but especially Puritanes Ride on Gallants but take heed of breaking your necks in hell what will you doe in the day of the Lords visitation when the reckoning day comes friends what will you have to pay when the showre of divine vengeance comes will your huffled suit of worldly vanities cloath you will your sack cheare your heart when it is wounded with an arrow of divine vengeance drawne by the strength of an Almighty arme and let flie at the very eye of your pleasures Nay suppose on this side of such a time you should meet with a showre of worldly crosses two or three as Job a better man than any of you did Job 1. Suppose the Lord should take away the delight of your eyes with a stroke as from Ezechiel your deare children as from Eli and Aaron your husband as from Phinehas his wife all your pleasures riches comforts al your castles of greatnesse riches Suppose you should be throwne into prison and have nothing given you but the bread of affliction to eat and the water of affliction to drink What shall beare up your spirits in such a day what will you doe ah what can you doe in the day of the Lords visitation The conie if it be started and pursued by a dog it hath a burrow in the rock thither it runnes and is safe But the Hare and such like beasts of sport that have no burrowes no holes if once they bee found out in their covert and be pursued by dogges they are wurried down why alas they have no places of security The poore wretch that hath no part in Christ if a day of trouble comes he hath no place of security but hee is like a poore manslayer pursued by the avenger of the blood and either knowes not where a City of refuge was or at best is at such a distance from it as hee could not possibly have hopes of reaching it before the pursuer and avenger of bloud overtook him and he died without mercy Poor creatures this is your condition the Lord give you an heart to consider it you have no way of peace that you will be able to find in a day of trouble Br. 4 Thirdly from hence wee may bee instructed in the happy condition of all those that have a true interest in the Lord Jesus Christ they are provided for Winter and Summer if in the world they meet with trouble they may retire to Christ and be at peace if they be pursued by the dogges of the world they have a burrow in the rocke of ages What Iob sayes of the grave wee may say of that hiding place There the wicked cease from troubling there the weary be at rest they can never be so tost never be in such a deep of troubles but they can cast anchor in the Lord Iesus Christ when the kitchin of the world is on fire they have an upper-roome that they can go sit and sleep in and the heat shall never trouble them No totus si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum feriant ruinae They can but runne up the staires and sit with Jesus Christ and they are at peace they are at any time within a reach of peace and may in any condition say to their soules as David Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast down O my soule why art thou disquieted within mee trust still in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God See a notable experiment of this in David 1 Sam. 30. 6. It was a sad day with him his City was burnt with fire and his and his mens wives his sons and their daughters were taken captives and to none of the kind'st enemies neither the Amalekites had done it David was greatly distressed v. 6. and to adde affliction to affliction when hee was almost dead of griefe the people were almost of the mind to have helpt him on to his grave for they also spake of stoning him What doth David doe doth not his back breake with all this load upon it doth not his heart sink to the very bottome of dispaire with all this weight of lead hung upon it marke the latter end of the sixth vers But David encouraged himselfe in the Lord his God for all this hee encouraged himselfe in his God In the world he met with trouble in his Christ hee finds peace Thus may all that feare the Lord why is there a disturbed sad heart amongst them Happy is the people that have the Lord for their God Happy are those creatures that have an hole in the rock But to proceed Br. 5 Lastly from hence may all that fear the Lord be instructed what is the onely way to find true peace in a day of trouble it is to look for it only in the Lord Jesus Christ Acquaint thy selfe now with Christ and be at peace thereby shall good come unto you fetch peace from Christ O yee Saints and be at peace thereby shall good come unto you There bee many courses which men use to gain peace in a day of trouble whether outward or inward many wayes by which men wring their spirits out of trouble and patch up peace to their owne spirits but the right way of peace few have known 1. Some let nature worke out peace like some foolish countrey people that conceive nature will work out all distemperatures and they need no Physick Some of them are confuted by their grave others of them that are of more stout iron natures possibly recover their health but their diseases make a truce onely not a peace with their bodies the latent cause remains and watcheth its advantage of the next heat or cold the body takes or the next intemperate season comes And thus many deale with their soules never regarding when their spirits are troubled to heale up the wound with the balme of Gilead but go on in their worldly way at last their wiled spirits are quiet againe so they get their peace of course but alas the latent cause of their trouble watcheth but the next advantage their soule festers within and within a while they are ready to hang themselves againe 2. Other wretches in a time of trouble are like those that upon that principle Satanas per Sathanam expellitur one Devill drives out another If they be in an ague or the like will drinke hot-waters or store of sack to prevent their cold-fit and out burn nature but alas all the good comes is they fall into a burning-feaver and perhaps burne their dust to ashes So there are such profane wretches that if their conscience alarum's them if their spirit troubles them or if they meet with crosses c. think there is no way to wind out of the Devils fingers but by going into his armes and making themselves twice more the children of the Devill than they were before they must runne to the alehouse seek out drunken company drink away melancholy c. But
so he hath no company The paths in the Wildernesse are not trodden no beaten high wayes are there no company but the Owles and the Ostriches the beasts of the field and creeping things of the earth Nothing fit to be a companion for man No it is a Wildernesse 5. The Wildernesse is a disconsolate place no curiosities of nature to refresh his spirits with Terror is round about him no pleasure to delight him 6. Lastly the Wildernesse is a place voyd of all provisions There is neither bread for the hungry nor water for the thirsty soule no necessaries much lesse superfluities The expression is very apt such a Wildernesse yea many a such Wildernesse the Spouse of Christ hath had and may have her dwelling in 1. A Wildernesse of Sinne. 2. A Wildernesse of Sorrow 3. A Wildernesse of Affliction 4. A Wildernesse of Temptation 5. A Wildernesse of Desertion Nay lastly This whole life is but a wildernesse to her Shee hath been in some of these and may be in all of them but out of all Shee cometh up leaning Every one of these is the soules Wildernesse and as they come up to Christ they come up from some of them and in their walking with the Lord Christ they goe through some of them and some goe through all of them The first is Eremus peccati The Wildernesse of sinne and every soule is born in this Wildernesse Man at first created dwelt in Paradise but alas he threw himselfe out into the Wildernesse and God lockt the Garden gate against him Sinfull man perferr'd the Wildernesse before Paradise and God allots him his dwelling there There was man thrown all mankind born in it We are all Wildernesse brats by nature Ephes 2. 3. You were children of wrath by nature even as others And sinne may well be call'd a Wildernesse it is status naturalis our naturall condition We are in a Wildernesse habit when we are clothed with the raggs of iniquity Ay and it is a state as dangerous as the Wildernesse The Lion claims him in the Wildernesse as his prey and if he scapes his teeth it will be hard to escape the Cockatrice and young Lion and Adder the lesser fry of destroyers If in this sinfull naturall condition we do escape the mouth of the roaring Lion the Devill it is greatly to be feared that the Beare and the Wolfe and the Cockatrice the lesser judgments of God will swallow us up we are children of wrath as well passively as actively in a dangerous condition Lastly as the Wildernesse is a place void of all necessary provisions for the body so is sinne a state voyd of all necessary provisions for the soule We are hungry and naked and bloudy and filthy in our sinnes it is a wildernesse dresse Ezek. 16. As for thy nativity in the day that thou wert born thy navell was not cut neither wert thou washed in water to supple thee thou wert cast out in the open field Verse 5. Every spouse of the Lord Christ hath been in this Wildernesse Who is this that cometh up of this I have spoke before and therefore passe it over The second Wildernesse is Eremus contritionis The wildernesse of contrition or sorrow for sinne Every soul is naturally in the Wildernesse but every one that is in it seeth not that it is there Every soul is born blind though most think they see When God opens the soules eyes and shewes it the hell that it treads over every houre and makes the soule apprehensive of its danger it conceives it selfe in a worse Wildernesse than before the physick works the Patient thinks it is nearer death than before it took it Here it cryes out Oh I am a lost undone creature Oh whither should I goe on one side behold terror on the other side despaire If it lookes up to heaven there is an angry God if downward there is a gaping hell Oh! whither should it goe Now it cryes out with the Iaylor O what shall I doe to be saved I am lost in my sinnes I am lost in my owne righteousnesse I know not what to doe If I stay in my sinnes I perish if I go out of the world I perish Here stands the soule turning it selfe every way and seeing comfort no way till the Lord Christ bowes the heavens and thrusts out his arme of salvation his shoulder of merits and takes the soule by the hand saying Come my Beloved I will tell thee what thou shalt doe I am the way out of this wildernesse come out leaning leane thy arme of faith upon the shoulder of my merits Free grace is able to beare thee I am thy Welbeloved and thy Welbeloved is thine And ordinarily the soule when it comes to the Lord Christ comes through this wildernesse this losing place of conviction and contrition and weeps her selfe a path where she would drown in the waters of Marah if Christ did not hold her up Indeed God could have brought the Israelites a shorter Journey than through the wildernesse to Canaan and sometimes God miraculously drawes a soul to himselfe onely by the cords of mercy God is not tyed alwayes to bring a soule the same road to heaven Elijah was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot but the more ordinary way is by Jacobs ladder The common way to heaven is by the gates of hell the way to life is through the chambers of death through a wildernesse Who is this that commeth up out of the wildernesse The third Wildernesse in which Christ's Spouse may somtimes have her dwelling in is the Wildernesse of affliction bodily afflictions I meane A Wildernesse is a place full of bryars and thornes and through such a wildernesse the holy Ghost tells us lies the Saints way to heaven By much tribulation much pricking of thrones thornes in the flesh somtimes must we enter into the kingdome of God The Spouse hath a dirty way to go to marrying in and when shee is marryed she hath a dirty way home too A wildernesse on either side The Apostle speakes plain Heb. 11. 37 38. They wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skines being destitute afflicted tormented they wandred in deserts and in mountaines and in dens and in caves of the earth And who were these that wandred thus in the wildernesse They were such of whom the world was not worthy the Spouses of the Lord Christ And truely afflictions may be called a wildernesse for the disconsolacy of them too they are times of sorrow no delights please the spouse in affliction is in a wildernes 4. A fourth wildernesse that the Spouse sometimes dwells in is the wildernesse of temptations The Bridegroom himself was in this wildernesse He was led into the wildernesse to be tempted of the Devill The spirit took him thither Matth. 4. vers 1. and Paul was in this wildernesse troubled on every side this is Satans wildernesse that he leads many a poore soule into and it had been a sad wildernesse had not our
preached repentance as well because The axe was laid to the root of the tree and whatsoever tree brought not forth good fruit should be hewn down and cast into the fire as because The Kingdom of Heaven was at hand I dare not learne contrary to Christ and the Baptists Coppy I will preach Mercy and Judgment The Law and the Gospell go well together let me not be accursed for separating what God hath joyned But Lastly I conceive Wee cannot call any Repentance saving Repentance til the worke of conversion be wrought fully in our souls Nay I make a question whether any man without the grace of Assurance can properly call his Repentance saving Repentance till he comes in Heaven And for my owne part I am full in the Negative But I have digressed too farre to convince some who I feare are not so willing to suffer the word of conviction as I to speake it We left the Spouse in the second wildernesse The wildernesse of sorrow 't is time we now return to her and comfort her and shew you how she comes out of that leaning upon her Beloved Here now the beloved Soule is mourning like a Turtle and crying O whâ—â— shall I doe to be saved I am lost oh how shall I finde the way out of this wildernesse O my sins pull me back I cannot set a step forward Sin trips up my heeles The Devill tels me I am his and my sins beare witnesse to his words Now she that is not the Spouse of Christ sinkes in these mighty wateres she sinkes to hell in dispaire is quite lost if once she comes into them But he that said not one of those whom his father had given him should perish seeing the poore soule like Peter Mat. 14. 30. that thought to have trode upon those waters sinking in them and crying Lord save me or else I perish when he sees such a poore soules ship in which he is though he seemes to sleepe tost in these bitter waves when the tempest ariseth and hearing the soule in this Agony crying out Master save me or else I perish now he begins to arise and stretch out his shoulder for the soule to leane upon speakes and rebukes the winds and calmes the busie tempests when the Whale of sorrow hath sallowed up these Jonahs â—nd they are in the bottome of the Sea in the Whales belly they cry their God heares and causeth the Whale to vomit them out on the dry land Me thinks that voice of Jonah is the voice of every penitent soule Jonah 2. The soule cries by reason of her affliction unto the Lord and the Lord heares her out of the belly of hell she cryes and he heares her voice for he hath cast her into this deep into the midst of the Seas and the flouds compasse her about and all the billowes and the waves past over her Then the soule saith I am cast out of the Lords sight yet I will looke againe towards his holy Temple The waters compasse her about even to the soule the depths closed round about her the weeds were wrapt about her head she went downe to the bottome of the mountaines the earth with her barres was about her yet her Lord her God brings up her life from corruption when her soule faints within her she remembers the Lord and her prayers come unto him even into his holy place And when the soule is in this wildernesse in the deeps of sorrow then her Beloved doth throw her his shoulder of supporting grace to lean upon that she saith as David Psal 94. 17 18. Unlesse the Lord had been my help my soul had almost dwelt in silence when I said my foot slippeth thy mercy Lord held me up When the soule cryes I am drowned Then the Lords mercy holds her up No saith God thou art not drowned here is a cord of mercy for thee to lay hold upon and I will draw thee out by it Here is my hand be still O ye waves this soule is mine When the soule is burthened with sins laden with the sense of them and in the sad apprehension of them cryes out my burthen is too great for me to beare I sinke I sinke under it then Christ looks out of the heavens and sayes Cast thy burthen upon the Lord man and he shall sustaine thee or Psal 55. 22. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Mat. 11. 29. The supporting grace of God is the Anchor of the soule which staies the Ship of the soule when a tempest of sorrow arises the waves beat upon it Now this Anchor hath two flukes The first is her Beloveds mercies and merits The second is her Beloveds promises When she is in this sad wildernesse of sorrow her Beloved gives her a staffe of merits and mercy and free grace to leane upon and a clue of promises to lead her out of this Labyrinth and the mercies and merits of her Beloved have two hooks both which take fast hold to stay her soule 1. The fulnesse of them 2. The freenesse of them First the fulnesse of them The soule cries out O I am damned Christ suggests to her But didst thou never heare of one that came to save those which were in their owne apprehension damned I deserve to dye everlastingly saith the soule oh but did not he dye for thee that deserved to live everlastingly saith Christ I deserve infinite torments saith the soule Oh! but are not â—hy Christs mercies infinite mercies saith God Thy mercy held me up My sinnes have cryed up to heaven saith the soule O but my mercies are above the heavens saith Christ Psal 108. 5. My sins are more in number than the haires of my head saith the soul but my mercies saith Christ are more in number than the sand which lyes on the Sea shore Psal 139. 17 18. My sins have abounded saith the soule but my grace hath much more abounded saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5. 20. O but my heart is as hard as Iron and the face of my sinnes like Brasse saith the soule but that God that made the Leviathan is as strong as the Leviathan He esteemes Iron as straw and Brasse as rotten wood My sinnes are many saith the soule but were their name Legion saith Christ I could cast them out O but I am an old sinner I have a mountaine of sinnes But my mercies are from everlasting saith Christ so are not thy sinnes and I came to levell Mountaines Luke 3. 4. The more old thou art the more glory shall my free grace have all the world shall see I doe not pardon thee for any service thou canst or wilt doe me thou must ere long lye downe in the grave Thus the soule in this wildernesse of sorrow leanes upon the fulnesse of Gods mercies But secondly there must be freenesse as well as fulnesse or else what hath the soule to doe with Christ O saith the soule I
selfe Deniall I rejoyce to see the flowings of the spirit of grace in those eminent Servants of the Lord that have both hunted for venison and caught it to make savory meat for the Saints discovering those secrets of the Lords strength and unsearchable riches of love beyond the pennes or tongues of those that have gone before them But methinkes I have sometimes feared lest while those Eminent ones have driven according to the peace of their own soules and made it their work almost onely to dresse out the strong meat they should have driven beyond the pace of the Lambs and onely go away with part of the flock who are able to receive and have eares to heare such sublime gospell mysteries I have sometimes wished a Shepard or Hooker or two more to stay behind and to drive the remnant of the flock which in heaven will overtake the other though there be many things to be spoken which without over driving them they are not yet able to beare I being one borne out of due time am onely fit for such a work the opening the Rudiments of Christianity and it shall be my crowne if by teaching the A B C of the wayes of grace I may be made instrumentall but to fit Saints for their highschooles I have presumed here to present your Honour with the first Lesson of Grace He that will be my disciple saith Christ let him deny himselfe and take up the crosse and follow me first deny himself then follow me Not but that I hope your Ladiship can readily endorse this sermon with that speech of the young man All these have I kept from my youth Though I need not mind your Honour that it is a lif 's not a dayes practice Madam there can be no Mistresse like Experience which easily convinceth me that your Ladiship who have had a constant sight of sublunary vanities an enjoyment of creature-contentments is farre more able to read him who now writes a lecture of the Vanity of every thing under the Sun than he is to read it your Ladiship who hath been blest in the want of those advantages and onely from a guesse at the body by the foot can subscribe Solomons account of them surely Madam there is nothing under the Sun but in cleaving to it and neglecting Christ a rationall creature must dishonour himselfe as well as his Saviour and as well call in question his own judgement and out-law his owne reason as disobey his God Christ Madam Ah! Christ Christ alone is the excelling one that is Altogether desires It is the Rose of Sharon only that wants prickles His name is the onely box of Ointment which one fly or other will not make to stinke And now I mention his name I remember what the spouse saith Thy name is an ointment powerd forth therefore doe the Virgines love thee Of those Virgines I trust your Ladiship is those that love Christ for the ointment of his name powred forth so I trust hath the Ointment of grace powred upon that head from which you drew your naturall breath ran downe to the skirts of all her Relations Madam This world is not so well bred but in Christs wayes if your Ladiship desire to walk you must expect to be a sharer in the scoffs of those that put out the finger at those that run not with them to the same excesse of Riot I need not mind your Ladiship of the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ who patiently endured the crosse and despised the shame for your sake Madam the wayes of Christ the paths of holinesse are onely uncomely to those before whose eyes the Devill hath cast a mist and the God of this world hath blinded their eyes lest the glorious light of of the gospell should shine upon them If the King desires our beauty no matter whether our rate be high or low amongst the children of Vanity whose God is their Belly and whose glory is their shame May your Ladiship strive after perfection and yet daunce before the Ark though Michal mocks out at the window The Moone keeps its course though the dogs bark This Sermon Madam was formerly dedicated to your Ladiships eares I never thought then that the noise of it should have gone beyond the chappell it was preacht in nor indeed had it had not your Ladiships noble Mother commanded the transcription of a coppy which desire was also seconded by other Noble friends whose commands I was as unwilling to disobey as unable to performe through my multitude of other occasions which is the only reason of my publication of it that I might be thrifty of my time for my other studies and by troubling the world worke my own ease Having resolved upon this course I was desirous it should appeare as covertly as might be and have therefore added it to some other Sermons preacht long before then sent to the presse to gratify the desire of the Printer Madam your Ladiship I trust will easily excuse me for the want of paines in it If I should spend time to tickle some few ears it would be unthriftily done and possibly I might by it lose the advantage of speaking to many anothers heart I had rather so preach and write that those that heare or read my sermons should read and heare with a trembling heart than with a tickled fancy Madam Such as it is I crave leave to present it to your Ladiship Beseeching the God of grace so to empower every line that it may be a drop of mercy to your Honours and every Readers soule That your Ladiship may grow up like the tree planted by the rivers of water and bring forth fruit in your season That in the renewing of every week there may appeare in your Ladiships heart conversation an answer of those old prayers newly returned to your Ladiships Noble Parent That the Lord may have glory your soule peace and hee the dayly answer of his prayers who truely is Madam Your Honours most humbly obliged servant in the Lord Jesus John Collings Chaplyfield house Aug 21. 1649. A LESSON OF Self-Denyall Psal 45. 10 11. Hearken O daughter and consider and encline thine eare Forget also thy own people and thy Fathers house so shall the King desire thy beauty IT is agreed almost amongst all Expositors that this Psalme is a Marriage-Song and principally relating to the spirituall marriage between Jesus Christ and the beleeving soule or between Christ and his Church But there is a little question amongst them whether the spirituall sense of it be couched under a type or an Allegory Some thinke that the Holy Ghost here treates of that spirituall marriage under the type of Solomons marriage to Pharaohs daughter of which wee read 1 King 3. 11. Of this opinion saith D. Rivet are D. Rivet Pref. in hunc Psalmum the Hebrew Interpreters and most others as Calvin Bucer Junius Jansenius c. yet these grant that there are some things in the Psalme not
particulars as briefely as I can The soule must forget the manners of its Fathers house Our Fathers house ever since God and hee parted houses in Paradise is an house of ill manners an house of sinne and wickednesse Now every soule that would make it selfe beautions or desireable in the sight of Christs eyes must shake hands with sin Is 55. 7. Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and unto our God and he will abundantly pardon him ay then the King shall desire his beauty but first let him forget the manners of his Fathers house All sinne must bee forgotten But I take it especially foure sorts of sinnes are hinted to us in this Phrase and may more properly be called the sinnes of our Fathers house 1. Originall sinne If we have any thing of Grace or Goodnesse wee never learn'd that at home It is the gift of God through the tutoring of the Spirit But for Sinne wee need not goe abroad to learne that it was bred in the bone that 's one reason why it will never out of the flesh Ez. 16. Thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother an Hittite We are chilnren of wrath by nature Ephes 2. 3. Psal 51. 4. In sinne did my mother conceive me Now this must be forgotten this is a piece of our Fathers house Men and Women you know are usually borne in their Fathers House We are all borne in the house of bondage which must be forgotten if ever the soule be desireable to Jesus Christ It is a usuall saying of Divines that he that was never truely humbled for Originall sinne was never truely humbled for any sinne 2. The sinnes of our Education The Fathers house is the house where the Childe is brought up All sinne is not bred in us that which is bred in us may bee improved Originall sinne is sinne in the seed Actuall sinne is sinne in the Blade and Fruit. The World is a dusty house you can set a Creature in never a corner of it but it will contract some dust Joseph by being in the King of Egypts house learn'd to sweare by his Masters life According to different breedings are men addicted to different Vanities whether pleasure or honour c. Now when the soul comes unto Christ he must come off these he must forget his Fathers house all his vaine sinfull breeding and all the filth his soule hath contracted by reason of it 3. Sinnes of Conversation and company The Fathers house and the company of it is the childs company those of his Fathers house are his owne people It is true as well for Religion as any thing else Magni refert quibuscum convixeris It is a great matter with whom we converse from accompanying with vaine persons thou shalt learne to bee vaine Cum lupis ululare When the soule comes to Christ it must leave all sins thus contracted they are part of the manders of the Fathers House Paul left his Pharisaisme that he had learnt at Gamaliels feet 4. Customary sinnes must bee left The Child learnes customes in his Fathers House Customary sinning must be left of that soule that would render it selfe for beauty desireable to Jesus Christ Those sinnes which are to the soule as the Leopards spot and the blacknes of the blackamores skinne Inded this is hard Custome hatcheth a second nature Jer. 13. 23. How can you that are accustomed to doe evill do well Yet it must bee done the Fathers house must be forgotten ill customes must be laid aside or good ones wil not be taken up 5. Beloved sinnes must be left Every thing of the Fathers House almost is deare to the child But the dearest sinne must bee shaken hands with Matth. 18. 9. If it bee a right hand it must be cut off if a right eye it must be pluckt out Our Members must be Mortified Col. 3. 5. Thus the maners of our Fathers house must be forgotten All sinnes but especially these sinnes I proceed now Secondly The soule must forget the Company of us Fathers house What is that you will say I will answer you in two particulars 1. Our most near and dearest Relations See Luke 14. 26. If a man commeth to me saith Christ and hateth not Father and Mother and Children and Brethren and Wife and Sisters yea and his own life also he is not worthy of mee He shall not bee so beautifull not so beautifull as that the King shall desire his beauty As it was said Levi did in another sense so must the Saint doe in some sense He must say unto his Father and to his Mother I have not seen him neither must hee acknowledge his Brethren nor know his owne children Otherwise he will never have Levie's Character to bee one that observeth the Lords Word and keeps his Covenant Not that Religion teacheth or commandeth or indureth a Saint to break the tyes of all Religion No besides that it doth not discharge a Saint of his Duty of Nature it puts in a Plea also against such unnaturalnesse Honour thy Father and Mother c. is the fifth Commandement the first with promise saith the Apostle neither doth it allow a Saint to rob his parents of their due with saying Corban it is a gift The Ravens of the valleys shall picke out the eyes of such persons as well as the Devill hath done of their Religion Neither doth it discharge a Saint of his providentiall duty and respect to his relation Hee that provides not for his Family is worse than an Infidell 1. In point of due honour 2. In point of naturall affection 3. In point of Providentiall care Wee must not forget the Company of our Fathers House Gods Commands doe not enterfiere nor will the Gospell in that case give a supersedeas to the Law But 1. if God and they draw severall wayes if the Parents commands crosse Gods then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is better to obey God than men The Parent is to command for God not against him subordinately not supremely he must be obeyed for Gods sake and God too for his sake as by his command he seconds God but Parents can as little yea less discharge the child of its duty to God than the Pope can discharge the Subject of his Allegiance to his Prince 2. If their love becken us out of the way when God calls us or would intice us to make halts in our running through fire and water to him then wee must forget them I have somewhere met with a Speech of St. Hierome to that purpose Saith hee If the Lord Christ should call me to him though my Father should lye in my way and my Mother should hang about my neck I would goe over my Father and shake off my Mother and runne to my Christ Shetterden a Martyr as it is storied of him writ to his Mother thus Dear Mother imbrace the Counsell of
doe it hee hath spoke it and shall hee not bring it to passe and upon such like considerations thy spirit begins to bee composed and to returne to its rest This is likewise a gospell-peace a true made right bred peace This was likewise something which the Church cald to mind from whence shee had peace Lam. 3. 31 32 33. The Lord will not cast off for ever though he cause griefe yet wil hee have compassion c. Shee lived upon the reversions of his love by vertue of his faithfulnesse that stood bound for the fulfilling it In short bee it from these particulars or any of the like nature if thy peace be hatched up in thy soule from a due consideration and application of the nature of God as hee hath revealed himselfe in his word it is a true Gospell peace a peace of Christs making in thy soul 3. If the peace that ariseth in thy soule ariseth from a due meditation and a believing application of any thing that Christ hath done or suffred for thee it is a true peace if it arise from a meditation of Christ dying for thee and washing thee with his bloud from Gods accepting thy soule in Christ this is true peace As suppose that thou art under some heavy burthen of spirit in respect of some outward crosses and trialls and now thou sitt'st down and thinkest well yet my sinnes are pardoned yet my soule is washed with the bloud of sprinkling yet the Lord hath accepted mee in his well-beloved why should I bee troubled this is a blessed peace Eccles 9. 7. Go thy way eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy work The Lord commands us to be at peace if we be at peace upon this account Rejoyce saith Christ that your names are written in the book of life Or if thy soule be troubled under the sense of thy sinnes and thou knowest not what to doe at last thou resolvest to cast thy selfe upon a promise to venture in upon Christ saying If I perish I perish and hence thou hast peace this is a true Gospell-peace of spirit In short if it be upon the consideration and application to thy selfe of any thing Christ hath done it is true peace Suppose thou hast some grievous affliction befallen thee thou art afflicted in thy body or in thy estate or in thy relations and this is a sad trouble to thee but now thou sittest downe and thinkest with thy selfe why should I bee thus troubled hath not Christ taken out the sting of this crosse hath it any poyson in it is it not a meere fatherly chastisement hath not Christ overcome the world and upon the due consideration of these things and believing application of such meditations thou findest a quiet secretly steale upon thy soule and thy spirit is becalmed this is a sweet peace a peace of Christ's concluding in thy soule this is according to Christ's rule Bee of good cheare I have overcome the world A fourth note by which thou mayest judge thy peace is this If it bee a peace concluded upon thy former experiences then is it a true peace such was Davids peace Psal 119. 52. I remembred thy judgements of old O Lord and I comforted my selfe David many a time made peace with his spirit this way looking over the old records of mercies and concluding confidently from the past or present mercy to the future Psal 116. 7. Returne to thy rest O my soule for God hath dealt graciously with thee If upon this account thou commandest thy soule to rest because the Lord hath dealt graciously with thee it is a signe the peace of thy spirit is right made The Psalmist whosoever hee was whether Asaph or David that composed that 77 Psal when hee could find peace no way he took this course he went and look't over the old records for it Psal 77. 11 12. It may be thou art under heavy burthens in respect of manifold corruptions or manifold temptations or in respect of some crosses and afflictions that are befallen to thee in this world or thou hast been troubled for some such thing and nothing would comfort thee But at last it came in thy mind the Lord hath delivered mee in many a strait I have seen mercy in many a judgement I have felt his upholding power many a time when I was even sinking and saying my hope is cut off from before the Lord why should I distrust him now why should not that God that hath delivered me in six troubles keep mee in the seventh also that it should not hurt me well I will trust in him c. This peace now is a true peace this is a peace of Christs making in the soul Fiftly If faith be a commissioner on thy soules part in making thy peace thou mayest then know it is a true peace Such was Davids peace Psal 27. 13. I had fainted unlesse I had believed to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living his believing kept him from faintings and settled his soule How is thy peace handed to thy soule Christian is it handed by faith is faith the Dove that thou sendest out of the Arke of thy soule when the waters of trouble are high and doth that returne with the olive branch in her mouth Open the windowes of thy soule and let it in never doubt but it is an olive branch of peace Is it a believing a trusting in the Lords providence or promise a believing a closing with God that works out thy peace feare not thy peace feare not any newes for not being good if faith brings it to thy soule faith seeth God sealing before it seales to thee Let that be a fifth note of triall I will adde but a Sixth Lastly Peace after prayer is ordinarily true peace It is not earned by prayer but it is usually a fruit that groweth upon that root and if thine be such rejoyce in it Such was Hannah's peace 1 Sam. 1. 15. 18. Hannah was a woman as shee reports her selfe of a troubled spirit shee goes and powres out her soule before the Lord and the words say her countenance was no more sad no shee had peace her prayer was answered shee had true peace Indeed any temple-peace is true peace any peace that the soule truly extracts out of ordinances is true peace David when he was so unreasonably troubled with that temptation Psal 73. of the wickeds prosperity at last hee goes into the Sanctuary there his soule was stayed Psal 73. 17. Wouldst thou know then whether thy peace be true or no whether it be Christs peace yea or no such a peace as thy soule may trust yea or no and not in thy peace have great bitternesse examine thy peace whence it came examine thy selfe how thou camest by it didst thou in trouble go and powre out thy soule before the Lord and crie mightily to him wrestle with him c. Didst thou wait upon