men for Godliness that ever I knew to be Guilty of by casting themselves upon Temptations I confess I will never be confident of that mans perseverance were he the best that I know on earth who casteth himself upon violent Temptations espeâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—mptations of Sensuality Prosperity and Seducement 2. I know God hath taught us daily to watch and pray that we enter not into Temptation and to pray Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evil I never understood the necessity of that Petition feelingly till I saw the examples of these
seven or eight years last past This being so you must look that your perseverance should be by being preserved from Temptation and must rather examine Whether you have that Grace which will enable you to avoyd Temptations then whether you have Grace enough to overcome them if you rush into them But if God unavoydably cast you upon them keep up your Watch and Prayer and you have no Cause to trouble your self with distrustful fears DOUBT XIII I Am afraid lest I have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost and then there is no hope of my salvation ANSWER IT seems you know not what the sin against the Holy Ghost is It is this When a man is convinced that Christ and his Disciples did really work those glorious Miracles which are recorded in the Gospel and yet will not Believe that Christ is the Son of God and his Doctrine true though sealed with all those Miracles and other holy and wonderful works of the Spirit but do Blasphemously maintain that they were done by the Power of the Devil This is the sin against the Holy Ghost And dare you say that you are guilty of this If you be then you do not Believe that Christ is the Son of God and the Messiah and his Gospel true And then you will sure oppose him and maintain that he was a Deceiver and that the Devil was the Author of all the Miraculous and Gracious workings of his Spirit Then you will never fear his displeasure nor call him seriously either Lord or Saviour nor tender him any service any more then you do to Mahomet None but Infidels do commit the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Nor but few of them Unbelief is eminently called Sin in the Gospel and that Vnbelief which is maintained by Blaspheming the Glorious Works of the Holy Ghost which Christ and his Disciples through many years time did perform for a Testimony to his Truth that is called singularly The sin against the Holy Ghost You may meet with other Descriptions of this sin which may occasion your terrour but I am fully perswaded that this is the plain Truth DOUBT XIV BVT I greatly fear lest the time of Grace be past and lest I have out sit the day of mercy and now mercy hath wholly forsaken me For I have oft heard Ministers tell me from the Word Now is the Accepted time Now is the day of your visitation To day while it is called to day harden not your hearts lest God swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his Rest But I have stood out long after I have resisted and quenched the Spirit and now it is I fear departed from me ANSWER HEre is sufficient matter for Humiliation but the Doubting ariseth meerly from Ignorance The day of Grace may in two respects be said to be over The first and most properly so called is When God will not Accept of a sinner though he should Repent and Return This is never in this life for certain And he that imagineth any such thing as that it is too late while his soul is in his body to Repent and Accept of Christ and Mercy is meerly ignorant of the Tenour and sense of the Gospel For the New Law of Grace doth limit no time on earth for Gods Accepting of a Returning sinner True Faith and Repentance do as surely save at the last hour of the day as at the first God hath said that whosoever Believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life He hath no where excepted late Believers or Repenters Shew any such Exception if you can 2. The second sense in which it may be said that the day of Grace is over is this When a man hath so long resisted the Spirit that God hath given him over to wilful obstinate Refusals of Mercy and of Christs Government resolving that he will never give him the prevailing Grace of his Spirit Where note 1. That this same man might still have Grace as soon as any other if he were but Willing to Accept Christ and Grace in him 2. That no man can know of himself or any other that God hath thus finally forsaken him For God hath given us no sign to know it by at least who sin not against the Holy Ghost God hath not told us his secret intents concerning such 4. Yet some men have far greater cause to fear it then others especially those men who under the most searching lively Sermons do continue secure and wilful in known wickedness either hating godliness and godly persons and all that do Reprove them or at least being â—â—â—â—pified that they feel no more then a Post the force of Gods terrours or the sweetness of his promises but make a jest of sinning and think the life of godliness a needless thing Especially if they grow old in this course I confess such have great Cause to fear lest they are quite forsaken of God For very few such are ever recovered 5. And therefore it may well be said to all men To day if you will hear his voyce harden not your hearts c. and This is the Acceptable time this is the day of salvation both as this life is called The day of salvation and because no man is certain to live another day that he may Repent nor yet to have Grace to Repent if he Live 6. But what 's all this to you that do Repent Can you have Cause to fear that your day of Grace is over that have Received Grace Why that is as foolish a thing as if a man should come to the Market and buy Corn and when he hath done go home lamenting that the Market was past before he came Or as a man should come and hear the Sermon and when he hath done lament that the Sermon was done before he came If your day of Grace be past tell me and do not wrong God Where had you the Grace of Repentance How came you by that Grace of holy Desâ—res Who made you Willing to have Christ for your Lord and Saviour So that you had rather have him and Gods favour and a Holy heart and life then all the glory of the World How came you to desire that you were such a one as God would have you to be and to desire that all your sins were dead and might never live in you more and that you were able to Love God and Delight in him and please him even in perfection and that you are so troubled that you cannot do it Are these signs that your day of Grace is over Doth Gods Spirit breath out Groans after Christ and Grace within you and yet is the day of Grace over Nay what if you had no Grace Do you not hear God daily offering you Christ and Grace doth he not intreat and Beseech you to be Reconciled unto him 2 Cor. 5.19 20. and would he not compel you to come in Mat. 22. Do you not feel some unquietness in your
before some bashful or proud or tender Patients will open their disease The very opening of a mans grief to a faithful friend doth oft ease the heart of it self 2. And that this should be done to your Pastor I will shew you further anon 2. But you must understand well when this is your Duty 1. Not in every small infirmity which accompanies Christians in their daily most watchful Conversation Nor yet in every lesser Doubt which may be otherways resolved It is a folly and a wrong to Physitians to run to them for every cut finger or prick with a pin Every neighbour can help you in this 2. Nor except it be a weighty case indeed go not first to a Minister But first study the case your self and seek Gods direction If that will not serve open your case to your nearest bosom friend that is godly and judicious And in these two cases always go to your Pastor 1. In case privater means can do you no Good then God calls you to seek further If a cut finger so fester that ordinary means will not cure it you must go to the Physician 2. If the case be weighty and dangerous For then none but the more prudent advice is to be trusted If you be struck with a dangerous disease I would not have you delay so long nor wrong your self so much as to stay while you tamper with every womans medicine but go presently to the Physician So if you either fall into any grievous sin or any terrible pangs of Conscience or any great streights and difficulties about matters of Doctrine or Practice go presently to your Pastour for advice The Devil and Pride and Bashfulness will do their utmost to hinder you but see that they prevail not 3. Next consider to what End you must do this Not 1. either to expect that a Minister can of himself create Peace in you or that all your Doubts should vanish as soon as ever you have opened your mind Onely the great Peacemaker the Prince of Peace can create Peace in you Ascribe not to any the office of the Holy Ghost to be your effectual Comforter To expect more from man then belongs to man is the way to receive nothing from him but to cause God to blast to you the best endeavours 2. Nor must you resolve to take all meerly from the word of your Pastour as if he were Infallible Nor absolutely to Judge of your self as he Judgeth For he may be too rigorous or more commonly too charitable in his opinion of you There may be much of your disposition and conversation unknown to him which may hinder his right Judging But 1. You must use your Pastour as the ordained Instrument Messenger of the Lord Jesus his Spirit appointed to speak a word in season to the weary and to shew to man his Righteousness and to strengthen the weak hands and feeble knees yea and more to bind and loose on Earth as Christ doth bind and loose in Heaven As Christ and his Spirit do onely save in the principal place and yet Ministers save souls in subordination to them as his Instruments Act. 26.17 18. 1 Tim. 4.15 16. Jam. 5.20 So Christ and the Spirit are as Principal Causes the onely Comforters but his Ministers are Comforters under him 2. And that which you must expect from them is these two things 1. You must expect those fuller discoveries of Gods Will then you are able to make your self by which you may have assurance of your duty to God and of the sense of Scripture which expresseth how God will deal with you That so a clearer discovery of Gods mind may Resolve your Doubts 2. In the mean time till you can come to a full Resolution you may and must somewhat stay your self on the very Judgement of your Pastour Not as Infallible but as a discovery of the Probability of your Good or bad estate and so of your duty also Though you will not renounce your own understanding and believe any man when you know he is deceived or would deceive you yet you will so far suspect your own reason and value anothers as to have a special regard to every mans Judgement in his own Profession If the Physician tell you that your disease is not dangerous or the Lawyer that your Cause is good it will more Comfort you then if another man should say as much It may much stay your heart till you can reach to clear Evidences and Assurance to have a Pastor that is well acquainted with you and is faithful and Judicious to tell you that he verily thinks that you are in a safe Condition 3. But the chief use of his Advice is not so much to tell you what he thinks of you as to give you Directions how you may Judge of your self and come out of your trouble Besides the benefit of his Prayers to God for you 4. Next let me tell you what men you must choose to open your mind to And they must be 1. Men of Judgement and Knowledge and not the Ignorant be they never so honest Else they may deceive you not knowing what they do either for want of understanding the Scripture and the nature of Grace and Sin or for want of skill to deal with both weak Consciences and deep deceitful hearts 2. They must be truly fearing God and of experience in this great work For a Troubled soul is seldom well resolved and comforted meerly out of a Book but from the Book and Experience both together Carnal or formal men will but make a Jest at the Doubts of a Troubled Christian or at least will give you such formal Remedies as will prove no Cure Either they will perswade you as the Antinomians do that you should trust God with your soul and never Question your Faith Or that you do ill to trouble your self about such things Or they will direct you onely to the Comforts of General Grace and tell you onely that God is Merciful and Christ dyed for sinners which are the necessary Foundations of our Peace but will not answer particular Doubts of our own sincerity and of our Interest in Christ Or else they will make you believe that Holiness of heart and life which is the thing you look after is it that troubleth you and breeds all your scruples Or else with the Papists they will send you to your Merits for Comfort or to some Vindictive Penance in Fastings Pilgrimages or the like or to some Saint departed or Angel or to the Pardons or Indulgencies of the Pope or to a certain formal carnal Devotion to make God amends 3. They must be men of downright Faithfulness that will deal plainly and freely though not cruelly and not like those tender Surgeons that will leave the Cure undone for fear of hurting Meddle not with men-pleasers and daubers that will presently speak Comfort to you as Confidently as if they had known you twenty years when perhaps they know