Every sentence is good for somthing All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.16 17. Not a word is without its usefulness 5. Moreover you must grow not only in knowing the usefulness of truths but also in knowing how to use them that you may have the benefit of that worth that is in them Many a man knows what use a workmans tools are for that yet knows not how himself to use them And many a one knows the use and vertue of herbs and drugs that knows not how to make a medicine of them and compound and apply them There is much skill to be used in knowing the seasons of application and the measure and what is fit for one and what for another that we may make that necessary variation which diversity of conditions do require As it is a work of skill in the Pastors of the Church to divide the word of God aright and speak a word in season to the weary and give the children their meat in due season 2 Tim. 2.15 Isa. 50.4 Mat. 24.45 So is it also a work of skill to do this for your selves to know what Scripture it is that doth concern you and when and in what measure to apply it and in what order and with what advantages or correctives to use it as may be most for your own good You may grow in this skill as long as you live even in understanding how to use the same truths which you have long known O what excellent Christians should we be if we had but this holy skill and hearts to use it We have the whole armour of God to put on and use but all the matter is how to use it The same sword of the spirit in the hand of a strong and skilful Christian may do very much which in the hand of a young unskilful Christian will do very little and next to nothing A young raw Physician may know the same medicines as an able experienced Physician doth but the great difference lieth in the skil to use them This is it that must make you rich in grace when you increase in the skilful use of truths 6. Moreover your understandings may be much advanced by knowing the same truths more experimentally than you did before I mean such truths as are capable of experimental knowledge Experience giveth us a far more satisfactory manner of knowledge than others have that have no such experience To know by hearsay is like the knowing of a Countrey in a Map and to know by experience is like the knowing of the same Countrey by sight An experienced Navigator or Soldier or Physician or Governour hath another manner of knowledge than the most learned can have without experience even a knowledge that confirmeth a man and makes him confident Thus may you daily increase in knowledge about the same points that you knew long ago When you have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious Psal. 34.8 1 Pet. 2.3 you will know him more experimentally than you did before when you have tasted the sweetness of the promise and of pardon of sin and peace with God and the hopes of glory you will have a more experimental knowledge of the riches of grace than you had before And when you have lived a while in communion with Christ and the Saints and walked a while with God in a heavenly conversation and maintained your integrity and kept your selves unspotted of the world you will then know the nature and worth of holiness by a knowledge more experimental and satisfactory than before And this is confirmation and growth in knowledge 7. Moreover you must labor to grow in a higher estimation of the same truths which you knew before And this will be a consequent of the forementioned acts A child that findeth a jewel may set by it for the shining beauty when yet he may value it many thousand pounds below its worth You see so much wisdom and goodness in God the first hour of your new life as causeth you to prefer him before the world and you see so much necessity of a Saviour so much love and mercy in Jesus Christ as draweth up your hearts to him and you see so much certainty and glorious excellency of the life to come that makes you value it even more than your lives But yet there is in all these such an unsearchable treasure that you can never value them neer their worth for all that thou hast seen of God and Christ and Glory there is a thousand times more excellency in them yet to be discerned For all the beauty thou hast seen in holiness it is a thousand fold more beautiful than ever thou didst apprehend it for all the evil thou hast seen in sin it is a thousand fold worse than ever thou didst perceive it to be So that if you should live a thousand years you might still be growing in your estimation of those things which you knew the first day of your true conversion For the deeper you dig into this precious Mine the greater riches will still appear to you There is an Ocean of excellency in one Article of your belief and you will never find the banks or bottom till you come to heaven and then you will find that it had neither banks nor bottom And thus I have shewed you what confirmation growth is needful for your understandings even about the very same truths which at first you knew And now I shall add 8. You must also labour to understand more truths for number than at the first you understood and to reach to as much of the revealed will of God as you can and not to stop in the meer essentials For all divine revelations are precious and of great use and none must be neglected And the knowledge of many other truths is of some necessity to our clear understanding of the essentials and also to our holding them fast and practising them Secret things belong to God but things revealed to us and to our children Deut. 29.29 But here I must give you this further advice 1. That you proceed in due order from the fundamental points to those that lye next them do not overpass the points of next necessity and weight and go to higher and less needful matters before you are ready for them 2. And also see that you receive all following truths that are taught you as flowing from the foundation and conjoyned with it Disorderly proceedings have unspeakably wrong'd the souls of many thousands when they are presently upon controversies and smaller matters before they understand abundance of more necessary things that must be first understood This course doth make them lose their labour and worse it deceiveth the understanding instead of informing it and thereupon it perverts the will it self and turns
trouble you consider that your own weakness leaves you lyable to far greater and offer offences against God and this should trouble you much more Let me give you another instance If you have a Pastor that is truly godly and yet is so weak that he can scarce speak with any understanding or life the Message that he should deliver and withall is undiscreet and as scandalous as will stand with Grace what good is this man like to do for all his Godliness At least you will soon see a lamentable difference between such a one and a judicious convincing holy heavenly powerful and unspotted man O what a blessing is one to the place and the other may be a grievous judgment and you would be ready to run away from his Ministry Why Sirs if there be so great a difference between Pastor and Pastor where both have Grace methinks you should see what a difference there is also between People and People even where all have Grace For truly poor Ministers find this to their sorrow in their people as well as you can find it in them Some Ministers have a stayed confirmed judicious humble meek self-denying teachable peaceable and experienced people and these walk comfortably and guide them peaceably and labour with them cheerfully and O what beauty and glory is upon such Assemblies and what order and growth and comfort is among them But alas how many Ministers have a flock even of those that we hope are godly that grieve them by their levity or weary them by their unteachable ignorance or self-conceitedness or hinder their labours by errors and quarrels and perverse opposition to the truths which they do not understand So that there is a great difference between people and people that are godly Brethren it is far from the desire of my heart to cast any unjust dishonour upon Saints much less to dishonour the Graces of God in them No I take it rather for an honour to that immortal spark that it can live among its enemies and not be conquered and in the waters of corruption and not be quenched But yet I must take up a just complaint that few of us answer the cost of our Redemption and the provisions of God or are near such a people as our receiveings or Professions require we should be It is one of the most grievous thoughts that ever came to my heart to observe how the lives of the greatest part of Professors do tend to dishonour the power and worth of Grace in the eyes of the World and that the ungodly should see that Grace doth make no greater a difference and do no more upon us than it doth Yea it is a sore temptation oftentimes to Believers to see that Grace doth no more in the most but that so many are still a shame to their Profession I must confess that I once thought more highly of Professors as to the measure of their Grace than experience now will suffer me to think Little did I think that they had been so unstable so light so ignorant so giddy as to follow almost any that do but whistle them What a dreadful sight it is to see how quickly the most odious Heresies do infect and destroy even multitudes of them and that in a moment as soon as they appear the grossest mists of the bottomless pit are presently admired as the light of God If a Church-divider do but arise how quickly doth he get Disciples If a Papist have but opportunity he will lightly catch some as oft as he doth cast his net If he cannot prevail bare-faced it is but puting on the visor of some other Sect. Even the odious Heresies of the Quakers themselves and their railings which an honest Pagan would abhor do presently find entertainment with Professors and let the matter or manner be never so sensless yet is it accepted if it be but zealously put off O who would have thought that our people that seemed godly should be so greedy of the Devils baits as to catch at any thing yea and to devour the bare hooks O who would have thought that so many that seemed lovers of God would so readily believe every deceiver that speaks against him if he can but do it with a pious pretence Yea if Seekers themselves do but cast in their objections how many of our people are presently at a loss and their Faith is muddied and they are to seek for a Ministry and to seek for a Church and to seek for Ordinances and to seek for a Scripture even for the Gospel it self and therefore it 's like they are to seek for a Christ or to seek for a Religion if not to seek for God and for a Heaven O sad day that ever these things should come to pass and that we are forced to utter them having no possibility of concealing them from the World Were these men confirmed and stablished in the Faith Were these men rooted and built up in Christ Alas Sirs if any deceivers come among us how few of our people are able to withstand them and defend the truth of God against them but they are catcht up by the Devils Faulconers as the poor Chickens by the Kite except those that fly under the wings of a judicious setled Minister If an Anabaptist assault their Baptism how few of them can defend it And silly Souls when they find themselves non-plus't they suspect not their own unfurnished understandings or unexperienced unsetled hearts but suspect the truth of God and suspect their Teachers be they never so far beyond them in knowledg and holiness as if their Teachers had misled them when ever these unprofitable Infants are thus stalled If a Papist be to plead his cause with them how few have we that can answer him If an Infidel should oppose the Scripture or Christ himself how few among us are able to defend them and solidly give proof either of the truth of Scripture or of the Faith that they do profess And this is not all though it is a heart-breaking case but even in their Practice alas what remisness and what corruptions do appear How few in secret do keep any constant watch upon their hearts and fear and abhor the approach of an evil thought Nay how few are they that do not leave their fancy almost common and ordinarily even feed on covetous proud malicious or lustful thoughts and make no great matter of it but live in it from day to day How few do keep up life and constancy in secret Prayer or Meditation How few are the Families where the Cause and Worship and Government of Christ is kept up in life and honour and where all is not dissolved into a little weary disordered heartless performance Look into our Congregations and judg but by their very looks and carriage and gestures how many even of those that we think the best do so much as seem to be earnest and serious in Prayer or Praise when the Church
believe that God the Father is the First in the holy Trinity of persons that the whole Godhead is perfect and infinite in Being and Power and Wisdom and Goodness in which all his Attributes are comprehended but yet a distinct understanding of them all is not of absolute necessity to Salvation That this God is the Creator Preserver and Disposer of all things and the Owner and Ruler of Mankind most just and merciful that as he is the Beginning of all so he is the Ultimate end and the Chief Good of man which before all things else must be loved and sought This is to be believed concerning the Godhead and the Father in person Concerning the Son we must moreover believe that he is the same God with the Father the second person in Trinity in carnate and so become man by a personal union of the Godhead and Manhood That he was without Original or actual sin having a sinless nature and a sinless life that he fulfilled all Righteousness and was put to death as a Sacrifice for our sins and gave himself a Ransome for us and being buried he rose again from the dead and afterward ascended into Heaven where he is Lord of all and intercedeth for Believers that he will come again and raise the dead and judg the World the Righteous to everlasting Life and the Wicked to everlasting punishment that this is the only Redeemer the Way the Truth and the Life neither is their access to the Father but by him nor Salvation in any other Concerning the Holy Ghost we must believe that he is the same One God the third person in Trinity sent by the Father and the Son to inspire the Prophets and Apostles and that the Doctrine inspired and miraculously attested by him is true that he is the sanctifier of those that shall be saved renewing them after the Image of God in Holiness and Righteousness giving them true Repentance Faith Hope Love and sincere Obedience causing them to overcome the Flesh the World and the Devil thus gathering a Holy Church on earth to Christ who have by his Bloud the pardon of all their sins and shall have everlasting blessedness with God This is the Essence of the Christian Faith as to the Matter of it As to the Manner of Receiving it by the understanding 1. It must be received as Certain truth of Gods Revelation upon the credit of his Word by a lively effectual belief pierceing so deep as is necessary for its prevalency with the Will 2. And it must be Entirely received and not only a part of it Though all men have not so exactly formed distinct apprehensions of every member of this belief as some have yet all true Christians have a true apprehension of them We feel by daily experience that with the wisest some matters are truly understood by us which yet are not so distinctly and clearly understood as to be ready for an expression I have oft in matters that I am but studying a light that gives me a general imperfect but true conception which I cannot yet express but when another hath helped me to form my conception I can quickly and truly say that was it that I had an unformed apprehension of before and it that I meant but could not utter not so much for want of words as for want of a full and distinct conception 2. The Matter of our Christianity to be Received by the Will is as followeth As we must consent to all the forementioned truths by the Belief of the understanding so the pure Godhead must be Received as the Fountain and our End the Father as our Owner Ruler and Benefactor on the title of Creation and Redemption and as our everlasting happiness The Son as our only Saviour by Redemption bringing us pardon reconciliation holiness and glory and delivering us from sin and Satan and the wrath and Curse of God and from Hell The Holy Ghost as our Guide and Sanctifier All which containeth our Renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil and carnal Self that is the point of their Unity and heart of the old Man This is the Good that must be embraced or accepted by the will And secondly as to the Manner of Receiving it it must be done Vnfeignedly Resolvedly unreservedly or absolutely and habitually by an inward Covenanting of the heart as I have formerly explained it And this is the Essence of Christianity This is true Believing in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost This is the Foundation and this is the right laying of it And now the thing that I am perswading you to is to see that this Foundation be surely laid in Head and Heart And 1. That it may be surely laid in the Head you must labour 1. To understand these Articles And 2. to see the Evidence of their verity that you may firmly believe them And 3. To Consider of the worth and necessity of the matter revealed in them that your Judgments may most highly esteem it This is the sure laying the Foundation in the Head To these ends you should first learn some Catechism and be well acquainted with the Principles of Religion and also be much in reading or hearing the holy Scripture and enquiring of your Teachers and others that can help you and see that you take your work before you and step not higher till this be done And then all other following truths and Duties and promised benefits must all be so learnt as to be built upon this foundation and joyned to it as receiving their life and strength from hence and never lookt upon as separated from this nor as more excellent and necessary For want of learning well and believing soundly these Principles Essentials or Fundamentals of Christianity some of our people can go no further but stand all their dayes in their ignorance at a non-plus Some of them go on in a blind Profession deceiving themselves by building upon the Sand and hold true Doctrine by a false unsound belief of it And when the Flouds and storms do beat upon their building it falls and great is the fall thereof With some of them it falls upon the first assault of any Seducer that hath interest in them or advantage on them and abundance swallow up Errors because they never well understood or Firmly believ'd Fundamental Truths With others of them the building falls not until death because they lived not under any shaking temptations But it being but a perseverance in an unfound Profession will nevertheless be ineffectual to their Salvation 2. When you have thus laid the Foundation in your understanding be sure above all that it be firmly laid in your Heart or Will Take heed lest you should prove false and unstedfast in the holy Covenant and lest you should take in the Word but into the furnace of the Soul and not give it depth of earth and rooting and lest you should come to Christ but as a servant upon tryall and make an absolute
your wills and affections and your conversations I. As holiness is in the understanding it is commonly in Scripture called light and knowledg as comprehending the several parts And the confirmation and growth of this must consist in these seven following parts 1. It is ordinary with new Converted Christians to see the great essential truths of the Christian profession with a great imperfection as to the evidences that discover them Either they see but some of the solid evidence overlooking much more than they see or more usually they receive the truth it self upon some low insufficient evidence at first and then proceed to a kind of mixture taking it upon some evidences that are valid and sufficient and joyning some that are invalid with them But you must grow beyond this infancy of understanding when you see greater and sounder evidences for the truth than you did before and when you see more of these solid evidences and leave not out so many as you did and when you lay smaller stress upon the smaller evidences and none upon those that are invalid and indeed no evidences then are your understandings more confirmed in the truth and this is a principal part of their growth So we find the Samaritans of Sychar Joh. 4.39 40 41 42. Many of them believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified He told me all that ever I did This was the first faith upon a weaker evidence And many more believed because of his own words and said unto the woman Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world Here is a notable confirmation and growth by believing and knowing the same thing which they believed before it was before believed on weaker evidence and now upon stronger Thus Nathaniel by Philips perswasion was drawn to Christ but when he perceived his omniscience that he knew the heart and things that were distant and out of the reach of common knowledge he is confirmed and saith Rabbi thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel And yet Christ telleth him that there were far greater evidences yet to be revealed which might beget a more confirmed stronger faith Because I said unto thee I saw thee under the figtree believest thou Thou shalt see greater things than these verily verily I say unto you hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man Joh. 1.45 49 50 51. There is not one Christian of many thousand that at first hath a full sight of the solid evidences of the Christian doctrine but must grow more and more in discerning those Reasons for the truth which he believeth which in the beginning he did not well discern It is not the most confident belief that is alwayes the strongest confirmed belief but there must be sound grounds and evidence to support that confidence or else the confidence may soon be shaken and is not sound even while it seems unshaken And here young beginners must be forewarned of a most dangerous snare of the deceiver because at first the truth it self is commonly received upon feeble and defective grounds or evidence It is the custom of the Devil and his deceiving instruments to shew the young Christian the weakness of those grounds and thence to conclude that his cause is naught For it 's too easie to perswade such that the cause hath no better grounds than they have seen For having not seen any better they can have no particular knowledge of them And they are too apt to think over highly of their knowledge as if there were no more reasons for the truth than they themselves have reacht to and other men did see no more than they And thus poor souls forsake the truth which they should be built up and confirmed in and take that for a reason against the truth which is but a proof of their own infirmity I meet with very few that turn to any Heresie or Sect but this is the cause They were at first of the right mind but not upon sound and well-laid grounds but held the truth upon insufficient reasons And then comes some deceiver and beats them out of their former grounds and so having no better they let go the truth and conclude that they were all this while mistaken Just as if in my infancy I should know my own father only by his cloaths and when I grow a little bigger one should tel me that I was deceived this is not my father and to convince me should put his cloaths upon another or tell me that another may have such cloaths and hereupon I should be so foolish as to yield that I was mistaken and that this man is not my father As if the thing were false because my reasons were insufficient Or as if you should ask the right way in your travel and one should tell you that by such and such marks you may know your way and you think you have found those marks a mile or two short of the place where they are but when you understand that those are not the marks that you were told of you turn back again before you come at them and conclude that you have mist the way So is it with these poor deluded souls that think all discoveries of their own imperfections and every confutation of their own silly arguments to be a confutation of the truths of God which they did hold when alas a strong well-grounded Christian would make nothing of defending the cause which they give up against more strong and subtile enemies or at least would hold it fast themselves Well! this is the first part of your growth in knowledge when you can see more or better evidences for the great truths of Christianity than you saw before 2. Moreover you must grow to a clearer apprehension of the very same reasons and evidences of the truth which you saw before For when a weak Christian hath the best arguments and grounds in the world yet he hath so dim a sight of them that makes them find the slighter entertainment in his affections The best reason in the world can work but little on him that hath but a little understanding of it There are various degrees of knowledge not only of one and the same truth because of the diversity of evidence but of one and the same evidence and reason of that truth I can well remember my self that I have many a year had a common argument for some weighty truth and I have made use of it and thought it good but yet had but little apprehension of the force of it and many years after a sudden light hath given me in my studies so clear an apprehension of the force of that same argument which I knew so long as that it hath exceedingly confirmed and satisfied me more than ever I was before I beseech you Christians
consider of this weighty truth it is not the knowledge of the Truth that will serve your turns without a true and solid knowledge of that truth nor is it the hearing or understanding of the best grounds and reasons or proofs in the world that will serve the turn unless you have a deep and solid apprehension of those proofs and reasons A man that hath the best arguments may forsake the truth because he hath not a good understanding of those arguments As a man that hath the best weapons in the world may be kill'd for want of strength skill to use them I tell you if you knew every truth in the Bible you may grow much in knowledge of the very same truths which you know 3. Moreover a young ungrounded Christian when he seeth all the fundamental Truths and seeth good evidence and reasons of them perhaps may be yet ignorant of the right order and place of every truth It 's a rare thing to have young Professors to understand the necessary truths methodically And this is a very great defect For a great part of the usefulness and excellency of particular truths consisteth in the respect they have to one another This therefore will be a considerable part of your confirmation growth in your understandings to see the body of Christian doctrine as it were at one view as the several parts of it are united in one perfect frame and to know what aspect one point hath upon another and which is their due places There is a great difference between the sight of the several parts of a clock or watch as they are disjoynted and scattered about and the seeing of them conjoyned and in use and motion To see here a pin and there a wheel and not know how to set them all together nor ever see them in their due places will give but little satisfaction It is the frame and design of holy Doctrine that must be known and every part should be discerned as it hath its particular use to that design and as it is connected with the other parts By this means only can the true nature of Theology together with the harmony and perfection of truth be clearly understood And every single truth also will be much better perceived by him that seeth its place and order than by any other For one truth exceedingly illustrates and leads in another into our understanding Nay more than so your own hearts and lives will not be well ordered if the method or order of the truths received should be mistaken For the truths of God are the very instruments of your sanctification which is nothing but their effects upon your understandings and wills as they are set home by the holy Ghost Truths are the seal and your souls are the wax and holiness is the impression made If you receive but some truths you will have but some part of the due impression Nay indeed they are so coherent and make up the sence by their necessary conjunction that you cannot receive any one of them sincerely without receiving every one that is of the essence of the Christian belief And if you receive them disorderly the image of them on your souls will be as disorderly as if your bodily members were monstrously misplaced Study therefore to grow in the more methodical knowledge of the same truths which you have received And though you are not yet ripe enough to discern the whole body of Theology in due method yet see so much as you have attained to know in the right order and placing of every part As in Anatomy its hard for the wisest Physician to discern the course of every branch of veins and arteries but yet they may easily discern the place and order of the principal parts and greater vessels So it is in Divinity where no man hath a perfect view of the whole till he come to the state of perfection with God but every true Christian hath the knowledge of all the essentials and may know the order and places of them all 4. Another part of your confirmation growth in understanding is In discerning the same truths more practically than you did before and perceiving the usefulness of every truth for the doing of its work on your hearts and lives It was never the will of God that bare speculation should be the end of his Revelations or of our belief Divinity is an Affective practical Science therefore must truths be known and believed that the good may be received and a holy change may be made by them on the heart and life Even the Doctrine of the Trinity it self is practical and the fountain of that which is more easily discerned to be practical There is not one Article of our faith but hath a special work to do upon our hearts and lives and therefore a special fitness for that work Now the understandings of young Christians do discern many truths when they see but little of the work to be done by them and the special usefulness of those truths to those works This therefore must be your daily enquiry and in this you must grow As if you come into a workmans shop and see a hundred tools about you it is a small matter to discern the shape and fashion of them and what mettle they are made of But you will further ask What is this tool to do and what is that to do If ever you will learn the trade you must know the use of every tool So must you if you will be skilful Christians be acquainted with the use of the truths which you have received and know that this truth is to do this work and that truth to do that work upon the soul and life A Husbandman may know as many herbs and flowers and fruits as a Physician and be able to tell them all by name and say this is such an herb and that is such a one and to perceive the shape and beauty of them But he knows little or nothing that they are good for unless to feed his cattle Whereas the Physician can tell you that this herb is good against this disease and that herb against another disease and can make use of those same herbs to save mens lives which other men tread under foot as useless A Countrey man may see the names that are written on the Apothecaries boxes but it is the Physician that knows the medicinal use of the drugs So many men that are unsanctified may know the outside of holy doctrine that little know what use is to be made of it And the weak Christian knows less of this than the grown confirmed Christian doth Learn therefore every day more and more to know what every truth is good for that this is for the exercise and strengthening of such a grace and this is good against such or such a disease of the soul. Every leaf in the Bible hath a healing vertue in it They are the leaves of the Tree of Life
1 Cor. 3.9 10. Christ knew the necessity that the Infants of his Family had of such Nurses and he knew what numbers of such weak ones there would be in comparison of the strong or else he had never appointed the strong to such an Office And having appointed it he will keep up the honour of his Officers and will send you his Alms your food your Physick your Pardon your Priviledges by their hands If you be drawn by Seducers to forsake or neglect the Ministry of Christs Officers you forsake or neglect your helps and mercies you refuse his Grace you are like Infants that scorn their Nurses help and like Subjects who reject all the Officers of the King and like the Chickens that forsake the Hen you forsake the School and Church of Christ and may expect to be quickly catcht up by the Devil as straglers that have no defence or guide 2. Yet is there great difference between one Minister or Pastor and another as much as between Physicians Lawyers or men of any other function And there being no case in the world that you are so much concerned to be careful in as the instructing and conduct and safety of your souls you have exceeding great reason to take heed whom you choose to commit the care and conduct of your Souls to It is not enough to say that He is a true Ordained Minister and that his administrations are not nullities no more than to say of an ignorant Physician or Cowardly Captain that he hath a valid License or Commission when for all that if you trust him it may cost you your lives Nor is it a wise mans answer to say that God giveth his Grace by the worst as soon as by the best and by the weakest as soon as by the strongest and therefore I need not be so careful in my choice For though God have not confined the working of his Spirit to the most excellent means yet ordinarily he worketh according to the means he useth And this both Scripture Reason and daily experience fully prove God worketh rationally on man as man that is as a rational free agent by Moral operation and not by a meer Physical injection of his Grace When we see the man that is made wise unto Salvation by meer infusion of Wisdom without a Teacher or the study of the Word of God or when we see God work by his Word as by a charm that a few words shall convert a man though the speaker or hearer understood them not then we may hearken to this conceit And then we may think that a Heretick may as well teach you the truth as the Orthodox or a Schismatick teach you Unity and Peace as well as a Catholick peaceable Pastor or a man that is ignorant of the mysteries of Regeneration and holy Communion with God may best teach you that which he knoweth not himself and an enemy to Piety and Charity may teach you to be Pious and Charitable as well as any other But I need not say much more of this for all parties would never so strive to have such Ministers as they like and to put out such as they dislike if they thought not that the difference between Ministers and Ministers were very great See therefore that the Guide whom you choose for your Souls be 1. Judicious for an injudicious man may pervert the Scripture and lead you into Error and Heresie and sin before you are aware As an unskilful Coachman may soon overturn you or an unskilful Waterman may drown you yea though he be a zealous fervent Preacher yet if he be injudicious he may ignorantly give you Poison in your food as the experience of this age hath lamentably proved 2. See if possible that he be an experienced man that knoweth by experience on himself not only what it is to be regenerate and sanctified and made a new Creature but also how all the combate between the Spirit and the Flesh is to be managed and what are the methods and stratagems of the tempter and what are the chief helps and defensatives of the Soul and how they are all to be used For it is not harder to be a Judicious Physician or Lawyer or Souldier without experience than a judicious Pastor And therefore the Holy Ghost commandeth that he be not a novice or raw unexperienced Christian 1 Tim. 3.6 3. See that he be Humble for if he be puft up with pride he falleth into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3.6 And then he will either scorn the labour of the Ministry as a drudgery to preach in season and out of season to beseech and exhort and stoop to the poorest of the flock or else he will speak perverse things to draw away Disciples after him Acts 20.30 or he will as Diotrephes reject the Brethren as loving himself to have the preheminence 3 John 9 10. and will Oversee the Church by constraint for filthy lucre as being a Lord over Gods heritage 1 Pet. 5.2 3. See Doctor Hammond on the Text. 4. See that he be Holy in his life for though this be not essential to his Office yet the unholy are unexperienced yea and have a secret enmity in their hearts against that Holiness which they should daily Preach and will usually be shewing it in their close disgracing discouraging speeches against that serious Piety which they should promote And they will neglect most of the personal care of their Flock and will unpreach by their lives the good which they Preach by their tongues and harden and embolden the people in their sins and make them believe that they believe not what they Preach themselves Choose not an enemy of Holiness to lead you in the way of holiness a way that he never went himself nor an enemy of Christ to conduct you in the Christian warfare when he is a servant of the Devil the world and flesh against whom you fight 5. See that he be of a Heavenly mind or else his Doctrine will be unsavoury and dry and he will be Preaching some speculations or barren Controversies instead of Heavenly edifying truth 6. See that he be faithful and diligent in his Ministry as one that knoweth the worth of Souls and will not sell them or betray them to the Devil for filthy lucre or his fleshly ends nor make Merchandise of them as desiring rather theirs than them and preferring the Fleece before the safety of the Flock But one that imitateth the pattern Acts 20. and in meekness instructeth those that are opposers 2 Tim. 2.25 26. 2 Pet. 2.3 1 Cor. 4.2 Rom. 16.17 18. 1 Pet. 5.3 4. 2 Cor. 12.14 7. See that he be a Lively serious Preacher for all will be little enough to keep up a lively seriousness in such dull and frozen hearts as ours A cold Preacher with cold hearts is like to make cold work He that speaks senslesly and sleepily about such matters as Heaven and Hell doth by the manner of his
is a high esteemer of the Unity of Christians and abhorreth the principles spirit and practises of Division 128 53. He seeketh the Churches unity and concord not upon partial unrighteous or impossible but upon the possible righteous terms here mentioned 139 54. He is of a mellow peaceable spirit not masterly domineering hurtfull unquiet or contentious 146 55. He highliest regardeth the interest of God and mens salvation in the world and regardeth no secular interest of his own or any mans but in subserviency thereto 152 56. He is usually hated for his Holiness by the wicked and censured for his Charity and Peaceableness by the factious and the weak and is moved by neither from the way of Truth 157 57. Though he abhor ungodly soul-destroying Ministers yet he reverenceth the Office as necessary to the Church and world and highly valueth the holy faithfull Labourers 159 58. He hath great Experience of the Providence Truth and Justice of God to fortifie him against temptations to Unbelief 161 59. Though he greatly desireth lively Affections and gifts yet he much more valueth the three Essential parts of holiness 1. A high estimation in the Understanding of God Christ Holiness and Heaven above all that be set in any competition 2. A resolved choice and adhesion of the Will to these above and against all competitors 3. The seeking them first in the endeavours of the life And by these be judgeth of the sincerity of his heart 162 60. He is all his life seriously preparing for his death as if it were at hand and is ready to receive the sentence with joy but especially he longeth for the blessed day of Christs appearing as the answer of all his desires and hopes 164 Six Uses of these Characters 170 THE CHARACTER OF 1 A Sound Confirmed Christian 2 And of the Weak Christian 3 And of the Seeming Christian. IN the Explication of the Text which I made the ground of the foregoing discourse I have shewed you that there is a Degree of Grace to be expected and sought after by all true Christians which putteth the Soul into a sound confirmed radicated state in comparison of that weak diseased tottering condition which most Christians now continue in And I have shewed you how desireable a state that is and what calamities follow the languishing unhealthfull state even of such as may be saved And indeed did we but rightly understand how deeply the errors and sins of many well-meaning Christians have wounded the interest of Religion in this age and how heynously they have dishonoured God and caused the enemies of holyness to blaspheme and hardened thousands in Popery and Ungodliness in probability to their perdition Had we well observed when Gods Judgements have begun and understood what sins have caused our Warres and Plagues and Flames and worse than all these our great heart-divisions and Church-distractions and convulsions we should ere this have given over the flattering of our selves and one another in such a Heaven-provoking state and the ostentation of that little goodness which hath been eclipsed by such lamentable evils And instead of these we should have betaken our selves to the exercise of such a serious deep Repentance as the quality of our sins and the greatness of Gods Chastisements do require It is a dolefull case to see how light many make of all the rest of their distempers when once they think that they have so much Grace and Mortification as is absolutely necessary to save their souls And expect that Preachers should say little to weak Christians but words of comfort setting forth their happiness And yet if one of them when he hath the Gout or Stone or Collick or Dropsie doth send for a Physitian he would think himself derided or abused if his Physitian instead of curing his disease should only comfort him by telling him that he is not dead What excellent disputations have Cicero and Seneca the Platonists and Stoicks to prove that Virtue is of it self sufficient to make Man happy And yet many Christians live as if Holiness were but the way and means to their felicity or at best but a small part of their felicity it self or as if felicity it self grew burdensome or were not desireable in this life or a small degree of it were as good as a greater And too many mistake the will of God and the nature of Sanctification and place their Religion in the hot prosecution of those mistakes They make a composition of error and passion and an unyielding stiffness in them and siding with the Church or party which maintaineth them and an uncharitable censuring those that are against them and an unpeaceable contending for them And this composition they mistake for Godliness especially if there be but a few drams of Godliness and Truth in the composition though corrupted and over-powered by the rest For these miscarriages of many well-meaning zealous persons the Land mourneth the Churches groan Kingdoms are disturbed by them Families are disquieted by them Godliness is hindered and much dishonoured by them the Wicked are hardened by them and encouraged to hate and blaspheme and oppose Religion the glory of the Christian Faith is obscured by them and the Infidel Mahometan and Heathen World are kept from Faith in Jesus Christ and many millions of Souls destroyed by them I mean by the miscarriages of the weaker sort of Christians and by the wicked lives of those carnal Hypocrites who for custome or worldly interest do profess that Christianity which was never received by their hearts And all this is much promoted by their indiscretion who are so intent upon the consolatory opening of the safety and happiness of Believers that they omit the due explication of their Description their Dangers and their Duties One part of this too much neglected work I have endeavoured to perform in the foregoing Treatise Another I shall attempt in this second Part There are five Degrees or ranks of true Christians observable 1. The Weakest Christians who have only the Essentials of Christianity or very little more As Infants that are alive but of little strength or use to others 2. Those that are lapsed into some wounding sin though not into a state of damnation Like men at age who have lost the use of some one member for the present though they are strong in other parts 3. Those that having the Integral parts of Christianity in a considerable measure are in a sound and healthfull state though neither perfect nor of the highest form or rank of Christians in this life nor without such infirmities as are the matter of their daily Watchfulness and Humiliation 4. Those that are so strong as to attain extraordinary degrees of grace who are therefore comparatively called Perfect as Mat. 5.45.5 Those that have an absolute Perfection without sin that is The Heavenly Inhabitants Among all these it is the third sort or degree which I have here characterized and upon the by the first sort and the Hypocrite
grounds of comfort and when they cannot raise their souls to any high and passionate joys they yet walk in a settled peace of soul and in such competent comforts as make their lives to be easie and delightful being well pleased and contented with the happy condition that Christ hath brought them to and thankful that he left them not in those foolish vain pernicious pleasures which were the way to endless sorrows 3. But the seeming Christian seeketh and taketh up his chief contentment in some carnal thing If he be so poor and miserable as to have nothing in possession that can much delight him he will hope for better dayes hereafter and that hope shall be his chief delight or if he have no such hope he will be without delight and shew his love to the world and flesh by mourning for that which he cannot have as others do in rejoycing in what they do possess and he will in such a desperate case of misery be such to the world as the weak Christian is to God who hath a mourning and desiring love when he cannot reach to an enjoying and delighting Love His carnal mind most savoureth the things of the flesh and therefore in them he findeth or seeketh his chief delights Though yet he may have also a delight in his superficiall kind of Religion his hearing and reading praying in his ill-grounded hopes of life eternal But all this is but subordinate to his chiefest earthly pleasure Isai. 58.2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my waies as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God they ask of me the ordinances of justice they take delight in approaching unto God And yet all this was subjected to a covetous oppressing mind Mat. 13.20 He that received the seed into stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended Whereby it appeareth that his love to the word was subjected to his love to the world Obj. But there are two sorts of people that seem to have no fleshly delights at all and yet are not in the way to salvation viz. the Quakers and Behmenists that live in great austerity and some of the Religious orders of the Papists who afflict their flesh Answ. Some of them undergo their fastings and pennance for a day that they may sin the more quietly all the week after And some of them proudly comfort themselves with the fancies and conceit of being and appearing more excellent in austerity than others And all these take up with a carnal sort of pleasure As proud persons are pleased with their own or others conceits of their beauty or witt or worldly greatness so prouder persons are pleased with their own and others conceits of their holiness And verily they have their reward Mat. 6.2 But those of them that place their chiefest happiness in the love of God and the eternal fruition of him in heaven and seek this sincerely according to their helps and power though they are mislead into some superstitious errors I hope I may number with those that are sincere for all their errors and the ill effects of them XXIV 1. A confirmed Christian doth ordinarily discern the sincerity of his own heart and consequently hath some well grounded assurance of the pardon of his sins and of the favour of God and of his everlasting happiness And therefore no wonder if he live a peaceable and joyfull life For his grace is not so small as to be undiscernable nor is it as a sleepy buried seed or principle but it is almost in continual act And they that have a great degree of grace and also keep it in lively exercise do seldom doubt of it Besides that they blot not their Evidence by so many infirmities and falls They are more in the light and have more acquaintance with themselves and more sense of the abundant love of God and of his exceeding mercies than weak Christians have and therefore must needs have more assurance They have boldness of access to the throne of grace without unreverent contempt Eph. 3.12 2.18 They have more of the spirit of Adoption and therefore more child-like confidence in God and can call him Father with greater freedom and comfort than any others can Rom. 8.15 16. Gal. 4.6 Eph. 1.6 1 Joh. 5.19 20. And we know that we are of God and that the whole world lyeth in wickedness c. 2. But the weak Christian hath so small a degree of grace and so much corruption and his grace is so little in act and his sin so much that he seldom if ever attaineth to any well-grounded assurance till he attain to a greater measure of grace He differeth so little from the seeming Christian that neither himself nor others do certainly discern the difference When he searcheth after the truth of his faith and love and heavenly mindedness he findeth so much unbelief and aversness from God and earthly mindedness that he cannot be certain which of them is predominant and whether the interest of this world or that to come do bear the sway So that he is often in perplexities and fears and more often in a dull uncertainty And if he seem at any time to have assurance it is usually but an ill-grounded perswasion of the truth though it be true which he apprehendeth when he taketh himself to be the child of God yet it is upon unfound reasons that he judgeth so or else upon sound reasons weakly and uncertainly discerned so that there is commonly much of security presumption fancie or mistake in his greatest comforts He is not yet in a condition fit for full assurance till his love and obedience be more full 3. But the seeming Christian cannot possibly in that estate have either certainty or good probability that he is a child of God because it is not true His seeming certainty is meerly self-deceit and his greatest confidence is but presumption because the spirit of Christ is not within him and therefore he is certainly none of his Rom. 8.9 XXV 1. The Assurance of a confirmed Christian doth increase his alacrity and diligence in duty and is alwayes seen in his more obedient holy fruitful life The sense of the love and mercy of God is as the rain upon the tender grass He is never so fruitful so thankful so heavenly as when he hath the greatest certainty that he shall be saved The Love of God is then shed abroad upon his heart by the Holy Ghost which maketh him abound in love to God Rom. 5.1 2 3 4. He is the more stedfast unmoveable and alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord when he is most certain that his labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 2. But the weak Christian is unfit
baits of and what is the manner in which he spreadeth his nets He seeth alwaies some snares before him And what company soever he is in or what business soever he is about he walketh as among snares which are visible to his sight And it is part of his business continually to avoid them He liveth in a continual watch and warfare He can resist much stronger and subtill temptations than the weak can do He is allwayes armed and knoweth what are the special remedies against each particular snare and sin Eph. 6. 2 Cor. 2.11 Prov. 1.17 And he carrieth always his antidotes about him as one that liveth in an infectious world and in the midst of a froward and perverse generation from which he is charged to save himself Phil. 2.15 Act. 2.40 2. And the weak Christian is a souldier in the army of Christ and is engaged in striving against sin Heb. 12.4 And really taketh the flesh and world as well as the Devil to be his enemies and doth not only strive but conquer in the main But yet alas how poorly is he armed How unskilfully doth he manage his Christian armour How often is he soild and wounded How many a temptation is he much unacquainted with And how many a snare doth lie before him which he never did observe And oft he is overcome in particular temptations when he never perceiveth it but thinks that he hath conquered 3. But the Hypocrite is fast ensnared when he gloryeth most of his integrity and is deceived by his own heart and thinketh he is something when he is nothing Gal. 6.3 Luk. 18.20 21 22 23. When he is thanking God that he is not as other men he is rejoycing in his dreams and sacrificing for the victory which he never obtained Luk. 18.11 He is led by Satan captive at his will when he is boasting of his uprightness and hath a beam of coveteousness or pride or cruelty in his own eye while he is reviling or censuring another for the mote of some difference about a ceremony or tolerable opinion And usually such grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Mat. 7.3 4 5. 2 Tim. 3.13 XXVIII 1. A Christian indeed is one that hath deliberately counted what it may cost him to follow Christ and to save his soul and knowing that suffering with Christ is the way to our reigning with him he hath fully consented to the terms of Christ He hath read Luk. 14.26 27 33. and findeth that bearing the Cross and forsaking all is necessary to those that will be Christs disciples And accordingly in resolution he hath forsaken all and looketh not for a smooth and easie way to heaven He considereth that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution and that through many tribulations we must enter into heaven And therefore he taketh it not for a strange or unexpected thing if the fiery trial come upon him He doth not wonder at the unrighteousness of the world as if he expected reason or honesty justice or truth or mercy in the enemies of Christ and the instruments of Satan He will not bring his action against the Devil for unjust afflicting him He will rather turn the other cheek to him that smiteth him than he will hinder the good of any soul by seeking right much less will he exercise unjust revenge Though where government is exercised for truth and righteousness he will not refuse to make use of the justice of it to punish iniquity and discourage evil doers yet this is for God and the common good and for the suppression of sin much more than for himself Suffering doth not surprise him as a thing unlooked for He hath been long preparing for it and it findeth him garrison'd in the love of Christ Yea though his flesh will be as the flesh of others sensible of the smart and his mind is not senseless of the sufferings of his body yet it is some pleasure and satisfaction to his soul to find himself in the common way to heaven and to see the predictions of Christ fulfilled and to feel himself so far conform to Jesus Christ his head and to trace the footsteps of a humbled Redeemer in the way before him As Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh so doth the Christian arm himself with the same mind 1 Pet. 4.1 He rejoyceth that he is made partaker of the sufferings of Christ that when his glory shall be revealed he may also be partaker of the exceeding joy 1 Pet. 4.12 13. yea he taketh the reproach of Christ for a treasure yea a greater treasure than Riches or mens favours can afford Heb. 11.25 26. For he knoweth if he be reproached for the name or sake of Christ he is happy For thereby he glorifieth that God whom the enemy doth blaspheme and so the spirit of God and of glory resteth on him 1 Pet. 4.14 He liveth and suffereth as one that from his heart believeth that they are blessed that are persecuted for righteousness sake for great is their reward in heaven And they are blessed when men shall revile them and persecute them and say all manner of evil against them falsly for Christs sake In this they Rejoyce and are exceeding glad as knowing that herein they are followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise Mat. 5.10 11 12. Heb. 6.12 If he be offered upon the sacrifice and service of the saith of Gods elect he can rejoyce in it as having greater good than evil Phil. 2.17 He can suffer the loss of all things and account them dung that he may win Christ and be found in him and know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.8 9 10. Not out of surliness and pride doth he rejoyce in sufferings as some do that they may carry the reputation of holy and undaunted men and seem to be far better and constanter than others When pride maketh men suffer they are partly the Devils martyrs though the cause be never so good Though it is much more ordinary for pride to make men suffer rejoycingly in an ill cause than in a good the Devil having more power on his own ground than on Christs But it is the Love of Christ and the belief of the reward and the humble neglect of the mortified flesh and the contempt of the conquered world that maketh the Christian suffer with so much joy For he seeth that the Judge is at the door And what torments the wicked are preparing for themselves And that as certainly as there is a God that governeth the world and that in Righteousness so certainly are his eyes upon the Righteous and his face is set against them that do evil 1 Pet. 3.12 and though sinners do evil an hundred times and scape unpunished till their dayes be prolonged yet vengeance will overtake them in due time and it shall be well with them that
fear the Lord and that he keepeth all the tears of his servants till the reckoning day And if judgement begin at the house of God and the righteous be saved through so much suffering and labour what then shall be their end that obey not the Gospel and where shall the ungodly and sinner appear 1 Pet. 4.17 18. Eccl. 8.12 Prov. 11.31 13.6 Psal. 56.8 Deut. 32.35 Jam. 5.9 2. And the weak Christian is one that will forsake all for the sake of Christ and suffer with him that he may be glorified with him and will take his treasure in heaven for all Luk. 14.26 33. Luk. 18.22 But he doth it not with that easiness and alacrity and joy as the confirmed Christian doth He hearkens more to the flesh which saith favour thy self suffering is much more grievous to him And sometimes he is wavering before he can bring himself fully to resolve and let go all Mat. 16.22 3. But the seeming Christian looketh not for much suffering He reads of it in the Gospel but he saw no probability of it and never believed that he should be called to it in any notable degree He thought it probable that he might well escape it And therefore though he agreed verbally to take Christ for better and worse and to follow him through sufferings he thought he would never put him to it And indeed his heart is secretly resolved that he will never be undone in the world for Christ Some reparable loss he may undergo but he will not let go life and all He will still be religious and hope for heaven But he will make himself believe and others if he can that the Truth lieth on the safer side and not on the suffering side and that it is but for their own conceits and scrupulosity that other men suffer who go beyond him and that many good men are of his opinion and therefore he may be good also in the same opinion though he would never have been of that opinion if it had not been necessary to his escaping of sufferings what flourish soever he maketh for a time when persecution ariseth he is offended and withereth Mat. 13.21 6. Unless he be so deeply engaged among the suffering party that he cannot come off without perpetual reproach and then perhaps Pride will make him suffer more than the belief of heaven oâ— the love of Christ could do And all this is because his very belief is unrooted and unsound and he hath secretly at the heart a fear that if he should suffer death for Christ he should be a loser by him and he would not reward him according to his promise with everlasting life Heb. 3.12 XXIX 1. A Christian indeed is one that followeth not Christ for company nor holdeth his belief in trust upon the credit of any in the world and therefore he would stick to Christ if all that he knoweth or converseth with should forsake him If the Rulers of the Earth should change their religion and turn against Christ he would not forsake him If the multitude of the people turn against him nay if the professors of Godliness should fall off yet would he stand his ground and be still the same If the learnedest men and the Pastors of the Church should turn from Christ he would not forsake him Yea if his nearest relations and friends or even that Minister that was the means of his conversion should change their minds and forsake the truth and turn from Christ or a holy life he would yet be constant and be still the same And what Peter resolved on he would truly practise Mat. 26 33 35. Though all men should be offended because of thee yet would not I be offended Though I should die with thee yet will I not deny thee And if he thought himself as Elias did left alone yet would he not how the knee to Baal Rom. 11.3 If he hear that this eminent Minister falleth off one day and the other another day till all be gone yet still the foundation of God standeth sure he falleth not because he is built upon the rock Mat. 7.22 23. His heart saith Alas whither shall I go if I go from Christ Is there any other that hath the word and spirit of eternal life Can I be a gainer if I lose my soul Joh. 6.67 68. Mat. 16.26 He useth his Teachers to bring him that light and evidence of truth which dwelleth in him when they are gone And therefore though they fall away he falleth not with them 2. And the weakest Christian believeth with a Divine faith of his own and dependeth more on God than man But yet if he should be put to so great a tryal as to see all the Pastors and Christians that he knoweth change their minds I know not what he would do For though God will uphold all his own whom he will save yet he doth it by means and outward helps together with his internal grace and keepeth them from temptations when he will deliver them from the evil And therefore it is a doubt whether there be not degrees of grace so weak as would fail in case the strongest temptations were permitted to assault them A strong man can stand and go of himself but an infant must be carried and the same and sick must have others to support them The weak Christian falleth if his Teacher or most esteemed company fall If they run into an error sect or schisme he keeps them company He groweth cold if he have not warming company He forgeteth himself and letteth loose his sense and passion if he have not some to watch over him and warn him No man should refuse the help of others that can have it and the best have need of all Gods means But the weak Christian needeth them much more than the strong and is much less able to stand without them Luk. 22.32 Gal. 2.11 12 13 14. 3. But the seeming Christian is built upon the sand and therefore cannot stand a storm He is a Christian more for company or he credit of man or the interest that others have in him or the encouragement of the times than from a firm Belief and love of Christ and therefore falleth when his props are gone Mat. 7.24 XXX 1. A strong Christian can digest the hardest Truths and the hardest works of Providence He seeth more of the reason and evidence of truths than others And he hath usually a more comprehensive knowledge and can reconcile those truths which short sighted persons suspect to be inconsistent and contradictory And when he cannot reconcile them he knoweth they are reconcileable For he hath laid his foundation well and then he reduceth other truths to that and buildeth them on it And so he doth by the hardest Providences Whoever is high or low whoever prospereth or is afflicted however humane affairs are carried and all things seem to go against the Church and cause of Christ he knoweth yet that God is good to Israel Psal.
especially his opinions and distinct manner of worship are the chief of his discourse 3. And for the seeming Christian though he can affectedly force his tongue to talk of any subject in religion especially that which he thinks will most honour him in the esteem of the hearers yet when he speaketh according to the inclination of his heart his discourse is first about his fleshly interest and concernments and next to that of the meer externals of religion as controversies parties and the severall modes of worship XXXIX 1. A Christian indeed is one that so liveth upon the great sustantial matters of Religion as yet not willingly to commit the smallest sin nor to own the smallest falsehood nor to renounce or betray the smallest holy truth or duty for any price that man can offer him The works of Repentance Faith and Love are his daily business which take up his greatest care and diligence Whatever opinions or controversies are a foot his work is still the same whatever changes come his Religion changeth not He placeth not the Kingdom of God in meats and drinks and circumstances and ceremonies either being for them or against them but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost and he that in these things serveth Christ as he is acceptable to God so is he approved by such a Christian as this however factious persons may revile him Rom. 14.17 18 1 2 3 4 5 10. The strong Christian can bear the infirmities of the weak and not take the course that most pleaseth himself but that which pleaseth his neighbour for his good to edification Rom. 15.1 2 3. The essentials of Religion Faith and Love and obedience are as Bread and drink the substance of his food These he meditateth on and these he practiseth and according to these he esteemeth of others But yet no price can seem sufficient to him to buy his innocency Nor will he willfully sin and say it is a little one nor do evil that good may come by it nor offer to God the sacrifice of disobedient fools and then say I knew not that I did evil For he knoweth that God will rather have obedience than sacrifice and that disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft And he that breaketh one of the least commands and teacheth men so shall be called Least in the Kingdom of God And he that teacheth men to sin by the example of his own practice can little expect to turn them from sin by his better instructions and exhortations He that will deliberately sin in a small matter doth set but a small price on the favour of God and his salvation Willfull disobedience is odious to God how small soever the matter be about which it is committed Who can expect that he should stick at any sin when his temptation is great who will considerately commit the least especially if he will approve and justifie it Therefore the sound Christian will rather forsake his riches his liberty his reputation his friends and his country than his conscience and rather lay down libertie and life it self than choose to sin against his God as knowing that never man gained by his sin Rom. 3.8 Eccl. 5.2 1 Sam. 15.15 21 22 23. Mat. 5.19 The sin that Saul was rejected for seemed but a little thing nor the sin that Vzzah was slain for and the service of God even his sacrifice and his ark were the pretence for both The sin of the Bethshemites of Achan of Gebezi of Ananias and Saphira which had grievous punishments would seem but little things to us And it is a great aggravation of our sin to be chosen deliberate justified and fathered upon God and to pretend that we do it for his service for the worshiping of him or the doing good to others as if God would own and bless sinful means or needed a lie to his service or glory When he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal. 5.5 and requireth only the sacrifices of righteousness Psal. 4.5 He abhorreth sacrifice from polluted hands they are to him as the offering a dog and he will ask who hath required this at your hand see Psal. 50.8.4 Isa. 1.9 10 11 12. c. 58.1 2 3 4. c. Jer. 6.19.20 The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.8 21.27 It is not pleasing to him all that eat thereof shall be polluted Ho. 9.4 See Isa. 66.1 2 3 4 5 6. The preaching the praying the sacraments of wilful sinners especially when they choose sin as necessary to his service are a scorn and mockery put upon the most Holy one As if your servant should set dung and carrion before you on your table for your food such offer Christ vinegar and gall to drink 2. In all this the weakest Christian that is sincere is of the same mind saving that in his ordinary course he useth to place too much of his Religion in controversies and parties and modes and ceremonies whether being for them or against them and allow too great a proportion in his thoughts and speech and zeal and practice and hindereth the growth of his grace by living upon less edifying things and turnning too much from the more substantial nutriment 3. And the seeming Christians are here of different wayes One sort of them place almost all their Religion in Pharisaical observation of little external ceremonial matters as their washings and fastings and tythings and formalities and the traditions of the Elders Or in their several opinions and wayes and parties which they call Being of the true Church As if their sect were all the Church But living to God in faith and love and in a Heavenly conversation and worshipping him in spirit and truth they are utterly unacquainted with The other sort are truly void of these essential parts of Christianity in the life and power as well as the former But yet being secretly resolved to take up no more of Christianity than will consist with their worldly prosperity and ends when any sin seemeth necessary to their preferment or safety in the world their way is to pretend their high esteem of greater matters for the swallowing of such a sin as an inconsiderable thing And then they extol those larger souls that live not upon circumstantials but upon the great and common truths and duties and pitty those men of narrow principles and spirits who by unnecessary scrupulosity make sin of that which is no sin and expose themselves to needless trouble And they would make themselves and others believe that it is their excellency and wisdom to be above such trifling scruples And all is because they never took God and Heaven for their All and therefore are resolved never to lose all for the hopes of Heaven and therefore to do that whatever it be which their worldly interest shall require and not to be of any religion that will undo them And three great pretences are effectual means in this their deceit One is
and return to dust and that the most potent are impotent when they contend with God and are unequal matches to strive against their maker and that it will prove hard for them to kick against the pricks and that whoever seemeth now to have the day it is God that will be Conquerour at last Job 25.6 17.14 24.20 Psal. 79.31 103.16 144.4 Act. 9.4 5 6. Psal. 144.3 4 5. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help his breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God Isa. 45.9 Wo to him that striveth with his maker He knoweth that it is more irrational to fear man against God than to fear a flea or a fly against the greatest man The infinite disproportion between the creature that is against him and the Creator that is for him doth resolve him to obey the command of Christ Luk. 12.4 Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Isa. 57.7 8. Hearken unto me ye that know righteousness the people in whose heart is my law Fear ye not the reproof of man neither be afraid of their revilings for the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wool but my righteousness shall be for ever and my Salvation from generation to generation Isa. 50.6 7 8 9. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting For the Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed He is neer that justifieth me who will contend with me Let us stand together who is mine adversary let him come neer to me Behold the Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemn me Loe they all shall wax old as a garment the moth shall eat them up Isa. 35.4 41.10 13 14. 7.4 Jer. 46.27 28. Mat. 10.26 31. Isa. 2.22 Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Jer. 17.5 8 9. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man c. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord c. Alas how terrible is the wrath of God in comparison of the wrath of man and how easie an enemy is the cruellest afflicter in comparison of a holy sin revenging God Therefore the confirmed Christian saith as the three witnesses Dan. 3.16 17 18. We are not carefull to answer thee in this matter the God whom we serve is able to deliver us But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up Dan. 6.10 When Daniel knew that the Decree was past he prayed openly in his house as heretofore Heb. 11.27 Moses feared not the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible Prov. 28.1 The righteous is bold as a Lion Act. 4 13. when they saw the boldness of Peter and John they marvelled 2 Cor. 11.21 Pauls bonds made others bold Eph. 6.19 20. Act. 4.29 31. 1 Joh. 4.18 Perfect love casteth out fear 1 Pet. 3.14 If ye suffer for righteousness sake happy are ye and be not afraid of their terrour neither be troubled Heb. 13.6 So that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me 2. But the weak Christian though he also trust in God is much more fearful and easily daunted and discouraged and ready with Peter to be afraid if he perceive himself in danger Matth. 26.69 He is not valiant for the truth Jer. 9.3 Though he can forsake all even life it self for Christ Luk. 14.26 33. yet is it with a deal of fear and trouble And Man is a more significant thing to him than to the stronger Christian. 3. But the seeming Christian doth fear man more than God and will venture upon the displeasure of God to avoid the displeasure of men that can do him hurt because he doth not soundly believe the threatnings of the word of God L. 1. A Christian indeed is made up of Judgement and Zeal conjunct His Judgement is not a patron of Lukewarmness nor his Zeal an enemy to knowledge His judgement doth not destroy but increase his Zeal and his Zeal is not blind nor self-conceited nor doth run before or without judgement If he be of the most excellent sort of Christians he hath so large a knowledge of the mysteries of godliness that he seeth the body of sacred truth with its parts and compages or joynts as it were at once It is all written deeply and methodically in his understanding He hath by long use his senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5.14 He presently discerneth where mistaken men go out of the way and lose the truth by false suppositions or by false definitions or by confounding things that differ And therefore he pittyeth the contentious sects and disputers who raise a dust to blind themselves and others and make a stir to the trouble of the Church about things which they never understood And in the sight of that truth which others obscure or contradict he enjoyeth much content or pleasure in his own mind though uncapable persons zealously reject it Therefore he is stedfast as knowing on what ground he seteth his foot And though he be the greatest lover of truth and would with greatest joy receive any addition to his knowledge yet ordinarily by erroneous zealots he is censured as too stiff and self-conceited and tenacious of his own opinions because he will not entertain their errours and obey them in their self-conceitedness For he that knoweth that it is truth which he holdeth is neither able nor willing to hold the contrary unless he imprison the truth in unrighteousness But if he be one that hath not attained to such a clear comprehensive judgement yet with that measure of judgement which he hath he doth guide and regulate his zeal and maketh it follow after while understanding goeth before He treadeth on sure ground and knoweth it to be duty indeed which he is zealous for and sin indeed which he is zealous against and is not put to excuse all his fervour and forwardness after with a non putarem or I had thought it had been otherwise 1 Cor. 1.5 2 Cor. 8.7 Col. 3.16 4.12 2. But the weak Christian either hearkeneth too much to carnal wisdom which suppresseth his zeal and maketh him too heavy and dull and indifferent in many
shall be overcome by his own successes and the just shall conquer by patience when they seem most conquered The name and form and image of Religion the carnal hypocrite doth not only bear but favour and himself accept But the Life and serious practice he abhorreth as inconsistent with his worldly interest and ends For these he can find in his heart with Ahab to hate and imprison Micaiah and preferr his four hundred flattering Prophets 1 King 22.6 8 24 27. If Luther will touch the Popes Crown and the Fryers Bellies they will not scruple to Oppose and ruine both him and all such Preachers in the World if they were able John 11.48.50 Acts 5.28 LVI 1. A Christian indeed is one whose Holiness usually maketh him an eyesore to the ungodly world and his charity and peaceableness and moderation maketh him to be censured as not strict enough by the superstitious and dividing sects of Christians For seeing the Church hath suffered between these two sorts of opposers ever since the suffering of Christ himself it cannot be but the solid Christian offend them both because he hath that which both dislike All the ungodly hate him for his holiness which is cross to their interest and way and all the Dividers will censure him for that universal charity and moderation which is against their factious and destroying zeal described Jam. 3. Even Christ himself was not strict enough in superstitious observances for the ceremonious zealous Pharisees He transgressed with his Disciples the tradition of the Elders in neglecting their observances who transgressed the commandment of God by their tradition Matth. 15.2 3. He was not strict enough in their uncharitable observation of the Sabbath day Matth. 12.2 John that was eminent for falling they said had a Devil The Son of man came eating and drinking and they say Behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners But wisdom is justified of her Children Mat. 11.18 19. And the weak Christians Rom. 14.1 2 3. did censure those that durst eat those meats and do those things which they conceived to be unlawful They that erre themselves and make God a Service which he never appointed will censure all as lukewarm or temporizers or wide conscienced men that erre not with them and place not their Religion in such superstitious observances as Touch not taste not handle not c. Col. 2.18 21 22 23. And the raw censorious Christians are offended with the Charitable Christian because he damneth not as many and as readily as they and shutteth not enow out of the number of believers and judgeth not rigorously enough of their wayes In a word he is taken by one sort to be too strict and by the other to be too complyant or indifferent in Religion because he placeth not the Kingdom of God in meats and dayes and such like circumstances but in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.15 16 17. And as Paul withstood Peter to his face for drawing men to make scruple or conscience of things lawful Gal. 2.11 12 13. so is the sound Christian withstood by the superstitious for not making scruple of lawful things 2. And the weak Christian is in the same case so long as he followeth prudent pious charitable guides But if he be taken in the snares of superstition he pleaseth the superstitious party though he displease the World 3. And whereas the solid Christian will not stir an inch from truth and duty to escape either the hatred of the wicked or the bitterest censures of the Sectary or the weak the Hypocrite must needs have one party on his side For if both condemn him and neither applaud him he loseth his peculiar reward Matth. 6.2 5. 23.5 6 7 8. LVII 1. The confirmed Christian doth understand the necessary of a faithful Ministry for the safety of the weak as well as the conversion of the wicked and for the preservation of the interest of Religion upon earth And therefore no personal unworthiness of Ministers nor any calumnies of enemies can make him think or speak dishonourably of that sacred office But he reverenceth it as instituted by Christ and though he loaths the sottishness and wickedness of those that run before they are sent and are utterly insufficient or ungodly and take it up for a Living or Trade only as they would a common work and are Sons of Belial that know not the Lord and cause the offering of the Lard to be abhorred 1 Sam. 2.2 17. Yet no such temptation shall overthrow his reverence to the office which is the Ordinance of Christ much less will he be unthankful to those that are able and faithful in their office and labour instantly for the good of souls as willing to spend and be spent for their Salvation When the World abuseth and derideth and injureth them he is one that honoureth them both for their work and masters sake and the experience which he hath had of the blessing of God on their labours to himself For he knoweth that the smiting of the Shepheards is but the devils ancient way for the scattering of the flock Though he knoweth that if the salt have lost its savour it is good for nothing neither fit for the land nor yet for the dung-hill but men cast it out and it 's trodden under foot he that hath ears to hear let him hear Luk. 14.34 35. Mat. 5.13 14. Yet he also knoweth that he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward Matth. 10.41 42. And that he that receiveth them receiveth Christ and he that despiseth them that are sent by him despiseth him Luk. 10.16 He therefore readily obeyeth those commands Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as those that must give account 1 Thes. 5.12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in Love for their work sake and be at peace among your selves 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine 2. But though the weak Christian be of the same mind so far as he is sanctified yet is he much more easily tempted into a wrangling censoriousness against his Teachers though they be never so able and holy men and by seducers may be drawn to oppose them or speak contemptuously of them as the Galathians did of Paul and some of the Corinthians accounting him as their Enemy for telling them the truth when lately they would have pluckt out their eyes to do him good Gal. 4.15 16. 3. But the Hypocrite is most easily engaged against them either when they grate upon the guilt of his bosome sin or open his hypocrisie or plainly cross him in his carnal interest or else when his
the seed of Grace is grown up into Glory and all the world whether they will or not shall discern between the Righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not between the clean and the unclean and between him that sweareth and him that feareth an oath And though now our Life is hid with Christ in God and it yet appeareth not to the sight of our selves or others what we shall be yet then when Christ who is our Life shall appear we also shall appear with him in Glory Heb. 12.22 23. Rev. 22.3 4 5 14 15. 21.3 4 8. 2 Thes. 1.9 10. Mat. 5.4 6. Mal. 3.18 Eccles. 9.2 1 Joh. 3.2 3. Col. 3.3 4. Away then my soul from this dark deceitfull and vexatious world Love not thy diseases thy setters and calamities Groan daily to thy Lord and earnestly groan to be cloathed upon with thy house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 4. that mortality may be swallowed up of Life Joyn in the harmonious desires of the Creatures who groan to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.20 21 22. Abide in him and walk in Righteousness that when he shall appear thou maist have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming 1 John 2.28 29. Joyn not with the evil servants who say in their hearts Our Lord delayeth his coming and begin to smite their fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken whose Lord shall come in a day when they look not for him and in an hour that they are not aware of and shall cut them asunder and appoint them their portion with the Hypocrites where shall be weeping gnashing of teeth Mat. 24.48 49 50 51. O watch and pray that thou enter not into temptation And be patient for the Judge is at the door Lift up thy head with earnest expectation O my soul for thy Redemption draweth near Rejoyce in hope before thy Lord for he cometh he cometh to judge the world in Righteousness and Truth Behold he cometh quickly though faith be failing and iniquity abound and Love waxeth cold and scoffers say where is the promise of his coming Make haste O thou whom my soul desireth and come in Glory as thou first camest in Humility and conform them to thy self in Glory whom thou madest conformable to thy sufferings and humility Let the Holy City New Jerusalem be prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and let Gods Tabernacle be with men that he may dwell with them and be their God and wipe away their tears and death and sorrow and crying and pain may be no more but former things may pass away Keep up our Faith our Hope our Love And daily vouchsafe us some beams of thy directing consolatory Light in this our darkness And be not as a stranger to thy scattered flock in this desolate wilderness But let them hear thy voice and find thy presence and have such conversation with thee in Heaven in the exercise of Faith and Hope and Love which is agreeable to their low and distant state Testifie to their souls that thou art their Saviour and Head and that they abide in thee by the Spirit which thou hast given them abiding and overcoming in them and as thy Agent preparing them for eternal life O let not our darkness nor thy strangeness feed our odious Unbelief O shew thy self more clearly to thy Redeemed ones And come and dwell in our hearts by Faith And by holy Love let us dwell in God and God in us that we grope not after him as those that worship an unknown God O save us from Temptation And if the messenger of Satan be sent to buffet us let thy strength be manifest in our weakness and thy grace appear sufficient for us And give us the patience which thou tellest us we need that having done thy will we may inherit the promise And bring us to the sight and fruition of our Creator of whom and through whom and to whom are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen FINIS