from him grace for grace John 1. 16. Now if we consider the vast emptinesse and spirituall wants of the people of God we must needs conclude that he must be an Ocean of excellency that must continually supply them Secondly For I shall be very brief setting down rather heads of Meditation then Sermon-wise to dilate upon them Consider the dignity of his sufferings for they did satisfie the Justice of God and that could not be satisfied without somthing of infinite value nor could it have been done by him save only by reason of the dignity of his person Thirdly Consider how he suffered though the pains he suffered were exceeding great yet was it without any abatement at all of his love of and confidence in God for while he satisfied the Justice of God by his passive obedience in suffering the penalty of the Law he also satisfied and fulfilled the righteousness of the Law by his active obedience which was a wonder full thing that in the midst of all his agony and all his Fathers anger while he was laying upon him the punishment of the iniquity of us all and spared him not that even then there should be no abatement at all of his confidence in and love of his Father but that he should love him and trust in him as much as at any other time for had there been any abatement and had he not loved God then with all his soul with all his might and with all his strength and the same may be said of his trusting in God his sufferings could never have satisfied for sinne but themselves had stood in need of forgivenesse Fourthly Consider that saying of our Saviour John 14. 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father the speech of Philip is as if he should say Wee indeed see a great deal of holinesse and wisdom in thy words and actions but would we could see the Father surely there would be a world of holinesse and wisdom in his words and actions if he would have lived amongst men as thou Lord hast done surely then it had sufficed Now our Saviours answer is as if he should say to Philip If the Father himselfe had taken humane nature and lived amongst men he would not have spoke one word more or otherwise nor done one action more or otherwise then I have done he would not nay could not have spoke or done more wisely then I have done So he that hath seen me hath seen my Father Fifthly Consider that those who have had the greatest and highest revelations of divine things have alwayes had the highest esteem of and have most magnified Christ Saint Paul rapt into the third heaven and saw and heard things there which was neither possible nor lawfull to be uttered yet no man speaks higher things of Christ then he he desires to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified accounts all other knowledg but drosse and dogs meat such knowledge as dogs and swine reprobates may have nay one step further the very Angels in heaven though they have the beatificall vision yet notwithstanding they desire to look into the great mysteries of the Gospel 1 Pet. 1. 12. Therefore never think that thou hast attained to any measure of Christian knowledge before thou seest an excellency in Christ and an heighth and depth in the mysteries of the Gospel which if thou shalt not do say within thy self it is so evident that nothing is more in the word of God that Christ is the end of all the ceremoniall Laws and all the Prophesies of the old Testament that all the Prophets nay all the Angels give witness and the Apostle cleerly says that there is no controversie of this matter of the greatnesse of Gospel mysteries and therefore that I do not admire them it certainly proceeds from my ignorance of them for if it proceeded from knowledge without doubt the Apostles that had more knowledg then I and the Angels which had more knowledg then the Apostles would never have desired to have known more of them And after thou hast wrought this upon thy heart and art fully convinced of the truth of it that there is no knowledg not onely not so profitable but not so sweet nor so excellent as this then humbly beseech the Lord that he would shew unto thee teaching thee by his Spirit the deep things of God and that he would not only do it to informe and enlighten thy understanding in but to inamour thy will of the beauties of the mysteries of Christ we stand doating and gazing upon hamane knowledge which is but like a poor glow-worme compared to the Sun of righteousnesse but alas poor thing it hath neither light nor heat compared to the truths of the Gospel and we must look upon Christ as the only author and finisher of our faith and justifier of our persons though we do all that hath been mentioned yet we must not so much as make our doings or not doings the least ingredient in our justification and as Solomon speaks concerning our wisdom so we must do in the matter of holinesse Leane not to thine own wisdome saith Solomon not onely not rely upon it but lean on it we must not partly trust in our own wisdom and partly in the wisdom of God but we must wholly rely upon his wisdom so we must not partly rely upon Christs merits and partly upon our own but wholly on Christ those sins which we do not commit we are not innocent of and those holy duties that we do perform we are not innocent in therefore neither can we escape hell nor attain heaven by any thing that wee do or not do and the reason why wee either avoyd sin or perform holy duties or frequent ordinances is not because thereby we shall be justified but that thereby wee may glorifie God and Christ and because therein wee have communion with Christ and are made more conformable unto him and made more capable of more of Christ When we go to some stately Palace where we have appointed to meet some deer friend whom wee love with our whole soul though we have never so much entertainment there when we come yet if wee neither see nor enjoy the company of our so exceedingly loved and desired friend wee rather weep then rejoyce notwithstanding the feasts and buildings which wee taste and see Prayer hearing the Word the Lords Supper are stately Ordinances and rich Feasts yet if we meet not Christ there they are but dry brests and barren wildernesses to a soul that loves Christ Secondly Now the main thing that hinders a poor soul from coming unto Christ is that it is not cleerly satisfied of Christs love and willingnesse to receive her to this point therefore by the blessing of God I shall speak more largely and as cleerly as the Lord shall inable me this therefore may be said to that point Art thou not satisfied of the love and willingnesse of Christ to receive thee What
THE PRACTICE Of CHRISTIAN PERFECTION Wherein Several Considerations Cautions and Advices are set down For the perfecting of the Saints and completing them in the knowledge of CHRIST JESUS By THOMAS WHITE Minister of the Word of God THES. 3. 10. Praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith London Printed by T. M. for Tho. Vere at the sign of the Angel at the uper end of the old Daily 1651. The Dedicatory PRAYER LET not my Lord be angry and I thy servant which am but dust and ashes will speak unto my Lord Blessed God unto the glory of thy Name I dedicate and consecrate all that I have and do and think and speak and am and in particular this Treatise beseeching thee to give me gifts and strength and wisdome opportunity and a heart to serve thee that I may not be as a broken vessell And I beseech thee if thy servant hath found favour in thy sight grant that whensoever any one shall read this Treatise thou wilt set in with such over-powring workings of thy holy SPIRIT that what they read may not be as a dead letter unto them but that Thou wilt so prevaile with their hearts when they shall read it that they may both understand and practise the things that belong to their peace Grant this and more for his sake in whom thou art well pleased Amen To the Famous UNIVERSITIES of this Land Grace Mercy Peace and Truth be multiplyed MEn Brethren and Fathers when I consider that all men generally by Nature and Universities by designe desire and endeavour to Know and yet generally all live crosse to that principle when they come to act in the matters of God I cannot but be astonished for though the knowledg of him be demonstrably the most excellent yet as the Apostle observeth they like not to retain God in their knowledg Rom. 1. 28. Arationall Tract of Insects or any such thing is bought and read and studied admired and commended whilest the Word of God is a Book which men are rather ashamed not to have then delight to read and understand Now the great mischief of doting upon the knowledg of the Creature and despising the knowledge of the Creator is that as they did reprobate the knowledge of God so God did give them up to a reprobate sense as the Apostle speaketh in the following words Wherfore since the insatiable desire of knowledge and unsanctified learning is a snare though it be looked upon as a harmlesse and an innocent thing and in that respect the more dangerous I shall crave leave to give some Christian advises for study Adv. I Get holiness before you get learning for 1. Except you be holy your learning it self is defiled and defileth 2. It puffs up It builds not up 3. You must never think by Learning unsanctfied to learn the things of God 1 Corin. 2. 14. Nor will the Socinians distinction serve that it is meant of carnall debauched men for it is not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 4. If it were no hinderer it were far better but it is an utter Enemy nay it is not only an Enemy but Enmity yea enmities Romans 8. 7. And indeed an enemy may be reconciled but Enmity never 2 Corinthians 10. 5. It builds strong holds and Syllogisms against Gospel truths and accounts the knowledge of Christ an illiterate thing Pardon me if I desire to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified If I wrote to those that despise Learning I should in that case shew them many great advantages humane Learning gives one if sanctified and that one might as well not make use of Riches as not of Learning in the service of God yet since I write to you whose great businesse is to get knowledg I must say of that as it is said of Riches If humane Learning increase set not your hearts upon it And though for a man to be holy is no hinderance but rather a furtherance to him in the getting of learning yet to be learned is a great hinderance to the getting of holinesse that is if he be first learned before holy 5. Except you have holinesse you will be subject to run out to the wild and ungodly studies of Jacob Boheme Astrology c. for 't is grace that directs the choyce and moderates the use of studyes 6. That of our Saviour carryes all before it Matth. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you But alas how unproportionable and unsutable are the lives of Christians to the rule of Christ and how few doe account it their businesse to be Christians But I have spoken of that in the following Treatise II. Advice Take heed of making an idol of humane Reason and that you do when you make God and all his Truths do homage to it when you set Reason in the Throne and bring Christ his Truths to the Barr to be judged by it To shew the vanity of this Consider 2. Some things even in the very wisdome of men would seem to be very folly if so be the reason of their actions were not discovered to us I am confident that Sentence of Solomon concerning the two women would seem foolish cruell and unjust if one had gone away so soon as ever that Sentence had been pronounced for were it not very cruell and unjust to deprive a mother of her child an Infant of its life for no default of either and foolish for would not the living child be dead when it was divided into half and so each mother would have but two halfs of two dead Children in stead of one baving one whole dead child And it would have required no lesse then Solomons wisedome to finde out the reason of that sentence and it was one part of it to give such a sentence that might least seem to do what he intended lest the mother that pretended to the living Childe discovering his design might give such an answer that should not discover what Solomon intended to manifest So some of the wayes of God the reasons of them are past finding out except by the same wisdome that contrived them nay it may be God doth some things on purpose to deceive humane reason and that some of the reasons of his ways are so full of wisdome that were they revealed we were no more able to understand them then a child of three yeers old could understand some propositions in Euclid Vietta Cartes Apolonius or Archimedes 3. It seems that God hath So ordered matters that except we love him and his truths there shall be such objections that the wit of man can never answer I shall give you an instance of this both in the speculative and practicall part of Religion Deuter. 13. ver. 1 2 3. If wee might discover the deceit of that prophet by
are many disseminata vacua in all imployments of the world which might and ought to be filled up with spirituall thoughts and as it is with Bees though they gather honey from a flower they leave it as fragrant and as fresh as they found it so we gathering and mixing spirituall thoughts with and from our worldly businesse we hinder it not at all for as a vessel that is full of sand will hold almost as much water as if there were no sand in it so when we are full of imployments we may hold a thousand holy thoughts and as a ship can hardly be so fild with chests or other lading but there will be so many corners unfild up wherein Diamonds of such great value might be put in that they would be more worth then all the lading of the Ship so those thoughts of God and spirituall things which we might have in the midst of our other employments may be of farre greater value then they Fourthly Take heed of perfunctory and careless resisting of temptations but what thou dost in that particular as in spirituall things do it with all thy might for to think and weakly to resolve against sin will not hinder but aggravate thine offence and it is one of the Divels policies to let a man alone to thinke of severall Motives and make some faint resolutions against any sin when hee sees that hee hath him fast enough for he knows that the more Motives and Resolutions wee sin against the more wee are hardened and GOD is provoked And as it is with a Town that is besieged they will willingly let so many of their enemies in as they know they are able to master so Satan when hee sees that the Motives and Resolutions that enter into the soul are too weak hee willingly suffers them to enter for perfunctory performance of duties and feeble resisting of temptations are equally dangerous if the later be not the worst by the former we get no spirituall good and by the later we overcome no spirituall evill 5. Caut. Take heed of making others sin either by scandall or being a temptation to them by example or provocation it is a good way when one hath to deal with a passionate man not onely to prepare our selves for the Combate by prayer and resolutions and keeping a strong guard upon our hearts that we may not be overcome with passion howsoever he shall use us either in word or in deed but to take special care and to use all means to keep him from passion for there is a wretched joy that our hearts are subject to take in the sins of others thinking them to be a foil to our innocency to have others very passionate when we are very meek there is a secret delight that the heart is prone to take but it proceeds from a desperate pride in us who desire to have our excellencies made manifest though with the dishonour of God and damnation of our brother but there is a great deal of hel in it and charity rejoyceth not in ill 1 Cor. 13. 6. Caut. Take heed of studying high speculative points whatsoever for when our thoughts are exceedingly intent in finding out truths all the fire is in the top of the chimney and none is left upon the hearth generally high speculations leave the heart cold without devotion for generally there is a great deal of curiosity and pride in such studies for commonly we desire to be accounted knowing men in searching into whys and how 's of Gods works and truths as why God made the tree of knowledg of good and evill and how there can be three persons and but one God therefore in all reading joyn prayer whether it be in the reading of humane or divine things and take speciall care that the love of God go not out nor grow cold in you That which I have heard of one is a good practice that whatsoever book he was reading every leafe that he turned over he would look what was become of his heart and of God and would not begin till he had sent up some prayers to the Lord for direction Advises 1. Adv. First Concerning writing many wayes thou art to employ that for thy advantage First Write down all those spiritual passages out of Sermons books discourses wherin thou hast found most relish and spirituall profit Secondly Keep a Register of all the mercies that God hath bestowed upon thee whether it be temporall or spiritual but especially thy spirituall experiences and his manifestations of his love if ever the terrors of the Almighty was upon thee the wayes of Gods providence in supporting thee and how and when and in what manner he delivered thee And so for the discoveries of his love and concerning the mercies God hath bestowed upon thee how and whether and when he answers your prayers as also all the speciall ways of Gods providence to other spirituall persons in temporalls or spirituals and when thou findest thy heart dull and cold in love or weak in faith these experiences of Gods goodnesse to thy selfe and others will be an excellent means to enflame and strengthen thee Lastly Keepe a Diurnall of thy life in respect of the spirituall passages of every day set downe whether thou didst awake with God or whether the world had the first fruits of thy thoughts and how thou didst performe spirituall duties whether with relish fervency or delights or otherwise mark and set down when thy heart made any default intermitting its communion with God and all the severall sins that thou canst take notice of that thou hast committed that day and what mercies thou hast received and when there is any mercy that thou prayest for some marke should be set untill thou hast an answer of that prayer from God and that day the Lord gives thee that answer make a reference from that day to the day of praying for that mercy 2. Adv. Secondly Choose some spirituall friend one or more to whom thou mayst wholly unbosome thy self in all spiritual matters but a great deal of caution need to be had in this particular he need to be one of a 1000 that thou choosest thus thou needest have a grâ—at deal of Experince of his spirituall wisedome humility and experience of the ways of God for be he never so learned though he understand all mysteries and all knowledge though he hath never such excellent gifts of edification yet if he be not an experienced Christian thou wilt little benefit either by his society or counsell for when he speaks of spirituall and experimentall truths and the discourses of such truths are the very life of the communion of Saints I say that his discourses concerning such matters be he never so learned if he be not experienced in them will be without life or relish he will seldom speak of such things but when he does it it will be with so much heaviness that thou mayst cleerly perceive he doth speak but by rote
and of things he delights not in and for his advise in spirituall matters it must needs be very imperfect for thousand cases may happen of which books speak nothing and having no other way to understand them and direct thee he will be at a losse as one that travels by a Map and hath no other way to guide himselfe he will meet with many turnings that put him to a non-plus which way to take whereas he that hath often travelled that way is a farr safer guide the truth is we have no knowledge of God or no saving knowledge of him but what is by experience To conclude therefore if thou wilt choose a spiritual friend choose such an one as magnifies Christ and the spirit of God and his teachings and the word of God and inward mortifications above outward and that is an experienced wise and humble Christian and thou shalt get a world of good by the converse of such an one for in doubts his wisdom and experience wil direct thee in thy distresses hee will comfort thee when thou art spiritually cold his example and carriage in the performance of holy duties his discourses of heavenly things and the flames of his love wil set thee on fire 3. Adv The third is diurnal examination every night strictly to examine what thou hast done that day we read of God himselfe that every day he looked over his works surely God hath no need to examine his works but it is writ for our instruction and doubtlesse the benefit and necessity of this examination are very great First We should find out our sins before they come to be customary when they are but a day old and before they have taken root in us and so they will easily be pull'd up and by faith repentance prayer and resolutions against them we shall easily get the victory over them and through the help of God who makes us more then conquerours it is very likely by the blessing of God if David had not neglected the examining of his soul that day when he defiled Bathsheba he would have discovered that abomination and he would never have gone fo farre as to have added bloud and the rest of his abominations to his uncleannesse and he would have watered hâ—s couch with his teares which he had defiled with his adultery The second advantage is that we shall never lie in any sin unrepented of and there be many other inconveniences besides bringing it to a custome that come by sin lying on our souls unrepented of for it deads our prayers cools our love hardens our heart makes us that we cannot come to God with that joy with that freedome of spirit as when one hath done ones friend an injury one is loth to see him The third advantage is by dividing this great work of giving up our account and making all even betwixt God and our selves the work will be very easie which if we shall not doe it but at our death or only yearly it would be exceeding difficult and almost impossible as if some Merchant who had very great trading should ballast his accounts of debts receipts of disbursements c. but once in seven years it would be an intollerable burden besides many things would be forgotten whereas it being done daily his accounts are perfected with more ease and fewer defaults The fourth advantage is that at thy death thou wilt have a world of comfort by taking this course for besides thou art eased of that burthen of having all the accounts of thy life to make up then thou hast a clear way to answer Satan when he shall lay to thy charge any sins of thy former life for if he shall accuse thee and say do'st not thou remember that such a year and such a day thou didst commit such a sin thou mayest answer him and say it is true that such a day I did commit such a sin but then that very night I mourned for it and went not to bed before I had my pardon sealed with the bloud of Christ to my soul and when Satan shall not be able to lay to thy charge any debt of which thou hast not had an accquittance nor any sin for which thou hast not had a pardon from the Lord such fiery darts will have no power to wound thee and this examination thou mayest make thus Consider all the severall hours of the day and how thou hast spent them when thou didst first awake what didst thou think of when thou wert asleep and thoughtest not of thy selfe God thought on thee and thou wert safe under the shadow of his wings When I awake thou art with me sayes David was not God with David when he was asleep yes surely for his being with him when he was awake shewed that he was there before for it is not said When I awake thou comest to me but art with me Well but what are thy thoughts when thou first wakest are they of God or of the World Thou shalt much discover the temper of thy heart by this those that are our very familiar acquaintance we suffer them to come into our chamber before we are up surely God is a stranger to thee if thou thinkest not of him nor seekest him on thy bed then as the Apostle sayes If the first fruits are holy the whole lump is holy so generally as thy first thoughts are such art thou all the day after in the morning thou sayest it will be foule weather sayes our Saviour for the skie is red and lowring so we may say of the day in respect of spirituall matters if thy morning thoughts be red and lowring it will be foule weather in thy soule that day and when thou readest over thy diary thou shalt finde that those dayes when that thy waking and morning thoughts were full of God that all the duties of that day whether of thy generall or particulat calling were full of God also Well what didst thou think of afterwards didst thou keep thy thoughts close to God untill thy morning exercise didst thou dresse thy soul as thou didst dresse thy body Well after that what didst thou doe such an hour and such and hour c Or to help thee in this duty something more examine at night thy works words thoughts what they were every houre of the day For thy works consider what thy religious works the works of thy particular calling and thy recreations were For thy prayers hast thou not oomitted thy seven times a day if thou hast attained with David to that number or how often soever thy set times are hast thou not omitted them for I dare not discourage any one in observing set times as if that could not be don lawfully Wel how hast thou prayed hast thou performed that duty as a task or as a means hast thou bound up thy devotion to such a number of times of going to God or hast thou given God those prayers as a composition or as the rent of