enlarged in duty most assisted in his Christian course Remember Christian when thou hast thy best suit on who made it who paid for it Thy grace thy comfort is neither the work of thy own hands nor the price of thy own desert be not for shame proud of anothers cost That assistance will not long stay which becomes a nurse to thy pride thou art not Lord of that assistance thou hast Thy Father is wise who when he alloweth thee most for thy spiritual maintenance even then keeps the Law in his own hands and can soon curb thee if thou growest wanton with his grace Walk humbly therefore before thy God and husband well that strength thou hast remembring that it is borrowed strength Nemo prodiget quod mendicat Who will waste what he begs or who will give that beggar that spends idly his almes when thou hast most thou canst not be long from thy God his door And how canst thou look him on the face for more who hast imbezell'd what thou hast received CHAP. III. Of acting our faith on the Almighty Power of God THe third Branch followeth which contains an encouraging Amplification annexed to the exhortation in these words And in the Power of his might where a twofold enquiry is requisite for the explication of the phrase First what these words import The Power of his might Secondly what it is to be strong in the Power of his might For the first the Power of his might It is an Hebraism imports nothing but his mighty Power like that phrase Eph. 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his grace that is to the praise of his glorious grace And his mighty Power imports no lesse then his Almighty Power sometimes the Lord is stiled mighty and strong as Ps 24.8 sometimes most mighty sometimes Almighty no lesse is meant in all then Gods infinite Almighty Power For the second to be strong in the mighty Power or Power of the Lords might implies these two acts of faith First a setled firme perswasion that the Lord is Almighty in Power Be strong in the Power of his might that is be strongly rooted in your faith concerning this one foundation-foundation-truth that God is Almighty Secondly it implies a further act of faith not only to believe that God is Almighty but also that this Almighty Power of God is engaged for its defence so as to bear up in the midst of all trials and temptations undauntedly leaning on the arme of God Almighty as if it were his own strength for that is the Apostles drift as to beat us off from leaning on our own strength so to encourage the Christian to make use of Gods Almighty Power as freely as if it were his own when ever assaulted by Satan in any kinde As a man set upon by a thief stirs up all the force and strength he hath in his whole body to defend himself and offend his adversary so the Apostle bids the Christian be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his might that is Soul away to thy God whose mighty Power is all intended and devoted by God himself for thy succour and defence Go strengthen and entrench thy selfe in it by a stedfast faith as that which shall be laid out to the utmost for thy good From whence these two Notes I conceive will draw out the fatnesse of the words 1. That it should be the Christians great care and endeavour in all temptations and trials to strengthen his faith on the Almighty Power of God 2. The Christians duty and care is not only to believe that God is Almighty but strongly by faith to rest on this Almighty Power of God as engaged for his help and succour in all his trials and temptations First it should be the Christians great care in all temptations and trials to strengthen his faith on the Almighty Power of God When God holds forth himselfe as an object of the souls trust and confidence in any great strait or undertaking commonly this attribute of his Almighty power is presented in the promise as the surest hold fast for faith to lay hold on as a Father in rugged way gives his childe his arme to lay hold by so doth God usually reach forth his Almighty power for his Saints to exercise their faith on Abraham Isaac and Jacob whose faith God tried above most of his Saints before or since for not one of those great things which were promised to them did they live to see performed in their dayes and how doth God make known himself to them for their support but by displaying this Attribute Exod. 6.3 I appeared unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob by the Name of God Almighty This was all they had to keep house with all their dayes with which they lived comfortably and died triumphantly bequeathing the promise to their children not doubting because God Almighty had promised of the performance Thus Isa 26. where great mercies are promised to Judah and a Song penn'd before-hand to be sung on that gaudie day of their salvation yet because there was a sharp Winter of Captivity to come between the Promise and the Spring-time of the promise therefore to keep their faith alive in this space the Prophet calls them up to act their faith on God Almighty v. 4. Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength So when his Saints are going into the furnace of persecution what now doth he direct their faith to carry to prison to stake with them but this Almighty power 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer commit the keeping of their souls to him as to a faithful Creatour Creatour is a name of Almighty Power we shall now give some Reasons of the Point Reas 1 First because it is no easie work to make use of this truth how plain and clear soever it now appears in great plunges of temptation that God is Almighty To vindicate this Name of God from those evil reports which Satan and carnal Reason raise against it requires a strong faith indeed I confesse this principle is a piece of natural divinity That light which finds out a Deity will evince if followed close this God to be Almighty yet in a carnal heart it is like a rusty sword hardly drawn out of the scabbard and so of little or no use Such truths are so imprisoned in natural conscience that they seldome get a faire hearing in the sinners bosome till God gives them a Goal-delivery and brings them out of their house of bondage where they are shut up in unrighteousnesse with a high hand of his convincing Spirit Then and not till then the soule will believe God is holy merciful Almighty nay some of Gods peculiar people and not the meanest for grace amongst them have had their faith for a time set in this slough much ado to get over those difficulties and improbabilities which sense and Reason have objected so as to relie on the Almighty Power of
us flee for the Lord fighteth for them Whereas there be many now a dayes will rather give the honour of their discomfitures to Satan himself then acknowledge God in the businesse more ready to say the devil fought against them then God O you that have not yet worne off the impressions which the Almighty power of God hath at any time made upon your spirits beware of having any thing to do with that generation of men whoever they are Come not near their Tabernacle cast not thy lot in amongst them who are enemies to the Saints of the most High for they are men devoted to destruction God so loves his Saints that he makes nothing to give whole Nations for their ransome He rip 't open the very wombe of Egypt to save the life of Israel his childe Isa 43.3 Vse 2 Secondly this shews the dismal deplorable condition of all you who are yet in a Christ lesse state you have seen a rich mine open'd but not a penny of this treasure comes to your share a truth laden with incomparable comfort but it is bound for another coast it belongs to the Saints into whose bosome this truth unlades all her comfort see God shutting the door upon you when he sets his children to feast themselves with such dainties Esay 65.13 My servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty God hath his set number which he provides for He knows how many he hath in his family these and no more shall sit down One chief dish at the Saints board is the Almighty power of God This was set before Abraham and stands before all his Saints that they may eate to fulnesse of comfort on it But thou shalt be hungry He is Almighty to pardon but he will not use it for thee an impenitent sinner thou hast not a friend on the bench not an attribute in all Gods Name will speak for thee Mercy it self will sit and vote with the rest of its fellow-attributes for thy damnation God is able to save and help in a time of need but upon what acquaintance is it that thou art so bold with God as to expect his saving arme to be stretcht forth for thee Though a man will rise at midnight to let in a childe that cryes and knocks at his doore yet he will not take so much paines for a dog that lies howling there This presents thy condition sinner sad enough yet this is to tell thy story fairest for that Almighty power of God which is engaged for the beleevers salvation is as deeply obliged to bring thee to thy execution and damnation What greater tie then an oath God himself is under an oath to be the destruction of every impenitent soul That oath which God sware in his wrath against the unbeleeving Israelites that they should not enter into his rest concernes every unbeleever to the end of the world In the Name of God consider were it but the oath of a man or a company of men that like those in the Acts should sweare to be the death of such a one and thou wert the man would it not fill thee with feare and trembling night and day and take away the quiet of thy life till they were made friends What then are their pillows stuft with who can sleep so soundly without any horrour or amazement though they be told that the Almighty God is under an oath of damning them body and soul without timely repentance O bethink your selves sinners is it wisdome or valour to refuse termes of mercy from Gods hands whose Almighty power if rejected will soone bring you into the hands of justice and how fearful a thing that is to fall into the hands of Almighty God no tongue can expresse no not they who feel the weight of it Vse 3 Thirdly this speaks to you that are Saints indeed Be strong in the faith of this truth make it an Article of your Creed with the same faith that you beleeve there is a God beleeve also this Gods Almighty power is thy sure friend and then improve it to thy best advantage As First in agonies of conscience that arise from the greatnesse of thy sinnes flie for refuge into the Almighty power of God Truly Sirs when a mans sinnes are displayed in all their bloody colours and spread forth in their kâ—lling aggravations and the eye of conscience awakened to behold them through the multiplying or magnifying glasse of a temptation they must needs surprize the creature with horror and amazement till the soul can say with the Prophet for all this huge hoast There is yet more with me then against me One Almighty is more then many Mighties All these mighty sinnes and devils make not one Almighty sinne or an Almighty devil Oppose to all the hideous charges brought against thee by them this onely attribute As the French Ambassadour once silenced the Spaniards pride in repeating his Masters many titles with one that drowned them all God himself Hosea 11.9 when he had aggravated his peoples sinnes to the height then to shew what a God can do breaks out into a sweet promise I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger and why not I am God and not man I will shew the Almightinesse of my mercy Something like our usual phrase when a childe or a woman strikes us I am a man and not a childe or woman therefore I will not strike again The very considering God to be God supposeth him Almighty to pardon as well as to avenge and this is some relief But then to consider it is Almighty power in bond and Covenant to pardon this is more As none can binde God but himself so none can break the bond himself makes and are they not his own words that he will abundantly pardon Isa 55. he will multiply to pardon as if he had said I 'le drop mercy with your sinne and spend all I have rather then let it be said my good is overcome of your evil It fares with the gracious soul in this case as with a Captaine that yields his Castle upon gracious termes of having his life spared and he safely convey'd to his house there to be setled peaceably in his estate and possessions for all which he hath the Generals hand and Seal on which he marcheth forth but the rude souldiers assault him and put him in feare of his life he appeals to the General whose honour now is engaged for him and is presently releeved and his enemies punisht Thou mayest poore soule when accused by Satan mollested by his terrours say It is God that justifies I have his hand to it that I should have my life given me assoon as I laid down my armes and submitted to him which I desire to do behold the gates of my heart are open to let the Prince of peace in and is not the Almighty able to performe his promise I commit my selfe to him as unto a
commonly made of the Christians wood First he tempts to sin and then for it Satan is but a creature and cannot work without tooles he can indeed make much of a little but not any thing of nothing as we see in his assaulting of Christ where he troubled himself to little purpose because he came and found nothing in him Though the devil throws the stone yet 't is the mud in us which royles our comforts 'T was in vaine for the Philistines to fall on Samson till his lock was cut take heed therefore of yielding to his enticing motions these are the stumbling block at which he hopes thou'lt break thy shins and bruise thy conscience which once done let him alone to spin out the cure Indeed a Saints flesh heals not so easily as others drink not of the devils wassel there is poison in the cup his wine is a mocker look not on it as it sparkles in the temptation what thou drinkest down with sweetnesse thou wilt be sure to bring up again as gall and wormwood Above all sins take heed of presumptuous ones thou art not out of the danger of such Sad stories we have of Saints falls and what follows then Take him Jailor saith God Deliver such a one unto Satan and if a Saint be the Prisoner and the devil the Keeper you may guesse how he shall be used O how he will teare and rend thy conscience Though that dreadful Ordinance is not used as it should be in the Church yet Gods Court sits and if he excommunicate a soule from his presence he falls presently into Satans clutches Well if through his subtilty thou hast been overtaken take heed thou stayest not in the devils quarters shake the viper off thy hand ply thee to thy Chirurgeon green wounds cure best but if thou neglectest and the winde get to it thy conscience will soon fester Ahab we read was wounded in battel and was loath to yield to it it is said he was held up in his chariot but he died for it when a soule hath received a wound committed a sin Satan labours to boulster him up with flattering hopes holds him up as it were in his chariot against God what yield for this afraid for a little scratch and lose the spoile of thy future pleasure for this O take heed of listening to such counsel the sooner thou yieldest the fairer quarter thou shalt have Every step in this way sets thee further from thy peace A rent garment is catch't by every naile and the rent made wider Renew therefore thy repentance speedily whereby this breach may be made up and worse prevented which else will befall thee SECT II. 2ly study that grand gospel-Gospel-truth of a souls justification before God acquaint thy self with this in all its causes the moving cause the free mercy of God Being justified freely by his grace the meritorious which is the blood of Christ and the instrumental faith with all the sweet priviledges that flow from it An effectual door once open'd to let the soul into this truth would not only spoil the Popes market as Gardner said but the devils also when Satan coms to disquiet the Christians peace for want of a right understanding here he is soon worsted by his enemy as the silly hare which might escape the dogs in some covert or burrough that is at hand but trusting to her heels is by the print of her owne feet and sent which she leaves behinde followed till at last weary and spent she falls into the mouth of them In all that a Christian doth there is a print of sinful infirmity and a sent by which Satan is enabled to trace and pursue him over hedge and ditch this grace and that duty till the soule not able to stand before the accusation of Satan is ready to fall down in despair at his feet whereas here 's a hiding place whither the enemy durst not come the clefts of the rock the hole of the staires which this truth leads unto When Satan chargeth thee for a sinner perhaps thou interposest thy repentance and reformation but soon art beaten out of those works when thou art shewen the sinful mixtures that are in them whereas this truth would choak all his bullets that thou believest on him who hath said Not unto him that worketh but unto him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse Get therefore into this tower of the Gospel-Covenant and rowle this truth as she that stone on the head of Abimelech on the head of Satan SECT III. Thirdly be sure Christian thou keepest the Plains Take heed that Satan coop thee not up in some straits where thou canst neither well fight nor flie Such a trap the Egyptians hoped they had the Israelites in when they cried They are entangled they are entangled There are three kindes of straits wherein he labours to entrap the Christians Nice Questions obscure Scriptures and dark Providences First he labours to puzzle him with nice and scrupulous questions on purpose to retard the work and clog him in his motion that meeting with such intricacies in his Christian course which he cannot easily resolve thereby he may be made either to give over or go on heavily therefore we have particular charge not to trouble the weak heads of young Converts with doubtful disputations Sometimes Satan will be asking the soul how it knowes its election and where he findes one not so fully resolved as to dare to own the same he frames his Argument against such a ones closing with Christ and the promise as if it were presumption to assume that which is the only portion of the Elect before we know our selves of that number Now Christian keep the Plains and thou art safe 'T is plain we are not to make Election a ground for our faith but our faith and calling a medium or argument to prove our Election Election indeed is first in order of divine acting God chooseth before we beleeve yet faith is first in our acting We must believe before we can know we are elected yea by believing we know it The Husbandman knowes 't is Spring by the sprouting of the grasse though he hath no Astrology to know the Position of the Heavens thou mayest know thou art Elect as surely by a work of grace in thee as if thou hadst stood by Gods elbowe when he writ thy name in the book of life It had been presumption for David to have thought he should have been King till Samuel anointed him but then none at all when thou believest first and closest with Christ then is the Spirit of God sent to anoint thee to the Kingdom of Heaven this is that holy oyle which is poured upon none but heires of glory and 't is no presumption to reade what Gods gracious purpose was towards thee of old when he prints those his thoughts and makes them legible in thy effectual calling here thou
choice notions and excellent truthes Arrius himself and other dangerous instruments of Satan were too wise to stuffe their discourses with nothing but heterodoxe matter precious truths dropt from them with which they sprinkled their corrupt principles yet with such Art as should not easily be discerned This as one observs our Saviour warns his disciples of when he bids them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees that is of their errours But why leaven for the secret mixture of it with the wholesom bread you do not make your bread all of leaven none would then eate it but crumble a little into a whole batch which sowers all thus Christ doth tell the disciples that the Pharisees among many truths mixe their errours and therefore it behoves them to beware lest with the truth the errour goes down also Again leaven is very like the dough of the same grain with it only differs in age and sourenesse thus Christ intimates the resemblance of their errours to the truth scraped as it were out of the Scriptures but sowered with their own false glosses This indeed makes it easie for Christs sheep to be infected with the scab of errour because that weed which breeds the rot is so like the grasse that nourisheth them Thirdly their subtilty appears in holding forth such principles as are indulgent to the flesh This brings in whole shoales of silly soules into their net the heart of man loves of life to shape a Religion according to its own humour and is easie to believe that to be a truth which favours its own inclination Now there are three lusts that Satans instruments labour to gratifie in their doctrine Carnal Reason Pride and steshly Liberty First Carnal reason this is the great idol which the more intelligent part of the world worship making it the very standard of their faith and from this bitter root have sprung those Arrian and Socinian heresies And truly he that will go no further then reason will carry him may hold out in the plain way of the Moral Law but when he comes to the depths of the Gospel must either go back or be content that faith should help reason over Secondly another lust that Satan cockers is pride Man naturally would be a god to himself though for clambering so high he got his fall and whatever doctrine nourisheth a good opinion of man in his own eye this is acceptable to him and this hath spawned another fry of dangerous errours The Pelagian and semi-Pelagian which set nature upon its own legs and perswade man he can go alone to Christ or at least with a little external help of an hand to lead or argument to excite without any creating work in the soule O we cannot conceive how glib such stuffe goes down If one Workman should tell you that your house is rotten and must be pull'd down and all new materials prepared and another should say no such matter such a beam is good and such a sparre may stand a little cost will serve the turne it were no wonder that you should listen to him that would put you to least cost and trouble the faithful servants of Christ tell sinners from the Word that man in his natural state is corrupt and rotten that nothing of the old frame will serve and there must needs be all new but in comes an Arminian and blows up the sinners pride and tells him he is not so weak or wicked as the other represents him if thou wilt thou mayest repent and beleeve or at least by exerting thy natural abilities oblige God to superadde what thou hast not This is the Workman that will please proud man best Thirdly Satan by his instruments nourisheth that desire of fleshly liberty which is in man by nature who is a son of Belial without yoke and if he must wear any that will please best which hath the softest lining and pincheth the flesh least and therefore when the sincere teachers of the Word will not abate of the strictnesse of the command but presse sincere obedience to it then come Satans instruments and say these are hard task-masters who will not allow one play-day in a yeare to the Christian but tie him to continual duty we 'll shew you an easier way to heaven Come saith the Papist confesse but once a year to the Priest pay him well for his paines and be an obedient son of the Church and we 'll dispense with all the rest Come saith the Familist the Gospel-Charter allows more liberty then these legal Preachers tell you of they bid you repent and believe when Christ hath done all these to your hand What have you left to do but to nourish the flesh something sure is in it that Impostors finde such quick return for their ware while Truth hangs upon the log and is it not this that they are content to afford heaven cheaper to their disciples then Christ will to his He that sells cheapest shall have most customers though at last best will be best cheap Truth with self-denial a better penny-worth then errour with all its flesh-pleasing Thirdly Satan makes choice of such as have a great name for holinesse none to a live bird to draw other birds into the net But is it possible that such should do this work for the devil yes such is the policy of Satan and the frailty of the best that the most holy men have been his instruments to seduce others Abraham he tempts his wife to lie Say thou art my Sister The old Prophet leads the man of God out of his way 1 Kings 13. the holiness of the man and the reverence of his age 't is like gave authority to his counsel O how should this make you watchful whose long travel and great progresse in the wayes of God have gained you a name of eminency in the Church what you say do or hold because you are file-leading men and others look more on you then their way Fourthly Satan chooseth such as by relation or affection have deep interest in the persons he would gain Some will kisse the childe for the Nurses sake and like the Present for the hand that brings it 'T is like David would not have received that from Nabal which he took from Abigail and thanks her Satan sent the apple by Eves hand to Adam Delilah doth more with Samson then all the Philistines bands Jobs wife brings him the poison Curse God and die Some think Satan spared her life when he slew his children and servants though she was also within his Commission as the most likely instrument by reason of her relation and his affection to lead him into temptation Satan employes Peter a disciple to tempt Christ at another time his friends and kinsfolk Some Martyrs have confest the hardest work they met withal was to overcome the prayers and tears of their friends and relations Paul himself could not get off this snare without heart-breaking What mean ye to weep and to
the company of the Saints as if they needed not their fellowship in their journey Most go naked without so much as any thing like armour have not enough to gaine the name of Professours at large others it may be will shew you some vaine slighty hopes on the mercy of God without any Scripture-bottom for the same and with these content themselves which will like a rusty unsound pistol flie in their own face when they come to use it and is it any wrong to say these make nothing of getting heaven Surely these men many of whom thrive so well in the world never got their estates with so little care as they think to get heaven Ask them why they follow their trade so close they will tell you estates are not got by sleeping families are not provided for with the hands in the pocket they meet with many rooks and cheaters in their dealing who should they not look to themselves would soon undo them and are there none that thou needest feare will put a cheat on thy soule and bereave thee of thy crown of glory if they can thou art blinder then the Prophets servant if thou seest not more devils encompassing thee then he saw men about Samaria Thy worldly trade they will not hinder nay may be help thee to sinful tricks in that to hinder thee in this but if once thou resolvest to seek out for Christ and his grace they will oppose thee to thy face they are under an oath as Pauls enemies were to take away the life of thy soul if they can desperate creatures themselves who know their doom is irrecoverable and sell their own lives they will as dear as they can Now what folly is it to betray thy soule into their hands when Christ stands by to be thy convoy out of him thou art a lost creature thou canst not defend thy self alone against Satan nor with Satan against God Close with Christ and thou art delivered from one of thy enemies and him the most formidable God I mean yea he is become thy friend who will stick close to thee in thy conflict with the other Vs e 3 Thirdly to the Saints be not ye dismayed at this report which the Scripture makes of Satans power Let them feare him who feare not God What are these mountains of power and pride before thee O Christian who servest a God that can make a worme thresh a mountain the greatest hurt he can do thee is by nourishing this false fear of him in thy bosome It is observed Bernard saith of some beasts in the forrest Plerunque superant leonem ferientem quae non sustinent rugientem Though they are too hard for the Lion in fight yet tremble when he roares Thus the Christian when he comes to the pinch indeed is able through Christ to trample Satan under his feet yet before the conflict stands trembling at the thought of him Labour therefore to get a right understanding of Satans power and then this Lion will not appear so fierce as you paint him in your melancholy fancy Three considerations will relieve you when at any time you are beset with the feares of his power First it is a derived power he hath it not in himself but by pattent from another and that no other but God All powers are of him whether on earth or in hell This truth subscribed in faith would first sccure thee Christian that Satans power shall never hurt thee Would thy Father give him a sword to mischief thee his childe I have created the Smith saith God that bloweth the coales I have created the waster to destroy and therefore assures them that no weapon formed against them shall prosper Isa 54.16 c. If God provides his enemies armes they shall I warrant you be such as will do them little service When Pilate thought to scare Christ with what he could do towards the saving or taking away of his life he replies that he could do nothing except it were given from above Iohn 19.10 as if he had said Do your worst I know who seal'd your commission Secondly this considered would meeken and quiet the soule when troubled by Satan within or his instruments without 'T is Satan buffets man persecutes me but God who gives them both power The Lord saith David bids him curse The Lord saith Iob hath given and the Lord hath taken This kept the Kings peace in both their bosomes O Christian look not on the Jayler that whips thee may be he is cruel but reade the warrant who wrote that and at the bottome thou shalt finde thy Fathers hand Secondly Satans power is limited and that two ways he cannot do what he will and he shall not do what he can First he cannot do what he will His desires are boundlesse they walk not only to and fro here below but in heaven it self where he is pulling down his once fellow-Angels knocking down the carved-work of that glorious Temple as with axes and hammers yea unthroning God and setting himself in his place this foole saith in his heart There is no God but he cannot do this nor many other things which his canker'd malice stirres him up to wish he is but a creature and so hath the length of his Tedder to which he is staked and cannot exceed and if God be safe then thou also for thy life is hid with Christ in God If I live saith Christ you shall live also You are engraven on the table of his heart if he plucks one away he must the other also Again as he cannot hurt the being of God so he cannot pry into the boseme of God He knowes not mans much lesse the thoughts of God The Astrologers nor their Master could bring back Nebuchadnezzars dream As men have their closets for their own privacy where none can enter in but with their Key so God keeps the heart as his withdrawing room shut to all besides himself and therefore when he takes upon him to foretel events if God teach him not his lesson nor second causes help him he is beside his book so to save his credit delivers them dubiously that his text may beare a glosse suitable to the effect whatever it is And when he is bold to tell the state of a person there is no weight to be laid on his judgment Job was an hypocrite in his mouth but God proved him a liar Again thirdly he cannot-hinder those purposes and counsels of God he knows He knew Christ was to come in the flesh and did his worst but could not hinder his landing though there were many devices in his heart yet the counsel of the Lord concerning him did stand yea was delivered by the midwifery of Satan suggesting and his instruments executing his lust as they thought but fulfilling Gods counsel against themselves Fourthly he cannot ravish thy will Diabolus non est jussor vitiorum sed incentor He cannot command thee to sin against thy will he can motum
light in all Non dantur purae tenebrae I think is good Divinity as well as Philosophy and this night-light may discover many sins produce inward prickings of conscience for them yea stir up the creature to step aside rather then drown in such broad waters There are some sins so cruel and costly that the most prostrate soul may in time be weary of their service for low ends but what will all this come to if the creature be not acquainted with Christ the true way to God faith and repentance the only way to Christ such a one after all this busle in stead of making an escape from Satan will run full into his mouth another way There are some wayes which at first seem right to the traveller yet winde about so insensibly that when a man hath gone far and thinks himself near home he is carried back to the place from whence he set forth This will befall every soule ignorant of Christ and the way of life through him after many yeares travel as they think towards heaven by their good meanings blinde devotions and reformation when they shall expect to be within sight of heaven they shall finde themselves even where they were at first as very slaves to Satan as ever Vse 1 This speaks to you that are Parents see what need you have of instructing your children and training them up betimes in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Till these chaines of darknesse be knockt off their mindes there is no possibility of getting them out of the devils prison he hath no such tame slave as the ignorant soul such a one goes before Satan as the silly sheep before the butcher and knows not who he is nor whither he carries him and can you see the devil driving your children to the shambles and not labour to rescue them out of his hands Bloody parents you are that can thus harden your bowells against your own flesh Now the more to provoke you to your duty take these considerations 1. Your relation obligeth you to take care of their precious soules 'T is the soul is the child rather then the body and therefore in Scripture put for the whole man Abraham and Lot went forth with all the souls they had gotton in Haran Gen. 12. so All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt that is all the persons The body is but the sheath and if one should leave his sword with you to be kept safely for him would you throw away the blade and onely preserve the scabbard And yet parents do commonly judge of their care and love to their children by their providing for the outward man by their breeding that teaching them how to live like men as they say when they are dead and gone and comport themselves to their civil place and rank in the world These things indeed are commendable but is not the most weighty businesse of all forgotten in the meane time while no endeavour is used that they may live as Christians and know how to carry themselves in duty to God and man as such and can they do this without the knowledge of the holy rule they are to walk by I am sure David knew no means effectual without this and therefore propounds the question Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way and he resolves it in the next words By taking heed thereto according to thy word Psal 119.9 And how shall they compare their way and the Word together if not instructed our children are not borne with Bibles in their heads or hearts And who ought to be the instructer if not the parent yea who will do it with such natural affection As I have heard sometimes a mother say in other respects Who can take such pains with my childe and be so careful as my self that am its Mother Bloody parents then they are who acquaint not their children with God or his Word what do they but put them under a necessity of perishing if God stirre not up some to shew more mercy then themselves to them Is it any wonder to hear that ship to be sunk or dasht upon the rock which was put to sea without card or compasse no more is it they should ingulph themselves in sin and perdition that are thrust forth into the world which is a sea of temptation without the knowledge of God or their duty to him In the fear of God think of it parents your children have souls and these God set you to watch over It will be a poor account at the last day if you can only say Lord here are my children I bred them compleat Gentlemen left them rich and wealthy The rust of that silver you left them will witnesse your folly and sinne that you would do so much for that which rusts and nothing for the enriching their mindes with the knowledge of God which would have endured for ever happy if you had left them lesse money and more knowledge 2. Consider it hath ever been the Saints practice to instruct and teach their children the way of God David we finde dropping instruction into his sonne Solomon 1 Chron. 28.9 Know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing minde Though a King he did not put it off to his Chaplins but whetted it on him with his own lips Neither was his Queen Bathsheba forgetful of her duty her gracious counsel is upon record Prov. 31. and that she may do it with the more seriousnesse and solemnity we finde her stirring up her motherly bowels to let her sonne see that she fetcht her words deep even from her heart What my son and what the sonne of my womb and what the sonne of my vows Ver. 2. Indeed that counsel is most like to go to the heart which comes from thence Parents know not what impression such melting expressions of their love mingled with their instructions leave on their children God bids draw forth our souls to the hungry that is more then draw our purse which may be done and the heart hard and churlish Thus we should draw forth our souls with our instructions What need I tell of Timothy's Mother and Grandmother who acquainted him with the Scripture from his youth And truly I think that man calls in question his own Saintship that takes no care to acquaint his childe with God and the way that leads to him I have known some that though prophane themselves have been very solicitous their children should have good education but never knew I a Saint that was regardlesse whether his childe knew God or not 3. It is an act of great unrighteousnesse not to instruct our children We read of some that hold the truth in unrighteousnesse among others those Parents do it that lock up the knowledge of these saving truths from their children which God hath imparted to themselves There is a double unrighteousnesse in it First they are unrighteous to their children
labour for the saving knowledge of God in Christ whom to know is life eternal Are you young Enquire after God betimes while your parts are fresh and memory strong before the throng of worldly cares divert you or lusts of youth debauch you The feet of those lusts which have buried millions of others in perdition stand ready to carry you the same way if preventing grace come not and deliver you out of their hands by seasoning your mindes with the knowledge of God This morning-draught may prevent thy being infected with the ill savours thou mayest receive from the corrupt examples of others Nay how long thy stay may be in the world thou knowest not see whether thou canst not finde graves of thy length in the burial place and if thou shouldest die ignorant of God and his Law what would then become of thee The small brush and the old logs young sinners and those that are withered with age meet and burn together Or if thou shouldest stay a while longer here may be because thou wilt not learn now God will not teach thee then Or if thou shouldest in thy old age get acquaintance with God yet 't is sad to be sowing thy seed when thou shouldest be reaping thy sheaves learning to know God when thou mightest be comforting thy self from the old acquaintance thou hast enjoyed with him Are you old and ignorant Alas poor creatures your life in the socket and this candle of the Lord not set up and lighted in your understanding your body bowing to the dust and nature tolling the passing bell as it were and you like one going into the dark know not whither death will lead you or leave you 'T is like the infirmities of age make you wish your bones were even laid at rest in the grave but if you should dye in this condition your poor soules would even wish they were here again with their old burdens on their back aches and diseases of old age are grievous but damned soules would thank God if he would blesse them with such a heaven as to lie in these paines to escape the torments of the other O bethink you before you go hence the lesse time you have the more diligence you must use to gain knowledge we need not be earnest one would think to bid the poor prisoner learne his book that cannot reade when he knows he shall be hang'd if he read not his neck-verse 'T is not indeed the bare knowing the truths of the Gospel saves but the grosse ignorance of them to be sure will damn soules Are you poor It is not your poverty is your sin or misery but your ignorance where the true treasure lies Were you Gods poor rich in knowledge and faith you were happy Eccles 4.13 Better is a poor and wise childe then a foolish King who will no more be admonish't yea so happy that did the Princes of the world understand themselves aright they would wish themselves in your clothes how ragged soever they are rather then be in their own robes there are better making for you in heaven which you shall put on when theirs shall be pull'd off to their shame It will not then trouble you that you were while in the world poor but it will torment them that they were so rich and great and so poore to God and beggarly in their soules Are you rich Labour for the knowledge of the most high Solomon had more of the worlds treasure then a thousand of you have and yet we finde him hard at prayer tugging with God for knowledge 1 Chron. 1.10 All these outward enjoyments are but vaginae bonorum as afflictions are vaginae malorum I am afraid many men think themselves priviledged by their worldly greatnesse from this duty as if God were bound to save them because rich Alas Sirs there are not so many of you like to come there I must confesse it would make one tremble to think what a small number those among the great ones that shall be saved are summed up into Not many great not many rich Why so few saved Because so few have saving knowledge O the Atheisme the ignorance the sottish barbarisme that is to be found even in those that the world applaud and even worship because of their lands and estates who yet are not able to give any account of their faith A poore leather-coat Christian will shame and catechize a hundred of them If heaven were to be purchased with house and lands then these would carry it away from the poore Disciples of Jesus Christ they have their hundreds and thousands ly by them for a purchase alwayes but this money is not currant in heavens exchange This is life eternall to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Quest But how may an ignorant soule attaine to knowledge Answ First Be deeply affected with the ignorance Some are blind as Laâ—dicea and know it not Rev. 3.17 As Ignorance blinds the minde so pride is a blind before their ignorance that they know it not These have such a high opinion of themselves that they take it ill any should suspect them as such these of all men are most out of the way to knowledge they are too good to learne of man as they think and too bad to be taught of God The gate into Christs Schoole is low and these cannot stoop The Master himselfe is so humble and lowly that he will not teach a proud Scholar Therefore first become a foole in thy owne eye A wiser man then thy selfe hath confessed as much Prov. 30.2 3. I am more brutish then any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the Holy When thou art come to thy selfe to owne and blush at the brutish ignorance of thy minde thou art fit to be admitted into Christs School If they be ashamed then shew them the patterne of the house Ezek. 43.10 Secondly be faithful with that little knowledge thou hast Art thou convinced this is a sinne and that is a duty Follow the light close you know not what this little may grow to We use to set up our children with a little stock at first and as they use it so we adde The Kingdome of God comes of small beginnings God complains of Israel they were brutish in their knowledge Jer. 10.14 he doth not say brutish in their ignorance had they sinned because they did not know better this would have excused à tanto but they did that which was brutish and unreasonable as their worshiping graven images notwithstanding they knew to the contrary That man shall not excel in knowledge who prostitutes it to sinne Job 36.12 If they obey not they shall perish by the sword and shall die without knowledge A candle pent up close in a dark lanthorn swailes out apace and so doth light shut up in the conscience and not suffered to come forth in the conversation Those Heathens that are charged
when meat is eaten and digested it is not to be found as it was received but the man is cheered and strengthened by it more able to walke and work then before by which you may know it is not lost so you may taste the truths the Christian heard in his spirit see them in his life Perhaps if you aske him what the particulars were the Minister had about faith mortification repentance and the like he cannot tell you yet this you may finde his heart is more broken for sin more enabled to rely on the promises and now weaned from the world As that good woman answered one that coming from Sermon ask't her what she remembred of the Sermon said she could not at present recal much but she heard that which should make her reforme some things as soon as she came home Secondly meditate on what thou hearest by this David got more wisdome then his teachers Observe what truth what Scripture is cleared to thee in the Sermon more then before take some time in secret to converse with it and make it thereby familiar to thy understanding Meditation to the Sermon is what the harrow is to the seed it covers those truths which else might have been pickt or washt away I am afraid there are many proofs turned down at a Sermon that are hardly turned up and lookt on any more when the Sermon is done and if so you make others believe you are greater traders for your souls then you are indeed as if one should come to a shop and lay by a great deal of rich ware and when he hath done goes away and never calls for it O take heed of such doings The hypocrite cheats himself worst at last Thirdly discharge thy memory of what is sinful We wipe our table-book and deface what is there scribled before we can write new There is such a contrariety betwixt the truths of God and all that is frothy and sinful that one puts out the other if you would retain the one you must let the other go CHAP. VI. Of the Spirituality of the devils nature and their extreme wickednesse Against spiritual wickednesse THese words are the fourth branch in the deseription Spiritual wickednesses and our contest or combate with them as such exprest by the adversative particle Against in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word for word Against the Spirituals of wickednesse which is say some against wicked spirits that is true but not all I conceive with many Interpreters not only the spiritual nature of the devil and the wickednesse thereof to be intended but also yea chiefly the nature and kinde of those sins which these wicked spirits do most usually and vigourously provoke the Saints unto and they are the spirituals of wickednesse not those grosse fleshly sinnes which the herd of beastly sinners like swine wallow in but sin spirituallized and this because it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not spirits but spirituals The words present us with these three doctrinal Conclusions First the devils are spirits Secondly the devils are spirits extremely wicked Thirdly these wicked spirits do chiefly annoy the Saints with and provoke them to spiritual wickednesses First of the first SECT I. First they are spirits Spirit is a word of various acception in Scripture Amongst other used often to set forth the essence and nature of Angels good and evil both which are called spirits The holy Angels Heb. 1.14 Are they not all ministring spirits The evil There came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade him 1 Kings 22.21 that spirit was a devil How oft is the devil call'd the unclean spirit foule spirit lying spirit c. Sin did not alter their substance for then as one saith well that nature and substance which transgrest could not be punish't First the devil is a spirit that is his essence is immaterial and simple not compounded as corporal beings are of matter and forme Handle and see me saith Christ to his disciples that thought they had seen a Spirit a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have Luke 24.39 If they were not thus immaterial how could they enter into bodies and possesse them as the Scripture tells us they have even a legion into one man Luke 8.30 one body cannot thus enter into another Secondly the devils are spiritual substances not qualities or evil motions arising from us as some have absurdly conceived So the Sadduces and others following them deny any such being as Angel good or evil but this is so fond a conceit that we must both forfeit our reason and deny the Scriptures to maintain it where we finde their Creation related Col. 1.18 the fall of some from their first estate Jude 6. and the standing of others called the Elect Angels The happinesse of the one who behold Gods face and their employment are sent out to attend on the Saints as servants on their Masters heirs Heb. 1. The misery of the other reserved in chaines of darknesse unto the judgement of the great day and their present work which is to do mischief to the souls and bodies of men as far as they are permitted all which shew their subsistence plain enough But so immerst is sorry man in flesh that he will not easily beleeve what he sees not with his fleshly eyes upon the same account we may deny the being of God himself because invisible Thirdly they are entire spiritual substances which have every very one proper existence and thus they are distinguish't from the souls of men which are made to subsist in a humane body and together with it to make one perfect man so that the soule though when separated from the body it doth exist yet hath a tendency to union with its body again Fourthly they are though entire spiritual substances yet finite being but creatures God only is the uncreated infinite and absolutely simple Spirit yea Father of all other spirits Now from this spiritual nature of the devil we may further see what a dreadful enemy we have to grapple with First as spirits they are of vast intellectual abilities Sorry man while in this dark prison of the body hath not light enough to know what Angelical perfections are that they excel in knowledge all other creatures we know because as Spirits they come nearest by Creation to the Nature of God that made them the heavens are not lift higher from the earth then Angels by knowledge from man while on earth Man by Art hath leatn't to take the height of the stars of heaven but where is he that can tell how far in knowledge Angels exceed man 'T is true they have lost much of that knowledge they had even all their knowledge as holy Angels what now they know of God hath lost its savour and they have no power to use it for their own good What Jude saith of wicked men may be said of them What they
day Secondly having done all to stand that is both able to fight and able to conquer As for the first general the Exhortation we shall wave it as to the substance of it being the same with what we have handled v. 11. only there are two observables which we shall lightly touch The one from the repetition of the very same exhortation so soon one verse only interposed The other from the verbe the Apostle useth here which being not the same with v. 11. affords a different note There it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. I. The reason why the Apostle renews the same Exhortation as also what truthes Ministers are often to preach to their people FIrst of the first the repetition of the same exhortation and that in so short a space Sure it was not for want of matter but rather out of abundance of zeal that he harps the second time on the same string Indeed he is the better Workman who drives one naile home with reiterated blowes then he which covets to enter many but fastens none Such Preachers are not likely to reach the conscience who hop from one truth to another but dwell on none Every hearer is not so quick as the Preacher to take a notion as 't is first darted forth neither can many carry away so much of that Sermon which is made up all of varieties where a point is no sooner named but presently pulls back its hand and another makes a breach and comes forth before the fiâ—st hath been opened and hammered upon the conscience by a powerful application As where the discourse is homogeneal and some one necessary truth is clear'd insisted on and urged home with blow upon blow Here the whole matter of the discourse is a kin and one part remembred brings the memory acquainted with the other whereas in the former one puts out the other in a weak memory Short hints and away may please a Scholar but not so profitable for others the one more fit for the Schooles but the other for the Pulpit Were I to buy a garment in a shop I should like him better that layes one good piece or two before me that are for my turn which I may fully peruse then him who takes down all his shop and heaps piece upon piece meerly to shew his store till at last for variety I can look wishly on none they lie so one upon another Again as it is profitable thus to insist on truths so 't is not unbecoming a Minister to preach the same truths again and again Paul here goes over and over the same exhortation v. 11. v. 13. and elsewhere tells us this is not grievous to him but to them it is safe to hear the same things over and over Phil. 3.1 There are three sorts of Truths must in our Ministery be preached oft First Fundamental Truths or as we call them catechise-points that contain truths necessary to be known and believed The weight of the whole building lies on these ground-cells more then on superstructory truths In a Kingdome there are some staple commodities and trades without which the Common-weale could not subsist as wool corne c. in our countrey and these ought to be encouraged above others which though they be an ornament to the Nation yea adde to the riches of it yet are not so necessary to the subsistence of it Thus here there is an excellent use of our other Ministerial labours as they tend to beautifie and adorne yea enrich the Christian with the knowledge of spiritual mysteries but that which is chiefly to be regarded is the constant faithful opening of those main truths of the Gospel These are the Land-marks and shew us the bounds of truth and as it is in townes that butt one upon another if the inhabitants do not sometimes perambulate and walk the bounds to shew the youth what they are when the old studs are gone the next generation may lose all their priviledges by their encroaching neighbours because not able to tell what is their own There is no fundamental truth but hath some evil neighbour heresie I meane butting on it and the very reason why a spirit of errour hath so encroach't of late yeares upon truth is because we have not walk't the bounds with our people in acquainting them with and stablishing their judgements on these fundamental points so frequently and carefully as is requisite And people are much in the fault because they cast so much contempt upon this work that they count a Sermon on such point next to lost and only childes meat Secondly those truthes are oft to be preach't which Ministers observe to be most undermined by Satan or his instruments in the judgements and lives of their people The Preacher must read and study his people as diligently as any book in his study and as he findes them dispense like a faithful steward unto them Paul takes notice that the Galatians had been in ill handling by false apostles who had even bewitch't them back to the Law in that great point of Justification and see how he beaâ—s upon that point Our people complain we are so much so oft reproving the same errour or sin and the fault is their own because they will not leave it who will blame the dog for continuing to bark when the thief is all the while in the yard Alas alas it is not once or twice rowsing against sin will do it When people think the Minister shews his lazinesse because he preacheth the same things he may then be exercising his patience in continuing to exhort and reprove those who oppose waiting if at last God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth We are bid ro lift up our voice like a trumpet and would you have us cease while the battel lasts or sound a retreat when it shou'd be a battel Thirdly truths of daily use and practice These are like bread and salt whatever else is on these must be on the board every meale Saint Peter was of this minde 2 Pet. 1.12 I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though ye know them He had you may see been speaking of such graces and duties that they could not passe a day without the exercise of them and therefore will be ever their Monitour to stir up their pure mindes about them All is not well when a man is weary of his ordinary food and nothing will go down but rarities the stomack is sickly when a man delights rather to pick some sallet then eate of solid meat and how far this dainty age is gore in this spiritual disease I think few are so far come to themselves as yet to consider and lament O Sirs be not weary as in doing so not in hearing those savoury truths preach't you have daily use of because you know them and have heard them often faith and repentance will be good doctrine to