with such a hideous outside of apparrel camels haire course diet Luke 3. and also with the extraordinary spirit of Elia save that the people being taken at first by his guise and habit might be wrought upon the more easily by his Ministry preparing and levelling their rough and high spirits for their Lord Jesus And what other use had all those miracles wherewith the doctrine of Christ and all the preaching of the Apostles were accompanied save this that by and with them as by Tunnels the influence power and authority of truth might enter and prevaile with the mindes and consciences of the hearers ere they were aware That they being amazed and convinced by the greatnesse of those signes and effects which attended and followed the word might have no power nor spirit left in them to contradict him that spake thereby but yeeld and beleeve the truth for the workes sake The miracles themselves the healing of a leper the restoring of the lame the raising up of the dead the healing of the sicke the doing of the workes and benefiting of the persons was not the issue and intent of the worker but that the glory of that God the grace of that spirit which wrought such wonders might soke and sinke into the soules of men before and upon whose eies and persons those miracles were discovered That by this meane conversion from Idols and sinfull courses unto the living God might be effected through faith in the promise Witnesse that story of the woman of Samaria in the fourth of S. Iohn To whom the Lord Jesus did so expresse himselfe as to declare all the secrets of her heart to convince her of all the villanies that ever she had committed in all her seven husbands time and why Surely that she having her loade of heart within her might go into the City tell it her kindred and acquaintance draw them to Christ himselfe as being astonisht at his excellency and being once within his compasse might be easily pulled by his doctrine to a further pitch of grace and say Now we beleeve not because of the wordes which thou hast spoken but because we have heard him speake himselfe This should teach us a wide difference between Gods word and the writings and stories of Heathens Vse of instruct who to get themselves a name among men and to sute the eloquence of their stile either Greeke or Latine Poets and Historians have stuffed their writings with abundance of rarities and wonders for the procuring admiration of men and appetite of Readers Branch 1 curious of Novelties But alas their relations being justly suspitious Heathen stories unlike the Scripture and for the most part fabulous and vaine savoring of mans base spirit and lying invention doe as much dishonour their fidelity as they magnifie their language and skill in contriving they doe but Ape the Scriptures and steale away the minds of Students who although they may lawfully further themselves by the tongue and phrase yet ought to take heed how they bee taken too farre with them as some profane wits have beene who have not stuck to scorne some writers of Scripture in comparison of this or that Heathen writers No give all their due but reserve that preeminence of worth to the Scriptures which they deserve being as much beyond the most exact writer of Story for their Antiquity purity Majesty and authority as the Sunne is above the poorest starre in the firmament Branch 2 And secondly this observation might leave much instruction with us if we were willing to embrace it And first it might set a glasse before our eyes to behold in our nature that wofull insensiblenesse and unperceiving of holy things Rom. 8.6.7 The carnall man saith Saint Paul conceiveth not the things of God neither yet can do they are spiritually discerned by the power of another principle I say not that this course of miracles or wonderfull effects is able to overcome this stupor of our understanding no there must be a further progresse of the spirit of grace to effect that yet this externall and remote preparative may be enough to convince us what a spirit of old Adam dwels in us and what a curse lyes upon our nature for the resisting of that light of truth which was put into us in our creation And that is the losse not only of actuall light but even of disposition to apprehend the truths which are offred us for the cure of our disease Our faculty to understand is still left in us so that we are not meere blockes and beetles But in matters of God so originally are we blunted and dulled in our spirits and sences so disabled and so disguized so deeply also implunged into a life of sence and sottish sensuality that the mysteries of God are quite above us As the nature of sensible creatures in kind exceeds the vegetable and the reasonable goes beyond them so that each of them wants a faculty to reach the others object so doth the mystery of God of Christ of grace exceed the understanding of a meere reasonable creature I shall meete with a better ground of opening this point after here only let this suffice to abase us and hold us downe before God as degenerate and miserable creatures in respect of this our incapablenesse of holy things Jewes strangely insensible of Gods miracles We can cry out of the Jewes whom the Scriptures were written unto for that they were so dull and slow of heart to conceive the matters of God his workes and wayes when as yet they were beaten into every sence as it were with hammers of extraordinary and divine Prophecies Visions miracles and waies of revealing Oh! say men doubtlesse had we seene the standing up of the sea on both sides dry in the midst the returne of the waters upon the Egyptians the gushing forth of water from a Rock and the bringing in of such a number of quailes how would we have acknowledged the power and Majesty of God Had we seene the Law given by Angels with terrors and fire had we beheld with our eyes the person of Iohn a miracle without miracles and the wonders which Christ and the Apostles added to their Sermons how would we have beene ravished with them and beleeved I answer so should they have done indeed and you if you had beene in their places But alas as they did so should you have done without more grace and that appeares by this that now being under far greater convictions and a way of God as far exceeding the power of those outward signes as heaven exceeds earth yet you are as farre from conceiving and beleeving as they Thirdly it should scare and terrifie all of us who now injoy the body Vse 2 of Scripture compleate Humiliation together with all the helpes of those divine ordinances which are bestowed upon the Church of Christ both publicke and private for that notwithstanding all these the most people still remaine
cold We see all come to passe Therefore let us all whom God cals by tongue or by penne looke to the safeguard of Truth and say as those did to David so we to Truth Thou art worth ten thousand of us if we dye wee may be supplied but if thou shouldest miscarry all of us must perish As the life of old Iacob was bound up in Benjamins so ours in Truth As in some former Treatises I have endeavoured to give Section 5 my poore witnesse to the practicall truths of Religion as a most sworne enemy to all Schisme and Novelty so in this I aime more especially to encounter prophanenesse and lukewarmenesse and both to convince the former and rectifie the latter As Sinne lies deeply rooted in the one so even Grace it selfe for lacke of quickning lies dead in the other Those that are not sunke into a prophane way yet may be sunke from a zealous I consider with my selfe that as Treatises doe well for maintaining of truths so Sermons are more peculiar for the suppressing of vicious manners or lukewarm profession In Treatises we speak Gods conclusions in Sermons God seemes to speake his owne so great the oddes is in what way a truth be uttered our owne or Gods As Israel thought herselfe doubly strong having got the Arke into the Campe to fight with the Philistins so in preaching we seem to doe as the Angel who went to heaven in the smoake of Gods sacrifice There is more of God in this method then in any and wee had need use the forciblest corrasives to eat out the dead flesh of vice and the keenest spurres to drive others out of the declining temper of their lukewarme profession and neutrality Moses we know might serve to teach people Truths and Ordinances But when the great worke of scaring rebels and convincing the conscience was to be done God himselfe was faine to descend in his likenesse with terror and smoke and all too little and questionlesse that is the most noble Ordinance which works most upon and most prevailes with the part of man which is noblest and whereby we draw nearest to God the heart I meane and the affections In Gods sacrifices we read not much of the looking upon the braines or offering them up to God by fire but of the heart liver and the inward parts the fat of them as choice was Gods part The reason no doubt was that although the understanding is the guide of the soul yet because the object of it is onely truth But the object of the will and affections is properly good and by embracing and affecting of good we come nearer to God then by meere understanding of truth therefore the word preached most affecting the inner man by drawing perswading convincing quickning and comforting of it must needs have the preeminence of all other Ordinances There is oftentimes in the unregenerate alway a gulfe set betweene the understanding and the affections so that the one never comes at the other but when once affections are truly stirred this gulfe vanisheth and an easie path-way is made in the soule to welcome Gods grace and to expresse it in the life neither seeme we in any other respect to excell those wicked Angels save in the goodnesse of our affections I speake not this as an enemy to knowledge without which the heart is nought but because the wofull age we live in above all other things is most empty and yet most carelesse of getting good affections Every one thinkes himselfe to be happy in that he knoweth not in that he affecteth beleeveth or loveth whereas in these latter our union and communion with God consists The heart and spirit of the man his bent his frame that is the man and I beleeve that as they say of the materialls of the world they would soone dissolve if the soule of it were taken away so the vast body of Light and Knowledge of many professors will ruine and oppresse herselfe ere long for lack of sutable life spirit and affections This notion seemed to me very forcible to perswade the publishing of these Sermons after some other Treatises formerly set forth But will some say we grant all Sermons are indeed as you say powerfull instruments to stirre the soule bâ—â— what is that to printing and writing You know no peâ—cill can fully reach a living face The Presse cannot comprehend the Pulpit and writing of a Booke is but as the picture of a dead man in comparison of the lively voice To whom I answer Time hath beene when I have beene so farre transported with this thought that I would have preferred the preaching of a Sermon to the printing of a Booke But now I must sing another note and therefore I answer further although the objection in part be true yet consider God hath covered the uncomely parts with greatest honour and although the grace of the Spirit in preaching and giving overtures of lively impression to the heart cannot be equalled by printing yet printing hath also that peculiar use which preaching it selfe reacheth not that is constantly to represent things which while they were in uttering seemed pretious but yet are soon forgotten Luke 1.4 I say to present them alway to the eye and so to hold them there as a naile fastned in a sure place from wanzing and leaking out And moreover when the Preacher shall with diligence and observation both marke wherein God assisted him most and hold himselfe as neare as he can to his expressions somewhat more may be compassed in this kinde then otherwise But however he is a foole who counts not halfe a loafe better then no bread or despiseth the Moon-shine because the Sun is down and I hope that such as were once attentive hearers of these things when they read these Lectures shall in some sort recognize the savour and grace which in hearing they seemed to acknowledge Wherefore to conclude as I for my part thinke it a favour that I may be the overseer of mine owne Bookes which else by audacious and unskilfull adventurers might have beene defaced and also that I may set my base heart on work any way to prevent sloth ease So I shall desire thee good Reader to apply thy self with thy best care and prayers to peruse what God hath herein presented thee withall And if thou pickest any thing out blesse God and pray for me even for Thine in Christ D. Rogers The list of Contents TOuching Gods Soveraignty and Freedome in decreeing Touching the preventing assisting and perfecting grace of God in mans vocation Touching Selfe and Selfe love Touching carnall Reason How farre policy lawfull Touching Gods way in humbling the soule or the condition of the Promise Touching Servants and their duties with Masters a full discourse Touching Faith a discourse thereof at large Touching the due reverence support of the Minister by the people Touching the Promises and Performances of God Their nature and use Touching the effect of Faith and
to clasp closely with his promises 5. Because the Lord promiseth nothing but what hee first purposed to performe 6. Because hee measures his promises not according to our capacity but his owne bounty from page 595. to 598. Gods performing of promâ—ses to bee understood with limitation What those bee Three in number viz. 1. Hee performes them yet not in that very kinde wherein the soule expects 2. In generall promises to the Church the time of performance must bee left to God 3. God performes to his but then they must live uprightly and keep their covenant not else ibid. The Vses 1. Gods people looke more at the good of a performance then the bare performance it selfe 2. We must not taxe Gods administrations 3. They who breake with God must looke that God break with them pag. 598. 599 God must be left to himselfe for the performing of promises without our mixing of our wits and wills therewith pag. 606 Gods faithfulnesse in keeping promise with us must teach us to bee faithfull to others in keeping promise pag. 607 Gods people ought to bee encouraged thankfull and comforted for the Lords faithfull performing of promises Also humbled for their provoking of God to the contrary pag. 618 H. Heathen stories fall short of those rarities and wonders of the Scriptures pag. 4 Husbands and wives must abhorre câ—rnall reason pag. 220 Humblenesse in Gods way a speciall grace pag. 463 Hypocrites who come with their cost and toyle to God rejected pag. 365 Hypocrites and elect ones differ in the issue of their labours pag. 453 True Humility scornes not to learne of the meanest Teachers pag. 460 Humility alway goes before grace pag. 464 Most Hearers abide in unbeliefe because their hearts were never humbled pag. 466 Humbled soules comforted pag. 469 Hypocrites false grounds in breaking of Gods commands discovered 528. The trickes and wayes whereby they defend it ibid. six or seaven of them The 1. By avoyding their realnesse 2. By avoiding conviction 3. By diminishing the extent 4. By opposing one command to another 5. By false plea of examples 6. By adding of new commands of their owne 7. By cavilling against the strictnesse of Gods ibid to page 531. I. Iewes strangely insensible of God in the middest of all his miracles pag. 4 The truest Iudgement of a mans estate is rather what corruption he wants then gifts which he hath or graces he seemes to have pag. 60 Instances of much folly and indiscretion in the dealings of Christians pag. 213 Irresolution in matter of Religion as dangerous as grosse blindnesse pag. 254 Inferiors if gracious are a great convincement to superiors pag. 288 Inferiors being to deale with superiors must consider what their persons will beare pag. 329 Iudge not rashly of Gods administrations either publicke or personall dispensings of grace with difficulty or ease pag. 376 Iudgement of controversall truths to be ascribed to men of most sincerity who these are pag. 414 Inconstancy and disproportion in mens affections and â—ctions argues falshood pag. 435 Inferiors must not withdraw their service from their superiors if God call them to it 461. Perswasions to it ibid. The Ingredients of a promise serving to inable and improve it 483. five or six of them ibid. Iudgements of God upon carnall and wilfull unbeleevers pag. 494 Intention extension of commands what Vide Extent pag. 521. 522 Inferiors must enquire into the lawfulnesse of their superiors commands and not obey implicitly pag. 524 Inferiors must not follow the commands of superiors to break Gods commands 527. especially the command of the Sabbath ibid. Iudgement of God upon hollow-hearted dispensers with his commands pag. 530 Iordens waters though no Type yet a resemblance of Baptisme pag. 592 Indifferency and neutrality of Spirit worse then open prophanenesse 868. and usually it growes to it ibid. Iesuiticall equivocation to be abhorred and upon what grounds pag. 240 L. Letter of the Scripture not to be wrested against the sense for mens private ends pag. 58 Love and honour of Gods Prophets appeares in this that we obey their voyce Reasons of it pag. 397 Lovers of the Minister in the generall yet concealers of their errors corruptions to be reproved pag. 401 Le ts of faith to bee seriously abhorred five or six of them mentioned pag. 502 Lesser light in faith may yet goe with greater assurance pag. 513 The Law how far it 's strengthened or weakned by the Gospel pag. 523 Le ts of close walking with God to be abhorred 550. eight or nine of them named ibid. Limiters and restrainers of promises are to be reproved 580. Sundry instances ibid. All Le ts of performing the promises of God to be studiously shunned 113. What these are 1. Mistaking of performances 2. Carnality and deadnesse of heart 3. Murmuring 4. Some grosse sinne 5. Limiting of God 6. Errour of the wicked 7. Vnobservance 8. Curiosity or censure with others ibid. M. Miracles serve to convince the soule of the truth of God sealed thereby pag. 5 Miracles how farre ceased uncertaine to us and in Gods hand ibid Ministers must be jealous of the least aspersion to Gods glory to their owne persons or of offence to others by their carriage pag. 58 Man very prone to idolize meanes and to set them up in Gods place pag. 68 Ministers must not abuse their parts to case and pampering of the flesh pag. 75 Markes of fleshly wisedome subdued foure or five See pag. 81. 82. 83. Ministers must bee first in Selfe-deniall It is the true Mortmaine pag. 164. 165. Ministers of all others must abandon carnall reason and that in many things mentioned pag. 215 Magistrates must beware of carnall reason pag. 220 Markes of Selfe defeated to teach us to avoid it 1. Shee is coy and queasie upon reproofe 2. Lazie and slothfull to amend 3. Alway in her extremities 4. Partiall pag. 263 Meane silly persons if godly need not thinke themselves contemptible pag. 289 Masters must chuse their servants by this mark of faithfulnesse pag. 310 Masters must bee Fathers to their Servants 315. Reasons of it 1. They have betaken themselves under their protection 2. They are as children to thee in point of fidelity ibid. Wherein this duty stands 1. In preparation 2. In performance Both in sundry Branches 1. See and adore Providence in ruling thy servant for thee 2. Manage thy servant with thy best skill 3. Give his soule her portion as well as his body 4. Feed his eye by thy example 5. Command in the Lord 6. Impose not violence in lawfull things through excesse 7. Conceale not his painfulnesse 8. Defend him from hurt 9. Carry an equall hand among servants 10. Neglect him not at his departure ibid. 320 Ministers must not count the worke of setling the conscience a slight worke 332. Helpes for the enabling the Minister to it ibid. Exhortation to it both by preparation and practice Rules for it in speciall 1. Discerne mixt sorrow from single and separate them and
save him I hope I shall not need to prove the truth of his conversion If any doubt of it let them note but the scope of our Saviours discourse in that place of Saint Luke and it will satisfie him for except it be granted that Naaman was converted the whole scope of our Saviours speech is overthrowne And that evidentâ—y is this Luke 4.27 to convince and upbraid his owne countrymen for their contempt and infidelity and that by Naamans example As if he should say Trust not to this that you and I are Townsmen and neer of acquaintance God is no excepter of persons grace is free and mercy is neither of the willer or runner but of him who sheweth mercy look well to your selves that ye despise not the offer I make as little worth and thinking your selves Abrahams seed and children of the promise for except ye beleeve the Lord can passe by those of the kingdome and call in from the East and West strangers even such as Naaman and thrust out the children Marke then except Naaman were converted the Jewes might have had a ready evasion to escape the dint of this exprobration and have said Why Lord Elisha was no more sent to Naaman then thou art sent to us there was no more wrought in him then in us This had bin to cut the sinewes of Christs argument asunder And whereas it may be alledged Christ did no miracles at Nazareth I answer it is uncertaine But say he did not it had bin small upbraiding of them with the want of miracles if he had not much more cast them in teeth with the want of that for which miracles served I meane grace and faith This objection then thus removed I returne and say that the Lord sent Elisha to Naaman for the cure of soule and body out of an especiall freedome of Graces which he denied to others who were far fairer for it then he That the glory of this free and soveraigne mercy and compassion might only be ascribed to God The doctrine then hence is that Grace is free and soveraigne And Doct. Gods grace is free Rom. 9.10.11 unto this truth doth all the Scripture give witnesse The Apostle Rom. 9. defending the soveraignty of God against all cavillers who cannot endure that God should differently impart himselfe to such as are equally inwrapped in the same state of corruption saith thus shall the clay say to the Potter why hast thou formed me thus And whereas the caviller alledges that this should infer a contradiction between the secret will of God touching the end of the creature and the revealed touching the duty of the creature and saith why doth he then yet complaine q. d. He hath barred the creature from obeying and beleeving by a secret denying of power unto it to do either and doth he still exhort warne threaten and chide The Apostle answers Verse 20. Oh man who art thou who janglest with God Is God unrighteous in each act of his whereof thy wit cannot give reason And in the same Chapter Wherefore Verse 16. it is not of the willer or the runner but of God who sheweth mercy Why should all others save Lydia and the Jailor be left Acts 16.14 27. when Paul came among that people and all the wise Phylosophers at Athens be passed by onely Denus and Damaris a poore only man and only woman being excepted And Acts 17. ult Who called Rahab and rejected all Jerico Ruth and not Orpah Who chose David and refused Eliab Who separated the Gentile and rejected the Jew Who is he that saith not many wise learned are chosen but the meane things and foolish of this world to condemne the mighty 1 Cor. 1.26 Why was that one Eunuch attended and converted by Philip other Proselites being let alone Surely that we might tremble and say Oh the depth of the wisdome of the justice and mercy of God how are his waies past finding out why should one who came at the eleventh houre fare as well as he at the sixt Because God may doe as he list with his owne Matth. 20.12 Is thine evill because he is good No for of him in him and by him are all things to him be praise for ever Calling to grace double Unconditionall or conditionall both free What the former is How it is free Now that Gods call is free according to his owne soveraigne pleasure appeares by the difference of Calling which is two fold the one unconditionall the other conditionall The former of these is that externall call of God whereby he ministers the meanes of the Gospel by which the effectuall call may be attained Now it is evident that this is free for it requires not nor cannot require any antecedent disposition or fitnesse in the called All are equally sunke into rebellion in respect of their nature and as concerning the practice sure it is that howsoever the morals of some may possibly be worse then others yet this can be no bar unto Gods free visiting them with light if he please so to do and there is no wickednesse of man over which the grace of the Gospel may not prevaile Deut. 9.4 Say not saith Moses that the Lord hath chosen thee from among all other Nations because thou wert better then they for thou wert the worst of all Nations But it was free mercy which thus chose and called thee to the Covenant and to be a people That caused the Lord to call thee from all other Nations of the world though all the world were his Againe it is not the moralnes of any people nor their vertuous qualities which can move the Lord to shew them the light of further grace but if he leave them in their moralities it is just and righteous Sure it is this unconditionall call is as free as the raine which falls upon the earth in some places plentifully in some scantly in some not at all Even where the Lord in soveraigne wisdome shall please to send it Some places the Lord permitted his Apostles to goe to others the Spirit forbad them to visit God had no people there therefore the meanes were held from them Not because the meanes were not granted he had no people but because he had no people therefore meanes were not granted Now concerning this former call how many Nations of the world are excluded Untill Christ all the world was excommunicate for the times of that ignorance God regarded not and since Christ now full one thousand six hundred years and odde how many are uncalled if some speake truly scarce a sixth or seventh part is yet visited if it were but the one halfe it were enough to prove this freedome Cavills there are some against this former freedome the most of which are taken from the respects of more sinfullnesse in those people or their Predecessors or some former contempt but they are so idle and senslesse that the divisers of them shew
honour God rest not in this that you dare not basely pride your selves in any of your parts above God but beware of a finer spun selfe then this deny your selves even the second time as I may say lest otherwise you fall in love so farre with your service that you grow to thinke God cannot want you Perhaps God may try you in your onely sonne Ishac Gen. 22.2 whether you can be content to want him or no for God as well as to enjoy him in God The onely tryall of the denying of your owne parts for God is if when God calls for them in sacrifice you be as willing to make shipwracke of them as to improve them Be not more anxious for God then he is for himselfe for he can make the stones cry although you should hold your peace To serve God so with your gifts as to be loth upon any need to forgoe your selves distrusting God in case of losing them fearing the reproach of men or what domage hurt and dishonour may accrue to you in your private despised conditions I say this is to serve your selves and not the Lord. Enquire closely as well upon what termes your very gifts themselves may prove dishonourable to God as the case may stand as your forfet of them yea much more if God call for them Note well To despise to stoope to the enquiry after the least evill which may defile your consciences in the improveing of your gifts or to live ignorant of any such duty as might honour God as much or more then your gifts To conceale and hide from your owne eyes any part of Gods will under pretence of the best service done by your gifts To distrust God in supporting you for a good conscience in the forfeit of your gifts and lastly to rest in this that seeing God may use your sinne to his owne glory therefore your sinne may seeme lesse in your owne sight What are all these save unseasonably to pin your service upon Gods sleeve and to serve under a false banner to lose more in the hundred then you gaine in the shire and in a word Vzza like out of your heat and resolution to serve not to care upon what dishonourable and unseemly conditions you goe to worke I judge no particular person I leave you to the judgement of your owne conscience I doe not accuse you as if ye sought to winne the spurres by your parts or could not take it well of God if sometime he held you short in gifts and performances I presse yet another thing Bee your service never so allowable yet fall not in love so with it pittie not others so farre in the want thereof that you should be unwilling to come under the command of God as well in suffering as in obeying 1 Cor. 14.32 The spirit of Prophets must bee subject to the Prophets be it never so good how much more to God himselfe And it is as good sometime to take counsell as to give it and as good to looke so to some one thing which wee desire and finde our selves enabled by God unto as yet not to blindfold our other eye to over see some other duty lying before us which although perhaps it be unwelcomely sudden to us and speake in our cast yet is such an one as God calls for at our hands to a further honouring of him So shall wee doe greater things when God abases us in our selves and hath us at his becke then when all our best gifts are improved without such a command so also shall we proportion our selves in some beautifull sort to walke with God and trust his Alsufficiencie both in our sufferings and our doings and God shall honour himselfe in both and us for both we doing both in selfe-denyall and faith Luke 17.10 Although poore wretches when wee have done all wee shall be but unprofitable servants Fourthly this is terror and conviction to all Papists and formall worshippers Vse 4 Papists first Popish statelinesse of devotion is odious to God for their scorning the simplicity of Christ and his Ministery and ordinances and counting the meane things thereof a derogation to their Religion and an occasion to make the worship of God vile and contemptible to the people And therefore instead of meane and foolish things they stablish pompous great and wise waies and devices of their owne glorious Images Roods Crucifixes reliques donaries of gold silver and jewels They fill their Churches with paintings and curious pictures and strive who shall outstrip the other in the beauty of buildings the curiosity of carvings of imbellishings of Idols who shall have the richest copes and canopies and the most sumptuous Altars chalices pixes and other complements belonging when their Masse is most gorgeously set forth to the sense and when the Ministery of Christ is thereby eaten up as the fat kine by the lean when all spirituall means of mortification are turned to carnall and outward such as the flesh delights in but the lazy and base heart of man abhorres then do they think the service of God best dispatched Oh ye hypocrites who doe oppose God point blanke in his purpose and turne the conversion of soules into perdition of them how will ye answer God in his day of account ye pretend that hereby ye grace Gods service but the truth is ye overthrow it embondaging the senses and enthralling the consciences of men to a worship pleasing and possessing the carnall part but leaving their soules leane and sterved for lack of spirituall instruction God requires that his spirit in the ordinances 1 Cor. 2.1.2 should quash and controll all the excellency of man and you strive by amusing and detaining the eies and eares and senses of the body with pompe and state to quash the power of preaching and the efficacy of the spirit But there shall come forth a fire out of the breath of his mouth one day and consume all these inventions of yours and carry both you and them to the place whence they came The misery is that in the meane time you do snare and lead innumerable soules to hell and leave them at last either to senslesnes or despaire and none may say what doe you Proud hypocrites disdaine to be taught by mean persons The like I may say of all formall hypocrites who disdaine the sillines of Gods Ministers preaching and sacraments they forsooth scorn that every base fellow should have the credit of converting them they could be content to heare Christ preach or Paul or some of the Apostles who yet if they were among them should be as base with them as the basest they must either heare some great learned Doctor or schollar of renowne speake to them or else they will not lend their eare others say that their Jesuits are the only men of learning now a daies as for our English Preachers alas they are but silly fellowes to build a mans faith upon In a word either
the fittest way as he thought for that purpose and being mistaken in that is glad to heare of his errour and to mend it speedily 4. He abaseth himselfe below his condition so farre as to stand at the Prophets doore to crouch and creepe in the sense of his disease for the cure thereof with exceeding reverence to the Prophet All which although they might seem onely naturall effects of a man under trouble yet being orderly steps to a greater worke in Gods purpose and some of them in a sort religious acts of one that acknowledged a divine power to heale him doe argue that somewhat was in him toward the effect And yet loe here steps in a techie toy that is Yet crossed by self conceit a toy and prich his prejudicate and forestalled heart conceited against the meane appointed by God and this was that he looked to be healed another way more easie present and familiar to his humour How viz. that Elisha himselfe would come forth and by applying his hand to the place worke the miracle And this marred all the former attempts and besides hindred him first from marking the message which contained a plaine easie mercifull and familiar way of healing with a charge from God to wash and a direct promise of cure thereby without any colour or exception all which so solemnly delivered might very well have pierced an heart not exceedingly prejudiced and deluded both for the reverence of God and for his owne ends If Eglon an heathen King Judg 6. hearing of a charge from God no way assuring him of good was so obeysant as to come off his throne and worship God how much more might Naaman but lo his preconceit letted him from it As also from seeing his false heart full fraught with rage against the Prophet when yet he seemed to stoope so low and doe so much reverence and to conclude from yeelding nakedly to the way of God rather then to lose his labour and carry home his disease and from obeying the Command And just so may the case stand with such as have made as many spirituall steps toward conversion as Naaman did toward his cure They may first be brought to a deepe plunge under sense of sinne and the curse Application of the ground to the doct in hand for the clearing of it What faire hopes men have and that by the word of terror convincing their conscience under this they may be most wearisome and restlesse They may be kept from shaking off their terrour by other objects of pleasure profit or worldly contents they may heare of a remedy by one of wisdomes handmaids like well of the glad tidings long after it make speed towards it neglect no cost means or attendance upon it joy in the turning themselves out of their errours and mistakes and the appearance of more hope of ease they may honor the instrument with exceeding reverence wait at the posts of wisdome not houres or dayes but moneths and quarters thinking long till some seasonable answer come unto them thinking themselves happy that they may speed at last And yet how dashed when all their labour is ended And yet when the point should come to an issue and the fruit to be borne then shall one selfe or other either selfe-ease or selfe-will or selfe-wit and conceit assisted with carnall reason yea selfe-endeavours selfe-devotion selfe-mixtures of her owne with God bereave the soule of all strength to bring forth one or other selfe I say shall step in or be cast in by the divell as the gourd into the pottage to marre all to set the chiefe worke as far behinde as it seemed before to be set forward in so much that the voice of God both commanding to beleeve and promising speedy ease and forgivenesse shall be as a thing farre off And whereas the obedience of faith is or ought to be the upshot of the cure lo this selfe shall so blindefolde the minde and disable the heart from marking pondering and applying the promise thereby as if there were nothing in it whereas in truth all steps toward grace without this are frivolous yeâ— the base heart shall thinke this more frivolous then all the rest stumble at it cavill be discontent and flye off as if it had wrong that her endeavours and paines be not accepted without it which in truth is no other then to quarrell with God that her owne way may not be preferred to his and seeing that may not be rather to choose not to be healed at all but abide still in her old condition then not to prosper by her owne way and device I have desired to open the point at large because I make it the ground of a large doctrine whereof I would have none make question So much for the ground of the text Naamans selfe conceit and ours may differ in the speciall though the same in kind But I foresee that my hearers will by and by run to enquire whether this tech of Naaman be in their brests or no and whether it hath hindred their endeavours and also that all well affected Christians would be loth to lose their labour and sweat if they knew how to prevent it till they have enjoyed the promise And therefore I must tell them that I gather a generall point from a particular Naamans selfe was one branch of many but there be many more all as dangerous to them as this to him Seeing then I thinke it will be desired that they might know the severall sorts of this monster and the markes of this secret else selfe I meane therefore ere I reason or apply the point I will stay a while upon the discovery of the severall sorts of this disease so returne to the point againe if God please in the matter of Application I thinke none will deny that of all other lets of grace and salvation this of selfe is the most dangerous and the reason is because it is most inward and immediate I may say of it as Paul speakes of uncleannesse all other sinnes are without the body but this within a disease of the intrailes and bowels Selfe the most dangerous enemy because most inward and immediate Even so all other lets and enemies of Christ are outward Satan hath many injections temptations by Atheisme by the needlesnesse difficulty yea impossiblenesse of prevailing he hath many base colours to delude the heart withall by the contrariety of Christ to the corrupt spirit of man the world also hath many base and false principles to beat off the heart by as the disdaine of them that are so zealous 1 Cor. 6.18 the erroneous opinions which it hath of Christ and the profession of his truth Others hurt by this most mortally but all these are without and more easily avoided the power of the Word sooner scatters these mists The greatest mischiefe comes from within and were it not for selfe they could not prevaile by all their baits
owne unworthinesse or Gods long delaies which provoke the heart to wearinesse or comparing of the forwardnesse of others with her backwardnesse or else that God meanes not as he speakes but the contrary even to cast her off with some marke of vengeance sometimes rushing upon the rock of election as if all labour were lost because she is not predestinated to salvation as if we were to get to the highest step of the ladder before we have ascended by the lower sometime descanting about the way of revealing why it should bee onely by the word and spirit and not by sensible waies of expression by voice from heaven or extraordinary convincements and so in sundry other respects 10. Selfe-feare 10. Feare that the work of faith will be so hard and tedious that it will never be compassed by so weake and fraile a creature as she is so ignorant forgetfull corrupt and estranged from God the present sense of these and other corruption dazeling the spirit and enfeebling the heart so that it growes to a falling sickenesse and is at a losse upon each occasion each Sermon it heares seems to speake dismall thinges unto it and it thinkes it were better wholly to give over hearing then heare yea and in a strong tech and pang dare not or will not continue to heare for feare it should bee worse and heape up wrath instead of mercy so that all which is said either in publique or private seemes to leake out Heb. 2.1 and sometime this feare commeth from unlikelyhood of ever forgoing all sin or holding out to the end Eleventhly selfe-staggering 11. Staggering when the soule is betweene the condition of the promise and the performance as for example if she be urged to beleeve because the condition is already wrought then she questions that whether it were ever wrought at least aright because alas her sorrow is little she hath never been so deeply tozed by the law nor so broken hearted full of affections and diligence as others on the other side when shee feeles the condition comfortably present then she staggers about the promise saying the condition is not the matter but the beleefe it self and that is above her power many come farre who never beleeve and faith is the gift of God and free and what if it should never bee wrought or shee should die and be past hope ere it be effected Thus Satan comes between cup and lip to defeate the soule of her due whereas if she were staied and settled upon the word and as 2 Ioh. 8. would not lose those good things which she hath gotten but hold a little closely till more come the worke would not be alway to beginne as the frame of a Carpenter when it is disordered as fast as hee laies it together Twelftly selfe-fullennesse and unthankefulnesse 12. Sullennesse which is in a contrary extremity to ease when the soule will not see or acknowledge what God hath done for her nor abase her selfe as meaner then the least mercy of God nor confesse that any step toward conversion is more then the Lord oweth her having her at an infinite advantage by her guilt and so chusing to spend her time in sullen complaints for the measures she wanteth then gracious meltings and praises for any thing she enjoyes whereas the Publican thought it mercy to tread on the earth to looke up to heaven and it is mercy that she is not in hell but under hope and Gods ordinances and patience This is the fruit of pride and doth set back the soul more from profiting then if she could stoop to be at Gods dispose Thirteenthly 13. Ease self-ease or dalliance when the soule through idlenesse hath lost her former diligence and earnestnesse and painfulnesse in using all meanes publique and private for the making of her calling and election sure waxes slacker in her esteeme and in her love and affections as thinking her selfe now past danger and so neglects the seasons intimations of the spirit plies not nor followeth the motions of the assisting and perfecting grace but le ts them wanze as if she could meet with them at her pleasure but by this meanes Satan circumvents afterward and stings her for this confidence and presumption because she is guilty of slighting such grace as she feels to be past her reach to recover and therefore justly suffers for her loosenesse and giddinesse 14. Dulnesse 14. Selfe-dulnesse and deadnesse of spirit in not marking and pondering digesting and applying the truthes we heare and so growing towards ripenesse Heb. 5.10 which sinne makes us not only non-proficients in the doctrine of Christ but also inferior to our selves and farre short of that we might be especially when this disease comes not from naturall disability and unavoidable weakenesse but from affected error as from an heart overmuch implodded in the earth and made heavy by sensuality and carnall ease Luke 21.37 Luke 21.37 15. Foolishnesse Againe Fifteenthly selfe-folly I may better call it selfe hatred when we are not so wise or forward to dispute for the truth and honour of God and his promise as we are to reason against it and our owne soules thereby making a worke not easie of it selfe to be more wearisome and tedious then it need to be whereas rather we should reason the matter seriously betweene God and our souls as in Ierem. 2. vers 9. the Lord biddes us to doe Jer. 2.9 and Esay 1.18 Esay 1.18 and laying the desperatenesse of our misery to the hope of his promise wee should rather wonder that all place of pleading should not be taken from us then cavill against a plaine naked word of God pinned upon our sleeves Those Ninivites when yet they had no cleare promise Jona 3.8 yet reasoned thus who can tell whether Gods fierce anger shall turne away or no They thought it their wisdome rather to catch at a word a farre off then to lie in present misery without hope But self-folly still delights to shut out it selfe by her disputes against God cowardly to shun a possible mercy that it might lie down in remedilesse sorrow This I say must needs be horrible fool-hardinesse rather to perish 16. Slinesse then venture upon a promise of ease and remedy The last of all is selfe subtilty or slinesse whereby the soule secretly withdrawing her selfe from the power of the promise which ought to work all her works for her both preparing and finishing and finding her owne affections of hope sorrow joy desire and the rest very ready to put forth themselves in the work of disposing the soul towards Gods grace and to mixe themselves wi h the word doth welcome and applaud her owne selfe and all her abilities and beginnes to compasse her selfe with her owne sparkles with her owne feelings and with the joyes which come from her owne welwishes to her selfe which having no roote of Christ and his spirit in them but of selfelove
God beseech him to helpe thee with faithfulnesse in the search else thou wilt end as thou beganst not to spare thy self but desiring that the spears point which pierced Christ sides might let out the thoughts of thy heart in this kinde or rather that the sword of conviction may open the bowells of it and shed them to the ground doe not this work when thou art otherwise occupied and hast other businesse to doe thou shalt finde this work enough alone if not too much for thee and doe it by frequent meditation which is nothing else save making the truth of God thine owne and that which thou canst not finde thy selfe guilty of at one time or perhaps capable of or able to lay to heart to abhorre or to finde sweetnesse in the doing of goe to it another goe on where thou leftst praying God thou maiest not be new to beginne and thou shalt finde that at another time the second or the third thou shalt obtaine it Thou shalt not repent thee of thy labour in thus preventing and cutting short that enemy which would else have prevented and cut thee off from grace only resolve of this that till the Lord hath grounded thee in the truth of this doctrine a principle of practicall Catechisme it is impossible for thee to thrive in grace or use of meanes Further pressing of the triall Say therefore thus to the Lord Thou knowest the paines of thy servant in the use of meanes thou knowest how poorly I have thriven under them how little my faith my comfort my obedience is how ready I am to deceive my selfe in that I seeme to have to take up my rest therein that so I may not be molested any longer but soke my selfe in the dregges of my ease and will not to stirre one inch off my owne ground Now Lord if thou wilt be pleased to shew me whâ—t hath done me all this hurt I should infinitely blesse thee I am not so foolish I thanke thee as to trade for religion and yet crosse mine owne ends in wilfull holding any evill within my bosome which should deprive mee of my hopes I am willing to be informed and heare of the worst yea to unbottome my selfe of my old rotten mixtures and false grounds for the bettering of mine estate rather then to sleep in death and lie down with them in the dust Lord therefore now before my heart bee hardened in custome and security blesse mine examination to the true ends which it serves for Here I thought to have ended the use but there comes one objection to my minde Object Do all see this Selfe who are truly converted which must be answered For some will say You make a great discourse of this Self What think you Are there not many Christians truly converted to God who never discerned this disease as you have described it and yet are unfeigned and true converts and beleevers Answ 1 I answer you 2. or 3. wayes First hoping that their Quaere proceeds not from self-cavilling The grace of election working a greater measure of humiliation and tendernesse in some poore soules who want this knowledge supplies this want sweetly but from simplicity thus Many poor soules have through mercy obtained from the Lord a great measure of brokennesse of heart humblenesse of spirit more then the common sort of Professors either have or seek and by this means their helpes in both publique and private being few and their discouragements many the Lord beholding them in the grace of his election supplies all wants by his owne Spirit keepes them hungry abases them in the sense of their many infirmities puts in a spirit of perpetuall jealousie over themselves and works them to a marveilous plainnesse of heart to loath all falshood as they can discerne it and so perfects the work of faith in them secretly farre otherwise then in such poore creatures might bee expected of these I say that although perhaps they heare not so much discourse of the name and dangerous markes of Selfe yet they feele the realnesse of it within themselves and are better acquainted with it then many who heare more of it And these persons if it should please the Lord to bring that home in doctrine use and admonition unto them which I have spoken would be formost in acknowledging and blessing God for such truth and make better use of it then the most doe Answ 2 Secondly I answer Satan and corruption in these last daies doe conspire to withold many subtill wise and carnall worldlings from embracing the truth then ever and as all Arts so this art of Selfe serving into the truths of God by the counterfeiting and deceiving of men is grown rife and perfect Satan more prevailes with this subtill world then ever Ephes 4.14 therefore needs the more exact and carefull countermining Thirdly the Spirit of God under constant meanes workes leasurely and therefore corruption is not cast out all at once but by long discipline and discovery of it by the word and in the multitude of helpes such as Answ 3 God be thanked have beene enjoyed in sundry places much rankenesse hath growne as a canker in a faire apple in the spirits of many Professors as pride selfe-conceit and prejudice which the Lord hath justly punished as I noted in the reasons with a spirit of fulsomenesse and furfet hardnesse of heart and difficulty of perswasion so that in these daies that old tendernesse and selfe-deniall which possessed the spirits of most Christians is rare to finde Much need therefore of urging this doctrine in these our daies Much more need therefore there is of this doctrine to be urged in these dayes that such as are the Lords and yet held under this snare may be pulled out and saved and those who are not may be left therein because they would not receive the truth in the naked love of it Lastly to end this use this I adde That although the Lord should Answ 4 have called home many without any former knowledge of Selfe in any great measure yet I doubt not but when they do come to a better view of it they will both mend their former bottomes see cause to trust God and glorifie his grace in Christ more then ever before and also looke to themselves in the course of their sanctification the more watchfully lest this enemy should hurt them more in that then it did in the matter of their first conversion However I see no cause why the more cleare discovery of the will and way of God should seeme superfluous because God had his number when the light shined not so cleerly And so much for answer to this question We may discover it by these marks First by the true humbling of the soule A proud heart will have her will to die for it Because pride hath high thoughts and must be satisfied as Rabel with children or else shee dies And her daughters having lost their children by
speake one word unto them to praise the one and disgrace the other but presently their spirits rise with indignation and conceive so much the more content in the new by how much they hear the old commended Oh! they will make histories of their beloved which their heart is set upon there is elbow-roome and liberty no enemy to hurt no feare of prisons sutes pursutes at Law wrongs or discouragements no difficulties to conflict withall in comparison of the good things which they looke for The strength of the object carries them captives pulles downe all objections and subdues them under the authority of their owne desires and the excellent things there to be had As for Sea-faring by the eight or nine weeks together in danger ill diet attendance lodging and rest want of wife children old kindred and acquaintance pleasures pastimes tush all these shall make for their good and make their new English shore the more welcome to them they hope God will weane them hereby from all the superfluous liberties sensualities and carnall affections and as for the defects of the soile or of mony or other contents they will waite seeing that nothing can bee perfect at once and when they are come thither they will not returne to the Old England which they forsoke upon any tearmes which can be offered them Oh! brethren let me speake to you without offence shall a poore conjecturall fading and earthly object so possesse the soules of men that it sets them in an extasie and shall not the promise of God wash and be cleane be reconciled to God prevaile much more to ravish us and set us beyond all Selfe and selfe-love Yes surely when Christ shall thrust Selfe out of place and become Selfe and all within us and doe that and infinitely more then that for us really which Selfe promiseth us deceitfully But here a question may be asked Object What are the workes of the Spirit of grace And what meanes are there to compasse them I answer Answ 1 These that follow which I mention shortly and so finish this first generall Exhortation And least any should aske me what I meane by the Spirit of grace I answer the same which Zack Chap. 10.12 meanes to wit the Spirit and effectuall power of the Lord Jesus his satisfaction and intercession whereby the Ministery of the Gospel is inabled to perswade the hearts of the elect to beleeve and imbrace the promise of forgivenesse and life What this Spirit of Grace is This Spirit is contrary to that spirit of Selfe which resisteth grace the one from heaven pure savory and divine the other from earth carnall sensuall and divellish The first marke of the Spirit of grace is that it is against Self and that in sundry respects Markes of it 2. First Grace strives to inlarge if self to the uttermost of her graciousnesse Selfe strives to strengthen her selfe by the plentiousnesse of Grace waxes wanton through Grace so content to enlarge Grace that therewith shee will enhaunse her selfe and will get up by the stirrop of Grace into the seate of Christ aâ—d make her selfe checkmate with him as an ill Steward or Bayliffe to a great Lord will seeme to doe him great service and looke to his grounds and cattell but so as himselfe may have a stocke of cattell going upon the same grounds so that he seeks his owne and his Masters advantage both under one he cannot beteame to promote his Masters with the losse of his owne But the true sight of Grace throwes Selfe out of her owne possession and ends The fulnesse of Grace empties the soule to the bottome Aske thy selfe then hath the view of this Grace and of the truth as it is in Jesus emptied thee of all thy gifts duties and religious performances Then it is a true Spirit and destroies Selfe There is no true godly Spirit but it is the more humble lowly and vile in its owne eies by Grace Selfe gathers false courage to her selfe by the Grace which is offered growes conceited confident and full of her selfe she thinks she cannot want enough of it whereas all runnes over and leaves her barren The spirit of Grace so shewes the fulnesse of Grace that it exhaustes her owne fulnesse wholly as those sterven Egyptians beholding Iosephs store of corne were more abased for their beggery and the Queene of Sheba beholding the depth of Salmons wisedome became a foole all her owne spirit of questioning and cavilling sunke downe If thy spirit crouch and creepe to Grace and be quite battered in her selfe it is a good signe As the Spirit of grace arises from glory to glory so selfe falls from shame to shame Jer. 14.8 to set up Grace what shall I say to thee Oh thou Saviour of all flesh surely nothing be confounded and say who is a God like to our God! It is nothing but the spirit of presumption which prides and pearks up it selfe Mica ult but the Spirit of grace quailes the heart and causes it to fall low as Naaman after did even to snatch and catch at Grace as one sterven for want of it As Peter Luke 4. beholding Christs glory cried out depart from me a sinfull man There is a legall whining basenesse and unworthinesse aiming at this that she might be worthier But there is an holy sense of unworthinesse when the savor of Christs fulnesse drinks up the Spirit and leaves it empty As when a proud boy heares a good scholar talke his conceit of himselfe turnes to abasement Oh how his combe is cut what a fool and an idot he is in his own eies If the Grace ye seek doth humble ye and not puffe ye up it is as it should be I professe brethren it would make one tremble to thinke how little of this Spirit is stirring in the world I see but few poore ones among us by this plenty of the Gospel take heed the Lord let us not bloud of this pleurisie The truth is we doe but fat people by this pasture wee bring no leannesse into their soules As if Christ served for nothing save to make men their owne Saviours in part and give over his owne honour it would doe ones heart good to behold some few poore soules how humble their knowledge of Christ makes them they stand as an empty bucket by the well side but it would cut ones heart to see how many bold bog saucy ones there are instead of a few empty ones Oh! pull pull downe your peacocks feathers If Christ be a fountaine be you a channell dried up If he be a Magazine be you bare walls If he be so rich a dole come you to it as orphans bee fatherlesse and motherlesse Hos 13.3.4 that you may find mercy rest not in thy law humiliation to lose some of thy jollity onely but let fulnesse of grace cast out selfe and all to the bottome Every one cries out alas What have I to be proud of Note
But humblenesse stands not in confessing there is no cause of it but in casting it out So much for the first Branch A second respect wherein Grace resists Selfe is this 2. Maâ—â—e she subordinaâ—es all to Grace I say all Selfe and her branches carnall Selfe hypocriticall Selfe mixt Selfe all now are quasht and the soule dare seeke no other credit respect commodity ease to her selfe then the Spirit of Grace will allow her Grace in a poore soule is as the power of Reason is to the inferior faculties when once the soule is infused into the Infant this supreame one of Reason subordaines the other faculties of vegetation and sense to her selfe all come under her authority and name Looke whatsoever Selfe hath formerly aimed at above Grace the Spirit fetches it all under it selfe As Peters trade of fishing and nets were vile in his eies when hee saw the glory of Christ upon mount Thabor Even all Selfe and folly comes behinde the Spirit of Grace Oh! what a blessed liberty is this to bee rid of the bondage of Selfe what cause of rejoycing Oh brethren to love the Lord Jesus for himselfe and all other things for his sake what a checke is it to Selfe Good brethren note it and trie your selves by it if those contents which were unlawfull be cut off wholly and the lawfull seasoned and sweetned by Christ if those delights which formerly were either savored for themselves or without Christ now we cannot relish but in and through Christ it is some signe that Selfe is brought under the subjection of the Spirit of Grace And to this may be added which differs not much in substance that the truth as it is in Jesus and the Spirit of Grace is the supply and furniture of the soule in all the wants and difficulties of it so that it need take no further thought it takes off the soule from all those proppes which shee formerly trusted unto and makes a rich supply of them in Christ really Excellent is that speech which Ioseph bid his brethren utter to Iacob when he sent for him into Egypt Take no thought saith he for your houshold stuffe and implements which ye use for lo all the fulnesse of the land of Egypt is before you count all your furniture not worth the carrying Gen. 45.20 for ye shall find in Egypt such store of all necessaries that you shall not repent you of the leaving of them behinde Surely if the promise of Ioseph were so well worth the trusting to what is the promise of Christ worth And if the store of Canaan were so superfluous in Egypt what is the supply of Selfe worth to one that is in Christ If this were thought of beforehand how lythe and cheerfull would the soule be in going to Zoar out of Sodome How farre would shee be from looking backe with Lots wife as loth to depart from her old treasure The heart called to Christ hankers and hangs off here catching up one rag of Selfe there another loath to goe naked fearing lest there should not be enough for all uses and turnes in Christ but when shee heares Take no thought for any of these Christ shall afford all meet ease credit content and worldly conveniency Oh it is well content to leave it for who so will let them take it that know no Christ As the lame man hearing Christ calling him threw away his cloke and crutches saying If Christ will give me my limbs I take no thought for these either I shall need none or have them better supplied from a fountaine Brethren weigh this marke well Selfe cannot digest it All the whole sea of Christ is no content to her except shee can eike him out with somewhat of her owne she hangs in the aire without a bottome like a stone till it be upon her center But Christ is a sufficient store to a poore soule in the vacuity of other things Though there were no calfe in the stall or bullock in the flock Heb. 2. yet Christ were enough Trie your selves you may as easily judge by this marke as what meate your stomack stands to If onely you can bee satisfied with Christ while your ease credit health and welfare last then upon point Christ is not these but these are Christ When Iacob saw the charets he had enough if you cannot say so when you behold the promise all is not well Onely an insufficient Christ causeth such patching A good new garment needs no shreds to peece it Christ is to a poore child of God as Elkana told discontented Hanna more then tenne sonnes 1 Sam. 1. Till there be enough felt and tasted in Christ who will forgoe his other proppes Who will flit out of his dwelling to lie in the street The true mother cried let her have all the child rather then divide it So the soule that is guided aright 1 King 3. loathes to divide Christ he had as leave have none Beg of the Lord to reach you out the Lord Jesus in his full supply of all wants and seasoning of all mercies that your soule having this boote in beame may be indifferent for other things as knowing they shall either not bee needed or else cast in The third branch of the Spirit of grace in opposing Selfe is the subduing and subjecting of the soule with equalnesse and contentednesse of minde to all those termes and conditions upon which grace may bee obtained The third Marke It subjects the soule to Christ upon his owne tearmes and conditions refusing no difficulties neither use of meanes nor forsaking her old contents but thinking grace a rich pennyworth whatsoever she cost There is a basenesse and closenesse in Selfe whereby she causeth the soul to shrug at the conditions of Grace as wearisome and costly this humor the Spirit of Grace removes causes such a cheerfull willingnes in the soule to stoop to any tearms of Gods imposing that she thinkes her selfe well if she may so speed When a man lies sicke of a disease without danger of death he will send his state to the Physitian and give him a slight fee but he is loath to charge himselfe deeply for the matter but if sicknesse encrease and danger of life appeare then the desire after health and the fear of danger concurring make him devoure all charges then he will have the Physitian come to him and give him any recompence being glad of health upon any conditions So it is here Coy and queazie Selfe that feeles no danger and reaches at Grace as a good thing in generall can beteame no great paines nor deny her selfe any wonted liberty nor submit to any great abasement of her selfe for the matter if it come easily she is content But if once the Spirit of Grace shew her the danger of forgoing it of delaying to get if of an indifferent remisse heart lazy carnall and willing to goe to heaven with all her will and liberties if once she present
doubtfull hearts and the Lord will not bee wanting to give you now and then such handsells of mercy as are meete to stay you and to assure you of better measures afterward But say the truth is there not within you a secret loathnesse to give up your owne bottome hopes and hold to the meere freedome of eternall mercy Or have you not kept a false measure within you that is to mixe your selves with mercy being loath to deny your selves your feelings zeale labours and devotions Have you cast these out and come under the power and authority of the Word I feare there is such a pad in the straw If there be not it is some sin against conscience which hath wasted you which must be abhorred but if it be as I have said alas poor soules then wonder not that God hath crossed you for it is for good even to fasten you to himselfe and above all meanes to acquaint you with his owne power who in the midst of these distempers of yours can forgive you can imbrace you with mercy and finde in his heart to love you even then when perhaps you could bite your tongues because you are so bad and this if you can beleeve it will carry meate in the mouth when all your own mixtures must vanish Try your selves by this marke whether the Spirit of Grace have so wildred you in the best and most pleasing waies of your own Esay 26. till he have driven you into your chambers to hide your selves there under the secret of the Almighty under that free infinite full covert of the promise till the evill be overpast Tell me brethren when you can feed and revive your spirits at this feast and warme your selves at this fire is it not high holy-day with you Finde you not a difference betweene this and your owne sparkes Bee content then resigne up your soules to this worke and say the Lord hath done you no wrong to weane you from your owne breasts that you might suck at his promises Seventhly and lastly the Spirit of Grace opposeth Selfe in all her errors and subtilties For the former Selfe is a great blinder of the eyes and causes the soule to sleep in a whole skin she doth so baffle her selfe with her owne shewes and forwardnesse that shee doubts not but her estate is good She saith with Iehu 2 Kings 9. Come and see the zeale which I have for the Lord of Hosts But the Spirit of Grace is a Spirit of discerning between errour and truth it seperates between the pretious and the vile gives clearnesse to the eyes of the simple Psal 19. causing them to judge according to the grounds of the word which cannot deceive to distrust her owne conjecturall and slight bottomes Truth is able to approve both her selfe and her contrary whereas error can comprehend neither truth nor her owne vanity And secondly she discovers those subtilties of Selfe It were endlesse to mention them by a few judge of the rest Sometime she is so slye that when her affections and duties forsake her she can recover her selfe by her whinings complaints and mutterings against her selfe as if she mourned because she attaines no better fruit of her labours Sometimes she will pretend that she desires grace really and is willing to be searched and that shee knowes not that evill which she would not gladly be rid of that she might attaine it But yet she deceives herselfe with dead wishes and will not ensue those meanes closely which tend thereto nor profit by the experience of her owne basenesse but her experience leaves her dead in the nest as it found her and she will not endure the triall nor set one foot forward to remove the stumbling-blocke of her iniquity from before her Ezek. 14. and her Idols from between her brest Therein she is as she was Againe a third subtilty is that she will spare her owne lazy skin and cut her selfe off from those more convincing ordinances and more pertinent and seasonable meanes for her owne good by putting herselfe upon such as are lawfull and good in their kinde as to avoid close attendance to reading of the word by singing of a Psalme also prayer by reading a Chapter instead of secret and private prayer she will chuse to pray with others or in family or upon a booke instead of extraordinary duties shee will content herselfe with her ordinary houres and all to shew that shee is glad to put off the Lord and save herselfe harmelesse with as small a pittance and as poore measures of spirit and courage as may be And commonly when Selfe pitches upon her course this is her property she is loose with God in the best meanes Againe she will so contrive her matters that for the shifting of some close duty of worship as meditation searching her corruptions repenting after falls or renewing covenant she will alway finde some occurrent or other duty of calling conversing with others needlesly or by some worke of mercy and duty of the second Table or any other fained pretence to rid herselfe of that which would stick to her spirit and discover her loose grounds Sometime which I would have marked when she is so hunted that she cannot shelter herselfe and is pressed to leave all for a promise she will turne presumptuous and professe that she hath cast herselfe upon that also and thereby hath put an end to all her former distempers purposing to cast about and fling out no more but settle herselfe upon the truth of God But alas this her fained cleaving to the word is nothing else save a dead relyance perhaps shee quashes her former feares and doubts But how Surely by a lazy and slothfull pretence of beleeving that she might be free from any callings upon reproofes or paines taking and delude her selfe with ease for why Come to the triall of her confidence alas it is without savor peace contentation or joy of heart saplesse barren and ventrous dissembling a selfe-deniall and calmnesse of heart but indeed a lethargy of the spirit willing to deceive herselfe No true desire to honour God in the fruit of a sound course or to purge out old distempers can appeare I say all the subtill and sly tricks of selfe-delusion the Spirit of Grace pierceth into and purgeth the soule of for looke what I have said of a few might be said of all the rest Although I deny not but many a poor soule hath some secret shreds of Selfe lying hid and unknowne yet I say the nature of the Spirit is to discover them if the soule be not wanting thereto And this be said touching the former generall head of the Spirits opposing Selfe Second generall How the Spirit of grace that it serves wholly for Grace In three things 1. In discovering the mystery of it Now for the second generall a second marke of the Spirit of Grace is That it serves wholly for Grace And that both in the
naturall and beloved object The truth hath not made them free for if it had they would forsake all for it and buy it whatsoever it cost them but not sell it whatsoever they might have for it Besides they know not what spirit they are of while peace lasteth and the Gospel runnes in the streame of their liberties gifts services commodities and advantages who but they An humble and zealous Christian would almost tremble to heare their protestations their engagements for God and truth the cause of Christ and Religion who but they in their fastings and prayers deepe detestation of the sinnes of the times and mourning for the sorrowes of such as suffer But let the winde turne to another coast so that they see the enemies of truth lay hard to their free hold and they must either sadly suffer indeed for that they have professed or else bewray themselves to be hypocrites Then they shew upon what hinges their doore hanges and turnes even upon Selfe and selfe-love Then they wax stiffe for themselves then they cleave to the creature their ease and welfares their liberties and worldly contents Why this Alas They understood not their owâ— spirit and therefore it laid them in the suds ere they were aware Now their great declaiming against the sinnes of timeservers and selfe-loving hypocrites is turned to apologize for their inconstancy selfe-love and ends of their owne Moreover another cause is they sought not Christ simply and honestly for himselfe but for somewhat which might bee gotten from him to serve their owne turne by his meanes They know not how to licke themselves whole upon the Lord Jesus for any thing they lose for him and therefore they are loath to venture any more then they must quite make forfeit of If they knew whom to trust for amends or could beleeve that hundred fold requitall for God and his Gospel which is promised to all that lose any thing for him Oh! it would lithe their hearts exceedingly to suffer any thing for him To conclude they consider not what a poore bargaine they make of it when they sell the honour and glory of the Lord Jesus for the redeeming of a poore transitory content here below they consider not that they fish with a golden hooke for minums if they lose their hooke upon a shrag of triall and temptation they can never make amends againe for it by all they catch though the fish were fairer Conscience is no commodity to weigh in the balance against ease and carnall profits and pleasures as Elisha asked Gehazi Is this a season to purchase olives and vineyards and menservants or maidservants They consider not what poor and silly figleaves they sow together to cover their nakednesse when they pretend a necessity of serving God their owne way that way which will hold best agreement with their own ends to shun serving him his way of suffering which contradicts their self-love In all these respects and in many more let us not wonder at the wofull declension of these revolting times which leave the Lord Jesus himselfe to sinke or swim Nay further let us not be offended overmuch at such as at their first entry and onset upon Religion seemed so zealous as to chalenge all enemies of Christ and began to suffer for him But having born the brunt a while and felt the triall too hot and too heavy for them have with more shame and reproach revolted from him then ever they began to suffer with honour and commendation And sithence it fareth thus let all whom it concerneth Counsells to helpe this Exhortation to approve their faith and fidelity to the Lord Jesus as it doth concerne all who will not prove hypocrites now in these wofull daies strive for the holding up and preserving the entire honour and esteem of Christ his Grace his truth profession and Gospel both in their owne soules with sincerity and before men without shame or cowardize Consider poore soule by whose strength thou standest do not look too wisely upon next hand examples of staggerers and timeservers though perhaps thou hast admired them for their zeale and gifts know them by their fruits stagger not at their revolts But looke to Jesus the author and finisher of thy faith Heb. 12.2 who for the hope set before him and the love to thy soule and salvation despised the shame and endured the crosse Behold if examples do so much affect thee the patternes of those faithfull ones who in all ages have borne witnesse to Jesus and not esteemed their credits or goods or lives so that they might vindicate the glory of Christ and discharge the trust which in baptisme and much more in their conversion to God was committed to them to be faithfull souldiers and to contend for the truth against Divell and his instruments the world and their own fleshly selfe-love The Lord hath had in all ages some who have though it a businesse of importance to sticke to Christ and his honour whatsoever it cost them although thy strength be small the trialls of the malicious sharpe and fiery as darts yet if thou canst deny thine owne selfe humble thy soule be little in thine owne eies be above thine owne ends and sensuality Then that God who hath suffered thousands of subtill selfe-loving hypocrites to fall on thy right hand and thy left shall keepe thee safe in the midst under the covert of the wings and shadow of his Almighty power Psal 92.7 Counsells And to this end and purpose first get faith in Trialls more pretious then gold and looke not to suffer for Christ by thine owne strength but get strength from him whom thou sufferest for Get thee his innocency be sure thy cause be good joyne with it a good conscience two excellent banners to fight under and then by prayer beg from Christ that strength courage meeknesse simplicity selfe-deniall unashamednesse to confesse him and to suffer for him which becommeth one who hath received thy being of grace and the hope of welbeing of glory for ever from him Beleeve that hee who nayled all enmity of Satan and the gates of hell to his crosse hath risen by the might of his Godhead and is at his right hand will so provide that the remnant of their conquered and captivated malignity and malice shall never prevaile against thee If ever thou tookest hold of his strength to save thee from hell and from perishing trust him for strength to overcome all earthly enemies he can and will subdue them unto thee divert them disarme them disable them and give thee full redemption from them If ever hee built thee soundly upon his rocke feare not neither stormes nor sands nor tempests nor any assaults shall ever cause thy building to ruinate but thou shalt stand because built upon a rock Secondly be not heedlesse and carelesse of trouble but be well settled and informed in thy judgement concerning the weight and the importance of the truth of God Let
be not onely willing and well content to beare for God if we be called to it justly without thrusting our selves upon troubles but especially labour to quite our selves well in our sufferings True it is to shunne God and seeke our selves our owne ease and welfare betraying our conscience is a fearefull treachery but yet there is a further mischiefe then this to be shunned and that is be we sure that wee suffer for God and have him that knowes our hearts to beare us witnesse that setting aside humane frailty the sincere aime of our hearts in suffering is the promoting of the glory of God and the entire and tender respect we have to preserve his truth inviolable There is a white divell corrupting us in the bent and aime of our sufferings as well as a blacke to disswade us from suffering at all one Divell under two colours aimes at this either at the losse of our soules when we wickedly seeke to save our selves from suffering or the losse of the honour of our sufferings when we lose our reward through our base and hollow seeking our own selves Such as suffer in these dayes for Christ had need be well bottomed and carried upon such grounds as will beare us out and save our stake For such as suffer out of a proud presumptuous singularity of their own to be thought some body hoping they shall be able to licke themselves whole by some outward encouragements or otherwise rush upon crosses in their heate and rashnesse are like in such a world as this to meet with a wrong match of it And we have seene some examples before our eies to verifie this by wofull experience Note this experience that others may learne by their shame and harmes to beware of their selfe-heate and rashnesse The Divell getting ground and the cause of God losing exceedingly by such Merchant venturers not to speake of the shipwracke that such make of their owne peace Suffer therefore for Christ and suffer so for him that thy conscience may stand by thee for the sincerity of thine intentions and the Spirit of glory shall rest upon thee and with Stephen he whose cause thou sufferest for shall discover himselfe unto thee not onely in his allowing of thee 1 Pet. 4.14 Acts 7.55 but his crowning of thee both here with the honour of suffering and hereafter with glory for suffering as 1 Pet. 4. end and in neither respect will he suffer thee to repent or bee ashamed But I must not here in this use of addition and by consequent runne out into a common place some other fitter occasion will offer it selfe for this purpose Thus much shall serve for the whole exhortation and so for the whole doctrine of Selfe so farre as the Lord hath given grace Now what shall I say brethren for conclusion but presse us all to seeke God who suffers not his raines and dew to returne in vain Esay 55.9 but to fructifie his truth in the hearts of his owne people that he would not withdraw his blessing from this doctrine which wee have at large insisted on in this and the former Sermon Let us pray that with Pauls planting and Apollo's watering God would give encrease THE SEVENTH LECTVRE upon the words following in the twelfth Verse VERSE XII VERSE 12. Are not Abana and Pharfar rivers of Damascus better then all the waters of Israel may I not wash in them and be cleane So he went away in a rage c. VERS 13. Then his servants came neere and spake unto him and said Father if the Prophet had sayd some great thing c. 2 Kings IN the former verse beloved in the Lord wee have examined the ground of Naamans distaste of the Prophets message and that was as wee have shewed a prejudice or pre-conceit of a way of his owne devising The clear ng of the coherence sense of this verse without bottome or ground of truth Touching the which as we noted whence it came even from the root of Selfe so we raised a generall ground of doctrine from it and have said what God hath suggested unto our thoughts concerning the reasons openings and severall uses of it repeating nothing thereof let us come forward to this twelfth verse For although the holy Ghost doth omit sundry passages of this story as the thing was carried yet hee will not have us ignorant of any materiall thing which might profit us And therefore here he relates the amplification of Naamans distaste from a second allegation of his and that is from a supply of Selfe by carnall reason No two friends in the world are so ready to succour each other at a pinch as carnall reason is at hand to succour Self The more is said the worse the disease rankles but yet that which sound reason cannot make good lo carnall reason must be faine to supply A poore help I grant but a poore one is better then none with a corrupt heart If the former answer and bottome of his distaste had been as good as it was large he had not now needed to have multiplied so many words as he doth but being crazie in them hee must make that good with words which wants substance and therefore hee now comes in with an argument of another kinde to stiffen himselfe in his former conceit drawne from the nature of the message it selfe to wit that it was unlikely ridiculous and in truth upon point impossible And therefore he did well to turne away and be angry as he was The words come to thus much as if he had said How he baâ—keth one evill with another There was cause enough to reject the Prophets answer because it crosseth mine expectation my thoughts were farre otherwise then his message I looked hee would have come himselfe and dispatcht it therefore I had reason enough before to recoile from his answer But now put case my conceit be ungrounded and I my selfe faulty therefore yet let me but examine the message it selfe as it lies and there is great cause to distaste it in that regard also For why What sense or reason is there in it Forsooth he bids me goe wash in Jordan And what likelihood is there that Jordan should heale leprosie When was it ever heard of till now What need Israel have one Leper in it if Jordan will heale him And sure I am if waters were able to doe it then much more would better waters doe it Wee have two famous rivers in Damascus Abana and Pharfar by name farre purer streames and in repute better waters then either Jordan or any other waters of Israel whatsoever And if they never healed a Leper much lesse I trow can Jordan This being thus who should blame me for rejecting this message Yea for distemper and anger Can flesh and bloud endure to be sent for to a Prophet and to be thus mocked I conclude therefore his meaning is nothing lesse then to cure my disease he doth but try
By base and lewd custome it hath contracted an habit of a contrary quality Base custome hath marred right reason which is saplesnesse and unsavourinesse of minde which she gathers up in the world by the base customes of it seene and heard and so lickes up scurfe as the Spider doth venom or the sinke gathers dregges daily False prejudices and misperswasions are imbred in the soule by this meanes I say by the error of the wicked those false opinions which the common multitude have taken up put on as a garment against Gods cleare truth These are carried from hand to hand as wares in a market by Traders and Chapmen and they wax more defiled by the carrying For why Principles of truth being naturally loathed and abhorred by men of corrupt and perverse mindes and will they muse as they use they report them as they like them and so breed in each others mindes hatefull thoughts and conceits of them as of God himselfe and his Attributes Religion and all the mysteries of it the lovers of it the power and practise the administrations of God his worship and ordinances As Hemlocke or Cockle seed multiplieth by shedding on the ground so the Dice-play of men as Paul calles it Eph. 3. doth infect the degenerate world and increaseth till as a leaven it hath sowred it through and festred it to the heart as a canker As a leafe of paper all over written on both sides neere and close admits nothing else to bee written in it without confusion so the minds of worldlings being wholly possessed with the scurfe of lewd opinions in these matters admit no interlinings of truth but abide erroneous It is said by Matthew that it was given out by the Scribes and Elders that Christ rose not againe Mar. 28. end but was stollen away by his Disciples and that error passeth for currant to this day So do errors in Gods matters root settle among the ignorant and unstable The strength of false principles which corrupt time hath raked on heapes to harden her selfe against the puritie of Truth Acts 13.8 Exod. 7.11.12 are as those Inchanters were to Pharaoh and as Elimas to Sergius Paulus to avert them and detaine them Custome makes errour to bee thought truth fore-stalles it and takes up the roome of it so that it can subsist no where Reason 3. The soule thus doubly infected is chained by Satan with Reason 3 her owne bands insomuch that as he entred into Iudas by the sop Satan rules strongly in the soul by carnall reason so doth he into the soule by both these traytors And being entred imbarkes himselfe more strongly against the evidence of all divine truth infusing his errors and lies into the soule as first he did into Eve when hee drew her from the simplicity of obedience He enlarges carnall reason exceedingly and puts into the soule most unsanctified and erroneous thoughts against all truth and savour of goodnesse Hee puffes up the minde with conceitednesse and pride setting her up with him in his throne so that she becomes wiser in her owne opinion as Tyrus in Ezek. then Daniel yea then seven men who can give a reason so that shee waxes impudent and refractory in her owne way so that there is more hope of a fool then of her Oh! saith Satan thou maist well stand upon it Exod. 28.3 As hee falsly so here truly Much carnall reason makes thee mad for thou art counted a jolly wise fellow indeed worth ten of these poore Puritans pitty that an hundred of such should beare downe such an one as thou Oh! this addes drunkennesse to thirst and makes folly mad so that as the Adder she stops both eares against the charme of truth be it never so powerfull through pride and prejudice Reason 4. Lastly the Lord leaves all such to Satans blind-folding The Lord infatuates carnal men justly and Reason 4 to their owne perversnesse whereby they are sealed up to their delusions because they hardned themselves against the naked truth would not beleeve it nor yeeld up this strong fort of carnall reason to the obedience of Christ the Lord suffers them to be led captives to their owne erroneousnesse denies them grace to looke in and reflect upon themselves to see by what an unsound principle they are led yea carried to hell and some are justly given up from a carnall sense to a reprobate sense that they pride themselves in their shame ridiculous unsavorinesse and cursed misprisions of truth so that the corruption of carnall reason grows from an error to a confirmed disease and to an habit of wilfulnesse and rare it is to see such subdued and captivated to the obedience of Christ In all these foure respects it appeares to be no wonder that carnall reason should hold off the soule from cleaving to the truth or judging aright of the matters of God So much for reasons I come to the use Vse 1 And first this should be use of examination to all sorts to try themselves about this taint and corruption of carnall reason Examination Convâ—ction of carnall reason by many particulars Ere I proceed to any more uses of either admonition comfort terror or instruction let this be weighed that it may appeare who are the parties of whom I speake I have said enough before in those instances which I named and need adde no more yet because the matter is weighty take two or three more and goe to work narrowly for no disease is so dangerous so incurable Instance 1 If God would lend us his heifer to plow withall or cause us to reflect our own corruption upon our selves Naturall savour how happy were it Perhaps by this meanes God might pluck off this cover of darkenesse from our faces Esay 25. Try thy selfe by this first viz. Thy naturall carnality and savor Thou knowest what it is not to savor and relish meate and drinke in a deepe cold what it is to love or not to savor this or that dish of meate The selfe same discover in Gods matters Canst thou relish a bargaine a game at cardes and dice any base talke of the world though never so long any idle tale Carnall reason described by the savour thereof or gigge of a geering gibing wit or any merry conceit and discourse or matters of the belly backe purse and commodity I say canst thou judge perfectly how these taste But if thou come into a religious company where there is speech of a promise of faith the sacraments any mystery of Religion any commands or threats of God then thou feelest that the savor of these is as the taste of the white of an egge without salt It is a wofull signe of a carnall wretch that hath no salt of God in his Spirit to season him Marke 9.50 Luke 14. ult but is still saplesse and dry infatuate and unsavory Thou hast lost the comprehension and savor of God and art as a
best grounded yet alas have many feares are very much unsettled and have never done in the proving of them to be sound Answ I answer They who stagger about their grounds may be to seeke and so remaine doubtfull But yet by their studious enquiry and serious deliberating at last they come to determine whereas the prophane carelesse and Atheisticall never are troubled at all and therefore remaine in their wofull condition Psal 17. And whereas some of them as Iob and the Psalmist speaks seeme to die in peace yet that peace is accursed for though they force to themselves a wilfull peace there is none to them they goe downe to the pit with such peace as a drunken prisoner goes to execution Esay 57. ult But this doth not infringe the doctrine because although some live and dye lawlesse and senslesse yet the case of the greater sort is otherwise They rush without due consideration upon their maters and accordingly meet with sorrow and repentance onely the godly who fix their eies upon Gods stable bottomes provide best for themselves hee that walketh soundly walketh safely and although through unbeleefe Esay 26.2 weaknesse or temptation they are often appalled it is to teach them to cleave better to their grounds But ordinarily they walke by rule and finde peace when trouble befalls them it comes not by their closing with but by warping from their rule and when they recover their grounds they recover their peace So much for answer to this objection Now the uses follow First Instruction to teach us the wonderfull Vse 1 wisdome of the art of Godlinesse Instruction Râ—ligion is grounded upon most solid foundations It is grounded upon most weighty and materiall bottomes No man would suppose the Lord to be so infinitely wise as he is till he set himselfe seriously to try his conclusions Few men thinke there is any great matter in living by faith in shunning appearences of evill in cleaving to the company of the good in pitching the soule upon a truth of a promise threat or command But by that time they feele the sad fruit of their errors then they grow to looke backe and behold a most hidden excellencie in Gods principles when their peace is lost and themselves cast upon hideous sorrowes then they beginne to applaude them that goe to worke by knowledge and discerning of things that differ as Scholars never grow in love with an Artists principles till they have examined them and finde out their exactnesse then they behold the misery of an inartificiall and ungrounded course of study So is it here Art hath no enemies save idiots no more hath Religion Secondly it teaches us It is a singular favour of God to any when they are bottomed soundly how great a favour of God it is to any beginner Branch 2 in Christianity when as the Lord prevents them with wisdome in grounding themselves throughly both in point of faith and conversation Who can expresse the depth and height of that mercy which hath prevented so much sorrow Let it but appeare in this one principle That a poore soule though it have but a poore measure of grace yet is taught of God to deny herselfe and to captivate herselfe to the truth of the word not daring to goe on the right hand or left to the contrary Why This is in a sort the comprehension of all other graces the Lord herein hath laid a ground of many prevented a world of misery at once Look back into thy life past and aske who hath thus led me as a Shepherd leads his sheepe through a wildernesse Oh! Esay 63.14 the helpe of some one principle is as much as a mans soule is worth What a mercy then is it to be led on by knowledge in all our course To shunne all the snares of death Oh! be thankefull and say It is not my carnall wit Lord it is thy lore and word which hath made me wise to frame my course so that I doe now esteeme welfare not to stand in wealth or favour of men but in the losse of all these yea although persecution and the crosse should betide me for thy truth and name yet so long as conscience and peace abide and I am privy to it that thou hast lost no honour by me I count my state happy Looke upon the snares which the proud ambitious covetous flatterers and servers of the time pull upon themselves and then judge whether it be not a favour to be kept by a principle of truth from such sorrow and repentance The world boasts of her many tricks and policies but thy one is worth them all and shall preserve thee when they with all their inventions shall bee intercepted Vse 2 Secondly let it be use of Admonition to all that desire to see good dayes and a quiet life Admonition Be well grounded upon the unchangeable principles of truth 1 King 13. to ground themselves carefully upon the principles of God and to eschew all false waies and inventions Be earnest with God to remove far from thee all waies of error and to turn thee out of all crosse paths of deceit Remember still one error in the ground produces infinite many dangers in the sequell Rehoboam had better have given halfe his Kingdome then to have split himselfe so irrecoverably upon the rocke of his ill counsellers What sorrow did it worke him all his dayes Stript him of three parts of his Subjects at once What a misery did one error create to Saul to wit his owne carnall wisdome 1 Sam. 13. 15. rejecting Samuels charge What one quiet day had hee thirty yeares after in all his whole life but perpetuall vexation till he was faine to consult with a witch and to fall upon his owne sword Nay consider what Gods owne deare servants have purchased to themselves by one error and tricke put upon them by Satan As Davids lust what a world of sorrow did it procure So let it warne us to abhorre the incurring of such a premunire with God by embracing any principle of error or vanity as being once bred in the bone will never out of the flesh Beware we either of instilling or of drinking in any base error into any or from any of speciall note for parts learning or authority Let such as are men of place whose example if bad would like poyson pierce into the bowells of silly ignorant ones I say let such looke to themselves lest after in hell they cry out of them and say woe bee to such examples had not their authority beene stronger with me to draw me to formality to ambition to pleasures and lusts then the word to disswade I had never come here Beware of such offences Woe be to the world because of offences Matth. 18.7 both in laying blocks and stumbling at blocks It is just with God that one should destroy the other because neither cared for the truth nor to be principled upon
costes and be as nothing an unprofitable one when thou hast done all cast not God in teeth with them call not for them backe againe nor bring him his owne in a napking For these qualities poyson all thy labours Gods hearers will be at Gods dispose for blessing and drive the Lord further off rather then draw him nearer And when thou hast turned all thy selfe-defeated discontent into selfe-deniall and art willing that the Lord should doe with thee as he list then see how he will dispose of thee A little barley or an handfull of meale with a little oile shall make a more accepted meat offering to him with an heart willing to be at his dispose then all thy plenty of costly sacrifices without it Joel 2.13 Lastly it reproves all such as yet goe beyond these also and are content Branch 3 to submit humbly to all such waies as the Lord prescribes for the attaining of mercy but yet it mightily troubles them that God doth so delay his season and lets them goe so long without giving them their desire To whom I answer All yee have done hitherto is well Adde one thing more give all your humblenesse your labours your endeavours to God Waiting upon God necessary for such as looke to speed of grace and when you have waited upon him therein give him your waiting too for it is not too good for him perhaps there may be a Selfe in that also and sure it is the finer Selfe is spunne the more she will take pritch if she be defeated But be thou as Paul was 2 Cor. 12.9 who feeling no bottome in himselfe yet was content to be under that weaknesse and all to try what mercy could doe doubtlesse in such a case thou shalt finde that grace shall at least bee sufficient for thee if the Lord doe not also magnifie his power beyond expectation in thy infirmity And poore soule what gainest thou in the mean while by thy carking plodding and casting about with thy selfe If thou doe thy duty shall it not be well with thee And hast thou not a great recompence in this that thou art accepted and thy successe is with God Is it not much that a sinfull wretch who cannot lay claime to the aire earth water to breath in to tread upon and the like maist yet come and looke up to heaven with hope and come to the Lord as bound by his promise Alas his pay may be leasurely but it is sure the gaines may seeme small but still they are comming and will make a heavy purse at last And what Is there not some scurffe which the Lord must purge out thinke you Hath not a long course in evill hardned thee And may not a speedy course of thine owne hurt the more another way What if the Lord should leave thee to such corruption of thine owne as should cause thee to wax wanton were it not better prevented by longer delay And speake the truth to shame the Divell and thy slavish heart is it not better with thee at sometimes then at other If it be noâ— suspect thy selfe if it be suspend thy cavils cease thine enmity thine hard thoughts thine unbeteaming heart the Lord loves to be as freely thought of for his love as he deserves And for thy selfe if it be thy lot to lye longer under hope then others and to want the cheerings which some have yet sure it is if thou abide waiting in thine innocency not being tainted with shrewd dregs of thine owne stale and base heart the Lord will at length breake out so much the more in pitty to thy fainting soule by how much his delay hath made thee waite so long and it shall not then trouble thee that thou hast thus indured Mercy at last shall be sweetest to thee Esay 57.16 that thou faile not wholly Singularity of delay sometimes argueth an heart tainted with Selfe in more then a common manner And so much for the use of reproofe Vse 3 Lastly to finish this point and so draw to an end Let this be Admonition both speciall and generall Great men must submit their great spirits to God First speciall to such as are Naamans great ones in place renowne authority birth or any other worth above others viz. That their great stomacks rise not up in arms against God to quarrell with him when they are crossed in their owne hopes and expectations The truth is the streame of Selfe is ranke enough of it selfe though there be no oile added to the flame The poorest wretch could say though I am not so rich as thou yet I have as proud an heart as thou But yet when one streame meets another the flood is the greater Great men who thinke it a peece of their Noblenesse to take no affronts at any mans hand what ever it cost them had need deny themselves farre to get a subject heart even to God himselfe Their great bloud the repute of their owne eminency and parts exempts them in their owne opinion from the common lot as we read of him 2 King 6. who having first raged at Elisha as the supposed cause of the famine saying God doe so and so if his head stand on him this day after being greeted by him more discurteously then he looked for flew in Gods face too and said shall I attend on the Lord any longer Ver. ult As once a great Prince being crossed of his pastime by the weather told God swearingly he was a King too and he offered him ill measure so to defeat him Abner the pillar of Sauls house being but reproved by weake King Ishbosheth set up by himselfe for medling with his fathers concubines 2 Sam. 3.6 tooke it so hainously that he forth with revenges himselfe and betraies the Crowne to David Great men therefore swell easily if defeated and indeed these two were as bad as great but the best in this kinde take defeats heavily Let such consider that which Naaman if he had had the knowledge which they have would soone have noted viz. How desperate a thing it is to fight against God and to crosse him when he serves not our turne If God resist all proud ones especially great ones how much more proud resisters Pride being of it self a resistance Although your spirits rise up soon against men which yet I allow not beware ye be not found fighters against God Act. 5. Know that though men accept your persons yet God puts no difference especially in matter of salvation It is counted a great humility in a great one to be never so little humble But oh worme for what is the greatest flesh else if thou thinke it equall that a poore beggar should stoop to thee what shouldest thou do to God to whose eminency thine is as the drop of a bucket Take not upon thee though thou be the chiefe of the Parish the Lord of the Towne and Patron of the Minister to yoke him to any other
of God Thinke with thy selfe is this a lesse priviledge then the former Are all that are Gods people partakers of this grace Are they preserved by the power of faith to salvation without snares wounds and breach of their peace is this so common and thankelesse a favour to be carried as the Arke above mountaines so above the floods of great waters that they should not come neare us Behold the Saints in Scripture Gen. 7. Psal 32.5.6 how few escaped the trialls of their sincerity in a safe manner How many of them lost their peace wasted their conscience by drunkennesse uncleannesse intemperate passions pride the world disguised and at last comming to their grave with sorrow Witnesse David Salomon Asa Hezekia Ionah Peter others Behold the times in which we live Doe wee finde it so common a grace that those whom we have esteemed of well for uprightnesse and zeale to the Gospel still hold their beauty Doe they not beginne to change colour and wax pale and wanne Doe they not stagger temporize and grow common in their communion with all sorts in their affections to the truth to the power of godlinesse Is it not hard to finde one who may be trusted Oh then if God have kept thee close from the error of the wicked that thou mightest not be pulled from thy stedfastnesse nor wanze in thy first love count it a peculiar unspeakeable mercy Againe dost thou see the most professors to keepe from revolts Is not the world full of offences of such as gave their names to Christ Whence then are so frequent scandales of such as are fallen to uncleannesse in all corners and so to other reproachfull sins Art not thou one of them Hath the Lord hitherto holpen thee as Samuel saith Blesse him and wonder Oh Lord thou who gavest Paul the lives of all that were in the ship with him and notwithstanding all tempests and fears of shipwrack broughtest them all safe to land Thou hast graciously given my soule to the Lord Jesus put me into his ship kept me hitherto from sinking being cast away upon the rocks sands shelfes of this wofull sea in which I am tossed Even so O Father because thou hast promised else I had beene cast away a thousand times by temptation by offences by my corruptions But as nothing could intercept the Lord Jesus till his worke was done when they had beene on the toppe of the hill to throw him downe headlong Esay suddenly he passed through them without hurt fire could not burne water could not drowne him Divell could not tempt to prevaile nothing could hinder but he passed through all reports wrongs persecutions feares till he had fulfilled his course rose againe from death and conquered it And why Hee walked under the banner of his fathers protection Even so it hath pleased thee O Lord to fence and fortifie my poore soule that neither my desertions when I thought my selfe cast off and in despaire through unbeleefe nor the dint of my afflictions when as yet the arrowes of God dipt in venome stucke in me nor the malice of enemies nor the fiery darts of Satan piercing me by my lusts could ever wholly divorce me from thee Oh! how many thousands have fallen on my right hand and as many on my left since I beganne Men of like age birth and education of better parts and endowments then I and yet mercy hath kept mee hitherto nay Naaman was never so sullen and froward with the Prophet and with Jorden as I have beene wayward with God sometime weary of his crosses cavilling against his governement both in generall and speciall ready to leave his worke to renounce his Sabbaths Sacraments Promises and all because I could not see how God performed them to me when I have beene oppressed with Selfe and a dead saplesse and savourlesse heart ready to give the Lord and his trade quite over yet he hath revived me and not suffered me to revolt quite from him by all these still by the power of poore faith he hath kept mee to salvation he hath delivered doth and will deliver me still if I can waite Oh! wonder at this grace of his and let the first linke of vocation be a warrant to thee that the linke of justification sanctification and redemption shall never be broken but he that brought thee through so many unlikelyhoods to beleeve can and will now much more bring thee through as great oppositions to persevere enjoy thy priviledge stand at gaze and boast onely of the Lord. Thus much for the use of instruction Lastly let this doctrine be an incouragement to all feeble and fearfull Vse 2 soules who think they shall never wade out of their distrust Encouragement to all feeble and fearfull ones ignorance of Gods way their deepe pride Selfe rebellion and hypocrisie they behold these corruptions by which Satan holds possession as by Forts and Bulwarks as evident markes of their perishing one day and that they are so strong that they will master grace and deprive them finally of hope But poore soule stay a while doe not so hardly sentence thy soule Looke here upon a poore Pagan out of covenant an alien from God behold how freely God prevented him at first when he sought him not how graciously he assisted him and that when he was past all sense of it deepe in the sence of the contrary One I say that had no promise meerly an hangby to the visible Church save that he was supported by an invisible bounty of unspeakeable goodnesse and yet lo when he was at the saddest point and the lowest ebbe of dispaire suddenly as if this were Gods season to breake his heart and to win him to himselfe all hope of good successe being past there appeares a change of his wretched condition into an happy secret mercy had first marked him out for God and the same still waited on him not suffering him to slippe away and depart from welfare Hath God done this in the green tree and shall not he doe it in the dry Hast thou O poore soule either deeper distempers then Naaman had or sadder affronts then he within or without Canst not thou take courage to thy selfe by a promise when hee found mercy without one What is it then that causeth thee to be so heavy In the following points I shall speake further to thee onely here let me say this If thou canst prove that God hath once savingly prevented thee whereof upon the ninth verse I have at large spoken I can prove hee will not forsake thee he will not lose any one stroke of worke upon thee but will assist it and in time perfect it Sure I am thou canst not feel thy spirit deader or further off then did Naaman thou canst not be further out of Gods precinct then he was and yet the Lord beyond hope turned all to as happy an issue as the premises seemed uncomfortable Take thou like courage unto thy selfe All thy
more deadly then by an ill conceit of him and his method of beleeving For wisdome is easie to him that loveth understanding if God will make it so why shouldest thou gainsay it A lowring sullen heart causeth this slavery in us wee are willing to beleeve that which we wish but looke what we have small list unto that we naturally frame to our selves very difficult Counsells against this disease Strive first to get a true judgement of the way of conversion that the Lord hath said its easie It s that which Naamans servants here labour to beat into their Master and by it prevailed with him for the obeying of the promise Next strive to get under the condition of it for all such are at next door to it To this end instead of studying thy selfe and thine owne abilities study the promise and let that draw thee to be in love with him who hath so freely offered it that will winne thy affections to it and when thy heart is taken with it thou shalt soone be on thornes to enjoy it The ease of beleeving issues from the soules getting under the condition of the promise Touching which point because it will offer it selfe in the next verse more fully I say the lesse here That which in a word I will presse here and so finish is this Resist faiths enemy which is bondage an ill opinion of God a conceit that he love our toile and vexation and nourish faiths friend which is Gods ease and that he is no hard Master no tyrant no taske-master but one that delights in a cheerfull obeyer and faith will follow sweetly God loves one that will not bee scared away with Lions and Beares but come to God for ease with assurance that its easie for him to give The cause why there is such difficulty in beleeving comes not from God but it comes from our false opinion and a strange conceit that all pretious things must bee difficult It costs the Lord exceeding paines to banish out this error which if it were once overcome it s not to be said what incredible ease would appeare Therefore let thy course poore soule be to beg of God the benefit of this ease pray to him and say If the way to heaven be of thy meer inventing if the Lord Jesus himself be thy free gift if the offer of him to a loaden heart be free and voluntary if the gift of faith it self be thine and thou hast bound thy self both to give feet to come and to give ease to the soule that commeth where lies the difficulty Surely in the slavish heart which feares where no feare is which judges of God according to her owne sense Now to sense and flesh who dare say or when did ever God say faith was easie Come to him then and importune him for this ease Lord take away my slavish heart I have wofull experience what my moyling and toyling wit and course is able to doe At the first I liked it well as mine owne strength but now I am tired with it I see it s thy plague thou givest toyle to the wicked but to the good and pleasing in thy sight ease and rest To hunt and to rost that they have got in hunting to labour moderately and to eat of the fruit thereof Oh this blessing I want Lord all the fish in the sea are at thy call thou canst in a moment gather them all together into one place Luke 5. Joh. ult Gen. 18.14 Thou canst bid Peter spread his net just where they are and enclose multitudes in it after he had fished all night and catcht nothing Alas he cast out his net on the wrong side all the while but when the Lord Jesus came then he cast on the right side and catcht abundance At thy command Lord a dead heart shall be quickned a dead wombe shall conceive a creeple of thirty eight yeares shall be healed and what hard thing hath not turned easie at thy command What was easier then to goe through the red sea first and then Jorden dryshod when thou causedst the windes to keep up the waters like two walls on both sides and to dry up the mud in the midst What is hard save because of lets And what is not easie if barres be removed Oh therefore Lord thou who by that miracle madest Peter a Preacher and gavest him a signe that he should be a fisher of men and enclose three thousand at one Sermon teach me this blessed gift make me such a Preacher of reconciliation by thy skill and ease Act. 2. And thou who broughtest all fishes under the net bee not discouraged by my shinesse feare and loathnesse to bee driven in Say but the word and I shall come under it and thy Minister shall cast out on the right side and enclose me Oh happy soule if after all my tricks and wiles to shunne thee thou shalt at the last make my will willing and cause me to come under the sweet and yet authority of thy promise I crave not Lydia's ease Zachees ease I know now thy course is more leasurely I doe not so much seeke shortnesse of labour as sweetnesse of spirit and meekenesse of heart and surenesse of successe and riddance of my basenesse and contradictions The wildernesse shall be as welcome to me as the way of the Philistins if thou wilt tame my rebellions and give me a pledge of Canaan at last The Lord will not stop his eare to such a prayer mercy pleaseth him and the ease of mercy pleaseth him what should hinder him from giving that which pleaseth him Onely our owne ease set up against his makes the way to heaven tedious if that be removed heaven will bee as easie as this cure was by washing in Jorden So much for this last Branch as also for the whole Use Vse 5 I proceed now to the fifth Use which is Admonition and Caveat viz. Admonition Wisdome is needfull to judge of the ease of grace That notwithstanding all which hath beene said about this point yet that we be wise and discreet in our judgements both concerning Gods diversity of dispensation and concerning the estates of men For the first although I have said nothing but the truth of God hitherto yet this must not breed ill bloud in us when we consider his casting off thousands yea millions of people both such as are without the pale of the Church and such as are visible members by Baptisme It may arise in the mindes of some to thinke that if the way of God were easie why should the Lord hide it from so many generations from the beginning till now for ought we know among Pagans and Infidels And why should so many among our selves after their long knowledge and use of meanes yet finde it so hard a taske and come short of it when all is done The answer whereto is That the secret waies of God are not for us to descant upon If he will
is faine to shuffle as he is able to counterfeit life and zeale and when his endeavours succeed not he commits all to hazard and shifts off a dead heart as he can with head and shoulders Thirdly these persons may be knowne by this That they discerne Marke 3 of the distempers which formerly molested them Opposite to the ten former Objections and held them off from the promise as may appeare by these particulars opposite to the former objections named in the first question First they discover a mercy in their deep castings downe and feares and in the spirit of bondage which they feele they looke upon it not as a marke of wrath but as the entrance upon the way of God for their further humbling and making their heart tender acknowledging it could not be spared and looking into the promise for some hope of redresse Secondly they wisely consider that the condition of faith and the gift of faith it selfe differ much and therefore for them to rest in any such worke of preparation as will not stablish their hearts in peace through the bloud of the Covenant were a deceit of Satan causing them to lye by the way when they have a further journey to goe Affections and Ordinances they embrace but rest not therein as wanting a bottome of the satisfaction of Christ to Gods justice and therefore in that they onely dare pitch their rest renouncing whatsoever of their owne might satisfie them Thirdly they wisely cosinder what degrees they have atained in grace and dare not forget or deny what God hath already done for them confesse that thousands want that which they have yea that it s nothing but selfe-love which buries all former mercies under a clod of discontent for that which they want and with the lowest humblenesse acknowledge themselves the least of all others and that whatsoever is not hell is more then God owes them they count themselves not worth the ground they tread on submitting themselves unto God to doe with them as he pleases and willing to be as he will have them Fourthly they moderate their own judgements touching the matter of faith and desire to looke at it as that gift which God in wisdome useth for the saving of his neither on the one side making it lesse nor on the other side more high and solemne then God would have them for though it be too good for them to enjoy yet not for God to bestow whose gifts although very precious yet are most free and so they shake off that base slavery of heart which possessed them Fifthly they consider themselves not as they shall be when faith hath clensed them but as now they lye and are objects of mercy such as God purposes to declare the riches of grace upon in due time in the meane season they are the vilest of all sinners as also Paul and others were in their corrupt estate They consider that sinne causes mercy to abound so it bee not wilfully committed See Acts 2.34.35 And this is the honour of God to beteame it to enemies hypocrites proud uncleane prophane ones yea Christ died for sinnes against the Gospel an hard dead rebellious heart of unbeleefe as well as against the Law Therefore they see in that dunghill of drosse alway steaming out of them an occasion of mercy in God not of despaire save in themselves And if they were as they would be void of such corruption they should need no mercy they might plead merit Rom. 3.19 Christ came to save sinners and hath shut up all under disobedience that he might save some even the weakest unworthiest of all others for these will cun him most thank Pharisees need him not As for the dogging of their corruptions they consider Satan most clogs and dogs that soule which is most earnest to be rid of them whereas others are shut up in false peace and feare nothing Sixtly they grow to this resolution not to cast feares aforehand more then they ought Micah ult ult if God will pardon them they doubt not but he will afterward purge them subdue their corruptions for them and finish his worke with perseverance They were not fit judges to speake of time to come What hath he who wants faith to doe with the condition of him that hath it They will therefore attend one thing at once and not many If once they can obtaine faith in that they shall have the rest For why Faith will purge the conscience and set the beleever on worke to preserve in himselfe that which is already planted Therefore they see it were a great folly to hinder themselves of a present mercy through the distrust of a future Seventhly they repent them of those ungrounded cavills from the length of time the example of others and the feare of election and with a mourning heart for that hardnesse and unprofitablenesse of theirs they acknowledge it to be none of theirs but Gods priviledge to appoint the times and seasons of grace They ought not to forestall God in this kinde but wait his leasure They must not grudge at others but follow their example Others are not gone so fast before but mercy can send them after with as good speed And as for election it is not for them its Gods secret they know no such matter that they are reprobated but when they shall beleeve they shall know that they are elect Let therefore God alone with his secrets confesse his Soveraignty and tremble but apply themselves to the revealed way of God and behold his ladder and cords of mercy put downe unto them into the dungeon and clapse about them as they are commanded to do Eightly they look up to the promise and thereby shake off their melancholy sullennes of heart see the emptinesse the absurdity of their froward hearts which God doth as much detest as they admire They see a world of pride self and rebellion in it and therefore desire to send it to hell whence it came and to turn their censure of others into imitation of their grace Ninthly and especially whatsoever hath witheld them from the promise from beholding the excellency of it in the meaning of God in the bounty truth and fidelity constancy stablenes fulnesse sufficiency of the same they shake it off Jonah 2.8 they forsake other vanities conceits of their own their morall contents their busying themselves about many things whereby Satan as by his golden apple would keep them from the silver Bell and therefore now they resolve to lay all other sacrifices by the Altar till their reconciliation be made to which end they trade with the promise by meditation and use all meanes to dive into it and to looke into it as the Angels into the Mercyseat till their misery for want of it cause them to venture themselves and jeopard their salvation upon it Lastly they correct their loose and generall hearings of the word purposing to bend their minds as
Oh they say its pitty such Ministers should live they serve for no other save to gaster and unsetle men who are in peace They have done that with their words which all their labour with both hands cannot undoe againe Oh wofull wretch Is the Minister able to goe beyond the Lord Is he not a servant of God to doe what he will use him for Esay 10.15 Rom. 9. Shall the axe exalt it selfe against him that cutteth therewith Or the clay say to the Potter why dost thou make no more haste to fashion me No it s enough that he shall heale whom he hath wounded and make up the breach he hath made when God will use him In the meane time perhaps thy cavilling at the meanes bindes Gods hand behinde him thou needest not wonder that he doth thy wife or child so little good rather cease thy rebelling as bootlesse and yeeld thy selfe to come into Gods order that he may worke upon thy heart as he hath done theirs And so let it by the way encourage the Minister of God who pleads for the glory of God and travells with a soule burthened and despairing of ever seeing good day Oh Lord saith many a such one Vse 3 it is for thee that I have so urged the conscience of my hearer to trust upon thy accomplishment of thy word If I have deceived the people Encouragement to the Ministers of God Ezek. 14.9 Rom. 3.7 thou hast deceived me Oh if I should leave any poore soule in the briars and never see the worke of faith finisht in him I should be accounted a liar for God! what a dishonour were this Lord put to thine hand helpe thy weake servant save thine owne name and my credit Disable me not from being beleeved leave me not a reproach to vile ones Alas They whom I have to deale with are a sturdy and a rebellious people cavillers and such as will disgrace me if thy word should not prove true honour me therefore and set thy seale to my poore labours that in my truth thy name may be glorified 2 Cor. 10.4 Esay 57.18 batter and pull down their high stomacks plunge them into horrors and then create the fruit of the lips in them and strengthen me to be an able Minister of reconciliation that so the mouthes of them who would traduce thy Messengers and Ordinances may bee stopped Even as the Lord Jesus Joh. 17. praied his Father to glorifie him for the sake of them whom he had given him so doe thou entreat also Oh in thy weldoing be not discouraged by such nor be too sollicitous for God! feare not Esay 42.8 he will not give his glory to another he will not be laught at as unable to goe through that which he hath begunne These poore servants of Naaman were weake instruments to speake of but yet made strong enough by the Lord to conquer their Master so thou shalt perhaps be the instrument to water that which others have planted Gal. 2. And what if others enter into thine If God may have a Temple built by Salomon 2 Chron. 28.14 David will lay in Timber and Cedars and willinglly forgoe the name thereof And therefore distrust not God nor faint in thy service Thirdly let this be use of Admonition to us that since God hath Vse 3 said it He will not alway contend but create peace Admonition Cleere and justifie God in his delay of grace therefore wee judge not amisse of God when we see the worke deferred as if he did deserve the blame but rather cleer him and say He cannot lie the fault lyes some where else The truth is we heare of few who honour God in the improvement of this promise though it be not the fault of all for many doe beare witnesse to God in this kinde But why Because they wilfully make it a long journey which God makes short And first they will not confesse that which God hath done They think faith to be such a sensible effectuall grace that none can have it but by and by they shall see the flame of it and so not discerning any excellency of effects they consult with their owne feelings and conclude there is nothing at all Alas poore soules the beginnings of faith are poore though the encreases may be great Job 8.7 Spirituall things in a carnall subject are as hardly discerned as a pearle among much dung that which is our owne appeares easily and dismaies us But that which is Gods is more secret Againe many looke more at their owne stirrings of the poole then at Gods I can speak it by experience that whereas one hath made complaint of his not clasping to a promise and mourned simply for unbeleefe ten have bemoaned their losse of the affections which they have had in hearing praier or conference A signe that their owne is nearer then Gods worke with them Faith is not alway a victorious sensible and reflecting grace upon the soule wherein it is But a casting of her selfe after all her fruitlesse wrastlings as being convinced of the insufficiency and invalidity of them all upon the streame of the word to carry her to the haven of peace If then you have lost your first feelings and zeale give not God over but still seek him for a further spirit of recovery and encrease upon the best grounds Naaman here had lost his first hopes yet you see he recovers them againe by better insight and perswasion and that ere he looked for it Pray earnestly O Lord thou hast power to set the Sunne ten degrees backe Lord set mine ten degrees forward Thou oh Lord hast all instruments meanes seasons perswasions blessings crosses in thy hand to worke by apply them Lord and suffer not my soule which is sunke into giddinesse ease worldlinesse discontent of spirit and dead sullennesse to lye still in that dungeon Drive me out of my carnall tracke into thy Royall Rode and if I must be delaid yet keepe me in thy way presse the Lord with his owne word and say Thou canst discover to me all my steppings out of thy way all my stops and lets Thou canst uncharme Satans spell Thou canst multiply perswasion and weaken disswasion Thou canst remove that utter unwillingnesse and uncouthnesse of the soule to this work and cause lythnesse and complying therewith Thou canst pull me out of those snares which enwrapt me in bondage as the weeds did Ionah No rocks shall split me with feare no Syrens shall inchant me with baites if thou assist Thou canst menage thy Spirit with so strong an arme Esay 55.8.9 that it shall prosper to doe what thou wilt and cause that no raine no snow shall returne in vaine but doe that for which thou sentest it Take heed give not God over trifle not out thy time improve fasting to cast out the Prince of Divells Unbeleefe and frequent the Sacrament as Gods sealing Ordinance and then know that he who hath begunne will finish
generall texts satisfie not a scrupulous soule in so weighty a matter and flesh is ready to say what signe from heaven shewest thou us of these things We would see some sight or heare some voice to confirme the word Ah poore soule I may say of thee as the Scripture speakes of Samuel 1 Sam. 2. thus did he ere he knew the Lord so these are thy crotchets ere thou knewest the promise But afterward thou sawest more in that alone then in all other waies for the Promise and Testament of Christ 1 Sam. 2. is written with the finger of God by the penne of the Spirit dipt in the bloud of God But to utter what God is willing to have spoken I must say that he who might claime this absolute power over the soule to be beleeved upon his bare word yet seeing the sensuality of man and our wofull distrust is willing to allow us all the meanes of strengthening our soules in his promise both by such seales and witnesses as confirme it yea Miracles Sacraments and oaths annexed to his Covenant and especially by those properties of a promise and of him that makes it and all to conclude and set the controversie beyond questions And by this meane faith is wrought In the which course of God appeares his great love and wisdome for herein hee hath endeavoured to answer all our doubts and carnall objections we are not so ready to cast in feares as he by this meane casts them out For why O poore soule dost thou suspect the Lord will not satisfie thy desire in giving thee Christ Either it must bee because there is no ground or cause for which he should doe it The ingredients of a promise and this is answered by his freedome graciousnesse Or he is a God just and revenging sin but this is taken away by satisfaction made taken Or because he cannot and this is false for his power is omnipotent Or because he meant it not eternally But the promise is from election Or wills not in time But that he doth for he invites and beseeches us Or he is not wise enough to compasse it But that he is for he is wisdome Or he is untrue in his performance But that he is not for he is faithfull Or he may change but that he cannot for he is immutable So that let us but set perfection of nature and grace in him against that which is in us our distrust and unbeleefe and we shall see every sore hath his plaster each distemper hath his medicine And all these are included in a promise So that whosoever hath the gift of ripping up a promise aright should behold all Gods riches in it But is a great skill and the promises of God lye in the Scriptures as gold and jewells lye deep in the earth at least in the field of the Gospell and we are not aware of them nor acquainted with that fulnesse and perfection which is in them And many confesse one of these who will not acknowledge another grace comes in drop by drop else wee should looke upon a promise with other eyes then for the most part the most of us doe A word or two of each of the branches For the first Freedome true it is 1. Freedome there is nothing in thee to procure such mercy but he is of his owne accord for his owne sake Esay 63.4 cut off his plea thought thoughts of peace he hath done it for the glory of his grace even because he will shew mercy it better pleased him so to doe then the first creating of Adam for now by his fall he addes mercy to goodnesse and magnifies himselfe in many attributes more Justice Wisdome and Truth He seekes nothing else save the winning and binding of the soule to him for ever in covenant which else so treacherous an heart as ours would never have yeelded to So that thou maist well trust him in this respect if thy faith can but get in with the Lord for if he do it not for thine ends yet for his own he will so that thou canst set thine owne under his so that thy best prop will be the preciousnesse of his glory which he will not give to another and therefore thy unbeleefe shall not rob him of it 2. Strength Secondly satisfaction is made and taken therefore he hath ground enough to settle his graciousnesse upon Justice could not cry it down by revenge rather then it should a satisfaction made by the bloud of an onely Sonne the bloud of God and man shall stoppe the cry of it upon this both made by Christ and taken by our Judge lo he turns wrath into mercy and his bosome is set open and unlocked as a fountaine 2 Cor. 5.20 21. He offers us reconciliation because hee hath made him sinne and curse who knew none that we might bee his righteousnesse And this is called the Lords strength Esay 27.4 that is the bottome whereupon mercy maintaines herselfe against all quarrell of justice and this hath taken away the dint of it so that hee truly professeth anger is not in me therefore come in not to an enemy 3. Omnipotence but to a father feare not Thirdly he is omnipotent He can doe what hee will His power ushers and attends his love as an handmaid Esay 57.14 The high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity yet lookes downe that he may be strong with the humble and contrite ones His power is no crushing power save of our enemies and all that hate us But a releeving power an outstretched arme of salvation Not to destroy but to build up Esay 63.1 He that commeth from Edom dyed red with the treading of the winepresse of wrath is glorious in his apparrell travells in the greatnesse of his strength and is mighty to save Be the thing never so difficult to us with him nothing is impossible Can the Lord say they spread a table in the wildernesse The answer is can he not What is it which he cannot doe Except it be to deny himselfe and that nothing no not thy unbeleefe can bring him unto This power of God cannot be severed from the former satisfaction 4. Eternity Prov. 22.8 Fourthly he meant it from eternity as I said in the first of these he set downe with himselfe the frame and way of his owne grace long before Adam was or sinned the disease was foreseen the remedy fore provided It s a secret which lyes deep and hidden in the bosom of eternity though not farre above us in point of participation in this life yet in comprehension we must not looke to reach it here We may cry out O depth unsearchable and past finding out But till we come to heaven Rom. 9. end and behold it in the face of God being made one with him we cannot gage it our happinesse is that it is really so great that we cannot 5. Willingnesse Fifthly he wills it most cordially in
so mistakes and misconstrues must either deceive himselfe in looking for more or defraud himselfe in looking for lesse then the promises containe in them What a continuall vexation is it then to erre about the extent of those things wherein to erre is above all other errors most dangerous and remedilesse Many more reasons might bee added but the substance thereof will occurre otherwise Vse 1 I proceed to the Uses First this point is Terror to all in generall who doe not beleeve the whole body of truth according to it selfe Of Terror Branch 1 without the which promises cannot possibly be construed aright Now alas Truths of God must not be taken by tradition and prejudice but from the whole body of truth beleeved as Gods what a common error is this Who beleeves or deducts promises from the rocke of truth as marble pillars digged out of the whole quarry Men take the whole truth of God for the most part from the tradition of men from the interpretation of others which is no other save upon trust as their Parents Masters or teachers have instil'd it into them and I grant its meet to be so at first for so those Samaritans John 4. at first harped upon the truths preacht by Christ by the information of the woman But they did not rest there till by her they were drawne to heare him speake himselfe and then they told her plainly that they resolved their faith not into her report but Christ himself It is with many of us as with Papists who use the Church to bee the principle of their faith whereas she should onely be a guide an informer and directresse It s not to be doubted but the Church is the preserving and sustaining pillar of truth in point of guiding the soule to the truth for had not the Church nursed us taught and train'd us up where had we been But this must not be enough to stablish us except we meane to disguise our selves and bewray our sandy foundation when tempests and troubles shall try what is in us no we must put a difference betwixt our drawing to the truth and our beleeving the truth and never rest till the bright morning starre of the Word the Lord Jesus hath risen in our hearts who will cast such a through light into them as shall shine from East to West Matth. 24. and enlighten us in all truth yea lead us into all truth by his Spirit Churches judgement must guide us principle us in the truths of Scripture that Spirit I meane which assists his word in the hearts of all humble and teachable ones This will cause us not to take here a shred and there another such a command or such a promise as pleases us not knowing what to make of the rest but to set open our whole hearts unto the whole truth the whole body thereof that it may enter into us possesse and dwell in us plentifully in every part it will present to our eyes that God of truth speaking in his word and piercing thereby into the very marrow and bones dividing the thoughts and carrying the soule into the streame of that excellency of his whereby we may be convinced of his truth it will shew us the truth of the written word in the eternall word of the Father full of Grace and Truth the way the truth and the life in whom who so beleeves to salvation doth also beleeve all and every truth which ever came out of his mouth and wee shall no more doubt of that then of Christ himselfe in whom all truth is established and gathered as the whole verge of a garment into one knot so that as no man bids us to prove that its day light when the Sunne shines so wee shall need no proofe or demonstration of any particular part of the word having embraced Christ that eternall word of God into our bosomes because he brings all his truths with him and having himselfe fulfilled that one great promise of his incarnation and redemption hath also in that made good all the other promises and made them Yea and Amen to the praise of his glory Oh therefore The Spirit of Christ must be our first planter of truth in the soule how wofull is the condition of such as forsake this way of faith and goe to dig pits which will hold no water boasting that nothing shall ever pull them away from the truth no feares persecutions change of times and I know not what away with thy vain brags If thou hast not first planted thy selfe upon Jesus the body of truth thy particular knowledge of truths will vanish of it selfe for he who gathers not with Christ scatters but how much more when thy slight building shall be shaken with crosses and enemies Therefore gaster your selves from such frothy bottomes as will deceive you get truth first planted in your soules with the love of it for some reall and maine good which it hath done you Terrour to all Popish and blinde maintainers of truth upon error and opinion and when Christ shall have brought his truth with the saving comfort of it into you it will hold your hearts close to it never to goe from it it shall keepe your hearts and mindes in the knowledge of God it shall discover to you that rich hoord of promises which are hid in Christ out of whom they are but as the sound of many waters and vanish as fast as they come This will teach us a rule of conceiving truth aright This will scatter all mists of error darkenesse mistakes from the minde and purifie the heart by the obeying of the truth as Saint Peter speakes 1 Pet. 1.22 2 Pet. 1.19 yea it will be a light shining in a darke place and guiding the feet into the way of peace Abhorre then a patched confused knowledge of truth destitute of the truth in Jesus as thou wouldest abhor and loath utter blindenesse and arrant ignorance it selfe in the highest degree For indeed setting aside the shew of it it s but cousen germane to it who abhors not a misbeleeving Turke or Jew as a very infidell Who loaths not an Hereticke Papist Pelagian or a Schismaticke as we doe misbeleevers Yea in some respect worse because they are so leavened that it is easier to draw a Pagan not prejudicate to the faith then such It s true that the other have more of truth in them then the other But they doe so corrupt confound and misapply truths they maintaine not truth in the accord and the harmony of truth therefore they hold truth rather to overthrow truth then to establish it and in effect are greater enemies to the promises and to the truth in Jesus then they can seeme friends to some kindes of truth whatsoever their abettors and patrons would or can speake in their defence So much for this first Secondly and more particularly its terror to all audacious and impudent Branch 2 spirits of hypocrites Of
at times or a little water in a glasse to keepe it sweet will this prove a cure Or if he go to a cunning Chirurgion and he tell him I can cure you and make you as sound a man as ever you were but then you must be at some cost endure some paine be content to be lanced or to have your sore search'd to the quick or to have the dead flesh deeply corrasived and then to be tented and to be patient till it be quite healed But then the sore man should say Alas here is cost I am loth to waite so long Can you not bind it up for me the whiles and keepe it warme and the Ague from taking it if you can I le be content a while and hereafter I will come againe But by that time the sore is gangreen'd or fistulated or hath taken the bone and marrow and the Cihrurgion tels him it is incurable his legge must be cut off or it will cost him his life Would any man praise this man Surely such are many lazars cures even such as will make them creeples or bed-rid ones But sound cures we heare of few In the feare of God take warning All cures are not of one sort God can bee slight with the slight and sound with the sound Therefore come unto him open thy wound move him to pity thou art but a dead man if he helpe not come ere thy heart be quite hardned and past hope confesse his skill submit to his cure let him search tent and handle thee as he will If a sound cure be thine aime to get an heart truly purged of thy humours broken beleeving and repentant know the Lord can cure thee wholly as good cheape as by halfes renounce thy patchery and hollownesse and come to plaine termes and he can make thy flesh come againe as a childs But know that till then no spirit of a cure will be seene in thee nothing save a shifting shuffling doubtfull darke and staggering course will be come by Onely this sound cure will create a spirit of cure in thee to be a zealous humble and close Christian to be for the honour of Him who hath delivered thee from death and hell which no Physitian under Heaven save him selfe could have done for thee Use 2 Secondly Terrour this may be terrour to all whose frame is contrary Branch 1 to this spirit of Grace and Conversion So farre from being for God his Glory his Gospel and Ordinances so farre from the spirit of thankes Terrour to all such as nourish open and notorious diseases in themselves zeale and joy for grace and pardon that they still continue in the myre of their owne filth and still wallow in their defilements of covetousnesse prophanenesse uncleannesse and the like wofull wayes So contrary to the spirit of such as God hath healed that they carry about and upon them the nasty and leprous skin of Naaman An heathenish brutish and ignorant mind void of all light of truth an uncircumcised heart a rebellious obstinate and impenitent course fraught with all sinne possesses them I may say these rather have the spirit of deepe and mortall disease upon them then the spirit of a cure they carry that in their bosomes which is farre more mortall then Naamans disease To wit the spirit of old Adam of blindnesse bad customes the spirit of the earth and their lusts nay worse the spirit of rebellion malice and untractablenesse of heart they will not be reproved nor convinced but fight against the Lord and his truth yea some of them against their owne light which is as contrary to the spirit of Grace as can be Oh! the sinnes they commit are committed with an high hand they were never slaine by the killing letter of the Law but are alive jolly and secure their sinne weares a Crowne the King is not higher when he weares his Crowne then these are when they are in their Alehouses their games their adulterous and ungodly practises Their tongues are their owne for they were never redeemed with a price their passions humours are violent Their thoughts Psal 12.5 1 Cor. 6.20 Esay 13.22 a very through-fare for the Devill as Esay saith an habitation of Dragons and Ostriches so furious so false in their dealings so intemperate that none can live by them Brethren it is one thing to have sinne another to have a spirit of sinne A spirit of wrath is a prevailing habitednesse of it a spirit of revenge is a restlesse spirit never quiet till it have wreckt it selfe upon an enemy a spirit of uncleannesse is to be given over to it a spirit of the world is when not onely the soule hath the world but the world hath it It is one thing for a man to fall into a river and to have some water got into his body A spirit of sin what and how fearfull it is Heb. 13.5 another to lie under water and to be drown'd in it The Apostle Heb. 13.5 tels us of a conversation in covetousnesse or the love of silver as the word is which is then when a man is in the power of that lust when it hath got the soule into her snare and chaines so that the flame and bent of it is for gaine all the thoughts affections and devices of the heart are that way sleeping waking alone or in company in calling or in worship of God worky dayes or Sabbaths all is fish comes to net with such a base heart as is powred out after that Idoll And Brethren how many still of our people are such as these So farre from the spirit of Grace tendernesse 2 Cor. 4.4 compassions bowels of deare affection to God to his truth and Name that rather the spirit of the Prince of this world rules in them acts and carries them as sworne slaves of hell and foes of grace according to his owne pleasure Oh brethren these are the sadde times wherein the true spirit of Grace and of a converted soule are rare dainties Since the power of the Gospel hath beene resisted God hath given men over to the spirit of all sensuall prophanenesse The spirit of roysting swearing drunkennesse long lockes and all lust yea scorning the Gospell and all wholsome Ministery is come in stead thereof That promise of powring out the spirit of prophecie upon all flesh is gone The spirit of the Stewes and Alehouse Ioel 2. ignorance and every man for himselfe is come in The faces of men and women are altred with their spirits into the faces of Lions Wolves and foxes The Gospel serves either for a stalking-horse of hypocrites or a scare-crow of the lewd Except God be a breaking off our whole frame and knocking together of our old brasse and pewter to melt us and mould us anew in the Furnace of affliction I know not what to thinke of the spirit that rules among us If Heathens should see some of us it would make them loath the Gospel and
a new body of people not defiled with this scurffe and live among them Ezek. 9. rather then to take these Coleworts of ours to feede upon aad this refuse remnant and scraps of that royall feast which we were wont to make him whiles the savour of his grace continued among us Large I might be in urging particulars but by the Paw judge of the Lion and let this shaâ—p reproofe in Gods feare warne so many of us as in whom every sparke of old spirit is not extinct to looke about us 1 Thes 5.25 that we nourish this marke of Grace in us and quench it not And so I goe on to speake of that Use of Admonition And Use 4 first to warn all in whose hearts any spark of this Spirit of Grace Branch 1 and Zeale to Gods truth hath beene bred Admonit Admonition to the people of God to nourish the spirit of first conversion in themselves that they nourish and nurse it in themselves continually That they waxe not confident in their first beginnings because their edge was quick at the first as if they were past danger or as if this grace would grow up in them without their owne industry and watchfulnesse Alas poore soules you have but saluted Religion with the upper lip Tender spirits and keene edges may be soone damped and dulled you have a great journey to goe a world of worke to doe a wofull heart of secret poyson still to subdue which will not easily yeeld it is not your affections which will beare you out against a sad body of death and a nature of old Adam many crosses feares bad examples and errours of the wicked abide you and early or late will shake your frame and try what metall you are made of Doe not prophecy to your selves a shot-free ease and to walke without feare of bullets and darts in this world The Devill seemes to be sad that he hath lost you but of all other people he watcheth you a mischiefe and would bee gladdest if he could pay you home you are his objects of fury and set in the forefront of his battery if the dint light upon any it is likest to seise first upon you And thousands who have given as great hope of as sound and close a spirit to God and have opposed sinne base formall courses as much as you have yet revolted to Satan and he hath laid seven times as many irons upon them as at first to secure himselfe from a second escape Tremble to thinke of it Matth. 12.45 Seeke to improve this first Grace of yours this zeale and affection to the Gospel and against all enemies of sincerity with a wise steddy and full resolutenesse of heart to undergoe any brunts pursuits discouragements offences by false Hypocrites or other affronts which may come in the way It is not possible but this Age affecting nothing more then a contrariety to power of good and upright walking with God must needs put you to it daily and try you throughly with the infinite many trials which it hath devised to ferret out the good from themselves that they and their hypocrisie might predominate and all soundnesse be abandoned Lie not therefore as two irons on both sides the loadstone let not your soules play booty with God in this weighty businesse stagger not be not now haled by the false flatteries of this painted harlot or scared by the terrours and threats of a frowning tyrant for the world is both but seeke to be insensible of her If she finde that love of Gods truth wanzeth in thee and thou coudst beteame to be at more ease and elbow-roome in the world or that thou fearest trouble or beginst to strew and garnish thy false heart with any other lust she hath enough she is sure of thee Rather set before thine eyes the wofull end of all decliners All that come rolling down the hill faster then they ever got up Caveats against a declining course in sundry particulars They shatter themselves and breake their bones without hope of setting againe their end is commonly worse then their beginning Loath each step of a base heart going this way and allaying this spirit with her owne mixtures If first heate chill it will die a thousand to one if that which should inflame all the whole course be it selfe cold how great is that coldnesse Discerne it in the first approach whether it be by casting on cold water or not laying on more fuell If the love of the world pleasures merry company a loose heart tickle thee of if thou grow scanter in meanes as in prayer hearing meditation or fasting lesse watchfull and timorous suspect thy selfe betimes Stumble Stumble not at the infirmities of the religious but cover and interpret them mercifully take no occasions of offence nourish every thing which might breed in thee a better opinion of holinesse and entertaine no suspitions against it let not her fare the worse for the errours of them that professe no nor for the revolts of time-servers Harbor not in thy spirit any secret distemper of pride selfe-love selfe-conceit fullennesse frowardnesse carnall wisdome earthly mindednesse These will creepe in and tickle as a Viper under colour of some lawfulnesse or other but they will eate out the very bowels and heart-heate of the spirit of grace Nibble at none of the Devils baits Behold not too wisely the errour of the wicked and the streame of evill without feare or checke lest this cause the love of many to waxe cold Matth. 24.13 Matth. 24.13 Daily ply the meanes and lay on fewell arme thy selfe by prayer against the course of decliners as David did Ps 101.3 Pal. 101.3 Nourish humility and simplicity of spirit next to faith above all Inure thy selfe to deny much for God that so he may grow dearer to thee and thou to him Spend not nor waste thy zeale needlessely and rashly upon objects of lesser weight but reserve thy selfe till a better warrant and call a stronger and more weighty object to pull thee forth lest thou faile in the hottest of the attempt as those mostly doe whose zeale is unballanced Be not wedded to thy selfe for the spirit of grace doth not so well befit him who abounds in his owne sense Compare Num. 23. with Exod. 32.19 Moses was a man who in his own matters was very meek and calm and therfore his zeale in breaking the Tables and indignation against that Idolatry became him the better Esteeme and value each sinne by the nature of it not the cry or outside of it The losse of thy spirit perhaps seemes not so hideous to thee as some open sinne which thou seest in others as to oppresse or be drunke but it is worse not onely because it is the seed of thee but because although thou shouldest never breake out so farre yet it is the decay of thy frame and temper of goodnesse A burning Ague is not so dangerous as a
roofes have tasted the like and what hindreth but you may Oh chuse rather to follow my counsell then to cause the wrath of God to smoak out against you for adding drunkennesse to thirst and speaking peace to your selves Deut. 29.15 and saying Though I stil walk on in the stubbornnesse of my heart yet I shall doe well enough God keepe this plague farre from you And so much for this Branch 4 Lastly and so I shut up all you that have long feared the Lord Exhorta ions and shewed forth the fruit of this spirit of Conversion go forward and persevere I must not deny God the honour of his truth And such as have to nourish it in themselves he hath not left us without witnesse in this particular Few are they whom this doctrine is verified in yet some there are and the very sight of their faces this day doth not a little encourage me to speake unto them If ever then you saw cause at your first comming out of Jordan to joyne with God his Religion his glory now especially joyne partners and cleâ—ve to him now side with him and the power of Christianity Surely he that hath hitherto kept you alive and brought you safely through so many waters deserves it much more at your hands now being much neerer to your salvation Rom. 13.11 1 King 9.33 then when you first beleeved Doe as those two Eunuches of Jezabel when Jehu cried out Who is on my side Who They looked out at the window and became agents for him Could they thrust her downe headlong who were of her bed-chamber how much more you who have long since beene sworne confederates to the Lord Jesus Never was there better season for you if there be but a sparke of this spirit in you to declare your selves on whose side you are The power of godlinesse is on every side deserted and she throwne to the ground if God mercifully did not by the power of the sword and civill Magistrate preserve us what should we be save a booty to Papists and enemies who have long watcht our overthrow Now therefore if you halt with God halt for ever If God bee not God 1 King 18.21 give him over If he be that God who hath forgiven you and will save you let Baal be Baal and let him be as he deserveth Say thus Have I but one poore life to give for him who gave ten thousand times a more precious one for me and shall I thinke it too deare for him Shall Rimmon be more deare to me Shall I goe and bow to that Idoll having received a better cure from the God of Israel then he could have given me No Lord There thou wannest my heart to thy selfe for ever That sweete welcome those embraces which then I felt those Flagons and Apples can never be forgotten Cantic 2.5 Psal 73.19 I behold the workes of such as decline but I blesse thee I repent not of my choyce their Image is despised by me My soule come not into their counsels Oh! if you can say thus blesse God who hath kept you And for time to come I exhort you that the more you shall see the power of truth scorned and forsaken in the world the closer you cleave to it and if this be to be vile be yet more vile 2 Sam. 6.22 Pick out some speciall services in which you may be usefull to God and his glory If the Devill take any Apprentises he will set his marke upon them both in their hands and foreheads either they must shew some singular zeale for him or else hee will suspect them And are you ashamed of your Master Matth. 7. end Now this world destroyes the Law write it you upon your frontlets and the fringes of your garments shew the world what Master you serve Deut. 6.8 and be not ashamed Let the same spirit rest in your bosomes for Grace which you see now a dayes rests upon them who are going from us into New-England They will not endure you to speak one word amisse of it but their hearts are at their mouthes presently they magnifie and extoll it in all places wheresoever they become their very spirits are possessed and taken up with the hope and longing for it they stand upon thornes till they be there where their treasure is they are soone knockt off from hence though their native soyle where they have had all their conversation yet as if they had not knowne it so doe they renounce it and all the contents of it They use it as if they used it not for the affection sake they beare the other Parents neighbours kindred yea wives and children are deserted for it and who may controll them Tell them of the sad attempt of going what danger by Sea what change of fare there and want of all commodities Oh! you doe but encourage them by your disswasives they are content to learne to deny themselves and to change their dainty diet for bare their soft beds for hard and what not so they may come thither Paines cost selling all and packing up their fardels is nothing to them for their desire sake Oftentimes I have wish'd the place good enough for such affections But in this argument touching the spirit of Conversion and Grace for the embracing of which no affections can be sufficient how doe we flagge Where is the man who can doe thus much for God and his glory from the experience of mercy Aske thine owne heart Doe I loath the least appearance of evill doe I carry about me the zeale of Gods owne house am I tender of the least offence can I not endure the least affront to his person Lawes Gospel Ordinances doe I honour his Ministers doe I thinke nothing too deare for him is my life liberty name wife children vile unto me in respect of a good conscience Oh! that it were so How happy should we be in approving our selves Let me leave generals Particular urging of this exhortation to al sorts Ministers people Magistrates c. and come to particular estates and conditions yee Ministers of God pick out speciall service for God a few of you are left to wrestle for God ply your worke let not the glory of the Gospell fall labour to inspire the soules of your hearers with Christ alas they cannot chuse but be dead hearted when there is no glad tydings brought them no love shed into their soules Yee people looke up your old evidences for Heaven scoure off your rust you see upon what costly terms the Gospel is maintained this is no season to palter out your time shew forth your courage for God let not the spirit of Popery nor prophanenesse quash that spirit of Grace which is within your bosomes Walke humbly wisely and yet boldly hold out the truth of God without feare against all scorners and Edomites God shall prop you up feare not the vilest wretch shall never bee able to