Library of the Theological Seminary PRINCETON » NEW JERSEY Donation of John M. Krebs 1860 BV4500 .Ct8 1845 Gurnail, William, 1617-1679. Christian in complete armour : or, A treati Ihe saints' war wiih ihs dt^v^l vvhsrein a di. THE CHRISTIAN IN COMPLETE ARMOUR; OR, A TREATISE ON • WHEREIN A DISCOVERY IS MADE OF THE POLICY, POWER, WICKEDNESS, AND STRATAGEMS, MADE USE OF BY THAT ENEMY OF GOD AND HIS PEOPLE. A MAGAZINE OPENED, FllOM WHENCE THE CHRISTIAN IS FURNISHED WITH SPIRITUAL ARMS FOR THE BATTLE, ASSISTED IN BUCKLING ON HIS ARMOUR, AND TAUGHT THE USE OF HIS WEAPONS; TOGETHEU WITH THE HAPPY ISSUE OF THE WHOLE WAR. > BY WILLIAM GURNALL, A.M., FOIIMERLY OF LAVENIIAM, SUFFOLK. CAREFITLLY REVISED AND CORRECTKD BY THE REV. JOHN CAMPBELL, D. D. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE; R. GRIFFIN AND CO., GLASGOW; T. LE MESURIER, DUBLIN; ALSO, J. AND S. A. TEGG SYDNEY AND HOBART TOWN. MDCCCXLV. TYLER & REED, PRINTERS, BOLT- COURT, FLEET-STREET. CONTENTS. 'finally, my BRETIIRK^f, BE STIIONG IN THE LORD, AND IN THE rOWER OF HIS MIGHT.' EpH. vi. 10. I. Of Christian courage and resolution, wherefore necessary, and how obtained . . . . .2 II. Of the saints' strength, where it lies, and wherefore laid up in God . . . . . . 7 III. Of acting our faith on the almighty power of God . ■ .12 IV. Of acting our faith on the almighty power of God, as engaged for our help . . . . .14 V. Wherein is answered a grand objection, which some disconsolate souls may raise against the former discourse . . . 21 'put on the whole armour of god.' — Ver. 11. 1. Sheweth that the Christless and graceless soul is a soul without armour, and therein his misery . . .27 II. Sheweth that the armour that we use against Satan, must be divine in the institution, such only as God appoints . . 30 III. Sheweth that the armour we use for our defence against Satan nmst not only be divine by institution, but constitution also . 33 IV. Of the entireness of our furniture ; it must be the whole armour of God . . . . . .36 V. Of the use of our spiritual armour, or the exercise of grace . 40 ' that ye may be able to stand against the WILES OF the devil.' —Ver. 11. I. Of Satan's subtlety, to choose out the most advantageous seasons for tempting . . . . .46 II. Satan's subtlety in managing his temptations, where several stratagems used by him to deceive the Christian are laid down 48 III. Of Satan's subtlety in choosing instruments fit for his turn, to carry on his tempting design . . . .51 IV. This point of Satan's swbtlety, as a tempter to sin, is briefly applied . . . . . .64 V. Wherein is shewed the subtlety of Satan, as a troubler and an accuser for sin, where many of his wiles and policies to dis- quiet the saints' spirits are discovered . . . 56 VI. A brief application of the second branch of the point, viz., of Satan's subtlety as a troubler and accuser for sin . . 62 VII. Containing some directions tending to entrench and fortify the Christian against the assaults and wiles of the Devil, as a troubler . . . . .63 • CONTENTS. CHAP. PA«E VIII. Of the saints' victory over their subtle enemy, and whence it is that creatures so over-matched should be able to stand against Satan's wiles . . . . . 68 IX. An account is given, how the all-wise God doth out-wit the devil in his tempting of saints to sin, wherein are laid down the ends Satan propounds, and how he is prevented in all, with the gracious issue that God puts to these his temptations 70 X. A brief application of the point in two branches . . 75 'for we wrestle not against FtESH AND ELOOD,' &C. VcT. 12. I. Sheweth the Christian life here to be a continual wrestling with sin and Satan ; and the paucity of those who are true wrestlers, as also how the true wrestlers should manage their combat . 77 II. Wherein is shewed what is meant by flesh and blood, how the Christian doth not, and how he doth, wrestle against the same 84 III. Wherein is shewn what a principality Satan hath, how he came to be such a prince, and how we may know whether we be under him as our prince or not . . .89 IV, Of the great power Satan hath, not only over the elementary and sensitive part of the world, but intellectual also, the souls of men . . . . . . 97 V. Of the time when, the place where, and the subjects whom Satan rules . . . . . .103 VI. Of the spirituality of the devil's nature, and their extreme wickedness . . . . . . 124 VII. Of Satan's plot to defile the Christian's spirit with heart-sins. — • The second point follows . . . ,129 VIII. How Satan labours to corrupt the Christian's mind with error . 132 IX. Of pride of gifts, and how Satan tempts the Christian thereto . 135 X. Of pride of grace ..... 141 xl. The third kind of spiritual pride, viz., pride of privileges . 148 xti. Sheweth what the prize is which believers wrestle against these principalities, powers, spiritual wickednesses for, in high places . . . . . . 151 XIII. An exhortation to the pursuit of heaven and heavenly things . 158 'wherefore TAKE UNTO YOU THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD.' Ver. 1-3. I. The reason why the apostle renews the same exhortation ; and also what truths ministers are often to preach to their people 163 II. The best of saints subject to decline in their graces, and why we are to endeavour a recoverj' of decays in grace . .165 III. A cautionary direction from what we may not, as also from what we may judge, our graces to be in a declination . . 166 IV. A word of counsel for the recovery of declining grace . .169 V, The words opened, and what is meant by the evil day: "That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done, " &c. 1 72 VI. Sheweth that the day of afHiction is evil, and in what respects ; as also unavoidable; and why to be prepared for , .173 VII. The application of the point . . . . 178 VI II. The second argument with which the exhortation is pressed, drawn from the assured victory which shall crown the soul's conflict if in this armour, where several points couched in the argument are brieflj^ handled . . .183 'stand THEREFORE.' Vcr. 14. I. Wherein is briefly shewed the necessity of resisting Satan's temptations, with the danger of yielding to them . .196 CONTENTS. V CHAP. PAGE II. Wherein is shewed, what it is for a Christian to stand in order, together with his duty in this particuUir, and the danger of stragglers from tlieir own place . . .198 III. Wlierein is contained the third and last importance of the word "stand," and the Christian's dntj' of standing on his watch spoken to; why he is to watch, and how he should . . 203 ' HAVING YOL'R LOINS GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH.' VcT. 14. I. A brief explication of the words . . . 207 II. Wherein is shewn, it is the Christian's duty to labour for a judg- ment established in the truth, with the reasons of it; as also some application of the point . . . . 208 III. Some directions for the establishing the judgment of professors in the truth . . . . .213 IV. Wherein is contained the second way of having our loins girt with truth, viz., so as to make a free and bold profession of it; and why this is our duty ; and a short exhortation to it .216 V. A direction or two fur the girding of truth close to us in the pro- fession of it . . • . •. . 220 VI. Of the second kind of truth: truth of heart, or sincerity, with the kinds of it ; and in particular, of moral uprightness, toge- ther with its deficiency ; and a double caution about this ; the one to the saints, the other to the morally upright person . 226 VII. Of evangelical or godly sincerity, what it is, and what uncome- liness this girdle covers, as also how it covers them . . 229 VIII. An account why sincerity covers the saints' uncomeliness . 236 IX. Of the odious nature of hypocrisy, and hatefulness of it to God 240 X. Where all are stirred uj) to put themselves upon the trial, whether sincere or not; three arguments used to provoke to the work ; and four false characters, by which the hypocrite flatters himself into a conceit of being upright . . 246 XI. The weak grounds whereby tempted souls argue against their own uprightness ..... 2.50 XII. Four chai'acters of truth of heart, or sincerity . . . 254 XIII. A word of direction to those who, upon trial, are foimd unsound and false-hearted . ... . 261 XIV. An exhortation to those who, upon trial, are found to be true in heart, or sincere, to wear this belt close girt to them in the daily exercises of it ; with directions for that 2:)urpose . . 264 XV. Counsel and comfort to those who are sincere, but drooping, doubting soids, who neither are condemned absolutely in their consciences for hypocrites, nor fully absolved from the sus- picion of it in their own thoughts . . . 272 XVI. Wherein the second reason of the metaphor is opened ; why sincerity is set out by the soldier's belt; viz., from the esta- blishing and strengtliening nature of this grace, particularly of a preserving strength it hath ; with some special seasons wherein the hypocrite falls off . . . 277 xvii. Of a recovering strength that sincerity hath, and whence . 280 xviii. Of a supporting and comforting projjcrty sincerity hath shewn in several particular instances . . . . 282 xix. A brief applicatory improvement of the point, both in general and particular branches also . . . 288 'and having on the BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.' Vcr. 14. I. Contains the explication of the words . , , 291 II. A short point from the connexion of this j)iecc of armour with the first ; righteousness with truth . . . 294 ,.• CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE HI. Wherein the grand point from tlie word is laid down, that the Christian's especial care should be to keep on his breastplate, ^, e. maintain the power of holiness in his conversation ; with the first reason of the point taken from God ; his design as to this . . . . . .295 IV. The second reason why the Christian should wear this breast- plate of righteousness, and maintain the power of holiness so carefully taken from Satan's great design against it . . 299 V. The third reason, taken from the excellency of righteousness and holiness ..... 301 VI. Contains the first instance, wherein the Christian is to express the power of holiness, and that is in his behaviour towards sin ; branched into several pai'ticulars . . . 306 VII. A second instance, wherein the power of holiness is to appear in the Christian's life, i.e., in the duties of God's worship . . 309 VIII. A third instance, wherein the power of holiness must appear, and that is in the Christian's worldly employments . .312 IX. Of expressing the power of holiness, in and to our family relations . . . . . , 314 x. Of exercising the power of holiness in our carriage to our neighbours without doors . . . .318 XI. Contains nine or ten dii-ections towards the helping those that desire to maintain the power of a holy, righteous conversation 320 XII. Wherein the first policy or stratagem of Satan is defeated, which he useth to make the Christian throw away his breastplate of righteousness, as that which hinders the pleasure of his life • . . . . . 327 xin. Wherein is defeated Satan's second wile, by which he would cheat the Christian of his breastplate, presenting it as prejudicial to his worldly profits ... . . 331 XIV. Wherein is defeated the third stratagem Satan useth to disarm the Christian of his breastplate ; and that is by scaring him with the contradiction, opposition, and feud, from the world it brings . . . . . . 333 XV. Contains two uses of the point .... 335 XVI. An exhortation to the saints, in three branches . . . 340 ' AND YOUR FEET SHOD WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE.' — Ver. 15. I. Wherein the gladsome news that the Gospel brings is declared from five particulars, requisite to fill up the joyfvdness of a message ; with a word to stir up our bowels in pitying those that never heard any of this news . . . 344 II. A lamentation for the unkind welcome that Gospel news finds in the world, with two or three sad grounds of fear, as to us in this nation ; taken from the present entertainment the Gospel hath amoug us, with a double exhortation to the Saints to rejoice in this joyous message, and chiefly in this . 347 III. A fourfold peace attributed to the Gospel, and in particular, peace of reconciliation, where it is proved there is a quarrel betwixt God and man ; as also that the Gospel can only take it up ; and why God thus laid the method of man's recovery so 352 IV. A more particular account why God reconciled sinners to himself by Christ . . . . . .356 V. An exhortation to embrace this peace of reconciliation, offered in the Gospel . . . . . , 360 VI. Four directions by way of counsel to sinners, yet in an imre- conciled state, how they may be at peace with God . 365 CONTENTS. Vll CHAP. VII. XVII. XVIII. An exhortation to sucli as are at peace with God, in six particvilars ..... That peace of conscience is a blessing to be obtained from the Gospel, and only the Gospel, with a double demonstration thereof . . . . . . A reproof to three sorts of persons that offend against this peace which the Gospel brings .... Where we have a trial of our peace from four characters of Gospel peace or comfort , . . . That the Gospel alone can unite the hearts of men together in true peace, and how the Gosjjel doth it . Wherein is shewn the difference between the peace that is among saints, and which is among the wicked, the greatness of their sin, who are ministers of peace, and yet stir up strife, and the reason why there is no more peace and unity among saints in this life. . . . . . . An exhortation to the saints to maintain peace among them- selves, and promote it to their utmost, from three arguments . The duty of a Christian to stand shod with a heart prepared for all sufferings, with one reason of the point The second reason of the point taken from the excellency of this frame of spirit . . . . . . The number of true Christians but little, shewn from this readi- ness to suffer, that is required in every Christian, more or less ; with an exhortation to the duty, from two arguments . Six directions for the helping on of this Spii'itual shoe Sheweth who is the person that is shod and prepared for suffer- ings, i. e., he that hath the Gospel's peace in his bosom, and how this peace doth prepare for suffering ; with a brief appli- cation of all . 370 373 379 384 388 392 394 401 407 410 413 417 ' ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH, WHEREBY YE SHALL BE ABLE TO QUENCH THE FIERY DARTS OF THE WICKED.' Ver. 16. VI. VII. VIII. IX. The explication of the words in a fourfold inquiry . . 424 Sheweth the pre-eminence of faith above other graces, in four particulars . . . , . . Sheweth imbelief to have the precedency among sins, as faith among gi-aces .... Some arguments to make us serious in the trial of our faith, with one direction taken from the manner of the Spirit's working faith ..... Where our faith is put upon trial by its obedience, with some particular characters that faith's obedience is stamped with . Two properties of faith : it is prayerful, and uniform in its acting 449 An exhortation to all in a state of unbelief, to endeavour for faith, with one direction toward the attaining of it . Contains a second direction for the obtaining faith Containing three directions more towards the obtaining faith An exhortation to believers, above all to look to their faith, with some directions for the preserving it . Sheweth, it is the duty of a Christian to own the grace of God in him, and not deny it; with the resolution of some scruples, with which weak saints dispute against the truth of their own faith . . . . . . The saint's enemy described, with his warlike provision, fiery darts, and what they are .... The fiery nature of Satan's enticing temptations, witli faith's power to quench them . . . . . 473 431 439 .441 446 453 456 458 462 470 474 •:• CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE XIV. How faith quenclieth the hists of the flesh, hists of the eye, and pride of life . . . . . . 479 XV. Sheweth the difference between faith's conquests over the world by quenching the fiery darts shot from it, and that victory which some of the better heathens attained to; as also a trial of our faith propounded by this power to quench Satan's enticing temptations, more or less . . . . 483 XVI. An objection against believing answered; and some directions how to use this shield to quench enticing temptations . 485 XVII. Of the second sort of temptations, that are more affrighting, and how faith quencheth these darts in particular temptations to Atheism, which is overcome, not by reason, but by faith . 488 XVIII. Of temptations to blasphemy, and how faith quencheth them, and defeats Satan's double design . . . . 491 XIX. The third fiery dart of despair, and the "hief argument which Satan urgeth most upon souls, to drive them into it (taken from the greatness of sin), refuted; as also the first answer with which faith furnisheth the soul for this purpose . 497 XX. Faith's second answer to Satan's argument, taken from the greatness of sin, to drive the soul to despair, where faith oppo- seth the greatness of the promises against the greatness of the soul's sin . . . . 504 XXI. Faith's third answer to Satan's arguments, urging the soul to despair, where faith opposeth the greatness of this one sin of despair, to the greatness of the rest . . . 508 'and take the helmet of salvation.' — Ver. 17 I. Wherein the concatenation of graces, in their birth, growth, and decay, is set forth . . . . .512 II. Of the nature of hope, why styled hope of salvation, and why compared to a helmet . . . . . 514 HI. Of the use of hope in the Christian's warfare, and of the high and noble exploits it raiseth the Christian to undertake . 517 IV. Sheweth how hope makes the Christian content with and faith- ful in the meanest place and lowest employment that God orders for him ..... 522 V, Sheweth the mighty influence hope hath upon the Christian, to support him in his afflictions ; in particular, what help it gives, and how . . . . . . 523 VI. Wherein is shewn that God stays long before he performs some promises, and that it is hope's office then to keep the Christian in a waiting posture . . . 527 VII. Sheweth a threefold assurance which hope gives the Christian, and thereby quiets him in waiting for the performance of promises when God stays long . . . 530 VIII. A trial of what metal our helmet of hope is made . . 537 IX. Two duties pressed upon those, who, upon trial, find this grace of hope in them . . . - . 539 X. Several instances wherein the Christian should comport with, and live up to his hopes .... 540 XI. An exhortation to strengthen hope, pressed from three argu- ments . . . . . . 544 XII. Wherein is contained six directions, how the Christian may get hope strengthened ..... 547 XIII. An objection answered; with two or three reflections useful for our improving experience . . . . 553 XIV. An exhortation to them that want this helmet of hope . . 55G CONTKNJS. jj^ 'and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of god.' — Ver. 17. CHAP. PAGE I. Two notes observed in general from the words, and briefly touched upon . . . . ' . 559 II. What is here meant by the word of God . . . 561 m. The divinity of the Scripture shewn, and the sufficiency of its own testimony to prove tlie same . . . 562 IV. An argimient for the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures, drawn from their antiquity and the sincerity of the penmen thereof. 5G3 v. The Divinity of the Scriptures demonstrated from the prophetic part in it . . . . . . 565 VI. The Divine extraction of tlie Scripture evident in its doctrinal part . ..... 567 VII. The Divinity of tlie ScriptiU'c proved from its preceptive part . 567 vni. The heart-searching property of the Scriptiu-es . . . 570 IX. The property of the word to awaken and terrify the conscience . 571 X. The comforting property of the word to bleeding consciences . 572 XI. The converting power of the word . . . 573 XII. Why the word of God is called the sword of tlie Spirit, and from it the point raised . . . . . . 576 XIII. Wherein is shewn how the persecutors of God's truth and church are conquered by this sword .... 577 XIV. Wherein it is shewn how victorious a sword over the seducer and heretic the word of God is . . . . 579 XV. Our third enemy made up of an army of corruptions and lusts within, and the power of this sword of the Spirit to conquer them . . . . . . .581 XVI. The fourth and last enemy the Christian engageth, made up of many troops of afflictions, together with his victory over them, obtained by tliis sword of the word . . . . 583 XVII. The Church of Rome charged of liigh presumption and great cruelty in disarming the jieople of this sword of the Scriptures 584 XVIII. Against the same Church of Rome, for imputing insufficiency to the Scriptures ..... 586 XIX. Sheweth the great wickedness of those who lift up this sword in defence of any sin . . . . . 586 XX. An exliortation to thankfulness for this sword of the word, whereby we are enabled to stand on our defence against our greatest enemies ... . . 58/ xxi. An exhortation to the study of the word . . . 590 XXII. Several carnal shifts and objections that some bring to excuse them from the study of the Scriptures removed . . 592 XXIII. Coiitaiiieth four directions to the Christian in the use of this sword for his defence against the first enemy, the persecutor 595 XXIV. Directions to the Christian how to make use of the sword of the word for his defence against errors and seducers . . 599 XXV. Directions how to use this sword for cutting down and conquer- ing the lusts in our own bosoms, and temptations to sin from without ...... 603 XXVI. Some Scripture answers, fitted to the common arguments of the tempter, with which he usually enticeth to .sin, are here brought to the Christian's hand for liis defence . . , 607 xxvii. Two directions more, how to use the word for our defence against temptations to sin . . . .611 ;xviii. How the Christian may use tin- sword of the word for his de- fence in any affiiction, and a direction towards it . .613 XXIX. Five directions more upon the same account . • . 616 XXX. The whole discourse on this piece, shut up with an exhortation to ministers, to whom this sword is especially committed . 620 CONTENTS. PRAYING ALWAYS WITH ALL PRAYER AND .SUPPLICATION IN THE SPIRIT, AND WATCHING THEREUNTO WITH ALL PERSEVERANCE AND SUPPLICATION FOR ALL SAINTS.'— Ver. 18. CHAP. PAGE VI. VII. VIII. IX. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIV. XXV. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII. XXXVIII, Prayer's usefulness and necessity for the saint's defence in his warfare shewn, and one reason given of the point . The influence prayer hath on all the graces of a saint, shewn . Prayers' prevalency with God, the third reason given The question answered, Why God requires prayer for that which he hath promised before to give . A sharp reproof to all prayerless sovils ; with the dismal state that such are in, shewn ... . . An exhortation to the saints that they abound in this duty Two stratagems whereby Satan labours to keep the weak Chris- tian from the duty of prayer ..... Satan's policy to keep a soul from this duty, upon a pretence of present indispo.sition of body . . . . The same upon indisposition of heart The same to start some worldly business, to be dispatched in the hour of prayer, repelled ..... The same, to discourage from it under pretence that the mercies he would beg are too great .... The same to interrupt in prayer by wandering thoughts Contains the first cause of roving thoughts in prayer Contains the second cause of wandering thoughts in prayer Contains a third cause of wandering thoughts in prayer The last cause of wandering thoughts in prayer, and its remedy Some consolatory considerations, for the Christian dejected over- mvich for wandering thoughts in prayer Satan's last design upon the saint's prayer, and first impediment that may obstruct the acceptation of it in heaven The second thing that may hinder the same The third and fourth hindrance to the same The fifth cause of the same . . . . . Four rules whereby we may know whether wo exercise faith in prayer ...... The second policy with which Satan labours to defeat the saint, i. e., to whisper false fears into his ear, that his prayer is not heard ..... The saint's arms against Satan's first cavil at his prayers A threefold argument which Satan draws from God's deport- ment to the Christian, in and after prayer, to make him ques- tion its acceptance . . ... How to know whether a mercy comes to us by common provi- dence, or as a gracious answer to prayer, resolved . The first importance of 'praying always,' shewn The second importance of praying in all conditions . . . The third importance of praying always Of ejaculatory prayer, its nature, use, and end A reproof to those that use not this kind of prayer An exhortation to the frequent use of it . Secret prayer is a duty incumbent on us, and why Wherein is shewn the low stoop of the Divine Majesty in hold- ing communion with a saint in closet prayer An exhortation to the saints to keep up secret prayer The duty of those that have the charge of a family to set up the worship of G od in it Three objections against it, answered A reproof to those that unnecessarily throw themselves to live in such families where the worsliip of God is not set up 624 626 629 630 632 634 635 63G 637 640 641 644 646 648 649 650 651 653 654 655 657 659 661 662 663 668 669 671 673 674 677 678 680 682 683 685 686 688 CONTENTS. Xi CHAP. PAGH xxxix. A word of counsel to those who live in praying families . G89 XL. A word to those who have no worship of God in their houses . GOO XLi. A word to those who perform this duty . . . 691 XLii. Of public prayer . . . . . 093 XLiii. Two questions about it answered . . . 69(i XLiv. Public prayer briefly improved . . . . G98 XLV. Of extraordinary prayer ... . 701 xLvi. The seasons for extraordinary prayer . . . 703 xLvn. Why it is to be superadded to ordinary . . . 70G XLviii. Directions to the performing it . . . . 707 XLix. Examination of the end we propound in this duty . . 709 L. Directions to be observed in and after the duty . . 713 LI. A fourfold similitude to be observed in pi-ayer . .716 MI. A threefold dissimilitude to be made in our requests . .718 Liii. Of deprecatory prayer . . . . . 720 Liv. How to deprecate the defiling power of sin . ' . . 722 Lv. How to deprecate the evil of suffering . . . 725 Lvi. Of imprecatory prayer, and how to be performed . . 728 Lvn. Of gratulatorj' praj'er .... 731 Lviii. Four directions how to frame our thanksgivings . . 733 Lix. Four more rules to be ol)servcd in tlie duty . . . 735 Lx. The two last direclions in the duty of thanksgiving . . 737 Lxi. A reproof to the ungrateful world . . . . 710 LXii. An exhortation to thankfulness ... . 741 vii. viii. XII. XIII. ' IN THE SPIRIT.' — Ver. 18. What it is to pray in the spirit .... 743 Sheweth, that to pray in the spirit, it is required that we pray with imderstanding, and why ; also what understanding . 743 Fervencjr necessary in order to pray in the spirit . . 745 Contains a third reason of the point . . . 747 Some arguments to enkindle oiu' zeal in prayer . . 748 Something by way of help, to raise our affections in prayer . 750 Sincerity required to pray with our spirit . . .751 Rules for trial of the sincerity of our hearts in prayer . . 752 The acceptable prayer is that which is in the spirit . . 754 The assistance the Holy Ghost gives a saint in prayer . . 756 A reproof to those that make a mock of having the Spirit . 757 An exhortation to those that want the Spirit of grace . . 759 An exhortation to the saints not to grieve the Spirit . . 7G1 ' AND WATCHING THEREUNTO.' Vcr. 18. The duty of watching, and why it must attend our prayers . 762 Shews wherein the duty of watching in prayer lies . . 764 Wherein the Cliristian's watch is set for him about prayer . 7G(J With all perseverance . . ... 769 ' AND SUPPLICATION FOR ALL SAINTS.' Vcr. 18. Of the public spirit that should breathe in our prayers for others 777 In praying for others, we should principally pray for saints . 780 The application of the point .... 782 Shews that all saints are the subject of our prayers . . 784 The application of the point .... 785 'and for me, that UTTERANCE MAY BE GIVEN UNTO ME, THAT I MAY OPEN MY MOUTH BOLDLY, TO MAKE KNOWN THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL, FOR WHICH I AM AN AMBASSADOR IN BONDS.' Vcr. 19, 20. I. Shews it is a duty to desire the prayers of others, and why . 787 xiv. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIIl. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. i CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE II. The duty of praying for the ministers of the gospel . . 791 III. Shews why the ministers of the gospel chiefly desire prayers . 793 IV. Shews what a mystery is, and in what respects the gospel is so . 797 V. The reason why the gospel is slighted and persecuted . . 800 VI. Several duties pressed from the nature of the gospel ; and an exhortation to the saints . . . .801 VII. An exhortation to study this mystery of the gospel . . 804 VIII. Shews it is the minister's duty to make known the gospel . 807 IX. An encouragement to faithful ministers . . .810 X. Boldness a duty in a minister . . . .811 XI. The minister's dignity and duty shewn . . .81.5 XII. Why Godsends ambassadors; and why he useth men, notangels . 810 XIII. An exhortation to hearken to God's ambassadors . . 821 XIV. How ministers should do the duty of ambassadors . . 82;5 XV. Five things touched upon, from Paul's being in bonds . . 824 A TREATISE OF THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. INTRODUCTION. Ephes. VI. 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Paul was now in bonds, yet not so close kept as to be denied pen and paper ; God, it seems, gave him some favoiii- in the sight of his enemies : Paul was Nero's prisoner, but Nero was much more God's. And while God had work for Paul, he found him friends both in coin't and prison. Let persecutors send the saints to prison, God can provide a keeper for their turn. But how doth this great apostle spend his time in prison ? Not in publishing invectives against those, though the worst of men, who had laid him in ; a piece of zeal which the holy sufferers of those times were little acquainted with: nor in politic councils, how he might wind himself out of his trouble, by sordid flattery of, or sinful compliance with, the great ones of the times. Some would have used any picklock to have opened a passage to their liberty, and not scrupled, so escape they might, whether they got out at the door or window : but this holy man was not so fond of liberty or life, as to purchase them at the least hazard to the gospel. He knew too much of another world, to bid so high for the enjoying of this ; and therefore he is fearless what his enemies can do with him, well knowing he was sure of going to heaven whether they would or not. No, the great care which lay upon him, was for the churches of Christ ; as a faithful steward, he labours to set this house of God in order before his departure. We read of no despatches sent to court to procure his liberty; but many to the churches to help them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free. There is no such way to be even with the devil and his instruments, for all their spite against us, as by doing what good we can wher- ever we are. The devil had as good have let Paul alone, for he no sooner comes into prison but he falls a preaching, at which the gates of Satan's prison fly open, and poor sinners come forth. Happy for Onesimus that Paul was sent to gaol ; God had an errand for Paul to do to him and others, which the devil never dreamed of. Nay, he doth not only preach in prison, but, that he may do the devil all the mischief he can, he sends liis epistles to the churches, that, tasting his spirit in his afliictions, and reading his faith, now ready to be offered up, they might much more be confirmed ; amongst which Ephesus was not least in his thoughts, as you may perceive by his abode with them two years together. Acts xix. 10, as also by his sending for the elders of this cluu-ch as far as Miletus, in bis last journey to Jerusalem, Acts xx. 17, to take his farewell of them, as never to see their face in this world more. And surely the sad B l2 be strong. impression which that heart-breaking departure left upon the spirits of these elders, yea, the whole church by them acquainted with this mournful news, might stir up Paul, now in prison, to write unto this church, that having so much of his spirit, yea, of the spirit of the gospel, left in their hands to con- verse with, they might more patiently take the news of his death. In the former part of this epistle he soars high in the mysteries of faith. In the latter, according to his usual method, he descends to application; where we find him contracting all those ti'uths, as beams together, in a powerfid ex- hortation, the more to enkindle their hearts, and powerfully persuade them to ' walk worthy of their vocation,' chap. iv. 1, which then is done, when the Christian's life is so far transparent, that the grace of the gospel shines forth in the power of holiness on eveiy side, and from all his relations, as a candle in a crystal glass, not in a dark lanthorn, lightsome one way and dark another ; and therefore he runs over the several relations of husband, wife, parents, chil- dren, master and servants, and presseth the same in all these. Now, having set every one in his proper place, about his particular duty ; as a wise general after he hath ranged his army, and drawn thein forth into rank and file ; he makes this following speech at the head of this Ephesian camp, all in martial phrase, as best suiting the Christian's calling, which is & continued warfare with the world, and the prince of the world. "The speech itself contains two parts : First, A short, but sweet and powei-ful encouragement, ver. 10. Secondly, The other part is spent in several directions, for their managing this war the more successfully, with some motives here and there sprinkled among them. To begin with the first : First, The word of encouragement to battle. With this he begins his speech : * Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord ;' the best way indeed to prepare them for the following directions. A soul deeply possessed with fear, and dispirited with strong impressions of danger, is in no posture for counsel. As we see in an army when put to flight by some sudden alarm, or apprehension of danger, it is hard rallying them into order till the fright occasioned thereby is over ; therefore the apostle first raiseth up their spirits, ' Be strong in the Lord :' as if he should say. Perhaps some drooping souls find their hearts fail them, while they see their enemies so strong, and they so weak ; so numerous, and they so few ; so well appointed, and they so naked and unarmed ; so skilful and - expert at anns, but they green and raw soldiers : let not these, or any other thoughts dismay you ; but with undaunted courage march on, ' and be strong in the Lord,' on whose performance lies the stress of the battle, and not on your skill or strength. It is not the least of a minister's care and skill in divid- ing the word, so to press the Christian's duty, as not to oppress his spii-it with the weight of it, by laying it on the creature's own shoidders, and not on the Loi'd's strength, as here our apostle teacheth us. In this verse. First, here is a familiar appellation ; ' My brethren,' Secondly, Here is the exhortation ; ' Be strong.' Thirdly, Here is a cautionary direction annexed to the exhortation ; ' In the Lord.' Fourthly, Here is an encouraging amplification of the direction ; ' And in the power of his might,' or in his mighty power. CHAPTER I. OF CHRISTIAN COURAGE AND RESOLUTION, WHEREFORE NECESSARY, AND HOW OBTAINED. We shall wave the appellation, and begin with the exhortation, ' Be strong ;' that is, be of good courage, so commonly used in scripture phrase : 2 Chron. xxxii. 7. 'Be strong and courageous.' So Isa. xxxv. 4, ' Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong ;' or unite all the powers of your souls, and muster up your whole force, for you will have use of all you can make or get. From whence the point is this. Doct. The Christian, of all men, needs courage and resolution. Indeed, there is nothing he doth as a Christian, or can do, but is an act of valour. A BE STRONG. g cowardly spirit is beneath the lowest duty of a Christian : Josh. i. 7, ' Be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest' — what ? stand in battle against those warlike nations ? No, ' but that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee.' It requires more prowess and greatness of spirit to obey God faithfully, than to command an army of men ; to be a Christian, than to be a captain. What seems less than for a Christian to pray ? yet this cannot be performed aright without a princely spu-it ; as Jacob is said to behave himself like a prince, when he did but pray; for which he came out of the field God's banneret. Indeed if you call that prayer which a carnal person performs, nothing more poor and dastard-like. Such a one is as great a stranger to this enterprise, as the cowardly soldier is to the exploits of a valiant chieftain. The Christian in prayer comes up close to God, with a humble boldness of faith, and takes hold of him, wrestles with him ; yea, will not let him go without a blessing, and all this in the face of his own sins, and divine justice, which let fly upon him from the fiery mouth of the law ; while the other's boldness in prayer is but the child, either of igno- rance in his mind, or hardness in his heart ; whereby not feeling his sins, and not knowing his danger, he rushes upon duty with a blind confidence, which soon fails when conscience awakes, and gives him the alarm that his sins are upon him, as the Philistines on Samson : alas ! then in a fright the poor-spi- rited wretch throws down his weapon, flies the presence of God with guilty Adam, and dares not look him in the face. Indeed, there is no duty in a Christian's whole course of walking with God, or acting for God, but is lined with many difficulties, which shoot like enemies through the hedges at the Clu-istian, whilst he is marching towards heaven : so that he is put to dispute every inch of ground as he goes. They are only a few noble-spirited souls, who dare take heaven by force, that are fit for this calling. For the fiu'ther proof of this point, see some few pieces of service that every Christian en- gageth in. First, The Christian is to proclaim and prosecute an irreconcilable war against his bosom sins ; those sins which have lain nearest his heart, must now be trampled under his feet. So David, ' I have kept myself from my iniquity.' Now what courage and resolution doth this require ? You think Abraham was tried to purpose, when called to take his 'son, his son Isaac, his only son whom he loved,' Gen. xxii. 2, and offer him up with his own hands, and no other; yet what was that to this ? Soid, take thy lust, thy only lust, which is the child of thy dearest love, thy Isaac, the sin which has caused most joy and laughter, from which thou hast promised thyself the greatest return of pleasure or profit; as ever thou lookest to see my face with comfort, lay hands on it, and ofl'er it up: pour out the blood of it before me; run the sacrificing knife of mortification into the very heart of it ; and this freely, joyfully, for it is no pleasing sacrifice that is offered with a countenance cast down ; and all this now, before thou hast one embrace more fi'om it. Truly this is a hard chapter; flesh and blood cannot bear this saying ; our lust will not lie so patiently on the altar, as Isaac, or as a 'lamb that is brought to the slaughter, which is dumb,' but will roar and shriek ; yea, even shake and rend the heart with their hideous outcries. Who is able to express the conflicts, the wrestlings, the convulsions of spirit the Christian feels, before he can bring his heart to this work ? Or who can fully set forth the art, the i-hetorical insinuations, which such a lust will plead with for itself? One while Satan will extenuate and mince the matter: — It is but a little one, O spare it, and thy soul shall live for all that ; another while he flatters the soul with the secrecy of it : — Thou mayest keep me and thy credit also ; I will not be seen abroad in thy company to shame thee among thy neighbours; shut me up in the most retired room thou hast in thy heart, from the hearing of others, if thou wilt only let me now and then have the wanton embraces of thy thoughts and affections in secret. If that cannot be granted, then Satan will seem only to desire execution may be stayed a while, as Jephtha's daughter of her father; 'Let me alone a montli or two, and then do to ine according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth,' Judg. xvii. 2, ;57 ; well knowing few such reprieved lusts but at last obtain their full pardon, yea, recover their favour with the soul. Now what resolution doth it require to break through B 2 4 BE STRONG. such violence and importunity, and notwithstanding all this to do present execution ? Here the valiant sword-men of the world have showed themselves mere cowards, who have come out of the field with victorious hanners, and then lived, yea, died slaves to a bare lust at home. As one could say of a great Roman captain, who, as he rode in his triumphant chariot through Rome, had his eye never off' a courtesan that walked along the street,— Behold, how this goodly captain, that conquered such potent armies, is himself conquered by one silly woman ! Secondly, The Christian is to walk singularly, not after the world's guise, Rom. xii. 2. We are commanded not to be conformed to this world ; that is, not to accommodate ourselves to the corrupt customs of the world. The Christian must not be of such a complying nature, to cut the coat of his pro- fession according to the fashion of the times, or the luuiioiu of the company he falls into; like that courtier, who, being asked how he could keep his preferment in such changing times, which one while had a prince for popery, another while against popery ; answered, he was e salice, noii ex quercu ortus ; he was not a stubborn oak, but bending osier, that could yield to the wind. No, the Christian must stand fixed to his principles, and not change his habit ; but freely show what countryman he is by his holy constancy in the truth. Now, what an odium, what snares, what dangers doth this singularity expose the Christian to? Some will hoot and mock him, as one in a Spanish fashion would be laughed at in your streets. Thus Michal flouted David. Indeed the world counts the Christian, for his singularity of life, the only fool ; which I have thought gave the first occasion to that nick-name whereby men commonly express a silly man or a fool : Such a one, say they, is a mere Abraham ; that is, in the world's account, a fool. But why an Abraham ? because Abraham did that which carnal reason, the woi'ld's idol, laughs at as mere folly; he left a present estate in his father's house, to go he knew not whither, to receive an inheritance he knew not when. And truly such fools all the saints are branded for, by the wise world. ' You know the man and his communication,' said Jehu to his companions, asking what that mad fellow came for, who was no other than a prophet, 2 Kings ix. 11. Now this requires courage to despise the shame, which the Christian must expect to meet with for his singularity. Shame is that which proud nature most disdains : to avoid which, many durst not 'confess Christ openly,' John vii. 13. Many lose heaven, because they are ashamed to go in a fool's coat thither. Again, as some will mock, so others will persecute to death, merely for this nonconfoi-mity in the Christian's prin- ciples and practices to them. This was the trap laid for the three children ; they must dance after Nebuchadnezzar's pipe, or burn. This was the jilot laid to ensnare Daniel, who walked so unblamably, that his very enemies gave him this testimony, that he had no fault, but his singularity in his religion, Dan. vi. 5. It is a great honour to a Christian, yea, to religion itself, when all their enemies can say, is. They are precise, and will not do as we do. Now in such a case as this, when the Christian must turn or biu'n ; leave praying, or become a prey to the cruel teeth of bloody men ; how many politic retreats and self-preserving distinctions would a cowardly unresolved heart invent! The Christian, that hath so great opposition, had need be well locked into the saddle of his profession, or else he will be soon dismounted. Thirdly, The Christian must keep on his way to heaven, in the midst of all the scandals that are cast upon the ways of God, by the apostasy and foid falls of false professors. Thei-e were ever such in the church, who, by their sad miscan-iages in judgment and practice, have laid a stone of off'ence in the way of profession, at which weak Christians are ready to make a stand, as they at the bloody body of Asahel, 2 Sam. ii. 22, not knowing whether they may venture any further in their profession, seeing such, whose gifts they so much admired, lie before them, wallowing in the blood of their slain profession ; of zealous professors to prove, perhaps, fiery persecutors ; of strict performers of religious duties, irreligious atheists, no more like the men they were some years past, than the vale of Sodom, now a bog and quagmire, is to what it was when for fruitfulness compared to the garden of the Lord. We had need have a holy resolution to bear up against such discouragements, and not to faint; as Joshua, BE STRONG. 5 who lived to see the whole camp of Israel, a very few excepted, revolting, and in their hearts turning hack to Egypt, and yet with an undaunted spirit main- tained his integrity ; yea, resolved, though not a man beside would hear him company, yet he would serve the Lord. Fourthly, The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God, Isa. 1. 10 : ' Let him that walks in darkness, and hath no light, trust in the name of the Lord,* and stay upon his God.' This requires a holy boldness of faith, indeed, to venture into God's presence, as Esther into Ahasuerus's, when no smile is to be seen on his face, no golden scejitre of the promise perceived by tlie soul, as held forth to embolden it to come near, then to press in with this noble resolu- tion, ' If I pei'ish, I perish ;' nay, more, to trust not only in a withdrawing, but a ' killing God,' Job xiii. 15 ; not when his love is hid, but when his wrath breaks forth. Now for a soul to make his approaches to God, by a recumbency of faith, while God seems to fire upon it, and shoot his frowns like envenomed arrows into it ; this is hard work, and will try the Christian's metal to purpose. Yet such a masculine spirit we find in that poor woman of Canaan, who takes up the bullets Christ shot at her, and with a humble boldness of faith sends them back again in her prayer. Fifthly, The believer is to persevere in his Christian coiu-se to the end of his life; his work and his life must go off the stage together. This adds weight to every other difhculty of the Christian's calling. We have known many who have gone into the field, and liked the work of a soldier for a battle or two, but soon have had enough, and come running home again; but few can bear it as a constant trade. Many are soon engaged in holy duties, easily persuaded to take uji a profession of religion, and as easily persuaded to lay it down ; like the new moon, which shines a little in the first part of the night, but is down before half the night be gone ; lightsome professors in their youth, whose old age is wrapt up in thick darkness of sin and wickedness. O this persevering is a hard word ! this taking up of the cross daily, this praying always, this watching night and day, and never laying aside our clothes and armour ; I mean, indulging ourselves to remit and unbend in our holy waiting on God, and walking with God; this sends many sorrowful away from Christ; yet this is the saint's duty, to make religion his every-day work, without any vacation from one end of the year to the other. These few instances are enough to show what need the Christian hath of resolution. The application follows. Use 1. This gives us then a reason why there are so many professors and so few Christians indeed ; so many that run, and so few obtain ; so many go into the field against Satan, and so few come out conquerors ; because all liave a desire to be happy, but few have courage and resolution to grapple with the difficulties that meet them in their way to happiness. All Israel came joy- fully out of Egypt under Moses's conduct, yea, and a mixed multitude with them ; but when their bellies were a little pinched with hunger, and their greedy desires of a present Canaan deferred ; yea, instead of jieace and plenty, war and penury ; they are ready to fly from their colours, and make a dishonourable retreat into Egypt. Thus the greatest part of those who profess the gospel, when they come to push of pike, — to be tried what they will do, deny, endure for Christ, — grow sick of their enterprise. Alas! their hearts fail them! they like the waters of Bethlehem ; but if they must dispute their passage with so many enemies, they will even content themselves with their own cistern, and leave heaven to others that will venture more for it. O, how many part with Christ at this cross-way! like Orpah, that go a furlong or two with Christ, while he goes to take them off from their wovldly hopes, and bids them pre])are for hardsliip, and then they fairly kiss and leave him ; loath indeed to lose heaven, but more loath to buy it at so dear a rate. Like some green-licads tliat child- ishly make choice of some sweet trade, from a liquorish tooth they have to the sweetmeats it affords ; but meeting with sour sauce of labour and toil that goes with them, they give in, and are weary of their service, the sweet bait of reli- gion hath drawn many to nil)blc at it, who are offended with the hard service it calls to ; it requires another spirit than the world can give or receive to follow Christ fully. Use 2. Let this then exhort you, Christians, tolabo\ir for this holy resolution Q , BE STRONG. and prowess, which is so needful for your Christian profession, that without it you cannot he wliat you profess. Tlie fearful are in the forlorn of those that march for hell, Rev. xxi. The violent and valiant are they which take heaven by force ; cowards never won heaven. Say not, thou hast royal blood running in ^thy veins, and art begotten of God, except thou canst prove thy pedigree by this heroic spirit, to dare to be holy in spite of men and deyils. The eagle tries her young ones by the sun ; Christ tries liis children by their courage, that dare look on the face of death and danger for his sake, Mark viii.34, 35. O how uncomely a sight is it, a bold sinner, and a fearfid saint ! one resolved to be wicked, and a Christian wavering in his holy coiu'se ; to see guilt put innocency to flight, and hell keep the field, impudently braving it with displayed banners of open profaneness, and saints to hide their coloiu-s for shame, or run from them for fear, who should rather wrap themselves in them, and die upon the place, than thus betray the glorious name of God, which is called upon by them to the scorn of the uncircumcised. Take heart, therefore, O ye saints, and be strong ; your cause is good ; God himself espouseth your quarrel, who hath appointed you his own Son, general of the field, called ' the Captain of our salvation,' Heb. ii. He shall lead you on with courage, and bring you off' with honour. He lived and died for you ; he will live and die with you ; for mercy and tenderness to his soldiers, none like him. Trajan, it is said, rent his clothes to bind up his soldiers' wounds ; Christ poured out his blood as balm to heal his saints' woimds ; tears off" his flesh to bind them up. For prowess, none to compare with him ; he never turned his head from danger, no, not when hell's malice and heaven's justice appeared in the field against him ; ' knowing all that should come upon him, he went forth, and said. Whom seek ye ?' John xviii. 4. For success, insupera-hle ; he never lost battle, even when he lost his life ; he won the field, carrying the spoils thereof in the triumphant chariot of his ascension to heaven with him, where he makes an open show of them, to the unspeakable joy of saints and angels. You march in the midst of gallant spirits ; your fellow-soldiers, every one the son of a Prince. Behold some, enduring with you here below a great fight of afflictions and temptations, take heaven by storm and force. Others you may see after many assaults, repidses, and rallyings of their faith and patience, got upon the walls of heaven, con- querors, from whence they do, as it were, look down and call you their fellow- brethren on earth, to march up the hill after them, crying aloud. Fall on, and the city is your own, as now it is ours, who for a few days' conflict are now crowned with heaven's glory, one moment's enjoyment of which hath dried up all our tears, healed all our wounds, and made us forget the sharpness of the fight, with the joy of oiu- present victory. In a word, Christians, God and angels are spectators, observing how you quit yourselves like children of the Most High. Every exploit your faith doth against sin and Satan, causeth a shout in heaven, while you valiantly prostrate this temptation, scale that difficulty, regain the other ground you even now lost, out of your enemies' hands. Your dear Saviour, who stands by with a reserve for your relief at a pinch, his very heart leaps within him for joy, to see the proof of your love to him, and zeal for him in all your combats, and will not forget all the faithful service you have done in his wars on earth ; but, when thou comest out of the field, will receive thee with the like joy as he was entertained himself, at his return to heaven, of his Father. Now, Christian, if thou meanest thus coura- geously to bear up against all opposition, in thy march to heaven, as thou shouldest do well to raise thy spirit with such generous and soul-ennobling thoughts, so in an especial manner look thy principles be well fixed, or else thy heart will be unstable ; and an unstable heart is weak as water, it cannot excel in courage. Two things are required to fix our principles. First, An established judgment in the truth of God. He that knows not well what or whom he fights for, may soon be persuaded to change his side, or at least stand neuter. Such may be found that go for professors, that can hardly give an account what they hope for, or whom they hope in ; yet Christians they must be_ thought, though they run before they know their errand ; or if they have some principles they go upon, they are so unsettled that every wind blows them down, like^ loose tiles from the housetop. Blind zeal is soon put to a shameful BE STRONG IN THE LORD. 7 retreat, while holy resolution, built on fast principles, lifts up its head like a rock in the midst of the waves. ' Those that know their God shall be strong and do exploits.' Dan. xi. 32. The angel told Daniel who were the men that would stand to their tackling, and bear up for God in that hour, both of temptation and persecution, which should be brought upon them by Antioclms ; not all the Jews, some of them should be corrupted basely by flatteries, others scared by threats out of their profession ; only a few of fixed principles, who knew their God whom they served, and were grounded in their religion, these should be strong and do exploits; that is, to flatteries they shoidd be incorruptible, and to power and force unconquerable. Secondly, A sincere aim at the right end in our profession. Let a man be never so knowing in the things of Christ, if his aim be not right in his profes- sion, that man's principles will hang very loose; he will not venture much, or far for Christ, no more, no further than he can save his own stake. A hypocrite may shew some mettle at hand, some courage for a moment in conquering some difficulties, but he will shew himself a jade at length. He that hath a false end in his profession, will soon come to an end of his profession, when he is pinched on that toe where his corn is; I mean, called to deny that his naughty heart aimed at all tliis while ; now his heart fails him, he can go no farther. O take heed of this wistful eye to our profit, pleasure, honour, or any thing beneath Christ and heaven ; for they will take away your heart, as the prophet saith of wine and women; that is, our love; and if our love be taken away, there will l)e little courage left for Christ. How courageous was Jehu at first ! and he tells the world it is zeal for God. But why doth his heart fail him then before half his work be done ? His heart was never right set ; that very thing that stirred up his zeal at first, at last quenched it, and that was his ambition ; his desire of a kingdom made him zealous against Ahab's house, to cut them oft", who might in time jostle liim beside the throne, which done, and he quietly settled, he dare not go thorough-stitch with God's work, lest he shoidd lose what he had got, by provoking the people with a thorough reformation. Like some soldiers, when once they meet with a rich booty at the sacking of some town, are spoiled for fighting ever after. CHAPTER IL OF THE saints' STRENGTH, WHERE IT LIES, AND WHEREFORE LAID UP IN GOD. The second branch of the words foUoweth, which contains a cautionary direction. Having exhorted the saints at Ephesus, and in them all believers, to a holy resolution and courage in their warfare, lest this should be mistaken, and beget in them an opinion of their own strength for the battle, the apostle leads them out of themselves for this strength, even to the Lord ; ' Be strong in the Lord.' From whence observe, . Doct. That the Christian's strength lies in the Lord, not in himself The strength of the general in other hosts lies in his troops ; he flies, as a great commander once said to his soldiers, upon their wings; if their feathers be clipped, their power broken, he is lost. But in the army of saints, the strength of every saint, yea, of the whole host of saints, lies in the Lord of hosts. God can overcome his enemies without their hands, but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his aim. 2. It is one of God's names, ' The Strength of Israel,' 1 Sam. xv. 19. He was the strength of David's heart; without him this valiant worthy (that could, when held up in his arms, defy him that defied a whole army,) behaves himself strangely for fear at a word or two that dropped from the Philistine's mouth. He was the strength of his hands; ' He taught his fingers to fight,' and so is the strengtli of all his saints in this war against sin and Satan. Some propound a question, whether there be a sin committed in the world in which Satan hath not a part ? But if the question were, whether there be any holy action performed without the special assistance of God concurring? that is resolved, John xv. 5: ' Without me you can do nothing.' Thinking strength of God, 2 Cor. iii. 5, ' Not that we are sufficient as of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.' We apostles, we saints, that have habitual grace, yet this lies like water at the g BE STRONG IN THE LORD. bottom of a well, which will not ascend with all our pumping, till God pour in his exciting grace, and then it conies. To will is more than to think; to exert our will into action, more than both; these are of God, Phd. ii. 13: 'It is God that work eth in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.' He makes the heart new, and having made it for heavenly motion, setting every wheel, as it were, in its right place, then he winds it up by his actuating grace, and sets it on going, the thoughts to stir, the will to move, and make towards the holy object presented; yet here the chariot is set, and cannot ascend the hill of action till God puts his shoidder to the wheel. ' To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not,' Rom. \'ii. God is at the bottom of the ladder, and at the top also, the author and finisher; yea, helping and lifting the soul at every round in his ascent to any holy action. Well, now the Chi'istian is set on work ; how long will he keep close to it ? Alas, poor soul, no longer than he is held up by the same hand that empowered him at first! He hath soon wrought out the strength received, and therefore to maintain the tenure of a holy course, there must be renewing strength from heaven every moment; which David knew, and therefore when his heart was in as holy a frame as ever he felt it, and his people by their freewill oflering declared the same, yet even then he prays that God would ' keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of his people, and establish tlieir hearts to him,' 1 Chron. xxix. 18. He adored the mercy that made them willing, and then he implores his further grace to strengthen them, and tie a knot, that these precious pearls, newly strung on their hearts, might not slip ofi". The Christian, when fullest of Divine communications, is but a glass without a foot; he cannot stand, or hold what he hath received, any longer than God holds him in his strong hand. Therefore Christ, when bound for heaven, and ready to take his leave of his children, bespeaks his Father's care of them in his absence, Jolmxvii. ' Father, keep them;' as if he had said, they must not be left alone ; they are poor, shiftless children, and can neither stand nor go without help; they will lose the grace I have given them, and fall into those temptations which I kept them from while I was with them, if they be out of thine eye or anus but one moment; and therefore, 'Father, keep them.' Again: consider the Chi-istian as addressing himself to any duty of God's worship, still his strength is in the Lord; would he pray? where will he find matter for his prayer? Alas! ' he knows not v.'hat to pray for as he ought.' Rom. viii. Let him alone, and he would soon pray himself into some temptation or other, and cry for that which were cruelty in God to give ; and therefore God puts words in our mouths: ' Take words with you and say,' Hos. xiv. 2. Well, now he hath put words into his mouth, alas ! they will freeze in his very lips, if he hath not some heart-heating aftections to thaw the tap. And where shall this fire be had ? Not a spai-k to be found on his own hearth, except it be some strange fire of natural desires, which will not serve. Whence then must the fire come to thaw the iciness of the heart but from heaven ? The Spirit, he must stretch himself upon the soul, as the prophet on the child, and then the soul will come to some kindly warmth and heavenly heat in his afl'ections ; the Spirit must groan, and then the soul will groan ; he helps us to these sighs and groans, which turn the sails of prayer ; he dissolves the heart, and then it bursts out of the heart by groans of the lips, by heavenly rhetoric ; out of the eyes as from a floodgate, with tears : yet fiu'ther, now the creature is enabled to wrestle with God in prayer, what will he get by all this ? Suppose he be weak in grace, is he able to pray himself strong, or corruption weak? No, this is not to be found in prayer as an act of the creature. This drops from heaven also, Psa. cxxxviii. 2 : 'In the day that I cried, thou answerest me, and gavest me strength in my soul.' David received it in duty, but had it not from his duty, but from his God. He did not pray himself strong, but God strengthened him in his prayer. Well, cast yoiu- eye once more upon the Christian, as engaging in another ordinance of hearing the word preached. The soul's strength to hear the word is from God : 'he opens the heart to attend,' Acts xiv. 14. Yea, he opens the imderstanding of the saint to receive the word, so as to conceive what it meant. It is like Samson's riddle, which we cannot unfold without his heifer; he opens the womb of the soul to conceive by it, as the imderstanding BE STRONG IN THE LORD. Q to conceive of it, that the barren soul becomes a joyful mother of children. David sat for half a year under the public lectures of the law, and the womb of his heart shut up, till Nathan comes, and God with him ; and now is the time of life : he conceives presently, yea, and brings forth in the same day ; falls presently into the bitter pangs of sorrow for his sins, which went not over till he had cast them forth in that sweet Psalm 11. Why should this one word work more than all the former, but that God now struck in with his word, which he did not before ? He is therefore said ' to teach his people to profit,' Isa. xlviii. 1 7. He sits in heaven that teacheth hearts. When God's Spirit, who is the head master, shall call a soul from his usher to himself, and say. Soul, you have not gone the way to thrive by hearing the word ; thus and thus conceive of such a truth, improve such a promise ; presently the eyes of his understanding open, and his heart burns within him while he speaks to him. Thus you see tlie truth of this point, that the Christian's strength is in the Lord. Now we shall give some demonstrations. Section I.- — Beas. 1. The first reason may be taken from the natin-e of the saints and their grace ; both are creatures, they and their grace also ; liow in- esse est deesse creatiirce. It is in the very nature of the creature to depend on Gpd its Maker, both for being and operation. Can you conceive an accident to be out of its subject ? whiteness out of the wall, or some other subject ? It is as impossible that the creature should be, or act without strength from God : this, to be, act in and of himself, is so incommunicable a property of the Deity, that he cannot impart it to his creature : ' God is, and there is none besides him;' when God made the world, it is said, indeed, that he ended his work, that is, of creation. He made no new species and kinds of creatures more, but to this day he hath not ended his work of providence :, ' Hitherto my Father worketh,' saith Christ, John v. 17 ; that is, in preserving and empowering what he hath made with strength to be and act, and therefore he is said to hold our souls in life. Works of art, which man makes, when finished, may stand some time without the workman's help, as the house, when the carpenter that made it is dead ; but God's works of nature and grace are never off his hand ; and therefore, as the Father is said to work hitherto for the preservation of the works of nature, so the Son, to whom is committed the work of redemption, he tells us he worketh also. Neither ended he his woi-k, when he rose again, any other ■way than his Father did in the work of creation. God made an end of making, so Christ made an end of purchasing mercy, grace, and glory for believers, by once dying ; and as God rested at the end of the creation, so he, when he had wrought eternal redemption, and ' by himself pin-ged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,' Heb. i. 3. But he ceaseth not to work by his intercession with God for us, and by his Spirit in us for God, whereby he upholds his saints, their graces, and comforts in life, without which they would run to ruin. Thus we see, as grace is a creature, the Christian depends on God for his strength. But fm-ther, Secondly, The Christian's grace is not only a creature, but a weak creature, conflicting with enemies stronger than itself, and therefore cannot keep the field without an auxiliary strength from heaven. The weakest goes to the wall, if no succour comes in. Grace in this life is but weak, like a king in the cradle, which gives advantage to Satan to carry on his plots more stronglj', to the disturl)ance of this young king's reign in the soul ; yea, he would soon make an end of the war in the ruin of the believer's grace, did not Heaven take the Christian into protection. It is true, indeed, grace, wherever it is, hath a j)rin- ciple in itself that makes it desire and endeavour to preserve itself according to its strength ; but being over])owered, must perish, except assisted by God, as fire in green wood (which deadens and damps the parts kindled) will in time go out, except blown up, or more fire put to that little ; so will grace in the heart. God brings his grace into the heart by conquest : now, as in a conquered city, though some yield and become true subjects to the conqueror, yet others plot how they may shake off this yoke ; and therefore it requires the same ])ower to keep, as it did to win it at first. The Christian hath an unregcnerate part, that is discontented at this new change in the heart, and disdains as much to come under the sweet government of Christ's sceptre, as the Sodomites that Lot should IQ BE STRONG IN THE LORD. judge them. What, this fellow, a stranger, control iis ! And Satan heads this mutinous rout against the Christian : so that if God did not continually rein- force this his new planted colony in the heart, the very natives (I mean cor- ruptions) that are left would come out of their dens and holes where they lie lurking, and eat up the little grace the holiest on earth hath ; it would be as bread to these devourers. 3. A third demonstration may be taken from the grand design which God propounds to himself in the saint's salvation ; yea, in the transaction of it from lirst to last ; and that is twofold. First, God would bring his saints to heaven in such a way, as might be most expressive of his love and mercy to them. Secondly, He would so express his love and mercy to them, as might rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory possible : now how be- coming this is to both, that saints should have all their ability for every step they take in the way to heaven, will soon appear. 1. This way of communicating strength to saints gives a double accent to God's love and mercy. First, it distils a sweetness into all that the believer hath or doth, when he finds any comfort in his bosom, any enlargement of heart to duty, any support under temptations : to consider whence come all these, what friend sends them in. They come not from my own cistern, or any creatures : O it is my God that hath been here, and left this sweet perfume of comfort behind him in my bosom ; my God, that hath, unawares to me, filled my sails with the gales of his Spirit, and brought me off the flats of my own deadness, where I lay aground. O it is his sweet Spirit that held my head, stayed my heart in such an affliction and temptation, or else I had gone away in a fainting fit of unbelief. How can this but endear God to a gracious soul ? His succours coming so immediately from heaven, which would be lost, if the Christian had any strength to help liimself (though this stock of strength came at first from God.) Which, think you, speaks more love and condescension, for a prince to give a pension to a favourite, on which he may live by his own care ; or for this prince to take the chief care upon himself, and come from day to day to this man's house, and look into his cupboard, and see what provision he hath, what expense he is at, and so constantly to provide for the man from time to time ? Possibly some proud spirit, that likes to be his own man, or loves his means better than his prince, would prefer the former ; but one that is ambitious to have the heart and love of his prince would be ravished with the latter. Thus God doth with his saints ; the great God comes and looks into their cupboard, and sees how they are laid in, and sends in accordingly as he finds them. Your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things, and you shall have them. He knows you need strength to pray, hear, suflfer for him, and m ipsa hord dahitur. Secondly, This way of God's dealing with his saints adds to the fulness and stability of their strength. Were the stock in our own hands, we should soon prove broken merchants. God knows we are but leaking vessels ; when fullest, we could not hold it long ; and therefore, to make all sure, he set us under the streamings forth of his strength ; and a leaking vessel imder a cock, gets what it loseth. Thus we have our leakage supplied continually. This was the pro- vision God made for Israel in the wilderness ; he clave the rock, and the rock followed them. They had not only a draught at present, but it ran in a stream after them ; so that you hear no more of their complaints for water : this rock was Christ. Every believer hath Christ at his back, following him with strength as he goes, for every condition and trial. One flower with the root is worth many in a posy, which though sweet, yet do not grow, but wither as we wear them in our bosoms. God's strength, as the root, keeps our grace lively, without which, though as orient as Adam's was, it would die. 2. The second design God hath in his saints' happiness is, that he may so express his mercy and love to them, as may rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory therein, Eph. i. 4, 12 ; which is fully attained in his way of empowering saints, by a strength not of their own, but of their God's sending, as they are put in expense. Had God given his saints a stock of grace to have set up with, and left them to the improvement of it, he had been BE STRONG JN THE LORD. J| magnified indeed, because it was more than God did owe the creature ; but lie had not been glorified as now, when, not only the Christian's first strength to close with Christ is from God ; but he is beholden still to God for the exercise of that strength, in every action of his Christian coiu-se. As a child that travels in his father's company, all is paid for, but his father carries the purse, not himself; so the Christian's shot is discharged in every condition, but he cannot say, This I did, or that I sutl'ered ; but, God wrought all in me, and for me. The very comb of pride is cut here, no room for any self-exalting thoughts. The Christian cannot say. That 1 am a saint is mercy ; but being a saint, that my faith is strong, this is the child of my own care and watchfulness. Alas, poor Christian ! Who kept thine eye waking, and stirred up thy care? Was not this the otl'spring of God, as well as thy faith at first? No saint shall say of heaven M-hen he comes there, This is heaven, which I have built by the power of my might. No, ' Jerusalem above is a city, whose builder and maker is God ! ' Every grace, yea, degree of grace, is a stcme in that building, the top-stone whereof is laid in glory, where saints shall more plainly see, how (jod was not only foimder to begin, but benefactor also to finish the same. The glory of the work shall not be crumbed, and piece-mealed out, some to God, and some to creature ; but all entirely paid in to God, and he acknow- ledged all in all. Section II. — Ufte 1. Is the Christian's strength in the Lord, not in himself? Surely, then, the Christless person must needs be a poor impotent creature, void of all strength and ability of doing anything of itself towards its own salvation. If the ship, launched, rigged, and with her sails spread, cannot stir till the wind come fair, and fills them, much less can the timber that lies in the carpenter's yard hew and frame itself into a ship. If the living tree cannot grow, except the root communicates its sap, much less can a dead, rot- ten stake in the hedge, which has no root, live of its own accord. In a word, if a Christian, that hath his s])iritual life of grace, cannot exercise this life without strength from above ; then surely, one void of this new life, dead in sins and tres])asses, can never be able to beget this in himself, or concur to the production of it. The state of unregcneracy is a state of impotency ; ' when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,' Rom. v. 6. And as Christ found the lump of mankind covered with the ruins of their lapsed estate, (no more able to raise themselves from under the weight of God's wrath, which lay u})on them, than one biu'ied imder the rubbish of a fallen house, is to free himself of that weight without help,) so the Spirit finds sinners in as helpless a condition, as unable to repent, or believe on Christ for salvation, as they were of themselves to purchase it. Confounded therefore for ever be the language of those sons of pride, who cry up the j^ower of nature, as if man, with his own brick and slime of natural abilities, were able to rear up such a building, whose top may reach heaven itself. ' It is not of him that willeth or runneth, but God that sheweth mercy,' Rom. ix. 16. God himself hath scattered such Babel-builders in the imaginations of their hearts, who raiseth this spiritual temple in the souls of men, not by might, nor by a power of their own, but by his Spirit ; that so grace, grace, might be proclaimed before it for ever. And therefore if any, yet in their natural estate, would become wise to salvation, let them first become fools in their own eyes, and renounce their carnal wisdom, which ])erceives not the things of God ; and beg wisdom of God, who givetli, and upbraideth not. If any man would have strength to believe, let them become weak, and die to their own ; for ' by strength shall no man prevail,' 1 Sam. ii. 9. U.se 2. Secondly, Doth the Christian's strength lie in God, not in himself? This may for ever keep the Christian humble, when most enlarged in duty, most assisted in his Christian course. Remember, Christian, when thou hast thy best suit on, who made it, who paid for it : thy grace, thy comfort, is neither the work of thy own hands, nor the price of thy own desert ; be not for shame proud of another's cost. That assistance will not long stay, which becomes a nurse to thy pride ; thou art not Lord of that assistance thou hast. Thy Father is wise, who, when he alloweth thee most for thy spiritual maintenance, even then keeps the law in his own hands, and can soon curb thee, if thou growest wanton J 2 BE STRONG IN THE LORD. with his grace. Walk humbly, therefoi'e, before thy God, and husband well that strength thou hast, remembering that it is borrowed strength. Nemo prodiget quod mendicat. Who will waste what he begs ? or who will give that beggar that spends idly his alms ? When thou hast most, thou canst not be long from thy God's door. And how canst thou look him in the face for more, who hast embezzled what thou hast received ? CHAPTER III. OF ACTING OUR FAITH ON THE ALMIGHTY POWER OF GOD. The third branch followeth, which contains an encouraging amplification annexed to the exhortation, in these words; 'And in the power of his might;' where a twofold inquiry is requisite for the explication of the phrase. First, What these words import, ' The power of his might?' Secondly, What it is to ' be strong in the power of his might? ' For the first, — 'The power of his might.' It is an Hebraism, and imports nothing but his mighty power ; like that phrase, Ejjh. i. 6, ' To the praise of the glory of his grace ; ' that is, to the praise of his glorious grace. And his mighty power imports no less than his almighty power ; sometimes the Lord is styled ' mighty and strong,' as Psa. xxiv. 8 ; sometimes most mighty; sometimes Almighty : no less is meant in all than God's infinite almighty power. For the second, To be strong in the mighty power, or power of the Lord's might, implies these two acts of faith : First, A settled firm persuasion, that the Lord is almighty in power. ' Be strong in the power of his might;' that is, be strongly rooted in your faith, con- cerning this one foundation truth, that God is almighty. Secondly, It implies a further act of faith, not only to believe that God is almighty, but also that this almighty power of God is engaged for its defence : so as to bear up in the midst of all trials and temptations undauntedly, leaning on the arm of God Almighty, as if it were his own strength ; for that is the apostle's drift, as to beat us off' from leaning on our own strength, so to encourage the Christian to make use of God's almighty power as freely as if it were his own, •whenever assaulted by Satan in any kind. As a man, set upon by a thief, stirs up all the force and strength he hath in his whole body to defend himself, and offend his adversary ; so the apostle bids the Christian ' be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might;' that is, Soul, away to thy God, whose mighty power is all intended and devoted by God himself for thy succour and defence. Go, strengthen and entrench thyself in it by a stedfast faith, as that which shall be laid out to the utmost for thy good. From whence these two notes, I conceive, will draw out the fatness of the words. L That it should be the Christian's great care and endeavour, in all tempta- tions and trials, to strengthen his faith on the almighty power of God. 2. The Christian's duty and care is not only to believe that God is almighty; but strongly by faith to rest on this almighty power of God, as engaged for his help and succour, in all his trials and temptations. Doct. First, It should be the Christian's great care, in all temptations and trials, to strengthen his faith on the almighty jDower of God. When God liolds forth himself as an object of the soul's trust and confidence in any great strait or undertaking ; commonly this attribute of his almighty power is presented in the promise, as the surest holdfast for faith to lay hold on ; as a father in a rugged way gives his child his arm to lay hold by, so doth Crod usually reach forth his almighty power for his saints to exercise their faith on. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose faith God tried above most of his saints before or since, for not one of those great things which were promised to them, did they live to see performedin their days ; and how doth God make known himself to them for their support, but by displaying this attribute? Exod. vi. 3: 'I apjieared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the name of God Almighty.' This was all they had to keep house with all their days ; with which they lived comfortably, and died triumphantly, bequeathing the promise to their children, not doubting (because God Almighty had promised) of the performance. Thus Isa. xxvi., where great mercies are promised to Judah, and a song penned beforehand, to be sung on that joyous day of their salvation ; yet because there was a shai-p AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. 13 winter of captivity to come between the promise and the spring-time of the promise; therefore, to keep their faith aUve in this space, the prophet calls them up to act their faith on God Almighty (ver. 4) : ' Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.' So when his saints are going into the furnace of persecution, what now doth he direct their faith to carry to prison, to stake with them, hut his almighty power? 1 Pet. iv. 19 : ' Let them that suffer, commit the keeping of their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator.' Creator is a name of almighty power. We shall now give some reasons of the point. Reas. 1. First, Because it is no easy work to make use of this tnith, how plain and clear soever it now appears, in great plunges of temptation, that God is almighty ; to vindicate this name of God from these evil reports which Satan and carnal reason raise against it requires a strong faith indeed. I confess this principle is a piece of natiu-al divinity : that light which linds out a Deity, will evince, if followed close, this God to be almighty; yet in a carnal heart, it is like a rusty sword, hardly drawn out of the scabbard, and so of little or no use. Such truths are so imprisoned in natural conscience, that they seldom get a fair hearing in the sinner's bosom, till God gives them a gaol-delivery, and brings them out of their house of bondage, where they are shut up in imright- eousness, with a high hand of his convincing Spirit. Then, and not till then, the soul will believe God is holy, merciful, almighty ; nay, some of God's peculiar people, and not the meanest for grace amongst them, have had their faith for a time set in this slough, much ado to get over those difficulties and improbabilities, which sense and reason have objected, so as to rely on the Al- mighty power of God with a notwithstanding. Moses himself, a star of the first magnitude for grace ; yet see how his faith blinks and twinkles, till he wades out of the temptation. Numb. xi. 21 : 'The people amongst whom I am, are six hundred thousand, and thou hast said, I will give them flesh that they may eat a whole month ; shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them V This holy man had lost the sight, for a time, of the almighty power of God : and now he is projecting how this should be done ; as if he had said in plain terms. How can this be accomplished ? for so God interprets his reasoning, vei". 23: 'And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short?' So Mary, John xi. 32 : ' Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.' And her sister Martha, (ver. 39 :) ' Lord, by this time he stinketh.' Both gracious women, yet both betrayed the weakness of their faith on the almighty power of Christ, one limiting him to place — If thou hadst been here, he had not died ; as if Christ could not have saved his life absent, as well as present ; sent his health to him, as well as brought it with him. The other to time — Now he stinketh. As if Christ had brought his physic too late, and the grave would not deliver up his prisoner at Christ's command. And hast thou such a high opinion of thyself. Christian, that thy faith needs not thy utmost care and endeavour, for further establishment on the almighty power of God, when thou seest such as these dash their foot against this kind of temptation ? The second reason may be taken from the absolute necessity of this act of faith above others, to support the Christian in the hour of temptation. All the Christian's strength and comfort is fetched without doors, and he hath none to send on his errand but faith : this goes to heaven, and knocks God up ; as he in the parable, his neighbour at midnight for bread: therefore when faith fails, and the soul hath none to go to market for supplies, there must needs be a poor house kept in the meantime. Now, faith is never quite laid up, till the soul denies, or at least questions the power of God. Indeed, when the Christian dis- putes the will of God, whispering within its own bosom. Will he pardon ? Will he save ? this may make faith go haltingly to the throne of grace, but not knock the soul oft" from seeking the face of God ; even then, faith, on the power of God, will bear it company thither : ' If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,' Matt. viii. 2. If thou wilt, thou canst pardon, thou canst piu'ge : but when tlie soul concludes he cannot pardon, cannot save, this shoots faith to the heart, so that the soul falls at the foot of Satan, not able more to resist. Now it grows listless to duly, indifferent whether it pray or not; as one that sees the well dry, breaks or throws away his pitcher. 14 AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. Thirdly, because God is very tender of this flower of his crown, this part of his name ; indeed he cannot spell it right, and leave out this letter ; for that is God's name, whereby he is known from all his creatures. Now man may be called wise, merciful, mighty ; God only all-wise, all-merciful, all-mighty ; so when we leave out this syllable all, we nick-name God, and call him by his ci'eature's name, which he will not answer to. Now the tenderness that God shows to this prerogative of his, appears in three particulars : First, in the strict command he lays on his people, to give him the glory of his power, Isa. viii. 12, 13 : ' Fear ye not their fear, but sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; ' that is, in this sad postui'e of your affairs, when your enemies associafe, and you seem a lost people to the eye of reason, not able to contend with such united powers which beset you on eveiy side : now I charge you sanctify me, in giving me the glory of my almighty power ; believe that your God is able of himself, without any other, to defend you, and destroy them. Secondly, In his severity to his dearest children, when they stagger in their faith, and come not off roundly, without reasoning and disputing the case, to rely on his almighty power : Zacharias did but ask the angel. How shall I know this, because I am an old man, and my wife stricken in years? yet for bewraying therein his unbelief, had a sign indeed given him, but such a one as did not only strengthen his faith, but severely punish his unbelief; for he was struck dumb upon the place. God loves his children should believe his word, not dis- pute his power ; so true is that of Luther, Deus amat currislas non quccristas. That which gave accent to Abraham's faith, Rom. iv. 21, was that he was 'fully persuaded, that what God had promised he was able to pei'form.' Thirdly, In the way God takes of giving his choicest mercies, and greatest salvations to his people, wherein he lays the scene of his providence so, that when he hath done, it may be said almighty power was here. And therefore God commonly puts down those means and second causes, which if they stood about his work, would blind and hinder the full prospect thereof in effecting the same, 2 Cor. i. 9 : ' We received the sentence of death in ourselves, that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.' Christ staid while Lazarus was dead, that he might draw the eyes of their faith more singly to look on his powei*, by raising his dead friend, rather than curing him, being sick, which would not have carried so full a conviction of almightiness with it. Yea, he suffers a contrary power many times to arise in that very juncture of time when he intends the mercy to his people, that he may rear up the more magnificent pillar of remembrance to his own power, in the ruin of that which contends with him. Had God brought Israel out of Egypt in the time of those kings which knew Joseph, most likely they might have had a friendly departure and an easy deliverance ; but God reserves this for the reign of that proud Pharaoh, who shall cruelly oppress them, and ventm-e his kingdom, but he will satisfy his lust upon them. And why must this be the time ? but that God would bring them forth with a stretched out arm : the magnifying of his power was God's great design, Exod. ix. 16: 'In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout the earth.' Fourthly, In the prevalency which an argument that is pressed from his almighty power hath with God. It was the last string Moses had to his bow, when he begged the life of Israel, Nmnb. xiv. 16 : ' The nations which have heard the fame of thee, will speak, saying. Because the Lord was notable,' &c. And ver. 17: ' Let the power of my Lord be great;' and with this he hath their pardon thrown him. The application of this j^oint will fall in imder the next, which is, CHAPTER IV. OF ACTING OUR FAITH ON THE ALMIGHTY POWER OF GOD, AS ENGAGED FOR OUR HELP. Doct. That it is the saints' duty, and should be their care, not only to be- lieve God Almighty, but also strongly to believe that this almighty power of God is theirs, that is, engaged to their defence and help, so as to make use of it in all straits and temptations. AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. |5 Section I. — First, I shall prove that the almighty power of Gocl is engaged for the Christian's defence ; with tlie groinuls of it. Secondly, Why the Christian should strongly act his faith on this. First, The almighty power of God is engaged for the saints' defence : God brought Israel out of Egypt with a high hand ; but did he set them down on the other side the Red Sea, to find and force their way to Canaan, by their own policy or power ? When he had opened the iron gate of their house of bondage, and brought them into the open fields, did he vanish as the angel from Peter, when out of prison? No, as a man carries his son, so the Lord bare them in all the way they went, Deut. i. 31. This doth lively set forth the saints' march to heaven : God brings a soul out of spiritual Egypt by his converting grace ; that is, the day of his power, wherein he makes the soul willing to come out of Satan's clutches. Now when the saint is upon his march, all the country riseth upon him. How shall this poor creature pass the pikes, and get safely by all his enemies' borders ? God himself enfolds him in the arm of his everlasting strength : ' We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.' 1 Pet. i. 5. The power of God is that ' shoulder,' on which Christ carries his sheep home, rejoicing all the way he goes, Luke xv. 5. These everlasting arms of his strength are those eagles' wings, upon which the saints are botli tenderly and securely conveyed to glory, Exod. xix. 4. There is a fivefold tie or engagement that lies upon God's power, to be the saints' life-guard. First, The near relation he hath to his saints : they are his own dear children ; every one takes care of his own ; the silly hen, how doth she bustle and bestir hei'self to gather her brood under her wing when the kite appears ! No care like that which nature teacheth. How much more will God, who is the Father of such dispositions in his creatures, stir up his whole strength to defend his children! 'He said. They are my people; so he became their Saviour,' Isa. xxxiii. 8. As if God had said. Shall I sit still with my hand in my bosom, while my own people are thus misused before my face ? I cannot bear it. The mother, as she sits in her house, hears one shriek, and knows the voice, cries out, O it is my child ! Away she throws all, and runs to him. Thus God takes the alarm of his children's cry : 'I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself,' saith the Lord ; his cry pierced his ear, and his ear affected his bowels, and his bowels called up his power to the rescue of him. Secondly, The dear love he beareth to his saints engageth his power. He that hath God's heart cannot want his arm. Love in the creature commands all the other affections, sets all the powers of the whole man on work ; thus in God, love sets all his other attributes on work ; when God once pitched his thoughts on doing good to lost man, then wisdom fell on projecting the way ; almighty power, that undertook to raise the fabric according to wisdom's model. All are ready to effect what God saith he likes. Now the believing soul is an object of God's choicest love, even the same with which he loves his Son, John xvii. 26. First, God loves the believer as the birth of his everlasting counsel ; when a soul believes, then God's eternal purpose and counsel concerning him, whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, and with whom his thoughts went so long big, brings forth. And how must God needs love that creatin-e, whom he carried so long in the womb of his eternal purpose ! This goodly fabric of heaven and earth hath not been built, but as a stage whereon he would in time act what he decreed in heaven of old, concerning the saving of thee, and a few more of his elect; and therefore according to the same rate of delight with which God pleased and entertained himself in the thoughts of this before the world was, must he needs rejoice over the sold now believing with love and complacency unconceivable ; and God having brought his counsel thus far towards its issue, surely will raise all the power he hath, rather than be disappointed of his glory within a few steps of home; I mean, his whole design in the believer's salvation; the Lord who hath chosen his saints (as Christ prays for Joshua their representative) will rebuke Satan and all their enemies, Zech. iii. Secondly, God loves his saints as the purchase of his Son's blood : they cost him dear ; and that which is so hardly got shall not be easily lost. He that was IQ AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. willing to expend his Son's blood to gain them, will not deny his power to keep them. Thirdly, God loves the saints for their likeness to himself; so that if he loves himself, he cannot but love himself appearing in them ; and as he loves himself in them, so he defends himself in defending them. What is it in a saint that enrageth hell, but the image of God, without which the war woidd soon be at an end ? It is the hatred the panther hath to man that makes him fly at his pic- ture ; ' for thy sake are we slain all the day long:' and if the quarrel be God's, surely the saint shall not go forth to war at his own cost. Thirdly, The covenant engageth God's almighty power. Gen. xvii. 1 : ' I am the Almighty God, walk before me.' There is a league offensive and defensive between God and his saints; he gives it under his hand, that he will put forth the whole power of his godhead for them, 1 Chron. xvii. 24 : ' The Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel.' God doth not parcel himself out by retail, but gives his saints leave to challenge whatever God hath as theirs ; and let him, whoever he is, sit in God's throne, and take away his crown, that can fasten any untruth on the Holy One ; as his name is, so his nature, a God keeping covenant for ever. The promises stand as the mountains about Jeru- salem, never to be removed ; the weak as well as the strong Christian is within this line of communication. Were saints to fight it out in open field, by the strength of their own grace, then the strong were more likely. to stand, and the weak to fall in battle ; but both, castled in the covenant, are alike safe. Fourtlily, The saints' dependence on God, and expectation from God in all their straits, oblige this power for their succour : whither doth a gracious soul fly in any want or danger from sin, Satan, or his instruments, but to his God ? as naturally as the coney to her burrow, Psa. Ivii. 3. 'At what time I am afraid,' saith David, ' I will trust in thee :' he tells God he will make bold of his house to step into, when taken in any storm ; and doth not question his welcome. Thus when Saul hunted him, he left a city of gates and bars, to trust God in open field. Indeed, all the saints are taught the same lesson ; to renounce their own strength, and rely on the power of God ; their own policy, and cast them- selves on the wisdom of God ; their own righteousness, and expect all from the pure mercy of God in Christ; which act of faith is so pleasing to God, that such a soul shall never be ashamed, Psa. ix. 18. ' The expectation of the poor shall not perish.' A heathen could say, when a bii'd, scared by a hawk, flew into his bosom, I will not betray thee unto thy enemy, seeing thou comest for sanctuary unto me. How much less will God yield up a soul unto its enemy, when it takes sanctuary in his name, saying, Loi'd, I am hunted with such a temptation, dogged with such a lust; either thou must pardon it, or I am damned; mortify it, or I shall be a slave to it; take me into the bosom of thy love, for Christ's sake; castle me in the arms of thy everlasting strength; it is in thy power to save me from, or give me up into the hands of my enemy ; I have no confidence in myself or any other, into thy hands I commit my cause, myself, andrely on thee. This dependence of a soul undoubtedly will awaken the almighty power of God for such a one's defence. He hath sworn the greatest oath that can come out of his blessed lips, even by himself, that such as thus fly for refuge to hope in him, shall have strong consolation, Heb. vi. 17. This indeed may give the saint the greater boldness of faith to expect kind entertainment, when he repairs to God for refuge, because he cannot come before he is looked for ; God having set up his name and promises as a strong tower, both calls his people into these chambers, and expects they shoidd betake themselves thither. Fifthly, Christ's presence and employment in heaven lays a strong engage- ment on God to bring his whole force and power into the field, upon all occasions, for his saints' defence; one special end of his journey to heaven, and abode there, is, that he might, as the saints' solicitor, be ever interceding for such supplies and succours of his Father, as their exigencies call for ; and the more to assure us of the same before he went, he did, as it were, tell us, what heads he meant to go upon in his intercession when he should come there; one of which was this, that his Father should keep his children, while they were to stay in the world, from the evil thereof, John xvii. 15. Neither doth Cln-ist take upon him this work of his own head, but hath the same appointment of his Father, for what he now prays in AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. |7 heaven, as he had for what he suffered on earth : he that ordained him a priest to die for sinners, did not then strip him of his priestly garments, as Aaron, hut appoints him to ascend in them to heaven, where he sits a priest for ever by God's oath. And this office of intercession was erected purely in mercy to be- lievers, that they might have fidl content given them for the performance of all that God hath promised ; so that Jesus Christ attends at court as our ambassador, to see all earned fairly between God and us according to agreement : and if Christ follows his business close, and be faithful in his place to believers, all is well : and doth it not behove him to be so, who intercedes for such dear relations? Suppose a king's son should get out of a besieged city, where he had left his wife and children, whom he loves as his own soul, and these all ready. to die by sword or famine, if supply come not the sooner; could this prince, when arrived at his father's house, please himself with the delights of the court, and forget the distress of his family ? Or rather, would he not come post to his father, having their cries and groans always in his ears, and before he eat or diink, do his errand to his father, and entreat him, if ever he loved him, that he would send all the force of his kingdom to raise the siege, rather than any of his dear relations should perish ? Surely, sirs, though Christ be in the top of his preferment, and out of the storm in regard of his own person, yet his children left behind in the midst of sin, Satan, and the world's batteries, are in his heart, and shall not be forgotten a moment by him. The care he takes in our business, appeared in the speedy despatch he made of his Spirit to his apostles' supply, when he ascended, which as soon almost as he was warm in his seat, at his Father's right hand, he sent, to the incomparable comfort of his apostles and us, that to this day, yea, to the end of the world do, or shall believe on him. Section II. — The second branch of the point follows : that saints should eye this power of God as engaged for them; and press it home upon their souls, till they silence all doubts and fears about the matter ; which is the importance of this exhortation : ' Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.' Fortify and entrench your soids within the breast-work of this attribute of God's mighty power, made over to you by God himself. First, It is the end as of all promises to be security to our faith ; so of those in particulai-, where his almighty power is expressly engaged, that we may count this attribute our portion, and reap the comfort it yields as freely as one may the crop of his own field. ' Walk before me,' saith God to Abraham, ' I am God Almighty;' set on this as thy portion, and live upon it; the apostle, Heb. xiii. 6, teacheth us what use to make of promises; ver. 5, ' I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,' — there is the promise ; and the inference, which he teacheth us to draw by faith from this, follows, ver. 6, ' So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper.' We, that is, every believer, may boldly say, that is, we may conclude God will help ; not sneakingly, timorously, perhaps he will ; Isut we may boldly assert it in the face of men and devils, because He that is almighty hath said it. Now for a Christian not to strengthen his faith on this incomparably sweet attri- bute, but to sit down with a few weak unsettled hopes, wlien he may, yea, ought to be strong in tlie faith of such promises ; what is it but to undervalue the blessing of such promises? As if one shoidd promise anotlier house and land, and bid him make them as sure to himself as the law can bind, and he should take no care to effect this ; would it not be interpreted as a sligliting of his friend's kindness? Is it a small matter that God passeth over his almighty power by promise to us, and bids us make it as sure to ourselves as we can by faith, and we neglect this, leaving the writings of the promises unsealed on our hearts ? Secondly, Our obedience and comfort are strong or weak, as oiu" faith is on this principle. First, Our obedience, that being a child of faith, partakes of its parent's strength or weakness. Abraham being strong in faith, what an heroic act of obedience did he perform in offering up his son ? His faith being well set on the power of God, he carries that without staggering, which woidd have laid a weak faith on the grouTid. No act of faith more strengthens for duty than that which eyes God's almighty power engaged for its assistance. ' Go in this thy might,' said God to Gideon, ' have not I called thee?' as if he had said, Can I 2g AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. not, will I not carry thee through thy work ? Away goes Gideon in the faith of this, and doth wonders. This brought the righteous man from the east to God's foot, though he knew not whither he went, yet he knew with whom he went, God Almighty. But take a soul not persuaded of this ; how imeven and unstable is he in this obediential course ! Every threat from man, if mighty, dismays him, because his faith is not fixed on the Almighty, and therefore sometimes he will shift off a duty to comply with man, and betray his trust into the hands of a sorry creature, because he hath fleshly eyes to behold the power of man, but wants a spiritual eye to see God at his back, to protect him with his almighty power ; which, were his eyes open to see, he would not be so routed in his thoughts at the approach of a weak creature : ' Should such a man as I flee? ' saith good Nehemiah, Neb. vi. 11. He was newly come from the throne of grace, where he had called in the help of the Almighty, ver. 9. ' O God, strengthen my hands.' And truly now he will rather die upon the place, than disparage his God with a dishonourable retreat. Secondly, The Christian's comfort increaseth or wanes, as the aspect of his faith is to the power of God. Let the soul question that, or his interest in it, and his joy gusheth out, even as blood OTit of a broken vein : it is true, a soul may scramble to heaven with much ado, by a faith of recumbency, relying on God as able to save, without this persuasion of its interest in God ; but such a soul goes with a scant side wind, or like a ship whose masts are laid by the board, exposed to wind and weather, if others better appointed did not tow it along with them. Many fears like waves ever and anon cover such a soul, that it is more under water than above ; whereas one that sees itself folded in the arms of almighty power, O how such a soul goes mounting afore the wind, with her sails filled with joy and peace ! Let afflictions come, storms arise, this blessed soul knows where it shall land and be welcome. The name of God is liis harbour, where he puts in as boldly as a man steps into his own house, when taken in a shower. He hears God calling him into tliis and other his attributes, as chambers taken up for him, Isa. xxvi. ' Come, my people, enter into thy chambers.' God calls them his, and it were foolish modesty not to own what God gives ; Isa. xlv. 24, ' Surely shall a man say, Li the Lord have I righteous- ness and strength ;' that is, I have righteousness in God's righteousness, strength in his strength : so that in this respect Christ can no more say that his strength is his own, and not the believer's, than the husband can say, my body is my own, and not my wife's. A soul persuaded of this, may sing merrily with the sharpest thorn at his breast ; so David, Psalm Ivii. 7, ' My heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise.' What makes him so merry in so sad a place a^ the cave where now he was? He will tell you in ver. 1, where you have him nestling himself under the shadow of God's wings, and now well may he sing care and fear away. A sold .thus provided, may be at ease on a hard bed. Do you not think they sleep as soundly who dwell on London-bridge, as they who live at Whitehall or Cheapside, knowing the waves that roar under them cannot hm-t them? Even so may the saints rest quietly over the floods of death itself, and fear no ill. Section HI. — Use 1. Is the almighty power of God engaged for the saints' defence? Surely then they will have a hard pull, the saints' enemies I mean, who meddle with them that are so far above their match. The devil was so cunning, that he would have Job out of his trench, his hedge down, before he would fall on ; but so desperate are men, they will try the field with the saints, though encircled with the almighty power of God. What folly were it to attempt, or sit down before such a city, which cannot bo blocked up so as no relief can get in ? The way to heaven cannot. In the church's straitest siege, there is a river which shall make glad this city of God, with seasonable succo\n-s from heaven. The saints' fresh springs are all from God ; and it is as feasible for sorry man to stop the water-courses of the clouds, as to dam up those streams, which invincibly glide like veins of water in the earth, from the fountain-head of his mercy, into the bosom of his people. The Egyptians thought they had Israel in a trap, when they saw them march into such a nook by the sea side. They are entangled, they are entangled ; and truly so they had been irrecoverably, had not tliat almighty power which led them on, engaged to bring them off" with honour and AND IN THE POWER OF HIS WIGHT. ]9 safety. Well, when they are out of this danger, behold, they are in a wilderness, where nothing is to be had for back and belly, and yet here they shall live forty years, withont trade or tillage, without begging or robbing of any of the neigh- bour nations ; they shall not be beholden to them for a penny in their way. What cannot almighty power do to provide for his people ? What can it not do to protect them against the power and wrath of their enemies ? Almighty power stood between the Israelites and Egyptians ; so that, poor creatures, they could not so much as come to see their enemy. God sets up a dark cloud as a blind before their eyes ; and all the while, his eye through the cloud is looking them into disorder and confusion. And is the Almighty grown weaker now- a-days, or his enemies stronger, that the)' promise themselves better success ? No, neither ; but men are blinder than the saints' enemies of old, who sometimes have fled at the appearance of God among his people, crying out, ' Let us flee, for the Lord fighteth for them.' Whereas there be many now-a-days will rather give the honour of their discomfitiu'es to Satan himself, than acknowledge God in the business ; more ready to say the devil fought against them, than God. O you that have not yet worn off the impressions which the almighty power of God hath at any time made upon your spirits, beware of having anything to do with this generation of men, whoever they are. Come not near their tabei'- nacle, cast not thy lot in amongst them, who are enemies to the saints of the Most High ; for they are men devoted to destruction. God so loves his saints that he makes nothing to give whole nations for their ransom. He ripped open the very womb of Egypt, to save the life of Israel his child, Isa. xliii. 3. Use 2. — -This shews the dismal, deplorable condition of all you who are yet in a Christless state ; you have seen a rich mine opened, but not a penny of this treasure comes to your share ; truth laden with incomparable comfort, but it is bound for another coast; it belongs to the saints, into whose bosom this truth unlades all her comfort. See God shutting the door upon you, when he sets his children to feast themselves with such dainties, Isa. Ixv. L'J, 'My ser- vants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry ; my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty.' God hath his set number, which he provides for ; he knows how many he hath in his family : these and no more shall sit down. One chief dish at the saints' board, is the almighty power of God ; tliis was set before Abraham, and stands before all his saints, that they may eat to fulness of comfort on it : ' But thou shalt be hungry.' He is almighty to pardon ; but he will not use it for thee an impenitent sinner ; thou hast not a friend on the bench ; not an attribute in all God's name will speak for thee : mercy itself will sit and vote with the rest of his fellow-attributes for thy damnation. God is able to save and help in a time of need ; but upon what acquaintance is it that thou art so bold with God, as to expect his saving arm to be stretched forth for thee ? Though a man will rise at midnight to let in a child that cries and knocks at his door, yet he will not take so much pains for a dog, that lies howling there. This presents thy condition, sinner; sad enough ! yet this is to tell thy story fairest; for that almighty power of God which is engaged for the believer's salvation, is as deeply obliged to bring thee to thy execution and damnation. What greater tie than an oath? God himself is inider an oath to be the destruction of every impenitent soul. That oath which God sware in his wrath against theimbelieving Israelites, that they should not enter into his rest, concerns every unbeliever to the end of the world. In the name of God consider, were it but the oath of a man, or a company of men, that, like those in the Acts, should swear to be the death of such an one, and thou wert the man, would it not fill thee with fear and trembling night and day, and take away the quiet of thy life, till they were made friends ? What then are their pillows stuffed with, who can sleep so soundly without any horror or amazement, though they be told, that the Almighty God is under an oath of damning them body and soul, without timely repentance ? O bethink yourselves, sinners, is it wisdom, or valour, to reftise terms of mercy from God's hands, whose almighty power, if rejected, will soon bring you into the hands of justice? And how fearful a thing that is, to fall into the hands of Almighty God, no tongue can express, no, not they who feel the weight of it. Use 3. — This speaks to you, that are saints indeed. Be strong in the faith of this truth, make it an article of yoiu- creed ; with the same faith that you c 2 20 AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. believe there is a God, believe also this God's almighty power is thy sure friend, and then improve it to thy best advantage. As, First, In agonies of conscience that arise from the greatness of thy sins, fly for refuge into the almighty power of God. Truly, sirs, when a man's sins are displayed in all their bloody colours, and spread forth in their killing aggra- vations, and the eye of conscience awakened to behold them through the multi- plying or magnifying glass of a temptation, they must needs surprise the creature with horror and amazement, till the soul can say with the prophet, for all this huge host, 'There is yet more with me than against me.' One Almighty is more than many mighties. All these mighty sins and devils make not any almighty sin, or an almighty devil. Oppose to all the hideous charges brought against thee by them, this only attribute. As the French ambassador once silenced the Spaniard's pride in repeating his master's many titles, with one that drowned them all. God himself, Hos. xi. 9, when he had aggravated his people's sins to the height, then to show what a God can do, breaks out into a sweet promise : ' I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger : ' and why not ? ' I am God, and not man.' I will show the almightiness of my mercy. Some- thing like our usual phrase, when a child or a woman strikes us ; I am a man, and not a child or woman, therefore I will not strike again. The very con- sidering God to be God, supposeth him to be almighty to pardon, as well as to avenge, and this is some relief; but then to consider it is almighty power in bond and covenant to pardon, this is more : as none can bind God but himself, so none can break the bond himself makes ; and are they not his own words, that ' he will abundantly pardon V Isa. Iv. He will multiply to pardon ; as if he had said, I will di-op mercy with your sin, and spend all I have, rather than let it be said my good is overcome of your evil. It fares with the gracious soul in this case, as with a captain that yields his castle upon gracious terms of having his life spared, and he safely conveyed to his house, thei-e to be settled peace- ably in his estate and possession, for all which he hath the general's hand and seal ; on which he marched forth, but the rude soldiers assault him, and put him in fear of his life ; he appeals to the general, whose honour now is engaged for him, and is presently relieved, and his enemies punished. Thou mayest, poor soul, when accused by Satan, molested by his terrors, say. It is God that justifies ; I have his hand to it, that I should have my life given me as soon as I laid down my arms and submitted to him, which I desire to do ; behold the gates of my heart are open to let the Prince of Peace in, and is not the Almighty able to perform his promise ? I commit myself to him as unto a faithful Creator. Secondly, Improve this almighty power of God and thy interest therein, in temptations to sin ; when thou art overpowered, and fleest before the face of thy strong corruption, or fearest thou shalt one day fall by it, make bold to take hold of this attribute, and reinforce thyself from it ; again to resist, and in re- sisting, to believe a timely victory over it. The Almighty God stands in sight of thee while thou art in the valley fighting, and stays but for a call from thee when distressed in battle, and then he will come to thy rescue. Jehoshaphat cried, when in the throng of his enemies, and the Lord helped him ; much more mayest thou promise thyself his succour in thy soul-combats. Betake thyself to the throne of grace with that promise, ' Sin shall not have dominion over you ;' and before thou urgest it, the more to help thy faith, comfort thyself with this, that though this word Almighty is not expressed, yet it is implied in this and every promise ; and thou mayest, without adding a tittle to the word of God, read it in thy soul; ' Sin shall not have dominion over you,' saith the Almighty God ; for this and all his attributes are the constant seal to all his promises. Now, soul, put the bond in suit, fear not the recovery, it is debt, and so due. He is able whom thou suest, and so there is no fear of losing the chai'ge of the suit ; and he that was so gracious to bind himself when he was free, will be so faithful, being able, to perform now he is bound ; only while thou expectest the per- formance of the promise, and the assistance of this almighty power against thy corruptions, take heed that thou keep under the shadow of this attribute, and condition of this promise, Psa. xci. 1. The shadow will not cool, except in it. What good to have the shadow, though of a mighty rock, when we sit in the AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. 21 open sun ? To have almighty power engaged for us, and we to throw ourselves out of the protection thereof, by bold sallies into the mouth of temptation ? The saints' falls have been when they run out of their trench and hold ; for, like the conies, they are a weak people in themselves, and their strength lies in the rock of God's almightiness which is their habitation. Thirdly, Christian, improve this, when oppressed with the weight of any duty and service, which in thy place and calling lies upon thee. Perhaps thou findest the duty of thy calling too heavy for thy weak shoulders ; make bold by faith to lay the heaviest end of thy burden on God's shoulder, which is thine, if a believer, as sui'e as God can make it by promise. When at any time thou art sick of thy work, and ready to think with Jonas to run from it, encourage thyself with that of God to Gideon, whom he called from the flail to thresh the mountains : Go in this thy might ; hath not God called thee ? Fall to the work God sets thee about, and thou engagest his strength for thee. ' The way of the Lord is strength.' Run from thy work, and thou engagest God's strength against thee ; he will send some storm or other after thee to bring home his nmaway servant. How oft hath the coward been killed in a ditch, or under some hedge, when the valiant soldier that stood his ground and kept his place, got off with safety and honour ? Art thou called to suffer ? Flinch not because thou art afraid thou shalt never be able to bear the cross ; God can lay it so even that thou shalt not feel it : though thou shouldst find no succour till thou comest to the prison door, yea, till thou hast one foot on the ladder, or thy neck on the block, despair not. ' In the mount will the Lord be seen.' And in that hour he can give thee such a look of his sweet face as shall make the blood come in the ghastly face of a cruel death, and appear lovely in thy eye for his sake. He can give thee so much comfort in hand, as thou shalt acknowledge God is aforehand with thee, for all the shame and pain thou canst endure for him. And if it should not amount to this, yet so much as will bear all thy charges thou canst be put to in the way, lies ready told in that promise, 1 Cor. x. 13. Thou shalt have it at sight ; and this may satisfy a Christian ; especially if he considers, though he doth not carry so much of heaven's joy about him to heaven as others, yet he shall meet it as soon as he comes to his Father's house, where it is reserved for him. In a word. Christian, rely upon thy God, and make thy daily applications to the throne of grace, for continual supplies of strength ; you little think how kindly he takes it, that you will make use of him, the oftener the better ; and the more you come for, the more welcome ; else why woidd Christ have told his disciples, 'Hitherto ye have asked nothing,' but to express his large heart in giving, loath to put his hand to his purse for a little, and therefore by a familiar kind of rhetoric puts them to rise higher in asking, as Naaman, when Gehazi asked one talent, entreats him to take two. Such a bountiful heart thy God hath, while thou art asking a little peace and joy, he bids thee open thy mouth wide, and he will fill it. Go and ransack thy heart, Christian, from one end to the other ; find out thy wants, acquaint thyself with all thy weaknesses, and set them before the Almighty, as the widow her empty vessel before the prophet ; hadst thou more than thou canst bring, thou mayest have them all filled. God hath strength enough to give, but he hath no strength to deny : here the Almighty himself, with reverence be it spoken, is weak ; even a child, the weakest in grace of his family that can but say Father, is able to overcome him, and therefore let not the weakness of thy faith discourage thee. No greater motive to the bowels of mercy to stir up almighty power to relieve thee, than thy weakness, when pleaded in the sense of it. The pale face and thin cheeks, I hope, move more with us, than the canting language of a stout sturdy beggar. Thus that soul that comes laden in the sense of his weak faith, love, patience, the very weakness of them carries an argument along with them for succour. CHAPTER V. WHEREIN Is ANSWERED A GRAND OBJECTION THAT SOME DISCONSOLATE SOUI.S MAY RAISE AGAINST THE FORMER DISCOURSE. Object. O BUT, saith some disconsolate Christian, I have prayed again and again for strength against such a corruption, and to this day my hands are 22 AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. weak, and these sons of Zeruiah are so strong, that I am ready to say, all the preachers do but flatter me, that do ponr their oil of comfort upon my head, and tell me I shall at last get the conquest of these mine enemies, and see that joyful day wherein, with David, I shall ' sing to the Lord, for delivering me out of the hands of all mine enemies.' I have prayed for strength for such a duty, and find it come off" as weakly and dead-heartedly as before. If God be with me by his mighty power to help me, why then is all this befallen me ? Answer. First, Look once again, poor heart, into thine own bosom, and see whether thou findest not some strength sent into thee, which thou didst over- look before ; this may be, yea, very ordinary in this case, when God answers our prayer, not in the letter, or when the thing itself is sent, but it comes in at the back door, while we are expecting it at the fore ; and truly thus the friend thou art looking for may be in thine house, and thou not know it. Is not this thy case, poor soul ? Thou hast been praying for strength against such a lust, and now thou wouldest have God presently put forth his power to knock it on the head, and lay it for dead, that it should never stir more in thy bosom. Is not this the door thou hast stood looking for God to come in at, and no sight or news of thy God is coming that way ? Thy corruption yet stirs, it may be is more troublesome than before ; now thou askest, where is the strength pro- mised for thy relief? Let me entreat thee, before thou layest down that sad conclusion against thy God or self, see whether he hath not conveyed in some strength by another door. Perhajjs thou hast not strength to conquer it so soon as thou desirest ; but hath he not given further praying strength against it? Thou prayedst before, but now more earnestly; all the powers of thy soul are up to plead with God. Before, thou wast more favourable and moderate in thy request ; now thou hast a zeal, thou canst take no denial ; yea, welcome any thing in the room of thy corruption : would God but take thy sin and send a cross, thou wouldst bless him. Now, poor soul, is this nothing, no strength? Had not thy God reinforced thee, thy sin would have weakened the spirit of thy prayer, and not increased it. David began to recover himself when he began to recover his spirit of prayer. The stronger the cry, the stronger the child, I warrant you. Jacob wrestled, and this is called his strength, Hos. xii. It appeared there was much of God in him that he could take such hold of the Almighty as to keep it, though God seemed to shake him off. If thus thou art enabled, soul, to deal with the God of heaven, no fear but thou shalt be much more able to deal with sin and Satan. If God hath given thee so much strength to wrestle with him above and against denials, thou hast prevailed with the stronger of the two. Overcome God, and he will overcome the other for thee. Again, perhaps thou hast been praying for further strength to be communicated to thee in duty, that thou mightest be more spiritual, vigorous, united, sincere, and the like therein ; and yet thou findest thy old distempers hanging about thee, as if thou hadst never acquainted God with thy malady. Well, soul, look once again into thy bosom with an unprejudiced eye, though thou dost not find the assisting strength thou prayedst for, yet hast thou no more self-abasing strength ? Perhaps the annoyance thou hast from these remaining distempers in duty, occasions thee to have a meaner opinion of all thy duties than ever, yea, they make thee abhor thyself in the sense of these, as if thou hadst so many loathsome vermin about thee. Job's condition on the dunghill, with all his blotches and running sores on his body, appears desirable to thee in comparison of thine, whose soul thou complainest is worse than his body. O this afflicts thy soul deeply, doth it not, that thou shouldest appear before the Lord with such a dead, divided heart, and do his work worst that deserves best at thy hands : and is all this nothing ? Surely, Christian, thine eyes are held as much as Hagar's, or else thou wouldst see the streamings forth of divine grace in this frame of thy heai-t; surely others will think God hath done a mighty work in thy soul. What harder and more against the grain than to bring our proud hearts to take shame for that whereof they naturally boast and glory ? And is it nothing for thee, to tread on the veiy neck of thy duties, and count them matter of thy humiliation and abasing, which others make the matter of their confidence and self-rejoicing? Good store of virtue hath gone from Christ to dry this issue of pride in thy heart, which sometimes in gracious AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. g3 ones nins through and through their duties, that it is seen, may be, by those that have less grace than themselves. Second, Christian, candidly interpret God's dealings with thee. Suppose it be as thou sayest, thou hast pleaded the promise, and waited on the means, and yet findest no strength from all these receipts, either in thy grace or comfort ; now take heed of charging God foolishly, as if God were not what he promised ; this were to give that to Satan which he is all this while gaping for. It is more becoming the dutifid disposition of a child, when he hath not presently what he writes for to his father, to say. My father is wiser than I ; his wisdom will prompt him what and when to send to me, and his fatherly afl'ections to me his child will neither sutfer him to deny anything that is good, nor slip the time that is seasonable. Christian, thy heavenly Father hath gracious ends that hold his hands at present, or else thou hadst ere this heard from him. First, God may deny further degrees of strength, to put thee on the exercise of that thou hast more carefully. As a mother doth by her child that is learning to go, she sets it down, and stands some distance from it, and bids it come to lier; the child feels its legs weak, and cries for the mother's help, but the mother steps back on purpose that the child should put forth all its little strength in making after her. When a poor soul conies and prays against such a sin, God seems to step back and stand at a distance ; the temptation in- creaseth, and no visible succour appears, on purpose that the Christian, though weak, should exercise that strength he hath. Indeed we shall find the sense of a soid's weakness is an especial means to excite it into a further care and dili- gence : one that knows his weakness, how prone he is in company to forget himself, in passion how apt he is to fly out ; if there be a principle of true grace, this will excite him to be more fearful and watchful than another that hath obtained greater strength against such great temptations. As a child that writes for money to his father ; none comes presently ; that makes him husband that little he hath the better; not a penny now shall be laid out idly. Thus, when a Christian hath prayed against such a sin again and again, and yet finds himself weak, prone to be worsted ; O how careful will this, should this make such a one of every company, of every occasion ! Such a one had not need give his enemy any advantage. Second, God may deny the Christian such assisting strength in duty, or mortifying strength of corruption, as he desires, pin-ely on a gracious design, that he may thereby have an advantage of expressing his love in such a way as shall most kindly work on the ingenuity of the soul to love God again. Perhaps, Christian, thou prayest for a mercy thou wantest, or for deliverance out of some great affliction, and in the duty thou findest not more assistance than ordinary, yea, many distractions of spirit in it, and misgiving thoughts with unbelieving fears after it : well, notwithstanding those defects in thy duty, yet God hears thy pra3fer, and sends in the mercy on purpose that he may greaten his love in thine eye, and make it more luscious and sweet to thy taste, from his accepting thy weak services, and passing by the distempers of thy spirit. Here is less strength for the duty, that thou mayest have more love in the mercy ; nothing will affect a gracious heart more than such a considera- tion. See it in David, Psal. cxvi. 11, 12 : 'I said in my haste, All men are liars. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me !' As if David had said, ' Notwithstanding all the comfortable messages I had from God by his prophets concerning this matter, my own prayers, and those re- markable providences, which carried in them a partial answer to thcTn, and performance of what was promised, yet I betrayed much unbelief, questioning the truth of the one, and the return of the other; and hath God notwithstand- ing all my infirmities fulfilled my desire, and performed his ])r()mise ? O what shall I render unto the Lord?' Thus David reads God's mercy through the spectacles of his own weakness and infirmity, and it appears great; whereas if a mercy should come in, as an answer to a duty managed with such strength of faith, and height of other graces, as might free him and his duty from visual infirmities, this miglit prove a snare, and occasion some self-applauding, rather than mercy-admiring thoughts in the creature. Third, God may communicate the less of his assisting strength, that he may g4 AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. show the more of his supporting strength, in upholding weak grace : we do not wonder to see a man of strong constitution, that eats his bread heartily, and sleeps soundly, live : but for a crazy body, full of pains and infirmities, to be so patched and shored up by the physician's art, that he stands to old age, this begets some wonder in the beholders. It may be thou art a poor tremb- ling soul, thy faith is weak, and thy assaults from Satan strong, thy corruptions stirring and active, and thy mortifying strength little, so that in thy opinion they rather gain ground on thy grace, than give groiuid to it ; ever and anon thou art ready to think thou shalt be cast as a wreck on the devil's shore : and yet to this day thy grace lives, though full of leaks. Now is it not worth the stepping aside to see this strange sight ? A bi'oken ship with masts and hull rent and torn, thus towed along by almighty power, through an angry sea and armadoes of sins and devils, safely into his harbour ? To see a poor taper or rush candle in the face of the boisterous wind, and not blown out ; in a word, to see a weak stripling in grace held up in God's anns till he defeats the devil ? This God is doing in upholding thee : thou art one of those babes, out of whose mouth God is perfecting his praise, by ordaining such strength for thee, that thou, a babe in grace, shalt yet foil a giant in wrath and power. Third, If after long waiting for strength from God, it be as thou complainest, inquire whether that which hinders be not found in thyself. The head is the seat of animal spirits, yet there may be such obstructions in the body, as the other members may for a time be deprived of them ; till the passage be free between Christ, thy head, and thee, thy strength will not come : and therefore be willing to inquire. First, Hast thou come indeed to God for strength to perform duty, to mortify corruption, and the like ? Perhaps thou wilt say. Yes, I have waited on those ordinances, which are the way in which he hath pi-omised to give out strength. But is this all? Thou mayest come to them, and not wait on God in them. Hast thou not carnally expected strength from them, and so put the ordinance in God's stead? Hath not the frame of thy spirit some affinity with theirs in James iv. 13 : ' We will go into such a city, and buy, and sell, and get gain V Hath not thy heart said, I will go and hear such a man, and get comfort, get strength ? and dost thou wonder that thou art weak, barren, and unfruitful ? Are ordinances God, that they should make you strong or comfortable ? Thou mayest hear them answer thee, poor soul, as the king to the woman in the siege of Samaria : Help, O prayer, sayest thou : or, O minister, how can they help, except the Lord help ? These are but Christ's servants : Christ keeps the key of his wine cellar ; they cannot so much as make you drink, when you come to your master's houses ; and therefore, poor soul, stay not short of Christ, but press through all the crowd of ordinances, and ask to speak with Jesus, to see Jesus, and touch him, and virtue will come forth. Second, Ask thy soul whether thou hast been thankful for that little strength thou hast. Though thou art not of that strength in grace to run with the fore- most, and hold pace with the tallest of thy brethren, yet, art thou thankful that thou hast any strength at all? Though it be but to cry after them, whom thou seest outstrip thee in grace, this is worth thy thanks. All in David's army attained not to be equal with his few worthies in prowess and honour, and yet did not cashier themselves : thou hast reason to be thankful for the meanest place in the anny of saints ; the least communications of gospel-mercy and grace must not be overlooked. As soon as Moses with his army was through the sea, they strike up before they stir fi-om the bank-side, and acknowledge the wonderful appearance of God's power and mercy for them, though this was but one step in their way ; a howling wilderness presented itself to them, and they not able to subsist a few days with all their provision, for all their great victory ; yet Moses, he will praise God for this earnest of mercy. This holy man knew the only way to keep credit with God, so as to have more, was to pay down his praise for what was received. If thou wouldest have fiiller communications of divine strength, own God in what he hath done. Art thou weak ? bless God thou hast life. Dost thou through feebleness often fail in duty, and fall into temptation ?• mourn in the sense of these ; yet bless God that thou dost not live in a total neglect of duty, out of a profane contempt AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. g5 thereof, and that instead of falling through weakness, thou dost not lie in the mire of sin through the wickedness of thy heart. The unthankful soul may thank itself it thrives no better. Third, Art thou humble under the assistance and strength God hath given thee ? pride stops the conduit. If the heart begins to swell, it is time for God to hold his hand, and turn the cock; for all that is poured on such a soul, rims over into self-applauding, and so is as water spilt in regard of any good it doth the creature, or any glory it bi-ings to God. A proud heart and a lofty mountain are never fruitful. Now, beside the common ways that pride discovers itself, as by undervaluing others, and overvaluing itself, and such like, you shall observe two other symptoms of it. First, It ajjpears in bold adventures, when a person runs into the mouth of temptation, bearing himself on the con- fidence of his grace received. This was Peter's sin, by which he was drawn to engage further than became an humble faith, running into the devil's quarters, and so became his prisoner for awhile. The good man, when in his right temper, had thoughts low enough of himself; as when he asked his Master, ' Is it I V But he that feared at one time, lest he might be the traitor, at another cannot think so ill of himself, as to suspect he shoidd be the denier of his Master. What he ? No, though all the rest forsake him, yet he would stand to his colours. Is this thy case, Christian ? Possibly God hath given thee much of his mind, thou art skilful in the word of life, and therefore thou darest venture to breathe in corrupt air, as if only the weak spirits of less knowing Christians exposed them to be infected with the contagion of en-or and heresy. Thou hast a large portion of grace, or at least thou thinkest so, and venturest to go where an humble-minded Christian would fear his heels should slip under him. Truly now thou temptest God to suffer thy locks to be cut, when thou art so bold to lay thy head in the lap of a temptation. Secondly, Pride appears in the neglect of those means, whereby the saints' graces and comforts are to be fed when strongest. May be. Christian, when thou art under fears and doubts, then God hath thy company, thou art oft with thy pitcher at his door ; but when thou hast got any measure of peace, there goes presently some strangeness between God and thee ; thy pitcher walks not as it waSi wont to these wells of salvation. No wonder if thou (though rich in grace and comfoi-t) goest behind-hand, seeing thou spendest on the old stock, and di'ivest no trade at present to bring in more : or if thou dost not thus neglect duty, yet may be thou dost not perform it with that humility which formerly beautified the same ; then thou prayedst in the sense of thy weakness to get ■ strength, now thou prayest to shew thy strength, that others may admire thee. And if once (like Hezekiah) we call in spectators to see our treasure and applaud us for our gifts and comfort, then it is high time for God, if he indeed love us, to send some messengers to carry these away from us, which carry our hearts from him. Fourthly, If thy heart doth not smite thee from what hath been said, but thou hast sincerely waited on God, and yet hast not received the strength thou desirest, yet let it be thy resolution to live and die waiting on him. God doth not tell us his time of coming, and it were boldness to set one of our own heads. Go, saith Christ to his disciples, Luke xxiv. 49, ' Stay ye in Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.' Thus he saith to thee ; stay at Jeru- salem, wait on him in the means he hath appointed, till thou art endued with further power to mortify thy corruptions, &c. And for thy comfort know, First, Thy thus persevering to wait on God, will be an evidence of strong grace in thee : the less encouragement thou hast to duty, the more thy faith and obedience to bear thee up in duty. He that can trade when times are so dead, that all his ware lies upon his hand, and yet draws not in his hand, but rather trades more and more, sure his stock is great. What, no comfort in hearing, no ease to thy spirit in praying, and yet more greedy to hear, and more frequent in prayer ? O sold, great is thy faith and patience ! 2. Assure thyself, when thou art at the greatest ])inch, strength shall come : ' Tliey that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength :* when the last ' hand- ful of meal was dressing,' then is the prophet sent to keep the widow's house ; when temptation is strong, thy little strength even spent, and thou ready to Og PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. yield into the hands of thine enemies, then expect succours from heaven to enable thee to hold out under the temptation : thus to Paul, ' My grace is sufficient,' or power from heaven to raise the siege, and drive away the tempter; thus to Job, when Satan had him at an advantage, then God takes him off. Like a wise moderator, when the respondent is hard put to it by a subtle opponent, takes him off, when he would else run him down, James v. 11 : ' Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.' EpHES. VI. 11. Put on the tvhole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil, This verse is a key to the former, wherein the apostle had exhorted be- lievers to encourage, and bear up their fainting spirits on the Lord, and the power of his might. Now in these words he explains himself, and shews how he would have them do this ; not presumptuously come into the field without that armour, which God hath appointed to be worn by all his soldiers, and yet with a bravado to trvist in the power of God to save them. That soul is sure to fall short of home (heaven I mean) who hath nothing but a carnal confi- dence on the name of God, blown up by the ignorance of God and himself: no, he that would have his confidence duly placed on the power of God, must conscientiously use the means appointed for his defence, and not rush naked into the battle, like that frantic spirit at Munster, who would needs go forth, and chase away the whole army then besieging that city, with no other cannon than a few words charged with the name of the Lord of hosts, (which he blasphemously made bold to use,) saying, ' In the name of the Lord of hosts, depart.' But himself soon perished, to learn others wisdom by what he paid for his folly. What foolish braving language shall you hear drop from the lips of the most profane and ignorant among us ! Tliey trust in God, hope in his mercy, defy the devil and all his works, and such like stufi', who yet are poor naked creatures, without the least piece of God's armour upon their souls. To cashier such presumption from the saints' camp, he annexeth this directory to his exhortation, ' Put on the whole armour of God,' &c. So that the words fall into these two general parts. First, A direction annexed to the former exhortation, shewing how we may in a regular way come to be strong in the Lord ; that is, by putting on the whole armour of God. Second, A reason or argument strengthening this direction, ' that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.' In the direction observe, First, Tlie furniture he directs, and that is 'armour.' Second, The kind or quality of this armour, ' armour of God.' Third, Tlie quantity or entireness of the armour ; the whole armour of God. Fourth, The use of this armour : put on the whole armour of God. To begin with the first, the furnitiu-e which eveiy one must get that would fight Christ's battles, the question here will be, \Vliat is this armour ? First, By amiour is meant Clmst ; we read of putting on the Lord Jesus, Rom. xiii. 14, where Christ is set forth under the notion of armour. The apostle doth not exhort them, for rioting and dnmkenness, to put on sobriety and temperance; for chambering and wantonness, put on chastity, (as the philo- sopher would have done,) but bids, put on the Lord Jesus Christ; implying thus much, till Christ be put on, the creature is unarmed. It is not a man's morality and philosophical virtues that will repel a temptation, sent with a full charge from Satan's cannon, though possibly it may the pistol shot of some less solicitation, so that he is the man in armour, that is in Christ. Again, the graces of Christ, these are armour, as the girdle of truth, the breast-plate of righteousness, and the rest. Hence we are bid also 'put on the new man,' Eph. iv. 24, which is made up of all the several graces, as its parts and members. And he is the unarmed soul, that is the unregenerate soul. Not PUT ON THE WHOLE AIIMOUR OF GOD. 27 excluding those duties and meeins which God hath appointed the Christian to use for defence. The phrase thus opened ; the point is, CHAPTER I. SHEWING THE CHRISTLESS AND GRACELESS SOUL, TO BE THE SOUL WITHOUT ARMOUR, ANiy THEREIN HIS MISERY. Obs. — That a person in a Chi-istless, graceless state, is naked and unarmed, and so unfit to fight Christ's battles against sin and Satan. Or thus, a soul out of Christ is naked and destitute of all armour to defend them against sin and Satan. God at first sent man forth in complete armour, ' being created in righteousness and tnie holiness;' but by a wile the de\'il stripped him, and therefore as soon as the first sin was completed, it is written, Gen. iii. 7, ' They were naked,' that is, poor weak creatures, at the will of Satan, a subdued people, disanned by their proud conqueror, and unable to make head against him. Indeed it cost Satan some dispute to make the first breach, but after that he had once the gates opened to let him in as conqueror into the heart of man, he plays the king ; behold, a troop of other sins crowd in after him, without any stroke or strife ; instead of confessing their sins, they nm their head in a bush, and by their good-will would not come where God is ; and when they cannot flee from him, how do they prevaricate before him ! They accuse one another, shifting the sin, rather than suing for mercy. So quickly were their hearts hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. And this is the woeful condition of every son and daughter of Adam ; naked he finds us, and slaves he makes us, till God, by his effectual call, delivers us from the power of Satan into the king- dom of his dear Son : which shall further appear, if we consider this Christless state in a fourfold notion. First, It is a state of alienation from God, ' Ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise,' Eph. ii. 12. Such a one hath no more to do with any covenant-promise, than he that lives at Rome has to do with the charter of London, which is the birth- right of its own denizens, not of strangers. He is without God in the world ; he can claim no more protection from God than an outlawed subject from his prince; if any mischief befals him, the mends is in his own hands, whereas God hath his hedge of special providence about his saints : and the devil, though his spite be most at them, dares not come upon God's ground to touch any of them without particular leave. Now what a deplored condition is that wherein a soul is left to the wide world, in the midst of legions of lusts and devils, to be rent and torn like a silly hare among a pack of hounds, and no God to call them ofi'? Let God leave a people, though never so warlike, presently they lose their wits, cannot find their hands : a company of children or wounded men may rise up, and chase them out of their fenced cities, because God is not with them ; which made Caleb and Joshua pacify the mutinous Israelites at the tidings of giants and walled cities, with this : ' They are bread for us, their defence is departed from them.' How much more must that soul be as bread to Satan, that hath no defence from the Almighty ! Take men of the greatest parts, natural or acqiiired accomplishments, who only want an union with Christ, and renewing grace from Christ: O what fools doth the devil make of them ! leading them at his pleasure, some to one lust, some to another ; the proudest of them all is slave to one or other, though it be to the ruining of body and soul for ever. Where lies the mystery, that men of such parts and wisdom should debase themselves to such drudgery work of hell ? Even here, they are in a state of alienation from God, and no more able of themselves to break the devil's prison, than a slave to run from his chain. Second, The Christless state is a state of ignorance, and such must needs be naked and unanned. He that cannot see his enemy, how can he ward off the blow he sends? One seeing prophet leads a whole army of blind men whither he pleaseth. The impeifect knowledge saints have hei-e, is Satan's advantage against them ; he often takes them on the blind side ; how easily then may he, with a parcel of good words, carry the blind soul out of his way, who knows not ■gg PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. a step of the right ! Now, that the Christless state is a state of ignorance, see Eph. v. 8 : ' Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.' Ye were dai'kness, not in the dark, so one that hath an eye may he. A child of light is often in the dark, concerning some truth or promise, but then hath a spiritual eye, which the Christless person wants, and so is darkness. And this darkness cannot be enlightened, but by its union with Christ, which is ex- pi-essed in the following phrase, ' But now are ye light in the Lord.' As the eye of the body once put out, can never be restored by the creature's art, so neither can the spiritual eye, lost by Adam's sin, be restored by the teaching of men and angels. It is one of the diseases which Christ came to cure, Luke iv. 18. It is true, there is a light of reason, which is imparted to every man by natiu-e, but this light is darkness, compared with the saints '; as the night is dark to the day, even when the moon is in its full glory. This night-light of reason may save a person from some ditch, or pond, great and broad sins, but it will never help him to escape the more secret corruptions, which the saints see like atoms in the beams of spiritual knowledge. There is such curious work the creature is to do, which cannot be wrought by candlelight of natural knowledge. Nay more, where the common illumination of the spirit is super- added to this light of nature, yet that is darkness compared with the sanctifying knowledge of a renewed soul, which doth both discover spiritual truths, and warm the heart at the same time with the love of truth, having, like the sun, a prolifical and quickening virtue, which the other wants ; so that the heart lies under such common illuminations, cold and dead. He hath no more strength to resist Satan, than if he knew not the command ; whereas the Christian know- ledge, even when taken prisoner by a temptation, pursues and brings back the soul, as Abraham his nephew out of the enemies' hand : which hints the third. Third, The Christless state is a state of impotency, Rom. v. ' When we were without strength, Christ came to die for the ungodly.' What can a dis- armed people, not having sword or gun, do to shake off the yoke of a conquering enemy? Such a power hath Satan over the soul, Luke xi. 21. He is called the strong man that keeps the soul as his palace : if he hath no disturbance from heaven, he need fear no mutiny within ; he keeps all in peace there. What the Spirit of God doth in a saint, that in a manner doth Satan in a sinner. The Spirit fills the heart of his with love, joy, holy desires, fears; so Satan fills the sinner's heart with pride, lust, lying: ' Why hath Satan filled thy heart?' saith Peter. And thus filled with Satan, (as the drunkard with wine,) he is not his own man, but Satan's slave. Fourth, The state of unregeneracy is a state of friendship with sin and Satan. If it be enmity against God (as it is) then friendship with Satan. Now it will be hard to make that sovil fight in earnest against his friend. Is Satan divided? Will the devil within fight against the devil without; Satan in the heart, shut out Satan at the door ? Sometimes indeed there appears a scuffle betwen Satan and a carnal heart ; but it is a mere cheat, like the fighting of two fencers on a stage : you would think at first they were in earnest, but observing how wary they are, where they hit one another, you may soon know they do not mean to kill ; and that which puts all out of doubt, when the prize is done, you shall see them making merry together, with what they have got of their spectators, which was all they fought for. When a carnal heart makes the greatest bustle against sin, by complaining of it, or praying against it, follow him but off" the stage of duty (where he had gained the reputation of a saint, the prize he fights for, ) and you shall see them sit as friendly together in a comer as ever. Use 1. This takes away the wonder off Satan's great conquests in the world : when we look abroad and see his vast empire, and what a little spot of ground contains Christ's subjects, what heaps of precious soids lie prostrate imder this foot of pride, and what a little regiment of saints march under Christ's banner ; perhaps the strangeness of the thing may make you ask. Is hell stronger than heaven ? the arms of Satan more victorious than the cross of Christ? No such matter; consider but this one thing, and you will wonder that Christ hath any to follow him, rather than he hath so few. Satan finds the world unarmed ; when the Prince of the World comes, he finds nothing to oppose ; the whole soul is in a disposition to yield at first summons ; and if conscience, PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. 29 governor for God in the creature, stands out a while, all the other powers, as will and affections, are in a discontent, (like mutinous soldiers in a garrison,) who never rest till they have brought over conscience to yield, or against its command set open the city gate to the enemy, and so deliver traitorously their conscience prisoner to their lusts : but when Clu-ist comes to demand the soul, he meets a scornful answer ; ' Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of the Most High.' ' We will not have this man to reign over us.' With one consent they vote against him, and rise up as the Philistines against Samson, whom they called ' the destroyer of the country.' 'Ye will not come unto me,' saitli Christ. O how true are poor sinners to the devil's trust ! They will not de- liver the castle they hold for Satan, till fired over their heads. Pharaoh opposeth Moses on one hand, and Israel cry out upon him on the other. Such measures hath Christ both at Satan's hand, and the sinner's. That which lessened Alexander's conquests, was, he overcame a people buried in barbarism, without arms, or discipline of war ; and that which heightened Caesar's, (though not so many,) he overcame a people more warlike and furnished. Satan's victories are of poor, ignorant, graceless souls, who have neither arms, nor hands, nor hearts to oppose ; but when he assaults a saint, then he sits down before a city with gates and bars, and ever riseth with shame, unable to take the weakest hold, to pluck the weakest saint out of Cluist's hands ; but Chi'ist brings souls out of his dominion with a high hand, in spite of all the force and fury of hell, which like Pharaoh and his host pursue them. Use 2. This gives us a reason why the devil hath so great a spite against the gospel. Why ? because this opens a magazine of arms and furniture for the soul ; the word is that ' tower of David,' Cant. iv. 4, ' built for an armoury, wherein there hang a thousand bucklers, all the shields of mighty men.' Hence the saints have ever had their armour, and the preaching of the gospel unlocks it. As gospel-light ascends, so Satan's shady kingdom of darkness vanisheth, Rev. xiv. 16. Thei-e one angel comes forth to preach the everlasting gospel, and another angel follows at his back, ver. 8. crying ' Babylon is fallen, is fallen.' The very first charge the gospel gave to the kingdom of darkness, shook the foundations thereof, and put the legions of hell to the run. The seventy, whom Christ sent out, bring this speedy account of their ambassage : Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name; and Chi'ist answers, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. As if he had said, It is no news you tell me, I beheld Satan fall when I sent you ; I knew the gospel would make work where it came ; and therefore no wonder Satan labours to dispossess the gospel, which dispossesseth him ; he knows that army is near lost, whose magazine is blown up. It is true indeed, under the very gospel the devil rageth more in such swinish sinners as are given over of God to be possessed of that fiend, for rejecting of his grace ; but he is cast out of others, who, before the loving-kindness of God to man appeared in the gospel, were commanded by him, serving divers lusts and pleasures ; but now by the light of the gospel they see their folly, and by the grace it brings, are enabled to renounce him. This, this, is that which torments the foul spirit, to see himself forsaken of his old friends and servants, and this new Lord to come and take his subjects from him ; and therefore he labours either by persecution to drive the gospel away, or by policy to persuade a people to send it away from their coasts ; and was he ever more likely to effect it among us ? What a low esteem hath he brought the preaching of the gospel into ? The price is fallen above half, to what it was some years past, even among those that have been counted the greatest mer- chants upon the Saints' Exchange. Some, that have thought it worth ci-ossing the seas, even to the Indies, (almost as far as others fetch their gold,) to enjoy the gospel, are loath now to cross the street to hear it at so cheap a rate ; and some that come, (who formerly trembled at it,) make it most of their errand to mock at it, or quarrel with it. Nay, it is come to such a pass, that the word is so heavy a charge to the squeamish stomachs of many professors, that it comes up again presently, and abundance of choler with it against the preacher, espe- cially if it fall foul of the sins and errors of the times, the very naming of which is enough to offend, though the nation be sinking under the weight. What reproaches are the faithful ministers of the gospel laden with ? I call heaven gQ PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD, and earth to witness, whether ever they suffered a hotter persecution of the tongue, than in this apostatizing age. A new generation of professors are started up, that will not know them to be the ministers of Christ, though those before them (as well in grace, as time, more able to derive their sjnritual pedi- gree than themselves) have to their death owned them for their spiritual fathers. And must not the ark needs shake, when they that carry it are thus struck at, both in their person and office? What are these men doing? Alas, they know not; ' Father, forgive them;' they are cutting off their right hand with their left ; they are making themselves and the nation naked, by despising the gospel, and those that bring it. Use 3. Consider your deplored estate, who are wholly naked and imarmed. Can you pity the beggar at your door, (when you see such in a winter-day, shiver- ing with naked backs, exposed to the fury of the cold ;) and not pity your own far more dismal soul-nakedness, by which thou liest open to heaven's wrath, and hell's malice? Shall their nakedness cover them with shame, fill th.nn with fear of perishing, which makes them with pitiful moans knock and cry for relief, as it is reported of Russia, where their poor (through extreme neces- sity) have this desperate manner of begging in the streets; ' Give me and cut me, give me and kill me ? ' And canst thou let Satan come and cut thy thi'oat in thy bed of sloth, rather than accept of clothes to cover, yea, armour to de- fend thee? (I mean Christ and his grace, which in the gospel is tendered to you.) And do not lightly believe your flattering hearts, if they shall tell you, you are provided of these already. I am afraid many a gaudy professor will be found as naked in regard of Christ, and truth of grace, as diimkards and swearers themselves : such there are, who content themselves with a Christ in profession, in gifts, and in duties, but seek not a Christ in solid grace, and so perish ; those indeed are an ornament to the Christian, as the scarf and feather to the soldier, but these quench not the bvdlet in battle, it is Christ and his grace doth that, therefore labour to be sound rather than brave Christians. Grace embellished with gifts is the more beautiful, but these without grace, only the richer spoil for Satan. The second branch of the first general part of the words follows ; and that is, the quality or kind of that armour, the Christian is here directed to provide. It is not any trash will serve the tvu'n, better none than not armour of proof, and none such, bixt armour of God. In a twofold respect, it must be of God. First, In institution and appointment ; Secondly, In constitution. CHAPTER II. SHEWETH, THAT THE ARMOUR WE USE AGAINST SATAN, MUST BE DIVINE IN THE INSTITUTION, SUCH ONLY AS GOD APPOINTS. Obs. First, the Christian's armour which he wears must be of divine in- stitution and appointment. The soldier comes into the field with no ai'ins, but what his general commands ; it is not left to every one's fancy to bring what weapons he please, this will breed confusion. The Christian soldier is bound up to God's order ; though the army be on earth, yet the council of war sits in heaven ; this duty ye shall do, that means ye shall use ; and to do more or use other than God commands, though with some seeming success against sin, such shall surely be called to an account for this boldness. The discipline of war among men is strict in this case. Some have suff'ered death by a council of war, even when they have beaten the enemy, because out of their place, or beside their order. God is very precise in this point ; he will say to such as invent ways to worship him of their own, and, coining means to mortify corrujJtion, obtain comfort in their own mint : ' Who hath required that at yoiu- hands ? ' This is truly to be ' righteous over-much,' (as Solomon speaks) when we will pretend to correct God's law, and add supplements of our own to his rule. Who will pay that man his wages, that is not set on work by God? God tells Israel, the false prophets shall do them no good, because they come not of his errand, Jer. xxiii. 22. So neither will those ways and means help, which are not of God's appointing ; God's thoughts are not as man's, nor his ways as ours, which he useth to attain his ends by. If man had been to set forth the Israelitish army, now to march out of Egypt, surely his wisdom would have PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. ,^1 directed rather to have phindered the Egyptians of their horse and arms (as more necessary for such an expedition) than to borrow their jewels and ear- rings ; but God will have them come out naked and on foot ; and Moses keeps close to his order; yea, when horses were taken in battle, because God com- manded they should be houghed, they obeyed, though to their seeming disad- vantage. It was God's war they waged, and therefore but reasonable they should be under his command ; they encamped and marched by his order, as the ark moved or rested; they fought by his command ; the number appointed bj^ him, the means and weapons they should use, all prescribed by God, as in the assault of Jericho ; and what is the gospel of all this (for surely God hath an eye in that to our marching to heaven, and our fighting with these cursed spirits and lusts that stand in our way,) but that we should fight law- fully, using those means which we have from his mouth in his word ? This reproveth two sorts. Use 1. First, those that fight Satan in armour, that hath no divine institu- tion, as. First, The Papist. Look into his armoury, and hardly a piece that will be found armour of God. They fight in the pope's armour; his authority is the shop wherein their weapons are forged ; it were a kind of penance to your patience, to repeat all the several pieces of armour, with which they load silly souls, too heavy indeed for the broadest shoulders among them to bear ; yea, more than the wiser sort of them mean to use ; their masses, matins, vigils, pilgrimages, Lent-fasts, whippings, vows of chastity, poverty, with a world of sucli trash ; where is a word of God for these ? who hath required these things at their hands ? A thousand woes will one day fall upon those impostors, who have stripped the people of the true armour of God, and put these reeds and bidrushes in their hands. This may justify us in the sight of God and men, for our departure from them, who will force us to venture the life of our souls in such paper armour, when God hath provided better. Secondly, The carnal Protestant, who fights in fleshy armour, 2 Cor. x. 3. The apostle speaks there of ' warring after the flesh,' that is, with weapons or means, which man's carnal wisdom prompts to, and not God's commands, and so are weak. How few are clad with other in the day of battle ! First, when Satan tempts to sin, if he hath not presently a peaceable entrance, yet the re- sistance commonly made is carnal ; the strength carnal they rest on ; their own, not God's ; the motives carnal, as the fear of man more than of God. Where one saith. How shall I do this, and sin against God ? many in their hearts say. How shall I do this, and anger man, displease my master, provoke my parents, and lose the good opinion of my minister? Herod feared John, and did many things ; had he feared God, he would have laboured to have done every thing. The like may be said of all other motives, which have their spring in the creature, not in God ; they are armour which will not out- stand shot. If thy strength lie in a creature-lock, it may be soon cut off"; if in God, it will hold, as bis command. 'It is written:' I cannot doit, but I must set my foot on the law of my Maker. Or the love of Christ ; I cannot come at my lust, but I must go over my bleeding Saviour; and therefore away, foul tempter I I hate thee and thy motion. This foundation is rock, and will stand ; but if it be some carnal respect that balanceth thee, another more weighty may be found of the same kind, which will cast the scales another way. She that likes not the man because of his dress only, may soon be gained when he comes in another habit. Satan can change his suit, and then thy mouth will be stopped when thy carnal argument is taken ofl". Secondly, When the word or conscience rebuke for sin, what is the armour that men commonly cover their guiltv soids witlial ? Truly no other than carnal. If they cannot evade the chai ge that these bring, then they labour to mitigate it, by extenuating the fact. It is true, will they say, I did (I confess) commit such a fault, but I was drawn in ; ' The woman gave me, and I did eat,' was Adam's fig-leaf amioiir ; it is but once or twice, and I hope that breaks no such squares; was this such a great business? I know jolly Christians will do as much as this comes to ; I thank (iod, I cannot be charged for whore or thief : this is the armour which nuist keep ofl" the blow. But if conscience will not be thus taken oflT, then they labour to divert their thoughts, by striking up 32 PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. the loud music of carnal delights, that the noise of one may drown the other ; or with Cain, they will go from the presence of the Lord, and come no more at those ordinances which make their head ache, and hinder the rest of their raving consciences. If yet the ghost haunts them, then they labour to pacify it with some good work or other, which they set against their bail ; their alms and charity in their old age must expiate the oppression and violence of their former days ; as if this little frankincense were enough to air and take away the plague of God's curse, which is in their ill-gotten goods. Thus poor creatures catch at any sorry covering, which will not so much as hide their shame, much less choke the bullet of God's wrath, when God shall fire upon them ; this must be the armour of God's appointing. Adam was naked for all his fig-leaves, while God 'taught him to make coats of skin,' Gen. iii. 21, covertly (as some think) shadowing out Christ the true 'Lamb of God,' whose righteousness alone was appointed by him to cover our shame, and arm our naked souls from the sight and stroke of his justice. Secondly, It reproves those who use the armour of God, but not as God hath appointed ; which appears in three sorts. First, When a person useth a duty appointed by God, not as armovir of de- fence against sin, but as a cover for sin. Who would think him an enemy that wears Christ's colours in his hat, and marcheth after Christ in the exercise of all the duties of his worship? Such a one may pass all the covirts of guard, without so much as being bid stand ; all take him for a friend ; and yet some such there are, who are fighting against Christ all the while. The hypocrite is the man; he learns his postures, gets the word, has his tongue tipped with scripture language, and walks in the habit of a Christian, merely on a design to drive his trade the more closely ; like some highwaymen in our days, who I'ob in the habit of sol- diers, that they may be the less suspected ; this is desperate wickedness indeed, to take \ip God's arms, and use them in the devil's service ; of all sinners such shall find the least mercy ; false friends shall speed worse than open enemies. Secondly, They use not the armour of God, as God hath appointed, who put a carnal confidence therein. We must not confide in the armour of God, but in the God of this armour, because all ' our weapons are only mighty through God,' 2 Cor. x. The ark was the means of the Jews' safety, but, carnally ap- plauded and gloried in, hastened their overthrow ;• so duties and ordinances, gifts and graces, in their place, are means for the soul's defence ; Satan trembles as much as the Philistines at the ark, to see a soul diligent in the use of duty and exercise of grace ; but when the creature confides in them, this is dangerous. As some, when they have prayed, think they please God for all day, though they take little heed to their steps. Others have so good an opinion of their faith, sincerity, knowledge, that you may as soon make them believe they are dogs, as that they may ever be taken in such an error or sinful practice. Others, when assisted in duty, are prone to sti-oke their own head with a ' Bene fecisti, Bernarde,' and so promise themselves to speed, because they have done their errand so well. What speak such passages in the hearts of men, but a carnal confidence in their annour to their ruin ? Many soids, we may safely say, do not only perish praying, repenting and believing after a sort, but they perish by their praying and repenting, &c., while they carnally trust in these. As it falls out sometimes, that the soldier in battle loseth his life by means of his own armour, it is so heavy he cannot flee with it, and so close buckled to him, that he cannot get it oft", to flee for his life without it. If we be saved, we must come naked to Christ, for all our duties : we will not flee to Christ while confiding in them, and some are so locked into them, that they cannot come without them, and so in a day of temptation are trampled under the feet of God's wrath, and Satan's fury. The poor Publican throws down his arms, (that is, all confidence in himself,) cries out for quarter at the hands of mercy, ' God, be merciful unto me a sinner;' and he comes off" with his life ; he went away justified : but the Pharisee, laden with his righteousness, and conceited of it, stands to it, and is lost. Thirdly, They do not use the armour of God as such, who, in the performing of divine duties, eye not God through them ; and this makes them all weak and ineflectual. Then the word is mighty, when read as the word of God ; then the gospel preached, powerfid to convince the conscience, and revive the droop- ing spirit, when heard, as the appointment of the great God, and not the exer- PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. 33 cise of a mean creature. Now it will ajipear in three things, whether we eye divine appointment in the means. First, When we engage in a dnty, and look not up to God for his blessing. Didst thou eye God's appointment in the means, thou woiddst say, ' Soul, if there come any good of thy present service, it must drop from heaven, for it is God's appointment, not man's, and can I profit, whether God will or no? or think to find and bring away any soid-em-iching treasure from his ordinance without his leave ? Had I not best look up to him, by whose blessing I live more than by my bread ? Again, Secondly, It appears we look not at God's appointment, when we have low thoughts of the means. What is Jordan, that I should wash in it ? What is the preaching, that I should attend on it, where I hear nothing but ■what I knew before ? What are these beggai-ly elements of water, and bread, and wine? Are not these the reasonings of a soul that forgets who appoints these ? Didst thou remember who commands, thou wouldst not question what the command is ; what though it be clay, let Christ use it, and it shall open the eyes, though in itself more like to put them out. Hadst thou thine eye on God, thou woiddst silence thy carnal reason with this : It is God sends me to such a duty ; whatever he saith unto me I will do it, though he should send me (as Christ them) to draw wine out of the pots filled with water. Thirdly, When a soul leaves off a duty, because he finds not in it what he expected from it. O, saith the soul, I see it is in vain to follow the means as I have done ; still Satan foils me ; I will even give over. Dost thou remember, sold, it is God's ai)pointment? Surely then thou wouldst persevere in the midst of discouragement. He that bids thee pray, bids thee pray without ceasing. He that bids thee hear, bids thee wait at the posts of wisdom. Thou wouldst reason thus, God hath set me on duty, and here I will stand, till God takes me oW, and bids me leave praying. CHAPTER III. SHEWETH THAT THE ARMOUR WE USE FOR OUR DEFENCE AGAINST SATAN, MUST NOT ONLY BE DIVINE BY INSTITUTION, BUT CONSTITUTION ALSO. Secondly, The Christian's armour miist be armour of God, in regard of its make and constitution. My meaning is, it is not only God that must a})point the weapons and arms the Christian useth for his defence, but he must also be the efficient of .hem; he must work all their work in them and for them. Prayer is an appointment of God, yet this is not armour of ])roof, except it be a prayer of God flowing from his Spirit. Hope ; that is the helmet the saint by command is to wear ; but this hope must be God's creature, ' who hath begotten us to a lively hope,' 1 Pet. i. 3. Faith; that is another principal piece in the Chri.stian's furniture, but it must be ' the faith of God's elect,' Tit. i. 1. He is to take righteousness and holiness for his breast-plate ; but it must be ' true holiness,' Eph. iv. 24. ' Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.' Thus, you see, it is not annour as armour, but as armour of God, that makes the soul impregnable. 'That which is born of God overcometh the world.' A faith bom of God, a hope born of God ; but the spurious, adulterous brood of duties and graces, Ijeing begot of mortal seed, cannot be immortal. Must the soul's armour be of God's make? Be exhorted then to look narrowly, whether the armour ye wear be the workmanship of God or no. There is abundance of false ware put oft" now-a-days ; little good armour worn by the multitude of professors ; it is Satan's after-game he plays, if he cannot please the sinner with his naked state of profaneness, then to put him off with something like grace, some slighty stuff that shall neither do him good nor Satan hurt ; thus many, like children that cry for a knife or dagger, and are pleased as well with a bone knife and wooden dagger, as wiOi the best of all ; so they have some armour it mutters not what. Pray they must, but little care how it be performed. Believe in God ! Yes, they hope they are not infidels ; but what it is, how they come by it, or whether it \yill hold in an evil day, this never was i)ut to the question in their hearts. Thus thousands perish 34< PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR, OF GOD. with a vain conceit they are armed against Satan, death, and judgment, when they are 'miserable and naked,' yea, woi'se off than those who are more naked, those, I mean, who have not a rag of civility to hide their shame from the world's eye, and that in a double respect. First, It is liarder to work on such a soul savingly, because he hath a form, though not the power, and this affords him a plea. A soul purely naked, having nothing like the wedding garment on, he is speechless ; the drunkard hath nothing to say for himself, when you ask him why he lives so swinishly ; yon may come up to him, and get within him, and turn the very mouth of his conscience upon him, which will shoot conviction into him. But to come to deal with one that prays and hears, one that is a pretender to ho])e and faith in God ; here is a man in glistering armour ; he hath his weapon in his hand, with which he will keep the preacher and the word he chargeth him with at arm's length. Who can say I am not a saint? What duty do I neglect? Here is a breastwork he lies under, which makes him not so fair a mark either to the observation or reproof of another, his chief defect being within, where man's eye comes not. Again, it is harder to work on him, because he hath been tampered with already, and miscari'ied in the essay. How conies such a one to be acquainted with such duties, to make such a profession ? Was it ever thus ? No, the word hath been at work upon him, his conscience hath scared him from his trade of wickedness into a form of profession ; but taking in short of Christ, for want of a thoroiigh change, it is harder to remove him than the other ; he is like a lock whose wards have been troubled, which makes it harder to tuni the key, than if never pottered with. It is better dealing with a wild ragged colt, never backed, than one that in breaking hath taken a wrong stroke; a bone quite out of joint, than false set. In a word, such a one hath more to deny than a profane person ; the one hath but his lusts, his swill and draught ; but the other hath his duties, his seeming graces. O how hard it is to persuade such a one to alight, and hold Christ's stirrup, while he and his duties are made Christ's footstool. Secondly, Such a one is deepest in condemnation. None sink so far into hell as those that come neai-est heaven, because they fall from the greatest height. As it aggravates the torments of damned souls in this respect above devils, they had a cord of mercy thrown out to them, which devils had not ; so by how much God by his Spirit waits on, pleads with, and by both gains on a soul more than others, by so much such a one, if he perish, will find hell the hotter ; these add to his sin, and the remembrance of his sin in hell thus accented, will add to his torment. None will have such a sad parting from Christ as those who went half way with him, and then left him. Therefore, I beseech you, look to your armour. David woidd not fight in armour he had not tried, though it was a king's ; perhaps some thought him too nice. What ! is not the king's armour good enough for David ? Thus many will say, Art thou so curious and precise ? Such a great man doth thus and thus, and hopes to come to heaven at last, and darest thou not venture thy soul in his armour? No, Christian, follow not the example of the greatest on earth; it is thy own soul thou ventui-est in battle, therefore thou canst not be too choice of thy armour. Bring th\ heart to ihe word, as the only touchstone of thy grace and furniture; the word, I told you, 'is the tower of David,' from whence thy armour must be fetched ; if thou canst find this tower-stamp on it, then it is of God, else not. Try it therefore by ihis one scri])ture-stamp. Those weapons are mighty which God gives his saints to fight his battles withal ; 2 Cor. x. 4, 'The weapons of oiu- warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God.' The sword of the Spirit hath its point and edge, whereby it makes its way into his heart and conscience, through the impenitency of the one, and stupidity of the other; (wherein Satan, as with buff and coat of mail, arms the sinner against God,) and there cuts and slashes, kills and mortifies Ivist in its own castle, where Satan thinks himself impregnable. The breast-plate, which is of God, doth not bend and break at every dart of temptation, but is of such a divine tempera- ment, that it repels Satan's motions with scorn on Satan's teeth. Should such a one as I sin ? as Nehemiah in another case ; and such are all the rest. Now try whether your weapons be mighty or weak ; what can you do or suffer more PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. 35 for God than an hypocrite that is clad in fleshly annour ? I will tell you what the world saith, and if you be Christians, clear yourselves, and wipe off that dirt which they throw upon your glistening armour ; they say, These professors indeed have God more in their talk than we, they are oftener in the mount of duty than we ; but when they come down into their shops, relations, or worldly employments, then the best of them all is but like one of us ; they can throw the tables of God's commandments out of their hands as well as we ; come from a sermon, and be as covetous and griping, as peevish and passionate, as the worst ; the)' show as little love to Christ as others, when it is matter of cost, as to relieve a poor saint, or maintain the gospel ; you may get more from a stranger, an enemy, than from a professing brother. O Christians, either vindicate'the name of Christ, whose ensign you seem to march after, or throw away your seeming armour, by which you have drawn the eyes of the world upon you. If you will not, Christ himself will cashier you, and that with shame enough, ere long. Never call that armour of God, which defends thee not against the power of Satan. Take, therefore, the several pieces of your annour and try them, as the soldier before he fights will set his helmet or headpiece as a mark, at which he lets fly a brace of bullets, and as he finds them, so will wear them or leave them : but be sure thou shootest Script\ire bullets. Thou boastest of a breast-plate of righteousness ; ask thy sold, Didst thou ever in tliy life perform a duty to please God, and not to accommodate thyself? Thou hast prayed often against thy sin ; a great noise of these pieces have been heard coming from thee by others, as if there were some hot fight between thee and thy corruption ; but canst tliou indeed show one sin that thou hast slain by all thy praying ? Joseph was alive, though his coat was brought bloody to Jacob ; and so may thy sins be, for all thy mortified look in duty, and outcry thou makest against them. If thou woiddest thus try every piece, thy credulous heart would not so easily be cheated with Satan's false ware. Object. But is all armour that is of God thus mighty ? We read of weak grace, little faith ; how can this then be a trial of our armoiu-, whether of God or not ? Ans. I answer. The weakness of grace is in respect of stronger grace ; but that weak grace is strong and mighty in comparison of counterfeit grace. Now I do not bid thee try the truth of thy grace by such a power as is peculiar to stronger grace, but by that power which will distinguish it from false ; true grace, when weakest, is stronger than false, when strongest. There is a prm- ciple of Divine life in it, which the other hath not. Now life, as it gives excel- lency, (a flea, or fly, by reason of its life, is more excellent than the sun in all its glory,) so it gives strength. The slow motion of a living man, though so feeble that he cannot go a furlong in a day, yet coming from life, imports more strength than is in a ship, which, though it sails swiftly, hath its motion from without. Thus possibly a hypocrite may exceed the true Christian in the bulk and outside of a duty, yet because his strength is not from life, but from somewind and tide abroad that carries him, and the Christian's is from an inward prin- ciple, therefore the Christian's weakness is sti-onger than the hypocrite in his greatest enlargements. I shall name but two acts of grace, when weakest, whereby the Christian exceeds the hypocrite in all his best array. You will say, then grace is at a weak stay indeed, when the Christian is persuaded to commit a sin, a great sin ; such a one as possibly a carnal person would not have it said of him for a great matter, so low may the tide of grace fall ; yet true grace at such an ebb, will appear of greater strength and force than the other. First, This principle of grace will never leave, till the soul weeps bitterly with Peter, that it hath oflended so good a God. Speak, O ye hypocrites! can you shew one tear that ever you shed in earnest for a wrong done to God? Possibly ye may weep to see the bed of sorrow which your sins are making for you hi hell ; but ye never loved God so well, as to mourn for the injury ye have done the name of God. It is a good gloss Augustine hath upon Esau's tears, Heb. xii., Flevit quod perdidit, iion quod vendidit. He wept that he lost the blessing, not that he sold it. Thus we see the excellency of the saint's sorrow above the hypocrite's. The Christian, by his sorrow, shows himself a conqueror of that sin which even now overcame him ; while the hypocrite, by D 2 3g PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. his pride, shows himself a slave to a worse lust than that he resists. While the Christian commits a sin, he hates it ; whereas the other loves it while he forbears it. Secondly, When true grace is under the foot of a temptation, yet then it will stir up in the heart a vehement desire of revenge, like a prisoner in his enemy's hand, who is thinking and plotting how to get out ; and what he will do when out, waiting and longing every moment for his delivery, that he may again take up arms : ' O God, remember me,' saith Samson, ' this once, I pray thee, and strengthen me, that I may be at once avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes,' Judges xvi. 27. Thus prays the gracious soul, that God would but spare him a little, and strengthen him but once before he dies, that he may be avenged on his pride, unbelief, and those sins whereby he hath most dishonoured his God ; but a false heart is so far from studying revenge, that he rather swells like the sea, against the law, which banks his lust in, and is angiy with God, who hath made sin such a leap, that he nmst hazard his soid if he will have it. CHAPTER IV. OP THE ENTIRENESS OF OUR FURNITURE; IT MUST BE THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. 3. The third branch in the saint's furniture is, the entireness thereof, ' The whole armour of God.' The Christian's armour must be complete, and that in a threefold respect. Section I. First, He must be armed in every part 'cap-a-pie,' soul and body, the powers of the one, and senses of the other, not any part left naked. A dart may fly in at a little hole, (like that which brought a message of death to Ahab, through the joints of his harness,) and Satan is such an archer, who can shoot at penny-breadth. If all the man be armed, and only the eye left without, Satan can soon shoot his fire-balls of lust in at that loop-hole, which shall set the whole house on a flame. Eve looked but on the tree, and a poisonous dart struck her to the heart. If the eye be shut, and the ear be open to corrupt coimnunication, Satan will soon wriggle in at this hole ; if all the outward senses be guarded, and the heart not kept with all diligence, he will soon by his own thoughts be betrayed into Satan's hands. Our enemies are on every side, and so must our armour be, ' on the right hand, and on the left,' 2 Cor. vi. 7. The apostle calls sin, an enemy that surrounds us. If there be any part of the line unguarded, or weakly provided, there Satan falls on ; we see the enemy often enter the city at one side, whilst he is beat back on the other, for want of care to keep the whole line. Satan divides his temptations into several squadrons ; one he employs to assault here, another to storm there. We read of fleshly wickedness, and spiritual wickedness ; whilst thou repellest Satan, tempting thee to fleshly wickedness, he may be entering thy city at the other gate of spiritual wickedness. Perhaps thou hast kept thy integrity in the practical part of thy life ; but what armour hast thou to defend thy head, thy judgment? If he surprise thee here, corrupting that with some error, then thou wilt not long hold out in thy practice. He that coidd not get thee to profane the sabbath among sensualists and atheists, will, under the disguise of such a corrupt principle as Christian liberty, prevail. Thus we see what need we have of universal armour, in regard of every part. Section II. Secondly, The Christian must be in complete armour, in regard of the several pieces and weapons that make up the whole armour of God. Indeed there is a concatenation of graces, they hang together like links in a chain, stones in an arch, members in the body ; prick one vein, and the blood of the whole body may run out at that sluice ; neglect one duty, and no other will do us good. The Apostle Peter, in his second Epistle, chap. i. ver. 5- — ^7, presseth the Christian to a joint endeavour to increase the whole body of grace ; indeed that is health when the whole body thrives. ' Add,' saith he, to your faith virtue;' faith is the leadhig grace. Well, hast thou faith ? add virtue : true faith is of a working, stirring nature ; without good works it is dead or dying. Fides pingiiesclt uperibits. — Luther. It is kept in plight and PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OK GOD. 37 heart by a holy life, as the flesh which plasters over the frame of man's body, though it receive its heat from the vitals within, yet helps to preserve the very life of those vitals ; thus good works and gracious actions have their life from faith, yet are necessary helps to preserve the life of faith ; thus we see some- times the child nursing the parent tha' bare it, and therein performs but his duty. Thou art fi'uitful in good works, yet thou art not out of the devil's shot, except thou addest * to thy virtue, knowledge.' This is the candle, without which, faith cannot see to do its work. Art thou going to give an alms? if it be not ociiJata charitas, if charity hath not this eye of knowledge to direct when, how, what, and to whom thou art to give, thou mayest at once wrong God, the person thou relievest, and thyself Art thou hmnbling thyself for thy sin ? for want of knowledge in the tenor of the gospel, Satan may play upon thy ignorance, and either jiersuade thee thou art not humbled enough, when God knows thou art almost drowned in thy tears, and even carried down by the impetuous torrent of thy sorrow, into desjiair ; or else, shewing thee thy blubbered face, may flatter thee into a carnal confidence of thy humiliation. Perhaps thou seest the name of God dishonoured in the place where thou livest, and thy spirit is stirred within thee, as Paid at Athens ; now if knowledge sits not in the saddle to rein and bridle in thy zeal, thou wilt be soon carried over hedge and ditch, till thou fallest into some precipice or other by thy irregular acting : neither is know- ledge enough, except ye be armed with ' temperance,' which, I conceive, is that grace, whereby the Christian, as master of his own house, so orders his afl'ections, like servants to reason and fai:h, that they do not iri'egularly move, or inordinately lash out into desires of, cares for, or joy in the creature comforts of this life, withoul: which Satan will be too hard for thee. The historian tells us, that in one of the famous battles between the English and French, that which lost the French the day was a shower of English arrows, which did so gall their horse, as put the whole army into disorder ; their horses knowing no ranks, did tread down their own men. The aiFections are but as the horse to the rider, on which knowledge shovild be mounted: if Satan's barbed arrows light on them, so that the desires of the creature prove unruly, and jostle with thy desires of Christ, thy care to keep thy credit or estate, put thy care to keep a good conscience to disorder ; and thy carnal joy in wife and child trample down, or get before thy joy in the Lord ; judge on which side victory is like to fall. Well, suppose thou marchest, provided thus far in goodly array, towards heaven, while thou art swimming in prosperity, must thou not also pro\ ide for foul way and weather ; I mean, an afflicted estate 1 Satan will line the hedges with a thousand temptations, when thou comest into the narrow lanes of ad- versity, where thou canst not run from this sort of temptation, as in the campaign of prosperity. Possibly thou that didst escape the snare of an alluring world, mayst be dismounted by the same when it frowns ; though repentance kept thee from being drunk with the sweet wines of those pleasin-es, yet for want of * patience,' thou mayest be dnmk with the wine of astonishment, which is in affliction's hand : therefore, saith the Apostle, 'to temperance, add patience ;' either possess thyself in patience, or else some raving devil of discontent will possess thee. An impatient soul in aflliction is a bedlamite in chains ; yea, too like the devil in his chains, that rageth against God whilst he is fettered by him. Well, hast thou patience ? an excellent grace indeed, but not enough ; thou must be a pious man as well as a patient. Therefore, saith the Apostle, ' To patience add godliness.' There is an atheistical stupid patience, and there is a godly christian patience : Satan benumbs the conscience of the one, and no wonder he complains not that feels not; but the Spirit of Christ sweetly calms the other, not by taking away the sense of pain, but by overcoming it with the sense of his love. Now godliness comprehends the whole worship of God, inward and outward. If thou art never so exact in thy morals, and not a worshipper of God, then thou art an atheist. If thou dost worship God, and that devoutly, but not by scripture rule, th(m art an idolater. If according to the rule, but not in spirit and trutli, then thou art an hypocrite, and so fallest into the devil's mouth. Or if thou dost give God one piece of his worship, and detiiest another, still Satan comes to his market, Prov. xxviii. 9 : ' lie that turneth back his ear from hearing the law, his prayer is an abomination to the gg PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. Lord.' Yet, Christian, all thy armour is not on. Thy godliness indeed would suffice, wert thou to live in a world by thyself, or hadst nothing to do but im- mediate communion with God. But, Christian, thou must not always dwell on this mount of immediate worship ; and when thou descendest, thou hast many brethren and servants to thy Father, who live with thee in the same family ; and thou must comport thyself becomingly, or else thy Father will be angry. First, thou hast brethren, heirs of the same promise with thee ; therefore you must add to holiness ' brothei-ly kindness.' If Satan can set you at odds, he gives a deep wound to your godliness. You will hardly join hearts in a duty, that cannot join hands in love. Secondly, There ai-e not only brethren, but servants, a multitude of profane cai'nal ones, who, though they never had the names of sons and daughters, yet retain to God's family, and thy heavenly Father will have thee walk unblameably, yea, winningly to those that are without ; which that thou mayest do, thou must add to brotherly kindness, 'charity;' by which grace thou shalt be willing to do good to the worst of men : when they curse thee, thou must pray for them ; yea, pray for no less than a Christ, a heaven for them. 'Father, forgive them,' said Christ, while they were shedding his heart's blood. And truly I am persuaded the want of this last piece of armour hath given Satan great advantage in these our times. We are so afraid oiu- charity should be too broad, whereas in this sense, if it be not as wide as the world, it is too strait for the command which bids us ' do good to all.' May not we ministers be charged with the want of this? when the strain of our preaching is solely directed to the saiuts, and no pains taken in rescuing poor captived souls, yet uncalled, out of the devil's clutches, who may haid them to hell without any disturbance, while we are comforting the saints, and preaching their privileges ; but in the mean time let the ignorant be ignorant still, and the pi'ofane profane still, for want of a compassionate charity to their souls, which would excite us to the reproving and exhorting of them, that they might also be brought into the way of life, as well as the saints en- couraged, who ai-e walking therein. We are stewards to provide bread for the Loi'd's house ; the greatest part of our hearers cannot, must not have the children's bread, and shall we therefore give them no portion at all? Christ's charity pitied the multitude, to whom in his public preaching he made special application, as in that famous sennon, most part of which is spent in rousing up the sleepy consciences of the hypocritical Pharisees, by those thunder-claps of woes and curses so often denounced against them. Matt, xxiii. Again, how great advantage hath Satan from the want of this charity in our families ! Is it not observed how little care is taken by professing governors of such societies, for the instructing their youth ? Nay, it is a principle which some have drank in, that it is not their duty. O where is their charity in the mean time, when they can see Satan come within their own walls, and let him drive a child, a servant, in their own ignorance and profaneness to hell, and not so much as sally out upon his enemy by a word of reproof or instruction, to rescue their silly souls out of the murderer's hands ? We must leave them to their liberty forsooth, and that is as fair play as we can give the devil ; give but corrupt nature enough of this rope, and it will soon strangle the very principles of God and religion in their tender years. Section III. Thirdly, The entireness of the saint's armour may be taken not only for every part and piece of the saint's furniture, but for the completeness and perfection of every piece. As the Christian is to endeavour after every grace, so is he to press after the advance and increase of every grace, even to perfection itself; as he is to add to his faith virtue, so is he to add faith to faith ; he is ever to be completing of his grace. It is that which is frequently pressed upon believers. Matt. v. 48, ' Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. And purify yourselves as God is pure ;' where we have an exact copy set, not as if we could equalize that purity and perfection which is in God, but to make us strive the more, when we shall see how infinitely short we fall of our copy when we write the fairest hand. So James i. 3 : ' Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be entire, wanting nothing,' or wanting in nothing. Thou who makest a hard shift to carry a little burden with thy little patience, wouldst sink under a greater ; therefore there is need that patience should be ever perfecting, lest at last we meet a burden too heavy for our weak PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. 39 slioulders. Take a few reasons why tlie Christian should be thus completing of his grace. First, Because grace is subject to decays, and it ever needs completing ; as in an army, especially, which often engageth in battle, their aimis are baltei-ed and broken ;' one man hath his helmet bent, another his sword gapped, a third his pistol unfixed ; and therefore recruits are ever necessary. In one temptation, the Christian hath his helmet of hope beaten oil' his head, in another liis patience hard put to it. The Christian had need have an armour-shop at hand to make up his loss, and that speedily, for Satan is most like to fall on, when the Christian is least prepared to receive his charge. ' Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to sift you;' he knew they were at that time weakly provided, Christ their captain now to be taken from the head of their troop, discontents among tliemselves, striving who should be greatest, and their recruits of stronger grace, which the Spirit was to bring, not yet come. Now he hath a design to surprise them, and therefore Christ, carefully to prevent him, proniiseth speedy to de- spatch his Spirit for their su;i])ly. Acts i. 4, and in the mean tnne sends them to Jerusalem, to stand as it were in a body in their joint supplications, upon their guard, while he comes to their relief; shewing us in the weakness of our graces what to do, and whither to go for supplv. Secondly, Because Satan is completing his skill and wrath. It is not for nought that he is called the old serpent, subtle by nature, but more by experi- ence ; wrathful by nature, yet every day more and more enraged ; like a bull, the longer he is baited, the more fiiry he shews. And therefore we who are to grapple with him, now his time is so short, had need come well appointed into the field. Thirdly, It is the end of all God's dispensations, to complete his saints in their graces and comforts. Wherefore doth he lop and prune by afflictions, but to ' purge, that they may bring forth more fruit?' John xv. 2, (that is, fuller and fairer.) ' Tribulation works patience,' Rom. v. 3. It is God's ap])ointment for that end. ' It works,' that is, it increaseth the saint's patience; it enrageth indeed the wicked, but meekens the saints. It is his design in the gospel preached, to carry on his sain s ' from faith to faith,' Rom. i. 17. And accordingly he hath furnished the church with instruments, and those with gifts, ' for the perfecting of the saints, and for the edifying of the body of Christ,' Eph. iv. 14. Wherefore doth the scaffold stand, and the workman on it, if the buildings go not up ? For us not to advance under such means, is to make void the counsel of God. Therefore the Apostle blames the Christian Jews, Heb. v. 12, for their non-proficiency in the school of Christ : ' When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teat^h vou again which be the first principles of the oracles of God.' Use. O, how few are there who endeavour thus to improve in their spiritual state, and labour to jierfect what is yet lacking in their knowledge, patience, and the rest! First, Tell some of adding faith to faith, one degree of grace to another, and you shall find they have more mind to join house to house, and lay field to field; their souls are athirst, ever gaping for nu)re, but of what? not of Christ, or heaven: it is earth; earth they never think they have enough of, till death comes and stops their mouth with a shovelful digged out of their own grave ! What a tormenting life must they needs have, who are always crying for more weight, and ye cannot press their covetous desires to "death? O sirs, the only way (if men woidd believe it) to quench this thirst to the creature, were to enkindle another after Christ and heaven. Get but a large heart vehemently thirsting after these, and the other will die alone; as the feverish thirst doth when nature comes to her temper. Secondly, Others labour not thus to perfect grace, because they have a conceit they are perfect already, and upon this fancy throw away praying, hearing, and all other ordinances, as strings for those babes in grace to be carried by, who are not arrived to their high attainments. O what fools does pride make men! Truly heaven were no such desirable place, if we should be no more ]>erfect tlian thus ; a sort of ])eoi)le that are too high for this world, and too low for another. The way by which (jod cures this frenzy of pride, we have in these days seen to be something 40 PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. like that in Nebuchadnezzar, to give them the heart of a beast; I mean, for a time, suffer them to fall into beastly practices, by which he shows them how far they are from that perfection they dreamed of so vainly. Thirdly, Others who have true grace, and desire the advancement of it, yet are discouraged in their endeavour for moi-e, from too deep a sense of their present penury. Bid some such labour to get more power over corruption, more faith in, and love to God, that they may be able to do the will of God cheerfully, and suffer it in the greatest afflictions patiently, yea, thank- fully, and they will never believe, that they, whose faith is so weak, and love so chill, and stock so little in hand, should ever attain to an} thing like such a pitch. You may as well persuade a beggar with one poor penny in his purse, that if he will go and trade with that, he shall come to be Lord Mayor of London before he die. But why, poor hearts, should you thus des})ise the day of small things? Do you not see a little grain of mus- tard-seed spread into a tree, and weak grace compared to it for its growth at last, as well as littleness at first ? Darest thou say thou hast no grace at all? If thou hast but any, (though the least that ever any had to begin with,) I dare tell thee that he hath done more for thee in that, than he should in making that which is now so weak, as perfect as the saint's grace is now in heaven. First, He hath done more, considering it as an act of power. There is a greater gulf between no grace and grace, than between weak grace and stx-ong ; between a chaos and nothing, than between a chaos and this beautiful frame of heaven and earth. The first day's work of both creations is the greates'. Secondly, Consider it as an act of grace; it is a greater mercy to give the first grace of conversion, than to crown that with glory. It is more grace and condescent in a prince to marry a poor damsel, than, having married her, to clothe her like a princess ; he was free to do the first or not ; but his relation to her pleads strongly for the other. God might have chosen whether he woidd have given thee grace or no, but having done this, thy relation to him and his covenant also do oblige him to add more and more, till he hath fitted thee as a bride for himself in glory. CHAPTER V. OF THE USE OF OUR SPIRITUAL ARMOUR, OR THE EXERCISE OF GRACE. The fourth and last branch in the saint's furniture is, the use they are to make thereof: * Put on the whole armour of God.' Briefly, what is this duty, ' Put on ? ' These being saints (many of them at least) he writes to, it is not only putting on by conversion, what some of them might not yet have ; but also, he means they should exercise what they have. It is one thing to have armour in the house, and another thing to have it buckled on ; to have grace in the principle, and grace in the act. So that the in- struction will be, Doct. It is not enough to have grace, but this grace must be kept in exercise. The Christian armour is made to be worn ; no laying down, or putting off our armour, till we have done our warfare, and finished our course. Our armour and our garments of flesh go off together ; then indeed will be no need of watch and ward, shield or helmet. Those military duties and field graces, (as I may call faith, hope, and the rest,) they shall be honourably discharged. In heaven we shall appear, not in ai-mour, but in robes of glory ; but here they are to be worn night and day ; we must walk, work, and sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ. This Paul professeth to endeavour, Acts xxiv. 16: 'Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man.' Here we have this holy man at his arms, training and exercising himself in his postures, like some soldier by himself handling his pike, and inuring himself before the battle. Now the reason of this is. Section I. First, Christ commands us to have our armour on, our grace in exercise, Luke xii. 35. ' Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning.' Christ speaks either in a martial phrase, as to soldiers, or in a domestic, as to servants : if as to soldiers, then let your loins be girded. PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. 41 and your lights burning, is that we should be ready for a march, having our annoiu- on, (for the belt goes over all,) and our matchlight ready to give fire at the first alarm of temptation. If as to servants, which seems more natural, then he bids us, (as our master that is gone abroad,) not through sloth or sleep put oft" our clothes, and put out our lights, but stand ready to open when he shall come, though at midnight. It is not fit the master should stand at the door knocking, and the servant within sleeping ; indeed there is no duty the Christian hath in charge but implies this daily exercise, ' Pray ;' but how ? 'without ceasing.' 'Rejoice;' but when ? 'evermore.' 'Give thanks;' for what? ' in everything,' 1 Thess. v. 16, 17. The shield of faith, and lielmet of hope, we must hold them to the end, 1 Pet. i. 13. The sum of all which is, that we should walk in the constant exercise of these duties and graces. Where the soldier is placed, there he stands, and must neither stir nor sleep till he be brought off'. When Christ comes, that soul shall only have his blessing whom ' he finds so doing.' Secondlv, Satan's advantage is great when grace is not in exercise. When the devil found Christ so ready to receive his charge, and repel his temjjtation, he soon had enough; it is said, ' He departed for a season,' Luke iv. 13 ; as if in his shamefid retreat he had comforted himself with hopes of surprising Christ xmawares, at another season more advantageous to his design ; and we find him coming again, in the most likely time indeed to have attained his end, had his enemy been man, and not God. Now, if this bold fiend did thus watch and observe Christ from time to time, doth it not behove thee to look about thee, lest he take tliy grace at one time or other napping ? what he misseth now by thy watchfulness, he may gain anon by thy negligence. Indeed, he hopes thou wilt be tired out with continual duty : Surely, saith Satan, (when he sees the Christian up, and fervent in duty,) this will not hold long. When he finds him tender of conscience, and scrupidous of occasion to sin, this is but for a while ; ere long I shall have him unbend his bow, and unbuckle his armour, and then have at him. Satan knows what orders thou keepest in thy house and closet ; and though he hath not a key to thy heart, yet he can stand in the next room to it, and lightly hear what is whispered there. He hunts the Christian by the scent of his own feet, and if once he doth but smell which way thj' heart inclines, he knows liow to take the hint; if but one door be unbolted, one work unarmed, one grace off" its carriage, here is advantage enough. Thirdly, Because it is so awkward a business, and hard a work, to recover the activity of grace once lost, and to revive a duty in disuse ; ' I have put off my coat,' saith the spouse. Cant. v. 3. She had given way to a lazy distemper, was laid upon her bed of sloth, and how hard is it to raise her ? Her beloved is at the door, beseeching her by all the means of love, which might bring to her remembrance the near relation between them ; ' My sister, my love, my dove, open to me ;' and yet she riseth not. He tells her, ' His locks are filled with the drops of the night;' yet she stirs not. What is the matter ? Her coat was off", and she is loth to put it on ; she had given way to her sloth, and now she knows not how to shake it off"; slie could have been glad to have her beloved's company, if himself would have opened the door ; and he desired as nntcli hers, if she would rise to let him in ; and upon these terms they part. The longer a soul hath lU'glected duty, the more ado there is to get it taken up ; partly through shame, the sold having played the truant, now knows not how to look God on the face ; and partly from the difficulty of the work, being double to what another finds, that walks in the exercise of his grace : here is all out of order. It requires more time and pains for him to tune his instrument, tlian for another to play the lesson. He goes to duty as to a new work, as a scholar that hath not looked on his book some while; his lesson is almost out of his head ; whereas another that was but even now conning it over, hath it ad utiguem. Perhaps it is an affliction thou art called to bear, and thy patience imexcrcised ; little or no thoughts thou hast had for such a time, (while thou wert frisking in a full pasture,) and now thou kickest and flingest, even ' as a bullock, unaccustomed to the yoke,' Jer. xxxi. 18; whereas another goes meekly and patiently under the like cross, because he had been stimng up his patience, and fitting the yoke to liis neck. You know what a confusion there 42 PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. is in a town, at some sudden alarm in the dead of the niglit, the enemy at the gates, and they asleep within. O what a cry is there heard ! one wants his clothes, another his sword, a third knows not what to do for powder ; thus in a fright they run up and down, which would not be if the enemy did find them upon their guard, orderly waiting for his approach. Such a hubbub there is in a soul that keeps not his armour on, this piece and that will be to seek when he should use it. Fourthly, We must' keep grace in exercise in respect of others, our fellow- soldiers. Paul had this in his eye, when he was exercising himself to keep a good conscience, that he might not be a scandal to others. The cowardice of one may make others run ; the ignorance of one soldier that hath not skill to handle his arms may do mischief to his fellow soldiers about him ; some have shot their friends for their enemies; the unwise walking of one professor makes many others fare the worse. But say, thou dost not fall so far as to become a scandal, yet thou canst not be so helpful to thy fellow-brethren as thou shouldst. God commanded the Reubenites and Gadites to go before their brethren ready armed, until the land was conquered. Thus, Christian, thou art to be helpful to thy fellow-brethren, who have not, it may be, that settlement of peace in their spirit as thyself, not that measure of grace or comfort : thou art to help such weak ones, and go before them, as it were, armed for their defence : now if thy grace be not exercised, thou art so far unserviceable to thy weak bi'other. Perhaps thou art a master or parent who hast a family under thy wing, they fare as thou thrivest ; if thy heart be in a holy frame, they fare the better in the duties thou performest ; it thy heart be dead and down, they are losers by the hand. So that as the nurse eats the more for the babe's sake she suckles, so shouldst thou for their sake, who are under thy tuition, be more careful to exercise thy own grace and cherish it. Section II. — Object. O but, may some say, this is a hard work indeed, our armour never off, our grace always in exercise. Did God ever mean religion should be such a toilsome business as this would make it? Ans. Thou speakest like one of the foolish world, and shewest thyself a mere stranger to the Cliristian's life that speakest thus. A burden to exercise grace ! why, it is no burden to exercise the acts of nature, to eat, to drink, to walk, — all delightful to us in our right temper ; if any of these be otherwise, nature is op- pressed ; if stuffed, then difficult t6 breathe ; if sick, then the meat offensive we eat: so take a saint in his i-ight temper, it is his joy to be employed in the exer- cise of his grace in this or that duty, Psa. cxxii. 1 : ' I was glad when they said unto me. Let us go unto the house of the Lord,' his heart leaped at the motion. When any occasion diverts him from communion with God, though he likes it never so well, yet it is unwelcome and impleasing to him ; as you who are used to be in your shops from morning to night, how tedious is it for you to be abroad some days, though among good friends, because you are not where your work and calling lies ? A Christian in duty is one in his calling, as it were in his shop where he should be, yea, where he would be, and therefore far from being tedious. Religion is so burdensome to none, as to those Avho are in- frequent in the exercise of it. Use makes heavy things light ; we hardly feel the weight of our clothes, because fitted to us and worn daily by us ; whereas the same weight on our shoulder would trouble us. Thus the grievousness of religious duties to carnal ones, is taken away in the saints, partly by the fitness of them to the saints' principles, as also by their daily exercise in them. The disciples, when newly entered into the ways of Christ, could not pray much, or fast long ; the bottles were new, and that wine too strong ; but by that they had walked a few years, they grew mighty in both. Dost thou complain that heaven's way is rugged ? Be the more frequently walking in it, and that will make it smooth. But Secondly, Were this constant exercise of grace more troublesome to the flesh, (which is the only complainer,) the sweet advantage that accrues by this to the Christian will abundantly recompense all his labour and pains. First, The exercise of thy grace will increase thy grace ; ' The diligent hand makes rich.' A provident man coimts that lost which might have been got, not only when his money is stole out of his chest, but when it lies there unimproved. PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. ^ Such a commodity, saith the tradesman, if I had bought with that money in my bags, would have brought me in so nnich gain, which is now lost ; so the Cliristian may say. My dawning knowledge, had I followed on to know the Lord, might have spread to broad day: ' I have more understanding,' saith David, ' than all my teachers.' How came he by it? He will tell you in the next woi'ds : 'For thy testimonies are my meditation,' Psa. cxix. 99. He was more in the exercise of duty and grace. The best wits are not always the greatest scholars, because their study is not suitable to their parts ; neither always proves he the richest man, that sets up with the greatest stock. A little grace, well husbanded by daily exercise, will increase, when greater, neglected, shall decay. Secondly, As exercise increaseth, so it evidenceth grace. Woidd a man know whether he be lame or no ? let him rise ; he will be sooner satisfied by one turn in a room, than by a long dispute, and he sit still. Wouldst thou know wliether thou lovest God? be frequent in exerting acts of love; the more the fire is blown up, the sooner it is seen ; and so of all other graces. Sometimes tlie sold is questioning whether it hath any patience, any faith, till God comes and puts him into an afflicted estate, (where he must either exercise this grace or perish,) and then it appears like one that thinks he cannot swim, yet being thrown into the river, then summoning all his strength, he makes a shift to swim to land, and sees what he can do. How oft have we heard Clmstians say, I thought I could never have endured such a pain, trusted God in such a strait ; but now God hath tauglit me what he can do for me, what he hath wrought in me ? And this thou mightst have known before, if thou wouldst have often stin-ed up and exercised thy grace. Thirdly, Exercise of grace doth invite God to communicate himself to such a soul. God sets the Christian at work, and then meets him in it. ' Up and be doing, and the Lord be with you.' He sets a soul a reading as the eunuch, and then joins to his chariot ; a praying, and then comes the messenger from heaven : ' O, Daniel, greatly beloved ! ' The spouse who lost her beloved 'on her bed,' finds him as she comes from the sermon. Cant. iii. 4: ' It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth.' Section III. — Use 1. This falls heavy on their heads, who are so far from exercising grace, that they walk in the exercise of their lusts ; their hearts are like a glass-house, the fire is never out, the shop-windows never shut ; they are always at work, hammering some wicked project or other upon the anvil of their hearts : there are some who give scope to their lusts ; what their wretched hearts will, they will have ; they pamper their lusts, as some their children, deny them nothing, who, as it is recorded of David to Adonijah, do not so much as say to their souls. Why dost thou so? why art thou so proud, so covetous, so profane ? They spend their days in making provision for these guests ; as at some inns, the house never cools, but as one guest goes out, another comes in ; as one lust is served, another is calling for attendance. As some exercise grace more than others, so there are greater traders in sin, that set more a-work than others, and return more wrath in a day than others in a month. Happy are such (in comparison of these) who are chained up by God's restraint upon their outward man or inward, that they cannot drive on so furiously as these, who, by health of body, power, and greatness in place, riches and treasures in their coffers, numbness and searedness in their con- sciences, are hurried on to fill up the measure of their sins. We read of the Assyrian, that he ' enlarged his heart as hell,' stretching out his desires as men do their bags, that are bursting with money, to hold more. Hab. ii. 5. Thus the adulterer, as if his body were not quick enough to execute the commands of his lust, stirs it up by sending forth his amorous glances, which come home laden with adultery, blows up this fire with unchaste sonnets and luxury, proper fuel for the devil's kitchen ; and the malicious man, who, that he may lose no time from his lust, is a tearing his neiglibour in pieces, as he lies on his bed, cannot sleep unless some such bloody sacrifice be offered to his ravening lust. O how may this shame the saints ! How oft is your zeal so hot, that you cannot sleep till your hearts have been in heaven, as you are on 44 PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. your beds, and thei-e pacified with the sight of your dear Saviour, and some embraces of love from him ! Use 2. It reproves those who flout and mock at the saints, while exercising their graces ; none so jeered as the saint in his calling. Men may work in their shops, and every one follow his calling, as diligently as they please, and no wonder made of this by those that pass by in the streets ; but let the Christian be seen at work for God, in the exercise of any duty or grace, and he is hooted at, despised, yea, hated. Few so bad indeed, but seem to like religion in the notion ; they can commend a sermon of holiness, like a discourse of God or Christ, in the pulpit ; but when these are really set before their eyes, as they sparkle in a saint's conversation, they are very contemptible and hateful to them ; this living and walking holiness bites ; and though they liked the preacher's art, in painting forth the same in his discourse, yet now they run from them, and spit at them ; this exercise of grace offends the profane heart, and stirs up the enmity that lies within : as Michal, she could not but flout David, to see him dancing before the ark. He that commended the preacher for making a learned discourse of zeal, will rail on a saint expressing an act of zeal in his place and calling; now grace comes too near him. A naughty heart must stand at some distance from holiness, that the beams thereof may not bear too strongly on his conscience, and so he likes it. Thus the phaiisees the prophets of old, these wei'e holy men in their account, and they can lavish out their money on their tombs in honour of them ; but Christ, who was more than all of them, he is scorned and hated. What is the mystery of this? The reason was, these prophets ai"e off the stage, and Christ on. Pascitur in v'wis Uvur, post fata quiescit. Use 3. Try by this whether you have grace or no ; dost thou walk in the exercise of thy grace ? He that hath clothes, surely will wear them, and not be seen naked. Men talk of their faith, repentance, love to God ; these are precious graces, but why do they not let us see these walking abroad in their daily conversation ? Surely if such guests were in thy soul, they would look out sometimes at the window, and be seen abroad in this duty, and that holy action ; grace is of a stirring nature, and not such a dead thing, like an image, which you may lock up in a chest, and none shall know what God you worship : no, grace will show itself; it will walk with you in all places and companies; it will buy with you, and sell for you; it will have a hand in all your enterprises; it will comfort you when you are sincere and faithful for God, and it will complain and chide you when you are otherwise ; go to, stop its mouth, and heaven shall hear its voice ; it will groan, mourn, and strive, even as a living man, when you would smother him. I will as soon believe the man to be alive, that lies peaceably as he is nailed up in his coffin, without strife or bustle, as that thou hast grace, and never exercise it in any act of spiritual life. What, man, hast thou grace, and carried so peaceabl}', as a fool to the stocks, by thy lust ? Why hangest thou there nailed to thy lust ? If thou hast grace, come down, and we will believe it ; but if thou art such a tame slave, as to sit still under the command of lust, thou deceivest thyself. Hast thou grace, and show none of it in thy condition thou art placed in? May be thou art rich; dost thou show thy humility towards those that ai'e beneath thee ? Dost thou show a heavenly mind, breathing after heaven more than earth ? It may be thy heart is puffed with thy estate, that thou lookest on the poor as creatui'es of some lower species than thyself, and disdainest them ; and as for heaven, thou thinkest not of it. Like that wicked prince that said, ' He would lose his part in Paradise rather than in Paris.' Art thou poor? Why dost not exercise grace in that condition? Art thou contented, diligent? May be, instead of contentment, thou repinest; canst not see a fair lace on thy rich brother's cloth, but grudgest it, instead of concurring with Providence by diligence to supply thy wants? Thou art ready to break through the hedge into thy neighbour's fat pasture, thus serving thy own turn by a sin, rather than waiting for God's blessing on thy honest diligence; if so, be not angry ; we call thee by thy right name, or at least question whether we may style thee Christian, whose carriage is so cross to that sacred name, which is too holy to be written on a rotten post. THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND, ETC. 45 Use 4. Be exhorted, O ye saints of God, to walk in the exercise of grace. It is the minister's duty, with the continual breath of exhortation, and if need be, reproof, to keep this heavenly fire clear on the saints' altar. Peter saw it necessary to have bellows always in his hands : 2 Peter i. 12, 'I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of those things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth;' (that shall not take him off;) as long as he is in this tabernacle, he saith he will stir them up, and be putting ' them in remembrance,' ver. 13. TKere is a sleepy disease we are subject to in this life ; Christ, though he had roused up his disciples twice, yet takes them napping the third time. Either exercise thy grace, or Satan will act thy coi-- niption ; as one bucket goes down, the other rises ; there is a body of sin within, which, like a malignant party, watcheth for such a time to step into the saddle ; and it is easier to keep them down, than to pull them down. Thy time is short, and thy way long ; thou hadst best put on, lest thou meanest to be overtaken with night, before thou gettest within sight of thy Father's house. How uncomfortable it is for a traveller in heaven-road (above all other) to go potching in the dark, many can with aching hearts tell thee. And what hast thou here to mind like this ? Are they worldly cares and pleasures ? Is it wisdom to lay out so much cost on thy tenement, which thou art leaving, and forget what thou nuist carry with thee ? Before the fruit of these be ripe which thou art now planting, thyself may be rotting in the grave : ' Time is short,' saith the apostle, 1 Cor. vii. 29. The world is near its port, and there- fore God hath contracted the sails of man's life but a while, and there will not be a point to choose whether we had wives or not, riches or not ; but there will be a vast difference between those that had grace, and those that had not; 3'ea, between those that did drive a quick trade in the exercise thereof, and those that were more remiss ; the one shall have an ' abundant entrance into glory,' 2 Peter i. 11, while the other shall suffer loss in much of his lading, which shall be cast over-board as merchandise that will bear no price in that heavenly country; yea, while thou art here, others shall fare the better by thy lively graces. Thy cheerfulness and activity in thy heavenly course will help others that travel with thee ; he is dull indeed that will not put on, when he sees so much metal for God in thee who leadest the way. Yea, thy grace will give a check to the sins of others, who never stand in such awe as when grace comes forth and sits like a ruler in the gate, to be seen of all that pass by. The swearer knows not such majesty is present when the Christian is mealy-mouthed, and so goes on and fears no colours ; whose grace, had it but her dagger of zeal ready, and courage to draw it forth in a wise reproof, would make sin quit the place, and with shame run into its hole ; Job xxix. 8, ' The young men saw me, and hid themselves ; the princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.' And doth not God deserve the best service thou canst do him in thy generation ? Did he give thee grace to lay it up in a dead stock, and none to be the better? or can you say, that he is wanting to you in his love and mercy ? Are they not ever in exercise for your good ? Is the eye of Providence ever shut ? No, * He slumbers not ' that keeps thee. Or is it one moment off thee ? No, ' The eye of the Lord is upon the righteous;' he hath fixed it for ever, and with infinite delight, pleased himself in the object. Wlien was his ear shut, or his hand either, from receiving thy cries, or supplying thy wants ? nay, doth not thy condition take up the thoughts of God, and are they any other than thoughts of peace which he entertains? A few drops of this oil will keep the wheel in motion. That ye may be able to stand against the Wiles of the Devil. These words present us with tlie reason why the Christian soldier is to be thus completely armed : ' That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.' The strength of which argument lies in these two particulars. First, The danger, if unarmed; the enemy is no mean, contemptible one ; no less than the devil, set out as a cimning engineer by his wiles and stratagems. Secondly, The certainty of standing against all his wits and wiles, if we be 4,g THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND thus armed, ' That ye may be able to stand.' As no standing without Armour, so no fear of falling into the fiend's hands, if armed. To begin with the first, the saint's enemy, the devil, described by his wiles ; properly the methods of Satan, which signifies, that art and order one observes in handling a point ; we say, such a one is methodical. Now, because it shews ingenuity and acuteness of wit so to compose a discourse, therefore it is trans- ferred to express the subtilty of Satan in laying of his plots and stratagems, in his warlike preparations against the Christian. Indeed, the expert soldier hath his order as well as the scholar ; there is method in forming of an army, as well as framing an argument. The note which lies before us is, . Doct. The devil is a very subtle enemy. The Christian is endangered most by his policy and craft ; he is called the old serpent. The serpent, subtle above other creatures, an old serpent above other serpents : Satan was too crafty for man in his perfection, much more now in his maimed estate, having never recovered that first damage he got in his understanding by the fall of Adam. And as man hath lost, so Satan hath gained more and more experience ; he lost his wisdom indeed as soon as he became a devil, but ever since he hath in- creased his craft; though he hath not wisdom enough to do himself good, yet subtilty enough to do others hurt. God shews us where his strength lies, when he promiseth he will ' bruise the head of the serpent;' his head crushed, and he dies presently. Now in handling this point of Satan's subtilty, we shall con- sider him in his two main designs, and therein shew you his wiles and policies. His first main design is, to draw into sin. The second is to accuse, vex, and trouble the saint for sin. First, Let us consider the devil as a tempter to sin, and there he shews his wily subtilty in three things. First, In choosing the most advantageous season for tempting. Secondly, In managing his temptations, laying them in such a method and form, as shews his craft. Thirdly, In pitching on fit instruments for his turn, to cany on his design. CHAPTER I. OF Satan's subtilty to choose out the most advantageous seasons FOR TEMPTING. First, he shews his subtilty, in choosing the most proper and advantageous seasons for tempting. 'To everything there is a season,' Solomon saith, Eccles. iii. 1 ; that is, a nick of time, which taken, gives facility and speedy despatch to a business : and therefore the same wise man gives this reason, why man miscarries so frequently, and is disappointed in his enterprises, 'because he knows not his time,' Eccles. ix. 11 ; he comes when the bird is flown. A hundred soldiers at one time may turn a battle, save an army, when thousands will not do at another. Satan knows when to make his approaches, when (if at any time) he is most likely to be entertained. As Christ hath ' the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season ' of counsel and comfort to a doubting, drooping soul, so Satan shews his black art, and hellish skill, in speaking words of seduction and temptation in season ; and a word in season is ' a word on its wheels.' I shall give you a view of his subtilty in special seasons, which he chooseth to tempt in. The first season he takes to tempt in is, when newly converted. No sooner is this child of grace, the new creature, born, but this dragon pours a flood of temptation after it. He learned the Egyptians but some of his own craft, when he taught them that bloody and cruel baptism, which they exercised upon the Israelitish babes, in throwing them into the river as soon as they were born. The first cry of the new creature gives all the legions of hell an alarm ; they are much troubled at it, as Herod and Jerusalem were when Christ was born : and now they sit in council to take away the life of this new-born king. The apostles met with more opposition and persecution iji their latter days, when endued with large portions of the Spirit; but with temptations from Satan in the former, when young converts, as you may observe in the several passages recorded of them. Satan knew grace within was but weak, and their supplies promised at the Spirit's coining, not landed; and when is an enemy more like AGAIXST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. ^Y to carry the town than in snch a low condition ? and therefore he tries them all. Indeed, the advantages are so many, that we may wonder how the young conv-ert escapes with his life ; knowledge weak, and so soon led into an error, especially in divided times ; when many ways are held forth, one saying, Here is Christ : another. There is Christ; and the Christian ready to think every one means honestly that comes with good words ; as a little child, that liath lost his way to his father's house, is prone to foHow any that oifer him their conduct. Experience of what he knows little ; and if Adam, wliose knowledge was so perfect, yet was soon cheated, (being assaulted before he was well warm in his new possessions,) how much more advantage hath Satan of the new convert, in whom he finds every grace in so great an indisposition to make resistance, both from its own weakness, and the strength of the contrary corruption, (which commonly in sucli ismuchunmortified,) which makes it act with more difficulty and mixture, as in a fire newly kindled, where the smoke is more than the flame ; or like beer newly tunned, which runs thick ; so that thougli there appear more strength of affection in such, that it works over into a greater abundance of duty than in others, yet with more dregs of carnal passion, which Satan knows, and therefore chooseth to stir what he sees troubled already. Secondly, When the saint is beset with some great affliction ; this is as some blind lane or solitary place, fit for this thief to call for his purse in. An expert captain first labours to make a breach in the wall, and then falls on in storming the city. Satan first got power from God to weaken Job in his estate, children, health, and other comforts he had, and now tempts him to impatience, and what not. He lets Christ fast forty days before he comes, and then he falls to his work ; as an army stays till a castle be pinched for pro- vision within, and then sends a parley, never more likely to be embraced than in such a strait. A temptation comes strong, when the way to relief seems to lie through the sin that Satan is wooing to : when one is poor, and Satan comes, Wliat, wilt starve rather than step over the hedge, and steal for thy supply ? This is enough to put flesh and blood to the stand. Thirdly, When the Christian is about some notable enterprise for God's glory, then Satan will lie like a serpent in the way, ' an adder in the path, that biteth his horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.' Thus he stood at Joshua's right hand ' to resist him.' The right hand is the working hand, and his standing there implies his desire to hinder him in his enterprise. Indeed, the devil was never a friend to temple-work, and therefore that work is so long a doing. What a handsome excuse doth he help the Jews unto, — ' The time is not come;' God's time was come, but not the devil's, and therefore he helps them to this poor shift, perverting the sense of Providence, as if it were not time, because they were so poor : whereas they thrive no better, because they went no sooner about the work, as God tells them plainly. Paul and Barnabas had a holy design in their thoughts to go visit the brethren in every city, and strengthen their faith ; the devil knew what a blow this miglit give to his kingdom ; their visiting might hinder him in his circuit, and he stirs up an unhappy difference between these two holy men, who grow so hot that they part in this storm. Acts xv. 30. There were two remarkable periods of Christ's life, his entrance and exit; his entrance into his public ministry at his baptism, and his finishing it at his passion ; and at both we have the devil fiercely encounterino- him. The more public thy place. Christian, and the more eminent thy service for God, the more thou must look that the devil will have some more danger- ous design or other against thee ; and tlierefore, if every private soldier needs armour against Satan's bullets of temptation, then the commanders and officers who stand in the front of battle much more. 4. Fourthly, When he hath the presence of some object to enforce his temp- tation. Tlius he takes Eve when she is near the tree, and had it in her eye while he should make tlie motion, that assaulting two ports at once, it might be the harder for her to hinder the landing of his temptation ; and if Eve's eyes did so soon affect her heart with an inordinate desire, then mucli more now is it eas)^ for him by the presence of the object to excite and actuate that lust which lies dormant in the lieart. As Naomi sent her daughter to lie at Boaz's feet, 48 THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND knowing well, if he endured her there, there was hope that he might take her into his bed at last : if the Christian can let the object come so near, Satan will promise himself his suit may in time be granted. Therefore it should be our care, if we would not yield to the sin, not to walk by, or sit at the door of the occasion : look not on the beauty with wandering eye, by which thou wouldest not be taken prisoner ; parley not with that in thy thoughts, which thou meanest not to let into thy heart ; conversation begets affection ; some by this have been brought to marry those, whom at first they thought they could not have liked. Fifthly, After great manifestations of God's love, then the tempter comes. Such is the weak constitution of grace, that it can neither well bear smiles nor frowns from God without a snare ; as one said of our English nation, Tolam nee pad potest libertatem nee servitutem ; it cannot well bear liberty nor bondage in the height : so neither can the soid ; if God smile and open himself a little familiarly to us, then we are prone to grow high and wanton ; if he frown, then we sink as much in our faith ; thus the one, like fair weather and warm gleams, brings up the weeds of corruption ; and the other, like sharp frosts, nips and even kills the flowers of grace. The Christian is in danger on both hands, therefore Satan takes this advantage, when the Christian is flush of comfort, even as a cheater, who strikes in with some young heir, when he hath newly received his rents, and never leaves till he hath eased him of his money ; thus Satan lies upon the catch, then to inveigle a saint into one sin or other, which he knows will soon leak out his joy. Had ever any a lai-ger testimony from heaven than Peter, Matt. xvi. 17; where Christ prono\inceth him blessed, and puts a singidar honour upon him, making him the representative for all his saints? No doubt this favour to Peter stirred up the envious spirit sooner to fall upon him. If Joseph's party-coloiu'ed coat made the patriarchs to plot against him, their brother, no wonder malice should prompt Satan to show his spite, where Christ had set such a mark of love and honovn* ; and therefore we find him soon at Peter's elbow, making him his instrimient to tempt his Master, who soon espied his cloven foot, and rebukes Peter with a ' Get thee behind me, Satan.' He that seemed a rock even now, through Satan's policy, is laid a stone of offence for Christ to stumble at. So David, when he had received such wonderful mercies, settled in his throne with the ruin of his enemies, yea, pardoned for his bloody sin, now ready to lay down his head with peace in the dust; Satan steps in to cloud his clear evening, and tempts him to number the people ; so ambitious is Satan, then chiefly, to throw the saint into the mire of sin, when his coat is cleanest. Sixthly, At the hour of death, when the saint is down and prostrate in his bodily strength, now this coward falls upon him ; it is the last cast indeed he hath for the game ; now or never ; overcome him now and ever. As they say of the natural serpent, Nnnquam nisi moriens producitur in longum, he never is seen at his length till dying; so this mystical serpent never strains his wits and wiles more, than when his time is thus short. The saint is even stepping into eternity, and now he treads upon his heel, which if he cannot trip up, so as to hinder his arrival in heaven, yet at least to bruise it, that he may go with more pain thither. CHAPTER n. Satan's subtilty in managing his temptations, where several stratagems used by him to deceive the christian are laid down. 2. The second way wherein Satan shows his tempting subtilty, is, in those stratagems he useth to deceive the Christian in the act of temptation. First, He hangs out false colours, and comes up to the Christian in the disguise of a friend, so that the gates are opened to him, and his motions received with applause, before either be discovered; therefore he is said to ' transform himself into an angel of light,' 2 Cor. xi. 14. Of all plots it is most dangerous when he appears in Samuel's mantle, and silvers his foul tongue with fair language. Thus, in point of error, he corrupts some in their judgment, by commending his notions for special gospel-truths, and, like a cunning chapman, puts off his old AGAIXST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. 49 ware (errors I mean that have laid long upon his hand) only turning them a little after the mode of the times, and they go for new light; under the skirt of Cln-istian liberty, he conveys in libertinism ; 1)y crying up the Spirit, ha decries and vilifies the Scripture"; by magnifying faith, he labours to undermine repentance, and blow up goojj works ; by bewailing the corruption of the church in its administration, he draws unstable souls from it, and amuseth them, till at last they fall into a vertigo, and can see no church at all in being. And he prevails no less on the hearts and lives of men by this wile, than on their judg- ments. Under the notion of zeal, he kindles sometimes a dangerous flame of passion and wrath in the heart, which, like a rash fire, makes the Christian's spirit boil over into unchristian desires of and prayers for revenge where he should forgive, of which we have an instance in the disciples, Luke ix. 55 ; where two holy men are desiring that ' fire may come down from heaven.' Little did they think from whence they had their coal that did so heat them, till Christ told them, ' Ye know not what spirit ye are of.' Sometimes he pretends pity and natural affection, which in some cases may be good counsel, and all tlie while he desires to promote cowardice and sinful self love, whereby the Christian may be brought to fly from his colours, shrink from the truth, or decline some necessai-y duty of his calling ; this his wile Christ soon spied, when he got Peter to be his spokesman, saying, 'Master, pity thyself;' who stopped his mouth with that sharp rebuke, ' Get thee behind me, Satan.' O what need have we to study the Scriptures, our hearts, and Satan's wiles, that we may not bid this enemy welcome, and all the while think it is Christ that is our guest !_ A second policy he useth is, to get intelligence of the saints' affairs. This is one great wheel in the politicians' clock, to have spies in all places, by whom tliey are acquainted with the counsels and motions of their enemies, and this gives them advantage, as to disappoint their designs, so more safely to com- pass their ovm. It is no hard matter for him to play his game well that sees his enemy's hand. David knew how the squares went at court; Jonathan's arrows carried him the news, and accordingly he removed his quarters, and was too hard for his great enemy Saul. Satan is the greatest intelligencer in the world ; he makes it his business to inquire into the inclinations, thoughts, affections, puqjoses of the creature, that finding which humour abounds, he may apply himself accordingly which way the stream goes, that he may open the passage of temptation, and cut the channel to the fall of the creature's affections, and not force it against the torrent of nature. Now, if we consider but the piercing apprehension of the angelical nature, how quick he is to take the scent which way the game goes, by a word dropped, the cast of an eye, or such a small matter, signal enough to give him the alarm, his experience in heart-anatomy, having inspected, and (as it were) dissected so many in his long practice, whereby his knowledge is much perfected ; as also his great diligence to add to both these, being as close a student as ever, considering the saints and studying how he may do them a mischief, as we see in Job's case, whom he had so observed, that he was able to give an answer ex tempore to God, what Job's state and present posture was, and what might be the most probable means of obtaining his will of him ; and besides all this, the correspondence that he hath with those in and about the Christian, from whom he learns much of his state, as David by Hushai, in Absalom's council, — all these considered, it is almost impossible for the creature to stir out of the closet of his heart, but it will be known whither he inclines : some corrupt passion or other will bewray the sold to him, as they did David to Saul, who told him where he might find him, 'in the wilderness of Engedi,' 1 Sam. xxiv. 1. Thus will these give in- telligence to Satan ; and say. If thou wouldest surprise such a one, he is gone that way, you shall have him in the wood of worldly employments, over head and ears in the desires and cares of this life ; see where another sits, under such a bower, delighting himself in this child, or that gift, endowment of mind, or the like ; lay but the lime-twig there, and you sludl soon have him in it. Now Satan, having this intelligence, lets him alone to act his part ; he sure cannot be at a loss himself, when his scholars (the Jesuits, I mean,) have such agility of mind, to wreathe and cast themselves into any form becoming the persons they would seduce. Is ambition the lust the heart favoiu's? O the pleasing projects 2Q THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND that he will put such upon ! Kow easily, having first blown them up with vain hopes, doth he draw them uito horrid sins ! Thus Haman, that he may have a monopoly of his prince's favom-, is hurried into that bloody plot (fatal at last to himself) against the Jews. Is uncleanness the lust after which the creature's eye wanders? Now he will be the pander, to bring him and his minion together. Thu3 he finding Amnon sick of this disease, sends Jonadab, 'a deep-pated fellow,' 2 Sam. xiii. 3, to put this fine device into his head of feigning himself sick, whereby his sister fell into his snare. Thirdly, In his gradual approaches to the soul. When he comes to tempt, he is modest, and asks but a little ; he knows he may get that at many times, which he should be denied if he asked all at once. A few are let into a city, when an army coming in a body would be shut ovit ; and therefore, that he may beget no suspicion, he presents, may be, a few general propositions, which do not discover the depth of this plot ; these, like scouts, go before, while his whole body lies hid, as it were, in some swamp at hand. Thus he wriggled into Eve's bosom, whom he doth not at first dash bid take and eat ; no, he is more mannerly than so ; this would have been so hideous, that as the fish with some sudden noise, by a stone cast into the river, is scared from the bait, so would she have been affrighted from holding parley with such a one ; no, he propounds a question which shall make way for this, — ' Hath God said?' Art not mistaken? Could this be his meaning whose bounty lets thee eat of the rest, to deny thee the best of all? Thus he digs about, and loosens the roots of their faith, and then the tree falls the easier the next gust of temptation. This is a dangerous policy indeed. Many have yielded to go a mile with Satan, that never intended to go two, but, when once on the way, have been allured further and further, till at last they know not how to leave his company. Thus Satan leads poor creatures down into the depths of sin by winding stairs, that let them not see the bottom whither they are going: first, he presents an object that occasions some thoughts, these set fire on the affections, and these fume up into the brain, and cloud the understanding, which, being thus disabled, now Satan dares a little more declare himself, and boldly solicit the creature to that it would otherwise have defied. Many who at this day lie in open profaneness, never thought they should have rolled so far from their profession ; but Satan begiuled them, poor souls, with their modest beginnings. O Christians, give not place to Satan ! no, not an inch in his first motions ; he that is a beggar, and a modest one without doors, will command the house if let in ; yield at first, and thou givest away thy strength to resist him in the rest ; when the hem is worn, the whole garment will ravel out, if that be not mended by timely repentance. The fourth way, wherein Satan shews his subtilty in managing his temptations, is in his reserves. A wise captain hath ever some fresh troops at hand to fall in at a pinch, when the other are worsted. Satan is seldom at a loss in this respect; when one temptation is beat back, he soon hath another to fill up the gap, and make good the line. Thus he tempts Christ to difiidence and distrust, by bidding him turn stones into bread, as if it were time now to carve for himself, being so long neglected of his Father, as to fast forty days, and no supplies heard of; no sooner had Christ quenched this dart with that, ' It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,' Matt. iv. 4, 5, but he had another on the string which he let fly at him, tempting him to presumption : ver. 5, * Then the devil taketh and sets him on a pinnacle,' and bids, ' Cast thyself down headlong, for it is written. He shall give his angels charge over thee,' 8ze. As if he had said. If thou hast such confidence on God and his word as thou pretendest, shew it by casting thyself down, for tliou hast a word between thee and the gi-ound, if thou darest trust God ; and truly, though Christ had his answer ready, and was prepared to receive his charge on the right hand and on the left, being so completely armed that no temptation could come amiss : yet note Ave, Satan's temptations on Christ were like the serpent's motion on a rock, (of which Solomon speak?,) that makes no impression, no dent at all, Prov. xxx. 19. But on us they are as a serpent on sand or dust, that loaves a print, when not in the heart, yet in the fancy colovu-s that which is next door to it, and so the object there is ready to slip in, if great care be not observed, especially when he AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVJI>. 5 J doth thus change his hand, as when we have resisted one way, fall on aft'esh another, vea, plant his succeeding temptation upon our very resistance in the former. Now it requires some readiness in our postures, and skill at all our weapons, to make our defence ; like a disputant, when he is put out of his road, and hath a new question started, or argument unusual hrought, now he is tried to piu-pose. And truly this is Satan's way when he tempts the Christian to neglect of duties of God's worship, (from his worldly occasions, the multitude of them, or necessity of following them,) and this takes not, then he is on the other side, and is drawing the Christian to the neglect of his worldly calling, out of a seeming zeal to promote his other in the worship of God. Or first, he comes and labours to deaden the heart in duty ; but the Christian, too watchful for him there, then he is puffing of him up with an opinion of his enlargement in it, and ever keeps his sliest and most sublimated temptations for the last. Fifthly, In his politic retreats. You shall have an enemy flee as overcome, when it is on a design of overcoming ; this was Joshua's wile, by which he caught the men of Ai in a trap. Josh. iii. 1. We read not only of Satan's being cast out, but of the ' unclean spirit's going out' (voluntarily), yet with a purpose to come again, and bring worse company with him. Matt. xii. 43. Satan is not always beat back by the dint and power of conquering grace, but sometimes he draws oiF, and raiseth his own siege, the more handsomely to get the Christian out of his fastnesses and trenches, that so he may snap him on the plains whom he cannot come at in his works and fortifications. Temptations send the saint to his castle, as the sight of the dog doth the coney to her burrow : now the soul walks the rounds, stands upon its guard, dares not neglect duty, because the enemy is under its very walls, shooting in his temptations con- tinually ; but when Satan seems to give the soul over, and the Christian finds he is not haunted v/ith such motions as fomierly, truly now he is prone to remit in his diligence, fail in his duty, and grow either infrequent or formal therein ; as the Romans, whose valour decayed for want of the Carthaginian troops to alarm them. Let Satan tempt or not tempt, assault or retreat, keep thou in order, stand in a fighting posture, let his flight strengthen thy faith, but not weaken thy care. The Parthians do their enemies most hurt in their flight, shooting their darts as they run ; and so may Satan do thee, if thy seeming victory makes thee secure. CHAPTER III. OF satan's subtilty in choosing instruments fit for his turn to CARRY on his TEMPTING DESIGN. 3. The third particular in which Satan shews his subtilty as a tempter, is in the choice of those instruments whom he useth for the carrying on this his design ; he, as the master workman, cuts out the temptation, and gives it the shape ; but sometimes he hath his journeymen to make it up; he knows his work may be carried on better by others, when he appears not above-board himself. Indeed there is not such a suitableness between the angelical nature and man's, as there is between one man and another, and therefore he cannot make his approaches so familiarly to us as man can do to man ; and here, as in other things, he is God's ape. You know this very reason was given why the Israelites desired God might not speak to them, but Moses and God liked the motion; ' They have well said,' saith God, ' I will raise up a prophet from the midst of them like unto thee,' Deut. xviii. 17. Thus Satan, he useth the ministry of men like ourselves, by which, as he becomes more famihar, so he is less suspected, while, Joab-like, he gets another to do his errand. Now it is not any will serve his turn for this employment, he is very choice in the instru- ments he pitcheth on : it is not every soldier is fit for an embassage to treat with an enemy, to betray a town, and the like. Satan considers who can do his work to his greatest advantage ; and in this he is unlike God, who is not at all choice in his instruments, because he needs none, and is able to do as well with one as another; but Satan's power being finite, he must patch up the defect of the lion's skin with the fox's. Now the persons Satan aims at for his instru- ments are chiefly of four sorts. E 2 52 THAT YE JIAV BE ABLE TO STAND First, Persons of place and power. Secondly, Persons of parts and policy. Thirdly, Persons of holiness, or at least reputed so. Fourthly, Persons of re- lation aiul interest. First, Satan makes choice of persons of place and power. These are either in the commonwealth or church ; if he can, he will secure the throne and the pulpit, as the two forts that command the whole line. First, men of power in the commonwealth. It is his old trick to be tampering with such. A prince, a rulei', may stand for a thousand, therefore saith Paul to Elymas, when he would have tiu-ned the deputy from the faith, ' O full of all subtilty, thou child of the devil,' Acts xiii. 8. As if he had said, You have learned this of your father the devil, to haunt the courts of princes, wind into the favour of great ones. There is double policy Satan hath, in gaining such to his side. First, none have such advantage to draw others to their way ; corrupt the captain, and it is hard if he bring not of!" his troop with him. When the princes, men of renown in their tribes, stood with Korah, Numb. xvi. 2, 10, presently a multitude are drawn into conspiracy. Let Jeroboam set up idolatry, and Israel is soon in a snare ; it is said the people 'willingly walked after his commandment,' Hos. v. 11. Secondly, should the sin stay at court, and the infection go no fin-ther, yet the sin of such a one, though a good man, may cost a whole kingdom dear ; 1 Chron. xxi. 1, ' Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number the people.' He owed Israel spite, and he pays them home in their king's sin, which dropped in a fearful plague upon their heads. Secondly, such as are in place and office in the church. No such way to infect the whole town, as to poison the cistern at which they draw their water. Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go to Ramoth Gilead and fall ? Satan can tell : ' I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets,' 2 Kings xxii. 21. How shall the profane be hardened in their sins ? Let the preachers sew pillows under their elbows, and cry. Peace, peace, and it is done. How may the worship of God come to be neglected ? Let Hophni aiul Phinehas be but scandalous in their lives, and many both good and bad will ' abhor the sacrifice of the Lord.' Secondly, He employeth persons of parts and policy ; if any hath more pregnancy of wit and depth of reason than other, he is the man Satan looks upon for his service; and so far he prevails, that very few of this rank are found amongst Christ's disciples, ' not many wise.' Indeed, God will not have his kingdom, either in the heart or in the world, maintained by carnal policy ; it is a gospel command that we walk in godly simplicity, sine plicis; though the serpent can shrink up into his folds, and appear what he is not, yet it doth not become the saints to juggle or shuffle with God or men ; and truly, when any of them have made use of the serpent's subtilty, it hath not followed their hand ; Jacob got the blessing by a wile, but he might have had it cheaper with plain dealing. Abraham and Sarah both dissemble to Abimelech, God discovers their sin, and reproves them for it by the mouth of an heathen. Asa, out of state policy, joins league with Syria, yea, pawns the vessels of the sanc- tuary, and all for help; and what comes of all this? ' Herein thou hast done foolishly,' saith God, ' from henceforth thou shalt have wars.' Sinful policy shall not long thrive in the saint's hands well, but Satan will not go out of his way; he inquires for the subtilest-pated men, a Balaam, Ahithophel, Haman, Sanballat, men admired for their cormseland deep plots, these are for his turn. A wicked cause needs a smooth orator ; bad ware a pleasing chapman, as in particular, his instruments he useth to seduce and corrupt the minds of men are commonly subtil-pated fellows, such, ' that if it were possible, would deceive the very elect.' This made the apostle so jealous of the Corinthians, whom he had espoused to Christ, lest as Eve by the serpent, so their ' minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.' He must be a cunning devil indeed that can di-aw off the spouse's love from her beloved; yet there is such a witchery in Satan's instruments, that many have been brought to fly on the face of those truths and ordinances, yea, Christ himself, to whom they have seemed espoused formerly. Now in three particulars this sort of Satan's instruments shew their master's subtilty. First, In aspersing the good name of the sincere messengers of Christ. It is Satan's old trick to raise his credit upon the ruined reputation of Christ's AGAINST THK WILES OF TlIK DEVIL. 53 faithful servants. Thus he taught Korah, Dathan, and Abirani, to charge Moses and Aaron, ' Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation is holy,' Numb. xvi. 3, 16. They would make the people believe, that it was the pride of their heart to claim a monopoly to themselves, as if none but Aaron and his fraternity were holy enough to offer incense : and by this subtil practice they seduced, for a while, in a manner, the whole congregation to tlieir side. So the lying prophets, that were Satan's knights of the post to Ahab, fell foul on good Micaiah. Om- Saviour himself was no better handled by the Pharisees and their confederates; and Paul, the chief of the apostles, his ministry undermined, and his reputation blasted by false teachers, as if he had been some weak sorry preacher; 2 Cor. x. 10, ' His bodily presence is weak,' say they, ' and his speech contemptible;' and is this your admired man.' Secondly, In covering their impostures and errors with choice notions and excellent truths. Arius himself, and other dangerous instruments of Satan, were too wise to stuff their discourses with noticing but heterodox matter : precious truths dropped from them, with which they sprinkled their corrupt principles, yet with such art as should not easily be discerned. This, as one observes, our Saviour warns his disciples of, when he bids them 'beware of the leaven of the Pharisees;' that is, of their errors. But why leaven ? For the secret mixture of it with the wholesome bread ; you do not make yoin* bread all of leaven, none would then cat it, but crumble a little into a whole batch, which sours all. Thus Christ doth tell the disciples, that tire Pharisees among many truths mixed their errors, and therefore it behoves them to beware, lest with the truth the error go down also. Again, leaven is very like the dough, of the same grain with it, only difters in age and sourness ; thus Christ intimates the resemblance of their errors to the truth, scraped, as it were, wit of the Scriptures, but soured with their false glosses. This indeed makes it easy for Christ's sheep to be infected with the scab of error, because that weed which breeds the I'ot is so like the grass that nourisheth them. Thirdly, Their subtilty appears in holding forth such principles as are indulgent to the flesh. This brings in whole shoals of silly souls into their net; the heart of man loves a life to shape a religion according to its own humoiu', and is ready to believe that to be a truth which favours its own inclination. Now thei'e are three lusts that Satan's instruments labour to gratify m their doctrine; carnal reason, pride, and fleshly liberty. First, Carnal reason. This is the great idol which the more intelligent part of the world worship, making it the very standard of their faith; and from this bitter root have sprung those Arian and Socinian heresies. And truly, he that will go no further than reason will carry him, may hold out in the plain way of the moral law ; but when he comes to the depths of the gospel, must either go back, or be content that faith should help reason over. Secondly, Another lust that Satan cockers — pride. Man naturally woidd be a god to himself, though by clambering so high he got his fall ; and whatever doctrine nourisheth a good opinion of man in his own eye, this is acceptable to him, and this hath spawned another fry of dangerous errors, — the Pelagian and Semi-pelagian, which set nature upon its own legs, and persuade man he can go alone to Christ, or at least with a little external help of a hand to lead, or argument to excite, without any creating work in the soul. O ! we cannot conceive how glib such stuff goes down. If one workman should tell you that your house is rotten, and must be pulled down and all new materials prepared; and another should say, No such matter; such a beani is good, and such a spar may stand; a little cost will serve the turn : it were no wonder that you should listen to him that would put you to least cost and trouble. The faithful servants of Christ tell sinners from the word, that man in his natural state is corrupt and rotten, that nothing of the old frame will serve, and there must needs be alj new ; but in comes the Arminian, and blows u{) tiie sinner's pride, and tells him he is not so weak or wicked as the other re])resents him ; if thou wilt thou niayest repent and believe ; or at least, by exerting thy natural al)ilities, oblige God to superadd what thou hast not. This is the workman that will please proud men best. Thirdly, Satan liy his instruments iiourislieth that desire of fleshlv libertv 51. THAT YE MAY BE ABLS TO STAND which is in man by nature, who is a son of Belial, without yoke ; and if he must wear any, that will please best which hath the softest lining, and pincheth the flesh least ; and therefore, when the sincere teachers of the word will not abate the strictness of the command, but press sincere obedience to it, then come Satan's instruments, and say, These are hard task-masters, Avho will not allow one play-day in a year to the Christian, but tie him to continual duty; we will shew you an easier way to heaven. Come, saith the Papist, confess bvit once a year to the priest, pay him well for his pains, and be an obedient son of the church, and we will dispense with all the rest. Come, saith the Antinomian, the gospel-charter allows more liberty than these legal preachers tell you of; they bid you repent and believe, when Christ hath done all these to yoiu* hand ; what have you left to do but to nourish the flesh ? Something sure is in it, that impostors find such quick return for their ware, while truth hangs upon the hand ; and is it not this? — that they are content to afford heaven cheaper to their disciples, than Christ will to his. He that sells cheapest shall have the most customers, though at last best will be best cheap : truth, with self-denial, a better pennyworth than error with all its flesh-pleasing. Fourthly, Satan makes choice of such as have a great name for holiness ; none to a live bird to draw other birds into the net ; but is it possible that such should do this work for the devil ? Yes, such is the policy of Satan, and the frailty of the best, that the most holy men have been his instruments to seduce others. Abraham, he tempts his wife to lie ; ' Say thou art my sister.' The old prophet leads the man of God out of his way, 1 Kings xiii. The holiness of the man, and the reverence of his age, it is like, gave authority to his counsel. O how this should make you watchful, whose long travail and great progress in the ways of God ha^e gained you a name of eminency in the church, what you say, do, or hold, because you are file-leading men, and others look more on you than their way ! Fifthly, Satan chooseth such, as by relation or affection have deep interest in the persons he would gain. Some will kiss the child for his nurse's sake, and like the present for the hand that brings it. It is not likely David woidd have received that from Nabal which he took from Abigail, and thanked her. Satan sent the apple by Eve's hand to Adam. Delilah doth more with Samson than all the Philistines' bands. Job's wife brings him the poison : ' Curse God and die.' Some think Satan spared her life, when he slew his children and servants, (though she was also within his commission,) as the most likely instrument, by reason of her relation and his aftection, to lead him into temptation. Satan employs Peter the disciple to tempt Christ ; at another time his friends and kinsfolk. Some martyrs have confessed the hardest work they met with was to overcome the prayers and tears of their friends and relations ; Paul himself could not get off this snare without heart-breaking ; ' What mean you to weep, and to break my heart ?' Acts xxi. 13. CHAPTER IV. WHEREIN THIS POINT OF SATAn's SUBTILTY, AS A TEMPTER TO SIN, IS BRIEFLY APPLIED. Use 1. — First, affect not sinful policy and subtilty; it makes you but like the devil. There is the wisdom of the serpent, which is commended : and that is, his perfection as a creature, in which both the literal and the mystical excel ; the one in an ingenious observing nature, above the beasts of the field; and the other in knowledge, as an angel above men ; bvit as the subtilty of the one and knowledge of the other is degenerate, and makes them more able to do mischief, the one to the bodies, the other to the souls of men, this kind of wisdom and subtilty is to be abhorred by us: 'The serpent's eye,' as one saith, ' does well only in the dove's head.' First, Afiect not subtilty in contriving any sin. Some are ' wise to do evil,' Jer. iv. 22 ; masters of this craft, who can, as they lie on their beds, cast their wicked designs into an artificial method, shewing a kind of devilish wit therein, as the Egyptians, who dealt wisely, as they thought, with the Israelites, and Jezebel, who had printed her bloody design in so fair a letter, that some might read her saint, while she was playing the devil. This is the black art indeed. AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. 55 and will make the soul as black as hell that practiseth it. It is not hard for any, though a fool, to learn. Bo but wicked, and the devil will help thee to be witty : come but a while to his sciiool, and thou mayest soon be a cunning man. No sins speak a higher attainment in wickedness, than those which are the result of deliberate counsel and deep plottings. Creatures, as they go longer with their young, so their birth is more strong and perfect : as the elephant above all others. The longer a sin is in forming and forging within, and the oftener the head and heart meet about it, the more complete the sin. Here are many litters of unformed sin in one, such, I mean, that are conceived and cast forth in the hurry of an extemporary passion ; such sudden acts shew weakness, these others deep wickedness. Secondly, Take heed of hiding sin when thou hast committed it. This is one of the devices that is in man's heart, *id as much art and cunning is shev%-n in this as in any one part of the sinner's trade. What a trick had the patriarchs to blind their father's eye with a bloody coat! Joseph's mistress, to prevent a charge ti-om Joseph, accuseth him for what she is guilty, like the robber who scaped by crying out ' Stop the thief.' God taught man to make coats to cover his naked body, but the devil learned him to weave these coverings to hide the nakedness of his soul; the more subtile thouseemest, in concealing thy sin, the more egregiously thou playest the fool. None so shamed as the liar when found out, and that thou art sure to be. Thy covering is too short to hide thee from God's eye ; and what God sees, if thou dost not put thyself to shame, he will tell all the world of hereafter, however thou escapest in this life. Thirdly, Take heed of subtilty and sinful policy, in compassing that which is lawful in itself: it is lawful to improve thy estate, and husband it well for thy posterity ; but take not the devil's counsel, who will be putting thee upon some tricks in thy trade, and slights in thy dealing ; such may go for wise men a while, but the prophet reads their destinies, Jer. xvi. 11, 'At his end he shall be a fool.' It is lawful to love our estate, life, liberty ; but beware of sinful policy to save them. It is no wisdom to shuffle with God, by denying his truth, or shifting olFour duty to keep correspondence with men ; he is a weak fencer that lays his soul at open guard to be stabbed and wounded with guilt, while he is lifting up his hands to save a broken head. Our fear commonly meets us at that door by which we think to run from it. ' He that will save his life shall lose it.' As you love your peace. Christians, be plain-hearted with God and man, and keep the king's highway ; go the plain way of the command to obtain thy desire, and not to leap over hedge and ditch to come a little sooner to the journey's end ; such commonly either meet with some stop, that makes them come back with shame, or else put to venture their necks in some desperate leap. He is sure to come safer, if not sooner, home, that is willing to go a little about to keep God company. The historian's observation is worth the Christian's remembrance : ' Consilia callida prima specie Iseta, tractatu dura, eventu tristia." — Liv. Crafty coimsels promise fair at first, but prove more difficult in the managing, and in the end do pay the undertaker home with desperate sorrow. Use 2. — Is Satan so subtile? O then think not to be too cunning for the devil ; he will be too hard for thee at last : sin not with thoughts of an after repentance ; it is possible thou meanest this at present : but dost thou think, who sits down to play with this cheater, to draw out thy stock when thou pleasest ? Alas, poor wretch, he has a thousand devices to carry thee on, and engage thee deeper, till he hath not left thee any tenderness in thy conscience, as some have been served at play, intending only to venture a shilling or two, yet have, by the secret witchery in gaming, played the very clothes off their back before they had done : 6 how many have thus sinned away all their principles, vea, profession itself, that they have not so much as tliis cloak left, but walk naked to their shame ! Like children who get into a boat, think to play near the shore, but are unawares by a violent gust carried down to the wide sea. O how know you that dally with Satan, but that at last you may, who begin modestly, be carried down to the broad sea of profaneness ? Some men are so subtile to overreach, and so cruel when they get men into their haiid, that a man had better beg his bread than l)orrow of them. Such a 56 THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND merchant is Satan, cunning to insinuate, and get the creature into his hooks, and when he liath him on the hip, no more mercy to be had at his hand, than the lamb may expect from the ravenous wolf. Use 3. — Study his wiles, and acquaint thyself with Satan's policy. Paul takes it for gi-anted, that every saint doth in some measure understand them : ' We are not ignorant of his devices,' 2 Cor. ii. 11. He is but an ill fencer that knows and observes nothing of his enemy's play; many particular stratagems I have laid down already w^hich may help a little ; and for thy direction in this study of, and inquiry into, Satan's wiles, take this threefold counsel. First, Take God into thy counsel : heaven overlooks hell. God at any time can tell thee what plots are hatching there against thee. Consider Satan, as he is God's creature, so God cannot but know him. He that makes the watch, knows every pin in it. He formed this crooked serpent, though not the crookedness of this serpent; and though Satan's way in tempting be as wonderful as the way of a serpent on a rock, yet God traceth him ; yea, knows all his thoughts together. ' Hell itself is naked before him,' and the destroyer hath no covering. Again, consider him as God's prisoner, who hath him fast in chains ; and so the Lord, who is his keeper, must needs know whither his prisoner goes, who cannot stir without liLs leave. Lastly, consider him as his messenger ; for so he is. 'An evil spirit from the Lord vexed Saul;' and he that gives him his errand, is able to tell thee what it is. Go then, and plough with God's heifer ; improve thy interest in Christ, who knows what his Father knows, and is ready to reveal all that concerns thee, to thee, John xv. 15. It was he who foretold the devil's coming against Peter and the rest of the apostles, and faithfully revealed it to them, Luke xxii., before they thought of any such matter. Through Christ's hands pass all that is transacted in heaven and hell. We live in days of great actions, deep counsels, and plots on all sides, and only a few that stand on the upper end of the world know these mysteries of state ; all the rest know little more than pamphlet intelligence : thus it is in regard of those plots which Satan in his infernal conclave is laying against the souls of men ; they are but a few that know anything to purpose of Satan's design against them; and those are the saints, from whom God cannot hide his own counsels of love, but sends his Spirit to reveal unto them here, what he hath prepared for them in heaven, 1 Cor. ii. 10 ; and therefore much less will he conceal any destructive plot of Satan from them. Secondly, Be intimately acquainted with thy own heart, and thou wilt the bet- ter know his design against thee, who takes his method of tempting, from the inclination and posture of thy heart. As a general walks about the city, and views it well, and then raiseth his batteries where he hath the greatest advantage : so doth Satan compass and consider the Christian in every part before he tempts. Lastl}', Be careful to read the word of God with observation. In it thou hast the history of the most remarkable battles that have been fought by the most eminent worthies in Christ's army of saints, with the great warrior Satan : here thou mayest see how Satan hath foiled them, and how they have recovered their lost ground. Here you have his cabinet councils opened. There is not a lust which you are in danger of, but you have it described ; not a temptation which the word doth not arm you against. It is reported that a certain Jew would have poisoned Luther, but was happily prevented by his picture that was sent to Luther, with a warning from a faithful friend, to take heed of such a man when he saw him ; by which he knew the murderer, and escaped his hands. The word shews thee, O Christian, the face of those his s which Satan employs to butcher thy precious soul ; * By them is thy servant warned,' saith David, Psa. xix. 11. CHAPTER V. WHEREIN IS SHEWED THE SUBTILTY OF SATAN, AS A TROUBLER AND AN AC- CUSER FOR SIN ; WHERE MANY OF HIS WILES AND 'POLICIES TO DISQUIET THE saints' SPIRITS ARE DISCOVERED. The second general in which Satan appears such a subtile enemy, is, in molesting the saints' peace, and disquieting the saints' spirit. As tire Holy AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. 57 Spirit's work is not only to be a sanctifier, but also a comforter, whose fruits are righteousness and peace ; so the evil spirit Satan is both a seducer unto sin, and an accuser for sin, a tempter and a troubler, and indeed in the same order. As the Holy Ghost is first a sanctifier, and then a comforter ; so Satan first a tempter, then a troubler. Joseph's mistress first tries to draw him to gratify her lust ; that string breaking, she had another, to trounce him and charge him ; and for a plea, she hath his coat to cover her malice ; nor is it hard for Satan to pick some hole in the saint's coat, when he walks most circumspectly. Tlie proper seat of sin is the will ; of comfort, the conscience : Satan hath not absolute knowledge of or power over these, (being locked up from any other but God,) and therefore what he doth, either in defiling, tempting, or disquieting, is by wiles more than by open force, and he is not inferior in troubling to himself in tempting. Satan hath, as the serpent, a way by himself; other beasts, their motion is direct, right on, but the serpent goes askew, as we say, winding and wreathing its body, that when you see a serpent creeping along, yon can hardly discern which way it tends ; thus Satan in his vexing temptations hath many intricate policies, turning this way and that way, the better to conceal his designs from the saint, which will appear in these following methods. Section I. — First, He vexcth the Christian by laying his brats at the saint's door, and charging him with that which is his own creature ; and here he hath such a notable art, that many dear saints of God are wofuUy hampered and dejected, as if they were the vilest blasphemers and veriest atheists in the world ; whereas indeed the cup is of his own putting into the sack, but so slily conveyed into thesaint'sbosom, that the Christian, though amazed andfrightened at the sight of them, yet being jealous of his own heart, and unacquainted with Satan's tricks of this kind, cannot conceive how such motions shoidd come there, if not bred in, and vomited out by, his own naughty heart, and so bears the blame of the sin himself, because he cannot find the right father, mourning as one that is forlorn and cast oft' by God, or else, saith he, I should never have such vermin of hell creeping in my bosom ; and here Satan hath his end he pro- poseth ; for he is not so silly as to hope he should have welcome with such a horrid crew of blasphemous and atheistical thoughts in that soul, where he hath been denied when he came in an enticing way ; no, but his design is by way of revenge, because the soul will not prostitute itself to his lust otherways, there- fore to haunt it and scare it with those imps of blasphemy. As he served Luther, to whom he appeared, and when repulsed by him went away, and left a noisome stench behind him in the room. Thus when the Christian has worsted Satan in his more pleasing temptations, being maddened, he belcheth forth this stench of blasphemous motions to annoy and affi'ight him, that from them the Christian may draw some sad conclusion or other ; and indeed the Christian's sin lies commonly more in the conclusion which he draws from them, as that he is not a child of God, than in the motions themselves. All the counsel, therefore, I shall give thee in this case, is to do with these motions, as you use to serve those vagrants and rogues that come about the country ; whom, though you cannot keep from passing through tlie town, yet you look they settle not tliere, but whip them and send them to their own home. Thus, give these motions the law, in mourning for them, resisting of them, and they shall not be your charge ; yea, it is like you shall seldomer be troubled with such guests ; but if once you come to entertain them, and be Satan's nurse to them, then the law of God will cast them upon you. Section II. — Secondly, Another wile of Satan as a troubler, is in aggi'avatino' the saint's sins, (against which he hath a notable declamatory faculty,) not that he hates the sin, but the saint; now in this, his chief subtilty is so to lay his charge, that it may seem to be the act of the Holy Spirit ; he knows an arrow out of God's quiver wounds deep ; and therefore when he accuseth, he comes in God's name ; as sup])ose a child were conscious to himself of displeas- ing his fLither, and one that owes him a spite, to trouble him, should counterfeit a letter from his father, and cunningly convey it into the son's hand, wlio re- ceives it as from his father, wherein he chargeth him witli many heavy crimes, disowns liim, and threatens he shall never come into his sight, or have a penny portion from him ; the poor son, conscious to himself of many undutiful 58 THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND carriages, and not knowing the plot, takes on heavily, and can neither eat nor sleep for grief; here is a real trouble begot from a false and imaginary ground. Thus Satan observes how the squares go between God and his children ; such a saint he sees tardy in his duty, faulty in that service, and he knows the Chris- tian is conscious of this, and that the Spirit of God will also shew his distaste for these ; both which prompts Satan to draw a charge at length, raking up all the bloody aggravations he can think of, and gives it in to the saint as sent from God. Thus he taught Job's friends to pick up those infirmities, which dropped from him in his distress, and shoot them back in his face, as if indeed they had been sent from God to declare him a hypocrite, and denounce his wrath for the same. Quest. But how should we know the false accusations of Satan from the re- bukes of God and his Spirit ? yJnsw. First, If they cross any former act or work of the Spirit in thy soul, they are Satan's, and not the Holy Spirit's. Now you shall observe, Satan's scope in accusing the Christian, and aggravating his sin, is to imsaint him, and persuade him he is but a hypocrite. O, saith Satan, now thou hast shewn what thou art, see what a spot is on thy coat, this is not the spot of a child ; who ever, that was a saint, committed such a sin after such a sort? All thy comforts and confidence, which thou hast boasted of, were false, I warrant you. Thus you see Satan at one blov/ dasheth all in pieces. The whole fabric of grace, which God hath been rearing up many years in the soul, must now at one puff of his malicious mouth be blown down, and all the sweet comforts with which the Holy Ghost hath sealed up God's love, must be defaced with this one blot, which Satan draws over the fair copy of the saint's evidence. Well, soul, for thy comfort know, if ever the Spirit of God hath begun a sanctifying or com- forting work, causing thee to hope in his mercy, he never is, will, or can be the messenger to'bring contrary news to thy soul ; his language is not yea and nay, but yea and amen for ever. Indeed when the saint plays the wanton, he can chide, yea, will frown, and tell the soul roundly of its sin, as he did David by Nathan ; ' Thou art the man,' this thou hast done ; and paints out his sin with such bloody coloiU'S, as made David's heart melt, as it were, into so many drops of water. But that shall not serve his turn ; he tells him what a rod is steeping for him, that shall smart to purpose ; one of his own house, no other than his darling son, shall rise up against him, that he may the more fully conceive how ill God took the sin of him, a child, a saint, when he shall know what it is to have his beloved child traitorously invade his crown, and unnaturally hunt for his precious life ; yet not a word all this while is heard from Nathan teaching David to unsaint himself, and call in question the work of God in his soul. No, he had no such commission from God ; he was sent to make him mourn for his sin, not from his sin to question his state, which God had so oft put out of doubt. Secondly, When they asperse the riches of God's grace, and so charge the Christian, that withal they reflect upon the good name of God ; then they are not of the Holy Spirit, but from Satan. When you find your sins so repre- sented and aggravated to you, as exceeding either the mercy of God's nature, or the grace of his covenant, Hie se aperit diabolus ; this comes from that foul liar. The Holy Spirit is Chi'ist's spokesman to commend him to souls, and to woo sinners to embrace the grace of the gospel ; and can such words drop from the sacred lips, as should break the match, and sink Christ's esteem in the thoughts of the creature ? you may know where this was minted. When you hear one commend another for a wise or good man, and at last come in with a ' but ' that dasheth all, you will easily think he is no friend to the man, but some sly enemy, that by seeming to commend, desires to disgrace the more. Thiis, when you find God represented to you as merciful and gracious, but not to such a great sinner as you ; to have power and strength, but not able to save thee ; you may say, Avavmt, Satan, thy speech bewrayeth thee. Section III. — Thirdly, Another wile of Satan lies in cavilling at the Chris- tian's duties and performances, by which he puts him to much toil and trouble. He is at chiu-ch as soon as thou canst be. Christian, for thy heart ; yea, he stands under thj' closet window, and heareth what thou sayest to God in secret. AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. 59 all the while studying how he may commence a suit against thee for thy duty ; like those that come to sermons to cai-p and catch at what the preacher saith, that they may make him an offender for some word or other misplaced ; or like a cunning oppanent in the schools, while his adversary is busy in reading his position, he is studying to confute it ; and truly Satan hath such an art at this, that he is able to takQ our duties in pieces, and so disfigure them that they shall appear fomial, though never so zealous ; hypocritical, though en»-iched with much sincerity. When thou hast done thy duty. Christian, tlien stands up this sophister to ravel out thy work ; there, will he say, thou playedst the hypocrite; zealous, but serving thyself; here wandering, there nodding; a little farther puffed up with pride ; and what wages canst thou hope for at Gods hands, now thou hast spoiled his work, and cut it all out into chips? Tlius he makes many poor souls lead a weary life ; nothing they do but he hath a fling at, that they know not whether laest pray or not, hear or not ; and when the}' have prayed and heard, whether it be to any purpose or not : thus their souls hang in doubt, and their days pass in sorrow, while their enemy stands in a corner and laughs at the cheat he hath put upon them ; as one who, by put- ting a counterfeit spider into the dish, makes those who sit at table either out of conceit with the meat, that they dare not eat, or afraid of themselves, if they have eaten, lest they should be poisoned with their meat. Quest. But you will say, What will you have us to do in this case, to with- stand the cavils of Satan, in reference to our duties ? Ansiv. Fii'st, Let this make thee more accurate in all thou doest ; it is tlie very end God aims at in suffering Satan thus to watch you, that you his children might be the more circumspect, because you have one overlooks you, that will be sure to tell tales of you to God, and accuse thee to thy own self. Doth it not behove thee to write thy copy fair, when such a critic reads and scans it over ? Doth it not concern thee to know thy heart well, to turn over the Scriptures diligently, that thou mayest know the state of thy soul-contro- versy in all the cases of conscience thereof, when thou hast such a subtle opponent to reply upon thee ? Secondly, Let it make thee more hvunble. If Satan can charge thee with so much in thy best duties, O what then can thy God do ? God suffers sometimes the infirmities of his people to be known by the wicked (who are ready to check and mock them for them) for this end, to humble his people ; how much more low should these accusations of Satan, which are in a great measure too true, lay us before God ! Thirdly, Observe tjie fallacy of Satan's argument, which, discovered, will help thee to answer his cavil : the fallacy is double. First, He will persuade thee that thy duty and thyself are hypocritical, jiroud, formal, &c., because something of these sins are to be found in thy duty. Now, Christian, learn to distinguish between pride in a duty, and a proud duty; hy- pocrisy in a person, and a hypocrite ; wine in a man, and a man in wine. The best of saints have the stirrings of such corruptions in them, and in their services ; these birds will light on an Abraham's sacrifice ; but comfort thyself with this, that if thou findest a party within thy bosom pleading for God, and entering its protest against these, thou and thy services are evangelically per- fect. God beholds these as the weaknesses of thy sickly state here below, and pities thee, as thou wouldest do thy lame child. How odious is he to us that mocks one for natural defects, a blear eye or a stammering tongue? Such are these in thy new nature. Observable is that in Christ's prayer against Satan, Zech. iii. 3, ' The Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee ; is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? ' As if Clirist had said, Lord, wilt thou suffer this envious spirit to tw-it thy poor child with, and charge him for, those infir- mities that cleave to his imperfect state? he is but new plucked out of the fire, no wonder there are some sparks unquenched, some corruptions unmoi'- tified, some disorders unrefonned in his place and calling. And what Christ did for Joshua, he doth incessantly for all his saints, apologising for their infirmities with his Father. Secondly, His other fallacy is in arguing from tlie sin that is in our duties to the non-acceptance of them. Will God, saitli he, thinkest thou, take such go THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND broken groats at tliy hand ? Is he not a holy God ? Now liere, Christian, learn to distinguish and answer Satan. There is a double acceptance. There is an acceptance of a thing by way of payment of debt, and thei-e is an acceptance of a thing offered as a token of love and a testimony of gratitude. He that will not accept of broken money, or half the sum for payment of a debt; the same man, if his friend sends him, though but a bent sixpence, in token of his love, will take it kindly. It is true. Christian, the debt thou owest to God must be paid in good and lawful money ; but, for thy comfort, here Christ is thy paymaster ; send Satan to him, bid him bring his charge against Christ, who is ready at God's right hand to clear his accounts, and shew his discharge for the whole debt. But now thy performances and obedience come under another no- tion, as tokens of thy love and thankfulness to God ; and such is the gracious disposition of thy heavenly Father, that he accepts thy mite : love refuseth nothing that love sends. It is not the weight or worth of the gift, but ' the desire of a man is his kindness,' Prov. xix. 22. SpcTioN IV. — A fourth wile of Satan as a troubler, is, to draw the saint into the depths of despair, under a specious pretence of not being humbled enough for sin. This we find singled out by the apostle for one of the devil's fetches : ' We are not ignorant,' saith he, ' of his devices,' 2 Cor. ii. 11 ; his so- phistical reasonings. Satan sets much by this flight ; no weapon oftener in his hand : where is the Christian that hath not met him at this door ? Here Satan finds the Christian easy to be wroiight on, the humours being stirred to his hand ; while the Christian, of his own accord, coinjilains of the hardness of his heart, and is very prone to believe any who comply with his musing thoughts ; yea, thinks every one flatters him that would persuade him other- wise. It is easier to dye that soid into black, which is of a sad colour already, than to make such a one take the lightsome tincture of joy and comfort. Quest. But how shall I answer this subtile enemy, when he thus pei-plexeth my spirit, with not being humbled enough for sin, &c. ? yiiisw. I answer as to the former ; Laboiu- to spy the fallacy of his argument, and his mouth is soon stopped. First, Satan argues thus : There ought to be a proportion between sin and sorrow ; but there is no proportion between thy sins and thy sorrow ; therefore thou art not humbled enough. What a plausible argument is here at first blush ! For the major, that there ought to be a proportion between sin and sorrow, this Satan will show you Scripture for. Manasseh was a great sinner, and an ordinaiy sorrow will not serve his turn ; ' he humbled himself greatly before the Lord,' 1 Chron. iii. 12. No, saith Satan, weigh thy sin in the ba- lance with thy sorrow ; art thou as great a mourner as thou hast been a sinner .' So many years thou hast waged war against the Almighty, making havoc of his laws, loading his patience till it groaned again, raking in the sides of Christ with thy bloody dagger, while thou didst grieve his Spirit, and reject his grace ; and dost think a little remorse, like a rolling cloud, letting fall a few drops of sorrow, will now be accepted ? No, thou must steejj in sorrow, as thou hast soaked in sin. Now, to show you the fallacy, we must distinguish of a two-fold proportion of sorrow. 1st, An exact proportion of sorrow to the inherent nature and demerit of sin. 2ndly, There is a projiortion to the law and ride of the gospel. Now the first is not a thing feasible, because the injmy done in the least sin is infinite, because done to an infinite God ; and if it could be feasible, yet according to the tenour of the first covenant, it would not be acceptable ; because it had no claiise to give any hope for an after-game by i-epentance ; but the other, which is a gospel sorrow, this is indeed repentance unto life, Acts v. 31 ; Zech. xii. 10, (both given by the spirit of the gospel, and to be tried by the rule of the gospel.) This is given for thy relief. As you see sometimes in the highway, where the waters are too deep for travellers, you have a foot-bridge or causey, by which they may escape the flood, and safely pass on ; so that none but such as have not eyes, or are drunk, will venture to go through the waters, when they may avoid the danger. Thou art a dead man, if thou think to answer thy sin with proportionable sorrow ; thou wilt soon be above thy depth, and drown thyself with thy own tears, but never get over the least sin thou conunittest; AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. Q\ go not Oil, tlicreforo, as thou lovest thyself, hut tiu-n aside to this gospel-path, and thou escapest the danger. O you tempted soids, when Satan saith you are not hunihled enough, see where you may he relieved: ' I am a Roman,' saith Paul, ' I appeal to Ctesar.' I am a Christian, say, I appeal to Christ's law. And what is the law of the gospel concerning this ? Heart-sorrow is gospel-sorrow ; ' They were pricked in their heart,' Acts i. 37. And Peter, like an honest siu-geon, will not keep these hleeding patients longer in pain with their wounds open, but presently claps on the healing plaster of the gospel ; ' Believe in tlie Lord Jesus.' Now a prick to the heart is more than a wound to the conscience. The heart is the seat of life. Sin woimded, there lies a dying. To do anything from the heart, makes it acceptable, Eph. vi. 6 ; 2 Cor. v. 11. Now, poor soul, hadst thou sat thus long in the devil's stocks, if thou hadst understood this aright .' Doth thy heart clear or condemn thee, when in secret thou art bemoaning thy sin before God ? If thy lieart be false, I cannot help von ; no, not the gospel itself; but if sincere, thou hast boldness with God, 'l John iii. 21. A second argument Satan useth, is this : He whose sorrow falls short of theirs that never truly repented, he is not humble enough. But, soul, thy sorrow falls short of some, that never truly repented ; Ergo. Well, the first proposition is true, but how will Satan prove his minor? Thus, Ahab, he took on for his sin, and went in sackcloth. Judas, he made bitter complaint. O (saith Satan) didst thou not know such a one that lay under terror of con- science, walking in a sad moui-nful condition so many months, and eveiy one took him for the greatest convert in the country ; and yet he at last fell foully and proved an apostate ; but thou never didst feel such smart, pass so many weary nights and days in mouining and bitter lamentation as he hath done, therefore thou fallcst short of one that fell short of repentance. And truly this is a sad stumbling-block to a soul in an hour of temptation. Like a ship sunk in the mouth of the harbour, which is more dangerous to others than if it had perished in the open sea. There is less scandal by the sins of the wicked, who sink, as it were, in the broad sea of profaneness, than in those who are convinced of sin, troubled in conscience, and miscarry so near the hai'bour, within sip-ht, as it were, of saving grace. Tempted souls can hardly get over these without dashing. Am I better than such a one that proved naught at last ? Now to help tliee a little to find out the fallacy of this argument, we must distinguish between the terrors that accompany sorrow, and the intrinsical nature of this grace. The first, which are accessory, may be separated from the other, as the raging of the sea, which is caused by the wind, from the swell of the sea, when the wind is down. From this distinction take two conclusions. First, One may fall short of a hypocrite in the terrors that sometimes ac- company sorrow, and yet have the truth of this grace, which the other with all his terrors wants. Christians run into many mistakes, by judging rather according to that which is accessory, than that which is essential to the nature of duties and graces. Sometimes thou hearest one pray with a moving expres- sion, whilst thou canst hardly get out a few broken words in duty, and thou art ready to accuse thyself and to admire him ; as if the gilt of the key made it open the door the better ; thou seest another abound with joy which thou wantest, and art ready to conclude his grace more, and thine less, whereas thou mayest have more real grace, only thou wantest a light to show thee whci-e it lies. Take heed of judging by accessories ; pei'haps thou hast not heard so much of the rattling of the chains of hell, nor in thy conscience the outcries of the damned, to make thy flesh tremble ; but hast thou not seen that in a bleed- ing Christ, which hath made thy heart melt and mourn, yea, loathe and hate thy lusts more than the devil himself.' Truly, Christian, it is strange to hear a patient complain of the physician, (when he finds his physic work eff'ectually, to the evacuating of his distempered humours, and the restoring his health,) merely because he was not so sick as some others with the working of it : soul, thou hast more reason to be blessing God that the convictions of the Spirit wrought so kindly on thee, to effect that in thee, without those terrors, which have cost others so dear. Secondly, This is so weak an argument, that contrariwise the more the Q2 THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND terrors are, the less the sorrow is for sin while they remain : these are indeed preparatory sometimes to sorrow ; they go before this grace, as austere John before meek Jesus. But as John went down, Christ went up, when his increase was John's decrease ; so as truly godly sorrow goes up, these terrors go down. As the wind gathers the clouds, but those clouds seldom melt into a set rain, until the wind falls that gathered them ; so these terrors raise the clouds of our sins in our consciences, but when these sins melt into godly sorrow, this lays the storm presently ; indeed as the loud winds do blow away the rain, so these terrors do keep off the soul from this gospel sorrow. While the creatiire is making an outcry, It is damned, it is damned, — it is taken iip so much with the fear of hell, that sin as sin (which is the proper object of godly sorrow) is little looked on or movu-ned for. A murderer condemned to die is so possessed with the fear of death, and thought of the gallows, that there lies the slain body (it may be) before him, unlamented by him ; but when his pardon is brought, then he can bestow his tears freel}^ on his murdered friend ; ' They shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn.' Faith is the eye; this eye, beholding its sin piercing Christ, and Christ pardoning its sin, affects the heart, the heart affected, sighs ; these inward clouds melt and run from the eye of faith in tears ; and all this is done when there is no tempest of terror upon the spirit, but a sweet serenity of love and peace : and therefore, Christian, see how Satan abuseth thee, when he would persuade thee thou art not humbled enough, because thy sorrow is not attended v/ith these illegal teri'ors. CHAPTER VI. a brief application of the second branch of the point, viz. of Satan's subtilty as a troubler and accuser for sin. Use 1. Is Satan so subtile to trouble the saints' peace ? This proves them to be the children of Satan, who shew the same art and subtilty, in vexing the spirit of the saints, as doth their infernal father ; not to speak of bloody perse- cutors, who are the devil's slaughter-slaves to butcher the saints ; but of those who more slily trouble and molest the saints' peace. First, Such as rake up the saints' old sins, which God hath forgiven and forgotten, merely to grieve their spirits and bespatter their names, these shew their devilish malice indeed ; who can take such pains to travel many years back, that they may find a handful of dirt to throw on the saint's face. Thus Shimei twitted David ; ' Come out, thou bloody man,' 1 Sam. i. 6, 7. When you that fear God meet with such reproaches, answer them as Beza did the Papists, who for want of other matter, charged him for some wanton poems, penned by him in his youth ; Hi homunciones mmdent mihi gratiam Dei, These men, said he, grudge me the pardoning mercy of God. Secondly, Such as watch for the saints' halting, and catch at every infirmity to make them odious and themselves merry. It is a dreadful curse such bring upon themselves, (though they little think of it,) no less than Amalek's, the remembrance of whose name God threatened ' to blot from under heaven.' Why 1 What had Amalek done to deserve this? They ' smote the hindermost, those that were feeble,' Deut. xxv. 19, and could not march with the rest. And was it so great a cruelty to do this ? Much more to smite with the edge of a mocking tongue the feeble in grace. Thirdly, Such who father their sins upon the saints ; thus Ahab calls the prophet ' the troubler of Israel,' when it was himself and his father's house. What a grief was it, think you, to Moses's spirit, for the Israelites to lay the blood of those that died in the wilderness at his door ! Whereas, God knows, he was their constant bail, when at any time God's hand was up to destroy them. And this is the charge which the best of God's servants in this crooked genei-ation of ours lie under. We may thank them, say the profane, for all our late miseries in the nation ; we were well enough till they would reform us. O for shame ! blame not the good physic that was administered, but the corrupt body of the nation that could not bear it. Fourthly, Such as will themselves sin, merely to trouble the saints' spirit ; thus Rabshakeh blasphemed, and when desired to speak in another language, he AGAINST THE WII.ES OF THE DEVIL. • (^v goes on the more to grieve them. Sometimes you sliall have a profane wretch, (knowing one to be conscientious, and cannot brook to hear the name of God taken in vain, or the ways of God flouted,) who will on purpose fall upon such dis- course as shall grate his chaste ears, and trouble his gracious spirit ; such a one strikes father and child at one blow ; thinks it not enough to dishonour God, except the saint stands by to see and hear the wrong done to his heavenly Father. Use 2. Secondly, This may afford matter of admiration and thankfulness to any of you, O ye saints, who are not at this day under Satan's hatches. Is he so subtile to disquiet; and hast thou any peace in thy conscience? To whom art thou beholden for that serenity that is in thy spirit? To none but thy God, under whose wing thou sittest so warm and safe. Is there not combustible matter enough in thy conscience for his sparks to kindle ? Perhaps thou hast not committed such bloody sins as others ; that is not the reason of thy peace ; for the least is big enough to damn, much moi'e to trouble thee. Thou hast not grossly fallen, may be, since conversion ; that is rare, if thou art of long standing ; yet the ghosts of thy unregenerate sins might walk in thy conscience. Thou hast had many testimonies of God's favour; hast thou not? Who more than David ? Psa. Ixxvii. Yet he is at a loss sometimes, learning to sjDell his evidences as if he could never have read them. The sense of God's love comes and goes with the present taste. He that is in the dark, while there, sees not the more for former light. O bless God for that light which shines in at thy window ; Satan is plotting to undermine thy comfort every day. This thief sees thy pleasant fruits as they hang, and his teeth water at them, but the wall is too high for him to climb ; thy God keeps this serpent out of thy paradise. It is not the grace of God in thee, but the favour of God, as a shield about thee, defends thee from the wicked one. Use 3. Thirdljf, Let Satan's subtilty, to molest your peace, make thee, O Christian, more wise and wary ; thou hast not a fool to deal with, but one that hath wit enough to spill thy comfort, and spoil thy joy, if not narrowly watched. This is the dainty bit he gapes for ; it is not harder to keep the flies out of your cupboards in summer, from tainting your provision, than Satan out of your consciences ; many a sweet meal hath he robbed the saints of, and sent them supperless to bed ; take heed, therefore, that he roams not thine away also. CHAPTER VII. CONTAINING SOME DIRECTIONS, TENDING TO ENTRENCH AND FORTIFY THE CHRIS- TIAN AGAINST THE ASSAULTS AND WILES OF THE DEVIL, AS A TROUBLER OF THE soul's PEACE. Quest. How shall I stand in a defensive posture, may the Christian say, against these wiles of Satan as a troubler? Section I. — Answ. First, If thou wouldest be guarded from him as a troubler, take heed of him as a seducer. Tliehaftof Satan's hatchet, with which he lies chopping at the root of the Christian's comfort, is commonly made of the Christian's wood. First, he tempts to sin, and then for it. Satan is but a creature, and cannot work without tools ; he can indeed make much of a little, but not anything of nothing, as we see in his assaulting of Christ, where he troubled himself to little purpose, because ' he came and found nothing in him,' John xiv. 30. Though the devil throws the stone, yet it is the mud in us that disturbs our comforts. It was in vain for the Philistines to fall on Samson till his lock was cut : take heed therefore of yielding to his enticing motions ; these are the stumbling-blocks, at which he hopes thou wilt bruise thy con- science, which, when once done, let him alone to spin out the cure. Indeed, a saint's flesh heals not so easily as others' : drink not of the devil's wassail, there is poison in the cup, his wine is a mocker ; look not on it as it sparkles in the temptation ; what thou drinkest down with sweetness, thou wilt be sure to bring up again as gall and wormwood. Above all sins, take heed of pre- sumptuous ones, thou art not out of the danger of such, Psa. xix. 13. Sad stories we have of saints' falls: and what follows? Then take him, jailor, gj, THAT YE JFAY BE ABLE TO STAND paitli God, ' deliver such a one unto Satan;' and if a saint be the prisoner, and the devil the keeper, you may guess how he shall be used. O how he will tear and rend tliy conscience ! though that dreadful ordinance is not used, as it should be, in the church, yet God's covu-t sits, and if he excom- municates a soul from his presence, he falls presently into Satan's clutches. Well, if through his subtilty thou hast been overtaken, take heed thoii stayest not in the devil's quarters ; shake the viper off thy hand, haste thee to thy surgeon ; green wounds cure best, but if thou neglectest, and the wind get to it, thy conscience will soon fester. Ahab, we read, 1 Kings xxii. 35, was wounded in battle, and was loth to yield to it : it is said, ' he was held up in his chariot,' but he died for it: when a soiil hath received a wound, committed a sin, Satan labours to bolster him up with flattering hopes, holds him up, as it were, in the chariot against God ; what, yield for this ? afraid for a little scratch, and lose the spoil of thy future pleasure for this ? O take heed of listening to such counsel ; the sooner thou yieldest, the fairer quarter thou shalt have. Every step in this way sets thee further from thy peace. A rent garment is catched by every nail, and the rent made wider. Renew therefore thy repentance speedily, whereby this breach may be made up, and worse pre- vented, which else will befall thee. Section II. — Secondly, Study that grand gospel-truth of a soul's justification befoi'e God; acquaint thyself with this in all its causes; the moving cause, the free mercy of God, being justified freely by his grace, Rom. iii. 24 ; the merit- orious, which is the blood of Christ ; and the instrumental, faith, with all the sweet privileges that flow from it. An effectual door once opened to let the soul into this truth, would not only spoil the pope's market, as Gardner said, but the devil's also; when Satan comes to disquiet the Christian's peace, for want of a right understanding here, he is soon worsted by his enemy ; as the silly hare which might escape the dogs in some covert or bun'ow that is at hand, but, trusting to her heels, is by the print of her own feet and scent, which she leaves behind, followed, till at last, weary and spent, she falls into the mouth of them. In all that a Christian doth there is a print of sinful infirmity, and a scent by which Satan is enabled to trace and pursue him over hedge and ditch ; this grace and that duty, till the soul, not able to stand before the accusation of Satan, is I'eady to fall down in despair at his feet; whereas here is a hiding- place, whither the enemy diu'st not come, the clefts of the rock, the hole of the stairs, which this truth leads unto. When Satan chai-geth thee for a sinner, perhaps thou interposest thy repentance and reformation, but soon art beaten out of those works, when thou art shewn the sinful mixtures that are in them ; whereas this ti-uth will choke all his bullets, that thou believest on him who hath said, ' Not unto him that worketh, but to him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is imputed for righteousness,' Rom. iv. 5. Get, therefore, into this tower of the gospel covenant, and roll this truth, as she that stone on the head of Abimelech, on the head of Satan. Section III. — Thirdly, Be sure. Christian, thou keepest thy plains. Take heed that Satan coop thee not up in some straits, where thou canst neither well fight nor fly. Such a trap the Egyptians hoped they had the Israelites in when they cried, ' They are entangled, they are entangled.' There are three kinds of straits where he labours to entrap the Christian ; nice questions, obscure scriptures, and dark providences. First, He labours to puzzle him with nice and scrupulous questions, on pur- pose to retard the work, and clog him in his motion, that, meeting with such intricacies in his Christian course, which he cannot easily resolve, thereby he may be made either to give over, or go on heavily ; therefore we have particular charge not to trouble the weak heads of young converts with ' doubtful dispu- tations,' Rom. xiv. 1. Sometimes Satan will be asking the soul how it knows its election ; and where he finds one not so fully resolved as to dare to own the same, he frames his argument against such a one's closing with Christ and the promise ; as if it were presumption to assume that (which is the only portion of the elect) before we know ourselves of that number. Now, Christian, keep the plains, and thou art safe. It is plain we are not to make election a ground for our faith, but our faith and calling a medium or argument to prove our election. AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIT. ^5 Election indeed is first in order of divine acting, — God chooseth before we believe ; yet faith is first in our acting, — we must believe before we can know we be elected ; j^ea, by believing we know it. The husbandman knows it is spring by the sprouting of the grass, though he hath no astrology to know the position of the heavens ; thou niayest know thou art elect, as surely by a work of grace in thee, as if thou hadst stood by God's elbow when he writ thy name in the book of life. It had been presumption for David to have thought he should have been king, till Samuel anointed him ; but then none at all : when thou believest first, and closest with Christ, then is the Spiiit of God sent to anoint thee to the kingdom of heaven ; this is that holy oil which is poured upon none but heirs of glory ; and it is no prcsiunption to read what God's gracious purpose was towards thee of old, when he prints those his thoughts, and makes them legible in thy effectual calling ; here thou dost not go up to heaven, and pry into God's secrets, but heaven comes down to thee, and reveals them. Again, he will ask the Christian what was the time of his conversion ; art thou a Christian, will he say, and dost thou not know wlien thou conuuenccdst ? Now keep the plains, and content thyself with this, that thou seest the streams of grace, though the time of thy conversion be like 'the head of Nilus, not to be found. God oft comes betimes, before gross sins have defloured the soul, and steals into the creature's bosom without much noise. In such a case Satan doth but abuse thee, when he sends thee on his errand : you may know the sun is up, though you did not observe when it rose. Again, what will become of thee, saith Satan, if God should bring thee into such an aflBiction or trial, when thou must burn or turn, or when all thy outward estate shall be rent from thee, no meal in the barrel, or money in the purse ? darest thou have so good an opinion of thyself, as to think that thy faith will hold out in such an hour of temptation? If thou hast but half an eye. Christian, thou mayest see what Satan drives at; this is an ensnaring question ; by the fear of future troubles he labours to bring thee into a neglect of thy present duty, and indispose thee also for such a state, whenever it falls. If a man hath much business to do on the morrow, it is his wisdom to discharge his mind thereof, when composing to sleep, lest the thoughts thereof break his rest, and make him the more unfit in the morning. The less rest the soul hath in God and his promise concerning future events, the less strength it will find to bear them when the pinch comes. When, therefore, thou art molested with such fears, pacify thy heart with these three plain conclusions : First, Every event is the product of God's providence ; not a sparrow, much less a saint, falls to the ground by poverty, sickness, persecution, &c., but the hand of God is in it. Secondly, God hath put in a caution, ' he will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,' Heb. xiii. 5. He that enables thee in one condition will in another. God learns his servants their whole trade. Grace is an universal principle. At the first moment of thy spiritual life, sufi'ering grace was infused as well as praying grace. Thirdly, God is wise to conceal the succours he intends in the .several changes of thy life, that so he may draw thy heart into an entire dependence on his faithful promise. Thus, to try the metal of Abraham's faith, he let him go on till his hand was stretched forth, and then he comes to his rescue. Christ sends his disciples to sea, but stays behind himself, on a design to tiy their faith, and shew his love. Comfort thyself, therefore, with this , though thou seest not thy God in the way, yet thou shalt find him in the end. Secondly, Satan perplexes the tender consciences of doubting Christians with obscure scriptures, whose sense lies too deep for their weak and distempered judgments readily to find out, and with these he hampers poor souls exceedingly ; indeed, as melancholy men delight in melancholy walks, so doubting souls most frequent such places of Scripture in their musing thoughts, as increase their doubts ; how many have I known that have looked so long on those difficult places, Heb. vi. 7, and x. 26, which pass the understanding as a swift stream the eye, so that the sense is not perceived without great observation, till their heads have turned round, and they at last, not able to untie the difficulties, have fallen down into despairing thouglits and words of their own condition, crying out, (55 THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND 0 they liave siimed against knowledge of the truth, and therefore no mercy- remains for them ! who, if they woukl have refreshed their understandings by looking off these places, whose engraving is too curious to be long pored on by a weak eye, they might have found that in other scriptures plainly expressed, which would have enabled them, as through a glass, more safely to have viewed these. Therefore, Christian, keep the plains ; thou mayest be sure it is thine enemy that gives thee such stones to break thy teeth, when thy condition calls rather for bread and wine, such scriptiu'es, I mean, as are most apt to nourish thy faith, and cheer thy drooping spirit. When thou meetest such plain scrip- tures which speak to thy case, go over where it is fordable, and do not venture beyond thy depth. Art thou afraid because thou hast sinned since the know- ledge of the truth, and therefore no sacrifice remains for thee ? See David and Peter's case, how it patterns thine, and left upon record that their recovery may be a key in thine hand to open such places as these ; mayest thou not safely con- clude from these, this is not their meaning, that none can be saved that sin after knowledge ? Indeed, in both these places, it is neither meant of the falls of such as ever had true grace, nor of a falling away in some particular acts of sin, but of a total universal falling away fi'om the faith, (the doctrine of it as well as seeming practice of it.) Now, if the i"oot of the matter were ever in thee, other scriptures will first comfort thee against those particular apostasies into v/hich thou hast relapsed, by sweet promises inviting such to retiu-n, and precedents of saints, who have had peace spoken to them after such folly, and also they will satisfy thee against the other, by giving full security to thy faith, that thy little grace shall not die, being immortal, though not in its proper essence, because a creatiire, yet by covenant, as it is a child of promise. Thii-dly, Dark providences. From these Satan disputes against God's love to, and grace in a soul. First, he got a commission to phmder Job of his temporal estate, and bereave him of his children, and then labours to make him question his spiritual estate and sonship : his wife would have him entertain hard thoughts of God, saying, 'Curse God and die;' and his friends as hard thoughts of himself, as if he were an hypocrite, and both upon the same mistake, as if such an afflicted condition and a gracious state were inconsistent. Now, Christian, keep the plains, and neither from this charge God foolishly for thine enemy, nor thyself as his ; read the saddest providence with the comment of the word, and thou canst not make such a harsh interpretation. As God can make a straight line with a crooked stick ; be righteous when he useth wicked instrinnents ; so also gracious when he dispenseth harsh pro- vidences. Joseph kept his love, when he spake roughly to his brethren. 1 do not wonder that the wicked think they have God's blessings, because they are in the warm sun : alas ! they are strangers to God's counsels, void of his spirit, and sensual, judging of God and his providence by the report present feeling makes of them ; like little children, who think every one loves thejn that gives them plums. But it is strange that a saint shoidd be at a loss for his afflicted state, when he hath a key to decipher God's character: Christian, hath not God secretly instructed thee by his Spirit from the word, how to read the short-hand of his providence ? Dost not thou know that the saints' afflictions stand for blessings ? 'Every son whom he loves he corrects;' and prosperity in a wicked state, must it not be read a curse ? Doth not God damn such to be rich, honourable, victorious in this world, as well as to be tormented in another world ? God gives them more of these than they seem to desire sometimes, and all to bind them faster up in a deep sleep of security, as Jael served Siscra, Judg. v. 25 ; he shall have milk, though he asked but water, that she might nail him the sru'er to the ground ; milk having a property, as some write, to incline to sleep. Section IV. — Fourthly, Be careful to keep thy old receipts which thou hast from God for the pardon of thy sins. There are some gaudy days and jubilee- like festivals, when God comes forth clothed with the robes of his mercy, and holds forth the sceptre of his grace more familiarly to his children than ordi- nary, bearing witness to their faith, sincerity, &c., and then the firmament is clear, not a cloud to be seen to darken the Christian's comfort. Love and joy are the soul's repast and pastime, while this feast lasts. Now when God with- AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. gY draws, and this cheer is taken off, Satan's work is, how lie may deface and wear off the remembrance of this testimony, wliich the soul so trimnphs in for its spiritual standing, that he may not ha\T it as an evidence when he shall bring about the suit again, and put the soul to produce his writings for his spiritual state, or renounce his claim. It behoves thee, therefore, to lay them up safely : such a testimony may serve to Uion-suit thy accuser many years hence : one affirmative from God's mouth for thy pardoned state carries more weight, though of old date, than a thousand negatives from Satan's. ' David's songs of old ' spring in with a light to his soul in his midnight sorrows. Quest. But what counsel would you give me, saith the distressed sold, who cannot fasten on my former comforts, nor dare to avouch those evidences, which once I thought true ? I find indeed there have been some treaties of old be- tween God and my soul ; some hopes I have had, but these are now so defaced and interlined with backslidings, repentances and falls again, that now I question all my evidences, whether true or counterfeit : what shall one in this case do? Ans. First, Renew thy repentance, as if thou hadst never repented. Put forth fresh acts of faith, as if thou hadst never believed. This, seriously done, will stop Satan's mouth with an unexpected answer. Let him object against thy foniier actings as hypocritical, what can he say against thy present repenting and be- lieving, which, if true, sets thee bej'ond his shot? It will be harder for Satan to disprove the present workings of God's gracious Spirit, whilst the impressions thereof are fresh, than to pick a hole in thy old deeds and evidences. Acts are transient ; and as wicked men look at sins committed many years since, as little or none, by reason of that breadth of time which interposeth, so the Christian upon the same account stands at great disadvantage, to take the true aspect of those acts of grace which so long ago passed between God and him, though sometimes even these are of great use. As God can make a sinner possess the sins of his youth, as if they were newly acted, to his terror in his old age, so God can present the comforts and evidences which of old the saint received, with those very thoughts he had then of them, as if they were fresh and new. And therefore. Secondly, If he haunts thee with fears of thy spiritual estate, ply thee to the throne of gi-ace, and beg a new copy of thy old evidence, which thou hast lost. The original is in the pardon office in heaven, whereof Christ is master; if thou art a saint, thy name is upon record in that court; make thy moan to God, hear what news from heaven, rather than listen to the tales which are brought by thine enemy from hell. Did such reason less with Satan, and pray over their fears more to God, they might sooner be resolved. Can you expect truth from a liar, and comfort from an enemy ? Did he ever pro- phesy well of believers ? Was not Job the devil's hypocrite, whom God vouched for a nonsuch in holiness, and proved him so at last? If he knew that thou wert a saint, would he tell thee so? If an hypocrite, he would be as loth thou shouldst know it ; turn thy back therefore on him, and go to thy God: fear not, but sooner or later he will give his hand again to thy certificate. But look thou dost not pass rashly a censure on thyself, because a satisfactory answer is not presently sent at thy desire ; the messenger may stay long, and bring good news at last. Thirdly, Shun battle with thine enemy till thou art in a fitter posture ; and that thou mayest draw into thy trenches, and make an honourable retreat into those fastnesses and strengths, which Chi-ist hath provided for his sick and wounded soldiers. Now there are two places of advantage into which deserted souls may retire ; the name of God, and the absolute promises of the gospel ; these I may call the fair havens, which are then chiefly of use when the storm is so great, that the ship cannot live at sea. O, saith Satan, dost thou hope to see God? None but the pure in heart shall be blest with tliat vision. Thinkest thou to have comfort? That is the jjortion of the mourners in spirit. Now, soul, though thou canst not say, in the hurry of temptation, thou art the pure and the mourner in spirit, yet then say thou believest God is able to work these in thee, yea, hath promised such a mercy to poor sinners ; it is his covenant, (he will give a new heart, a clean heart, a soft heart,) and there I wait, knowing, as there was nothing in the creature to move the great God to make such promises, F 2 (5g THAT IE MAY BK ABI-E TU STAND fco there can be nothing in the creature to hinder the Ahnighty his performance of them, where and wlien he pleaseth. This act of faith, accompanied with a longing desire after that grace tliou canst not yet find, and an attendance on the means, though it will not fully satisfy all thy doubts, may be, yet will keep thy head above water, that thou despairest not ; and such a shore thou needest in this case, or the house falls. Fourthly, If yet Satan dogs thee, call in help, and keep not the devil's covmsel. The very strength of some temptations lies in the concealing of them, and the very revealing of them to some faithful friend, (like the opening and pricking of an iniposthume,) gives the soul present ease. Satan knows this too well; and therefore, as some thieves, when they come to rob an house, either gag them in it, or hold a pistol to their breast, frighting them with death, if they cry or speak : thus Satan, that he may the more freely rifle the soul of its peace and comfort, overawes it so, that it dares not disclose its temptation. O, saith Satan, if thy brethren or friends know such a thing by thee, they will cast thee off", others v^fill hoot at thee. Thus many a poor soul hath been kept long in its pangs by biting them in ; thou losest. Christian, a double help by keeping the devil's secret, the counsel and prayers of thy fellow-brethren; and what an invaluable loss is this ! CHAPTER VIII. OF THE saints' VICTORY OVER THEIR SI'BTLE ENEMY, AND WHENCE IT IS that creatures so overmatched, should be able to stand against Satan's wiles. The second branch of the apostle's argument follows, to excite them the more vigorously to their arms, and that is from the possibility, yea, certainty of standing against this subtle enemy, if thus armed, ' That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.' So that this gives the apostle's argument its due temperament; for he meant not to scare them into a cowardly flight, or sullen despair of victory, when he tells them their enemy is so subtle and politic ; but to excite them to a vigorous resistance, from the assured hope of strength to stand in battle, and victoriously after it; which two I conceive are compre- hended in that phrase, standing against the wiles of Satan. Sometimes ' to stand' implies a fighting posture; so verse 14. Sometimes a conquering pos- ture. Job xix. 25 : ' I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.' That earth, which was the field where all the bloody battles were fought between him and Satan, on it shall he stand, when not an enemy shall dare to shew his head. So that taking both these in, the observation is, Doct. Satan with all his wits and wiles shall never vanquish a soul armed with true grace ; nay, he that hath this armour of God on, shall vanquish him. Look into the word, you shall not find a saint but hath been in the list with him, sifted and winnowed more or less by this enemy, yet at last' we find them all coming oflTwith an honourable victory; as in David, Job, Peter, Paul, who were the hardest put to it of any upon record ; and lest some should attribute their victory to the strength of their inherent grace, above other of their weaker brethren, you have the glory of victories appropriated to God, in whom the weak are as strong as the strongest, 2 Cor. xii. 9; Jam. v. 21. We shall give a double reason of this truth, why the Christian, who seems to be so over- matched, is yet so unconquerable. Reas. 1. Fii-st, the curse that lies upon Satan and his cause. God's curse blasts wherever it comes. The Canaanites with their neighbour-nations were ' bread for Israel,' though people famous for war ; and why ? — they were cursed nations. The Egyptians a politic people; ' Let us deal wisely,' say they; yet being cursed of God, this lay like a thorn at their heart, and" was at las't their ruin ; yea, let the Israelites themselves, (who carry the badge of God's covenant on their flesh,) by their sins once become the people of God's curse, and they are trampled like dirt under the Assyrian's foot. This made Balak beg so hard for a curse upon Israel. Now there is an iri-evocable curse cleaves to Satan from Isa. x. ^ ; Gen. iii. 14, 1.5 : ' And the Lord said to the serpent, Because thou AflAINST THE V.ILES OF THE DEVIL. (]C) hast- done this, thou art cursed,' &c., which place, though partly meant of the literal serpent, yet chiefly of the devil and the wicked, (his spiritual serpentine brood,) as appears by the enmity pronounced against the serpent's seed and the woman's, which clearly holds forth the feud between Christ with his seed, against the devil and his. Now there are two things in that curse which may conifort the saints. First, the curse prostrates Satan under their feet : ' Upon thy belly shalt thou go,' which is no more than is elsewliere promised, that God * will subdue Satan imder our feet.' Now this prostrate condition of Satan assures believers that the devil shall never lift his head (that is, his wily policy) higher than the saint's heel. He may make thee limp, but not bereave thee of thy life; and this bruise which he gives thee shall be rewarded with the ' breaking' of his ' own head,' that is, the utter ruin of him and his cause. Secondly, his food is here limited and appointed. Satan shall not devour whom he will. The ' dust ' is his food, which seems to restrain his power to the wicked, who are of the earth earth}', mere dust; but for those who are of a heavenly extraction, their graces are reserved for Christ's food, Cant. vii. 13, and their souls surely are not a morsel for the devil's tooth. The second reason is taken from the wisdom of God, who, as he undertakes the ordering of the Christian's way to heaven, Psa. xxxvii. 24, so especially this business of Satan's temptations. We find Chi'ist was not led of the evil spirit into the wilderness to be tempted, but of the Holy Spirit, Matt. iv. 1 . Satan tempts not when he will, but when God pleaseth ; and the same Holy Spirit which led Christ into the field, brought him off with victory. And therefore we find him marching in ' the power of the Spirit' (after he had re- pulsed Satan) into Galilee, Luke iv. 14. When Satan tempts a saint, he is but God's messenger, 2 Cor. xii. 7: 'There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me ;' so our translation. But rather as Beza, who will have it in casu recto, the messenger Satan, implying tliat he was sent of God to Paul, and indeed the errand he came about was too good and gracious to be his own, ' Lest I should be exalted above measure.' The devil never meant to do Paul such a good office ; but God sends him to Paul, as David sent Uriah with letters to Joab, — neither knew the contents of their uies- sage. The devil and his instruments both a'-e God's instruments, therefore the wicked are called his sword, his axe, Psa. xvii. 13 ; Isa. x. 15 ; now lot God alone to wield the one, and handle the other. He is but a bungler that hurts and hackles his own legs with his own axe ; which God should do, if his children should be the worse for Satan's temptations. Let the devil choose his way, God is for him at every weapon. If he will tiy it by'force of arms, and assaults the saints by persecution, as ' the Lord of hosts' he will oppose him. If by p(ilicy and subtilty, he is ready there also. The devil and his whole coimcil are but fools to God ; nay, their wisdom foolishness. Cunning and art commend every thing but shi. The more artificial the watch, the picture, &c., the better; but the more wit and art in sin, the worse, because it is employed against an all- wise God, that cannot be outwitted, and therefore will in the end but pay the workman in greater damnation. '"The foolishness of God is wiser than man,' yea, than the wisdom of men and devils, that is, the means and instruments which God opposeth Satan withal. What weaker than a sermon ? who sillier than the saints in the account of the wise world? yet God is wiser in a weak sermon than Satan in his deep plots; (wherein he state-heads of a whole con- clave of profound cardinals are knocked together;) wiser in his simple ones, than Satan in his Ahithophels and Sanballats; and truly God chooseth on pur- pose to defeat the policies of hell and earth by these, that he may put such to greater shame, 1 Cor. i. 21. How is the great scholar ashamed to be baffled by a plain countryman's argument? thus Ciod calls forth Job to wrestle with Satan and his seconds; (for such his three friends shewed themselves in taking the devil's part;) and sure he is not able to hold up the cudgels against the fencing-master, who is beaten by one of his scholars. God sits laughing, while hell and ear h sit plotting, Psa. ii. 4 : 'He disappoinleth the devices of the crafty,' he breaketh their studied thoughts and plots, as the words import, Job V. 12; in one moment pulling down the labours of many years' policy. Indeed, as great men keep wild beasts for game and sport, (as the fox, the fJQ THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND boar, &c.,) so doth God Satan and his instruments, to manifest his wisdoBi in the taking of them. It is observed, that the very hunting of some beasts affords not only pleasure to the hunter, but also more sweetness to the eater. Indeed God, by displaying of his wisdom in the pursuit of his saints' enemies, doth superadd a sweet relish to their deliverances at last. * He brake the heads of the Leviathan in pieces, and gave him to be meat to his people.' After he had hunted Pharaoh out of all his forms and burrows, now he breaks the very brains of all his plots, and serves him up to his people with the garnishment of his wisdom and power about. CHAPTER IX. AN ACCOUNT IS GIVEN HOW THE ALL-WISE GOD DOTH OUTWIT THE DEVIL IN HIS TEMPTING OF SAINTS TO SIN ; WHEREIN ARE LAID DOWN THE ENDS SATAN PROPOUNDS, AND HOW HE IS PREVENTED IN ALL, WITH THE GRACIOUS ISSUE THAT GOD PUTS TO THESE HIS TEMPTATIONS. Quest. ' But how doth God defeat Satan, and outwit his wiles in tempting his saints?' Answ. This God doth by accomplishing his own gracious ends for the good and comfort of his people, out of those temptations from whicli Satan designs their ruin : this is the noblest kind of conquest, to beat back the devil's weapon to the wounding of his own head, yea, to cut it off with the devil's own sword ; thus God sets the devil to catch the devil, and lays, as it were, his own counsels under Satan's wings, and makes him hatch them. Thus the patriarchs helped to fulfil Joseph's dream, while they are thinking to rid their hands of him. To instance in a few particulai's. Section I. — First, Satan by his temptations aims at the defiling of the Chris- tian's conscience, and disfiguring that beautiful face of God's image, which is engraven with holiness in the Christian's bosom; he is an unclean spirit him- self, and would have them such, that he might glory in their shame ; but God outwits him, for he turneth the temptations of Satan to sin, to the purging them from sin ; they are the black soap with which God washeth his saints white. First, God useth the temptations of Satan to one sin, as a preventive against another; so ' Paul's thorn in the flesh,' to prevent his pride. God sends Satan to assault Paul on that side where he is strong, that in the mean time he may fortify him where he is weak. Thus Satan is befooled ; as sometimes we see an army sitting down before a town, where it wastes its strength to no purpose ; and in the mean time gives the enemj' an advantage to recruit, and all this by the counsel of some Hushai, that is a secret friend to the contrary side. God, who is the saint's true friend, sits in the devil's counsel, and overrules proceed- ings there to the saint's advantage ; he suffers the devil to annoy the Christian with temptations to blasphemy, atheism; and by these, together with the trou- bles of spirit they produce, the soul is driven to duty, is humbled in the sense of these horrid apparitions in its imagination, and secured from abundance of formality and pride, which otherwise God saw invading him. As in a family, some business falls out which keeps the master up later than oi'dinary, and by this the thief, who that night intended to rob him, is disappointed ; had not such a soul had his spirit of prayer and diligence kept awake by those afflicting temptations, it is likely Satan might have come as a seducer, and taken him napjiing in secui-ity. Secondly, God purgeth out the very sin Satan tempts to, even by his tempt- ing. Peter never had such a conquest over his self-confidence, never such an establishment of his faith, as after his foul fall in the high priest's hall. He that was so well persuaded of himself before, as to say. Though all were offended with Christ, yet would not he ; how modest and humble was he in a few days become, when he durst not say he loved Chi-ist more than his fellow- brethren, to whom before he had preferred himself? What an imdaunted confessor of Christ and his gospel doth he prove before councils and rulers, who even now was dashed out of countenance by a silly maid ? and all this the product of Satan's temptation sanctified unto him. Indeed, a saint hath a discovery by his fall, what is the prevailing corruption in him ; so that the AGAINST THE WILKS Ol'" THE DEVIL. 71 temptation doth but stir humour, which the soul, having found out, hath the greater advantage to evacuate, by applying those means, and using those ingredients which do pm-ge that malady, cum delecfu. Now the soul will call all out against this destroyer ; Paul had not took such pains to ' buffet his body,' had he not found Satan knocking at that door. Thirdly, God useth these temptations for the advancing of the whole work of grace in the heart. One spot occasions the whole garment to be washed. David, overcome with one sin, renews his repentance for all, Psa. li. A good husband, when lie secth it rain in at one place, sends for the workmen to look over all the house. This indeed differcnceth a sincere heart from an hypocrite, whose repentance is partial, soft in one plot, and hard in another. Judas cries out of his treason, but not a word of his thievery and hypocrisy. Tlie hole was no wider in his conscience than where the bullet went in ; whereas true sorrow for one breaks the heart into shivers for others also. Section II. — Secondly, Satan by tempting one saint, hath aniischiovous de- sign against others, either by encouraging them to sin by the example of such a -one, or discouraging them in their holy course by the scandal he hath given ; but God here befools him. First, Making the miscamages of such a seasonable caveat to others to look to their standing. Dost thou see a meek Moses provoked to anger ? What watch and ward hast thou need keep over thy urundy heai-t! Though loud winds do some hurt by blowing down here a loose tile, and there a turret, (which was falling before,) yet the common good surmounts the private damage of some few ; these being as a broom in God's hand to sweejD and cleanse the air ; so, though some (that are wicked) are by God's righteous judgment for the same hardened into further abominations by the saints' falls, yet the good which sincere souls receive by having their formality and security in a further degree purged, doth abundantly countervail the other, who are but sent a little faster whither they were going before. Secondly, God makes his saints' falls an argument for comfort to distressed consciences. This hath been, and is as a feather (when the passage seems so stopped that no comfort can be got down otherwise) to drop a little hope into the soul, to keep the creature alive from falling into utter despair; some have been revived with this when next door to hell in their own fears. David's sin was great, yet found mercy ; Peter fell foully, yet now in heaven. Why sittest thou here, O my soul, under the hatches of despair? Up, and call upon thy God for mercy, who hath pardoned the same to others. Thirdly, God hath a design in sutt'ering Satan to trounce some of his saints by temptation, to train them up into a fitness to succour their fellow-brethren in the like condition : he sends them hither to school, (where they are under Satan's fenila and lash,) that his cruel hand over them may make them study the word and their own hearts, by which they get experience of Satan's policies, till at last they commence masters in this art of comforting tempted souls. It is an art by itself, ' to speak a word in season to the weary soul : ' it is not serving out an apprenticeship to himian arts will furnish a man for this : great doctors have proved great dunces here, knowing no more how to handle a wounded conscience, than a rustic the surgeon's instrument in dissecting the body when an anatomical lecture is to be read. It is not the knowledge of the Scripture (though a man were as well acquainted with it as an apothecary with his pots and glasses in his shop, able to go directly to any promise on a sudden) will suffice. No, not grace itself, except exercised with these buffetings and soul- conflicts. Christ himself we find trained up in this school, Isa. 1.4: ' He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.' Even as the tutor calls up his pupil to read to him ; and what is the lecture which is read to Christ, that he may have the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to the weary soul ? see ver. 5. ' The Lord hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned I away my back ; I gave my back to the smiters,' &c. His sufl(?rings (which were all alongmingled with temptations) were the lecture from whicli Christ came out so learned, to resolve and comfort distressed souls. So that the de\'il had better have let Christ alone, yea, and his saints also, who do him but the greater disservice in comforting others ; none will handle poor souls so gently as those who remember 'J2 THAT YE MA5f BE ABLE TO STAND the smart of their own heart-sorrows : none so skilful in applying the comforts of the word to wounded consciences, as those who have lain bleeding themselves ; such know the symptoms of soul-trouble, and feel others' pains in their own bosoms, which some that know the Scriptures (for lack of experience) do not, and therefore are like a novice physician, who perhaps can tell j'ou every plant in the herbal, yet, wanting the practical part, when a patient comes, knows not well how to make use of his skill. The saints' experiences help them to a sovereign ointment made of the scorpion's own flesh, (wliich they through Christ have slain,) and that hath a virtue above all other to expel the venom of Satan's temptations from the heart. Section III. — Thirdly, Satan, in tempting the saint to sin, labours to make a breach between God and the soul. He hates both, and therefore labours to divide these dear friends. If I can (thinks he) get such a one to sin, God will be angry, and when angry, he will whip his child soundly, this will be some sport; and when God is correcting the saint, he will be questioning the love of God to him, and cool in his love to God ; so, though I should not keep him from heaven at last, yet he shall have little joy in the way thither. In his case, God and the soul will be like a man and wife fallen out, who neither of them look kindly one upon another. Now see how God befools Satan in both these. First, God useth his saints' temptations as his method by which he advanceth - the communications of his love unto them. The devil thovight he had got the goal, when he got Adam to eat the forbidden fi'uit ; he thought now he had men in the same predicament with himself, as unlikely ever to see the face of God as those apostate spirits: but, alas! this was by God intended to usher in that great gospel plot of saving man by Christ, who (as soon as this prologue of man's fall is done) is brought upon the stage in that grand promise of the gospel made to Adam, and at God's command vindertakes the charge of recovering lost man out of Satan's clutches, and reinstating him in his primitive glory, with an accession of more than ever man had at first, so that the meanest lily in Christ's field exceeds Adam in all his native royalty. And as Satan sped in his first temptation, so he is still on the losing hand : what got he by all his pains upon Job, but to let that holy man know at last, how dearly God loved him ! When he foiled Peter so shamefully, do we not find Christ owning Peter with as much love as ever? Peter must be the only disciple to whom by name the joyful news of the resurrection is sent : ' Go tell my disciples and Peter ;' as if Christ had said. Be sure let his sad heart be comforted with this news, that he may know I am friends with him for all his late cowardice. Quest. But doth not this seem to countenance sin, and make Chi'istians heedless whether they fall into temptation or no? If God does thus show his love to his saints after their falls and foils, why should we be so shy of sin, which ends so well at last ? Answ. Two things will prevent the danger of such an inference. First, we must distinguish between a soul's being foiled through his own infirmity, and his enemies' subtilty and power over-matching him, and another, who through a false heart doth voluntarily prostrate himself to the lust of Satan ; though a general will shew little pity to a soldier that should traitorously throw down his arms and run to the enemy, yet if another in fighting receives a wound and be worsted, it will be no dishonour for him to express his pity and love, no, though he should send him out of the field in his own coach, lay him in his own bed, and appoint him his own surgeon. God doth not encourage wickedness in a saint, but pities weakness. Even when the saints fall into a sin in its nature presumptuous, they do not commit it so presumptuously as others ; there is a part true to God in their bosoms, though overvoted. Moses spake unadvisedly, but the devil had his instruments to provoke him, quite against the good man's temper. David numbers the people, but see how the devil dogged and hunted him, till at last he got the better, 1 Chron. xxi. 1 : ' Satan stood up and provoked David to nimiber Israel.' How bravely did Job repel Satan's darts! No wonder if in such a shower some one should get between the joints of his armour. And for Peter, we know with what a loyal heart, yea, zealous, he went into the field, though, when the enemy appeared, his heart failed him. ac;ai-Nst the wiles ov the devil. 73 Secondly, Consider but the way how God communicates his love after the saints' fall ; not in sinning, or for sinning, but in mourning and humbling their souls for their sins. Indeed did God smile on them while acting sinfully, this might strengthen their sin, as wine in a fever would the disease ; but when the fit is off, the venom of the disease spent, and breathed out in a kindly humiliation, now the creature lies low. God's wine and comfort is a cordial to the drooping spirit, not fuel for sin. When David was led into temptation, first he must be clad in sackcloth and moiu-ning, and then God takes it off, and puts on the garment of joy and praise, 1 Chron. xxi. 10, 15. Job, though he expressed so much courage and pa'ience, yet (bewi-aying some infirmities after he was baited long by so many fresh dogs, men and devils) he nuist cry peccavi, and abhor himself in dust and ashes, before God will take him into his arms. Job xlii. 6; and the same way God takes with all his children. Now to his saints in such a posture, God may with safety, to his honour and their good, give a larger draught of his love than ordinary ; their fears and sorrow, which their sin hath cost them, will serve instead of water to dash this strong wine of joy, and take away its headi- ness, that it neither fume up into pride, nor occasion them to reel backward into apostasj'. Quest. But why doth God now connnunicate his love ? ^)is. First, from his pitiful nature : ' You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.' God loves not to rake in bleeding wounds ; he knows a mourning soul is subject to be discouraged. A frown or angry look from God, whom the saint so dearly loves, must needs go near the heart, therefore God declares himself at hand to revive such, Isa. Ivii. 1.5 ; and he gives the reason, ver. 16: ' For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wrath, for the spirit should fail before me.' Whose spirit is there meant? Not of the presumptuous sinner ; he goes on, and never blinks ; but of the contrite and humble ones. As the father observes the disposition of his children ; one commits a fault and goes on rebelliously, despising his father's anger ; another, when offending, lays it to heart, refuseth to eat, gets into some corner to lament the displeasure of his father : the father sees it, and his bowels yearn towards him. Indeed, should he not put his child out of fear, by discovering his love, the spirit of such a one would fail ; it is not possible there should be a long breach between such a father, and such a son ; the one relenting over his sin, the other over his mourning son. Secondly, God doth thus, to pour the greater shame upon Satan, who is the great mischief-maker between God and the soul. How is the man ashamed that hath stirred up variance between husband and wife, father and son, to see the breach made up, and all set themselves against him ! It went ill on Christ's side, when Herod and Pilate were made friends; and can it go well with Satan to see all well between God and his children ? If Esther be in favour, Haman her enemy shall have his face covered. Indeed, this covers Satan's face with shame, to see a poor saint even now his prisoner, whom he had leave to rob and plunder, tempt and disquiet, now sitting in the sunshine of God's love, while he like a ravening lion takes on for the loss of his prey. Secondly, Satan's aim is, to weaken the saint's faith on God, and cool his love to God, but befooled in both ; for, First, God tin-ns their tem])tations, yea, their falls, to the further establishment of their faith, which, like the tree, stands stronger for its shaking, or like the giant Antcus, who in his wrestling with Hercules is feigned to get strength by every fall to the ground. False faith, indeed, once foiled, seldom comes on again ; but true faith rises and fights more valiantly, as we see in Peter and other Scripture examples. Temp- tation to faith is as fire to gold, 1 Pet. i. 7. The fire doth not only discover which is true gold, but makes the true gold more pure ; it comes out may be less in bulk and weight, because severed from that soil and dross which em- based it, but more in value and worth. When Satan is bound up, and the Chris- tian walks under the light of Divine favour, and encouragement of Divine assistance, his faith may appear great, if compared with another under the with- drawings of God, and buffetings of Satan ; but this is not equal judgment; as if to try who is biggest of two mf^n, wp should measure one naked, and the other over i^^i THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND his clothes; or in comparing two pieces of gold, weigh one with the dross and dirt it contracts in the purse, with the other purged from these in the fire : faith before temptation hath much heterogeneal stuff in it, that cleaves to it, and goes for faith ; but when temptation comes, these are discovered. Now the Christian feels corruption stir, which lay as dead before ; now a cloud comes between the soul and the sweet face of God, the sense of which latter, and the little sense of the other, bore up his faith before; but these bladders pricked, he comes now to learn the true stroke of this heavenly art of swinnning on the promise, having nothing else to bear him up but that; and a little of this carries more of the precious nature of faith in it than all the othei', yea, is, like Gideon's handful of men, stronger, when all these accessaries to faith are sent away, than when they were present ; and here is all the devil gets ; instead of destroying his faith, which he aims at, he is the occasion of the refining of it, and thereby adding to its strength. Secondly, The love of tempted saints is enkindled to Christ by their tempta- tions, and foils in their temptations. Possibly in the fit there may seem a damp upon their love, as when water is first sprinkled upon the fire ; but when the conflict is a little over, and the Christian comes to himself, his love to Christ will break out like a vehement flame. First, the shame and sorrow which a gracious soul must needs feel in his bosom for his sinful miscarriage, while under the temptation, will provoke him to express his love to Christ above others, as is sweetly set forth in the spouse, who, when the cold fit of her distemper was off^, and the temptation over, bestirs her to purpose ; her lazy sickness was turned to love sickness ; she finds it as hard now to sit, as she did before to rise ; she can rest in no place out of her beloved's sight, but runs and asks every one she meets for him. And whence came all this vehemency of her zeal ? All occasioned by her undutiful carriage to her husband : she parted so unkindly with him, that, bethinking what slie had done, away she goes to make her peace. If sins committed in unregeneracy have such a force upon a gracious soul, that the thought of them, though pardoned, will still break and melt the heart into sorrow, as we see in Magdalen, and prick on to show zeal for God above others, as in Paul, how much more will the sins of a saint, who, after sweet acquaintance with Jesus Christ, lifts up the heel against that bosom where he hath lain, affect, yea, dissolve the heart, as into so many drops of water, and that sorrow provoke him to serve God at a higher rate than others .' No child so dutiful in all the family, as he who is retimied from his rebellion. Again, Secondly, As his own shame, so the experience which such a one hath of Christ's love above others, will increase his love. Christ's love is fuel to ours. Ex eisdem nutrirmir quihus coiistamus ; as it gives its being, so it affords growth ; it is both mother and nurse to our love. The more Christ puts forth his love, the more heat our love gets ; and next to Christ's dying love, none greater than his succouring love in temptation. The mother never hath such advantage to show her affection to her child, as when in distress, sick, poor, or imprisoned ; so neither hath Christ to his children, as when tempted, yea, woi-sted by temptation. When his children lie in Satan's prison, bleeding imder the wounds of their consciences, this is the season he takes to give an experi- ment of his tender heart in pitying, his faithfulness in praying for them, his mindfulness in sending succour to them ; yea, his dear love in visiting them by his comforting Spirit. Now when the soul hath got off some great temptation, and reads the whole history thereof together, — wherein he finds what his own weakness was to i-esist Satan, nay, his unfaithfulness in comj^lying with Satan, which might have provoked Christ to leave him to the fury of Satan, — now to see both his folly pardoned, and ruin graciously prevented, and that by no other hand but Christ's coming in to his rescue, as Abishai to David, 2 Sam. xxi. when that giant thought to have slain him, this must needs exceedingly endear Christ to the sold. At the reading of such records, the Christian cannot but inquire, as Ahasuerus concerning Mordecai, — who, by discovering a treason, had saved the king's life, — what hojiour hath been done to his sweet Saviour for all this? And thus Jesus Christ, whom Satan thought to bring out of the soul's favour and liking, comes in the end to sit higher and surer in the saint's affec- tion than ever. AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL. 75 CHAPTER X. A BRIEF APPLICATION OF THE POINT IN TWO BRANCHES. Use 1. This affords a reason why God suffers his dear children to fall into temptation, because he is able to outshoot Satan in his own bow, and, in the thing wherein he thinks to outwit the Christian, to be above him. God will not only be admired by his saints in glory for his love in their salvation, but for his wisdom in the way to it. The love of God in saving them will be the sweet draught at the marriage feast, and the rare wisdom of God in effecting this, as the curious workmanship with which the cup shall be enamelled. Now wisdom appears most in untying of knots, and wading through difficulties. The more cross wards there are in a business, the more wisdom to fit a key to the lock, to make choice of such means as shall meet with the several turnings in the same. On purpose, therefore, doth God suffer such temptations to intervene, that his wisdom may be the more admired in opening all these, and leading his saints that way to glory, by which Satan thought to have brought them to hell. The Israelites are bid ' remember all the way that God led them in the wilderness for fortv \ears,' Dent. viii. 2. The history of these wars. Christian, will be pleasant to read in heaven, though bloody to fight on earth. Moses and Elias talked with Christ on Tabor, (an emblem of the sweet communion which shall pass between Christ and his saints in glory ;) and what was their talk, Luke ix. 30, but of his death and sufferings ? It seems a discourse of our sufferings and temptations are not too low a subject for that blissful state. Indeed, this left out would make a blemish in the fair face of heaven's glory. Could the damned forget the way they went into hell, how oft the Spirit of God was wooing, and how far they were overcome by the conviction of it; in a word, how many turns and returns there were in their jom-ney forward and backward ; what possibilities, yea, pi'obabilities, they had for heaven, when on earth ; were but some hand so kind as to blot these tormenting passages out of their memories, it would ease them wonderfully. So, were it possible glorified saints could forget the way wherein they went to glory, and the several dangers that intervened from Satan, and their own backsliding hearts, they, and their God too, would be losers by it ; I mean in regard of his manifestative glory. What is the glory wherein God appears at Zion's deliverance — those royal garments of salvation that make him admired of men and angels — but the celebration of all his attributes, according to what every one hath done towards their salvation ? Now wisdom being that which the creature chiefly glories in, and chosen by Satan for his first bait, who made Eve believe she should be like God in knowledge and wisdom ; therefore God, to give Satan the more shameful fall, gives him leave to use his wits and wiles in tempting and troubling his children, in which lies his great advantage over the saints, that so the way to his own throne, where his wisdom shall at last, as well as his mercy, sit in all its royalty, may be paved with the skulls, as I may so speak, of devils. Secondly, This gives a strong cordial to our fainting faith, in the behalf of the church of Christ. If all the devil's wits and wiles will not serve him to ovei*- come one single soldier in Christ's camp, much less shall he ever ruin the whole army. These are days of great confusions in the Christian world ; and the chief fear of a gracious heart is for the ark, lest that should fall into the enemy's hand, and when this palladium is taken, the city of God (his church) be trod under the feet of pride. I confess Satan seems to get ground daily; he hath strangely wriggled into the bosoms and principles of many, who, by the fame of their profession and zeal, had obtained, in the opinion of others, to be reckoned among the chief of Christ's worthies in their generation. He hath sadly corrupted the tniths of Christ, brought a disesteem on ordinances, that by this, and as a judgment for this, the woml) of the gospel is become in a great measure barren, and her children, which hang about her breasts, thrive not in love and holiness as of old, when the milk was not so nuich nor that so spiritful ; he hath had advantage by the divisions of the godly, to liarden tliose that are wicked into a further disdain of religion, and by the bloody wars of late years, to boil up the wrath of the popish and profane crew to a higher 7(1 FOR WE WRKSTLE. pitch of rage and fiiry against Christ's little remnant than ever : so that if ever God should suffer the sword to fall into their hand, they are disciplined and fitted to play the bloody butchers on Christ's sheep above their forefathers ; neither are they so crest-fallen, but that they can hope for such a day, yea, take up some of those joys upon trust aforehand to solace themselves, while the rest follow. And now, Christian, may be their confidence, together with the distracted state of Christ's aff'airs in the world, may discompose thy spirit con- cerning the issue of these rolling providences that are over our heads ; but be still, poor heart, and know that the contest is not between the church and Satan, but between Christ and him ; these are the two champions. Stand now, O ye army of saints, still by faith, to see the all-wise God wrestle with the subtle devil. If you live not to see the period of these great confusions, yet • generations after you shall behold the Almighty smite off this Goliath's head with his own sword, and take this cunning hunter in the toil of his own policies ; that faith, which ascribes greatness and wisdom to God, will shrink up Satan's subtilty into a ^tigrum iiiliil, a thing of nothing. Increduli timent diaholum, cfuafsi leoneni, qui Jide fortes despichmt quasi vei-micuhim. — Bern. Unbelief fears Satan as a lion ; faith treads on him as a worm. Behold, therefore, thj' God at work, and promise thyself, that what he is about will be an excellent piece ; none can drive him from his work. The pilot is beaten from the helm, and can do little in a storm but let the ship go adrift. The architect cannot work when night draws the curtain, yea, is driven off the scaffold with a storm of rain ; such workmen are the wisest counsellors, and mightiest princes on earth. A pinch may come, when it is as vain to say. Help, O king, as Help, O beggar ; man's wisdom may be levelled with foil}', but God is never interrupted. All the plots of hell and commotions on earth, have not so much as shaked God's hand, to spoil one letter or line that he hath been drawing. The mysteriousness of his providence ma)' hang a curtain before his work, that we cannot see what he is doing ; but then ' when darkness is about him, righteousness is the seat of his throne for ever.' O where is our faith, sirs? let God be wise, and all men and devils fools. What, though thou seest a Babel more likely to go up, than a Babj'lon to be pulled down, yet believe God is making his secret approaches, and will clap his ladders on a sudden to the walls thereof. Suppose truth were prisoner with Joseph, and error the courtier, to have its head lift up by the favour of the times, yet dost not remember that the way to triith's perferment lies through the prison? yea, what though the church were like Jonah in the whale's belly, swallowed up to the eye of reason, by the fury of men ; yet dost not remember the whale had not power to digest the prophet ? O be not too quick to bury the church before she be dead. Stay while Christ tries his skill before you give it over ; bring Christ by your prayers to its grave, to speak a resurrection word. Admirable hath the saints' faith been in such straits ; as Joseph's, who pawned his bones that God would visit his brethren, willing them to lay him where he believed they should be brought. Jeremiah pvn-chaseth a field of his uncle, and pays down the money for it ; and this when the Chaldean army quartered about Jerusalem, ready to take the city, and carry him with the rest into Babylon ! and all this by God's appointment, Jer. xxii. 6 — 8, that he might show the Jews by this, how undoubtedly he, in that sad juncture of time, did believe the performance of the promise for their return out of capti- vity. Indeed God counts himself exceedingly disparaged in the thoughts of his people, (though at the lowest ebb of his church's affairs,) if his naked word, and the single bond of his promise, will not be taken as sufficient security to their faith for its deliverance. Ephes. VI. 12. For we wrestle not agninsf flesh and blood, hut against principalities and powers; against the riders of the darkness of this trorld ; against spiriinnl wickedness in high places. The words are coupled to theprecedent with that casual particle/or, which either refers to the two foregoing verses, and then they are a further reason, pressing the necessity of Christian fortitude in the tenth verse, and furniture in the FOR y\li ^VUEbTLE. "JY eleventh; orelse to the last words of the eleventh verse, where the apostle, having descried the saints' grand enemy to he Satan, anddescrihedhini in one of his attri- butes, his wily suhtilty, he in this further displays him in his proper colours, not to weaken the saints' hands, but waken their care, that seeing their enemy marching up in a full body, they might stand in better order to receive his charge. Where, by the way, we may observe the apostle's simplicity and plain dealing ; he doth not undervalue the strength of the enemy, and repiesent him inconsiderable, as captains use to keep (heir soldiers together by slighting the power of their adversary ; no, he tells them the worst at first. If Satan had been to set out his own power, he coidd have challenged no more than is here granted him. See here the difference between Christ dealing with his fol- lowers, and Satan with his. Satan dares not let sinners know who that God is they fight against; this were enough to breed a mutiny in the devil's camp. Silly souls, they are drawn into the field by a false report of God and his ways, and ai-e kept there together with lies and fair tales ; but Christ is not afraid to show his saints their enemy in all his power and principality, the weakness of God being stronger than the powers of hell. CHAPTER I. SHEWETH THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE HERE TO BE A CONTINUAL WIIESTLING WITH SIN AND SATAN, AND THE PAUCITY OF THOSE WHO ARE TRUE WRESTLERS, AS ALSO HOW THE TRUE WRESTLERS SHOULD MANAGE THEIR COMBAT. The words contain a lively description of a bloody and lasting war between the Christian and his implacable enemy ; in which we may observe. First, The Christian's state in this life, set out by this word ' wrestling.' Secondly, The assailants that appear in arms against the Christian, who are described ; First, Negatively, ' Not flesh and blood :' or rather comparatively, not chiefly flesh and blood. Secondly, Positively, ' But against principalities, powers,' &c. Section I. — For the first, the wrestling or conflicting state of a Christian in this life, is rendered observable here by a threefold circumstance. First, The kind of combat which the Christian's state is here set out by, which though it be used sometimes for a wrestling of sport and recreation, yet here to set out the sharpness of the Christian's encounter ; there are two things in wrestling that render it a sharper combat than others. First, Wrestling is not properly fighting against a nmltitude, but when one enemy singles out another, and enters the list with him, each exerting their whole force and strength against one another; as David and Goliath, when the whole armies stood as it were in a i-ing to behold the bloody issue of that duel. Now, this is more fierce than to fight in an army, where, though the battle be sharp and long, the soldier is not always engaged, but falls oft" when he hath discharged, and takes breath awhile ; yea, possibly may escape without hurt or stroke, because there the enemy's aim is not at this or that man, but at the whole heap ; but in wrestling one cannot escape so ; he being the particular object of the enemy's fury, must needs be shaked and tried to purpose. Indeed the word signifies such a strife as makes the body shake again. Satan hath not only a general malice against the army of saints, but a spite against thee, John, thee, Joan ; lie will single thee out for his enemy. We find Jacob, when alone, a man wrestled with. As God delights to have pi'ivate communion with his single saints, so the devil to try it hand to hand with the Christian, when he ge,s him alone. As we lose much comfort when we do not apply the promise and providence of God to our particular persons and conditions ; God loves me, pardons me; takes care of me ; the water at the town-conduit doth me no good, if I want a pipe to empty it into my cistern ; so it obstructs our care and watchfulness, when we concei\e of Satan's wrath and fury as bent in general against the saints, and not against me in particular. O how careful would a soul be in duty, if as going to church or closet, he had such a serious medita- tion as this, Now Satan is at my heels to hinder me in my work, if my God help me not! Secondly, It is a close combat, .\rinies fight at some distance, wrestlers ircg FOR WE WRESTLE. grapple hand to hand. An arrow shot from afar may he seen and shunned, but when the enemy hath hold of one, there is no declining, but either he must resist manfully, or fall shamefully at his enemy's feet. Satan comes close up, and gets within the Christian, takes his hold of his very flesh and corrupt nature, and by this shakes him. Secondly, The universality of the combat. We wrestle, which comprehends all, on purpose you may perceive the apostle changeth the pronoun ye in the former verse, into we in this, that he may include himself as well as them ; as if he had said, the quarrel is with every saint. Satan neither fears to assault the minister, nor despiseth to wrestle with the meanest saint in the congregation ; great and small, minister and people, all must wrestle : not one part of Christ's anny in the field, and the other at ease in their quarters, where no enemy comes ; here are enemies enough to engage all at once. Thirdly, The permanency or duration of this combat, and that lies in the tense. "Not, our wrestling was at first conversion, but now over, and we passed the pikes ; not, we shall wrestle when sickness comes, and death comes, but our wrestling is; the enemy is ever in sight of us, yea, in sight with us : and there is an evil of every day's temptation, which, like Paul's bonds, abides us wherever we be come. So that these particulars summed up, will amount to this point : Section II. — Doct. The Christian's life is a continual v^restling. He is, as Jeremy said of himself, born ' a man of strife,' or what the prophet to Asa, maybe said to every Christian; ' From hence thou shalt have wars,' from thy spiritual birth to thy natural death ; from the hoiu- when thou first didst set thy face to heaven, till thou shalt set thy foot in heaven. Israel's march out of Egypt was in gospel-sense our taking the field against sin and Satan ; and when had they peace ? not till they lodged their colours in Canaan. No condition wherein the Christian is here below is quiet. Is it prosperity or adversity ? here is work for both hands, to keep pride and security down in the one, faith and patience up in the other ; no place which the Christian can call privileged ground. Lot, in Sodom, wrestled with the wicked inhabitants thereof, his ' righteous soul being vexed with their unclean conversation.' And how fares he at Zoar ? Do not his own daugliters bring a spark of Sodom's fire into his own bed, whereby he is inflamed with lust ? Some have thought, if they were but in such a family, under such a ministry, out of such occa- sions, O then they should never be tempted as now they are : I confess change of air is a great help to weak nature, and these forenamed as vantage-ground against Satan ; but thinkest thou to fly from Satan's presence thus? No, though thou shouldst take the wings of the morning, he would fly after thee: these may make him change his method in tempting, but not lay down his design ; so long as his old friend is alive within, he will be knocking at the door without. No duty can be performed without wrestling ! the Christian needs his sword as much as his trowel. He wrestles with a body of flesh ; this to the Christian in duty is as the beast to the traveller ; he cannot go his journey without it, and much ado to go with it. If the flesli be kept high and lusty, then it is wanton, and will not obey ; if low, then it is weak, and soon tires : thus the Christian rids but little grovmd, because he must go his weak body's pace. He wrestles with a body of sin as well as of flesh; this mutters and murmurs when the soul is takhig up any duty. Sometimes it keeps the Christian from duty, so that he cannot do what he would. As Paul said, 'I would have come once and again, but Satan hindered me.' I would have prayed, may the Christian say, at such a time, and meditated on the word I heard, the mercies I received at another, but this enemy hindered. It is true, indeed, grace sways the sceptre in such a soul, yet as schoolboys taking their time when their master is abroad, do shut him out, and for a while lord it in misrule, though they are whipped for it afterwards ; thus the unrege- nerate part takes advantage when grace is not on its watch, to disturb its government, and shut it out from duty ; though this last makes the soul more severe in mortifying, yet it costs some scuffle before it can recover its throne ; and when it cannot shut from duty, yet then is the Christian wofully yoked with it in duty ; it cannot do what it doth as it would ; many a letter in its copy doth this enemy spoil, while he jogs him with impertinent thoughts ; when the FOR \VK WRESTLE. 79 Christian is pi'aying, tlien Satan and the flesh are a prating; he cries, and they louder, to put him out, or drown his cry. Thus we see the Christian is assailed on everj- side by his eneni}' ; and how can it be other, when the seeds of war are laid deep in the natures of both, which can never be rooted up till the devil cease to be a devil, sin to be sin, and the saint to be a saint ? Though wolves may snarl at one another, yet soon are quiet again, because the quarrel is not in their natiu-e ; _ but the wolf and the lamb can never be made friends. Sin will lust against grace, and grace draw upon sin whenever they meet. Section III. — Use 1. First, This may reprove such as wrestle ; but against whom ? — against God, not against sin and Satan. These are bold men, indeed, who dare try a fall with the Almighty ; yet such they are, and a woe pro- nounced against them, Isa. xlv. 9 : ' Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker.' It is easy to tell which of these will be worsted. What can he do but break his shins, that dasheth them against a rock ? A goodly battle there is like to be, when thorns contest with fire, and stubble with flame. But where live those giants that dare enter the list with the great God? What are their names, that we may know them, and brand them for creatures above all other unworthy to live ? Take heed, O thou who askest, that the wretclicd man whom thou seemest so to defy, be not found in thine own clothes itself! Judas was the traitor, though he would not answer to his name, but put it off with a ' Master, is it I V and so mayest thou be the fighter against God. The heart is deceitful. "Even holy David, for all his anger was so hot against the rich man that took away the poor man's ewe-lamb, that he bound it with an oath, the man shall not live who hath done it, yet proves at last to be himself the man, as the prophet told him, 2 Sam. xii. Now there are two ways wherein men wrestle against God : First, When they wrestle against his Spirit. Secondly, When they wrestle against his Providence. First, When they wrestle against his Spirit. We read of the Spirit's striving with the creature. Gen. vi. 3 : ' My Spirit shall not always. strive with man.' Where the striving is not in anger and wrath to destroy them, (that God could do witliout any stir or scuffle,) but a loving strife and contest with man. The old world was running with such a career headlong into their ruin, he sends his Spirit to interpose^ and by his counsels and reproofs to offer, as it were, to stop and reclaim them. As if one seeing another ready to offer violence on himself, should strive to get the knife out of his hand, with which he would do the mischief: or one that hath a purse of gold in his hand to give, should follow another by all manner of entreaties, striving with him to accept and take it. Such a kind of strife is this of the Spirit's \tith men. They are the lusts of men, those bloody instrmnents of death, with which sinners are mischieving themselves, that the Holy Spii'it strives by sweet counsels and entreaties, to get out of our hands. They are Christ's, his grace and eternal life, he strives to make us accept at the hands of God's mercy ; and for repulsing the Spirit thus striving with them, sinners are justly counted fighters against God : ' Ye stiff- necked, and uncircmiicised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost,' Acts vii. .51. Now there is a twofold striving of the Spirit, and so of our wrestling against it. First, The Spirit strives in his messengers with sinners ; they coming on his errand, and not their own, he voucheth the faith- ful coimsels, reproofs, and exhortations, which they give as his own act. ' Noah, that preacher of righteousness,' what he said to the old world, is called, ' the preaching of the Spirit,' 1 Pet. iii. 19. The pains that Moses, Aaron, and other servants of God took in instructing Israel, is called the instruction of the Spirit, Nehem. ix. 20. So that when the word, which God's ministers bring in his name, is rejected, the faithful coimsels they give arc thrown at sinners' heels, and made light of, then do they strive with the Spirit, and wrestle against Christ as really, as if he visibly, in bis own person, had been in the pulpit, and preached the sermon to them. When God comes to reckon with sinners, it will prove so ; then God will rub up your memories, and mind you of his striving with you, and your unkind resisting him. ' They, whether they will Hear, or whether they will forbear, shall know they had a Prophet among them,' gQ FOR WE WRESTLE. Ezek. ii. 5. Now men soon forget whom and what they hear; ask them what was pressed upon their conscience in such a sermon, they have forgot ; what were the precious truths laid out in another, and ;hey are lost ; and well were it for them, if their memoi'ies were no better in another world ; it would ease their torments more than a little. But then they shall knov/ they had a Prophet among them, and what a price they had with him in their hands, though it was in fools' keeping. They shall know what he was, and what he said, though a thousand j^cars past, as fresh as if it were done but last night. The more zealous and compassionate, the more painful and powerful he was in his place, the greater shall their sin be found to break from such holy violence offered to do them good. Surely God will have something for the sweat, yea, lives of his servants, which were worn out in striving with such rebellious ones. May be yet, sinners, your firmament is clear, no cloud to be seen that portends a s orm ; but know, as you used to say, winter does not rot in the clouds, you shall have it at last; every threatening which your faithful ministers have denounced against you out of the word, God is bound to make good. ' He confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers,' Isa. xliv. 26 ; and that in judgment against sinners, confirming the threatenings, as well as in mercy performing the promises, which they declare as the portion of his children. But it will be time enough to ask such on a sick bed, or a dying hour, whether the words of the Lord delivered by their faithful preachers have not taken hold of them. Some have confessed, with horror they have, as the Jews, Zech. i. 6 : ' Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, so hath he dealt with us.' Secondly, the Spirit strives with men more immediately, when he takes his inward approaches to the consciences of men, debating in their own bosoms the case with them ; one while he shows them their sins in their bloodj'^ colours, and whither they will surely bring them, if not looked to timely, which he doth so convincing!}^, that the creature smells sometimes the very fire and brimstone about him, and is at present in a temporal hell ; another while he falls a parleying and treating with them, making gracious overtures to the sinner, if he willj'eturn at his reproof, presents the grace of the gospel, and opens a door of hope for its recover}^, yea, falls a wooing and beseeching of him to throw down his rebellious arms, and come to Christ for life, whose heart is in a present disposition to receive and embrace the first motion the returning sinner makes for mercy. Now, when the Spirit of God follows the sinner from place to place, and time to time, suggesting such motions, and renewing his old suit, and the creature shall fling out of the Spirit's hands thus striving with him, re infecta, as far from renouncing his lusts, or taking any liking to Christ as ever ; this is to resist the Spirit to his face, and it carries so much malignity in it, that, even where it hath not been final, poor humbled souls have been overset with the horror of it, that they could not for a long time be persuaded but that it was the impardonable sin. Take heed, therefore, sinners, how you use the Spirit when he comes knocking at the door of your hearts : open at his knock, and he will be your guest, you shall have his sweet company ; repulse him, and you have not a promise he will knock again. And if once he leave striving with thee, unhappy man, thou art lost for ever ! thou liest like a ship cast up by the waves upon some high rock, where the tide never comes to fetch it off. Thou mayest come to the word, converse with other ordinances, but in vain. It is the spirit of them which is both tide and wind, to set the soul afloat, and carry it on, or else it lies like a ship on dry ground, which stirs not. Secondly, We wrestle against God when we wrestle with his providence, and that two ways ; First, When we are discontented with his providential disposure of us. God's carving for us doth not please us so, but that we are objecting against his dealings towards us, at least nuittering something with the fool in our hearts, which God hears as lightly as man our words. God counts, then we begin to quarrel with him, when we do not acquiesce in, and say Amen to his providence, whatever it is. He calls it ' a contending with the Almighty,' Job xl. 1, yea, ' a reproving of God.' And he is a bold man sure that dare find fault with God, and article against heaven. God challengeth him, whoever he is that doth this, to answer it at his peril. ' He that reproveth God, let him answer it,' ver. 2 of the chapter fore-mentiovied. It was high time for Job to FOR Wj; WRF.STI.I'.. J5j have clone, wlien he liears what a sense CJod puts upon those unwary vvord^', which dropped from him in the anguish of liis spirit, and pai-oxysm of liis suffei'- ings. Contend with the Ahnighty ! Reprove God ! Good man, liow Wank he is, and cries out, ' I am vile : what shall I answer thee ? I will lay my hand upon my mouth." Let God hut pardon what is ])ast, and he shall hear such language no more. O sirs, take heed of tliis wrestling above all other. Contention is un- comfortable, with whomsoever it is we fall out; neighbours or friends, wife or husband, children or servants ; but worst of all with God. If God cannot please thee, but thy heart riseth against him, what hopes are tliere of th\' pleasing liini, who will take nothing kindly fi-om that man who is angr}' with him ? And how can love to God be preserved in a discontented heart, that is always mut- tering against him ? Love cannot think anj^ evi! of God, nor endure to hear any speak evil of him, but it must take God's part, as Jonathan David's, when Saul spake basely of him ; and when it cannot be heard, will, like him, arise and be gone. When afflicted, love can allovv thee to groan, but not to grumble. If tliou wilt ease thy encumbered spirit into God's bosom by prayer, and humbly wrestle with God on thy knees, love is for thee, and will help thee to the best arguments thou canst use to God : but if thou wilt vent thy dis- tempered passions, and shew a mutinous spirit against God, this stabs it to the heart. Secondly, We wrestle against Providence, wiien incorrigible under the various dispensations of God towards us. Providence has a voice, if we had an ear; mer- cies should drav^', alHictions drive; now when neither fair means nor foul do us good, but we are impenitent under both, this is to wrestle against God with both hands. Either of these have their peculiar aggravations. One is agaijist love, and so disingenuous ; the other is against the smart of his rod, and therein we slight his anger, and are cruel to ourselves in kicking against the pricks. Mercy should make us asiiamed, v>rrath afraid to sin. He that is not ashamed, has not the spirit of a man. He that is not afraid when smitten, is worse than a beast, who stands in awe of whip and spur. Sometimes mercy, especially those outward mercies which have a pleasing relish to tlie carnal part in a Christian, hath proved a snare to the best of men ; but then affliction useth to recover them : but when affliction makes men worse, and they harden themselves against God, to sin more and more while the rod is on them, what is like to I'eclaim them ? Few arc made better by prosperitj', whom afflictions make worse. He that will sin, though he goes in pain, will nuich more if that once be gone. But take lieed of thus contesting with God. There is nothing got by scuffling with God, but blows, or worse. If he say he will afflict thee no more, it is even the worst he can say ; it is as much as if he should say, he will be in thy debt till another world, and there pay thee altogether. But if \u\ means thee mere}?, tliou shalt hear from him in sonie sharper affliction than e\er. He hath wedges that can rive thee, wert thou a mere knotty piece than thou art. ' Are there yet the treasures of wickedness, and the scant measure that is abo- minable?' saith God to Israel, Micah vi. 9. What, incorrigible, though 'the Lord's voice crieth unto the city,' bidding you 'hear the rod, and him that hath appointed it!' See Avhat coiu'se God resolves on, ver. 1.3 : 'Therefore I will mak(> thee sick in smiting of thee.' As if he had said, My other physic I see was too weak, it did not work to turn yoin* stomacli, but I will prepare a potion that shall make you sick at heart. Use 2. It reproves those who seem to wrestle against sin, but not according to the word of conmiand that Christ gives. There is a law in wrestling whicli must be observed, 2 Tim. ii. 5 : ' If a m.an also strive for )nasteries, yet he is not crowned except he strive lawfully.' He aUudesto tlie Roman games, to which there were judges appointed to see that no foul play were offered contrary to the law for wrestling ; the prize being denied to such, thougli they did foil their adversary; which the apostle improves to make the Christian careful in his war as being imdcr a stricter law and discipline, that requires not oidy valour to fight, but obedience to fight, by order, and according to the word of command; iu)w few do this that go for great wrestlers. First, Stmie, while they wrestle against one sin, embrace another ; and in this case, it is not the person wrestles against sin, but one sin wrestles with another • q^(2 FOR WK WRESTLE. and it is no wonder to see thieves fall out when they come to divide the spoil : lusts are divei-s, Tit. iv. 3, and it is hard to please many masters, especially when their commands are so contrary ; when pride bids lay on in bravery, lavish out in entertainment, covetousness bids lay up ; when malice bids revenge, carnal policy saith, Conceal thy wrath, though not forgive ; when lust sends to his sink of shi, hypocrisy pulls him back for shame of the world. Now is he God's champion that resists one sin at the command of another, it may be a worse ? ^ Secondly, Some wrestle, but they are pressed into the field, not volunteers ; their slavish fear scares them at present from their lust; so that the combat is rather betwixt their conscience and will, than them and their lust. Give me such a sin, saith will ; no, saith conscience, it will scald, and throws it away. A man may love the wine, though he is loth to have his lips burned ; ' hypocrites themselves are afraid to burn.' In such combats the will at last prevails, either by bribing the understanding to present the lust it desires in a more pleasing dress, that conscience may not be scai-ed with such hideous apparitions of wrath, or by paci- fying conscience with some promise of repentance for the future, or by forbear- ing some sin for the present, which it can best spare, thereby to gain the re- putation of something like a reformation ; or if all this will not do, then, prompted by the fury of its lust, the will proclaims open war against conscience, sinning in the face of it, like some wild horse, impatient of the spur which pricks him, and bridle that curbs him, gets the bit between his teeth, and runs with full speed, till at last he easeth himself of his rider ; and then, where he sees fattest pasture, no hedge or ditch can withhold him, till in the end you find him starving in some pound for his trespass : thus many sin at such rate, that conscience can no longer hold the reins, nor sit the saddle, but is thrown down and laid for dead; and then the wretches range where their lusts can have the fullest meal, till at last they pay for their stolen pleasures most dearly, when conscience comes to itself, pursues them, and takes them more surely by the throat than ever, never to let them go till it brings them before God's tribunal. Thirdly, Others wrestle with sin, but they do not hate it, and therefore they are favourable to it, and seek not the life of sin as their deadly enemy : these wrestle in jest, and not in earnest; the wounds they give sin one day, are healed by the next. Let men resolve never so strongly against sin, yet it will creep ao-ain into their favour, till the love of sin be quenched in the heart ; and this fire will never die of itself, the love of Christ must quench the love of sin, as Jerome excellently, Ibius amor, extinguit alium. This heavenly fire will indeed put out that flame of hell, which he illustrates by Ahasuerus's carriage to Vashti, his queen, who in the first chapter makes a decree in all haste, that she come no more before him ; but when his passion is a little down, chap. ii. 1, he begins to relent towards her, which his council perceiving, presently seek out for a beautiful virgin, on whom the king might place his love, and take into his royal bed ; which done, we hear no more of Vashti : then, and not till then, will the sord's decree stand against sin, when the soul hath taken Christ into his bosom. Section IV. — Secondly, To the saints ; seeing your life is a continual wrest- ling here on earth, it is your wisdom to study how you may best manage the combat with your worst enemy ; which that you may do, take these few directions. First, Look thou goest not into the field without thy second ; my meaning is eno-a'^e God by prayer to stand at thy back ; God is in a league offensive and defensive with thee ; but he looks to be called. Did the Ephramites take it ill, that Gideon called not them into the field ; and may not God much more ? As if thou meanest to steal a victory before he shoidd know it. Thou hast more valour than Moses, who would not stir without God ; no, though he sent an angel for his lieutenant. Thou art wiser than Jacob, who, to overcome Esau, now marching up, turns from him, and falls upon God : he knew if he could wrestle with God, he might trust God to deal with his brother. Engage God, and the back-door is shut, no enemy can come behind thee ; yea, thine enemy shall fall befoi-e thee. 'God turn the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness,' saith David; Heaven saith Amen to his prayer, and the wretch ' hangs himself.' Secondly, Be very careful of giving thine enemy hand-hold. Wrestlers strive FOR \\y. WRESTLE. 8;5 to fasten upon some pai-t or other which gives them advantage moi'e easily to throw their adversary ; to prevent which they used, first, to lay aside their garments ; secondly, to anoint their bodies. For the first, Cliristian, labour to put off the old man, which is most personal ; that corruption which David calls his own iniquity, Psalm xviii. 23. This is the skirt which Satan lays hold of; observe what it is, and mortify it daily ; then Satan will retreat with shame, when he sees the head of that enemy upon the wall, which shoxild have betrayed thee into his hands. Secondly, The Roman wrestlers used to anoint their bodies ; so do thou ; bathe thy soul with the frequent meditation of Christ's love. Satan will find little welcome where Christ's love dwells ; love w'ill kindle love ; and that will be as a wall of fire to keep oft' Satan ; it will make thee disdain the oficr of a sin, and, as oil, supple thy joints, and make agile to offend thy enemy. Think how Christ wrestled in thy quarrel : sin, hell, and wrath, had all come full mouth upon thee, had not he coped with them in the way. And canst thou find in thy heart to requite his love by betraying his glory into the hands of sin by cowardice or treachery ? Say not thou lovest him, so long as thou canst lay those sins in thy bosom which plucked his heart out of his bosom. It were strange if a child should keep, and delight to use, no other knife but that wherewith his father was stabbed. Thirdly, Improve the advantage thou gettest at any time wisely. Sometimes the Christian hath his enemy on the hip, yea, on the ground ; can set his foot on the very neck of his pride, and throw away his unbelief, as a thing absurd and unreasonable ; now, as p, wise wrestler, fall with all thy weight upon thine enemy ; though a man think it fold play to strike when his adversary is down, yef do not thou so compliment with sin as to let it breathe or rise. Take heed thou art not charged of God, as once Ahab, for letting go this enemy now in thy hands, whom God has appointed to destruction. Learn a little wisdom of the serpent's brood, who, when they had Christ under their foot, never thought they had him sure enough ; no, not when dead ; and therefore both seal and watch his grave. Thus do thou to hinder the resurrection of thy sin ; seal it down w'ith stronger piu-poses, solemn ovenants, and watch it by a wakeful, cir- cumspect walking. Use 3. This is ground of consolation to the weak Christian, who disputes against the truth of his grace, from the inward conflicts and fightings he hath with his lusts ; and is ready to say, like Gideon, in regard of outward enemies, ' If God be with me, why is all this befallen me ?' Why do I find such strugglings in me, provoking me to sin, pulling me back from that which is good ? Why dost ask ? The answer is soon given ; because thou art a wrestler, not a conqueror. Thou mistakest the state of a Christian in this life ; when one is made a Christian, he is not presently called to triumph over his slain enemies, but carried into the field to meet and fight them. The state of grace is the commencing of a war against sin, not the ending of it ; rather than thou shalt not have an enemy to wrestle with, God himself will come in a disguise into the field, and appear to be thine enemy. Thus, when Jacob was alone, a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day ; and therefore set thy heart at rest if this be thy scruple. Thy soul may rather take comfort in this, that thou art a wrestler; this struggling within thee, if upon the right ground, and to the right end, doth evidence there are two nations within thee, two contrary natures ; the one from earth, earthly ; and the other from heaven, heavenly ; yea, for thy further comfort know, though thy corrupt nature be the elder, yet it shall serve the younger. Use 4. O how should this make thee, Christian, long to be gone home, where there is none of this stir and scuffle I It is strange, that every hour seems not a day, and every day a year, till death soimds thy joyful retreat, and calls thee off the field, where the bullets fly so thick, and thou art fighting for thyself with thy deadly enemies, to come to court, where not swords, but palms are seen in the saints' hands ; not drums, but harps ; not groans of bleeding soldiers and wounded consciences, but sweet and ravishing music is heard of triumphing victors, caroling the praises of God and the Lamb, through whom they have overcome. Well, Christians, while you are below, comfort yourselves G 2 g|, NOT WITH FLESH MiT) BLOOD. with tliese thing;?. There is a jjlace of rest remains for the peoplu of God. You do not beat tlie air, hut wrestle for a heaven tliat is yonder above these clouds; you have your worst first ; the best will follow. You wrestle but to win a crown, and win to wear it, yea, wear, never to lose it; which, once on, none shall take off, or put you to the hazard of a battle more. Here, we overcome to fitht again ; the battle of one temptation may be over, but the war remains. What peace can we have, as long as devils can come abroad out of their holes, or any thing of sinful nature remains in ourselves unniortified, which will even fight upon its knets, and strike with one arm while the other is cut ofl"? But when death conies, the last stroke is struck ; this good physician will perfectly cure thee of thy spiritual blindness and lameness, as tlie martyr told his fellow at the stake, bloody Bonner would do their bodies. What is it. Christian, which takes away the joy of thy life, but the wrestlings and combats which this bosom enemy puts thee to? Is not this the Peninnah, that, vexing and disturbing thy .spirit, hath kept thee oft' many a sweet meal thou mightest have had in com- munion with God and his saints ? Or, if thou hast come, hath made thee cover the aitar of God with thy tears and groans ? And will it not be a happy hand that cuts the knot, and sets thee loose from thy deadness, hypocrisy, pride, and what not, wherewith thou wert yoked? It is life which is thy loss, and death which is thy gain. Be but willing to endure the rending of the veil of thy flesh, and thou art where thou wouklst be, out of the reach of sin, at rest in the bosom of thy God. And why should a short evil of pain aftright thee more, than the deliverance from a continual torment of sin's evil ravish thee ? Some . you know have chosen to be cut, rather than to be ground daily with the stone, and yet, may be, their pain comes again ; and canst thou not quietly think of dying, to be delivered from the torment of thy sins, never to return more? And yet that is not half that death doth for thee. Peace is sweet after war, ease after pain; but wha tongue can express what joy, what glory must fill the creature at the first sight of God, and that blessed company ? None but one that dwells there can tell. Did we know more of that blissful state, we ministers would find it as hard a work to persuade Christians to be willing to live here so long, as now it is to persuade them to be v/illing to die so soon. CHAPTER 11. WHEREIN IS SHEWED WHAT IS MEANT BY FLESH AND ELOOD ; IIOW THE CHRIS- TIAN DOTH NOT, AND HOW HE DOTH WRESTLE AGAINST THE SAME. Section I. — Now follows the description of the saint's enemies, with whom he is to wrestle. First, Desciibed negatively, ' Not with flesh and blood.' Secondly, Positively, 'But against principalities and powers,' &c. First, For the negative part of the description ; we are not to take it for a pure negation, as if we had no conflict with flesh and blood, but wholly and solely to engage against Satan ; but by way of comparison, not only with flesli and blood, and in some sense not chiefly. It is usual in Scripture, such manner of phrases; Luke xiv. 12, ' Call not thy friends to dinner, but the poor ;' that is, not only those, so as to neglect the poor. Now, what is meant here by flesLh and blood? There is a double interpretation of the words. First, By -flesh and blood may be meant our bosom corruptions; that sin which is in our corrupt natvue so oft called ilesli in the Scripture ; ' The flesh lustelh against the spirit;' and sometimes flesh and blood; as Matt. xvi. 17, ' Fle^h and blood hath not revealed this;' that is, this confession thou ha.st made comes from above ; thy fleshly corrupt mind could never have found out this supernatural truth ; thy sinful will would never have embraced it. So 1 Cor. XV. 20: 'Flesh and blood cannot inheiit the kingdom of God;' that is, sinful mortal flesh, as it is expounded in the words following. So, Gal. i. 11 : 'Consultednot with flesh and blood;' that is, carnal reason. Now this bosom enemy may be called flesh,* partly from its derivation, and partly from its operation ; from its derivation, because it is derived and propa- gated to us by natural generation ; thus Adam is said to beget ' a son in his own likeness,' sinful as he was, as well as nmrtal and miserable ; jea, the NOT WJTII FLESH AM) Bf.OOU. }^,5 holiest saint on e:inii having flesli in him, derives this corrupt and sinful nature toliischikl; as the circumcised Jew begat an imcircumcised child ; and the wheat cleansed and fanned, being sown, conies up with a husk : John iii. 6, * That which is born of the flesh is flesh.' Secondl;, It is called flesh from the operations of this corrupt nature, which are fleshly and carnal. The reasonings of the corruj)t mind, fleshl>-, therefore called the carnal mind, incapable indeed of the things of God, which it neither doth nor can perceive ; as the sim doth obsijinare sKperiorn dui/i revelet ivfe- r'tora, hide the heavens which are above it from us, while it reveals things beneath ; so carnal reason leaves the creature in the dark concerning spiritual truths, when it is most able to conceive and discourse of creature excellences and carnal interests here below. What a childisli question, for so wise a m;ni, did Nicodemus yut to Christ ! though Christ, to help him, did wrap his speech in a carnal pln-ase. If fleshly reason cannot understand spiritual truths when thus accommodated, and the notions of tlie gos])el translated into its own language, what skill is it like to have of them, if put to read them in their original tongue : I mean, if this garment of carnal expression were taken oft', and sjjiritual truths in their naked hue presented to its view '( The motions of the natiu'al will are carnal, and therefore, Rom. viii. 5, ' they that are after the flesh' are said to 'mind the things of the flesh.' All its desires, delights, cares, fears, are in and of carnal things ; it savours spiritual food no more than an angel fleshly. Omn'is lulagiistu ducitur : what we cannot relish we will hardly make our daily food. Every creature hath its jiroper diet ; the lion eats not grass, nor the horse flesh ; what is food to the carnal heart, is poison to the gracious ; and that which is pleasing to the gracious, is distasteful to the carnal. Now according to this interpretation, the sense of the apostle is not as if the Christian had no combat with his corrupt natiUT, (for in another place it is said, ' The spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit;' and this enemy is called the sin that besets the Chiistian round ;) but to aggravate his conflict with tliis enemy by the access of a foreign power, Satan, who strikes in with this domestic enemy. As if, while a king is^iighting with his own mutinous subjects, some outlandish troops .should join with then), now he may be said not to fight with his subjects, but with a foreign power. The Christian wrestles not with his naked corruptions, but with Satrai in them : were there no devil, yet we should have our hands full in resisting the corruptions of our own hearts ; but the access of this enemy makes the battle more terrible, because he heads them, who is a captain so skilful and experienced. Our sin is the engine, Satan is the engineer; lust the bait, Satan the angler : when a soul is enticed by his own lusts, he is said to be tempted, James i. 14 ; because both Satan, and our own lusts, concm- to the completing the sin. Use 1. First, Let this make thee. Christian, ply the work of mortification close; it is no policy to let thy lusts have arms, who are sure to rise and declare ag:;inst thee when thine enemy comes. Achish's nobles did but wisely, iu that they would not trust David in their army when to fight against Isi-ael, lest in the battle he should be an adversary to them. And darest thou go to duty, or engage in any action, where Satan will appear against thee, and not endeavom- to make sure of thy pride, unbelief, &c., tliat they join not with thine enemy I Secondlr, Are Satan and thine own flesh against thee, not single corruption, but edged with his policy, and backed by his power? See then what need thou hast of more help than thy own grace ; take heed of grappling with him in the strength of thy naked grace ; here thou hast two to one against thee. Satan was too hard for Adam, though he went so well appointed into the field, because left to himself ; much n)ore easily will he foil thee; cling, therefore, about thy God for strength, get Inm with thee, and then, though a worm, thou shalt be able to deal with this serpent. Sr.cTiOiN II. — Secondly, Flesh and blood is interpreted as a periphrasis of man. .We wrestle not with flesh and l)]ood, tliat is, not with man, who is here described by that part whicli chiefly distinguisheth him from the angelic;;! natin-e : ' Touch me,' saith Clirist, 'and handle me ; a spirit liath not flesh,' Now according to this interpretation oi)serve ; First, Hew mciniy the Spirit of fiod s])e;iks of man. gg NOT WITH FLESH AND BLOOD. Secondly, Where he lays the stress of the saints' battle, not in resisting flesh and blood, laut principalities and powers ; where the apostle excludes not our combat with man, for the war is against the serpent and his seed. As wide as the world is, it cannot peaceably hold the saints and wicked together; but his intent is to shew what a complicated enemy (man's wrath and Satan's inter- woven together) we have to deal with. First, For the first, How meanly doth the Spirit of God speak of man, calling him flesh and blood I Man hath a heaven-born soul, which makes him akin to angels, yea, to the God of them, who is the Father of spirits ; but this is passed by in silence, as if God would not own that which is tainted with sin, and not the creature God at first made it ; or because the soul, though of such noble extraction, yet being so immersed in sensuality, deserves no other name than flesh, which part of man levels him with the beast, and is here intended to express the weakness and frailty of man's nature. It is the phrase which the Holy Ghost expresseth the weakness and impotency of a creature by; Isa. xxxi. 3 : ' They are men, and their horses are flesh,' that is, v/eak ; as on the contrary, when he would set out the power and strength of a thing, he opposeth it to flesh, 2 Cor. x. 3 : ' Our weapons are not carnal, but mighty;' and so in the text, not flesh and blood, but powers. As if he should say, Had you no other to fear but a weak sorry man, it were not worth the providing arms or ammunition ; bvit you have enemies that neither are flesh, nor are resisted with flesh. So that here we see what a weak creature man is, not only weaker than angels, as they are spirits, and he flesh, but in some sense beneath the beasts, as the flesh of man is frailer than the flesh of beasts ; therefore the Spirit of God compares man to the ' grass," which soon ' withers,' Isa. xl. 6 ; and his 'goodliness to the flower of the field.' Yea, he is called vanity, Psa. Ixii. D : 'Men of lovv^ degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie,' both alike vain ; only the rich and the great man, his vanity is covered with honour, wealth, &c., which are here called a lie, because they are not what they seem, and so worse than plain vanity, which is known to be so, and deceives not. Use 1. Is man but frail flesh? Let this humble thee, O man, in all thy excellency ; flesh is but one remove from filth and corruption ; thy soul is the salt that keeps thee sweet, or else thou wouldst stink above ground. Is it thy beauty thou pridest in ? Flesh is grass, but beauty is the vanity of this vanity. This goodliness is like the flower, which lasts not so long as the grass, appears in its month, and is gone ; yea, like the beauty of the flower, which fades while the flower stands. How soon will time's plough make furrows in thy face ; yea, one fit of an ague so change thy countenance, as shall make thy doating lovers afraid to look on thee ? Is it strength ? Alas, it is an arm of flesh, which withers often in the stretching forth ; ere long thy blood, which is now warm, will freeze in thy veins ; thy spring crowned with May buds, will tread on De- cember's heel ; thy marrow dry in thy bones, thy sinews sin-ink, thy legs bow under the weight of thy body, thy eye-strings crack, thy tongue not able to call for help ; yea, thy heart with thy flesh shall fail ; and now thou, who art such a giant, take a turn if thou canst in thy chamber, yea, raise but thy head from thy pillow, if thou art able, or call back thy breath, which is making haste to be gone out of thy nostrils, never to return more ; and darest thou glory in that which so soon may be prostrate ? Is it wisdom ? The same grave that covers thy body shall bury all that, (the wisdom of thy flesh I mean;) all thy thoughts shall perish, and goodly plots come to nothing. Indeed, if a Christian, thy thoughts as sUch shall ascend with thee, not one holy breathing of thy soul lost. Is it thy blood and birth? Whoever thou art, thou art base-born till born again ; the same blood runs in thy veins with the beggar in the street, Acts xvii. 26. All nations there we find made of the same blood : in two things all are alike ; we come in and go out of the world alike ; as one is not made of finer earth, so not resolved into pui'er dust. Use 2. Secondly, Is man flesh? Trust not in man; ' ciu'sed be he that makes flesh his arm.' Not the mighty man ; robes may hide and garnish, they cannot change flesh: Psa. cxlvi., ' Put not your trust in princes;' alas! they cannot keep their crowns on their own heads, their heads on their own KOT WITH FLESH AND IjLOOD. 87 shoulders, and lookest thou for that which they cannot give themselves? Not in wise men, whose designs recoil oft upon themselves, that they cannot perform their enterprise. Amplioracapii institui currentc rota cur urceus exit. Man's carnal wisdom intends one thing, but God turns the wheel, and brings forth another. Trust not in holy men ; they have flesh, and so their judgment not hifallible, yea, their way sometimes doubtful. His mistake may lead thee aside, and though he returns, thou mayest go on and perish. Trust not in any man, in all men, no not in thyself, "thou art flesh. 'He is a fool,' saith the wise man, 'that trusts his heart.' Not in the best thou art or doest ; the garmeiit of thy righteousness is spotted with the flesh ; all is counted by St. Paul, ' confidence in the flesh,' besides oiu- rejoicing in Christ, Phil, iih 3. Use 3. Thirdly, Fear not man, he is but flesh. This was David's resolve, Psa. Ivi. 4 : ' I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.' Thou needest not, thou oughtest not to fear. Thou needest not. What, not such a great man ; not such a number of men, who have the keys of all the prisons at their girdle ; who can kill or save alive? No, not these; only look they be thy enemies for righteousness' sake. Take heed thou makest not the least child thine enemy, by offering wrong to him ; God will right the wicked even upon the saint. If he offends, he shall find no shelter under God's wing for his sin. This made Jerome complain, that the Christian's sin made the arms of those barbarous nations which invaded Christendom victorious : Nostris pcccatis fortes sunt barbari. But if man's wrath find thee in God's way, and his fury take fire at thy holiness, thou needest not fear though thy life be the prey he hunts for. Flesh can only wound flesh; he may kill thee, but not hurt thee. Why shouldst thou fear to be stripped of that which thou hast resigned already to Christ? It is the first lesson thou learnest, if a Christian, to deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow thy Master ; so that the enemy comes too late ; thou hast no life to lose, because thou hast given it already to Christ ; nor can man take away that without God's leave ; all thou hast is insured ; and though God hath not promised thee immunity frojn suffering in this kind, yet he hath undertaken to bear the loss, yea, to pay thee a hundredfold, and thou shalt not stay for it till another world. Again, thou oughtest not to fear flesh. Our Saviour, Matt, x., thrice in the compass of six verses, commands us not to fear man ; if thy heart quail at him, how wilt thou behave thyself in the list against Satan, whose little finger is heavier than man's loins? The Romans had arnia pra-lusoria, weapons rebated, or cudgels, which they were tried at before they came to the sharp. If thou canst not bear a bruise in thy flesh from man's cudgels and blunt weapons, what wilt thou do when thou shalt have Satan's swoi-d in thy side? God counts himself reproached when his children fear a sorry man ; therefore we are bid sanctify the Lord, not to fear their fear. Now, if thou wouldst not fear man, who is but flesh, laboui*. First, to mortify thy own flesh ; flesh only fears flesh : when the soul dege- nerates into cai-nal desires and delights, no wonder he falls into carnal fears. Have a care. Christian, thou bringest not thyself into bondage : perhaps thy heart feeds on the applause of man ; this will make thee afraid to be evil spoken of, as those who shuffled with Christ, John xii. 42, owning him in private, when they durst not confess him openly, for they loved the praise of men. David saith, ' The mouth of the wicked is an open sepulchre ; ' and in this grave hath many a saint's name been buried. But if this fleshly desire were mortified, thou wouldst not pass to be judged by man, and so of all carnal aft'ections. Some meat you observe is anguish : if thou settest thy heart on any- thing that is carnal, wife, child, estate, &c., these will incline thee to a base fear of man, who may be Ciod's messenger to afflict thee in these. Secondly, Set faith against flesh : faith fixeth the heart, and a fixed heart is not readily afraid. Physicians tell us, we are never so subject to receive infection as when the spirits are low, and therefore the antidotes they give are all cordials. When the spirit is low through unbelief, every threatening from man makes a sad impression. Let thy faith but take a deep draught of the promises, and thy courage will rise. Fourthly, Comfort thyself, Christian, with this, that thou art flesh, so thy heavenly Father knows it, and considers thee for it. gg NOT WITH FLESH AND I3L00P. First, In point of affliction. Psa. ciii. 14, "He knoweth onr frame, lie renieniberetli that we are but dust.' Not like some unskilled enipyric, who hath but one receipt for all, strong or weak, young or old ; but as a wise physician considers his patient, and then wi'ites his bill : men and devils are but God's apothecaries ; they make not our physic, but give what God prescribes. Balaam loved Balak's fee well enough, but could not go a hair's breadth beyond God's commission. Indeed, God is not so choice with the wicked, Isa. xxvii. 7: ' Hath he smiten him as he smote those that smote him?' In a saint's cup the poison or the affliction is corrected, not so in the wicked's ; iind therefore what is medicine to the one is ruin to the other. Secondly, In duty ; be knows you are but flesh, and therefore pities and accepts thy weak service, yea, he makes apologies for thee ; ' The spirit is willing,' saith Christ, ' but the flesh is weak.' Thirdly, In temptations he considers thou art flesh, and proportions the temptation to so weak a nature : such a temptation as is common to man, a moderate temptation, as in the margin, fitted for so frail a creature. When- ever the Christian begins to faint under the weight of it, God makes as much haste to his succour, as a tender mother would to her swooning child ; there- fore he is said to be nigh to revive such, lest their spirits should fail. Section III. — The second thing follows ; the conjuncture of the saint's enemies : we have not to do with naked man, but with man led on by Satan ; not with flesh and blood, but principalities and pov/ers acting in them. There are two sorts of men the Christian wrestles v/ith, good men and bad; Satan strikes in with both. First, The Christian wrestles with good men. Many a sharp conflict there hath been betv/een saint and saint, scuffling in the dark through misitnder- standing of the truth and each other. Abraham and Lot, at strife. Aaron and Miriam jostled with Moses for the wall, till God interposed and ended the quarrel by his inmiediate stroke on Miriam. The apostles, even in the pre- sence of their Master, were at high words, contesting who should be greatest. Nov/ in these civil wars among saints, Satan is the great kindle-coal, though little seen, because, like Ahab, he fights in a disguise, playing first on one side, and then on the other, aggravating every petty injury, and thereupon pro- voking to wrath and revenge ; therefore the apostle, dehorting from anger, useth this argument ; 'Give no place to the devil;' as if he had said, fall not out among yom'selves, except you long for the devil's company, who is the true soldier of fortune, as the common phrase is, living by his sword, and therefore hastes thither where there is any hopes of war. Gregory compares the saints in their sad differences to two cocks, which Satan, the master of the pit, sets on fighting, in hope, when killed, to sup with them at night. Solomon saith, Prov. xviii. 6, ' Tlie mouth of the contentious man calls for strokes.' Indeed, we by our mutual strifes give the devil a stafl' to beat us with ; he cannot well work without fire, and therefore blows up these coals of contention, which he useth as his forge, to heat our spirits into wrath, and then we are malleable, easily hammered as he pleaseth. Contention puts the sovil into disorder, and inter arnia silent leges. The law of gi-ace acts not freely, when the spirit is in a commotion ; meek Moses, provoked, speaks unadvisedly. Methinks this, if nothing else will, should sound a retreat to our unhappy differences, that this Joab hath a hand in them ; he sets this evil spirit between brethren ; and what folly is it to bite and devour one another, to make hell sport ! We are prone to mistake our heat for zeal, whereas commonly in strife between saints it is a fireship sent in by Satan to break their unity and order ; wherein while they stand they are an armada invincible : and Satan knows he hath no other way but this to shatter them : when the Christians' langviage, which should be one, begins to be confounded, they are then near scattering ; it is time for God to part his children, when they cannot live in peace together. Secondly, The Christian wrestles with wicked men. ' Because you are not of the world,' saith Christ, ' the world hates you.' The saints' nature and life are antipodes to the world ; fire and water, heaven and hell, may as soon be reconciled, as they with it. Tlie heretic is his enemy for truth's sake, the pro- fane for holiness ; to both the C'hristian is an abomination, as the Israelite to AGAINST PUIxNClI'ALlTIES. g() tlie Egyptian : hence come wars ; the fire of persecution never goes out in the hearts of the wicked, who suy in their hearts as they once witli their lips, Christiani ad leoms. Now in all the saints' wars with the wicked, Satan is connnander in chief; it is their father's works they do, his lusts they fulfil. The Sabeans ])lundered Job, hut went on Satan's errand. The heretic broach- eth corrupt doctrine, perverts the faith of many, but in that he is the minister of Satan, 2 Cor. xi. 15. 'I'hey have tlieir call, their wiles, and wages from him. The work of persecutors is ascribed to hell. Is it a persecution of the tongue? it is hell sets on lire. Is it of the hand ? still they are but the devil's instru- ments, Rev. ii. 10 : 'The devil shall cast some of you into prison.' Use 1. First, Do you see any driving furiously against the truths or servants of Christ ; O pity them as the most miserable wretches in the world ; fear not their power, admire not their parts ; they are men possessed of and acted by the devil, they are his drudges and slaughter-slaves, as a martyr called them. Augustine, in his epistle to Lycinius, one of excellent parts, but wicked, who once was his scholar, speaks thus pathetically to him : O how I coidd weep and mourn over thee, to see such a sparkling wit prostituted to the devil's service ! if thou hadst found a golden chalice, thou wculdst have given it to the clmrch ; but God hath given thee a golden head, parts and wit, and in this, propinas teipsum diabolo, thou drinkest thyself to the devil. When you see men of pov/er or parts using them against God that gave them, weep over them ; better they had lived and died, the one slaves, the other fools, than do the devil such service with tliem. Use 2. Secondly, O ye saints, when reproaclied and persecuted, look further than man ; spend not your wrath upon him ; alas, they are but instruments in the devil's hand : save your displeasure for Satan, who is thy chief enemy : these may be won to Cluist's side, and so become thy friends at last. Now and then we see some running away from the devJ's colours, and washing the wound with their tears, which they have made by their cruelty. It is a notable pas- sage in Anselm, who compares the heretic and persecutor to the horse, and the devil to the rider. Now, saith he, in battle, when the enemy comes riding up, the valiant soldier, Non irascilur equo, sed eqiiili, tt quantum potest agit ul cqii/fe7ti pcrculiat, eqmon possideat ; sic contra malos hotn'nies orji ndinn, non contra illos, sed ilium qui illosinstigat, ut dum diabolous viiicitur, iiiftBlices quos ille pcssidet libcrentur : he is angry not with the horse, but horseman ; he labours to kill the man, that he may possess the liorse for his use : thus we do with the wicked ; we are not to bend our wrath against them, but Satan that rides them, and spin's them on ; labouring by prayer for them as Christ did on the cross, to dismoimt the devil, that so these miserable souls, luickneyed by him, may be delivered from him. It is more honour to take one soul alive out of ihe devil's clutches, than to leave many slain upon the field. Erasmus saith of Augustine, that he begged the lives of those heretics at the hands of the emperor's officers, who had been bloody persecutors of the orthodox : Cupiehat, saith he, amicus iiicdiciis superesse, quos arte sua sanaret : like a kind physician he desired their life, that if possible he night work a cure on them, and make them sound in the faith. CHAPTER II. V/UEREIN IS SUEWN WUAT A rRINCIPALITY SATAN UATU, l!OW UK CAME TO BE SUCH A PKINCK, AiN I) UOW WE MAY KNOW WIIF.TIIEK WE BE UNDER HTM AS OUR PRINCE OR NOT. But against jirincipalitits and powers, ^-c. Section I. — The apostle having shewn what the saints' enemies are not, ' flesh and blood,' frail men, who cannot come bu they are seen ; who may be resisted with man's power, or escape hy flight : now he describes tliem positively, 'against principalities and powers,' &'c. Some think the apostle, by these diverse names and titles, intends to set forth ihc distinct orders, whereby the devils are suboitlinate one to anotlier ; so tliev make the de\il, ^'cr. 11, to be 2Q AGAINST PRINCIPALITIES. the head or monarch, and these, ver. 12, so many inferior orders, as among men there are princes, dukes, earls, &c., under an emperor. That there is an order among the devils, cannot be denied. The Scripture speaks of a 'prince of devils,' Matt, ix., and of the ' devil and his angels,' who with him fell from their first station, called his angels, as it is probably conceived, because one above the rest, as the head of the faction, drew with him multitude.s of others into his party, who with him sinned and fell. But that there should be so many distinct orders among them, as there are several branches in this de- scription, is not probable ; too weak a notion "to be the foundation of a pulpit discovirse, therefore we shall take them as meant of the devils collectively. We v/restle not with flesh and blood, but devils, who are pi-incipalities, powers, &c., and not distributively, to make principalities one rank, powers another ; for some of these branches cannot be meant of distinct orders, but promiscuously of all as spiritual wickedness ; it being not proper to one to be spirits or wicked, but common to all. First, Then, the devil, or whole pack of them, are here described by their government in this world, ' Principalities.' Secondly, By their strength and puissance, called ' Powers.' Thirdly, By their nature, in their substance and degeneracy, ' Spiritual wickedness.' Fourthly, In their kingdom or proper territories, ' Rulers of the darkness of this world.' Fifthly, By the ground of the war, ' In heavenly places, or about heavenly things.' Fii'st, Of the first, 'Principalities;' the abstract for the concrete, that is, such as have a principality; so Titus iii. 1, we are bid to be 'subject to principalities and powers,' that is, princes and rulei's, so the Vulgate reads it. We wrestle against princes ; which some will have to express the eminency of their nature aljove man's, that as the state and spirit of princes is more raised than others, great men have great spirits ; as Zeba and Zalmunna to Gideon, asking who they were they slew at Tabor ; ' As thou art,' say they, ' so were they, each one resembled the children of a king,' that is, for majesty and pre- sence beseeming a princely race. So, they think the eminent nature of angels here to be intended, who are so far above the highest prince, as he above the basest peasant ; but because they are described by their nature in the fourth branch, I shall subscribe to their judgment who take this for the principality of government which the devil exerciseth in this lower world ; and the note shall be, Docf. That Satan is a great prince ; Chr-ist himself styles him ' the prince of the world,' John xiv. Princes have their thrones where they sit in state ; Satan hath his. Rev. ii. 13, ' Thou dwellest where Satan hath his throne ;' and that such a one as no earthly prince may compare : few kings are enthroned in the hearts of their subjects; they rule their bodies, and command their purses, but how often in a day are they pulled out of their thrones by the wishes of their discontented subjects! But Satan hath the hearts of all his subjects. Princes have their homage and peculiar honour done to them ; Satan is served upon the knee of his subjects ; the wicked is said to ' worship the devil, ' Rev. xiii. 4. No prince expects such worship as he ; no less than religious worship will serve him, 2 Chron. xi. 15. Jeroboam there is said to ordain priests for devils, and therefore he is called not only the prince, but the god of this world, because he hath the worship of a god given him. Princes, such as are absolute, have a legislate power, nay, their own will is their law, as at this day in Turkey, where their laws are wi-it in no other tables than in the proud sultan's breast ; thus Satan gives law to the poor sinner, who is bound, and must obey, though the law be writ with his own blood, and the creature hath nothing but damnation for fulfillino- the devil's lusts ; it is called ' a law of sin,' Rom. viii. 2 ; because it comes with authority. Princes have their ministers of state, whom they employ for the safety and enlargement of their territories : so Satan his, 2 Cor. xi. 15, who propagate his cursed designs ; therefoi'e we read of ' doctrine of devils.' Princes have their arcana imperii, which none know but a few favourites in whom they confide ; thus the devil hath his mysteries of iniquity, AGAINST PRINCIPALITIES. gj and depths of Satan we read of, which all his subjects know not of, Rev. ii. 24. These are imparted to a few favourites, such as Elynias, whom Paul calls ' full of all subtilty, and child of the devil ; ' such, whose consciences are so debauched, that they scruple not the most horrid sins ; these are his white boys. I have read of a people in America that love meat best when it is rotten and stinks. The devil is of their diet ; the more corrupt and rotten the creature is in sin, the better he pleaseth his tooth ; some are more the children of the devil than others. Christ had his beloved disciple, and Satan those that lie in his very bosom, and know what is in his heart. In a word, princes have their vccli- ffatia, their tribute and custom ; so Satan his. Indeed he doth not so much share with the sinner in all, but is owner of all he hath, so that the devil is the merchant, and the sinner but the broker to trade for him, who at last puts all his gains into the devil's purse : time, strength, parts, yea, conscience and all are spent to keep him in his throne. Section II. — Quest. Bvit how comes Satan to his principality? Ans. Not lawfull}-, though he can shew a fair claim. As, First, He obtained it by conquest ; as he won his crown, so he wears it by power and policy. But conquest is a cracked title. A thief is not the honester because able to force the traveller to deliver his purse ; and a thief on the throne is no better than a private one on the road, or pirate in a pinnace, as he boldly told Alexander. Neither doth thatprove good with process of time which was evil at first. Satan indeed hath kept possession long, but a thief will be so as long as he keeps his stolen goods ; he stole the heart of Adam from God at first, and doth no better to this day. Christ's conquest is good, because the ground of the war is righteous, fo recover what was his own ; but Satan cannot say of the meanest creature, ' It is my own.' Secondly, Satan may lay claim to his principality by election ; it is true, he came in by a wile, but now he is a prince elect, by the unanimous choice of corrupt nature; ' Ye are of your father the devil,' saith Christ, ' and his lusts ye will do.' But this also hath a flaw in it ; for man by law of creation is God's subject, and cannot give away God's right; by sin he loseth his right in God, as a protector, but God loseth not his right as a sovereign. Sin disabled man to keep God's law, but it doth not enfranchise or discharge him that he need not keep it. Thirdly, Satan may claim a deed of gift from God himself; as he was bold to do to Christ himself, upon this ground, persuading him to worship him as the prince of the world, Luke iv. 5,6:' He shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world, saying. All this will I give thee, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it:' where there was a truth, though he spake more than the truth, as he cannot speak truth, but to gain credit to some lie at the end of it ; God indeed hath delivered in a sense this world to him, but not in his sense, to do what he will with it, nor by any approbatory act given him a patent to vouch him his viceroy; not Satan by the ' grace' of God, but by the ' permis- sion' of God, prince of the world. Quest. But why doth God permit this apostate creature to exercise such a principality over the world ? Ans. First, As a righteous act of vengeance on man, for revolting from the sweet government of his rightful Lord and Maker ; it is the way that God punisheth rebellion : ' Because ye would not serve me with gladness, in the abundance of all things, therefore ye shall serve your enemies in hunger,' &c. Satan is a king given in God's wrath. Ham's cvu'se is man's punishment, ' a servant of servants.' The devil is God's slave, man the devil's. Sin hath set the devil on the creature's back, and now he hurries him without mercy, as he did the swine, till he be choked with flames, if mercy interpose not. Secondly, God permits tliis his principality, in order to the glorifying of his name in the recovery of his elect from the power of this great potentate. What a glorious name will (iod have when he hath finished this war, wherein at first he found all possessed by this enemy, and not a man of all the sons of Adam to offer himself as a volunteer in this service, till made willing in the day of his power ! This, this will gain God a name above every name, not only of creatures, but of those by which himself was known to his ()2 AGAINST rKINCIi'ALlTlES. cre;'iture. The workmanship of heaven and earth give h.ini the nnnie of a Creator, providence of Preserver; but this of Saviour, wherein lie doth both the former, preserve the creature, which else had been lost, and create a new creature, I mean the babe of Grace, which, through God, shall be able to beat the devil out of the field, who was able to drive Adam, though created in his full stature, out of Paradise ; and may not all the other works of God empty themselves as rivers into the sea, losing their names, or rather swelling into one redemption? Had not Satan taken God's elect prisoners, they would not have gone to heaven with such acclamations of triumph. There arc three expressions of a great joy in Scripture, the joy of a v,'oman after her travail, the joy of harvest, and the joy of him that divideth the spoil ; the exultation of all these is wrought upon a sad ground ; many a pain and tear it costs the travailing woman, many a fear the husbandman, perils and wounds the soldier, before they come at their joy, hut at last are paid for all, the remembrance of their past sorrows feeding their present joys. Had Christ come and entered into afthiity with our nature, and returned peaceably to heaven with his spouse, finding no resistance ; though this would have been admirable love, and that would have afforded true joy of marriage, yet this way of carrying his saints to heaven will heighten the joy, as it adds to the nuptial song the triumph of a conqueror, who iiath rescued his bride out of the hands of Satan, as he was leading her to the chambers of hell. Section III. — Uae 1. IsSatan such aprince ? try whose subject tliou art. His empire is large, only a few privileged who are translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son ; even in Christ's OAvn territories, (visible church I mean,) where his name is professed, and the sceptre of his gospel held forth, there Satan hath liis subjects. As Christ hath his saints in Nero's court, so the devil his ser- vants in the outward court of his visible cluuxh. Thou must therefore have something more to exempt thee from his government, than living within the pale, and giving an outv.'ard confoi-mity to the ordinances of Christ; Satan will yield to this and be no loser : as a king lets liis merchants trade to, yea, live in a foreign kingdom, and while they are there learn the language, and observe the customs of the j^lace ; this breaks not their allegiance : nor all that thy loyalty to Satan. When a statute was made in Queen Elizabeth's reign, that all should come to church, the papists sent to Rome to know the pope's pleasure ; he returned them this answer, as it is said: ' Bid the catholics in P^ngland give me their heart, and let the queen take the rest.' His subject thou art whom thou crownest in thy heart, and not whom thou flatterest with thy lips. But to bring the trial to an issue, know thou belongest to one of these, and but to one ; Christ and Satan divide the whole world ; Christ will bear no equal, and Satan no superior, and therefore hold in with both thou canst not. Now if thoji sayest, Christ be thy Prince, answer to these interrogatories. First, How came he into the throne? Satan had once the quiet possession of thy heart : thou wast by birth, as the rest of thy neighbours, Satan's vassal, yea, hast oft vouched him in the course of thy life to be thy liege lord ; how then comes this great change ? Satan siu-oly would not of his own accord resign his crown and sceptre to Christ; and as for thyself, thou wert neither willing to renounce, nor able to resist his power : this then must only be the fruits of Christ's victorious arms, whom ' God hath exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour,' Acts V. 31 . Speak, therefore, hath Christ come to thee as once Abraham to Lot, when prisoner to Chedorlaomer, rescuing thee out of Satan's hands, as he was leading thee in chains of lust to hell? Didst thou ever hear a voice from heaven in the ministry of tlie word calling out to thee, as once to Saul, so as to lay thee at God's foot, and make thee face about for heaven ? to strike thee blind in thine own apprehension, who before had a good opinion of thy state ? to tame and weaken thee, so as now thou art willing to be led by the hand of a cliild after Christ? Did ever Christ come to thee, as the angel to Peter in prison, rousing thee up, and not only causing the chains of darkness and stupidity to fall off thy mind and conscience, but make thee obedient also, that the iron grate of thy will hath opene.d to Christ before he left thee ? then thou hast something to say for thy freedom. But if in all this I be a barbarian, and the language I speak be strange, thou knowest no such work to have passed upon thy spirit, tlicn AGAINST lUIXCIPAMTiES. {),'] thou art yet in thy eld 2)vIson . can thei'c bo a change of government in a nation by a conqueror that invades it, and liis subjects not hear of this ? one king enthroned, and anotlier crowned in thy soul, and tliou hear no sculile all this while ? 'I'lie regenerating Spirit is compared to the wind, John iii. 8 ; his first attempts on the soul may be so secret, that the creature knows not whence they come, or whither they tend ; but before he hath done, the sound will be heard throughoiit the soul, so as it cannot but see a great change in itself, and say, I tliat was blind, now see : I that was as hard as ice, now relenting for sin ; now my heart gives, I can melt and moiun for it : I that was well enough witliout a Christ, yea, did wonder what others saw in him, to make such ado for him, nov,- have changed my note with the 'daughters of Jerusalem;' and for What is your beloved.' as I scornfully have asked, I have learned to ask where he is, that 1 might seek him with you. O soul I canst thou say it is thus with thee ? thou mayest know who has been here, no loss than Christ ; who, by his victorious Spirit, hath translated thee from Satan's power into his own sweet kingdom. Secondly, Whose law dost thou freely subject thyself unto ? The law's of these princes are as contrary as their natures ; the one a law of sin, Rom. viii. 2, the other a law of holiness, Rom. vii. 12 ; and therefore if sin hath not so far bereaved tliec of thy wits, as not to know sin from holiness, thou mayest, except resolved to cheat thy own soul, soon be resolved ; confess, therefore, and give glory to God. To which of these laws doth tliy soul set its seal? When Satan sends out his proclamation, and bids. Sinner go, set thy foot upon such a com- mand of God ; observe, what is thyv behaviour, dost thou yield thyself, as Paul phraseth it, Rom. vi. 16? a metaphor from princes, servants, or others, who are said to present themselves before their lord, as ready and at hand to do their pleasure ; by which the apostle elegantly describes' the forwardness of the sin- ner's heart to come to Satan's foot, wlien knock or call. Now doth thy soul go out thus to meet thy lust, as Aaron his brother, glad to see its face in an occa- sion ? Thou art not brouglit over to sin witii much ado, but thou likest the command ; ' Transgress at Gilgal,' saith God, ' tliis liketh you well,' Hos. iv. 5. As a courtier, who doth not only obey, but thank his prince that he will employ him. Needest thou be long in resolving whose thou art ? Did ever any ques- tion whether those were Jeroboam's subjects who willingly followed his com- mand ? Hos. V. 11. Alas for thee, thou art under the power of Satan, tied by a chain stronger than brass or iron : thou lovest thy lust. A saint may be for a time under u force, 'sold under sin,' as the apostle bemoans, and therefore glad when deliverance comes ; but thou sellest th3'self to work iniquity. If Christ should come to take thee from thy lusts, thou woiddst whine after theHi, as Micah after his gods. Thirdly, To whom goest thou for protection ? As it belongs to the prince to protect his subjects, so princes ex])ect their subjects should trust them with their safety. The very bramble bids, Judg. xi. 1.5, ' If in truth ye anoint me king, then put j'our trust under my^ shadow.' Now who hath thy confidence ? Barest thou trust God with thy sold, and the affairs of it in well doing? Good subjects follow their calling, commit state matters to the wisdom of their prince and his counsel ; when wronged, they appeal to their prince in his laws for right ; and when they do ou'end their pi'ince, tliey submit to the penalty^ of the law, . How nnich more doth his presence in this spiritual temple of a gracious heart, imputing his righteousness to cover all its uncomeliness, make the soul glorious above man at first? This is a garment for which, as Christ saith of the lily, we neither spin nor toil ; yet Adam, in all his created royalty, was not so clad as the weakest believer is with this on his soul. Now, Cliristian, consider well what thou dost, while thou sittest languishing under the sense of thy own weaknesses, and refusest to rejoice in Christ, and live comfortal)ly on the sweet l)rivileges thou art interested in by thy marriage to him. Dost thou not liewray 146 AGAINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS. some of tins spiritual pride working in thee ? O ! if thou coyldst pray without wandering, walk without limping, believe without wavering, then thou couldst rejoice and walk cheerfully. It seems, soul, thou stayest to bring the ground of thy comfort with thee, and not to receive it pm-ely from Christ. O how much better were it if thou wouldst say with David, ' Though my house (my heart) be not so with God, yet he hath made with me a covenant ordered in all things and sure;' and this is all my desire, all my confidence : Christ I oppose to all my sins, Christ to all wants; he is my all in all, and all above all! Indeed, all those complaints of our wants and weaknesses, so far as they withdraw our hearts from relying cheerfully on Christ, they are but the language of pride hankering after the covenant of works. O it is hard to forget our mother- tongue, which is so natural to us ! labour therefore to be sensible of it, how grievous it is to the Spirit of Christ. What would a husband say, if his wife, instead of expressing her love to him, and delight in him, shoidd, day and night, do nothing but weep and cry to think of her former husband that is dead ? The law as a covenant, and Christ, are compared to two hubands, Rom. vii. 4 : 'Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead.' Now thy sorrow for the defect of thy own righteousness, when it hinders thy rejoicing in Christ, is but a whining after thy other husband : and this Christ cannot but take unkindly, that thou art not as well pleased to lie in the bosom of Christ, and have thy happiness from him, as with your old husband the law. Secondly, A self-applauding pride, when the heart is secretly lift up, so as to promise itself acceptation at God's hands, for any duty or act of obedience it performs, and doth not, when most assisted, go out of his own actings, to lay the weight of his expectation entirely upon Christ ; every such glance of the soul's eye is adulterous, yea, idolatrous. If thy heart. Christian, at any time be secretly enticed, as Job saith of another kind of idolatry, or thy mouth doth kiss thy hand ; that is, doat so far on thy own duties or righteousness, as to give them this inward worship of thy confidence and trust ; this is a great iniquity indeed : for, in this thou deniest the God that is above, who hath determined thy faith to another objecL Thou comest to open heaven's gate with the old key, when God hath set on a new lock. Dost thou not acknow- ledge that thy first entrance into thy justified state was of pure mercy? Thou wast ' justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ,' Rom. vii. 24. And whom art thou beholden to, now thou art recon- ciled, for thy further acceptance in every duty or holy action ? to thy duty, thy obedience, thyself, or Christ ? The same apostle will tell you, Rom. v. 2 : 'By whom we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.' If Christ should not lead thee in, and all thou doest, thou art sure to find the door shut upon thee ; there is no more place for desert now thou art gracious, than when thou wast graceless, Rom. i. 17. ' The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, for the just shall live by faith.' We are not only made alive by Christ, but we live by Christ : faith sucks in continual pardoning, assisting, comforting mercy from him, as the lungs suck in the air. Heaven's way is paved with grace and mercy to the end. Use. Be exhorted, above all, to watch against this plea of Satan. Beware thou restest not in thy own righteousness: thou standest under a tottering wall; the very cracks thou seest in thy graces and duties, when best, bid thee stand off, except thou wouldst have them fall on thy head. The greatest step to heaven is out of our own doors, over our own threshold. It hath cost many a man his life, when his house was on fire, a covetousness to save some of the stuff, which venturing among the flames to preserve, they have perished themselves; more have lost their souls by thinking to carry some of their own stuff with them to heaven, such a good work or duty, which they, like lingering Lot, have been loath to leave in point of confidence, have themselves perished. O sirs, come out, come out; leave what is your own in the fire ; flee to Christ naked; he hath clothing for you better than your own. Flee poor to Christ, and he hath gold, not like thine, which will consume, and be found drossy in the fire ; but such as hath, in the fiery trial, passed in God's righteous judgment for pure and full weight. You cannot be found in two places at once ; choose whether you will be found in vour own righteousness or in Christ's. Those who have had AGAINST SPIKITUAL WICKKDNESS. 147 more to shew tlian thj'self, liave thrown away all and gone a begging to Christ. Read Paul's inventory, Phil, iii., what he had, what he did, yet all dross and loss : give him Christ, and take the rest who will. So Job, as holy a man as trod on earth, (God himself being witness,) yet saith, 'Though I were pei'fect, yet would I not know my own soul ; I would despise my life,' Job ix. 21. He had acknowledged his imperfection before ; now he makes a supposition (in- deed cjuod non est supponendum:) If I were perfect, yet would I not know my own soul; I would not entertain any such thoughts as should puff me up into such a confidence of my holiness, as to make it my ])lea with God. Like to our common phrase, we say, Such a one hath excellent parts, but he knows it; that is, he is proud of it. Take heed of knowing thy own grace in this sense ; thou canst not give a greater wound both to thy grace and comfort, than by thus priding thyself in it. Section III. — First, Thy grace cannot thrive so long as thou thus rcstest on it. A legal spirit is no friend to grace ; nay, a bitter enemy against it, as appeared by the Pharisees in Christ's time. Grace comes not by the law, but by Christ ; thou mayest stand long enough by it, before thou gettest any life of grace into thy soul, or further life into thy grace. If thou wouldest have this, thou must set thyself imder Christ's wings by faith ; from his spirit in the gospel alone comes his kindly natural heat to hatch thy soul to the life of holiness, and increase what thou hast ; and thou canst not come under Christ's wings till thou comest from under the shadow of the other, by renouncing all expecta- tion from thy own works and services. You know Reuben's curse, that he should not excel, because he went up into his father's bed ; when other tribes increased, he stood at a little number. By trusting in thy own works thou dost worse by Christ ; and shalt thou excel in grace 1 Perhaps some of you have been long professors, and yet come to little growth in love to God, humility, heavenly-mindedness, mortification ; and it is worth the digging to see what lies at the root of your profession, whether there be not a legal principle that hath too much influenced you. Have you not thought to cany all with God from your duties and services, and too much laid up your hopes in your own actings ? Alas ! this is as so much dead earth, which must be thrown out, and gospel principles laid in the room thereof. Try but this course, and see whether the spring of thy grace will not come on apace. David gives an account how he came to stand and flourish, when some, that were rich and mighty, on a sudden withered and came to nothing. ' Lo,' saith he, ' this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God ; I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever,' Psa. Iii. 7, 8. While others trust in the riches of their own righteous- ness and services, and make not Christ their strength, do thou renounce all, and trust in the mercy of God in Christ, and thou shalt be like a green olive, when they fade and wither. Secondly, Christian, you will not thrive in true comfort so long as you rest in any inherent work of grace, and do not stand clear of your own actings and righteousness. Gospel comfort springs from a gospel root, which is Christ. Phil. iii. 3: 'We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.' Now, a soul that rests on any holiness in himself, he grafts his comfort upon himself, not Christ ; he sucks his own breast, not Christ's, and so makes Christ a dry nurse. And what comfort can grow on that dry tree 1 The Spirit is our comforter, as well as our teacher and counsellor. Now as the Spirit, when he teacheth, comes not with any new or strange truth, but takes of Christ's own, (what he finds in the word,) so, where he ctmiforts, he takes of Christ's own, his righteousness, not our own. Christ is the matter and ground of his comfort ; all cordials are but Christ distilled, and made u]) in several promises ; his acting, not ours. He doth not say, Soid, rejoice thou art holy ; but, Soid, triumph, Christ is right- eous, and is ' the Lord thy righteousness ;' not, Sold, thou prayest sweetly, fear not ; but. Thou hast an Advocate with the Father, Christ the righteous. So that the first stej) to the receiving of comfort from the Spirit, is to send away all comforters of our own. As in learning of the Spirit, he that will be taught by him must first become a fool ; that is, no way lean to his own understanding ; so he that would be comforted nnist first be emptied of all self-supports; must l2 1 I o AGAINST SPIIUTUAL WICKEDNESS. not lean to his own coniforts. As a ])hysician first bids liis patient cast off all others he hath tampered with, he asks what physic he hath had from them, takes oft' their plasters, and throws away their physic, and goes about the work de novo; so the Spirit, when he comes to comfort a poor soul, first persuades the soul to send away all its own physicians. O, saith the soul, I have been in the hand of such a duty, such a coiu-se of obedience, and have thought, sure now I shall be well, and have comfort now I do this duty, set upon such a holy course. Well, saitli the Spirit, if you will have me do an j thing, these must all be dismissed in point of confidence. Now, and not till now, is the soul a sub- ject fit to receive the Spirit's comforts. And therefore, friends, as you love your inv.ard peace, beware what vessel you draw your comfort from. Grace is finite, and so cannot atford much ; it is leaking, and so cannot hold long ; thou clrinkest in a riven dish that hast thy comforts froni thy grace. It is mixed, and so, weak ; and weak grace Ciinnot give strong consolation ; and such thou rieedest, especially in strong conflicts. Nay, lastly, thy comfort, which thou drawest from it, is stolen ; thou dost not come honestly by it ; and stolen com- forts Mall not thrive with thee. Oh, what folly is it for the child to play the thief for that which he may freely and more fully ha\e from his father, who gives and reproacheth not ! That comfort which thou wouldst filch out of thy own righteousness and duties, behold it is laid up for thee in Christ, from whose fulness thou mayest carry as much as thy faith can hold, and none to check thee. Yea, the more thou improvest Chi'ist for thy comfort, the more heartily welcome ; we are bid to ' open our mouth wide, and he will fill it.' CHAPTER XI. THE THIRD KIND OF SPIRITUAL PRIDE, VIZ. PRIDE OF PRIVILEGES. The third kind of pride (spiritual pride I mean) is pride of privileges; with which these wicked spirits labour to blowup the Christian. To name three :- — First, When God calls a person to some eminent place, or useth him to do some special piece of service. Secondlj', When God honours a saint to sufi'er for his truth or cause. Thirdly, When God flows in with more than ordinary manifestations of his love, and fills the sold with joy and comfort. These are privileges not equally dispensed to all ; and, therefore, where they are, Satan takes the advantage of assaulting such with pride. . Section I.- — First, When God calls a person to some eminent place, or useth him to do some special piece of service. Indeed, it requires a great measure of grace to keep the heart low when the man stands high. The apostle, speaking how a minister of the gospel should be qualified, 1 Tim. iii. 6, saith, he must not be a ' novice,' or a young convert, ' lest he should be lifted up with pride, and fall into the condemnation of the devil.' As if he had said. This calling is honourable ; if he be not well ballasted with humility, a little gust from Satan will toss him into this sin. The seventy that Christ first sent out to preach the gospel, and prevailed so miraculously over Satan, even these, while they trod on the serpent's head, he tiu-ncd again, and had like to have stung them with pride ; which our Saviour perceived, when they returned in triumph, and told what great miracles they had wrought ; and therefore he takes them oft' that glorying, lest it should degenerate into vain-glory, and bids them ' not rejoice that devils were subject to them, but rather that their names were writ in heaven.' As if he had said. It is not the honour of your calling, and success of your ministry that will save you ; there shall be some cast to the devils, who shall then say, ' Lord, Lord, in thy name we have cast out devils :' and there- fore value not yourselves by that ; but rather evidence to your souls that ye are of mine elect ones, which will stand you more in stead at the great day than all this. Section II. — A second privilege is, when God honours a person to sufl!"er for his truth : this is a great privilege. ' Unto you it is given, not only to believe, but to sufter for his sake.' God doth not use to give worthless gifts to his saints: there is some precioiisness in it which a carnal eye cannot see. Faith, you will say, is a great gift, but perseverance greater ; without which faith would be little worth ; and perseverance in sufi'ering, this above both honourable. This made John Careless, our English martj'r, (who, though he died not at the stake. AGAIXST Sl'IKITUAL WIlKl.'JNESS. 149 jct in prison, for Christ,) ?ay, ' Such an liour it is as angels are not permiltecl to have, therefore God forgive me mine iinthankfulness.' Now, when Satan can- not scare a soul from pri&on, yet then he will laboin- to puff him np in prison; when he cannot make him pity himself, then he will flatter him till he prides in himsi.>lf. Affliction from God exposeth to impatience ; for God, to pride ; and therefore. Christians, labour to fortify yourselves against this temptation of Satan. How soon you may be called to suflering work, yoxi know not ; such clouds oft are not long arising. Now, to keep th}' heart humble, when thou art honoured to sufl'er for the truth, consider, First, Though thou dost not deserve those suIFerings at man's hand, (thou canst and ma3'est in tliat regard glory in thy innocency ; thou sufferest not as an evildoer,) yet thou canst not but confess it is a just affliction from God in regard of sin in thee ; and this methinks should keep thee hmnble. The same sutlering may be martyrdom in regard of man, and yet a fatherly chastising for sin in regard of God. None suilered without sin but Christ ; and therefore none may glorj- in them but he ; Christ in his own, we in his. ' God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ.' Gal. vi. This kept Mr. Bradford humble in his suft'erings for the truth : none more rejoiced in them, and blessed God for them, yet none more humble under them than he. And what kept him in this humble frame ? Read his godly letters, and you shall find almost in all how he bemoans his sins, and the sins of the Protestants under the reign of King Edward : — ' It was time,' saitli he, ' for God to put his rod into the papists' hands ; we were grown so proud, foimal, unfiuitful, yea, so as to loathe and des})ise the means of grace, when we enjoyed the liberty thereof; and therefore God hath brought the wheel of persecution on us.' As he looked at the honom-, to nuike him thankful ; so to sin, to keep him lumable. Secondly, Consider who bears thee up, and carries thee through thy s\ifl'erings for Christ. Is it thy grace, or his, that is sufficient for such a work ? thy spirit, or Christ's, by which thou speakest, when called to bear witness to the truth ? How comes it to pass thou art a sufferer, and not a persecutor ; a confessor, and not a denier ; yea, a betrayer of Christ and his gospel .' This thou owest to God ; he is not beholden to thee, that thou wilt part with estate, credit, or life itself for his s;ike. If thou hadst a thousand lives, thou wouldst owe them all to him ; but thou art beholden to God exceedingly, that he will call for these in this way, which has such an honour and reward attending it. He might liave suft'ered thee to live in thy lusts, and at last to suffer the loss of all these for them. Oh, how nuuiy die at the gallows, as martyrs in the devil's cause, for felonies, rapes, and murders ! Or he might withdiaw his grace, and leave thee to thy own cowardice and vmbelief, and then thou wouldst shew thyself in thy colours. The stoutest champions for Christ have been taught how weak they are if Christ steps aside. Some that liave given great testimony of their faith and resolution in Christ's cause, even to come so near dying for liis name, as to give themselves to be bound to the stake, and fire to be kindled upon them, yet then their hearts ha'. e failed; as that hoi)' man, Mr. Benbridge, in our English martyrology, who thrust the faggots from him, and cried out, ' I recant! I recant!' Yet this man, when reinforced in his faith, and endued with power from above, was able, within the space of a week after that sa 1 foil, to die at the stake cheerfidly ; Qui pro nobis mortem seviel v'lcit, semper in nobis vincil ; he that overcame death for us, is he that alwajs overcame death in us. And who should be thy song, but lie that is thy strength ? Applaud not thyself, but bless him. It is one of God's names ; he is called the ' glory of his people's strength,' Psa. Ixxxix. 17. The more thou gloriest in God that gives thee strength to suffer for lum, the less thou wilt boast of thyself. A thankful heart and a pi-oud cannot dwell together in one bosom. Thirdly, Consider what a fou! blot pride gives to all thy suilerings, where it is not bewailed and resisted ; it alters the case. The old saying is, that it is not the pimislnnent, but the cause makes the martyr : we may safely say further, it is not barely the cause, but the sincere frame of the heart in suf- fering for a good cause, that makes a man a martyr in Ciod's sight. Though thou shouldstgivc thy body to be biu'ned, if thou hast not nn humble lieart of a sufl'erer for Christ, thou turnest nu'rchaut for tliyself. Thou denicst but one self, to .set up another; runnest the hazard of thy estate and life to gain some 150 AGAINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS. applause, it may be, and rear up a monument to thy honour in the opinions of men ; thou dost no more in this case than a soldier, who for the name of valour will venture into the mouth of danger and death ; only thou shewest thy pride under a religious disguise ; yet that helps it not, but makes it the worse. If thou wilt in thy sufferings be a sacrifice acceptable to God, thoii must not only be ready to offer up thy life for his truth, but sacrifice thy pride also, or else thou mayest tumble out of one fire into another ; suffer here from man, as a seeming champion for the gospel, and in another world from God, for robbing him of his glory in thy sufferings. Section III. — A third privilege is, "When God flows in with more than ordinary manifestations of his love ; then the Christian is in danger of having his heart secretly lifted up in pride. Indeed, the genuine and natvu-al effect, which such discoveries of Divine love have on a gracious soul, is to himible it. The sight of mercy increaseth the sense of sin, and that sense dissolves the soul kindly into sorrow, as we see in Magdalen. The heart which possibly was hard and frozen in the shade, will give and thaw in the sunshine of love, and so long all pride is hid from the creature's eye. 'Then,' saith God, Ezek. xxxvi. 31, 'ye shall remember your ways and your doings, that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight,' &c. And when shall this be, but when God would save them fi'om all their uncleanness ? as appears ver. 25 ; yet notwithstanding this, there remain such dregs of corruption vmpurged out of the best, that Satan finds it not impossible to make the manifestations of God's love an occasion of pride to the Christian : and tndy God lets us see our proneness to this sin in the short stay he makes, when he comes with any greater discoveries of his love. The Comforter, it is true, abides for ever in the saint's bosom, but his joys come, and are gone again quickly. They are choice viands, with which he feasts the believer, but the cloth is soon drawn ; and why so ? but because we cannot bear them for our every-day food. A short interview of heaven, and a vision of love now and then upon the mount of an ordinance or affliction, cheers the spirits of drooping Christians, who, might they have leave to build tabernacles there, and dwell under a constant shine of such manifestations, would be prone to forget themselves, and think they were lords of their own comforts. If holy Paul was in danger of falling into this distemper of pride from his short rapture, (to prevent which, God saw it needful to let him blood with a thorn in the flesh,) would not our blood much more grow too rank, and we too crank and wanton, if we should feed long on such luscious food ? And therefore, if ever, Christian, thou hadst need to watch, then is the time when comforts abound, and God dandles thee most on the knee of his love ; when his face shines with clearest manifestations ; lest this sin of pride, as a thief in the candle, should extinguish thy joy. To prevent which, thou shouldst do well, first, to look that thou measurest not thy grace by thy comfort, lest so thou shouldst be led into a false opinion that thy grace is strong, because thy comforts are so. Satan will be ready to help forward such thoughts as a fit mediimi to lift thee up, and slacken thy care in duty for the future. Such discoveries do indeed bear witness to the truth of thy grace, but not to the degree and measure of it : the weak child may be, yea, is oftener in the lap than the strong. Secondly, do not so much applaud thyself in thy present comfort, as labour to improve it for the glory of God. 'Up, and eat,' saith the angel to the prophet, 'because the journey is too great for thee.' The manifestations of God's love are to fit us for our work. It is one thing to rejoice in the light of our comfort, and another to go forth in the power of the Spirit comforting us, as giants refreshed with this wine, to run our race of duty and obedience with more strength and alacrity. He shews his pride that spends his time in telling his money merely to see how rich he is ; but he his wisdom that lays out his money and trades with it. The boaster of his com- forts will lose what he hath, . when he that improves his comforts in a fuller trade of duty shall add more to what he hath. Thirdly, remember thou dependest on God for the continuance of thy comfort. They are not the smiles thou hadst yesterday can make thee joyous to-day, any more than the bread thou didst then eat can make thee strong without more ; thou needest new dis- coveries for new comforts : let God hide his face, and thou wilt soon lose the sight and forget the taste of what thou even now hadst. It is beyond our skill IN HIGH PLACES, &e. 151 or power to preserve those impressions of joy, and comfortable apprehensions of God's favour on our spirit, which sometimes we find; as God's presence brings those, so when he goes he carries thorn away with him, as the setting sun doth the day. We would laugh heartily at him who, when the sim shines in at his window, should think by shutting that to imprison the sunbeams in his chamber; and dost thou not shew as much folly, who thinkest because thou now hast comfort, thou therefore shalt never be in darkness of spirit more ? The believer's comfort is like Israel's manna; it is not like our ordinary bread and provision we buy at mai-ket, and lock up in our cupboards, where we can go to it when we will : no, it is rained as that was from heaven. Indeed God provided for them after this sort to humble them, Deut. viii. 16: * Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he miglit humble thee.' It was not such mean food because that God is said to humble them, for it was delicious food, therefore called 'angels' food,' Psa. Ixxviii. 25 ; such as, if angels did eat, might serve them ; but the manner of the dispensing it, from hand to mouth, every day their portion and no more, so that God kept the key of their cupboard, they stood to his inuuediate allowance ; and thus God communicates our spiritual comforts for the same end to humble us. So much for this second sort of spii'itual wickedness. I had thought to have instanced in some other, as hypoci-isy, unbelief, morality; but possibly the subject being general, what I have already said may be thought but a digression, and that too long. I shall therefore conclude tliis branch of ' spiritual wickedness,' in a word to those who are yet in a natural and unsanctified state ; which is, to stir them up from what I have said, concerning Satan's assaulting believers with such temptations, to consider seriously, that Satan's chief design against them also lies in the same sins. These are the wickednesses he labours to ingulf you in above all others. If ever you perish, it will be by the hand of these sins. It is yom- seared conscience, blind mind, and impenitent heart, will be your undoing, if you miscarry finally. Other sins, the devil knows, are prepa- ratory to these, and therefore he draws thee into them to bring thee into these. Two ways they prepare a way to spiritual sins ; first, as they naturally dispose the sinner to them ; it is the nature of sin to blind the mind, stupify the con- science, harden the heart, as is implied, Heb. iii. 1.3: 'Lest your heart be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' As the feet of travellers beat the highway hard, so does walking in carnal, gross sins the heart; they benumb the conscience, so that in time the sinner loses his feeling, and can carry his lusts in his heart, as bedlams their pins in their very flesh, without pain and remorse. Secondly, as they do provoke God by a judiciary act to give them up to these sins. Lam. iii. 65 : ' Give them obstinacy of heart,' so it is in the margin, ' thy curse imto them.' And when the devil hath got sinners at this pass, then he hath them under lock and key. They are the forerunners of damnation ; if God leave thy heart hard and unbroken up, it is a sad sign he means not to sow the seed of grace there. O sinners, pray, as he did request Peter for him, that none of these things may come upon you ; which that they may not, take heed thou rejectest not the oilers he makes to soften thee. God's hardening is a consequent of, and a punishment for, our hardening our own hearts. It is most true what Prosper saith. Potest homo invitus nmittere tem- poralia, non nisi volens amittere spirilualiu : A man may lose temporals against his will, but not spirituals; God will harden none, damn none, against their will. CHAPTER XII. SHEWETH WHAT TUE PRIZE IS, WHICH BELIEVERS WRESTLE AGAINST THESE PRINCIPALITIES, POWERS, SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESSES FOR, In high places. Section I. — These words contain the last branch in the description of our grand enemy ; which have in them some ambiguity, the adjective being only expressed in the original; e» fois epoiiranioix, that is, in heavenlies; the phrase being defective, our translators read it, in higli or heavenly places, as if the J gg IN HIGH PLACES ; OR, apostle mtended to set out the advantage of place wliicli this our enemy, by being above us, hath of us. Indeed this way most intei-pretei-s go ; yet some, both ancient and modern, read the words, not. In heavenly places, but ' In heavenly things.' En tois epnuraniois, saith fficumenius, is as much as if the apostle had said, Emin pale ou peri milcron tinon, alia uper ton en iois epour- aniois pragmaton. We wrestle not for small and trivial things, but for heavenly, yea, for heaven itself, and o\w adoption as he goes on. The same way Chry- sostom carries it ; in ccelesiibus, id e.yt, fro ccelestibus Dei. And after him Musculus, and other modern writers. The reasons which arc given for this interpretation are weighty. First, The word elsewhere indefinitely set down, is taken for things, not places, Heb. viii. 5. Nay, one observes this word to be used almost twenty times in the New Testament, and never for any aerial place, but always for things truly heavenly and spiritual; the word indeed properly signifies super-celestial, and, if applied to places, would signify, that where the devil never came since his fall. Lastly, There seems no great argument to render Satan formidable by his being above us in place ; it is some advantage indeed to men to gain the hill, ov be above their enemy, in some place of strength, but none at all to spirits ; but now take it of things, and then it adds v/eight to all the other branches of the description. We wrestle with principalities and powers, and spiritual wicked- ness ; and against all these, not for such toys and trifles as the earth affords, which are inconsiderable whether to keep or lose; but for such as heaven holds forth ; such an enemy, and such a prize, makes it matter of our greatest care how to manage the combat. The word tlms opened, the note will be this. Section II. — Doct. The chief prize for which we wrestle against Satan is heavenly. Or thus, Satan's main design is to spoil and plimder the Christian of all that is heavenly. Indeed all the Christian hath, or desires as a Christian, is heavenly ; the world is extrinsical, both to his being and happiness ; it is a stranger to the Christian, and intermeddles not with his joy or grief. Heap all the riches and honours of the world upon a man, they will not make him a Clu-istian ; heap them upon a Christian, they will not make him a better Christian. Again, take them aU away, let every bird have his feather, — when stripped and naked, he will still be a Christian, and may be a better Christian. It was a notable speech of Erasmus, if spoken in earnest, and his wit were not too quick for his conscience, Nikilo marfis amhio opes et dignifaf.es, qitam elumbis equus graves sareinas ; he said. He desired wealth and honour no more than a feeble horse doth a heavy cloak-bag. And I think every Christian in his right temper would be of his mind. Satan would do the saint little hurt, if he did bend his forces only or chiefly against his outward enjoyments ; alas, the Chris- tian doth not value them, or himself by them ; this were as if one should think to hurt a man by beating of his clothes when he hath put them off. So far as the spii'it of grace prevails in the heart of a saint, he hath put off the world in the desire of it, and joy of it, so that these blows are not much felt ; and there- fore they are his heavenly treasures which are the booty Satan waits for. Section III. — ^First, The Christian's nature is heavenly, bom from above; as Christ is the Lord from heaven, so all his ofFspiung are heavenly and holy : now Satan's design is to debase and deflov/er this ; it is the precious life of this new creature that he hunts for ; he hath lost that beauty of holiness which once shone so gloriously on his angelical nature, and now, like a true apostate, he endeavours to ruin that in the Christian, which he hath lost himself. The seeds of this war are sown in the Christian's nature ; you are holy, — that he cannot endure : Miles, feri faciem, was Caesar's speech, when, to fight with the Roman citizens, he bid his soldiers strike at their face ; These citizens, said he, love their beauty ; mar that, and mar all. The soul is the face whereon God's image is stamped ; holiness is the beauty of this face, which makes us indeed like God : his Satan knows God loves, and the saint is chary of; and therefore he labours to wound and disfigure this, that he may at once glory in the Christian's shame, and pour contempt upon God in breaking his image ; and is it not worth engaging limb and life in battle against this enemy, who would rob us of that Avhich makes us like God himself? Have you forgot the bloody articles of peace that Nahash offered to the mon of Jabesli-Gilead ? no peace to lie had IX HEAVENLY TiilNGS. ] 53 except they would let liiin thrust out their right ej'es, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel ; and to see how it was entertained, read 1 Sam. xi. 6. The face is not so deformed that hath lost its eye, as the soul is that losclh its holi- ness ; and no peace to be expected at Satan's hands, except he may deprive us of this: methinks, at the thought of this, the Spirit of the Lord slioiddcome upon the Christian, and his anger shouUl be kindled much more against this cursed spirit than Saul's and the men of Israel's was against Nahash. Secondly, Tlie Christian's trade is heavenly ; the mercliandise he deals for is of the growth of that heavenly country, Phil. iii. 20 : ' Our conversation is in heaven.' Every man's conversation is suitable to his calling; he whose trade is heavenly, follows that close. ' Every man minds his own business,' the apostle tells us. You may possibly find a tradesman out of his shop now and then, but he is as a fish out of the water, never in his element till he be in his calling again. Thus when the Christian is about the world, and the wordling about heavenly matters, both are men out of their way, not rightly girt, till they get into their employment again. Now this heavenly trade is that which Satan doth in an especial manner labour to stop. Could tlie Christian enjoy but a free trade with heaven a few years without molestation, he would soon grow a rich man, too rich indeed for earth ; but what with losses sustained by the hands of this pirate Satan, and also the wrong he receives by the treachery of some ill his own bosom, that, like unfaithful servants, hold correspondence with this robber, he is kept but low in this life, and much of his gains are lost; now the Christian's heavenly trade lies either within doors, or abroad ; he can be free in neither ; Satan is at his heels in both. First, Within doors ; this I may call his home trade, which is spent in secret between God and his own soul ; here the Christian drives an unknown trade ; he is at heaven and home again, richly laden in his thoughts with heavenly meditations, before the world knows where he hath been. Every creature he sees is a text for his heart to raise some spiritual matter and observations from. Every sermon he hears cuts him out work to make up and enlarge upon when he gets alone. Every providence is as wind to his sails, and sets his heart a moving in some heavenly affection or other, suitable to the occasion. One while he is wrapped up with joy in the consideration of mercy, another while melted into godly sorrow from the sense of his sins. Sometimes exalting God in his praises, anon abasing himself before God for his own vilcness. One while he is at the breast of the covenant, milking out the consolations of the promises ; another while working his heart into a holy awe and fear of the threatenings. Thus the Christian walks aloft, while the base worldling is licking the dust below. One of these heavenly pearls which the Christian trades for is more worth, than the worldling gets with all his sweat and travel in his whole life. The Christian's feet stand where other men's heads are ; he treads on the moon, and is clothed with the sun ; he looks down on earthly men, as one from a high hill doth upon those that live in some fen or moor, and sees them buried in a fog of carnal pleasures and profits, while he breathes in a pure heavenly air; but yet not so high as to be free from all storms and tempests ; many a sad gust he hath from sin and Satan without. What else mean those sad complaints and groans which come from the children of God, that their hearts are so dead and dull, their thoughts so roving and luifixed in duty, many times so wicked and filthy, that they dare hardly tell what they are, for fear of staining their own lips, and offending the ears of others by naming them ? Surely the Christian finds it in his heart to will and desire he could meditate, pray, hear, and live after another sort than this? doth lie not? Yes, I durst be his surety he doth. But so long as there is a devil tempts, and we continue within his walk, it will be thus, more or less ; as fast as we labom- to clear the spring of our heart;, he will be labouring to thicken or stop it again : so that we have two works to do at once ; to perform a duty, and watch him that opposeth us ; trowel and sword both in our hands. They had need work hard indeed, who have others contiiuially endeavouring to pull down, as they are labouring to rear up the l>uilding. Secondly, That part of the Cliristian's trade, which lies abroad, is heavenly also. "^I'ake a Christian in his relations, calling, neighbourliood, he is a heavenly trader in all ; the great business of his life is to be doing or receiving some good ; J 54 ^^ HIGH PLACES; OK, that company is not for him, that will neither give nor take this. What should a merchant do where there is no buying nor selling ? Every one labours, as his calling is, to seat himself where ti'ade is quickest, and he is like to have most takings. The Christian, where he may choose, takes such in relations near to himself, — husband, wife, servants, — as may suit with his heavenly trade, and not such as will be a pull-back to him : he falls in with the holiest persons as his dearest acquaintance ; if there be a saint in the town wliere he lives, he will find hhn out ; and this shall be the man he will associate with ; and in his con- versation with these and all else, his chief work is for heaven ; his heavenly principle within inclines him to it. Now this alarms hell : what, not contented to go to heaven himself, but by his holy example, gracious speeches, sweet counsels, seasonable reproofs, will be trading with others, and labour to carry them along with him also ? This brings the lion fell and mad out of his den ; such, to be sure, shall find the devil in their way to oppose them. ' I would have come,' saith Paul, 'but Satan hindeied me.' He that will vouch God, and let it appear by the tenor of his conversation that he trades for him, shall have enemies enough, the devil can help him to such. Thirdly, The Christian's hopes are all heavenly ; he harps not upon anything the world hath to give him. Indeed, he would think himself the most miser- able man of all others, if here were all he could make of his religion. No, it is heaven and eternal life that he expects ; and though he be so poor as not to be able to make a will of a groat, yet he counts himself a richer heir than if he were child to the greatest prince on earth. This inheritance he sees by faith, and can rejoice in the hope of the glory whicli it will bring him. The uncer- tain and cheating glory of the great ones of this world, moves liim not to envy their fancied pomp ; but when on the dunghill himself, he can forget his own present sorrows to pity them in all their bravery, knowing that within a few days the cross will be off his back, and the crowns off their heads together ; their portion will be spent, when he shall be to receive all his. These things entertain him with such joy, that they will not sufl'er him to acknowledge him- self miserable, when others think him, and the devil tells him he is such. This, this torments the very soul of the devil, to see the Christian under sail for heaven, filled with the sweet liope of his joyful entertainment when he comes there ; and, therefore, he raiseth what storms and tempests he can, either to hinder his arrival in that blessed port, which he most desires, and doth not wholly despair of, or at least to make it a troublesome winter voyage, such as Paul's was, in which they suffered so much loss. And this, indeed, very often he obtains in such a degree, that by his violent, impetuous temptations beating long upon the Christian, he makes him throw over much precious lading of his joys and comforts ; yea, sometimes he brings the soul through stress of tempta- tion to think of quitting the ship, while for the present all hope of being saved seems to be taken away. Thus you see what we wrestle with devils for. We come to application. Section IV. — Use 1. This is a word of reproof to four sorts of persons. First, To those that are so far from wrestling against Satan for this heavenly prize, that they resist the offer of it. Instead of taking heaven by force, they keep it off by force. How long hath the Lord been crying in our streets, ' Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand !' How long have gospel-oilers rung in our ears, and yet to this day many devil-deluded soiils furiously drive on towards hell, and will not be persuaded back ; who refuse to be called the children of God, and choose rather the devil's bondage than the glorious liberty with which Christ would make them free ; esteeming the pleasures of sin for a season, greater treasures than the riches of heaven. It is told of Cato (who was Caesar's bitter enemy) that when he saw Caesar prevail, rather than fall into his hand and stand to his mercy, he laid violent hands on himself; which Ctesar hearing of, passionately broke out into tliese words : 0 Cafo^ cur Invidisti mi/ii salutem tuam ? O Cato, why didst thou envy me the honour of saving thj' life ? And do not many walk as if they grudged Christ the honour of saving their souls ? What other account can you give, sinners, of rejecting his grace ? Are not heaven and happiness things desirable, and to be preferred before sin and misery 1 Why then do you not embrace them ? or are they the worse, because they come swimming to you in the blood of Christ ? Oh, how ill must IN HEAVENLY THINGS. 155 Christ take it to be thus used, when he comes on such a gracious embassy ? May he not say to tliee, as once he did to those officers sent to attack him, ' Do you come out against me as a thief, with swords and staves?' If he be a thief, it is only in this, that he would steal your sins from you, and leave heaven in the room. Oh, for the love of God, think what you do ; it is eternal life you put away from you ; in doing of which, ' you judge yourself unworthy of it,' Acts xiii. 46. Secondly, It reproves those who are Satan's instruments to rob souls of what is heavenly. Among tliieves there are some ye call setters, who inquire wliere a booty is to be had ; which when they have found, and know such a one travels with a charge about him, then they employ some other to rob him, and are themselves not seen in the business. The devil is the grand setter ; he observes the Christian, how he walks, what place and company he frequents, what grace or heavenly treasure he carries in his bosom ; which when he hath done, he hath his instruments for the purpose to execute his design. Thus he considered the admirable graces of Job, and cast about how he might rob him of his heavenly treasure : and who but his wife and friends must do this for him ? (well knowing that his tale would receive credit from their mouths.) Oh, friends, ask your consciences, whether you have not done the devil some service of this kindin your days. Possibly you have a child or servant who once looked heaven- ward, but your browbeating of them scared them back, and now it may be they are as carnal as you would have them : or possibly thy wife, before acquainted with thee, was full of life in the ways of God ; but since she hath been trans- planted into thy cold soil, what by thy frothy speeches and unsavoury conver- sation, at best thy worldliness and formality, she is now both decayed in her graces, and a loser in her comforts. Oh, man, what an indictment will be brought against thee for this act at God's bar ! You woidd come offbetter, were it for robbing one of his money and jewels, than of his graces and comforts. Thirdly, It reproves the woful negligence most shew in labouring for this heavenly prize. None but would be glad their souls might be saved at last : but where is the man or woman that makes it appear, by their vigorous endea- vour, that they mean in earnest? What warlike preparation do they make against Satan, who lies between them and home? Where ai-e their arms, wliere their skill to use them, their resolution to stand to them, and conscionable care to exercise themselves daily in the use of them ? Alas ! this is rarity indeed, not to be found in every house where the profession of religion is hanged out at the door. If woulding and wishing would bring them to heaven, then they may come thither ; but as for this wrestling and fighting, this making religion our business, they are as far from these as at last they are like to be from heaven. They are of his mind in TuUy, who in a summer's day, as he lay indulging him- self on the grass, would say, O utinam hoc esset laborare ! O that this were to work, that I could lie here and do my day-labour ! Thus many melt and waste their lives in sloth, and say in their hearts, O that this were the way to heaven ! but will use no means to furnish themselves witli grace for such an entei-prise. I have read of a great prince in Germany, invaded by a more potent enemy than himself, yet from his fi-iends and allies, who flocked in to his help, he soon had a good army, but had no money, as he said, to pay them ; but the truth is, he was loath to part with it ; for which some in discontent went away, others did not vigorously attend his liusiness, and so he was soon beaten out of his kingdom ; and his coffers, when his palace was i-ifled, were found full of treasure. Thus he was ruined, as some sick men die because imwilling to be at cost to pay the physician. It will add to the misery of damned souls, when they shall have leisure enough to consider what they have lost in losing God, to remember what means, offers, and talents they once had towards the obtaining of everlasting life, but had not a heart to use them. Fourthly, It reproves those who make a great bustle and noise in religion, who are forward in profession, very l)usy to meddle with the strictest duties, as if heaven had mono])olized their whole hearts; but, like the eagle, when they tower highest, their prey is below, where their eye is also. Such a generation there ever was and will be, that mingle themselves with the saints of God ; who pretend heaven, and have their outward garl) faced and fringed, as it were, with heavenly speeches and duties, while their hearts are lined witli hypocrisy, ]^Q IN HIGH PLACES; OR, whereby they deceive others, and most of all themselves ; such may be the world's saints, but devils in Christ's account. Have not I chosen twelve, and one of you is a devil ? And truly, of all devils, none so bad as the professing devil, the preaching, praying devil. O sirs, be plain-hearted ; religion is as tender as your eye, it will not be jested v/ith : remember the vengeance which fell on Belshazzar, while he caroused in the bowls of the sanctuary. Religion and the duties of it are consecrated things, not made for thee to drink thy lusts out of. God hath remarkably appeared in discovering and confounding such as have prostituted sacred things to worldly ends. Jezebel fasts and prays, the better to devour Naboth's vineyard, but was devoured by it. Absalom was as sick till lie had ravished his father's crown, as his brother Amnon till he had done the like to his sister ; and to hide his treason he puts on a religious cloak, and therefore begs leave to go and pay his vow in Hebron, when he had another game in chase : and did he not fall by the hand of his hypocrisy ? Of all men, their judgment is indorsed with most speed, who silver over worldly or wicked enterprises with heavenly semblances. Of this gang were those, 2 Pet. ii. '3, concerning whom the apostle saith, 'Their damnation slumbers not;' and those, Ezek. xiv. 7, 8, to whom God saith, ' I the Lord will answer him by myself, and I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people, and ye shall know that I a,n the Lord.' Use 2. Secondly, Try whether they be heavenly things or earthly thou chiefly pursuest. Certainly, friends, we need not be so ignorant of our soid's state and affairs, did we oftener converse with oiu- thoughts, and observe the haunts of our hearts. We soon can tell what dish pleaseth our palate best ; and may you not tell whether heaven or earth be the most savoury meat to your souls ? And if you should ask how you might know whether heaven be the prize you chiefly desii-e, I would put you only upon this double trial. First, Art thou uniform in thy pursuit? Dost thou contend for heaven, and that which leads to heaven also? Earthly things God is pleased to retail; all have some, none have all. But in heavenly treasure he will iu)t break the whole piece, and cut into remnants. If thou wilt have heaven, thou must have Christ ; if Christ, thou must like his service as well as his sacrifice; no holiness, no happiness. If God would cut off" so much as would serve men's turns, he might have customers enough : Balaam himself likes one end of the piece, ' he would die like a righteous man,' though live like a wizard as he was. No, God will not deal with such peddling merchants ; that man alone is for God, and God for him, who will come roundly up to God's offer, and take all off" his hands. One fitly compares holiness and happiness to those two sisters, Leah and Rachel. Happiness, like Rachel, seems the fairer, (even a carnal heart may tall in love with that,) but holiness, like Leah, is the elder, and beautiful also; though in this life it appears with some disadvantage, her eyes being bleared with tears of repentance, and her face furrowed with the works of mortification : but this is the law of that heavenly country, ' That the younger sister must not be bestowed before the elder.' We cannot enjoy fair Rachel, (heaven and hap- piness,) except we first embrace tender-eyed Leah, (holiness,) with all her severe duties of repentance and mortification. Now, sirs, how like you this method ? Art thou content to marry Christ and his grace, and then serving an hard appren- ticeship in temptations both of prosperity and adversity, endiu-ing the heat of the one, and the cold of the other, to wait till at last the other be given into thy bosom ? Secondly, If indeed heaven and heavenly things be the prize thou wrestlest for, thou wilt discover a heavenly deportment of heart, even in earthly things. Wherever you meet a Christian he is going to heaven ; heaven is at the bottom of his lowest actions. Now observe thy heart in three particulars ; in getting, in using, and in keeping earthly things, whether it be after a heavenly manner. First, In getting earthly things. If heaven be thy chief prize, then thou wilt be ruled by a heavenly lav,' in the gathering of these. Take a carnal wretch, and what his heart is set on he will have, though it be by hook or crook. A lie fits Gehazi's mouth well enough, so he may fill his pockets by it. Jezebel dares mock God, and murder an innocent man, for an acre or two of ground. Absalom, regnnndi causa, what will he not do? God's fence is too low to keep a graceless heart in bounds, wlien the game is before him ; but a soul that hath heaven in IN UKAVKXLY TIIINCS. 157 his eye, is ruled by heaven's kuv ; he dares not stej) out of heaven's road to take up a crown, as we see in David's carriage towards Saul. Indeed, in so doing, he should cross himself in his own grand design, which is the glory of God, and the happiness of his own soul in enjoying of him; upon these very terms the servants of God have refused to be rich and great in the world, when either of these lay at stake : Moses threw his court-preferment at his heels, ' refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.' Abraham scorned to be made rich by the king of Sodom, Gen. xiv. 22, that he might avoid the suspicion of covetousness and self-seeking ; it shall not be said another day, that he came to enrich himself with the spoil, more than to rescue his kinsmen. Nehemiah would not take the tax and tribute to maintain his state, when he knew they were a poor peeled people, ' because of the fear of the Lord.' Dost thou walk bj' this I'ule ? woiddst tliou gather no more estate or honour than thou maj'est have with God's leave, and will stand with thy hopes of heaven ? Secondly, Dost thou discover a heavenly spirit in using these things ? First, The saint improves his earthly things for an heavenly end. Where laj'est thou up thj- treasure ? Dost thou bestow it on thy voluptuous appetite, thy hawks and thy hounds ; or lockest thou it up in the bosom of Clu-ist's poor nrembers ? What use makest thou of thy honour and greatness ? To strengthen the hands of the godly or the wicked? And so of all thy other temporal en- joyments. A gracious heart improves them for God ; when a saint prays for these things, he hath an eye to some heavenly end. If David prays for life, it is not that he may live, but * live and praise God,' Psal. cxix. 175. When he was driven from his regal throne by the rebellious arms of Absalom, see what his desire was and hope, 2 Sam. xv. 25 : * The king said to Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city : if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and show me both it and his habitation.' Mark, not show me my crown, my palace, but the ark, the house of God. Secondly, A gracious heart pursues earthly things with a holy indifference, saving the violence and zeal of his spirit for the things of heaven : he useth the former as if he used them not, with a kind of non-attendance ; his head and heart is taken up with higher matters, how he may please God, thrive in his grace, enjoy more intimate communion with Christ in his ordinances; in these he spreads all his sails, plies all his oars, strains every part and power. Thus we find David upoai his full speed : ' My soul pressed hard after thee,' Psa. Ixiii. And before the ark we find him dancing with all his might. Now a carnal heart is clean contrary : his zeal is for the world, and his indifference in the things of God : he prays as if he did not pray, &c. ; he sweats in his shop, but chills and grows cold in his closet. Oh how hard to pulley him up to a duty of God's wor- ship, or to get him out to an ordinance ! No weather shall keep him from the market ; rain, blow or snow, he goes thither ; but if the chin-ch-path be but a little wet, or the air somewhat cold, it is apology enough for him if his pew be empty. When he is about any worldly business, he is earnest at it, as the idolatrous smith in hammering of his image, ' who (the prophet saith) worketh it with the strength of his arms, yea, he is hungi-y and his strength faileth, he drinketh not, and is faint,' Isa. xliv. 12. So zealous is tlie muckworm in his worldly employments, that he will pinch his carcase, and deny himself his repast in due season, to pursue that ; the kitchen there shall wait on the shop : but in the worship of God, it is enough to make him sick of the sermon, and angry with the preacher, if he be kept beyond his hour ; here the sermon must give place to the kitchen ; so the man for his pleasures and carnal pastime, he tells no clock at his sports, and knows not how the day goes ; when night comes, he is angry that it takes him off: but at any heavenly work, O how is the man punished ! time now hath got leaden heels, he thinks; all he does at a sermon is to tell the clock, and see how the glass runs. If men were not willing to deceive themselves, surely they might know which way their heart goes by the swift motion, or the hard tugging and slow pace it stirs, as well as they know in a boat whether they row against the tide or with it. Thirdly, The Christian useth these things with a holy fear, lest earth should rob heaven, and his outward enjoyments prejudice his heavenly interest; he eats in fear, works in fear, rejoiceth in his abundance with fear : as Job sancti- fied his children by offering a sacrifice, out of a fear lest they had sinned ; so 158 IN HIGH PLACES; OR, the Christian is continually sanctifying his earthly enjoyments by prayer, that so he may be delivered from the snare of them. Thirdly, The Christian is heavenly in his keeping of earthly things. The same heavenly law which he went by in getting, he observes in holding them. As he dares not say he will be rich and honourable in the world, but if God will ; so neither that he will hold what he hath, he only keeps them until his heavenly Father calls for them that at first gave them. If God will continiie them to him, and entail them on his posterity too, he blesseth God ; and so he desires to do also when he takes them aw^ay. Indeed God's meaning in the great things of this world, which sometimes he throws in upon the saints, is chiefly to give them the greater advantage of expressing their love to him, in denying them for his sake. God never intended by that strange providence, in bringing Moses to Pharaoh's coiu-t, to settle him there in worldly pomp and grandeur ; — a carnal heart indeed would have expounded Providence, and inter- preted it as a fair occasion put into his hands by God to have advanced himself into the throne, which some say he might in time have done ; — but as an oppor- tunity to make his faith and self-denial more eminently conspicuous in throwing all these at his heels, for which he hath so honourable a remembrance among the Lord's worthies, Heb. xi. 24, 25. And truly, a gracious soul reckons he cannot make so much of his worldly interests any other way, as by oftei-ing them up for Christ's sake; however, that traitor thought Mary's ointment might have been carried to a better market, yet no doubt that good woman herself was only troubled that she had not one more precious to pour on her Saviour's head. This makes the Christian ever to hold the sacrificing knife at the throat of his worldly enjoyments, ready to offer them up when God calls ; overboard they shall go, rather than hazard a wreck to faith or a good con- science ; he sought them in the last place, and therefore he will part with them in the first. Naboth will hazard the king's anger, which at last cost him his life, rather than sell an acre or two of land which was his birthright. The Christian will expose all he hath in this world, to preserve his hopes for another. Jacob in his march towards Esau sent his servants with his flocks before, and came himself with his wives behind ; if he can save any thing from his brother's rage, it shall be what he loves best. If the Christian can save any thing, it shall be his soul, his interest in Christ and heaven, and then no matter if the rest go; even then he can say, not as Esau to Jacob, I have a great deal ; but as Jacob to him, I have all, CJen. xxxiii. 9, 11 ; all I want, all I desire ; as David ex- presseth it, ' This is all my salvation, and all my desire,' 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Now try whether thy heart be tuned to this note. Does heaven give law to thy earthly enjoyments ? Woiddst thou not keep thy honour, estate, no, not life itself, to prejudice thy heavenly nature and hopes? Which wouldst thou choose, if thou couldst not keep both, a whole skin or a soimd conscience ? It was a strange answer, if true, which the historian saith Henry the Fifth gave to his father, who had usurped the crown, and now dying, sent for this his son, to whom he said. Fair son, take the crown, (which stood on his pillow by his head,) but God knows how I came by it. To whom he answered, I care not how you came by it ; now I have it, I will keep it as long as my sword can defend it. He that keeps earth by wrong, cannot expect heaven by right. CHAPTER XIII. AN EXHORTATION TO THE PURSUIT OF HEAVEN AND HEAVENLY THINGS. Use 3. Thirdly, Is it heaven and all that is heavenly that Satan seeks to hinder us of? Let this provoke us the more earnestly to contend for them. Had we to do with an enemy that came only to plunder us of earthly trifles, would honours, estates, and what this world affords us, stay his stomach, it might sufter a debate, in a soul that hath hopes of heaven, whether it were worth fighting to keep this lumber ; but Christ and heaven, these sure are too precious to part withal upon any terms. ' Ask the kingdom for him also,' said Solomon to Bathsheba, when she begged Abishag for Adonijah. What can the devil leave thee worth if he deprive thee of these ? And yet I confess I have heard of one, that wished God would let him alone, and not take him from what he had here. Vile brute ' the choice of a swine, and not a man, that could choose to IN HEAVENLY THINGS. 159 wallow in the dung and orduie of his carnal pleasures, and wish himself for ever shut up with his swill in the hog's sty of this dunghill eartli, rather than leave these to dwell in heaven's palace, and be admitted to no meaner plea- sures tlian what God himself with his saints enjoys. It were even just if (iod gave sucli brutes as these a swine's face to their swinish hearts: but, alas! how few then should we meet that woxdd have the countenance of a man ! the greatest part of the world, even all that are carnal and worldly, being of the same mind, though not so impudent as that wretch, to speak what they think. The lives of men tell plain enough that they say in their hearts. It is good being here; that they wish they coidd build tabernacles on earth for all the mansions that are prepared in heaven. The ti-ansgression of the wicked said in David's heart, that ' the fear of God was not before them,' Psa. xxxvi. 1. And may not the worldliness of a muckworm say in the heart of any rational man, that heaven and heavenly excellences are not before their eyes or thoughts? Oh, what a deep silence is there concerning these in the conversations of men I Heaven is such a stranger to the most, that very few are heard to inquire the way thither, or so much as ask the question in earnest, what they shall do to be saved. The most express no more desires of attaining heaven, than those blessed soids now in heaven do of corning again to dwell on earth ; alas ! their heads are full of other projects ; they are either as Israel, scattered over the face of the earth to gather straw, or busied to pick that straw they have gathered ; labouring to get the world, or pleasing themselves with what they have got. So that it is no more than needs to use some argimients to call men off the world to the pursuit of heaven, and what is heavenly. First, For earthly things, it is not necessary that thou hast them ; that is necessary which cannot be supplied per vicm-ium, with somewhat besides itself. Now, there is no such earthly enjoyment, but may be so supplied, as to make its room more desirable than its company. In heaven there shall be light, and no sun; a rich feast, and yet no meat; glorious robes, and yet no clothes; there shall want nothing, and yet none of this worldly glory be found there ; j'ea, even while we are here, they may be recompensed : thou mayest be under infirmities of body, and yet better than if thou hadst health : ' The inhabitants shall not say, I am sick ; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity,' Isa. xxxiii. 34. Thou mayest miss of worldly honoin-, and obtain, with those worthies of Christ, Heb. xi., a good report by faith ; arid that is a name better than of the great ones of the earth ; thou mayest be poor in the world, and yet rich in grace; and ' godliness with content is great gain.' In a word, if thou partest with thy temporal life, and findest an eternal, what dost thou lose by thy change ? But heaven and heavenly things are such as cannot be recompensed with any other. Thou hast a heavenly soul in thy bosom ; lose that, and where canst thou have another? There is but one heaven; miss that, and where can you take up your lodging but in hell? One Christ that can lead you thither; reject him, ' and there remains no more sacrifice for sin.' O that men would think on these things! Go, sinner, to the world, and see what it can afford you in lieu of these ; may be it will offer to entertain you with its plea- sures and delights : O poor reward for the loss of Christ and heaven ! Is this all thou canst get? Doth Satan rob thee of heaven and happiness, and only give thee this nosegay to smell on as thou art going to thy execution 1 Will these quench hell-fire, or so much as cool those flames thou art falling into? Who but those that have perverted their understandings, woidd take these toys and new- nothings for Christ and heaven? While Satan is pleasing your fancies with these rattles and baubles, his hand is in your treasure, robbing you of that which is alone necessary : it is more necessary to be saved than to be ; better not to be, than to have a being in hell. Secondly, Earthly things are such, as it is a great uncertainty whether with all our labour we can have them or not. The world, though so many thousand years old, hath not learned the merchant such a method of trading, as that from it he may infallil)ly conclude he sliall at last get an estate by his trade ; nor the courtier such rules of comporting himself to the humour of his prince, as to assure him he shall rise. They are but few that carry away the prize in the world's lottery ; the greater niunber have only their labour for their pains, and a sorrowful remembrance left them of their egregious folly, to be led such J(3() IN HiGII PLACES; Oil, a wild-goose chase after that whicli Imth decfivecl them at last. But now for heaven and the things of heaven, there is such a clear and certain rule laid down, that if we will but take the counsel of the word, we can neither mistake the way, nor in that way miscaiTy of the end. ' As many as walk by this i"ule, peace be upon them, and the whole Israel of God.' There are some indeed who run, and yet obtain not this prize, that seek and find not, knock and hud tlie door shut upon them ; but it is, because they do it either not in the right manner, or in the right season. Some would have heaven ; but, if God save them, he must save their sins also, for they do not mean to part with them ; and how heaven can hold God and such company together, judge you : as they come in at one door, Christ and all those holy spirits with him would run out at the other. Ungrateful wretches ! that will not come to this glorious feast, unless they may bring that with them which would disturb the joy of that bliss- ful state, and offend all the guests that sit at the table with them ; yea, drive God out of his own mansion-house. A second sort would have heaven, but, like him in Ruth, iv. 2 — 4, who had a mind to his kinsman Ellmclech's land, and would have paid for the piu'chase, but he liked not to have it by marrying Rnth, and so missed of it. Some seem very forward to have heaven and salvation, if their own righteousness could procure the same ; all the good they do, and duties they perform, they lay up for this purchase, but at last perish, because they close not with Christ, and take not heaven in his right. ' A third sort are content to have it by Christ, but their desires are so impotent and listless, that they put them upon no vigoi'ous use of means to obtain him, and so, like the sluggard, they starve, beca\ise they will not pull their hands out of their bosom of sloth to reach their food that is before them ; for the world they have metal enough, and too much ; they trudge far and near for that, and when they have ran themselves out of breath, can stand and ' pant after the dust of the earth,' as the prophet phraseth it, Amos ii. 7. But for Christ, and obtaining interest in him, O how key-cold are they ! There is a kind of cramp invades all the powers of their souls when they should pray, hear, examine their hearts, draw out their aflections in hungerings and thirstings after his grace and Spirit. It is strange to see how they even now went full swoop to the world, are suddenly becalmed, not a breath of wind stirring to any purpose in their souls after these things : and is it any wonder that Christ and heaven shoidd be denied to them that have no more mind to them? Lastly, Some have zeal enough to have Christ and heaven, but it is when the master of the house is risen, and hath shut to the door ; and truly then they may stand long enough rapping before any^ come to let them in. There is no gospel preached in another world; but as for thee, poor soul, who art persuaded to renounce thy lusts, throw away the conceit of thy own righteousness, that thou mayest run with more speed to Christ; and art so possessed with the excellency of Christ, thy own present need of him, and salvation by him, that thou pantest after him more than life itself; — in God's name go on and speed, be of good comfort; he calls tliee by name to come unto him, that thou mayest have rest for thy soul. There id an office in the word where thou mayest have thy soul and its external happiness insured to thee. Those tiiat come to him, as he will himself in no wise cast away, so not suffer any other to pluck them away. ' This day,' said Christ to Zaccheus, ' salvation is come to thy house,' Luke xix. 9. Salvation conies to thee, poor soid, that openest thy heart to receive Christ ; tiiou hast eternal life already, as siu-e as if thou wast "a glorified saint now walking in that heavenly city. O sirs, if there were a free trade proclaimed to the Indies, enough gold for all that went, and a certainty of making a safe voyage, who would stay at home ? But alas, this can never be had : alfthis, and infinitely more, may be said for heaven ; and yet how few leave their uncertain hopes of the woidd to trade for it? What account can be given for this, but the desperate atheism of men's hearts ? They are not yet fully persuaded whether the Scripture speaks true or not, whether they may rely upon the discovery that God makes in his word of this new-found land, and those mines of spirituals there to be had, as certain. God open the eyes of the unbelieving world, as he did the prophet's servants, that they may see these things to be realities, not fictions; it is faith only that gives a being to these things in our hearts. By faith Moses saw him that was invisible. Tha-dly^ Earthly things, when we have them, we are not sure of them ; like IN IIEAVEXLY THINGS. 161 birds, tlicy hop up and down, now on tliis liedge, and anon upon that, none can call them his own: rich to-day, and poor to-morrow ; in health when we lie down, and arrested with ])angs of death hefore midniijht. Joyful ])arents, one while solacing ourselves with the liopes of our hudding j)osterity, and may be ere long knocks one of Job's messengers at our door to tell us they are all dead; now in honour, but who kiu)\vs whether we shall not live to see that buried in scorn and reproach? The Scripture compares the uudtitude of people to waters; the great ones of the world sit upon these waters ; as the ship Hoats upon the waves, so do their honours upon the breath and favour of the multitude ; and how long is he like to sit that is carried upon a wave? One while they are mounted up to heaven, as David speaks of the ship, and then down again they fall into the deep. ' We have tey parts in the king,' say the men of Israel, 2 Sam. xix. 43 ; and in the very next verse, Sheba doth but sound a trumpet of sedition, saying, * We have no part in David, no inheritance in the son of Jesse ;' and the wind is in another corner presently ; for it is said, ' Kvery man of Israel went up from afti'r David, and followed Sheba.' Thus was David cried up and down, and tliat ahnost in the same breath. Unliap])y num. he that hath no surer ])ortion than what this variable world will offer him ! The time of mourning for the departure of all earthly enjoyments is at hand; we .shall see them, as Eglon's servants did their lord, frdlen down dead before us, and weep because they are not. What folly then is it to dandle this vain world in our affections, whose joy, like the child's laughter on the mother's knee, is sure to end in a cry at last, and neglect heaven and heavenly things which endure for ever! O remember Dives stirring up his pillow, and com- posing himself to rest, how he was called up with the tidings of death before he was wann in his bed of ease, and laid with sorrow on another, which God had made for him in flames, from whence we hear him roaring in the angiush of his conscience ! O soul, couldst thou hut get an interest in the heavenly things we are speaking of, these would not thus slip from under thee ! heaven is a king- dom that cannot be shaken, Christ an abiding portion, his graces and comforts sure waters that fail not, but spring up unto eternal life. The quails that were food for the Israelites' lust soon ceased, but the rock that was drink to their faith followed them ; this rock is Christ : make sure of him, and he will make sure of thee ; he will follow thee to thy sick bed, and lie in thy bosom, cheering tliy heart with his sweet comforts, when worldly joys lie cold upon thee, as David's clothes on liim, and no warmth of comfort to be got from them. When thy outward senses are locked up, that thou canst neither see the face of thy dear friends, nor hear the counsel and comfort they would give thee, then he will come, though these doors be shut, and say. Peace be to thee, my dear child, fear not death or devils, I stay to receive thy last breath, and have here my angels waiting, that as soon as thy soul is breathed out of thy body, they may carry and lay it in my bosom of love, where I will nourish thee with those eternal joys that my blood hath pinxdiased, and my love prepared for thee. Fourthly, Earthly things are empty and unsatisfying. We may have too much, but never encnigh of them ; they oft breed loathing, but never content ; and indeed how should they, being so disproportionate to the vast desires of these immortal spirits that dwell in our bosoms? A spirit hath not flesh and l)ones, neither can it be fed with sucli ; and what hath the world, but a few bones covered over with some fleshly delights, to give it? The less is blessed of the greater, not the greater of the less. These things, therefore, being so far inferior to the nature of man, he must look higher if he will be blessed, even to (iod himself, who is the Father of spirits. God intended these things for oiu- use, not enjoyment; and what folly is it to think we can scpiceze that from them which God never put in them? Tliey are breasts, that, moderately drawn, yield good milk, sweet, refreshing ; but wring them too hard, and you will suck nothing but wind or blood from them. We lose what they have by expecting to find what they have not : none find less sweetness, and more dissatisfaction in these things, than those who strive most to please themselves with them. Tlie cream of the creature floats on the top ; and he that is not content to skim it, but thinks by drinking a deeper draught to find yet more, goes fiu'ther to s])eed worse ; l)eing siu'c by the disaj)|)ointment he shall meet to ])ierce himself through with many sorrows. But all these fears might happily ](52 WHEREFORE TAKE UNTO VOU be escaped, if thou wouldst turn thy hack on the creature, and face about for heaven. Labour to get Christ, and through him hopes of heaven ; and thou takest the right road to content, thou shalt see it before thee, and enjoy the prospect of it as thou goest, yea, find that every step thou drawest nearer and nearer to it. Oh what a sweet change wouldst thou find! as a sick man coming out of an impure, imwholesome climate, where he never was well, when he gets into fresh air, or his native soil, so wilt thou find a cheering of thy spirit, and reviving thy soul Vv'ith unspeakable content and peace. Having once closed with Christ, first, the guilt of all thy sins is gone, and this spoiled all thy mirth before : all your dancing of a child, when some pin pricks it, will not make it quiet or merry ; well, now that pin is taken out which robbed thee of the joy of thy life. Secondly, Thy nature is renewed and sanctified, and when is a man at ease, if not v^hen he is in health? And what is holiness but the creature restored to his right temper in which God created him ? Thirdly, Thou becomest a child of God, and that cannot but please thee well, I hope, to be son or daughter to so great a King. Foiu-thly, Thou hast a right to heaven's glory, whither thou shalt ere long be conducted to take and hold possession of that thy inheritance for ever : and who can tell what that is ? Nicephorus tells us of one Agbarus, a great man, that hearing so much of Christ's fame, by reason of the miracles he wrought, sent a painter to take his picture ; and that the painter when he came was not able to do it, because of that radiancy of Divine splendour which sat on Christ's face. Whether this be true or no, I leave it; but to be sure, there is such a brightness on the face of Christ glori- fied, and that happiness which in heaven saints shall have with him, as for- bids vis, that dwell in mortal flesh, to conceive of it aright, much more to express ; it is best going thither to be informed, and then we shall confess we on earth heard not half of what we there find, yea, and that oiu- present con- ceptions are no more like to that vision of glory we shall there have, than the sun in the painter's picture is to the sun itself in the heavens. And if all this be so, why then do you spend money for that Avhich is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not, yea, for that which keeps you from that which can satisfy ? Earthly things are like some trash, which do not only not nourish, but take away the appetite from that which would: heaven and heavenly things are not relished by a soul vitiated with these. Manna, though for deliciousness called angels' food, was yet but light bread to an Egyptian palate. But these spiritual things depend not on thy opinion, O man, whoever thou art, as earthly things in a great measure do, that the value of them should rise or fall as the world's exchange doth, and as vain man is pleased to rate them : think gold dirt, and it is so, for all the royal stamp on it ; count the swelling titles of worldly honour that proud dust so brags in, vanity, and they are such; but have base thoughts of Christ, and he is not the worse; slight heaven as much as you will, it will be heaven still ; and when thovi comest so far to thy wits with the prodigal as to know which is the best fare, husks or bread ; where is the best living, among hogs in the field, or in thy Father's house ; then thou wilt know how to judge of these heavenly things better. Till then go and make the best market thou canst of the world ; but look not to find this pearl of price, true satisfaction to thy soul, in any of the creature shops ; and were it not better to take it when thou mayest have it, than after thou hast wearied thyself in vain in following the creature, to come back with shame, and may be misg of it here also, because thou wouldest not have it when it was offered? Verse 13. Wherefore take unto you the tvhoJe armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having dune all, to stand. The apostle in these words resumes his former exhortation, mentioned ver. 11, and presseth it with a new force from that more particular discovery which he gives of the enemy, ver. 12 ; where, like a faithful scout, he makes a fall report of Satan's great power and malice, and also discloseth what a dan- gerous design he hath upon the saints, no less than to despoil them of all that is THE WHOLE ARMOUR OI' GDI). IQ.S heavenly: from all which he gives them a second alarm, and bids them 'Arm ! arm ! wlierefore take unto you,' &c. In tlie words consider, First, The exhortation with the inference, ' Wherefore take luito you the whole armour of God.' Secondly, The argument with which he ui'geth the exhortation, and that is double. ' First, ' That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.' Secondly, ' Having done all, to stand ;' that is, both able to fight, and able to conquer. As for the first general, 'the exhortation,' we shall wave it as to the substance of it, being the same with what we have handled, ver. 11. Only there are two observables which we shall lightly touch. The one from the repetition of the very same exhortation so soon, one verse only interposed. The other from the verb the apostle useth here ; which being not the same with ver. 11, affords a different note. There it is, endiisasthe, here, analaiii- hanele. CHAPTER I. THE REASON WHY THE APOSTLE RENEWS THE SAME EXHORTATION ; AND ALSO WHAT TRUTHS MINISTERS ARE OFTEN TO PREACH TO THEIR PEOPLE. First, of the first, the repetition of the same exhortation, and that in so short a space. Sure it was not for want of matter, but rather out of abundance of zeal, that he harps the second time on the same string. Indeed, he is the better workman, who di-ives one nail home with reiterated blows, than he which covets to enter many, but fastens none. Such preachers are not likely to reach the conscience, w'ho hop from one truth to another, but dwell on none. Every hearer is not so quick as the preacher, to take a notion as it is first darted forth ; neither can many carry away so much of that sermon, which is made up all of varieties, where a point is no sooner named, but presently pulls back its hand, and another makes a breach and comes forth, before the first hath been opened and hammered upon the conscience by a powerful application, as where the discourse is homogeneal, and some one necessary truth is cleared, insisted on, and urged home with blow upon blow ; here the whole matter of the discourse is akin, and one part remembered, brings the memory acquainted with the other; whereas in the former, one puts out the other in a weak memory. Short hints and away, may please a scholar, but not so profitable for others ; the one more fit for the schools, but the other for the pulpit. Were I to buy a garment in a shop, I should like him better that lays one good piece or two before me that are for my turn, which I may fully examine, than him who takes down all his shop, and heaps piece upon piece, merely to shew his store, till at last for variety I can look attentively on none, they lie so one upon another. Again, As it is profitable thus to insist on truths, so it is not unbecoming a minister to preach the same truths again and again : Paul here goes over and over the same exhortation, ver. 11 and 13 ; and elsewhere tells us, ' this is not grievous to him, but to them it is safe,' to hear the same thing over and over, Phil. iii. 1. There are three sorts of truths must in our ministry be preached oft. First, Fundamental truths, or, as we call them, catechism points, that contain truths necessary to be known and believed. The weight of the whole building lies on these ground-cells more than on superstructory truths. In a kingdom there are some staple commodities and trades, without which the com- monwealth could not subsist, as wool, corn, &c., in our country ; and these ought to be encouraged above others, which though they be an ornament to the nation, ■ yea, add to the riches of it, yet are not so necessary to the subsistence of it. Thus here, there is an excellent use of our other ministerial labours, as they tend to beautify and adorn, yea, enrich the Christian with the knowledge of spiritual mysteries ; l)ut tliat which is chiefly to be regarded, is the constant faithful opening of those main truths of the gospel ; these are the landmarks, and shew us the bounds of truths; and as it is in towns that abut one upon another, if the inhabitants do not sometimes perambulate, and walk the bounds, to shew the youth what they are, when the old studs are gone, the next gene- ration may lose all their privileges by their encroaching neighbours, because "m 2 Ig4' WHEREFORE TAKE UNTO YOU not able to tell what is their own. There is no fundamental truth, but hath some evil neighbour (heresy I mean) butting on it ; and the very reason why a spiri of error hath so encroached of late years upon truth, is, because we have not walked the bounds with our people, in acquainting them with, and esta- blishing their judgments on these fundamental points, so frequently and carefully as is requisite. And people are so much in fault, because they cast so much contempt upon this work, that they count a sermon on such points next to lost, and only child's meat. Secondly, Those truths are oft to be preached, which ministers observe to be most undermined by Satan or his instruments in the judgments or lives of their people. The preacher must read and study his people as diligently as any book in his study; and as he finds them, dispense like a faithful steward imto them. Paul takes notice that the Galatians had been in ill handling by false apostles, who had even bewitched them back to the law in that great point of justification, and see how he beats upon that point. Our people complain, we are so much, so oft reproving the same error or sin ; and the fault is their own, because they will not leave it. Who will blame the dog for continuing to bark, when the thief is all the while in the yard ? Alas, alas, it is not once or twice rousing against sin, will do it ! When people think the minister shows his laziness, because he preaches the same things, he may then be exercising liis patience, in continuing to exhort and rejirove those who oppose, waiting, if at last (Jod will give them repentance, to the acknowledging of the truth. We are bid to lift \ip our voice like a trumpet ; and would you have us cease while the battle lasts, or sound a retreat when it should be a battle ? Tliirdly, Truths of daily use and practice. These are like bread and salt; whatever else is on, these must be on the board every meal. St. Peter was of this mind, 2 Pet. i. 12 : 'I will not be negligent to put you always in remem- brance of these things, though ye know them.' He had, you may see, been speaking of such graces and duties, that they could not pass a daj' without the exercise of them, and therefore will be ever their monitor to stir up their piu'e minds about them. All is not well, when a man is weary of his ordinary food, and nothing will go down but rarities ; the stomach is sickly, when a man delights rather to pick some salad, than eat of solid meat : and how far this dainty age is gone in this sjiiritual disease, I think few are so far come to them- selves, as yet to consider and lament. O sirs, be not weary, as in doing, so not in hearing those savoury tiniths preached you have daily use of, because ye know them, and have heard them often: faith and repentance will be good doctrine to preach and hear to the end of the world. You may as well quarrel with God because he hath made but one heaven, and one way to it, as be offended .at the preacher for preaching these over and over. If thy heart be humble, and thy palate spiritual, old truths will be new to thee every time thou hearest them. In heaven, the saints draw all their wine of joy, as I may so say, at one tap, and shall to all eternity, and yet it never tastes flat. God is that one ol)ject their soids are filled with, and never weary of; and can any- thing of God and his love be wearisome to thee in the hearing here ? I am not all this while an advocate for any loiterer in our Lord's vineyard, for any sloth- ful servant in the work of the gospel, who wraps up his talent in idleness, or buries it in the earth, where, may be, he is digging and playing the worldling all the week, and then hath nothing to set before his people on the Lord's day, but one or two mouldy loaves, which were kneaded many years before. Tliis is not the good stewai'd ; here is the old, but where are the new things which he should bring out of his treasure ? If the minister labours not to increase his stock, he is the worst thief in the parish. It is wicked for a man, trusted with the improving of orphans' estates, to let them lie dead by him ; much more for a minister not to improve his gifts, which I may call the townstock given for the good of the souls of both rich and poor. If that preacher was wise, Eccl. xii. 9, who still ' taught the people knowledge,' that is, was ever going on, endeavouring to build them higher in knowledge, and that he might, did ' give good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs;' then surely he will be proved a foolish preacher at last, that wastes his time in sloth, or spends more of it in studying how to add to his estate out of his people's, than how to add to their gifts and graces, by a conscientious endeavour to increase his own. THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. I(j5 CHAPTER II. THE BEST OF SAINTS SUBJECT TO DECLINE IN THEIR GRACES, AND WHY WE ARE TO ENDEAVOUR A RECOVERY OF DECAYS IN GRACE. The second observable in tbe exhortation is taken from the verb which the apostle iisetli, analamhanefe, which signilies not only to take, but to take again, or recover a thing which we have lost, or reassunic a thing which for the present we have left. Now the apostle writing to the saints at Ephesus, who (at least many of them) were not now to put on this armour by a conversion, or the first work of faith, which no doubt had already passed u])on many among them, he, in regard of them and believers to the end of the world, hath a further meaning, i. e. that they would put on more clothes where this armour hangs loose, and they would recover where they have let fall any duty, or decayed in any grace. So that the note is, Doct. That the Christian should have an especial care to repair his broken armour, to recover his decayed graces. This armour may be battered ; I might shew sad exam])les in the several pieces. Was not Jacob's girdle of truth and sincerity unbuckled, when he used that sniful policy to get the blessing? lie was not the plain man then, but the supplanter; but he had as good have stayed God's time; he was paid home in his own kind: he puts a cheat on his father, and did not Laban put a cheat on him, giving Leah for llacliel ? What say you of David's breastplate of righteousness, in the matter of Uriali ? Was it not shot through, and that holy man feai-fuUy wounded, who lay almost a year (for aught we read of him) before he came to himself, so far as to be thoroughly sensible of his sin, till Nathan, a faithful surgeon, was sent to search tlie wound, and clear it of that dead flesh which liad grown over it ? And Jonah, (otherwise a holy prophet,) when God wovild send him on an errand to Nineveh, he hath his shoes to seek, I mean that preparation and readiness with which his mind should have been shod, to have gone at the first call. Good Hezekiah, we find how near liis helmet of hope was of being beat off his head, who tells us himself what his thoughts were in the day of his distress ; that he ' should not see the Lord in the land of the living,' expecting that God would never let go his hold, ' till like a lion he had bi'oke his bones, and at last made an end of him.' Even Abraham himself, famous for faith, yet had his fits of unbelief, and distrustful qualms coming over his valiant heart. Now in this ease, the Christian's care shoiUd be to get his armour speedily repaired ; a battered helmet is next to no helmet, in point of present use ; grace in a decay is like a man pulled off' his legs by sickness ; if some means be not used to recover it, little service will be done by it, or comfort received from it. Therefore Christ gives the church of Ephesus (to whom Paul wrote this epistle) this coimsel, to ' remember from whence she was fallen, to repent and do her first works.' How many does a declining Christian wrong ac once ! Eirst, He wrongs God, and that in a high degree, because God reckons upon more honour to be paid him in by his saints' grace than by all other talents which his creatin-es have to trade with in the world. He can in some sense better bear the open sins of the world, tlian the decays of his saints' graces : they, by abusing tlieir talents, rob him of his 'oil, flax, and wool ;' but the Christian by the otlier bereaves him of the glory which should ])c paid him from his faith, zeal, patience, self-denial, sincerity, and the rest. Suppose a master should trust one servant with his money, and another with his child to look to ; would be not be more displeased to see his dear child hurt, or almost killed, by the negligence of the one, than his money stolen ])y the carelessness of the other ? Grace is the new creature, the birth of the Spirit; when this comes to any harm by the Christian's careless walking, it nuist needs go nearer the heart of God, than the wrong he hath from the world, who are trusted with nothing like this. Secondly, lie that declines in grace, and labours not to repair 'it, he wrongs his brethren, who have a share in one another's grace : he wrongs his whole body, that seeks not cure for a woimd in any member. We are bid ' to love one another,' 2 John, ver. 5. But how shall we shew our love to one another? The very next words will direct us; ' And this is love, tliat we walk after his connnaiulments.' Indeed, we shew little love to our !)rethren by sinning, whereby we are sure either to ensnare them, or grieve them : and how to let Jg(J WHEREFOliE TAKE UNTO YOU grace go down, and sin not go np, is a riddle to any that know what they both are. Thirdly, The Christian wrongs himself in not endeavouring to repair his broken armour, and recover his declining grace. By this he loses the evidence of his inheritance, or at least so blots it, that it cannot be so clearly perceived by him. A declining Christian must needs be a doubting Christian, because the common symptom of an hypocrite is, to wear and waste like a stake set in the groimd, which rots ; while true grace, like the tree, grows. Is not this the knot which the devil puzzleth many poor souls withal, and finds them work for many years to untie ? If thou wast a Christian, thou wouldst grow ; right saints go from strength to strength, and thou goest from strength to weakness. They go up the hill to Zion ; every ordinance and providence is a step that bears them nearer heaven : but thou goest down the hill, and art further from thy salvation than when thou didst first believe (as thou though test.) And doth it stand with thy wisdom. Christian, to put a staff into the devil's hand, an argu- ment into his mouth, to dispute against thy salvation with? If you held an estate by the life of a child, which upon the death of it should all go away from you, that child I warrant you should be well looked unto ; his head should not ache, but you would post to the physician for coimsel. I pray what is your evidence for that glorious estate you hope for? Is it not Christ within you? Is not this new creature (which may well be called Christ for its likeness to him) the young heir of heaven 's glory ? And when that is sick or weak, is it not time to use all means for its recovery? While thus, thou canst neither live nor die comfortably. Not live. A man in a consumption has little joy of his life : he neither finds sweetness in his meat, nor delight in his work, as an healthful man doth. Oh, how sweet is the promise to faith, when active and vigorous ! How easy the yoke of the command to the Christian, when his conscience is not galled with guilt, nor his strength enfeebled by temptation ! But the Christian in a declining condition tastes not the promise ; every command is grievous, and every duty burdensome to him : he goes in pain, like one whose foot is out of joint, though the way be ever so pleasant. And he is as unfit to die, as he is to live. Such an one can like no more to hear the news of death, than a tenant that wants his rent doth to hear of the quarter-day. This made David beg time of God ; ' Spare me a little, that I may recover my strength.' Having shewn you why the Christian should endeavour to recover his declining graces, it will be very requisite to give a word of counsel to the Christian. First, To direct him hov/ to judge of the declining state of grace, that he may not pass a false judgment upon himself therein. Secondljr, To direct him when he finds grace to be in a declination, how he may recover it. CHAPTER III. A CAUTIONARY DIRECTION FROM WHAT WE MAY NOT, AS ALSO FROM WHAT WE MAY JUDGE OUR GRACES TO BE IN A DECLINATION. Quest, First of the first; how may a Christian judge whether grace be declining in him or no ? Answ. First, I shall resolve this negatively, and shew by what he is not to judge his grace to decline. Secondly, Positively, by what he may certainly conclude a decay of grace. First, Negativeh', and that in several particulars. First, Christian, do not judge grace to be fallen weaker, because thy sense of corruption is grown stronger. This oft lies at the bottom of poor souls' complaints in this case ; oh, they never felt pride, hypocrisj^, and other cori'uptions so haunt them, as now ; none knows how they are vexed with these and the like, beside themselves. Now let me ask thee, who makes this sad moan ? whether thou dost not think these corruptions were in thee before thou didst thus feel them ? How oft hast thou prayed as formally, and not been troubled ? How oft hast thou stood chatting with the same lusts, and thy soul hath not been laid low before the Lord vv'ith such, abasement of thyself as now? Deal faithfully between God and thj' soul, and tell not a lie for God, by bearing false witness against thyself If it bp tlius, thou hast raiher a comfortable sign of grace THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. 1(^7 growing, than decaying. Sin cannot be on the getting hand, if the sense of sin grow quick. This is the concomitant of a thriving soul ; none so full of complaints of their own hearts as such; the least sin goes now to their very souls, which makes them think worse of themselves than ever : but it is not the increase of sin in them, but the advance of their love to Christ makes them judge so. When the sun shines with some power, and the year gets up, we observe, though we may have frost and snow, yet they do not lie long, but are soon dissolved by the sun. Oh ! it is a sweet sign that the love of Christ shines with a force upon thy soul, that no corruptions can lie long in thy bosom, but they melt into sorrow and bitter complaints; tliat is, the decaying sold, where sin lies bound up and frozen, little sense of, or sorrow for it appears. Secondly, Take heed thou thinkest not grace decays, because thy comfort withdi-aws. The influence of the sun comes where the light of it is not to be found ; yea, is mighty, as appears in those mines of gold and silver which are concocted by the same. And so may the actings of grace be vigorous in thee, when least under the shinings of his countenance. Did ever faith triumph more than in our Saviour, crying, 'My God, my God I' Here faith was at its meridian, when it was midnight in respect of joy. Possibly thou comest from an ordinance, and bringest not home with thee those sheaves of comfort thou usest to do, and therefore concludest grace acted not in thee as formerly. Ti-uly, if thou hast nothing else to go by, thou mayest wrong the grace of God in thee exceedingly ; because thy comfort is extrinsical to thy duty : a boon which God may give or not, yea, doth give to the weak, and deny to the strong. The traveller may go as fast, and ride as much ground, when the sun doth not shine as when it doth; though indeed, he goes not so merrily on his joiu'ney ; nay, sometimes he makes the more haste ; the warm sun makes him sometimes to lie down and loiter ; but when dark and cold, he jiuts on with more speed. Some graces thrive best, like some flowers, in the shade, such as humility, dependence on God, &c. Thirdly, Take heed thou dost not mistake, and think thy gi-ace decays, when may be it is only thy temptations increase, and not thy grace decreases. If you should hear a man say, because he cannot to-day run so fast, when an hundred weight is on his back, as he could yesterday without any such a burden, that therefore he was grown weaker, you would soon tell him where his mistake lies. Temptation lies not in the same heaviness always upon the Christian's shoulder. Observe, therefore, whether Satan is not more than ordinary let loose to assault thee ; whether thy temptations come not with more force and violence than ever ; possibly, though thou dost not with the same facility overcome these, as thou hast done less, yet grace may act stronger in conflicting with the greater than in overcoming the less. The same ship, that when light ballasted and favoured with the wind, goes mounting ; at another time, deeply laden, and going against wind and tide, may move with a slow pace, and yet they in the ship take more pains to make it sail thus, than they did when it went faster. Secondly, Positively ; how thou mayest conclude that grace is declining ; and that in a threefold respect. First, In reference to temptations to sin. Secondly, In refei-ence to the duties of God's worship. Thirdly, The frame of thy heart in worldly employments. First, In reference to sin ; and that is threefold. First, When thou art not so wakeful to discover the cncroachings of sin upon thee as formerly. At one time v.'e find David's heart smote him, when he but rent the skirt of Saul's garment. At another time, when his eye glanced on Bathsheba, he takes no such notice of the snare Satan had him in, and so is led from one sin to another ; which plainly shews that grace in him was heavy- eyed, and his heart not in so holy a frame as it had been. If an enemy comes up to the gates, and the sentinel not so nuich as gives an alarm to the city of his approach, it shews he is oil" his guard, either fallen asleep or worse. If grace were awake, and thy conscience had not contracted some hardness, it would do its ofllce. Secondly, When a temptation to sin is discovered, and tliou findest thy heart shut uj>, that thou d^'sl not prav against it, or not with that zeal and lidy ]gg WHEREFORE TAKE UNTO YOU indignation as formerly upon such occasions, it is a bad sign that hist liath got an advantage of thy grace, that thou canst not readily betake thyself to thy arms. Tliy affections are bribed, and this makes thee so cold a suitor at the throne of grace for help against thine enemy. Thirdly, When the arguments prevailing most with thee to resist temptations to sin, or to mourn for sin committed, are more carnal and less evangelical than formerly. May be thou rememberest when thy love to Christ would have spit lire on the face of Satmi, tempting thee to such a sin, but now that holy fire is so abated, tliat if there were not some other carnal motives to make the vote full, it would hazard to be carried for it rather than against it. And so in mourning for a sin, there is possibly now some slavish argvnnents,likean onion in the eye, which makes thee weep, rather than pure ingenuity arising from love to God, whom thou hast offended. This speaks a sad decay ; and the more mixture there is of such carnal arguments, either in the resisting of, or mourning for, sin, the greater the declination of grace is. David's natural heat sure was nuich decayed when he needed so many clothes to be laid on him, and yet feel so little lieat; the time was he would have sweat with fewer. I am afraid of many, their love to Christ will be found, in these declining times, to have lost so much of its youthful vigour, that what would formerly have put thenii hito a holy fury and burning zeal against some sins, such as sabbath-breaking, pi'ide of apparel, neglect of family duties, &c., hath now much ado to keep any heat at all in thom against the same. Secondly, In point of duties of worship. First, if thy heart doth not prompt thee with that forwardness and readiness as formerly, to hold communion with God in any duty. Possibly thou knowest the time when thy heart echoed back to the motions of God's Spirit, bidding thee 'seek his face; Thy face. Lord, will I seek;' yea, thou didst long as much till a sabbath or sermon season came, as a carnal wretch doth till it be gone ; but now thy pulse doth not beat so quick a march to the ordinances, public or secret. Nature cannot but decay if appetite to food go away. A craving soul is the thriving soul ; such a child that will not let his mother rest, but is frequently crying for the breast. Secondly, When thou declinest in thy care to perform duties in a spiritual sort, and to preserve tlie sense of those more inward failings, which in duty none but thyself can check thee of. It is not frequency in duty, but spiritiudity in duty, causeth thriving ; and therefore neglect in this point soon brings gi-ace into a consumptive posture. Possibly, soul, the time was thou wert not satisfied with praying, but thou didst watch thy heart strictly, as a man would every piece in a sum of money he pays, lest he should wrong his friend with any bi'ass or imcurrent coin ; thou wouldst have God not only have duty, but duty stamped with that faith which makes it current, have that zeal and sincerity which makes it gospel-weight ; but now thou art more careless and formal. Oh, look to it, poor soid ! thou wilt, if tlum continue thus careless, melt in thy spiritual estate apace ; such dealings will spoil thy trade with heaven ; God will not take off these flighty duties at thy hands. Thirdly, When a Christian gets little spiritual nom-ishment from communion with God to what he hath done. The time hatli been, it may be, thou coiddst shew what came of thy praying, hearing, and fasting ; but now the case is altered. Tliere is a double strength in communion which God imparts to a soul in a healthful disposition ; strength to faith, and strength for our obediential walking. Dost thou hear and pray, and get no more strength to hold by a promise ; no more poAver over, or brokenness of heart under, thy usual corrup- tions? What, come down the moimt, and break the tables of God's law as soon as thou art off tlie place ? As deep in thy passion, as uneven in thy course as before.' There is a sure decay of that inward heat which should and would, if in his right temper, suck some nourishment from these. Thirdly, By thy behaviour in thy worldly employments. First, W'hen thy woiddly occasions do not leave thee in so free and spiritual a disposition to return into the presence of God as formerly. It may be thou couldst have come from thy sho]) and family emploj'ments to thy closet, and fmd that they have kept tliee in frame, yea, perha])s delivered tliee uj) in a better frame for those duties ; but now it is otherwise, thou canst not so shake THE WHOLE ARMOUK OF GOD. |()9 them off, but they cleave to thy spirit, and give an earthly savour to thy praying and hearing ; tliou hast reason to hewail it. When nature decays, men go more stooping ; and it is a sign some such decay is in thee, that thou canst not as thou usest lift up thy heart from earthly to spiritual duties. They were intended as helps against temptation ; and therefore when they prove snares to us, there is a distemper on us. If we wax worse after sleep, the body is not right, because the natiu'e of sleep is to refresh ; if exercise indisposeth for work, the reason is in oiu' bodies. So here. Secondly, When thy diligence in thy particular calling is more selfish. Pos- sibly thou hast wrought in thy shop, and sat close at thy study, in obedience to the command chiefly ; thy carnal interests have swaj-ed but little with thee ; but now thou tradest more for thyself, and less for God. Oh, have a care of this ! Thirdly, When thou canst not bear tlie disappointment of thy cainial ends in thy particular calling, as thou hast done : thou workest and gettest little of the world, thou preachcst and art not much esteemed, and thou knowest not well how to brook these. The time was thou ccmldst retire thyself into God, and make up all tliou didst want elsewhere in him ; but now thou art not so well satisfiecl with thy estate, rank, and condition ; thy heart is fingering for more of these than God allows thee ; this shews declining. Children are harder to be pleased, and old men, (whose decay of nature makes them more froward, and in a manner children the second time,) than others. Labour therefore to re- cover thy decaying grace ; and as this lock grows, so thy strength with it will, to acqiiiesce in the disposiire of God's providence. CHAPTER IV. A WORD OF COUNSEL FOR THE RECOVERY OF DECLINING GR^CE. We come now to give a few directions to the Christian, how to recover de- caying grace. Inquire faithfully into the cause of thy declining. The Christian's armour decays two ways ; cither by violent battery, when the Christian is overcome by temptation to sin, or else by neglecting to furbish and scour it with the use of those means which are as oil to keep it clean and bright. Now inquire which of these have been the cause of thy decay. It is likely both conciu". First, If thy grace be weakened by any blow given it, by any sin committed by thee, there then lies a threefold duty upon thee towards the recovery of it. First, Thou art to renew thy repentance. It is Christ's counsel, Rev. ii. 5, to Ephesus, ' Repent, and do thy first works;' where it is not only conmianded as a duty, but prescribed as a means for her recovery ; as if he had said, Repent, that thou mayest do thy first works. Lo, Hos. xiv. 2, the Lord sets backsliding Israel about this work, bidding her ' take words, and turn to the Lord;' and, ver. 4, he then tells her he will take her in hand to recover her of her sins, ' I will heal their backslidings.' A repenting soul is under promise of healing; and therefore, Clnistian, go and search thy heart, as thou wouldst do thy house if some thief or murderer lay hid in it to cut thy throat in the night ; when thou hast found the sin that has done thee the mischief, then labour to fill thy heart with shame for it, and indignation against it, and so go big with sorrow, and cast it forth before the Lord in a heartbreaking confession. Better thou do this, tiian Satan do thy errand to God for tliee. Secondly, When tJiou hast renewed thy repentance, forget not, delay not then to renew thy faith on the promise for pardon. Repentance, that is like purging physic to evacuate the peccant humour ; but if faith come not pre- sently with its restorative, the poor creature will never get heart, or recover his strength. A soul inay die of a Hux of sorrow, as well as of sin ; faith hath an incarnating virtue, as they say of some strengthening meats ; it feeds upon the promise, and that is 'perfect, converting,' or rather restoring 'the soul,' Psa. xix. 7. Though thou wert pined to skin and bones, all thy strength wasted, yet faith would soon recruit thee, and enable every grace "to jjerfomi its office cheerfully. Faith sucks pence from the pnmiise, called ' peace in believing ;' from peace flows joy ; ' being justified l)y faith, we have peace with God,' Rom. v. 1 ; and, ver. 2, ' We rejoice in hope of glory;' and joy aflbrds strength, ' the joy f)f the Lord is our strength.' J'yQ WHEREFORE TAKE UNTO YOU Thirdly, Back both these with a daily endeavour to mortify those lusts which most prevail over thy grace. Weeds cannot thrive and the flowers also ; when grace doth not act vigorously and freely, conclude it is oppressed with some contrary lust, which weighs down its spirits, and makes them lumpish ; even as superfluous humours do load the natural spirits in our bodies, that we have little joy to stir or go about any business till they be evacuated : and therefore ply this work close ; it is not a day's work or two in the year, like physic at spring and fall. Nothing more vain than to make a bustle, as the papists do at their Lent, or as some unsound professors among ourselves, who seem to bestir them- selves before a sacrament or day of fasting, with a great noise of zeal, and then let those ^'ery lusts live peaceably in them all tl>e year after. No, this is child- play, to do and undo ; thou must ' mortify daily thy lusts by the Spirit," Rom. viii. 13. Follow but this work conscientioiisly in thy Christian course, making it thy endeavour, as constantly as the labouring man goes out every day to work in the field where his calling lies, to watch thy lieart, and use all means for the discovery of sin ; and as it breaks forth, to be humbled for it, and be chopping at the root of it with the axe of mortification; and thou shalt see, by the blessing of God, v\'hat a change for the better there will be in the constitution of thy grace ; thou, who art now so poor, so pale, that thou art afraid to see thy own face long in the glass of thy own conscience, thou shalt then reflect with joy upon thy own conscience, and dare to converse with thyself without those surprisals of horror and fear which before did appal thee ; thy grace, though it shall not be thy rejoicing, yet h will be thy evidence for Christ, in whom it is, and lead thee in with boldness to lay claim to him ; while the loose Christian, ■whose grace is overgrown with lusts, for want of this weeding-hook, shall stand trembling at the door, questioning whether his grace be true or no ; and from that, doubt of his welcome. Secondly, If, upon inquiry, thou findest that thy armour decays, rather for want of scouring than by any blow from sin presumptuously committed, (as that is most common and ordinary, rust will soon spoil the best armour, and negligence give grace its bane, as well as gross sins,) then apply thyself to the use of those means which God hath appointed for strengthening grace. If the fire goes out by taking oft' the wood, what may preserve it but by laying it on again ? First, I shall send thee to the word of God. Be more frequently conversant with it. David tells us where he renewed his spiritual life, and got his soul so oft into a heavenly heat, when grace in him began to chill: 'The word,' he tells us, 'quickened him ;' this was the sunny bank he sat under. The word draws forth the Christian's grace, by presenting every one with an object suitable to act upon, this is of great power to rouse them up ; as the coming of a friend makes us, though sleepy before, shake oft" all drowsiness, to enjoy his company. Aftections are actuated when their object is before them; if we love a per- son, this is excited by sight of him ; if we hate one, our blood riseth much more against him when before us. Now the word brings the Christian's graces and their objects together. Here love may delight herself with the beholding Christ, who is set out to life there in all his love and loveliness ; here the Christian may see his sins in a glass that will not flatter him ; and can there any godly sorrow be in the heart, any hatred of sin, and not come forth, while the man is reading what they cost Christ for them ? Secondly, From the word go to meditation ; this is a bellows to the fire : that grace which lies choked and eaten up for want of exercise, will by this be cleared and break forth ; while thou art musing this fire will burn, and thy heart grow hot within thee, according to the nature of the subject thy thoughts dwell upon. Resolve therefore. Christian, to inclose some time from all worldly suitors, wherein thou mayest every day, if possible, at least take a xievf of the most remarkable occurrences that have passed between God and thee. First, ask thy soul what takings it hath had that day, what mercies heaven hath sent in to thee ; and do not, when thou hast asked the question, like Pilate, go out, but stay till thy soul hath made report of God's gracious dealings with thee. And if thou art wise to observe, and faithful to relate them, thy conscience must tell thee that the cock was never tuined, the breast of mercy never put up all tlio day ; yen, while (lion art viewing these fresh mercies, telling over THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD. 1 7 J this new coin, hot out of the mint of God's bounty, ancient mercies will come crowding in upon thee, and call for a ])lace in thy thoughts, and tell thee what God liath done for thee, months and years ago ; and, indeed, old debts should not be paid last; give them. Christian, all a hearing one time or another, and tliou shalt see how they work upon tliy ingenuous spirit. It is with the Christian in this case, as with some mercliant's servant that keeps his master's cash; he tells his master he hath a great sum of his by him, and desires he would discharge him of it, and see how his accounts stand; but he can never find him at leisure. There is a great treasure of mercy always in the Christian's hands, and conscience is oft calling the Christian to take the account, and see what God has done for him ; but seldom it is he can find time to tell his mercies over ; and is it any wonder that such should go behind-hand in their spiritual estate, who take no more notice what the gracious dealings of God are with them? How can he be thankful that seldom thinks of what he receives? or patient when God afflicts, that wants one of the most powerful arguments to pacify a mutinous spirit in trouble, and that is taken from the abundant good ■we receive at the hands' of the Lord, as well as a little evil? How can such a soul's love flame to God that is kept at such a distance from the mercies of God, which are fuel to.it? And the like may be said of all the other graces. Secondly, Reflect upon thyself, and bestow a few serious thoughts upon thine own behaviour, what it hath been towards God and man all along the day. Ask thy soul, as Elisha his servant, Whence comest thou, O my soul ? Where hast thou been ? What hast thou done for God this day ; and how ? And when thou goest about this, look that thou neither art taken off from a thorough search, as Jacob was by Rachel's specious excuse ; nor to be found to excuse thyself, as Eli his sons, when thou shalt upon inquiry take thy heart tardy in any point of duty ; take heed what thou doest, for thou judgest for God, who receives the wi"ong by thy sin, and therefore will do himself justice, if thou will not. Thirdly, From meditation go to prayer: indeed, a soul in meditation is on his way to prayer ; that duty leads the Christian to this, and this brings help to that ; when the Christian has done his utmost by meditation to excite his graces and chase his spirit into some divine heat, he knows all this is but to lay the wood in order. The fire must come from above to kindle, and this must be fetched by prayer. They sa)^ stars have greatest influences when they are in conjunction with the sun : then sure the graces of a saint should never work more powerfully than in prayer, for then he is in the nearest conjunction and comnumion with God. That ordinance, which hath such power with God, must needs have a mighty influence on ourselves. It will not let God rest, but raiseth him up to his jieople's succour ; and is it any wonder if it be a means to rouse up and excite the Christian's gi'ace ? How oft do we see a dark cloud upon David's spirit at the beginning of his prayer, Avhich by that time he is a little warm in his work begins to clear up, and, before he ends, breaks forth into high actings of faith, and acclamations of praise ! Only here. Christian, take heed of formal praying, this is as baneful to grace as not praying. A plaster, though proper, and of sovereign virtue, yet if it be laid on cold, may do more hurt than good. Fourthly, To all the former, join fellowship and comnumion with the saints thou livest amongst. No wonder to hear a house is robbed that stands far from neighbours. He that walks in communion of saints, he travels in company, he dwells in a city where one house keeps up another, to which Jerusalem is com- pared. It is observable, concerning tlie house in whose ruins Job's children were entombed, that a wind came from the wilderness and smote the four corners of it ; it seems it stood alone. The devil knows what he does in hindering this great ordinance of comnumion of saints; in doing this, he hinders the progress of grace, yea, brings that which Christians have into a declining, wasting state. The apostle couples those two duties close together ; ' to hold fast our profession, and consider one another, and provoke unto love and to good works,' Heb. x. 2;5, 2t. Indeed, it is a dangerous step to apostasy to forsake the communion of saints; hence it is said of Demas, 'he hath left us, and embraced the present world.' O what mischief has Satan done us in thcfee few late years in this one particular ! What is liccome of this communion 172 THAT YE MAY BE ABLE TO STAND of saints? Where are two or three to be found that can agree to walk together? Those that could formerly pray together, cannot sit together at their Father's table, can hardly pray one with or one for another ; the breath of one Chris- tian is strange to another, that once lay in his bosom. ' This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.' CHAPTER V. THE WORDS OPENED, AND WHAT IS MEANT BY THE EVIL DAY. That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done, ^c. Wh come to the argmnent with which the apostle urgeth the exhortation, and that is double. The first hath respect to the hour of battle, ' That ye may be able to with- stand in the evil day.' The second to the happy issue of the war, which will crown the Christian thus armed, and that is certain victory, ' and having done all, to stand,' First, Of the first, 'That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.' But what is this evil day? Some take tliis evil day to comprehend the whole life of a Christian here below in this vale of tears ; and then the argument runs thus : take to yourselves the whole armom* of God, that ye may he able to persevere to the end of your life, which you will find, as it were, one continued day of trouble and trial. Thus Jacob di-aws a black line over his whole life, ' Few and evil have the days of my life been,' Gen. xlvii. What day shines so fair that overcasts not before night, nay, in which the Christian meets not with some shower or other, enough to deserve the name of an evil day? Every day hath its portion, yea, proportion; ' siifficient is the evil of the day.' We need not bori'ow and take up sorrows upon use of the morrow, to make up om* present load ; as we read of daily bread, so of a daily cross, Luke ix. 24, which we are bid to take, not to make ; we need not make crosses for ourselves, as we are prone to do, God in his providence will provide one for us ; and we are bid to take it up, but we hear nothing of laying it down, till cross and we lie down together ; our troubles and our lives are co-existent, live and die together ; here when joy comes, sorrow is at its heel ; staff and rod go together : Job himself, whose pi'osperity the devil so grudged, and set forth in all his bravery and pomp. Job i. 10, as if his sun had no shadow, hear what account this good man gives of this his most flourishing time, chap. iii. 26 : ' I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet.' There were some trovibles that broke his rest wh«n his bed was, to thinking, as soft as heart could wish ; even now this good man tosses and tumbles from one side to the other, and is not quiet. If one should have come to Job, and blessed him jvith his happy condition, and said. Surely, Job, thou couldst be content with what thou hast for thy portion, if thou mightest have all this settled on thee and thy heirs after thee, he would have said, as once Luther, that God should not jmt him off with these. Such is the saints' state in this bottom, that their very life here, and all the pompous entertainments of it, are their cross, because they detain them from their crown. We need nothing to make our life an evil clay, more than our absence from our chief good; which cannot be recompensed by the world, nor enjoyed v/ith it. Only this goodness there is in this evil, that it is short ; our life is but an evil day, it will not last long ; and sure it was mercy that God hath abridged so much of the term of man's life in these last days, wherein so much of Christ and heaven are discovered, that it would have put the saint's patience hard to it to have known so much of the upper world's glory, and then be kept so long from it, as the fathei-s in the first age were. O comfort one another. Christians, with this ! though your life be evil with troubles, yet it is short ; a few steps, and you are out of the rain. There is a great difference between a saint, in regard of the evils he meets with, and the wicked ; as two travellers riding con- trary ways, both taken in the rain and wet, but one rides from the rain, and so is soon out of the shower; but the other rides into the rainy corner, the further he goes, the worse he is. The saint meets with troubles as well as the wicked, but he is soon out of the shower ; when death cimies, he has fair weather : but as for the wicked, the further he goes the worse: what he meets with here is but a few drops, the great storm is the last. The poui'ing out of GA, except it be in the just execution of his wrath on him. And doth he not make a sad change, that, from fighting against Satan, engageth God as an enemy against him ? There is comfort in striving against sin and Satan, though to blood ; but none to lie sweating under the fiery indignation of a revenging God. What Satan lays on, God can take ofl"; but who can ease, if God lays on? What man would not rather die in the field fighting for his prince, than on a scaffold by the axe for cowardice or treachery ? 4. The enemy we have to do withal is such as is only to be dealt with by re- sisting. God is an enemy that is overcome by yielding ; the devil only by force of arms. First, He is a cowardly enemy; though he sets a bold face on it in tempting, he carries a fearful heart in his breast. The work is naught he goes about ; and as a thief is afraid of , every light he sees, or noise he hears, in the house he would rob, so Satan is discouraged where he finds the soul waking, and in a posture to oppose him. He fears the Christian more than thou needest him. ' Jesus I know, and Paul I know,' said the devil, Acts xix. 15. That is, I know them to my shame; they have both put me to flight, and if ye were such as they, I should fear you also. Believe it, soul, he trembles at thy faith ; put it forth in prayer to call for help to heaven against him, and exert it vigorously by rejecting the motions he makes, and thou shalt see him run. Did soldiers in a castle know that their enemies besieging them were in a distracted con- dition, and would certainly, upon their sallying out, break up and fly away, what metal and courage would this fill them withal? The Spirit of God (who knows well enough how affairs stand in the devil's camp) sends this intelli- gence unto every soul that is beset by his temptations. Jam. iv. 8, ' Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.' He cannot hurt us without our leave. The devil is not so good a drawer, but when he finds it comes not, the soul yields not, his heart then fails hini, at least for the present; as in Christ's combat, it is said, ' he departed from him for a season.' When the devil continues long the same suit, it is to be feared that person, though he hath not fully promised him, yet he hath not given him a peremptory denial. He is a suitor that listens for something to drop from the creature that may encourage him to prosecute his motion ; no way to be rid of hiin, but to shut the door lyg STAND THEREFORE. upon him, and deny all discourse with him ; which prompts to the second character. 2. He is an encroaching enemy, and therefore to be resisted. ' Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,' saith the apostle, ' neither give place to the devil,' Eph. iv. 26, as soldiers, by cowardly leaving some outwork they are set to defend, give place to their enemy, who enters the same, and from thence doth more easily shoot into the city than he could before. Thus, yielding in one temptation, we let the devil into our trench, and give him a fair advantage to do us the more mischief. The angry man, while he is raging and raving, thinks, perhaps, no more but to ease his passion by disgorging it in some bitter keen words ; but, alas, while his fury and wrath is sallying out at the portal of his lips, the devil, finding the door open, enters, and humes him further than he dreamed of. We have not to do with an Hannibal, who, though a great swordsman, yet wanted the art of following and improving the advantages his victories gave him; but with a cunning devil, that will easily lose no ground he gets. Our best way, therefore, is to give him no hand-hold, not so much as to come near the door where sin dwells, lest we be hooked in. If we mean not to be burnt, let us not walk upon the coals of temptation ; if not to be tanned, let us not stand where the sun lies. They sure forget what an insinuating, wriggling nature this serpent hath that dare yield to him in something, and make us believe they will not in another ; who will sit in the company of drunkards, frequent the places where the sin is committed, and yet pretend they mean not to be such ; that will pi-ostitute their eyes to unchaste objects, and yet be chaste ; that will lend their ears to any coniipt doctrine of the times, and yet be sound in the faith. This is a strong delusion that such were under. If a man hath not power enough to resist Satan in the less, what reason hath he to think he shall in the greater ? Thou hast not grace, it seems, to keep thee from throwing thyself into the whirl of temptation, and dost thou think, when in it, thou shalt bear up against the stream of it? One would think it is easier when in the ship to keep from falling overboard, than when in the sea to get safely into the ship again. 3. He is an accusing enemy; and of a truth folly is in that man's name who knows what a tell-tale the devil is, and yet will, by yielding to his temptation, put an errand into his mouth, with which he may accuse him to God. Some foolishly report that witches cannot hurt till they receive an alms ; but I am sure, so long as thou shewest no kindness to the devil, he cannot hurt thee, because he cannot accuse thee ; take up, therefore, holy Job's resolution. Job xxvii., ' My righteousness I hold fast : my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.' It is never sad, indeed, with the soul, till the barking is within doors ; conscience, not the devil, is the bloodhound that pulls down the creature. Oh, let not that reproach thee, and thou art well enough ! CHAPTER II. WHEREIN IS SHEWED, WHAT IT IS FOR A CHRISTIAN TO STAND IN ORDER, TOGE- THER WITH HIS DUTY IN THIS PARTICULAR, AND THE DANGER OF STRAGGLERS FROM THEIR OWN PLACE. Secondly,' ' To stand,' amounts to as much as to stand every one in his rank and proper station, and is here opposed to all disorder or straggling from our place. When a captain sees his soldiei's march or fight out of their rank and order, then he bids ' Stand.' Military discipline is so strict in this case, that it allows none to stir from their place without special warrant. It hath cost some their lives for fighting out of their place, though with great success. Manlius killed his own son for no other fault. From hence the note is : Note. That it should be the care of every Christian to stand orderly in the particular place wherein God hath set him. The devil's method is first to rout, and then to ruin. Order supposeth company, one that walks alone cannot go out of his rank. This place, therefore, and rank wherein the Christian is to stand, relates to some society or company in which he walks. The Christian may be considered relating to a threefold society — church, commonwealth, and family. In all there are several ranks and places. In the church, officers and private members. In the commonwealth, magistrates and people. In the family. STAND THEREFORE. 199 masters and servants ; parents and children ; husband and wife. The welfare of these societies consisteth in the order that is kept, when every wheel moves in its place without clashing, when every one contributes by performing the duty of his place to the benefit of the whole society ; but more distinctly, then a person stands orderly in his place, when he doth these three things : First, When he understands the pec\iliar duty of his place and relation. ' The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way,' Prov. xiv. 8. His way, that is, the way which he in particular is to walk. It will not profit a man to know .the way to York, if going to London; yet how prone are we to study another's way and work than our own ! The servant what his master's duty is, not what his is to his master. The people what the minister in his place should do, rather than what is incumbent on themselves to such as are over them in the Lord. It is not knowing another's duty, no, nor censuring the negligence of another, but doing our own that will bring us safely and comfortably to our journey's end; and how can we do it except we know it ? Solomon in no one thing gave a greater proof of his wisdom, than in asking of God wisdom to enable him for the duty of his place. Secondly, When knowing the duty of our place, we conscientiously attend to it and lay out ourselves for God therein. What Paid charged Timothy in his place, that every Christian nuist do in his ; he must meditate on these things, and give himself wholly to the discharge of his dutj' as a Christian in such a place and calling, en foiifois ist/ii, 1 Tim. iv. 15, 'be in them,' let thy heart be on thy work, and thou wholly taken up about it. The very power of godliness lies in this. Religion, if not made practicable in our several places and callings, becomes ridicidous, and vanisheth into an empty notion that is next to nothing. Yet many there are that have nothing to prove themselves Christians, but a naked profession, of whom we may say as they do of the cinnamon-tree, that the bark is more worth than all they have besides. Such the apostle speaks of, Tit. i. 16 : 'They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate.' What good works the apostle means, will appear by the next words, chap. ii. 1, where in opposition to these he presseth those duties which Christians in their parti- cular places and relations (as becometh holiness) ought to perform. A good Christian, and a disobedient wife ; a godly man, and an unfaithful servant, or undutiful child ; is a contradiction that can never be reconciled. He that walks not uprightly in his house, is but a hypocrite at church. He that is not a Christian in his shop, is not in his closet a Christian, though upon his knees in prayer. Wound religion in one part, and it is felt in every part. If it declines one way, it cannot thrive in any other. All that miscarry in religion, do not the same way miscarry. As it is in the regard of our natural life, some, it is observed, die upwards, some downwards. In one, the extreme parts ; his feet are first dead, and so creeps up the legs, and so at last takes hold on the vitals; in another his superior parts are first invaded. Thus is profession, some, their declining appears first in a negligence of duties about their particular callings, and duties they owe by tlieir place and relation to man, who all this while seem very forward and zealous in the duties of worship to God, much in hearing, praying, and such like; others falter first in these, and at the same time seem very strict in the other ; both destructive alike to the soul, they both meet in the ruin of the power of godliness. He stands orderly that makes conscience of the whole duty that lies on him in his place to God or man. Thirdly, To stand orderly, it is requisite that we keep the bounds of our place and calling. Tlie Israelites were commanded ' to pitch every man by his own standard,' Num. ii. 2. The Septuagint translates it, /cafa tafjma, according to order. God allows no stragglers from their station in his army of saints. 'As the Lord hath called every man, so let him walk,' 1 Cor. vii. 17. Our walk must be in that path which our call beats out. We are therefore commanded every one 'to do his own business,' 1 Thess. iv. 1 1. That which is the commander'.s business in an army, is not the private soldier's ; the magis- trate's, not the subject's; the minister's, not the people's. That which is justice in the ruler, is murder in another. They are our own things, that come within the compass of our general or particular calling; out of these, we are out of our diocese. O what a quiet world we should have, if everything and g(jQ STAND THEREFORE. person knew his own place ! If the sea kept its own place, we should have no inundations ; if men had theirs, we should neither have seen such floods of sin, nor miseries, as this unhappj' age has heen almost drowned with. But it must be a strong bank indeed, that can contain our fluid spirits within our own terms. Peter himself was sharply chid, for prying out of curiosity into that which concerned him not. * What is that to thee?' John xxi. 22 ; as if Christ had said, Peter, meddle with thy own matters, this concerns not thee ; which sharp rebuke, saith one, might possibly make Peter afterwards give so strict a charge against, and set so black a brand upon this very sin, as you may find, 1 Pet. iv. 15, where he ranks the busybody among miu'derers and thieves. Now to fix every one in his place, and persuade all to stand orderly there without breaking their rank, these five considerations, methinks, may carry some weight, among those especially with whom the word of God in the Scrip- ture yet keeps its authority to conclude and determine their thoughts. 1. Consider, What thou doest out of thy place is not acceptable to God, because thou canst not do it in faith, ' without which it is impossible to please God ;' and it cannot be in faith, because thou hast no call. God will not thank thee for doing that v/hich he did not set thee about ; possibly thou hast good intentions ; so had Uzzah in staying the ark, yet how well God liked his zeal, see 2 Sam. vi. 7. Saul himself could make a fair story of his sacrificing, but that served not his turn. It concerns us, not only to ask ourselves, what the thing is we do? but also, who requireth this at our hands? To be sure, God will at last put us upon that question, and it will go ill with us if we cannot shew our commission. So long we must needs neglect what is our duty, as we are busy about that which is not. The spouse confesseth this, Cant. i. 6 : ' They made me-the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept ;' she could not mind theirs and her own too ; our own iron will cool while we are heating another's. And this must needs be displeasing to God, to leave the work God sets us about, to do that he never conmianded. When a master calls a truant scholar to account, that he hath been missing some days from school, would this be a good plea for him to tell his master, that he was all the while in such a man's shop at work with his tools? No sure, his business lay at school, not in that shop. 2. By going out of our proper place and calling, we pvit oiu'selves from under God's protection: the promise is, he will keep us in 'all our ways,' Psa. xci. 11. When we go out of our way, we go from under his wing. We have an excellent place for this, 1 Cor. vii. 24 : ' Let every one wherein he is called, therein abide with God.' Mark that phrase, ' abide with God.' As we love to walk in God's company, we must abide in our place and calling; every step from that is a departure from God ; and better to stay at home in a mean place, and low calling, wherein we may enjoy God's sweet presence, than go to court, and there live without him. It is likely you have heard of that holy bishop, that in a jovuney came to an inn; and by some discourse with the host, finding him to be an atheist, or very atheistical, presently calls for his servant to bring him his hoise, saying he would not lodge there, for God was not in that place. Truly when thou art in any place, or about any work to which thou art not called, we may safely say, God is not in that place or enterprise ; and what a bold adventure is it to stay there, where you cannot expect his presence to assist, or protect! ' As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his jilace,' Prov. xxvii. 8. God took special care, that the ' bird sitting over her eggs in her nest' should not be hurt, Deut. xxii. 6 ; but we find nothing to secure her if found abroad. In doing the duty of our place, we have heaven's word for our security ; but upon our own peril be it if we wander ; then we are like Shimei out of his precints, and lay ourselves open to some judgment or other : it is alike dangerous to do what we are not called to, and to neglect or leave undone the duty of our place. As the earth could not bear Korah's usurpation of what belonged not to them, but swallowed them up ; so the sea could not but bear witness against Jonah the runaway prophet, disdaining to waft him that fled from his place and work that God called him to. Naj^, heaven itself would not harboiu- the angels, when once they left their own place and office that their Maker had appointed ; so those words, Jude 6, I find most probably interpreted. The ruin of STAND THEREFORE. OQ[ many souls breaks in npon them at this door. First they break their ranks, and then they are led further into temptation. Absalom fii-st looks over the hedge in his ambitions thought ; a king he would be ; and this wandering desire beyond his place lets in those bloody sins, rebellion, incest, and murder ; and these ripened him for, and at last delivered him up into the hand of Divine vengeance. The apostle joins order and stedfastness together, Col. ii. 5 : 'I am with you in the spirit, joying and beliolding your order, and the stedfast- ness of your faith.' If an army stands in close order, every one in his place attending his duty, content with his work, it is in a maimer impregnable. How came many in our days to fall from their stedfastness, but by breaking their order ! 3. We shall never be charged for not doing another's work : ' Give an accoimt of thy stewardship,' Luke xvi. 2; that is, of what by thy place thou wert intrusted with. We may indeed be accessory to another's sin and miscarriage in his place. ' Be not partakers with them,' saith tlie apostle, Eph. v. 7. There is a partnership, if not very waichful, that we may have with others' sins, and therefore we may say Amen to that holy man's prayer, ' Lord, forgive me my other sins.' Merchants can trade in bottoms that are not their own, and we may sin with other men's hands many ways, and one especially is, when we do not lend our brother that assistance in his work and duty which our place and relation obligeth to ; but it is not our sin that we do not supply others' negligence, by doing that which belongs not to our place. We are to pray for magistrates, that they may rule in the fear of God; but if they do not, we may not step upon the bench and do his work for him. God requires no more than faithfulness in our place. We do not find fault with an apple-tree if it be laden with apples, which is the fruit of its own kind, though we can find no figs or grapes growing on it : we expect these only from their proper root and stock. He is a fruitful tree in God's orchard that brings forth his fruit in his season, Psa. i. 3. 4. Tliere is poor comfort in suffering for doing that which was not the work of our place and calling. Before we launch out into any undertaking, it behoves us to ask ourselves, and that seriously, what our tackling is, if a storm should overtake us in our voyage. It is folly to engage in that enterprise which will not bear us out, and pay the charge of all the loss and trouble it can put us to. Now, no comfort or countenance from God can be expected in any suffering, except we can entitle him to the business we suffer for. ' For thy sake are we killed all the day long,' saith the church, Psa. xliv. 22. But if suffering finds us out of our calling and place, we cannot say, ' For thj' sake ' we are thus and thus afflicted, but for our own sakes ; and you know the proverb, ' Self do, self have.' The apostle makes a vast difference between suffering as a ' busybody' and suffering as a 'Christian,' 1 Pet. iv. 15, 16. It is to the latter he saith, ' Let him not be ashamed, but let liim glorify God on this behalf;' as for the busybody, he mates him with thieves and nuirderers ; and those, I trow, liave reason both to be ashamed and afraid. The carpenter that gets a cut or wound on liis leg from his axe, as he is at work in his calling, may bear it more patiently and comfortably than one tliat is wantonly meddling with his tools, and hath nothing to do with such work. When affliction or persecution ovei*- takes the Christian travelling in the way God hath set him in, he may shew the Bible, as that holy man (suffering for Clirist) did, and say, 'This hath made me poor, tills hath brought me to prison ;' that is, his faith on tjie truths, and obedience to the commands in it, and therefore may confidently expect to suffer at God's cost, as the soldier to be kept and maintained by his prince, in whose service he hath lost his limbs. But the other, that rims out of his place, and so meets with sufierings, he hath this to embitter them, that lie can look for nothing from God, but to be soundly chid for his pains, as the child is served that gets some hurt while he is gadding abroad, and when he conies home at night with his battered face meets with a whipjiing from his father into the bargain for being from home. This lay heavy on the spirit of that learned German, Joliannes Funccius, who of a minister of the gospel in his prince's court, turned minister of state to his prince ; and was at last, for some evil counsel, (at least so judged,) condemned to die. Before he suffered, he much lamented the leaving of his calling, and to warn others left this distich: — 202 STAND THEREFORE. To keep thy place and calling learn of me : Flee as the plague a meddler for to be. 5. It is an erratic spirit, that usually carries men out of their place and calling. I confess there is an keroicits impetus, an impulse which some of the servants of God have had from heaven, to do things extraordinary, as we read in Scripture of Moses, Gideon, Phineas, and others. But it is dangerous to pi'etend to the like, and unlawfid to expect such immediate commissions from Heaven now, when he issueth them out in a more ordinary way, and gives rules for the same in his word ; we may as well expect to be taught extraordinarily, without using the ordinary means, as to be called so. When I see any mira- culously gifted, as the prophets and apostles, then I shall think the immediate calling they pretend to is authentic. To be sure, we find in the word, extra- ordinary calling and extraordinary teaching go together. Well, let us see what that erratic spirit is which carries many out of their place and calling. It is not always the same ; sometimes it is idleness. First, men neglect what they should do, and then are easily persuaded to meddle with what they have nothing to do. The apostle intimates this plainly, 1 Tim. v. 13 : ' They learn to be idle, wandering from house to house, and not only idle, but busybodies.' An idle person is a gadder ; he hath his foot on the threshold, easily drawn from his own place, and as soon into another's diocese. He is at leisure to hear the devil's chat. He that will not serve God in his own place, the devil, rather than lie shall stand out, will send him of his errand, and get him to put his sickle into another's corn. Secondly, it is pride and discontent that makes persons go out of their place ; some men are in this very unhappy, their spirits are too big and haughty for the place God hath set them in. Their calling, may be, is mean and low, but their spirits high and towering ; and whereas they should labour to bring their hearts to their condition, they project how they may bring their condition to their proud hearts. They think themselves very vmhappy while they are shut up in such strait limits ; (indeed the whole world is too narrow a walk for a proud heart, ^stual infcelix aiigtisto limi/e nnindi ; the world was but a little ease to Alexander;) shall they be hid in a crowd, lie in an obscure corner, and die before they let the world know their worth ? No, they cannot brook it, and therefore they must get on the stage, and put forth themselves one way or other. It was not the priests' toork that Korah and his accomplices were so in love with, but the priests' honour which attended the work ; this they desired to share, and liked not to see others run away with it from them ; nor was it the zeal that Absalom had to do justice, which made his teeth water so after his father's crown, though this must silver over his ambition. These places of church and state are such fair flowers, that proud spirits in all ages have been ambitious to have them set in their own garden, though they never thrive so well as in their proper soil. In a third it is unbelief: this made Uzzah stretch forth his hand unadvisedly to stay the ark that shook, M'hich being not a Levite he was not to touch. See Numb. iv. 15. Alas ! good man, it was his faith shook more dangerously than the ark ; by fearing the fall of this, he fell to the groimd himself. God needs not our sin to shore up his glory, truth, or church. Lastly, in some it is misinformed zeal : many think they may do a thing because they can do it. They can preach, and therefore they may; where- fore else have they gifts .' Certainly the gifts of the saints need not be lost any of them, tliough they be not laid oiit in the minister's work. The private Christian hath a large field wherein he may be serviceable to his brethren ; he need not break the hedge which God hath set, and thereby occasion such disorder as we see to be the consequence of this. We read in the Jewish law, Exod. xxii., that he who set a hedge on fire, and that fire burnt the corn standing in a field, was to make restitution, though he only fired the hedge, perliaps not intending to hurt the coi'n ; and the reason was, because his firing tlie hedge was an occasion of the corn's being burnt, though he meant it not. I dare not say, that every private Christian who hath in these times taken upon him the minister's work, did intend to make such a combustion in the church as hatli been, and still sadly is among us. God forbid I should think so ! But, O that I could clear them from being accessory to it, in that they have fired the hedge which God hath set between the minister's calling and people's. If we will acknow- STAND THEREFORE. 0Q^ ledge the ministry a particular office in the church of Christ, — and this I think the word will compel us to do, — then we must also confess it is not any one's work, though never so able, except called to the office. There are many in a kingdom to be found, that could do the prince's errand, it is like, as well as his ambassador, but none takes the place but he that is sent, and can shew his let- ters credential. Those that are not sent and commissionated by God's call for ministerial work, they may speak truths as well as they that are ; yet of him that acts b}^ virtue of his calling, we may say that he prcacheth with authority, and not like those that can shew no commission but what the opinion themselves have of their own abilities gives them. Dost thou like the minister's work? Whyshouldst thou not desire the office, that thou mayest do the work acceptably ? Thou dost find thyself gifted, as thou thinkest, for the work, but were not the church more fit to judge so than thyself? And if thou shouldst be found so by them appointed for the trial, who would not give thee the riglit hand of fellowship ? There are not so many labourers in Christ's field, but thy help, if able, would be accepted ; but as now thou actest, thou bringest thyself into suspicion in the thoughts of sober Christians, as he would justly do, who comes into the field, where his prince hath an army, and gives out he comes to do his sovereign service against the common enemy, yet stands by himself at the head of a troop he hath got together, and refuseth to take any commission from his prince's officers, or join himself with them : I question whether the service such a one can perform, should he mean as he says, which is to be feared, would do so much good, as the distraction which this his carriage might cause in the army would do hurt. CHAPTER III. WHEREIN IS CONTAINED THE THIRD AND LAST IMPORTANCE OF THE WORD ' STAND,' AND THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY OF STANDING ON HIS WATCH SPOKEN to; why HE IS TO WATCH, AND HOW HE SHOULD. Thirdly, 'To stand,' here is opposed to sleep and sloth; standing is a waking, watching posture ; when the captain sees his soldiers lying secure upon the ground asleep, he bids ' Stand to your arms,' that is, stand and watch. In some cases it is death for a soldier to be found asleep, as when he is appointed" to stand sentinel, or the like ; now to sleep, deserves death, because he is to wake, that the whole army may sleep; and his sleep may cost them their lives; there- fore a great captain thought he gave that soldier but his due, whom he run through with his sword, because he found him asleep when he should have stood sentinel, excusing his severity with this, that he left him but as he found him ; Mortuum invent, et mortumn reliqid : ' I found him dead in sleep, and left him but asleep in death.' Watchfulness is more needful for the Christian soldier than any other, because other soldiers fight with men that need sleep as well as themselves; but the Christian's grand enemy, Satan, is ever awake, and walking his rounds, seeking whom he may surprise. And if Satan be always awake, it is dangerous for the Christain at any time to be spiritually asleep, that is, secure and careless. The Christian is seldom worsted, by this his enemy, but there is either treachery or negligence in the business ; either the unregenerate part betrays him, or his grace is not wakefid to make a timely discovery of him, so as to prepare for the encounter; the enemy is upon him before he is thoroughly awake to draw his sword. The saint's sleeping time is Satan's tempting time ; every fly dares venture to creep on a sleeping lion. No temptation so weak, but is strong enough to foil a Christian that is napping in security. Samson asleep, and Delilah cut his locks. Saul asleep, and the spear is taken away from his very side, and he never the wiser. Noah asleep, and his graceless son has a fit time to discover his father's nakedness. Eutychus asleep, nods, and falls from the third loft, and is taken up for dead. Thus the Christian asleep in security may soon be surprised so as to lose much of his spiritual strength, ('the joy of the Lord,' which is ' his strength,') be robbed of his spear, his ai*- mour, graces I mean, at least in the present use of them, and his nakedness dis- covered by graceless men, to the shame of his ])rof('ssion; as, when bloodv Joab coiUd take notice of David's vain-glory in numbering the people, was not David's grace aslee^^ ? Yea, he may fall from a high loft of profession, so low, into gOJ, STAND THEREFORE. such scandalous practices, that others may question whether thei'e be any life of grace indeed in him. And therefore it behoves the Christian to stand wake- fully ; sleep steals as insensibly on the soul, as it doth on the body. The wise virgins fell asleep as well as the foolish, though not so soundly ; take heed thou dost not indulge thyself in thy lazy distemper, but stir up thyself to action, as we bid one that is drowsy, stand up, or walk. Yield to it by idleness and sloth, and it will grow upon thee ; bestir thyself in this duty and that, and it will be over. David first awakes his tongue to sing, his hand, to play on his harp, and then David's heart awakes also, Psa. li. 8. The lion, it is said, when he first wakes, lashes himself with his tail, thereby to stir and rouse up his courage, and then away he goes after his prey : we have enough to excite and provoke us to use all the care and diligence possible. First, The Christian's work is too curious to be done well between sleeping and waking, and too important to be done ill, and slubbered over, no matter how. He had need be awake that walks upon the brink of a deep river, or brow of a steep hill. The Christian's path is so narrow, and the danger is so great, that it calls for both a nimble eye to discern, and a steady eye to direct, but a sleepy eye can do neither. Look upon any duty or grace, and you will find it lie between Scylla and Charybdis, two extremes alike dangerous. Faith, the great work of God, cuts its way between the mountain of presumption and gulf of despair ; patience, a grace so necessary that we cannot be without it a day, except we woidd be all that while besides ourselves ; this keeps us that we fall neither into the sleepy apoplexy of a blockish stupidity, which deprives the creature of its senses ; nor into a raging fit of discontent, which hath sense enough, and too much, to feel the hand of God, but deprives the man of his reason, that he turns again upon God, and shoots back the Almighty's arrows on his fiery face in the fury of his froward spirit. The like we might say of the rest. No truth but hath some error next door to her ; no duty can be per- formed without approaching very near the enemy's quarters, who soon takes the alarm, and comes out to oppose the Christian ; and ought he not then to have always his heart on the watch ? Secondly, The trouble of watching is not comparable to the advantage it brings. First, By tliis, thou frustratest the designs Satan hath upon thee : it is worth watching to keep the house from robbing, much more the heart from rifling by the devil. 'Watch, that ye enter not into temptation,' Matt. xxvi. 41. He buys his sleep dear, that pays his throat cutting for it; yea, though the wound be not so deep, but may be cured at last. Thy not watching one night, may keep thee awake many a night upon a more uncomfortable occasion. And hadst thou not better wake with care to keep thyself from a mischief, than afterwards thy eyes be held open, whether thou wilt or not, with pain and anguish of the wound given thee in thy sleep? You know how sadly David was bruised by a fall got in his spiiitiial slumber ; for what else was he, when in the eventide he rose from his bed, and walked upon the roof of his house, like a man walking in his sleep '! 2 Sam. xi. 2 ; and how many restless nights this brought over this holy man's head, you may perceive by his own mournful complaints of this sin, which is the foot and sad burthen of several mournful psalms. Secondly, By thy watchfulness thou shall best learn the evil of a sleepy state ; one asleep is not sensible of his own snorting, how uncomely and trou- blesome to others it is ; but he that is awake is apprehensive of both. The man asleep is not sensible, if laid naked by some that would abuse him ; but he that is awake, observes, is ashamed, and covers him ; thus while thou art in a spiritual sense awake, thou canst not but observe many uncomely passages in the lives of those professors, who do not watch their hearts, which will fill thy heart with pity to them, to see how they are abused by Satan and their own passions, which, like rude servants, take this their own time to play their pranks in, when they have made sure of their mistress, (grace I mean, now laid asleep,) that should keep them in better rule : yea, it will make the blood come into thy face for shame to see how by their nakedness, profession itself is flouted at, by those that pass by, and see how it is with them. Well, what thou STAND ■ THIiREFOKE. OQj blushest *o see, and pitiest to find in another, take heed it befall not thyself; if thou sufferest a spiritual slumber to grow upon thee, thou wilt be the man thy- self that all this may come upon, and what not besides? Sleep levels all ; the wise man then is no wiser than a fool, to project for his safety ; nor the strong- man better than the weak, to defend himself: if slumber falls once upon thy eye, it is night with thee, and thou art, though the best of saints, but as other men, so far as this sleep prevails on thee. Thirdly, By thy watchfulness thou shalt invite such company in unto thee, as will make the time short and sweet, and that is thy precious Saviour, whose sweet communication and discourse, about the things of thy Father's kingdom, will make thou shalt not grudge the ease sleepy Christians get, with the loss of such a heavenly entertainment as thou enjoyest. Who had not, that loves his soul better than his body, rather have David's song than David's sleep in the night? And who had not rather have Christ's comforting presence with a waking soul, than his absence with a sleepy, slothful one? It is the watchful soul that Christ delights to be with, and open his heart unto. We do not choose that for the time of giving our friends a visit, when they are asleep in their beds ; nay, if we be with them, and perceive they grow sleepy, we think it is time to leave' them to their pillow, and verily Christ doth so too. Christ withdraws from the spouse, till she be better awake, as a fitter time for her to receive his loves. Put the sweetest wine into a sleepy man's hand, and you are like to have it all spilled; yea, jmt a purse of gold into his hand, and the man will hardly remember in the morning what you gave him over night. Thus in the sleepy state of a soul, both the Christian loseth the benefit, and Christ the praise of his mercy ; and therefore Christ will stay to give out his choice favours, when the soul is more wakeful, that he may both do the creature good, and his creature may speak good of him for it. Quest. But how must the Christian stand upon his watch ? Answ. First, constantly. The lamp of God in the tabernacle was to ' burn always,' Exod. xxvii. 20, and xxx. 8; that is, always in the night, which sense is favoured by several other places. And I pray, what is our life in this world but a dark night of temptation ? Take heed. Christian, that thy watch- candle go not out in any part of this darksome time, lest thy enemy come upon thee in that hour. He can find thee, but not thou resist him in the dark ; if once thy eye be shut in a spiritual slumber, thou art a fair mark for his wrath; and know, thou canst not be long off thy watch, but the devil will hear on it. The devil knew the apostle's sleeping time, and then he desires leave to winnow them, Luke xxii. He saw they were in some disorder ; the eye of their soul began to be heavy : the thief riseth when honest men go to bed. The devil, I am sure, begins to tempt when saints cease to watch; when the staifis thrown . away, then the wolf appears. When the soid puts her danger furthest off, and lies most secure, then it is nearest; therefore labour to be constant in thy holy care ; the want of this spoils all. Some you shall have, that after a great fall into a sin that hath bruised them sorely, will seem very careful for a time where they set their foot, how they walk, and what company they come in ; but as soon as the soreness of their consciences wears off, their watch is broke up, and they are as careless as ever ; like one that is very eai-eful to shut up his shop strongly, and may be sit up late to watch it also, for two or three nights after it hath been robbed, but then minds it no more. Others in an affliction, or newly come out of the furnace, O how nice and scrupulous are they while the smell of fire is about them, and memory of their distress fresh ! They are as tender of sinning as one that comes out of a hot, close room is of the air ; they shrink at every breath of temptation stirring; but alas, how soon are they hardened to commit those sins without remorse, the bare motion of which, but a little befoi-e, did so trouble and afflict them ! Josephus, in his ' Antiquities, ' tells us, that the sons of Noah, for some years after the flood, dwelt on the tops of high moimtains, not daring to take up their habitation in the lower ground, for fear of being drowned by another flood ; yet in process of time, seeing no flood came, they ventured down to the plain of Shinar, where their former fear we see ended in one of the boldest, proudest attempts against God that the sun was ever witness to; the building, I mean, of a tower, whose top should reach heaven, Gen. xi. 2, 3. They, who at first were so maidenly 20Q STAND THEREFORE. and fearful, as not to venture down their hills, for fear of drowning, now have a design to secure themselves against all future attempts from the God of heaven himself. Thus oft we see God's judgments leave such an impression in men's spirits, that for a while they stand aloof from their sins, as they on their hills, afraid to come down to them ; but when they see fair weather con- tinue, and no clouds gather towards another stomi, then they can descend to their old wicked practices, and grow more bold and heaven-daring than ever. But if thou wilt be a Christian indeed, keep on thy watch still, remit not in thy care ; thou hast well run hitherto, O lie not down, like some lazy traveller, by the way-side to sleep, but reserve thy resting-time till thou gettest home out of all danger. Thy God rested not till the last day's work in the creation was finished; neither do thou cease to wake or work, till thou canst say, thy salvation-work is finished. Secondly, Watch universally. First, watch thy whole man. The honest watchman walks the rounds, and compasseth the whole town. He doth not limit his care to this house or that. So do thou watch over thy whole man. A pore in thy body is a door wide enough to let in a disease, if God command ; and any one faculty of thy soul, or member of thy body, to let in an enemy that may endanger thy spiritual welfare. Alas, how few set the watch round ! some one faculty is not guarded, or member of the body not regarded. He that is scrupulous in one, you shall find him secure in another : may be thou settest a watch at the door of thy lips, that no impure commvmication offends the ears of men; but how is the 'Lord's watch' kept at the temple door of thy heart ? 2 Chron. xxiii. 6. Is not that defiled with lust ? Thou perhaps keepest thy hand out of thy neighbour's pm-se, and foot from going on a thievish errand to thy neighbour's house ; but does not thy envious heart grudge him what God allows him ? When thou prayest, thou art very careful thy outward posture be reverent ; but what eye hast thou on thy soul, that it performs its part in the duty ? Secondly, watch in everything : if the apostle bids 'in everything give thanks,' then it behoves us in everything to watch, that God may not lose his praise, which he doth in most, for want of watching. No action so little, almost, but we may in it do God or the devil some service, and therefore none too little for our care to be bestowed on. He was a holy man indeed, of whom it was said, 'that he ate and drank eternal life.' The meaning is, he kept such holy watch over himself in these things, that he was in heaven while doing them. There is no creature so little among all God's works but his providence watcheth over it, even to a sparrow and a hair. Let there be no word or work of thine over which thou art not watchful. Thou shalt be judged by them, even to thy idle words and thoughts ; and wilt thou not have care of them ? Thirdly, Watch wisely ; which thou shalt do, if thou knowest where thou shoiddst keep strictest watch, and that must be first in the weightiest duty of the command ; ' tything of cummin and anise ' must not be neglected, but take heed thou dost not neglect the weightiest things of the ' law, judgment, mercy,' and ' faith,' Matt, xxiii. 23, making your preciseness in the less a blind for your horrible wickedness in the greater. Begin at the i-ight end of your work. Christian, by placing your chief care about those main duties to God and man, in his law and gospel, in his worship, and in thy daily coiuse, which when thou hast done, neglect not the circum- stantials. Should a master, before he goes forth, charge his servant to look to his child, and trim his house up handsomely against he comes home, when he returns will he thank his servant for sweeping his house, and making it trim, as he bid him, if he find his child through his negligence fallen into the fire, and by it kille.i or crijjpled? No, sure, he left his child with him as his chief charge, to which the other should have yielded, if both could not be done. There hath been a great zeal of late among us, about some circumstantials of worship ; but who looks to the little child, the main duties of Christianity, I mean. Was there ever less love, charity, self-denial, heavenly-mindedness, or the power of holiness in any of its several walks, than in this sad age of ours ? Alas ! these, like the child, are in great danger of perishing in the fire of con- tention and division, which a perverse zeal in less things hath kindled among us. Secondly, Be sure thou art watchful more than ordinary over thyself, in HAVING YOUR LOINS, &c. OQY thofse things where tlioii findest thyself weakest and hast been oftenest foiled. The weakest part of the citj- needs the strongest guard, and in our bodies the tenderest part is most observed and kept warmest. And I should think it were strange, if thy fabric of grace stands so strong and even, that thou shouldst not soon perceive which side needs the shore most, by some inclination of it one way more than another. Thy body is not so firm, but thou findest this humour over-abound, and that part craze faster tlian another; and so ma_yest thou in thv soul. Well, take counsel in the thing, and what thou findest weakest, watch most carefully. Is it thy head that is weak, thy judgment I mean ? Watch thyself, and come not among those that drink no wine but that which thy weak parts cannot bear, (seraphic notions and high-flown opinions,) and do not think thyself much wronged to be forbidden their cup ; such strong wine is more heady than hearty, and they that trade most with it are not found of the healthiest tempers of their souls, no more than they that live most of strong waters are for their bodies. Is thy impotency in thy passions ? In- deed we are weak as they are strong and violent. Now watch over them, as one that dwells in a thatched house would do of every spark that flies out of his chimney, lest it should light on it, and set all on fire. O take heed what speeches come from thy mouth, or from any thou conversest with ; this is the little instrument sets the whole course of nature on flame. When our neigh- bour's house is on fire, we cast water on our roof, or cover it with a wet sheet ; when the flame breaks out at another's moutli, now look thou throwest water on thy own hot spirit; some cooling, wrath-quenching scriptures and arguments ever carry with thee for that purpose, and so in any other particular, as thou findest thy weakness. CHAPTER I. Verse 14. Having your loins girt about with truth. The apostle having ordered the Ephesians, and in them every Christian, the posture which they are to observe in fight with their enemy ; he comes now to instance, in the several pieces of that armour, which before he had commanded to them only in general. The first of which is the ' girdle of truth.' Wherein is contained a brief explication of the words, ' Having your loins girt about with truth.' A twofold inquiry is here requisite. First, What he means by 'truth.' Secondly, what by ' loins,' and their being girt with truth. First, For the first. What is ' truth ' here ? Some by ' truth ' understand Christ, who indeed elsewhere is called 'truth;' yet in this place I conceive not so pro- perly, because the apostle instanceth here in several pieces and parts of armour, one distinct from another ; and Christ cannot so well be said to be a single piece to defend this or that part, as the whole in whom we are complete ; com- pared, therefore, Rom. xiii., to the whole suit of armour ; ' Put ye on the Lord Jesus;' that is, be clothed and harnessed with Christ, as a soldier with his armoiu- cap-a-pie. Some by truth mean, 'truth of doctrine;' others will have it, ' truth of heart, sincerity ;' they, I think best, that comprise both. And so I shall handle it ; both indeed are required to make the girdle complete ; one will not do without the other. It is possible to find good meanings, and a kind of sincerity without, yea, against the truth. Many follow an error, as they Absalom, in the simplicity of their hearts. Such do ill while they mean well. Good intentions do no more make a good action, than a fair mark makes a good shot by an unskilful archer. God did not like Saul's zeal when he persecuted the Christian church, though he thought, no question, he did him good service therein. Neither is it enough to have truth on our side, if we have not truth in our hearts. Jehu was a great stickler against idolatry, but kicked down all again by his hypocrisy. Both then are necessary ; sincerity to propound a right end, and knowledge of the word of truth, to direct us in the right way to that end. Secondly, What is meant here by loins that are to be girt with this girdle? The loins nuist be like the girdle. This is s))iritnal, and therefore they nuist be so. Peter will help to inteqiret Paul ; ' (jird up the loins of yoin- minds,' 1 Pet. i. 13. They are our minds and spirits which must wear this girdle, and very OQS HAVING YOUR LOINS fitly may our spirits and minds be compared to the loins. The loins are the chief seat of bodily strength. Of Behemoth it is said, Job xl. 6, ' His strength is in his loins.' The loins are to tlie body, as carina navi, the keel to the ship; the whole ship is knit to that, and snstained by it ; and the body to the loins ; if the loins fail, the whole body sinks. Hence, to ' smite through the loins,' is a phrase to express destruction andniin, Deut. xxxiii. 11, weak loins, and a weak man. If we be but a little weary, nature directs us to lay our hands on our loins to sustain them, as our chief strength. Thus, as the actings of our minds and spirits are in their faculties and powers, so we are weak or strong Christians ; if the understanding be clear in its apprehensions of truth, and the will sincere, vigorous, and fixed in its pin-poses, for that which is holy and good, then he is a strong Christian. But if the understanding be dark, or uncertain in its notions, as a distempered eye that cannot well discern its object, and the will be waver- ing and unsteady, like a needle that trembles between two loadstones, not able to bring its thoughts to an issue, which to close with ; here the man is weak, and all he doth will be so. Feeble spirits cause an intermitting, faltering pulse ; so, want of strength in the mind, to know truth, and resolution in the will to pursue that which he knows to be holy and good, causeth a man to falter in his course. The use therefore of these two, — -truth of doctrine for the mind, and sincerity for the will, — is to unite and establish both these faculties, which they do when they are clasped, and girt about the soul, as the girdle about the loins of the body. Though the loins be the strength of the body, yet they need an auxiliary, — their strength from the girdle, — to keep those parts close, and unite their force ; without which, men, when they would strain themselves, and put forth their strength in any work, find a trembling and looseness in their loins. Hence, the * shaking of the loins,' is a phrase to express weakness, Psa. Ixix. 23. Thus our minds and spirits need this girdle to strengthen them in every work we do, or else we shall act nothing vigorously. First, We shall begin with tnith of doctrine, or truth of the woi'd, called ' the word of truth,' Ephes. i. 13, because it is the word of God, who is God of truth. It behoves every Christian to be well girt with this truth. ' Resist the devil,' saith Peter, ' stedfast in the faith,' 1 Pet. v. 9 ; that is, in the truth ; faith being there put for the object of our faith, which is the truth of God declared in the doctrine of the gospel; this is 'the faith which was once delivered to the saints,' Jude 10; that is, the truth delivered to them to be believed and held fast. And of what importance is it to be thus stedfast in the faith, the apostle Peter, in the following verse of the aforementioned place, shews by his vehement and earnest prayingfor them, that God would 'stablish, strengthen, and settle them.' The heaping of words to the same purpose implies the great danger they were in of being unsettled by Satan and his instruments, and the necessity of their standing firm and inishaken in the faith. Nothing is more frequently incul- cated than this in the Epistles, and the more, because in those blustering times it was impossible to have kept the faith from being blown from them, without this girdle to hold it fast. Now, as there is a double design Satan hath to rob Christians of truth, so there is a twofold girding about with this truth necessary. First, Satan comes as a serpent, in the persons of false teachers, and by them labours to put a cheat on us, and cozen us with error for truth. To defend us against this design, it is necessary we be girt with truth in our understanding, that we have an established judgment in the truths of Christ. Secondly, Satan comes sometimes as a lion, in the persons of bloody perse- cutors, and labours to scare Christians from the truth, with fire and faggot. Now to defend us against this, we need have truth girt about us, so that with a holy resolution we may maintain our profession in the face of. death and danger. To begin with the first. CHAPTER II. WHEREIN IS SHEWN, IT IS THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTY TO LABOUR FOR A JUDG- MENT ESTABLISHED IN THE TRUTH; WITH THE REASONS OF IT; AS ALSO SOME APPLICATION OF THE POINT. It should be the care of every Christian to get an established judgment in the truth. The Bereans are highly commended for the inquiry they made into the GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 209 Scripture, to satisfy their judgments concerning the doctrine Paxil preached. They did not believe hand over head, })ut their faith was the result of a judg- ment, upon diligent search, convinced by Scripture evidence. Acts xvii. 1 1 : it is said there, ' They searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.' They carried the preacher's doctrine to the written word, and compared it with that; and mark, ver. 12, ' Therefore many believed ;' as they did not believe before, so they durst not but believe now. I remember TertuUian, speaking of some heretics, tlieir manner of preaching, saith, Pcrsundendo Jocent, non docendo persuadenl ; ' they teach by persuading, and not persuade by teaching :' that is, they woo and entice the affections of their hearers, without convincing of their judgment aJiout what they preach. Indeed it were a hard work for the adulterer to convince her he would ruin, that the fact is lawful. No, he goes another way to work. First, he inveigles her affections, and they once be- witched, the other is not much questioned, it being easy for the affections to make the judgment of their party. Well, though error, like a thief, comes thus in at the window, yet truth, like the true owner of the house, delights to enter at the right door of understanding, from thence into the conscience, and so passeth into the will and affections. Indeed, he that hits upon truth, and takes up the profession of it, before he is bi'ought into the acquaintance of its excellency and heavenly beauty by his understanding, cannot entertain it, be- coming its heavenly birth and descent ; it is as a prince that travels in disguise, not known, therefore not honoured. Truth is loved and prized only of those that know it : and not to desire to know it, is to despise it, as much as know- ing it, to reject it. It were not hard sure to cheat that man of truth, who knows not what he hath. Truth and error are all one to the ignorant man, so it hath but the name of truth. Leah and Rachel were both alike to Jacob in the dark. Indeed, it is said, ' In the morning, behold it was Leah,' Gen. xxix. 25. So in the morning, when it is day in the understanding, then the deceived jierson will see he hath had a false bride in his bosom ; will cry out, Behold, it is an error which I took for a truth. You have may be heard of the covetous man, that hugged himself in the many bags of gold he had, but never opened them, nor used them ; when the thief took away his gold, and left him his bags fidl of pebbles in the room, he was as happy as when he had his gold, for he looked not at the one or other. And verily an ignorant person is in a manner no better with truth than error on his .side. Both are alike to him, day and night, all one to a blind man. But to proceed, and give some more particular account, why the Christian should endeavour for an established judgment in the truth, I shall content myself with three reasons. The first, taken from the damning nature of false doctrine; the second, from the subtlety of seducers to draw into false doctrine ; and the third, from the universal influence that an established judgment hath on the whole man, and whole course of a Christian. First, From the damning natiu-e of false doctrines. They hunt for the precious life of souls, as well as any other sin. An imposthume in the head proves oft as deadly as one in the stomach. A corrupt judgment in foundation truths kills as sure as a rotten heart, indeed it proceeds thence. Jezebel's children are threatened to be killed with death. Rev. ii. 23 ; and who are her children, but her disciples, that drink of her cup of fornication, and embrace her corrupt doctrines? But sure this is not believed by some, who, though very strict in their lives, and seem as tender in matters of morality as Lot was of his guests, yet are very loose in their principles and judgments, exposing them, as he his daughters, to be defiled with any corrupt doctrine that comes to their door. They would make us think, that here men played but at small games, and their souls were not at stake, as in other sins. As if there were not such a question to be asked at the great day, what opinions we held, and whether we were sound in the faith? In a word, as if false doctrines were but an innocent thing, not like the wild gom-d, which brought death into the prophet's pot, 2 Kings iv. ; turning wholesome food, with which it was mingled, into baneful poison ; but rather, like herb John in the pot, that does neither nmch good nor hurt. Yea, there be some that speak out, and tell us, a man may be saved in any religion, so he doth but follow his light ; and are not these charitable men, who, because they would have the company as few as may be that are dannied, 21Q HAVING YOUR LOINS make as many roads to heaven as the Scripture tells us there are ways to hell? Contrai-y to Christ, who tells us of no other way but by him to life: ' I am the way, the truth, and the life,' John xiv. G. Point l)lank against St. John, who tell us but of one doctrine, and that the doctrine of Christ ; and he that holds not this, to be marked out for a lost man, 2 John, ver. 9, 10: 'Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.' And how far, I pray, is that man off hell, that hath not God ? He that hath not God before he dies, the devil shall have him when he dies. Well, sirs, the time is coming, yea, it hastens, (what favour and kindness soever corrupt doctrine find here at man's hand,) wherein the obstinate heretic shall receive the same law at Christ's hands with the impenitent drunkard ; you may see them both under the same condemnation, as they stand pinioned together for hell. Gal. v. 20, 21: ' I tell you now,' saith the apostle, ' as I have told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' And see, I pray you, if you cannot find the heretic's name amongst them : ignorance in funda- mentals is damning, sure then error in fundamentals much more. If a pound weighs down the scale, there is no doubt then but a stone weight will do it. If the less sin presseth down to hell, how can we rationally think that the greater should escape it? Error stands at a farther distance from, yea, a fuller con- trariety to truth, than ignorance. Error is ignorance with a dye on it. He that eats little or nothing, must needs die, much more he that eats rank poison. The apostle doth not only tell us of ' pernicious doctrines,' and ' damnable heresies,' but he tells us, they ' bring swift damnation' upon those that hold them, 2 Pet. ii. 1. I pray observe what an accent he lays on the damnation that comes by these corrupt doctrines ; he calls it ' swift damnation.' All rivers find their way at last to the sea, from whence they sprang ; but some return with a more swift stream, and get sooner to it than others. Would any make it a shorter voyage to hell than ordinary, let him throw himself but into this stream of corrupt doctrine, and he is not like to be long in going. Secondly, Because impostors are so subtle, therefore it behoves the Christian to establish and strengthen his judgment in the truths of Christ. They are a generation of men, skilful to destroy the faith of others. There is an erudita neguitia in the world, as one calls it, a learned kind of wickedness, that some have to corrupt the minds of men. The Spii'it of God sets them out to life, sometimes comparing them to merchants, who can set a gloss upon their false ware with fine words, 2 Pet. ii. 3 : they are said with ' feigned words' to ' make merchandize' of souls. To hucksters, that blend and dash their wine with water, 2 Cor. ii. 17. To cheating gamesters, that have a sleight of hand to cog the die, Ephes. iv. 14. Yea, to witches themselves. Gal. iii. 1 : ' Who hath bewitched you?' saith the apostle. Strange things have been done in our days, on those that God has suffered them to practise their sorcery upon ; and what counter-charm better than an established judgment? It is observable that in 2 Tim. iii., where the apostle compares the seducers of that present age to those sorcerers, Jannes and Jambres, that resisted Moses, and shews what kind of persons they were that fell into their snare ; ' such as though ever learning, yet never come to the knowledge of the truth,' ver. 7. Then he turns to Timothy, ver. 10: ' But thou hast fully known my doctrine.' As if he had said, I am out of fear for thee, thou art better grounded in the doctrine of the apostle, than to be thus cheated of it. Indeed, those whom seducers lay in wait for, are chiefly weak, unsettled ones ; for as Solomon saith, ' In vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird,' Prov. i. 17. The devil chose rather to assault Eve than Adam, as more likely of the two to be caught. And ever since he takes the same course ; he labours to creep over where the hedge is lowest, and the resistance like to be weakest. Three chai'acters j^ou may observe of those who are most commonly seduced. First, they are called simple ones, Rom. xvi. 18: ' B3' good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.' Such who mean Avell, but want wisdom to discern those that mean ill ; incautious ones, that dare pledge everybody, and drink of any one's cup, and never suspect poisoning. Secondly, ' children,' Eph. iv. 14 : ' Be no more children, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.' Now children they are very credulous, prone to believe every one that gives them a parcel of fair words; they think anything is good, if it be sweet; it is not GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. £11 hard to make them eat poison for sugar ; they are not swayed hy principles of their own, but hy others ; the child reads, construes, and learns his lesson as his master saith, and thinks it therefore right. Thus poor creatures that have little knowledge of the word themselves, they are easily persuaded this or that way, even as those of whom they have a good opinion please to lead them ; let the doctrine be but sweet, and it goes down glib ; they, like Isaac, bless their opinions by feeling, not by sight : hence many poor creatures applaud themselves so much of the joy they have found since they were of this judg- ment, and that way, not being able to try the comfort and sweetness they feel by the truth of their way from the word, they are fain to believe the truth of it by their feeling, and so, poor creatures, they bless error for truth. Thirdly, they are such as are unstable, 2 Pet. ii. 14 : ' beguiling unstable souls,' such as are not well grounded and principled. The truth they profess hath no anchor- hold in their understanding, and so they are at the mercy of the wind, soon set adrift, and carried down the stream of those opinions which are the favourites of the present time, and are most cried up, even as the dead fish with the cur- rent of the tide. Thirdly, We are to endeavour after an established judgment in the truth, because of the universal influence it hath upon the whole man. First, upon the memory, which is helped much by the understanding. The more weight is laid on the seal, the deeper impression is made on the wax. The memory is that faculty which carries the images of things. It holds fast what we receive, and is that treasury where we lay up what we desire afterwards to use and con- verse with. Now, the more clear and certain our knowledge of anything is, the deeper it sinks, and surer it is held by the memory. Secondly, upon the affections : truth is a light, the more steady and fixed the glass of the undei-- standing is through which its beams are darted upon the affections, the sooner they take fire. ' Did not our hearts burn,' said the disciples, 'within us, while he opened to us the Scriptures ?' Luke xxiv. 32. They had heard, no doubt, Christ preached much of what then he said before his passion, but never were they so satisfied and confirmed as now, when Scriptiu'es and understanding were opened together, and this made their hearts burn. The sun in the firma- ment sends his influence where he doth not shed his beams, I mean, into the bowels of the earth ; but the Sun of Righteousness imparts his influence only where his light comes ; he spreads the beams of truth into the understanding to enlighten that ; and while the creature sits under these wings, a kindly heart- quickening heat is begot in its bosom. Hence we find, even when the Spirit is promised a-i a Comfoi'ter, he comes as a Convincer, John xvi. 13 ; he comforts by teaching. And certainly the reason why many poor trembling soids have so little heat of heavenly joy in their hearts, is, because they have so little light to understand the nature and tenure of the gospel-covenant. The further a soul stands from the light of truth, the further he must needs be from the heat of comfort. Thirdly, an established judgment hath a powerful influence upon the life and conversation. The eye directs the foot ; he walks veiy unsafely that sees not his way ; and he uncomfortably, that is not resolved whether right or wrong. That which moves, must rest on something that doth not move : a man could not walk if the earth turned muler his feet. Now the principles we have in our understanding, are, as it were, the ground we go upon in all our actions ; if they stagger and reel, much more will oiu- life and practice. It is as impossible for a shaking hand to write a straight line, as an unfixed judg- ment to have an even conversation. The apostle joins stedfastness and vmmovableness with ' aboimding in the work of the Lord,' 1 Cor. xv. rjS. And if I mistake not, he means chiefly in that place, stedfastness of judgment in that truth of the resurrection which some had been shaking ; it is not the many notions we have, but the establishment we have in the truth, makes us strong Christians; as he is a strong man whose joints are well set together and knit, not he who is spun out at length, but not thickened suitable to his height. One saith well, men are what they see and judge ; though some do not fill up their light, yet none go beyond it. A truth under dispute in the understanding, is, as I may so say, sto])ped in the head : it cannot conunence in the heart, or become practicable in the life : but when it passeth clearly there, and upon its commendation is embraced in the will and affections, then it is held fast, and p2 2j[g HAVING YOUR LOINS hath powerful effects in the conversation. The gospel, it is said, came to the Thessalonians in much ' assurance,' 1 Thess. i. 6; i. e. evidence of its truth ; and see how prevalent and operative it was, ver. 6 : ' Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost.' They were assured that the doctrine was of God; and this carried them merrily through the saddest afflictions which attended the same. Use 1. First, To reprove those, that instead of endeavouring to establish their judgments in the truth, make it their greatest study how to strengthen themselves in their errors. I am persuaded some men take more pains to fui'- nish themselves with arguments to defend some one error they have taken up, than they do for the most saving truths in the Bible ; yea, they coidd sooner die at a stake to defend one error they hold, than all the truths they profess. Austin saith of himself when he was a Manichsean, Non tu eras, sed error nieits erat Detis mens : ' Thou, O Lord, were not, but my error was my god.' O, it is hard to reduce a person deeply engaged in the defence of an error ; how oft had the Pharisees their mouths stopped by our Saviour, yet few or none reclaimed ! Their spirits were too proud to recant. What, they lay down the bucklers, come down from Moses' chair, and confess what they might have taught the people for an oracle is now false ! They will rather go on, and brave it out as well as they can, than come back with shame, though the shame was not to be ashamed of their error, but ashamed to confess it. The cynic answered smartly, who, coming out of a brothel house, was asked whether he was not ashamed to be seen coming out of such a naughty house, said. No, the shame was to go in, but honesty to come out. O, sirs, it is bad enough to fall into an error, but worse to persist. The first shews thee a weak man, humanum est errai c ; but the other makes thee too like the devil, who is to this day of the same mind he was at his first fall. Use 2. Secondly, It reproves those who labour to unsettle the judgments of others, to ungird this belt about the Christian's loins. They come with the devil's question in their mouths, 'Yea, hath God said?' Are you siu-e this is a truth? Do not your ministers deceive you? Labouring slily to breed suspicions and jealousies in the hearts of Christians towards the truths they have received ; such were they that troubled the Galatians, whom Paul wished ' cut off ' for their pains. Gal. v. 12. They laboured to puzzle them, by starting scruples in their minds concerning the docti-ine of the gospel. This is a cunning Avay at last to draw them from the faith, and therefore they are called ' subverters of the faith of others,' 2 Tim. ii. 14; Tit. i. IL The house must needs be in danger, when the groundsels are loosened ; can you think he means honestly, that undermines the foundation of your house ? This they do, that would call in question the gi-and truths of the gospel : but this is a small fault in our loose age, or else so many seducers would not be suffered, whom I may call spiritiual rogues and vagrants, to wander like gipsies up and down, bewitching poor simple souls to their perdition. O, it is sad, that he who steals the worth of two or three shillings should hold up his hand at the bar for his life, yea, sometimes hang for it ; and that those who rob poor souls of the treasure of saving truths, and subvert the faith of whole families, should be let to lift up their heads with impudence, glorying in their impunity : that blasphemy against God should not bear an action, where blasphemy against the king is indicted for treason. It is well that God loves his truth better than men, or else these would escape in both worlds ; but God hath declared himself against them. There is a day, when they who rob souls of truth shall be found and con- demned as greater felons than they who rob houses of gold and silver. See how God lays their indictment, Jer. xxiii. 30 : ' Behold, I am against the pro- phets, saith the Lord, that steal my word, every one from his neighbour.' He means the false prophets, that enticed the people from those truths which the faithful servants of God had delivered to them. There will be none on the bench to plead the blasphemer and seducer's cause, when God shall sit judge. Use 3. Thirdly, This might well chastise the strange fickleness and unset- tledness of judgment which many labour with in this unconstant age. Truths in many professors' minds are not as stars fixed in the heavens, but like meteors, that dance in the air ; they are not as characters engraven in mai'ble, but writ . in the dust, which every wind and idle breath of seducers deface ; many GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. gl3 entertain opinions, as some entertain suitors, not that they mean to marry them, but cast them oft' as soon as new ones come. Never was there a more giddy age than ours. What is said of fashion-mongers, that some men, should they see their pictures in that habit which they wore a few years past, woukl hardly know themselves in their present garb, it is most ti'uc in regard of their opinions ; should many that have been great professors take a view of their religious principles a dozen years ago, and compare them with their present, they would be found not the same men. They have so chopped and changed, that they seem to have forsaken their old faith. Not that the old which they renounce was false, or the new which they espouse is true ; but because they were either ignorant of the truth they first professed, or were insincere in the profession of it ; and it is no wonder that the one should upon easy tenns part with that, which he first took upon as weak grounds as now he leaves it ; or that the other, who did not love or impi'ove the truth he professed, slwuld be given up of God to change it for an error. If the heathen, who did not glorify God with the light of nature they had, were righteously given up to a reprobate, injudicious mind to do that which was inconvenient, and morally absurd ; then they who dishonour God with the revealed light of Scripture truth much more deserve that they should be given up to that which is spiritually wicked, even to believe lies and errors for truth. A heavy curse, did we rightly judge of it, to wander and wilder in a maze of error, and yet think they are walking in the way of truth. Quest. But, may some say. How is it possible that ordinary professors should attain to this established judgment in the truth, when we see many of great parts and eminency much unsettled in their judgments ? Answ. We must distinguish, first, of persons ; secondly, of truths. First, of persons ; there are many eminent for parts, whose parts want piety to establish them, and no wonder to see wanton wits unfixed in the truths of God. None sooner topple over into error, than such who have not an honest heart to a nimble head. The richest soil, without culture, is most tainted with such weeds. They have been men of unsanctified parts, that have been the leaders in the way of error, though the more simple and weak that are led by them. They are knowing men, which first disgorge and vomit error from their coiTiipt hearts, and ignorant ones that lick it up. And therefore despair not of an established judgment so long as thou dcsirest to have an honest, upright heart, and conscientiously useth the means. The promise is on thy side, Psa. cxi. 10: * The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have they that do his commands.' Secondly, We must distinguish of truths ; some are fundamental, others are superstructory ; now though many eminent for piety as well as parts are in the dark concerning some of the superstructory, and more circumstantial, because mysteriously laid down in the word, yet there is a sweet harmony among the godly in fundamentals. And in those, poor soul, thou mayest come by a faithful use of means to be established. As for our bodies, God hath so provided, that things necessary to preserve their life are more common, and to be had at a cheaper rate, than things for delicacy and state. So also for our souls. If bread were as hard to come by as sweetmeats, or water as scarce as wine, the greatest part of men must needs famish ; so if truths necessary to salvation were as hard to be understood, and cleared from the Scriptures, as some others, many poor weak-hearted Christians would certainly perish without a miracle to help them. But the saving truths of the gospel lie plain, and run clear to all, but those who muddy the streams with their own corrupt minds. CHAPTER III. SOME DIRECTIONS FOR THE ESTABLISHING THE JUDGMENT OF PROFESSORS IN THE TRUTH. Quest. But what counsel can you give me towards the establishing of my judgment in the truths of Christ ? Ans. 1 . First, let thy aim be suicere in embracing of truths ; a false, naughty heart, and an unsound judgment, like ice and water, are produced mutually by one another. The reason of the fickleness of some men's judgments proceeds 21^ HAVING YOUR LOINS from the guile of their hearts. A stable mind and a double heart seldom meet. That place speaks full to this, 1 Tim. i. 5 : ' The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.' Now mark what follows, ver. 6 : ' From which some having swerved,' or as it is in the original, not aiming at, 'have turned aside to vain jangling.' They never aimed at the power of holiness in receiving truth, that by it they might advance in their love, faith, and other graces ; and taking a wrong end and aim, no wonder they turn out of the right way. A naughty heart can easily bribe the judgment to vote on its side. This shall be truth now and no truth a month hence, if it please. That is truth with many, which serves their interest ; they tie their judgments to their purse-strings, or preferments, &c., and such men are ready, with that weather-cock in Queen Mary's days, to sing a new song upon any change in their carnal concernments. When love receives a truth, it is held fast ; but if lust after any worldly interest be the cause, .then it may be packed away again, when the tiu-n is served. Amnon was soon as sick of Tamar, as ever he was for her. And have we not in our days seen some truths and ordinances kicked away with as much scorn and contempt as he did her, and by those that have been sufficiently fond of them, a few years past, but, to be feared, never truly in love with them ? Secondly, Attend on the ministry of the word. One great end of its appoint- ment is to establish us in truth, Ephes. iv. 1 1 : 'He gave some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints.' And mark, ver. 14, ' That we hence- forth be no more children^ tossed to and fro,' &c. He that rims from his guide, will be soon out of his way. It is no small testimony that God hath given to his faithful ministers in this present age ; that few leave them but the leprosy of error appears soon on their forehead. And in thy waiting on the ministry of the word, be sure thou attendest to the doctrinal part of the sermon as well as to the applicatory. The former is necessary to make thee a solid Christian, as the other to make thee a warm Christian : indeed, hot affections, without solid knowledge, are but like fire in the pan when the piece is not charged. The Levites, Nehem. viii. 7, 8, we find, ' gave the sentence of the law, and caused the people to understand it.' Planting goes before watering, and so should teaching before exhorting. And the same method people should learn in, that we are to preach in. Thirdly, Enslave not thy judgment to any person or party. There is a spii-itual suretyship hath undone many in their judgments and principles : be notboimd to, or for, the judgment of any. Weigh truth, and tell gold, thou mayest after thy father : thou must live by thy own faith, not another's. Labour to see truth with thine own eyes. That building stands weak, which is held up by a shore or some neighbour's house it leans on, rather than on any foundation of its own ; v\'hen these go, that will fall to the ground also : let not authority from man, but evidence from the word, conclude thy judgment; that is but a shore, this a foundation. Quote the Scripture rather than men for thy judgment. Not, So saitli such a learned holy man, but. Thus saith the holy Scripture ; yet take heed of bending this direction too far the other way, which is done when we condenni the judgment of such, whose piety and learning might command reverence : there is sure a mean to be found betwixt defying men and deifying them. It is admiring of persons that is the traitor to truth, and makes many cry 'Hosanna' to error, and ' Crucify' to truth. Eusebius, out of Josephus, tells us of Herod (that Herod whom we read. Acts xii., to be eaten up of worms) his coming upon the theatre gorgeously clad, and that while he was making an eloquent oration to the people, his silver robe, which he then wore, did, by the reflex of the sunbeams shining on it, so glister, as dazzled the eyes of the spectators ; and this, saith he, occasioned some flatterers to cry out, ' The voice of God, and not of man.' And truly the glistering varnish which some men's parts and rhetoric put upon their discourses does oft so blind the judgments of their admirers, that they are too prone to think all divine they speak ; especially if they be such, whom God hath used as instrmnents for any good to their souls formerly. O it is hard then, as he said, amare hominem humanller, to love and esteem man as man, to reverence such so as not to be in danger of loving their errors also. Augustine had been a means to convert Alypius from one error, and he confess- et!i this was an occasion, why he was so easily by him led into another error, GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 215 no less than Manicheeism ; Alypius thought he could not pervert liini here, that had converted him : call therefore none father on earth ; despise none, adore none. Fourthly, Beware of curiosity. He is half gone into error that vainly covets novelties, and listens after every new-fangled opinion. We read of itching ears, 2 Tim. iv. .'} : this itch commonly ends in a scab of error. Tamar lost her chastity by gadding ; castitas mentis est fides incorrupta ; the chastity of the mind is its soundness in the faith. And this they are in danger to lose, who will go into all companies, and lend an ear to all doctrines that are preached. First, be a hearer, and then a disciple of them. Many indulge themselves so far in this curiosity of conversing with every sect and opinion, that at last they turn sceptics, and can settle upon nothing as truth. Augustine confesseth of himself that he had gone through so many errors and delusions of the Manichees, (which he once cried up for truths, but afterwards saw them abominable errors,) that at last he was afraid of truth itself, which he heard Ambrose preach. tJt malum medlcum ei-pertus, etknn bono t'niwdt se conim'Utere. 'As,' saith he, ' one that hath had experience of an unskilful physician, is at last afraid to put himself in the hands of him that is skilful.' O take heed that you who will now hear anything, come not in the end that you will believe nothing! Fifthly, Humbly beg an established judgment of God. No travellers lose their way sooner than they who think they know it so well, as they need not ask it. And no professors are in such danger of being drawn from the truth as they who lean to their own understanding, and acknowledge not God in their way, by consulting with himself daily. Mark, pride, however it may seem to soar, hath such a mercy in store for them, they may, with Nebuchadnezzar, ' bless the Most High,' and acknowledge him at their return, whom they neglected so unworthily at their setting forth. O take heed therefore of pride, which will soon make thee a stranger at the throne of grace ! Pride takes little delight in begging : it turns humble praying for truth into a busy, stickling, and ambitious disputing about truth : there is honour to be got here ; and thus many, to get victory, have lost truth in the heat of the battle. Lay this deep in thy heart, that God, which gives an eye to see truth, must give a hand to hold it fast when we have it. What we have from God we cannot keep without God ; keep therefore thy acquaintance with God, or else truth will not keep her acquaint- ance long with thee. God is light ; thou art going into the dark, as soon as thou turnest thy back upon him. We stand at better advantage to find truth, and keep it also, when devoutly praying for it, than fiercely wrangling and contending about it : disputes toil the soul, and raise the dust of passion ; pi-ayer sweetly composeth the mind, and lays the passions which disputes draw forth ; and I am sure a man may see further in a still, clear day, than in a windy and cloudy. When a person talks much, and rests little, we have great cause to fear his brain will not long hold ; and truly, when a person shall be much in talking and disputing about truth, without a humble spirit in prayer to be led into it, God may justly punish that man's pride with a spiritual frenzy in his mind, that he shall not know error from truth. Sixthly, Look thou takest not offence at the difference of judgments and opinions that are foimd amongst the pi-ofessors of religion. It is a stone which the papist throws, in these divided times especially, before our feet. How know you, saith he, which is truth, when there are so many judgments and ways amongst you? Some have so stumbled at this, that they have quitted the truth they once professed, and by the storm of dissensions in matters of religion have been, if not thrown upon the rock of atheism, yet driven to and fro in a fluctua- tion of mind, not willing to cast anchor anywhere in their judgment till they see this tempest over, and those that are scattered from one another by diver- sity of judgment, meet together in an unity and joint consent of persuasions in matters of religion. A resolution, as one saith very well, as foolish and pernicious to the soul, if not more than it would be to the body, if a man should vow he would not eat till all the clocks in the city should strike twelve just together ; the latter might sooner be expected than the former. Seventhly, Rest not till thou feclcst the efficacy of every truth thou boldest in thy judgment upon thy heart ; one faculty helps another. The more clear truth is in the understanding, the more abiding in the memory; and the more operative gig HAVING YOUR LOINS ti-iith is on the will, the more fixed in the judgment. Let a thing be never so excellent, yet if a man can make little or no use thereof, it is little worth to him, and may easily be got from him. Thus many rare libraries have been parted with by rude soldiers, into whose hands they have fallen, for little more than their covers were worth, which would by some, that could have improved them, have been kept as the richest prize. And verily it fares with truth according as they are into whose hands it falls ; if it lights upon one that falls to work with it and draws out the strength and sweetness of it, this man holds it so much faster in his judgment by how much more operative it is on his heart : but if it meets with one that finds no divine efficacy it hath to humble, comfort, sanctify him, it may soon be turned out of doors, and put to seek for a new host ; such may for a time dance about that light, which a while after themselves will blow out. When I hear of a man that once held original sin and the universal pollution of man's natm-e to be a truth, but now denies it, I cannot but fear he did either never lay it so close his heart as to abase and humble himself kindly for it ; or that he grew weary of the work, and by sloth and negligence lost the efficacy of that truth in his heart before he lost the truth itself in his judgment. I might instance in many other particulars, wherein professors in these testing times have slid from their old principles. Singing of psalms hath been a duty owned and practised by many who now have laid it down, and it were a question worth the asking of them, whether formerly they never enjoyed sweet com- numion with God in that duty as well as others ? Whether their hearts did never dance and leap up to God with heavenly affections while they sung with their lips ? And verily I should think it strange to hear a godly person deny this. Well, if ever thou didst. Christian, meet with God at this door of the tabernacle, for I cannot yet think it otherwise, let me ask thee again whether thy heart did not grow common, cold, and formal in the duty before thou durst cast off the duty ? 1 John ii. 23, 24. And if so, which I am very ready to believe, I desire such in the fear of God to consider these four questions. First, Whether they may not fear that they are in an error ; and that this darkness is befallen their judgments as a punishment for their negligence and slightness of spirit in performing the duty, when they did not question the lawfulness of it? Secondly, Whether it were not better they laboured to recover the first live- liness of their affections in the duty, which would soon bring them again acquainted with that sweetness and joy they of old found in it, than to cast it off upon so weak evidence as they who ban say most bring in against it ? Thirdly, Whether such as neglect one duty are likely to thrive by any other, and keep up the savour of them fresh in their souls ? Fourthly, Whether, if God should suffer them to decline in their affections to any other ordinance, which he forbid, if it be his will, it were not as easy for Satan to gather together arguments enough to make them scruple, and in time cast off that also as well as this ? And that there is reason for such a question these times will tell us ; wherein every ordinance hath had its timi to be ques- tioned, yea, disowned, some by one, some by another; one will not sing; an- other will not have his child baptized ; a third will not have any water baptism, nor supper neither; a fourth bungs up his ear too from all hearing of the word, and would have us expect an immediate teaching. Thus, when once ordinances and truths become dead to us, through our miscarriage under them, we can be willing, how beautiful soever they were once in our eye, yea, call to have them buried out of our sight. These things sadly laid to heart, will give you reason to think, though this direction be placed last in order of my discourse, yet it should not find neither the last nor the least place, among all the other named, in your Christian care and practice. CHAPTER IV. WHEREIN IS CONTAINED THE SECOND WAY OF HAVING OUR LOINS GIRT WITH TRUTH, VIZ., SO AS TO MAKE A FREE AND BOLD PROFESSION OF IT, AND WHY THIS IS OUR DUTY: AND A SHORT EXHORTATION TO IT. The second way that truth is assaulted is by force and violence ; the devil pierceth the fox's skin of seducers with the lion'sskin of persecutors. The bloodiest tragedies GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 217 in the world have been acted on the stage of the church ; and the most inhuman massacres and butcheries committed on the liarmless sheep of Clirist. The first man that was slain in the world was a saint, and he for religion. And as Luther said, Cain will kill Abel unto the end of the world. The lire of persecution can never go out quite, so long as there remains a spark of hatred in the wicked's bosom on earth, or a devil in hell to blow it up. Therefore there is a second way of having truth girt about the Christian's loins, as necessary as the other ; and that is, in the profession of it. Many that coidd never be beaten fi-oni the truth by dint of argument, have been forced from it by fire of persecution. It is not an orthodox judgment will enable a man to suffer for the truth at the stake. Then that poor Smith, in our English Martyrology, would not have sent such a dastard-like answer to his friend, ready to suffer for that truth, which he himself had been a means to instruct him in, — that indeed it was the truth, but he could not burn. Truth in the head, without holy courage, makes a man like the sword-fish, which Plutarch saith, hath a sword in the head, but no heart to use it. Then a person becomes imconquerable, when from heaven he is endued with a holy boldness, to draw forth the sword of the Spirit, and own the naked truth, by a free profession of it in the face of death and danger. This, this is to 'have our loins girt about with truth.' So that the note, from this second kind of girding with truth, is, Doct. That it is the saints' duty, and should be their cai'e, not only to get an establislied jiulgmcnt in the truth, but also to maintain a stedfast profession of the truth. This the apostle presseth, Heb. x. 23 : ' Let us hold fast the profes- sion of our faith without wavering.' He speaks it in opposition to those who, in those hazardous times, declined the assemblies of the saints, for fear of persecution ; he calls it a ' wavering.' And he that staggers is next door to apostasy. We must not spread ovir sails of profession in a calm, and furl them up when the wind riseth. Pergamos is commended. Rev. ii. L'3, for her bold profession : ' I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan hath his throne ; and thou boldest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas wa^ my faithful njartyr, who was slain among you.' It was a place where Satan sat in the magistrate's seat, where it was grande satis piaculum morfem mereri, Christianutn esse; matter enough to deserve death to be a Christian ; yea, some blood now was shed before their eyes ; and even in those days they denied not the truth. This God took kindly. It is a strict charge Paul gives Timothy, 1 Epis. vi. 11 : ' But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness,' &c. ; while others are prowling for the world, lay about thee for spiritual riches, pursue this with as hot a chase as they do their temporal. But, what if this trade cannot be peaceably driven ? Must shop windows then be shut up, profession laid aside, and he stay to be religious, till more favourable times come about? No such matter ; ver. 12, he bids him ' hght the good fight of faith ;' do not basely quit thy profession, but lay life and all to stake to keep this. And that he might engage him beyond a retreat, see ver. 13 : 'I charge thee in the sight of (Jod, who quickeneth all things, and Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment;' as if he had said. If ever you will see the face of Christ with comfort at the resurrection, who chose to lose his life, rather than deny or dissemble the truth, stand to it, and flinch not from your colours. Augustine, in his Confess, lib. viii. cap. 2, hath a notable story of one Victorinus, famous in Rome for rhetoric, which he taught the senators. This man, in his old age, was converted to Christianity, and came to Simplicianus^ one eminent at that time for his piety, whispering in his ears softly these words, Etjo smn Christiunus ; ' I am a christian ;' but this holy man answered, Non credo, nee deputabo ie, inter Cliristianos nisi in ecclesia Christi ie indero ; ' I will not believe it, nor co\mt thee so, till I see thee among the Christians in the church ; ' at which he laughed, saying, Ergone parietes faciunt Christianum ; ' Do then those walls make a Christian ? cannot I be such, except I openly profess it, and let the world know the same?' This he said for fear, being yet but a young convert, though an old man ; but a while after, when he was more confirmed in the faith, and seriously considered, that if he shoidd continue thus ashamed of Christ, he woidd be ashamed of him when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, he changed his note, and came gl8 HAVING YOUR LOINS to Simplicianus, saying, Eamus in ecclesiam, Christianm volo fieri; 'Let us go to the church, I will now in earnest be a Christian.' And there, though a private profession of his faith might have been accepted, chose to do it openly, saying, That he had openly professed rhetoric, which was not a matter of salvation, and should he be afraid to own the word of God in the congregation of the faithful? God requires both the religion of the heart and mouth, Rom. X. 10; 'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' Confession of the mouth, without faith in the heart, is gross hypocrisy ; to pretend faith without profession of the mouth, is both hj'pocrisy and cowardice. Reas. I shall give but one reason of the point, and that is taken from the great trust which God puts in his saints, concerning his truth ; this is the great deposituni which God delivers to his saints, with a strict and solemn charge to keep against all that imdermine or oppose it. Some things we trust God with ; some things God trusts us with. The great thing which we ])\\i into God's hand to be kept for us, is our soul, 2 Tim. i. 12 : ' He is able to keep that which I have committed im to him against that day.' That which God trusts us chiefly with, is his truth. It is therefore said to be delivered to them, as a charge of money to a friend whom we confide in,Jude 3 : ' Contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.' ' To them,' saith the apostle, speaking of the Jews, 'were committed the oracles of God,' Rom. iii. 2. They were concredited with that heavenly treasure. So Paul exhorts Timothy, Eph. i. 1, to ' hold fast the form of sound words ; ' and this, ver. 14, he calls ' the good thing which was com- mitted to him.' If he that is intrusted with the keeping of a king's crown and jewels, ought to look carefully to his charge, that none be lost or stolen ; much more the Christian, that hath in his charge God's crown and treasure. Rob God of his truth, and what hath he left ? The word of truth is that testimony which the great God gives of himself to man. The saints are his chosen witnesses above others, whom he calls forth to vouch his truth, by a free and holy profes- sion thereof before men, called therefore the witnesses of God, Psa. xix. 7 ; Isa. viii. 20 ; Heb. xii. 1 ; Rev. xi. 3. He that maintains any error from the word, bears false witness against God. He that for fear of shame deserts the truth, or dissembles his profession, he denies God his testimony ; and who can express what a bloody sin this is, and to what a high contempt of God it amounts? It were a horrid crime though but in a man's case. As when one is falsely accused in a court, to speak something, that might clear the innocency of the man, and yet shoidd suffer him to be condemned, rather than hazard himself a little by speaking the truth in open court. O what then is his sin, that when God himself, in his truth, stands at sorry man's bar, dares not speak for God, when called in to declare himself; but lets truth suffer by an unjust sentence, that himself may not at man's hands for bearing. witness to it? Object. But this may seem too heavy a burden to lay on the Christian's back. Must we lay all at stake, and hazard all that is dear to us, rather than deny, or dissemble our profession of the truth ? Sure Christ will have but few followers if he holds his servants to such hard terms. Answ. Indeed it is hard to flesh and blood ; one of the highest stiles to be gone over in our way to heaven : a carnal heart cannot hear this, but he is offended presently, Matt. xiii. 21. Therefore such as are loth to lose heaven, and yet imwilling to venture thus much for it, have set their wits at work to find out an easier way thither. Hence those heretics of old, Priscillianists, and others, whose chief religion was to save their own skin, made little of outward profession. They thought they might say and vnisay, swear and forswear, (according to their wretched principle, Juro, perjuro, mentem injuratam gero,) so in their heart they did but cleave to the truth. O what fools were the pro- phets, apostles, and other holy martyrs, that have sealed the truth with their blood, if there might have been such a fair way of escaping the storm of perse- cution ! Bold men, that to save a little troulDle from man, for truth's sake, durst invent such detestable blasphemies against the truth ; yea, deface those characters which nature itself engraves upon the conscience. "The same window that let in the light of a Deity, would with it let in this also, that we should walk in the name of this God ; the very heathen know this. ' All people will walk, every one in the name of his god,' Micah iv. Socrates, to blood, held GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 219 there was but one God; and in liis apology for his life, said, if they would give him his life on condition to keep this truth to himself, and not teach it to others, he woidd not accept it : behold here the powerful workings of a natural conscience ! Have not they then improved the knowledge of the Scripture well, in the meantime, that are so far outshot from nature's weak bow ? lleligion would soon vanish into an empty nothing, if for fear of every one we meet we must, like mmaway soldiers, pluck oil' our colours, and put our profession as it were in our pockets, lest we shovdd be known to whom we belong. What doth God require by a free pi-ofession of his truth, more than a master doth of his servant, when he bids him take his livery, and follow him in the streets? or when a prince calls his subjects into the field, to declare their loyalty by owning his quarrel against an invading enemy ? And is it reasonable what man requires of these, and only hard from God's hands ? Nay, it is not more, not so much, as we desire of God for ourselves. Who would not have God make pi-ofession of his love to us, and bear witness for us against Satan, and our own sins, at that great day when men and angels shall be spectators ? And shall we expect that from God which he owes us by no law, but of his own fi'ee promise, and deny him that which we are under so many bonds to pay? If it be but in some affliction, while we are here, how disconsolate are we, if God's face be a little overcast, and he doth not own us in our distress ? And is there no kindness to be shewn to that God that knows your soul in adversity? When his tiaith is in an agony, may not Christ look, that all his friends should sit up and watch with it? O! it were shame with a witness, that any such effeminate delicacy should be found among Christ's servants, that they cannot break a little of their worldly rest and enjoyments to attend on him and his truth. Use. Let this stir us up to get the girdle of truth close girt to us, that we may be able to hold fast the profession of it, even in the face of death and danger, and not be offended when persecution ariseth. Blessed be God, it is not yet come to that ; we have the truth at a cheaper rate ; but how soon the market may rise we know not. Truth is not always to be had at the same price. Buy it we must at any, but sell it upon no terms. And let me tell you, there hath, is, and will be a spirit of persecution in the hearts of the wicked, to the end of the world ; and as Satan was considering Job, before he laid his foul hands on him, so now persecution is working in the spirits of the ungodly ; there are engines of death continually preparing in the thoughts and desires of Satan and his instruments, against the sincere professors of the truth ; it is already resolved upon what they would do, might power be given, and oppor- tunity, to put their malice in execution ; yea, we are half way already towards a persecution. Satan comes first with a spirit of error, and then of persecution ; he first corrupts men's minds with error, and then enrageth their hearts with wrath against the professors of truth. It is impossible that error, being a child of hell, shoidd be peaceable; it would not then be like its father. That which is from beneath can neither be pure nor peaceable. And how far God hath suffered this -sulphureous spirit of error to prevail, is so notorious, that no apology is broad enough to cover the nakedness of these imhappy times. It is therefore high time to have our girdle of truth on, yea, close girt about us in the jjrofession of it. Not every one that now applauds truth will follow it, when once it comes to shew them the way to prison ; not every one that preacheth for it, or disputes for it, will suffer for it. Arguments are harmless things, blunt weapons, they fetch no blood ; but when we suffei", then we are called to try it with truth's enemies at sharps. This requires something more than a nimble tongue, a sharp wit, and a logical head : where then will be the wise, the disputer, the men of parts and gifts? Alas, they will, like cowardly soldiers, be wanting in the fight, though they could be as forward as the best at a muster or training, when no enemy was in the field; when to aj)pear for truth was rather a matter of gain or applause, than loss and hazard. No, God hath chosen the foolish to confound the wise in this piece of service ; the humble Christian by his faith, patience, and love to the truth, to shame men of high parts, and no grace. 220 HAVING YOUR LOINS CHAPTER V. A DIRECTION OR TWO FOR THE GIRDING OF TRUTH CLOSE TO US IN THE PROFESSION OF IT. Quest. But how may a soul get to be thus girt with truth in the profession of it? Answ. First, labour to get a heart inflamed with a sincere love to the truth ; this is only able to match the enemies of truth. The worst they can do is bonds or death, and 'love is stronger than death ;' it kills the very heart of death itself, it makes all easy. Commandments are not grievous to love, nor doth it complain of sufferings. With what a light heart did Jacob, for the love of Rachel, endure the heat of the day, and cold of the night. It is venturous. Jonathan threw a kingdom at his heels, and conflicted with the anger of an enraged father, for David's sake. Love never thinks itself a loser, so long as it keeps its beloved ; yea, it is ambitious of any hazardous enterprize, whereby it may sacrifice itself in the service of its beloved, as we see in David, who put his life in his hands for Michal ; how fnuch more, when our love is pitched upon so transcendent an object as Christ and his truth ! alas, they are but faint spirits, which are breathed from a creature ; weak beams that are shot from such sorry beauties. If these lay their lovers under such a law, that they cannot but obey, though with the greatest peril and hazard ; what constraint then must a soul ravished with the love of Christ be under ? This has made the saints leap out of their estates, relations, yea, out of their bodies with joy, counting it not their loss to part with them, but to keep them with the least prejudice to the truth ; Rev. xii. 11, it is said there, ' They loved not their lives unto the death.' Mark, not to the loss of some of the comforts of their lives, but ' to death ;' life itself the)' counted an enemy, when it would part them and truth ; as a man doth not love his arm or leg, when it hazards the rest, but bids cut it off. Cannot we live, say these noble spij-its, but to the clouding of truth, and calling our love to it and Christ into question ? Welcome then the worst of deaths. This kept up David's coiu-age when his life was laid for, Psa. cxix. 95 : ' The wicked have waited for me to destroy me, but I will consider thy testimonies.' A carnal heart would have considered his estate, wife, and children, or at least his life, now in danger; but David's heart was on abetter subject, he considered the testimonies of God, and so much sweetness pours in upon his soul, while he is rolling them in his meditation, that he cannot hold : ' O how I love thy law !' ver. 97. This made him set light by all the troubles he met with for his cleaving to the truth. It is a great mystery to the world, that men for an opinion, as they call it, should run such desperate hazard. Therefore Paul was thought by his judge to be out of his wits. And that question which Pilate asked Christ, seems rather to be slightingly, than seriously spoken, John xviii. Our Saviour had told him, ver. 37, that the end why he was born, and came into the world, was, that he should 'bear witness to theti-uth.' Then Pilate, ver. 38, asks Christ, 'What is truth?' and presently flings away, as if he had said, Is this now a time to think of tnith, when thy life is in danger? What is truth, that thou shouldst ventvire so much for it ? But a gracious soul may better ask in a holy scorn. What are riches and honours? What the fading pleasures of this cheating world ? Yea, what is life itself, that any, or all these, shovild be set in opposition to truth ? O sirs, look what has your love, that will command purse, credit, life, and all. Amor meus pondns meiim, every man goes where his love carries him. If the world has your love, on it you will spend your lives ; if truth has your hearts, you will catch the blow that is made at it in your own breasts, rather than let it fall on it. Only be careful that your love to truth be sincere, or else it will leave you at the prison door, and make you part with truth, when you should most appear for it. Three sorts of pretenders to truth, their love is not like to endure the fiery trial. First, Such as embrace truth for carnal advantage. Sometimes truth pays well for her board in the world's own coin, and so long every one will invite her to his house. These do not love truth, but the jewel at her ear. Many were observed in Henry the Eighth's time to be very zealous against abbots, that GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. ggj loved their lands more than they hated their idohitry. Truth finds few that love lier gratis. And tliose few only will sutler with trutli, and for it ; as for the other, when the worldly dowry that truth hrought be once spent, you will find they are weary of their match. This kitchen fire burns no longer than such gross fuel of profit, credit, and the like does feed it. If you cannot love naked truth, you will not have coiu-age to go naked for truth. If you cannot love disgraced truth, you will not endure to be disgraced for truth; and what usage truth finds, that her followers must expect. Secondly, Such who commend truth, and cry it up highly ; but if you mark them, they do but compliment with it ; all this while they keep at a distance, and do not sufi'er truth to come within them, so as to give law unto them. Like one that entertains a suitor, speaks well of him, holds discourse witli him, but will not hear of marrying him. Bucholcerus would oft say, Multi osculantur Chrhtum, pauci vero am ant ; 'Many kiss Christ, but few love him.' True love to Christ is conjugal ; when a soul delivers up itself from an inward liking it hath to Christ, as to her husband, to be ruled by his spirit, and ordered by his word of truth, here is a soul loves Christ and his truth ; but where truth has no command, and bears no rule, there dwells no love to truth in that heart. She that is not obedient, cannot be a loving wife, because love would constrain her to be so ; and so would love in the soul enforce obedience to the truth it loves. Nay, he that doth not obey ti-uth, is so far from loving it, that he is afraid of tnith ; and he that is slavishly afraid of truth, will sooner prove a persecutor of truth, than a sufferer for trutli. So true is that of Hierome, Qiie/n metiiit qiiis odit, quern odit perisse cupit ; ' Whom we fear, we hate; whom we hate, we wish they were destroyed.' Saul feared David, and that made him industriously seek his ruin. Herod feared John, and that cost him his life. Slavish fear makes the naughty heart imprison truth in his con- science, because if that had its liberty and authority in the soul, it would im- prison, yea, execute every lust that now rules the roast ; and he that imprisons truth in his own bosom, will hardly lie in prison himself as a witness for truth. Thirdly, Such as have no zeal against truth's enemies. Love goes ever armed with zeal, this is her dagger she draws against all the opposers of truth. Qui non zefaf, non amat : ' He that is not zealous, doth not love.' Now right zeal acts, like fire, to its utmost power, yet ever keeping its place and sphere. If it be confined to the breast of a private Christian, whence it may not flame forth in punishing truth's enemies, then it burns inwardly the more for being pent up ; and preys, like a fire in his bones, upon the Christian's own spirits, consuming them, yea, eating liim up for grief, to see tnith trod under foot of error or profaneness, and he not able to help it up. It is no joy to a zealous lover to outlive liis beloved ; such there have been, who could have chose rather to have leaped into their friends' grave, and lain down with them in the dust, than here pass a disconsolate life without them. ' Let us go and die with him,' said Thomas, when Christ told tliem Lazarus was dead ; and I am sure zealous lovers of truth count it as melancholy living in evil times, when that is fallen in the streets. The news of the ark's taking frightened good Eli's soul out of his body; and this may charitably be thoui'ht to have given life to Elijah's wish, yea, solenm prayer for deatli, 1 Iv.ingsxix.4: ' It is enough, take away my life ;' the holy man saw how things went among the great ones of those wicked times ; idolaters they were courted, and the faithful servants of God carted, as I may so say, yea, killed ; and now this zealous propliet thinks it a good time to leave the world in, rather than five in torment any longer, to see the name, truth, and servants of (iod trampled on by those who should have sliewn most kindness to them. But if zeal hath any power put into her hands, wherein she may vindicate truth's cause, as when she is exalted into the magistrate's seat, then truth's enemies sliall know and feel, that ' she bears not tlie sword in vain.' The zealous magistrate will have, as an arm to relieve and defend truth, ' tlie Israelite;' so a hand to smite ))las- phemy, eiTor, and profaneness, ' the Egyptian,' wlien any of them assault her. O how Moses laid about him, that meek man, who stood so mute in his own cause, Numb, xii., when the people had conunitted idolatry ! His heart was so infired within hhn, that, as well as he loved them, he could neither open his 222 HAVING VOUR^ LOINS mouth in a prayer for them to God, nor his ear to receive any petition from them, till he had given vent to his zeal in an act of justice upon the offenders. Now such, and such only, are the persons that are likely, when called, to suffer for the truth, who will not let it suffer if they can help it. But as for natural, Gallio-like spirits, that can see truth and error scuffling, and not do their utmost to relieve truth, by interposing their power and authority, if a magis- trate ; by preaching the one up, and the other down, if a minister; and by a free testimony to, fervent prayer for, and affectionate sympathizing with truth, as it fares ill or well, if a private Christian ; I say, as for such, who stand in this case as some spectators about two wrestlers, not caring much who hath the fall, these are not the men that can be expected to expose themselves to mucli suffering for truth. That magistrate who hath not zeal enough to stop tin- mouths of truth's enemies when he may, will he open his mouth in a Iree profession of it when death and danger face him ? That minister who hath neither love nor courage enough to apologize for truth in the pulpit, can it be thought he would stand to her defence at a stake ? In a word, that private Christian whose heart is not wounded through tinith's sides, so as to sympa- thize with it, will he interpose himself betwixt truth and the blow that bloody persecutors make at it, and choose to receive it into his own bodj', though to death, rather than it should light on truth ? If the fire of love within be out, or so little that it will not melt the man into sorrow for the wrongs done to truth by men of corrupt minds, where will the flame be found that should enable him to burn to ashes under the hand of bloody men ? He will never endure the fire in his body, that hath no more care to keep that sacred fire burning in his soul; if he cannot shed tears, much less will he bleed for truth. Quest. If any now shoidd ask, how they may get their hearts inflamed with this heavenly fire of love to truth, I answer, First, Ans. 1. Labour for an inward conformity of thy heart to truth. Likeness is the ground of love. A carnal heart cannot like truth, because it is not like to truth. Such a one may love tinxth, as he did Alexander, Regem iion Alcxan- drnm; ' the king, not the person that was king:' truth in its honour and dignity, when it can prefer him, but not naked truth itself. How is it possible an earthly soul should love truth that is heavenly ? An imholy heart, truth that is pure ? O it is sad indeed, when men's tenets and principles in their understandings do clash, and fight with the pi-inciples of their hearts and affec- tions ! When men have orthodox judgment, and heterodox hearts, there must needs be little love to truth, because the judgment and will are so unequally yoked ; truth in the conscience reproving and threatening lust in the heart, and that again controlling truth in the conscience. Thus, like a scolding couple, they may a while dwell together; but taking no content in one another, the wretch is easily persuaded to give truth a bill of divorce at last, and send her away, as Ahasuerus did Vashti, that he may espouse other principles, which will suit better with his corrupt heart, and not cross him in the way he is in. This, this I am persuaded hath parted many and truth in these licentious days. They could not sin peaceably while they kept their judgments sound ; truth ever 'and anon would be chiding them; and therefore, to match their judgments with their hearts, they have taken up principles suitable to their lusts. But, soul, if truth had such a power upon thee, to transform thee by the renewing of thy mind into its own likeness, that as the scion turns the stock into its own nature, so truth hath assimilated thee, and made thee bear fruit like itself, thou art the person that will never part with truth ; before thou canst do this, thou must part with that new natin-e, which by it the Spirit of God hath begot in thee. There is now such a near union betwixt thee and truth, or rather thee and Christ, as can never be broke. We see what a mighty power there goes along with God's ordinance of marriage, that two persons, who possibly a month before never knew one another, yet their aftections once knit by love, and their persons made one by marriage, they can now leave friends and parents for to enjoy each other; such a mighty power, and much greater, goes along with this mystical marriage between the soul and Christ, the soul and truth, that the same person, who, before conversion, would not have ventured the loss of a penny for Christ, or his truth, yet now, knit to Christ and his truth by a secret work of GIUT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 223 the Spirit new forming him into the likeness thereof, he can bid adieu to the world, life, and all, for these. As that martyr told him that asked whether he did not love his wife and children, and was not loth to part with them, ' Yes,' saith he, ' I love them so dearly, that I would not part with any of them for all that the Duke of Brunswick is worth,' whose subject he was; 'but for Christ's sake and his truth, farewell to them all.' Secondly, Labour to get thy heart more and more infired with the love of God, and this will work in thee a dear love to his truth : love observes what is precious and dear to its beloved, and loves it for his sake. David's love to Jonathan made him inqiure for some of his race, that he might shew kindness to, for his sake. Love to God will make the soul inquisitive to find out what is near and dear to God, that by shewing kindness to it he may express his love to him. Now upon a little search, we shall find that the great God sets a very high price upon the head of truth, Psa. cxxxviii. 2 : ' Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name ;' that is, God's name by which he is known ; evei-y creature hath God's name upon it ; by it God is known, even to the least pile of grass ; but to his word and truth therein written he hath given preeminence above all other things that bear his name. Take a few considerations whereby we may a little conceive of the high value God sets of truth. First, God, when he vouchsafeth his word and truth to a people, he makes account he gives them one of the greatest mercies they can receive or he give ; he calls them ' the great things of his law,' Hos. viii. 12. A people that enjoy his truth, they are by Christ's own judgment ' lifted up to heaven ;' whatever a people have at God's hands, without this, bears no more comparison with it than Hagar's loaf of bread and bottle, which was Ishmael's portion, would with Isaac's inheritance. God, that knows how to prize and rate his own gifts, saith of his word which he ' sheweth to Jacob, and testimonies that he gives to Israel,' that 'he hath not dealt so with any nation,' Psa. cxlvii. 20 ; that is, not so richly and graciously. Secondly, con- sider God's especial care to preserve his truth : whatever is lost, God looks to his truth. In shipwrecks at sea, and scarefires at land, when men can save but little, they use to choose not lumber, and things of no worth, but what they esteem most precious. In ail the great revolutions, changes, and overturning of kingdoms, and churches also, God hath still preserved his truth. Thousands of saints' lives have been taken away, but that wliich the devil spites more than all the saints, yea, which alone he spites them for, that is, the truth, this lives, and shall, to triumph over his malice : and sure if truth were not very dear to God, he would not be at this cost to keep it vv'ith the blood of his saints ; yea, which is more, the blood of his Son, whose errand into the world was by life and death i' to bear witness to the truth,' John xviii. 37. In a word, in that great and dismal conflagration of heaven and earth, when the elements shall melt for heat, and the world come to its fatal period, then truth shall not suffer the least loss, but ' the word of the Lord endureth for ever,' 1 Pet. i. 25. Thirdly, Consider the severity of God to the enemies of truth. A dreadful curse is denovmced against those that shall ' take away from it, or add the least to it,' that embase or clip this heavenly coin, Rev. xxii. 18. All tliese speak at what a high rate Qod values truth ; and no wonder, if we consider what truth is, that truth which shines forth from the written word : it is the extract of God's tlioughts and counsels, which from everlasting he took up, and had in his heart to effect. Nothing comes to pass but as an accomplishment of this his word ; it is the most full and perfect I'epresentation that God himself could give of his own being and nature to the sons of men, that by it we might know him, and love him. Great princes use to send their pictures by their ambassadors to those whom they woo for marriage. God is such an infinite perfection, that no hand can draw him forth to life but his own, and this he hath done exactly in his word, from which all his saints have come to be enamoiu-ed with him. As we deal with truth, so we do with (iod himself; he that despiseth that, despiseth him. He that abandons the truth of (iod, renounceth tlie God of truth. Though men cannot come lo pull God out of iiis tin-one, and deprive him of his Godliead, yet they come as near this as it is ])ossil)le, when they let out their 3vrath against the truth; in this they do, as it were, execute (iod in effigy. There is reason, we see, why God should so higldy prize his truth, and that we that love him should cleave to it. 22i. HAVING YOUR LOINS Thirdly, Be much in the meditation of the transcendent excellency of truth. The eye affects the fieart; this is the window at which love enters. Never any that had a spiritual eye to see truth in her native beauty, but had a heart to love her. This was the way that David's heart was ravished with the love of the word of truth, Psa. cxix. 96 : ' O how I love thy law ! it is my meditation all the day ;' while his thoughts were on it, his love was drawn to it. David found a great difference betwixt meditating on the truths of God's word, and other excellences which the world cries up so highly : when he goes to enter- tain himself with the thoughts of some perfection in the creature, he finds it but a jejune, dry subject, compared with this ; he soon tumbles over the book of the world's excellences, and can find no notion that deserves any long stay upon it: ' I have seen,' saith he, 'an end of all pei'fections;' he is at the woidd's end presently, and in a few thoughts can see to the bottom of all the world's glory ; but when he takes up the truths of God into his thoughts, now he meets with work enough for his admiration and sweet meditation : ' thy commandments are exceeding broad.' Great ships cannot sail in narrow rivers and shallow waters ; neither can minds truly great with the knowledge of God and heaven find room enough in the creature to turn and expatiate themselves in. A gracious soul is soon aground and at a stand, when upon these flats ; but let it launch out into the meditation of God, his word, the mysterious truths of the gospel, and he finds a place of broad waters, searoom enough to lose himself in. I might here shew you the excellency of Divine truths from many heads, as from the source and spring-head whence they flow, the God of truth ; from their opposite, that misshapen monster, error, &c. But I shall only direct your meditation to a few enamouring properties which you shall find in these truths. You may meet a heap of them together in Psa. xix. 7, and so on. Truth it is ' pure;' this made David love it, Psa. cxix. 140. It is not only pure, but makes the soul pure and holy that embraceth it. ' Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth,' .John xvii. 17. It is the pure water that God washeth foul souls clean with, Ezek, xxxvi. 25 : ' I will spi-inkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean ; from all your filthiness will I cleanse you;' foul puddle water will as soon make the face, as error make the soul clean. Truth is ' sure,' and hath a firm bottom, Psa. xix. 7. We may lay the whole weight of our souls upon it, and yet not crack under us. Cleave to truth, and it will stick to thee; it will go with thee to prison, banishment, yea, stake itself, and bear thy charges wherever thou goest upon her errand. ' Not one thing,' saith Joshua, ' hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you ; all are come to pass unto you, not one thing hath failed thereof,' Josh, xxiii. 14. Whatever you find tliere promised, count it money in yom* purse. ' Foui'score years,' said Poly carp, ' I have served God, and found him a good Master.' But when men think by forsaking the truth to provide well for themselves, they are sure to meet with disappointments. Many have been flattered from truth with goodly promises, and then served no better than Judas was by the Jews, after he had betrayed his Master into their bloody hands ; ' See thou to that.' Though persecutors love the treason, yet they hate the traitor ; yea, oft, to shew their devilish malice, they, when some have been got to wound their conscience by denying the truth, have most cruelly butchered them, and gloried in it, as a full revenge to destroy soul and body together. Again, truth is ' free,' and makes the soul ' free ' that cleaves to it, John viii. ',i2 : ' "The truth shall make you free.' Christ tells the Jews of a bondage they were in, which that brag-people never dreamed on, ver. 44; ' Ye are of your father the devil, and his lusts you will do;' such slaves are all sinners, they must do what the devil will have them, and dare no more displease him than a child his father with a rod in his hand. Some witches have confessed that they have been forced to send out their imps to do mischief to others, that they might have ease themselves ; for till they did send them abroad upon such an errand, they were themselves tormented by them. And he who hath a lust sucking on him, finds as little rest, if he be not always serving of it, and making provi- sion for it. Can the world, think you, shew such another slave as this poor wi'etch is ? Well, though all the bolts that the devil hath, lusts I mean, were locked upon one sinner, and he shut up in the closest dungeon of all his prison, yet let but this poor slave begin to be acquainted with the truth of GIKT ABOUT WVLH TKUTH. 225 Christ, SO as to open his heart to it, and close with it, you shall soon hear that the foundations of the prison are shaken, its doors thrown open, and the chains fallen off the poor creature's legs. Truth cannot itself be bound, nor will it dwell in a soul that lies bound in sin's prison ; and therefore when once truth and the soul are agreed, or rather Christ and the soul, who are brought together by truth, then the poor creature may lift up his head with joy, for his redemp- tion and jail-delivery from his spiritual bondage draws nigh ; yea, the day is come, the key is in the lock already to let him out. It is impossible we should be acquainted with truth, as it is in Jesus, and be mere strangers to this liberty that attends it, Eph. iv. 19 — 21. In a word, lastly. Truth is victorious. It is great, and shall prevail at last. It is the great counsel of God, and though many fine plots and devices are found in the hearts of men, which shew what they'would do, yet the counsel of the Lord shall stand ; all their eggs are addle, when they have sat longest on them ; alas ! they want power to hatch what their malice sits brooding on. Sometimes, I confess, the enemies to truth get the militia of this lower world into their hands, and then truth seems to go to the gi'ound, and those that witness to it are even slain ; yet then it is more than their persecutors can do to get them laid under ground in their grave, Rev, xi. 9. Some, that were never thought on, shall strike in on truth's side, and forbid the burial. Persecutors need not be at cost for marble to write the memorial of their victories in, dust will serve well enough, for they are not like to last so long. Three days and a half the witnesses may lie dead in the streets, and truth sit disconsolate by them ; but within a while they are walking, and truth triumphing again. If persecutors could kill their successors, then their work might be tlrought to stand strong, needing not to fear another to pull down what they have set up ; and yet then their work would lie as open to Heaven, and might be as easily hindered, as theirs at Bal)el. Who loves not to be on the Avinning side ? Choase truth for thy side, and thou hast it. News may come that truth is sick, but never that it is dead. No, it is error is short- lived : ' a lying tongue is but for a moment ;' but truth's age runs parallel with God's eternity. It shall live to see their heads laid in the dust, and to walk over their graves, tliat were so busy to make one for her. Live, did I say ? yea, reign in peace with those who now are willing to suffer with and for it. And ■wouldst thou not, Christian, be one among that goodly train of victors, who shall attend on Christ's triumphant chariot into the heavenly city, there to take the crown, and sit down in thy throne, with those that have kept the field when Christ and his truth were militant here on earth ? Thus, wouldst thou but in thy thoughts wipe away tears and blood, which now cover the face of suffer- ing truth, and present it to thy e3'e as it shall look in gloiy, thou couldst not but cleave to it with a love stronger than death. But, Secondly, If yet there remains any qualm of fear on thy heart, from the wrath of bloody men threatening tliee for thy profession of the truth, then to a heart inflamed with the love of truth, labour to add a heart filled with the fear of that wrath which God hath in store for all that apostatize from the truth. When you chance to burn your finger, you hold it to the fire, which being a greater fire, draws out the other. Thus, when thy thoughts are scorched, and thy heart scared with the fire of man's wrath, hold them a while to hell fire, which God hath prepared for the fearful, Rev. xxi. 8, and all that run away from truth's colours, Heb. x. 39, and thou wilt lose the sense of the one for fear of the other. Ignosce impcrator, saith the holy man, tti carcerem, Dens gehennam minalur ; ' Pardon me, O em])eror, if I obey not thy conunand ; thou threatenest a prison, but God a hell.' Observable is that of David, Psa, cxix. 161 : ' Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.' He had no cause to fear them that had no cause to per- secute him ; one threatening out of the word, that sets the point of God's wrath to his heart, scares him more than the worst that the greatest on earth can do to him. Man's wrath, alas ! when hottest, is but a temperate climate to the wrath of the living God. They who have felt both have testified as nuxch. Man's wrath cannot hinder the access of God's love to the creature, which hath made the saints sing in the fire, in spite of their enemies' teetli. But the creature under God's wrath is like one shut up in a close oven, no crevice open to let any of the heat out, or any refreshing in to him. u 22G HAVING YOUR LOINS CHAPTER VI. OF THE SECOND KIND OF TRUTH, TRUTH OF HEART, OR SINCERITY, WITH THE KINDS OF it; and IN PARTICULAR OF MORAL UPRIGHTNESS, TOGETHER WITH ITS DEFICIENCY; AND A DOUBLE CAUTION ABOUT THIS; THE ONE TO THE SAINTS, THE OTHER TO THE MORALLY UPRIGHT PERSON. We come now to the second kind of ' tnith' commended to the Christian under the notion of the soldier's girdle, and that is 'truth of heart.' Where it would be known. First, What I mean by tnith of heart. Secondly, Why compared to a girdle. For the First, By truth of heart I understand sincerity, so taken in Scripture, Heb. X. 22 : ' Let us draw near with a true heart ;' that is, with a sincere heart. We have them oft conjoined, the one explaining the other. Josh. xxiv. 14 : ' Fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth.' 1 Cor. v. 8, we read of ' the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.' Hypocrisy is a lie with a fair cover over it; an insincere heart is a false heart; the inward frame and motion of the heart comports not with the profession and behaviour of the outward man ; like a clock, whose wheels within go not as the hand points without. Secondly, Sincerity, or truth of heart, may fitly be compared to a girdle, in regard of the twofold use and end for which a girdle, especially the soldier's belt, is worn. First, The girdle is used as an ornament put on uppermost, to cover the joints of the armour, which would, if seen, cause some uncomeliness. Here, at the loins I mean, those pieces of armour for the defence of the lower parts of the body are fastened to the upper ; now, because they cannot be so closely knit and clasped, but there will be some little gaping betwixt piece and piece, there- fore they vised to put over those parts a broad girdle, that covered all that uncomeliness. Now sincerity doth the same for the Christian, what the girdle doth for the soldier. The saint's graces are not so close, nor his life so exact, but in the best there are foimd infirmities and defects, which are as so many gapings and clefts in his armour ; but sincerity covers all, that he is neither put to shame for them, nor exposed to danger by them. Secondly, The girdle was used for strength ; by this the loins were staid and united, and the soldier made stronger to fight or march : as a garment, the closer it sits the wai-mer it is ; so the belt, the closer it is girt, the more strength the loins feel ; hence God, threatening to enfeeble and weaken a person or people, saith, 'Their loins shall be loosened,' Isa. xlv. 1 : 'I will loose the loins of kings;' and Job xii. 21, 'He weakeneth the strength of the mighty. ' He looseth the girdle of the strong. Now sincerity may well be compared, in this respect, to the soldier's girdle. It is a grace that doth gird the soul with strength, and makes it mighty to do or suffer. Indeed it is the very strength of every grace ; so much h}'pocrisy as is found cleaving to our graces, so much weakness. It is sincere faith that is the strong faith ; sincere love that is the mighty love. Hypocrisy is to grace as the worm is to the oak, the rust to the iron,- — it weakens them, because it corrupts them. The metaphor thus opened affords these two doctrinal conclu- sions; in handling of which I shall comprise what I have to say further of this piece of armour. DocL 1. That sincerity, or ti-uth of heart in our ways, covers all the Chris- tian's uncomeliness. Doct. 2. That truth of heart, or sincerity, is of excellent use to strengthen the Christian in his whole course. Doct. 1. To begin with the first, Sincerity covers all our uncomeliness. In handling of this point, this is our method : First, To inquire which is the truth and sincerity that doth this. Secondly, We shall inquire what uncomelinesses they are that sincerity covers. Thirdly, How sincerity covers them. Fourthly, Why sincerity doth this, or some account given for all (his. First, of the first, Let us inquire which is that truth and sincerity that covers all uncomelinesses and deficiencies in the Christian. Here we must distinguish of a twofold sincerity; one moral, another evangelical. GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 227 First, There is a moral truth and iipriglifness, which we may call a field-flower, because it may he foimd n^rowinjj- in the wild and waste of nature. It cannot be denied, but one that hath not a dram of sanctifying, saving grace, may shew some kind of uprightness and truth in his actions. God himself comes in as a witness for Abimelech, that what he did in taking Sarah was in the uprightness of his heart. Gen. xx. G ; ' I know,' saith God, ' that thou didst this in tlie integrity of thy heart;' that is, Thou didst mean honestly as to this particular business, and didst not intend any wrong to Abraham, whose wife she was, unknown to tliee. Joab, though a bloody man, yet dealt very uprightly and squarely with David, concei-ning the rendition of Rabbah, when he had a fair advantage of stealing away the honour from his prince to himself. Many such instances may be given of men that have been great strangers to a work of grace on their hearts; but this is not the uprightness that we mean in the point laid down. It doth indeed render a person very lovelv and amiable before men, to be thus upright and honest in his dealings ; but methinks I hear the Lord saying, concerning such, as once he did to Samuel of Eliab, 1 Sam. xvi. 7, '.Lo»k not on their coun- tenance,' so as to think these ai-e they which he accepts ; uo, he hath refused them, ' for the Lord seeth not as man sceth.' God's eye looks deeper than man's. There are two great defects in this uprightness, v/hich God rejects it for. First, It grows not from a good root, a renewed heart. This is a hair on the moral man's pen, which bhu-s and blots his copy, when he writes fairest. It is like the leprosy of Naaman ; that same, ' but he was a leper,' took away the honour of his greatness at court and prowess in the field ; so hei-e it stains the fairest action,s of a mere moral man, ' but he is a Christless, graceless person.' The uprightness of such does others more good in this world than themselves in another. They are by this moral honesty profitable to those that have civil commerce with them ; but it doth not render themselves acceptable to God. Indeed, had not God left some authority of conscience to awe and keep them that have uo grace within some boimds of honesty, this world would have been no more habitable for the saints than the forest of wild beasts is now for man. And such is the uprightness of men, void of sanctifying gr-ace, that they are rather rid by an overpowering light of conscience that scares them, than sweetly led by any inward princi])le inclining them to take complacency in that which is good. Abimelech himself, for whom, as we heard, God so apologized, yet is let to know, that his honesty in that matter came rather from God's restraint upon him, than any real goodness in him. Gen. xx. : ' I also v.'ithheld thee from sinning against me, therefore suftered I thee not to touch her.' Secondly, This moral uprightness falls short of the chief end indispensably necessai-y to make a person upright indeed : this is, the glory of God : 1 Cor. X. 31, ' Whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' The archer may lose his game by shooting short, as well as shooting wide. The gross hypocrite shoots wide, the uprightest moralist shoots short. He may and oft doth take his aim right, as to the particidar and immediate end of his action, but ever fails in regard of the idtimate end. Thus, a servant may be faithful to his master, scorn to wrong him of a farthing, yea, cordially seek his master's profit, and yet God never looked at, or thought of, in all this, and so all worth nothing, because God is left out of the story, who is principally to be regarded, Eph. vi. 7 : servants are commanded to 'do their service as to God, not to man;' that is, not only, not cliiefly to man. It is true, the master is not to be looked at in the servant's duty, but in his way, only as it leads to the glory of God ; he nuist not, when he hath desired to please his earthly master, sit down as at his journey's end, but pass on, as the eye doth through the air and clouds to the sun, where it is terminated ; so he to (Jod, as the chief end why he is dutiful and faithful to man. Now no principle can lead the soul so high as to aim at God, but that which comes from God. See both these excellently couched together, Phil. i. 10, 11 : ' That ye may be sincere, being filled with the fniits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.' Where you may observe. First, that the sincerity of the right stamp is that which brings forth fruits of righteousness to the praise of God ; that is, where the glory of God is the end of all our actions. Secondly, That such fruit cannot be borne but by Christ ; the soul must be planted into Christ before it can be tluis sincere, to bear fruits of righteousness to the praise of God. Hence thes-e q2 228 HAVING YOUR LOINS fruits of righteousness are said to be by Jesus Christ. What men do by them- selves, they do for themselves; they eat their own fruit, devour the praise of what they do. The Christian only that doth all by Christ, doth all for Christ ; he hath his sap from Christ, into whom he is grafted, that makes him fruitful, and thei-efore he reserves all tlie fruit he bears for him. Thus we see how this moral uprightness is itself fundamentally defective, and therefore cannot be that girdle which hides and covers our other defects : yet, before I pass on to the other, I would leave a twofold caution for improvement of what hath been said concerning this uprightness; the one is to the sincere Christian, the other is to such as have no more than a moral uprightness. Caution 1. To the sincere Christian. May there be found a kind of upright- ness among men that are carnal and destitute of God's sanctifying grace? O then look you to it, in whose hearts dwell the Spirit of grace, that you be not put to shame by those that are graceless, which you nmst needs be when you are taken tardy in those things that they cannot be charged for. Many among them there are that €corn to lie : shall a saint be taken in an vmtruth .' Their moral principles bind them over to the peace, and will not suffer them to wrong their neighbour : and can cheating, overreaching, oppression, follow a saint's hand ? Except your righteousness exceeds their best, you are not Christians ; and can you let them exceed you in those things which, when they are done, leave them short of Christ and heaven ? It is time for the scholar to throw off his gown, and disclaim the name of an academic, when every schoolboy is able to dunce and pose him. And for him also to lay aside his profession, and let the world know what he is, yea, what he never was, that can let a mere civil man, with his weak bow, only backed with moral principles, outshoot him that pretends to Christ and his grace. I confess it sometimes so falls out, that a saint imder a temptation may be outstripped by one that is carnal in a parti- cular case ; as a lackey that is an excellent footman may, from some prick or present lameness in his foot, be left behind by one that at another time should not be able to come near him. We have too many sorrowful examples of moral men's outstripping even a saint, at a time when under a temptation; a notable passage we meet with concerning Abimelech's speech to Sarah, after her dissembling and eqiuvocating speech, that Abraham was her brother, Gen. XX. 16 : 'And imto Sarah he said,' that is, Abimelech said to her, ' Behold, I have given thy bi-other a thousand pieces of silver ; behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes unto all that are with thee, and wilh all other.' Now mark the words which follow: 'Thus she was reproved.' How? where lies the reproof? Here are none but good words, and money to boot also. He pro- miseth protection to her and Abraham ; none should wrong him in wronging her ; and tells her what he had freely given Abraham. Well, for all this we shall find a sharp reproof, though lapped up in these sweet words, and silvered over with his thousand pieces. First, She was reproved by the upi-ightness of Abimelech in that business, wherein she had sinfully dissembled. That he who was a stranger to the true God and his worship should be so square and honest as to deliver her up vnitouched, when once he knew her to be another man's wife ; and not only so, but instead of falling into a passion of anger, and taking up thoughts of revenge against them, for putting this cheat upon him, which, having them under his power, had not been strange for a prince to have done, — for him to forget all this, and rather shew such kindness and high bounty to them, this must needs send a sharp reproof home to Sarah's heart, especially considering that he, a heathen, did all this; and she, one called to the knowledge of God, in covenant with God, and the wife of a prophet, was so poor-spirited as, for fear of a danger, which only her husband, and that without any great groimd, surmised, to connnit two sins at one clap, — dissemble, and also hazard the loss of her chastity ; the least of which was worse than the thing they were so afraid of: these things, I say, laid together, amounted to such a reproof, as no doubt made her, and Abraham too, heartily ashamed before God and man. Again, Abimelech, in calling Abraham her brother, not her husband, did give her a smart rebuke, putting her in mind how with that woid he had been deceived by them. Thus godly Sarah was reproved by a profane king. O Christians ! take heed of putting words into the mouths of wicked men to rej^rove you withal ; they cannot reprove you, but they reproach God. Christ is put to shame GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 229 with you, and by you: for the good name's sake of Christ, which cannot but be dearer to you, if saints, than your lives, look to your walking, and especially your civil converse with the men of the world ; they know not what you do in yoiu- closet, care not what you are in the congregation; they judge you by what you are when they have to do with you. As they find you in your shop, bargains, promises, and such like, so they think of you and yoiu- profession. Labour therefore for this uprightness to man ; by this you may win some, and judge others. Better vex the wicked world with strict walking, as Lot did the Sodomites, than set them on work to mock and reproach thee and thy profes- sion by anv scandal, as David did by his sad fall. They that will not follow the light of thy holiness, will soon spy the thief in the candle, and point at it. Caution 2. Tlie second word of caution is to those that are morally upright, and no more. Take heed this uprightness proves not a snare to thee, and keeps thee from getting evangelical uprightness. I am sure it was so to the young man in the gospel. In all likelihood he might have been better, had he not been so good. His honesty and moral uprightness was his undoing, or rather his conceit of them, to cast himself in them. Better he had been a publican, driven to Christ in the sense of his sin, tlian a Pharisee, kept from him with an opinion of his integrity. These, these are the weeds, with which many, thinking to save themselves by, keep themselves under water to their ])erdition. ' There is more hope of a fool,' Solomon tells us, ' than of one wise in his own conceit;' and of the greatest sinner^ than of one conceited of his righteousness. If once the disease take the brain, the cure must needs be the more difficult: no offering Christ to one in this frenzy. Art thou one kept from these un- righteous ways wherein others walk? May be thou art honest and upright in thy course, and scornest to be found false in any of thy dealings. Bless God for it, but take heed of blessing thyself in it; there is the danger; this is one way of being 'righteous over-much;' a dangerous pit, of which Solomon warns all that travel in heaven road, Eccles. vii. 10. There is undoing in this over-doing, as well as in any under-doing ; for so it follows in the same verse, ' Why shouldst thou destroy thyself?' Thou art not, proud man, so fair for heaven, as thou flatterest thyself^ A man upon the top of one hill may seem very nigh to the top of another, and yet can never come there, except he comes down from that where he is. The mount of thy civil righteousness, and moral uprightness, on which thou standest so confidently, seems perhaps level in thy proud eye to God's holy hill in heaven, yea, so nigh, that thou thinkest to step over from one to the other with ease. But let me tell thee, it is too great a stride for thee to take ; thy safer way and nearer were to come down from thy mountain of self- confidence, where Satan hath set thee on a design to break thy neck, and to go the ordinary road, in which all that ever got heaven went ; and that is, by la- bouring to get an interest in Christ and his righteousness, which is provided on pm-pose for the creature to wrap up his naked soul in, and to place his faith on; and thus thy uprightness, which before was but of the same form with the heathen's moral honesty, may connnence, or rather be bajitized. Christian, and become evangelical grace : but let me tell thee this before 1 dismiss thee, that thou canst not lay hold of Christ's righteousness till thou hast let fall the lie, thy own rigliteousiuss, which hitherto thou hast held so fast in thy right hand. When Christ called the blind man to him, Mark x. 50, it is said, ' He, casthig away his garment, rose and came to Jesus;' do thou so, and then come and welcome. CHAPTER VI L OF EVANGELICAL OR GODLY SINCERITY, WHAT IT IS, AND WHAT U NCOMELINESSES THIS GIRDLE COVERS, AS ALSO IIOW IT COVERS THEM. We proceed to the second kind of truth, or uprightness, which I called an evangelical uprightness. This is a plant found growing oidy in Christ's garden, or the enclosure of a gracious soiU. It is, by way of distinction i'rom that I called moral, known by the name of a ' godly sincerity,' or the sincerity of God, 2 Cor. i. 12: ' Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with tleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, wc have had our conversation in the world.' Now in two respects this 230 HAVING YOUR LOINS evangelical sincerity may be called godly sincerity. First, because it is of God. Secondly, because it aims at God, and ends in God. Section I. — First, It is of God. It is his creatm-e, begot in the heart by his Spirit alone. Paul, in the place aforementioned, 2 Cor. i. 12, doth excellently derive its pedigree for us. What he calls walking in ' godly sincerity' in the first part of the verse, he calls ' having ova* conversation by the grace of God' in the latter part; yea, opposeth it to ' walking with fleshly wisdom in the world,' the great wheel in the moral man's clock ; and what doth all this amount to, but to shew that this sincerity is a babe of grace, and calls none on earth father? But this is not all ; this godly sincerity is not only of divine extraction, (for so are common gifts that are supernatural, the hypocrite's boon as well as the saint's,) but it is part of the new creature, which his sanctifying Spirit forms and works in the elect, and none besides. It is a covenant-grace, Ezek. xi. 19: ' I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.' That ' one heart' is this godly, sincere heart, opposed to the double heart, or a heart and a heart, by which the hypocrite is so often described in the word. Secondly, It aims at God, and ends in God. The highest project and most ultimate end that a soul, thus sincere, is big with, is, how it may please God. The disappointment such a godly, sincere person meets with from any other, ti'oubles him no more than it would a merchant, who speeds in the main end of his voyage to the Indies, and returns richly laden with the prize of gold and silver he went for, but only looseth his garter or shoestring in the voyage. As the master's eye directs the servant's hand, if he can do his business to his master's mind, he hath his wish, though strangers, who came into the shop, like it not. Tims godly sincerity acquiesceth in the Lord's judgment of him. Such a one shoots not at small nor great, studies not to accommodate himself to any, to hit the humour of rich or poor, but singles out God in his thoughts from all other, as the chief object of his love, fear, faith, joy, &c. ; he directs all his endeavours like a wise archer at this white, and when he can most approve him- self to God, he courits he shoots best. Hear holy Paul speaking, not only his own private thoughts, but the common sense of all sincere believers, 2 Cor. v. 9 : ' We labour, whether present or absent, that we may be accepted of him.' The world's true man is he that will not wrong man : though many go thus far, who can make bold with God for all their demure carriage to man. Some that would not steal the worth of a penny from their neighbour, yet play the noto- rious thieves with God in greater matters than all the money their neighbour hath is worth. They can steal that time from God, to gratify their own occasions, which he hath inclosed for himself, and lays peculiar claim to, (the sabbath-daj?, I mean,) by such a title as will upon trial be found stronger, I trow, than we can shew for the rest of the week to be ours. Others will not lie to man possibly in their dealing with him, (and it were better living in the world, if there were more of this truth among us;) but these very men, many of them, yea all that are not more than morally upright, make nothing of lying to God, which they do in every prayer they make, promising to do what they never bestow a serious thought how they may perform : they say they will sanctify God's name, and yet throw dirt in the face of every attribute in it ; they pray that the will of God may be done, and yet while they know their sanctifi- cation is his will, they content themselves with their imholy hearts and natures, and think it enough to beautify the front of their lives, that part which faceth man, and stands to the street, as I may so say, with a few flourishes of civility and justness in their worldly dealings, though their inward man lies all in woful ruins at the same time. But he is God's tnie man that desires to give unto God the things that are God's, as well as unto man the things that are man's ; yea, who is first true to God, and then to man for his sake. Good Joseph, when his brethren feared, as strangers to him, (for yet they knew no other,) they should receive some hard measure at his hands, mark what course he takes to free their troubled thoughts from all suspicion of any unrighteous dealing from him : ' Do this,' saith he, ' and live, for I fear God,' Gen. xlii. 18. As if he had said. Expect nothing from me, but what is square and upiught, for I fear God ; you possibly think, because I am a great man, and you poor strangers, where you have no friend to intercede for you, that my might should bear down your right ; but you may save yourselves the trouble of such jealous thoughts GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. ggj concerning me, for I see One infinitely more above me than I seem to be above you, and liim I fear, wliich I could not do if I should be false to you. The word, 2 Cor. i. 12, for sincerity, is emphatical, fiUkriiicid, a metaphor from things tried by the light of the sun, as when you are buying cloth, or such-like ware, you will carry it out of the dark shop, and hold it up to the light, by which the least hole in it is discovered ; or as the eagle, say some, holds up her young against the sun, and jndgeth them her own, if able to look up wishly against it, or siiurious if not al)le. Truly, that is the godly, sincere soul, which looks up to heaven, and desires to be determined in his thoughts, judgment, affections, and practices, as they can stand before the light which shines from thence through the word, the great luminary into which (lod hath gathered all light for guiding souls, as the smi in the firmament is for directing our bodies in their walking to and fro in the world. If these suit with the word, and can look on it without being put to shame by it, tlien, on the sincere soid goes in his enterprise with courage, notliing shall stop him ; but if any of these be found to shun the light of the word, (as Adam would, if he coidd, the seeing of God,) not being able to stand to its trial, then he is at his journey's end, and can be drawn forth by no ju-guments from the flesh ; for it goes not on the flesh's errand, but on God's; and he that sends him, shall only stay him. Things are true or right, as they agree with their first principles. When the counterpart agrees with the original writing, then it is true; when a measure agrees with the legal standard or town bushel, then it is true : now the will of God is standard to all oiu- wills, and he is the sincere man, that labours to take the rule and measure of all his aflections and actions from that. Hence David is called a man after God's own heart, which is but a periphrasis of his since- rity, and is as much as if the Spirit of God had said. He was an upright man, he cai-ries on his heart the sculpture and image of God's heart, as it is engraved on the seal of the word. But enough for the present ; this may serve to shew what is evangelical uprightness. Thi-ee things would be desired further, before we foil on the application. First, To shew what imcomelinesses they are that sincerity covers. Secondly, How sincerity covers these. Thirdly, Why this evangelical sincerity doth cover these. We shall give some account to all. Section II. — Quest. 1. Of the first, What uncomeliness doth sincerity cover? Ansto. I answer, all, especially sinful. There are several external temporal privileges, in wliich if any fall short (such excellency does this vain world put in them, more than their intrinsical worth calls for,) they are exposed to some dis- honom-, if not contempt, in the thimghts of others. Now where sincere grace is, it affords a fair cover to them all; yea, puts nu)re abundant honour on the person in the sight of God, angels, and men also, if wise, than the other can occasion con- tempt. First, Beauty ; this is the great idol which the whole world 'wanders after,' as they after the ' Beast,' Rev. xiii., which if God denies, and confines the souls of some to a more imcomely house (body I mean) than others, tliis their mean bodily ))resence prejudiceth them in the esteem of others. Now grace, if it be but graced with sincerity, shines through the chmd that nature hath darkened the countenance withal, Eccl. viii. 1 : ' Wisdom makes the face to shine.' Who that hath the use of his reason would not prize and choose the vessel in the cellar, full of generous wine, before a gilt urn that hangs up empty at the door for a sign ? If sincere grace fills not the heart within, the beauty with which nature hath gilt the face without makes the person but little worth. A beau- tiful person without true grace is but a fair stinking weed ; you know the best of such a one, if you look on him furthest off; whereas a sincere heart, without this outward beauty to connuend it, is like some sweet flower, (not painted with such fine colours on the leaves,) better in the hand than eye, to smell on, than look on ; the nearer you come to the sincere soul, the better you find him. Outward uncomeliness, to tnie grace, is but as some old, mean buildings you sometimes sec stand before a goodly, stately house, which hide its glory only from the traveller that passeth by at some distance ; but he that comes in, sees its beauty, and admires it. * 2. Again, A mean parentage, and inglorious descent, is much despised in 232 HAVING YOUR LOINS the world. Well, how base soever the stock and ignoble the birth be, when grace unfeigned comes, it brings arms with it, it clarifies the blood, and makes the house illustrious. * Since thou wast precious in my eye, thou hast been honourable,' Isa. iv. 4. Sincerity sets a mark of honour ; if you see this star shining, though over a mean cotttige,. it tells thee a great prince dwells there, an heii- of heaven. Sincerity brings the creature into alliance with a high family, no less tlian of the high God ; by which new alliance, his own inglorious name is blotted out, and a new name given him : he bears the name of God, to whom he is joined by a faith unfeigned ; and who dares say that the God of heaven's child, or Christ's bride, are of an ignoble birth. 3. Again, A low purse, as well as a low parentage, exposeth to contempt, yea, more: some by their purse redeem themselves in time, as they think, from the scoi'n of their mean stock. The little spring from whence the water came, by tliat time it hath run some miles, and swelled into a broad river, is out of sight, and not inquired much after : but poverty, that itself sounds reproach in the ears of this proud world. Well, though a man were poor, even to a proverb, yet if a vein of true godliness, sincere grace, be but to be found running in his heart, here is a rich mine, that will lift him up above all the world's contempt ; such a one may possibly say he hath no money in his house, but he cannot say that he hath no treasure, that he is not rich, and speak true ; he sure is rich that hath a key to God's treasvuy. The sincere soul is rich in God; what God hath is his : ' all is yours, you are Christ's.' 4. Again, In a word, to name no more parts and endowments of the mind, these are ap])lauded above all the former by some ; and indeed they carry in them an excellency, that stands more level to his noblest faculty, reason, than the other, which are so far beneath its spiritual nature, that as Gideon's soldiers, some of them, could not drink the water till they bowed down on their knees, so neither could man take any relish in these, did he not first debase himself far beneath the lofty stature of his reasonable soul ; but knowledge, parts, and abilities of the mind, these seem to lift up man's head, and make him that he loseth none of his height ; and therefore none so contemptible by the wise world, as those that are of weak parts, and mean intellectual abilities. Well, now let us see what cover sincerity hath for this nakedness of the mind, which seems the most shameful of all the rest. Where art thou. Christian, that I may tell thee, who sits lamenting and bemoaning thy weak parts and shallow under- standing, what a happy man thou art, with thy honest, sincere heart, beyond all compare with these, whose sparkling parts do so dazzle thy eyes, that thou canst not see thy own privilege above them ? Their pearl is but in the head, and they may be toads for all that ; but thine is in the heart, and it is the pearl of grace, that is, the pearl of greatest price. Thy sincere heart sets thee higher in God's heart, than thy weak parts do lay thee low in their deceived opinion ; and thou, without the abilities of mind that they have, shalt find the way to heaven ; but they, for all their strong parts, shall be tumbled down to hell, because they have not thy sincerity. Thy mean gifts do not render thee inca- pable of heaven's glory; but their unsanctified gifts and endowments are sure to make them capable of more of hell's shame and misery. In a word, though here thy head be weak, and parts low, yet for thy comfort know, thou shalt have a better head given thee to thy sincere heart, when thou comest to heaven ; but their knowing heads shall not meet with better hearts in hell, but be yoked eternally to their own wicked ones in torment; but enough of this. I come to the second kind of uncomeliness which sincerity covers, and that is, sinful. Secondly, Now this sinful uncomeliness must needs be the worst, because it lights on the most beautiful part, the sovil ; if dirt thrown on the face be more uncomely than on another member, because it is the fairest, then no imcome- iiness like that which crocks and blacks the soul and spirit, because this is intended by God to be the prime seat of man's beauty. Now that which most stains and deforms the soul, must be that which most opposeth its chief per- fection, v;hich in its primitive creation Avas, and can still be, no other than the beauty of holiness drawn on it by the Holy Spirit's curious pencil ; and what can that be but the foul monster which is called sin ? This hath marred man's sweet countenance, that he is no more like the beauty of God created, than dead Sarah's face was like that bfiauty which wa.s a bait for the greatest princes, GIRT ABOUT \VITH TRUTH. 233 and made her husband go in fear of his life wherever he came ; nay, than the foul fiend, now a cursed devil in hell, is Jike to the holy angel he was in heaven. This woimd which is given by sin to man's nature, Christ hath under- taken to cure by his grace in his elect : the cure is begun here, but not so per- fected that no scar and blemish remains; and this is the great uncomeliness which sincerity lays its finger on and covers. Section III. — Quest. 2. But here the question may be. How sincerity covers the saints' sinful uncomelinesses? ^n.t. I shall answer to this, first, negatively, and shew how it doth not ; second, affirmatively, how it doth. First, Negatively, how sincerity doth not cover them ; and that in several particulars. First, Sincerity doth not so cover the saints' failings as to take away their sinful natiu-e ; wandering thoughts ai-e sins in a saint, as well as in another : a weed will be a weed wherever it grows, though in a garden among the choicest flowers : they mistake then, who, because the saints' sins are covered, deny them to be sins. Secondly, It doth not cover them so as to give us the least ground to think that God doth allow the Christian to commit the least sin more than others ; indeed it is inconsistent with God's holiness to give, and with a saint's sincerity to pretend such a dispensation to be given them. A father may, out of his indulgence and love to his child, pass by a failing in his waiting on him ; as, if he spills the wine, or breaks the glass he is bringing to him ; but sure he will not allow him to throw it down carelessly or willingly. Though a man may be easily entreated to forgive his friend that wounded him unawares, when he meant him no hurt, yet he will not beforehand give him leave to do it. Thirdly, It doth not so cover then\^as that God should not see them, which is not only derogatory to his omniscience, but to his mercy also ; for he cannot pardon what he doth not first see to be sin. God doth not only see the sins of his children, but their failings are more distasteful to him than others', because the persons in which they are found are so dear, and stand so near unto him. A dunghill in a prince's chamber would be more oftensive to him than one afar oft' from his court. The Christian's bosom is God's court, throne, temple ; there he hath taken up his rest for ever. Sin there must needs be very unsavoury to his nostrils. Fom-thly, It doth not so cover them as that the saints need not confess them, be humbled under them, or sue out a pardon for them ; a penny is as due a debt as a poimd, and therefore to be acknowledged; indeed, that which is a sin of infirmity in the committing, becomes asin of pre- sumption by hiding of it and hardening in it. Job held fast his integrity through- out his sad conflict ; yet those failings which escaped him in the paroxysm of his aflSictions brought him upon his knees ; ' I abhor myself,' saith he, ' and repent in dust and ashes,' Job xlii. 6. Fifthly, and lastly, It doth not so cover them, as if our sincerity did the least merit and deserve that God should for it cover our other failings and infirmities ; were there such a thing as obedience abso- lutely complete, it could not merit pardon for past sins ; much less can an imperfect obedience, as sincerity is in a strict sense, deserve it for present failing. Obedience legally perfect is no more than, as creatures, we" owe to the law of God; and how could that pay the debt of sin, which was itself due debt before any sin was committed? Much less can evangelical obedience, which is sincei-ity, do it, that falls short by far of that obedience we do owe. If he that owes twenty pounds merits nothing when he pays the whole simi, then surely he doth not that of the twenty pounds he owes pays but twenty pence. Indeed creditors may take what they please, but if they will say half satisfies them, it is discharge enough to the debtor. But where did ever (rod say he would thus compound with his creature ? God stands as strictly upon it in the gospel covenant to have the whole debt paid, as he did in the first of works. There was requii-ed a full righteousness in keeping, or a full curse for breaking of the law ; so there is in the evangelical ; only here the wards of tlie lock are changed. God required this at the creature's hand, in the first covenant, to be personally performed or endured ; but in the gospel covenant he is content to take both at the hands of Christ our surety, and impute these to the sincere soul that uufeigncdly believes on him, and gives uj) himself to him. Section IV.— Secondly, To shew positively how sincerity covers the saints' failings. g34 HAVING YOUR LOINS First, Sincerity is that property to which pardoning mercy is annexed. True, indeed, it is Christ that covers all our sins and failings ; but it is only the sincere soul over which he will cast his skirt. Psa. xxxii. 2 : ' Blessed is he whose sin is covered ; blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.' None will doubt this ; but which is the man ? The next words tell us his name ; ' and in whose spii'it there is no guile.' Christ's righteousness is the garment that covers the nakedness and shame of our unrighteousness ; faith, the grace that puts this garment on ; but what faith ? None but the faith imfeigned, as Paul calls it, 2 Tim. i. ' Here is water,' said the eunuch; ' what doth hinder me to be baptized?' Acts viii. 36. Now mark Philip's answer, ver. 37 : 'If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest ;' as if he had said, Nothing but an hypocritical heart can hinder thee. It is the false heart only that finds the door of mercy shut. He that promiseth to cover the sincere soul's failings, threatens to uncover the hypocrite's impiety, Prov. x. 9: ' He that perverteth his way shall be known,' that is, to his shame. Secondly, Where sincerity is, God approves of that soul as a holy, righteous person, notwithstanding that mixture of sin which is found in him. As God doth not like the saint's sin for his sincerity, so he doth not imsaint him for that. God will set his hand to Lot's testimonial, that he is a righteous man, though many sins are recorded in the Scripture which he fell into, and foul ones too; and Job perfect, because the frame of his heart was sincere, the tenure of his life holy, and he was rather sm-prised by them as temptations, than they entertained by him upon choice. Though sincerity doth not blind God's eye, that he should not see the saint's sin, yet it makes him see it with a pitiful eye, and not a wrathful; as a husband, knowing his wife faithful to him in the main, pities her in other weaknesses, and for all them accounts her a good wife. ' In all this,' saith God, ' Job sinned not ;' and at the very close of his combat God brings him out of the field with this honourable testimony to his friends, that had taken so much pains to ))ving his godliness in question, that his servant 'Job liad spoke right of him.' Truly God said more of Job than he durst of himself. He freely confesseth his unadvised froward speeches, and cries out, ' I abhor myself, and repent in dvist and ashes.' God saw Job's sins attended with sincerity, and therefore judged him perfect and righteous : Job saw his sincerity dashed with many sad failings, and this made him in the close of all rather confess his sins with shame, than glory in his grace. God's mercy is larger to his children than their charity is many times to themselves and their brethren. First, to themselves : Do you think the prodigal, the emblem of a convert, durst have asked the robe, or desii'ed his father to be at such cost for his entei'tainment as his father freely bestowed on him ? No, sure, a room in the kitchen we see was as high as he durst ask, to be among the meanest servants in the house. Poor soul ! he could not conceive he should have such a meeting with his father at first sight. A robe ! he might rather look for a rope, at least a rod. A feast at his father's table ! O unlooked for welcome ! I doubt not but if any one had met him on his way, and told him that his father was resolved, as soon as he came home, not to let him see his face, but innnediately send liim to bi'idewell, there to be whipped, and fed with bread and water for many months, and then perhaps he would at last look on him, and take him home, but in his starving condition this would have been good news to him ; but as God hath strange punishments for the wicked, so he hath strange expressions of love and mercy for sincere souls. He loves to outdo their highest expectations, — kiss, robe, feast, all in one day, and that the first day of his return, when the memory of his outrageous wickednesses were fresh, and the offensive scent of his swill and swine, from which he was but newly come, hardly gone ! What a great favourite is sincerity with the God of heaven ! Again, God's mercy is larger to his children than their charity is towards one another. Those whom we are ready to imsaint for their failings that appear in their lives, God owns for his perfect ones, because of their sincerity. We find Asa's failings expressed, and his perfection vouched by God together, as I may say in a In-eatli, 2 Chron. xv. 17. It was well God cleared that good man ; for had but the naked story of his life, as it stands in the Scripture, been recorded, without any express testimony of Ciod's approving him, his godliness would have hazarded a coming under dispute in the opinion GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. gg5 of good men; yea, many more with him, concerning whom we are now put out of doubt, because we find tliem canonized for saints by God himself, would have been cast, if a jury of men, and those holy men too, had gone upon them. Elijah himself, because he saw none have such zeal for God and his worship, as to wear their colours openly in a free profession, and hang out a flag of defiance against the idolatry of the times, by a stout opposing it, as he did, which miglit be their sin, makes a sad moan to God, as if the apostasy liad been so general, that the whole species of the godly had been preserved in his single person. But God brings the holy man better news, 1 Kings xix. 18 : 'I have left seven thousand in Israel, all tlie knees which have not bowed down to Baal, and every mouth that hath not kissed him.' As if God had said, Comfort thyself, Elijah ; though my number be not great ; yet neither is there such a dearth of saints as thou fearest in this imgodly age ; it is true their faith is weak ; they dare not jostle with the sins of the age, as thou dost, for which thou shalt not lose thy reward : yet those night-disciples, that for fear carry their light in a dark lantern, having some sincerity which keeps them from polluting themselves with these idolatries, must not, shall not be disowned by me. That God, who bids us l)e most tender of his lambs, is much more tender of them himself. Observable is that place, 1 John ii. 12 — 14. There are three ranks of saints, 'fathers, young men, little children;' and the Spirit of God chiefly shews his tender care of them, as by mentioning them first, ver. 12, so bj' leaving the sweet promise of pardoning mercy in their lap and bosom, rather than either of the other : ' Little children, I write unto you, for your sins are forgiven you for my name's sake.' But are not the fathers' sins, and the young men's also, forgiven? Yes, who doubts it? But he doth not so ^particularly apply it to them, as to these ; because these, from a sense of their own failings, out of which the other were more grown, were more prone to dispute against this promise in their own bosoms : yea, he doth not only in plain terms tell them their sins are forgiven, but meets with the secret objection which comes from their trembling hearts in opposition to this good news, taken from their own vileness and unworthiness, and stops its mouth with this, ' Forgiven for my name's sake ;' a greater name than the name of their biggest sin, which discourageth them from believing. Thirdly, Sincerity keeps up the soul's credit at the throne of grace, so that no sinfiil infirmity c;ai hinder its welcome v/itli God. It % the ' regarding of iniquity in the heart,' not the having of it, stops God's ear from hearing our prayer. It is a temptation not a few have found some work to get over, whe- ther such as they, who see so many sinful failings in themselves, may take the boldness to pray, or without presuming to expect audience when they have prayed ; and sometimes prevails so far, that because they cannot jiray as they would, therefore they forbear what they should; much like some poor people,' that keep from the congregation, because they have not such clothes to come in as they desire. To meet with such as are turning away from duty upon this fear, the promises, which are our only ground for prayer, and chief plea in prayer, are accommodated, and fitted to the lowest degree of grace ; so that as a picture well drawn faceth all in the room alike that look on it ; so the promises of the gospel covenant smile upon all that sincerely look to God in Christ. It is not said, ' If you have faith like a cedar,' but, ' If you have faith like a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove,' Matt. xvii. 20 : neither is justifying faith beneath miracu- lous faith in its own sphere of activity ; the least faith on Christ, if sincere, as truly removes the mountainous guilt of sin from the sovd, as the strongest ; hence all the saints are said to have 'like precious faith,' 2 Pet. i. 1. Sarah's faith, which in Genesis we can hardly see, as the story presents it wherein it appeared, ob- tains an honourable mention, Ileb. xi., where God owns her for a believer, as well as Abraham, with his stronger faith. What love is it the promise entails the favours of God upon ? Not ' Grace be with them that love our Lord Jesus' with a seraphim's love, but with a 'sincere' love,' Ephes. vi. 24. Not blessed they who are holy to such a measure ; this would have fitted but some saints ; the greatest part would have gone away and said. There is nothing for me, I am not so holy ; but that no saint might lose his portion, it is, * Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness :' and this takes in all the children 2SG HAVING YOUR LOINS of God, even to the least babe that is newly born this day to Christ. The new convert hungers after holiness, and that sincerely. And wherefore all this care so to lay the promises, but to shew that when we go to make use of any pro- mise at the throne of grace, we should not question our welcome for any of our infirmities, so this stamp of sincerity be upon our hearts. Indeed, if sincerity did not thus much for the saint, there could not be a prayer accepted of God at the hands of any saint that ever was or shall be on earth to the end of the woi-ld, because there never was nor shall be such a saint dwelling in flesh here below in whom eminent failings may not be found. The apostle would have us know that Elijah, who did as great wonders in heaven and earth too by prayer, as who greater ? yet this man God could soon have picked a hole in his coat. Indeed, lest we atti-ibute the prevalency of his prayers to the dignity of his person, and some eminency which he had by himself in grace above others, the Spirit of God tells us, he was of the same make with his poor brethren : ' Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed,' &c. Jam. v. A weak hand with a sincere heart is able to tiuui the key in prayer. CHAPTER VIII. AN ACCOUNT WHY SrNCERITY COVERS THE SAINTs' UNCOMELINESS. Quest. Now follows the fourth queiy. Whence is it that sincerity thus covers our failings ? Section I. — Reason 1. It flows from the grace of the gospel covenant, that relaxeth the rigour of the law, which called for complete obedience, by resolv- ing all that into this of sincerity and truth of heart. Thus God, when entering into covenant with Abraham, expresseth himself, ' I am the Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect,' or sincere. Gen. xvii. 1. As if God had said to him, Abraham, see here what I expect at thy hands, and what thou mayest expect at mine. I look that thou shouldst ' set me before thee,' whom in thy whole course and walking thou wilt sincerely endeavoin* to please and approve thyself to, and at my hands thou mayest promise thyself what an Almighty God can do, both in protecting thee in thy obedience, and pardoning . of thee, wliere thou fallest short of perfect obedience ; walk but in the truth of thy lieart before me, and in Christ I will accept thee, and thy sincere endeavour, as kindly as I would*have done Adam, if he had kept his place in innocency, and never sinned. Indeed a sincere heart by virtue of this covenant might (I mean, the covenant would bear him out, and defend him in it, relying on Christ,) converse with God, and walk before him with as much freedom, and more familiarity, by reason of a nearer relation it hath, than ever Adam did, when God and he were best friends. ' If oiu- heart condemn us not,' then, saitli the apostle, ' we have confidence towards God,' 1 Jo'hn iii. 21 ; we have a boldness of face. And it is not the presence of sin in us, as the covenant now stands, that conscience can, or, if rightly informed concerning the tenure of it, will con- demn us for ; Paul's conscience cleared him, yea aft'orded matter of rejoicing and holy glorying, at the same time that he found sin stirring in him. No; conscience is set by God to judge for him in the private court of our own bosoms, and it is boimd vip by a law, what sentence to give for or against, and that in the same by which Christ himself will acquit or condemn the world at the last day. Now when we go upon the trial for our lives before Christ's bar, the greatest inquest will be, whether we have been sincere or no ; and as Christ will not then condemn the sincere soul, though a thousand sins could be objected against it, so neither can our hearts condemn us. Quest. But here it may be asked. How comes God so favourable in the covenant of the gospel, to accept an obedience so imperfect at his saints' hands, who was so strict with Adam in the first, that the least failing, though but once, escaping him, was to be accounted unpardonable ? Answ. Tlie resolution of this question takes in these two particulars. P'irst, In the covenant God made with mankind in Adam, there was no sponsor, or surety, to stand bound to God for man's performance of his part in the covenant, which was perfect obedience, and therefore God could do no other but stand strictly with him ; because he had none else, from whom he might recover his glory, and thereby pay himself for the wrong man's fault might do GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 237 to him: but in the gospel covenant tliere is a siiret}', Christ the righteous, who stands responsible to God tor all the defaults and tailings which occur in the Christian's course. The Lurd Jesus doth iu>t only take upon him to discharge the vast sums of those sins which he finds them chai'ged with before conver- sion ; but for all those dribbling debts which afterwards, through their infir- mity, they contract ; ' If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins,' 1 John ii. 2; so that God may, without any impeachment to his justice, cross his saints' debts, w^hich he is paid for by their Surety : it is mercy indeed to the saints, but justice to Christ, that he should : O happy conjunction, where mercy and justice thus conspire, and kiss each other ! Secondly, God did, and well might require full and perfect obedience of man in the first covenant, becanse he was in a perfect state of full power and ability to perform it, so that God looked to reap no more than he had planted. But in the gospel covenant God doth not at first infuse into the believer full grace, but true grace ; and accordingly he expects not full obedience, but sincei-e. He considers our frame, and every believer is, if I may so say, rated in God's books as the stock of grace is which God gives to set up withal at first. Section Il.—Jleas. 2. The second reason may be taken from the great love he bears and liking he takes to this disposition of heart, upon which follows this act of grace, to cover their failings where he spies it ; it is the nature of love to cover infirmities, even to a multitude. Esther transgressed tlie law, by coming into Ahasuerus's presence before she was sent for; but love soon erectecl a pardon-office in the king's breast, to foi-give her that fault ; and truly she did not find so much favour in the eyes of that great monarch, as the sincere soul doth in the eyes of the great God. He did not more delight in Esther's beauty, than God doth in this, Pi-ov. xi. 20 . ' Such as are upright in their way are his delight;' his soul closeth with that man, as one that suits with the disposition of his own holy nature, one whose heart is right with his heart ; and so with infinite content to see a ray of his own excellency sparkle in his creature, lie delights in him, and takes him by the hand, to lift him up into the bosom of his love, a better chariot, I trow, than that which Jehu preferred Jehonadab to, for his faithfulness to him. You seldom find any spoken of as upright in the Scripture, that are passed over with a plain, naked inscription of their upright- ness ; but some circumstance there is, which, like the costly work and curious engraving about some tombs, tell the passenger they are no ordinaiy men that lie there. God, speaking of Job's uprightness, represents him as a nonsuch in his age ; ' None like him in the earth, a perfect man, and upright.' Mention was before made of his vast estate, and in that also he was a nonsuch ; but when God comes to glory over Satan, by telling what a servant he had to wait on him, he doth not count this worth the telling the devil of; nor. Hast thou considered my servant Job, Job i. 8, that there is none so rich? But, none so upright. When God speaks to Caleb's uprightness, see to what a height he exalts him. Numb. xiv. 24 : ' But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will 1 bring into the land,' &c. As if God had said. Here is a man I do not count myself disparaged to own him for my servant, and s])ecial favourite; he is one that carries more worth in him than the whole midtitude of murmuring Israelites besides; lie had ' another spirit,' that is, for excellency, and nobleness, far above the rest; and wherein did thisappear? The next words resolve us : ' He hath followed me fully.' Now that which gained him this great honour from God's own mouth, we shall find to be his sincerity, and especially in that business when sent to search the land of Canaan, Joshua xiv. 7, and ver. 9, compared. He had great temptations to tell another tale. The Israelites wore so sick of their enterprise, that he should be the welcomest messenger that brought the worst news, from which they might have some cohnu- for their nuu-nun'ing against Moses, who had brought them into sucli straits; and of twelve that were sent, there were ten that suited their answer to this discontented humour of the people ; so that by making a contrary report to theirs, he did not only come under the suspicion of a liar, but hazard his life among an enraged people ; yet such was the courage of this holy man, faithfulness to his trust, and trust in his God, that, as ho saith himself, ver. 7, ' He brought him' (that is, Moses, who had sent him,) ' word again, as it was ^33 ' HAVING YOUR LOINS in his heart;' that is, he did not for fear or favour accommodate himself, bnt what in his conscience he thought true, that he spake ; and this, because it was sucli an eminent proof of his sincerity, is called by Moses, ver. 9, ' following God fully;' for wliich the Lord erects such a pillar of remembrance over his head, that shall stand as long as that Scripture itself To give out one instance more, and that is of Nathaniel, at first sight of whom Christ cannot forbear, but lets all about him know how highly he was in his favour: ' Behold,' saith he of him, ' an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile,' John i. 47. Christ's heart, like the babe in Elizabeth's womb, when Mary saluted her, seemed thus to leap at the coming of Nathaniel, yea, comes forth in this expression, not to flatter him into an overweening conceit of himself, (Christ knew what an humble soul he spake to,) but to bear witness to his own gi'ace in him, especially this of sincerity; that knowing what a high price and value heaven sets upon the head of this grace, they might like wise merchants store themselves with it more abundantly; his simplicity of heart made him an ' Israelite indeed;' many goodly shows and pompous outsides were to be seen among the Pharisees, but they were a company of base pi-ojectors and designers. Even when some of them came to Christ, extolling him for his sincerity, ' Mastei', we know thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth,' Matt. xxii. 16 ; then did they play the hypocrites, and had a plot to decoy him by their gloring speech into danger; as you may perceive, ver. 1.5 : ' They came that they might entangle him;' but good Nathaniel had no plot in his head, in his coming, but to find the Messias he looked for, and eternal life by him ; and therefore though he was for the present wrapped up in that common eri-or of the times, that ' no proj-.het could come out of Galilee,' John vii. 52, much less so great a one as the Messias, out of svich an obscure place in Galilee as Nazareth ; yet Clnist seeing the honesty and upiightness of his heart, doth not suffer his ignorance and error to prejudice him in his thoughts of him. Section III. — Now to give some account why this grace of sincerity is so taking with, and delightful to God, that it even captivates him in love to the sold where he finds it. There are two things which are the inseparable com- panions of sincerity, yea, effects flov/ing from it, that are very taking to draw love both from God and man. First, Sincerity makes the soul willing, when it is clogged with so many infirmities as to disable it from the full performance of its duty, yet when the soul stands on tiptoes to be gone after it ; as the hawk upon the hand, as soon as ever it sees her game, launcheth forth, and would be upon the wing after it, though possibly held by its sheath to the fist : thus the sincere soul is inwardly pricked and provoked by a sti'ong desire after its duty, thoiigh kept back by infir- mities; a perfect heart and a willing mind are joined together, 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. It is David's coimsel to his son Solomon, ' to sei've God with a perfect heart, and a willing mind.' A false heart is a shifting heart, puts off its work so long as it dares, and it is little thanks to set about it when the rod is taken down ; yet hj'pocrites are like tops, that go no longer than they are whipped ; but the sincere soul is ready and forward, it doth not want will to do a duty, when it wants skill and strength how to do it. The Levites (2 Chron. xxix. 34) are said to be more upright in heart, to sanctify themselves, than the priests were. How appeared that ? in this, that they were more forward and willing to the work. No sooner did the word come out of the good king's mouth, concerning a reformation, ver. 10, but presently the Levites arose to sanctify themselves; but some of the priests had not such a mind to the business, and therefore were not so soon ready, ver. 34 ; shewing more policy than piety therein, as if they would stay and see first how the times would prove, before they would engage. Reformation-work is but an icy path, which cowardly spirits love to have well beaten by others, before they dare come on it: but sincerity is of better metal; like the true traveller, that no Aveather shall keep him from going his journey when set, the upright man looks not at the clouds, stands not thinking this or that to discourage him, but takes his warrant from the word of God, and having that, nothing but a countermand from the same God that 'sets him at work shall turn him back. His heai't is uniform to the will of God. If God saith, ' Seek my face,' it rebounds and echoes back again, 'Thy face will I seek,' yea, Lord, as if David had said with a good will, "rhy word is press-money enough GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. ggg to carry me ft-om this duty to that, whither thou pleasest : may be when tiie sincere soul is aljout a duty, he dotli it weakly, yet tliis very willingness of the heart is wonderful pleasing to God. How doth it affect and take the father when he bids his little child go and bring him such a thing, that may be as much as he can well lift, to see him not stand and shrug at the command as hard, but runs to it, and puts forth his whole strength about it, thoxigh at last may be he cannot do it ; yet the willingness of the child plcaseth him so, that his weakness rather stirs up the father to pity and help him, than to provoke him to chide him. Christ throws this covering over his disciples' infirmities, ' The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.' O ! it is obedience, that, like the dropping honey, comes without squeezing, though but little of it, tastes sweetly on God's palate ; and such is sincere obedience. Secondly, Sincerity makes the soul very open and free to God : though the sincere soul hath manj' infirmities, yet it desires to cloak and hide none of this from God ; no, if it could, it woidd not ; and this is that which delights God exceedingly. To be sure, he will cover what such a soul uncovers, 1 John i. 12 : 'If we confess our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive.' It was a high piece of ingenuity and clemency in Augustus, that having promised by a proclamation a great sum of money to any that should bring him the head of a famous pirate, did yet, when the pirate^ who had heard of this, brought it himself to him, and laid it at his foot, not only j^ardon him for his former offences against him, but reward him for his great confidence in his mercy. Truly thus doth God, though his wrath be revealed against all sin and unrighteousness, yet when the soul itself comes freely and humbles itself before liim, he cannot stretch forth his arm to strike that soul which gives such glory to his mercy ; and this the sincere heart doth. Indeed the hypocrite, when he has sinned, hides it, as Achan his wedge of gold ; he sits brooding on his lust, as Rachel on her father's idols. It is as hard getting a hen off her nest, as such a one to come off his lusts, and disclose them freely to God. If God himself find him not out, he will not bewray himself. I cannot set out the difterent disposition of the sincere and false heart in this matter better than by the like in a mercenary servant and a child ; when a servant, except it be one of a thousand, breaks a glass, or spoils any of his master's goods, all his care is to hide it from his master, and therefore ' throws the pieces of it away into some dark hole or other, where he thinks they shall never be found ; and now he is not troubled for the wrong he hath done his master, but glad that he hath handled the matter so as not to be discovered. Thus the hypocrite would count himself a happy man, could he but lay his sin out of God's sight ; it is not the treason he dislikes, but fears to be known that he is a traitor : and there- fore, though it be as unfeasible to blind the eye of the Almighty, as with our hand to cover the face of the sun, that it should not shine, yet the hypocrite will attempt it. AVe find a woe pronounced against such, Isa. xxix. 15 : ' Woe unto them that dig deep to hide their counsel from the Lord.' This is a sort of sinners whose care is not to make their peace when they have offended, but to hold their peace, and stand demui'ely before God, as Gehazi before his master, as if they had been nowhere but where they should be. These are the)'^ whom God will put to shame to purpose. The Jews were far gone in this hypocrisy when they justified themselves as a holy people, and put God so hard to it as to make him prove his charge, rather than confess what was too true and apparent ; which God upbraids them for, Jer. ii. 23 : ' How canst thou say, I am not pollute ? I have not gone after Balaam ? see thy way in the valley, and know what thou hast done.' Hast thou such a shameless forehead to justify thyself, and a hypocritical heart to draw afair cover over so foul practices ? Would you yet pass for saints, and be thought a people impolluted ? Now mark, it is not long, till this hypocritical people, that thus hid their sin, hath shame enough ; 'As the thief is ashamed wlien he is fomid,' sailh the j)rophet, ver. 20, 'so is the house of Israel ashamed ;' tliat is, as the thief, who at first is so insolent, as to deny the fact he is accused of, yet wlien upon search the stolen goods are found about him, and he brought to justice for it, then he is put to double shame for his theft, and impudence also in justifying himself; so is it with this people and with all hypocrites, though while in peace, and at ease, they be brag, an, bold, yea, seem to scorn to be thought what they indeed ai'e ; yet there is a 240 HAVING YOUR LOINS time coming, (which, ver. 24, is called, ' their month wherein they shall l)e found,') when God's hue and cry will overtake them, his terrors ransack their consciences, and bring forth what they so stiffly denied, making it appear to themselves and others also what juggling and deceit they have used to shift off their sin. It is easy to think what shame will cover their faces and weigh down their heads while this is doing. God loves to befool those who think they play their game so wisely, because with Ahab they fight against God in a disguise, and will not be known to be the man. But the sincei-e sold takes another course, and speeds better ; as a child when he hath committed a fault doth not stay till others go and tell his fsither what the matter is, nor till his father makes it appear by his frowning countenance that it is come to his ear, but freely, and of his own accord, goes presently to his father, (being prompted by no other thing than the love he bears to his dear father, and the sorrow which his heart grows every moment he stays bigger and bigger withal for his offence,) and easeth his aching heart, by a free and full confession of his fault at his father's foot ; and this with plain-heartedness, giving his offence the weight of every aggravating circumstance, s© that if the devil himself should come after hiin, to glean up what he hath left, he should hardly find where- withal to make it appear blacker ; thus doth the sincere soul to God, adding to his simplicity in confession of his sin such a flow of sorrow, that God seeing his dear child in such danger of being carried down too far towards despair, if good news from him come not speedily to stay him, cannot but tune his voice rather into a strain of comforting him in his mourning, than chiding him for his sin. CHAPTER IX. OF THE ODIOUS NATURE OF HYPOCRISY, AND HATEFULNESS OF IT TO GOD. Use 1.— Doth sincerity cover all defects? Then hypocrisy uncovers the soul, and strips it naked to its shame before God, when set forth with the richest embroidery of other excellences. This is such a scab, that frets into the choicest perfections, and alters the complexion of the soul in God's eye, more than leprosy or ])ox can do to the fairest face in ours. It is observable, the different charac-ter that is given of those two kings of Judah, Asa and Amaziah. Of the first, see 1 Kings xv. 14: 'The high places were not removed; nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his day.' He passeth current for a gracious jierson, and that with a «o« obstante, ' nevertheless his heart was perfect;' sincerity, like true gold, hath grains allowed for its lightness ; his infirmities are not mentioned to stain his honour, and prejudice him in the opinion of any, but rather as the wart or mole, which the curious limner expresseth on purpose, the more to set forth the beauty of the other parts, so his failings are recorded to cast a greater lustre upon his sincerity ; which could, notwithstanding these sins, gain him such a testimony from God's own mouth. But of Amaziah, (see 2 Chron. xxv. 2,) ' He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.' The matter of his actions was good, but the scope and drift of his heart in them was naught ; and this but makes a foul blot upon all, and turns his right into wrong ; wherein his hypo- crisy appeared is expressed 2 Kings xiv. 3 : ' He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like David his father : he did according to all things that Joash his father did.' He did for a while what David did, as to the matter, but imitated Joash as to the manner, whose goodness was calculated to please man rather than God, as appeared in the latter end of his reign, upon the death of his good uncle Jehoiada ; him did Amaziah write after, and not David in his uprightness : thus we see Asa's uprightness condemns him in the midst of many failings ; but hypocrisy condemns Amaziah doing that which is right. Sincerity, it is the life of all our graces, and puts life into all our duties; and as life makes beautiful, and keeps the body sweet, so sincerity the soul, and all it doth. A prayer breathed from a sincere heart, it is Heaven's delight: take away sincerity, and God saith of it, as Abraham of Sarah, (whom living, he loved dearly, and laid in his bosom,) ' Bury the dead out of my sight;' he hides his eye, stops his nostril, as when some poisonous carrion is before us. ' Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is abomination to me ; the calling of yoiu- assemblies I cannot away with ; your appointed feasts my soul hateth, they are GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 241 a trouble to me, I am weary to bear tbein.' What hateful thing is this that God eries so out u])on ? ] t is nothing but li yjxicrisy. Surely, friends, that must needs be very loathsome, which makes God speak so coarsely of his own ordi- nances, yea, makes them a Nehushtan, prayer no prayer, but a mere idol to be broken in pieces ; faith no faith, but a fancy and a delusion; repentance no re- pentance, but a loud lie, Psa. Ixxviii. ,31: ' They returned, and inquired early after God;" see how the Spirit of God gl(;sseth upon this, ver. 36, 37 : ' Never- theless they did flatter with their lips, and tliey lied unto him with their tongues ; for their heart was not right with him.' It smoked God out of his own house, and made him out of love with that place, whereof he had said it should be his resting place for ever. It brought the wrath of God upon that vmhappy peo])le to the uttermost. Mark how the commission runs, which God gave the Assyrian, who was the bloody executioner of his fierce wrath upon them, Isa. x. 5, 6: ' O Assyrian, the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge ' to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down as mire in the street.' See Jer. vii. 10 — 13. There needs not the coroner to be sent for, or a jury to go up on this miserable people, to find out how they came to their dismal end; they were an ' hypocritical nation,' that was it they died of. God had rather see the abomination of desolation standing in his temple, making havoc of all, than the abomination of dissimulation mocking him to his face, while they worship him with their lips, and their lusts with their hearts. Of the two, it is more tolerable in CJod's account, to see a Belshazzar, that never had a name of being his servant, to quafi'and carouse it to his gods profanely in the bowls of the sanctuary, than for a people that would pass for his servants to pollute them in his own worship by their ciu'sed hypocrisy ; if God be dishonoured, woe to that man, of all, that doth it imder a shew of honouring him. CJod singles out the hypocrite as that sort of sinners whom he would deal with hand to hand, and set himself, even in this life, to bear witness against, in a more extraordinary manner than others. The thief, murderer, and other sinners, provision is made by God that the magistrate should meet with them, they come under his cognizance ; but the hypocrite, he is one that sins more secretly, God alone is able to find him out, and lie hath undertaken it, Ezek. xiv. 7 : ' For every one of the house of Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and Cometh to a prophet, to inquire of him concerning me,'- — (an excellent descrip- tion of a hypocrite ; he is one that denies God in his heart, reserving it for idols, his lust, yet is as forward as any to inquire after God in his ordinances,) — ' I the Lord will answer him by myself.' And how shall he answer him ? ' And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him oiFfrom tlie midst of my people, and ye shall know that I am the Lord,' ver. 8. That is, my jiulgments shall be so remarkable on him, that he shall be a spectacle of my wi'ath for others to see Knd speak of. 'J'hus God pays the hypocrites often in this life, as Ananias and Sapphira, who died by the hand of God with a lie sticking in their throats ; and Judas, who purcha.sed nothing b}' his hypocritical trade but a halter to hang himself with : his playing the hypocrite with Christ ended with his playing the devil upon himself, when he became his own executioner. But if the hyj)ocrite at any time steals out of the world, before his vizard falls off^ and the wrath of God falls on him, it will meet him certainly enough in hell, and it will be ])oor comfort to him there to think how he hath cheated his neighbours, in arriving at hell, whom they so confidently thought under sail for heaven. The good opinion which he hath left of himself in those that are on earth, will cool no ilames for him in hell, where lodgings are taken up, and bespoken for the hypocrite, as the chief guest expected in that infernal court : all other sinners seem but as younger brethren in damnation to the hypocrite, under whom, as the great heir, tliey receive every one their portion of wrath, bero IVeoly given us of God,' 1 Cor. ii. 12. Now the Spirit sits in the ordinances, as a minister of state in his ofiice, whither we nuist resort, if we will have the trutli of our graces, that are om* evidences for heaven, sealed to our consciences. Thitlier go, therefore, yea, there wait, for thou knowest not, as the wise man saith of sowing seed, Eccles. xi. G, whether thy waiting on this or that, now or then, sliall prosper and be successful to thee for this end. It is enough to coniirm, yea, quiet and comfort thee in thy attendance, that thou art at the right door, and though thou knockcst long, and hearest no news of his coming, yet thou canst not stay so long, like Eglon's ser- vants, Judg. iii. 25, that thou needest be ashamed. They, indeed, waited on a dead man, and might have stood long enough before he had heard them ; but thou on a living (Jod, that hears every knock thou givest at heaven-gate with thy prayers and tears; yea, a loving God, that all this while he acts the part of a stranger, like Joseph to his bi'ethren, yet is so big with mercy that he will at last fall on thy neck, and ease his heart, by owning of thee, and his grace in thee. Lift up thy head, then, poor drooping soul, and go with expectation of the thing, but remember thou settest not God the time. The sun riseth at its own hour, whatever time we set it. And when God shall meet thee in an ordinance, as sometimes, no doubt, Christian, thou flndest a heavenly light irradiating, and influence quickening thy sold while hearing the word, or may l)e on thy knees wrestling with God, this is a sweet advantage and season thou shouldst improve for tliesatisfying thy soul ; as when the sun breaks out, tlien we run to the dial to know how the day goes ; or when, as we are sitting in the dark, one brings a candle into the room, then we bestir oiu'selves to look for tlie tiling we miss, and soon find what we in vain groped for in the dark ; so mayest thou, poor soul, as many of thy dear brethren and sisters before thee have done, know more of thy spiritual state in a few moments at such a time, than in many a day when God withdraws. Carefully, therefore, watch for such sea- sons, and improve them ; but if God will hide thy treasure from thy sight, comfort thyself with this, God knows thy uprightness, tliough wrapped up from thine own eye ; say as David, Psa. cxlii. 3 : ' When my spirit was over- whelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.' And (iod will deal with thee, not by the false accusations thou bringest in against thyself, as it is to be feared some have suffered at men's hands, but by the testimony which his all-seeing eye can give to thy grace. CHAPTER XVI. WUEREIN THE SECOND REASON OF THE METAPHOR IS OPENED; WHY SINCERITY IS SET OUT BY THE SOLDIEr's BELT, VIZ., FROM THE ESTABLISHING AND STRENGTHENING NATURE OF THIS GRACE, PARTICULARLY OF A PRESERVING STRENGTH IT HATH ; WITH SOME SPECIAL SEASONS WHEREIN THE HYPO- CRITE FALLS OFF. Having despatched the first reason why sincerity is compared to the soldier's girdle or belt, and discoursed of this grace under that notion, we proceed to the second ground or reason of the nieta])hor, taken from the other use of the soldier's girdle, which is to strengthen his loins, and fasten his armour, over which it goes, close to him, wliereby he is more able to march, and strong to fight. Girding, in Scripture phrase, im])orts strength, Psa. xviii. .'}!) : ' Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle.' Job. xii. 21 : ' He weakeneth the strength of the mighty;' in the Hebrew it is, 'He looseth their girdle;' to which use of the girdle sincerity doth bear a fit analogy. It is a grace that establisheth and strengthens the Christian in his whole course ; as, on the con- trary, hypocrisy weakens and unsettles the heart : ' a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.' As it is in bodies, so in souls. Earthly bodies, be- cause mixed, are corruptible ; whereas the heavenly bodies, being simple and unmixed, they are not subject to corruption. So much a soul hath of heaven's purity aiul incorruptibleness, as it hath of sincerity. ' Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sinceiity,' with incorruption, Eph. vi. 24. The strength of every grace lies in the sincerity of it ; so that without any more ado, tlie point which offers itself to our consideration, from this second notion of tlie girdle, is this : 278 HAVING YOUR LOINS Note, That sincerity doth not only cover all our other infirmities, but is ex- cellent, yea, necessary to establish the soul in, and strengthen it for its whole Christian warfare. * The integrity of the vipright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them,' Prov. xi. 3. The hypocrite falls shamefully, and comes to naught, with all his shifts and stratagems to save himself; whereas sincerity carries that soul safe, that dares follow its conduct above all dangers, though in the midst of them. But to open the point, there is a threefold strength sincerity brings with it, which the false, hypocritical heart wants. 1. A preserving strength. 2. A recovering strength. 3. A comforting strength. First, Sincerity hath a preserving strength to keep the soul from the defile- ments of sin : when temptation comes on furiously, and chargeth the sov\ home, a false heart is put to the i"un, it cannot possibly stand. We are told of Israel's hypocrisy, Psa.lxviii. 8 ; they were a generation that ' set not their heart aright :' and what follows ? ' whose spirit was not stedfast with God.' Stones that are not set i-ight on the foundation cannot stand strong or long : you may see more of this bitter fruit growing on the hypocrite's branches in the same Psalm, ver. 56, 57 : ' They timied back, and dealt unfaithfully ; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow;' when the bow is unbent, the I'ift it hath may be imdiscerned, but go to use it by drawing the arrow to the head, and it flies in pieces ; thus doth a false heart, when put to the trial. As the ape in the fable, drest like a man, when nuts are thrown before her, cannot then dissemble her nature any longer, but shews herself an ape indeed ; a false heart betrays itself befoi'e it is aware, when a fair occasion is presented for its lust ; whereas sincerity keeps the soul pure in the face of temptation, Prov. x. 8 : ' He that walketh uprightly walketh surely ;' that is, he treads strong on the ground, like one whose feet are sound ; though stones lie in his way, he goes over them safely ; ' but he that perverteth his way shall be known;' like one that hath some corn or other ail about his feet, though in green, smooth way, he may make a shift to go, yet when he meets with hobbling, stony way, he presently comes down and falters. Now that this preserving strength, which sincerity girds the soul with, may better appeal', it will be requisite to instance in some of those seasons wherein sin- cerity keeps the soul from the power of temptation ; as on the contrary, when hypocrisy cowardly and tamely yields the soul up into its hands. First, A false heart usually starts aside, and yields to sin, when it can hide itself in a crowd, and have store of company, under which it may shroud itself. The hypocrite sets his watch, not by the sun, the word, I mean, but by the town-clock ; what most do, that he will be easily persuaded to do ; vox popiili is his vox Dei : therefore you seldom have him swim against the tide of corrupt times ; light things are carried by the stream, and light spirits by the multi- tude. But the sincere Christian is massy and weighty ; he will sooner sink to the bottom, and yield to the fury of a multitude by suffering from them, than float after their example in sinning with them. The hypocrite hath no inward principle to act him, and therefore, like the dead fish, must drive with the current ; but sincerity, being a principle of divine life, directs the soul to its way, and improves it to walk in it, without the help of company to lean on, yea, against ajiy opposition it meets. Joshua spake what was in his heart, when ten or twelve that were sent with him, perceiving on which side the wind lay, accommodated themselves to the humour of the people, Numb. xiv. 7. The false pi'ophets' pleasing words, with which they clawed Ahab's proud hu- mour, could by no means be brought to fit good Micaiah's mouth, though he should make himself very ridiculous by choosing to stand alone, rather than fall in with so goodly a company, ' four hundred prophets,' who were all agreed of their verdict, 1 Kings xx. Secondly, A false heart yields when sin comes with a bribe in its hand : none but Christ, and such as know the truth as it is in Jesus, can scorn the devil's oflTer, Omnia Ikbc daho, ' All these will I give to thee.' The hypocrite, let him be got a pinnacle-high in his profession, yet will make haste down to his prey, if it lies fair before him ; one that carries not his reward in his bosom, that counts it not portion enough to have God and enjoy him, may be bought and sold by any huckster, to betray his soul, God, and all. The hypocrite, when he seems }nost devout, waits but for a better market, and then he will play the merchant GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. O79 with his profession ; there is no more difference betwixt a hypocrite and an apostate, than betwixt a green apple and a ripe one; come a while hence, and vou will see him foil rotten ripe from his profession. Judas, a close hypocrite, iiow soon an open traitor ! And as fruit ripens sooner or later, as the heat of the year proves, so doth hypocrisy, as the temptation is strong or weak ; some hypocrites go longer before they are discovered than others, because they meet not with such powerfid temptations to draw out their corruptions. It is ob- served, that the fruits of the earth ripen more in a week, when the sun is in conjunction with the dog-star, than in a month before: when the hypocrite hath a door opened by which he may enter into possession of that worldly prize he hath been projecting to obtain, now his lust within and the occasion without are in conjunction, and his day hastens wherein he will fall. The hook is baited, and he cannot but nibble at it. Now sincerity preserves the soul in this hour of temptation. David ])rays, Psa. xxvi. 9, that God woidd ' not gather his soul with sinners, whose right handisfidl of bribes;' such as, for advantage, would be bribed to sin, to which wicked gang he opposeth himself, ver. 1 1 : ' But as for me, I will walk in my integrity ;' where he tells us what kept him from being corrupted and enticed, as they were, from God — it was his integrity. A soul walking in its integrity will take bribes neither from men, nor sin itself; and therefore he saith, ver. 12, ' His foot stood in an even place;' or, as some read it, ' j\Iy foot standeth in righteousness.' Thirdly, The hypocrite yields to the temptation, when he may sin without being controlled by man, which falls out in a double case : first, when he may embrace his lust in a secret corner, where the eye of man is not privy to it ; secondly, when the greatness of his j^lace and power lifts him above the stroke of justice from man's hand : in both these he discovers his baseness, but sincerity preserves the soul in both. First, See how the hypocrite behaves himself when he thinks he is safe from man's sight. Ananias and Sapphira's care was to blind man's eye, by laying some of their estates at the apostles' feet; and having made sure of this, as they thought, by drawing this curtain of their seeming zeal between it and them, they pocket up the rest without trembling at, or thinking of God's revenging eye looking on them all the while ; and boldly, when they have done this, present themselves to Peter, as if they were as good saints as any in the com- pany. The hypocrite stands more of the saving of his credit in this world, than the saving of his soul in the other, and, therefore, when he can insure that, he will not stick to venture the putting of the other to the hazard; which shews lie is either a flat atheist, and doth not believe there is another world to save or damn his soul in; or, on purpose, stands aloof from the thoughts of it, knowing it is such a melancholy subject, and inconsistent with the way he is in, that he dares not suffer his own conscience to tell him what it thinks of it ; and so it comes to pass, that it hath no power to awe and sway him, because it cannot be heard to speak for itself. Now sincerity preserves the soul in this case. It was not enough that Joseph's master was abroad, so long as his Cxod was pre- sent: ' How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?' Gen. xxxix. 8. Mark, not against his master, but ' against God.' Sincerity makes faithful to man, but for more than man's sake; Joseph served his master with eye- service — h#had God in his eye when Potiphar had not him in his : happy are those masters that have any that will serve them with this eye-service of sincerity. Secondly, The hypocrite, if he cannot get out of man's sight, yet may he but stand out of the reach of his arm and power, it is as well for his turn, and doth often discover him. How unworthily and cruelly dealt Laban wi h Jacob, cheating him in his wife, oppressing him in his wages, by changing it ten times! Alas ! he knew Jacob was a poor, shiftless creature, in a strange place, unable to contest w^ith him, a great man in his country. Some princes, who before they have come to their power and greatness have seemed humble and cour- teous, kind and inercifid, just and upright, as soon as they have leaped into the saddle, got the reins of government into their hand, and begun to know what their power was, have even ridden their subjects ofi' their legs with oppression and cruelty, without all mercy, to their estates, liberties, and lives. Such in- stances the history of tlie world doth sadly abound with ; even Nero himself, that played the part of a devil at last, began so, that in the Roman hopes he 230 HAVING YOUR LOINS was hugged for a state saint. Set but hypocrisy upon the stage of power and greatness, and it will not be long before its mask falls off. The prophet meant thus much, when he made only this reply to Hazael's seeming abhorrency of what he had foretold concerning him, 2 Kings viii. 23 : ' The Lord shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria;' as if he had said, Hazael, thovi never yet didst sit in a king's chair, and knowest not what a discovery that will make of thy deceitful heart. Mark from whence Rehoboam's revolt from God is dated, 2 Chi'on. xii. 1 : ' It came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord.' Policy bade him conceal his intentions, while he had settled himself in his throne, lest he shoidd have hazarded his crown ; but that set on sure, and his party made strong, now all breaks out ; like a false captain, who victuals his castle, and furnisheth it with all kind of provision and ammunition, and then, and not till then, declai-es himself a traitor, when he thinks he is able to defend his treason. But here also sincerity preserves the gracious soul. Two famous instances we have for this: one in Joseph, who had his unnatiiral brethren, that would once have taken away his life, — yea, who did that which might have proved worse, ■ for all that they knew, barbarously sell him as a slave into a sti'ange land, — these he had strangely brought into his hands, while he was in all his honom' and power in Egypt ; and now, when he might have paid them in their own coin, without any fear or control from man, behold, this holy man is lift above all thoughts of revenge; he pays their cruelty in his own tears, not in their blood; he weeps over them for joy to see them, that once had no joy till they had rid their hands of him ; yea, when their own guilt made them afraid of his presence, measuring him by tlieir own revengeful hearts, how soon doth he deliver them from all fears of any evil intended by him against them ! yea, he will not allow them to darken the joy which that day had with them brought to him, so much as by expressing their own grief before him, for their own cruelty to him, so perfect a conquest had he got of all revenge, Gen. xlv. 5. And what preserved him in his hour of great temptation? He told then), Gen. xlii. 18 : ' This do and live, for I fear God;' as if he had said, Though you be here my prisoners at my will and mercy, for all that you can do to resist, yet I have that which binds my hands and heart too, from doing or thinking you evil, ' I fear God.' This was his preservative; he sincerely feared God. The other instance is Nehemiah, governor of that colony of Jews, which, vmder the favour of the Persian princes, were again planting their native country. By his place he had an advantage of oppressing his brethren, if he durst have been so wicked ; and from those that had before him been honoured with that office, he had examples of such as could not only swallow the common allowance of the governor, without rising in their consciences, which shewed a digestion strong enough, considering the peeled state of the Jews at that time, but could, when themselves had svicked the milk, let their cruel servants suck the blood of this poor people also by illegal exac- tions ; so that Nehemiah, coming after such oppressors, if he had taken his allowance, and but eased them of the other burdens which they groaned under, no doubt he might have passed for merciful in their thoughts; but he durst not go so far. A man may possibly be an oppressor in exacting his own. Nehe- miah knew they were not in case to pay, and therefore he durst not require it. But as one who comes after a bad husbandman that hath driven his land, and sucked out the heart of it, casts it up fallow for a time till it recovers its lost strength, so did Nehemiah spare tliis oppressed people ; and what, I pray, was it preserved him from doing as the rest had done? see Nehem. v. 15 : ' But I did not so, because of the fear of the Lord.' The man was honest, his heart touched with a sincere fear of God, and this kept him right. CHAPTER XVn. OF A RECOVERING STRENGTH THAT SINCERITY HATH, AND WHENCE. Secondly, Sincerity hath a recovering strength with it. When it doth not privilege from falling, yet it helps up again ; whereas the hypocrite lies where he falls, and perisheth where he lies ; who, therefore, is said ' to fall into mischief,' Prov. xxiv. 16. The sincere soul falls as a traveller may do, by stumbling at some stone in his path, but gets up, and goes on his way with more care and GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. Og] speed ; the other falls as a man from the top of a mast, that is engulfed, past all recovering, in the devouring sea. lie falls, as Hanian did bcfbre Mordecai; when he begins, he stays not, but falls till he can fall no lower. This we see in Saiil, whose heart was never right ; when once his naughty heart discovered itself, he tumbl'ed down the hill apace, and stop])ed not, but from one sin went to a worse ; and in a few years you see how far he was got from his first stage, where he first took his leave of God. He that should have told Saul, when he betrayed his disti'ust and unbelief, in not staying the fidl time for Samuel's com- ing, which was the first wry step taken notice of in his apostasy, that he who now was so hot for the worship of God that he could not stay for the prophet's coming, would ere long quite give it over, yea, fall from inquiring of the Lord, to ask counsel of the devil, by seeking to a witch, and from seeking counsel of the devil should, at the last and worst act of his bloody tragedy, with his own hands throw himself desperately into the devil's mouth by self-murder, — siu'ely he would have Avondered at it more than Hazael did at the plain charac- ter Elisha gave of him to his face. And truly all the account we can give of it is, that his heart was naught at first, which Samuel on that occasion hinted to him, 1 Sam. xiii., when he told him, ' The Lord hath sought him a man after •his own heart ;' David he meant, who afterward fell into a sin greater, as to the matter of the fact, than that for which Saul was rejected of God. and yet hav- ing but an habitual sincerity, as the ' root of the matter in him,' haj^pily reco- vered out of it ; for want of which hypocritical Saul miscai'ried finally : so true is that proverb, that ' frost and fraud have dirty ends.' Now there is a double reason for this recovering strength of sincerity ; one taken from the nature of sincerity itself, the other from the jJi'omise by God settled on the soul where sincerity is found. First, From the nature of sincerity itself. Sincerity is to the soul as the soul is to the body ; it is a spark of divine life kindled in the bosom of the creature by the Spirit of God : it is ' the seed of God remaining' in the saint, 1 John iii. 9. Now, as the seed cast into the womb of the earth, and quickened there by the influence of heaven upon it, doth put forth its head fresh and green in the spring, after many a cold nip it hath had from the winter ; so doth sincere grace after temptations and falls, when God looks out upon it with the beams of his exciting grace : but the hypocrite, wanting this inward principle of life, doth not so ; he is a Christian by art, not by a new nature, dressed up like a pujjpet, in the fashion and outward shape of a man, that moves by the jimmers which the workman fastens to it, and not informed by a soul of its own ; and therefore as such an image, when worn by time, or broken by violence, can do nothing to renew itself, but crumbles away by piecemeals till it comes at last to nothing, so doth the hypocrite waste in his profession without a vital principle to oppose his ruin that is coming upon him. There is great diti'erence between the wool on the sheep's back, which, shorn, will grow again, and the wool of the sheep's skin on a wolf's back ; clip that, and you shall see no more grow in its room. The sincere Christian is the sheep, the hypocrite is the wolf clad in the sheep's skin ; the application of it is obvious. Secondly, The sincere soul is imder a promise, and promises are restorative : Psa. xix. 7, ' The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soid ;' in Hebrew ' restoring the soul.' It fetcheth back the soul to life, as a strong cordial one in a fainting fit, which virtue is proper to the promissory part of the word, and therefore so to be taken in this place. Now the sincere soul is the only rightful heir of the promises. Many sweet promises are laid in for the assuring succour and auxiliary aid to bring them ofi'in all their dangei;s and temptations: Prov. xxviii. 18, ' Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved.' Now mark the opposi- tion, ' but he that is perverse shall fall at once ;' that is, suddenly, irrecoverably. Job viii. 20 : ' God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evildoers;' he will not take them by the hand, (Heb.,) that is, to help them up when they fall ; nay, the hypocrite is not only destitute of a promise for his help but lies also under a curse from God. Great pains we find him take to rear his house, and when he hath done, ' leans on it, but it shall not stand ; he holds it fast, but it shall not endure,' Job viii. 15. 'A little that the righteous hath is better than the riches of many wicked,' Psa. xxxvii. Ki. Hut why .' See the reason, ver. 17: ' For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but tlie Lord gg2 HAVING YOUR LOINS upholdeth the righteous.' The righteous man in that psahn is the upright; by the wicked is meant the hypocrite. A little true grace mixed with much corruption in the sincere Christian is better than the hypocrite's riches, great faith, zeal, and devotion he brags so of. The former hath the blessing of the promise to recover it when decaying ; these, the curse of God threatening to blast them when in their greatest pomp and glory. The hypocrite's doom is to grow ' worse and worse,' 2 Tim. ii. 13. Those very ordinances which are effectual, through the blessing of the promise, to recover the sincere soul, being cursed to the hypocrite, give him his bane and ruin. The word, which opens the eyes of the one, puts out the eyes of the other ; as we find in the hypocritical Jews, to whom the word was sent to ' make them blind,' Isa. vi. 9, 10. It melts and breaks the sincere soul, as in Josiah, 2 Kings xxii. 19; but meeting with a naughty false heart, it hardens exceedingly, as appeared in the same Jews, Jer. Ixii. 20. Before the sermon they speak fair, ' Whatever God saith they will do;' but when sermon is done, they are further off than ever from com- plying with the command of God. The hypocrite he hears for the worse, prays for the worse, fasts for the worse ; every ordinance is a wide door to let Satan in more fully to possess him, as Judas foimd the sop. CHAPTER XVIII. OF A SUPPORTING AND COMFORTING PROPERTY SINCERITY HATH, SHEWN IN SEVERAL PARTICULAR INSTANCES. Thirdly, Sincerity hath a supporting, comforting virtue ; it lifts the head above water, and makes the Christian float'a-top of the waves of all troubles with a holy presence and gallantry of spirit: Psa. xi. 24, 'Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness;' not only light after darkness, when the night is past, but in darkness also : ' Out of the eater comes meat, and out of the strong, sweetness.' Those afflictions which feed on, yea, eat out the hypocrite's heart, the sincere soul can feed on them, suck sweetness from them, yea, hath such a digestion that he can turn them into high nourishment both to his grace and comfort. A naughty heart is merry only while his carnal cheer is before him. Hosea ii. 11, God tells Israel, ' He will take away her feasts, and all her mirth shall cease ;' her joy is taken away with the cloth. Sincerity makes the Christian sing when he hath nothing to his supper. David was in none of the best case when in the cave, yet we never find him merrier; his heart makes sweeter music. than ever his harp did : Psa. Ivii. 7, ' My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed ; I will sing and give praise.' The hypocrite's joj', like the strings of musical instruments, crack in wet weather ; but sincerity keeps the soul in tune in all weather. They are unsound bodies that sympathize with the season, — cheerly in fair, but ill and full of aches in foul ; so the unsound heart ; a few pinching providences set him going, kill him, as a sharp winter doth weak bodies ; whereas the sincere soul never is more hale, never more comfortable. Afflictions do him but this courtesy, to call in his affections, which in the summer of prosperity were possibly too much diffused and scattered among creature delights, and unite them more entirely and closely upon Christ, into whose bosom it goes as directly, when storms come, as the bee to its hive ; and he must needs be comfortable that hath so soft a pillow to lay his head on as Christ's lap. Sincerity keeps the soul's mouth open to receive the sweet conso? lations that drop from word and Spirit ; indeed all the promises are directed to such. But hypocrisy is like the quinsy in the throat of a sick man, he burns within, and can get nothing down to quench the fire which his sins have kindled in his soul. Conscience tells him, when the sweet promises are offered, These are not for me, I have dealt falsely with God and man ; it is the sincere soul God invites, but I am a rotten-hearted hypocrite : and how much short comes such a poor wretch of Dives's miserj' in hell, I pray? Dives burns, and hath not a drop to quench his tongue ; the hypocrite in affliction he burns too, and hath indeed, not a drop, but a river, a fountain full of water, yea, of blood, presented to him, but he cannot drink it down, he cannot make any use of it for his good ; his teeth are set so close, no key can open them ; his hypocrisy stares him in the face; it lies like a mastiff at his door, and will suffer no com- fort to come near him. And which is worse, he that hath no bread, or he that GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. ggg liath and cannot eat it ? None so witty and cunning as the hypocrite in prosperity to ward oft' the reproofs, to shift from the counsels of the word ; and in affliction, when conscience awakes, none so skilful to dispute against the comforts of the word. Now he is God's close prisoner no comfort can come at him ; if God speak terror, who can speak peace ? Lam. iii. 05 : ' Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.' Sorrow of heart is the hypocrite's curse from God in affliction, and what God lays on sticks close. The word for sorrow in the Hebrew signifies a shield that fenceth, and covers over, and doth, saith one upon this place, denote the disease phj'sicians call cardiaco passio, which so opprcsseth the heart, that is covered sictif scuto, as with a shield or lid over it, and keeps all relief from the heart ; such is the sen-row of the hypocrite in affliction, when once his conscience awakes, and God fills him with amazing thoughts of his own sins, and God's wrath piu-suing him for tlicm. But I shall descend to instance in a few particular kind of afflictions, and shew what com- fort attends sincerity in them all. Section I. — First, Sincerity supports and comforts the soul under reproaches from men. These are no petty trials : they are reckoned among the saints' mar- tyrdoms, Heb. xi. 36, called there cruel mockings; yea, not imworthy to be re- corded among the suft'erings of Christ ; the matcliless patience and magnanimity of his spirit appeared not only in enduring the cross, but in despising the shame, which the foul tongues of his bloody enemies loaded him unmercifully with. Man's aspiring mind can least brook shame ; credit and applause is the great idol of men that stand at the upper end of the world for parts or place; give but this, and what will not men do or suffer? One wiser than the rest could see this proud humour in Diogenes, that endured to stand naked, embracing a heap of snow while he had spectators about him to admire his patience, as they thought it, and therefore was asked, ' whether he would do thus if he had none to see him.' The hypocrite is the greatest credit-monger in the world, it is all he lives on almost, what the breath of men's praises sends him in; when that fails, his heart faints ; but when it turns to scorn and reproaches, tlien he dies, and needs must, because he has no credit with God, while he is scorned by man ; whereas sincerity bears up the soul against the wind of man's vain breath, be- cause it hath conscience and God himself to be his compurgator, to whom he dare appeal from man's bar. O how sweetly do a good conscience, and the Spirit of God witnessing with it, feast the Christian at such a time ! and no matter for the hail of men's reproaches that rattle without, while the Christian is so merry within doors. David is a pregnant instance for this, Psa. xli. 11 : ' By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.' How, David, dost not thy enemy triumph over thee 1 I pray see the condition he at present was in : he had fallen into a great sin, and the hand of God was on him in a disease, chastising him for it, as appears, ver. 4. His ene- mies from this take advantage to speak him all to naught, ver. 5 : ' Mine ene- mies speak evil of me,' no doubt charging him for a hypocrite. When they come to visit liim it is but to gather some matter of reproach, which they pre- sently blab abroad, ver. 6 ; yea, they are not ashamed to say, ver. 8, that an evil disease, or as it is in the Hebrew, 'a thing of Belial,' that is, his sin, ' cleaveth to him :' now God hath met with him, now he lieth, he shall rise no more ; yea, his familiar friend, in whom he trusted, serves him as ill as the worst of his enemies, ver. 9. Was ever poor man lower ? and yet can he say his enemy triinnphs not over him? His meaning t^herefore we must take thus : that not- withstanding all these reproaches cast upon him, yet his spirit did not quail; this was above them all ; CJod kept that up, and gave him such an inward com- fort, as wiped off their scorn as fast as they threw it on : their reproaches fell, as sometimes we see snow, melting as fast as they fell ; none lay upon the spirit to load and trouble it. And how came David by this holy magnanimity of spirit, these inward comforts? Ver. 12, he tells us : ' As for me, thou npholdest me in my integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.' As if he had said, Thou doest not by me, O Lord, as mine enemies do ; they pick out my worst, and revile me for it; if there be but one sore plat, one sinful part of my life, like flies they light there ; but thou ovcrlookest my sinful slips and failings, pardoning them, and takest notice of my uprightness, which amidst all my in- firmities thou upholdcst, and so settest mc before thy face, communicating thy 284 HAVING YOUR LOINS love and favour to me, notwithstanding the sins tliat are found mingled with my course of obedience. This kept up the holy man's spirit, and makes him end the psalm joyfully, ver. 13: ' Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to evei-lasting.' We live, Christians, in reproaching times; he that is so over dainty of his name, that he cannot bear to see some dirt, and that good store too, cast upon his back by reviling tongues, must seek a path to travel in by himself to heaven ; but for thy comfort, Christian, sincerity, though it cannot privilege thee from traveller's fare, and keep thee from being dashed with ca- lumnies, yet it will do thee this kind office, that the dirt which lights on thy coat shall not soak into thy soid to damp thy joy, and chill thj' inward comfort. Repi'oaches without may be comfortably endured, yea, triumphantly worn as a crown, if they meet not with a reproaching conscience within. Yea, sincerity will do more than this comes to, it will not only comfort thee under the perse- cution of the tongue, but hand also; not only quench the fire, which from thence is spit on thy face, by tongues set on lire by hell ; but it will comfort thee in the very mouth of lire itself, if God shall suffer thee by persecutors to be cast into it. Sincerity makes thee indeed fearful to sin. O, thou darest not touch one of these coals ; but it will make thee bold to burn, and even hail joy- fully the flames of martyrdom when called to them ! So little afi-aid was that sincere servant of Christ, an Italian martyr, Mr. Fox records, among many other imdaunted champions of the truth, that when the magistrate of the place where he was to be burned, and the officers of the bishop that condemned him, were in a hot contest, wrangling which of them should pay for the wood that should make the fire for his burning, he presently sent to desire them, ' They would not fall out upon that occasion, for he would take off the burden from them both, and be at the cost himself.' Blessed soul! he made not so much ado of spending his blood and sacrificing his life, as they about a few pence wickedly to procure the same. Section II. — Secondly, Sincerity girds the soul with comforting strength, when conflicting with affliction from the hand of God. Many are the sorts of affliction with which God exerciseth his sincere servants : to name a few. First, When the Lord toucheth his outward man by sickness, or his inward man by spiritual conflicts, sincerity is a comfortable companion in both. The hypocrite, above all, fears falling into God's hands, and well he may, for he is able to do him most hurt ; therefore no sooner God takes hold of his collar, either of these ways, but his joy gives up the ghost : he, like some murderer, whose doom is writ plain in the law, gives himself for a dead luan, when once' he is clapped up in a prison. This made Job such a wonder to his wife, because he held up his holy course, when battered so sadly by the afflicting hand of God with renewed afflictions : ' Dost thou yet hold thy integrity V What ! nothing but blows from God's hand, and yet continue to bless him ! This was strange to her, but not to him, who could call her foolish woman for her pains, but not charge God foolishly for all he smarted so under his hand. Sincerity enables the Christian to do two things in this case which the hypocrite cannot — to speak good of God, and to expect good from God ; and the soul cannot be uncomfortable, though head and heart ache together, which is able to do these. First, Sincerity enables the Christian to think and speak well of God. A false-hearted hypocrite, his countenance falls, and his heart rises, yea, swells, with venom against God ; though he dare not always let it drive out of his mouth, yet he has bloody thoughts against him in his heart. ' Hast thou found me, O my enemy?' saith the wretch. He loves not God, and therefore a good thought of God cannot dwell in his soul. All that God has done for him, though never so bountifully, it is forgotten, and embittered with the overflowing of his gall at the present dealings of God to him ; he frets and fumes ; you shall hear him sooner curse God than charge himself. But the sincere soul nourisheth most sweet and amiable apprehensions of God, which bind him to the peace, that he dare not think or speak unbeseeming the glory or goodness of God, as we see in David, Psa. xxxix. 9 : ' I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou, Lord, didst it.' This holy man had a breach made both at his body and spirit at this time ; he was sick and sad ; yet he remembers from whose hand the blow came : 'Thou, Lord, didst it:' thou, whom I love dearly, and so can take it kindly ; thou, whom I have offended, and so take it patiently ; yea, thou, GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 2g5 who mightest have cast me into a bed of dames, instead of mj' bed of sickness ; and therefore I accept tliy correction thankfully. Thus lie catches at the blow, without retorting it back upon (iod, by any cjuarrelling, discontented language. Secondly, Sincerity enables the soul to expect good from God, when his hand presseth hardest on body or soul, Psa. xxxviii. Never was David in a worse case for body and soul ; it would break a flinty heart to read the sad moans that his throbbing soul makes in the anguish of his flesh and bitter agony of his spirit ; one would have thought that they had been the pangs of a soul going away in despair ; yet even in this great storm we find him casting out his sheet-anchor of hope, and that takes sure hold of God for mercy, ver. 15 : 'In thee, O Lord, do I hope : thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.' This ex- pectation of good from God corrects and qualifies the bitterness that is upon his palate from his present sorrow ; so Psa. Ix. 17: 'I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me.' My state at jjresent is sad enough, but my com- fort is, I am not cast out of his mind, I know his thoughts are at work to do me good. Holj' Job proves that he is not a hypocrite, as his friends unchari- tably charged him, by this confidence he had on God in the depth of all his afflictions. Job xiii. 1.'), IG. ' Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. I will maintain my ways before him. He also shall be my salvation : for a hypocrite shall not come before him.' As if he had said. If I were not sincere, I durst not appeal thus to God, and comfortably believe, while God is killing of me, that he would j'et save me : ' for a hypocrite shall not come before him ;' that is, he dare not thus trust himself in God's hands, and acquiesce in his promise, when his neck is on the block, and God's knife at his throat ; no, if he could, he would never come in his sight. His conscience tells him, God knows him too well to intend him any good ; and therefore when God begins to lay his hand on him, except his conscience be dead and seared, which is the curse that God nov/ and then brands the gross hypocrite with, he presently hath the scent of hell-fire in his soul, in a fearfid expectation thereof; and looks on these present afflictions, though but a cloud of a hand-breadth, as those which will spread further and further, till the shades of that everlasting night overtake and encompass him in hell's utter darkness. Section III. — ^Thirdly, Sincerity comforts the Christian when he wants success visibly to crown his endeavours in his place and calling, — a great affliction no doubt to a gracious soul ; as when a minister of the gospel spends his strength and wears out his life to a gainsaying people, that sit like stocks and stones under his ministr}^ no more moved than the seats they sit on, and the pillars they lean to ; ignorant and profane he found them, and such, he sees, he is likely to leave them, after twenty years, may be, almost twice told, spent among them. This must needs be a heart-aching trial to one that God hath given a compassionate heart to souls. It costs the mother no small pains to bring forth a living child ; but what are the bitter throes of one that travails with a dead child I Such is the travail of a poor minister with a dead-hearted people, yet the portion of none of the meanest of God's messengers ; indeed God sets his most eminent servants about the hardest work. Now sincerity lightens this affliction, and sends in that which may cheer the sonl under it. Paul saw he shoidd not carry all to heaven with him he preached unto; to many the gospel was 'a savour of death unto death.' The sweet perfume of the gospel proved a deadly scent to hasten and heighten their damnation ; this could not be but sad to so tender a ph3'sician, to see his patients die under his hands; yet he thanks God that makes him trimnph in Christ, 2 Cor. ii. 14. But how can he do this? Poor souls droji to hell from under his pulpit hearing him, and he triumph ! This is as strange as to see the father follow his child's mournful hearse, not weeping, but singing and dancing. Mark, and the won- der will cease : he doth not triumph that they ])erish, but that ho is not guilty of their blood ; not that they are daumed, but that he sincerely endeavoured their salvation, ver. 17: ' For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God ; l)ut as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.' Had Paid dropped some wild gourd error into his doctrine, or mingled some ingredient of his own with what Christ, the great Physician, had ordered, he would have had little list to triumph ; but preaching pure gospel, and that purely, with a sincere heart, he might triumph in Christ, that made him faithful. ggg HAVING YOUR LOINS and shall triumph over ■ tliem, when he meets them again at the great day at the har of Christ, where to their face he shall witness against them, and vote with Christ for their eternal destruction. Methinks I hear all the faithful ministers of Christ giving an accoimt to him, on whose errand they were sent, in the language of Jeremiah's prayer, Jer. xvii. 16: ' Lord, we have not desired this woeful day, thou knowest,' which now hath taken hold of these wretched souls, and which we warned them of; that which came out of our lips, in our preaching to them, was right before thee ; the life of their souls was dear and precious to us ; we could have sacrificed our temporal lives to save the eternal life of their souls ; but nothing we could say or do would stay them ; to hell they would go, over all the prayers, tears, and entreaties out of thy word, which stood in their way. This wiU make the sincere ministers of Christ lift up their head with joy, and such forlorn wretches hang down their heads with shame to look Christ or them in the face, though now they can brazen it out with an impudent forehead. So for parents and masters ; sincerity in your relations will comfort you, though you see not your seed come up, which you have sown upon them in your godly examples, holy instructions, and seasonable corrections. David was one that 'walked in his house with a perfect heart,' Psa. ci. 2; care- ful in the nurtiu-e of his children, as appears in his pious council to Solomon, 2 Chron. xxviii. 9, though not without failings. But many of his children were none of the best : one incestuous ; another imbruing his hands in his brother's blood ; a third catching at his crown traitorously while his father was alive, which made this holy man sadly foresee how the squares would go when he was dead and gone. Yet in this great disorder of his family, how comfortable do we find him on his dying bed. 'Though my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure,' 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Surely he had done his duty sincerely ; this was his evidence for his interest in the covenant, and the covenant was all his desire and salvation. In a word, in times of public calamity, when the flood of God's wrath comes i-oUing in upon a nation like waves, irresistibly, at the wide breach which the high crying sins of the times make, and the few righteous that are found upon the place labour to stand in the gap, by their prayers begging the life of the nation ; but God will not hear; for so it sometimes falls out, though they were like Noah, Job, and Daniel, greatly beloved of God, that no bail will be taken for a nation luider arrest of God's judgments ; even then sincerity will be a sweet support, while we share with others in the common calamity. Jeremiah bestirred him zealously for God, in testifying against the sins of the times, and for the people, faithfiilly and earnestly with God by prayer; but he could neither convert them by his preaching, nor divert the wrath of God by his praying. The Jews bid him hold his peace, and prophesy no more against them : God stops his mouth also, and bids him pray no more for them. Now in this dismal state of things, what easeth his soi-rowful heart, swollen with grief for their sins and judgments hastening vipon them, like an eagle to her prey ? Truly nothing can, but the remembrance of his sincerity to God and man, in those debauched times, Jer. xviii. 20 : ' Remember that I stood up before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.' As if he had said, O Lord, though I cannot prevail with this rebellious generation to repent of their sins, or with thy majesty, to repent of thy wrath gone out by an irre- versible decree against them ; yet, remember that I have been faithful in my place both to thee and them. Whereas, on the contrary, horror and amazement of spirit is the portion, in such times of public calamity, of hypocrites, as we see in Pashui-, Jer. xx., who was a man that bare great sway at court in Jere- miah's time, a bitter enemy to him, and the message he brought from God to the Jews, labouring to soothe up the king and pi'incess with vain hopes of golden days coming, point-blank against the word of the Lord, in the mouth of Jere- miah ; and what becomes of him when the storm falls on that unhappy people? Jeremiah tells him his doom, ver. 4, that God will make him a Magoi- Massabih, a terror to himself; he should not only share in the common calamity, but have a brand of God's especial wrath set upon him above others. Section IV. — Fourthly, Sincerity girds theChristian with strength of comfort wlu^n deprived of those opportunities which sometimes God had intrusted him GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH. 287 with for serving of liim, — an affliction, considered in itself, so grievous to a gracious soul, that he knows none he fears more ; he could choose any, might he he liis own carver, before it: to be poor, disgraced, persecuted, anything, rather than be laid aside as a broken instrument, unserviceable to his God. Indeed he values his life, and all the comforts of it, by the opportunities they afford for the glorifying God. David stops the mouth of his soul, wliich began to whisper some discontented language, with this, that 'he should yet praise God,' Psa. Ixii. : ' Why art thou disquieted, O my soul? I shall yet praise him.' All is well with David, and no cause of disquiet in his soul, whatever besides goes cross to him, may he but praise God, and have opportunity of glorifying him. Joseph, when God had so strangely raised him pinnacle-high, as I may say, to honour in a strange land, he doth not bless himself in his preferment, carnally, to think how great a man he is, but interprets the whole series of providence, bringing him at last to tliat place wherein he stood compeer to a mighty king, to be no other than giving him an opportimitj^ of being eminently serviceable to God in the preservation of his church, which was at that time contained in his father's family. ' God hath sent me hither,' saith he, ' before you, to preserve you a posterit}' in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance,' Gen. xlv. 7. This holy man made his place give place to the work ; he was called to do in it for God, counting the honour of his honour to lie in the opportunity he had by it of serving (rod and his church. It must therefore needs be a sad affliction to a saint when such opportimities are taken from him that at any time he hath enjoyed. But sincerity can make good work of this also, if God will have it so. It is sad to the Christian to be laid aside, but it is comfortable to him to remember, that when he was not, he did not melt his talents away in sloth, or waste them away in riot, but was faithful in improving them for God. He counts it his affliction that God employs him not as he hath done ; but he is not sorry that God can do his work without him : yea, it is a sweet comfort to him, as he lives at the grave's mouth, to think that the glory of God shall not go down to the grave with him ; though he dies, yet God lives to take care of his own work; and it is not the cracking of one string, or all, that can mar the music of God's providence, who can perform his pleasure without using any creature for his instrument. In a word, it is sad to him to be taken from any work, wherein he might more eminently glorify God ; yet this again comforts him, that God counts that done, which the Christian sincerely desires to do. David's good will in desiring to build the temple, was as much in God's account as if he had done it; many shall be, at the last day, rewarded by Christ, for clothing and feeding the poor, who when on earth had neither clothes nor bread to give, yet having had a heart to give, shall be reckoned amongst the greatest benefactors to the poor. This appears from Matt. xxv. 34, where Christ is represented speaking not to some few saints that had great estates to bestow on charitable uses, but to all his saints, poor as well as rich : ' Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you,' Src. ' For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat,' &c. Mark, not — ' ye that were rich, ' but ' y e, ' that is, ' all, ' such as had bread, you gave that out ; you that had not bread or money to give, when you could not draw out your own purse, you yet drew out your souls to the hungry. Hear this, O ye precious souls that God hath made sincere, and take comfort! May be you stand low in the world, your calling is mean, yoiu- estate next to nothing, which makes you little regarded by your neighboiu-s that overtop yon. Canst thou say, though thou art but a servant to some ])()or cobbler, tliat thou desirest to walk in the truth of thy heart, approving thyself to God in thy whole course? This bird will sing as sweet a note in thy breast, as if thou wert the greatest monarch in the world. That which brings comfort to the greatest saint in a time of distress is the same which comforts the meanest in the family, and that is the love and favour of God, interest in Christ, and the precious promises, which 'in him are Yea and Amen.' Now sincerity is the best evidence for our title to those. It will not be so much insisted on, whether much or little hath been done by us, as whether that much or little were in sincerity. ' Well done, good and faithful servant;' not, well done, thou hast done great things, ruled states and kingdoms, been a fanums preacher in thy time, &c., but thou hast been faithful ; and that thou may est be that standest in the obscurest corner of the world. Good 288 HAVING YOUR LOINS Hezekiali knew this, and therefore on his sick bed he doth nob tell God of his great services he had done, though none had done more, but only desires God to take notice of the truth and sincerity of his heart : ' Remember that I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight,' Isa. xxxviii. 3. CHAPTER XIX. A BRIEF APPLICATORY IMPROVEMENT OF THE ' POINT, BOTH IN GENERAL AND PARTICULAR BRANCHES ALSO, It remains that the point bp applied in its several branches, which were three : sincerity hath a preserving strength, a restoring strength, and a comforting strength. But for quick despatch, we shall do it under two heads, blending the two former into one. Use 1. First, Therefore hath sincerity a strengthening virtue, whereby it either preserves the. soul from falling into sin, or helps the Christian fallen up again. First, This affords thee. Christian, a fiirther discovery of thy heart, whether sincere or not; put it here upon the trial. Dost thou find a power imparted to thee, whereby thou art enabled to repel a temptation to sin, when thou hast no weapon left thee to defend thee against it, but the command forbidding it, or some arrow taken out of the quiver of the gospel, such as the love of Christ to thee, thy love to him, and the like? May be the temptation is laid so cunningly, that thou mayest sin, and save thy credit too, having a back-door opened to let thee into it secretly. Thou shalt hazard nothing apparently of thy temporal concernment; yea, rather greatly advantage it, if thou wilt hearken to the motion. Only God stands up to oppose it ; his Spirit tells it is against his glory, inconsistent with the duty thou owest, and love thou professest to him. Now, speak what thou thinkest of sinning, the case thus stated, canst thou yet stand it out valiantly, and tell Satan, sin is no match for thee, till thou canst have God's consent, and reconcile sinning against him and loving of him together? If so, bless God that hath given thee a sincere heart, and also for opening such a window as this in thy soul, through which thou mayest see that grace to be there, which seen, is the best evidence that God can give thee for tliy interest in him, and life everlasting with him. Wert thou a hypocrite, thou couldst no more resist a sin so offered, than powder fire, or chaff the wind. Again, When thou art run down by the violence of temptation, what is the behaviour of thy soul in this case? Dost thou rally thy routed forces, and again make head against thy enemy, so much the more eagerly, because foiled so shamefully? Or, art thou content to sit down quietly by thy loss, and choose rather to be a tame slave to thy lust, than to be at any further trouble to continue the war? The false heart is soon cowed, and quickly yields subjection to the conqueror; but the sincere Christian gets heart, even when he loseth ground ; uprightness makes the soul rebound higher in holy purposes against sin, by its very falls into sin. Job xl. 5 : ' Once have I spoken,' he means foolishly, sinfully, 'but I will not answer; yea, tv/ice, but I will proceed no further.' This made holy David beg of God to be ' spared a little, that he might' have time to 'recover his strength iDcfore he went hence.' Loth was he to go beaten out of the field; might he but live to recover his losses, by repentance of, and some victory over, those sins that had weakened and worsted him, then death should be welcome : like that brave captain, who, wounded in fight, desired some to hold him up, that he might but see the enemy run before he died, and he should close his eyes in peace. Deal, therefore, impartially with thy own soid ; which way do thy fiills and failings work? If they wear oft^ the edge from thy conscience, that it is not soon keen and sharp in its reproofs for sin ; if they bribe thy affections, that thou beginnest to comply with those sins with which formerly thy contest was, and likest pretty well their acquaintance ; thy heart is not right : but if still thy heart meditates a revenge on thy sin that hath overpowered thee, and it lies on thy spirit, like undigested meat on a sick stomach, thou canst have no use and content to thy troubled soul, till thou hast cleared thyself of it, as to the reigning power of it ; truly then thou discoverest a sincere heart. GIRT AnoUT WITH TRUTH. 289 Use 2. Secondly, This shews of what importance it is to labour for sincerity : without it we can neitJier stand against, nor rise wlien we fall into temptation. Whatever thou beggest of God, forget not a sincere heart. David saw need of more of this grace than he had, Psa. li. 10: ' Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew in nie a right spirit;' and happy was it for him he had so much as to make him desire more of it. What folly is it to build a house with beams on fire ! The hypocrite's building must needs come to nought. There is a fire unquenched, the power of hypocrisy unmortified, that will consinne all his goodly pi-ofession. He cai-ries into the field a heart that will deliver him up into his enemies' hands ; and he is sure to be overcome to whom his own side is not true. Use 3. Thirdly, Bless God, O sincere Christian, for this grace : it is a bless- ing invaluable : crowns and diadems are not to be compared with it. In this thou hast ' a heart after God's own heart ;' a heart to his liking ; yea, a heart to his likeness. Nothing makes thee more like God in the simplicity and purity of his nature, than sincerity. Truth is that God glories in ; he is a God of truth. When Haman was bid to say what should be done to the man that the king delighted to honour, he, thinking the king meant no other than himself, would fly as high as his ambition could carry him ; and what doth he choose, but to be clothed with the king's own apparel royal? When God gives thee sin- cerity, he clothes thy soul with that which he wears himself: 'Who clothes himself with truth and righteousness as a garment.' By this thou art made a conqueror, greater than even Alexander was : he overcame a world of men, but thou a world of lusts and devils. Did one bless God at the sight of a toad, that God made him a man, and not a toad, how much more thankful oughtest thou to be to God who hath made thee, that wert a hypocrite by nature, which is far worse, an upright Christian ! It is a notable saying of Lactantius, Si nemo est, quin emori ma/ii, quam converti in aliquam besties jiguram, quamvis hominis nientem sit habiturus ; quanta miserius est in hominis figwra animo esse efferalo ? If, saith he, a man would choose death rather than to have the face and shape of a beast, though he might withal keep the soul of a man, how much more miserable is it under the shape of a man to carry the heart of a beast ! Yet such a one is the hypocrite, yea, worse ; he not only, under the shape of man, but in the disguise of a saint, carries a beastly, filthy heart within him. Use 4. Fourthly, Let this encourage thee who art sincere against the fears of final apostasy. Though sincerity doth not privilege thee from falling, yet thy covenant state which thou art in, if sincere, secures thee from final apos- tasy. Because thy stock of grace in hand is small, thou questionest thy per- severing. Can these weak legs, thinkest thou, bring me to my journey's end ; the few pence in my purse, little grace in my heart, bear my charges all the way to heaven, through so many expenses of trials and temptations? Truly no, if thou wert to receive no more than thou hast at present. The bread thou hast in the cupboard will not maintain thee all thy life ; but, soul, thou hast a covenant will help thee to more when that grows low. Hath not God taught thee to pray for thy daily bread, and dost thou not find that the blessing of God in thy calling, diligently followed, supplies thee from day to day ? And hast thou not the same bond to sue for thy spiritual daily bread ? Hast thou not a Father in heaven, that knows what thou needest for thy soul as well as body? Hast thou not a dear Brother, yea. Husband, that is gone to heaven, where plenty of all grace is to be had, and that on purpose on his children's errand, that he might keep their souls' graces and comforts alive in this necessitous world? All power is in his hands ; he may go to the heap, and send what he please for your succour; and can you starve while he hath fidness of grace by him, that hath undertaken to provide for you? Luke x. 35.. The two pence which the Samaritan left were not enough to pay for cure and board of the wounded man ; therefore he passed his word ' for all that he should need besides.' Christ doth not only give a little grace in hand, but his bond for more to the sincere soul, even as much as will bring it to heaven, Psa. Ixxxiv. 11 : ' Grace and glory he will give, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.' Use 5. Fifthly, Take heed of resting on, or glorying in thy sincerity. It is true it will enable thee to resist temptations, and to escape when in tempta- tion ; but who enables thee ? Where grows the root that feeds thy grace ? Not in 2rfQ HAVING YOUR LOINS, ETC. thy own ground, but in heaven. It is God alone that holds thee and it in life. He that gave it is at cost tp^keep it. ' The Lord is thy strength, let him be thy song.' What can the ax>e, though sharp, do without the workman? Shall the axe say, I have cut down, or the chisel, I have carved ? Is it not the skill and art of the workman rather? When able to resist temptation, say, ' The Lord was on my side, or else I had fallen:' set up an Ebenezer, and write on it, ' Hitherto the Lord hath helped me.' Though God promiseth in the psalm even now cited to give grace and glory to the upright, yet he will not give the glory of his grace to uprightness. 2 Sam. xxii. 24, we have David asserting his uprightness, and how he was preserved by it: ' I was also upright before him, and have kept me from mine iniquity :' ver. 25, he declares the fruit of his uprightness, how God bare testimony to it by re- warding him for it, in vindicating him before, and giving him victory over, his enemies ; ' Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteous- ness, according to my cleanness in his eye-sight.' Now, lest he should set up himself, or applaud his own uprightness to the prejudice of God's grace, he sweetly corrects and bounds these passages, ver. 33 : ' God is my strength and power, and he maketh my way perfect.' As if the holy man had said, I pray mistake me not, I do not ascribe the victory over my enemies within me or without to myself and my uprightness; no, God did all; he is my strength and power, yea, it is he that makes my way perfect. If I be sincere more than others in my way I must thank him for it, for he makes my way perfect. He found me at first as crooked a piece, and walking in as crooked ways, as any other, but he made me and my way perfect and straight. Had God pleased, he could have made Said as perfect as David : had God left David, he would have been as crooked and false-hearted as Saul. The last branch of the point was, sincerity hath a comforting strength in all sorts of affliction. The applicatory improvement of which shall be only this : Use. Let it teach us not to fear affliction, but hypocrisy. Believe it, friends, affliction is a harmless thing to a sincere soul : it cannot be so great as to make it inconsistent with his joy and comfort. A gracious soul in the most sharp affliction can spare his tears and pity to bestow them on the hypocrite, when in all his pomp and glory : he hath that in his bosom that gives him more com- fortable apprehensions of his own affliction than standers-by have, or can have of them, which made once a holy man, when the pangs of death were on him, to ask a servant of his, weeping by his bed-side for liim, what she meant by her fears, saying, ' Never fear that my heavenly Father will do me any luut.' Indeed affliction is not joyous to the flesh, which hath made some of God's dear children awhile to shrink ; but after they have been acquainted with the work, and the comforts which God bestows on his poor prisoners through the grate, they have learned another tune ; like the bird, that at first putting into the cage flutters, and shews her dislike of her restraint, but afterwards comes to sing more sweetly than when at liberty to fly where she pleased. Be not, therefore, so thoughtful about affliction, but careful against hypocrisy. If the bed of affliction proves hard and uneasy to thee, it is thyself that brings with thee what makes it so. Approve thyself to God, and trust him who hath promised to be his saints' bed-maker in affliction, to make it soft and easy for thee. O what a cutting word will it be in a dying hour, when thou art crying, ' Lord, Lord, have mercy on a poor creature!' to hear the Lord say, ' I know thee not:' it is not the voice of a sincere soul, but a hypocrite that howls on his bed of sorrow. What then wilt thou do, when fallen into the hands of God, with whom thou hast but juggled in thy profession, and never sincerely didst love? If that speech was so confounding to the patriarchs, ' I am Joseph, whom you sold,' that they could not endure his presence, knowing their own guilt, how intolerable will it be to hear from God's own mouth such language in a time of distress,— I am God, whom you have mocked, abused, and sold away for the enjoyment of your lusts, and do you now come to me? Have I anything for you, but a hell to tonnent you in, to all eternity ? THE ISREASTPLATJ]: OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Q()l Verse 14. And having on the breastplate of righteousness. These words present us with a second piece of armour commended to and charged upon all Christ's soldiers — a breastplate ; and the metal it is to be made of — righteousness ; concerning which a double inquiry would be made. First, What rigliteousness is here intended ? Secondly, Why compared to this piece of the soldier's armour, the breastplate ? CHAPTER I. CONTAINS THE EXPLICATION OF THE WORDS. First, What is the righteousness here meant ? The Scripture speaks of a two- fold righteousness ; the one legal, the other evangelical. First, A legal righteousness ; that whicli God required of man in the cove- nant of works : Rom. x. 5, ' Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doth those things shall live.' Three things concur to make up this law righteousness. First, An obedience, absolutely perfect, to the law of God ; that is, perfect, in regard of the object ; intensive, in regard of the subject : the whole law must be kept with the whole heart ; the least defect, either of part or degree, in the obedience, spoils all. Secondly, This perfect obedience to the law of God must be personally per- formed by him that is thus righteous : * The man that doth these things shall live.' In that covenant God had but man's single bond for performance, (no surety engaged with him,) so that God having none else to come upon for the default, it was necessary, except God will lose his debt, to exact it personally on every man. Thirdly, This perfect personal obedience must be perpetual. This law allows no after-game ; if the law be once broken, though but in one wrong thought, there is no place for repentance in that covenant, though it were attended with a life afterward never so exact and spotless. After-obedience (which was but due) cannot make amends for former disobedience ; he doth not satisfy the law for killing a man once, that doth so no more. How desperate were our condition if we could not be enlisted in Christ's muster-roll till we were provided with such a breastplate as this is? Adam indeed had such a righteousness made to his hand ; his heart and the law were unisons ; it answered it as face answers face in a glass ; it was as natural to him to be righteous as now it is to his posterity to be unrighteous. God was the engraver of his own image upon man, which consisted in righteousness and holiness ; and he who made all so perfect, that upon a review of the whole creation, he neither added nor altered anything, but ' saw all very good,' was not less curious in the masterpiece of all his work, ' he made man perfect.' But Adam sinned, and defiled our nature; and now nature defiles us, so that never since could Adam's plate, righteousness I mean, fit the breast of any mere man : if God woidd . save all the world for one such righteous man, as once he offered to do Sodom for ten, he could not be found. The apostle divides all the world into Jew and Gentile, Rom. iii. 9 ; he is not afraid to lay them all in the dirt ; they are all under sin : ' There is none right- eous, no, not one.' Not the proudest philosopher among the Gentiles, nor the most precise Pharisee among the Jews ; we may go yet further, not the holiest saint that ever lived, can stand righteous before that bar. ' Enter not into judg- ment with thy servant,' saith David, 'for in thy sight shall no man living be justified,' Psa. cxliii. 2. God hath nailed that door up, that none can for ever enter by a law-righteousness into life and happiness. This way to heaven is like the northern passage to the Indies, whoever attempts it is sure to be frozen up before he gets half way thither. Secondly, The second righteousness which the Scripture speaks of, is an evangelical righteousness. Now this also is twofold — ' A righteousness im- puted,' and ' imparted.' The ' imputed righteousness' is that which is wrought by Christ for the believer ; the ' imparted,' that which is wrought by Christ in the believer. The first of these, the ' imputed righteousness,' is the righteous- ness of our justification, that by wliich the believer stands just and righteous u 2 292 ^^^ HAVING ON before God, and is called by way of distinction from the latter, ' the righteous- ness of God,' Rom. iii. 21, and x. 3. Not as if the other righteousness were not of God also ; but, First, Because this is not only wrought by Christ, but also performed in Christ, who is God ; and not inherent in us, though for us ; so that the benefit of it redounds by faith to us, as if we had wrought it : hence Christ is called ' The Lord our righteousness.' Secondly, Becavise this is the righteousness, and not the other, which God hath ordained to be the meritorious cause of the justification of our persons, and also accejitation of our inhei'ent righteousness imparted by him tons. Now this righteousness belongs to the fourth piece of armour, the ' shield of faith ;' indeed we find it bearing its name from that grace, Rom. iv. 11, where it is called ' the righteousness of faitli,' because apprehended and applied by faith unto the soul ; the righteousness, therefore, which is here compared to the breastplate, is the latter of the two, and that is the righteousness of our sancti- fication, which I called a righteousness imparted, or a righteousness wrought by Christ in the believer. Now this take thus described : — It is a supernatural principle of a new life, planted in the heart of every child of God by the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit, whereby they endea- vour to approve themselves to God and man in performing what the word of God requires to be performed to both. Briefly let us unfold what is rolled up in this description. First, Here is the efficient, or workman, ' the Holy Spirit :' hence it is the several parts of holiness are called 'fruits of the Spirit,' Gal. v. 22. If the Spirit be not at the root, no such fruit can be seen on the branches as holiness ; ' sensual,' and ' not having the Spirit,' are inseparably coupled, Jude 19. Man by his fall hath a double loss — God's love to him, his likeness to God. Christ restores both to his children : the first by his righteousness imputed to them ; the second by his Spirit reimparting the lost image of God to them, which con- sists in righteousness and true holiness. Who but a man can impart his own nature, and beget a child like himself? and who but the Spirit of God can make a creature like God, by making him partaker of the Divine nature ? Secondly, Here is the work produced, ' a supernatural principle of a new life.' 1. By a principle of life, I mean, an inward disposition and cpiality, sweetly, powerfully, and constantly inclining it to that which is holy ; so that the Chris- tian, though passive in the production, is afterwards active, and co-working with the Spirit in all actions of holiness : not as a lifeless instrument is in the hand of a musician, but as a living child in tlie hand of a father ; therefore they are said to be ' led by the Spirit,' Rom. viii. 2. It is a principle of new life. The Spirit's work was not to chafe and recover what was swooning, but to work a life de novo in a soul quite dead : ' You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses.' The devil comes as an orator to persuade by argument, when he tempts ; the Spii'it as a creator, when he converts. The devil draws forth and enkindles what he finds i-aked up in the heart before ; but the Holy Spirit puts into the soul what he finds not there, called in the Scripture ' the seed of God,' 1 John iii. 9; ' Christ formed in you,' Gal. iv. 19 ; 'the new creature,' Gal. vi. 15 ; ' the law put by God into the inner man,' Jer. xxxi. 33 ; which Paul calls, ' the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' Rom. viii. 2. 3. It is a supernatural principle, by which we distinguish it ft-om Adam's righteousness and holiness, which was connatural to him as now sin is to us ; and had he stood, would have been propagated to us as naturally as now his sin is. Holiness was as natural to Adam's soul as health was to his body, they both resulting ex priiw'ipiis recte constitutis, from principles pure and rightly disposed. Thirdly, Here is the soil or subject in which the Spirit plants this principle of holiness, ' the child of God.' ' Because ye are sons, he hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,' Gal. iv. 6 ; not a child in all his family that is imlike his Father ; ' as is the heavenly, so are they that are heavenly ;' and none but children have his stamp of true holiness on them. As the apostle, Rom. viii. 9, concludes, 'we have not the Spirit' if we 'be in the flesh,' (that is, in an unholy, sinful state,) so he concludes ' we are not his' (children) if we ' have THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 293 not his Spirit' thus transforming and sanctifying us. There is indeed a holi- ness and sanctification taken in a large sense, which may he foimd in such as are not children ; so all the children of believers are holy, 1 Cor. vii., who are not all children of God ; yea, false professors also gain the name of being sanctified, Hcb. x. 29, because they pretend to be so ; but that which the Scripture calls righteousness and true holiness, is a sculpture tl\e Spirit engraves on none but the children of God. The Spirit sanctifies none but whom Christ prays his Father to sanctify, and they are his peculiar number given of God to him, John xvii. Foiu'thly, Here is the efficacy of this principle, planted by the Spirit in the heart of a child of God, ' wliereby he endeavours.' As the heart, which is the principle of natural life in the body, from the infusion of natural life, is ever beating and working; so is the principle of new life in the soul ever endeavouring. The new creature is not still-born ; true holiness is not a dull habit, that sleeps away the time with doing nothing. The woman cured by Christ ' rose up presently and ministered unto thcni,' Matt. viii. No sooner this principle is planted in the heart, but the man riseth up to wait on God, and act for God, with all bis might and main; the seed which the sanctifying Spirit casts uito the soul is not lost in the soil, but quickly shews it is alive by the fruit it bears. Fiftlily, Here is the imperfect nature of this principle ; as it shews its reality by endeavouring, so its imperfection, that it enables but to an endeavour, not a fidl performance. Evangelical holiness rather makes the creature willing than able to give full obedience. The saint's heart leaps, when his legs do but creep in the way of God's commandments. Mary asked, ' where they had laid Christ,' meaning, it seems, to carry him away on her shoulders, which she was not able for to do; her affections were stronger than her back. That principle of holiness which is in the saint, makes him lift at that duty which he can little more than stir. Paul, a saint of the first magnitude, gives us his own charac- ter, with other eminent servants of Chi-ist, rather from the sincerity of their will and endeavour, than perfection of their work, Heb. xiii. 8 : ' Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly ; ' he doth not say, in all things we do live honestly, as if no step were taken awry by them : no, he durst not say so for a world ; but thus much he dares assert for himself and brethren, that they were willing in all things to do what was holy and righteous. "Where willing is not a weak, listless velleity, but a will exerted in a vigorous endeavour, it weighs as much in an impartial ear, as that of the same Paul, Acts xxiv. 16: ' Herein do I exercise myself;' he was so willing, as to use his best care and labour in the ways of holiness ; and having this testimony in his own breast, he is not afraid to lay claim to a good conscience, though he doth not fully attain to that he desires : ' We trust we have a good conscience, willing,' &c. He means in the favourable interpretation of the gospel, for the law allows no such good conscience. Sixthly, Here is the imiformity of this principle in its actings : ' To God and man.' True holiness doth not divide what God joins together: ' God spake all these words,' Exod. xx. ; first table and second also. Now, a truly sanctified heart dares not skip or blot one word God hath wi'itten, but desires to be a faith- ful executor to perform the whole will of God. Seventhly, Here is the order of its acting : as ' to God and man.' So, first ' to God,' and then ' to man;' yea, to God in his righteousness, and charity to men, 2 Cor. viii. 5 : ' First gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.' God is first served, and man in obedience to the will of God. Eighthly, Here is the rule it goes by : ' What the word of God requires.' Apocteriphal holiness is no true holiness ; we caimot write in religion a right line without a rule, or by a false one. And all are false rules besides the word : ' To the law. and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them,' Isa. viii. 20. Secondly, The second thing to ])e incpiircd is. Why righteousness and holi- ness are compared to the breastplate. And that is for a twofold use that the soldier makes of, and benefit he receives from this piece of armour. First, The breastplate preserves the most principal part of the body, and that is the breast, where the very vitals of man are closely couched together. 2Q/L AND HAVING ON and where a shot and stab is more deadly than in other parts that are remote from the fountain of life. A man may outlive many wounds received in the arms or legs, but a stab in the heart or other vital parts is the certain messenger of death appi'oaching. Thus righteousness and holiness preserve the principal part of a Christian, his soul and conscience ; we live or die spiritually, yea, eternally, as we look to oin* souls and consciences. It is not a wound in estate, credit, or any other worldly enjoyment, that kills us in this sense. These touch not, hazard not the Christian's life, any more than the shaving of the beard, or paring of the nails do the man's : spii'itual vitals are seated in the soul and conscience ; it must be a spiritual dagger that stabs these, and that only is sin, which is said ' to hunt for the precious life,' Prov. vi. 26. Tliis is the dart that strikes the young man ' through the liver,' who hasteth to his lust, ' as the bird to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life,' Prov. vii. Now, righteousness and holiness defend the conscience from all wounds and harms, from sin, which is the weapon Satan useth to give the conscience its deadly stab with. Secondly, The breastplate, by defending this principal part, emboldens the soldier, and makes him fearless of danger, and that is as necessary in fight as the other ; it is almost all one for an army to be killed or cowed. A dead soldier, slain upon the place, will do in a manner as much good as a dead- hearted soldier that is dismayed with fear; his heart is killed while he is alive; and a naked breast exposeth the tmarmed soldier to a trembling heart, whereas one, otherwise cowardly, having his breast defended with a plate of proof, will more boldly venture upon the pikes. Thus righteousness, by defending the conscience, fills the creature with courage in the face of death and danger; whereas guilt, which is the nakedness of the soul, puts the stoutest sinner into a shaking fit of fear. ' The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion,' Prov. xxviii. 1. They say sheep are scared with the clatter of their own feet as they run ; so is the sinner with the din of his guilt. No sooner Adam saw his plate ofl", and himself to be naked, but he is afraid at God's voice, as if he had never been acquainted with him. Never can we recover truly our courage, till we recover our holiness : ' If our heart condemn us not, then have we boldness with God,' 1 John iii. 21. CHAPTER II. a short point from the connexion of this piece of armour with the first; righteousness with truth. The words thus opened, the observations are now easy to be drawn from them ; but the copulative ' and,' with which this piece of armour is so closely buckled to the former, bids us make a little stand to take notice how lovingly trutli and holiness are here conjoined; like the sister-curtains of the tabernacle, so called in the Hebrew, Exod. xxvi. 3 ; and it is pity any should unclasp them, which God hath so fitted each to other. Let that, then, be the note from hence. Note. — That tnith and holiness must go together. First, Take truth for truth of doctrine. An orthodox judgment with an unholy heart and ungodly life is as uncomely as a man's head would be on a beast's shoulders. That man hath little cause to boast that what he holds is truth, if what he doth be wicked. Poor wretch, if thou art a slave to the devil, it matters not to what part thy chain is fastened, whether head or foot ; he holds thee as sure to him by thy foot, in thy pi-actice, as he would by thy head, if heretical and blasphemous; yea, thou art worse on it, in some respects, than they who are like themselves all over. Thy wickedness is greater, because committed in the face of truth. The mistakes of the erroneous judgments of many betray them unto the unholiness of their practice; their wicked lives are the conclusion which follows necessarily upon the premises of their errors ; but thy judgment lights thee another way (except thou meanest further to accumu- late thy sin by fathering thy unholiness on truth itself). They only miss their way to heaven in the dark, or are misled by a false light of an erroneous judg- ment, which possibly rectified, would bring them back into the path of holiness; but thou sinnest by the broad light of truth, and goest on boldly to hell at noon- day ; like the devil himself, who knows truth from error well enough, but hates THE BREASTI'LATE OF PaGHTEOUSNESS. £95 to be ruled by it. Should a minstrel sing to a sweet tune with her voice, and play to another with her hand that is harsh and displeasing, sxich music would more grate the judicious ear than if she had sung to what she ])layed. Thus to sing to truth with our judgment, and play wickedness with our heart and hand in our life, is more abhorring to God, and all good men, than where the judgment is erroneous as well as the life ungodly. Nahash had not en- raged David so much if he had come with an army of twenty thousand men into the field against him, as he did by abusing his ambassadors so basely. The open hostility which many express by their ungodly lives, does not so much provoke God as the base usage they give to his truth, which he sends to treat with them, yea, in them. This kindles the fire of his wrath into a flame to purpose, when he sees men put scorn upon his truth, by walking contraiy to the light of it, and imprisoning it from having any command over them in their lives, and j-et own it to be the truth of God. Secondly, Take it for truth of heart; and so truth and holiness must go together. In vain do men pretend to sincerity, if they be imholy in their lives. God owns no unholy sincerity : the terms do clash one with another. Sincerity teacheth the soul to point at the right end of all its actions — the glory of God. Now it is not enough to set the right end before us, but to walk in the right way to it ; we shall never come at God's glory out of God's way ; holiness and righteousness is the sincere man's path set by God, as a causeway on which he is to walk, both to the glorifying of God, and the being glorified by God. Now, he that thinks to find a shorter cut and a nearer way to obtain this end, than this wa}', he takes but pains to undo himself. As he finds a new way of glo- rifying God, which God hath not chalked, so he must find a new heaven, which God hath not prepared, or else he must go without one to reward him for his pains. O friends ! look to find this stamp of righteousness and holiness on your sincerity. The proverb saith, ' Hell is full of good wishes,' of such who now (when it is too late) wish they had acted their part otherwise when on earth than they did. And do you not think there are there more than a good store of good meanings also ? Such who pretended, when on earth, they meant well, and their hearts were honest; however it happened that their lives were otherwise : what a strange delusion is this ! If one should say, though all the water the bucket brings up be naught and putrid, yet that which is in the well is all sweet, who would believe him ? Thy heart upright, and thy meanings good, when all that proceeds from thy heart in thy life is wicked, how can it be ? Who will believe thee ? svu'ely thou dost not thyself. CHAPTER III. WHEREIN THE GRAND POINT FROM THE WORDS IS LAID DOWN, THAT THE christian's ESPECIAL CARE SHOULD BE TO KEEP ON HIS BREASTPLATE, I. E. MAINTAIN THE POWER OF HOLINESS IN HIS CONVERSATION ; WITH THE FIRST REASON OF THE POINT TAKEN FROM GOD, HIS DESIGN AS TO THIS. It is now time, having measured the ground, to lay the bottom stone, on which the structure from these words is to be reared. I thought to have drawn out several points as distinct foundations to build our discourse upon, but shall now rather choose to unite all in a single point, as one main building, though I make a few more rooms therein, to entertain what else shoidd have been handled severally. The point is this : Doct. That he who means to be a Christian indeed, must endeavour to maintain the power of holiness and righteousness in his life and conversation. This is to have the breastplate of righteousness, and to have it on also ; he is a holy, righteous man that hath a work of grace and holiness in his heart, as he a living man that hath a principle of life in him ; but he nuiintains the power of holiness that exerts this vigorously in his daily walking, as be the ])ower of natural life, in whom the principle of life, seated in the heart, empowers every member to do its particular office in the body strenuously. Thus walked the primitive Christians, ' in whose veins,' said Jerome, ' the blood of Christ was yet warm ;' their great care was to keep on this breastplate of righteousness close and entire, that it neither might loosen by negligence, nor be broken by presumptuous sinning ; the character then a saint was known by from other 296 -^^^ HAVING ON men, was his holy walking, Luke i. 16 : there it is said of Zacharias and Elizabeth, ' They were both righteous before God, walking in all the com- mandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.' This was also holy Paul's every day's exercise, ' to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and man,' Acts xxiv. Never did any more curiously watch the health of their body than he attended to the health of his soul, that no imholiness or un- righteousness, which is the only bane of it, might distemper and defile it. And truly, we, who come after such holy ones in the same profession, do bind oin-selves to oiir good behaviour, that we will walk holily and righteously as they did. The point cames its evidence on its forehead, and needs rather pressing than proving : and therefore I may be pardoned, if the demonstra- tions of the point be handled, as well motives to, as reasons for, the duty, which will spare work in the application. Reasons of the point shall be taken from several heads. First, In regard of God, whose great design is to have his people a holy people. This is enough to oblige, yea, to provoke every Christian to promote what God hath so strongly set upon his heart to effect. He deserves to be cashiered that endeavours not to pursue what his general declares to be his design. And he to have his name blotted out of Christ's muster-roll, whose heart stands not on tip-toe ready to march, yea, to run on his designs. It is an honourable epitaph which JPaul sets on the memory of David long be- fore deceased, Acts xiii. 36, that he ' in his own generation served the will of God ;' he made it the business of his life to carry on God's designs. And all gracious hearts, touched with the same loadstone of God's love, stand to the same point. All the private ends of a sincere soul are swallowed up in this, that he may do 'the will of God in his generation.' This he heartily prays for, 'Thy will be done ;' this is his study, to find what is the 'good and ac- ceptable will of God,' which is the very cause why he loves the Bible above all other books of the world beside, because in none but that can he find what is the mind and will of God concerning him. Now I shall endeavour to shew, that this is the great design of God, to have his people holy. It runs like a silver thread through all God's other designs. Section I.- — First, It appears in his very decrees, which, so far as they are printed and exposed to our view in the Scripture, we may safely look into. What was God driving at in his electing some out of the liunp of mankind ? Was it only their impunity he desired, that, while others were left to swim in torment and misery, they should only be exempted from that infelicity ? No sure ; the apostle will tell us more, Eph. i. 4 : ' He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy.' Mark, not because he foresaw that they would be of themselves holy, but that they should be holy ; this was that God resolved he would make them to be. As if some curious workman, seeing a forest, growing upon his own ground, of trees, all alike, not one better than another, should mark some above all the rest, and set them apart in his thoughts, as resolving to make some rare pieces of workman- ship of them. Thus God chose some out of the lump of mankind, whom he set apart for this pui-pose, to carve his own image upon them, which con- sists in righteousness and true holiness ; a piece of such rare workmanship, which, when God hath finished, and shall shew it to men and angels, will appear to exceed the fabric of heaven and earth itself. Section II. — Secondly, It was his design in sending his Son into the world. It coidd be no small occasion that broiight him hither. God wants not servants to go on his ordinary errands. The glorious angels, who behold his face continually, are ready to fly wherever he sends them. But here God had a work to do of such importance, that he would put trust not in his servants, but his Son alone to accomplish. Now what God's design was in this great work will appear by knowing what Christ was, for they were, both Father and Son, agreed, what should be done before he came upon the stage of action. See therefore the very bottom of Christ's heart in this his great undertaking opened, Titus ii. 14 : 'He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people,- zealous of good works.' Had man kept his primitive righteousness, Christ's pain and pains had been spared. It was man's lost holiness he came to recover. It had not been an entei-prise THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 29^ becoming the greatness and holiness of such a one as the Son of God to engage for, less than this. Both God and man, between whom Christ comes to nego- tiate, call for holiness: God's glory, man's happiness, neither of which can be attained, except holiness be restored to man. Not God's glory, who as he is glorious in the holiness of his own nature and works, so is he glorified by the holiness of his people's hearts and lives; were it possible, which is the height of all blasphemy but to think, that the holiness of CJod could be separated from any of his attributes or works, God himself would cease to be glorious ; his sovereignty would degenerate into tyranny, his wisdom into craft, his justice into cruelty, &c. Now the glory of all God's attributes and works resulting from his holiness in them all, it follows that then we glorify God, when we give him the glory of his holiness ; and who but a holy creature will or can do that? While man stands under the power of sin, how can he give God the glory of that, which his own sinful nature makes him defy and hate God for? Had Christ's design therefore been to procure man a pardon, and not restore his lost holiness, he had been but a minister of sins ; and instead of bringing glory to God, he had set sin in the thron-e, and only obtained a liberty for the creature to dishonoiu- God without control. Again, man's happiness could not have been obtained without a recovery of his lost holiness. Man's happiness stands in his likeness to God, and fruition of (iod ; he must have the first before he can enjoy the latter ; he nuist be like Ciod before God can take any pleasure in him ; and God must take full content in man before lie admits him to the enjoyment of himself; which, that he may do, Christ undertakes to make his people holy, as God is holy. You see now what was the great design that the heart of Clu-ist was so full with, to make us a holy people. Well, therefore, may the apostle bring in that heavy charge against all unholy professors, which he doth with tears, Phil. iii. 18 : 'That they are enemies of the cross of Christ.' Christ came to destroy the works of the devil ; the loose, unholy walker, he goes about to destroy the work of Christ. The Lord Jesus lays down his heart- blood to redeem souls out of the hand of sin and Satan, that he may be free to serve God without fear in holiness ; and the loose Christian, if I may call him so, 'denies the Lord that bought him,' and delivers up himself basely unto his old bondage, from which Christ had ransomed him with so great a sum : whose heart doth not tremble at such horrid ingratitude ? Section IIL — Thirdly, It is God's great design in the regenerating work of the Spirit on the hearts of his people, to make them righteous, and fit them to walk holily before him, Ezekiel xxxvi. 26, 27, where God promiseth ' a new heart, and to j^ut his Spirit into them ;' and why will he do this? That he may cause them to ' walk in his statutes, keep his judgments, and do them.' An old heart would have served well enough to do the devil's drudgery. But God, intending them for more high and noble employment, to lift up their head out of sin's prison, and jirefer them to his own service, therefore he throws away their gaol clothes, and beautifies them with the graces of his Sjjirit, that their hearts may suit their work. When God ordered the temple to be built with such curious care and costly materials, he declared that he intended it for holy use ; that was not so glorious as the spiritual temple of a regenerate heart is, which is ' the workmanship) of God himself;' Eph. ii. 10 : and for what intent reared by him, if we read on, we may see : ' created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath foreordained that we should walk in them.' This ac- cents the unrighteousness and unholiness of a saint with a circumflex, it lays a deeper aggravation, I mean, upon his sin, than others, because committed against such a work of the Spiiit as none have in the world besides. A sin acted in the temple was greater than if the same had been, by a Jew, committed in his pri- vate dwelling, because the temple was a consecrated place. The saint is a con- secrated person, and by acts of unrighteousness he profanes God's temple : the sin of another is theft, because he robs (rod of the glory due to him ; but the sin of a saint is sacrilege, because he robs God of that which is devoted to him in an especial manner. Better not to repent at all, than to re])cnt of our re- pentance ; not to vow and dedicate ourselves to him, and after this to inquire, how we may evade and repeal this act ; such a one tells the world he finds ' some iniquity in (Jod,' that alters his opinion and practice formerly taken up by him. In a word, the saint is not only by the Spirit consecrated to God, but ggg AND HAVING ON by the Spirit endued with a new life from God : ' You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins,' Eph. ii. 2. A noble principle of high extrac- tion, given you on a high design, that you should live up to that principle in righteousness and holiness. When God breathed a rational soul into man, he intended not that he should live with the beasts, and as the beasts ; nor that thou shouldst have thy conversation as a mere carnal man doth ; but that ' as thou hast received Christ, so thou shouldst walk in him,' Col. ii. 6. The apostle blames the Corinthians for living below themselves, and like the poor-spirited men of the world in their corrupt passions : ' Are ye not carnal, and walk as men ?' 1 Cor. iii. 3. When thou, Christian, actest unholily, thou sinnest at a high rate indeed : others sin against the light of God in their consciences, there is the furthest they can go ; but thou sinnest against the life of God in thy very heart. The more unnatural any act is, the more horrid. It is unnatural for a man to be cruel to his own flesh ; for a Avoman to go about to kill the child in her womb ; O how your ears tingle at such a flagitious act! What then art thou going to do, when by thy unholy walking thou art killing the babe of grace in thy soul? Is not Herod marked for a bloody man that would have butchered Christ newly born in the world ? and canst thou, without horror, attempt the murdering of Christ newly formed in thy heart ? Section IV. — Fourthly, It is the great design God drives at in his word and ordinances, to make his people holy and righteous. The word of God is both seed to beget, and food to nourish, holiness begotten in the heart ; every part of it contributes to this design abundantly. The preceptive part affords a perfect rule of holiness for the saint to walk by, not accommodated to the humours of any, as men's laws are, who make their laws as tailors their gar- ments, to fit tlie crooked bodies they are for, so they, the crooked minds of men. The commands of God gratify the lusts of none ; they are suited to the holy nature of God, not the unholy hearts of men. The promises present us with admirable encouragements to allure us on in the way of holiness ; all of them so warily laid, that an unholy heart cannot, without violence to his con- science, lay claim to any one of them, God having set that flaming sword, con- science, in the sinner's bosom, to keep him off" from touching or tasting the fruit of this tree of life ; and if any profane heart be so bold, while he is walk- ing in the ways of unrighteousness, to finger any of the treasure that is locked up in the promises, it doth not long stay in their hands, but God sooner or later makes them throw it away, as Judas his thirty pieces, their consciences telling them they are not the I'ight owners. False comforts from the promises, like riches, which Solomon speaks of, ' make themselves wings, and fly away ' from the unholy wretch, when he thinks he is most sure of them. Again : the threatenings, the minatory part of the word, this runs like a devouring gulf on either side of the narrow path of holiness and righteousness, ready to swallow up every soul that walks not therein, Rom. i. 18 : 'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.' To the promissory, and minatory, is annexed the exemplary part of the word, as cases to confirm our faith concerning the truth and certainty of both. The promises are backed with the examples of holy men and women, who have beaten the path of holiness for us ; and through faith and patience in their holy course, have at last obtained the comfort of the promises in heaven's bliss, to the unspeakable encouragement of all that are ascending the hill after them. To the threatenings are annexed many sad examples of unholy souls, who have xmdone themselves, and damned their own souls in imholy wa3's ; whose carcasses are, as it were, thrown upon the shore of the word, and exposed to our view in reading and hearing of it, that we may be kept from being engulfed in those sins that were their perdition, 1 Cor. x. 6 : ' These were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.' Thus we see how the whole composure of the Scripture befi-iends ho- liness, and speaks what the design of God therein is, which, yet to carry on the more strongly, God hath appointed many holy ordinances to quicken the word upon our hearts. Indeed all of them are but the word in several forms. Hearing, prayer, sacraments, meditation, holy conference, — the word is the subject-matter of them all ; only as a wise physician doth prepare the same drug several ways, sometimes to be taken one way, sometimes another, to make it THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. ^99 more eftectual, and refresh his patient with variety, so the Lord, consulting our weakness, doth by his word administering it to ns now in this, anon in that ordinance for our greater dcliglit and profit ; aiming still at the same end in all, even tlie promoting of holiness in the liearts and lives of his people ; what are they all but as veins and arteries, by which Christ conveys the life- blood and spirits of holiness into every member of his mystical body ? The church is the garden, Christ the fountain, every ordinance as a pipe from him, to water all the beds in this garden ; and why, but to make them more abim- dant in the fruits of righteousness ? Section V.— Fifthly, It is his design in all his providences. ' All things,' that is, all providences especially, 'work together for good, to them that love God,' Rom. viii. 28; and how do they work for their good, but by making them better and more holy ? Providences are good and evil to us as they find or make us better or worse; nothing is good to him that is evil. As God makes use of all the seasons of the year for the harvest, the frost and cold of winter, as well as the heat of the summer ; so doth he of fair and foul, pleasing and un- pleasing providences, for promoting holiness : winter providences kill the weeds of lusts, and simimer providences ripen and mellow the fruits of righteousness ; when he afflicts, it is for our profit, to make us partakers of his holiness, Heb. xii. 10. Afflictions, Bernard compares to the teazel, which, though it be sharp and scratching, is to make the cloth more pure and fine. God would not rub so hard if it were not to fetch out the dirt that is ingrained in our natures, (rod loves purity so well, he had rather see a hole than a spot in his child's gar- ments. When he deals more gently in his providences, and lets his people sit under the sunny bank of comforts and enjoyments, fencing them from tlie cold blasts of afiliction, it is to draw forth the sap of grace, and hasten their growth in holiness. Paul understood this, when he besought the saints at Rome, ' by the mercies of God to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and accept- able to Cxod,' Rom. xii. 1. Implying, that mercies came from God to us on this very errand ; God might reasonably expect such a return. The husbandman, when he lays his compost on his ground, looks to receive it at harvest again in the fuller ci-op ; and so doth God by his mercies; therefore he doth so vehe- mently complain of Israel's ingratitude, Hosea ii, 8 : ' She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver, which they pre- pared for Baal.' God took it ill, and well might he, that they should entertain Baal at his cost ; if God sends in any cheer to us, he would have us know tliat it is for his own entertainment ; he means to come and sup upon liis own charge. And what dish is it that pleaseth Ciod's palate ? Surely, he that would not have his people eat of any unclean thing, will not himself. They are the pleasant fruits of holiness and righteousness, which Christ comes into his gar- den to feed on, Cant. v. 1 : 'I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse, I have gathered my myrrh and my spice, I have eaten my honey with my honeycomb, I have drunk my wine with my milk.' CHAPTER IV. THE SECOND REASON WHY THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD WEAR THIS BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND MAINTAIN THE TOWER OF HOLINESS SO CAREFULLY, TAKEN FROM SATAN's GREAT DESIGN AGAINST IT. Secondly, In regard of Satan, whose design is as much against tlie saint's holiness, as God is for it. He hath ever a nay to God's yea ; if God be for holiness, he must needs be against it : and what should be our chief care to defend, but that which Satan's thoughts and plots are most laid to assault and storm ? There is no creature the devil delights so to lodge and dwell in, as man. Wlien he enters into other creatiu'es, it is but on design against man ; as when he entered the sequent, it was to deceive Eve : the swine, Matt. viii. 32, he possessed them on a design to dispossess the Gergesenes of the gospel; but might he choose his own lodging, none pleaseth him but man : and why ? Be- cause man only is capable, by liis rational soul, of sin and unrighteousness. And as he prefers man to quarter in above ail inferior creatures, so he had rather possess the souls of men than their bodies; none but the best room in the house will serve this unclean spirit to vomit his blasphemies, and eject his malice in against God ; and why? but because the soul is the proper seat of gQQ AND HAVING ON holiness and sin. This, one gives as the reason why amongst all the ways that Satan plagued Job, he did not choose to make a forcible entry into his body, and possess him corporally; for certainly he might, that being short of taking away his life, (the only thing reserved by God out of his commission,) and being in his power, sure it was not to spare Job that trouble. No pity dwells in a devil's heart ; but the very reason seems to be what an ancient hath noted; the devil waited for higher preferment, he hoped to possess his soul, which he longed for a thousand times more. He had rather hear Job himself blaspheme God, while he was compos wenfis, his own man, than himself, in Job, to belch out blasphemies against God, which woidd have been the devil's ovn\ sin, and not Job's. Thus you see, it is holiness and i-ighteousness his spite is at; no gain comes to the devil's purse, no victory he counts gained, except he can make the Christian lose his holiness. He can allow a man to have anything, or be anything, rather than be ti'uly, powerfully holy. It is not your riches and worldly enjoyments he grudges so much as your holiness. Job, for aught we know, might have enjoyed his flocks and herds, his children and servants, with- out any disturbance from hell, if the devil had not seen him to be a godly man, ' one fearing God, and eschewing evil.' This angered the wicked spii'it ; now he tries a fall with Job, that, if possible, he may unsaint him, and despoil him of his breastplate of righteousness. His plundering of his estate, butchering his children, covering his body with sores and boils, which were as so many deep gashes in his flesh, was but like some thieves' cruel usage of men whom they would rob, on a design to make them confess and deliver up their trea- sure. Would but Job have thrown the devil his pm-se, his integrity, I mean, and let Satan carry away his good conscience, Satan would soon have mibound him, and not have cared if he had his estate and children again. The wolf tears the fleece, that he may come to raven on the flesh, and suck the blood of the sheep ; the life-blood of holiness is that which this hellish murderer longs to suck out of the Christian's heart. It is not a form of godliness, or goodly shews of righteousness, the devil maligns, but the power; not the name, but the new nature itself, brings this fell lion out of his den. Satan can live very peaceably, as a quiet neighbour, by the door of such as will content them- selves with an empty name of profession ; this alters not his property, nor touches his copyhold. Judas's profession, he knew, did not put him a step out of his way to hell ; the devil can shew a man a way to damnation through duties and ordinances of God's worship. That covetous, traitorous heart which Judas carried with him to hear Christ's sermon, and preach his own, held him fast enough to the devil ; and therefore he gives him line enough, liberty enough to keep his credit a while with his fellow-apostles ; he cares not though others think him a disciple of Christ, so he knows him to be his own slave. In a word, It is not a superstitious holiness which offends him; how can it, when he is the institutor of it himself, and that on a subtle design to undermine the true genuine holiness in the hearts of men ? and by this time the church of Christ hath found how deep a contrivance it is. This in all ages hath been to the power of holiness what the ivy is to the oak ; the wanton embraces of this mock holiness about religion hath killed the heart of scriptural holiness wher- ever it hath prevailed ; it is to the true holiness as the concubine is to the true wife, who is sure to draw the husband's love from her. This brat the devil hath long put out to niu'se to the Romish church, which hath taken a great deal of pains to bring it up for him ; and no wonder, when she is so well paid for its maintenance, it having brought her in so much worldly treasure and riches. No, it is holiness in its naked simplicity, as it is founded upon Scripture bottom, and guided by Scripture rule, that he is a sworn enemy against. Indeed, this is the flag which the soul hangs out, and by which it gives defiance to the devil; no wonder if he strives to shoot it down. Now, and not till now, the creature really declares himself a friend to God, and an enemy to the kingdom of dark- ness : and here is the ground of that quarrel, which will never cease so long as he continues an unclean spirit, and they to be the holy ones of God. 'AH that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suiFer persecution,' 2 Tim. iii. 12. Mark first, what it is that makes the devil and his instrvmients take arms, and breathe slaughter against Christians, ' it is their godliness.' Many specious pretences persecutors have to disguise their malice; but the Spirit of God, that looks THE UKEASITLATE OF lUGIlTEOrSNESS. 3QI through their hypocritical mask, is privy to the cabinet councils of their hearts, and those instructions which they have from the devil, that worketh so mightily in them. He tells us, ' he that will live godly' shall be persecuted : downright godliness is the butt they level their arrows at. Again, observe the kind of godliness at which their blood rises : ' All that will live godly in Christ Jesus.' There are more sorts of holiness and godliness in the world than one ; but all may have fair quarter at the devil's hands except this godliness in Jesus Christ. The devil hath an implacable malice against Christ; lie bates, as I may so say, every letter of his name : that godliness, which is learned of him, and derived from him, he opposelh to death. Christian blood is sweet to his tooth ; but the blood of the Christian's godliness is far sweeter. lie had rather, if he could, kill that than them ; rather draw the Christian from his godliness, than butcher him for it ; yet that he may not stand out, he will play at small game, and express his cruelty upon their bodies ; but it is when he cannot come at their souls, Heb. xi. 37 : ' They were sawn asundei', were tempted, v/ere slain.' That which these bloody men principally desired was to draw them into sin, and make apostates of them, and therefore tliey tempted them before they slew them. The devil accounts that the complete victory when he can despoil them of their armour, and bribe them from their stedfastness in their holy profession : ' Let her be defiled, and let oiu- ej^e look upon Zion,' Micah iv. 11. He had rather see saintsdefiled with imrighteousness and sin, than defiled with their blood and gore. Persecution, he hath learnt, doth but mow the church, which afterward comes up the thicker for it ; it is unholiness that ruins it. Persecutors do but plough God's field for him, while he is sowing it with the blood that they let out ; but profaneness, that roots it up, and lays all waste, consciences and churches also. CHAPTER V. THE THIRD REASON, TAKEN FROM THE EXCELLENCY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS. Thirdly, In regard of holiness itself, the incomparable excellency whereof commands us to pursue it, and endeavour it with our utmost care and strength. First, It is an excellency peculiar to the rational creature. Inferior creatures have a goodness proper to them, but intellectual beings are only capable of an inward holiness. God saw every ' creature ' he made to be ' good,' only ' angels ' and ' man ' to be ' holy;' and if we part with holiness, that is our crown, we be- come worse than the beasts themselves ; yea, it is holiness and righteousness that makes one man differ from another in God's account. We go by a false heart, when we value men by their external advantages. All stand on a level as to God, till holiness be superadded. Princes, in whom is seated the sovereign power, claim as their prerogative to set the just value on all coin, what every piece shall go for — this a penny, and that a pound ; much more surely doth it belong to God to rate his creatures ; and he tells us, ' Tlie righteous is more excellent than his neighbour,' Prov. xii. ; 'The tongue of the just is as choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is little worth,' Prov. x. 20. The Spirit of God compares the righteous to silver and gold, the most jirecious of metals, which above all other metals are of such account, that only money made of silver and gold is current in all countiies. Holiness will go in both worlds ; but external excellences, such as worldly riches, honours, &c., like leather and brass money, are of no esteem but in this beggarly lower world. Secondly, It is holiness that is, though not our plea, yet our evidence for heaven: 'Without holiness none shall see God.' Heaven is a city where righteousness dwells. Though God snfl'ers the earth to bear for a while unholy men, wliich it doth not without sweating under their weight, and groaning to be rid of this load, yet sure he will never admit them into heaven. Before Enoch was translated to heaven he walked holily willi (iod on earth, which made God desire his company so soon. O friends ! do we like an empty profession, such a religion as will leave us sliort of heaven ? or can we reason- ably expect a dispensation above others, that we should connnence glorified creatures in heaven, without keeping our acts, and performing the exercises of godliness, which God hath laid upon those tliat will stand candidates for that place ? Certainly what God hath written in his word as to this shall stand. He 302 ^^^ HAVING ON will not make a blot in his decrees for any, which he should, did he alter the method of salvation in the least. Either we must therefore renounce our hopes of coming thither, or resolve to walk in the path of holiness that will lead us thither. That is vain breath which sets not the sails of our affections a-going, and our feet a-travelling thither, where we would be at last. Thirdly, It is holiness, and that maintained in its power, that capacitates us for communion with God in this life. Communion with God is so desirable, that many pretend to it that know not what it means ; like some that brag of their acquaintance with such a great man, who, may be, never saw his face, or were admitted into his company. The Spirit of God gives the lie to that man, who saith he hath any acquaintance with God, while he keeps his acquaintance with any unrighteousness, 1 John i. 6 : 'If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie.' The apostle is willing to pass for a loud liar himself, if he walks in darkness, and pi-etends to have fellowship with God. How can they walk together that are not agreed ? Communion is founded on union, and union upon likeness. And how like are God and the devil, holiness and vuirighteousness, one to the other ? There is a vast difference between con- versing with ordinances and having communion with God. A man may have great acquaintance with ordinances, and be a great stranger to God at the same time. Every one that goes to court, and hangs about the palace, doth not speak with the prince ; and what sorry things are ordinances without this communion with God! Ordinances are, as it were, the exchange where holy souls trade with God by his Spirit for heavenly treasures, from which they come filled and enriched with grace and comfort. Now what does the unholy wretch ? Truly like some idle persons that come and walk among merchants on the exchange, but have no business there, or commerce whereby they get any advantage. An unholy heart hath no dealings with God, he takes no notice of God may be : to be sure God takes no such notice of him, as to communicate himself graciously to him. Nay, suppose a pei'son habitually holy, but under the power of some temptation for the present, whereby he defiles himself, he is in this case unfit to have any friendly communion with God. ' A righteous man falling down before the wicked is,' saith Solomon, 'as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring,' Prov. xxv. 26. Much more is he so when he falls down before the wicked one, and yields to his temptation, now his spirit is ruffled and muddied; and if we will not use the water of a spring (though in itself pure and whole- some) when it is troubled, or drink of that vessel that runs thick, but stay while it be settled and comes clear, can we wonder if God refuseth to taste of those duties which a godly person performs, before the stream be cleared, for the renewing of his repentance for his sin ? Fourthly, Holiness, in the power of it, is necessary to the tiiie peace and repose of the soul. I do not say our peace is bottomed on the I'ighteousness of our nature, or holiness of our lives ; yet it is ever attended with these. ' No peace to the wicked, saith my God.' We may as soon make the sea always still, as an unholy heart truly quiet. From whence come the intestine wars in men's bosoms, that set them at variance with themselves, but from their own lusts ? These break the peace, and keep the man in a continual tempest. As the Spirit of holiness comes into the heart, and the sceptre of Christ, which is a sceptre of righteousness, bears sway in the life, so the storm abates more and more, till it be quite down, which will not be while we are short of heaven ; there only is pei'fect rest, because perfect holiness. Whence those frights and fears which make them a magor mtssabib, terror round about ? They wake and sleep with the scent of hell-fire about them continually. O it is their unholy course and unrighteous ways that walk in their thoughts, as John's ghost in Herod's. This makes men discontented in every condition ; they neither can relish the sweetness of their enjoyments, nor bear the bitter taste of their afflictions. I know there are ways to stupify the conscience, and bind up for a time the senses of an unholy heart, that it shall not feel its own misery; but the virtue of this opium is soon spent, and then the wretch is upon the rack again, and his horror returns upon him with a greater paroxysm; an example whereof I have heard. A notorious drunkard, who used, when told of his ungodly life, to shake off all the threatenings of the word that his friends would have fast- ened on his conscience, as easily as Paul did the viper from his hand, bearing THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 303 himself upon a piesimiptuous hope oi'tlie mercy of God in Christ. It pleased God to lay him some while after on his bed by sickness, which for a time scared his old companions, brethren with him in iniquity, from visiting him ; but hearing he was cheery and pleasant in his sickness, ventured to see him, whom they found very confident of the mercy of God, whereby their hands were much strengthened in their old ways. But before he died this tune was changed to purpose, his vain hopes vanish, his guilty conscience awakened, and the poor wretch, roasted in the scorching flames of his former ungodly practices, now ready to die, cries out despairingly, " O sirs, I had prepared a plaster, and thought all was well, but now it will stick no longer! ' His guilty conscience rubbed it off as fast as he clapped it on ; and truly, friends, you will find the blood of Christ himself will not cleave to a soul that is in league with any way of sin and unrighteousness : God will pluck such from the horns of this altar that fly to it, but not from their unrighteousness, and slay them in the sight of this sanctuary they boldly trust to. You know the message Solomon sent to Adoni- jah, ' If thou shewest thyself a worthy man, not a hair of thy head shall fall ; but if wickedness shall be found in thee, thou shalt surely die.' In vain do men think to shroud themselves imder Christ's wing from the hue and cry of their ac- cusing conscience, while wickedness finds a sanctuary in them. Christ never was intended by God to secure men in their unrighteousness, but to save them from it. Fifthly, Holiness has a mighty influence upon others. When this appears with power in the lives of the Christians, it works mightily upon the spirits of men ; this stops the mouths of the imgodly, who are ready to reproach religion, and throw the dirt of professors' sins on the face of profession itself. They say frogs will cease croaking when a light is brought near to them : the light of a holy conversation hangs, as it were, a padlock on profane lijjs, yea, it forceth them to acknowledge God in them. ' Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven,' Matt. v. 16 : yea, more, this would not only stop their mouths, but be a means to open their very hearts to the embracing of Christ and his grace. One reason why such shoals of souls came into the net of the gospel in primitive times was, because then the divinity of the gospel doctrhie appeared in the divinity and holiness of Christians' lives. Justin Martyr, when converted, professed, ' that the holiness which shined in Christians' lives, and patience, that triumphed over their enemies' cruelty at their deaths, made him conclude the doctrine of the gospel was truth.' Yea, Julian himself, as vile a wretch as he was, could say, that the Christian religion came to be propagated so much. Propter Christianorum ergct onines benejicia, because Christians were a people that did good to all, and hm-t to none. I am sure we find by woeful experience, that in these de- bauched times, wherein religion is so bespattered with frequent scandals, yea, a connnon looseness of professors, it is hard to get any that are out to come under the net of the gospel. Some beasts there are, that if they have once blown on a pasture, others will hardly eat of that grass for some while after. Truly I have had some such sad thoughts as these concerning our unhappy times, that till the ill savour which the pride, contentions, errors, and looseness of professors now-a-days have left upon the truths and ordinances of Christ be worn off, there is little hopes of any great coming-in of new converts. The minister cannot be always preaching; two or three hours may be in a week he spends among his people in the pulpit, holding the glass of the gospel before their faces ; but the lives of professors, these preach all the week long ; if they were but holy and exemplary, they would be as a repetition of the preacher's sermon to their families and neighbours among whom they converse, and keep the sound of his doctrine continually ringing in their ears. This would give Christians an amiable advantage in doing good to their carnal neighbours by counsel and reproof, which now is seldom done, and when done, it proves to little purpose, because not backed with their own exemplary walking. ' It behoves him,' saith Tertullian, ' that would counsel or reprove another, to guard his speech;' Autoritate proprice conversationis, ne dicta fact is drficientibiis erubescanl ; with the authority of his own conversation, lest, wanting that, what he says puts himself to the blush. We do not love one that liath a stinking breath should come very near us; and truly we count one comes very near us that reproves us ; such, therefore, had need have a sweet-scented life. 304 ^^^ HAVING ON Reproofs are good physic, but they have an unpleasing farewell ; it is hard for men not to throw them back on the face of him that gives them. Now nothing is more powerful to keep a repi'oof from thus coming back than the holiness of the person that reproves. ' Let the righteous smite me,' saith David, ' it shall be a kindness ; and let him i-eprove me, it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head,' Psa. cxli. 5. See how well it is taken from such hand, from the authority that holiness carries with it. None but a vile wretch will smite a righteous man with reproach for smiting him with a reproof, if softly laid on, and like oil fomented, and wrought into him, as it should, with compassion and love to his soul. Thus we see how influential the power of holiness would be unto the wicked, neither would it be less upon our brethren and fellow -Chris- tians. When one Christian sees holiness sparkle in the life of another he converses with, he shall find his own grace spi'ing within him, as the babe in Elizabeth at the salutation of Mary. Truly one eminently holy is enough to put life into a whole society ; on the contrary, the error or looseness of one professor endangers the whole company that are acquainted with him. Therefore we have so strict a charge, Heb. xii., ' Follow peace and holiness, looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any I'oot of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.' It is spoken to professors. The heathen's drunkenness, uncleanness, unrighteous walking, did not so much endanger them; but when a ' root of bitterness springs up' among professors themselves, this hazards the defiling of many. A scab on the wolf's back is not so dangerous to the sheep, because they will not easily be drawn among such company ; but when it gets into the flock, among professors that feed together, pray, hear, and walk in fellowship together, now is the fear it will spread. A loose, erroneous professor doth the devil more service in this kind than a whole troop of such as pretend to no religion. The devil gets no credit by them. There are many errors and sinful practices which have long lain upon his hands, and he could not put them oft", till he found this way to employ some professors as his brokers, to commend them to others, and disperse them for him : and if such do not ensnare and defile others by their unholy walking, to be sure they grieve their hearts, and put them to shame in the world. O how Christians hang down their heads upon the scandal of any of their company ! as all the patriarchs were troubled when the cup was found in one of their sacks. And it is no small matter to make sad the hearts of God's people. In a word, he that keeps not up in some measure the power of a holy life, renders himself useless and unprofitable. Wouldst thou pray for others ? A heathen could bid a wicked man hold his peace, and not let the gods know he was in the ship when the storm was on them. Wouldst thou speak a word of comfort to any mournful soul? O how unsavoury are comforts dropping from such a mouth ! Wouldst thou counsel another ? Thy friend will think thou dost but jest, whatever thou sayest in commendation of holiness ; he will not believe that thou thyself dost think it good, for then thou wouldst take tliat thyself which thou commendest to another. Sixthly, Holiness and righteousness, they are the pillars of kingdoms and nations ; who are they that keep the house from falling on a people's head but the righteous in a nation? Ten righteous men, could they have been found in Sodom, had blown over the storm of fire and brimstone that in a few hours entombed them in their own ashes; yea, the destroying angel's hands were tied up, as it were, while but one I'ighteousLot was among them : ' Haste thee, I can do nothing till thovi art come thithei-,' Gen. xix. 22. Rehoboam and his kingdom for three years were strengthened, and might have been three and twenty, if he had not by his uni-ighteousness pulled it down upon himself and people ; for his unhappiness is dated from the very time of his departure from God, 2 Chron. xi. 16. Josiah, when he came to the crown, found the kingdom of Judah tumbling ajiace to ruin, yet because his heart was set for God, and prepared to walk before him, God took his bail, as I may so say, for that wretched people, even when they were luider an arrest fi-om God, and almost at the prison door, so that their safety was in a manner boimd up in his life ; for soon after his decease all went to rack among them. It was an heroic speech of Luther, who foresaw a black cloud of God's judgments coming over the land of Germany, but told some of his friends, ' That he would do his best to keep it from falling in his days ;' yea, THE BREASTPLATE OF HIGIITEOUSNESS. S(j5 he believed it should not; ' And,' said ho, ' when I am gone, let them that come after me look to it.' This poor nation of England liath, for many generations in a succession, had a number of precious, righteous ones, who have, through God's grace, walked close with God, and been kept in a great degree unspotted from the defilements of the imgodly times they lived in. These were the At- lases of their several ages ; these have often foimd favour of God to beg the life of this nation, when its neck hath been on the very block. But they are gone, or wearing away apace, and a new generation coming in their room ; unhappy would the day be called when you were born, if you should be the men and women that, by degenerating from the power of holiness, should cut the banks, which was their chief care to keep up, and so let in a desolating judgment to overflow the land. That heir we count unworthy of his birth and patrimony, who, by his debauched courses, prodigally makes away that estate which by the care and providence of his ancestors was, through many descents, at last trans- mitted to him ; but, together with the honour of the family, unhappily ends in him. If ever any age was like to do thus by the place of their nativity, this present, wherein our sad lot is cast to live, is it. How low is the power of holiness sunk among us, to what it was but in the last generation ! Religion, alas ! runs low and dreggy among professors, God he knows, that will not long suffer it. If Egypt knows a dearth is coming, by the low ebbing of the Nile, siu'ely we may see that a judgment is coming, by the low fall of the power of godliness. There are great complaints of what men have lost in these hurl- ing times ; some bemoan their lost places and estates, others the lost lives of their friends in the wars ; but professors may claim justly the first place of all the mom-ners of the times, to lament their lost love to the truths of Christ, worship of Christ, servants of Christ; yea, that imiversal decay which appears in their holj^ walking before God and man. This is sad indeed; but that which adds a fearful aggravation to this is, that we degenerate, and grow loose at a time when we are under the highest engagements for holiness that ever people were. We are a people redeemed from many deaths and dangers ; and when better might God expect us to be a righteous nation? It is an ill time for a person to fall a stealing and pilfering again, as soon as the rope is off his neck, and he let safely come down that ladder, from which he was even now like to be turned off. Surely it added to righteous Noah's sin, to be drunk as soon almost as he was set on shore, when a little before he had seen a whole world sinking before his eyes ; and he, the privileged person, left by God to plant the world again with a godly seed. O sirs, the earth hath hardly yet drunk in the rivers of blood that hath been shed in ovn* land ! The cities and towns have hardly got out of their ruins, which the miseries of war laid them in. The moans of the fatherless and husbandless, whom the sword bereaved of these their dearest relations, are not yet silenced by their own death ; yea, can our own frights and scares which we were amazed with when we saw the nation, like a candle lighted at both ends, on a flame, and every day the fire coming nearer and nearer to ourselves, be so soon foi'gotten ? Now, that at such a time as this, a nation, and that the pro- fessing part of it, shovild grow looser, more proud, covetous, contentious, wanton in their principles, and careless in their lives, this must be for a lamentation. We have little cause to boast of our peace and plenty, when the residt of our deliverance is to deliver us up to commit such abominations ; this is as if one whose quartan ague is gone, but leaving him deep in a dropsy, should rejoice that his ague hath left him, little thinking that when it went, it left him a worse guest in its place. An unhappy change it is, to have war, pestilence, and famine, removed, and to be left swollen up with pride, error, and libertinism. Again, we are people who have made more pretensions to righteousness and holiness than our forefathers ever did : what else meant the many prayers to God, and petitions to man, for reformation ? What interpretation could a charitable heart make of our putting ourselves muler the bond of a covenant, to endeavour for personal reformation, and then national, but that we meant in earnest to be a more righteous nation than ever before ? This made such a loud report in foreign parts, that our neighbour-churches were set a wondering to think what these glorious beginnings might ripen to; so that now, having put forth these leaves, and told both God and man by them, what fruit was to be looked for from us, our present state must needs he nigh imto cursing, for OQQ AND HAVING ON disappointing tlie just expectations of both. Nothing can save the life of this our nation, or lengthen out its tranquillity in mercy to it, but the recovery of the much decayed power of holiness. This, as a spring of new blood to a weak body, would, though almost a dying, revive it, and procure many happy days; yea, more happy days to come over its head, than yet it hath seen ; but, alas ! as we are degenerating from bad to worse, we do but die lingeringly, every day we fetch our breath shorter and shorter; if the sword shoidd be but drawn again among us, we have hardly strength to hold out another fit. CHAPTER VI. CONTAINS THE FIRST INSTANCE, WHEREIN THE CHRISTIAN IS TO EXPRESS THE POWER OF HOLINESS, AND THAT IS IN HIS BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS SIN; BRANCHED INTO SEVERAL PARTICULARS. The second particular into which the point was branched comes now to be taken into hand ; and that was to instance in some particulars wherein every Christian is to express the power of a holy and righteous life. Now this I shall do under several heads. First, Christian, be sure thou maintainest the power of holiness in thy contest with sin, which thou art to express in these particulars following. First, Thou must not only refuse to commit broad sins, but shun the appearance of sin also ; this is to walk in the power of holiness. The dove doth not only fly from the hawk, but will not smell so much as a single feather that falls from the hawk. It should be enough to scare the holy soul from any enterprise, if it be but male coloratiim. We are commanded ' to hate the garment spotted with the flesh,' Jude 23. A cleanly person will not only refuse to wallow in the dunghill, but is careful also that he doth not get so much as a spot on his clothes as he is eating his meat. The Christian's care should be to keep, as his conscience pure, so his name pure, which is done by avoiding all appearance of evil. Bernard's three questions are worth the asking ourselves in any enterprise : An liceat ? an deceat ? an ejcpediat ? ' Is it lawful?' may I do it, and not sin? ' Is it becoming me, a Christian?' may I do it, and not wrong my profession? that work which would suit a mean man, would it become a prince ? ' Should such a one as I flee?' said Nehe- miah, nobly, Nehem. vi. 12. Lastly, ' Is it expedient?' may I do it, and not offend my weak brother? There are some things we must deny ourselves of for others' sake ; though a man could sit his horse, and run him full speed without danger to himself, yet he would do very ill to come scouring through a town, where children are in the way, that may be, before he is aware, ridden over by him, and killed. Thus some things thou mayest do, and without sin to thee, if there were no weak Christians in thy way to ride over, and so bruise their tender consciences, and grieve their spirits. But, alas ! this is too narrow a path for many mere professors to walk in now a days ; they must have more room and scope for their loose hearts, or else they and their profession must part. Liberty is the Diana of our times. O what apologies are made for some suspicious practices ! long hair, gaudy, garish apparel, spotted faces, naked breasts! these have been called to the bar in former times, and censured by sober and solid Christians, as things at least suspicious, and of no ' good report;' but now they have hit on a more favourable jury, that find them not guilty ; yea, many are so fond of them, that they think Christian liberty is wronged in their censure. Professors are so far from a holy jealousy, that should make them watch their hearts, lest they go too far, that they stretch their consciences to come up to the full length of their tether ; as if he were the brave Christian that could come nearest the pit of sin, and not fall in ; as in the Olympian games, he bore the garland away, that could drive his chariot nearest the mark, and not knock on it. If this were so. Paid mistook when he bade Christians 'abstain from all appearance of evil,' 1 Thess. v. 22; he should rather have said by these men's divinity, ' abstain' not from ' the appearance,' only take heed of what is in itself gi'ossly evil. But he that can venture on the appearance of evil, under pretence of liberty, may, for aught I know, commit that which is more grossly evil, under some appearance of good; it is not hard, if a man will be at the cost, to put a good colour on a rotten stufl", and practice also. THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. gQ-T Secondly, Thou must not onl)' endeavom- asjainst all sin, but that on nohle princij^les ; here lies the power of holines.s. Many forbear to sin upon such an unworthy account that God will not thank them for it another day. As it is in the actions of piety and charity, God makes no account of them, except he be interested in them ; when we fast or pray, God asks, 'Do you fast and pray to me, even to me?' Zech. vii. 5. When we give alms, 'a cup of cold water,' for his sake, given in the 'name of a disciple,' is more valued by him, than a cup of gold for private and low ends, Matt. x. 42; so in sin, God looks that his authority should conclude, and his love constrain us to renoimce it. Before the commandments, as princes before their proclamations prefix their arms and royal names, God sets his glorious name : 'God spake all these words, and said,' &c., Exod. xx. ; and why this? but that we should sanctify his name in all we do. A master may well think himself despised by that servant that still goes on, when he bids him leave off such a work, but has done presently at the entreaty of another. O how many are there that go on to sin, for all that God says to the contrary ! but when their credit bids, for shame of the world, to give over such a practice, they can cease presently ; when their profit speaks, it is heard and obeyed. O sirs, take heed of this ! God expects his servants should not only do what he commands, but this at his command, and his only. And as in abstaining from evil, so in mourning for sins committed by us ; if we will be Christians indeed, we must take in, yea, prefer God's concernments before our own. Indeed it were to be wished, that some were so kind to their own souls, as to mourn for themselves when they have sinned; that they would cry out with Lamech, Gen. iv. 23, ' I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.' Many have such brawny consciences, they do not so much as complain they have hurt themselves by their sins, but little of the power of holiness appears in all this ; there may be a great cry in the con- science, I am damned ! I have undone myself ! and the dishonour that is cast upon God by him not laid to heart. You remember what Joab said to David, taking on heavily for Absalom's death ; ' I perceive,' said he, ' if Absalom had been alive, and all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well,' 2 Sam. xix. 6. Thus we might say to such selfish mourners. We perceive that if thou couldst hut save the life of thy soul from eternal death and damnation, thougli the glory of God miscarried, thou couldst be pleased well enough. But know that a gracious soid's mourning runs in another channel : 'Against thee, thee only have I sinned,' is holy David's moan. There is a great difference between a servant that works for another, and one that is his own man as we say : the latter puts all his losses upon his own head — so much, saith he, I have lost by such a ship, so much by a bargain ; but the servant that trades with his master's stock, he, when any loss comes, puts it on his master's account — so much 1 have lost of my master's goods. O Christian, think of this ; thou art but a servant, all the stock thou tradest with is not thine, but thy God's ; and there- fore when thou fallest into any sin, bewail it as a wrong to him : So much, alas ! I have dishonoured my God, his talents I have wasted, his name I have wounded, his Spirit I have grieved. Thirdly, He must not only abstain from acting a sin, but also labour to mor- tify it. A wound may be hid, when it is not healed ; covered, and yet not cured ; some men they are like unskilful physicians, who rather drive in the disease, than drive out the cause of the disease : corruption thus left in the bosom, like lime imslaked, or a hinnour unpurged, is sure at one time or other to take fire and break out, though now it lies peaceably, as powder in the barrel, and makes no noise. I have read that the opening of a chest where some clothes were laid up, not very well aired and cleared from the infection that had been in the house, was the cause of a great plague in Venice, after they had lain many years there, without doing any hurt. I am sure we sec for want of true mortification, many, after they have walked so long unblamably, as to gain the reputation of being saints in the opinion of others, upon some occasion, like the opening of the chest, have fallen sadly into abominable prac- tices ; and therefore it behoves us not to satisfy ourselves with anything less than a work of mortification, and that followed 07i from day to day. ' I protest,' saith Paul, ' by my rejoicing in Christ, 1 die daily ;' here was a man who walked in the power of liolincss. Sin is like the beast, Rev. xiii. .'5, which seemed at one gQg AND HAVING ON time as if it would presently die of its wound, and by and by it was sti-angely healed so as to recover again. Many a saint, for want of keeping a tight rein, and that constantly, over some cornxption, which they have thought they had got the mastery of, have been thrown out of the saddle, and by it dragged dangerously into temptation ; unable to resist the fury of lust when it has got head, till they have broken their bones with some sad fall into sin. If thou wouldst. Christian, shew the power of holiness, never give over mortifying work, no, not when thy corruptions play least in thy sight. He that is inclined to a disease, gout, stone, or the like, he must not only take physic when he hath a fit actually upon him, but ever and anon should be taking something good against it ; so should the Christian, not only when he finds his corruption stir- ring, but every day keep his sold in a course of spiritual physic, against the growing of it ; this is holiness in its power. Many professors do with their souls in this respect, as deceitful surgeons with their patients, lay on a heal- ing plaster one day, and a contrary the next day, that sets the cure back, more than the other set it forward ; take heed of this, except thou meanest not only to bring the power of holiness into danger, but the very life and truth of it into question in thy soul. Fourthly, He must, as endeavour to mortify corruption, so to grow and advance in the contrary grace. Every sin hath its opposite grace, as every poison hath its antidote ; he that will walk in the power of holiness, must not only labour to make avoidance of sin, but to get possession for the contrary grace. We read of a house that stood empty, Matt. xii. 44 : the unclean spirit went out, but the Holy Spirit came not in. That is, when a man is a mere negative Christian he ceaseth to do evil in some ways he hath formerly walked in, but he learns not to do good. This is to lose heaven with short shooting ; (lod will not ask us what we were not, but what we were ; not to swear and curse will not serve ourturn, bvit thou wilt be asked. Didst thou bless and sanctify God's name? It will not suffice thou didst not persecute Christ, but didst thou receive him? Thou didst not hate his saints, but didst thou love them? Thou didst not drink, but wertthou filled with the Spirit ? He is the skilful physician, who at the same time that he evacuates the disease, doth also comfort and strengthen nature; and he the true Christian, that doth not content himself with a bare laying aside evil customs and practices, but labours to walk in the exercise of the con- trary graces. Art thou discomposed with impatience, haunted with a discon- tented spirit mider any affliction ? Think it not enough to silence thy heart from quarrelling with God, but leave not till thou canst bring it sweetly to rely on God. Holy David drove it thus far ; he did not only chide his soul for being disquieted, but he charges it to tvust in God, Psa. xlii. 5. Hast thou any grudg- ings in thy heart against thy brother? Think it not enough to quench these sparks of hell-fire, but labour to kindle a heavenly fire of love to him, so as to set thee a praying heartily for him. I have known one that when he had some envious unkind thoughts stirring in him, against any one, (and who so holy as may not find such vermin sometimes creeping about him ?) he woidd not stay long from the throne of grace, where, that he might enter the stronger protest against them, would most earnestly pray for the increase of those good things in them, which he before had seemed to grudge ; and so revenged himself of those envious lustings, which at any time rose in his heart against others. Fifthly, He must have a public spirit against the sins of others. A good subject doth not only labour to live quietly luider his prince's govern- ment himself, but is ready to serve his prince against those that will not. True holiness, as true charity, begins at home, but it doth not confine itself within its own doors : it hath a zeal against sin abroad. He that is of a neiitral spirit, and Galliolike, cares not what dishonor God hath from others, calls in question the zeal he expresseth against sin in his own bosom. When David would know the temper of his own heart, the furthest discovery, by all his search, that he could make of the sincerity of it, is the zeal against the sins of others : ' Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee ? I hate them with a perfect hatred, I coimt them mine enemies,' Psa. cxxxix. 21, 22. Having done this, he entreats God himself to ransack his heart : ' Search me and try me, O God, if there be any wicked way found in me,' &c., ver. 23. As if he had said. Lord, my line will not reach to THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 3()9 fathom my heart any further ; and, therefore, If it he possible that yet any evil way may shroud itself under this, tell me, and lead me into the way everlasting. Sixthly, The Christian, when he shews most zeal against sin, and hath greatest victory over it, even then must he renounce all trusting and glorying in this. The excellency of gospel holiness consists in self-denial. ' Though I were perfect,' saith Job, ' yet would I not know my soul,' Job ix. 21 ; that is, I would not be conceited and proud of my innocence. When a man is lift up with any excel- lency he hath, we say, he knows it ; he hath excellent parts, but he knows it ; that is, he reflects too much on himself, and sees his own face too often in the glass of his own perfections. They who climb lofty moimtains, find it safest, the higher they ascend, the more to bow, and stoop with their bodies ; and so does the Spirit of Christ teach the saints, as they get higher in their victories over corruption, to bow lowest in self-denial, Jude 21 ; the saints are bid there, ' to keep themselves in the love of God,' and then to wait, and ' look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus unto eternal life.' And Hosea x. 12, 'Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy.' We sow on earth, we reap in heaven. Tlie seed we are to sow is righteousness and holiness, which when we have done with greatest care and cost, we must not expect our reward from the hand of our righteousness, but God's mercy. CHAPTER VII. A SECOND INSTANCE, WHEREIN THE POWER OF HOLINESS IS TO APPEAR IN THE christian's LIFE, I. E. IN THE DUTIES OF GOd's WORSHIP. Secondly, The Christian must exert the power of holiness in the duties of Ciod's worship. The same light that shews us a God, convinceth he is to be worshipped ; and not only so, but that he will be worshipped in a holy manner also. God was very choice in all that belonged to his worship under the law. If he hath a tabernacle, the place of worship, it must be made of the choicest materials ; the workmen employed to make it, must be rarely gifted for the purpose ; the sacrifices to be offered up, the best in every kind, the males of the flock, the best of the beasts, the fat of the inwards, not the offals ; the persons that attend upon the Lord, and minister unto him, they must be pecu- liarly holy. What is the gospel of all this, but that God is very curious in his worship ? if in any action of oiu' lives v,e be more holy than others, sure it is to be when we have to do with God immediately. Now this holiness in duties of worship should appear in these particulars. First, In making conscience of one duty as well as another, the Christian must encompass all within his religious walk. It is dangerous to perform one duty, that we may disjiense with ourselves in the neglect of another. Partiality is hateful to God, especially in the duties of religion, which have all a divine stamp upon them. There is no ordinance of God's a])pointment which he doth not bless to his people, and we must not reject what God owns ; yea, God com- municates himself with great variety to his saints, now in this, anon in that, on purpose to keep up the esteem of all in oin* hearts. The spouse seeks her beloved in secret duties at home, and finds him not ; then she goes to the public, and meets him ' whom her soul loves,' Cant, iii.4. Daniel, no doubt, had often visited the throne of grace, and been a long trader in that duty ; but God reserved the fuller manifestation of his love, and opening some secrets to him, until he did, to ordinary ])rayer, join extraordinary fasting and prayer ; then the commandment came forth, and a messenger from heaven despatched to acquaint him with God's mind and heart, Dan. x. 3, compared with ver. 23. There is no duty, but the saints find at one time or another the Spirit of God breathing sweetly in, and filling their souls from it, with more than ordinary refreshing. Sometimes the child sucks its milk from this breast, sometimes from that. David in meditation, while he was musing, finds a heavenly heat kindling in his bosom, till at last the fire breaks out, Psa. xxxix. 3. To the eunuch, in reading of the word, is sent Philip to join to his chariot. Acts vii. 27, 28. To the apostles, Christ makes known himself in breaking of bread, Luke xxiv. 35. The disciples walking toEmmaus, and conferring together, presently have Christ fall in with them, who helps them to untie those knots which they were posed with, Luke xxiv. 15. Cornelius, at duty in his house, has a vision from gJQ AND HAVING ON heaven, to direct him in the way he should walk, Acts x. 3. Take heed, Christian, therefore, thou neglectest not any one duty ; how knowest thou hut that is the door at which Christ stands waiting to enter at into thy soul? The Spirit is free, do not bind him to this or that duty, but wait on him in all. It is not wisdom to let any water run beside thy mill, which may be useful to set thy soul agoing heavenward. May be. Christian, thou findest little in those duties thou performest, they are empty breasts to thy soul. It is worth thy inquiry, whether there be not some other thou neglectest. Thou hearest the word with little profit may be ; I pray tell me, dost thou not neglect sacra- ments? I am sure too many do, and that upon Aveak grounds, God knows. And wilt thou have God meet thee in one ordinance, who durst not meet him in another? Or if thou frequentest all public ordinances, is not God a great stranger to thee at home, in thy house and closet? What communion dost thou liold with him in private duties ? Here is a hole wide enough to lose all thou gettest in public, if not timely mended. Samuel woidd not sit down to feast with Jesse and his sons, till David, though the youngest son, was fetched, who was the only son that was wanting, 2 Sam. xvi. 11. If thou wouldest have God's company in any ordinance, thou must wait on him in all ; he will not have any willingly neglected. O fetch back that duty which thou hast sent away ! though least in thy eye, yet, it may be, it is that God means to crown with his choicest blessing in thy soul. Secondly, In a close and vigorous pursuance of those ends for which God hath appointed them. Now there is a double end which God chiefly aims at in the duties of his worship. First, God intends that by them we shoidd do our homage to him as our sovereign Lord. Secondly, he intends them to be as means through which he may let out himself into the bosoms of his chil- dren, and communicate the choicest of his blessings to them. Now here the power of holiness piits forth itself, when the Christian attends narrowly to reach these ends in every duty he performs. First, God appoints them for this end, that we may do our homage to him as our sovereign Lord. Were there not a worship paid to God, how should we declare, and make appear that we hold our life and being of him ? One of the first things that God taught Adam, and Adam his children, was divine worship. Now if we will do this holily, we must make it our chief care so to pei'form every duty, that by it we may sanctify his name in it, and give him the glory due unto it. A subject may ofler a present after such a ridiculous fashion to his prince, that he may covmt himself rather scorned than honoured by him. The soldiers bowed the knee to Christ, but they mocked him. Matt, xxvii. 29 ; and so does God reckon many do by him, even while they worship iiim. By the carriage and behaviour of ourselves in religious duties we speak what our thoughts are of God himself. He that performs them with a holy awe upon his spirit, and comes to them filled with faith and fear, with joy and trembling, he declares plainly that he believes God to be a great God, and a good God, a glorious Majesty and a gracious ; but he that is slightly and slo- venly in them, tells God himself to his face, that he hath mean and low thoughts of him. The misbehaviour of a person in religious duties ariseth from his mis- apprehensions of God, whom he worships. What is engraven on the seal, you shall surely see printed on the wax : and what thoughts the heart hath of God are stamped on the duties the man performs. Abel shewed himself to be a holy man, and Cain appeared a wicked wretch, in their sacrifice ; and how ? but in this ; that Abel aimed at that end which God intends in his worship, the sanc- tifying his name, which Cain minded not at all ; as may appear by comparing Abel's sacrifice with his, in two particulars. First, Abel is very choice in the matter of his sacrifice, not any of the flock that comes first to hand, but the firstlings ; neither did he offer the lean of them to God, and save the fat for himself, but gives God the best of the best. But of Cain's offering, no such care is recorded to be taken by him ; it is only said, ' that he brought of the fruit of the ground, an offering imto the Lord,' Gen. iv. 3, 4 ; but not a word that it was the first fruit, or best fruit. Again, Abel did not put God off with a beast or two for a sacrifice, but with ihem gives his heart also : ' By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,' Heb. xi. 4 ; he gave God the inward worship of his soul : THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. p,\\ and tills was it that God took so kindly at his hands, for which he obtained a testimony from God himself, that he was righteons. Whereas Cain thought it enough, if not too much, to give him a little of the fruit of the ground ; had the wretch but considered who God was, and what his end in requiring an ofi'ering at his hands, he could not have thought rationally, that a handful or two of corn was that which he prized, or looked at any further, than to be a sign of that inward and spiritual worship, which he expected to come along with the outward ceremony. But he shewed what base and unworthy thoughts he had of (Jod, and accordingly he dealt with him. O Christians ! remember when 3'ou engage in any duty of religion, that you go to do your homage to God, who will be worshipped like himself. ' Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing ; for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.' This made David so curious about the temple, which he had in his heart to build, 'because the palace was not for man, but the Lord God,' 1 Chron. xxix. 1 ; therefore, ver. 2, he saith, ' He prepared with all his might for the house of his God.' Thus should the gracious soul say, when going to any duty of religion ; It is not man, but the Lord God, I am going to minister unto, and therefore I must be serious and solemn, holy and humble, &c. Secondly, The second end God hath appointed divine ordinances and religious duties for, is to be a means whereby he may let out himself to his people, and comnmnicate the choicest of his blessings into their bosoms. 'There,' saith the psalmist, speaking of the mountain of Zion, where the temple stood, the place of God's worship, 'commanded he the blessing, even life for evermore,' Psa. cxxxiii. S ; that is, he hath appointed the blessing of life spiritual, grace and comfort, which at last shall swell into life eternal, to issue and stream thence. The saints ever drew their water out of these wells: 'Their souls shall live that seek the Lord,' Psa. Ixix. 32 ; and their souls must need die, that seek not God here. The husbandman may as well expect a crop, where he never ploughed and sowed ; and the tradesman to grow rich, who never opens his shop doors to let customers in; as he to thrive in grace or com- fort, that converseth not with the duties of religion. The great things God doth for his people, are got in communion with him. Now here appears the power of holiness, when a soul makes this his business, which he follows close, and attends to, in duties of religion, to receive some spiritual advantage from God by them ; as a scholar, knowing he is sent to the university to get learning, gives up himself to pursue this, and neglects other things ; it is not riches or pleasures he looks after, but learning. Thus the gracious soul bestirs him, and flies from one duty to another, as the bee from flower to flower, to store itself with more and more grace : it is not credit and reputation to be thought a great saint, but to be indeed such, that he takes all this pains for. The Christian is compared to a merchantman, that trades for rich pearls; he is to go to ordinances, as the merchant that sails from port to port, not to see places, but to take in his lading, some here, some there. A Christian should be as much ashamed to return empty from his traffic with ordinances, as the merchant to come home without his lading. But, alas ! how little is this looked after by many that pass for great professors ! who are like some idle persons that come to the market, not to buy provision, and carry home what they want, but to gaze and look upon what is there to be sold, to no purpose. O my brethren, take heed of this! Idleness is bad anywhere, but worst in the market-place, where so many are at work before thy eyes, whose care for their souls both adds to thy sin, and will, another day, to thy shame. Dost thou not see others grow rich in grace and comfort, by their trading with those ordinances from which thou comest away poor and beggarly? And canst thou see it without blushing? If thou hadst but a heart to propound the same end to thy soul when thou comest, thoumightest speed as well as they. God allows a free trade to all that do value Christ and his grace, according to their preciousncss. 'IIo! every one that isathirst, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat, yea, come,^ buy wine and milk without money, and withcmt price,' Isa. Iv. I. The Spirit of God seems, in the judgment of some, to allude to a custom in maritime towns; when a ship comes with commodities to be sold, they use to cry them about the town, Ho! all that would have such and such commodities, let them come to the gJ2 AND HAVING ON water side, where they are to be had at such a price. Thus Christ calls every one that sees his need of Christ, and his graces, ' to the ordinances,' where these are to be freely had of all that come to them, for this very end. CHAPTER VIII. A THIRD INSTANCE, WHEREIN THE POWER OF HOLINESS MUST APPEAR, AND THAT IS IN THE christian's WORLDLY EMPLOYMENTS. Thirdly, the Christian must express the power of holiness in his particular calling, and worldly employments, that therein he is conversant with. Holiness must be wi'itten upon those, as well as on his religious duties. He that observes the law of building, is as exact in making a kitchen, as in making a parlour; so by the law of Christianity, we must be as exact in our worldly business, as in duties of worship : 'Be ye holy in all manner of conversation,' 1 Pet. i. 15, We must not leave our religion, as some do their Bibles, at church ; as in man, the highest faculty, which is reason, guides man's lowest actions, even those which are conmion to beasts, such are eating, drinking, and sleeping, man doth, that is, should, if he will deserve his own name, exercise these acts as reason directs, he should show himself in them a rational creature ; so grace, that is the highest principle in a Christian, is to steer and guide him in those actions that are common to man, as man. The Christian is not to buy and sell as a mere man, but as a Christian man. Religion is not like that statesman's gown, which when he went to recreate himself, he would throw off, and say, ' There lie Lord Treasurer av^hile ;' no, wherever the Chinstian is, whatever he is a doing, he must keep his religion on, I mean, do it holily. He must not do that in which he cannot shew himself a Christian. Now the power of holiness puts forth itself in our particular callings these ways, but take them conjunctive, the beauty of holiness appears in the symmetry of all the parts together. First, When the Christian is diligent in his particular calling. AVhen God calls us to be Christians, he calls us indeed out of the world, as to our affections, but not out of the world, as to employment. It is true, when Elisha was called, he left his plough, and the apostles their nets ; but not as they were called to be saints, but because they were called to office in the church; though some in our days could find in their hearts to send the officers of the church to the plough again, but upon how little reason, let themselves judge, who find one trade, if it be well followed, and managed with a full stock, enough to find them work all the week; and sure the minister, that hath to do with, yea, provide for more souls, than they bodies, may find his head and heart as full of work in his calling, from one end of the year to the other, as any of them all. But I am speaking to the private Christian. Thou canst not be holy, if thou art not diligent in a particular calling. The law of man counts him a vagrant, that hath not a particular abiding place ; and the word of God counts him a dis- orderly person that hath not a particular calling, wherein to move and act for God's glory, and the good of others : ' We hear there are some which walk disorderly among you, working not at all,' 2 Thess. iii. 11. God would have his people profitable, like the sheep which doth the veiy ground good it feeds on. Every one should be the better for a Christian. When Onesimus was converted, he became profitable to Paul and Philemon also, Philem. 11 ; to Paul as a Christian, to Philemon as a servant ; grace made him of a runaway a diligent servant. An idle professor is a scandalous professor. An idle man does none good, and himself most hurt. Secondly, When he is not only diligent, but for conscience' sake. There are many are free enough of their pains in their particular callings, they need no spur ; but what sets them on work ? Is it conscience, because God commands it ? Oh no ! then they would be diligent in their general calling also ; they would pray as hard as they work ; they then would knock off, as well as fall on at God's command ; if conscience were the key that opened their shop on the week-day, it would shut it on the Lord's day. When we see a man, like the hawk, fly after the world's prey, and will not come to God's lure, though con- science bids in his name come off, and wait on thy God in this duty in thy family, that in thy closet, but still goes on his worldly chase, he shews plain enough whose errand he goes on ; not of conscience, but his lusts. But if thou THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 3] 3 wilt walk in the power of holiness, thou must he diligent in thy calling on a religious account : that which makes thee ' fervent in prayer,' must make thee ' not slothful in business.' Thou mayost say, this is the place God hath set me in ; I am but his servant in my own shop ; and here I must serve him as I would have my apprentice or child serve me, yea, much more, for they are not mine so much as I am his. Thirdlv, When he expects the success of his labour from God, and accordingly if he speeds, gives his humble thanks to God. Indeed they go together ; he that doth not the one, will not the other. The worldling that goes not through his closet, by prayer, into his shop in the morning, when he enters upon his business, no wonder if he returns nqt at night by his closet in thankfulness to God. He began without God, it were strange if he should end in him. The spider that spins her web out of her own bowels, dwells in it when she hath done ; and men that carry on their enterprises by their own wit and care, entitle them- selves to what they think they have done. They will sooner sacrifice (as they 'to their net and drag,' Job viii.; Habak. i. IG,) to their own wisdom and industrj^ than to God. Such a wretch I have lately heard of in our days, who being by a neighbour excited to thank God for a rich ci-op of corn he had standing on his ground, atheistically replied, ' Thank God ! nay, rather thank my dung-cart.' The speech of a dung-hill spirit, more filthy than the miu-k in his cart ; but if thou wilt be a Christian, thou nuist ' acknowledge God in all thy ways, not leaning to thine own understanding;' and this will direct thee to him, when success crowns thy laboiu-s, to crown God with the praise. Jacob laboured as diligently, and took as much pains for the estate he had at last, as another; yet laying the foundation of all in prayer, and expecting the blessing from heaven, Gen. xxviii. 20, he ascribes all that fair estate he at last was possessed of to the mercy and truth of God, whom he had in his poor state, when with his pilgrim staff he was travelling to Padan-Aran, engaged by a solemn vow to provide for him. Gen. xxxii. 10. Fourthly, When the Christian is content with the portion, little or much, that God upon his endeavours allots him ; not content, because he cannot have it otherwise. Necessity was the heathen's schoolmaster to teach contentment, but faith must be the Christian's, whereby he acquiesces in the dispositions of God's providence with a sweet complacency, as in the will of God concerning him. Here is godliness in triumph, when the Christian can carve contentment out of God's providence, whatever the dish is that is set before him. If he gathers little, he lacks not, but is satisfied with his short meal ; if he gather much, he hath nothing over ; I mean not more than his grace can well digest, and turn to good nourishment ; nothing over that turns to bad humours of pride and wantonness. This was the pitch Paul attained unto, Phil. iv. 14 : ' He knew how to abound, and how to want.' Take contentment from godli- ness, and you take one of the best jewels away she wears in her bosom : ' Godliness with contentment is great gain ;' not godliness with an estate, but godliness with contentment, 1 Tim. vi. 16. Fifthly, When the Christian's particular calling doth not encroach upon his general. Tndy this requires a strong guard. The world is of an encroaching nature ; hard it is to converse with it, and not come into bondage to it. As Hagar, when Abraham shewed her some respect more than ordinary, began to contest with, yea, crow over, her mistress, so will our worldly employments justle with oiu- heavenly, if we keep not a strict hand over them. Now the power of holiness appears here in two things ; first, when the Christian suffers not his worldly business to eat up his time for communion with God, but keeps it inviolable from the sacrilegious hands of the world. The Christian may observe, that if he will listen to it, he shall never think of setting about any religious duty, but some excuse or other to put it off will present itself to his thoughts; this thing must be just now done, that friend spoken with, or customer waited for ; so that, as the wise man saith, ' He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap,' Eccl. xi. 4 ; so he that will regard what his own sloth, worldly interest, and fleshly parts suggest, he shall never pray, meditate, or hold communion with (Jod in any other religious duty. O it is sad ! when the master must ask the man le;ive when to eat, and when not ; when the Christian must take his orders from the world, when to wait on 3 J 4, AND HAVING ON God, and when not, whereas religion should give law to that. Then holiness is in its power, as Samson in his strength, when it can snap asunder these excuses that would keep him from his God, as easily as he did his cords of flax ; when the Christian can make his way into the presence of God through the throng of worldly encumbrances. ' Behold,' saith David, ' I have in my trouble prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver,' &c., 1 Chron. xxii. 14. He had ways enough to dispose of his treasures if he would have been discouraged from the work : he might have had a fair apology from the wars he was all his reign involved in, which were continually draining his exchequer, to have spared this cost. But as Rome shewed her puissance in sending succours to Spain, when Hannibal was at her gates, so David will shew his zeal for God and his house by laying aside such vast sums, for the building of a temple, in the midst of troubles and expenses of his kingdom. He is the Christian indeed that lays aside a good portion of time daily, in the midst of all his worldly occasions, for communion with God : whoever he compoimds with and pays short, he dares not make bold with God to serve him by halves. He shall have his time devoted to him, though others are put ofFwith the less ; like that devout man, who, when his time for his devotions came, what company soever he was with, would take his leave of them with this fair excuse, He had a friend that staid to speak with him ; he meant his God. Secondly, when his worldly employments do not turn the edge of his affections, and leave a bhmtness upon his spirit as to holding communion with God. Here is holiness in the power; as the husband, when he hath been abroad all day, in this company and that, yet none of these makes him love his wife and children the less : when he comes home at night he brings his affections to them as entire as when he went out, yea, he is glad he has got from all others to them again. This is a sweet frame of spirit indeed, but alas, how hard to keep it ! Canst thou say, O Christian, after thou hast passed a day amidst thy worldly profits, and been entertained with the delight and pleasures which thy full estate affords thee, that thou bringest thy whole heart to thy God with thee when at night thou returnest into his presence to wait on him ? Thou canst say more than many can, that have some good in them. O it is hard to converse with the world all day, and shake it oft' at night, so as to be free to enjoy privacy with God. The world does by the Christian as the little child by the mother, if it cannot keep the mother from going out, then it will cry after her to go with her ; if the world cannot keep us from going to religious duties, then it will cry to be taken along with us, and much ado to part it and the affections. Fourthly, The Christian must express the power of holiness in his carriage and behaviour to others, and they are either within doors or without. CHAPTER IX. OF EXPRESSING THE POWER OF HOLINESS, IN AND TO OUR FAMILY RELATIONS. First, To his family relations. Much, though not all of the power of godli- ness, lies within doors, to those that God hath there related us imto. It is in vain to talk of holiness if we can bring no letters testimonial from oiu- holy walking with our relations. O it is sad when they that have reason to know us best, by their daily converse with us, do speak least for our godliness ! Few so impudent as to come naked into the streets : if men have anything to cover their naughtiness they will put it on when they come abroad. But what art thou within doors ? What care and conscience to discharge thy duty to thy near relations? He is a bad husband that hath money to spend among company abroad, but none to lay in provisions to keep his family at home. And can he be a good Christian that spends all his religion abroad, and leaves none for his nearest relations at home ? that is, a great zealot among strangers, and little or nothing of God comes from him in his family? Yea, it were well if some that gain the reputation for Christians abroad, did not fall short of others that pretend not to profession in those moral duties which they should perform to their relations. There are some who are great strangers to 2>rofession, who yet are loving and kind in their way to their wives. What kind of professors then are they who are dogged and currish to the wife of their bosoms ? who by their tyrannical lording it over them embitter their spirit, and make them cover the THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 315 Lord's altar with tears and weeping ! There are wives to be found that are not chimorons, peevish, and froward to tlieir husbands, wlio yet are far from a work of true grace in their hearts ; do they then walk as becomes holiness, who trouble the whole house with their violent passions ? There are servants, who, from the authority of a natural conscience, are kept from railing and reviling language, when reproved by their masters ; and shall not grace keep pace with nature ? Holy David knew very well how near this part of the saint's duty lies to the very heart of godliness ; and, therefore, when he makes his solemn vow to walk holily before God, he instanceth in this, as one stage whereon he miglit eminently discover the graciousness of his spirit, ' I will walk within my house with a perfect heart,' Psa. ci. 2. But to instance, in a few particulars, wherein the power of holiness is to appear as to family relations. First, In the choice of our relations, such I mean as are eligible. Some are not in our choice. The child cannot. choose what father he will have, nor the father what child. But where God allows a liberty, he expects a corresponding choice. 1. Art tliou godly, and wantest a service? O take heed thou shewest thy holiness in the family thou choosest, and the governors thou puttest thyself under. Inquire more whether it be a healthful air for thy soul within doors, than for thy body without. The very senseless creatures groan to serve the ungodly world, and, if capable of choosing, would comit it their liberty to serve the sons of God, Rom. viii. 21. And wilt thou voluntai-ily, when thou mayest prevent it, run thyself imdcr the government of such as are imgodly, who art thyself a child of God ? It is hard to serve two mastei's, though much alike in disjjosition ; but impossible to serve those two, a holy God and a wicked ungodly man or woman, so as to please them both. But if thou art under the roof of such a one, forget not thy duty to them, though they do forget their duty to God ; possibly thy faithfulness to them may bring them to inquire after thy God, for thy sake^ as Nebuchadnezzar did for Daniel's. No doubt wicked men would take up religion and the ways of God more seriously into their con- sideration, if there were a more heavenly lustre and beauty upon Christians' lives, in their several relations, to invite them thereunto. Sometimes a book is read the sooner for the fairness of the characters, which would have been not much looked in if the print had been naught. O how oft do we hear that the thoughts of religion are thrown away with scorn by wicked masters, when their professing servants are taken false, appear proud and undutiful, slothful or neg- ligent! What then follows but. Is this j-our religion ? God keep me from such religion as this ! O commend the ways of God to thy carnal and ungodly master or mistress, by a clear, unblotted conversation in thy place. But withal, let me tell thee, if, doing thy utmost in thy place to promote religion in the family, thou findest that the soil is so cold that there is no visible hope of plant- ing for God, it is time, high time, to think of transplanting thyself; for it is to be feared the place which is so bad to plant in, will not, cannot, be very good for thee to grow and thrive in. 2. Art thou a godly master ? When thou takest a servant into thy house, choose for God as well as thyself. Remember there is work for God to be done Ijy thy servant as well as thyself; and shall he be fit for thy turn that is not for his ? Thou desirest the work should prosper thy servant takes in hand, dost not ? And what ground hast thou, from the promise, to hope that the work should prosper in his hand that sins all the while he is doing of it? ' The plowing of the wicked is sin,' Prov. xxi. 4. A godly servant is a greater bless- ing than we think on. He can work, and set God on work also, for his master's good : Gen. xxiv. 12, ' O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray tliee send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master.' And sure he did his master as much service by his prayer as by his prudence in that journey. If you were but to plant an orchard, you would get the best fruit trees, and not cumber your ground with crabs. There is more loss in a graceless servant in the house tlian a fruitless tree in the orchard. Holy David observed, while lie was at Saul's court, the mischief of having wicked and ungodly servants, for with such was that unhappy king so compassed, that David compares his court to the profane and l)arbarous heathens', among whom there was scarce inore wickedness to be found : Psa. cxx. 6, ' Woe is me, tliat I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell in tiic tents of Kcdar;' that is, among those who were as pro- 31G ^ND HAVING ON digiously wicked as any there. And no doubt but tliis made this gracious man in his banishment, before he came to the crown, having seen the evil of a dis- ordered house, to resolve what he will do when God should make him the head of such a royal family : Psa. ci. 7, ' He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my liouse ; he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.' He in- stanceth in those sins, not as if he would spend all his zeal against these, but because he had observed them principally to aboiuid in Saul's court, by which he had suffered so much, as you may perceive by Psa. cxx. 2, 3. 3. Art thou godly ? Shew thyself so in the choice of a husband or wife. I am sure, if some, and those godly also, could bring no other testimonial for their godliness than the care they have taken in this particular, it might justly be called into question both by themselves and others. There is no one thing that gracious persons, even those recorded in Scripture, as well as others, have shewn their weakness, yea, given offence and scandal more in, than in this particular: 'The sons of God saw that the daughters of men wei'e fair,' Gen. vi. 2. One would have thought the sons of God should have looked for grace ni the heart, rather than beauty in the face ; but we see even they sometimes turn in at the fairest sign, without much inquiring what grace is to be found dwelling within. But, Christian, let not the miscarriage of any in this particular, how holy soever otherwise, make thee less cai-eful in thy choice. God did not leave their practice on record for thee to follow, but shun. He is but a slovenly Christian that will swallow all the saints do without paring their actions. Is it not enough that the wicked break their necks over the sins of saints ? but wilt thovi run \ipon them also to break thy shins ? Point not at this man, and that godly woman, saying. They can marry into such a profane family and lie by the side of a dnnikard, swearer, &c. Look to the rule, O Christian, if thou wilt keep the power of holiness. That is clear as a sunbeam, writ in the Sci'ipture : ' Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers ; for what fel- lowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?' 2 Cor. vi. 14. And where he gives the widow leave to many again, he still remembers to bound this liberty : 'To whom she will, only in the Lord,' 1 Cor. vii. 39. Mark that, ' in the Lord,' that is, in the churcli : all without the faith are without God in the world. The Lord's kindred and family is in the church ; you marry out of the Lord when you marry out of the Lord's kindred; or ' in the Lord,' that is, in the fear of the Lord, with his leave and liking. The parents' consent is fit to be had, we all yield ; and is not thy heavenly Father's? And will he ever give his consent thou shouldst bestow thyself on a beast, a sot, an earthworm ? Holy men have paid dear for such matches ; what a woeful plague was Delilah to Samson ! and Michal none the greatest comforts to David ; had he not better have married the poorest damsel in Israel, if godly, though no more with her but the clothes on her back, than such a fleering companion, that mocked him for his zeal to his God ? Second!}', In labouring to interest God in our relations. The Christian can- not indeed propagate grace to his child, nor jointure his wife in his holiness, as he may in his lands ; yet he must do his utmost to entitle God to them. Why did God command Abraham that all his house should be circumcised ? Surely he would have him go as far as he could to draw them into affinity with, and relation to, God. Near relations call for dear affections. Gi-ace doth not teach us to love them less than we did, but to love them better. It turns our love into a spiritual channel, and makes us chief!)' desire their eternal good. Wliat singular tiling else is in the Christian's love above others? Do not the heathens lay up estates for their children here? Are they not careful for their servants' backs and bellies, as well as others ? Yes sure ; but your care must exceed theirs. I remember Augustine, speaking liow highly some commended liis father's cost and care to educate liim, even before liis estate, makes this sad complaint : Cum interea non satageret pater, qua/is crescerem iib'i, dummodo essem disertus, rel potius desert us a cultura tiia Deus ! ' Wliereas,' saith lie, 'my father's drift in all Avas not to train me up for thee ; his project was, that I might be eloquent, an orator, not a Christian.' O my brethren, if God be worth your acquaintance, is he not worth theirs also that are so near and dear to you i One house now holds you ; would you not have one heaven receive you? Can you think, without trembling, that those who live together in one family should, THE BREASTPLATE OF raCHTEOUSNESS. 3[7 when the house is hroken up by death, go one to hell, anotlier to heaven? Surely you are like to have little joy from them on earth, who you fear shall not meet you in heaven. By Lycurgus's law, the father that gave no learning to his child when young, was to lose that succour which was due from his child to him in his old age. The righteousness of that law though I dare not assert, yet tliis I may say, what he unjustly connnanded, God doth most righteously suffer, that those who do not teacli their children their duty to God, lose the honour and reverence which should he paid tliem by their children ; and so of other relations also. Thirdly, Take heed thy relations be not a snare to thee, or thou to them. There are such sad families to be found, who do nothing else but lead one another into temptation, by drawing forth each the other's corruption, from one end of the year to the other ; what can we call such families, but so many hells above ground? A man may live with as much safety to his body in a pest- house, as he can there to his soul. And truly the godly are not so far out of danger, but that the devil may make use of their passions to roil and defile one another. I am sure he is very ambitious to do them a mischief this way, and too often prevails. Abraham's fear laid the snare for Sarah his wife, who was easily persuaded to dissemble for him she loved so dearly, Gen. xii. 23. And Rebekah's vehement atl'ection to Jacob, together with the reverence both her place and grace commanded in Jacob's heart, made him, of a plain man, become the subtile man, to deceive his father and brother ; which though it was too broad a sin for him at first proposal to swallow, as appears, Gen. xxvii. 12 : 'I shall seem to him to be a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing ;' yet with a little art used by his mother we see the passage was widened, and down it went for all his first sti-aining at ; and yet both godly persons. Look, therefore, to thyself, that thou dost not bring sin upon thy relations. It would be a heavy affliction to thee, to see thy wife, child, or ser- vant sick of the plague, which thou broughtest home to them ; or bleeding by a wound which thou unawares gavest them; alas ! better thus than be infected with sin, wounded with guilt, by thy means. And be as careful to antidote thy soul against receiving infection from them, as breathing it on them. Thy love is great to thy wife ; O let it not make the apple of temptation the more fair or desirable, when offered to thee by her hand ! Thou lovest thyself, yea, thy God too little if her so much, as to sin for her sake. Thou art a dutiful wife, but obey in the Lord; take heed of turning the tables of the commandments, by setting the seventh before the first. Be sure to save God's stake, before thou payest thy obedience to thy husband ; say to thy soul. Can I keep God's com- mand in obeying my husband's ? In paying off debts, those should be first dis- charged wliicli are due by the most, and those the greatest, obligations. And to whom thou art most deeply bound, God or thy husband, is easy to resolve ; thus in all other relations. Go as far with thy relations as thou canst travel in God's company, and no further, as thou wouldst not leave thy holiness and righteous- ness behind thee, the loss of which is too great, that thou shouldst expect they can recompense unto thee. Fourthly, Then holiness is in its power, as to our relations, when the Christian is careful to improve the graces of his relations, and get what good from them he can while they are with him. May be thou hast a holy father, a gracious husband or wife; let it be but a servant in the family that is godly, there is good to be got by his gracious conversation ; speeches and holiness, like oint- ment, will betray itself, wherever it stays awhile. O Christian, if any such holy person be with thee in the family, observe what such a one in his speeches, duties of worship, behaviour luuler affliction, receipt of mercies, returns of sabbaths and ordinances, and such like, affords for thy instruction, (piickening and promoting in the ways of holiness. The prophet bade the widow bring all the vessels she had, or could borrow, to catch what should fall from the pot oi oil that slie had in the house, and therewith pay her debt, 2 Kings iv. 3. Truly I think it were good coimsel to some that complain (or may justly if they do not) how ])oor and beggarly they are in grace, to make an improvement of that holy oil of grace, which drops from the lips and lives of their godly relations. Set your memories, consciences, hearts, and affections, as vessels to receive all the expressions of holiness that come from them ; thy memory, let that keep gjg AND HAVING ON and retain the instructions, reproofs, comforts, drawn by them out of the word ; thy conscience, that appHes these to thy own soul, till from thence they distil into thy affections, and thou becomest in love more and more with holiness thy own self, from their recommendation of it to thee. It is a sad thing to consider what different use a naughty heart makes of the gifts and graces of the godly, with whom they live, as they sparkle forth, to what a humble, sincere one doth. A naughty heart does but envy and malign such a one the more, and instead of getting good, is made worse ; whei-eas the sincere soul he labovu-s to treasure up all for his good. When Joseph told his prophetic dream to his brethren, their envy, which before lay smothering in their breasts, took fire presently, and awhile after flamed forth into that unnatural cruelty practised upon him by them. There was all the use they made of it ; but of good Jacob it is said, by way of opposition to them. Gen. xxxvii. 11 : ' His brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying ;' he laid it up for future use, as that which had something of God in it. Thus, Chi-istian, do thovi by the holy breathings of the spirit in those thou livest with. Note the remarkable passages of their gracious conversations, as thou wouldst do the notions of some excellent book, which is not thine own, but lent thee for a time to peruse : indeed upon these terms, and no surer, do we enjoy our gra- cious friends and relations. They are but lent us for a while, and improve them, or not improve them, they will be called for ere long ; and will it be for thy comfort to part with them, before thou hast had a heart to get good by them ? It was a solemn speech of that reverend holy man of God, Mr. Bolton, to his children, when on his death-bed : ' I charge you, O my children, not to meet me at the great day before Christ's tribunal in a Christless, graceless con- dition.' God keeps an exact account of the means he affords us for our salvation, and the lives of his holy servants are not of the lowest rank. You shall observe that God is very curious in Scripture, to record the time how long his faithful servants lived on earth ; and sure among other reasons, he would have us know that he means to reckon with those that lived with them, for every year, yea, day and hour they had them among them. They shall know they had a prophet, a father, husband, that were godly, and that they had them so long ; and God will know of them what use they made of them. CHAPTER X. OF EXERCISING THE POWER OF HOLINESS IN OUR CARRIAGE TO OUR NEIGH- BOURS WITHOUT DOORS. Secondly, Thy righteousness to others must not stay within doors, but walk out into the streets, and visit thy neighbours round. Thy behavioiu- to, and conversation with them must be holy and righteous. In Scripture, righteovis- ness, and living righteously, do oft imjiort the whole duty of the Christian to his neighbour, and so stands distinguished from piety, which hath God for its immediate object ; and sobriety or temperance, which immediately respects our- selves. See them altogether, Tit. ii. 12, where ' the grace of God that bringeth salvation' is said to ' teach us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.' He that would be the death of all these three, needs do no more but stab one of them, no matter which ; the life of holiness will run out at any door, here or there, wherever the wound is given. It is true, indeed, there is a moral righteousness, which leaves us short of true holiness ; but no true holiness that leaves us short of moral righteousness. Though the sensitive soul be found in a beast without the rational, yet the rational soul is not found in man without the sensitive. Grace and evangelical holiness being the higher principle, includes and comprehends the other within itself. This is the dignity and honour due to Christianity, and the principle it lays down in the gospel, (the enemies of it being judges,) that though some who profess it are none of the best, yet they learn not their unrighteousness of it ; most true it is what one saith. No Christian can be bad, except he be a hypocrite. Either, therefore, renounce thy baptism, or abominate the thoughts of all unrighteousness ; so be sure thou mightest escape better, if thou wouldst let the world know thou didst claim no kindred with Christ, before thou practisest such wickedness. Some are unresolved where to find Aristides, Socrates, Cato, and some few other heathens. THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 3J9 eminent for their moral righteousness, whether in heaven or hell ; but were there ever any that doubted what would become of the unrighteous Christian in the other world ? Hell gapes for these above all others: ' Know you not,' saith the apostle, ' that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? ' 1 Coi-, vi. 9 ; as if he had said, Sure you have not so far lost the use of your reason, to think that there is any room for such cattle as these in heaven. And if not the unrighteous, what crevice of hope is left for their salvation, whose unrighteousness hath a thousand times more malignity in it, than any otiiers in the woi-ld is capable of? The heathen shall for their unrighteousness be indicted, and condemned as rebels to the law ; so shall the unrighteous Cln-istian also, and that more deeply. But the charge which is incomparably heaviest, and will lay weight upon him far above the other, is that whicli the gosjjel brings in, that by his unrighteousness he hath been an ' enemy to the cross of Christ,' Phil. iii. 18. Indeed, if a man had a mhul to shew his despite to the height against Christ and his cross, the devil himself could not help him to express it more fully, than to clothe himself with a gaudy profession of the gospel, and with this wrapped about him, to roll himself in the kennel of sordid, base practices of unrighteousness. O how it makes the profane world blaspheme the name of Christ, and abhor the very profession of him, when they see any of this filth upon the face of their conversation, who take the name of saints to themselves more than others do ! What ! shall that tongue lie to man, that even now prayed so earnestly to God ? Those eyes be sent on lusts, or envi(ms errands, that a few moments past thou tookest off the Bible, from reading those sacred oracles ? Those hands in thy neighbour's pocket to rob him of his estate, which were not long ago stretched forth so devoutly to heaven ? Those legs carry thee to-day into thy shop or market to cheat and cozen, which yesterday thou wentest with to worship God in public ? In a word, dost thou think to commune with God, so as by a greater semblance of outward zeal to God in the first table, to obtain a dispensation, in point of righteousness, to man, in the second? Will thy pretended love to God excuse the malice and rancoiu- with which thy heart swells against thy neigh- bour? thy devotion to God, disoblige thee from paying thy debts to man ? God forbid thou shouldst think so; but if thou dost, Peter's counsel to Simon Magus is mine to thee, ' Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee,' Acts viii. 22. In the name of God I charge every one that wears Christ's livery to make conscience of this piece of righteousness, as you would not bring upon your heads the vengeance of God for all those blasphemies, which the nakedness of some professors in tliis par- ticulai", yea, base practices of some hypocrites, have given occasion to be belched out by the ungodly world against Christ and the good ways of holiness. Now the power of holinessj as to this particular, will be preserved, when these two things are looked to : — First, When our care is uniform, and equally distributed, to endeavour the performing of one duty we owe to our neighbour as well as another. For we must know, there is a righteousness that, as one saith, runs through every precept, as it were the veins of every law, in the second table ; and calls for obedience due to parents natural, civil, ecclesiastical, in the fifth command ; our care to preserve our neighbour's life in the sixth, chastity in the seventh, estate in the eighth, good name in the ninth, and our desires in due bounds, against coveting what is our neighbour's, in the tenth. Now, as healtli in the body is preserved by keeping the passages of life open, for the spirits freely to move from one part to another, which once obstructed from doing their office in any part, the health of the body is presently in danger ; so here the spirit and life of holiness is preserved in the Christian by a holy care and endeavour to keep the heart free and ready to pass from doing one duty he owes his neighbour to another, according to the several walks that are in every connnand for him to move in. Secondly, as our care nnist be uniform, so the motive and spring witlu'n that sets us at work, and makes all these wheels move, must be evangelical. Tlie command is a road in which both heathen, Jew, and (Christian, may be found travelling ; how now shall we know the ('hristian from the other, when heathen and Jew also walk along with him in the same duty, and seem as 320 -'^^^ HAVING ON dutiful children, obedient wives, loyal subjects, loving neighboiu'S, as the Chi'istian himself? Truly, if it be not in the motive from which, and end to which, he acts, nothing else can do it. Look, therefore, well to this, or else thou art out of the way, while thou seemest to be in the road. It is very ordi- nary for men to wrong Christ when they do their neighbour right ; and this is done when Christ is not interested in the action, and love to him doth not move us thereunto ; without this, thou mayest go for an honest heathen, but canst not be a good Christian. Suppose a servant were entrusted by his master to go and pay such a man a sum of money, which he doth, not out of any duti- ful respect to the command, or love to the person of his master, but for shame of being taken for a thief; in this case the man should have his due, but his master a great deal of wrong. Such wrong do all mere civil persons do the Lord Jesus ; they are very exact and righteous in their dealings with their neighbours, but very injurious, at the same time, to Christ, because they do not this upon his account. This makes love to our neighbour evangelical, and, as Christ calls it, 'a new commandment,' John xiii., when our love to our bro- ther takes fire from his love to us. We cannot, in a gospel sense, be said to do the duty of any commandment, except we first love Christ, and then for his sake do it : ' If you love me, keep my commandments,' John xiv. 15. Where observe, that as God prefixed his name before the Decalogue, so Christ, for the same reason, doth his before the Christian's obedience to any of them, that so they may keep them both as his commandments, and out of love to him, who hath brought us out of a worse house of bondage than Egypt was to Israel. CHAPTER XL CONTAINS NINE OR TEN DIRECTIONS TOWARDS THE HELPING THOSE THAT DESIRE TO MAINTAIN THE POWER OF A HOLY, RIGHTEOUS CONVERSATION. 3. The third thing propounded in handling the point calls now for our de- spatch ; and that is, to lay down some direction by way of counsel, and to help all those that desire to maintain the power of holiness and righteousness in their daily walking. Section I. — First, Be sure thou gettest a good foundation laid, on which may be- reared the beautiful structure of a holy, righteous conversation ; and that can be no less than the change of thy heart by the powerful working of God's sanc- tifying Spirit in thee. Thou must be righteous and holy before thou canst live righteously and holily. If the ship hath not its right make at first, be not equally poised according to the law of that art, it will never sail trim ; and if the heart be not moulded anew by the workmanship of the Spirit, and fashioned according to the law of the new creature, in which ' old things pass away, and all things become new,' 2 Cor. v. 17, the creature will never walk holily. It is solid grace in the vessel of the heart that feeds profession in the lamp ; holi- ness is in the life, Matt. xxv. 4. Now this thorough change of thy heart is especially to be looked at in these two things : First, That there be a change made in thy judgment of, and disposition ot heart to sin. Thou hast formerly had such a notion of sin as hath made it desirable ; thou hast looked upon it as Eve did on the forbidden fruit ; thou hast thought it ' pleasant to the eye, good for food,' and worth thy choice to be desired of thee : if thou continuest of the same mind, thy teeth will be watering, and heart continually hankering after it. Thou mayest possibly be kept from expressing and venting the inward thought of thy heart for awhile ; but as two lovers kept asunder by their friends will one time or other make an escape to each other, so long as their affection is the same as it was, so wilt thou to thy lust ; and therefore never rest till thou canst say, thou dost as heartily loathe and hate sin as ever thou lovedst it before. Secondly, Lookthat there be suchachangeinthyjudgmentandheartasmakes thee take an inward complacency and delight in Christ and his holy commands. Then there is little fear of tliy degenerating when thou art tied to him and his service by the heart-strings of love and complacency. The devil finds it no hard work to part him and his duty, that never joyed nor took true content in doing of it. He whose calling doth not like him, nor fit his genius, as we say, will never excel in it. A scholar learns more in a week, when he comes to THE BREASTPLATE OF UIGIITEOUSNEPS. 3^ [ relish learning, and is pleased with its sweet taste, than he did in a month when he went to school, to please his master, whom he feared, not himself. Observe any person in tlie thing wherein he takes high content, and he is more careful and curious about that than any other : if his heart be on his garden, O how neatly it is kept! it shall lie, as we say, in print; all the rare roots and slips that can be got for love or money shall be sought for. Is it beauty that one delights in? how curious and nice is such a one in dressing herself; she hardly knows when she is fine enough. Truly thus it is here ; a soul that truly loves Christ delights in holiness ; all his strength is laid out upon them ; may he but excel in this one thing, be more holy, more heavenly, he will give others leave to run before him in anything else. Section II. — Secondly, Be sure to keep thy eye on the right rule thou art to walk by. Evei-y calling hath a rule to go by pecidiar to itself, which requires some study to get an insight into, without which a man will but bungle in his woi-k. No calling hath such a sure rule and perfect law to go by as the Christian's; therefore, in earthly professions and worldly callings, men vaiy in their way and method, though of the same trade, because there is no such per- fect rule but another may superadd to it. But the Christian hath one standing rule, the word of God, ' able to make the man of God perfect:' now, he that would excel in the power of holiness nuist study this. The physician, he con- sults with his Galen ; the lawyer with his Littleton ; and the philosopher with his Aristotle; the masters of these arts. How much more should the Christian with the word, so as to be determined by that, and drawn by that, more than by a whole team of arguments from men ! ' We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth,' saith Paul, 2 Cor. xiii. 8. O Christian! when credit votes this way, friends and relations that way ; when ])rofit bids thee do this, and pleasure that; say, as Jehoshaphat concerning Micaiah, ' Is thei'e not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that I may inquire of him ?' 1 Kings xxii. 7. Is there not the word of God, that I may be concluded by it, rather than by any of these lying prophets ? Now, thei'e are three ways that men go contrary to this direction, all of them destructive to the power of holiness : some walk by no rule ; some by a false rule ; and the third by the true rule, but partially. The first is the antinomist and libertine ; the second is the superstitious zealot ; the third is the hyjjocrite : beware of all these, except thou meanest to lay the knife to the throat of holiness. First, Take heed thou dost not take away the rule God sets before thee with the antinomist and libertine, who say the law is not a rule to the Christian. These must needs make crooked lines in their lives, that live by I'ote, and not by rule. I had thought Christ had baptized the law and gospelized it, both by preaching it as a rule of holiness in his sermons, Matt. v. 27, and by walking in his life by the rule of it, 1 Pet. ii. 21, 22. That principle, therefore, may be indited for a murderer of a righteous and holy life, which takes away the rule by which it should be led. This is a subtle way indeed of Satan to surpi'ise the poor creature ; if he make the Christian traveller weary of his guide, and once send him away, then it will not be long before he will wander out of heaven- way, and fall into hell-roads. The apostle tells us of a generation of men who, 'while they promise tliemselves liberty, are themselves servants of corruption,' 2 Pet. ii. 19. Truly, these, methinks, look like the men who slip off the yoke of the command under a pretence of liberty, that soon have a worse yoke on in its room, even the yoke of sin. Secondly, Take heed thou walkest not by a false rule. There is but one true rule, the word of God ; and therefore we may soon know which is a false, Isaiah viii. 20 : ' To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.' Pretend not to more strictness than the word will vouch ; this is to be over-righteous indeed, Eccl. vii. 16. Excess makes a monster, as well as defect; not only he that hath but one hand, but he that hath three, is one. There is a curse scored up for him ' that adds to,' as well as for him ' that takes from the words of this book,' llev. xxii. 18. The devil hath had of old a design to imdermine scriptural holiness, by crying up an apocryphal holiness ; he knows too well, that as the pot, by boiling over, puts out the fire, and so comes in a while not to boil at all ; thus, by making men's zeal to boil over into a false pretended holiness, he is Q22 '^^"^ HAVING ON sure to quench all true holiness, and bring them at last to have no zeal, but prove key-cold atheists. The Pharisee he must add to the commands of God the traditions of men ; the Papist, his true son and heir, hath his imwritten verities, holy orders, and rules for a more austere life than ever came into God's heart to require ; and of late the Quakers have borrowed many of their shreds from both, with which they are very busy to patch up a ridiculous kind of reli- gion, which a man cannot possibly take up, till he hath first fore-done his own understanding, and renoimced all subjection to the word of God. O beware of a will-holiness, and a will-worship ! It is a heavy charge God put in against Israel, Ilosea viii. 14: ' Israel hath forgotten his Maker, andbuildeth temples.' This may seem strange, forget God, and yet so devout as to build temples ! Yes, she built them without warrant from God ; God counts himself forgot, when we forget his word, and keep not close to that. It is laid at Jeroboam's door as a great sin, ' that he offered ujDon the altar which he made at Bethel, in the month which he had devised in his heart,' 1 King xii. 33. He took counsel of his own heart, not of God, when and where to offer. A holiness which is the device of our heart, is not the holiness after God's heart; the cvu-se that falls upon such bold men is, that while they seek to establish a holiness of their own, they submit not to the true holiness God reqiiires in his word. God justly gives them over to real unholiness, for pretending to a further holiness than they should. Witness those sinks and common shoals of all abominations, religious houses, I mean, as they are called by the Papists, which being the institutions of men, for want of the salt of a divine warrant to keep them sweet, have run into filthiness and corruption. God will not endure his creature should be a self-mover ; it is a greater sin to do what we are not commanded, than not to do what we are commanded by God; as it is in a subject, to presume to make laws of his own head, than to obey the law his prince enacts. By setting up a holiness of our own, we take God's mint, as it were, out of his hand, to whom alone it belongs to stamp what is holy, and what not. Thirdly, Use not the true rule partially. To be partial in practising is as bad as to be partial in handling of the law. This made the priests contemptible, Mai. ii. 9 ; and so will that the professor, to God and man. Square the whole frame of thy life by rule, or all is to no purpose : ' Divers measures are as an abomination to the Lord,' Prov. xx. 10. He is the honest man in his dealings with men, that hath but one measure, and that according to law, which he useth in his trade. And he is the holy man, that useth but one rule for all his actions, and that no otlier than the word of God. O how fulsome was the Jews' hypocrisy to God, that durst not go into the judgment-hall, for fear of rendei-- ing themselves unclean, John xviii., but made no scruple of imbruing their hands in Christ's blood ! and the Pharisees, who observed the rule of the law strictly, in ' tithing anise and cummin,' but dispensed with themselves in the ' weightier matters of the law !' O beware of this as thou lovest thy soul's life. You would not thank that customer who comes into your shop, and buys a pennyworth of you, but steals from you what is worth a pound ; or him that is very punctual in paying a small debt he owes, only that he may get deeper into your book, and at last cheat you of a greater sum. This is horrid wickedness, to comply with the word in little matters, on a design that you may covertly wrong God in greater. Section III. — Thirdly, Propound a right end to thyself in thy righteous, holy walking ; and here be sure thou standest clear off a legal end; do not think by thy righteousness to purchase anything at God's hand. Heaven stands not upon sale to any : ' The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord,' Rom. vi. What God sold to Christ he gives to us. Christ was the purchaser, believers are but heirs to what he hath bought, and must claim nothing but in his right : by claiming anything of God for our righteousness, we shut oiu-selves out from having any benefit of his. We cannot be in two places at the same time ; if we be found leaning on our own house, we cannot also be found in Christ ; Paitl knew this, and there- fore renounceth the one, that he may be entitled to the other, Phil. iii. 8, 9. It is Satan's policy 'to crack the breastplate of thy own righteousness, by beating it out further than the metal will bear; indeed, by trusting in it, thou destroyest the very nature of it; thy righteousness becomes unrighteousness, and THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. gOg thy holiness degenerates into wickedness. 'Wliat greater impiety than pride, — such a pride as lords it over Christ, and alters the method which God himself hath set for saving souls ? O soul, if thou wouldst be holy, learn to he lunnble ! They are clasped together, Micah vi. 8 : ' What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God !' and how he that trusts in his own holiness, should be said to walk humbly, it cannot enter into our heart to conceive. God sets not thee to earn heaven by thy holiness, but thereby to shew thy love and thankfulness to Christ that hath earned it for thee. Hence the great argument Christ useth to provoke his disciples to holi- ness is love : ' If ye love me, keep my commandments,' John xiv. As if he had said. You know what I came into the world, and am noM' going out of the world, for ; l)oth upon your service, for whom I lay down my life, and take it up again, that I may live in heaven to intercede for you; if these, and the blessed fruits you reap from these, be valued by you, love me ; and if you love me, testify it in keeping my commandments. That is gospel holiness which is bred and fed by this love, when all the Christian doth is by him oflered up as a thanksgiving sacrifice to Christ, ' that loved us to death.' Thus the spouse to Christ, Cant, vii. 12: 'I will give thee my loves;' what she means by her loves, she ex- presseth ver. 13 : ' All manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved !' In ver. 10, she had professed her fiith on Christ, and drimk deep of his love : and now, to rebound his love in thankful- ness, she bestirs herself to entertain him with the pleasant fruits of his own graces, as gathered from a holy conversation, which she doth not lay up to feed her pride and self-confidence with, but reserves them for her beloved, that he may have the entire praise of them. Section I V. — Fourthly, Often look on the perfect pattern which Christ in liis own example hath given thee for a holy life. Our hand will be as the copy is we wi'ite after, if we set low examples before us, it cannot be expected we should rise high ourselves ; and, indeed, the holiest saint on earth is too low to be our pattern, because perfection in holiness must be aimed at by the weakest Christian, 2 Cor. vii. 1 : and that is not to be found in the best of saints in this lower v/orld. Moses, the meekest man on earth, at a time his spirit is ruflfled ; and Peter, the foreman of the apostles, doth not always, ' foot it right,' accord- ing to the gospel, Gal. ii. 14. And he that would follow him then is sure to go out of his way. The good soldier follows his file-leader, not when he runs away, but when he marches after his captain orderlj^, 1 Cor. xi. 1 : 'Be ye fol- lowers of me, as I also am of Christ.' The comment must be followed no further than it agrees with the text. The master doth not only rule the scholar's book for him, but writes him a copy with his own hand. Christ's command is our rule, his life oiu- copy ; if thou wilt walk holily, thou must not only endeavour to do what Chrisfrtcommands, but as Christ himself did it ; thou must labour to shape every letter in thy copy, action in life, in a holy imitation of Christ. By holiness we are the very 'image of Christ,' Rom. viii. 29. We present Christ, and hold him forth to all that see us. Now two things go to make a thing the image of another: first, likeness; secondly, derivation. It must not only be like it, but this likeness must be deduced and derived from it ; snow and milk are both white alike, yet we cannot say that they are the image one of another, because that likeness they have is not derived either from other. But the pictiu-e which is drawn every line by the face of a man, this may pi'operly be called the image of that man, after whose likeness it is made. Thus true holiness is that which is derived from Christ, when the soul sets Christ in his word, and Christ in his example, before him : as one would the person whose picture he intends to draw, and labours to draw every line in his life by these. O this is a sweet way indeed to maintain the power of holiness ! when thou art tempted to any vanity, set Christ before thy eye in his holy walking ; ask thy soul. Am I in this speech, action, company I consort with, like Christ ? Did he, or would he, if again to live on earth, do as I do? Would not he be more choice of his words than I am ? Did ever such a vain s])eech drop from his lips.' Would he delight in such company as I do? Spend his time upon such trifles and impertinences as I do? Would he bestow so much cost in pampering of his body, and swallow down his tlu-oat at one meal, what would feed many poor creatin-es ready to starve for want ? Would he be in V 2 324 AND HAVING ON every fashion that conies up, though ever so ridiculous and oflensive ? ShouUl cards and dice ever have been found in his hands to drive time away ? And shall I indidge myself in anything that would make me unlike Christ? God forbid ! We think it enough if we can quote such a good man or great professor to countenance our practice, and so are led into temptation. But Christian, if thy conscience tells thee Christ likes not such doings, away with them, though thou couldst produce the example of the most eminent saint in the country to favour them. Thou knowest some, possibly, of great name for profession, that have cast off duties in their families ; but did not Christ shew an especial care of the apostles which lived under him, and were of his family ? often praying with them, repeating to them, and further opening what he preached in public ; keeping the passover with them as his household, according to the law of that ordinance, Exod. xvi. Thou seest some turn their back on the public assem- blies, luider a pretence of sinful mixtures there that would defile them : did our Lord Jesus do this? Was not he in the temple, and in the synagogues, holding communion with them in the service of God, which was, for the substance, there preserved, though not without some corruptions crept in among them ? O Christian, study Christ's life more, and thou wilt soon learn to mend thy own ? Stimma religionis est imitari quern colis ; it is the very sum and top of religion to be as like the God we worship as may be. Section V. — Fifthly, Walk dependingly on Clod. The vine is fruitful so long as it hath a pole or wall to run upon, but without such a help it would soon be trod under foot, and come to nothing. ' It is not in man to direct his own way ;' Multa honafiicit Deus in homine, qiice nonfacit homo ; nulla vera fucit homo, qu(E non facit Deus itt facial, (Augustine) ; there are many good things that God doth in man, which man has no hand in ; but there is no good and holy action that a man does, but God does enable him to do it : as was said of tliat Grecian captain, ' Parmenio did many exploits without Alexander, but Alexan- der nothing without Parmenio.' If thou wilt, therefore, maintain holiness in its power, ' acknowledge God in all thy ways, and lean not to thine own under- standing,' Prov. iii. 5, 6. He is ready to help them that engage liim, but counts himself charged with the care of none but such as depend on him. The Chris- tian's way to heaven is something like that in our nation, called the Washes, where the sands, by reason of the sea's daily overflowing, do so alter, that the traveller who passed them safely a month ago, cannot, without great danger, venture again, except he hath his guide with him : where then he found firm land, possibly a little after coming he may meet with a devouring quicksand. Truly thus the Christian who gets over a duty at one time with some facility, his way smooth and plain before him, at another time may find a temptation in the same duty enough to set him, if he had not help from heaven to carry him safe out of danger. O Christian, it is not safe for thee to venture one step with- out thy stay, thy hand of faith leaning on thy Beloved's arm I Trust to thy own legs and thou fallest ; use thy legs, but trust to his arm, and thou art safe. Section VI. — Sixthly, Look to thy company, who they are thou consortest with. Flee unholy company, as baneful to the power of godliness : be but as careful for thy soul, as thou wouldst for thy body : durst thou drink in the same cup, or sit in the same chair with one that hath an infectious disease ? And is not sin as catching a disease as the plague itself? Barest thou come where such ill scents are to be taken, as may soon infect thy soul ? Of all trades it would not do well to have the collier and fuller live together; what one cleanseth, the other will blacken and defile. Thou canst not be long among unholy ones but thou wilt hazard the defiling of thy soul, which the Holy Spirit hath made pure : and he did not wash thee clean, to run where thou shouldst be made foul. To be sure thou shalt have no help from them to advance thy holiness : and truly we would not choose that society where we may not hope to make them, or be made ourselves better by them. It is observable what the Spirit of God notes concerning Abraham, Heb. xi. 9 : ' He sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise.' He is not said to dwell with the natives of that land, but ' with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise with him.' Abraham did not seek acquaintance with the heathen ; no, he was willing to continue a stranger to them ; but he li\-ed with those that were of his own family, and God's family THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 3^5 also. Cliristiaiis are a company of theiiisflves : Acts iv. 23, ' Being let go, they went to their own company.' Who should helieversjoin themselves to but believers ! As Paul said, ' Have you not a wise man among you, but you must go to law before unbelievers V so may I say to thee, Christian, Is there never a saint in all the town that thou canst be acquainted with, sit and discourse with, but you must join with the profane and ungodly, amongst whom you live? No wonder thy holiness thri\es no better, when thou breatliest in wicked company, that is like the east wind, under which nothing grows and prospers. Section VII. — Seventhly, Get some Christian friend, whom thou mayest trust above others, to be thy faithful monitor. O, that man hath a great help for the maintaining the power of godliness, that has an open-hearted friend that dare speak his heart to him ! A stander-by sees more sometimes by a man, than the actor can do by himself, and is more fit to jndge of his actions than he of his own. Sometimes self-love blinds us in our own cause, that we see not ourselves so bad as we are ; and sometimes we are over-suspi- cious of the worst by oiu-selves, which makes us appear to ourselves worse than we arc. Now, that thou mayest not deprive thyself of so great a help from thy friend, be sure to keep thy heart ready with meekness to receive, yen, with thankfulness embrace, a reproof from his mouth. Those that cannot bear plain dealing hurt themselves most ; for by this they seldom hear the truth. He that hath not love enough to give a reproof seasonably to his brother, nor humility enough to bear a reproof from him, is not worthy to be called a Christian : by the first he shews himself a ' hater of his brother,' Lev. xix. 17; by the second he proves himself a scorner, Prov. ix. Holy David professed he would take it as a kindness for the righteous to smite him ; yea, as kindly as if he broke a box of precious oil upon his head, which was amongst the Jews a high expression of love, Psa. cxli. 5. And he made his word good; he did not, as the Papists do by their holy water, commend it highly, but turn away his face when it comes to be sprinkled on him. No, Abigail and Nathan, who reproved him, one for his bloody intention against Nabal and his family, the other for his bloody act upon Uriah, they both sped well in their errand. The first prevented the fact intended by her seasonable reproof; the second recovered him out of that dismal sin of murder wherein he had lai)i some months without coming so far to himself as to repent of it, for aught that we read; and, which is observable, they did not only prevail in the business, but endeared themselves, by this tlieir faithfulness to his soul, so unto him, that he takes her to be his wife, and him to be of his most privy council to his dying day, 1 Kings i. 27^ — 32. Truly it is one great reason why the falls of pro- fessors ai'e so frequent in our days, and their recovery so rare or late, because few in these unloving times are to be foinid so faithful as to do this Cliristian office of reproof to their brethren ; they will sooner go and tattle of it to others to their disgrace, than speak of it to themselves for their recovery. Indeed, by telling others, we obstruct our way from telling the person himself, with any hope of doing him good. It will be hard to make him believe thou comest to heal his soul, who hast already wounded his name. Sf.ction V^III. — Eighthly, Be often seriously thinking how holilyand right- eously you will, in a dying hour, wish you had lived. They who now think it matters not much what language drivels from them, what company they walk in, what they busy their time about, how they comport with God in his worship, and with man in their dealings, but live at large, and care not much which end goes foremost ; yea, wonder at the niceness and zeal of others, as if there were no pace would carry them to heaven but the gallop ; when once death conies so near as to be known by its own grim face, and not by report of others, when these poor creatures see they must in earnest go into another world without any delay, and their naked souls must return to 'fJod tliat gave them,' to hear whatinterpretation he will put upon the course and and tenour of their walking, and, ac;cordiiigly, to ])ass an irrevocable sentence of life or death u])on them ; now tlieir thouglits will begin to change, and take up other notions of a righteous and holy life than ever they had before. It is observed amongst the Papists, that many cardinals, and other great ones, who would think their cowl and religious habit ill become tlum in their health, yet are very ambitious to die and be buried in tliem, as commonly they are. Though this be a foppery 22Q AND HAVING ON in itself, yet it helps us to a notion considerable. They who live wickedly and loosely, yet like a religious habit very well when to go into another world. As that young gallant said to his swaggering companion, after they had visited Ambrose lying in his dying bed, and saw how comfortably he lay triumphing over death now approaching, ' O that I might live with thee, and die with Ambrose ! ' Vain Vv'ish ! wouldst thou, O man, not reap what thou sowest, and find what thou layest up with thy own hands? Dost thou sow cockle, and wouldst reap wheat? Dost thou fill thy chest with dirt, and expect to find gold when thou openest it ? Cheat and guU thyself thou may est, but thou canst not mock God, who will pay thee in the same coin, at thy death, which thou trea- surest up in thy life. There are few so horribly wicked but the thought of death awes them ; they dare not fall upon their wicked practices till they have got some distance from the thoughts of this. Christian, walk in the company of it every day by serious meditation, and tell me at the week's end whether it doth not keep worse company from thee. Section IX. — Ninthly, Improve the covenant of grace for thy assistance in thy holy course. Moses himself had his holiness not from the law, but gospel. Those heroic acts for which he is recorded as one so eminently holy, they are all attributed to his faith : Heb. xi. 24, 25, ' By faith Moses did this,' and by faith that, to shew from whence he had his strength. Now the better to improve the covenant of grace for this purpose, consider these three particulars. First, That God, in the covenant of grace, hath promised to furnish and en- able his children for a holy life: Ezek. xxxvi. 27, ' I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.' This is a way that God hath by himself. The mother can take her child by the hand to lead it, but not put strength into his feeble joints to make him go. The prince can give his captains a commission to fight, but not courage to fight. There is a power goes with the promise, hence it is they are called ' exceeding great and precious promises,' because given for this very end, that by these we might be ' made partakers of the Divine nature,' 2 Pet. i. 3 ; and, thei-efore, we are not only pressed to holiness from the command, but especially from the promise, 2 Cor. vii. 1, ' Having therefore these promises," (he means to help and encourage us,) * let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' O it is good travelling in his company that pro- miseth to pay our charges all the way ! good working for him that promiseth to ' work all our work for us,' Phil. ii. 12, 13. Secondly, God hath laid up in Christ a rich and full treasure of grace, to supply thy wants continually : Col. i. 19, ' It pleased the father that in him should all fulness dwell.' Fulness, all fulness, all fulness dwelling; not the fulness of a land-flood, up and down, — not the fulness of a vessel, to serve his own turn only, but of a fountain that lends its streams to others without straitening or lessening its own store. Indeed it is a fulness purposely ministerial, as the sun hath not its light for itself, but for the lower world, because it is the great minister and servant to hold forth light to the world. Thus Christ is the Sun of righteousness, diffusing his grace into the bosoms of his people. Grace is said to be ' poured into his lips,' to let us know he hath it not to keep to himself, but to impart, ' that of his fulness we may receive grace for grace.' Thirdly, Every child of God hath not only a right to this ' fulness in Clu-ist,' but an inward principle, which is faith, whereby he is, by the instinct of the new creature, taught to suck and draw grace from Christ as the child doth nourishment in the womb by the navel-string from the mother ; and, therefore, poor soul, if thou wouldst be more holy believe more, suck more, from Christ. Holy David, Psa. cxvi., affected with the thoughts of God's gracious pro- vidence in delivering him out of his deeper distress, takes up, as the best messenger he could send his thanks to heaven by, a strong resolution for a holy life : ver. 9, ' I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living;' he would spend his days now in God's service ; but lest we should think he was rash and self-confident, he adds, ver. 10, ' I believed, therefore have I spoken.' First, he acted his faith on God for strength, and then he promiseth what he will do. Indeed the Christian is a very beggarly creature considered in himself; he is not ashamed to confess it : what he promiseth to expend in any holy duty is THE I3REAS1TLATE OF HIGIITEOUSNESS. Q27 upon the credit of his Saviour's purse, who, he huiubly beUeves, will bear him out in it with assisting grace. Section X. — Tenthly, Fortify thyself against those discoui'agenients by which Satan, if possible, will divert thee from thy purpose, and make thee lay aside this breastplate of righteousness and holiness as cumbersome, yea, preju- dicial to th)' carnal interests. Now the better to arm thee against his assaults- of this kind, I shall instance two or three great objections whereby he scares many from this holy walking, and also lend a little help to wrest these weapons out of thy enemy's "hand, by preparing an answer to them against he conies. CHAPTER XII. WHEREIN THE FIRST POLICY OR STRATAGEM OF SATAN IS DEFEATED, WHICH HE USETH TO MAKE THE CHRISTIAN THROW AWAY HIS BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AS THAT WHICH HINDERS THE PLEASURE OF HIS LIFE. Assault 1. First, Satan labours to picture a holy, righteous life with such an austere, sour face, that the creature maybe out of love with it. O, saith he, if you mean to be thus precise and holy, then bid adieu to all joy ! you at once deprive yourselves of all those pleasures which others pass their days so merrily in the embraces of, that are not so strait-laced in their consciences. How true a charge this is that Satan lays upon the ways of holiness we shall now see ; and truly he that desires to see the true face of holiness, in its native hue and colour, should do well not to trust Satan, or his own carnal heart, to draw its picture. I shall deal with this objection, first, by way of concession. There are some pleasures, if they may be so called, that are inconsistent with the power of holiness : whoever will take up a purpose to live righteously, he must shake hands with them, and they are of two sorts. Section I. — .^iis. 1. First, All such pleasures as are in themselves sinful; godliness will allow no such in thy embraces. And art thou not shrewdly hurt, dost think, to be denied that which would be bane to thy drink? Would any think the father cruel that should charge his child not to dare so much as taste of any ratsbane ? Truly, I hope, you that liave passed under the renewing work of the Spirit can call sin by another name than pleasure. I am sure saints in former times have not counted themselves tied up, but saved from such pleasures. The bondage lies in serving them, and the liberty in being saved from them. Tit. iii. 2. The apostle bemoans the time when himself and other saints were ' foolish, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures ;' and he reckons it among the prime benefits they received, by the grace of the gospel, to be delivered from that vassalage, ver. 5 : ' But according to his mercy he saved us ;' how ? not by pardoning them only, but ' by the washing of regene- ration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' However the devil makes poor creatures expect pleasure in sin, and promiseth them great matters of this kind, yet he goes against his conscience, and his own present sense also. He doth not find sin so pleasant a morsel to his own taste, that he should need to commend it upon this account to others.. Sin's pleasure is like the pleasure which a place in the West Indies affords those that dwell in it ; there grows in it most rare, luscious fruit, but these dainties are so sauced with the intolerably scorching heat of the sun by day, and the multitude of a sort of creature stinging them by night, that they can neither well eat by day, nor sleep by night, to digest their sweetmeats, which made the Spaniards call the place, ' comfits in hell.' And truly what are the pleasures of sin but such comfits in hell? There is some carnal pleasure they have, which delights a rank sensual palate^ but they are served in with the fiery wrath of God, and stinging of a guilty, restless conscience ; and the fears of the one, with the anguish of the other, are able sure to melt and waste away that little joy and pleasure they bring to the sense. Secondly, There are pleasures which are not in their own nature sinful ; such are creature-comforts and delights. T]ie sin lies, as to these, not in the using, but in the abusing of them, which is done two ways. First, When a due measure is not kept in the use of them. He cannot live holily and righteously in this present v.'orld that lives not soberly also. Godli- ness will allow thee to taste of these pleasures as sauce, l)ut not feed on them as 328 •'^'^^ HAVING ON meat. The I'ich men's charge, James v. 5, runs tlms : ' Ye liave lived in pleasm-e on earth.' They lived in pleasures as if they lived for them, and could not live without tliem. When once this wine of creature-contents fumes up to the brain, intoxicates the man's judgment, tliat he begins to dote of them, and cannot tliink of parting with them to enjoy better, but cries, loth to depart; as those Jews in Babylon, who, beginning to thiive in that soil, were very willing to stay there, and lay their bones in Babylon for all Jeriisalem, which they Ayere called to return unto ; then truly they are pernicious to the power of holiness. Though a master doth not grudge his servant his meat and drink, yet he will not like it if, when he is to go abroad, his servant be laid up drunk and disabled from waiting on him by his intemperance ; and a drunken man is as fit to attend on his master, and do his business for him, as a Christian over- charged with the pleasures of the creatm-e is to serve his God in any duty of godliness. Secondly, They are sinful when not rightly timed: fruit ate out of its season is naught. We read of ' a time to embrace, and a time to forbear,' Eccles. iii. 7; there are some seasons that the power of holiness calls off, and will not allow, what is lawful at another time. As, first, on the Lord's day, now all carnal creature pleasures are out of season. God calls us then to higher delights, and expects we should lay the other aside, and not put our palates out of taste with those lower pleasures, that we may the better relish his heavenly dainties, Isa. Iviii. 13: 'If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy plea- sure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thy own ways, nor finding thy own pleasure, nor speaking thy own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.' Mark, we can neither taste the sweetness of communion with God, nor pay the honour due to God in sanctifying liis day, except we deny ourselves in our carnal delights. If a king should, at some certain times of the year, invite some of his poor subjects to sit and feast with him at his own royal table, they should exceedingly dishonour their prince, and wrong themselves, to bring their ordinary mean fare with them to court. Do glorified saints in heaven call for any of their carnal delights, or miss them, while they are taken up in heaven, pi'aising God, and feeding on the joys that flow from the full-eyed vision of God? And doth not God make account he gives you to enjoy heaven in a figin-e, when he admits you the service of his holy day ? Secondly, in days of solemn fasting and prayer we are then to afflict our souls ; and creature-plea- sures will fit that work no better than a silver lace would do a mourning suit. Thirdly, in times of public calamity in the church abroad, especially at home ; and this a gracious heart cannot but count reasonable that he should deny him- self, or at least tie up himself to a very short allowance in his creature-delights. When Christ in his cluu-ch lies a bleeding, sympathy is a debt we owe to our fellow-saints, Christ mystical. And truly the coi-ds of other afflictions will be little felt through our soft, downy beds, if we indulge ourselves, I mean, to a full enjoyment of our ease and carnal delights. What child that is merry and pleasant in his own house, and hath a father or mother lying at the same time in great misery at the point of death, but unknown to him, will not, when the doleful news at last comes to him, change his note, yea, mourn that he did not know it sooner, and had not rather have been weeping for, and with his dear relations in the house of mourning, than passing away his time pleasantly at home? Hitherto I have answered by concession, confessing what pleasures the power of a holy and righteous life denies and forbids, and I hope they appear to be no other than such as may, without any loss to the believer's joy, be fairly dismissed. Section II. — Ans. Now in the second place I come to answer by way of negation. Though a holy, righteous life denies the Christian the pleasures afore- mentioned, yet it doth not deprive him of any true pleasure the creature affords; yea, so far fi-om this, that none doth or can enjoy the sweetness of the creature like the gracious soul that walks in the power of holiness, as will apjjear in these two particidars. First, The gracious person hath a more curious palate, that fits him to taste a fiuther sweetness in, and so draw more pleasure from, any creatiu-e-enjoyment than an unholy person can do. The fly finds no honey in the same flower from THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. g29 whence the bee goes laden away ; nor can an unholy heart taste that sweetness which the saint doth in a creature. He hath indeed a natural fleshy palate, wliereby he relisheth the gross camial pleasure the ci'eature affords, and that he makes his whole meal on ; but a gracious heart tastes something more : all Israel drank of the rock, 'and that rock was Christ,' 1 Coi-. x. 4 ; but did all tliat tasted the water's natural sweetness, taste Christ in it ? No, alas ! they were but a few holy souls that had a spiritual palate to do this. Samson's father and mother ate of the honey out of the lion's carcass as well as Samson, and, may be, liked the taste of it for honey as well as Samson, yet he took more pleasure sure than they ; he tasted the sweetness of God's providence in it, that had deliveted him from that very lion that now affords him this honey, Judg. xiv. Secondly, The Christian has more true pleasure from the creature than the wicked, as it comes more refined to him than to the other. The unholy wretch sucks dregs and all; dregs of sin, and dregs of wrath, whereas the Christian's cup is not thus spiced. First, dregs of sin ; the more he hath of the creature's delights given him, the more he sins with them. O it is sad to think what work they nuike in his naughty heart ! they are but fuel for his lusts to kindle upon ; away they nm with their enjoyments, as the prodigal with his bags, or like hogs in shaking time ; no sight is to be had of them, or thought of their return, as long as they can get anything abroad, among the delights of the world. None so prodigiously wicked as those that are fed high with carnal 2)leasures. They are to the ungodly as the dung and ordure is to the swine, which grows fat by lying in it ; so their hearts grow gross and fat, their con- sciences more stupid and senseless in sin, by them ; whereas the comforts and delights that God gives into a holy soul by the creature, tui-n to spiritual nou- rishment to his graces, and draw these forth into exercise, as they do the other's lust. Secondly, dregs of wrath ; the Israelites had little pleasiu'e from their dainties, when the wrath of God fell upon them, before they could get them down their throats, Psa. Ixxviii. 33. The sinner's feast is no sooner served in, but divine justice is jireparing to send up a reckoning after it ; and the fearful expectation of this cannot but spoil the taste of the other. But the gracious soul is entertained upon free cost ; no troublesome thoughts need discompose his spirit, so as to break his draught, or make him spill any of the comfort of his present enjoyment from the fear of an approaching danger. All is well, the coast is clear, he may say with David, ' I will lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou. Lord, makest me dwell in safety,' Psa. iv. 8; God will not, all beside cannot, break his i-est ; as the unicorn heals the waters by dipping his horn in them, that all the beasts may drink without danger, so Christ hath healed creature enjoyments, that thei-e is no death now in the saint's cup. Section III. — Ans. Thirdly, I answer by way of affirmation. The power of holiness is so far from depriving a man of the joy and pleasure of his life, that there are incomparable delights and pleasures peculiar to the holy life which the gracious soul finds in the ways of righteousness, enjoys by itself, and no stranger intei"meddles with. They lie inward, indeed, and therefore the world speaks so wildly and ignorantly concerning them. They will not believe they have such pleasures till they see them ; and they shall never see them till they believe them. The Roman soldiers, when they entered the temple, and went into the holy of holies, seeing there no image, as they used to have in their own idolatrous temples, gave out in a jeer, that the Jews worshij)ped the clouds. I'ruly thus, because the pleasures of righteousness and holiness are not so gross, as to come under the cognizance of the world's carnal senses, as their brutish ones do, therefore they laugh at the saints, as if their joy were but the child of fancy, and that they do but embrace the cloud instead of Jiuio herself, a fantastic pleasure for tlie true. But let such know tlmt they carry in their own bosom, what will help them to think the j)k'asin'es of holy life more real than thus. The horror, I mean, which the guilt of their imholy and unrighteous lives does sometimes fill their amazed consciences with, though there be no whip on their back, and pain in their flesh, tells them that the peace which results from a good conscience may as well fdl the soul with sweet joy, when no carnal delights contribute to the same. There are three things considered in the nature of a holy, righteous life, that arc enough to demon- 330 ^^^ HAVING ON strate it to be the only pleasant life. It is a life from God ; it is a life with God ; it is the very life of God. First, It is a life from God, and, therefore, must needs be pleasant and joyoiis. Whatever God makes is good and pleasant in its kind. Now life is one of the choicest of God's works, insomuch that the poorest, silliest gnat or fly, in this respect, exceeds the sun in its meridian glory. To every life God hath appointed a pleasure suitable to its kind ; the beasts have a pleasure suitable to the life of beasts, and man much more to his. Now every creature, we know, enjoys the pleasm-e of its life best, when it is in its right temper : if a beast be sick, it droops and groans, and so does man also ; no dainties, sports, or music, please a man that is ill in his health. Now holiness is the dvie temjjer of the soul, as health is of the body; and, therefore, a holy life must needs be a pleasant life. Adam, I hope, in Paradise, before sin spoiled his temper, lived a pleasant life. When the creature is made holy, then he begins to return to his primitive temper, and with it to his primitive joy and pleasure. O sirs, men fall out with their outward conditions, and are discontented at their rank and place in the world ! but the fault lies more inward ! the shoe is straight and good enough, but the foot is crooked that wears it ; all would do well if thou wert well, and thou wilt never be well till thou art righteous and holy. Secondly, It is a life with God. A gracious soul walks in God's presence, and keeps communion with him. If you would meet a saint, you know his haunt, what company he keeps, 1 John i. 3 : ' That ye may have fellowship with us, and truly om- fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' See the ingenuity of a holy soul ; truly our fellowship is with God, we tell you no lie. An unholy heart dares not be thus free, I warrant you, and tell what company his soul walks with from day to day. We see there is no danger of going among holy men, they will bring you acquainted with no ill company ; they will carry you to God, where their great resort lies. And tell me now, must not that man live a pleasant life that walks with God ? Let it be but a man you ride with in a journey, one that loves you well, and is able to entertain you with good and cheerful discourse ; doth not the delight you take in his company, strangely, yet sweetly, beguile you of the tediousness of the way? O what joy then must God bring with him to that soul he walks with ! ' Blessed is the people,' saith the psalmist, ' that know that joyful sound : they shall v.alk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance ; in thy name shall they rejoice all the day !' The sound of the trumpet which called them to their religious assemblies is called the joyful sound, because in his worship God did especially manifest himself to his people. The heaven of heavens is to be where the Lord is ; surely, then, that which the saint hath of God's presence here is enough to make the Christian's life joyous. O Christian, is it not sweet to walk with God to God ? To walk with God here below, by his assist- ing, comforting presence, to God manifesting himself in all his glory above in heaven ? O all you that are for pleasant prospects in your walks, and out of your windows, see here one that the world cannot match, — the prospect that a gracious soul hath, walking in the paths of righteousness : he may see God walking with him, as a friend with his friend, and manifesting himself to him, Psa. 1. 23 ; yea, he hath not only the sweetness of God's present company with him, but he hath tlie goodly prospect of heaven before him, whither God is leading him, and in this way of holiness will certainly bring him at last. Whereas the unholy wretch, walking in the company of his lusts, though they sweeten his mouth with a little frothy pleasure at present, that soon is melted off his tongue, and the taste forgotten, yet they shew him the region of darkness before him, whither they will bring him, and where they will leave him, to re- pent of his dear-bought pleasures in toi-ments easeless and endless. Thirdly, It is the life of God himself. Read the expression, Eph. iv. 18, 'alienated from the life of God ;' that is, the life of godliness. A holy life is the life of God. But how? Not only as God is the Author of it, so he is of the beast's life; thus the wicked are not alienated from the life of God, for they have a natural life which God gave them ; but the expression carries more in it, and that is this : ' The life of God,' is as much as ' a life like the life which God himself lives.' He is a living God, and his life is a holy life ; holiness is the life of his life. Now I pray, friends, do you not think God himself lives a THE liREASTI'LATE OF lUGIITEOUSNESS. ^^l life of pleasure? and what is the pleasure of his life but holiness? He takes pleasure in the graces of his saints, Psa. cxlix. 4 ; liow much more in his own essential holiness, from whence those beams which shine so beautifully to his eye in his children were at first shot ! Thou, whoever thou art, hast an art above God himself, if thou canst fetch any true pleasure out of unholiness and unrighteousness ; and let me tell thee also, it is not the lowest of blasphemies for thee to charge the way of righteousness and holiness to l)e an enemy to true pleasiu-e; for in that thou chargest God himself to want true joy and pleasure, who has no pleasure if holiness will not yield it. But away with such putrid stuff as this is. The devils and damned souls themselves, that hate Gocl with the most perfect hatred of any other, yet ihey dare not say, they cannot say so. They know God to be glorious and happy, yea, glorious in holiness ; and the creature's bliss and glory to consist in a participation of that holiness, which makes God himself so blessed and glorious. This, Christian, is the utmost that can be said of thy happiness, either here, or in heaven hereafter. That makes thee glorious which makes God glorious; thy joy and pleasure is of the same kind with the pleasure God delights himself in, Psa. xxvi. 8 : ' Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.' Mark that phrase, ' the river of thy pleasures.' God hath his pleasiu'es, and God gives his saints to drink of his pleasures. This is the sweet accent of the saint's pleasures. When a prince bids his servants carry such a man down into the cellar, and let him drink of their beer or wine, this is a kindness from so great a personage to be valued highly. But for the prince to set him at his own table, and let him drink of his own wine, this, I hope, is far more. When God gives a man estate, corn, and wine, and oil, the comforts of the creature, he entertains the man but in the common cellar ; such as have none but carnal enjoyments, they do but sit with the servants, and in some sensual pleasures they are but fellow-commoners with the beasts. But when he bestows his grace, beautifies a soul with holiness, now he prefers the creature as high as it is capable of, he never sends this rich clothing to any but he means to set such by him at his own table, with him, in heaven's glory. CHAPTER XIII. WHEREIN IS DEFEATED SATAn's SECOND WILE, BY WHICH HE WOULD CHEAT THE CHRISTIAN OF HIS BREASTPLATE, PRESENTING IT AS PREJUDICIAL TO HIS WORLDLY PROFITS, Assault'!. Secondly, Ifthou dost not stumble at this stone, the devil hath another at hand to throw in the way. ' He is not so unskilful a fowler as to go with one single shot into the field ; and, therefore, expect him, as soon as he hath discharged one, and missed thee, to let fly at thee with a second; and tell thee, this holy life, and righteous walking, thou hadst best never meddle with it, except thou meanest to undo thyself, and all that depend on thee. Look upon the rich, will he say, and great men in the world; how dost think these heaped together such vast estates, and raised their families to such dignity and grandeur in their places ? Was it by their righteousness and holiness ? Alas ! if they had been so strait-laced in their consciences as thou must be, if thou tiest thyself up to the rules of a holy life, they had never come to so good a market for this world as tliey have done. And if thou wilt thrive with them, thou must do as they have done, throw off the ' breastplate of righteousness' quite, or unbuckle it, that it nuiy hang loose enough to turn aside when an advantage is offered, or else you may sliut up your shop-windows, and give over your trade, for all you are like to get at the year's end. Ans. To defend thee, Christian, against this assault, take these considera- tions, from which it will not be hard to draw an answer tliat will stoji the mouth of this objection. First, Consider it is not necessary that thou shouldst be rich; but it is neces- sary thou shouldst be holy, if thou meanest to be happy. You may travel to heaven with never a penny in your purse, but not without holiness in your heart and life also. And wisdom bids thee first atlend to that which is of greatest necessity. Secondly, Heaven is worth the having, though thou gocst poor and ragged. 332 AND HAVING ON yea, naked, thither. There are some in the world that will accept God's offer thankfully, may they be admitted into that glorious city, though God doth not bribe them, and allure thither with great estates here. And, therefore, for shame, resolve to be holy at all j^eradventures. Do not stand indenting with God for that, which, if you were actually possessed of and loved him, you would leave, and throw at your heels with scorn, rather than part with him. Thirdly, A little of the world will give thee content, if holiness be kept in its power, as few clothes will serve a hale, strong man ; and better is the warmth that comes from blood and spirits within, than a load of clothes without. Better, I trow, the content which godliness gives the Christian in his poverty, than the content, if there be such a thing in the world, which the rich man hath from his wealth : ' Godliness with content is great gain.' The holy person is the only contented man in the world. Paul tells us, ' he had learnt in whatsoever state he was to be content,' Phil. iv. 11 ; but if you ask him, who was his master that taught him this hard lesson, he will tell you, he had it not by sitting at Gamaliel's feet, but Christ's, ver. 13 : 'I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.' What the philosopher said in a brag, that the holy soul in truth and soberness can say through Christ, when he is lowest and poorest, that his heart and his condition are matches. We would count him a happy man, stiloviundi, that can live of himself without trading or borrowing, or that when he would buy or purchase, hath ready cash for the purpose in his coffers ; when he would indulge his fanciful appetite with varieties, hath all within his own pale, what rarities the several elements can afford, and needs not to send abroad to this market and that for provision. Godliness is so rich a continent, that it is able to maintain the Christian of its own growth, as I may say, and out of its own store, with all that his gracious heart can desire, without begging at the creature's door, and hazarding unworthily his holiness to attain. Fourthly, Consider what a dear bargain they have, who part with, or pawn their ' breastplate of righteousness' for the world's riches ; which will appear, first, in the sin ; secondly, in the heavy curse that ti-eads upon the heels of that sin. First, It is a great sin. The devil siu'e would tempt Clmst to no small sin ; we find him, Luke iv., laying this golden bait before him, when he ' shewed him all the kingdoms of the world,' and promised them all unto him, if he would ' fall down and worship him.' What was the foul spirit's design in this demand but to draw Christ to acknowledge him the lord of the world, and by worship- ping him, to declare that he expected the good things of the world, not from God, but him? Now trulj^, everyone that by unrighteousness seeks the world's pelf, he goes to the devil for it, and doth worship him in effect. He had as good speak out, and say he acknowledges not God, but the devil, to be lord of the world, and to have the disposing of it ; for he doth what God interprets so. Now, how much better is it to have poverty from God than riches from the devil ! Here is a daring sin, with a witness, at one clap, to take away God's sovereignty, and bestow it upon the devil, to do what he pleaseth with the world. Secondly, It is a foolish sin, 1 Tim. vi. 9 : ' They that will be rich,' that is, by right or wrong, ' fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish lusts.' What greater folly than to play the thief to acquire that which is a man's own already! if thou art a saint, all is thine the world hath: ' Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come,' I Tim. iv. 8. If riches be good for thee, thou shalt have it, for that is the tenour of temporal promises ; and if it be not thought good by God, who is best able to judge, to pay thee the promise in specie, in kind, then another promise comes m for thy relief, which assures thee thou shalt have money-worth, Heb. xiii. 5 : ' Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' If God hath given thee riches, but calls thee to part with it for his name's sake, then he gives thee his bond, upon which thou may est recover thy loss, with a hundred- fold advantage ' in this life,' besidts ' eternal life in the world to come,' Matt. xix. 29. And he is a fool, with a witness, that parts with God's promises for any security the devil can give him. Thirdly, Unrighteous gain will appear to be a dear bargain from the heavy THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. g^g curse that cleaves unto it. ' The curse of Ciod is in tlie liouse of the wicked' Prov.iii. 33; ' but in the liousc of the righteous tliere isnuich treasure, 'Prov.xv. 6. You may come to the righteous man, and (ind, possibly, no money in his house, but you are siu'e to find a treasure ; wliereas there is no ti'easure in the wicked man's house, when much gold and silver is to he foinid, because the curse of God eats up all his gains. God's fork follows the wicked's rake. It is most righteous for him to scatter what such gatlier by unrigliteousness. They are said, therefore, to ' consult shame to their liouse, for the stone out of the wall shall cry, and the beam out of the house shall answer it,' Hab. ii. 10. O wlu) that prizeth the comfort of his life would, though for tons of gold, live in a house thus haimted ! where the cry of his imrighteousness follows him into every room he goes, and he doth, as it were, hear the stones and beams of his house groaning under the weight of his sin, that laid them there; yea, so hate- ful is this sin to the righteous Lord, that not only they who purse up the gain thus got are cursed by him, but also the instruments such use to advance their unrighteous projects. The poor servant, that, currying favour with his master, advanceth his estate by fraud and unrighteousness, God threatens to pay him his wages, Zeph. i. 9 : 'I will punish those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.' This is spoke either of servants standing at the door to hook in customers they may cheat ; or else of great men's ofHcers that came with absolute power into men's houses to take by violence from them what they pleased : these, though their masters pocketed up the gain, shall be pimished ; their masters, as the great devourers, and they as their sharks to seek and provide prey for them. CHAPTER XIV. WHEREIN IS DEFEATED THE THIRD STRATAGEM SATAN USETH TO DISARM THE CHRISTIAN OF HIS BREASTPLATE, AND THAT IS BY SCARING HIM WITH THE CONTRADICTION, OPPOSITION, AND FEUD FROM THE WORLD IT BRINGS. Assault 3. Thirdly, There is yet a third stiunbling-block, which Satan useth to lay in the way of a soul setting forth in tliis path of righteousness ; and that is the contradiction which such a one is sure to meet with from the world. O, saith Satan, this is the ready way to bring thee under the lash of every tongue ! to lose the love of thy neighbom-s, and contract the scorn, yea, hatred, of all thou livest among ; and dost thou not desire to live friendly and peaceably with thy neighbours ? Canst thou bear to be hooted at, as Lot was among the Sodomites, and Noah amidst the old world, that were all of another way ? This holiness breeds ill blood wherever it comes ; own that, and you bring the world's fists about your ears presently. Ans. Truly though this be a sorry, weak objection in itself, yet, where it meets with a soft temper, and disposition tendered with a facility of nature, one in whom love and peaceful inclinations are predominant, it carries weight enough to amount to a dangerous temptation. No doubt Aaron stumbled at this stone in the business of the golden calf. He did not please himself, surel)', in the thing : but it was an act merely complacential to the people, as appears by his apology to Moses, Exod. xxxii. 22 : ' Let not the anger of my lord wax hot; thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.' As if he had said, I did not know Avhat they would have done to me upon my denial ; what I did was to pacify them, and prevent more trouble from them. There is need we see to be armed against this temptation, which that thou mayest be, seri- ously weigh these two particulars : First, Thy God, Christian, whom thou servest, commands the tongues, hands, yea, hearts, of all men. He can, when he pleases, without the least abating in thy holy course, give thee to find favour in the eyes of those thou most fearest, Prov. xvi. 7: 'When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.' Laban in a fury pursues Jacob, but God meets him in the way, and gives him his lesson, how he should carry himself to the good man, (ien. xxxi. 24, and ver. 29; he doth ingenuously confess to Jacob what turned the wind into a warmer corner, and made him so calm with him, that set out so full of rage, ver. 29 : 'It is in the ])ower of my hand to do you hurt, but the CJod of your father met me yesternight,' &c. 'I'hank him for gg^, AND HAVING ON nothing ; he had power to hurt Jacob, but God would not let him. Mordecai, one would have thought, took the readiest way to incur the king's wrath, by denying Hainan that reverence which all were, by royal command, to pay him: but the holy man's conscience would not sufter his knee to bow ; and yet we see when that proud favourite had done his worst to be revenged on him, he was forced himself to inherit the gallows intended for Mordecai, and leave Mordecai to succeed him in the prince's favour. Thus God, who hath a key to kings' breasts, on a sudden locked Ahasuerus's heart against that cursed Amalekite, and opened it to let this holy man into his room. O who would be afraid to be conscientious, when God can and doth so admirably provide for his people's safety, while they keep close to him ! Secondly, Suppose thy holy walking stirs up the wrath of imgodly ones against thee ; know, there may be more mercy in their hatred, than in their love. Commonly, the saints get good by the wrath of the wicked against them, not so oft by their favour and friendship ; their displeasure awakens their care, and makes them more accurate; thus David prayed God 'to make his way plain for him,' because of his observing enemies: whereas their friendship too oft lays it asleep, and proves a snare to drav/ them into some sinfid compliance with them. Jehoshaphat was wound in too far by his correspondence with Ahab : so hard is it to keep in with God, and wicked men also. Luther pro- fessed 'he would not have Erasmus's honour for a world;' indeed the friend- ship he had with, and respect he had from the great ones of the world, made him mealy-mouthed in the cause of God. The Moabites could not give Israel the fall at arms' length ; but when they closed in alliances with the children of Israel, then they were too hard for them ; not their curses, but their embraces did them the hurt. Again, we can never lose the love, or incur the wrath of men, upon better and more advantageous terms, than for keeping our ' breast- plate of righteousness' close to us. First, when we lose for this any love from men, we gain God's blessing instead of it : ' Blessed are ye when all men speak evil of you falsely for my name's sake,' Matt. v. 11. God's blessing is a good roof over our head, to defend us from the storm of man's wrath. O, it is sad, when a Christian opens the mouths of the wicked, by some imholy action, to speak evil of him ! no promise will open then its door to hide thee from the storm of their railing tongues ; man reviles, and God frov.'ns ; little welcome such a one has, when he returns home to look into his own conscience, or con- verse with his God. But when it is for thy holiness they hate thee, God is bound by promise to pay thee love for their hatred, blessing for their cursing ; and truly that courtier has little cause to complain, that for a little disrespect from others, that cannot hurt him, is advanced higher in his prince's favour. Secondly, while thy holy walking loseth t4iee some love from the world, it gains thee the more reverence and honour. They that will not love thee be- cause thou art holy, cannot choose but fear and reverence thee at the same time for what they hate thee. Let a saint comply with the wicked, and remit a little of his holiness to correspond with them, lie loses by the hand, as to his interest, I mean, in them ; for by gaining a little false love, he loses that true honour, which inwardly their consciences paid to his holiness. A Christian walking in the power of holiness, is like Samson in his strength, the wicked fear him ; but when he shews an impotent spirit by any indecency in his course to his holy profession, then presently he is taken prisoner by them, and falls under both the lash of their tongue, and scorn of their hearts. They can now dance about such a one, and make him their May game, whose holiness even now kept them in awe. It is not poverty, or the baseness of thy outward state in the world, will render thee contemptible, so long as thou keepest thy ' breastplate of righteousness' on. There sits majesty in the brow of holiness, though clad in rags. Righteous David commands reverence from wicked Saul. The king himself does this homage to his poor exiled subject, 1 Sam. xxiv. 17 : ' He wept, and said to David, Thou art more righteous than I.' Ay, this is as it should be, when carnal men are forced to acknowledge that they are outshot % the holy lives of Christians. O Christians, do some singular thing, what the best of your merely civil neighbours cannot do, and you sit sure in the throne of their consciences, even when they throw you out of their hearts and aflec- tions. So long as the magicians did something like the miracles Moses wrought, THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 3^5 they thought themselves as good men as he ; but when they wei"e nonphised in the ' plagxie of lice,' and could not, with all their art, produce the like, they acknowledged the ' finger of God to be in it,' Exod. viii. IG. Do no more than carnal men do, and you stand but level with themselves in their opinions of you, yea, they think themselves better than you, because they ccinal you, who pretend to holiness more than they. It is expected that every one in the calling he professeth should more than a little exceed another that is not of that calling, which, if he do not, he becomes contemptible. CHAPTER XV. CONTAINS TWO USES OF THE POINT. We come to the application, in which we shall be the shorter, having sprinkled something of this nature all along as we handled the doctrinal part. Section I. — Use 1. First, For information in two particulars. First, Are we thus to endeavoiir the maintainmg of the power of holiness, then, sure, there is such a thing as righteousness and unrighteousness, holiness arid sin that opposeth it : yet there is a generation of men that make these things to be mere fancies, as if all the existence they had were in the melan- choly imaginations of some poor-spirited, timorous men, who dream of these things, and then are scared with the bugbears that their own foolish thoughts represent to them. Hence some among us have dared to make it their boast and glorying that they have at last got from under the bondage of that tyrant, conscience ; they can now do that which we call swearing, lying, yea, what not? without being bearded and checked by an imperious conscience; yea, that there is no sin to any but him that thinks so. These are worse fools than he the psalmist speaks of, Psa. xiv. 1 : he doth but ' say in his heart. There is no God;' but these tell the world what fools they are, and cannot hide their shame. I do not mention these so much to confute tthem, that were to as little purpose as to go to prove there is a sun shining in a clear day, because a mad, frantic man denies it, but rather to affect your hearts with the abomi- nations of the times, ye holy ones of God ! O how deep asleep were men, that the enemy could come and sow such tares as these amongst us ! Perhaps they thought such poisonous seed would not grow in our soil, that hath liad so much laboiu" and cost bestowed on it by Christ's husbandmen ; that such strong delusions woidd never go down with any that had been used to so pure a gospel diet. But, alas! we see by woful experience that as a plague, w'hen it hits into a city that stands in the purest air, often rages more than in another place, so when a spirit of delusion falls upon a people that have enjoyed most of the gospel, it grows most prodigious. It makes me even tremble to think what a place of nettles England, that hath so long continvied without wrong to any other church Christ hath in the w'orld, one of his fairest, most fruitful garden-plots, may at last become, when I see what weeds have sprung up in our daj's. I have heard that reverend and holy nuister Greenham should say, he feared rather atheism than popery would be England's ruin. Had he lived in our dismal days, he would have had his fears much increased. Were there ever more atheists made and making in England, since it was acquainted with the gospel, than in the compass of the last dozen years ? I have reason to think there were not. When men shall fall so far from the profession of the gosjiel, and be so blinded that they cannot know light from darkness, righteousness from unrighteousness, are they not far gone in atheism i This is not natural blindness ; for the heathen could tell when they did good and evil, and see holiness from sin, without Scripture light to shew them, Rom. ii. 14, 15. No, this blindness is a plague of (iod falling on them for rebelling against the light when they could see it. And if this plague should gi-ow more common, which God forbid, woe then to England. Secondly, If we be to maintain the power of holiness, then surely it is not impossible. God would not command what he doth not enable his own peculiar people to do, only here you must remember carefully the distinction, premised in the opening ot the text, between a legal righteousness and an evangelical righteousness; the latter of which is so far from being unattainable, that there is not a sincere Christian in the world but is truly holy in this sense; that is. ggQ AND HAVING ON he doth truly desire, conscionably endeavour (with some success of his endea- vour, through divine grace assisting,) to walk according to the rule of God's word. I confess all Christ's scholars are not of the same form ; all his children are not of the same stature and strength ; some foot it more nimblj^ in the ways of holiness than others, yet not a saint but is endued with a principle of life, that sets him at work for God, and to desire to do more than he is able. As the seed, though little in itself, yet hath in it virtually the bigness and heighth of a grown tree, towards which it is putting forth with more and more strength of nature as it grows ; so in the very first principle of grace planted at con- version, there is perfection of grace contained, in a sense, that is, a disposition putting the creature forth in desires and endeavovirs after that perfection to which God hath appointed him in Christ Jesus. And, therefoi-e, Christian, whenever svich thoughts of the impossibility of obtaining this holiness here on earth are suggested to thee, reject them as sent in from Satan ; and that on a design to feed thy own distrustful humour, which he knows they will suit too well, as the news of giants and high walls that the spies brought to the un- believing Israelites did them, and all to weaken thy endeavoiu's after holiness, which he knows will surely prove him a liar. Do but strongly resolve to be conscientiovis in thy endeavours, with an eye upon the promise of help, and the work will go on thou needest not fear it : ' for the Lord God is a sun and a shield : he will give grace and glor)^, and no good thing shall he withhold from them that walk uprightly,' Psa. Ixxxiv. 11. Mark that, ' grace and glory,' that is, grace unto glory : he will still be adding more grace to that thou hast, till thy grace on earth commenceth glory in heaven. Section II. — Use 2. Secondly, For reproof of several sorts of persons. First, All those who content themselves with their unholy state wherein they are ; such is the state of every one by nature. These, alas ! are so far from maintaining the power of holiness, that they are under the 23ower of their lust; they give law to them, and cut out all their work for them, which they bestow all their time to make up. And is not that a sad life, sirs, which is spent about such filth}', beastly work as sin and unrighteousness ? Well may the ' bond of iniquity and the gall of bitterness' be joined together. Acts viii. 23. The apostle is thought to allude to Dent. xxix. 18, where all sin and unrighteous- ness is called ' a root that beareth gall and wormwood.' He that plants sin and unholiness, and then thinks to gain any other than bitter fruit for all his labour, pretends to a knowledge beyond God himself, who tells, that the natural fi-uit which grows from this root is ' gall and wormwood.' Who would look for musk in a dog's kennel ? That thou mayest sooner find there than any true sweet- ness and comfort in unholiness. The devil may possibly for a time sophisticate, with his cookery and art, this bitter morsel, so that thou shalt not have the natural taste of it upon thy palate ; but, as Abner said to Joab, 2 Sam. ii. 26, * Knowest thou not it will be bitterness in the latter end V In hell all the sugar will be melted wherein this bitter pill was wrapped ; then, if not before, thou wilt have the true relish of that which goes down now so sweetly. O how many are there now in hell cursing their feast, and feast-maker too ! Do you think it gives any ease to the damned to think what they had for their money 1 I mean what pleasures, profits, and carnal enjoyments they once had on earth, for which they now pay those imspeakable torments that are open upon them, and shall con- tinue for ever without any hope or help. No, it increaseth their pain beyond all our conceit, that they should sell their precious souls so cheap, in a manner for a song, and lose heaven and blessedness, because they would not be holy, which now they learn, too late, was itself, however they once thought otherwise, a great part of that blessedness, and now torments them to consider they put it from them under the notion of a burden and a bondage. But, alas ! alas ! how few thoughts do imholy wretches spend with themselves, in considering what is doing in another world ! They see sinners die daily in the prosecution of their lusts, but do no more think what is become of them, that they are in hell burning and roaring for their sin, than the fish in the river do think what is become of their fellows that were caught up by their gills from them, even now with the angler's hook, and cast into the seething-pot or frying pan alive. No, as those silly creatures are ready still to nibble and bite at the same hook that struck their fellows, even so are men and women forward to catch at those THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 337 baits still of sinful pleasure, and wages of unrighteousness, by which so many millions of souls before them have been hooked into hell and damnation. Secondly, Those who are as unholy as others, naked to God's eye, and Satan's malice ; but to save their credit in the world, wear something like a breastplate, a counterfeit holiness, which does them this service for the pre- sent, the}' are thought to be what they are not : * verily they have their reward,' and a poor one it is. Consider what you do, and tremble at it; you do the devil, God's great enemy, double service, and God double disservice : as he that comes into the field, and brings deceitful arms with him, draws his prince's ex- pectation towards him as one who would do some exploit for him, but means nothing of the kind, yea, hinders some others that would be faithful to his prince in that place where he a traitor now stands : such a one may do his prince more mischief than many who cowardly stay at home or rebelliously nm over to the enemy's side, and tell him plainly what they intend to do. O friends, be se- rious ; if you will trade for holiness, let it be for true holiness, as it is called : Eph. iv. 34, ' Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness;' wherein two phrases are observable ; it is called the 'new man after God,' that is, according to the likeness of God; such a sculpture on the soul, or image, is drawn after God, as the picture after the face of the man. Again, 'true holiness,' or holiness of truth, either i-especting the word, which is the rule of holiness, and then it means a Scripture holiness, not Pharisaical and traditional ; or else it respects the heart, which is the seat of truth or falsehood. True holiness in this sense is holiness and righteousness in the heart ; there must be truth of holiness in the inner parts : many a man's beauty of holiness is but like the beauty of his body, skin deep, all on the outside. Open the most beautiful body, and that which was so fair without will be foimd within, when open, to have little beside blood, filth, and stench ; so this counterfeit holiness, wlien imbowelled, and inside exposed to view, will appear to have hid within it nothing but an abundance of spiritual impurities and abominations. ' God,' said Paul to the high priest, ' shall smite thee, thou whited wall,' Acts xxiii. 3. Thus say I to thee, O hypocrite, God shall so smite thee, thou whited wall, or rather painted sepulchre, that thy paint without in thy profession doth not now more dazzle the eyes of others into admiration of thy sanctity, than thy rottenness within, which then shall appear without, will make thee abhorred and loathed of all that see thee. Thirdly, Those who are so far from being holy themselves, that they mock and jeer others for being so. This ' breastplate of righteousness' is of so base an account with them, that they who wear it in their daily conversation do make themselves no less ridiculous to them than if they came forth in a fool's coat, or were clad in a dress contiived on purpose to move laughter. When some wretch woidd set a saint most at naught, and represent him as an object of great scorn, what is the language he wraps him up in but, ' There goes a holy brother, one of the pure ones ?" His very holiness is that which he thinks to disgrace him with. This shews a heart extremely wicked : there is a further degree of wicked- ness appears in mocking holiness in another, than harbouring unholiness in a man's own bosom. That man hath a great antipathy indeed against a dish of meat, who not only himself refuseth to eat of it, but cannot bear the sight of it on another's trencher without vomiting. O how desperately wicked is that man with whom the very scent and sight of holiness at such a distance works so strange an effect as to make him cast up the gall and bitterness of his spirit against it ! The S})irit of God bestows the chair upon this sort of sinners, and sets them above all their brethren in iniquity, as most deserving the place. ' Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,' Psa. i. 1 . The scorner here is set as chairman at the counsel-table of sinners ; some read the word for scornful, rhetorical mockers. There is indeed a devilish wit that some shew in their mock at holiness ; they take a kind of pride in polishing those darts which they shoot against saints. The Septuagint reads it, ' the chair of ])cstilent ones.' Indeed, as the plague is the most mortal among diseases, so is the spirit of scorning among sinners: as few recover out of this sin as any whatever besides. The Scripture speaks of this sort of sinners as almost free among the dead ; as little hope of doing them good for their souls as of those for their bodies who cannot 333 AND HxWINU ON keep the physic administered to them, but presently cast it up before it hath any operation on them ; and therefore we are even bid to save our physic, and not so much as bestow a reproof on them, lest we have it cast in our faces : ' Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee,' Prov. ix. 7. All we can do is, to write upon their dooi", ' Lord, have mercy upon him ! ' I mean, rather pray for them than speak to them. There hath of old been this sort of sinners mingled amongst the godly. A mocking Ishmael in Abraham's family. Gen. xxi. 9. And observable it is what interpretatioii the Spirit of God makes of his scornful carriage towards his brother : Gal. iv. 29, ' As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.' Pray mark, first, what was the ground of the quarrel ; it was this, — his brother was 'born after the Spirit;' and this he, being 'born after the flesh,' hated. Secondly, observe how the Spirit of God phraseth this his scornful carriage to his brother ; it is called persecuting him. To aggravate the evil of a scornful spirit and a mocking tongue, which stands for so little a sin in the world's account-book, (who count none persecutors but those that shed blood for religion,) God would have thejeerer and scoffer to know among what sort of men he shall be ranked and tried at Christ's bar — no less sinners than persecutors. But this I conceive is not all : this mocking of holiness is called persecuting, because there is the seed of bloody persecution in it. They who are so free of their tongue to jeer, and shew their teeth in mocking at holiness, would fasten their teeth also on it if they had power to use their cheek-bone. Lastly, observe this was not barely the cross disposition of Ishmael's personal peevish and froward temper, so to abuse his brother, b\it it is laid as the charge of all wicked men ; as he did persecute his brother because after the Spirit, even so now this mocking spirit rmis in the blood, the whole litter are alike ; and if any seem more ingenuous and favourable to the holy ones of God, we must fetch the reason from soiTie other head than their sinful nature ; God rides some of them with a cixrb-bit, who though they open not their hearts to Christ savingly, yet truth is got so far into them by a powerful con- viction, that it makes conscience say to the'm concerning their holy neighboiu's, what Pilate's wife by message said to her husband of Christ, ' Have thou nothing to do with these just men, for I have suffered much concerning them,' Matt, xxvii. 19. But though there were ever mockers of holiness among the saints, because there were ever wicked neighbours ; yet the Spirit of God prophe- sieth of a sort of mockers to come upon the stage in the last days that shoidd differ from the ordinary scoffers that the people of God have beeii exer- cised with. And still the last is the worst; you know, those who mock and jeer at holiness use to be men and women that pretend nothing to religion themselves, such as Avalk in an open defiance of God, and wallow in all manner of wickedness ; but the Spfrit of God tells us of a new gang that shall mock at holiness under the colour of holiness : they shall be horribly wicked, some of them, as the worst of the former sort were, but wicked in a mysterj' : Jude ver. 17, 18, ' But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.' But mark, lest we should expect them at the wrong door, and so mistake, thinking they should arise, as formerly, from among the common swearers, drunkards, and other notorious sinners among us, he in the next words gives you as clear a character of them as if they carried their name on their forehead : ver. 19, 'These be they who separate themselves, sensual, not having the Spirit.' Learned Mr. Perkins reads the words thus: 'These be sect-makers, fleshly, not having the Spirit.' Sect-makers ! those that separate themselves! Do not our hearts tremble to see the mockers' arrows shot out at this window? These are they who pretend more to purity of worship than others, and profess they separate on conscience' accoimt, because they cannot suffer themselves so much as to touch them that are \mclean by joining with them in holy ordinances; and they mockers, they fleshly ! Truly, if the Spirit of God had not told us this, we should have gone last into their tent, (as Laban did into Rachel's,) as least suspecting that any mocker of holiness could stay there ; yea, God forbid that we should lay it in general as the charge of all who have separated from com- munion in the public, many of whom my conscience tells me are lovers of THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 339 holiness, and led, though out of their way, by the tenderness of their consciences, which, when God hath better enlightened, will bring them as fast back to their brethren as now it carrieth them from them. And truly, I think it might give a great lift to the making them think of a return, if they would but in their sad and serious thoughts consider how far many of those who went out from us with them are gone ; even to mock at the holiness of those from whom once they parted, because they were not holy enough for their company, God, the searcher of hearts, knows I speak this with a sad heart ; so that were they to come and'join with us again in some ordinances, such scandal hath been given by them, that they who durst not join with us, ought not, as they are, to be admitted by us. How many of those have you heard of, that began with a separation from our assemblies, who mock at sabbaths, cast off family dvities, indeed all prayer in secret by themselves, yea, drink in those cursed opinions, that make them speak scornfully of Clu-ist the Son of God himself, and the great truths of the gospel, which are the foundation of all true holiness ; so that now, none are so great an object of their scorn, as those who walk most closely by the holy rule of the gospel ! Well, of what sort soever you are, whether atheistical mockers at holiness, or such as mock true holiness in the disguise of a false one, take heed what you do — it is as much as your life is worth : ' Be not deceived, God will not be mocked,' nor suffer his grace to be mocked in his saints. You know how dearly that scoli' did cost them, though but childi*en, that spake it to the prophet, ' Go up, thou bald-head, go up, thou bald-head,' 2 Kings ii. 23 ; where they did not only revile him with that nick-name of bald- head, but made a mock and jeer of Elijah's raptiu-e into heaven, as if they had said. You would make us believe your master is gone up to heaven ; why do not you go up after him, tliat we may be rid of both your companies at once? And we need not wonder tiiat these children should rise to such a height of wicked- ness so soon, if you observe the place where they lived at. Bethel, which was most infamous for idolatry, and one of the two cities where Jeroboam did set up his calves, 1 Kings xii. 28 ; so that this seems but the natural language which they learnt, no doubt, from their idolatrous parents. God met with Michal also for despising her husband, merely upon a religious account, because he shewed a holy zeal for God, which her proud spirit (as many others since have done) thought it too mean and base for a king to do. Well, what is her punishment? ' Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.' The service of God was too low for a king, in her thoughts ; therefore shall none come out of her womb to sit on the throne, or wear a crown. It is great wicked- ness to mock at the calamity of another. ' He that mocketh the poor reproach- eth his Maker,' Prov. xvii. 5 ; yea, to laugh at and triumph over a saint's trans- gression is a heavy sin ; so did some sons of Belial, when David fell into that sad temptation of adultery and murder ; and they are indicted for blaspheming God upon that account. What then is it to mock one for his holiness ? Sin cai-ries some cause of shame, and gives naughty hearts an occasion to reproach him they see besmeared with that which is so inglorious and unbecoming, especially in a saint. But holiness is honourable, and stamps dignity on the person that hath it. It is not only the nobility of the creature, but the honour of the most high God himself; so rims his title of honour, ' Who is like thee, glorious in holiness?' Exod. XV. 11 ; so that none can mock that, but upon the same account he must mock God infinitely more, because there is infinitely more of that holiness, whicli he jeers at in the creature, to be found in God, than all the creatures, men and angels, iii both worlds, have among them. If you would contrive a way how to cast the greatest dishonour upon God possible, you could not hit on the like to this. The Romans, when they would put contempt upon any, and degrade them of their nobility, they commanded that those their statues and portraitures, which were set \ip in the city or temples to their memory, should all be broken down. Every saint is a lively image of God ; and the more holy, the more like God . when thou, therefore, puttest scorn on them, and that for their Ivoliness, now thou touchest God's honour nearly indeed. Will nothing less content thee, but thou must deface that image of his, which he hatli erected with so much cost in his saints, on purpose that they might be a praise to him in the earth ? Was it such horrible wickedness in those heathens ' to cast fire into the sanctu.ar}', and to break down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers?' z 2 OAQ AND HAVING ON Psa. Ixxiv. G, 7 ; of which the cliurch makes her moan, ver. 10 : ' O God, how loll"- shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy hlaspheme thy name for ever ?' What then is in tliy devilish malice, whose rage is spent, not on wood and stones, hut the carved work of his Spirit, the grace and holiness of his living temples ? CHAPTER XVI. AN EXHORTATION TO THE SAINTS, IN THREE BRANCHES. Use 3. Thirdly, It may be for exhortation to the saints, in several parti- culars : I shall only name three, because I have directed myself in the whole discourse cliiefly to them. First, Bless God that hath furnished thee with this breastplate. Canst thou do less, when thou seest such multitudes on every hand slain before thy face by the destroyer of souls, for want of this piece to defend their naked breasts against his murdering shot ? Had God made thee great and rich in the world, but not holy, he had but given thee stock to trade with for hell. Tliese would have made thee a greater booty for Satan, and only procured in the end a deeper damnation. When an enemy comes before a city that hath no walls nor arms to defend it, truly the richer it is, the worse it fares ; when Satan comes to a man that hath much of the world about him, but nothing of God in his soul to defend him, O what miserable work doth he make with such ! He takes what he pleaseth, and doth what he will ; purse, and all the poor wretch hath, is at his command. Let a lust ask never so unreasonably, he hath not a heart to deny it ; though he knows what the gratifying of it will cost him in another world, yet he will damn his soul rather than displease his lust ! Herod throws half his kingdom at the foot of a wanton wench, if she will ask it ; and because that was thought too little by her, he will sacrifice his whole kingdom to his lust ; . for so much the blood of John the Baptist may be judged to have cost him in this life, — being (so wakeful, was Divine Providence) shortly after turned out of his throne, — besides what he pays in the other. But when God made thee a holy man or woman, then he gave thee gates and bars to thy city; thou art now able through his grace to stand on thy defence, and with the continual succours Heaven sends thee to withstand all his power. Thou wert once indeed a tame slave to him, but now he is a servant to tliee ; that day thou becamest holy, God did set thy foot on the serpent's head. Thy lusts were once his strongholds, with which he kept thee in awe, and out of which he did come and do thee so much hurt; but now these are out of his hand. O, what joy is there in a town, when a castle that commanded it is taken from the enemy ! Now, poor soul, Satan is dislodged, never more shall he be ruler in thy soul as he hath been. In a word, when thou wert made a holy, righteous person, then did God begin heaven in thy soul ; that day thou wert born again, an heir to heaven was born. And if such acclamations be at the birth of a young prince, heir to some petty territories, hast not thou more cause that then hadst heaven's glory settled on thee in reversion, especially if thou considerest where all thy inheritance lay a little before, that thou couldst lay claim to? Paul joins both together to make his doxology full, 1 Cor. xii. 13 : ' Giving thanks unto the Father, wliich hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light ; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son !' O blessed change! to step out of the devil's dark dungeon, where thou wert kept in chains of sin and unrighteousness, prisoner for hell, into tlie kingdom of Christ's grace, wliere thou hast the golden chain of holiness and righteousness put about thy neck as heir-apparent to heaven ; such honour have all his saints. Secondly, Look thou keepest thy breastplate on, Christian. Need we bid the soldier be careful of his armour, when he goes into the field ? can he easily forget to take that with him, or be persuaded to leave it behind him ? yet some have done so, and paid dear for their boldness. Better thou endure the weight of thy plate, though a little cumbersome to the flesh, than receive a wound in thy breast for want of it : let this piece fall off", and thou canst keep none of the other on. If thou allowest thyself in any unholiness, thy sincerity, that will presently be called into question in thy conscience. I confess we find tliat THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. ^/j J Peter, a little after Iiis sad fall in denying of his master, had the testiniDny of his uprightness, John, xx. 17 : 'Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.' After Christ had thrice put it to the question, he could con- fidently voucli his sincerity ; but we nuist know, first, that his sin was not a deli- berate sin — the poor man was surprised on a sudden ; and secondly, there had intervened his bitter sorrow between his sin and this his profession ; and the renev/ing of his repentance so speedily conduced much to the clearing of his sincerity to his conscience. But Da\ id found it harder work, who shnied more deliberately, and lay longer in his guilt, as you may perceive, Psa. li. 10, where he pleads so earnestly that God would ' renew a right spirit in liini.' Again, the gospel shoe will not come on thy foot so long as swelled with any sinful humour, (I mean any unrighteous or unholy practice,) till assuaged and purged out by repentance. Consider the gospel in its preparation ; art thou in a fit case to sufter cheerfully for (Jod, or patiently from God, as thou art? No more than a soldier in a disease sick in bed is to take a hard march. Un- holiness affects the soul as much as sickness doth the body, and indisposeth it to endiu-e any hardship. ' O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength before I go hence, and be no more,' Psa. xxxix. 13. David was not yet re- covered out of that sin, which had brought him exceeding low, as you may perceive, ver. 10, 11. And the good man cannot think of dying with any willingness till his heart be in a holier frame : and for the ' peace of the gospel,' serenity of conscience, and inward joy ; alas, all unholiness is to it as poison is to the spirits which drink them up; thi-ow a stone into a brook, and though clear before, it presently is stirred up and muddy. ' He will speak peace imto his people; but let them not turn again to folly,' Psa. Ixxxv. 8. Mark here, what an ifeiti he gives, ' But let them not turn ;' as if he had said, Upon their peril be it ; if they turn from holy walking to folly, I will turn from speaking peace to speak terror. Again, by thy negligence in thy holy walking, thou endangerest thy faith, which is kept in a good conscience as the jewel in the cabinet ; faith is an eye ; all sin and unholiness casts a mist before this eye. A holy life to faith, is as a clear air and medium to the eye ; we can see farthest in a clear day ; thus faith sees farthest into the promise, when it looks through a holy, well-ordered conversation; faith is a shield, and when does the soldier drop that out of his hand but when dangerously wounded? And if faith fail, what will become of hope, which hangs upon faith, and draws all her nourishn^ent from her, as the sucking child does from the nurse ? If faith cannot see a pardon in the promise, then hope cannot look for salvation ; if faith cannot lay claim to sonship, then hope will not wait for the inheritance ; faith tells the soul it hath ' peace with God,' then the soul ' rejoiceth in the hope of glory,' Rom. v. And now, Christian, what hast thou yet left for thy help ? wilt thou betake thyself to tlie sword of the Spirit ? alas, how canst thou wield it, when by thy unholy walking thou hast lamed thy hand of faith that should hold it ! Tliis sword hath two edges; with one it heals, with the other it wounds ; with one it saves, with the other it dannis. O, it is a dreadful weapon when it strikes with its wounding, damning side ; and the other side thou hast nothing to do with, while in any way of unholiness. Not a kind word in the whole Bible spoken to one sinning. Now, poor creature, think and think again, is there any sin worth hazarding all this confusion and mischief, which if thou art resolved to have it, will ine\ital)ly befall thy soul ? Thirdly, Be humble when thou art most holy. Which way soever pride works, (as thou shalt find it like the wind, sometimes at one door, and sometimes at another,) resist it. Nothing more baneful to thy holiness. It turns righteous- ness into hcndock, holiness into sin. Never art thou less holy, than when puffed up with the conceit of it. When we see a man swelled with the dropsy, we can tell his blood is naught and waterish, without opening a vein for the trial ; the more pride puff's thee, the less pure blood of holiness hast thou running in the veins of thy soul. ' Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright,' llab. ii. 4. See an ecee, like a sign, is set up at the proud man's door, that all passengers may know a wicked man dwells there. As thou wouldst not, therefore, not only enfeeble the power of holiness, but also call in question the truth of thy holiness, take heed of pride. Sometimes possibly thou wilt be Q,^2 ^^^ HAVING ON ready to despise others, and bid them in thy thovights stand off', as not so holy as thyself; this smells of the Pharisee — beware of it. It is the nature of holiness to depress ourselves, and to give our brethren the advantage in measiu-ing their gifts or graces with our own : ' In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves,' Phil. ii. 3. At another time possibly thou may est find a spice of the justiciary's disease hanging about thee, thy heart leaning on thy righteousness, and lifting up thyself into confidence of it, so as to expect thy acceptance with it, and salvation from God for that. O take heed of this, as thou lovest thy life. I may say to thee, as Constantine did to Acetius the Novatian, ' Set then up thy ladder, and go to heaven by thyself, for never any went this way thither ;' and dost thou think to be the only man that shall appear in heaven purchaser of his own happiness? Go, first, poor creature, and measure the length of thy ladder by the extent of the holy law ; and if thou findest it but one round short of that, thou mayest certainly conclude it will leave thee short of heaven : if, therefore, thou hast beheld, to allude to that in Job xxxi. 27, thy righteousness, when it hath shined, and thy holiness walking in its brightness, and thy heart thereby hath been enticed secretly, or thy mouth hath kissed thy hand, know this is a great wickedness, and in this thou hast denied the God above. Thou hast given the highest _part of divine worship unto a creature, the created son of thy inherent holiness, which God hath appointed should be given alone to the increated Son of righteousness, the Lord Jesus, the Lord our righteousness. Renounce thy plea, as now thou hast laid it, for life and salvation, or else give thy cause as lost. Now, the more effectually to keep down any insiuTCction of pride, from the conceit of thy holiness, be pleased to take often these soul-humbling considerations into thy serious thoughts. First, Think frequently of the infinite holiness of God. When men stand high, their heads do not grow dizzy till they look down ; when men look down upon those that ai'e worse than themselves, or less holy than themselves, then their heads tiuni round ; looking up wovild cure this disease. The most holy men, when once they have fixed their eyes awhile upon God's holiness, and then looked upon themselves, they have been quite out of love with themselves, and could see nothing but unholiness in themselves. After the vision the prophet had of God sitting on his throne, and his heavenly ministers of state, the sera- phims about him, covering their faces, and crying, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,' how was this gracious man presently smitten with the sense of his own vileness ! they did not more cry up God as holy, than he did cry out upon himself as unclean, Isa. vi. 5. So Job, ' Now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself,' chap. xlii. 5, 6. Never did the good man more loathe himself for the putrid sores of his ulcerous body, when on the dunghill he sat and scraped himself, than now he did for the impurities of his soiU ; we see our- selves in a dark room, and we think we are fine and clean ; but would we compass ourselves with the beams of God's glorious majesty and holiness, then the sun rays woidd not discover more atoms in the air, than the holiness of God would convince of sin to be in us. But it is the trick of pride not to come where it may be outshone ; it had rather go where it shall be adored, than where it is sure to be put to shame. Secondly, Often meditate of the holiness of man's innocent state. It is true, now, if a believer, thou hast a principle of holiness planted in thee ; but alas ! what is that at present to what thy nature once had ? They who saw the second temple, and remembered not the first which Solomon built, they thought it no doubt a glorious fabric ; but others, whose eyes had seen the stately work and goodly buildings of the other, could not but rejoice with tears in their eyes, Ezraiii. 12 : ' Many of the priests and Levitcs, and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid, wept with a loud voice.' O, it revived the sad thoughts of the sacking of that glorious structure ; and so may this little beginning upon a new foundation of the new covenant, remind thee with sorrow to think of the ruins that man in all his glory fell into by Satan's policy. It is true, in heaven thou shalt have the odds of Adam in paradise ; but thou shalt have many a weary step before thou gettest up that hill ; when a man who hath some thousands a year, hath now but a few pounds per annimi allowed him, and the rest seques- tered from him for thirty or forty years, it is sad, though comfortable also, to THE BREASn-LATK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 343 think it shall at last return, and may be with a great overplus : but at present he is put to many straits, and fain to make a hard shift to rub through, so as to live anything like his noble descent and family. Thus it is joyous to the saint to think of heaven, when all his means shall come into his hands ; but truly his imperfect grace, and the many expenses he is at, from afflictions at God's hands, temptations at Satan's mutinies, and intestine broils from remaining lusts within doors, do put him into naany sad straits, that the poor soul is fain often to snap short in his comfort ; yea, much ado he hath to keep his shop windows open with the little stock he hath ; hence the Christian's getting to heaven is set out as a business of so much difficult}'. ' If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?' 1 Pet. iv. 18. The wise virgins had no oil to spare; the Christian shall hold out, and that is even all. Think of this, and let fall thy plume. Thirdly, Often meditate of thy own personal miscarriages, especially in thy unregenerate state. This kept Paid so humble; how often does his unregenerate, wicked conversation rise, though not in his conscience, to darken his comfort, yet in his mind to qualify the thoughts of his gifts and grace; 1 Cor. xv. 9, 10, where he speaks how he ' laboured more than them all.' O how he waylays his pride, that possibly might follow such his glorying too close at the heels ; and, therefore, before he dares speak a word of his present holiness, he bolts the door upon pride, and first falls upon the story of that black part of his life. 0, how he batters his pride, and speaks himself all to naught! no enemy could have drawn his picture with a blacker coal, ver. 8, he calls himself one ' born out of time ;' ver. 9 : ' For I am the least of the apostles, not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God ; ' and now having sufficiently besmeared and doused himself in the puddle of his former sins, how Inunbly doth tlie holy man speak of his transcendent graces, ver, 10: 'By the grace of God I am what I am, and I laboured moi-e abundantly than they all; yet not 1, but the grace of God.' O, this is the way of killing this weed of pride, to break up our hearts, and turn the inside outward — I mean humble and abase ourselves for our former abominations. Pride will not easily thrive in a soil where this plough often walks. Pride is a worm that bites and gnaws out the heart of grace. Now you know those are bitter things that must break the bag of worms that are gathered in the stomach; all sweet things nourish them; they are bitter that scatter and kill them. O Christians, take some quantity of this aloe often, and with God's blessing thou shalt find ease of that, which if a Christian, thou art troubled withal. And do not think that this worm breeds only in children, weak Christians, and young novices ; I confess it is the most ordinary disease of that age ; but aged and stronger Christians are not out of danger. Old David had this worm of pride at his heart, when he bade Joab number the people; and dost not thou too often take thyself in numbering the duties and good works thou hast done, and the sufferings thou hast en- dured for thy God, with some secret self-applauding thoughts that tickle thee from them ? Verse 15. And your feet shodtvith the preparation of the gospel of peace. This verse presents us with the third piece of armour in the Christian's panoply — a spiritual shoe, fitted to his foot, and to be worn by him, so long as he keeps the field against sin and Satan. ' And your feet shod,' &c. We shall cast the words into distinct questions or inquiries, from the resolution of which will result the several points to be insisted on. First, What is meant by the gospel? Secondly, What by peace, and why attributed to the gospel? Thirdly^ What the feet here mentioned import, and what grace is intended by the ' preparation of the gospel of peace,' which here is compared to the shoe, and fitted for these feet ? Quest. AVhat is meant by the gospel ? Am. Gospel, according to the notation of the original word, signifies any good news, or joyful message ; so Jer. xx. 15, ' Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my fatlier, saying, A man-child is born to thee, to make liim glad.' But usually in Scripture, it is restrained, by way of excellency, to signify the 0*4 THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. doctrine of Christ, and salvation by him to poor sinners. 'I bring you glad tidings,' saith the angel to the shepherds, ' of great joy,' Lxike ii. 10; and ver. 11, he addeth, ' Unto you is born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' Thus it is taken in this place, and generally in the New Testament, and affords this note. CHAPTER I. WHEREIN THE GLADSOME NEWS THAT THE GOSPEL BRINGS IS DECLARED FROM THE FIVE PARTICULARS REQUISITE TO FILL UP THE JOYFULNESS OF A message; WITH A WORD TO STIR UP OUR BOWELS IN PITYING THOSE THAT never heard ANY OF THIS NEWS. Nole. The revelation of Christ, and the grace of God through him, is beyond comparison the best news and most joyful tidings that poor sinners can hear. It is such a message that no good news can come before it, nor ill news follow it. No good news can come before it ; no, not from God himself to the creature ; he cannot issue out any blessing to poor sinners, till he hath shewn mercy to their soids in Christ. ' God be merciful to us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us,' Psa. Ixvii. 1. First, God forgives, then he gives ; till he be merciful to pardon our sins through Christ, he cannot bless, or look kindly on us sinners. All our enjoy- ments are but blessings in bullion, till gospel grace, pardoning mercy, stamp and make them current ; God cannot so much as bear any good will to us, till Christ makes peace for us; ' on earth peace, good will to men,' Luke ii. 14. And what joy can a sinner take, though it were to hear of a kingdom fallen to him, if he may not have it with God's good will. Again, No ill news can come after the glad tidings of the gospel, where be- lievingly embraced. God's mercy in Christ alters the very property of all evils to the believer. All plagues and judgments that can befall the creature in the world, when baptized in the stream of gospel grace, receive a new name, come on a new errand, and have a new taste on the believer's palate ; as the same water, by running through some mine, gets a strong taste and a healing virtue, which before it had not, Isa. xxxiii. 24 : ' The inhabitant shall not say I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be pardoned their iniquity.' Observe, he doth not say, ' they shall not be sick;' gospel grace doth not exempt from afflictions; but, ' they shall not say I am sick.' They shall be so ravished with the joy of God's pardoning mercy, that they shall not complain of being sick ; this, or any other cross, is too thin a veil to darken the joy of the other good news. This is so joyful a message which the gospel brings, that God wovdd not have Adam long without it, but opened a crevice to let some beams of tliis light, that is pleasant to behold, into his soul, amazed with the terror of God's presence, without which, as he was turned out of paradise, so had he been turned into hell immediately ; for such the world would have been to his guilty con- science. This is the news God used to tell his people of, on a design to com- fort them and cheer them, when things went worse with them, and their affairs were at the lowest ebb, Isa. vii. 14; Micah v. 5. This is the great secret which God whispers by his Spirit in the ear of those whom he embraces with his special distinguishing love, Luke x. 21 ; 1 Cor. ii. 12 ; so that it is made the sad sign of a soul marked out for hell, to have the ' gospel hid from it,' 2 Cor. iv. 3. To wind up this in a few words, there meet all the properties of a joyful message in the glad tidings of the gospel. Five ingredients are desirable in a message, yea, must all conspire to fill up the joyfulness thereof into a redundancy. First, ' It must be good ;' none rejoice to hear evil news. Joy is the dilata- tion of the heart, whereby it goes forth to meet and welcome in what it desires; and this must needs be some good. Ill news is sure to find the heart shut against it, and to come before it is welcome. Secondly, ' It must be some great good,' or else it affects little; affections are moved according to the degrees of good or evil in the object presented. A thing we hear may be so inconsiderable, that it is no great matter how it goes; but if it be good, and great also, and of weighty importance, this causeth pro- portionable pleasure. The greater the bell, the more strength is required to raise it. It must be a great good that raiseth great joy. Thirdly, ' This great good must immediately concern them that hear i(;' that THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 345 is, they must have propriety in it; for tliough we can rejoice to hear of some great good befalling another, yet it affects most when it is emptied into our own bosom. A sick man doth not feel the joy of another's recovery with the same advantage as he would do his own. Fourthly, It would much add to the joyfulness of the news, if this were i?i- auditum or insperatum, 'unheard of, unlooked for,' when the tidings steal upon us by way of surprise. The farther our own ignorance or desjiair have set us from all thoughts of so great enjoyment, the more joy it brings with it, when we hear the news of it. 'fhe joy of a poor swineherd's son, who never dreamed of a crown, would be greater at the news of such a thing conferred on him, than he whose birth invited him to look for it, yea, promised it him as his in- heritance; such a one's heart would stand but level to the place, and there- fore could not be so ravished with it as another who lay so far below such a preferment. Lastly, To fill up the joy of all these, 'it is most necessary that the news be true and certain,' or else all the joy soon leaks out. What great joy would it afford to hear of a kingdom befallen to a man, and the next day or month to hear all crossed again, and prove false? Now, in the glad tidings of the gospel, all these do most happily meet together, to wind up the joy of the believing soul to the highest pin that the sti'ings of his affections can possibly bear. First, The news which the gospel hath in its mouth to tell us poor sinners is good. It speaks promises, and they are significations of some good intended by God for poor sinners. The law, that brings ill news to town, threatenings are the litigiia rernacula legis, it can speak no other language to sinners, but denunciations of evil to come upon them ; but the gospel smiles on poor sin- ners, and jdanes the wrinkles that sit on the law's brow, by proclaiming promises. Secondly, The news the gospel brings is as great as good. It was that the angel said, Luke ii. 10, 'I bring you tidings of great joy;' great joy it must needs be, because it is all joy. The Lord Christ brings such news in his gospel, as that he hath left nothing for any after him to add to it ; if there be any good wanting in the tidings of the gospel, we find it elsewhere than in God ; for in the covenant of the gospel, he gives himself through Christ to the believing soul: surely the apostle's argument will hold, 'All things are yours, ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 22. The gospel lays our ducts close to the fountain of goodness itself, and he surely must have all, that is united to him that hath, that is, all. Can any good news come to the glorified saints which heaven doth not afford them? In the gospel we have news of that glory. * Jesus Christ hath brought life and immortality to light by the gospel,' 2 Tim. i. 10. The sun in the firmament discovers only the lower world; Ob- signat caelum, dum revdat terrain ; O it hides heaven from us, while it shews the e.arth to us ; but the gospel enlightens both at once. ' Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come,' 1 Tim. iv. 8. Thirdly, Thegospel doth not tell us news we are little concerned in ; not, what God has done for angels, but for us: 'Unto j-tju,' saith the angel, 'is born a Saviour, Christ the Lord.' If love made angels rejoice in our happiness, surely the benefit which is paid into our nature by it gives a farther ])Ieasure to our joy at the hearing of it. It were strange that the messenger, who only brings the news of some great empire to be devolved on a person, shoidd sing, and the prince to whom it falls should not be glad. And, as the gospel's glad tidings belong to man's nature, not to angels, so in particular to the poor soul, who- ever thou art, that embraceth Christ in the arms of thy faith. A pi'ince is a common good to all his kingdom; every subject, though never so nu'an, hath a part in him, and so is Christ to all believers. The promises are so laid, that, like a well-drawn pictiu'c, they look on all that look on them by an eye of faith. The gos])ers joy is thy joy, that hast but faith to receive it. Fourthly, The glad tidings of the gospel were unheard of, unlooked for, by the sons of men ; such news it brings, as never could have entered into the heart of man to conceive, till God unlocked the cabinet of his own good pleasure and revealed the council of his will, wherein this mysterious piece, of love to fallen man, lay hid far enough from the prying eye of the most quick-sighted angel in hcaveiij much more from man himself, who coidd read in his own guilty Q/[,Q THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. conscience within, and spell from the covenant without, now broken by him, nothing but his certain doom and damnation. So that the first gospel sermon preached by God himself to Adam anticipated all thoughts of such a thing intended by him. O, who can conceive, but one that hath really felt the teiTors of an approaching hell in his despairing soul, how joyous the tidings of gospel mercy is to a poor soul, dwelling amidst the black thoughts of despair, and bordering on the very marches of the region of utter darkness! History tells us of a nobleman of our nation in King Henry the Eighth's reign, to whom a pardon was sent a few hoiu"s before he should have been beheaded, which, being not at all expected by him, so transported him that he died for joy. And if the vessel of our nature be so weakly hooped, that the wine of such an inferior joy breaks it, how then could it possibly be able to bear the full joy of the gospel tidings, which doth as far exceed this, as the mercy of God doth the mercy of mortal man, and as the deliverance from an eternal death in hell doth a deliverance from a temporary death, which is gone before the pain can well be felt ? Fifthly, and lastly. The glad tidings of the gospel are certainly true. It is no flying report, cried up to-day, and like to be crossed to-morrow ; not news that is in every one's mouth, but none can tell whence it came, and who is the author of it ; we have it from a good hand, God himself, ' to whom it is impossible to lie,' he from heaven vovicheth it. ' This is my beloved Son, hear him,' Luke ix. What were all those miracles which Christ wrought, but i-atifi cations of the truth of the gospel ? Those wretches that denied the truth of Christ's doctrine were forced many times to acknowledge the divinity of his miracles ; which is a pretty piece of nonsense, and declares the absurdity of their unbelief to all the world. The mii-acles were to the gospel, as seals to a writing. They could not deny God to be in the miracles, and yet they could not see him in the doctrine ; as if God would set his seal to an untruth. Here, Christians, is that which fills up the joy of this good news the gospel brings ; that we may lay our lives upon the truth of it, it will never deceive any that lay the weight of their confidence on it. ' This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,' 1 Tim. i. 15. This bridge which the gospel lays over the gulf of God's wrath for poor sinners to pass from their sins into the favour of God here, and kingdom of God hereafter, is supported with no other arches than the wisdom, power, mercy, and faithfulness of God ; so that the believing soiil need not fear, till it sees these bow or break. It is called the 'everlasting gospel,' Rev. xiv. 16. When heaven and earth go to wreck, not the least iota or tittle of any promise of the gospel shall be buried in their ruins. ' The word of the Lord endm-eth for ever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached to you,' 1 Pet. i. 25. Use 1. Pity them that never heard a word of this good news. Such there are in the world, whole nations, with whom the day is not yet broke, but a dismal night of ignorance and barbarism continues to be stretched over them ; whose folorn souls are under a continual massacre from the bloody butcher of hell. An easy conquest, God knows, that foul fiend makes of them, who lays his murderous knife to their throats, and meets with no I'esistance; because he finds them fast asleep in ignorance, utterly destitute of that light which can alone dis- cover a way to escape the hands of this destroyer. What heart, that ever tasted the sweetness of gospel grace, trembles not at their deplorable state? yea, doth not stand astonished at the difference of God's dispensations to them and us ? * Lord, why wilt thou manifest thyself to us, and not to the world ! ' God pardon the unmercifulness of our hearts, that we can weep no more over them. Truly we do not live so far from the Moors and Indians, but we may, by not pitying of them, praying for them, and earnestly desiring their conversion, besmear oui'- selves with the guilt of their soul's blood, which is shed continually by the destroyer of mankind. O how seldom is their miserable condition the compa- nion of ovu sorrowful thoughts, and their conversion the subject of our prayers and desires ! There have been, alas, in the world, more counsels how to ease them of their gold, than enrich them with the treasure of the gospel : how to get their land, than how to save their souls ! But the time is coming, when winning souls will be found more honourable than conquering nations. Well, Christian, though thou canst not impart to them M'hat God hath laid on thy THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. g/^.^ trencher, yet as thou sittest at the feast of the gospel, think of those poor souls, and that compassionately, who starve to dcalh for want of that bread with which thou art fed unto eternal life. There is an opinion which some have lately taken up, that the heathens may spell Christ out of the sim, moon, and stars. These may seem kinder than others have been to them, but I wish it doth not make them more cruel to them in the end ; I mean by not praying so heartily for gospel light to arise among them, as those must needs do, who believe them under a sad necessity of perishing without it. When a garrison is judged pretty well stored with provision for its defence, it is an occasion that relief and succour come the slower to it; and I wish Satan had not such a design against those forlorn souls in this principle : if such a lesson were to be got by the stars, we should before this have heard of some that had learned it. Indeed, I find a star led the wise men to Christ ; but they had a heavenly preacher to open the text to them, or else they would never have luulerstood it. CHAPTER II. A LAMENTATION FOR THE UNKIND WELCOME THAT GOSPEL NEWS FINDS IN THE world: WITH TWO OR THREE SAD GROUNDS OF FEAR AS TO US IN THIS NATION, TAKEN FROM THE PRESENT ENTERTAINMENT THE GOSPEL HATH AMONG US ; WITH A DOUBLE EXHORTATION TO THE SAINTS TO REJOICE IN THIS JOYOUS MESSAGE, AND CHIEFLY IN THIS. Section I. — Use 2. A sad lamentation may be here taken up, that so good news should have such ill welcome as the gospel commonly finds in the world. When the tidings were first told at Jerusalem of a Saviour being born, one would liave thought, especially if we consider that the Scripture reckoning was now out for the birth of the Messias, and they big with expectation of his coming, that all hearts should have leaped within them for joy at the news, to see their hopes so happily delivered and accomplished ; but behold the contrary ! Christ's coming proves matter of trouble and distaste to them ; they take the alarm at his birth, as if an enemy, a destroyer, not a Saviour, were landed on their coast ; and as such Herod sends out against him, and makes him flee the country. But possibly, though at present they stumble at the meanness of his birth and pai'entage, yet when the rays of his divinity shall shine through his miracles, then they will religiously worship him whom now they contemn, when he comes forth into his public ministry, opens his commission, and shows his authority; yea, with his own blessed lips tells the joyful message he brings from his Father imto the sons of men ; then surely they will dearly love his person, and thankfully embrace, yea, greedily drink in the glad tidings of sal- vation which he preached to them : but no ! they persist in their cursed unbelief and obstinate rejection of him ; though the Scripture, which they seem to adore, bears so full a testimony for Christ, that it accuseth them to their own con- sciences, yet they will have none of him. Christ tells them so much: John V. 39, 40, * Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life.' Life they desired, yet will lose it rather than come to him for it. And is the world now amended .' doth Christ in his gospel meet with any kinder usage at the hands of most? The note that Christ sings is still the same, ' Come unto me, that you may have life. ' The worst hurt Christ does poor souls that come vmto him is, to put them into a state of life and salvation ; and yet where is the pei\son that likes the offer? O, it is other news that men generally listen after ; this makes the exchange, the market-place, so full, and the church so thin and empty. Most expect to hear their best news from the world; they look upon the news of the gospel as foreign, and that which doth not so much concern them, at least at present; it is time enough to mind tliis when they are going into another world. Alas, the gospel is not acconnuodated to their carnal desires ; it tells them of no fields and vineyards it hath to give, it lures them not with the gaieties of worldly honours and pleasures. Had Christ in his gospel but gratified the cravings of men's lusts with a few promises for these things, though he had promised less for another world, the news would have gone down better with these sots, who had rather hear one prophesy of wine and strong g^^g THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. drink tlian preacli of heaven itself. Truly, they are but a very few, and those sufficiently jeered for their pains, that like the message of the gospel so well as to receive it cordially into their hearts: if any one does but give entertainment to Christ, and it be known, what an alarm does it give to all his carnal neigh- boiu's ! who, if they do not presently beset his house, as the Sodomites did Lot's, yet set some brand of scorn upon him, yea, make account they have now rea- son enough to despise and hate him, how well soever they loved him before. 0 what will God do with this degenerate age ! O England, England ! 1 fear some sad judgment or other bodes thee ! if such glad tidings as the gospel brings be rejected, sad news cannot be far off — I cannot think of less than of a departing gospel. God never made such a settlement of his gospel among any people, but he could remove it from them. He comes but upon liking ; and will he stay where he is not welcome ? Who will that hath else- where to go? It is high time for the merchant to pack up and be gone when few or none will buy, nay, when, instead of buying, they will not suffer him to be quiet in his shop, but throw stones at him, and dirt on his richest commodi- ties. Do we not see the names of Christ's faithful messengers bleeding at this day imder the reproaches that fly so thick about their ears ? Are not the most precious truths of the gospel almost covered with the mire and dirt of errors and blasphemies which men of corrupt minds, set on work by the devil himself, have raked out of every filthy puddle and sink of old heretics, and thrown on the face of Christ and his gospel? And where is the hand so kind as to wijDe oil" that which they throw on ? — the heart so valiant for the truth, that will stop these fcml mouths from spitting their venom against Christ and his gospel? If anything be done of this kind, alas, it is so faintly that they gather heart by it ! justice is so favourably sprinkled, like a few drojis upon a fire, that it rather increaseth the flame of their rage against the truth, than quencheth it. A prince calls not home his ambassador for every affi-ont that is offered him in the streets, but when he is affronted and can have no redress for the wrong. Section II. — Object. But some may say. Though it cannot be denied that the gospel hath foiuid very unkind entertainment by many among us, and especially of late years, since a spirit of error hath so sadly prevailed in the land, yet make us not worse than we are. There is, blessed be God, a remnant of gracious souls yet to be found to whom Christ is precious, who gladly embrace the message of the gospel, and weep in secret for the contempt that is cast upon it by men of corrupt minds and profane hearts; and, therefore, we hope we are not in such imminent danger of" losing the gospel as your fears suggest. Ans. If there were not such a sprinkling of saints among us, our case were indeed desperate, Concbtsum esset de nobis. The shades of that dismal night would quickly be upon us. These are they that have held the gospel thus long among us. Christ had, as to his gospel presence, been gone before this, had not these hvmg about him, and with their strong cries and prayers entreated his stay. But there are a few considerations as to these, which, seriously weighed, will not leave us withovit some tremblings of heart. First, Consider what little proportion, as to number I mean, do those that embrace the gosjiel bear to those that continue to reject it ; those that desire to keep Christ among us, to those that wish him gone, and would gladly be rid of him. Were it put to the vote, would not they carry it by thousands of thousands, that care not whether we have a gospel or not ? and doth it not prophesy sadly when the odds are so great ? In all the departures of God from a people, there were ever some holy ones mingled amongst the multitude of sinners. Sardis had her 'few names which had not defiled their garments,' but yet the 'candlestick was removed. ' All that they could get was a promise for themselves in particular. Rev. iii. 4, 'They shall walk with me in white;' but no protection for the church. God can pull down the house, and provide well for his saints also that he finds there. A few voices are easily drowned by the outcry of a multi- tude ; a few pints of wine are hardly tasted in a tun of water ; and a little number of saints can do sometimes but little to the saving of a wretched people among whom they live. Possibly, as in a weak body, where the disease hath got the mastery, nature putting forth its siDumum conatnm, its utmost strength, may keep life awhile in the body, some days or weeks, but cannot long without some help to evacuate (he distemper; so a few saints, shut up in a dcgcncrale THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. QA^g age amongst an ungodlj', Christ-despising people, ma}' awhile prorogue the judgment and reprieve awhile the life of sueh a people ; but if there be no change made upon them for the better, ruin must needs break in upon them. Secondly, Consider of these few gracious ones found amongst us, that em- brace the gospel, how many are new converts, such I mean as the gospel hath of late days won to Christ ? I am afraid you will find this little number of saints chiefly to consist of old disciples, such as were wrought upon many years since. Alas! the womb of the gospel hatli been in a great measure shut up of late as to the bringing forth of souls by a thorough solid work of conversion. Indeed, if they may pass for converts that baptize themselves into a new way and form of worship, or that begin their religion with a tenet and an opinion, we have more than a good many to shew of these ; but in this old age of England's withered profession, how great a rarity is a sincere convert ! We cannot deny but God is graciously pleased to bring the pangs of the new birth now and then upon some poor souls in our assemblies, that his despised servants may have his seal to confirm tlieir ministry, and stop those moutlis which are so scornfidly opened against it ; yet, alas ! it is but here and there one : and doth not this prophesy sadly to this nation ? I am sure, when we see a tree that used to stand thick with fruit, now bring forth but little, may be an apple on this bough, and another on that, we look upon it as a dying tree. Leah com- forted hei-self from her fruitfulness, ' that therefore her husband would love her, and cleave to her,' Gen. xxix. 34. May we not, on the contrary, fear that God will not love, but leave a people when they grow barren under the means of grace ? God threatens as much, Jer. vi. 8 : ' Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee;' and if God departs, then he is upon his re- move as to his visible presence also ; so indeed it follows, ' lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited ?' O my brethren, those golden days of the gospel are over, when converts came flying as a cloud, as the doves to their windows in flocks. Now gospel news grows stale, few are taken with it. Though a kingdom hath much treasure and riches in it, yet if trade cease, no new bullion comes in, nor merchandise be imported, it spends upon its old stock, and must needs in time decay ; our old store of saints, the treasure of their times, wears away apace : what will become of us, if no new ones come in their room ? Alas ! when our burials are more than our births, we must needs be on the losing hand. There is a sad list of holy names taken away from us ; but where are they which are born to God? If the good go, and those which are left continue bad, yea, become worse and woi'se, we liave reason to fear that God is clearing the ground, and making way for a judgment. Thirdly, Consider the unhappy contentions and divisions that are found among the people of God yet left upon the jilace : these prophesy sadly, the Lord knows. Contentions ever portended ill. The remarkable departures of God, recorded in Scripture, from the church of the Jews, found them wofully divided and crumbled into parties, and the Asiatic chm-ches no less. Christ sets up the light of his gospel to walk and work by, not to fight and wrangle ; and, therefore, it were no wonder at all if he should put it out, and so end the dispute. If these storms, which have been of late years upon us, and are not yet off, had but made Christians, as that did the disciples, Mark vi. 48, ply their oars, and lovingly row all one way, it had been happy ; we might then have expected Christ to come walking towards us in mercy, and help us safe to land ; but wlien we throw away the oar, and fall to strife in the ship, while the wind continues loud about us, truly we are more likely to drive Christ from us, than invite him to us; we are in a more probable way of sinking than saving of the ship and ourselves in it. Section III. — UseZ. A word of exhortation; and first to you who yet have not closed with the terms of the gospel. Be persuaded to receive the message of the gospel kindly, believingly into your hearts ; it is the best news you can send back to heaven, as a gratulatory return for the glad tidings that the gospel brings from thence. Thy embracing Christ jJreachcd to thee in the gospel, will be as welcome news to heaven, I can tell thee, as the tidings of Christ and salvation through him can be to thee. There is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner. Those angels which sang Christ into the world, will not want a song when he is received into thy heart, for he came into tlie world for this end. Chri.st descended g^O "^^^^ GOSPEL OF PEACE. when be came into the world, but now he ascends : that was an act of his hu- miUation, this of exaltation. The highest created throne that God can sit in is the soul of a believer ; no wonder then that Christ calls all his friends to joy with him at a soul's return to him and reception of him, Luke xv. 9. What joy- is now in heaven upon this occasion we may collect from the joy it drew from Christ when on earth. It was some great good news that could wring a smile then from Christ, or tvme his spirit into a joyful note, who was a man of sorrows, and indeed came into the world to be so ; yet when his disciples, whom he had sent forth to preach the gospel, returned with news of some victorious success of their labours, ' in that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father,' Luke x. 21. Of all the hours of his life, that is the hour wherein Christ would express his joy; Avhich, with the care of the Spirit to record this passage in the history of Christ's life, shews that Christ had an especial design in that expression of his joy at that time ; and what could it be, but to let us know how much his heart was set upon the work of saving souls ? and that when he should be gone to heaven, if we meant to send any joyful news to him thither, it should be of the prosperous and victorious success the gospel hath over our hearts? This, this which could make him rejoice in the midst of his sorrows here on earth, must be more joj'ous to him in heaven, now that he hath no bitterness from his own sufferings, which are all healed, past, and gone, to mingle with the joy of this news ; and, if the kind reception of the gospel be such joyful news to him, you may easily conceive how distasteful the rejecting of it is to him. As he rejoiced in spirit to hear the gospel prevailed, so he cannot but be angry when it meets with a repulse from the unbelieving world. Luke xiv. 21, we find the master of the house, that is Christ, angry when his servants sent to invite his guests, that is, preach the gospel, return with a denial from those that were bidden, for so their mannerly excuses were interpreted by Christ ; yea, so angry, that he claps a fearful doom upon them; ' Not one of those invited shall taste of my supper.' God can least bear any contempt cast upon his grace. The Jews, though they had many grievous calamities befell them for their idolatrous and other sins, yet never any like that which their rejecting Christ brought upon them : under those they relented, but under this they hardened. They would not come when the supper was on the table ; and therefore the cloth was drawn, and they go supperless to bed, and die in tlieir sins : while they shut the door of their hearts against Christ, this padlock, as I may call it, of judiciary impenitence is fastened to it. Christ needs take no other revenge on a soul for its refusing him, to make it miserable to the height, than to condemn such a one to have its own desire : Chi-ist thou wilt not, Christ therefore thou shalt not, have. O unhappy soul ! thou hast offers of Christ, but diest without Christ. Thou goest with thy full lading to damnation : none sink so deep in hell as those that fall into it with stumbling at Christ. That gospel which brings now good news, will, when thou shalt have a repetition sermon of it at the great day, bring the heaviest tidings with it that thy ears ever heard. Section IV. — Secondly, To you who have entertahied the message of the gospel. First, Rejoice at the news: glad tidings, and sad hearts, do not well together. When we see one heavy and sorrowful, we ask him what ill news he hath heard. Christian, what ill news hath Christ brought from heaven with him that makes thee walk with thy folded arms and pensive countenance ? Psa. cxxxii. 16. To see a wicked man merry and jocund, or a Christian sad and dumpish, is alike uncomely. ' A feast is made for laughter,' saith Solomon, Eccles. X. 19. I am sure God intended his people's joy in the feast of the gospel : mourners were not to sit at God's table, Deut. xxvi. Truly the saint's heaviness reflects unkindly upon God himself: we do not commend his cheer, if it doth not cheer us. Wliat saith the world? The Christian's life is but a melancholy walk. Sure, thinks the carnal wretch, it is a dry feast they sit at, where so little wine of joy is drunk. And wilt thou confirm them in this their opinion, Christian? Shall they have thy example to produce against Christ and his word, which promise peace and joy to all that will come to this feast? O, God forbid that thy conversation, wherein thou art to hold forth the word of life, to live in the eyes of the world, and which ought to be as a comment or gloss upon the word, to clear up the truth and reality of it to others ; that this should THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 35 J SO disagree from the text as to make the gladsome tidings spoken of in it more disputed and questioned in the thoughts of the unbelieving world than before. It is an error, I confess, and that a gross one, which the Papists teach, that we cannot know the Scriptures to be the word of (lod, but by tlie testimony of the church ; yet it is none to say, that a practical testimony from the saints' lives hath great authority over the consciences of men, to convince them of the truth of the gospel. Now they will believe it is good news indeed the gospel brings, when they can read it in your cheerful lives ; but when they observe Christians sad with this cup of salvation in their hands, truly they suspect the wine in it is not so good as the preachers commend it to them for. Should man see all that trade to the Indies come home poorer than they went, it would be hard to persuade others to venture thither, for all the golden mountains said to be there. O Christians, let the world see you are not losers in your joy, since you have been acquainted with the gospel ; give them not cause to think by your uncom- fortable walking, that when they turn Christians, they must bid all joy farewell, and resolve to spend their days in a house of mourning. Secondly, Is the gospel a message of glad tidings? Do not, then, for shame. Christian, run on the world's score by taking up any of its carnal joy; thou needest not go out of God's house to be merry ; here is joy enough in the glad tidings of the gospel, more than thou canst spend, though thou shouldst live at a higher rate than thou dost or canst here on earth. Abraham would not take so nuich as a thread or shoe-latchet from the king of Sodom, Gen. xiv., ' lest he should say that he made Abraham rich.' A Chi'istian should deny himself of the world's joy and delights, lest they sa}'. These Christians draw their joy out of our cistern. The channel is cut out of the Spirit of God, in which he would have his saints' joy inin. ' If any be merry, let him sing psalms.' Let the subject of his mirth be spiritual ; as on the other hand, ' If he be sick, let him pray,' James iii. 13 : a spiritual vent is given to both aifections of sorrow and joy. Aliter ludet ganeo, aliter princeps. A prince's recreation must not be like a ruffian's, nor a Christian's joy like the carnal man's. If ever there was need to call upon Christians to feed the lamp of their joy with spiritual fuel, holy oil, that drops from the gospel reservoir, now the time is, wherein professors do assimilate with the world in their outward bravery, junketings, fiishions, pastimes, and are so kind to the flesh, in allowing of, yea, pleading so much for a carnal liberty in these things, that shews too plainly the spiritual joy to be drawn out of these wells of salvation does not satisfy them, or else they would not make up their draught from this dirty watei-, which was wont to be thirsted after only by those that had never drunk of Christ's cup. Oh, what is the reason that those who would pass for Christians forsake this pure wine of gospel joy, for the sophisticated stuff which this whore, the world, pr^esents in her golden cup to them ? Is it because the gladsome message of the gospel is grown stale, and so its joy (which once sparkled in the preaching of it, as generous wine doth in the cup, and cheered the hearts of believers with strong consolations,) hath now lost its spirits ? Or can that pure stream of spiritual joy, which hath run so long through the hearts and lives of the saints in so many generations, without mingling with the brackish water of the world's sensual pleasures, at last fall in with them, and be content to lose its own divine natvn-e and sweetness in such a sink ? O no ! the gospel is the same as it was ; the joy it brings as sweet and brisk, as spiritual and pure, as ever it was, and will be as long as God and Christ continue to be the same, out of whose bosom of love it first flowed and is still fed : but the professors of this gospel now are not the same with those holy men and women of primitive times. The Avorld grows old, and men's affections with it chill and cold ; we have not our taste so lively, nor our spirits so chaste and pure, as to relish the heavenly viands dished forth in the gospel. The cheer is as good as ever, but the guests are worse ; we are grown debauched in our judgments, and corrupt in our principles ; no wonder then if carnal in our joys. Error is a whore, it takes away the heart from Christ and his spiritual joys. The head once distempered, soon affects the heart, and by dropping the malignity of its principles upon it, poisons it with carnal affections ; and carnal affections cannot fare with any other than gross and carnal joys. Here, here is the root of the misery of our times. Hath not, think you, tlie devil played his game cunningly among us, who, by his instruments, (transforming them into the likeness of 352 ^^^^ GOSPEL OF PEACE. angels of light,) first, could raise so many credulous souls into a fond expecta- tion of higher attainments in grace and comfort from their new pretended light, than ever yet the saints were acquainted with, and at last to make them fall so low, be so reasonable, or i-ather unreasonable, as to accept such sensual pleasures and joys as this world can afford in full payment for all the gloi"ious things he promised them ? This I hope will make some love the gospel the more, and stick closer to it as long as they live. O Chi-istians, bless God for the glad tidings of the gospel, and never lend an ear to him that would be telling you other news, except you mean to part with the truth to purchase a lie ; yea, let it make you careful to draw all your comfort and joy from the gospel's breast. When a carnal heart would be merry, he doth not take the Bible down to read in that ; he doth not go into the company of the promises, and walk in the meditation of them ; it brings no joy to him to think of Christ or heaven : no, he takes down a playbook, it may be, seeks some jovial company, goes to the exchange or market, to hear what news he can meet with. Every one as his haunt lies : but still it is from the world he expects his joy. And now where lies thy road, Christian ? Whither doth thy soul lead thee for thy joy ? Dost not thou go to the word, and read there what Christ has done for thee on earth, and is doing for thee in heaven ? Is not the throne of grace the exchange to which thou resortest for good news from that far coimtry, heaven, where all thy estate lies, and thy best friends live? Art thou not listening what promise he will speak peace from to thy soul ? If so, thou hast not thy name for nought ; thou art a Christian indeed. Qui Utteris addicti sumits, saith Erasmus, animi lassitudinem a studiis gravioribus contr actum, ah eisdem studiis, sed amcsniorilus recreamus. True students, that love their book indeed, when they have wearied their spirits with study, can recreate them again with study, by making a diversion from tliat which is severe and intricate to some more facile and pleasant subject. Thus the true Christian, when his spirits are worn and wasted in the severer exercises of Christianity, such as fasting and prayer, wherein he aflflicts both body and soul for his sins, then he can recover them at the feast of God's love in Christ, where he sees his water turned into wine, and the tears that even now his sins covered his face withal, washed off by the blood of Christ; when his soul is sti-uck into a fear and trembling with the consideration of the justice of God, and the terror of his threatenings and judgments for sin, then the meditation of the sweet promises of the gospel recreate and revive him ; so that in the same word, where he meets with his wound, he finds his healing ; where he hath his sorrow, there also he receives his joy. CHAPTER III. A FOURFOLD PEACE ATTRIBUTED TO THE GOSPEL, AND IN PARTICULAR, PEACE OF RECONCILIATION, WHERE IT IS PROVED THERE IS A QUARREL BETWIXT GOD AND man; AS ALSO THAT THE GOSPEL CAN ONLY TAKE IT UP; AND WHY GOD THUS LAID THE METHOD OF MAn's RECOVERY SO. Ques. 2. The second inquiry follows. What peace is here meant that is attributed to the gospel ? Peace is a comprehensive word. ' We looked for peace,' saith the prophet, ' but no good came,' Jer. viii. 15. Peace brings, and carries away again with it all good, as the sun doth light to and from the world. When Christ would to the utmost express how well he wished his disciples, he wraps up all the happiness which his large heart could wish them in this bless- ing of peace ; ' Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,' John xiv. 27. Now take peace in its greatest latitude, and if not spurious, it will be found to grow upon this gospel root. So that we shall lay the conclusion in general terms. Doct. True peace is the blessing of the gospel, and only of the gospel. This will appear in the several kinds of peace ; which may be sorted into these four. First, Peace with God, which we may call peace of reconciliation. Secondly, Peace with ourselves, or peace of conscience. Thirdly, Peace with one another, or peace of love and unity. Fourthly, Peace with the other creatures, even the most hurtful, which may be called a piece of indemnity and service. To begin where all other begin, with peace of reconciliation with God. For when man fell out with God, he fell out with himself and all the world besides ; THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 353 and he can never come to be at peace with tliese, till his peace be made with God, Tranquilhix Dens, iranqu'illat omnia ; the point then is, Doct. 1. The peace of reconciliation with (Jod is the blessing of the gospel. Three things are here to be done in prosecution of the point. First, I shall shew you tliat there is a quarrel between God and man. Secondly, that tlie gospel, and only the gospel, takes this up, and makes peace betwixt God and man. Thirdly, why God conveys this peace of reconciliation into the world in this waj', and by tliis method. First, There is a quarrel depending betwixt God and the sons of men. Open acts of hostility done by one nation against another, proclaim there is a war conunenced. Now, such acts of hostility pass betwixt God and man : bullets fly thick to and fro on either hand. Man lets fly against God (though, against his will, he shoots short,) whole volleys of sins and impieties. The best of saints acknowledge thus much of themselves, before converting grace took them off. Tit. iii. 3 ; ' We ourselves also were sometimes foolii-h, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures.' Mark the last words, ' serving lusts and pleasures.' They were in pay to sin, willing to fight against God, and side with this his only enemy. Not a faculty of his soul, or member of his body, which is not in arms against him, 'The carnal mind,' saitli the apostle, ' is enmity against God,' Rom. viii. 7. And if there be war in the mind, to be sure there can be no peace in the members, (inferior faculties, I mean, of the soul,) which are commanded all by it. Indeed, we are bj' nature wcn-st in our best part ; the eiunity against God is chiefly seated in the superior faculties of the soul. As in armies, the common soldiery are wholly taken up with the booty and spoil thej' get by the war, without much minding one side or other ; but the principal oflicers, especially the prince or general, go into the field full of emnity against them that oppose them ; so the inferior faculties seek only satisfaction to their sensual appetite in the booty that sin afibrds ; but the superior facidties of the mind, this comes forth more directly against God, and opposeth his sovereignty ; yea, if it could lay a plot effectual to take away the life of God himself, there is enmity enough in the carnal mind to put it into execution. And as man is in arms against God, so is he against man. 'He is angry with the wicked every day ; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready; he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death,' Psa. vii. 1 1 . God hath set up his royal standard in defiance of all the sons and daughters of apostate Adam, who from his own mouth are proclaimed rebels and traitors to his crown and dignity ; and as against such, he hath taken the field, as with fire and sword to be avenged on them. Yea, he gives the world suHicient testimony of his incensed wrath, by that of it which is revealed from heaven daily in the judgments executed upon sinners, and those many biit of a span long, before they can shew what nature they have by actual sin, yet crushed to death bj^ God's i-ighteous foot, only for the viperous kind of which they come. At every door where sin sets its foot, there the wrath of God meets us. Every faculty of soul, and member of body, are used as a weapon of unrighteousness against God; so every one hath its portion of wrath, even to the tip of the tongue. As man is sinful all over, so is he cursed all over. Inside and outside, soul and body, is written all with woes and curses, so close and full, that there is not room for another to interline, or add to what God hath written. In a word, so fiery is the Lord's wrath against sinfvd man, that all the creatures share with him in it. Tliough God takes his aim at man, and levels his arrows prinuu'ily at his very heart ; yet as they go, they graze the creature ; God's ciu'se blasts the whole creation, for man's sake : and so he pays him some of his miserj', from the hand of those creatures which were primitively ordained to minister to him in his happy state ; yea, contril)ute some drops to the filling of his cup. As an en- raged army makes spoil and havoc of all in their enemies' land, destroys their provision, stops or poisons their waters, burns up their houses, and lets out his fury on all his hand comes at: truly thus God plagues man in every creature; not one escapes his hand. 'I'he very bread we cat, the v.'ater we drink, and the air we breathe in, are poisoned with the curse of God ; of which they who live longest die at last. And all these are no more to hell, than the few files of men to the whole body of an army; God doth but skirmish with sinners here, by some small parties of his judgments sent out, to let them know thry have 2 A 3/54. THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. an enemy alive, that observes their motions, takes the alaiTn their sins give him, and can be too hard for them when he shall please ; but it is in hell where he falls on with his whole power. There sinners ' shall be pimished with everlast- ing destruction from the presence of the Lord, andfrom the glory of his power,' 2 Thess. i. 9. And so much for the first, that there is a quarrel between God and man. The second follows. Secondly, The gospel takes this quan'el up, and only the gospel ; therefore called ' the gospel of peace.' This will appear in two particulars. First, the gospel presents us with the articles of peace, which God offers graciously to treat upon with the children of men, and this, none but the gospel doth. Secondly, the gospel preached and published is the great instrument of God to effect this peace thus offered. First, The gospel presents us with the articles of peace, which God graciously offers to treat and conclude an inviolable peace upon with rebellious man. In it we have the whole method, which God laid in his own thoughts from eternity, of reconciling poor sinners to himself. The gospel, what is it, but God's heart in print ? The precious 23romises of the gospel, what are they, but heaven's court-rolls, translated into the creatures language ? in which are exposed to the view of our faith all the counsels and purposes of love and mercy, which were concluded on by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the recovery of lost man by Jesus Christ, who was sent as heaven's plenipotentiary to earth, fully empowered and enabled, not only by preaching, to treat of a peace as desired on God's part, io be concluded between God and man, but, by the purchase of his death to jjrocure a peace, and by his Spirit to seal and ratify the same to all those, who, believing the credential letters which God sent with him in the miracles wrought by him, and especially the testi- mony which the Scripture gives of him, do by a faith unfeigned receive him into their souls, as their only Lord and Saviour. This is such a notion as is not to be learnt elsewhere. A deep silence we find concerning this in Aristotle and Tully. They cannot tell us how a poor sinner may be at peace with God ; nothing of this to be discovered from the covenant God made with Adam. That shuts the sinner up in a dark dungeon of despair ; bids him look for nothing but what the wrath of a just God can measure out to him. Thus the guilty creature is surrounded on every side, as with a deluge of wrath ; no hope nor help to be heard of, till the gospel, like a dove, bring the olive branch of peace, and tells him the tide is turned, and that flood of wi-ath which was pom-ed on man for his sin is now fallen into another channel, even upon Christ, who was made a curse for us, and hath not only drunk of the brook that lay in the way, and hindered our passage to God, but hath drunk it off; so that where water was, now appears dry land, a safe and fair causeway, called, Heb. x. 20, 'a living way,' by which every truly repenting and believing sinner may pass without any danger, from the justice of God now appeased, into the love and favour of God. ' Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,' Rom. v. L We are entirely beholden to the gospel for the disco- very of this secret, which the apostle solemnly acknowledgeth, 2 Tim. i. 10 ; where Christ is said to ' bring life and immortality to light by the gospel.' It lay hid in the womb of God's purpose, till the gospel arose, and let us into the knowledge of it, as the light of the sim reveals to the eye what was before, but what could not be seen without its light ; and therefore, it is not only called a living way, but a 'new and living way which he hath conseci-ated for us ;' so new, that the heart of man never was acquainted with one thought of it, till the gospel opened it, according to that of Isa.xlii. 16 : 'I will bring the blind by a way they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known.' Secondly, The gospel published and preached, is the great instrument of God to effect this peace. Before peace be concluded between God and the crea- ture, both must be agreed ; as God to pardon, so the sinner to accept and embrace peace upon God's own terms : but how shall this be done ? The heart of man is so deeply rooted in its enmity against God, that it requires a strength to j^luck up this, equal with that which tears up mountains and carries rocks from one place to another. The gospel preached is the instrument which God useth for the effecting of it, Rom. i. 16 : 'I am not ashamed,' saith the apostle there, 'of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salva- tion.' It is the chariot wherein the Spirit rides victoriously, when he makes THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 355 his entrance into the heart of man ; called, therefore, ' the ministration of the Spirit,' 2 Coi-. iii. 8. He fashions anew tlie heart, as he framed the world at first, with a word. This is ' the day of Ciod's power, wherein he makes his people willing.' Power, indeed, to make those that had the seeds of war sown in their very natm-es against (iod willing to be friends with him. Unheard of power, as if the beating of a drimi should carry such a charm along with its sound, to make those on the enemy's side upon the hearing of it, to throw down their arms and seek peace at his hand, against whom they even now took the field with great rage and fiuy ; such a secret power accompanies the gospel. It strikes many times not only the sinner's sword out of his hand while it is stretched out against God, but the enmity out of his heart, and brings the stoutest rebel upon his knees, lumibly to crave the benefit of the articles of peace published in the gospel. It makes sinners so pliant and tract- able to the call of God in the gospel, that they on a sudden, upon the hearing of a gospel sermon, forget tlieir own natural affections whicli they have had to their beloved lusts, and leap out of their embraces with indignation, lest they should keep God and them at enmity one moment longer. Now follows the third. Quest. 3. Why doth God convey his peace of reconciliation by this channel unto the sons of men ? Or, in plainer terms. Why doth God choose to reconcile poor sinners to himself by Christ? For this is the peace which the gospel pro- claims. Col. i. 20 : ' And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself.' And ver. 21, 22 : 'And you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.' Alls. They are too bold with God, who say. That he could not find out another way ; who knows that, except God himself had told him so ? Alas f how unmeet is the short line of our created understanding for such a daring attempt, as to fathom the unsearchableness of God's omnipotent wisdom ! To determine what God can, and what he cannot do ! But we may say, and not forget to revere the Majesty of heaven, that the wisdom of God could not have laid the method of salvation more advantageous to the exalting of his own glorious name, and his poor creatures' happiness, than in this expedient of reconciling them to himself by Christ our great peace-maker. This transaction hath in it a happy temperament, to solve all the difficulties on either hand ; and for its mysterious contrivance exceeds the workmanship which God put forth in making this exterior world, though that in its kind perfect, and so glorious, that the smallest creature tells its Maker to be a Deity, and puts the atheist to shame in his own conscience that will not believe so ; yet I say, it exceeds this goodly frame of heaven and earth, as far as the watch itself doth the case which covers it. Indeed, God intended by this way of reconciling poor sinners to himself, to make work for angels and saints to admire the mystery of his wisdom, power, and love therein to everlasting. O, when they shall all meet together in heaven, and there have the whole counsel of God unfolded to them ; when they shall behold what seas were dried up, and what rocks of creature impossibilities digged through by the omnipotent wisdom and love of God, before a sinner's peace could be obtained, and then behold the work, notwithstanding all this, effected and brought to a happy perfection ; O, how Avill they be swallowed up in adoring the abyss of his wisdom, who laid the platform of all this ac- cording to the eternal counsel of his own will ! Surely the sun doth not so much exceed the strength of our mortal eyes, as the glory of this will their under- standings from ever fully comprehending it. This, this is the piece which God drew on purpose, for its rare workmanship, to beautify heaven itself; when Christ returned to heaven, he carried none of this world's rarities with him : not its silver and gold ; not crowns and diadems, which here men venture their lives, yea, part with their souls so prodigally for. Alas ! what are these, and the whole pride and gallantry of this world to heaven ? That in which it glories most, suits heaven no better than the beggar's dish and scraps do a prince's table ; or the patched tattered coat of the one, the wardrobe of the other. No, the Lord Christ came on a higher design than this to earth : the enterprise he undertook to achieve, was to negotiate, yea, effect a peace between God aiid 2 A 2 358 '^^^^ GOSPEL OF PEACE. his rebel-creature man, that liad by his revolt incurred his just wrath and ven- geance : this was a woi-k that became God himself so well to engage in, that he thought none high and worthy enough to be trusted with transacting it beneath his only Son, who stayed here but while he had brought his negotiation to a happy period, and then carried the joyfid tidings of its being finished back with him to heaven, which made his return infinitely welcome to his Father, and all the glorious inhabitants of heaven his attendants. CHAPTER IV. A MORE PARTICULAR ACCOUNT WHY GOD RECONCILED SINNERS TO HIMSELF BY CHRIST. But I shall proceed to give some more particular answer to the question propounded. Section I. — First, God takes this method of reconciling sinners to himself by Christ, that he might give the deepest testimony of his perfect hatred to sin in that very act wherein he expresseth the highest love and mercy to sinner?. No act of mercy and love, like that of pardoning sin. To receive a reconciled sinner into heaven is not so great an advance, as to take a rebel into a state of favour and reconciliation. The terms here are infinitely wider; there is reason to expect the one, none to look for the other. It is pure mercy to pardon, but truth, being pardoned, to save. When God puts forth this very act, he will have the creature see his hatred to sin, written upon the face of that love he shews to the sinner. And truly this was but needful, if we consider how hard it is for our corrupt hearts to conceive of God's mercy, without some dishonourable re- flection upon his holiness. ' I kept silence,' saith God, Psa. 1. And what infer- ence doth the wicked draw from thence ? ' Thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself;' that is, Thou thoughtest I loved sin as well as thyself. Now, if so plain and easy a text as God's forbearing mercy be wrested, and a false gloss so repugnant, not only to the end of God therein, but to the holy nature of God, be put upon it — how much more subject is forgiving mercy, that is so far superlative to that, and infinitely more luscious to the sinner's palate, to be abused! Some men gaze so long on this pleasing object, that they are unwilling to look oif, and see any other attribute in God. Now, in this way of reconciling himself to sinners by Christ, he hath given such an argument to convince sinners, that he is an implacable hater of sin, as hath not its fellow. It is true, every threat in the Bible tells us, that sin finds no favour in God's heart ; the guilty consciences of men, that haunt them home, and follow them into their own bosoms, continually yelling and crying damnation in their ears ; the remarkable judgments, which now and then take hold of sinners in this world, and much more the furnace which is heating for them in another world, shew abundantly how hot and burning God's wrath is against sin. But when we see him run upon his Son, and lay the envenomed knife of his wrath to his throat, yea, thrust it into his very heart, and there leave it for all the supplications and prayers, which, in his bitter agonies, he oftered up to his Father with strong crying and tears, without the least sparing of him, till he had forced his life, in a throng of sad groans and sighs, out of his body, and thereby paid justice the full debt, which he had as man's surety un- dertook to discharge : this, this, I say, doth give us a greater advantage to conceive of God's hatred to sin, than if we could stand in a place, to see what entertainment the damned find in hell, and at once behold all the torments they endure. Alas ! their backs are not broad enough to bear the whole weight of God's wrath at once, it being infinite, and they finite ; which, if they could, we should not find them lying in that prison for non-payment. But behold one here, who had the whole curse of sin at once upon his back. Indeed, their suf- ferings are infinite, extensive, because everlasting : but his were infinite, inten- sive ; he paid in one sum, what they shall be ever paying, and yet never come to the last farthing. ' The chastisement of our peace was upon him,' Isa. liii. 5 : J He hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,' ver. 6: or. He hath made the iniquity of us all to meet in him ; the whole curse met in him, as all streams do in the sea. A virtual collection of all the threatenings denounced against sin, and all laid on him. And now, take but one step more, and consider in THE GOSrEL OF I'EAC'E. 357 how near relation Christ stood to God, as also the infinite and unspeakable love with which it was filled, and mutually endeared on eaeli hand ; and this at the very same time, when he ascended the stage to act a bloody tragedy ; and I think that you are at the highest step the word of God can lead j'on, to ascend by into the meditation of this subject. Should you see a father that has but one only son, and can have no more, send him his mittimus to prison, come into coiu-t himself, and sit judge upon his life ; with his own lips pass sentence of death upon him, and order that it be executed with the most ex- quisite torments that may be; yea, to go to the place himself, and with his own eyes, and those not full of water, as moiu'uing for his death, but full of fire and fury ; j'ea, a countenance every way so set, as might tell all that see it, the man took pleasure in his child's death : you would say, Surely he bitterly hates liis son, or the sin his son hath committed. This you see in God the Father towards his Son ; it was he more than men or devils, that procured his death. Christ took notice of this, that the warrant for his death had his Father's hand and seal to it : ' Shall I not drink of the cup my Father gives me ?' Yea, he stands by and rejoices in it ; his blood was the ' wine that made glad the heart of God ;' ' it pleased the Lord to bruise hint,' Isa. liii. 10. When God corrects a saint, he does it, in a manner, luiwillingly; but wdien Christ sufters, it pleases him ; and this not from want of love in his heart to Christ, nor that any disobedience in Christ had hardened his Father's heart against him, for he never displeased him, but from the hatred he had to sin, and zeal to exalt his mercy towards sinners, by satisfying his justice on his Son. Section II. — Secondly, He effected our peace by Chiust, that he might for ever hide pride from his saints' eyes. Pride was the stone on which both angels and man st\imbled and fell. In man's recovery, therefore, he will roll that stone as far as may be out of the way ; he will lay that knife aside with which man did himself the mischief: and that he may do this, he transacts the whole business bj' Christ for them. Man's project was to cut off" the entail of his obedience to God, and set up for himself, as a free and absolute prince, without dejjending upon his Maker. A strange plot! for, to effect this, he must first have thrown away that being which God gave him, and, by a self-creation, if such a thing had been possible, have bestowed a new one upon himself; then, indeed, and not till then, he might have had his will. But, alas! his pride to be what he could not, lost liim what he had, and still might have, enjoyed; yet how foolish soever it now appears, and infeasible, that was the plot pride had laid in man's heart. Now God, to preserve his children from all future assaidts and batteries of hell at this door, chose such a way of reconciling and saving them, that when the prince of the world comes to tempt them to pi-ide, he shoidd find nothinjr in them to give the least countenance or coloiu- to such a motion ; so that, of all sins, pride is such a one as we may wonder how it should grow, for it hath no other root to bear it up, but what is found in man's dreaming fancy and imagination. It grows, as sometimes we shall see a mushroom, or moss among stones, where little or no soil is for its root to take hold of. God in this gospel way of reconciling sinners by Christ, makes him fetch all from without doors. Wilt thou, ])0(n- soul, have peace with God? thou must not have it from thine own penance for thy sins : ' The chastisement of our peace was upon him,' Isa. liii. 5. (), know thou art not thy own peace-maker ; that is Christ's name, who did that work, Eph. ii. 14: ' For he is oiu* peace, who hath made both one,' Jew and Gentile one with God, and one with one another. Wouldst thou be righteous? then thou must not appear before God in thine own clothes; it is another's righteousness, not thine own, that is provided for thee : ' Surely shall one say. In the Lord have I righteousness,' Isa. xlv. 21. In a word, wouldst thou ever have a right in heaven's glory, thy penny is not good coin to purchase it with ; the price must not come out of thy purse, but (^n-ist's heart; and, therefore, as it is called the ' piu'chased possession,' in regard of Christ, because he obtained it for us with a great sum, not silver and gold, but his precious blood; so ' an inheritance,' in regard of us, because it descends upon us, as freely as the father's estate on his child, Eph. i. 14. And why all this, but that the lofty looks of man may be humbled, and the haughtiness of man should be bowed down, and the Lord alone exalted in the day of our salvation. The manna is expounded, by Christ himself, to be a type of him, 358 '^HE GOSPEL Of PEACE. John vi. 32 : ' The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.' Now, observe, wherefore God chose that way of feeding them in the wilderness, Deut. viii. 16: ' Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee.' But wherein lay this great humbling of them ? Were they not shrewdly humbled, think you, to be fed with a dainty dish, which had God for its cook, and is called ' angels' food,' for its delicacy? Psa. Ixxviii. 25 ; such, that if they needed any repast, might well suit their table. I answer, it was not the mean- ness of the fare, but the manner of having it, which God intended should humble them. Man is proud, and loves to be his own purveyor, and not stand to another's allowance : the same feast, sent in by the charity and bounty of another, will not go down so Avell with his high stomach, as when it is provided at his own cost and charges ; he had rather have the honour of keeping his own house, though mean, than to live higher upon the alms and allowance of another's charity. Tliis made them wish themselves at their onions in their own gardens in Egypt, and flesh-pots there, which, though they were grosser diet, liked them better, because bought with their own penny. Section III. — Tliirdly, That it might be a peace, with the greatest advan- tage possible ; that God and man might meet again on better terms, by this pacification, than when Adam stood in all his primitive glory. God, no doubt, would not have set the beauty of his first workmanship to be so defaced by sin, had he not meant to have reared a more magnificent structure out of its ruins. Now, God intending to print man's happiness in the second edition, with a fairer character than at the first, he employs Christ in the work, as the only fit instru- ment to accomplish so great a design ; Christ himself tells us as much, John X. 10: 'I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.' His coming was not to give those who were dead and damned, bare peace, naked life, but more abundantly than ever man had them before the breach. It was Christ in the second temple, who filled it with a glory super- lative to the first ; Christ in the second creation of man, that lifts his head above his first state in happiness. As Adam was a pattei-n to all his seed, what he was in his innocent state, that should they all have been, if sin had not altered the scene ; so Christ is a pattern to all his seed of that glory which they shall be clothed with ; 1 John iii. 2 : ' We are now the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know, when he appears, we shall be like him,' that is, ' our vile bodies like his body, gloi'ious,' as the apostle hath it, Phil. iii. ; and oiu- souls also like his glorious soul. Now, by how much our natvn-e in Christ is more glorious than it was in Adam, by so much the taste of a reconciled sinner sui-passeth Adam's first condition. Some little discoveiy whereof, take in two particulars. First, Tlie reconciled sinner hath the advantage of Adam in his union to God. Secondly, In his communion with God. First, In his union to God. And that, first, as it is nearer; secondly, as it is stronger. First, It is nearer; because God and man make one person in Christ. This is such a mystery, as was not heard of by Adam, in all his glory ; he, in- deed, was in league of love and friendship with God, and that was the best jewel in his crown ; but he could lay no claim to such kindred and con- sanguinity, as now, with reverence be it spoken, the reconciled soid can with God. This comes in by the marriage of the Divine nature with the human, in the person of Christ, which personal union is the foundation of another, a mystical union betwixt Christ and the person of every believer; and this is so near a union, that as by the union of the Divine nature and human, there is one person, so also, by this mystical union, the saints and their Head make one Christ : ' For, as the body is one, and hath many membei's, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ,' 1 Cor. xii. 12. Ecclesia est Christus explicatus ; the church is nothing but Chi"ist displayed. Who can speak what an advance this is to the human nature in general, and to the persons of believers in especial ? such a one, as it leaves not only Adam, but angels beneath a reconciled sinner, in this respect. Adam at first was made but little lower than the angels; but by this pair of unions, God hath set the re- conciled soul more than a little above them both; for Christ, by taking on him, not the nature of angels, though the more ancient and noble house, but the THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. <^^g seed of Abraham, made the elder serve the younger ; even angels themselves minister to the meanest saint, as unto tlieir master's heir, Heb. i. 14. Secondly, As the union is nearer, so it is stronger; therefore stronger, because nearer: the closer stones stand together, the stronger the building. The union betwixt God and Adam in the first covenant, was not so near but Adam might fall, and yet God's glory stand entire and imshaken; but the imion now is so close and strong betwixt Christ and his saints, that Christ cannot be Christ without his members; ' Because I live,' saith Christ, ' ye shall live also,' John xiv. 19 ; implying that their life was bound up in his, and it was as easv for him to be turned out of heaven, as for them to be kept out, Eph. i. 23. The church is called there, Christ's body, 'the fulness of him that iilleth all in all.' A body is not full, if it hath not eveiy member and joint, though never so little, and them in their fulness too. The saint's grace is Christ's glory, 2 Cor. viii. 23 ; and though his essential glory as God receives no filling from his saints or their graces, yet consider him in his mediatorship, as head of his church; so Christ's glory is daily filling, as the elect are called in daily, and as those that are called in grow up to their appointed stature. Christ hath not his fulness, till the saints have their perfection and complement of grace in heaven's glory. Secondly, In his comnumion with God; the nearer (we use to say) the dearer. Commimion results from union ; if the union be nearer and stronger between a reconciled soid and God than Adam's was, his communion must needs be sweeter and fidler. Whv else is the communion of husband and wife fuller than of friend and friend, but because the union is closer? God converseth with Adam as a friend with his friend and ally ; but with the reconciled soul as a husband with his wife. ' Thy Maker is thy husband,' Isa. xiv. 5. There is a double sweetness peculiar to the reconciled sinner's communion with God. First, There is in Christ a foundation laid for greater familiarity with God, than Adam was at first capable of. He, indeed, was the son of God, yet he was kept at a farther distance, and treated with more state and majesty from God, than now the reconciled soul is ; for though he was the son of God by creation, yet the Son of God was not then the Son of man by incarnation ; and at this door comes in the believer's sweetest familiarity with God : the Christian cannot lift up now an eye of faith to God, but he sees liis own nature standing upon the throne by him, in the person of Christ. And if the sight of Joseph at Pharaoh's right hand, in court favour and honour, sent the patriarchs home with such joyful news to their aged father, what a ravishing message of joy must faith carry then to the soul of a reconciled sinner, when it comes in (after some vision of love in an ordinance) and saith, Cheer up, O my soul, I see Jesus Christ, thj- near kinsman, at God's right hand in glory, to whom all power is given, in heaven and earth; fear not, he is so nigh in blood to thee, that he cannot be unmindful of thee, except he should do what were unnatural in itself, that is, hide himself from his own flesh. The lower a prince stoops to the meanest of his subjects, the more familiar he makes himself to his subjects. It was a wonderful condescension in the great God, who can have no compeer, first to make man, and then enter intosofriendly a league and covenant with him. This God doth now with every reconciled soul, and that enriched with so many astonishing circumstances of condescending grace, as must needs speak the way of the believer's access to God more familiar. God doth, in this second and new alliance with his poor creature, descend his throne, exchange his majestic robes of glory for the rags of man's frail flesh ; he leaves his palace to live for a time in his creature's humble cottage, and there not only familiarly converses with him, but, which is stranger, ministers to him ; j-ea, which is more than all these, he surrenders himself up to endure all manner of indignities, from his sorry creature's hand. And when this his coarse entertainment is done, back he posts to heaven, not to complain to his Father, how he hath been abused here below, and raise heaven's power against those that had so ill-treated him, but to make ready heaven's palace for the reception of those who had thus abused him, and now will but accept of his grace. And lest these, yet left on earth, should fear his reassmncd royalty and majesty, in heaven's glorj-, would make some alteration with their affiurs in his heart ; to give them, there- fore, a constant demonstration, that he would be the same in the height of his honour, that he was in the depth of his abasement, he goes back in the same 3(30 THE GOSIEL Of PEACE. clothes, he had bonowed of their nature, to wear them on the tlnone, in all his glory, only some princely cost bestowed, to pnt them into the fashion of that heavenly kingdom, and make them suit with his glorified state ; giving them a pattern by this, what their own vile bodies, now so dishonoiu-able, shall be made another day. Now, none of all those circumstances were found in CJod's first administration to Adam, and therefore the more familiar. Secondly, There is the sweetness of pardoning mercy, and the bleeding love of Christ, who, by his death, pvu-chased it for him, to be tasted in the reconciled soul's communion with God. This sugar Adam had not in his cup. He knew what the love of a giving God meant ; but was stranger to the mercy of a foi'giving God. The reconciled soul experiences both. The love of a father, more than ordinarily kind, is a great comfort to a dutiful child — one that never displeased his father; but it carries no such wonder in it to our thoughts, as the compas- sion and melting bowels of a father towards a rebellious child doth ; and certainly the prodigal child, that is i-eceived again into his father's embi'aces, hath the advantage for loving his father, more than his brother that never came under his father's displeasure. O this pardoning mercy, and the love of Christ that procured it ! they are the most spacious and fruitful heads, for a gracious soul to enlarge his sweetest meditations upon here on earth ; but who can con- ceive what ravishing music glorified saints will make, in running division on this sweet note ? I am sure the song their harps are tuned unto is the ' song of the Lamb,' Rev. xv. 2,3. The saints' finished happiness in heaven's glory is a composition of all the rare ingredients possible, so tempered by the wise hand of God, that as none could well be spared, so not the taste of any one shall be lost in another ; but this of pardoning mercy, and the stupendous love and wisdom of God through Christ therein, shall, as I may so say, give a sweet relish to all, and be tasted above all the rest. CHAPTER V. AN EXHORTATION TO EMBRACE THIS PEACE OF RECONCILIATION, OFFERED IN THE GOSPEL. Use 1. Let it provoke eveiy one to labour to get an interest in this peace of reconciliation v/ith God, which the gospel brings. Peace with God ! sure it is worth the sinner's having ; or else the angels were ill emploj-cd when they welcomed the tidings thereof into the world, at our Saviour's birth, with such acclamations of joy, ' Glory to God, on earth peace,' Luke ii. 14; yea, Christ himself was deceived in his purchase ; who, if a sinner's peace with God be not of high price and value, hath little to shew for the etfusion of his heart-blood, which he thought well spent to gain this. But this we cannot believe ; and yet to see how freely God offers peace and pardon to the sons of men, through Christ, and how coy, yea, sullen and cross they are to the motion, one that does not well know them both, God's infinite goodness, and wretched man's horrible baseness, might be ready to think it some low-prized ware, which lay upon God's hands ; and this to be the cause why God is so earnest to put it off", and man so loth to take it off his hands. Ah, poor deluded wretches! who is the wicked counsellor that hardens your hearts, from embracing your own mercies ? None, sure, but a devil can hate God and you so nuich. And hath he sped so well in his own quarrel against God, that he should be hearkened to by thee, poor sinner? Can he give thee armour that will resist God's bullets? how then is it that he is so unkind to himself, as to let them lie in his own bosom, to his imspeakable torment ? or will he lend thee any pity when thou hast, by his advice, undone thyself? Alas ! no more than the cruel wolf doth the silly sheep, when he hath sucked her blood, and torn her in pieces. Think, and think again, poor sinner, what answer thou meanest to send to heaven, before God calls his ambassadors home, and the treaty break up, never to he renewed again. And that thou mayest not want some seasonable matter for thy musing thoughts to enlarge upon on this subject, let me desire thee to treat with thy own heart upon these four heads. First, Consider what it is that stands before thee in offer. Secondly, Who it is that offers it. Thirdly, How he offers it. Fourthly, ■\\'hat thou dost when thou refusest it. Ti!E CiOSFEL OF I>1::ACE. ggl Section 1. — First, Consider what it is that is oftereil thee, ' Peace with God.' A thing so indispensahle, thou canst not have less ; and so conipi'ehensive, thou needest have no more than this, and what coineth with it, to make thee truly, fully happy ; of all the variety of enjoyments with which it is possihle thy table can be spread, this is a dish that can least he spared; take away peace, and that but of an inferior nature, outward peace, and the feast is spoiled, though it he on a prince's table. David's children had little stomach to their royal dinner, when one of them was slain that sat at the board with them. And what taste can you have in all your junkets, while God is in array against you, many sinners slain before your eye by God's judgments, and the same sword that hath let out their blood at thy throat while tlie meat is in thy mouth ? Mcthinks your sweet morsels should stick in your throat, and hardly get down, while you muse on these things. O sinner ! is not this as a toad swelling at the bottom of thy most sweetly sugared cup, that the controversy yet depends between God and thee ; thy sins are unpardoned, and thou a dead, damned creature, however men-}' thou art for the present in thy prison ? Would you not wonder to see a man at his sport, hunting or hawking, and one sliould tell you this man is to be hanged to-morrow ? Truly (lod is more merciful to thee than thou canst promise thyself, if he stay the execution till another day. I confess when I meet a man whose life proclaims him an unreconciled sinner, and see him spruce up himself in his line clothes, entertain himself with the joy of his chil- dren, estate, honour, or the like, in this life ; it administers matter of astonishment to me what such a one thinks of God or himself. Canst thou think it is long thou shalt sit at this fire of thorns thou hast kindled, and not God fire thee? Must it needs provoke a creditor to see his debtor live high, and go gaily all at his cost, and all the while never think of getting out of his debt, or make his peace with him ? much more doth it God, to see s'nners spend upon his bounty, lead joyful, jovial lives in the abundance of outward enjoyments he lends them, but take no thought of making peace with him in whose debt-book they are so deep in arrears. What folly had it been for the Jews, when Aha- suerus had sealed the warrant for their destruction, to have gone and painted their houses, planted their fields, and let out their hearts in the enjoyment of their estates, without taking care in the first place to get that bloody decree re- versed? a worse sort art thou that dost all these, while thou carriest the sentence of death from God's mouth about thee in thy own conscience. Sir Thomas More, when in the Tower, would not so much as trim himself, saying, ' There was a controversy between the king and him for his head, and till that was at a happy end, he would be at no cost about it.' Skim off the froth of his wit, and you may make a solemn vise of it. Certainly all the cost you bestow on yourselves, to make your lives pleasurable and joyous to you, is mere folly till it be decided what will become of the suit between God and you, not for yoiu- heads, but souls, yea, souls and bodies, whether for lieaven or hell. O were it not thy wisest course to begin with making thy peace, and then thou mayest soon lead a happy life. We say, ' He that gets out of debt grows rich.' I am sure the reconciled soul cannot be poor. As soon as the peace is concluded, a free trade is open between God and the soul. If once pardoned, thou mayest sail to any port that lies in God's dominions, and be welcome ; all the pro- mises stand open with their rich treasure ; take in, poor soul, full lading of all the precious things they afford, even as much as thy faith can b;'ar, and none shall hinder thee. As a man may draw the wine of a whole vessel through one tap, so faith may draw the comfort of all the covenant out of this one promise of reconciliation. If reconciled, then the door is open to comnumion with God in all his ordinances. God and thou, being agreed, may now walk together ; whereas before thou couldst not look into God's presence, but his heart rose against thee, as one at the sight of his enemy, ready to draw upon thee with his judgments. 'The smith,' we say, 'and his penny, both are black;' so wert thou, with all thy duties and performances, while unreconciled in his eye; but now ' thy voice is sweet, and countenance comely.' All the attributes of (iod, tliy ally, are thine ; 'his horses and chariots are thine,' as Jehoshaphat told Ahah. Whenever any enemy puts thee in fear, you know- where to find a friend that will take part with thee ; all his providences, though, like bees, thej' fly some this way and some that, yea, one contrary to ggg THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. another, as thou thinkest impossihle to trace them, yet they are all at work for thee, and thy soul is tlie hive wherein they will unlade the sweet fruit of all their labour, though possibly it may be night, the evening of thy days, before thou findest it. In a word, if reconciled, thou standest next to heaven. Whom he justifies, them he glorifies,' Rom. viii. 30 ; thou art sure to be there as soon as death rends the veil of thy flesh, which is all that interposeth between thee and it. Section II. — Secondly, Consider who it is that offers peace to thee, — the great God; and it is hard to say which speaks the greatest wonder, God to offer, or thee to refuse what he offers. We marvel not to see theundutiful child on his knees, la- bouring to soften his father's heart with his tears, which he hath hardened against him with his rebellion ; nor a condemned traitor prostrate at his prince's foot, begging for his life, now forfeited to the justice of the law : but it is something strange to see the father become suppliant to his child; more for the traitor to open his dungeon door, and find his prince standing there, and that upon no other errand than to desire him to accept of a pardon. And yet self-love may be the great motive for this seeming self-denial. The parent doth but love himself when he steps below his place to gain his child, that carries so much of its parent's life about him. And such necessity of state there is sometimes, that great princes are foi-ced to stoop to the meanest, yea, worst of their subjects. A prince's safety may be so intimately concerned in a traitor's life, that he cannot cut off his head without imminent danger to the crown which stands upon his own. But none of these straits forced God to entertain thoughts of peace to his poor creature ; no, they are the birth of free condescending love. And now think again, sinner, before the great God hath a denial from thee : if a neighbour, the poorest in the town, and he one that hath done thee wrong, and not received it from thee, comes to thee, and desires peace, shouldst thou reject the motion, would not thy conscience reproach thee to thy dying day ? How then wilt thou endure to look God or conscience in the face, if thou refusest peace at God's hands ; that doth not treat like men when their sword is broken and they cannot fight, but when he hath absolute power over thy life, which is ever in his hands, yea, a God that hath received the wrong, and never did thee any ; yea, should have done thee none if he had long before this hanged thee up in chains of darkness among the damned? Section III. — Thirdly, Consider how God offers thee peace. First, He doth it sincerely ; he covers not fraud vmder a treaty of peace. Among men there hath been horrible juggling in this case. The flag of peace is oft hung out only to draw them within the reach of their dagger, which is ready to smite them, as Joab did Abner, under the fifth rib. In all the civil wars of France, the poor Protestants found peace more costly to them than war; they beat the Pa- pists in the field, when open enemies, but were betrayed by them in the cham- ber, when false friends. But for thy comfort know, it is a God of truth thou treatest with ; never did he shed the blood of war in peace, or give a soul to the sword of his wrath after quarter taken and peace given. If we confess, he is just and faithful to forgive ; his promises are not yea and nay, like the devil's, who lays them so that he may have the credit both ways : no, the vei-y heart of God may be seen as through a crystal window in the promise, — ' they are all Yea and Amen in Christ,' 2 Cor. i. 20. Secondly, He offers peace affectionately ; his heart is deeply engaged in the tenders of mercy to poor sinners; which will appear. First, In his contriving a way for reconciling sinners to himself. What men strongly desire, they stretch their wits to the utmost how to accomplish. ' The liberal man deviseth liberal things,' Isa. xxxii. 8. It shews the heart exceeding large in charity when a man shall sit down and study how he may find out ways for the exercise of his charity ; whereas most men, alas ! beat their brains how they may save their purses, and escape with giving as little as may be to the poor. O, what a rare invention hath God found out for shewing mercy ! which hath so many myste- rious passages in it, that angels themselves are put hither to school, that by stu- dying this mystery of God's reconciling sinners to himself by Christ, they might 'know the manifold wisdom of God,' Ephes. iii. 10. Secondly, By the early discovery he made of this to the sons of men. That prince might well be ad- mired for his merciful heart, if any history could shew such a one ever to have THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. ggg swayed sceptre in the world, which I think it cannot, wlio, upon some horrid treason plotted against his crown and royal pei'son, and that by one obliged to him with the highest favours possible, coidd yet not only find in his heart to pardon the rebel, but also stoop so far as to be himself the messenger that should carry the news of this his gracious piu-pose to the traitor in prison, before ever he relented or had it in his thought to sue for his mei'cj', and this the same day in which the villanous attempt was made, that the poor wretch might not languish so much as one night under the horror of his despairing thoughts ; certainly such a prince would pass for a nonsuch in mercy among the sons of men. How then must our thoughts be quite swallowed up into an admiration of this stupendous act of mercy which the great God expressed to fallen man, wherein he did all this for his rebel creature ! for no sooner had man l)roke the peace, and taken up rebellious arms against his Maker, but the Lord's heart re- lented towards him, and could not let the sim go down in his wrath against him, but must in the very same day that he sinned let him hear of a Saviour, by preaching peace to him ' in the seed of the woman,' Gen. ii. 15. Little did Adam think God had such a message in his mouth for him when he first heard him coming towards him, and for fear ran his head into a bush, meditating a flight from him, if he had known whither to have gone. O, that ' Adam, where art thou?' sounded, no doubt, in his guilty ears like the voice of an avenging God, calling him, a malefactor, to execution ; but it proved the voice of a gracious God coming, not to meet man in his way returning to him, but to seek him out who had lost all thoughts of him, that he might give some ease to his own gracious heart, now full of mercy to his poor creature, by disclosing to him the purposes of grace which he had there conceived towards him. Surely his heart was very full, or else this would not have burst out so soon. Thirdly, The great ordinance of the gospel ministry, which God hath set up in the church, on purpose to treat with sinners upon a peace, speaks his deep affection to the work. One would have thought it had been enough to print his thoughts and purposes of mercy in the Scrijjture, though he had done no more. Princes, when they put out a statute or a law, expect all their subjects should inquire after it ; and do not send one to every town, whose office shall be to give notice thereof, and persuade people to submit to it ; yet this the great God doth. What is the minister's work from one end of the year to the other, but to beseech sinners to be reconciled to God ? And in this observe, First, The persons he sends to preach. Not angels, foreigners to our nature, who though they wish us well, yet are not so intimately concerned in man's fall as to give them the advantage of preaching with those melting bowels, that God would have them filled with, who go on this errand. No, he sends men, with whom we may converse familiarly, creatures of like passions, whose nature puts them under the same depravation, temptation, and condemnation, with ourselves ; who can, from the acquaintance they have with their own hearts, tell us the baseness of ours ; from the fire of God's wrath which hath scorched them for their sins, tell us the desert of ours, and danger we are in by reason of them ; as also from the sweet sense that the taste of God's love in Christ hath left on their souls, can commend the cheer and feast they invite us to upon their own knowledge. Did not God, think you, desire good speed to his em- bassage, when he chose such to carry it ? Secondly, Observe the qualifications required in those he employs as ambassadors to offer peace to sinners, 2 Tim. ii. 24 : ' The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.' O how careful is God that nothing should be in the preacher to prejudice the sinner's judg- ment, or harden his heart against the offer of his grace ! If the servant be proiid and hasty, how shall they know that the master is meek and patient? God would have them do nothing to make the breach wider, or hinder a happy close be- tween him and them. Lideed he that will take the bird, must not scai'e it. A froward, peevish messenger is no friend to him that sends him. Sinners are not pelted into Christ with stones of hard provoking language, but wooed into Christ by heart-melting exhortations. Thirdly, Look into the commission God gives his ambassadors, and still his heart appears in the business, whether you consider the largeness of it on the one hand, or the strictness of it on the other. First, the largeness of it, ' Go and preach,' saith Christ, ' the gospel fo 3tH, THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. every creature.' Make no difference, rich or poor; great sinners or little, old sinners or young ; offer peace to all that will hut repent and believe ; hid as many come as will, here is room for all that come. Again, the strictness of it on the other hand. O what a solemn charge have tliey to deliver their message faithfully ! Paul trembles at the thoughts of loitering : ' Woe unto me if I preach not!' What an argument doth Christ use, fetched from his very heart, to persuade Peter to be careful : * If thou lovest me, feed my sheep.' As if he had said, Peter, thou now art in tears for thy cowardice in denying me, thou hast yet one way left, for all that unkindness, to demonstrate thy love to me, and that is l)y feeding my sheep : do this, and trouble not thyself for that. Christ shews more care of his sheep than of himself. Fourthly, The joy God expresseth when poor sinners come into the offer of peace. Joy is the liighest testimony that can be given to our complacency in any thing or person ; love is to joy as fuel to the fire : if love lay little fuel of desires on the heart, then the flame of joy that comes thence will not be great. Now God's joy is great in pardoning poor sinners that come in, therefore his affection great in the offer thereof. It is made tlie very motive that prevails with God to pardon sinners, ' Because he deligliteth in mercy,' Micah vii. 18 : ' Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, for he delighteth in mercy.' God doth all this, ' because he delighteth in mercy.' Ask why th.e angler stands all night with his line in the river ; he will tell you, because he delights in the sport. Well, you now know the reason why God stands so long waiting on sinners, months, years, preaching to them ; it is that he may be gracious in pardoning them, and in that act delight himself. Princes very often pardon traitors, to please others more than themselves, or else it would never be done ; but God doth it chiefly to delight and glad his own merciful heart. Hence, the business Christ came about, which was no other but to reconcile sinners to God, it is called ' the pleasure of the Lord,' Isa. liii. 10. The Lord takes such joy and pleasure in this, that whereas other fathers, whose love to their children sinks infinitely beneath any comparison with the love of God to Christ, mourn at the death of their children, (and most of all when violent and bloody,) God takes content in his Son's death ; yea, had the chief hand in procuring of it, and that with infinite complacency : ' It pleased the Lord to bruise him.' And what joy coidd God take in his Son's death, but as it made way for him and his poor creatures that were fallen out, and at o])en war one against another, to fall in again by a happy accord ? And now speak, O sinner, if God doth so affectionately desire to be reconciled with thee, doth it not much more behove thee to embrace the peace than it doth liim to ofier it? Section IV. — Fourthly, There is but one thing more I would desire thee, sinner, to consider, and then I leave thee to thy own choice. Consider what thou dost when thou refusest peace with God. Determinations of war or peace use to be the result of the most grave counsels and mature deliberations possible. Think and think again what thou dost, before thou breakest off the treaty of peace, lest thou makcst work for repentance when it will be bootless. But lest thou shouldst not be so faithful to God and thy own soul, as to give thy conscience liberty to speak freely in this matter, I shall do it for thee, and tell thee what thou dost when thou rejectest peace. Thoujustifiest thy former hostilities against God, and declarest that thou wilt vouch what thou hast done, let God right himself as well as he can. He that refuseth a pardon, either dcnieth he hath done wrong, or which is worse, stands to defend it : thou hadst as good say thou desirest not to be friends with God, but hast a mind to perpetuate the feud between God and thee ; like Hamilcar, who was such an enemy to Rome, that when he died he made his son Hannibal swear to his hatred against them. Is it not enough thou hast fought so many battles on earth against thy Maker, but wilt thou keep the quarrel up in another world also, where there is no more possibility to put an end to it than to eternity itself? Thou throwest the greatest scorn upon God that it is possible for a creature to do ; as if God's love and hatred were such inconsiderable things that they need not, when cast into the scale of thy thoughts, preponderate thee either way, the one to move thy desire, or the other thy fear. In a word, thou consentest to thy own damnation, and desperately flingest thyself into the mouth of God's flaming wrath, which gapes TllK OOSPiX Ob' PEACE. gg5 in the thveatening upon thee. God is under an oath to prociu'e thy destruction, if thou diest in this mind, whicli God forbid. Deatli is the trap-door which will let thee down to hell's dungeon, and when once thou art there thou art where thou wilt have space enough to weep over thy j)ast folly, though here thou hast neither mind nor leisure to make God thy friend. The very thoughts of those ofters of peace which once thou hadst (hut no heart to embrace them) will be like so much salt and vinegar, with which thy accusing conscience will be continually basting thee, as thou liest roaring in hell-fire, to make thy tor- ment the more intolerable. I know this language grates in the sinner's ears, but not so ill as the gnashing of the sinner's own teeth will in hell. I have read of a foolish, I may say cruel, law among the Lacedemonians, that none should tell his neighbour any ill news befallen him, but every one should be left in process of time to find it out themselves. Many among us, I think, would be content if there were such a law, that might tie up ministers' mouths from scaring them with their sins, and the miseries that attend their vmreconciled state. The most are more careful to run from the discourse of their misery, than to get out of the danger of it ; are more oiFended with the talk of hell, than troubled for that sinful state that shall bring them thither. But, alas! when then shall we shew our love to the souls of sinners if not now ? seeing that in hell there remains no more oflices of love to be done for them. Hell is a pest- house, that we may not write so much on the door of it as, ' Lord have mercy upon them' that are in it ; nay, they who nowpray for their salvation, and weep over their condition, nuist then with Christ vote for their danuiation, and rejoice in it, though they be their own fathers, husbands, and wives they see there. O now bethink yourselves, before the heart of God and man be hardened against you. CHAPTER VL FOUR DIRECTIONS BY WAY OF COUNSEL TO SINNERS, YET IN AN UNRECON- CILED STATE, HOW THEY MAY BE AT PEACE WITH GOD. Quest. But how may a poor sinner be at peace with God ? Section L — Ans. First, See and be sensible of the feud and enmity, that at present stands betwixt God and thee. First, As to the reality of the thing that there is indeed a quarrel which God hath against thee; wherever thou goest, an angry God is at thy back, and his wrath, like a heavy cloud, hangs full of curses over thy head, ready every moment to empty them upon it. There is need of pressing this ; for though it is ordinary for men to confess themselves sinners, yet most are loth to disparage their state so far as to rank themselves among the enemies of God : no, they hope God and they are good friends, for all this. Like thieves, they will confess some little matter, but they will have a care of letting fall anything that may hazard their necks : sinner is a favourable word ; who lives and sins not? that they will grant ; but to be in a state of enmity, and under the wrath of God, this scares them too much, and brings them too near the sight of the gallows, the seat of hell, which are due to that state; and, therefore, when pressed thus far, as the Jews desired Rabshakeh, when he terrified them with the dreadful things that would befall them, if they stood out against the king his nuister, ' that he would not speak in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people,' Isa. xxxvi. 11, for fear of afiVighting them, but in a foreign tongue; so sinners desire those that deal plainly with them, that they would no! speak so broad in the hearing of their conscience, which they are afraid should know the worst. But if thou lovest thy own soul, make a true representation of thy state to thyself. O what folly is it for a man to lose his cause, by concealing the badness of it. Secondly, Labour to bring thy- self under the sense of thy miseral)le condition, as thou art. Hadst thou the em- pire of the world, and all nations creeping to thy foot, as once the beasts did to Adam, and a lease as long as Methuselah's life twice told to enjoy it in, with- out the interposition of (jiie cloud all the while to darken the glory of this thy royalty ; yet, supposing thee to be one to whom God is an enemy, I would choose to be the worm under thy foot, the toad in the ditch, sooner than thy miserable self in thy palace. One thought of thy approaching death and eternal misery, in store for thee, will blunt the edge of all thy present happiness. This, this makes the great ones of the v.-orld, indeed all unreconciled sinners, high ggQ THE GOSPEL OP PEACE. and low, to go to their graves, as bears down a hill, backwards ; alas ! if they should but look forward whither they are going, their hearts wovild soon be at their mouths for want of this breastplate — a comfortable persuasion of their peace made with God. Go, therefore, as a poor malefactor condemned to die would do ; shut thyself up from all thy old flattering companions, that would still lullaby thy miserable soul in a senseless security, the cradle which the devil rocks souls in to their utter destruction ; let none of them come to thee ; but send for those that dare be faithful to thee, and, like Samuel, tell thee every word that God saith against thee, and conceal nothing : yea, read thy doom with thy own eyes in the word, and take thy condemnation from God's own mouth, and not man's : 'There is no jieace to the wicked,' saith my God ; muse on it, till it cleaves to thy soul, like a drawing plaster to a sore, and brings out the very core of thy pride and carnal confidence, which hardened thy heart from all sense of thy condition; by which time the anguish of thy own spirit, seeing the straits thou art brought into, will prompt thee to desire peace with God, and that is that which God waits for to hear drop from thee, as much as Ben- hadad's servants did for a word from Ahab's mouth. Section II.- — Secondly, Look thou propoundest right ends in thy desire of reconciliation with God. Nothing more hateful to God or man than falsehood and treachery in treaties of jieace; and yet some men can have words as smooth as butter in their mouths, and war is in their hearts at the same time, Psa. Iv. 21. O, take heed of any hollowness of heart in thy inquiry for peace ; when found out, as it must needs be, except God's eye fails him, which is impossible, it will exceedingly harden the heart of God against thee. God never repented of any he pardoned, or took up into the chariot of peace with him ; because he was never deceived by any, as men are, who often make peace with those that prove at last false brethren, and give them cause to wish they had never known them. Joab kissed Amasa, but he took no heed to the sword in Joab's hand. God looks to the heart, and sees what is in its hand; be sui'e thou therefore stand clear in thy own thoughts, as to the ends thou aimest at. It is lawful for thee to look to thy own safety. God will give thee leave to look to thyself; this thou mayest, and yet not neglect him ; but never was any peace true or sure, where only self-love made it, whether it be with God, or between man and man. Thou seest thou art undone, if thou keepest thy old side ; and, there- fore, thou seekest peace with God, as the kings that served Hadarezer, ' when they saw he was smitten before Israel, they made peace with Israel themselves,' 2 Sam. X. 19: well, this may be allowed thee to come over to God, because his is the surer side. Never any made peace with God, but this argument weighed much with them. If Jacob could have been safe at home, he had never fled to Laban : all are fired out of their holds, before they yield to God. But take heed this be not all thou aimest at, or the chief thou aimest at ; this thou mayest do, and hate God as much as ever ; like those who are said to yield feignedly to David's victorious arms, because no help for it. A man taken in a stonn may be forced imder the pent-house of his greatest enemy for shelter, withovit any change of his heart, or better thoughts of him, than before he was wont. Two things, therefore, thou must look to have in thy eye, above thy own self-preservation. First, The honour of God. Hence oft the saint's prayers are pressed with an argument from God, as well as themselves and their own misery, Psa. Ixxix. 9 : ' Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name, and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.' Certainly, if God could not be more glorified in oiu* peace and reconciliation, than in our death and damnation, it were a wicked thing to desire it. But God hath cleared this up to us, that he is no loser by acts of mercy. In this lies the greatest revenue of his crown, or else he would not love ' mercy rather than sacrifice.' God is free to choose what suits his own heart best, and most conduceth to the exalting of his great name ; and he delights more in the mercy shewn to one, than in the blood of all the damned, that are made a sacrifice to his justice. And, indeed, he had a higher end in their damnation, than their suff'ering : and tliat was the enhancing of the glory of his mercy, in his saved ones. This is the beautiful piece God takes delight in, and the other but the shadow to it. Then thou art in a fit disposition to pray for peace, and mayest go with encouragement, when thy heart is deeply affected with the honour that THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 3(37 will accrue to God by it. It is an argument God will not deny. ' This,' said Abigail to David, ' shall be no grief to thee nor offence of heart unto my lord,' 1 Sam. XXV. ; she meant, he should never have cause to repent tliat he was kept from shedding blood. Thus mayest thou plead with God, and say, O Lord, when I shall with saints and angels be praising thy pardoning grace in heaven, it will not grieve thee, that thy mercy kept thee from shedding my blood, damning my soul in hell. But now it is evident, that many who seem to seek peace, and pursue it too, very strongly, yet do not take overmuch care for God's honour in the thing ; because they are earnest with God to pai'don them in a way that were to him dishonourable : pardoned they would be, though wholly ignorant of God and Christ : they would have God to be at peace with them, while tliey are enemies to him. Like a thief at the bar, he would have the judge spare his life, right or wrong, legally or illegally; what cares he? doth this wretch consider the honour of the judge? or that sinner, who, so he be saved, cares not how unrighteous God is in the act of mercy ? O, deceive not yoiu'selves, poor souls ; God will not make war between his own attributes, to make peace with you. Secondly, You must desire to be reconciled to God, that you may have fellowship with God. Certainly, a soul sensible what the loss of commimion with God is, counts it hath not all her errand done, when it hath naked peace given it : should God sa}^. Soul, I am friends with thee ; I have ordered thou shalt never go to hell, here is a discharge under my hand, that thou shalt never be arrested for my debt more ; but as for any fellow.ship with me, or fruition of me, thou canst expect none; I have done with thee, and shall not hold any acquaintance more with thee : certainly the soul would take little joy in her peace; were the fire out as to positive torments, yet a hell would be left in the dismal darkness which the soul would sit under, for want of God's presence, Absalom knew no middle condition that could please him, betwixt seeing the king liis father's face, and being killed ; 2 Sam. xiv. 32 : ' Let me see the king's face, and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.' If I be not worthy to enjoy my father's love and presence, neither do I desire to live ; whereas a naughty heart seeks reconciliation without any longing after fellow- ship with God : like the traitor, if the king will but pardon and save him from the gallows, he is ready to promise him never to trouble him at court ; it is his own life, not the king's favour, he desires. Section III. — Thirdly, Throw down thy rebellious arms, and luunbly sub- mit to his mercy. God will not so much as treat with thee, so long as thy sword is in thy hand: ' Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord,' Isa. i. 18. Mark when the parley begins ; ' Put away the evil of your doings,' ver. 16. Now come and treat with God about a peace. First, God is a great God, and it doth not become his sovereignty to treat his sorry creature on equal terms, as a king doth with his feUow-prince, who, if he cannot have peace on his own terms, is able probably to revenge himself by force of arms; but as a mighty king with his rebel subject, whom he hath fast bound witli chains in prison, and can at pleasure hang up for his treason. The great God will have thee know that. Let those capitulate, who can retire to their strength, and live without peace. But as for tiiee, poor sinner, thou dost not, I hojje, think thou art in a capacity to meet God in the field, or to thrive by this trade of war against God. No, thy only way is to conquer him upon thy knees, to lay thy neck at his foot, and say, Lord, I put my life in thy hands, thy true prisoner I will be, choosing rather to die by the hand of thy justice, than to continue fighting against thy mercy. Now, poor soul, thou art in the path that leads to peace. ' Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up,' James iv. 10 ; that soul shall not hmg be out of his arms, that is prostrate at his foot. But tliough the high and lofty One can stoop to take up a penitent sinner into the arms of his pardoning mercy, yet he will not debase his sovereignty to treat with a wretch that stands to his arms, and stouts it out with him. There is one red letter in God's name ; ' He will by no means clear the guilty,' Exod. xxxiv. Secondly, The holy nature of God requires this : sin is that which made the breach, and caused (Jod to take arms against his creature ; how canst thou rationally tliink to make thy peace with liim, and keep this source of conten- tion in thy bosom? God is willing to be reconciled with thee, but wilt thou have fiQq^ THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. him be at peace with thy sin also ? Is it not enough to he justified from thy sin, hilt wouklst thou have God hetray his own honour, by justifying tliee in thy sin? Did you ever liear a prince give a patent to another to cut his own throat? What security canst thou give to God of thy love tn him, if thou wilt not renounce that which is the only thing that seeks his life ? Peccafiim est de- cidium. As long as the traitor is in favour within, God will not raise his siege, or hear a peace without. They cannot reign together ; choose which you will have of them ; and be not so far deluded, as to think it is enough to send thy lust out of the way for a while, as princes use to do their favourites in a po- pular commotion, to please the people, and then call for them home, when the hubbub is over. No, God will not be thus dogged and mocked. See how the promise runs, and this he will stand to, Isa. Iv. 7 : ' Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly par- don.' See how cautious God is in the terms : no corner is left for the least sin to skulk and save its life in — ' he nmst forsake.' That implies, First, A deli- berate choice in the soul : he does it freely. Some men's sins forsake them ; ' the unclean spirit goes out,' and is not driven out ; occasions to sin cease, or bodily ability to execute the commands of sin is wanting. Here is no forsaking sin in all this; but to break from it with a holy indignation and resolution when temptation is most busy, and strength most active ; now, as David said, when his enemies compassed him as bees, in the name of the Lord to rebel and resist them, this is to forsake. This is the encomiinn of Moses; he forsook the court when he was grown up ; not for age, as Barzillai, but when his blood was warm in his veins. A man doth not forsake his wife when he is detained from her in prison, but when he puts her away, and gives her a bill of divorce. Secondly, To forsake sin, is to leave it without any thought reserved of returning to it again. Every time a man takes a journey from home about business, we do not say he hath forsaken his house, because he meant, when he went out, to come to it again. No ; but when we see a man leave his house, carry all his stuff away with him, lock up his doors, and take up his abode in another, never to dwell there more ; here is a man who hath, indeed, forsaken his house. It were strange to find a drunkard so constant in the exercise of that sin but some time you may hud him sober ; and yet a drunkard he is, as well as if he was then drunk. Every one hath not forsaken his trade, that we see now and then in their holiday suit ; then the man forsakes his sin, when he throws it from him, and bolts the door upon it, with a purpose never to open more to it; Hosea xiv. 8, ' Ephraim shall say. What have I to do any more with idols?' Again, Observe, before pardon can be sealed, he must forsake not this sin, or that, but the whole law of sin. ' Let the wicked forsake his way.' A traveller may step fi-om one path to another, and still go on the same way of sin, leave a dirty, deep, and rugged path, for one more smooth and even ; so many finding some gross sins uneasy, and too toilsome to their awakened con- .sciences, step into a more cleanly path of civility ; but alas, poor creatures ! all they get is to go a little more easily and cleanly to hell than their beastly neigh- bours. But he forsakes the way of sin, that turns out of the whole road. In a word, thou must forsake the blindest path of all in sin's way, that which lies behind the hedge, as I may so say, in the thoughts of the heart, ' and the un- righteous his thoughts:' or else thou knockest in vain at God's door for pardon- ing mercy; and, therefore, poor soul, forsake all or none; save one lust, and you lose your soul. If men mean to go to hell, why are they so mannerly ? this halving with sin is ridiculous. Art thou afraid of this sin, and not of a less, which hinders thy peace, and makes thy damnation as sure, only without so much distraction to thy drowsy conscience at present? This is as ridiculous as it was with him, who being to be hanged, desired that he might by no means go through such a street to the gallows, for fear of the plague that was there. What wilt thou get, ^loor sinner, if thou goest to hell, though thou goest thither by thy ignorance, unbelief, spiritual pride, &c., yet led about so as to escape the plague of open profaneness? O, sirs, consider but the equity, the honour- ableness of the terms that God oft'ers peace upon. What lust is so sweet or profitable, that is worth burning in hell for ? Darius, when he fled before Alex- . ander, that he might run the faster out of danger, 'threw away his massy crown THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. g^g from his head,' which hindered him ; and is any lust so precious in thy eye, that thou canst not leave it behind thee, rather than fall into the hands of God's justice ? But so sottish is foolish man, that a wise heathen could take notice of it : En .sola emi putanius, pro quibus pecimiam solvimus ; ea (jratiiJta vocamus, pro qu'ibus tios-ipsos impend} mus, &c. {Sen. Epist. 42.) We think we only buy what we part with money for ; and as for those things we pay our- selves, our souls, for, these we think we have for nothing, as if the man were not more worth than his money. Section IV. — Fourthly, Having been faithful to follow the preceding direc- tions, thou now art in a fair way to effect thy much-desired enlei-prise; hie thee, therefore, as soon as may be, to the throne of grace, and humbly pi-esent thy request to God, that he would be at peace with thee ; yea, carry with thee a faith that thou shalt find him more ready to embrace the motion, than thou to make it. Only take heed what thou makest thy plea to move God, and where thou placest thy confidence : not in thy repentance or reformation ; this were to play the merchant with God; know he expects not a chapman to barter with him, but an humble suppliant to be suitor to liim. Nor his absolute mercy, (as ignorant souls do,) this is to take hold of the sword by the blade, and not by the hilt ; such will find their death and damnation from that mercy, which they might be saved by, if they did take liold of it as God oflfers it them, and that is, through Christ, Isa. xxxvii. 5 : ' Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me.' And where lies God's saving strength, but in Christ? He hath laid strength upon this mighty one, able to save to the uttermost all that come to God. It is not God's absolute power or mercy will help thee, but his covenant, strength, and mercy, as this is in Christ. Take hold of Christ, and thou hast hold of God's arm ; he cannot strike the soul that holds thereby. Indeed, God's essential goodness is a powerful argument to persuade the poor soul to rely upon the promise in Christ for pardon, when he considers that God who promiseth peace to the believer is a God whose very nature is forgiving, and mercy itself; but had there been no promise to engage this mercy to poor sinners through Christ, this would have been but cold comfort to have believed God was good. Hf could have damned the wliole stock of Adam, and not called his essential good- ness the least in question. It is no blot to tlie almightiness of his power that he doth not all he can. He could make more worlds, if he was so pleased, than he hath done ; but we have no ground to believe he will, neither is he the less almighty because he does not. So he covdd have saved the fallen angels witli the sons of lost man : he is not scanted in mercy for such a design, if he had thought it fit ; but having passed no promise for such a thing, the essential goodness of God affords the devils but little relief or hope that he will do it ; and yet God continues good. And, for aught I can find out of the word, they among the sons of men who, either through simple ignorance of the gospel, or prejudice which their proud reason hath taken up against the way it marks out for making our peace with God through Christ's satisfaction for us, done- gleet Christ, or scornfully reject this his satisfaction, and betake themselves to the absolute goodness and mercy of God as the plea which they will make at Christ's bar for their pardon and salvation, shall find as little benefit from it as the devils tliemsclves. Suppose, friends, a prince should freely make a law by which he will govern his people, and takes a solemn oath to keep close to it, could a malefactor that is condennied b}' this law to die expect any relief by appealing from the law to (he mercy and goodness of the prince's natiu'e ? 1 confess some have sped and saved their lives by taking this course ; but it hath been because either the })riuce wi'.s imprudent in nuiking the law, or unfaitliful in keeping liis oath, neither of which can without blasphemy be imputed to God, infinitely wise and holy. He hath enacted a law, called the law of faith, for saving poor sinners tln-ough Christ, and is under an oath to make it good, both in tlie salvati(m of everyone that believes on Christ, and damnation of every one that doth not believe; and, to make all sure, hatli given Christ an oath to be faithful in his office, who was trusted as priest to procure redemption, and sliall sit as judge to pronounce the sentence, at the great day, of absolution or condemnation. Take heed, iherefore, poor sinner, that thou art not drawn from placing thy entire confidence on Christ the Son of God, both God and 2 T? g'^Q THE GOSPEL OF FEACE. man in one person, who laid down his Ufe, upon agreement with his Father, to make an atonement for the sin of the world, and now offers thee that blood, which then he shed, as a price to carry in the hand of thy faith to the Father for pardon and peace. No, though they should come and call thee from Christ to Christ, from a Christ without thee to Christ within thee ; as the Jesuit doth in the Quaker, into whom he is now got, as the friars of old were wont nito their hollow images, that the}' might deliver their lying doctrines out of the mouths of their reputed saints, and thereby deceive the multitude without any suspicion of their knavery. Just so do the Jesuits now-a-days deliver their Popish stuff' out of the mouths of the Quakers ; a design so much more danger- ous, as it is more cunning than the other. There is too much light shed abroad for that old puppet-play to take ; but though men are too wise to lend an ear to a block or a stone, yet holiness in a living saint commands such reverence, that the devil hath ever found, and will to the end of the world, that he may pass least suspected under this cloak. Well, when he comes to call thee from a Chi-ist without thee to a Christ within thee, strip the doctrine out of its pleasing phrase, and, in plain English, he calls thee from trusting in the righteousness of Christ wrought by him for thee, and by faith to be made thine for thy justifi- cation before God, to an inherent work of grace, or righteousness wrovight by the Spirit of God in thee for thy sanctification and renovation, called sometimes the new creature, and Christ within us. Now hast thou not made a goodly change if thou hast let go thy hold on Christ, who is thy righteousness, to rely on a creature, and that a weak one too, God knows, full of so many im])er- fections, that thy conscience, except injudicious and given over to believe a lie, can tell that it is but a vein of gold enibased with much more earth and dross, which shall never be quite purged till thou art put into the refining- pot of the grave ? Look to thyself, Christian ; here it is matter of life and death. Prize Christ's grace within thee thou must, yea, thou hast none in thee if thou dost not value it above all the mountains of gold the world hath ; but trust not to this Christ, or grace of Christ within thee, for life and salvation ; for now thou pi-izest the creature above God, and settest Christ within thee to fight with Christ without thee. The bride doth well highly to esteem her hus- band's picture which he hath given her, especially if very like him, and most -of all if drawn by his own hand ; but it were very ridiculous if she should dote on that so far as to slight her husband, and when she wants money, clothes, or the like, to go not to her husband, but to the picture he gave her, for all. The saint's grace is called Christ within him because it is his pictiu'e, and makes the saint so like Christ. This, for the resemblance it bears to the holiness of Christ himself, thy husband, who with the finger of his own Spirit drew it on thy soul, deserves highly to be valued ; but what a dotage were it for thee to tiu'n thy back on the Lord Jesus Christ himself^ to whom by faith thou art married, and, when thou wantest pardon and comfort, wouldst have heaven and happi- ness, to expect these, not from Christ, but thy grace ! Will Christ thank thee for honouring his creature to the dishonour of his person ? CHAPTER VIL AN EXHORTATION TO SUCH AS ARE AT PEACE WITH GOD, IN SIX PARTICULARS. Use 2. Secondly, A few words by way of improvement to you whose peace is concluded with Christ. First, Hast thou peace with God ? look thou makest no peace with sin. This broke thy peace with God : now let thy peace with God begin a war with that, never to have end. Thou canst not surely foi'get the inestimable wrong and damage thou hast suffered by it; every moment's sweet enjoyment of God, whose bosom-love thou hast now happily recovered, will help to keep the fire of wrath and revenge burning in thy heart against that cursed enemy that both threw and kept thee so long thence. God hath now won thy heart, I hope, by his pardoning mercy, dearly to love him for his love to thee. How then canst thou with patience see any lust come braving forth from its trench, (thy heart I mean,) defying thy God and his grace in thee ? Paul's spirit was stirred in him at Athens, to see God dishonoured by ihe supei-stition of others ; and is not thine, to see him reproached by the pride, unbelief, and other sins THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. <5Y I that do it from under thy own soul's roof? O, Christian, meditate some noble exploit against it. Now, the more to steel thy heart, and harden it against all relenting towards it, carry the blood and wounds of thy Saviour into the field with thee in the hand of thy faith ; the sight of these will certainly enrage thy heart against the lusts that stabbed and killed him, more than the bloody gar- ments of Caesar, held up by Antony, did the Roman citizens against his mur- derers. O see how cruelly they used tlie Lord of glory, and where they laid him in an ignominious grave, and that fastened with a seal stronger than that which man set to it, the ciu-se due to us sinners, never possible to have been broken up by any less than his own almighty arm! And now. Christian, shall these murderers, not of man, but of God, (for it was the blood of God that was shed,) escape that vengeance whicli God would have done with thy hand upon them .' Wherefore else doth he leave them any life in thy soul, but that tliou shouldst have the opportunity of sliewing thy love to Christ by running thy dagger of mortification into their heart? Alexander got no more honour by his great vic- tories in the field than by his piety to his dead father Pliilip, whose bloody death he avenged as soon as he came into the tlirone, slaying the murderers upon his father's tomb. O shew thou, Christian, tliy piety to thy Saviour by falling upon thy cursed lusts, and that speedily: never rest till thou hast had their blood that shed his. Till thou dost tliis, thou art consenting to all tlie cruelty that was executed on him : this, this is the honour which all the saints shall have; and, therefore, the two-edged sword of the Spirit is put into their hands, that they may execute the vengeance written. Secondly, Is God reconciled to thee ? Be thou willing to be reconciled to any that have wronged thee ; thy God expects it at thy hands : thou hast reason to pardon thy brother for God's sake, who pardoned thee for his pure mercy's sake. Thou in pardoning dost no more than thou owest thy brother ; but God pardoned thee when he did owe thee nothing but wrath. Thou needest not, I hope, think that thou dishonourest thyself in the act, though it be to the veriest beggar in the town : know thou dost it after thy betters ; thy God stooped lower when he reconciled himself to thee, yea, sought it at thy hands, and no dishonour neither to the high and lofty One. Nay, by implaca- bleness and revenge, thou debasest thyself the most thou canst likely do ; for by these thou stoopest not only beneath thy lieaven-born nature, but human. It is the devil, and none but such as bear his image, that are implacable enemies ; hell-fire it is that is unquenchable. 'The wisdom from above is easily to be entreated.' Thou a Christian, and caiTy hell-fire about thee ! how can it be ? When we see a child furious and revengeful, that comes of merciful parents, we use to say, we wonder of whom he got his currish, churlish disposition ; his father and mother were not so. Who learns thee, O Christian, to be so revenge- fid and unmerciful ? thou hast it not of thy heavenly Father, I am sure. Thirdly, Is God at peace with thee ? hath he pardoned thj- sins ? Never then distnist his providence for any thing thou wantest, as to this life. Two things well weighed would help thy faitli in this particular. First, When he pardoned thy sins he did more for thee tlian this comes to ; and did he give the greater, and will he grudge thee the less ? Thou hast Christ in thy pardon bestowed on thee ; ' how shall he not with him also freely give thee all things ?' Rom. viii. 32. When the father gives his child the wliole orchard, it were folly lo question whether he gives him this apple, or that, in it. 'AH things are yours, and ye are Christ's,' 1 Cor. iii. 22. The reconciled soul hath a right to all ; the whole world is his ; but as a father, though he settles a fair estate on his child, yet lets him hold no more in his own hand than he can well manage, so God gives believers a right to all the comforts of this life, but proportions so much out to them, for their actual use, as his infinite wisdom sees meet, so that he that hath less than anotlier, in his present possession, ought to impute it not to any want of love or care in God, but to the wisdom both of his love and care, that gives stock as we have grace to woi'k it out : we pour the wine according as the cup is ; that which but fills one, would be half lost if poured into a less. Secondly, Consider how God gives these temporalities to those that he denies peace and pardon to. Though within awhile they are to be cast into hell, yet while on earth his providence reacheth unto them. And doth God feed these ravens, unclean birds ? doth he cause his rain to drop fatness on their 2 B 2 372 THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. fields ? and will he neglect thee, thinkest thou, that art a believer ? If the prince feeds the traitor in prison, surely the child in his house shall not starve. In a word, to allude to that, Luke xii. 28, if God in his pi-ovidence so abounds to the ungodly, as we see he doth ; if he clothes this grass, (for to this the wicked may well be compared, which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into hell's burning oven,) ' how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith ?' Fourthly, Ai't thou at peace with God ? O then shew no discontent at any cross or affliction that God visiteth thee withal. If he hath visited thee first with his mercy, thou hast reason to bid him kindly welcome, when he comes to visit thee with his rod. Thou hast sugar by thee now, to sweeten thy bitter cup. When the prophet Sanniel came to Bethlehem, it is said, ' The elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably ? and he said, Peaceably,' 1 Sam. xvi. 4. Thus when God comes with some heavenly affliction to us, it may make us tremble till we know what it comes for, whether peace- ably or no. Now, if thou art at peace with God, the fear is over ; it cannot but come peaceably. Thou mayest conclude it comes on mercy's errand. What condition canst thou, O pardoned soul, be in, that should part thee and the joy of thy peace with God? Is it the wrath of man thou fearest? Possibly thou hast many enemies, and those great ones, and their wrath as great as such can express. Let it be so ; is God among them or no ? Doth God let out their wrath in his wrath against thee ? if not, thou exceedingly wrongest God, if overmuch troubled, and thyself also. Thou wrongest God by not sanctifying his name in thy heart, whose mercy, I hope, is able to secure thee from their wrath. 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' Rom. viii. 31. Thou needest not fear them, though an ai"my of them were about thee, no more than if they were so many wisps of straw. And thou wrongest thyself also ; how, indeed, can we wrong God and not ourselves ? So long as thou art under the power of such a fear, from man's wrath, thou canst never have the taste of God's love in its true sweetness. Again, art thou sick, poor, and what not be- side ? May not God reasonably expect, that reconciling mercy should stop thy mouth from whispering any word of discontent against him, and prevent all envious glances of thy eye at the prosperity of the wicked? Remember, man, that thou canst say one great word which they cannot, in the midst of all their pomp and woi'ldly glor}', ' Though I lie here poor and sick, yet I am, through mercy, at peace with God.' This well thought on, would soon change both your notes ; the joy of the prosperous sinner into bitter mourning, and thy sorrow, Christian, into joy. Tlie Lady Elizabeth, afterwards England's gracious queen, hearing a simple milk-maid sing merrily in the field, when she, poor princess, being then a sorrowful prisoner, had more mind to sigh than sing, though served at the same time in state as a princess, said that poor maid was happier than herself. And so would the sinner, how great and high soever in the world, think the poorest Christian, with his rags and penury, a better man, and happier in his liberty, and peace with God, than himself, in all his grandeur and worldly gaieties, did he but consider, that in the midst of all these he is a prisoner, not to man, but God, out of whose hands there is no escaping. Fifthly, Comfort thj'self with this, that thou who art at peace with God now on earth shall feast with G. d ere long in heaven, Rom. viii. 30 : ' And whom he justified, them he also glorified.' And do not think this news too good or great to be true. Here is a word for it, you see. Heaven's number of glorified saints is made up of justified sinners ; neither more nor less of the one, than of the other. Art thou justified by faith, b}' which thou hast peace with God? then lose not thy privilege, but rejoice with thy fellow-saints 'in the hope of the glory of God.' It is before thee ; every da}' brings thee nearer to it, and nothing can hinder thee of it at last; not thy sins themselves, and I know thou fearest them most. He that paid thy great score, at thy conversion, will find mercy enough in his heart siu-ely to pass by thy small debts, which thy own infirmity, and Satan's subtlety, have run thee into. Thou wert an enemy when God thought of doing the first ; but now thou art a friend, and this will oblige him to do the second, that he may not lose his disbinsement in the first; yea, provision is made by God in his method of our salvation for the one, as strongly as for the other. Christ died to make lis, enemies to God, friends with him ; and he Ha^cs now to bring God and us, being thus made friends, to meet in THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. Q^^^ one heaven together. Yea, the apostle gives the advantage to this of the two for our faith to triumph in : ' For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life,' Rom. v. 10. As if the apostle had said. Can you believe that God liath taken you, that were bloody enemies, into a state of peace and favour with himself? Surely, then, you must needs find it easier for your faith to argue from reconciliation to salvation, than from hostility and enmity to pardon and jjoace. Coidd Christ procure the one by his death, when he was weakest, as I may so say, and at the lowest descent of his humiliation ; how much more shall he, in the height of his court favour in heaven, where he hath all power given him, and in particular the keys of hell and death, to open and shut as he pleaseth, be able to save those whom he hath reconciled? Sixthly, Art thou at peace with God ? Knowing the goodness of God to thyself, do thou woo in some others to embrace the same mercy. The house is not so full, butj'et ' .here is room,' Luke xiv. 22. Hast thou none thou lovest so well, as to wish them thy happiness ? haply thou hast a carnal husband lying by thy side, children of thy womb or loins, neighbours in wliose company thou art every day almost, and all these in an unreconciled state, who, should they die as now they live, their precious souls are lost for ever, and yet themselves think no more of this misery coming on them, than the silly sheep doth what the butcher is doing when he is whetting his knife to cut her throat. Well, the less merciful they are to their own souls, the more need there is thou shouldst shew thy compassion towards them. We take most care of those that are least capable of taking care for themselves. If thou hadst a friend sick in thy house, and of such a disease that he could not help himself, should he die rather than thou wouldst look after him ? If a child, condemned to die, though he did himself not mind the getting of a pardon, yet surely thou wouldst run and ride to obtain it, rather than see him end his days so shamefully. In a word, didst thou but know that thy neighbour had an intention to put an end to himself, and for that end had locked himself up in a room, wovddst thou not bestir thee to break up the door, rather than the man should thus miscarry? But, alas! where is the holy violence that is used to save poor souls ? Pai'ents, husbands, neigh- bours, they can see their relations going to hell before their eyes ; and who saith to them. Why do you so ? O for the Lord's sake be more merciful to the souls of others. Thou hast foimd a feast ; let not any that are near thee starve for want of knowledge, where it is to be had. Go and invite all thou canst see to God's house ; so did David, Psa. xxxiv. 8 : ' O taste and see that the Lord is good.' Thou needst not fear a chiding from God, for sending him more guests. He complains he hath no more ; ' Ye will not come unto me, that ye may have life,' John v. 40. He threatens those that keep sinners off from making their peace with him, by flattering them with a false one, called, a ' strengthening of the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life,' Ezek. xiii. 22. How acceptable a work then must it needs be to woo souls to Christ ! The merchant is not angry for sending a customer into his warehouse, that will buy what he hath taken so much cost and travail to get that he may sell ; nor will the physician blame any for bringing a patient to him, by whose cure he may let the world know his skill and art. And this is the great design Christ hath long had, and in particular prayed for, John xvii. 21 : ' That the woi'ld might believe that he was sent of God.' What aims he at in the gathering in of souls, by the grace of the gospel, but 'to take out a people,' from the heap of sinners, 'for his name?' Acts xv. 14 ; that is, cull out a number, in shewing mercy to whom he might exalt his own name gloriously. CHAPTER VIII. THAT PEACE OF CONSCIENCE IS A BLESSING TO BE OBTAINED FROM THE GOSPEL, AND ONLY THE GOSPEL, WITH A DOUBLE DEMONSTRATION THEREOF. We come now to the second kind of peace, and that is, peace of consolation, or peace of conscience : by the former, the poor sinner is reconciled to God ; by this, he comes anima pacata slb'i, a soul reconciled to itself: since man fell out with God, lie could never be truly friends with his own conscience. This second 374 "^"^^ GOSPEL OF PEACE. peace is so necessary, that he cannot taste the sweetness of the first, nor indeed of any other mercy, without it. This is to the sonl what health is to the body ; it sugars and sweetens all enjoyments. A siiit, though of cloth of gold, sits not easy on a sick man's back. Nothing joyous to a distressed conscience. Moses brought good news to the distressed Israelites in Egypt ; but it is said, ' They hearkened not to him for anguish of spirit,' Exod. vi. 9. Hannah, she went up to the festival at Jerusalem, with her husband ; but it is said, ' She wept and did not eat,' 1 Sam. i. 7. Tnily thus the wounded soul goes to the sermon, but doth not eat of the feast before it ; hears many precious promises, but her ear is shut up from receiving the good news they bring. Tell one, in trouble of con- science, here is your dear husband, sweet children ; will you not rejoice with them ? Alas ! the throes such a one feels are so amazing, that he regards these things no more than Phineas's wife in her sore travail did the women that joyed her with the birth of a son. Set the most royal feast before such a soul, that ever was on prince's table, and, poor heart, it had rather go into a coi-ner and weep, than sit and eat of those delicacies. ' A wounded spirit who can bear?' yea, who can cure? Some diseases are, for their incurableness, called, ludibrhim medi- corvm, — the physician's shame and reproach. To be sure, this spiritual trouble of an accusing conscience puts all the world to shame for their vain attempts. Many have attempted to conjure this evil spirit out of their own bosoms and others', but have found it at last to leap upon them, and prevail against them, as the evil spirit, Acts xix. 14, did by the sons of Sceva. Now, peace of conscience, I am now to shew, is the blessing of the gospel, and only of the gospel ; conscience knows Jesus, and the gospel of Jesus ; these, and none else, it will obey. Two particulars considered will demonstrate the truth of the point. First, if we consider w'hat is the argument that pacifies aj:d satisfies conscience. Secondly, what the power and strength that is required to apply this argument so close and home to the consience as to quiet and fully satisfy it ; both these will be found in the gospel, and onl)' in the gospel. Section I. — First, Let us inquire wh;;t is the argimient that is able to pacify conscience when thoroughly awakened. Now, to know this, we must inquire, what is the cause of a'l tliose convulsions of horror and terror with which the consciences of men are at iiy time so sadly r.nt and distorted. Now this is sin ; could this little word, but great plague, be quite blotted out of men's minds and hearts, the storm would b>i soon hushed, an 1 the soul become a calm sea, quiet and smooth, without the least wave of fear to ruffle the face thereof. This is the Jonah, which raiselh the storm; ihi Achan, that troubles the soul. Wherever this comes, as was observed of a great queen in France, a war is sure to follow. When Adam sinned, he dissolved another manner of jewel than Cleopatra did ; he drank away this sweet peace of conscience in one unhappy draught, which was worth more to him than the world he lived in. No wonder that it rose in his conscience as soon as it was down his throat ; ' They saw that they were naked," Gen. iii. 7. Their consciences reproached them as ciu'sed apostates. That, therefore, which brings peace to conscience, must pros- trate this Goliath, throw this troubler overboard, pluck this arrow out of the soul ; or else the war will not end, the storm will not down, the wound will not close and heal, which conscience lab. urs under. Now the envenomed head of sin's arrow, that lies burning in the conscience, and by its continual boking and throbbing there keeps the poor sinner out of quiet, yea, sometimes in unsupport- able torment and horror, is guilt, whereby the creature is alarmed up to judg- ment, and bound over to the punishment due to his sin ; which, being no less than the infinite wrath of the eternal living God, must needs lay the poor crea- ture into a dismal agony, from the fearful expectation thereof, in his accusing conscience. He, therefore, that would use an argument to pacify and comfort a distressed conscience, that lies roasting upon these burhing coals of God's wrath, kindled by his guilt, must quench these coals, and bring him the certain news of this joyful message, that his sins are all pardoned, and God, whose wrath doth so aifright him, is undoubtedly, yea, everlastingly reconciled to him. This, and no other argument, will stop the mouth of conscience, and bring the creature to true peace with his own thoughts. ' Son, be of good cheer,' saith Christ, to the palsy man, ' thy sins be forgiven thee,' Matt. ix. 2. Not, Be of good cheer, thy health is given thee, though that he had also ; but, Thy sins are THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 375 forgiven thee. If a friend should come to a malefactor, on his way to the gal- lows, put a sweet posy into his hands, and bid him be of good cheer, smell on that ; alas! this would bring little joy with it to the poor man's heart, who sees the place of execution before him. But if one comes from the prince with a pardon, which he puts into his hand, and bids him be of good cheer ; this, and this only, will reach the poor man's heart, and overrun it with a sudden ravish- ment of joy. Truly, anything short of pardoning mercy is as inconsiderable to a troubled conscience, towards any relieving or pacifying it, as that posy in a dying prisoner's hand would be. Conscience demands as much to satisfy it as God himself doth to satisfy him for the wrong the creature hath done him. Nothing can take off conscience from accusing, but that which takes off God from threatening. Conscience is God's sergeant, which he employs to arrest the sinner. Now the sergeant hath no power to release his prisoner, upon any pri- vate composition between him and the prisoner ; but listens, whether the debt be fully paid, or the creditor fully satisfied ; then, and not till then, he is dis- charged of his prisoner. Well, we have now only one step to go further, and we shall bring this demonstration to a head ; from what quarter comes this good news, that God is reconciled to a poor soul, and that his sins are pardoned ? surely from the gospel of Christ, and no other way besides. Here alone is the covenant of peace to be read between God and sinners ; here the sacrifice by which this ^^ardon is purchased ; here the means discovered by which poor sinners may have benefit of this purchase ; and therefore hei'e alone can the accusing conscience find peace. Had the stung Israelites looked on any other object, Ijesides the brazen serpent, they had never been healed. Neither wiU the stung conscience find ease with looking upon any, besides Christ in the gospel-promise. The Levite and the priest looked on the wounded man, but would not come near him ; there he might have lain and perished in his blood for all them. It was the good Samaritan that poured oil into his wounds. Not the law, but Christ, by his blood, bathes and supples, closeth and cureth the wounded conscience. Not a drop of oil in all the world to be got, that is worth anything for this purpose, besides what is provided and laid up in this gospel-vial. There was abundance of sacrifices ofiered up in the Jewish church ; yet put all the blood of those beasts together, which was poured out from first to last in that dispensation, and they were not able to quiet one conscience, or purge away one sin. 'The conscience of sin,' as the apostle phraseth it^ Heb. X. 2, that is, guilt in their conscience, would still have remained unblotted,. notwithstanding all these (if severed from what was spiritually signified by them). And the reason is given, ver. 4 : ' For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.' There is no proportion betwixt the blood of beasts, though it could swell into a river, a sea, and the demerit of the least sin. Man's sin deserves man's death, and that eternal, both of soul and body in hell. This is the price (rod hath set upon the head of every sin. Now the death of beasts, being so far beneath this price, which divine justice demands as satisfaction for the wrong sin doth him, it nuist needs be as far beneath pacifying the sinner's conscience; which requires as much to satisfy it, yea the very same, as it doth to satisfy the justice of God himself But in the gospel, behold joyful news is brought to the sinner's ears of a fountain of blood there opened, which for its preciousness is as far above the price that divine justice demands for man's sin, as the blood of bulls and beasts was beneath it; and that is, the blood of Jesus Christ, who freely poured it upon the cross, and by ' it obtained eternal redemption for us,' Heb. ix. This is the door by which all true peace and joy comes in to the conscience; here we are directed to bottom our confidence, and draw out comfort here, and nowhere else, Heb. x. 22: * Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assui'ance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience:' mark that, ' sprinkled from an evil conscience.' Conscience, by oflice, is appointed to judge of a man's actions and state ; whether good or bad, pardoned or unpardoned. If the state be good, then it is to acquit and comfort; if evil, then to accuse and condemn him: therefore the evil conscience here, is the accusing conscience. From this evil conscience we are said to be sprinkled, that is, freed by the blood of Christ sprinkled on us ; it is sin the evil conscience accuseth of, and wrath (the duQ ,'376 T"^ GOSPEL OF PEACE. punishment for that) it condemns the poor creature unto ; and to be sprinkled with the blood of Christ is to have the blood of Christ applied to the heart by • the Spirit for pardon and reconciliation with God. Sprinkling, in the law, did denote the cleansing of the person so sprinkled from all legal impui'ities, Levit, xiv. 6, yea, the believing soul from all sinful uncleanness by the blood of Christ, which was signified by the blood of those sacrifices. Therefore David prays, Psalm li. 7, ' Purge me with hyssop, then shall I be clean;' that is, apply ' the blood of Christ to my troubled conscience (as they with a bunch of hyssop did the blood of the beast, into which it was dipped, upon the leper, to cleanse him). 'Then,' saith he, ' I shall be clean;' this sin, which now doth affright my conscience, shall be washed off, and I at peace, as if I had never sinned. To this sprinkling of blood the Holy Ghost alludes, Heb. xii. 24, where we are said in the gospel administration ' to be come to Jesus, the Mediator of a better covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than the blood of Abel;' that is, better things in the conscience. Abel's blood, sprinkled in the guilt of it upon Cain's conscience, spake swords and daggers, hell and damnation ; but the blood of Christ, sprinkled on the conscience of a poor trembling sinner, speaks pardon and peace. Hence it is called ' the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,' 1 Pet. iii. 21. An answer supposeth a question; an answer towards God sup- poseth a question from God to the creature. Now the question God here is supposed to propound to the poor creatiu'e, maybe conceived to be this: What canst thou say, wlio art a sinner, and standest by the curse of my righteous law doomed to death and damnation, why thou shouldst not die the death pro- nounced against every sinner? Now the soul that hath heard of Christ, and hearing of him, hath received him by faith into his heart, is the person, and the only person, that can answer this question, so as to satisfy God or himself. Take the answer, as it is formed and fitted for, yea, put into the mouth of every believer, by the apostle Paul, Rom. viii. 34: 'Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us:' such an answer this is, that God himself cannot object against it ; and therefore St. Paul, representing all believers, triumphs in the invincible strength thereof against all the enemies of our salvation ; ' Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?' ver. 35 ; and proceeds to challenge death and devils, with all their attendants, to come and do their worst against believers, who have got this breastwork about them ; and at last he displays his victorious colours, and goes out of the field with this holy confidence, that none (be they what they will) shall ever be able to hurt them, ver. 38, 39 : ' I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' In him he lodgeth his colours, and lays up all his confidence. But I am afraid I have been too long, if I can be said to be too long on this subject, the richest vein in the whole mine of gospel treasure. Section II.- — The second demonstration is taken from the strength and power required to press this argument home to the conscience, so as to satisfy it, and make it acquiesce therein ; conscience is a lock that goes hai"d ; though the key fit it, (I mean, the argument used to comfort it be suitable and strong,) yet if this key be in a weak hand, that cannot turn it in this lock, as it is when- ever a mere creature holds it, conscience will not open ; its doubts and fears will not be resolved. No, this must be the work of the Spirit, or else it will never be done. Conscience is God's ofiicer ; and though the debt be paid in heaven, yet it will not let the soul go free, till a warrant comes from thence to authorize it. And who can bring this but the Spirit of God? So that, as it is not in all their power that are about the poor prisoner to comfort him, till news come from court, what the prince means to do with him ; so here in this case. ' When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who can behold him?' Job xxxiv. 29. Now, two things I shall do for the bringing this demonstration to a head. First, Shew that the gospel only presents the Spirit of God to us under the notion of a comforter. Secondly, The admirable fitness and sufficiency of the Holy Spirit to pacify and comfort a guilty, troubkd THE C50Sl'KL 01-' PEACE. g77 conscience. The first will evince, that peace of conscience is novvhei-e else to be found but from the gospel ; the second will shew, that it is there abundantly to be found. First, It is the gospel alone that presents the Spirit of God as a comforter to poor sinners. Indeed the comforting office of the Spirit is founded on the satisfaction of Jesus Christ. When Christ had shed his blood, and in it laid down upon the nail the full price of a sinner's peace with (iod ; then at his return to heaven he prays his Father to send the Comforter : neither could Christ desire this request of his Father, nor his Father grant it to him, but upon the account of this his death, which secures the justice of God from receiving any damage by the comfort which the Spirit carries into the believing sinner's bosom. Christ tells his disciples thus much, John xvi. 7 : ' If I go not awa)^, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you;' mark, the Spirit, as a comforter, stays till Christ goes to heaven to send him down ; and no room for Christ there, till the work was done he came about; and what was that, but by his bloody death to purchase peace with God for poor believing sinners ? And now let him come when he will, the S])irit is ready to be sent as a comforter, as soon as he appears in the heavens with his blood as an intercessor. But whence then had the Old Testament saints all their peace and comfort, who lived before Christ returned to heaven ; yea, before he took his first journey, from heaven, I mean, to earth? I answer, upon the same account they had their comfort, that they had their pardon. They w'ere pardoned through the blood of Christ, who was virtually a lamb slain from the beginning of the world, and they were comforted by the Spirit of Christ, whose comforting office bears the same date with Christ's mediatorial office. As all their pardons were issued out upon the credit of Christ, who stood engaged in the fulness of time to laj^ down his life ; so all the comforts which the Spirit of Christ issued out into their consciences, was upon the same credit of Christ, who should, as in the fulness of time, die on earth for sinners, so appear also in the heavens, (by virtue of the satisfaction that his death should make,) there to intercede with the Father for a comforter. Thus you see the first thing. The Spirit as a comforter hath his office from the gospel-covenant, and could never have spoke a word of comfort, but upon this gospel account. Hence it is, when the Father sends him as a comforter, he sends him in Christ's name, who hath closed the breach between him and sinners, John xiv. 26, that is, for his sake, and at his entreaty : yea, when the Sj)irit doth comfort, what is it he saith.' the joyful news he brings is gospel-intelligence, John xvi. 13, 14: ' He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak;' the meaning is, when he comes to teach, he shall not bring new light, diti'erent from what shines in the gospel; but what truth Christ preached in the gospel, that he shall teach when he comforts ; the ingredients which his soul-reviving cordials shall be made of, are, what grow in the gospel-garden, as ver. 14 : 'He shall glorify me, for he shallreceiveof mine, andshewittoyou,' thatis, my death, my merit, my resurrection, my ascension and intercession, my promises purchased and sealed with my blood ; these he shall take and make report of them to you, for your eternal joy and comfort ; so that, if it had not been for these, the Spirit, who is Christ's messenger, would have wanted an errand of this comfortable nature to have brought unto poor sinners : yea, instead of a comforter, he would have been an accuser and a tormentor ; he that now bears witness with our spirits for our reconciliation, adoption, and salvation, would have joined in a sad testimony with our guilty consciences against us, for our damnation and destruction. Secondly, I am to shew the admirable fitness of the Spirit for this comforting office, which the gospel reveals him to have, for the pacifying and satisfying the consciences of poor disconsolate sinners. You have heard that the gospel aifords an argument sufficient to satisfy the most troubled conscience in the world, to wit, the full satisfaction which Christ by his precious blood hath nuide to God for sinners. But if man had been left to improve this as well as he could for his comfort, he might have lain long enough roaring in the horror of his scorched conscience without ease, for want of one drop of this cooling, healing balm into it. But as both the wisdom and love of God appeared in providing an able Saviour to purchase eternal ledtmption for us; so also a meet Comforter, gY8 THE GOSPEf. OF PEACE. as able to apply this purchased redemption to us ; his consolations are called ' strong consolations.' Christ shewed his strength, when he unhinged the gates of the grave, and made his way out of that dark prison by his glorious resur- rection : by this, 'he was declared to be the Son of God with power,' as the apostle hath it, Rom. i. 4. And truly it requires no less power to break open the dungeon, wherein the guilty conscience lies shut up, as one free among the dead, in his own despairing thoughts ; for if you observ^e it well, the same stone and seal are upon the sinner's conscience to keep him down from a resurrection to comfort, as was on Christ's grave, to keep him down from a resurrection to life. What was the heaviest stone, the strongest seal upon dead Jesus, to keep him from rising? Not the stone man rolled upon him ; not the seal the Jews thought to fasten the grave with ; but the curse of the law for sin, which divine justice rolled upon him; this pressed the heaviest upon Christ without all compare ; the angel himself that rolled away the stone could not have removed the curse. Now look upon the distressed conscience's grave, where its own guilt hath laid it ; what is that ? no other than the lowest hell in its fears and present dismal apprehensions. I am damned, I am for ever an imdone creature, is the language such a one rings continually in his own ears. But inquire what is it that keeps him down in this grave? what hinders, but the poor wretch may be helped out of this pit of horror, and receive some comfort ? Alas, he will tell you that it is but in vain to comfort him, this ointment is all wasted to no pur- pose, which you pour upon his head. No, he is an undone sinner ; the curse of God sticks like a dagger in his heart, the wrath of God lies like a mountain of lead on his conscience ; except you can put your hand into his bosom, and pluck out the one, or by main force roll off the other, it is impossible that he should be raised to any peace or comfort in his miserable conscience ; you see it is the same gravestone on both. But for thy eternal comfort know, poor heart, that art thus fast laid under the sense of the cm-se due to thy sins, as the weight is the same, that keeps thee from comfort, which lay on Christ to keep him from life, so the same power and strength is sent to raise thee to comfort that enabled Christ to rise to life. That Spirit, who kept the Lord Jesus from seeing corruption in the grave ; that restrained death, when it had Christ in its very mouth, so as it could no more feed on him, than the whale could digest Jonah ; yea, that quickened his dead body, and raised him with honour, not only to life, but immortality also ; is he that Christ sends for his messenger, to come and satisfy the trembling consciences of his poor children oil earth, concerning his love, yea, his Father's love to them for his sake. This blessed Spirit hath all the properties of a comforter ; he is so pure and holy, he cannot deceive ; called therefore ' the Spii'it of truth,' John xiv. If he tell thee thy sins are pardoned, thou mayst believe him, he will not flatter ; if it were not so, he would have brought another message to thee : for he can chide and reprove as well as comfort, convince of sin as well as of righteousness. He is so wise and omniscient, that he cannot be deceived. Never did the Spirit of God knock at the wrong door, and deliver his letters into a wrong hand, (as a man may do, especially where persons are very like.) The Spirit exactly knows the heart of Cjod to the creature, with all his counsels and purposes con- cerning him, 1 Cor. ii. 11 : 'The Spirit searcheth all things, the deep things of God.' And what are those deep things of God the apostle means, but the counsels of love which lie deep in his heart, till the Spirit draws them forth and acquaints the creature with them ? as appears by ver. 9. And also he knows the whole frame of man's heart; it were strange, if he that made the cabinet should not know every secret box in it. Some few men have compassed that we call the greater world ; but the little world of man, as we call him, never did any creature encircle with his knowledge, no not the devil himself, who hath made it is work so many thousands of years to make a full discovery of it : but the Spirit of God knows him, infus est in cute, as we say, 'thoroughly;' and knowing both these, he cannot be deceived. In a word, he is so unresistible, that none can hinder the efficacy of his comforts. The pardon brought by Nathan to David, did not lie so close as the holy man desired; and, therefore, away goes he to beg comfort of the Comforter, Psa. li., where you find him on his knees praying hard to have his lost joy restored, and his trembling heart established by the free Spirit of God. Though thou canst baffle man, and, thf: GosrEL of peace. 379 through thy own melancholy fancy, and the sophistry of Satan, who coins distinctions for thee, evade the arguments that Christians and ministers bring for thy comfort; yet when the Spirit comes himself, all disputes end : the devil cannot argue with him ; no, then the lying spirit vanisheth, and our own fears too, as the darkness flees before the sun : so sweetly and powerfully doth the comforting Spirit overrun the heart with a flood of joy, that the soul can no more see her sins in the guilt of them, than Noah could the molehills, when the whole earth was under water. CHAPTER IX. A REPROOF TO THREE SORTS OF PERSONS THAT OFFEND AGAINST THIS PEACE WHICH THE GOSPEL BRINGS. Use 1. First, Is peace of conscience the blessing of the gospel ? this reproves three sorts of persons. Section I. — First, The papists, who interpretatively deny this, in denying that any person can know in this life, unless by an extraordinary revelation, that he is a child of God, and one that shall be saved ; which, if true, would stave all to pieces the vessel in which the Christian's joy and inward peace are kept. Whence comes the peace we have with our own consciences, but from the knowledge we have of our peace with God? Rom. v. i.: ' Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, by whom we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' If the poor soul be left at uncertainties here, and the gospel cannot resolve it, what its state is, for hell or heaven, farewell to all inward peace ; the poor Christian then may say of himself, with a trembling heart, what St. John saith in another case of him that hateth his brother, 1 John ii. 11 : ' He walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes :' truly then it might rather be called the gospel of fears and doubts than the gospel of peace. But is that the top of the blessing the gospel brings to saints, which was almost the bottom of the curse that the law denounced against sinners ? Deut. xxviii. G6, that ' their life should hang in doubt before them, and they should fear day and night, and should have no assurance of life.' Bold men, that dare so wretchedly disfigure the sweet face of the gospel ! making Christ, in his precious promises, speak as doubtfully to his saints, as the devil did in his oracles to his devotees. Because their hypocrisy makes them justly question their own salvation, and will not suffer them to apply the comfort of the promises to themselves, must they therefore seal up these wells of salvation from those that are sincere, and then lay the blame on the gospel, which is due only to their own wickedness? But there is a mystery of iniquity which hath at last been found to be at the root of this uncomfortable doctrine of theirs. They are a little akin to Judas, who was a thief, and carried the bag. These have a bag too, into which they put more gold and silver that this doctrine brings them in, than ever Judas had in his : though the doctrine of gospel grace to poor sinners would bring more peace to others' consciences, might it be seen in its naked glory among them ; yet the superstitious fear which they keep ignorant souls in, brings more money to their purses ; and this lies so near the heart of their religion, that gospel, Christ, heaven, and all must bow unto it. Section II. — Secondly, Those are to be reproved who frame very unlovely images in their own foolish imaginations of the gospel, as if there was nothing less than peace of conscience and inward comfort to be found in it ; and all because they see some that profess it who cannot shew that they have got any more peace and comfort since their acquaintance with the gospel than they had before, or than themselves have, who are yet strangers to it ; yea, may be, discover more trouble of spirit. Such I would desire to take these following particulars, by way of answer, into their serious consideration. First, Consider all are not true Christians that hang upon the gospel by profession ; and no blame can be laid on the gospel, though it doth not lavish out this treasure to every one that scrapes acquaintance with it. The Spirit of God is too wise and faithful to set his seal to a blank. The minister indeed offers peace to all that will accept it ; but where the peace of the gospel meets with a false heart, it will not stay there, Matt. x. 13 : ' If the house be not ggQ THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. worthy, let your peace return unto you.' As the dove returned to the ark again, when it found the earth imder water, so doth the Spirit of God carry his comfort back with him to heaven from a soul that is yet in the suds of sin, soaking in his abominations. Where can this heavenly dove find rest for the sole of her foot in such a soul ? And will he speak peace to that soul in which himself can find no rest? Secondly, As for those that are sincere, true-hearted Christians, there are several considerations which will vindicate the gospel to answer its name, and to be a gospel of peace and consolation. First, Some that are sincere Christians, and yet do not so clearly vmderstand the doctrine of the gospel as others ; and the want of light, of joy, and comfort in their consciences comes from that want of light in their understandings. The ignorance of the workman doth not disparage the art. Plus est in arte, quam in artifice. There is fulness of comfort in the principles of the gospel, but every Christian hath not attained ' to the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ,' which the apostle directs the Colossians to, as a sovereign means whereby ' their hearts might be comforted,' Col. ii. 2. Secondly, Some that do understand the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ, (the only foundation to build and rear up true comfort and peace of conscience on,) yet may by their negligence in their Christian course (not walking carefully by the rule of the gospel) deprive them- selves at present of this sweet peace, which otherwise might flow into their bosoms from the promises of the gospel : ' As many as walk by this rule, peace be on them,' Gal. vi. 16. And if so, what blame can be laid on the gospel? Be the pen never so good, and the hand never so skilful, it will not write on wet paper; yet we do not blame the hand or pen, but paper. If the heart (though of a saint never so eminent) be under the defilement of a present lust not repented of, no promise will speak peace to him ; he is a disoi'derly walker, and tlie Spirit hath his rod to whip such, no sweetmeats of joy and peace to entertain them withal in that plight. Thirdly, As for those which do walk close to the rule of the gospel, (I mean, by a sincere endeavour,) and thou seest no such peace and comfort as we speak of that they have, I answer. First, They may have it, and thou not know it. The saint's joy and peace is not such a light, frothy joy as the world's; Res severa vermn gaudium. The parlour wherein the Spirit of Christ entertains the Christian is an inner room, not next the street, for every one that goes by to smell the feast. 'The stranger intermeddles not with his joy,' Prov. xiv. 10. Christ and the soul may be at supper withiii, and thou not so much as see one dish go in, or hear the music that sounds so sweetly in the Christian's ears. Perhaps thou thinkest he wants peace, because he doth not hang out a sign in his countenance of the joy and peace he hath within. Alas, poor wretch ! may not the saint have a peaceful conscience, with a solemn, yea, sad countenance, as well as thou and thy companions have a sorrowful heart, when there is nothing but fair weather in your faces? ' In laughter the heart is sorrowful,' Prov. xiv. 13. Sure he means the wicked man's laughter. It never looks more like rain with them than when it shines ; their conscience lowers when their face laughs : so on the contrary, never more inward peace and comfort to be fomid in a saint's bosom than sometimes when his face is blubbered with tears. Shoiddst thou come in and hear the Christian bemoaning himself, and complaining with sighs and sobs of his sins against God, thou wouldst go home and cry out of this melancholy religion, and the sad condition this man was in. And yet he whom thou so pitiest can desire thee to save it for thyself, and not spend it in vain for him, who would not part with that very sorrow, that scares thee so much, for all the joy which the world, with all its gallantry, when best set forth, could afford. There is a mystery in this sorrow thou canst not unriddle. Know therefore there is a sorrow and anguish of heart which ariseth from the guilt of sin, and the fearful apprehensions of God's wrath due to sin ; and another that flows not from fear of wrath arising from guilt, but from the sense of sins in being in the soul, that provokes the Cliristian to do tliat which is dishonourable to that God who hath pardoned his sins to him ; and this is the sorrow which sometimes makes the saints go for sad, uncomfortable creatures, when at the same time their hearts are as full of comfort from the sense of God's pardoning mercy as THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. gg| they can hold. This sorrow is but like a summer shower, melted by the sense of God's love, as that by the warm sun, and leaves the soul, as that doth a garden of sweet flowers on which it falls, more fresh and odoriferous. Secondly, Though some precious souls that have closed with Christ, and embraced the gospel, be not at present brought to rest in their own consciences, but continue for a while under some dissatisfactions and troubles in tlicir own spirits, yet even then they have peace of conscience in a threefold respect; In precio, in j)ro7nisso, in semine. First, Every true believer hath peace of con- science in precio ; the gospel puts that price into his hand, which will assm-edlv purchase it, and that is the blood of Christ. We say tiiat is gold which is worth gold, which we may anywhere exchange for gold ; such is the blood of Christ ; it is peace of conscience, because the sold that hath this may exchange it for this. God himself cannot den^^ the poor creatiue that prays on these terms: Lord, give me peace of conscience ; here is Christ's blood, the price of it. That which could pay the debt, surely can procure the receipt. Peace of conscience is but a discharge under God's hand that the debt due to divine justice is fully paid. The blood of Christ hath done that the greater for the believer, it shall therefore do this the less. If there were such a rare potion that did infallibly procure health to every one that takes it, we might safely say, as soon as the sick man hath drunk it down, that he hath drunk his health : it is in him, though at present he doth not feel liimself to have it; in time it will appear. Secondly, In promisso. Every true believer hath peace of conscience in the promise, and that we count as good as ready money in the purse which we have sure bond for. Psa. xxix. 11 : 'The Lord will bless his people with peace.' He is resolved on it, and then who shall hinder it? It is worth your reading the whole j'salm, to see what weight the Lord gives to this sweet promise, for the encouragement of our faith in expecting the performance thereof. Nothing more hard to enter into the heart of a poor creature (when all is in an uproar in his bosom, and his conscience threatening nothing but fire and sword, wrath, vengeance from God for his sins,) than thoughts or hopes of peace and comfort. Now the psalm is spent in shewing what great things God can do, and that with no more trouble to himself than a word speaking. ' The voice of the Lord is powerful ; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty,' ver. 4. ' It breaks the cedars, it divides the flames, it shakes the wilderness, it makes the hinds to calve.' This God that doth all this promiseth to bless his people with peace, outward and inward ; for without this inward peace, though he might give them peace, yet could he never bless them with peace as he there undertakes. A sad peace, were it not, to have quiet streets, but cutting of throats in our houses ? yet infinitely more sad to have peace both in our streets and houses, but war and blood in our guilty consciences. Wliat peace can a poor creature taste or relish, while the sword of God's wrath lies at the throat of conscience? not peace with God himself Therefore Christ purchased peace of pardon, to obtain peace of conscience for his pardoned ones, and accordingly hath bequeathed it in the promise to them, ' Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,' John xiv. 27. Where you see he is both the testtitor to leave, and the executor of his own will, to give out with his own hands what his love hath left believers ; so that there is no fear but his will shall be performed to the full, seeing him^;elf lives to see it done. Thirdly, In semine. Every believer hath tliis inward peace in the seed. ' Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart,' Psa. xcvii. 11. Where sown, but in the furrows of tlie believer's own bosom, when principles of grace and holiness were cast into it by the Spirit of God? Hence it is called ' the peaceable fruit of righteousness,' Heb. xii. 11. It shoots as naturally from holiness as any fruit in its kind doth from the seed proper to it. It is, indeed, most true, that this seed runs and ripens into this fruit sooner in some than it doth in others. This spiritual harvest comes not alike soon to all, no more than the other that is outward doth ; but here is the comfort, — whoever hath a seed-time of grace pass over his soul, shall have his harvest-time also of joy ; this law God hath bound himself to as strongly as for the other, which ' are not to cease while the earth remaineth,' Gen. viii. 22 ; yea, more strongly, for that was to the world in general, not to every particular coimtry, town, or field in these, which may want a harvest, and yet God keep his word ; but God cannot pei form his gg2 THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. promise, if any one particular saint should everlastingly go without his reaping- time. ' He that goeth forth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him,' Psa. cxxvi. 6. And therefore, you who think so basely of the gospel, and the professors of it, because at present their peace and comfort is not come, know, it is on the way to them, and comes to stay everlastingly with them ; whereas your peace is going from you every moment, and is sure to leave you without any hope of returning to you again. Look not how the Christian begins, but ends ; the Spirit of God by his convictions comes into the soul with some terrors, but it closoth with peace and joy. As we say of the month of March, it enters like a lion, but goes out like a lamb. ' Mark the peifect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace,' Psa. xxxvii. 36. Section III. — Thirdly, This proves those that think to heal their con- sciences with other than gospel-balm ; who leave the waters of living comfort that flow from this fountain opened in the gospel by Christ, to draw their peace and comfort out of cisterns of their own hewing ; and they are two, a carnal cistern, and a legal cistern. First, Some think to draw their peace out of a carnal cistern. There is not a greater vai'iety of plaisters and foolish medicines used for the cure of the ague of the body, than there is of carnal receipts used by self-deceiving sinners to rid themselves of the shaking ague which the fear of God's wrath brings upon their guilty consciences ; some, if they be but a little awakened by the word, and they feel their hearts chill within them, from a few serious thoughts of their wretched undone condition, fall to Felix's physic ; who, as soon as his conscience began to be sick at Paul's sermon, had enough of the preacher, and made all the haste he could to get that unpleasing noise out of his head. Acts xxiv. : ' Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way.' Thus many turn their back off" God, run as far as thej' can from those ordinances, that companj', or anything else that is likely to grate upon their consciences, and revive the thoughts of their deplored state, which all their care is to forget. Such a one I have heard of, that would not be present at any funeral ; could not bear the sight of his own grey hairs, and therefore used a black-lead comb to discolour them, lest by these the thoughts of death (which he so abhorred) should crowd in upon him. A poor cowardly shift, God knows; yet all that this wretch had, and many more have, betwixt them and a hell above-ground in their con- sciences. Others, their light is so strong, and glares on them so constantly, that this will not do, but wherever they go, though they hear not a sermon in a month, look not on a Bible in a year, and keep far enough from such company as would awake their consciences, yet thej' are haunted with their own guilt; and therefore they do not only ' go from the presence of the Lord,' as Cain did, Gen. iv. 16, but, as he also made diversion of those musing thoughts which gathered to his guilty conscience, by employing them another way, in ' building a city,' ver. 17, so do they labour to give their consciences the slip in a crowd of worldly businesses. This is the great leviathan that swallows up all the thoughts of heaven and hell in many men's hearts. They are so taken up with that project and this, that conscience finds them not at leisure to exchange a few words with them for a long time together. Conscience is as much kicked and spited among sinners, as Joseph was among the patriarchs. That which conscience tells them, likes them no better than Joseph's dream did his bre- thren ; and this makes many play the merchants with their consciences, as they did with him ; which they do by bribing it with the profits of the world. Bvit this physic is found too weak also; and therefore Saul's harp and Nabal's feast is thought on by others ; with these they hope to drown their cares, and lay their raving consciences asleep, like some ruffian that is under an arrest for debt, and hath no way, but now to prison he nuist go, except he can make the sergeant drunk in whose hand he is ; which he doth, and so makes an escape. Thus many besot their conscience with the brutish pleasures of sin ; and when they have laid it as fast asleep in senseless stupidity as one that is dead drimk, then they may sin without control, till it wakes again. This is the height of that peace which any carnal receipt can help the sinner unto ; to give a sleep- ing potion that shall bind up the senses of conscience for awhile, in which time the wretch may forget his miser}', as the condemned man doth when he THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 383 is asleep ; but as soon as it awakes, the horror of his condition is sure again to affright liim worse than before. God keep you all from sucli a cure for your troubles of conscience, which is a thousand times worse than the disease itself. Better to have a dog that will by his barking tell us a thief is in our yard, than one that will sit still, and let us be robbed before we have any notice of our danger. Secondly, Some draw their peace of conscience from a legal cistern ; all the comfort they have is from their own righteousness ; this good work and that good duty they bless themselves in when any qualm comes over their hearts ; the cordial drink, which they use to revive and comfort themselves with, is drawn not from the satisfaction which Christ by his death hath given to God for them poor sinners, but from the righteousness of their own lives ; not from Christ's intercession in lieaven for them, but their own good prayers on earth for themselves ; in a word, when any spark of disquiet kindles in their con- sciences, (as it were strange if, where so nmch combustible matter is, there should not, at one time or other, some smothering fire begin in such a one's bosom,) then, not Christ's blood, but their own tears are cast on to quench it. Well, who- ever thou art that goest this way to work to obtain peace of conscience, I accuse thee as an enemy to Jesus Christ and his gospel. If any herb could be found growing in thy garden to heal the wovmds of thy conscience, why did the Lord Christ commend for such a rarity the balm which lie came from heaven on purpose to compound with his own blood? why doth he call sinners from all besides himself as comforters of no value, and bid us come to him, as ever we would find rest for our souls? Matt. xi. 28. No, know poor creature, and believe it, (while the knowing of it may do thee good,) either Christ was an impostor, and the gospel a fable, which I hope thou art not such an infidel, worse than the devil himself, to believe ; or else thou takest not the right method of healing thy conscience, wounded for. sin, and laying a sure bottom for solid peace in thy bosom. Prayers and tears, (repentance I mean,) good works and duties, these are not to be neglected ; nay, thou canst never have peace without them in thy conscience ; yet these do not, cannot procure this peace for thee, because they cannot obtain thy peace with God ; and peace of conscience is nothing but the echo of pardoning mercy, which, sounding in the conscience, brings the soul into a sweet rest with the pleasant music it makes. And the echo is but the same voice repeated ; so that if prayers and tears, good duties and good works, cannot procure our peace of pardon, then not our peace of comfort. I pray remember I said, you can never have inward peace without these ; and yet not have it by these. A wound would hardly ever cure, if not "wrapped up from the open air, and also kept clean ; yet not these, but the balm cures it. Cease therefore not from praying, and the exercise of any other holy exercise of grace or duty, but from expecting thy peace and comfort to grow from their root ; or else thou shuttest thyself out from having any benefit of that true peace which the gospel offers. The one resists the other, like those two famous rivers in Germany, whose streams, when they meet, will not mingle together. Gospel-peace will not mingle and incorporate (as I may so sav) with any other ; thou must drink it pure and unmixed, or have none at all. ' We,' saith holy Paul for himself, and all other sincere believers, ' are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,' Phil. iii. 3; as if he had said. We are not short of any in holy duties and services ; nay, we exceed them, for ' we worship God in the spirit;' but this is not the tap from whence we draw oiu" joy anj, comfort; we rejoice (fiduciarily) in Christ Jesus, not in the flesh, where that which he called worshipping (jod in the spirit, now in opposition to Christ, and rejoicing in him, he calls flesh. Section IV. — Fourthly, They are to be reproved from hence, who do indeed use the balm of the gospel for the healing of conscience-wounds ; but they use it veiy unevangelically. The matter they bottom their peace and comfort on is right and good, — Christ and the mercy of God through him in the promise to poor sinners ; what can be said better? But they do not observe gospel-rule and order in the applying it. They snatch the promise presumptuously, force and ravish it, rather than seek to have Christ's consent ; like Saul, wiio was in such haste that he could not stay till Samuel came to sacrifice for him, but gg^ THE GOSPEL OP PEACE. boldly falls to work before he comes, directly against the order given him. Thus many are so hot upon having comfort that they will not stay for the Spirit of God to come and sprinkle their consciences with the blood of Christ in gospel order, but profanely do it themselves, by applying the comfort of those pro- mises which indeed at present does not belong to them. O sirs, can this do well in the end ? Should he consult well for his health that will not stay for the doctor's direction, but runs into the apothecary's shop, and on his own head takes his physic, without the counsel of the physician how to prepare it, or himself for the taking of it? This every profane wretch doth that lives in sin, and yet sprinkles himself with the blood of Christ, and blesseth himself in the pardoning mercy of God. But let such know, that as the blood of the paschal lamb was not struck on the Egyptians' doors, but the Israelites', so neither is the blood of Christ to be sprinkled on the obstinate sinner, but sincere penitent. Nay, further, as that blood was not to be spilt on the threshold of an Israelite's door, where it might be trampled on, but on the side-posts ; so neither is the blood of Christ to be apphed to the behever himself while he lies in any sin imrepented of, for his present comfort. This were indeed to throw it under his foot to be trod upon. David confesseth his sin with shame before Nathan comforts him with the news of a pardon. CHAPTER X. TVHERE WE HAVE A TRIAL OF OUR PEACE FROM FOUR CHARACTERS OF GOSPEL-PEACE OR COMFORT. Use 2. Let this doctrine be as a touchstone to the truth of your peace and comfort? Hath it a gospel stamp upon it? The devil hath his false mint of comfort as well as of grace ; put thyself therefore to the trial, while I shall lay before you some charactei's of the peace that Christ in his gospel speaks to his people. First, Gospel-comfort may be known by the vessel it is poured into, which is a broken heart. The promise is superscribed by name to such, and such only, Isa. Ivii. 15 : ' I dwell in the high and holy place ; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.' Christ's commission from his Father binds him up ; he can comfort none besides : Isa. Ixi. 1, ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted ;' and what he receives himself from the Father, the same he gives to those he sends upon the same errand : First, his Spirit, concerning whom he tells his disciples, that the ' Comforter, when he is come, shall convince of sin, of i-ighteousness, and of judgment,' John xvi. 7. Mark, first of sin. And as for his inferior messengers, they have direction to whom they are to apply the comforts of the gospel : Isa. xxxv. 3, ' Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees ; say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not.' And upon their peril be it if they pour this ointment upon the head of an unhumbled sinner ! to give such any comfort ' by promising life to him' as he is, God protests against it; he calls it a lie, a ' strengthening the hands of the wicked ;' and as much as in them lies, by blow- ing him up with comfort, to make sure that he shall never have the true peace. Thus you see the order of the gospel in comforting souls. As in needle-work, the dark groundwork is laid before the beautiful colours,- — as the ^atuary cuts and carves his statue before he gilds it, so doth the Spirit of Cln-ist begin with sadness, ends in joy ; first cuts and wounds, then heals and overlays the soul with comfort and peace. I hope you do not think I limit the Holy One in his workings to the same degree and measure in all. I have opened my thoughts in another place concerning this : but so far the con- vincing, humbling work of the Spirit goes in every soul before peace and com- fort comes, as to empty the soul of all her false comforts and confidences which she had laid up, that the heart becomes like a vessel whose bottom is beat out, and all the water it held thereby spilled and let out ; the sins it loved, now it hates ; the hopes and comforts it pleased itself with, they are gone, and the creature left in a desolate, solitary condition ; no way now it sees, but perish it must, except Christ be her friend, and interpose between hell and it ; to him she THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 3g5 tlierefore makes her iiioan, as willing to follow his counsel, and to be ordered by his direction, as ever}' patient is by his physician, of whose skill and care he is thoroughly satisfied; this I call the broken lienrt, which if you be wholly strangers to, your acquaintance is to begin with gospel-peace. I beseech you rest not till you have answer from your consciences. What if they say. Was your wine once water? doth your light arise out of darkness? is your peace the issue of a soul conflict and trouble ? did you bleed before you were healed ? You may hope it is a kindly work of God's gracious Spirit : make much of it, and bless thy God that hath given this wine to cheer thy sad heart. But if thou commencest persaltum, hast thy wine before thy pots were filled with water, — thy mornmg be come before thou hast had thy evening, — thy peace be settled before thy false peace is broken, — thy conscience sound and whole before it is lanced, and the putrid stuff of thy pride, carnal confidence, and other sins thou hast lived in, be let out, thou mayst have some ease for a while ; but know it, the Lord Jesus denies it to be his cure. ' The strong man's house is kept in peace,' Luke xi. 21, as well as the good man's. It requires more power to work true sorrow than false joy and peace : a happier man thou wouldst be, if mourning in the distress of a troubled conscience, than dancing about this idol- peace which the devil, thy sworn enemy, mocks thee withal. Secondly, Gospel-peace is obtained in a gospel-wa}', and that is twofold. First, In a way of obedience and holy walking : Gal. vi. 16, ' As many as walk by this rule, 2>eace be on them.' Now this rule you may see, ver. 15, to be the rule of the new creature. And what is that but the boh' rule of the word ? to which the principles of grace planted in the soul of a believer are so fitted, that there is not a more connatural agreement betwixt the eye and light, than betwixt the disposition of this new nature in a saint and the rule of holiness in the word. Now, it is not enough for one to be a new creature, and to have a principle of grace in his bosom, but he must actually walk by this rule, or else he will be to seek for true peace in his conscience. No comfort in the saints is to be found but what the Comforter bi'ings : and he who commands us ' to withdraw from them, ' though our brethren, ' that walk disordei-ly, ' 2 Thess. iii. 9, will himself surely withdraw from such, and withhold his comforts, so long as they are disorderly walkers, which they are as long as they walk besides this rule ; and, therefore, if thou be such a one, say not the Spirit brought thy com- fort to thy hand, for he would not bid thee good speed in an evil way ; no, he hath been withdrawn as a comforter ever since thoii hast withdrawn thy foot •from walking by the holy rule. All thy peace which thou pretendest to have in this time is base-born, and thou hast more cause to be ashamed of it than glory in it. It is little credit to the wife that she hath a child when her hus- band is abroad, and cannot father it; and as little to pretend to comfort when the Spirit of Christ will not own it. Secondly, Gospel peace is given into the soul in a way of duty and close attendance on God in his ordinances. ' Now the Lord of peace give you peace always by all means,' 2 Thess. iii. 16; that is, bless all means for comforting and filling your souls with inward peace : so that he that drives no trade in ordinances, and brags of his peace and comfort, speaks enough to bring the truth of it into suspicion in the thoughts of sober Christians. I know God can, by immediate illapses of his Spirit, comfort the Christian, and save him the labour of hearing, praying, meditating ; but where did he say he would ? why may we not as well expect a harvest without sowing and ploughing, as peace without using the means ? If we were like Israel in the wilderness, in such a state and posture, wherein the means is cut from us, and not by pride or sloth put from us; as is sometimes the Christian's condition, he is sick, and deprived of ordinances ; or, by some other providence as pressing, he is shut cut from the help of this means or that ; now I should not wonder to see comfort lie as thick in his soul, as manna about the Israelites' tents; but as (lod would not rain bread any longer, when once they had corn, of which with their labour they might make bread, Josh. v. 11, 12, so neither will the Lord comfort by a miracle when the soul may have it in an ordinance. God could have taught the eunuch, and satisfied him with light from heaven, and never have sent for Philip to preach to him ; but he chooseth to do it out of Philip's mouth, i-ather than inunediately out of his own, no doubt to put honour on his ordinance. 2c 388 'T'^^^ GOSPEL OF PEACE. Thirdly, Gospel-peace in tlie conscience. It is strengthening md restorative; it makes the Christian strong to fight against sin and Satan; the Christian is revived, and finds his strength come, upon a little tasting of this honey ; but oh, what a slaughter doth he make of his spiritual enemies, when he hath a full meal of this honey^ — a deep draught of this wine ! Now he goes like a giant refreshed with wine into the field against them. No lust can stand before him; it makes him strong to woi-k. Oh, how Paul laid about him for Christ! ' he laboured more abundantly than them all.' The good man remembered what a wretch he once was, and what mercy he had obtained ; the sense of this love of God lay so glowing at his heart, that it inspired him with a zeal for God above his fellow-apostles. This made holy David pray so hard to drink again of this wine, which so long had been locked up from him ; ' Restore unto nie the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with th}' free Spirit : then I will teach trans- gressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee,' Psa. li. 12, 13. Pray mark, it was not his liquorish palate after the sweet taste of this wine of comfort that was the only or chief reason why he so longed for it ; but the admirable virtue he knew in it, to inspirit and empower him with zeal for God : whereas, the false peace and comfort of hypocrites is more heady than hearty ; it leaves them as weak as they were before; yea, it lies rotting, like unwholesome food, in the stomach, and leaves a surfeit in their souls, as luscious summer fruits do in the bodies of men, which soon breaks out in loose practices. Thieves commonly spend their money as ill as they get it ; and so do hypo- crites and formalists their stolen comforts : stay but a little, and you shall find them feasting some lust or other with them. ' I have peace-ofFerings with me,' saith the religious whore — the hypocritical harlot, ' this day I have paid my vows, therefore came I forth to meet thee,' Prov. vii. 14, 15: she pacifies her conscience, and comforts herself with this religious service she jierforms ; and now, having, as she thought, quit scores with God, she returns to her own lustful trade; yea, emboldens herself from this in her wickedness, ^ — -'Therefore came I forth to meet thee;' as if she durst not have plaj^ed the whore with man, till she had played the hypocrite with God, and stopped the mouth of her conscience with her peace-offering. Look, therefore, I beseech j-ou, very care- fully, what elfect j'our peace and comfort have in your hearts and lives. Are you the more humble or proud for your comfort? Do you walk more closely or loosely after your peace ? How stand you to duties of worship ? are you made more ready for commimion with God in them, or do you grow strange to, and unfrequent in them? have you more quickening in them, or lie more formal and lifeless under them ? In a word, can you shew that grace and peace grow in thee alike? or doth the one less appear, since thou dost more pretend to the other? By this thou mayest know whether thy peace comes from the Peace- maker, or peace-marrer, — from the CJod of truth, or father of lies. Fourthly, Gospel-peace comforts the soul, and that strongly, when it hath no other comfort to mingle with it. It is a cordial rich enough itself, and needs not any other ingredient to be compounded v.'ith it. David singles God out by himself: ' Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee,' Psa. Ixxiii. 25. Give David but his God, and let wdio will take all besides ; let him alone to live comfortably, may he but have his love and favour. Hence it is that the Christian's peace pays him in the greatest revenues of joy and comfort, when outward enjoyments contribute least, yea, nothing at all, but bring in matter of trouble. ' But David encouraged himself in his God,' 1 Sam. xxx. 6; you know when that was: if David's peace had not been right and sound, he would have been more troubled to think of God at such a time, than of all his other disasters. ' Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them,' Psa. cxix. 165 : this distinguisheth the saint's peace, both from the worldling's and the hypocrite's. First, from the worldling's : his peace and comfort, poor wretch, runs dregs, as soon as creature enjo\'ments run a-tilt. When poverty, disgrace, sickness, or anything else crosseth him, in that which he fondly doted on, then his night is come, and day shut up in dismal darkness ; in which respect it is, that Christ, as I conceive, opposeth his peace to the world's, John xiv. 27; ' My peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.' Pray mark, Christ is laying in arguments of THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 387 comfort for his disciples against his departure, which lie knew would go so near their hearts. One, amongst the rest, is taken from the difference of that peace and comfort which he leaves them, from what the world gives : as if he had said, If the peace and comfort you have from me lay in such things as the world's peace is made up of — plent)', ease, outward prosperity, and carnal joy — truly then j'ou had reason to be the greatest mourners at my funeral, that ever followed a friend to the grave; for after my departure you are like to have none of these ; nay, rather expect trouble and persecution. But know, the peace I leave with you is not in your houses, but hearts; the comfort I give you lies not in silver or gold, but in pardon of sin, hopes of glory, and inward conso- lations, which the Comforter that is to come from me, to dwell with you, shall, upon my appointment, pay into your bosoms ; and this shall outlive all the world's joy. This is such a legacy, as never any left their children. Many a father dying hath, in a farewell speech to his children, wished them all peace and comfort when he should be dead and gone; but who besides Jesus Christ could send a comforter into their hearts, and thrust peace and comfort into their bosoms. Again, It distinguisheth the tnie Christian's peace from the hypocrite's, who, though he pretends to place his comfort not in the creatiu-es, but in God, and seems to take joj' in the interest which he lays claim to have in Christ and the precious promises of the gospel ; yet when it comes indeed to the trial, that he sees all his creature-comforts gone, and not like to return any more, (which at this time had his heart, though he would not it should be thought so,) and now he sees he must in earnest into another world, to stand or fall eternally, as he shall then be found in Clod's own scrutiny to have been sincere or false-hearted in his pretensions to Christ and his grace ; truly then his thoughts recoil, his conscience flies in his face, and re};roacheth him for spiritual deceit and forgery. Now, soul, speak, is it thus with thee? does thy peace go with thee just to the prison-door, and there leave thee? art thou confident thy sins are pardoned all the while thou art in health and strength, but as soon as ever the sergeant knocks at the door to speak with thee, (death I mean comes in thy sight,) then thy thoughts alter, and thy conscience tells thee, he comes to prove thee a liar in thy pretended peace and joy? this is a sad symptom. I know indeed that the time of affliction is a trying time to grace that is true ; the sin- cere Christian for a while maj', like a valiant soldier, be beat from his artillery, and the enemy Satan may seem to possess his peace and confidence ; yea, so far have some precious saints been carried down the stream of violent tempta- tions, as to question whether their former comforts were from the Holy Spirit the Comforter, or the evil spirit the deceiver; yet there is gi-eat difference be- tween the one and the other. First, Tliey differ in tlieir causes : this darkness which sometimes is upon the sincere Christian's spirit in deep distress, comes from the withdrawing of God's lightsome countenance ; but the horror of the other from his own guilty conscience, that before was lullabied asleep with prosperity, but now being awakened by the hand of God on him, doth accuse him to have been false with God in the whole course of his profession. It is true some particular guilt may be contracted by the Christian, through negli- gence, or strong temptation in his Christian course, for which his conscience may accuse him, and may further embitter the present desertion he is in so far, as from those particidar miscarriages to fear his sincerity in the rest, though he hath no reason to do it : but his conscience cannot charge him of any hypo- critical design to have been the spring that hath set him on work through the whole course of his profession. Secondly, There is something concomitant with the Christian's present darkness of spirit, that distinguisheth it from the hypocrite's horror; and that is the lively working of grace, which then com- nionly is very visible, when his peace and former comfort are more questioned by him; the less joy he hath from any present sense of the love of God, the more abounding you shall lind him in sorrow for his sin, that clouded his joy ; the further Christ is gone out of his sight, the more he clings in his love to Christ, and vehemently cries after him in prayer, as we see in Heman, Psa. Ixxxviii. 13 : 'Unto thee have I cried, O Lord, and in the morning shall my prayers prevent thee.' O the fervent prayers that then are shot from his troubled spirit to heaven, the pangs of affection which arc springing after God, and his face and favotu- ! Never did a banished cliild more desire admittance 2 c 2 g§3 THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. into liis angry father's presence, than he to have the light of God's countenance shine on him, which is now veiled from him. O how he searcheth his heart, studies the Scripture, wrestles with God for to give him that grace, the non- evidence of which at present makes him so question the comforts he hath for- merly had : might he but have true grace, he will not fall out with God for want of comfort, tliough he stays for it till the other world. Never did any woman big with child long more to have the child in her arms that is at present in her womb, than such a soul doth to have that grace which is in his heart, but througli temptation questioned by him at present, evidenced to him in the truth of it. Whereas the hypocrite, in the midst of all his horror, doth not, cannot, (till he hath a better heart put into his bosom,) cordially love or desii-e grace and holiness, for any intrinsical excellency in itself; only as an expedient for escaping the tormentor's hand, which he'sees he is now falling into. — They differ in the issue. The Christian, he like a star in the heavens, wades through the cloud, that for a time hides his comfort ; but the other, like a meteor in the air, blazeth a little, and then drops into some ditch or other, where it is quenched. Or as the Spirit of God distingui*iheth them, Prov. xiii. 9 : ' The light of the righteous rejoiceth, but the lamp ' (or ' candle,' as in the Hebrew) 'of the wicked is put out.' The sincere Cluistian's joy and comfort is com- pared there to the light of the sun, that is climbing higher, while it is muffled up with the clouds from om* eye ; and by and by, when it breaks out more gloriously, doth rejoice over those mists and clouds, that seemed to obscure it ; but the joy of the wicked, like a candle, wastes and spends, being fed with gross fuel of outward prosperity, which in a short time fails, and the wretch's comfort goes out in a snuff at last, past all hope of being lighted again. The Christian's trouble of spirit again is compared to a swooning fainting-fit, which he within awhile recovers, Psa. xl. A qualm comes over the holy man's heart from the thought of his sins in the day of his great distress, ver. 12 : ' Innumerable evils have compassed me about ; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up ; they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me.' But before the psalm is at an end, after a few deep groans in prayer, ver. 13, 14, he comes again to himself, and acts his faith strongly on God, ver. 17: ' Yet the Lord thinketh on me : thou art my helper and my deliverer.' But the hypocrite's confidence and hope, M'hen once it begins to sink and falter, it dies and perishes, Jobxi.20; ' The eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.' CHAPTER XL THAT THE GOSPEL ALONE CAN UNITE THE HEARTS OF MEN TOGETHER IN TRUE PEACE, AND HOW THE GOSPEL DOTH IT. 3. We come now to the third kind of peace, which I called ' a peace of love and unity.' A heavenly grace this is, whereby the minds and hearts of men, that even now jarred and rang backwards, are made tunable each to other, so as to chime all in, to an harmonious consent and concord among themselves. Thus peace in Scripture is frequently taken, as you may see, Mai-k ix. 50 ; Heh. xiii. 14 ; 1 Thess. v. 13. Now the gospel is a gospel of peace, if taken in this notion also, which we shall briefly speak to from this note. Note. That the gospel, and only the gospel, can knit the hearts and minds of men together in a solid peace and love. This, next to the reconciling us to God and ourselves, is especially designed by Christ in the gospel ; and truly those witliout this, would not fill up the saint's happiness, except God should make a heaven for every Christian by himself to live in. John Baptist's ministry, which was as it were the preface to, and brief contents of the gospel, was divided into these two heads : ' To turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.' Luke i. 16 ; 'and to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' ver. 17. That is, to make them friends with God, and one another. This is the natural effect of the gospel, where it is powerfully and sincerely embraced ; to unite and endear the hearts of men and women in love and peace together, how contrary soever they were before. This is the strange metamorphosis which the pro- whet speaks shall be under the gospel, Isa. xi. 8 : ' The wolf shall dwell with the Iamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid.' That is, men and women, be- THE GOSPEL or PEACE. 3g9 twecii whom there was as great feud and enmity as is between those creatures, they shall yet sweetly agree, and lie in one another's bosoms peaceably ; and how all this, but by the efiicacy of the gospel on their hearts ? so ver. 9 : ' For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.' Indeed it is in the dark when men fight, and draw upon one another in wratli and fury ; if gospel-light comes once savingly in, the sword will soon be put up ; the sweet Spirit of love will not suffer these doings where lie dwells : and so peculiar is this ))lossing to the gospel, that Christ appoints it for the badge and cognizance by which they should not only know one aiu)ther, but even strangers should 1)e able to know them from any other sect and sort of men in the world, John xiii. 35 : ' By this shall all men know that 3^e are my disciples, that ye love one another.' A nobleman's servant is known as far as he can well be seen, by the coat on his back, whose man he is : so saith Christ, shall all men know you, by your nuitual love, that j^ou retain to me and my gospel. If we would judge curiously of wine, what is its natural relish, we must taste of it, before it comes into the huckster's hands, or after it is refined from its lees ; so the best way to judge of the gospel, and the fruit it bears, is to taste of it either when it was professed and embraced with most simplicity, and that was, without doubt, in the first pronudgation ; or, secondly, when it shall have its full effect on the hearts of men, and that is in heaven : in both these, though chiefly the last, this peace will ap])ear to be the natiual fruit of the gospel. First, When the gospel was first preached and embraced, what a sweet harmony of peace, and admirable oneness of heart, was then amongst the holy professors of it, who, but awhile before, were either mere strangers to, or bitter enemies one against another ! They lived and loved, as if each Chris- tian's heart had forsaken his own, to creep into his brother's bosom. They alienated their estates, to keep their love entire ; they could give their bread out of their own mouths, to put into their brethren's that were hungry; yea, when their love to their fellow-Christians was most costly and heavy, it was least grudged and felt by them : see those blessed sovds. Acts ii. 4.5, 46: ' They sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every one had need ; and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking of bread from house to house, did eat their bread with gladness and singleness of heart.' More, thej' are more meriy now they have been emptying of their bags by charity, than if they had come from filling them by worldly traffic. So notorious was the love of Christians in the primitive times, that the very heathens would point at them, as Tertullian saith, and say, ' See how thej' love one another!' and therefore, if less love and peace be found now amongst Christians, the blame lies not on the gospel, but them ; the gospel is as peaceful, but they are m'nuis evangelict — less evangelical, as we shall fm-ther shew. Secondly, Look on the gospel as at last in the complement of all in heaven, when the hearts of saints shall be trvdy gospelized, and the promises concerning the peaceable state of saints have their fidl accomplishment ; then, above all, this peace of the gospel will appear. Here it is put out and in, like a budding flower in the spring, which one warm day opens a little, and another that is cold and sharp shuts again. The silence in this lower heaven, the church on the earth, is but for the sjjace of half an hoiu-, Rev. viii. 1. Now there is love and peace among Christians ; anon scandals are given, and differences arise, which drive this sweet spring back ; but in heaven it is full blown, and so con- tinues to eternity. There dissenting brethren are made thorough friends, never to fall out : there, not only the wound of contention is cured, but the scar which is here oft left upon the place is not to be seen on the face of heaven's peace, to disfigure the beauty of it; whicli made that German divine so long to be in heaven, where, said he, Luther and Zuinglius are perfectly agreed, though they could not on earth. Cut I come to give some particular account how the gospel knits the hearts and minds of men in peace together, and why the gospel ahme can do this; while I clear one, I shall the other also. First, This gospel knits the hearts of men together, as it propounds powerful arguments for peace and unity ; and, indeed, such as are foimd nowhere else. It hath cords of love to draw and bind souls together that were never woven in nature's loom ; such as we may run through all the topics of morality, and 390 THE GOSPEL Ol^ PEACE. meet with none of them, heing all supernatural and of divine revelation, Eph. iv. 3. The apostle exhorts them to ' keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' And how doth he persuade them? ver. 4 — 7. First, ' There is one body,' but such a one as natural philosophy treats not of, but a mystical one, the church, which consists of several saints, as the natural body of several members ; and as it were strange to see one member to fall out with another, which are all preserved in life by their union together, so much more in the mystical body. Again, 'one Spirit;' that is, the same Holy Spirit, which quickens them all that are true saints, and is to the whole number of saints as the soul is to the whole man, informing every part. Now, as it were a prodigious violence to the law of nature if the members, by an intestine war among themselves, should drive the soul out of the body which gives life to them in union together, so much more would it be for Christians to force the Holy Spirit from them by their contentions and strifes ; as indeed a wider door cannot easily be opened for him to go out at. Again, it presseth unity, from the 'one hope of our calling,' where hope is put pro re sperata, the bliss we all hope for in heaven. There is a day coming, and it cannot be far from us, in which we shall meet lovingly in heaven, and sit at one feast, without one grudg- ing to see what lies on another's trencher : full fi-uition of God shall be the feast, and peace and love the sweet music that shall sound to it ; and what folly is it for us to fight here who shall feast there ! draw blood of one another here, that shall so quickly lie in each other's bosoms ! Now the gospel invites to this feast, and calls us to this hope. I might run through the other parti- culars, which are all as purely evangelical as these, ' one Lord, one faith, one baptism,' but enough to have given you a taste. Secondly, The gospel doth this, as it takes away the cause of that feud and enmity which is among the sons and davighters of men, and they chiefly two : the curse of God on them, and their own lusts in them. First, The feud and hostility that is among men and women is part of that curse which lies on mankind for his apostasy from God. We read, Gen. iii. 17, how the ground was cursed for man's sake: 'Thorns and thistles shall it bi'ing forth to thee,' saith God ; but a far greater curse it was that one man should become as a thorn and brier to fetch blood one of another. Some have a fancy, that the rose grew in paradise without prickles : to be sure, man, had he not sinned, should never have been such a pricking brier as now the best of them is. These thorns that come up so thick in man's dogged, quarrelsome nature, what do they speak but the efficacy of God's curse ? The first man that was born in the world proved a murderer ; and the first that died, went to his grave by that bloody murderer's hand. May we not wonder as much at the power of God's curse on man's nature, that appeared so soon in Cain's malicious heart, as they did at the sudden withering of the fig-tree blasted by Christ's curse ? And trul}^ it was but just with God, to mingle a jJerverse spirit among them who had expressed so false a one to him. They deserved to be confounded in their language, and suffered to bite and devour one another, who durst make an attempt upon God himself by their disobedience : very observable is that in Zech. xi. 10, compared with ver. 14. When once the ' staff" of beauty,' ver. 10, (which represented God's covenant with the Jews,) was asunder, then presently the ' staff of bands ' (which signified the brotherhood between Judah and Jerusalem) was cut asunder also. When a people break covenant with God, they must not expect peace among themselves : it is the wisdom of a prince, if he can, to find his enemy work at home. As soon as man fell out with God, behold there is a fire of war kindled at his own door, in his own nature, — no more bitter enemy now to mankind than itself. One man is a wolf, yea, a devil, to another. Now, before there can be any hope of true solid peace among men, this curse must be reversed ; and the gospel and only tlie gospel can do that, where an expedient is found how the quarrel between God and the sinner may be reconciled ; which done, the curse ceaseth. A curse is a judi- ciary doom, whereby God, in wrath, condemns his rebel creature to something that is evil. ' But there is no condemnation to him that is in Christ.' The curse is gone; no arrow now in the bow of threatening; that was shot into Christ's heart, and can never enter into the believer's. God may whip his people, by some unbrotherly vuikindness they receive one from another's hands, THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 391 by way of fatherly chastisement, (and indeed it is as sharp a rod as he can use in his"discipHne,)"the more to make them sensible of their falling out with him. But the curse is gone, and they under a promise of enjoying peace and unity, wliich they shall, when best for them, have performed to them. Secondly, The internal cause of all the hostility and feud that is to be found amongst men is, lust that dwells in their own bosoms; this is the principle and root that bears all the bitter fruit of strife and contention in the world, Jas. iv. 1 : 'From whence come wars and lightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your "members .'' This breaks the peace with God, ourselves, and others. If there be a iiery exhalation wrapped up in the cloud, we must look for thunder and lightning to follow ; if lust in the heart, it will vent itself, though it rends peace of family, church, and kingdom. Now, before there can be a foundation for a firm, solid peace, these unruly lusts of men must be taken down. What peace and quiet can there be while pride, envy, ambition, malice, and such like lusts, continue to sit in the throne, and hurry men at their plea- sure? Neither will it be enough for the procuring peace to restrain these unruly passions, and bliul them up forcibly ; if peace be not nuide between the hearts of men, it is worth nothing. The chain that ties up the mad dog will in time wear; and so will all the cords break by which men seem at present so strongly bound together, if they be not tied by the lieart-strings, and the grounds of the quarrel be there taken away. Now the gospel, and only the gospel, can help us to a plaister, that can draw out of the heart the very core of contention and strife. Hear the apostle, telling us how himself, and others his fellow- saints, got cured of that nudicious heart, which once they were in bondage to, Tit. iii. ;j : ' We ourselves were sometimes foolish and disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures; living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.' Well, what was the physic that recovered them ? See ver. 4, ' But after the kindness and love of God oiu- Saviour towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.' As if he had said, Had not this love of God to us in Christ appeared, and we been thus washed by his regenerating Spirit, we might have lain to this day under the hand of the Spirit. The word is called the ' sword of the Spirit,' as that which he useth to kill and slay sin within the hearts of his people. Thirdly, As the gospel lays the axe to the root of bitterness and strife to stub that up ; so it fills the hearts of those that embrace it with such gracious prin- ciples, as incline to peace and unity; such are self-denial, that prefers another in honour before himself, and will not jostle for the wall ; long-suiiering, a grace which is not easily moved and provoked ; gentleness, which if moved by any wrong, keeps the doors open for peace to come in at agam, and makes him easy to be entreated. See a whole bundle of these sweet herbs growing in one bed, Gal. v. 22: ' The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, faith, meekness.' Mark, I pray, this is not fruit that grows in every hedge, but fruit of the Spirit : fruit that springs from gospel-seed. As the stones in the quarr}'^, and cedars as tliey grow in the wood, would never have lain close and comely together in the temple ; so neither could the one cut and polish, nor the other hew and carve themselves into that fitness and beauty, which they all had in that stately fabric : no, that was the work of men gifted of God for that jnupose ; neither can men and women, with all their skill and tools of morality, square and frame their hearts, so as to fall in lovingly together into one holy temple. This is the work of the Spirit, and that also with this instrument, and chisel of the gospel, to do, partly by cutting off the knottiness of our churlish natures by his mortifying grace ; as also carving, polisliing, and smoothing them with those graces which are the emanations of his own sweet, meek, and Holy Spirit. S92 THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. CHAPTER XII. •WHEREIN IS SHEWN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PEACE THAT IS AMONG SAINTS, AND WHICH IS AMONG THE WICKED; THE GREATNESS OF THEIR SIN, WHO ARE MINISTERS OF PEACE, AND YET STIR UP STRIFE; AND THE REASON WHY THERE IS NO MORE PEACE AND UNITY AMONG SAINTS IN THIS LIFE. Use 1. First, This helps us what to think of that peace, and love, which sometimes is to be found among the wicked of the world. It is not true peace, and solid love, because they ai-e strangers to the gospel, which alone can unite hearts together. What then shall we call this their peace ? In some it is a mere conspiracy ; ' Say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say confederacy,' Isa. viii. 12. The peace of some is rather founded in wrath to the saints than love among themselves. They are united, but how ? no other way than Samson's foxes, to do mischief to others, rather than good to themselves. Two dogs that are worrying one another, can leave off to run both after a hare that comes by them ; who, when the chase is over, can fight as fiercely as before. ' In the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together, for before they were at enmity between themselves,' Luke xxiii. 12. Again, the peace and unity of others is founded on some base lust that ties them together; thus shall you see a knot of good fellows, as they miscall themselves, sit over the pot with abundaftce of seeming content in one another ; and a pack of thieves, when upon a wicked design, jug and call one another toge- ther, (as partridges their fellows,) saying, ' Come with us, cast in thy lot among us, let us all have one purse,' Prov. i. 14. Here now is peace and unity ; but alas ! they are only brethren in iniquity. Thirdly, where it is not thus gross ; as it cannot indeed be denied but there are some that never felt the power of the gospel, so as to be made new creatures by it, who yet hold very fair quarter one with another, and correspond together, and that not on so base and sordid an account, among whom sucli offices of love are reciprocated, as do much sweeten their lives, and endear them one to another ; and for this they are much beholden to the gospel, which doth civilize oft, where it doth not sanctify. But this is a peace so fundamentally defective, that it doth not deserve the name of true peace. First, It is in cortice, non in corde ; superficial and external, not inward and cordial ; we may say, rather their lusts are chained from open war, than their hearts changed into inward love. As the beasts agreed in the ark pretty well, yet kept their hostile nature, so do unregenerate men. Secondly, It is unsanctified peace. First, because while they seem to have peace with one another, they have not peace with God ; and it is peace with God takes away the curse. Secondly, Because it proceeds from unsanctified hearts ; it is the altar that sanctifies the gift ; the heart, the unity, Amicitia non est nisi inter bonns. A heathen could say, true love and friendship can only be between good men ; but alas, he knew not what made a good man. When God intends in mercy to make the hearts of men one, he first makes them new, Ezek. xi. 19 : ' And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within yon ;' the peace of the right kind is a fruit of the Spirit, and that sanctifies before it unites. Thirdly, Because the end that all such propound in their love is carnal, not spiritual. As Austin did not admire Cicero for his eloquence and oratory, so much as he did undervalue and pity him, because the name of Jesus Christ was not to be found in him; so this draws a black line upon carnal men's peace and unity ; nothing of God and Christ in it. Is it his glory they aim at ? Christ's conmiand that binds them to the peace ? No, alas ! here is the still voice, but God is not in it ; their own quiet and carnal advantage is tlie prinnim mobile ; peace and unity are such good guests, and pay so well for their entertainment, that this makes men who have no grace, if they have but their wits left, desirous to keep up an external peace among themselves. In a word, it is a peace that will not long last, because it wants a strong cement; stones may awhile lie together without mortar, but not long. The only lasting cement for love is the blood of Christ, as Austin saith of his friend Alypius and himself, they were sanguine Christi glutinati. Use 2. Secondly, Is the gospel a gospel of peace in this sense, as taken for unity and love ? This dips their sin into a deep dye, who abuse the gospel to ft quite contrary end, and make it their instrument to promote strife and con- THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 393 tention withal; such the apostle speaks of, Phil. i. 15 : 'Some, indeed, preach Christ out of envy and strife' The oosijcl of peace is a strange text, one would think, to preach division and raise strife from ; and the pulpit as strange a mount to plant the battering pieces of contention on. O how strangely do these men forget their Lord tliat sent them, who is a prince of peace : and their work, wliich is not to blow a trumpet of sedition and confusion, or sovmd an alarm to battle, but rather a joyful retreat from the bloody fight, wherein their lusts had engaged them against God and one another! Indeed, there is a war they are to proclaim, but it is only against sin and Satan ; and I am siu-e we are not fit to march out against them, till we can agree among ourselves. What would the prince think of that captain, who, instead of encouraging his soldiers to fall on with united forces as one man against the common enemjf, should make a speech to set his soldiers together by the ears among themselves? Surely he would hang him up for a traitor. Good was Luther's prayer, A doctore glorioso, a pustore coiifenfioso, et inutilibus qna!sf/oniI)Ks, liberet ecclcsiam Dens. From a vain-glorious doctor, a contentious pastor, and nice questions, the Lord deliver his church. And we in these sad times have reason to say as hearty an Amen to it as any since his age. Do we not live in a time when the church is tui-ned into a sophist's school? where such a wrangling and jangling hath been, that tlie most precious truths of the gospel are lost already to many, whose eyes arc blinded with the dust these contentions have raised, and they have at last fairly disputed themselves out of all their sober principles; as some ill husbands that light among cunning gamesters, and play all their money out of their purses? O woe to such vile men, who have prostituted the gospel to such devilish ends. God may have mercy on the cheated souls to bring them back to the love of the truth. But for the cheaters, they are gone too far towards hell, that we can look for their return. Use 3. Thirdly, This gives us the reason why there is no more peace and unity among the saints themselves ; the gospel cannot be faulty, that breaches peace. No ; it is not because they are gospellers, but because they are but imperfectly gospellized, that they are no more peaceful ; the more they partake of the spirit of the gospel, the less will they be haunted with the evil spirit of contention and strife. The best of saints are in part unevangelical in two particulars, from which comes all the unkind quarrellings, and mibrotherly contests among tliem. First, In their judgments, ' They know but in part, and prophecy but in part.' 1 Cor. xiii. 9. He that pretends to more, boasts witliout his measure, and doth thereby discover what he denies, his ignorance (I mean in the gospel). And this defect and craze, that is in the saints' judgment, exposeth them sometimes to drink in principles that are not evan- gelical. Now these are they that make the bustle, and distmb their peace and unity. All truths are reducible to an unity; like lines they lovingly meet in one centre, the God of truth ; and so far from jostling and clashing, iliat (as stones in an arch) they uphold one another. And they which so sweetly agree in one, cannot learn us to divide. No, it is this stranger. Error, that creeps in among tlie saints, and will needs be judge. This breaks the peace, and kindles a fire in the house, that in a while, if let alone, will be seen at the house-top. Wholesome food makes no distm-bance to a liealtliful body ; but corrupt food doth presently make the body feverish and untoward, and then,, when the man is distempered, no wonder if he begins to be pettish and peevish ; we have seen it by v/oful experience. Those from whom we had nothing but sweetness and love, while they fed on the same dish of gospel-truth with us, liow strangely froward are they grown, since they have taken down some unevangelical and erroneous principles ! that we know not well how to carry ourselves towards them, they are so captious and quarrelsome ; yea, at the very hearing of the word, if they have not yet forgot the way to the ordinance, what a distasteful behaviour do many of them shew ! as if every word went against their stomach. Let us not blame the gospel ; it is innocent as to these sad contentions among us. Paul tells us where to find a fatlier for this brat of strife. See at whose door he directs us to lay it, llom. xvi. 17: 'Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and oft'ences contrary to the doctrine ye have learned.' Where, pray observe, how he clears the gospel; they never learned it in Christ's school ; and then tacitly implies tliey have ? ome- 394 "^^^ GOSPEL OF PEACE. where else, from some false teacher, and false doctrme or other. Mark them, saith he ; as if he had said, o])serve them well, and you shall find them tainted some wa}^ or other. They had been warming themselves at Satan's fire, and from thence have brought a coal with tliem that does the mischief. Secondl}^, Christians are in part unevangelical in their hearts and lives. The whole root of sin is not stubbed up at once, no wonder some bitter taste remains in the fruit they bear. Saints in heaven shall be all grace, and no sin in them ; and then they shall be all love also; but here they are part grace, part corruption, and so their love is not perfect. How can they be fully soldered together in unity never to fall out, as long as they are not so fully reconciled to God, (in point of sanctification,) but now and then there happens some breaches between them and God himself? And the less progress the gospel hath made in their hearts to mortify lusts, and strengthen grace, the less peace and love is to be expected among them. The apostle concludes from the contentions among the Christians at Corinth, tliat they were of little growth in grace ; such as were not past the child-spoon and meat, 1 Cor. iii. 2 : ' I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal.' Nay, he conceives this to be so clear evidence, that he appeals to their consciences if it be not so, ver. 3 : ' For whereas there is among you envyings, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ?' But as grace strengthens, and the gospel prevails on the hearts of Christians, so does love and a spirit of unity increase with it. We say, Older and wiser; though children, when young, do scratch and fight, yet when they get up into years they begin to agree better. Omne invalidiim est natura queridum ; those that are young and weak are peevish and quarrelsome. Age and strength brings wisdom to overcome those petty difterences that now cannot be borne. In the controversy between Abraham and Lot's servants, Abraham, who was the elder and stronger Christian, he was most forward for peace, so as to crave it at the hands of his nephew, every way his inferior. Paul, who was a Christian higher by the head than others, O how he excelled in love ! He saith of himself, 1 Tim. i. 14 : ' The grace of our Lord was exceeding abvmdant, with faith and love which is in Jesus Christ.' Where, saith Calvin, Fides incrediditati opponitur ; dilectio In Christo, scevitice, quam exercuerat adversus fideles. Faith is opposed to his former obstinate unbelief when a Pharisee ; love in Christ Jesus, to the cruelty he expressed against Christians, when, bi-eathing slaughter, he went on a persecuting errand to Damascus. Now he was as full of faith, as then of unbelief; now as fire-hot of love to the saints, as then of cruelty against them. But that I quote chiefly the place for is, to see how this pair of graces thrive and grow together; if abvmdant in faith, then abundant in love. CHAPTER XIIL AN EXHORTATION TO THE SAINTS TO MAINTAIN PEACE AMONG THEMSELVES, AND PROMOTE IT TO THEIR UTMOST, FROM THREE ARGUMENTS. Use 3. Thirdly, It brings a seasonable exhortation to all the saints, that they would nourish peace what they can among themselves. Yovi all profess to have been baptized into the spirit of the gospel, but you do not shew it, when you bite and snarl at one another. The gospel, that makes wolves and lambs agree, doth not teach the lambs to turn wolves, and devour each other. Our Saviour told the two disciples whose choler was so soon up, that they would be fetching fire from heaven, to go on their revengeful errand, that they little thought from what hearth that wild-fire of their passion came : ' Ye know not what spirit ye are of,' Luke ix. 56. As if he had said, such fiery, wrathful speeches do not suit with the meek Master you serve, nor with the gospel of peace he ^'reacheth to you. And if the gospel will not allow us to pay our enemies in their own coin, and give them wrath for wrath, then much less will it suffer brethren to spit fire at one another's face. No ; when any such embers of contention begin to smoke among Christians, we may know who left the spark ; no other but Satan : he is the great kindle-coal of all their contentions. If there be a tempest, not in the air, but in the spirits of Christians, and the wind of their passions be high and loud, it is easy to tell who is the conjurer. THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 395 O it is the devil that is practising his black art upon their lusts, which yet are so uninortitied as gives hiin too great an advantage of raising many times sad storms of division and strife among them. Paul and Barnabas set out in a calm together, but the devil sends a storm after them, such a storm as parted them in the midst of their voj'age, Acts xv. 39 : ' And the contention was so sharp betwixt them, that they departed asunder one from the other.' There is nothing (next to Cln-ist and heaven) that the devil grudges believers more than their peace and nuitual love : if lie cannot rend them from Christ, stop them from getting heaven, yet he takes some pleasure to see them go thither in a storm, like a shattered fleet severed one from another, that they may have no assistance from, nor comfort of each other's company all the way ; though where he can divide, he hopes to ruin also, well knowing this to be the most probable means to efi'ect it ; one ship is easier taken than a squadron. A town, if it can be but set on fire, the enemy may hope to take it with more ease ; let it therefore be your great care to keep the devil's spark from your powder. Certainly peace among Christians is no small mercy, that the devil's arrows fly so thick at its breast. Something I would fain s])eak to endear this mercy to the people of God. I love, I confess, a clear and still air, but above all in the church among believers ; and I am made the more sensible what a mercy this would ])e, by the dismal consequence of these divisions and differences that have for some years together troubled our air, and filled us with such horror and confusion, that we have not been much milike that land called Terra del Fo()o, the Land of Smoke, because of the frequent flashings of light- nings and abundance of smoke found there. What can I compare error to better than smoke ? and contention to than fire ? a kind of emblem of hell itself, where the flames and darkness meet together to increase the horror of the place. But to press the exhortation a little closer, give me leave to provoke you by three arguments to peace and unity. Section I. — First, For Christ's sake. And methinks, when begging for his sake I should have no nay. When you pray to God, and do but use his name in the business, you are sure to speed. And why should not an ex- hortation, that woos you for Christ's sake, move your hearts to duty, as a prayer put up by you in his name moves God's heart to mercy? Indeed, how canst thou in faith use Christ's name as an argument to unlock God's heart to thee, which hath not so much credit with thyself as to o])en thy own heait into a compliance with a duty which is so strongly set on his heart to promote among his people ? As appears, First, By the solenm charge he gave his disciples in this particulai-, John xiii. 34 : ' A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.' I pray observe, how he prepares their hearts to open readilj', and bid this commandment kindly welcome : he sets his own name upon it. ' A new commandment I give unto you.' As if he had said, let this command, though as old as any other. Lev. xix. 18, yet go under my name in an especial manner: when I am gone, and the fire of strife begins at any time among you, remember what particvdar charge I now give you, and let it (piench it presently. Again, observe how he delivers this precept, and that is by way of gift and privilege; ' A new commandment I give unto you.' Indt>ed this was Christ's farewell sermon, the very strokings of that milk wliich he Kad fed them withal ; never dropped a sweeter discourse from his blessed lips ; he saved his best wine till the last. He was now making his will, and amongst other things that he bequeaths his disciples, he takes this commandment, as a father woidd do his seal-ring ofl'his finger, and gives it to them. Again, thirdly, he doth not barely lay the command before them, but to make it the more effectual, he annexeth in a few words the most powerful argument why they should, as also the most clear and full direction how they might do this, that is possible to be given: 'As I have loved you, that ye also love one another.' O Christians! what may not the love of Christ command you ? If it were to lay down your lives for him that loved you to death, would you deny them ? and shall net this his love persuade you to lay down your strifes and divisions? This speaks enough how much weight he laid upon this connnandment ; but then again observe, how Christ, in the same sermon, over and over again reminds g9G "^^^^ GOSPEL OF PEACE. tlieiT) of this; which if he had not been very solicitous of, should not have had so large a room in his thoughts then, when he had so little time left, in which he was to crowd and sum up all the heavenly counsel and comfort that he desired to leave with them before his departure. Nay, so great weight he lays on this, that he seems to lock up his own joy and theirs together in the care that they should take about this one command of loving one another, John XV. 11: 'These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you; and that your joy might be full.' What these things were, appears by the preceding verse: 'If ye keep my connnandments, ye shall abide in my love.' These were the things that he spake of in order to his joy in them, and theirs in him, that they woidd keep his commandments. Nov/, to let them know, how high a place their obedience to this particular command of love and unity had in his heart, and how eminently it con- duced to the continuing his joy in them, and filling up their own ; he chooseth that above any for his instance, in order to what he had said, as you may see, ver. 12, 'This is my commandment, that ye love one another.' Observe still, how Christ appropriates this commandment to himself. ' This is my commandment,' as if he would signify to them, that as he had one disciple, who went by the name of the disciple whom Jesus loved ; so he would have a darling commandment, in which he takes some singidar delight, and that this should be it, ' their loving one another.' But we are not yet at the last link of this golden chain of Christ's discourse. When he hath put some more warmth into their affections to this duty, by exposing his own love to them in the deepest expression of it, even to die for them, verse 13, then he comes on more boldly, and tells them he will own them for his friends, as they are careful to observe what he had leftin charge with them, verse 14: ' Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.' And now, taking it for grarited that he had prevailed upon them, and they would walk in unity and love as he had commanded them, he cannot conceal the pleasure that he takes therein, yea, and in them for it. Verse 15, he opens his heart to them, and locks no secret from them : yea, bids them go and open their heart to God, and be free to him, as he is to them, ver. 1(5 ; and mark from ■what blessed hour all this familiarity that they are admitted to bears date : ' From henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth;' that is, from the time that you walk dutifully to me, and lovingly to one another. One would think now he had said enough ; but he thinks not so. In the very next words he is at it again, ver. 17 : ' These things I command you, that you love one another :' as if all he liad left else in charge with them had been subservient to this. Secondly, A second thing that speaks Christ's heart deeply engaged in the promoting of love and unity among Christians is, his fervent prayer for this. Should you hear a ^Jrreacher with abiuidance of vehemency press a grace or duty upon the people, in his pulpit, and as soon as the sermon is done, you should go under his closet window, and hear him as earnestly wrestling with God that he would give his people what he had so zealously pressed upon them, you would easily believe the man was in earnest. Our blessed Saviour hath taught us ministers whither to go when we come out of the pulpit, and what to do ; no sooner hath he done his sermon to them, but he is at prayer with God for them. And what he insisted on most in preaching, he enlargeth most upon in prayer: unity and peace was the legacy he desired so much to leave with them, and this is the boon he puts in strongl}' with God to bestow on them, John xvii. 11 : 'Father, keep through thine own power those that thou hast given me ;' and why all this care ? ' that they might be one, as we are.' As if he had said. Father, did we ever fall out? was there ever dis- cord betwixt us? why then should they vvfho are thine and mine disagree? So, ver. 21, and again, ver. 23, he is pleading hard for the same mercy. And why so often ? Is it so hardly wrung from God, that Christ himself must tug so often for it ? No, sure ; but as Christ said of the voice that came from heaven, John xii. 30, 'This voice came not for me, but for your sakes,' so may I say here, this ingeminated zeal of Christ for his people's unity and love was for their sakes. First, He weuld by this raise the price of this mercy in their thous;hts ; that sure is worth their care, which he coimted worth his TIIK UOSl'EL Ol' I'EACE. 397 redoubled prayer, (when not a word was spoken for his own life,) or else l^e misplaced his zeal, and improved not his time with God, for the best ad- vantage of his people. Secondly, He would make divisions appear more scareful and dreadful things to his peojDle, by putting in so many requests to God for preventing them. Certainly, if Christ had known one evil worse than another like to come upon his people at his departure, he would have been so true and kind to his children, as to deprecate that above all, and keep that oft". He told his children what they must look for at the world's hand, — all manner of sufterings and torments, that their wit coidd help their malice to devise ; yet Christ prays, not so much ibr imuuniity from these, as from unbrotherly contentious among themselves ; he makes account, if they can agree together, and be in love, saint witli saint, church with church, they have a mercy that v/ill alleviate the other and make it tolerable, yea, joyous ; this heavenly fire of love among themselves will qu?nch the flames of their pei-secutors, at least the horror of them. In a word, Christ would so strengthen our faith to ask boldly for that which he hath bespoke for us, so also aggravate the sin of contention to such a height, that all who have any love to Christ, Vv'hen they shall see that they cannot live in strife, but they must sin against those prayers which Christ with strong cries put up for peace and rmity, they ma}' tremble at the thoughts of it. Thirdly, The price that Christ gave for the obtaining of this peace and imity. As Christ went from preaching up peace to pulling down peace from lieaven by prayer ; so he went from praying to paying for it. Indeed, C'luist's prayers are not a beggar's prayers as ours are ; he prays his fatlier that he may only have what he pays for. He was now on tlie way to tlie place of payment, Calvary, where his blood was the coin he laid down for this peace. I confess peace with God was the chief pearl that this wise merchant, Christ, bought ujj for his people. But he had this in his eye also ; and, therefore, the sacrament of the Lord's supper, which is the commemoration feast of Christ's death, as it seals our peace with God, so it signifies oiu- love one with another-, 1 Cor. X. And need I now give you any account why our dear Lord pursued this design so close, of knitting his people in peace and unity together? Truly the church is intended by Christ to be his house, in which he means to take up his rest ; and what rest could he take in a house all on fire about him ? it is his kingdom; and how can liis laws be obeyed, if all his subjects be in a hubbub one against another ? inter anna silent leges. In a word, his church are a people that are called out of the world to be a praise to him in the siglit of the nations ; as Peter saith, ' God did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name,' Acts xv. 14; that is, a people for his honour; but a wrangling, divided people would be little credit to the name of Christ. Yea, such, where they are found, (and where, alas ! are ihey not to be found ?) they are to the name of Christ as smoke and dirt to a fair face, they dirty and dis- figure Clu-ist ; so that the world will not acknowledge him to be who lie saith he is ; tliey lead them even into temptation, to think basely of Christ and his gospel, John xvii. 23. Christ prays his people may be made perfect in one ; and mark his argument, ' that the world may know that thou hast sent me.' Wliose heart bleeds not to hear Christ blasphemed at this day by so many black mouths 1 and what hath opened them more than the saints' divisions ? Section II. — Secondly, The second argument shall be taken from yourselves. For yoin- own sakes live in peace and unity. Consider your obligations to love and unity: your relations call for it. If believers, Paul tells you yo>n- kindred, Gal. iii. 27 : 'Ye are all the children of God, by faith in Clnist Jesus.' Not only cliildren of God, so are all by creation, l)nt by faitli in Jesus Clu-ist also. Christ, he is the foundation of a new brotherhood to believers, O Christians, consider how near you are set one to another ; you were conceived in the same womb of the church, begot by the same seed of the word, to this new creation, whereby, as one saith, you become brethren of the whole blood ; and, there- fore, there should be the more unity and dear aft'ection among you than any other. Joseph's heart went out more to Benjamin than any of the rest of his bretlu'en, because he was his brother, both by father and mother ; if you fall out, who shall agree ? What is it that can rationally break yoiu- jicace ? Those things which used to be bones of contention, and occasion squabbling Q()g THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. among other bretliren, Christ hath taken care to remove them all ; so that of all others, your quarrellings are most childish, yea sinful. Sometimes one child finds himself grieved at the partiality of his parents' affection more set on some others than himself; and this makes him envy them, and they despise him ; but there is no such fondling in God's family ; all are dear alike to Chi-ist, Eph. V. 2 : ' Walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us;' that is, for one as well as another. Christ in the church is like to the soul in the body ; he is totus in tvto, et tntus in (jitalihet 'parle. Every member in Christ hath whole Christ, — his whole heart and love, as if there were none besides himself to enjoy it. Again, among men, though the father shews not so much partiality in his affection, yet often great inequality in the distri- bution of his estate; though all are children, yet not all heirs, and this sows the seed of strife among them ; as Jacob found, by woful experience. But Christ hath made his v.ill so, that they are all provided for alike, called therefore the ' common salvation,' Jude 3, and ' the inheritance of the saints in light,' Col. i. 12, for the comnumity. All may enjoy their happiness without jostling with, or prejudicing one of another, as millions of people who look on the same sim, and at the same time, and none stand in another's light. Methinks that speech of Christ looks a little this way, John xvii. 22 : ' The glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one.' By glory tliere, I would under- stand heaven's glory, principally ; now saith Clu-ist, ' I have given it ; that is, in reversion, I have given it them; not this or that favourite, but them;' I have laid it out as the portion of all sincere believers : and why? ' that they may be one;' that all squabbles may be silenced, and none may envy another for what he hath above him, when he sees glory is his. It is true, indeed, some diflerence there is in a Christian's outward garb ; some poor, some rich ; and in common gifts also, some have more of them, some less. But are these tnnti of such weight to commence a war upon, among those that wait for the same heaven? If the father clothes all his children in the same cloth, it were sad to see them stab one another, because one hath a lace more than the other; nay, because one's lace is red, and the other's is green; for indeed the quarrel among Christians is, sometimes, not for having less gifts than another, but because not the same in kind, though anotlicr as good and useful, which possibly he wants whom we envy. Secondly, Consider where you are, and among whom. Are you not in your enemies' quarters ; if you fall out, what do you but kindle a fire for them to wai'm their hands by ? Aha! so would we have it, say they. The sea of their rage will weaken this bank fast enough, you need not cut it for them. The lun'easonableness of the strife betwixt Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's is aggra- vated by the near neighbourhood of the heathens to them. Gen. xiii. 7 : ' And there was a strife between Abraham's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and Perizzite dwelled in the land.' To fall out while these idolaters looked on, this would be a town-talk present!}', and put themselves and their religion both to shame. And, I pray, who have been in oiu- land, all the while the people of God have been scuffling? Those that have curiously observed every uncomely behaviour among them, and told all the world of it; such as have wit and malice enough to make use of it for their wicked purposes. They stand on tiptoes to be at work, only we are not yet quite laid up and dis- abled (by the soreness of those our wounds which we have given ourselves) from withstanding their fury. They hope it will come to that; and tlien they will cure us of oiu- own wounds, by giving one, if they can, that shall go deep enough to the heart of our life, gospel and all. O Christians, shall Herod and Pilate put you to sham.e? They clapped up a peace to strengthen their hands against Christ; and will not you unite against your common enemy? It is an ill time for mariners to be fighting, when an enemy is boring a hole at the bottom of their ship. Thirdly, Consider the sad consequences of your contentions. First, You put a stop to the growth of grace. The body nuiy as well thrive in a fever, as the soul prosper when on a flame with strife and contention. No, first, this fire in the bones must be quenched, and brought into its natural temper; and so must this imkindly heat be slaked among Christians, before either can grow. I pray observe that place, Eph. iv. 15: 'But speaking the truth in love,' or being sincere in love, ' may grow up into him in all things.' The apostle is upon a THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 309 cure, shewing how souls that at present are weak, and their gi'ace rather wan and withered, than growing^ may come to thrive and flourisli ; and the receipt lie gives is a composition of these two rare drugs, sinceritj' and love ; preserve these, and all will go well ; as ver. Ifi, where the whole hody is said ' to edify itself in love.' There may he preaching, hut no edifying, without love. Our times are a sad comment upon this text. Secondly, You cut off your trade with heaven, at the throne of grace ; you will he little in prayer to God, I warrant you, if much in squabbling with your brethren. It is impossible to go from wrangling to praying, with a free spirit. And if you should be so bold as to knock at God's door, you are sure to have cold welcome. Matt. v. 24 : ' Leave thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.' God will not have the incense of prayer put to such strange fire; nor will he eat of our leavened bread, taste of any jjcrformance soured with malice and l)itterness of spirit. First, the peace was renewed, and a covenant of love and friendship struck between Laban and Jacob, Gen. xxxi. 44 ; and then, ver. 54, ' Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread.' Tlie very heathens thought no serious business could be well done by quarrelling spirits. Therefore the senators of Rome used to visit the temple dedicated Juri depoititorio, because there they did deponere inimiciflas, lay down all their feuds and controversies, before they went into the senate to consult of state-affairs. Durst not they go to the senate till friends, and dare we go up to God's altar, bow om* knees to him in prayer, while our hearts are roiled and swollen with anger, envy, and malice? O God, humble us ! Thirdly, As we cut off our trade with heaven, so with one another; when two coiuitries fall out, whose great interest lies in their nnitual traffic, they must needs both pinch by the war. Truly, Christians' great gains come in by their mutual commerce; and they are the richest Christians commonl}-, who are seated with the greatest advantage for this trade. As no nation hath all their commodities of their own growth, but needs some merchandize with others; so there is no Christian that coidd well live without borrowing from his brethren. There is that ' which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part,' Eph. iv. 16. Paid himself is not so well laid in, but he hopes to get something more than he hath from the meanest of those he preached to; he tells the Christians at Rome, chap, i., he longs as much to see them, as to impart some spiritual gift to tliem, ver. 11 ; so saith he, ' that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me,' ver. 12 ; yea, he h.opes to be ' filled with their company,' Rom. xv. 24. As a man is filled with good cheer, he hopes to make a feast of their company. Now contentions and divisions spoil all intercourse among believers ; tlicy are as baneful to Christian communion, as a great pestilence or ])lague is to tlie trade of a market town. Communication flows from communion, and comnumion that is founded upon union. The church grows under persecution ; that sheds the seed all over the field, and brings the gospel where else it had not been heard of; but divisions and contentions, like a furious storm, washes the seed out of the land, with its heart, fatness, and all. Fourthlj', You do not only hazard the decay of grace, but growth of sin. Indeed it shews there is more than a little corruption got within doors already, but it opens the door to much more; James iii., ' If ye have bitter envying, and strife, glory not:' that is, do not think you are such good Christians; this stains all your other excellences; had ye the knowledge and gifts of holv angels, yet this woidd make you look more like devils than tliem ; he gives the reason, ver. 16 : ' For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work.' Contention is the devil's forge, in which if he can but give a Christian a heat or two, he will not doul)t but to soften him for his hannner of temptation. Moses himself, when his spirit was a little hot, ' spake unadvisedly witii his lips.' It must needs be an occasion of much sinning, which renders it impossible for a man, while in his distemper, to do any one righteous action. ' The wratli of man worketh not the righteous- ness of God,' James i. 20. Now, what a sad tiling is it for Christians to stay long in that temper in which they can do no good to one another, but provoke lust '! Fifthly, They are prognostics of judgment coming. A lowering sk}' speaks foul weather at hand ; and mariners look for a storm at sea, when the waves begin to swell, and utter a murmuring noise. Ilath there l)een nothing like these ^00 THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. among us? what can we think, but a judgment is breeding by the lowering coun- tenances of Christians, their swellings of heart, and discontented passions vented from their swollen spirits, like the murmuring of waters, or rumbling of thunder in the air before a tempest ? When children fight and wrangle, now is the time they may expect their father to come, and part them with his rod. Mai. iv. 6 : ' He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I smite the earth with a curse ;' strife and conten- tion set a people next door to a curse. God makes account he brings a heavy judgment upon a people, when himself leaves them. If the master leaves the ship, it is near sinking indeed ; and truly no readier way to send him going, than by contentions ; these smoke him out of his own house. ' Be of one mind,' saiththe apostle, 'live in peace, and the God of peace shall be with you,' 2 Cor. xiii. 11 ; implying if they did not live in peace, they must not look to have his company long with them. God was coming in Moses with a great salvation to the Israelites, and as an earnest of the good services he was to do for them, he begins to make peace between two discontented brethren as they sti-ove; but his kindness was not accepted, and this was the occasion of many years' misery more, that they endured in Egypt. ' Then fled Moses at tlris saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian,' Acts vii. 29 ; and no news of deliverance for the space of forty years after, ver. 30. And have not our dissensions, or rather our rejecting those overtures which God by men of healing spirits hath offered for peace, been the cause why mercy hath fled so fast from us, and we left to groan under those sad misei'ies that are upon us at this day ? and who knows how long ? O who can think what a glorious morning shone upon Eng- land in that famous parliament, begun 1610, and not weep and weep again to see our hopes for a glorious reformation, that opened with them, now shut up in blood and war, contention and confusion? miseries too, like the fire and brimstone that fell from heaven upon those unhappy cities of the plain. Section III. — Thirdly and lastly, O labour forpeace and unity for other's sake. I mean those who at present are wicked and luigodly, among whom ye live. We are not, saith Austin, to despair of the wicked, but do our utmost that they may be made good and godly. Quia numerus sanctorum, semper de numero inipiorum auc/us est. Because God ever calls his number out of the heap and multitude of the ungodly world. Now, no more winning means to work upon them, and pave a way for their conversion, than to commend the truths and ways of God to them, by the amiableness of your love and unity that profess the same. This is the cuminin-seed that would draw souls like doves to the windows. This is the gold to overlay the temple of God (the church) so as to make all in love with its beauty that look into it. Every one is afraid to dwell in a house haunted with evil spirits. And hath hell a worse than the spirit of division ? O Christians, agree together, and j^our number will increase. It is said, Acts ii. 46 : ' They continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.' And mark what follows, ver. 47 : ' They had favour with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.' The world was so great a stranger to love and peace, that it was amused, and set of considering what heavenly doctrine that was which could so mollify men's hearts, plane their rugged natures, and join them so close in love together, and were the more easily persuaded to adopt themselves into that true family of love. But alas, when this gold became dim (I mean peace among Christians faded) the gospel lost credit in the world, and the doctrine of it came under more suspicion in their thoughts, who seeing such clefts gape in her walls, were more afraid to put their heads under its roof, Cant. ii. 7 : 'I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor wake my love till he please.' INIaster Cotton on the place, by ' the roes and hinds of the field,' (which are fearful creatiu-es, easily scared away, yet otherwise willing to feed with the sheep,) takes the Gentiles to be meant, inclinable to embrace the Jewish religion, but very soon scared away by the troublesome state of it, or any offensive carriage of the Jews. And what )nore offensive carriage than divisions and strifes? see them joined together, Rom. xvi. 17; 'Mark them which cause divisions and offences.' If divisions, then there are sure to be ofiences taken, and many possibly hardened in their AND YOUR FEET SHOD WITH, ETC. 401 sins tliereby. Do not yonr hearts tremble to lay the stumbling-block for any to break his neck over ? to roll the stone over any poor sinner's grave, and seal him down in it, that he never have a resurrection to grace here, or glory hereafter? As you would keep yoiu'selves free of the blood of those that die in tlieir sins, take heed of lending anything by your divisions to the hardening of their souls in their impenitency. Section IV. — Fourthly, The fourth and last sort of peace which I tliought to have spoken of is, a peace with all the creatures, even the most fierce and cruel. I called it a peace of indemnity - creek or hole, rather than venture abroad in foul weather, John xii. 42 : ' Among the chief rulers also many believed on him, but because of the Phaiusees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the syna- gogue.' Poor souls, they could have been content, if the coast had been clear, to have put forth, but had not courage enough to bear a little scorn that threatened them. O what folly is it to engage for God, except we be willing to lay all at stake for him ? It is not worth the while to set out in Christ's company bj' profession, except we mean to go through with him, and not leave him unkindly when we are half way, because of a slough or two. Section IV. — This readiness of spirit to suffer gives the Christian the true enjoyment of his life. A man never comes to enjoy himself truly in any com- fort of his life, till prepared to deny himself readily in it. It is a riddle, but two considerations will unfold it. First, Then, and not till then, is that which hinders the enjoyment of our lives taken away, and that is, fear: where this is, there is torment. The out-setting deer is observed to be lean, though where good food is, because always in fear. And so must they needs be, in the midst of all their enjoyments, on whose heart this vulture is continually feeding. There needs nothing else to bring a man's joy into a consumption, than an inordinate fear of losing what he hath at present : let but this get hold of a man's spirit, and once become hectical, and the comfort of his life is gone past recover)'. How many by this are more cruel to themselves, than it is possible their worst enemies in the world could be to them ! They, alas ! when they have done their utmost, can kill them but once : but, by antedating their own miseries, they kill themselves a thousand times over, even as oft as the fear of dj'ing comes over their miserable hearts. But when once the Christian has got his piece of armour on, his soul is prepared for death and danger; he sits at the feast which God in his present providence allows him, and fears no messenger with ill news to knock at the door ; yea, he can talk of his dying hour, and not spoil the mirth of his present condition, as carnal men think it does, to whom a discourse of dying in the midst of their merry-makings, is like the coming in of the officer to attack a company of thieves that are making merry together, with their stolen goods about them ; or like the wet cloth that Hazael clapped on the king his master's face ; it makes all the joy which flushed out before, squat in on a sudden, that the poor creatures sit dispirited and all amort (as we say) till they get out of this affrighting subject by some divertisement or other, which only relieves them for the present, and puts them out of that particular fit this brought upon them, but leaves them deeper in slavery to such amazement of heart, whenever the same ghost shall appear for the future. Whereas the Christian, that hath this preparation of heart, never tastes more sweetness in the enjoyments of this life, than when he dips these morcels in the meditation of death and eternity. It is no more grief to his heart to think of the remove of these, which makes way for those far sweeter enjoyments, than it would be to one at a feast, to have the fii'st coui'se taken off, when he hath fed well on it, that the second course of all rare sweetmeats and banqueting stuff may come on, which it cannot till the other be gone. Holy David, Psa. xxiii. 4, 5, brings in, as it wei"e, a death's head v/itli his feast. In the same breath almost he speaks of his dying, ver. 4, and of the rich feast he at present sat at through the bounty of God, ver. 5, to which he was not so tied by the teeth, but if God, that gave him this cheer, should call him from it, to look death in the face, he could do it, and fear no evil when in the valley of the shadow thereof, Psa. xxiii. 4. And what think you of the blessed apostle Peter? Had not he, think you, the true enjoyment of his life, when he could sleep so sweetly in a prison, (no desirable place,) fast bound between two soldiers, (no comfortable posture,) and this the very night before Herod woidd have brought him forth, in all pro- bability, to his execution? no likely time, one would think, to get any rest, yet we find hiin, even there, thus, and then, so sound asleep, that the angel, who was sent to give him his gaol-deliverance, smote him on the side to awake him. Acts xii. f), 7. I question whether Herod himself slept so well that night, as this his prisoner did. And what was the ])()tion that brought this holy man so quietly to rest? No doubt this preparation of the gospel of peace ; he was ready to die, and that made him able to sleep. Why should that break his rest /^]Q AND YOUR FEET SHOD WITH in this world, which, if it had been effected, would have brought him to his eternal rest in the other? Secondly, The more ready and prepared the Christian is to suffer from God, or for God, the more God is engaged to take care for him and of him. A good general is most tender of that soldier's life, who is least tender of it himself. The less the Christian values himself and his interests for God's sake, the more careful God is of him, either to keep him from suffer- ing, or in it ; both which are meant, Matt. xvi. 25 : ' Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.' Abraham was ready to offer vip his son, and then God would not suffer him to do it. But if the Lord at any time takes the Christian's offer, and lets the blow be given, though to the severing of soul and body, he yet shews his tender care of him by the high esteem he sets upon their blood ; which is not more prodigally spilt by man's cruelty, than carefully gathered up by God : ' Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.' Thus we see, that by resigning ourselves up readily to the disposure of God, we engage God to take care of us, and whatever befalls us. And that man or woman sure, if any other in the world, must needs live comfortably that hath the care of himself wholly taken off his own shoulders, and rolled upon God, at whose finding he now lives. The poor widow never was better off, than when the prophet kept house for her ; she freely parted with her little meal for the prophet's use ; and as a reward of her faith in crediting the message he brought from the Lord, so far as to give the bread out of her own mouth and child's to the prophet, she is pi'ovided for by a miracle, 1 Kings xvii. 12, 13. O when a sovil is once thus brought to the foot of God, that it can sincerely say. Lord, here I am, willing to deliver up all I have and am, to be at thy disposal ; my will shall be done when thou hast thy will of me ! God accounts himself deeply obliged to look after that soul. CHAPTER XVI. THE NUMBER OF TRUE CHRISTIANS BUT LITTLE, SHEWN FROM THIS READINESS TO SUFFER, THAT IS REQUIRED IN EVERY CHRISTIAN, MORE OR LESS; WITH AN EXHORTATION TO THE DUTY, FROM TWO ARGUMENTS. Use 1. First, Must the Christian stand thus shod in readiness to march at the call of God in any way or weather ? This will exceedingly thin and lessen the number of true Christians, to what they appear to be at the first view by the estimate of an easy, cheap profession. He that should come into our assem- blies, and see them thracked and wedged in so close with multitudes flocking after the word, might wonder at first to hear the ministers sink the number of Christians so low, and speak of them as so little a company. Surely their eyes fail them, that they cannot see wood for trees ; Christians that stand before them. Tliis very thing made one of the disciples ask Christ, with no little wondering at it, ' Lord, are there few that shall be saved ?' Luke xiii. 23. Observe the occasion of this question: ' Christ,' ver. 22, 'went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.' He saw Christ so free of his pains, to preach at every town he came, and people throng after him, with great expressions of joy that fell from many, ver. 17 : ' Then said he. Lord, are there few that shall be saved V As if he had said. This seems very strange, and almost incredible. To see the way to heaven strewed so thick with people, and the means of salvation in such request, and yet but few saved at last ; how can this be ? Now mark our Saviour's unriddling this mystery : ' And he said to them,' (it seems the man spoke more than his own scruple,) ' Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, I say unto you, shall seek, but shall not be able,' ver. 24 ; as if Christ had said, You judge by a wrong rule. If profession would sei-ve the turn, and flocking after sermons with some seeming joy at the word were enough to save, heaven would soon be full : but as you love your souls, do not bolt or try yourselves by this coarse sieve ; ' but strive to enter,' fight and wrestle, venture life and limb, rather than fall short of heaven. ' For many shall seek, but shall not be able,' that is, seek by an easy profession, and cheap religion, such as is hearing the word, performance of duties, and the like ; of this kind there are many that will come and walk about heaven's door, willing enovigh to enter, if they may do it without ruffling their THK PUEPARATION OF THE GOSrEL OF PEACE. ^J J pride in a ci-owd, or hazarding their present carnal interest by any contest and scuffle. ' But the}' sliall not be able,' that is, ' to enter;' because their carnal, cowardly hearts sliall not be able to strive ; so that take Christians under the notion of 'seekers,' and, by Christ's own words, there are many ; but consider them under the notion of ' strivers,' such as stand ready shod with a holy reso- lution, to strive even to blood, if such trials meet them in the waj' to heaven, rather than not enter, and then the number of Christian soldiers will shrink, like Gideon's goodly host, to a little troop. O how easy were it to instance in several sorts of Christians, so called in a large sense, that have not this gospel- shoe to their foot, and therefore sure to founder and falter, when once they be brought to go u))on sharp stones ! Section I. — First, The ignorant Christian, what work is he like to make of suffering for Christ and his gospel? And they are not the least number in many congregations ; they who have not so much light of knowledge in their imder- standing as to know who Christ is, and what he has done for them, will they have so much heat of love as to march cheerfully after him, when every step they take must fetch blood from them ? Nabal thought he gave a rational answer to David's servants, that asked some relief of him in their present strait, when he said, ' Shall I take my bread, and my water, and my flesh, that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men I know not whence they be?' 1 Sam, XXV. He thought it too much to part with, upon so little acquaintance. And will the ignorant person, think you, be ready to part, not only with his bread, and flesh out of the pot, a little of his estate I mean, but the flesh of his own body, if called to sutFer, and all this at the command of Christ, who is one he knows not whence he is ? Paul gives this as the reason why he suffered, and was not ashamed ; for, saith he, ' I know whom I have believed,' 2 Tim. i. 12. Stories tell us of the Samaritans, a mongrel kind of people, both in their descent and religion, that when it went well with the people of God, the Is- raelites, then they would claim kindred with them, and be Jews ; but when the chinxh of God was under any outward affliction, then they would disclaim it again. And we may the less wonder at this base, cowardly spirit in them, if we read the character Christ gives of them, to be a people ' that worshipped they knew not what,' John iv. 22. Religion hath but loose hold of them that have no better hold of it than a blind man's hand. Secondly, Carnal gospellers, who keep possession of their lusts, while they make profession of Christ. A generation these are, that have nothing to prove themselves Christians by, but their baptism, and a Christian name which they have obtained thereby ; such as, were they to live among Turks and heathens, their language and conversations, did they but conceal whence they came, would never betray them to be Christians; can it now be i-ationally thought that these are the men and women who stand ready to suffer for Christ and his gospel? No, sure, they who will not wear Christ's yoke, will much less bear his burden. If the yoke of the command be thought grievous that binds them to duty, they will much more think the burden of the cross insupportable. He that will not do for Christ, will not die for Christ. That servant is very unlike to fight to blood in his master's quarrel, that will not work for him so as to sweat in his service. Thirdly, The politic professor, a fimdamental article in whose creed is to save himself not from sin, but from danger; and therefore he studies the times more than ihe Scriptures, and is often looking what corner the wind lies in, that accordingly he may shape his course and order his profession, which, like the hedgehog's house, ever opens towards the warm side. Fourthly, The covetous professor, whose heart and head are so full of worldly projects, that suffering for Christ must needs be very unwelcome to him, and find him far enough from such a disposition. You know what tiie Egyptians said of the Israelites, 'They are entangled in the land; the wilderness hath shut them in,' Exod. xiv. l.'j. More true it is of this sort of professors, they are entangled in the world ; this wilderness hath shut them in. A man wljose foot is in a snare, is as fit to walk and nm, as they to follow Christ, when to do it may prejudice their worldly interest. Our Saviour, speaking of the miseries that were to come on Jerusalem, 'Woe,' saith he, 'unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those daj^s,' Matt. xxiv. 10 ; because it ^J2 AND YOUR FEET SHOD WITH would be more difficult for them to escape the dangei- by flight : the big-bellied mothei- being unable to fly fast enougla with her child in her womb, and the nurse as unwilling to leave her dear babe behind her. But many more woes to them who, in days of trial and persecution for the gospel, shall be found big with the M'orld, or that give suck to any covetous, inordinate affection to the creatures; such will find it hard to escape the temptation that these will beset them with. It is impossible in such a time to keep estate and Christ together ; and as impossible for a heart that is set upon the world to be willing to leave it for Christ's company. Fifthly, The conceited professor, who hath a high opinion of himself, and is so far from a humble, holy jealousy and fear of himself, that he is self-confident. Here is a man shod and prepared, he thinks, but not with the right gospel-shoe. By 'strength shall no man prevail,' 1 Sam. ii. 9. He that in Queen Mary's days was so free of his flesh for Christ, as he said he would see his fat melt in the fire, of which he had good store, rather than fall back to popery, lived, poor man, to see his resolution melt, and himself cowardly part with his faith to save his fat. Those that glory of their valour, when they put on the harness, ever put it oflT with shame. The heart of man is deceitful above all things, a very Jacob, that will supplant its own self. He that cannot take the length of his own foot, how can he of himself fit a shoe to it ? Section H.- — Be exhorted, all you that take the name of Christ upon you, to get this shoe of pi'eparation on, and keep it on, that you may be ready at all times to follow the call of God's ^irovidence, though it should lead you into a suffering condition. Take but two motives. First, Consider, Christian, suffering work may overtake thee suddenly, before thou art aware of it ; therefoi'e be ready shod. Sometimes orders come to soldiers for a sudden march ; they have not so much as an hoin-'s warning, but must be gone as soon as the drum beats. And so mayest thou be called out, Christian, before thou art aware, into the field, either to suff'er for God or from God. Abraham had little time given him to deal with his heart, and persuade it into a compliance with God, for offering his son Isaac; a great trial and short warning : ' Take now tliy son, thine only son Isaac,' Gen. xxii. 2 ; not a year, a month, a week hence, but now ! This was in the night, and Abraham is gone early in the morning, ver. 3. How would he have entertained this strange news, if he had been then to gain the consent of his heart? But that was not now to do; God had Abraham's heart already, and therefore he doth not now dispute his order, but obeys. God can make a sudden alteration in thy private affairs, Christian. How couldst thou, in thy perfect strength and health, endure to hear the message of death, if God should, before any lingering sickness hath brought thee into some acquaintance with death, say no more, but. Up and die, as once to Moses? Art thou shod for such a journey? couldst thou say, ' Good is the word of the Lord ?' What if in one day thou wast to step out of honour into disgrace, to be stript of thy silks and velvets, and in vile raiment called to acta beggar's part? couldst thou rejoice that thou art made low, and find thy heart ready to bless the Most High? This would speak thee a soul evangelically shod indeed. Again, God can as soon change the scene in the public afiairs of the times thou livest in, as to the gospel and profession of it. May be now authority smiles on the church of God, but within awhile it may frown, and the stoi-m of persecution arise; Acts ix. .31: 'Then Irad the churches rest throughout all Judea ;' this was a blessed time ; but how long did it last? alas ! not long ; chap. xii. there is sad news of a bloody persecution, ver. 1 : ' About this time Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church;' in which persecution, James, the brother of John, lost his life by his cruel sword; and Peter, in prison, like to go to the same shambles; and the church driven into a corner to pray in the night together, ver. 12. O what a sad change is here ! now in blood, who even now had rest on every side. It is observed that in islands the weather is far more variable and uncertain than in the continent; there you may know ordinarily what weather will be for along time together; but in islands, in the morning we know not what weather will be before night; we have ofttimes summer and winter in the same day, and all this is imputed to the near neighbourhood of the sea that suri'oimds them. The saints in heaven, they live, as I may so say, on the continent ; a blessed constancy THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 4J3 of peace and rest is there enjoyed. They may know by what peace and bliss they have at present, what they shall have to eternity ; but here, below, the church of Christ is as a floating island, compassed with the world (I mean, men of the world) as with a sea; and these sometimes blow hot, and sometimes cold; some- times they are still and peaceable, and sometimes enraged and cruel ; even as God binds up or lets loose their wrath. Now, Christian, doth it not behove thee to be always in a readiness, when thou knowest not but the next moment the wind may turn into the cold corner ; and the times which now favoin- the gos- pel, so as to fill the sails of thy profession with all encouragement, may on a sudden blow full on thy face, and oppose it as much as it did before counte- nance it .' Secondly, Consider, if thy feet be not shod with a preparation to suffer for Christ here on earth, thy head cannot be crowned in heaven, Rom. viii. 17: ' If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.' Now mark the following words : ' If so be we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.' It is true, all the saints do not die martyrs at a stake, but every saint must have a spirit of martyrdom, as I may so call it, a heart prepared for suffering. God never intended Isaac shoidd be sacrificed ; yet he will have Abraham lay the knife to his throat. Thus God will have us lay our neck on the block, and be (as Paul said of himself) bound in the spirit, under a sincere purpose of heart to give up ourselves to his will and pleasm-e ; which is called, a 'presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God,' Rom. xii. 1. That as the Jew brought the beast alive, and presented it freely before him to be done withal as God had commanded ; so we are to present our bodies before God to be disposed of as he commands, both in active and passive obedience. He that refuseth to suffer for Christ, refuseth also to reign with Christ. The putting off the shoe among the Jews was a sign of a man's putting off the right of an iniieritance. Dent. xxv. 9, 10. Thus did Elimelech's kinsman ; when he renounced and disclaimed any right that he might have in his estate, he drew off his shoe, Ruth iv. 7, 8. O Christian, take heed of putting off thy gospel-shoe ; by this thou dost disclaim thy right in heaven's inheritance ; no portion is there laid up for any that will not suffer for Christ. The persecutions which the saints endure for the gospel, are made by Paul an evident token to them of salvation, and that of God, Phil. i. 28. Surely then the denying Christ to escape suffering, is a sad token of perdition. O sirs, is not heaven's inheritance worth enduring a little trouble for it? Naboth's vine- yard was no great matter, yet rather than he would (not lose it, but) sell it to its worth, or change it for a better in another place, he chose to lay his life at stake by provoking a mighty king. Thou canst. Christian, venture no more for thy heavenly inheritance, than he paid for refusing to alienate his petty patrimony of an acre or two of land, (thy temporal life I mean.) And besides the odds between his vineyard on earth, and thy paradise in heaven, which is infinite, and suffers no proportion, thou hast this advantage also of him in thy sufferings for Christ ; when Naboth lost his life, he lost his inheritance also, that he so strove to keep ; but thy persecuting enemies shall do thee this friendly ofHce against their wills, that when they dispossess thee of thy life, they shall help thee into possession of thy inheritance. CHAPTER XVII. SIX DIRECTIONS FOR THE HELPING ON OF THIS SPIRITUAL SHOE. Quest. The great question I now expect to fall from thy mouth, Christian, is, not how thou mayest escape these troubles and trials which, as the evil genius of the gospel, do always attend it ; but rather, how thou mayest get this shoe on, thy heart ready for a march, to go and meet them when they come, and cheerfully wade through them, whatever they be, or how long soever they stay with thee? Aitsw. This is a question well becoming a Christian soldier ; to ask for armour wherewith he may fight: whereas the coward throws away his armour, and asks whither he may fly. I shall therefore give the best counsel I can in these few particulars. 414 AND YOUR FEET SHOD WITH Section I. — First, Look carefully to the ground of thy active obedience, that it be sound and sincere. The same right principles whereby the sincere soul acts for Christ, will carry him to suffer for Christ, when a call from God comes with such an errand. ' The children of Ephraim being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle,' Psa. Ixxviii. 9. Why? what is the matter? so well armed, and yet so cowardly ? This seems strange : read the preceding verse, and you will cease wondering; they are called there, 'a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.' Let the armour be what it will, yea, if soldiers were in a castle, whose foimdations were rock, and walls brass ; yet if their hearts be not right to their prince, an easy storm will drive them from the walls, and a little scare open their gate, which hath not this bolt of sincerity on it to hold it fast. In our late wars we have seen, that honest hearts within thin and weak works have held the town, when no walls could defend treachery from betraying trust. O labour for sincerity in the engaging at first for God and his gospel. Be oft asking thy own sold for whom thou prayest, hearest, reformest this practice and that. If thou canst get a satisfactoiy answer from thy soul here, thou mayest hope well : if faith's working hand be sincere, then its fighting hand will be valiant. That place is observable, Heb. xi. 33 : ' Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire;' and with other great things that faith enabled them to endure, as you may read in the 34th, 35th, and 36th verses ; where I pray note, how the power of faith enabling the Christian to work righteousness (that is, live holily and righteously) is reckoned among the wonders of suffer- ings, which it strengthened them to endure. Indeed, had it not done this, it would never have endured these. Section II. — Secondly, Pray for a suffering spirit. This is not a common gift, which every carnal gospeller and slighty professor hath. No ; it is a peculiar gift, and bestowed but on a few sincere souls ; 'unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake,' Phil. i. 20. All the parts and common gifts that a man hath will never enable him to drink deep of this cup for Christ ; such is the pride of man's heart, he had rather suffer any way than this; rather from himself, and for himself, than from Christ, or for Christ. You would wonder to see sometimes how much a child will endure at his play, and never cry for it : this fall, and that knock, and no great matter is made of it by him, because got in a way that is pleasing to him"; but let his father whip him, though it puts him not to half the smart, yet he roars and takes on, that there is no quieting of him. Thus men can bring trouble on themselves, and bite in their complaints. They can, one play away his estate at cards and dice, and another whore away his health, or cut off" many years from his life by beastly drunkenness, and all is endured patiently ; yea, if they had their money and strength again, they would go the same way : they do not repent of what their lusts have cost them, but mourn they have no more to bestow upon them ; their lusts shall have all they have to a morsel of bread in their cupboard, and drop of blood in their veins ; yea, they are not afraid of burning in hell, as their sins' martyrs. But come and ask these, that are so free of their purse, flesh, soul, and all, in lust's service, to lay their estate or life for a few moments at a stake in Christ's cause and his truth's, and you shall see that God is not so much beholden to them. And therefore pray and pray again for a suffering spirit in Christ's cause ; yea, saints themselves need earnestly plead with God for this. Alas ! they do not find suffering work follow their hand so easily. The flesh loves to be indulged, not crucified ; many a groan it costs the Christian, before he can learn to love this work. Now prayer, if any means, will be helpful to thee in this particular. He that can wrestle with God, need not fear the face of death and danger. Prayer engageth God's strength and wisdom for our help ; and what is too hai'd for the creature, that hath God at his back for his help to do or suffer ? We are bid to 'count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations,' James i. 2. Not temptations to sin, but for righteousness ; he means troubles for Christ and his gospel. Ah ! but might the poor Christian say, it were cause of more joy to be able to stand under these temptations, than to fall into them. Little joy woidd it be to have the temptation, and not the grace to THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 415 endure temptation. True, indeed ; but for thy comfort, Cliristian, He that leads thee into this temptation stands ready to lielj) thee through it ; therefore, ver. 5, there is a gracious*/ (jiiis set up; ' if any of you (/. e., you sufferers cliiefly) lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberall}', and u])ln-aideth not, and it shall be given him.' This, methinks, shoidd not nuich strain our faith to believe. There are not many masters so disingenuous to be found, that would twit and upbraid their servant for asking luimbly tlieir counsel in a work of peril and dithculty, which they cheerfullj' luulertake out of love to their persons and obedience to their command ; how nuich less needest thou fear such dealing from thy God ? If thou hast so much faith and love, as to venture at his command upon the sea of suffering, he will without doubt find so much mercy, as to keep thee from drowning, if, feeling th\ self begin to sink, thoji criest earnestly as Peter did to him, 'Lord, save me;' wert thou even under water, prayer would buoy thee up again. But if thou art not a man of prayer before suffering work come, thou wilt be able to do little at that weapon then. The proverb indeed is, He that would learn to pray, let him go to sea ; but I think it were better thus. He that would go to sea, (this I mean of suffering,) let liim learn to pray before he comes there. Section III. — Thirdly, Be nuich in the meditation of a suffering state. He will say his lesson best, when his master calls him forth, that is oftenest con- ning it over beforehand. Do by the ti'oubles thou mayest meet with as porters use to do with their burdens ; they will lift them again and again, before they take them on to their back. Thus do thou ; be often lifting up in thy meditations those evils that may befall thee for Christ and his truth, and try how thou coiddst agree with them, if called to endure them ; set poverty, prison, banishment, fire and fagot before thee on the one hand, and the pre- cious truths of Christ on the other, with the sweet promises made to those that shall hold fast the word of patience held forth in such an hour of temptation. Suppose it were now thy very case, and thou wert put to thy choice, which liand thou wouldst take ; study the question seriously, till thou determinest it clearly in thy conscience ; and do this often, that the arguments which flesh and blood will then be sure to use for thy pitying thyself may not be new and luianswered, nor the encouragements and strong consolations which the word affords be strange, and under any suspicion in thy thoughts, when thou art to venture thy life upon their credit and truth. That of Augusline we shall find most true, Non facile inveiiiunfur pressidia in adversitate, qua; non fuerint in pace qucesita. The promises are our garrison and fastness at such a time ; and we shall not find it easy to run to them in a strait, except we were acquainted with them in a time of peace ; a stranger that flies to a house for refuge in the dark night, he fumbles about the door, and knows not how to find the latch ; his enemy, if nigh, may kill him before he can open the door ; but one that lives in the house, or is well acquainted with it, is not long in getting in. ' Come, my people,' saith God, ' enter thou into thy chambers,' Isa. xxvi. He is shewing them their lodgings in his attributes and promises, before it is night, and their sufferings be come, that they may readily find the way to them in the dark. Sf.ction IV. — Fourthly, Make a daily resignation of thyself up to the will of God. Indeed, this should be, as it were, the lock of the night, and key of the morning; we should open and shut our eyes with this recommending of our- selves into the hands of Ciod. This, if daily performed, not fornuilly, (as all duties frequently repeated, without the more care, are like to be,) but solemnly, would sweetly dispose the soul for a welcoming of any trial that can befall it. Tile awkwardness of our hearts to suffer, comes much from distrust. An unbelieving soul treads upon the promise, as a man upon ice ; at first going upon it, lie is full of fears and tumultuous thoughts lest it should crack. Now this daily resignation of thy heart, as it will give thee an occasion of conversing more with the thoughts of God"s power, faithfulness, and other of liis attributes, (for want of familiarity with which, jealousies arise in our hearts wlien put to any great plunge,) so also it will furnish thee with many experiences of the reality both of his attributes and promises ; which, though they need not any testimony from sense, to gain them credit with us, yet so much are we made of sense, so childisii and weak is our faith, that we find our hearts nuich helped by those experiences we have had, to rely on him for the future. Look, therefore, care- 416 AND YOUR FEET SHOD WITH fully to this ; every morning leave thyself and waj^s in God's hand, as the phrase is, Psa. x. 14 ; and at night look again how well God hath looked to his trust, and sleep not till thou hast affected thy heart with his faithfulness, and laid a stronger charge on thy heart to trust itself again in God's keeping in the night. And when any breach is made, and seeming loss befalls thee in any enjoyment, which thou hast by faith insured of thy God, observe how God fills up that breach, and makes up that loss to thee ; and rest not till thou hast fully vindicated the good name of God to thy own heart. Be sure thou lettest no discontent or dissatisfaction lie upon thy spirit at God's dealings ; but chide thy heart for it, as David did his, Psa. xlii. And thus doing, with God's blessing, thou shalt keep thy faith in breath for a longer race, when called to run it. Section V. — Fifthly, Make self-denial appear as rational and reasonable as thou canst to thy soul ; the stronger the understanding is able to reason for the equity and rationality of any work or duty, the more readily and cheerfully (if the heart be honest and sincere) is it done. Suppose, Chi-istian, thy God should call for thy estate, liberty, yea, life and all, can it seem unreasonable to thee .' Especially, First, If thou considerest that he bids thee deliver his own, not thy own. He lent thee these, but he never gave away the propriety of them from himself. Dost thou wrong thy neighbour, to call for that money thou lentest him a year or two past? no sui-e ; thou thinkest he hath reason to thank thee for lending it to him, but none to complain for calling it from hhn. Secondly, Consider, he doth not, indeed cannot bid thee deny so much for him, as he hath done for thee. Is reproach for Christ so intolerable, that thy proud spirit cannot brook it ? Why, who art thou? What great house comest thou from ? See one that had more honour to lay at stake than I hope thou darest pretend to, Jesus Christ, ' who thought it no robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.' Is it pain and toi-ment thou art afraid of? O look up to the cross, where the Lord of life hung for thy sins, and thou wilt take up thy own cross more willingly, and thank God too that he hath made thine so light and easy, when he provided one so heavy and tormenting for his beloved Son. Thirdly, Consider whatever God calls thee to deny for his truth, it is not more than he can recompense. Moses saw this, and that made him leap out of his honours and riches into the reproach of Christ, ' for he had respect to the recompense of reward,' Heb. xi. 26. It is much that a man will deny himself in, for something his heart strongly desires in this life. If a man be greedy of gain, he will deny himself of half the night's sleep, to plot in his bed, or rise eaidy from it to be at his work ; he will eat homely fare, go in vile raiment, dwell in a smoky house, (as we see in London,) for the conveniency of a shop. How men of quality will crowd themselves up into a little corner, though to the prejudice of their healths, and hazard sometimes of their lives ! yet hope of gain recompenseth all ! And now put their gains into the scale with thine. Christian, that are sure to come in by denying thyself for Christ, (which theirs are not,) and ask thy soul, whether it blush not to see them so freely deny themselves of the comfort of their lives, for an imaginary, unccrtaui, at best a short advantage, while thou huddlest so with Christ for a few outward enjoyments, which shall be paid thee over an hundredfold here, and beyond what thou canst now conceive when thou comest to heaven's glory. Section VI. — Sixthly, Labour to carry on the work of mortification every day to further degrees than other. It is the sap in the wood that makes it hard to burn, and corruption unmortified that makes the Christian loth to suffer ; dried wood will not kindle sooner than a heart dried and mortified to the lusts of the world will endure anything for Christ. The apostle speaks of some that were ' tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resui-rection,' Heb. xi. 35. They did not like the world so well, as, being so far on their jovirney to heaven, (though in hard way,) to be willing to comeback to live in it any longei-. Take heed. Christian, of leaving any worldly lust unmortified in thy soul. This will never consent thou shouldst endure much for Christ. Few ships sink at sea ; they are the rocks and shelves that split them. Couldst thou get off the rocks of pride and unbelief, and escape knocking on the sands of fear of man, love of the world, and the like lusts, thou wouldst do well enouo'h in the greatest storm that can overtake thee in the sea of this THE PREPARATION OP THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 4J'7 world. ' If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honoui-, sanctified and meet for his master's use, and prepared unto every good work,' 2 Tim. ii. 21. O that we knew the heaven that is in a mortified soul! one that is crucified to the world, and lusts of it ! He hath the advantage of any other in doing or suffering for Christ, and enjoying Christ in both. A mortified soul lives out of all noise and disturbance from those carnal passions which put all out of quiet where they come. When the mortified soul goes to duty, here are not those rude and unmannerly intrusions of impertinent, carnal, yea, sinful thoughts between him and his God. Is he to go to prison? Here is not such weeping and taking on. No lust to hang about him and break his heart with its insinuations ; no self-love to entreat him that he would pity himself; his heart is free, got out of the acquaintance of these troublers of his peace ; and a prison to him, if he may go upon so honourable an errand, as testifying to the truth is, O how welcome is it to him ! whereas an unmortified heart is wedged in with so great acquaintance and kindred (as I may so say) which his heart hath in the world, that it is impossible to get out of their embraces into any willingness to suffer. A man that comes into an inn in a strange place, he may rise at what time he pleaselh, and be gone as early as he pleaseth in the morning ; there are none entreat him to stay ; but hard to get out of a friend's house ; these, like the Levite's father-in-law, will be desiring him to stay one day, and then one more, and another after that. The mortified soul is the .stranger; he meets with no disturbance (I mean comparatively) in his journey to heaven, while the unmortified one is linked in fast enough for getting on his journey in haste, especially so long as the flesh hath so fair an excuse as the foulness of the waj' or weather, any hardship likely to be endured for his pro- fession. I have read of one of the Catos, that in his old age he withdrew himself from Rome to his country-house, that he might spend his elder years free from care and trouble. And all the Romans as they rode by his house used to say, Isfe solus self tnvere : ' This man alone knows how to live.' I know not what art Cato had to disburden himself, by his retiring, of the world's cares; I am sure a man may go into the country, and yet not leave the city behind him ; his mind may be in a crowd, while his body is in the solitude of a wilderness. Alas, poor man ! he was a stranger to the gospel ; had he been but acquainted with this, it could have shewn him a way out of the world's crowd, in the midst of Rome itself, and that is, by mortifying his heart to the world, both in the pleasures and troubles of it, and then that high commenda- tion might have been given him without an hyperbole ; for to speak truth, he only knows aright how to live in the world, that hath learnt to die to the world. And so much for the first point ; which was, that the Christian is to stand ready for all trials and troubles that may befall him. The second follows. CHAPTER XVIII. SHEWETH WHO IS THE PERSON THAT IS SHOD AND PREPARED FOR SUFFERINGS, i.e., HE THAT HATH THE GOSPEl's PEACE IN HIS BOSOM; AND HOW THIS PEACE DOTH PREPARE FOR SUFFERING ; WITH A BRIEF APPLICATION OF ALL. Doct. 2. That he who enjoys the peace of the gospel in his bosom is the person, and the only person, that stands shod for all ways, prepared for all troubles and trials. Section I. — First, None can make a shoe to the creature's foot, so as he shall go easy on hard way, but Christ; he can do it to the creature's full con- tent; and how doth he do it? Truly no other way than by underlaying it ; or if you will, lining it with the peace of the gospel. What though the way be set with sharp stones? if this shoe go between the Christian's foot and them, they cannot much be felt. Solomon tells us, 'The ways of wisdom (that is, Christ) are ways of pleasantness.' But how so, when some of them are ways of suffer- ing? the next words resolve us, ' And all her paths are peace,' Prov. iii. 17. Where there is ])eace, such peace as peace with (Jod and conscience, there can want no pleasure. David goes merry to bed, when he hath nothing to supper but the gladness that God by this puts into his heart, and promiseth himself a better night's rest than any of them all, that are feasted with the world's cheer, 2 E 418 AND YOUR FEET SHOD WITH Psa. xlvii. 8 : ' Thou hast pvit gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep.' This same peace with God, enjoyed in the conscience, redounds to the comfort of the body. Now David can sleep sweetly, when he lies on a hard bed ; what here he saith he would do, Psa. iii. 5, he saith he had done, ' I laid me down and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me.' The title of the psalm tells us when David had this sweet night's rest; not when he lav on his bed of down in his stately palace at Jerusalem, but when he fled for his life from his unnatural son Absalom, and possibly was forced to lie in the open field under the canopy of heaven. Truly it must be a soft pillow indeed that could make him forget his danger, who then had such a disloyal army at his back hunting of him ; yea, so transcendent is the sweet influence of this peace, that it can make the creature lie down as cheerfully to sleep in the grave, as on the softest bed. You will say that child is willing that calls to be put to bed ; some of the saints have desired God to lay them at rest in their beds of dust, and that not in a pet and discontent with their present trouble, as Job did, but from a sweet sense of this peace in their bosoms. ' Now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,' was the swan-like song of old Simeon. He speaks like a merchant that had got all his goods on ship-board, and now desires the master of the ship to hoist sail, and be gone homewards. Indeed, what should a Christian, that is but a foreigner here, desire to stay any longer for in the world, but to get this full lading in for heaven ? And when hath he that, if not when he is assiu'cd of his peace with God? This peace of the gospel, and sense of the love of God in the soul, doth so admirably conduce to the enabling of a person in all difficulties, and tem2>tations, and troubles, that ordinarily, before he calls his saints to any hard service or hot work, he gives them a draught of this cordial wine next their hearts, to cheer them up and embolden them in the conflict. God calls Abram out of his native countij', Gen. xii. 1 : and what so fit as a promise of Christ to bi-ing his heart to God's foot? ver. 2, 3. A sad errand it was that sent Jacob to Padan-Aram : he fled from an angry, wrathful brother, that had murdered him already in his thoughts, to an mikind, deceitful uncle, imder whom he should endiire much hardship. Now God comes in a sweet gospel-vision to comfort this poor pilgrim ; for by ' that ladder, whose foot stood on earth, and top reached heaven,' Christ was signified to his faith, in whom heaven and earth meet, God and man are recon- ciled ; and by the moving up and down of the angels on the ladder, the ministry of the angols, which Christ by his death and intercession procures for his saints, that they shall tend oia them as servants on their master's children ; so that the sum of all is as nuich as if God had said, Jacob, thy brother Esau hates thee, but in Christ I am reconciled to thee ; thy uncle, Lr.ban, he will wrong thee, and deal hardly by thee, but fear him not ; as I am in Christ at peace with thee, so through him thou shalt have my especial care over thee, and the guardianship of the holy angels about thee, to defend thee wherever thou goest. Tlie Israelites, when ready to take their march out of Egypt into a desolate wilderness, where they should be put to many plunges, and their faith tried to purpose ; to prepare them the more for these, he entertains them at a gospel-supper before they go forth, I mean the passover, which pointed to Christ ; and no doubt the sweetness of this feast made some gracious souls among them (that tasted Christ in it) endure the hardship and hunger of the wilderness the more cheerfully. And the same care and love did our Lord Jesus observe in the institution of his supper, choosing that for the time of erecting this sweet ordinance, Vv'hen his disciples' feet stood at the brink of a sea of sorrows and troubles, which his death, and the consequences of it, would inevitably bring upon them. Now the pardon of their sins sealed to their Souls in that ordinance nuist needs be welcome, and enable them to wade through their suflTerings the more comfortably. Indeed, the great care which Christ took for his disciples, when he left the world, was not to leave them a quiet world to live in, but to arm them against a troublesome world ; and to do this, he labours to satisfy their poor hearts with his love to them, and his Father's love to them for his sake ; he bequeaths imto them his peace, and empties it in the sweet consolations of it into their bosoms ; for which end he tells them, as soon as he got to heaven, lie would pray his Father to send the Comforter to them with all THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 429 speed, and sends them to Jerusalem, there to staj' privately, and not go into the field, or openly contest with tlie angry world, till they received the strength and succour which the Spirit in his comforts should bring with him. By all which it doth abundantly appear, how powerful tliis gospel-peace is to enable the soul for suffering. Now I proceed to shew how this peace doth prepare the heart for all sufferings ; and that it doth these two ways : First, As it brings along with it and possesses the soul (where it comes) with such glorious privileges, as lift it above all danger and damage from any sufferings wliatever, from God, man, or devils. Secondly, As it is influential to the saints' graces and affections, exciting them, and making them act to such a height, as lifts the Christian above the fear of trouble and suffering. Section II. — First, By possessing the believing soul of such glorious privi- leges as secure it from any real hurt that the worst of sufferings can do it. If a man could be assured, that he might walk as safely on the waves of the sea, or in the flames of fire, as he doth in his gai'den, he would be no more afraid of the one, than he is to do the other ; or if a man had some coat of mail secretly about him that would undoubtedly resist all blows, and quench all shot that are sent against him, it would be no such scareful thing for him to stand in the midst of swords and guns. Now the soul that is indeed at peace with God is invested with such privileges as do set it above all hurt and damage from sufferings. ' The peace of God (is said) to garrison the believer's heart and mind,' Phil. iv. 7. He is surrounded with such blessed privileges, that he is as safe as one in an impregnable castle. A person at peace with God becomes then a cliild of God. And when once the Christian comes to know his relation, and the dear love of his heavenly Father to him, afflictions from, or sufferings for him, dread him not, because he knows it is inconsistent with the love of a P'ather, either to hurt his child himself, or suffer him to be hurt by another, if he can help it. I have wondered at Isaac's patience to submit to be bound for a sacrifice, and see the knife so near his throat, without any hideous outcries or strugglings that we read of; he was old enough to be apprehensive of death, and the horror of it, being conceived by some to be above twenty years of age ; that he was of good growth is out of doubt, by the wood which Abraham caused him to carry for the sacrifice ; but such was the authority Abraham had over his son, and the confidence that Isaac had in his father, that he din-st put his life into his hands, which had the knife been in any other hand, he would hardly have done : whoever may be the instrument of any trouble to a saint, the rod or sword is at God's disposure ; Christ saw the cup in his Father's hand, and that made him take it willingly. Secondly, Every soul at peace with God, is heir to God. Tliis follows his relation ; ' If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,' Rom. viii. 17. This is such a transcendent privilege, that the soul to whom the joyful news of it comes, is lifted up above the amazing and affi-ighting fears of any suff'ering. The apostle having (in the forenamed place) but a little sweetened his thovights with a few meditations on this soul-ravishing subject, see how this blessed soul is raised into a holy slighting of all the troubles of his life ; ' I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be re- vealed in us,' ver. 18. He will not allow his own soul, or any that hath the hope of this inheritance, so far to undervalue the glory thereof, or the love of God that settled it on them, as to mention the greatness of their suff"erings in any way of pitying themselves for them. As if he had said, Hath God made us his heirs, and bestowed heaven upon us in reversion ; and shall we be so poor- spirited to sit down and bemoan ourselves for our present sorrows, that are no more, as to be compared with the glory that we are going to, than the little point of time (into which our short life with all our suff'erings are contracted) is to be compared with the vast circumference of that eternity which we are to spend in endless bliss and liappiness ? He is a poor man, we say, that one or two petty losses quite undoes. And he is a poor Christian that cries out he is undone by any cross in this life ; we may safely conclude such a one either is heir to nothing in the other world, or hath little or no evidence for what he hath there. Secondly, This peace shoes and prepares the Christian for sufferings, as it is 2 E 2 420 ^N^ YOUR FEET SHOD WITH influential to his graces and affections ; making them act to such a height, as lifts him above the fear of any suffering. First, This peace, where it is felt, makes the Christian unconquerable in his faith. Nothing is too hard for such a one to believe, that carries a pardon in his conscience, and hath his peace with God sealed to him. Moses was to meet with many dithculties in that great work of conducting Israel out of Egypt, towards Canaan ; therefore to make them all a more easy conquest to his faith, when he should be assaulted with them, God gives him at his very first entering upon liis charge an experiment of his mighty power in some miracles, as the turning his rod into a serpent, and that again into a rod ; making his hand leprous, and then restoring it again to be as sound as before, that he might never think anything too hard for that God to do towards their salvation and deliverance, when things seemed most desperate ; and how unconquerable Moses was after these in his faith, we see. Truly, when God speaks peace to a poor soul, he gives such a testimony of his almighty power and love, that so long as the sweet sense of this lasts in the soul, the creature's faith cannot be posed ; what doth God, in his pardoning mercy, but turn the serpent of the law, with all its threatenings, from which the sinner fled, as that which would sting him to death, into the blossoming rod of the gospel, that brings forth the sweet fruit of peace and life ? And which is the greater miracle of the two, think you, Moses's leprous hand made clean and soimd, or a poor sinner's heart, leprous with sin, made clean and pure by washing in the blood of Christ ? Certainly this miracle of mercy, where it is strongly believed to be done, will make it easy for that soul to trust God in a sea of temporal sufferings, and cheerfully follow him through a whole wilderness of troubles in this life. When David hath comfortable apprehensions of God's pardoning mercy, then his faith is up, and can strongly act on God for temporal deliverance. Psa. xxxii., we find him imder the sweet sense of his peace with God, able to vouch God as reconciled to him ; ' I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou for- gavest the iniquity of my sin,' ver. 5. And now see to what a height his faith acts on God as to outward troubles, ver. 7 : ' Thou art my hiding-place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.' He spells this, which is the less, from the other that is incom- parably the greater mercy. Secondly, This peace with God, where it is felt, fills the heart with love to Christ. The Christian's love to Christ takes fire at Christ's love to him ; and the hotter Christ's love lies on the soul, the stronger reflection doth the creature make of love to him again: ' She loved much to whom much was forgiven,' Luke vii. 47. And the more love, the less fear there will be of suffering. We will venture far for a dear friend : when Christ told his disciples, ' Lazarus was dead,' Thomas would needs go and die with him for company, John xi. 16. So powerful is love, even as strong as death : ' For a good man/ saith the apostle, ' some would even dare to die ;' that is, a merciful, kind man, whose love had endeared him to them. How much more daring will a gracious soul be to sacri- fice his life for a good God '! ' Thy name,' saith the spouse of Christ, ' is as oint- ment poured forth, therefore the virgins love thee,' Cant. i. 3. Then Christ's name is poured forth, when the love of God through him is shed abroad in the soul ; let this precious box be but broke, and the sweet savour of it diffused in the heart, and it will take away the unsavomy scent of the most stinking prison in the world. This heavenly fire of Chi'ist's love, beaming powerfidly en the soul, will not only put out the kitchen-fire of creature-love, but also the hell-fire, as I may call it, of slavish fear. What makes us so aghast at the thoughts of death, especially if it comes towards us in a bloody dress, and hath some cir- cumstances of persecutors' cruelty to put a further grimness on its impleasing countenance ? Surely this comes from guilt and unacquaintance with Christ and what he hath done for us, who came partly on this very errand into the world, ' to deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage,' Heb. ii. 15. And how hath he done it but by reconciling us to God, and so reconciling us to the thoughts of death itself, as that which can only do us this kind oflSce, to bring us and Christ, that hath done all this for us, together ? THE PREPAKATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 40^ Tliirdly, This peace enjoj'ed in the Cliristian's bosom hath a sweet influence on his self-denial ; a grace so necessary to sufl'ering, that Cluist lays the cross, as I may so say, upon the biick of this grace : ' Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me,' Mark viii. 34. Another, with Simon of Cyrene, may be compelled to carry Christ's cross after him a little way; but it is the self-denying soul that will stoop willingly and down on his knees to have his burden laid on him at Christ's hand. Now the sense of a soul's peace with Ciod will enable the creature in a twofold self-denial, and by both sweetly dispose him for any suHering from or for Christ. Fii-st, It will enable him to deny himself in his sinful self. Sin may well be called our self, it cleaves so close to us, even as our members to our body ; as hard to mortify a lust as to cut oft' a joint. And some sins are more our self than others, as our life is more boimd up in some members than others ; well, let them be what they will, there is a good day in which, if Christ asks the head of the proudest lust among them all, he shall have it with less regret than Herodias obtained the Baptist's at Herod's hands. And what is that gaudy day in which the Christian can so freely deny his sin, and deliver it up to justice, but when Christ is feasting him with this hidden manna of pardon and peace ? A true friend will rather deny himself tlian one he lo\'es dearly, if it be in his power to grant his request ; but least of all can he deny him, when his friend is doing him a greater kindness at the same time tliat he asks a less. No such picklock to open the heart as love. When love comes a-begging, i'.nd that at a time when it is shewing itself in some eminent expression of kind- ness to him at whose door she knocks, there is little fear but to speed. Esther chose that time to engage Ahasuerus's heart against Haman, her enemy, when she expressed her love most to Ahasuerus, viz., at a banquet : when doth God give, or indeed when can he give, the like demonstration of his love to a poor soul, as when he entertains it at this gospel banquet? Now sure, if ever, God may prevail with his child to send the cursed Amalekite to the gallows, his lust to the gibbet. Do you think that Mary Magdalen, when that blessed news dropped from Christ into her mournful heart, that ' her sins, which were many, were all forgiven her,' could now have been persuaded to have o])ened the door to any of her former lovers, and gone out of these embraces of Christ's love, to have played the whore again? No; I doubt not but she would sooner have chosen the flames of martyrdom than of lust. Indeed, that which can make the creature deny a lust, can make the creature it shall not deny a cross. Secondly, The sense of this peace will enable the Christian to deny his carnal enjoyments ; and these the Christian finds his great drawbacks from suffering. As the heart burns in the hot fit of love to the pleasures and profits of this world when he abounds with them ; in that degree will his shaking fit of fear and grief be when Christ calls him to part witli them. What the sweet wines and dainty fare of Capua were to Hannibal's soldiers, that we shall find any intemper;ince of heart to the creatiu-e will be to us ; it will enervate our spirits, and so effeminate us, that we shall have little mind tot»ndure hardship when drawn into tlie field to look an enemy in the face. Now the sense of this gospel-peace will deaden the heart to the creature, and facilitate the work of self-denial, as to the greatest enjoyments the world hath. ' God forbid,' saith St. Paixl, ' that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world,' Gal. vi. 14. Paul's heart is dead to the world ; now mark what gave the death-wound to his carnal afiections : ' By whom,' saith he, ' the world is crucified to me, and I unto it,' that is, Christ and his cross. 'I'here was a time indeed that Paul loved the world as well as most ; but since he hath been acquainted with Christ, and the mercy of God in him to his soul, pardon- ing his sins, and receiving him into favour and fellowship with himself, he is quite of another mind ; he leaves the world, as Saul his seeking of the asses at the news of a kingdom ; his haunt lies another way now. I-et the Zibas of the world take the world, and all they can make of it with their best husbandry ; he will not grudge them their happiness, forasmuch as his heavenly Lord and King is come in peace to his soul. None can part with the comfort of the creature so cheerfully as he who hath his mouth at the fountain-head, the love of God himself. Parents are near, and friends are dear ; yet a loving wife can forget her father's house, and leave her old friends' company, to go with her ^.£2 AND YOUR FEET SHOD WITH husband, though it be to a prison ; how much more will a gracious soul bid adieu to these, yea, life itself, to go to Christ, especially when he hath sent the Comforter into his bosom, to cheer him in the solitariness of the way with his sweet company ! A fourth suffering grace, which the sweet sense of this gospel-peace doth promote, is patience ; affliction and suffering to a patient soul are not grievous. Patience is, as one calls it, the concoctive faculty of the soul ; that grace which digests all things, and turns them into good nourishment. Meats of hard digestion will not do well with squeamish, weak stomachs, and therefore they are dainty and nice in their diet ; whereas men of sti-ong stomachs, they refuse no meat that is set before them, all fare is alike to them. Tndy thus there are some things of a very hard digestion to the spirits of men ; the peevish, passionate, short-spirited professor will never court reproaches, prison, and death itself, but rather quarrel with his profession, if such fare as these attend the gospel. ' When tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended,' Matt. xiii. 21 : this will not stay in his stomach, but makes him cast up even that which else he could have kept, (a profession of Christ,) might he have had it with a quiet life and a whole skin. But now the patient soul, he makes his meal of what God in his providence sets before him ; if peace and prosperity be served up with the gospel, he is thankful, and enjoys the sweetness of the mercy while it lasts. If God takes these away, and instead of them will have him eat the gospel-feast with sour herbs of affliction and persecution, it shall not make him sick of his cheer : it is but eating the more largely of the comforts of the gospel with them, and they go down very well wrapped up in them. Indeed the Christian is beholden to those consolations which flow from the peace of the gospel for his patience. It were impossible for the people of God to endure what sometimes they meet with from men and devils also, as they do, had they not sweet help from the sense of God's love in Christ, that lies glowing at their hearts in inward peace and joy. The apostle i"esolves all the saints' patience, experience, and hope, yea, glorying in their tribulations, into this, as the cause of all : ' Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us,' Rom. v. 5. Sin makes suffering intolerable ; when that is gone, the worst part of the trouble is removed. A light cart goes through that slough easily, where the cart deeply laden is set fast. Guilt loads the soul, and bemires it in any suffering; take that away, and let God speak peace to his soul, and he that raged before like a madman under the cross, shall carry it without wincing and whining. 'The peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds,' Phil. iii. Now what is patience, but the keeping of the heart and mind composed and serene in all troubles that befall us? But a word or two for application. Section III. — Use 1. First, This informs our judgments in-two particidars. First, what to judge of their patience in afflictions, that have no interest in the gospel's peace. ^Secondly, What to think of their peace, who in affliction have no patience at all. First, Some you shall see very still and quiet in affliction, yet mere strangers to this peace, ignorant of Christ the peace-maker; walking in opposition to the terms God offers peace in the gospel upon, and yet very calm in affliction. Certainly all is not right with this poor creature ; if he had any sense how it is with him, he would have little patience to see himself under the hand of God, and not know but it may leave him in hell before it hath done with him. When I see one run over stones and hard ways barefoot, and not complain, I do not admire his patience, but pity the poor creature that hath benumbed his feet, and as it were soled them Avith a brawny, dead kind of flesh, so as to lose his feeling ; but save yoiu' pity much more for those whose consciences are so benumbed, and hearts petrified into a senseless stupidity, that they feel their misery no more than the stone doth the mason's saw which cuts it asimder. Of all men out of hell, none more to be pitied than he that hangs over the mouth of it, and yet is fearless of his danger ; while thus, the poor wretch is incapable of all means for his good. What good does physic put into a dead man's mouth? If he cannot be chafed to some sense of his condition, all apjjli- cations are in vain. And if afflictions, which are the strongest physic, leave the creature senseless, there is little hope left that any other will work upon. THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 4^3 Secondly, What shall we think of tliose that are great pretenders to this peace, yet cannot think with any patience of sutiering from God or for God ? Certainly, so far as the creature is acquainted with this peace, and hath the true sense of God's love in Christ lying warm at his heart, he cannot hut find pro- portionably his heart stand ready to submit to any sutiering that God lays out for him. And therefore it behoves us well to try our peace and comfort. If thou hast no heart to sutler for God, but choosest a sin to escape a cross, thy peace is false ; if thou hast but little patience under ordinary afflictions, to compose thy spirit from murmuring, and sustain thy heart from sinking, thy faith on the promise is weak. ' If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small,' Prov. xxiv. 10. Use 2. Secondly, Let this stir thee up, Christian, to be very tender and chary of thy peace with God and thy own conscience. Keep this peace clear and unbroken, and it will keep thy heart whole when the whole world breaks about thee. So long as this peace of God rules in your hearts, you are safe from fear or dansrer, though in a prison, or at a stake. But if thou sufterest that to be wounded, then thy enemies will come upon thee as Simeon and Levi on the men of Shechem when sore, and be too hard for thee. O it is sad, friends, you will find it so, to go with sore and smarting consciences into a sufl'ering condition. A thorn in the foot will make any way uneasy to the traveller, and guilt in the conscience any condition uncomfortable to the Christian, but most of all a suflering one. Now, if you will keep your peace unbroken, you must bestow some attendance on it, and set as it were a life- guard about it. The choicest flowers need most looking to. The richer the treasure, the safer we lav it. This peace is thy treasure, look well where thou layest it. Two ways our Saviour tells us, that worldly treasure, such as silver and gold is, may be lost ; by ' thieves that break in and can-y it away, and by rust that eats and corrupts it,' Matt. vi. 19. There are two ways something like these, wherein the Christian may go by the loss in this his heavenly treasure of inward peace and comfort. Presumptuous sins, these are the thieves that break through and steal the saint's comfort away. When the Christian comes to look into his soul after such a bold act, and thinks to entertain himself, as formerly, with the comforts of his pardoned state, interest in Christ, and hopes of heaven through him, alas! he finds a sad change; no promise that will give out its consolations to him. The cellar-door is locked, Christ withdrawn, and the keys carried away with him. He may even cry out with a sad com- plaint, as Mary wlien she found not Christ's body in the sepulchre, ' They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' Thus the Christian may with an aching heart bemoan his folly ; My pride, my uncleanness, my earthly-mindedness, they have taken away my treasure, robbed me of my comfort. I could never have a comfortable sight of God's face in any duty or promise since I fell into that foul sin. And therefore, Christian, have a care of such robbers of thy peace as this. ' The spirit of man' is called 'the candle of the Lord,' Prov. xx. 27. Hath God lighted thy candle, Christian, (cheered tliy spirit, I mean,) with the sense of his love? take heed of presumptuous sins ; if such a thief be suffered in this thy candle, thy comfort will soon come to an end. Hast thou fallen into the hands of any such presumptuous sins, that have stolen thy peace from thee ? send speedily thy hue-and-cry after them. I mean, make thy sad moan to God, renew thy repentance out of hand, and raise heaven upon them by a spirit of prayer. This is no time to delay ; the further thou lettest these sins go without re- pentance, the harder thou wilt find it to recover thy lost peace and joy out of their liands ; and for thy encouragement know, God is ready, upon thy serious and solemn return, to restore thee the joy of his salvation, and do jus- tice upon these enemies of thy soul for thee by his mortifying grace, if thou wilt prosecute the law upon them closely and vigorously, witliout relenting towards them, or being 1)ribed with tlie pleasure, or carnal advantage, that they will not spare to ofler, so their lives may ])e spared. Again, as presumptuous sins are the thieves, that with a high hand rob the Cln-istian of his comfort ; so sloth and negligence are as the rust, that in time will fret into his comfort, and eat out the heart and strength of it. It is im- possible that the Christian who is careless and secure in his walking, unfre- A24 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. quent or negligent in his communion with God, should long be owner of much peace or comfort that is true. What if thou dost not pour water of presump- tuous sins into the lamp of thy joy, to quench it ? it is enough, if thou dost not pour oil of duty to feed and maintain it. Thou art murderer to thy com- fort by starving it, as well as by stabbing of it. Ver. 16. Above all, taking the shield of faith, whereby ye shall he able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked. The foiu-th piece in the Christian panoply presents itself in this verse to our consideration ; and that is, 'the shield of faith.' A grace of graces it is, and here fitly placed in the midst of tlie other her companions. It stands, methinks, among them, as the heart in the midst of the body ; or, if you please, as David v/hen Samuel anointed him in the midst of his brethren, 1 Sam. xvi. 13. The apostle, when he comes to speak of this grace, he doth, as it were, lift up its head, and anoint it above all its fellows : ' Above all, take the shield of faith ;' and the words easily fall into these two general parts. First, An exhortation, ' Above all, take the shield of faith.' Secondly, A powerful argument pressing the exhortation, 'Whereby ye shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked. ' CHAPTER I. THE EXPLICATION OF THE WORDS IN A FOURFOLD INQUIRY. In the exhortation, these four particulars call for our inquiry towards the explication of the words. First, What faith it is that is here commended to the Christian soldier. Secondly, Having found the kind, we are to inquire what this faith is as to its nature. Thirdly, Why it is compared to a shield rather than other pieces. Fourthly, What is the importance of this, ' above alh ' Section I. — Quest. 1. First, What faith it is that here is commanded? This will soon be known, if we consider the cause and end for which it is commended to the Christian ; and that is, to enable him ' to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,' i. e. of the wicked one, the devil. Now look upon the several kinds of faith ; and that among them must be the faith of this place, which enables the creature to quench Satan's fiery darts; yea, all his fiery darts. Historical faith cannot do this, and therefore is not it: this is so far from quenching Satan's fiery darts, that the devil himself, that shoots them, hath this faith, Jas. ii. 19, 'The devils believe.' Temporary faith cannot do it; this is so far from quenching Satan's fiery darts, that itself is quenched by them. It makes a goodly blaze of profession, and ' endures for a while,' Matt. xiii. 21, but soon disappears. Miraculous faith ; this Mis as short as the former. Judas's mira- culous faith, which he had with the other apostles, (for aught that we can read,) enabling him to cast devils out of others, left himself possessed of the devil of covetousness, hypocrisy, and treason, yea, a whole legion of lusts that hurried him down the hill of despair into the bottomless pit of perdition. There is only one kind of faith remains, which is it the apostle means in this place, and that is justifying faith. Tliis indeed is a grace that makes him, who hath it, the devil's match. Satan hath not so much advantage of the Christian by the transcendency of his natural abilities, as he hath of Satan in this cause, and this his weapon. The aposde is confident to give the day to the Christian, befoi'e the fight is fully over; ' Ye have overcome the wicked one,' 1 John ii. 13 : that is, you are as sure to do it, as if you were now mounted on your trium- phant chariot in heaven. The knight shall overcome the giant ; the saint, Satan : and the same apostle tells us what gets him the day, 1 John v. 4 . ' This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.' Section II. — Quest. The second inquiry is. What this justifying fiiith is ? — Ans. I shall answer to this, first, negatively ; secondly, affirmatively. First, Negatively, in two particulars. First, Justifying faith is not anaked assent to the truths of the gospel. This justifying faith doth give, but this doth not make it justifying faith. A dogmatical faith, or historical, is comprehended in ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 425 justifying faith ; but doginatical faith doth not infer justifying faith. Justifying faith cannot be without a dogmatical ; it implies it, as the rational soul in man doth the sensitive. But the dogmatical may be without the justifying, as the sen- sitive soul in the beast is without the rational. Judas knew the Scriptures, and, without doubt, did assent to the truth of them, when he was so zealous a preacher of the gospel ; but he never had so much as one grain of justifying faith in his soul, John vi. (jl : ' There are some of you which believe not; for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who jhould betray him ;' yea, Judas's master, the devil himself, one far enough, I suppose, from justifying faith, yet he assents to the truth of the word. He goes against his conscience when he denies them : when he tempted Christ he did not dispute against the Scripture, but from the Scripture, drawing his arrows out of this quiver, Watt. iv. 6. And at another time he makes as full a confession of Christ (for the matter) as Peter himself did, Matt. viii. 22, compared with Miitt. xvi. 17. Assent to the truth of the woid is but an act of the understanding, which reprobates and devils may exercise. But justifying faith is a compounded habit, and hath its seat both in the understanding and will ; and therefore called a believing with the heart, Rom. x. 10; yea, a believing with all the heart. Acts viii. 37 : ' Philip said. If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest.' It takes in all the powers of the soul. There is a double object in the promise ; one proper to the understanding, to move that ; another proper to the will, to excite and work upon that. As the promise is true, so it calls for an act of an assent from the understanding ; and as it is good as well as true, so it calls for an act of the will to embrace and receive it : therefore he which only notionally knows the promise, and speculatively assents to the truth of it, without clinging to it and embracing of it, he doth not believe savingly, and can have no more benefit from the promise than the nourishment from the food he sees, and acknowledgeth to be wholesome, but eats none of it. Secondly, Faith is not assurance. If it were, John might have spared his pains, who wrote ' to them that believed on the name of the Son of God, that they might know that they had eternal life,' 1 John v. 13. They might then have said, We do this already; what else is om- faith, but a believing that we are such as through Christ are pardoned, and shall through him be saved ? But this cannot be so: if faith were assurance, then a man's sins would be pardoned before he believes ; for he must necessarily be pardoned before he can know he is pardoned. The candle must be lighted before I can see it is lighted. The child must be born before I can be assured it is born. The object must be before the act. Assur- ance is rather the fruit of faith, than faith itself: it is in faith as the flower is in the root : faith, in time, after much conmiunion with God, acquaintance with the word, and experience of his dealings with the soul, may flourish into assur- ance ; but, as the root truly lives before the flower appears, and continues when that hath shed its beautiful leaves, and is gone again ; so doth true justifying faith live before assurance comes, and after it disappears. Assurance is, as it were, the cream of faith. Now you know there is milk before there is cream : this riseth not but after some time standing, and there remains milk after it is skinnned off. How many, alas ! of the precious saints of God nuist we shut out from being believers, if no faith but what amounts to assurance ! We must needs oflend against the generation of God's children, among whom some are babes not yet come to the use of their reflex act of faith, so as to own the grace of God in "them to be true, upon the review that they take of their own actings: and must not the child be allowed to be a child till he can speak of himself, and say he is so ? Others there are in Christ's family who are of higher stat(u-e and greater experience in the ways of God, yet have lost those apprehensions of par- doning mercy which once they were (through the goodness of God) able to have shewn. Shall we say their faith went away in the departure of their assurance? How oft then in a year may a believer be no believer ! even as often as God withdraws and leaves the creature in the dark. Assurance is like tlie sunflower, which opens with the day, and shuts with the night. It follows the motion of God's face ; if that looks'smilingly on the soul, it lives ; if that frowns or hides itself, it dies. But faith is a plant that can grow in the shade, — a grace that can Arid the way to heaven in a dark night. It can ' walk in darkness, and yet trust in the name of the Lord,' Isa. 1. 10. In a word, by makuig the essence 42(3 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH, of fiiith to lie in assurance, we should not only offend against the generation of God's children, but against the God and Father of these children, for at one clap we turn the greater number of those children he hath here on earth out of doors; yea, we are cruel to those that he is most tender of, and make sad the hearts of those that he would have chiefly comforted. Indeed, if this were true, a great part of gospel provision laid up in the promises is of little use. We read of pro- mises to those that mourn, ' they shall be comforted ;' to the contrite, ' they shall be revived;' to him that walks in darkness, Isa. 1., and the like. These belong to believers, and none else ; surely then there are some believers that are in the dark, under the hatches of sorrow, wounded and broken with their sins, and temptation for them, but they are not such as are assured of the love of God ; their water is turned into joy, their night into light, their sighs and sobs into joy and praise. Secondly, I shall answer affirmatively, what justifying faith is ; and in the description of it I shall consider it solely as justifying. And so take it in these few words : it is that act of the soul whereby it rests on Christ crucified for pardon and life, and that upon the warrant of the promise. In the description, observe. First, The subject where faith is seated; not any single fiiculty, but the soul. Of this I have spoken something before. Secondly, Here is the object of faith as justifying, and that is Christ crucified. The whole truth of God is the object of justifying faith; it trades with the whole word of God, and doth firmly assent unto it ; but in its justifying act it singles out Christ crucified for its object. First, The person of Christ is the object of faith as justifying. Secondly, Christ as crucified. First, The person of Christ, not any axiom or proposition in the word; this is the object of assurance, not of faith. Assur- ance saith, I believe my sins are pardoned through Christ: faith's language is, I believe on Christ for the pardon of them. The word of God doth direct our faith to Christ, and terminates it upon him ; called thei'efore a coming to Christ, Matt. xi. 28 ; a receiving of him, John i. 12 ; a believing on him, John xvii. 20. The promise is but the dish, in which Christ, the true food of the soul, is served up ; and if faith's hand be on the promise, it is but as one that draws the dish to him, that he may come at the dainties in it. The promise is the marriage ring on the hand of faith. Now we are not married to the ring, but with it unto Christ. 'All promises,' saith the apostle, ' are yea and amen in him ;' they have their excellency from him, and efficacy in him : I mean in a soul's union to him. To run away with a promise, and not to close with Christ, and by faith become one in him, is as if a man should rend a branch from a tree, and lay it up in his chest, expecting it to bear friut there. Pro- mises are dead branches severed from Christ : but when a soul by faith becomes united to Christ, then he partakes of all his fatness : not a promise but yields sweetness to it. Secondly, As Christ is the primary object of faith, so Christ as crucified. Not Christ in his personal excellences : so he is the object i-ather of our love than faitli ; but as bleeding, and that to death, under the hand of divine justice, for to make an atonement by God's own appointment for the sins of the world. As the handmaid's eye is on her mistress's hand for direc- tion, so faith's eye is on God's revealing himself in his word ; which way God by it points the soul, thither it goes. Now there faith finds God, intending to save poor sinners, pitched on Christ, and Christ alone, for the transacting and effecting of it ; and him whom God chooscth to trust with the work, him and him alone will faith choose to lay the burden of her confidence on. Asa^ain, faith observes how Christ performed this great work ; and accordingly how the promise holds him foi'th to be applied for pardon and salvation. Now faith finds, that then Christ made the full payment to the justice of God for sin, when he poured out his blood to death upon the cross; all the preceding acts of his humiliation were but preparatory to this. He was born to die ; he was sent into the world as a lamb bound with the bonds of an irreversible decree for a sacrifice. Christ himself, when he came into the world, vuiderstood this to be the errand he was sent on, Heb. x. 5 : ' When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldst not, but a body thou hast prepared me,' i. e., to be an expiatory sacrifice ; without this, all he had done would have been labour undone. No redemption, but by his blood, Eph. i. 7: ' In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins.' ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 407 No church without his blood, Acts xx. 28 : 'The church of God, which he hath purchased with his blood :' E latere Christi moricntiii ex f Hit ecdesia. The church is taken out of dying Jesus's side, as Eve out of sleeping Adam's. Clmst did not redeem and save poor soids by sitting in majesty on liis heavenly throne, but by hanging on the shameful cross, under the tormenting hand of man's fury, and God's just wrath. And therefore the poor soul, that would have pardon of sin, is directed to place his faith not only on Christ, but on bleeding Clirist, Rom. iii. 25 : ' Whom God liath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.' Thirdly, Tlie act of faith upon this object : and that is, resting on Clu-ist crucified for pardon and life. I know there are many acts of the soul antecedent to this, witliout which the creature can never truly exercise this. As knowledge, especially of God and Clu-ist, upon whose autho- rity and testimony it relies: 'I know whom I have believed,' 2 Tim. i. 12. None will readily trust a strangei-, that he is wholly unacquainted with. Abra- ham went indeed he knew not whither, but he did not go with he knew not who. The great thing that God laboured to instruct Abraham in, and satisfy him with, was the knowledge of his own glorious self, who he was; that he might take his word, and rely on it, how harsh and improbable, yea, impossible soever it might sound in sense or reason's ear : ' I am the Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect.' Secondly, Assent to the truth of the word of God. If this foundation-stone be not laid, faith's building cannot go on. Who will trust him that he dares not think speaks true ? Thirdly, A sense of our own vileness and emptiness. By the one to see our demerit, what we deserve, hell and damnation ; by the other our own impotency, how little we can con- tribute, yea, just nothing, to our own reconciliation. I join them together, be- cause the one ariseth out of the other ; sense of this emptiness comes from the deep apprehension a soul hath of the other's fulness in him. You never knew a man full of self-confidence and self-abasement together. The conscience cannot abound with the sense of sin, and the heart with self-conceit at the same time. 'When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died,' Rom. vii. 9. That is, when the commandment came in the accusations of it to his conscience, sin, that like a sleepy lion had lain still, and he secure and confident by it, when that began to roar in his conscience, then he died ; that is, his vain con- fidence of himself gave up the ghost. Both these are necessary to faith : sense of sin, like the smart of a wound, to make the creature think of a plaster to ciu-e it: and sense of emptiness and insufficiency in himself or any creature to do the cure, necessary to make him go out to Christ for cure. We do not go abroad to beg what we have of our own within doors. These, with some other, are necessaiy to faith ; but the receiving of Christ, and resting on Christ, is that act of faith to which justification is promised, John iii. 18 : ' He that be- lieveth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.' Now every one that assents to the truth of what the Scripture saith of Christ, doth not believe on Christ. No, this believing on Christ implies an union of the soul to Christ, and fiduciary recumbency on Christ. Therefore we are bid to take hold of Christ, Isa. xxvii. 5, (who is there called God's strength, as elsewhere his arm,) 'that we may make peace with God, and we shall make peace with him.' It is not the sight of a man's arm stretched out to a man in the water will save him from drowning, but the taking hold of it. Christ is a stone ; faith builds upon Christ for salvation ; and how, but by lay- ing its whole weight and expectation of mercy on him ? What Paul, 2 Tim. i. 12, calls believing, in the foi'mer part of the verse, he calls, in the latter part, a conunittiug to him to be kept against that day. The foiu'th aiul last branch in the description, is the warrant and seciu'ity that faith goes upon in this act. And this it takes from the ])romise : indeed there is no way how God can be conceived to contract a debt to his creature, but by promise. There are ways for men to become debtors one to another, though never any promise passed from them. The father is a debtor to his child, and owes him love, provision, and nurtm-e. The child a debtor to his parent, and owes him honour and obcMlience, though neither of them promised this to each other. Much more doth the creature stand deep in (Jod's debt-book, and owes himself, with all he 428 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. hath, to God his maker, though he hath not the grace vohintarily to make these over to God by promise and covenant. Bnt the great God is so absolute a Sovereign, that none can make a law to bind him but himself: till he be pleased to pass an act of grace, of his own good-will, to give this, or do that good thing, to and for his poor creatures, no claim can be laid to the least mercy at his hands. There are two things therefore that are greatly to be heeded by the soul that would believe. First, He must inquire for a promise to bear his faith out and warrant him to expect such a mercy at God's hand. And then, secondly, when he hath found a promise and observed the terms well on which it runs, not to stay for any further encouragement, but upon the credit of the naked promise to set his faith on work. First, To inquire out a promise, and observe well the terms on which it runs. Indeed upon the point it comes all to one, to believe without a promise, or to believe on a promise but not observe the terms of it. Both are jjresumptuous, and speed alike. A prince hath as much reason to be angry with him that doth not keep close to his commission, as with another that acts without any commission. O how little considered is this by many, who make bold of God's arm to lean on for pardon and salvation, but never think, that the promise which presents Christ to be leaned on as a Saviour, presents him at the same time to be chosen as a Lord and Prince I Such were the rebellious Israelites, who durst make God and his promise a leaning-stock for their fold elbows to rest upon : ' They call themselves of the holy city, and stay them- selves upon the God of Israel,' Isa. xlviii. 2. But they were more bokl than welcome. God rejected their confidence, and loathed their sauciness. Though a prince would not disdain to let a poor wounded man, faint with bleeding, and unable to go alone, upon his humble request, make use of his arm, rather than he should perish in the streets ; yet he would with indignation reject the same motion from a filthy drunkard, that is besmeared with his vomit, if he should desire leave to lean on him, because he cannot go alone. I am sure, how wel- come soever the poor humble soul, that lies bleeding for his sins at the very mouth of hell in his own thoughts, is to God, when he comes upon the encou- ragement of the promise to lean on Christ; yet the profane wretch that em- boldens himself to come to Christ, shall be kicked away with infinite disdain and abhorrency by a holy God for abusing his promise. Secondly, When a poor sinner hath found a promise, and observes the terms with a heart willing to embrace them, now he is to put forth an act of faith upon the credit of the naked promise, without staying for any other encourage- ment elsewhere. Faith is a right pilgrim-grace ; it travels with us to heaven, and when it sees us safe got within our Father's doors, (heaven I mean,) it takes leave of us. Now the promise is this pilgrim's staff, with which it sets forth, though (like Jacob on his way to Padan-Aram) it hath nothing else with it. ' Remember thy word unto thy servant,' saith David, 'upon which thou hast caused me to hope,' Psa. cxviii. 49. The word of promise was all he had to shew ; and he counts that enough to set his faith on work. But, alas ! some make comfort the ground of faith, and experience their warrant to believe. They will believe when God manifests himself to them, and sends in some sensible demonstration of his love to their souls ; but till this be done, the promise hath little authority to silence their unbelieving cavils, and quiet their misgiving hearts into a waiting on God for the performance of what there is spoke from God's own mouth. Like old Jacob, who gave no credit to his children, when they told him Joseph was j'et alive, and governor over all the land of Egypt. This news was too good and great to enter into his belief, who had given him lip for dead so long; it is said, ' His heart fainted, for he believed them not,' Gen. XXV. 6. But when he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to carry him thither, then, it is said, ' the spirit of Jacob revived,' ver. 27. Truly thus, though the promise tells the poor humbled sinner, Christ is alive. Governor of heaven itself, with all power there and on earth put into his hand, that he may give eternal life to all that believe on him, and he be therefore exhorted to rest upon Christ in the promise; yet his heart faints, and believes not: it is the waggons he would fain see, some sensible expressions of God's love that he listens after; if he did but know that he was an elect person, or were one that ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 429 God did love, then he would believe. But God hath little reason to thank him in the meantime for suspending his faith till these come. This is, as I may so say, to believe for spiritual loves, and is rather sense than faith. Section III. — Quest. 3. Why is faith compared to a shield? — j4ns. For a double resemblance there is between this grace and that piece of armour. First, The shield is not for the defence of any particular part of the bod)-, as almost all the other pieces are : helmet fitted for the head ; plate designed for the breast ; and so others, they have their several parts, which they are fastened to : but the shield is a piece that is intended for the defence of the whole body. It was used therefore to be made very large ; for its broadness, called a gate or door, because so long and large, as in a manner to cover the whole body; to which that place alludes, Psa. v. 12, ' Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour thou wilt compass him as with a shield.' And if the shield were not large enough at once to cover every part, yet being a movable piece of armour, the skilful soldier might tm-n it this way or that way, to catch the blow or arrow from lighting on any part they were directed to. And this, indeed, doth excellently well set forth the universal use that faith is of to the Christian. It defends the whole man; every part of the Christian by it is pre- served. Sometimes the temptation is levelled at his head ; Satan, he will be disputing against this truth and that, to make the Christian, if he can, call them into question, merely because his reason and understanding cannot comprehend them ; and he prevails with some that do not think themselves the unwisest in the world, upon this very account, to blot the Deity of Christ, with other myste- rious truths of the gospel, quite out of their creed. Now faith interposeth between tlie Christian and this arrow. It comes in to the relief of the Christian's weak understanding as seasonably as Zeruiah did to David, when the giant Ishbi- benob thought to have slain him. I will trust the word of God, saith the be- liever, rather than my own piublind reason. ' Abraham, not being weak in faith, considered not his own body now dead,' Rom. iv. 19. If sense should have had the hearing of that business ; yea, if that holy num had put it to a reference between sense and reason also, what resolution his thoughts should come to concerning this strange message that was brought him, he would have been in danger of calling the truth of it in question, though God himself was the messenger ; but faith brought him honourably off. Again, Is it the con- science that the tempter assaults? (and it is not seldom that he is shooting his fiery darts of horror and terror at this mark,) faith receives the shock, and saves the creature harmless. ' I had fciinted unless I had believed,' saith David, Psa. xxvii. 13. He means when false witnesses rose up against him, and such as breathed out cruelty, as appears ver. 12 ; faith was his best fence against man's charge, and so it is against Satan's and conscience's also. Never was man in a sadder condition than the poor jailer. Acts xvi. ; much ado he had to keep his own hands from ottering violence to himself; who that had seen him fall trembling at Paid and Silas's feet, with that sad question in his mouth, ' Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?' ver. 30, could have thought this deep wound that was now given his conscience would so soon have been closed and cured, as we find it ? ver. 34. The earthquake of horror that did so dreadfully shake his conscience is gone, and his trembling turned into rejoicing : now, mark what made this blessed calm : 'Believe,' saith Pard, 'on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved,' ver. 31. And, ver. 34, it is said, 'He rejoiced, believing in God with his whole house.' It is faith stills the storm which sin had raised; faith that changed his doleful note into joy and gladness. Happy man he was, that had such skilful chirurgeons so near him, who could direct him the nearest way to a cure. Again, Is it the will that tl.e temptation is laid to catch? Some commands of God cannot bo obeyed without much self-denial, because they cross us in that which our own v.-ills are carried forth very strongly to desire ; so that we must deny our will, before we can do the will of God. Now a temptation comes very forcibly when it runs with the tide of our own wills. What, saith Satan, wilt thou serve a God that thus thwarts thee in everything? If thou lovest anything more than other, presently he must have that from thee; no lamb in all the flock will serve for a sacrifice, but Isaac, Abraham's only child, he must be off'ered up. No place will content (Jod, that Abraham should serve him in, but where ho must live in banishment from his dear rela- 4,30 ABOA^E ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. tions and acquaintance. Wilt thou, saitli Satan, yield to snch hard terms as these ? Now faith is the grace that doth the soul admirahle service at such a pinch as this. It is able to appease the tumult, which such a temptation may raise in the soul, and dismiss the rovite of all mutinous thoughts ; yea, to keep the King of heaven's peace so sweetly in the Christian's bosom, that such a temptation, if it comes, shall find few or none to declare for it. Heb. xi. 8, ' By faith,' it is said, 'Abraham obeyed, and went out, not knowing whither.' And we do not read of one fond look that his heart cast back upon his dear native country, as he went from it, so well pleased had faith made him with his journey. It was hard work for Moses to strip himself of his magistrate's robes, and put his hands on his servant's head ; hard to leave another to enter upon his labours, and reap the honour of lodging the Israelites' coloin's in Canaan, after it had cost him so many a weary step to bring them within sight of it ; yet faith made him willing. He saw better robes that he should put on in heaven, than those he was called to put off on earth. The lowest place in glory is beyond all compare greater preferment than the highest place of honour here below ; to stand before the throne there, and minister to God in immediate service, than to sit in a throne on earth, and have all the world waiting at his foot. Secondly, The shield doth not only defend the whole body, but is a defence to the soldier's armour also ; it keeps the arrow from the helmet as well as head, from the breast and breastplate also. Thus faith, it is armour upon armour, a grace that preserves all the other graces. But of this more hereafter. Section IV. — Quest. 4. What doth this, ' above all,' import? — Ans. There is variety among interpreters about it. Jerome reads it, In omnibus, sianentes scutum fdei; In all things, taking the shield of faith, i. e., in all duties, enter- prises, temptations, or afflictions, whatever you are called to do or suffer, take faith ; indeed, faith to the Christian is like fire to the chemist ; nothing can be done without it Christianly : 'Without faith it is impossible to please God,' Heb. xi. 6. And how can the Christian please himself in that wherein he doth not please his God? Others read it, ' Over all, take the shield of faith,' i. e., take it over all your graces, as that which will cover them. All other graces have their safety from faith ; they lie secure under the shadow of faith, as an army lies safe under the protection and command of a strong castle planted round with cannon. But we shall follow our translation, as being most comprehensive, and that which will take these within its compass. ' Above all, take,' &c. ; that is, among all the pieces of armour which you are to provide, and wear for your defence, let this have the pre-eminence of your care to get ; and having got, to keep it. Now, that the apostle meant to give a pre-eminence to faith above all other graces, appears, First, By the piece of armour he com- pares it to, 'the shield,' which of old was prized above all other pieces by soldiers. They counted it greater shame to lose their shield than to lose the field ; and, therefore, when under the very foot of their enemy, they would not part with it, but esteemed it an honour to die with their shield in their hand. It was the charge that one laid upon her son, going into the wars, when she gave him a shield, that he should either bring his shield home with him, or he be brought home upon it ; she had rather see him dead with it, than come home without it. Secondly, By the noble effect which is here ascribed to faith ; ' By which ye shall quench the fiery darts of the wicked.' The other pieces are nakedly commended. Take ' the girdle of truth, breastplate of righteousness,' and so the rest, but nothing singly ascribed to any of them, what they can do; but when he speaks of faith, he ascribes the whole victory to it : this quencheth all the fiery darts of the wicked. And why thus ? are the other graces of no use, and doth faith do all? What need then the Christian load himself with more than this one piece ? I answer, every piece hath its necessary use in the Christian's wai'fare; not any part of the whole suit can be spared in the day of battle; but the reason (I humbly conceive) why no particular effect is annexed severally to each of these, but all ascribed to faith, is to let us know that all these graces, their efficacy, and our benefit from them, is in their conjunction with faith, and influence they receive from faith ; so that this is plainly the design of the Spirit of God, to give faith the precedency in our care above the rest ; only take heed that you do not fancy any indifferency or negligence to be ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH, 4.3 [ allowed you in your endeavours after the otlier graces, because you are more strongly provoked and excited up to the getting and keeping this. The apostle would intend your care here, but not remit it there. Cannot we bid a soldier, above all parts of his body, to beware of a wound at his heart, but he must needs think presently he need take no care to guard his head ! Truly such a one woukl deserve a cracked crown to cure him of his folly. The words thus opened, we shall content ourselves with one general observation from them. CHAPTER II. SIIEWETH THE PRE-EMINENCE OF FAITH ABOVE OTHER GRACES, IN FOUR PARTICULARS. Docf. 1. That faith, of all graces, is the chief, and chiefly to be laboured for. There is a precedency or pre-eminence peculiar to tliis above all other ; it is among graces as the sun is among the planets, or as Solomon's virtuous woman among the daughters, Prov. xxxi. 29. Though every grace hath done virtu- ously, yet thou, O faith, excellest them all. The apostle, indeed, gives tlie prece- dency to love, and sets faith on the lower hand, 1 Cor. xiii. 13 : ' Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest is charity ;' yet you may ob- serve, that this prelation of it before faith, hath a particular respect to the saints' blissful state in heaven, where love remains, and faith ceaseth; in which regard love indeed is the greater, because it is the end of our faith ; we apprehend by faitli, that we may enjoy by love : but if we consider the Christian's present state, while militant on earth, in this respect love must give place to faith. It is true, love is the grace that shall triumpli in heaven; but it is faith, not love, which is the conquering grace here on earth : ' This is the victory that over- cometh tlie world, even our faith,' 1 John v. 4. Love, indeed, hath its place in the battle, and doth excellent service, but it is under faith, its leader. Gal. v. 6 : 'faith which worketh by love;' even as the captain fighteth b}' his soldiers, wliom he leads on, so faith works by love, which it excites. Love, it is true, is the grace that at last possesseth the inheritance; but it is faith that gives the Chris- tian right unto it, witliout which he should never have enjoyed it, John i. 12 : ' To as many as received him, he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' In a word, it is love that unites God and glorified saints together in heaven ; but it was faith that first united them to Christ, while they were on earth, Eph. v. 17 : ' Tliat Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.' And if Christ had not dwelt in them by faith on earth, they should never have dwelt with God in heaven. But I proceed to shew wherein it appears, that faith hath such a prelation above other graces, which take in these followiiig particulars. Section I. — First, In the great inquiry that God makes after faith above all other graces. Nothing more speaks our esteem of persons or things, than our inquiry afier them. We ask first and most for those that stand highest in our thought. ' Is your father well,' said Joseph ; ' the old man of wliom ye spake, is he alive ?' Gen. xliii. 27. No doubt there were others of whose welfare Joseph would have been glad to hear also, but being most pent and pained with a natural affection to his fatlier, he easeth himself of this first. And when David asked for Al)salom above all otliers, ' Is the young man Absalom safe?' and over again with it to Cnsh, 2 Sam. xviii., it was easy to guess how high he valued his life. Now you shall find the great inquiry that God makes is for faith : ' When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the cartli '!' Luke xviii. 8 ; implying, that this is the grace which he will especially look for, and desires to find. We read, John ix., of a great miracle, a man by Christ restored to his sight, that was born blind. This so enraged the malicious Pharisees, that they excommunicate the poor man for no other fault but giving his merciful physician a good word. This brings Christ the sooner to him ; so tender is he of those that suffer for him, that they shall not long want his sweet company; and he liath no cause to complain for being cast out of man's society, that gains Christ's presence by the same. Now observe what Christ saith to hiin at his first meeting, ver. 35 : ' Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and wlien he had found hiin, he said unto him. Dost thou believe on the Son of God V The 432 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. man had ali-eady expressed some zeal for Christ, hi vindicating him, and speak- ing well of him to the head of the bitterest enemies he had on earth, for which he was now a sufferer at their hands. This was very commendable : but there is one thing that Christ prizeth above all this, and that is faith. This he inquires after; ' Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' As if he had said. All this thy zeal in speaking for me, and patience in suffering, are nothing worth in my aecoinit, except thou hast faith also. Indeed, most of God's dealings with his people, what are they, but inquiries after faith, either the truth or strength of it? When he afflicts them, it is for the trial of their faith, 1 Pet. i. 7. Afflictions, they are God's spade and mattock, by which he digs into his people's hearts, to find out this gold of faith ; not but that he inquires for other graces also, but this is named for all, as the chief, which found, all the other will soon appear. When God seems to delay, and makes, as it were, a halt in his providence, before he comes with the mercy he promiseth, and we pray for, it is exploratory to faith. ' O woman, great is thy faith ; be it imto thee even as thou wilt,' Matt. XV. 28. She had received her answer without so much ado ; only Christ had a mercy in store for her more than she thought of; with the granting of her suit in the cure of her daughter he had a niind to give her the evidence of her faith also, and the high esteem God hath of this grace, as that which may have of him what it will. Section II. — The commendations that are given to faith above other graces. You shall observe, that in the same action, wherein other graces are eminently exercised as well as faith, even then faith is taken notice of, and the crown set upon faith's head, rather than any of the other. We hear nothing almost of any other grace throughout the whole eleventh of the Hebrews, but faith ; ' By faith Abraham, by faith Jacob,' and the rest of those worthies, did all those famous exploits. There was a concurrence of the other graces with faith in them all ; but all goes under the name of faith : the whole army fight, yet the general or captain hath the honour of the victory ascribed to him. Alexander's and Ccesar's names are transmitted to posterity as the great conquerors that overcame so many battles, not the private soldiers that fought under them. Faith is the captain-grace ; all those famous acts of those saints are recorded as the achievements of faith. Thus, concerning the centurion, Matt. viii. 10: 'Ve- rily,' saith Christ, 'I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.' There were other graces very eminent in the centurion besides his faith ; his con- scientious care of his poor servant, for whom he could have done no more if he had been his own child. There are some that call themselves Christians, yet woidd not have troubled themselves so much for a sick servant; such, alas! are often less regarded in sickness than their master's beast. But especially his humility ; this shined forth very eminently in that self-abasing expression, ' Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof,' ver. 8. Consider but his calling, and degree therein, and it makes his humility more conspicuous. A swordsman, yea, a commander, such use to speak big and high. Power is seldom a friend to humility. Surely he was a man of rare humble spirit, that he, whose mouth was used so much to words of command over his soldiers, could so dimit and humble himself in his aduress to Christ ; yet his faith outshines his humility in its greatest strength. Not, I have not found such luunility, but such faith, in all Israel. As if Christ had said, There is not one believer in all Israel but I know him, and how rich he is in faith also ; but I have not found so much of this heavenly treasiu-e in any one's hand as in this centurion's. In- deed, the Christian's chief riches are in faith's hand. ' Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith?' James ii. 5. Why rich in faith rather than rich in patience, rich in love, or any other grace? Oh, great reason for it; when the creature comes to lay claim to pardon of sin, the favour of God and heaven itself, it is not love, patience, &c., but faith alone that lays down the price of all these. Not, Lord, pardon, save me, here is my love and patience for it ; but, Here is Christ, and the price of his blood, which faith presents thee for the full purchase of them all. And this leads to a third, and indeed the chief of all. Section III. — Thirdly, The high office that faith is set in above other graces in the business of our justification before God. ' Being justified by faith, we have peace with God,' Rom. v. 1. Not justified by love, repentance, patience, or any other grace beside faith. O how harsh doth it sound in a ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 433 Christian's ear, justifying patience, justifying repentance! and if they were concerned in tlie act of justification, as faith is, the name would as well become them as it doth faith itself But we find this appropriated to faith, and the rest hedged out from having to do in the act of justification, thougli included and supposed in the person who is justified. It is faith that justifies withont works. This is Paul's task to prove, Rom. iii. But this faith which justifies is not dead or idle, but a lively, working faith, which seems to be James's design, chap. ii. of his Epistle. As God did single Christ ont from all others, to be the only mediator between him and man, and his righteousness to be the meritorious cause of our justification, so he hath singled faith out from all other graces, to be the instrument or means for appropiiating this righteousness of Christ to ourselves. Therefore as this righteousness is called ' the righteousness of God,' and opposed to our own righteousness, though wrought by God in us, Rom. x. 3, because it is wrought by Christ for us, but not inherent in us as the other is ; so also it is called 'the righteousness of faith,' Rom. iv. 11, 13; not the righteousness of repentance, love, or any other grace. Now wherefore is it called the righteousness of faith, and not of love, repentance, &c. ? Surely, not that faith itself is our righteousness ; then we should be justified by works, while we are justified by faith, contrary to the apostle, who opposeth faith and works, Rom. iv. In a word, then, we should be justified by a righteousness of our own, for faith is a grace inherent in us, and as much our own work as any grace besides is. But this is as contrary to the same apostle's doctrine, Phil. iii. 9, where our own righteousness, and the righteousness which is by faith, are declared to be inconsistent. It can therefore be called the righteous- ness of faith, for this reason and no other, because faith is the only grace whose ofiice it is to lay hold on Christ, and so to appropriate his righteousness for justification to our souls. Christ and faith are relatives, which must not be severed. Christ he is the treasure, and faith the hand which receives it. Christ's righteousness is the robe, faith the hand that puts it on ; so that it is Christ who is the treasiu-e. By his blood he dischargeth our debt, and not faith ; whose office is only to receive Christ, whereby he becomes ours. It is Christ's righteousness that is the robe which covers our nakedness, and makes us beautiful in God's eye, only faith hath the honoin- to put the robe on the soul ; and it is no small honour that is therein put upon faith above other graces. As God graced Moses exceedingly above the rest of his brethren, the Israelites, when he was called up the mount to receive the law from God's mouth, while they had their bounds set them, to stand waiting at the bottom of the hill till he brought it down to them ; so doth God highly honour faith, to call this up as the grace by whose hand he will convey this glorious privilege of justifica- tion over to us. Quest. But why is faith, rather than any grace else, employed in this act? — Alls. First, Because there is no grace hath so proper a fitness for this office as faith. Why hath God appointed the eye to see, and not the ear? Why the hand to take our food, rather than the foot? It is easily answered ; because these members have a particular fitness for these functions, and not the other. Thus, faith hath a fitness for this work peculiar to itself: we are justified, not by giving anything to God of what we do, but by receiving from God what Christ hath done for us. Now faith is the only receiving grace, and therefore only fit for this office. Secondly, There is no grace that God could trust his honour so safely with in this business of justification as with faith. The great design God hath in justifying a poor sinner, is to magnify his free mercy in the eye of his creature : this is written in such fair characters in the word, that he which runs may read it. God was resolved that his free mercy should go away with all the honour, and the creatiu-e should be quite cut out from any pretensions to part- nership with him therein. Now no way like to this of being justified by faith, for the securing and safe-guarding the glory of God's free grace, Rom. iii. 25, 2(5. When the apostle hath in some verses together discoursed of the free justification of a sinner before God, he goes on to shew how this cuts the very comb, yea, throat of all self-exalting thoughts, ver. 27 : ' Where is boasting, then ? it is excluded. By what law? of works ? Nay, but by the law of faith.' Princes, of all wrongs, most disdain and ablior to see their royal bed defiled ; so 2 F 434 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. jealous tliey have been of this, that for tlie prevention of all suspicion of such a foul act it hath been of old the custom of the greatest monarchs, that those who were their favourites, and admitted into the nearest attendance upon their own persons and queens, should be eunuchs ; such whose very disability of nature might remove all suspicion of any such attempt by them. Truly God is more jealous of having the glory of his grace ravished by the pride and self-glorying of the creature than ever any prince was of having his queen deflowered. And therefore to secure it from any such horrid abuse he hath chosen faith, this eunuch-grace, as I may so call it, to stand so nigh him, and be employed by him in this high act of grace, Avhose very nature, being a self-emptying grace, renders it incapable of entering into any such design against the glory of God's grace. Faith hath two hands ; with one it pulls off its own righteousness, and throws it away, as David did Saul's armour ; with the other it puts on Christ's righteousness over the soul's shame, as that in which alone it dares see God, or be seen of him. ' This makes it impossible,' saith learned and holy Master Ball, ' how to conceive that faith and works should be conjoined as con-causes in justification, seeing the one, that is, faith, attributes all to the free grace of God ; the other, that is, works, challenge all to themselves : the one, that is, faith, will aspire no higher, but to be the instrumental cause of fi-ee remission ; the other can sit no lower, but to be the matter of justification, if any cause at all ; for if works be accounted to us in the room or place of exact obedience in free justification, do not they supply tlie place ? are they not advanced to the dignity of works complete and perfect in justification from justice?' — Ireafise of Covenant of Grace, p. 70. Section IV. — Fourthly, The mighty influence, yea, imiversal, that faith hath upon all her sister graces, speaks her the chief of them all. What makes the sun so glorious a creature, but because it is a common good, and serves all the lower world with light and influence ? Faith is a grace, whose ministry God useth as much for the good of the spiritual world in the saints, called in the Scripture the 'new creation,' Gal, vi. 15, as he doth the sun for the corporeal. ' Nothing is hid from the heat of the sun,' Psa. xix. 6. And no grace that faith's influence reacheth not vmto. First, Faith finds all the graces with work. As the rich tradesman gives out his wool, some to this man, and some to that, who all spin and work of the stock he gives them out, so that when he ceaseth to trade they must also, because they have no stock but what he affords them; thus faith gives out to every grace what they act upon. If faith trades not, neither can they. To instance in one or two graces for all the rest. Repentance, this is a sweet grace, but set on work by faith. Nineveh's repentance is attributed unto their faith, Jonah iii. 5 : ' The people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth.' It is very like indeed that their repentance was no more than legal, but it was as good as their faith was. If their faith had been better, so would their repentance also. All is silence and quiet in an unbelieving soul : no news of repentance, no noise of any complaint made against sin, till faith begins to stir. When faith presents the threatening, and binds the truth and terror of it to the conscience, then the sinner hath some- thing to work upon. As light actuates colours, and brings the eye acquainted with its object, whereupon it falls to work, so doth faith actuate sin in 'the conscience. Now musing thoughts will soon rise, and, like clouds, thicken apace into a storm, till they bespread the soul with an imiversal blackness of horror and trembling for sin. But then also the creature is at a loss, and can go no farther in the business of repentance, till faith sends in more work from the promise, by presenting a pardon therein to the returning soul ; which no sooner is heard and believed by the creature, but the work of repentance goes on apace. Now the cloud of horror and terror, which the fear of wrath, from consideration of threatening, had gathered in the conscience, dissolves into a soft rain of evangelical sorrow, at the report which faith makes from the promise. Love is another heavenly grace ; but faith gathers the fuel that makes this fire. Speak, Christian, whose soul now flames with love to God, Avas it always thus? No, there was a time, I dare say for thee, when thy hearth was cold, not a spark of this fire to be found on the altar of thy heart. How is it, then. Christian, that now thy soul loves God, whom before thou ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4^5 didst scorn and hate ? Surely tliou hast heard some good news from heaven, that hath changed thy tlioughts of God, and turned the stream of thy love, which ran another way, into this happy channel. And who can be the mes- senger besides faith, that brings any good news from heaven to the soul ? It is faith that proclaims the promise, opens Christ's excellences, pours out his name, for which the virgins love him. When faith hath di-awn a character of Christ out of the word, and presented him in his love and loveliness to the soul, now the creature is sweetly inveigled in his affections to him ; now the Christian hath a copious theme to enlarge upon in his thoughts, whereby to endear Christ more and more unto him. ' Unto him that believeth, he is precious,' 1 Pet. ii. 7 ; and the more faith, the more precious. If we should sit in the same room by the dearest friend we had in all the world, and our eyes were held from seeing him, we would take no more notice of him, and give no more respect to him than a mere stranger ; but if one should come and whisper us in the ear, and tell us, ' This is such a dear friend of yours, that once laid down his life to save yours ; that hath made you heirs to all the goodly estate that he hath ; will you not shew your respect to him?' O how our hearts would work in our breasts, and make haste to come forth in some j^assionate expression of our dear affection to him ! Yea, how heartily ashamed would we be for our uncivil and unbecoming behaviour towards him, though occasioned by our ignorance of him ! Truly, thus it is here ; so long as faith's eye hath a mist before it, or is inactive, and as it were asleep in the dull habit, the Christian may sit very nigh Christ in an ordinance, in a providence, and be very little affected with him, and drawn out in loves to him. But when faith is awake to see him as he passeth by in his love and loveliness, and active to make report to the soul of the sweet excellences it sees in Christ, as also of his bleeding love to his soul; the Christian's love now cannot choose but spring and leap in his bosom at the voice of faith, as the babe did in Elizabeth's womb at the salutation of her cousin Mary. Secondly, As faith sets the other graces on work, by actuating their objects, about which they are conversant ; so faith helps them all to 'work by fetching strength from Christ to act and reinforce them. Faith is not only the instru- ment to receive the righteousness of Christ for our justification, but also it is the great instrumfent to receive grace from Christ for our sanctification. ' Of his fulness we receive, grace for grace,' John i. 16. But how do we receive it? Even by faith. Faith unites the soul to Christ ; and as by a pipe laid close to the mouth of a fountain, water is carried to our houses for the supply of the whole family ; so by ftiith is derived to the soul supply in abundance, for the particular offices of all the several graces. ' He that believes, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters,' John vii. 38. That is, he that hath faith, and is careful to live in the exercise of it, shall have a flow and increase of all other graces, called here ' living waters.' Hence it is, that the saints, when^ they would advance to a high pitch in other graces, pray for the increase of their faith. Our Saviour (Luke xvii. 3, 4,) sets his apostles a very hard lesson, when he would wind up their love to such a high pitch, as to forgive their offending brother seven times in a day. Now mark, ver. 5 : 'The apostles (apprehending the difficvdty of the duty) said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.' But why did they not rather say, increase our love, seeing that was the grace they were to exercise in forgiving their brother? Surely it was because love hath its increase from faith ; if they could get more faith on Christ, they might be sure they should have more love to their brother also. The more strongly they covdd believe on Christ for the pardon of their own sins, not seven, but seventy times in a day committed against God, the more easy it would be to forgive their brother offending themselves seven times in a day; which interpretation our Saviour's rejily to their prayer for faith favours, ver. 6: ' And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say to this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and it should obey you.' Where Christ shews the efficacy of justifying faith, by the power of a faith of miracles; as if he had said, you have hit on the right way to get a forgiving spirit. It is faith, indeed, that would enable you to conquer the unmercifulness of your hearts ; though it were as deeply-rooted in you as this sycamore tree is in the ground, yet by faith you should be able to pluck it up. When we 2 F 2 436 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. would have tlie whole tree fniitful, we think we do enough to water the root, knowing what the root sucks from the earth, it would soon disperse into the branches. Thus, that sap and fatness, faith, which is the radical grace, draws from Chiist, will be quickly diffused through the branches of the other graces, and tasted in the pleasantness of their fruit. Thirdly, Faith defends the Christian in the exercise of all his graces. ' By faith we stand,' Rom. xi. 20; as a soldier, under the protection of a shield, stands his ground, and doth his duty, notwithstanding all the shots that are made agair:st him, to drive him hack. When faith fails, then every grace is put to the run and rout. Abraham's simplicity and sincerity, how was it put to disorder, when he dissembled with Abimelech concerning his wife ? And why, but because his faith failed him ? Job's patience received a wound when his hand grew weary, and his shield of faith, which should have covered him, hung down. Indeed no giace is safe, if from under the wing of faith; therefore to secure Peter from failing from all grace, Christ tells him, ' he had prayed thht his faith should not fail,' Luke xxii. 32. This was the reserve that Christ took care should be kept, to recover his other graces, when foiled by the enemy, and to bring him ofi' that encounter, wherein he was so sadly bruised and broken. It is said, that Christ could ' not do n.any mighty things in his own covnitry, because of their unbelief,' Matt. xiii. 58. Neither can Satan do any great hurt to the Christian, so long as faith is upon the place. It is true he aims to fight faith above all, as that v.hich keeps him from coming at the rest, but he is not able long to stand before it. Let a saint be never so humble, patient, devout, alas ! Satan will easily pick some hole or other in these graces, and break in upon him when he stands in the best array, if faith be not in the field to cover these. This is the grace that makes him face about, and take him to his heels, 1 Pet. v. 9. Fomthly, Faith alone procures acceptance with God for all the other graces and their works. ' By faith Abel offered that excellent sacrifice,' to which God gave such a gracious testimony, Heb. xi. 4. When the Christian hath wrought hardest in a day,' and hath spun the finest, evenest thread of obedience at the wheel of duty, he is afraid to carry home his work at night with an expecta- tion of any acceptance at God's hands for his works' sake. No; it is faith he makes use of, to present it through Christ to God for acceptance. We are said, 1 Pet. ii. 5, ' to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ;' that is, by faith in Christ; for without faith, Christ makes none of our sacrifices acceptable. God takes nothing kindly but what the hand of faith preserits; and so prevalent is faith with God, that he will take light gold, broken services, at her hand; which, were they to come alone, would be rejected with indignation. As a favourite that hath the ear of his prince finds it easy to give his poor kindred entertainment at the court also ; so Joseph brought his brethren into Pharaoh's presence with great demonstrations of favour shewn them by him for his sake. And Esther wooed Mordecai into a high preferment in Ahasuei'us's court, who upon his own credit could get no farther than to sit at the gate. Thus faith brings those works and duties into God's presence, which else were sure to be shut out ; and pleading the righteousness of Christ, procures them to be received into such high favour with God, that they become his delight, Prov. xv. 8, and as a pleasant perfume in his nostrils, Mai. iii. 4. Fiftldy, Faith brings in succours, when other graces fail. 'Two ways the Christian's graces may fail ; in their activity, or in their evidence. First, In their activity. It is low water sometimes with the Christian. He cannot act so freely and vigorously then, as at another time when the tide runs high, through divine assistances that flow in upon him ; those temptations which he could at one time snap asunder, as easy as Samson did his cords of flax, at another time he is sadly hampered with, that he cannot shake them off. Those duties which he pei forms with delight and joy, when his grace is in a healthful plight, at another time he pants at, as nmch as a sick man doth to go up a hill, so heavily doth he find them come off". Were not the Chi-istian, think you, ill now on it, if he had no comings in, but from his own shop of duty ? Here now is the excellency of faith, it succours the Christian in this his bank- rupt condition. As Joseph got over his brethren to him, and nourished them out of his granaries all the time of famine, so doth faith the Christian in this ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SlUELI) OF FAITU. 437 liis penury of grace and duty. And this it doth two ways. First, By laying claim to the fulness of that grace which is in Christ as its own. Why art thou dejected, O my soul, saith the Christian's faith, for thy weak grace? There is enough in Chi'ist, all fulness dwells in him ; it pleased the Father it should be so, and that to pleasure thee in thy wants and weaknesses. It is a minis- terial fidness ; as the clouds carry rain, not for themselves, but the earth, so doth Christ his fulness of grace for thee. ' He is made of God to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,' I Cor. i. 30. When the rags of the Christian's own rigliteousness discourage and shaine him, faith hath a robe to put on, that covers all this uncomeliness ; Christ is mj' righteousness, saith faith, and 'in him we are complete,' Col. ii. 10. Faiih hath two hands, a Avorking hand, and a receiving hand ; and the receiving hand relieves the working hand, or else there woidd be a poor house kept in the Christian's bosom. We find Paul himself but in a starving condition, for all the comfort his own graces could with their earnings afford him ; he is a wretched man in his own account, if these be all he hath to live upon, Rom. vii. 24; yet, even then, when he sees nothing in his own cupboard, his faith puts forth its receiv- ing hand to Christ, and he is presently set at a rich feast, for which you find him giving thanks, ver. 25 : ' I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Secondly, Faith succours the Christian in the weakness and inactivity of his graces, by applying the promises for the saint's perseverance in grace. It brings great comfort to a sick man, tho'igh very weak at presf>nt, to hear his physician tell him, that though he is low aiul feeble, yet there is no fear he will die. The present weakness of grace is sad, but the fear of falling quite away far sadder. Now faith, and only faith, can be the messenger to bring this good news to the soul, that it shall persevere. Sense and reason are quite posed and dunced here. It seems impossible to them, that such a bruised reed should bear up against all the coiniter-blasts of hell, because they consider only what grace itself can do, and finding it so over-matched by the power and policy of Satan, think it but rational to give the victory to the stronger side. But faith, when it sees symptoms of death in the saint's grace, finds life in the promise, and comforts the soul with this, that the faithfid God will not suff'er his grace to see corruption ; he hath undertook the physicking of his saints, John xv. 2 : ' Eveiy branch in me that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' When Hazael came to inquire of Elisha for his sick master whether he should live or die, the prophet sent him with this answer back unto the king his master, ' Thou mayest certainly recover ; how- beit the Lord hath shewed me that he shall surely die,' 2 Kings viii. 10. That is, he might certainly recover from his disease, but he should certainly die by the traitorous bloody hand of Hazael, his servant. Give me leave only to allude to this : when the Christian consults with his faith, and inquires of it, whether his weak grace will fail or hold out, die or live ; faith's answer is, ' Thy weak grace may certainly die and fall away, but the Lord hath shewed me it shall live and persevere ;" that is, in regard of its own weakness, and the nuita- bility of man's natin-c, the Christian's grace might certainly die and come to nothing ; but God hath shewn failh in the promise, that it shall certainly live, and recover out of its lowest weakness. What David said in regard of his house, that every Christian may say in regard of his grace. Though his grace be not so with God, so strong, so unchangeable in itself; 'j'et he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure ; for this is all my salva- tion and my desire,' 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. This salt of the covenant is it tliat shall keep, saith faith, thy weak grace from corruption. ' Why art thou cast down,' saith the psalmist, ' O my soul ! hope thou in (iiod, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God,' Psa. xlii. 11. The health of David's coiuitenance was not in his countenance, but in his God, and this makes his faith silence his fears, and so peremptorily resolve upon it, that there is a time coming (how near soever he now lies to the grave's mouth) when he shall yet praise him. The health and life of thy grace lie both of them, not in thj- grace, saith faith, but in God, who is thy God, therefore I shall j'ct live and praise him. I do iu)t wonder that the weak Christian is melancholy and sad, when he sees hii sickly face in any other glass than this. Secondly, The Christian's grace may fail in tlie evidence of it. It may 438 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. disappear, as stars do in a cloudy night. How often do we hear the Christian say in an hour of desertion and temptation, I know not whether I love God or not in sincerity. I dare not say I have any true godly sori'ow for sin. Indeed, I have thought formerly these graces had a being in me ; but now I am at a loss what to think, yea, sometimes I am ready to fear the worst! Now, in this dark, benighted state, faith under-girds the soul's ship, and hath two anchors it casts forth, whereby the soul is stayed from being driven upon the devouring quick- sands of despair and horror. First, Faith makes a discovery of the rich mercy in Christ to poor sinners, and calls the soul to look to it, when it hath lost the sight of his own grace. It is no small comfort to a man that hath lost his receipt for a debt paid, when he remembers that the man he deals with is a good and just man, though his discharge is not presently to be found. That God whom thou hast to deal with is very gracious ; what thou hast lost, he is ready to restore ; (the evidence of thy grace I mean.) David begged this, and obtained it, Psa. li. Yea, saith faith, if it were true what thou fearest, that thy grace was never true, there is mercy enough in God's heart to pardon all thy former hypocrisy, if thou comest in the sincerity of thy heart ; and so faith persuades the soul by an act of adventure to cast itself upon God in Christ : Wilt not thou, saith faith, expect to find as much mercy at God's hands, as thou canst look for at a man's ? it is not beyond the line of created mercy, to forgive many unkindnesses, much falseness and unfaithfulness, upon an humble, sincere acknowledgment of the same. The world is not so bad, but it aboimds with parents that can do thus much for their children, and masters for their servants : and is that hard for God to do, which is so easy in his creature ? Thus faith vindicates God's name. And so long as we have not lost the sight of God's merciful heart, our head will be kept above water, though we want the evidence of our own grace. Secondly, Faith goes further ; when the Christian cannot see this grace or that in his own bosom, then faith makes a discover}' of them in the promise, where they may be had. And it is some comfort, though a man hath no bread in his cupboard, to hear there is some to be had in the market. O, saith the complaining Christian, there were some hope, if I could find but those relentings and meltings of soul which others have in their bosoms for sin ; then I could run under the shadow of that promise, and take comfort, ' Blessed are they which mourn, for they shall be comforted,' Matt. v. ; but, alas ! my heart is as hard as the flint. Well, saith faith, for thy comfort know, there are not only promises to the mourning soul and broken heart, but there are pro- mises, that God will break the heart, and give ' a spirit of momniing.' So for otlier graces, not only promises to those that fear God, but ' to put the fear of God into our hearts;' not only promises to those that walk in his statutes, and keep his judgments, but also ' to put his Spirit within us, and cause us to walk in his statutes,' Ezek. xxxvi. 27. Why, then, O my soul, dost thou sit here bemoaning thyself fruitlessly, for what thou sayest thou hast not, when thou knowest where thou mayest have it for going? As Jacob said to his sons, * Why do ye look one upon another? behold, I have heard there is corn in Egypt ; get you down thither, and buy for us from thence, that we may live, and not die,' Gen. xlii. 1, 2. Thus faith rouseth the Christian out of his amazed thoughts, ujjon which his troubled spirit dwells like one destitute of coimsel, not knowing what to do ; and turns his fruitless complaints, wherein he must necessarily repine and starve, into fervent prayer for the grace he wants. There is bread in the promise, saith faith ; sit not here languishing in sluggish despondency, but get you down upon your knees, and humbly, but valiantly, besiege the throne of grace, for grace in this time of need. And certainly the christian may sooner get a new evidence for his grace by pleading the promise, and plying the throne of grace, than by yielding so far to his unbe- lieving thoughts, as to sit down and melt away his strength and time in the bit- terness of his spirit, which Satan deaidy likes, without using the means, which he will never do to any purpose till faith brings thus much encouragement from the promise, that what he wants is there to be had freely and fully. Section V. — Fifthly, As faith succours the Christian when his other graces fail him luost, so it brings in his comfort when they most abound. Faith is to the Christian as Nehemiah was to Artaxerxes, Neh. ii. 1. Of all the graces this is the Christian's cup-bearer. The Christian takes the wine of joy out of ADOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. ^^J) faith's liand rather than any other grace : Rom. xv. 13, ' The God of peace fill yon with all joy in believing.' It is observable, 1 Pet. i., to see how the apostle there doth as it were cross his hands, as once Jacol) did in blessing his son Joseph's children, and gives the pre-eminence to faith, attributing the Christian's joy to his faith rather than to his love, ver. 8, ' Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy un- speakable and full of glory.' Mark, ' believing, j^e rejoice;' here is the door the Christian's chief joy, yea, all liis fiduciary joy comes in at. It is Christ that we are in this respect allowed only to rejoice in : Phil. iii. 3, ' For we are the circmncision which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;' where Christ is made the sole svdyect of our rejoicing fiduciarily, in opposition to all else, even our graces themselves, which become flesh when thus rejoiced and gloried in. Christ's blood is the wine that only glads the heart of God by way of satisfaction to his justice, and therefore only that can bring true gladness into the heart of man. When Christ promiseth the Comforter, he tells his disciples from what vessel he should draw the wine of joy that he was to give them : John xvi. 15, ' He shall take of mine, and shall shew it you.' No grape of our own vine is pressed into this sweet cup ; as if Christ had said. When he comes to comfort you with the pardon of your sins, he shall take of mine, not anything of yours : my blood, by which I jjurchased j'our peace with God ; not your own tears of repentance, by which j'ou have mom-ned for yom- sins. All the blessed privileges which believers ai'e instated into, they are the fruits of Christ's purchase, not of our eai'nings. Now the Christian's joy flowing in from Christ, and not anything that the poor creature doth or hath ; hence it comes to pass that faith, above all the graces, brings in the Christian's joy and comfort, because this is the grace that impi-oves Christ, and what is Christ's, for the soul's advantage. As of grace, so of comfort. Faith is the good spy that makes discovery of the excellences in Christ, and then makes report of all to the soul it sees in him and knows of him. It is faith that broacheth the promises, turns the cock, and lets them rim into the soul. It not only shews the soul how excellent Christ is, and what dainties are in the promises, but it applies Christ to the sovd, and carves out the sweet viands that are dished forth in the promises ; yea, it puts them into the very mouth of the soul ; it masticates and grinds the promise so, that the Christian is filled with its strength and sweetness. Till faith comes and brings news of the soul's welcome, O how maidenly and uncomfortably do poor creatures sit at the table of the promise! Like Hannah, ' they weep and eat not :' no, alas ! they dare not be so bold ; but when faith comes, then the soul falls to, and makes a satisfying meal indeed. No dish on the table but faith will taste of. Faith knows God sets them not on to go off untouched. It is, though an humble, yet a bold grace, because it knows it cannot be so bold with God in his own way as it is welcome. CHAPTER III. SHEWETH UNBELIEF TO HAVE THE PRECEDENCY AMONG SINS, AS FAITH AMONG GRACES. Use 1. Is faith the chief of graces? This may help us to conceive of the horrible nature of unbelief. This sin-ely will deserve as high a place among sins, as faith among graces. Unbelief is the Beelzebub, the prince of sins. As faith is the radical grace, so is unbelief a radical sin, a sinning sin. As, of all sinners, those are most infamous who are ringleaders and make others sin, (which is the brand tliat God hath set upon Jeroboam's name, — ' Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who sinned and made Israel to sin,' 1 Kings xiv. IG,) so among sins they are most horrid that are most pi-oductive of other sins : such a one is unbelief above any other ; it is a ringleading sin, a sin-making sin. The first poisonous breath whicli Eve sucked in from the tempter was sent in these words, ' Yea,' hath God said, ' ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' Gen. iii. 1 ; as if he had said. Consider well upon the matter; do you l)clievc God meant so? can you think so ill of God as to believe he would keep the best fruit of the whole garden from you? This was the traitor's gate at which all other sins entered into her heart ; and it continues to this day of the same 440 AIJOVK ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. use to Satan for the hurrying souls into other sins, called therefore ' an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from God,' lieb. iii. 12. The devil sets up this sin of unbelief, as a blind betwixt the sinner and God, that the shot which come from the threatening, and are levelled at the sinner's breast, may not be dreaded and feared by him ; and then the wretch can be as bold with his lust as the pioneer is at his work, when once he hath got his basket of earth between him and the enemy's bullets. Nay, this unbelief doth not only choke the bullets of wrath which are sent out of the law's fiery mouth, but it damps the motions of grace which come from the gospel : all the offers of love whicli God makes to an unbelieving heart, they fall like seed into dead earth, or like sparks into a river, they are out as soon as they fall into it. ' The word,' it is said, Heb. iv. 2, ' did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.' The strength of the whole body of sin lies in this lock of unbelief. There is no mastering of a sinner while unbelief is in power : this will carry all arguments away, whether they be from law or gospel, that are pressed upon him, as easily as Samson did the doors, posts, with bar and all, from the city Gaza, Judg. xvi. 2. It is a sin that doth keep the field one of the last of all others, that which the sinner is last convinced of, and the saint ordinarily last conqueror of; it is one of the chief strengths and fostnesses unto which the devil retreats when other sins are routed. O how often do we hear a poor sinner confess and bewail other sins he hath lived in formerly with brinish tears, but will not hearken yet to the oflTer of mercy in Christ ! Bid him believe on Christ, and he shall be saved, (which was the doctrine Paul and Silas preached to the trem- bling jailor, Acts xvi. 31,) alas! he dares not, he will not; you can hardly per- suade him it is his duty to do so. The devil hath now betaken himself to this city of gates and bars, where he stands upon his guard; and the more strongly to fortify himself in it, he hath tlie most specious pretences for it of any other sin. It is a sin that he makes the humbled soul commit out of a fear of sin- ning, and so stabs the good name of God for fear of dishonoiu'ing him by a saucy, presumptuous faith. Indeed it is a sin by which Satan intends to jiut the greatest scorn upon God, and unfold all his cankered malice against him at once. It is by faith that the saints ' have all obtained a good report;' yea, it is by the saints' faith that God hath a good report in the world ; and by un- belief the devil doth his worst to raise an evil report of God in the world; as if he were not what his own promise and his saints' faith witness him to be. In a word, it is a sin that hell gapes for of all others. There are two sins that claim a pre-eminence in hell, — hypocrisy and unbelief; and therefore other sinners are threatened 'to have their portion with hypocrites,' Matt. xxiv. 5, and 'with unbelievers,' Luke xii. 46; as if those infernal mansions were taken up principally for these, and all others were but inferior prisoners. But of the two, unbelief is the greatest, and that which may with an emphasis be called, above this or any other, ' the damning sin.' ' He that believes not is condemned already,' John iii. 18. He hath his mittimus already to jail ; yea, he is in it already in a sense : he hath the brand of a damned person on him. The Jews are said, Rom. xi. 32, ' to be shut up in unbelief.' A surer prison the devil cannot keep a sinner in. Faith shuts the soul up in the promise of life and happiness, as God shut Noah into the ark. It is said. Gen. vii. 16, ' The Lord shut him in :' thus faith shuts the soul up in Christ and the ark of his covenant, from all fear of danger from heaven or hell ; and, on the contrary, unbelief shuts a soul up in guilt and wrath, that there is no more possibility of escaping danniation for an unbeliever, than for one to escape burning, that is shut up in a fiery oven. No help can come to the sinner, so long as this bolt of unbelief is on the door of his heart. As our salvation is attributed to faith rather than to other graces, though none were wanting in a saved person; so sinners' damnation and ruin is attributed to their unbelief, though other sins were found with it in the person damned. The Spirit of God passeth over the Jews' hypocrisy, murmuring, rebellion, and lays their destruction at the door of this one sin of unbelief, Heb. iii. 19: ' They could not enter in because of unbe- lief.' O sinners, (you who live under the gospel I mean,) if you perish, know beforehand what is your undoing ; it is your unbelief that does it. If a male- factor that is condemned to die be offered his life by the judge, upon reading a psalm of mercy, and he reads it not, Ave may say his not reading hangs him. The ADOVE ALL, TAKIN-U THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 44I promise of the gospel is this psalm of mercy, which God offers in his Son to law- condemned sinners; believing is reading this psalm of mercy : if thou believest not, and art damned, thou go\'st to hell rather for thy final unhelief,_ than any of thy other sins, for which a discharge is offered thee upon thy receiving Christ, and believing on him. Let this cause us all to rise up against this sin, as the Philistines did against Samson, whom they called the destroyer of their country, Judg. xvi. 24. This is the destroyer of your souls, and that is worse : yea, it destroys them with a bloodier hand than other sins do, that are not aggravated with tins. We find two general heads of indictments, upon which the whole world of sinners shall be condennied at the great day, 2 Thess. i. 8, where Christ's coming to judgment is expressed ; and those miserable, undone creatures, that shall fall under his condemning sentence, they are comprised in these two ; such as 'know not God,' and such as 'obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ.' The heathens' negative unbelief of the gospel shall not be charged upon them, because they never had it preached to them. No, they shall be sent to hell for 'not knowing God,' and so shall escape with a lighter damnation by far, than Jews or Christian Gentiles, to whom the gospel hath been preached, though to some of these with a stronger and longer continued beam of light than others. The dismal charge which shall be brought against these will be, that they have not obeyed the gospel of our Lord Jesus; that is, not believed on Christ, called therefore ' the obedience of faith,' Rom. xvi. 2(5. And certainly we can- not but think, that there shall be a torment proper to these gospel-refusers which those that never had the offer of grace shall not feel in hell. And among those that obey not the gospel, tlie greatest vengeance waits for them that have had the longest and most passionate treaty of mercy allowed them. These are they who put God to the greatest expense of mercy, and therefore must neces- sarily expect the greatest proportion of wrath and vengeance to be measured to them ; yea, their unbelief puts Christ and the grace of God in him to the greatest shame and scorn that is possible for creatures to do ; and it is but righteous that God should therefore put their unbelief and themselves with it to the greatest shame before men and angels of any other sinners. CHAPTER IV. SOME ARGUMENTS TO MAKE US SERIOUS IN THE TRIAL OF OUR FAITH, WITH ONE DIRECTION TAKEN FROM THE MANNER OF THE SPIRIt's WORKING FAITH. Use 2. Is faith the chief of graces? Let this make us the more curious and careful, that we be not deceived in our faith. There are some things of so inconsiderable worth, that they will not pay us for the pains and care we take about them ; and there to be choice and scrupidous, is folly ; to be negligent and incurious, wisdom. But there are other things of such worth, and weighty consequence, that none but he that means to call his wisdom in question can be willing to be mistaken or cozened in. Who that is wise would pay as for a precious stone, and have a pebble, or at best a Bristol stone, put upon him for his money? Who, when his life is at stake, and knows no way to save it, but by getting some one rich drug which is very scarce, but to be had, would not be very careful to have the right? O my dear friends, doth it not infi- nitely more concern you to be careful in your merchandize for this ]yQiix\ of precious faith? Can you be willing to take the devil's false sophisticated ware off his hand, — a mock-faith with which he would cheat you, rather than obtain the faitli unfeigned, which God hath to give unto his children ; called tlierefore ' the faith of God's elect?' Will the devil's dregs, that are sure to kill thee, serve thy turn, when thou art offered by God himself a rich drug that will cure thee ? When thou goest to buy a garment, thou askest for the best piece of stuff or cloth in the shop ; in the market thou wouldst have the best meat for thy belly ; when with the lawyer, the best counsel for thy estate ; and of the physician, the best directions for thy health. Art thou for the best in all, but for thy soul? Wouldst thou not have a faith of the best kind also ? If a man recei\es false monej^, who doth he wrong but himself? and if thou art gulled witli a false faith, the loss is thy own, and that no small one ; thyself will think so when tliou comest to the bar, and God shall bid thee either pay the debt thou owest him, or go to rot and roar in hell's prison. Then, how wilt thou be 442 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. confounded when thou producest thy faith, and hopest to save thyself with this, that thou believest on the Lord Jesus, but shalt have thy confidence rejected, and God tell thee to thy teeth, it is not faith, but a lie in thy right hand that thou hast got ; and therefore he will not accept the payment, though it be Christ himself thou offerest to lay down ; nay, that he will give thee up into the tormentor's hand, and that not only for not believing, but also for counter- feiting the King of heaven's coin, and setting his name on thy false money ; which thou dost by pretending to faith, when it is a false one thou hast in thy bosom. This were enough to awaken your care in the trial of your faith ; but to give some further weight to the exhortation, we shall cast in these three considerations. Section I. — First, As thy faith is, so are all thy other graces. As a man's marriage is, so are all his children, legitimate, or illegitimate. Thus, as our marriage is to Christ, so all our graces. Now, it is faith by which we are married to Christ. ' I have espoused you to one husband,' saith Paul to the Corinthians, 2 Cor. xi. 2. How, but by their faith? It is faith whereby the soul gives its consent to take Christ for her husband. Now, if our faith be false, then our marriage to Christ is feigned ; and if that be feigned, then all our pretended graces are base-born, how goodly an outside soever they have, (as a bastard ^nay have a fair face,) they are illegitimate ; our humility, patience, temperance, all bastards ; and you know, ' a bastard was not to enter into the congregation,' Deut. xxiii. 2. No more shall any bastard grace enter into the congregation of the just in heaven. He that hath children of his own will not make another's bastard his heir. God hath children of his own, to inherit heaven's glory, in whose hearts he hath by his own Spirit begotten those hea- venly graces which do truly resemble his own holy nature ; surely he will never settle it upon strangers, counterfeit believers, that are the devil's brats and bye-blows. Secondly, Consider, the excellency of true faith makes false faith so much the more odious. Because a king's son is an extraordinary personage, therefore it is so high a crime for an ignoble person to comiterfeit himself to be such a one. It is by faith that we become the sons of God, John i. 12. And what a high presumption is it then, that by a false faith thou committest ? Thou pretendest thyself to be a child of God, when no heaven-blood runs in thy veins, but hast more reason to look for thy kindred in hell, and derive thy pedigree from Satan ; this passeth for no less than blasphemy in the account of the Scripture, Rev. ii. 9 : 'I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.' God loathes such with his heart. A false friend is v/orse than an open enemy in man's judgment ; and a hypocriti- cal Judas more abhoi-red by God than a bloody Pilate ; either, therefore, get true faith, or pretend to none. The ape, because he hath the face of a man, but not the soul of a man, is tlierefore the most ridiculous of all creatures : and of all sinners, none will be put more to shame at the last day than such as have aped and imitated the believer in some exterior postures of profession, but never had the spirit of a believer, so as to perform one vital act of faith. The psalmist tells us of some, ' whose image God will despise,' Psa. Ixxiii. 20. It is spoken chiefly of the wicked man's temporary prosperity, which, for its short continu- ance, is compared to the image or representation of a thing in the fancy of a sleep- ing man that then is busy, and pleaseth us with many fine pleasing objects, but all are lost when our sleep leaves us. This God will despise at the great day, when he shall not give heaven and glory by the estates and honours that men had in the world, but tumble them down to hell, if graceless, as well as the poorest beggar in the world. But, there is another sort of persons, whose image God will at that day despise more than these, and that is, the image of all tem- porary believers and unsound professors, who have a fantastical faith, which they set up like an image in their imaginations, and dance about it with as many self-pleasing thoughts as a man doth that is dreaming himself to be some great prince ; but this great idol shall then be broken, and the worship- pers of it hissed down to hell with greater shame than any other. Thirdly, None stand at greater disadvantage for the obtaining a true faith, than he who flatters himself with a false one. ' Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him,' Prov. xxvi. 12; that is, ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. /^^g there is more hope of persuading him : of all fools, the conceited fool is the worst. Pride makes a man incapable of receiving counsel. Nebuchadnezzar's mind is said to be hardened in pride, Dan. v. 20. There is no reasoning with a proud man; he castles himself in his own opinion of himself, and there stands upon his defence against all arguments that are brought. Bid a conceited pro- fessor labour for faith, or he is undone ; and the man will tell you, that you mistake and knock at the wrong door ; it is the ignorant person or profane j'ou should go to on that errand. He thanks God he is not now to seek for a faith; and thus he blesseth himself in his good condition, when, (iod knows, 'he feeds on ashes,' but 'a deceived heart hath so turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his own soul, nor say. Is there not a lie in my right hand?' Isa. xliv. 20. The ignorant, profane person, like the psalmist's man of low degree, is plain vanity. It is not hard to make themselves to acknowledge as much, that they have nothing, deserve nothing, can look for nothing, as they are but liell and damnation : but such as pretend to faith, and content themselves with a false one, thejf are, like the men of high degree, a lie, which is vanity as well as the other, but with a specious cover over it, that hides it; therefore the devil is forward enough to put poor silly soids on believing, that he may forestall, if he can, the Spirit's market, and prevent the creature's obtaining of a true faith, by cheating of it with a coimterfeit, like Jeroboam's wicked policy, who, to kee2> the Israelites from going to Jerusalem, and hankering after the true worshij) of God there, set up something like a religious worship nearer hand at home in the golden calves ; and this pleased many well enough, that they missed not their walk to Jerusalem. O friends, take heed therefore of being cheated with a false faith. Every one, I know, would have the living child to be hers, and not the dead one. We would all pass for such as have the true faith, and not the false ; but be not your own judges, appeal to the Spirit of God, and let liim with the sword of his word come and decide the controversy, whicli faith is thine, the true or false. Section II. — Secondly, By this time possibly you may be solicitous to know what your faith is, and how you may come to judge of the truth of it. Now for your help therein, take these two directions : one taken from the manner of the Spirit's working faith, the other taken from the properties of faith when it is wrought. First, from the manner of the Spirit's working faith in the soul. It is incomparably the greatest work that passeth upon the soul from the Sjjirit of Christ; it is called, 'The exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,' Eph. i. 19. O, observe with what a heap of expressions the Spirit of God loads our weak understanding, that, labouring imder the weight of them, and finding the difficulty of reaching the signification of them, we might be the more widened, to conceive of that power which can never be fully understood by us, — (being indeed infinite, and so too big to be inclosed within the narrow walls of our understanding,) — power, greatness of power, exceeding greatness, and, lastly, exceeding greatness of his power, that is, of God. What angel in heaven can tell us what all these amount to ? God (with reverence be it spoken) sets his whole force to this work. It is compared to no less than ' the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power,' &c., ver. 20, 21. To raise any one from the dead, is a mighty, an almighty work ; but to raise Christ from the dead, carries more wonder with it than to raise an}^ other : he had a heavier gravestone to keep him down than any besides, the weight of a world's sin lay upon him ; yet notwithstanding this, he is raised with power by the Spirit, not only out of the grave, but into glory. Now the power God puts fortli upon the soid in working faith, is according to this of raising Christ, for indeed the sinner's soul is as really dead in sin, as Christ's body was in the grave for sin. Now speak, poor creature, art thou any way acquainted with such a power of God to have been at work in thee ? Or dost thou think slightly of believing, and so show thyself a stranger to this mystery ? Certaiidy this one thing might resolve many (if they desired to know their own state) that they have no faith, because they make faith so trivial and light a matter, as if it were as easy to believe, as to say they do ; and it were of no more difficidty to receive Christ into their souls by faith, than to put a bit of bread into their mouths with their hand. ^,44 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. Ask some, whether evei' such a day or time of God's power came over their heads, to humble them for siu, drive them out of themselves, and draw them effectually unto Christ ; and they may answer you as those did Petei', when he asked whether they had received the Holy Ghost since they believed ; they said unto him, ' We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost,' Acts xix. 2. So these might say, We know not whether there be any such power required to the working of faith or no. But to descend into a more particular consideration of this powerful work of the Spirit upon the soul for the production of faith; to which it will be necessary to consider what posture the Spirit of Christ finds the soul in before he begins this great work ; and then how he makes his addresses to the soul, and what acts he puts forth upon the soul for the working faith. First, For the posture of the soul. The Spirit finds the creature in such a state, as it neither can nor will contribute the least help to the work. As the prince of the world, when he came to tempt Christ, found nothing in him to befriend and further his tempting design ; so when the Spirit of Christ comes, he finds as little encou- ragement from the sinner; no party within the castle of the soul to side with him, when he comes first to set dov.n before it, and lay siege to it ; but all the powers of the whole man in arms against him. Hence it is that so many scorn- ful answers are sent out to the sinnmons that are given sinners to yield. ' He came unto his own, and his own received him not,' John i. 11. Never was any garrison more resolved to stand out against both the treaties and batteries of an assailing enemy, than the carnal heart is against all means that God useth to reduce it into his obedience. The noblest operations of the soul are ' earthly, sensual, devilish,' James iii. 15. So that, except heaven and earth can meet ; sensual and spiritual please one palate ; God and the devil agree ; there is no hope that a sinner of himself should like the motion Christ makes, or that with any argument he should be won over to like it, so long as the ground of dislike remains in his earthly, sensual, and devilish natiu-e. Secondly, We proceed to shew how the Spirit makes his addresses to the soul, and what acts he puts forth upon it for the working faith. Now the Spirit's address is suited to the several faculties of the soul; the principal of which are these three : understanding, conscience, and will ; these are like three forts, one within the_ other, which must all be reduced before the town be taken : the sinner, I mean, subdued to the obedience of faith. And to these the Spirit makes his jiarticular addresses, putting forth an act of almighfy power upon every one of them, and that in this order. First, The Spirit makes his approach to the understanding, and on it he puts forth an act of ilhnnination. The Spirit will not work in a dark shop ; the first thing he doth in order to faith, is to beat out a window in the soul, and let in some light from heaven into it. Hence believers are said to be ' renewed in the spirit of their minds,' Eph. iv. 23 ; which the same apostle calleth, being renewed in knowledge, Col. iii. 10. By nature we know little of God, and nothing of Christ, cfr the way of salvation by him. The eye of the creature therefore must be opened to see the way of life, before he can by faith get into it. God doth not use to waft souls to heaven like passengers in a ship, who are shut under the hatches, and see nothing all the way they are sailing to their port ; if so, that prayer might have been spared which the psalmist, inspired of God, breathes forth in the behalf of the blind Gentiles, Psa. Ixvii. 2: ' That thy way may be known upon earth, and thy saving health among all nations.' As faith is not a naked assent, without affiance and innitency on Christ ; so neither is it a blind assent, without some knowledge. If therefore thou continuest still in thy brutish ignorance, and knowest not so much as who Christ is, and what he hath done for the salvation of poor sinners, and what thou must do to get interest in him, thou art far enough from believing. If the day be not broke in thy sold, much less is the Sun of righteousness arisen by faith in thy soul. Again, Secondly, When the Spirit of God hath sprung wii'i a divine light into the understanding, then he makes his address to the conscience, and the act which passeth upon that is an act of conviction, John xvi. 8 : ' He shall convince the world,' &c. Now this conviction is nothing but a reflec- tion of the light that is in the understanding upon the conscience, whereby the creature feels the weight and force of those truths he knows, so as to be ACOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4.45 brought into a deep sense of them. Light in a direct beam heats not, nor doth knowledge swinmiing in the brain affect. Most under the gospel know that unbelief is a damning sin, and that there is no name to be saved by but the name of Christ ; yet how few of those know this convincingly, so as to apply this to their own consciences, and to be affected with their own deplorable state, who are the unbelievers andChristless persons ! As he is a convicted drunkard in law, who, in open court, or before a lawful authority, upon clear testimony, and deposition of witnesses, is found and judged to be such : so he, scripturally, is a convinced sinner, who, upon the clear evidence of the word brought against him b}' the Spirit, is found by his own conscience (God's officer in his bosom) to be so : speak now, poor creature, did ever such an act of the Spirit of God pass upon thee as this is? which that thou niayest the better discern of, try thy- self by these few characters of a convinced person. First, A sinner truly convinced is not only convinced of this sin or that sin, but of the evil of all sin. It is an ill sign when a person seems in a passion to cry out of one sin, and to be senseless of another sin. A parboiled con- science is not right, — soft in one part, and hard in another ; the Spirit of God is uniform in its work. Secondly, The convinced sinner is not only convinced of acts of sin, but of the state of sin also. He is not only affected with what he hath done, this law broken, and that mercy abused, but with what his state and present condition is. Peter leads Simon Magus from that one liorrid act he committed, to the consideration of that which was worse, the dismal state that he discovered him to be in: 'I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity,' Acts viii. 23. Many will confess they do not do as they should, who will not think by any means so ill of themselves, that their state is naught, a state of sin and death ; whereas the convinced soul freely piits himself under this sentence of death, owns his condition, and dissembles not liis pedigree. ' I am a most vile wretch,' saith he, ' a limb of Satan, full of sin, as the toad is of rank poison ; my whole nature lies in wickedness, even as the dead, rotten carcass doth in its slime and putrefaction. I am a child of wrath, born to no other inheritance than hell flames ; and if God will now tread me down thither, I have not one righteous syllable to object against his proceedings, but there is that in my own conscience which will clear him from having done me any wrong in my doom.' Thirdly, The con- vinced sinner doth not only condemn himself for what he hath done and what he is, but he despairs of himself as to anything he can now do to save himself. Many, though they go so far as to confess they are vile wretches, and have lived wickedly, and for this deserve to die ; yet when they have put the rope about their necks by a self-condemning act, they are so far from being convinced of their own impotency, that they hope to cut the rope with their repentance, reformation, and I know not what bundle of good works, which they think shall redeem their credit with God, and recover his fovour, which their former sins have unhappily lost them. And this comes to pass, because the plough of conviction did not go deep enough to tear up those secret roots of self-con- fidence, with which the heart of every sinner is wofully tainted ; whereas every soul thoroughly convinced by the Spirit is a self-despairing soul; lie sees himself beyond his own help, like a poor condemned prisoner, laden with so many heavy irons, that he sees it impossible for him to make an escape with all his skill or strength out of the hands of justice. O friends, look whether the work be once gone tluis far in your souls or not. Most that perish, it is not their disease that kills them, but their physician ; they think to cure them- selves, and this leaves them incurable. Speak, soul ; did the Lord ever ferret thee out of tins burrow, where so many earth themselves? Art thou as nuich at a loss what to do, as sensible of what thou hast done ? Dost thou see hell in thy sin, and despair in thyself? Hath God got thee out of this Keilah, and convinced thee, if thou shouldst stay in the self-confidence of thy repentance, reformation, aiul duties, they would all deliver thee up into the hands of God's justice and wrath, when they shall come against thee ? then, indeed, thou ha t esca; ed one of the finest snares that the wit of hell can weave. Fourthly, Tl-.e convinced sinner is not only convinced of sin, so as to condemn himself, and despair of himself, but he is convinced of a full provision laid up in Christ for self-condemned and self-despairing ones, John xvi. : * lie shall convince the 446 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. world of sin,' ver. 9, 'and of righteousness,' ver. 10. And this is as necessary an antecedent to faith as any of the former. Without this, the soul convinced of sin is more like to go to the gallows with Judas, or fall on the sword of the law, as the jailer attempted to do on his when lie thought his condition despe- rate, than think of coming to Christ. Who will go to his door, that hath not wherewithal to relieve him ? The third and last facidty to be dealt with, is the will ; and on this, for the pi'oduction of faith, the Sjiirit puts forth an act of renovation, whereby he doth sweetly, but powerfully, incline the will, which before was rebellious and refractory, to accept of Christ, and make a free, deliberate choice of him, for his Lord and Saviour. I say a free choice, not cudgelled into him with apprehensions of wrath, as one may run under an enemy's penthouse in a storm, whose door he would have passed by in fair weather, and never have looked that way. Speak, soul, dost jilease thyself, in choosing Christ? dost go to Christ, not only for safety, but delight? So the spouse, ' I sat under his shadow with great delight,' Cant. ii. 3. I say a deliberate choice, wherein the soul well weighs the terms Christ is offered on, and when it hath considered all seriously, likes them, and closcth with him. Like Ruth, who when Naomi spake the worst she could to discourage her, yet liked her mother's company too well to lose it for those troubles that attended her. Speak, soul, hath the Spirit of God thus put his golden key into the lock of thy will, to open the everlasting door of thy heart to let Christ the King of glory in ? Hath he not only opened the eye of thy understanding, as he awaked Peter asleep in prison, and caused the chains of senselessness and stupidity to fall off thy conscience, but also opened the iron gate of thy will to let thee out of the prison of impeni- tency, where even now thou wert fast bolted in ; yea, brought thee to knock at heaven's door for entertainment, as Peter did at the house of Mary, where the church was met? Be of good comfort; thou mayest know assuredly, that God hath sent not his angel, but his own Spirit, and hath delivered thee out of the hand of sin, Satan, and justice. We proceed to the trial of our faith from the properties of true faith ; and we shall content ourselves with three. CHAPTER V. WHERE OUR FAITH IS PUT UPON TRIAL BY ITS OBEDIENCE, WITH SOME PARTICULAR CHARACTERS THAT FAITh's OBEDIENCE IS STAMPED WITH. First, This choice, excellent faith, it is obediential faith ; that is, true faith on the promise, woi'ks obedience to the command. Abraham is famous for his obedience; no command, how difficult soever, came amiss to him. He is an obedient servant, indeed, that when he doth but hear his master knock with his foot, leaves all, and runs presently to know his master's will and pleasure. Such a servant had God in Abraham : ' Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot?' Isa. xli. 2. But what was the spring thai set Abraham's obedience a-going? see for this, Heb. xi. 8 : ' By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place, which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out,' &c. As it is impossible to please God without faith, so it is impossible not to desire to please God with faith. It may well go for an idle faith that hath hands, but doth not work : feet, but doth not walk in the statutes of God. No sooner had Christ cured the woman in the gospel of her fevei", but it is said, ' she rose and ministered unto them,' Matt. viii. L5. Thus, the believing soul stands up and ministers unto Christ, in gratitude and obedience. Faith is not lazy, it inclines not the soul to sleep, but work ; it sends the creature not to bed, there to sleep away his time in ease and sloth, but into the field. The night of ignorance and unbelief, that was the creature's sleeping time ; but when the Sun of righteousness ariseth, and it is day in the soul, then the creature riseth andgoeth forth to his labour. The first words that break out of faith's lips are those of Saul, in his hour of conversion: ' Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' Acts ix. 6. Faith turns the Jordan, and alters the whole course of a man. ' We were,' saith the apostle, ' foolish and disobedient,' Tit. iii. 3 ; ' but after the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared,' ver. 4, then the case was altered, as it follows. And therefore take your foul fingers off the promise, and pretend ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4,47 no more to faith, if ye be children of Belial, such whose necks do not freely stoop to this yoke of obedience. The devil himself may as soon pass for a believer as a disobedient soul. Other things he can shew, as much as you. Dost thou pretend to knowledge ? thou wilt not deny the devil to be a greater scholar than thyself, I hope, and that in Scripture knowledge. Dost thou believe the Scripture to be true '! and doth not he more strongly ? Dost thou tremble ? he nuich more. It is obedience he wants, and this makes him a devil, and it will make thee like him also. Quest. But you may ask, What stamp is there to be found on faith's obedience, which will distinguish it from all coimterfoits ? for there are many fair sem- blances of obedience which the devil will never grudge us the having, ^7is. Take tliese two characters of the obedience of faith. First, Faith's obedience begins at the heart, and from thence it difFuseth and dilates itself to the outward man, till it overspreads the whole man in a sincere endeavour. As in natural life, the first part that lives is the heart, so the first that faith subdues into obedience is the heart. It is called a ' faith which purifieth the heart,' Acts xv. 9. And the believing Romans 'obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine which was delivered to them,' Rom. vi. 17. Whereas a false faith, whicli apes this true faith, as art imitates nature, begins without, and there ends. All the seeming good works of a counterfeit believer, they are like the beautiful colour in a picture's face, which comes not from a principle of life within, but the painter's pencil without. Such were those, John ii. 23, who are said ' to believe on Christ.' But ' Christ did not commit himself to them,' ver. 24; and why? see ver. 25, 'for he knew what was in man ;' he cared not for the painted porch and goodly outside ; he knew what was in man, and by that knowledge he knew them to be rotten at core, naught at heart, before they were specked on the skin of their exterior conversation. Quest. But how may I know my obedience is the obedience of the heart '! — j^ns. If it comes from love, then it is the obedience of the heart. He com- mands the heart that is master of its love. The castle must needs yield when he that keeps it, and hath the keys of it, submits. Love is the affection that governs this royal fort of man's heart: we give our hearts to them we give our love. And indeed thus it is that faith brings the heart over into subjection and obedience to God, by putting it imder a law of love^ Gal. v. 6 : ' faith which worketh by love.' First, faith worketh love, and then it worketh by it. As first the woi'kman sets an edge on his tools, and then he carves and cuts with them, so faith sharpens the soul's love to God, and then acts by it ; or as a statuary, to make some difficidt piece, before he goes about it, finding his hands numbed with cold, that he cannot handle his tools so nimbly as he should, goes first to the fire, and with the help of its heat chafes them, till they, which were stiff and numbed, become agile and active, then to work he falls; so faith brings the soul, awake and listless enough, God knows, to any duty, imto the meditation of the peerless, matchless love of God in Christ to it, and at this fire faith stays the Christian's thoughts, till his affections begin to kindle, and come to some sense of his love of God, and now the Christian bestirs himself for God with might and main. Quest. 2. But how may I know my obedience is from love ? — Aiis. I refer you to St. John to be resolved of this question, 1st epist. v. 3 : 'This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.' Speak, soul, what account you of the commandments.' Do you look upon them as an iron chain about your legs, and think yourselves prisoners because you are tied to them? Or do you value them as a chain of gold about your neck, and esteem yourselves favourites of the King of heaven, that he will honour you, to honour him by serving of him ? So did as great a prince as tlie world had : ' Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be al)le to offer so willingly ?' 1 Chron. xxix. Not, Who am I, that I should be a king over my people ? but, that I should have a heart so gracious to off'er willingly with my people ? not. Who am I, that they should serve me? but, that thou wilt honour me with a heart to serve thee with them ? The same holy man, in another place, speaks of sin as his prison, and his obedience as his liberty : ' I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts,' Psa. cxix. 45. When God gives him a lai-ge heart for duty, he is as thankful as a man that was bound in 448 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. prison is, when he is set at liberty, that he may visit his friends, and follow his calling. The only grievous thing to a lovhig soul is to be hindered in his obe- dience : this is that which makes such a one out of love with the woi-ld, and being in it, because it cumbers him in his work, and many times keeps him from it. As a conscionable, faithful servant, that is lame or sickly, and can do his master little service, O how it grieves him ! Thus the loving soul bemoans itself, that it should put God to so much cost, and be so unprofitable under it. Speak, is this thy temper? Blessed art thou of the Lord ! there is a jewel of two diamonds, which this will prove thou art owner of, that the crown jewels, of all the princes of the world, are not so worthy to be valued with, as a heap of dust or dung is to be compared with them. Tlie jewel I mean is made of this pair of graces, — faith and love : they are thine, and with them God and all that he hath and is. But if the commandments of God be grievous, (as they are to every carnal heart,) and thou countest thyself at ease, when thou canst make an escape from a duty to commit a sin, as the beast doth, when his collar is off, and he in his fat pasture again, now thou art where thou wouldst be, and can shew some spirits that thou hast ; but when conscience puts on the trace again, thou art dull and heavy again ; O ! it speaks thee to have no love to God, and therefore no faith on God that is true. That is a jade indeed who hath no metal but in the pasture. Secondly, The obedience of faith is full of self-denial. Faith keeps the creature low in what he hath, as in what he doth. ' I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' Gal. ii. 10. As if he had said, I pray, mistake me not; when I say, I live, I mean not that I live by myself, or of myself, but Christ in me. I live, and that deliciously ; but it is Christ that keeps the house, not I. I mortify my corruptions, and vanquish temptations, but I am debtor to Christ for the sti-ength. None can write here, as one did under Pope Adrian's statue, (where the place of his birth is named, and those princes that had preferred him from step to step, till he mounted the pope's chair, but God left out of all the story,) Nihil hie Dens fecit ; 'God did nothing for this man.' No, Paul, and in him every believer, acknowledgeth God for sole founder and benefactor too, of all the good he hath and doth. They are not ashamed to acknowledge who they are beholden to for all. ' These are the children which God hath graciously given me,' said Jacob ; and these the services which God hath graciously assisted me in, saith Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 10: ' I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me :' all is ex dono Dei. O how chary are saints of writing themselves authors of their own good works, parts, or abilities! ' Art thou able,' said the king to Daniel, 'to make known unto me the dream which I have seen?' Dan. ii. 26. Now mark, he doth not say, as the proud astrologers, chap. ii. 4, ' We will shew the interpretation :' that fitted their mouths well enough who had no acquaint- ance with God, but not Daniel's, the servant of the living God: though at that very time he had the secret revealed to him, and could tell the king his dream, yet he was careful to stand clear from any filching of God's glory from him ; and therefore he answers the king, by telling him what his God could do rather than himself: '"There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets,' &c. And what makes Daniel so self-denying ? Truly it was because he had obtained this secret of God by faith at the throne of grace, as you may perceive by chap. ii. ver. 15, 16, 17, compared. That faith which taught him to beg the mercy of God, enabled him to deny himself, and give the entire glory of it from himself to God. As rivers empty their streams again into the bosom of the sea, whence they at first received them, so men give the praise of what they do unto that by which they do it. If they attempt any enterprize with their own wit, or industry, you shall have them bring their sacrifice to their wit or net. No wonder to hear Nebuchadnezzar, who looked no higher than himself in build- ing his great Babylon, ascribe the honour of it to himself, Dan. iv. 30 : ' Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?' But faith tea cheth the creature to blot out his own name, and write the name of God in its room upon all he hath and doth. When the servants, Luke xix. 16, came to give up their accounts to their lord, every one for his pound, those that were faithful to improve it, how humbly and self- denyingly do they speak! ' Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds,' saith the ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4 J.f) first, ver. 16. 'Thy pound hath gained five,' saith another, ver. 18. Mark, not I have gained, but thy pound hath gained ten and five. Tliey do not applaud tliemselves, but ascribe both principal aiul increase to God ; thy talent hath gained : that is, tliy gifts and grace, through thy assistance and blessing, have gained thus much more. Only he that did least comes in with a bag and tells his lord what lie hath done : ' Behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin.' Least doers are great boasters. CHAPTER VI. TWO PROPEUTIES OF FAITH : IT IS PRAYERFUL, AND UNIFORM IN ITS ACTING. Secondly, True faith is prayerful ; pi-ayer, it is the child of faith ; and as the child bears his father's name upon him, so doth prayer the name of faith : what is it known by but by 'the prayer of faith?' James v. 15. Prayer, it is the very natural breath of faith ; supplication and thanksgiving, the two parts of prayer ; by these, as the body by the double motion of the lungs, doth the Christian suck in mercy from God, and breathe back again that mercy in praise to God ; but wdthout faith he could do neither ; he could not by suppli- cation draw mercy from God ; for ' he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,' Heb. xi. 6. Neither could he return praises to God without faith. David's lieart must be fixed before he can sing and give thanks, Psa. Ivi. Thanksgiving is an act of self-denial, and it is faith alone that will shew us the waj' out of our own doors ; aiid as the creature cannot pray, I mean acceptably, withovit faith, so with faith he cannot but pray. The new creature (like our infants in their natural birth) comes crying into the world : and therefore Christ tells it for great news to Ananias of Saul, a new-born believer, ' Behold, he pra3's I ' But is that so strange, that one brought up at the foot of Gamaliel, and so precise a Pharisee as he was, should be found u^Jon his knees at prayer ? Truly no, it was that his sect gloried in, their fasting and praying ; and therefore, he being strict in this way, was no doubt acquainted with this work as to the exterior part of it ; but he never had the spirit of prayer till he now had the spirit of grace, whereby he believed on Jesus Christ. And therefore, if you will try 3-our faith, it must not be by bare praying, but by some peculiar characters which faith imprints prayer withal. Now there are three acts by which faith discovers itself in reference to this duty of praj'er. First, It puts forth such an exciting act, whereby it stii"s up the Christian to pray. Secondly, An assisting act in prayer. Thirdly, A sup- porting act after prayer. Section I. — First, Faith puts forth an exciting act, whereby it provokes the Christian, and sti'ongly ])resseth him to pray. And this it doth. First, By disco- vering to the creature its own beggary and want, as also the fulness that is to be had from God in Christ for his supply ; both which faith useth as power- ful motives to quicken the soul to pray. As the lepers said to one another, ' Why sit we here until we die ? if we say we will enter into the city, there is famine to slay us : come, let us fall into the host of the Syrians, ' 2 Kings vii. 3, 4 ; thus faith rouseth the soul up to prayer. If thou stayest at thy own door, O my soul, thou art sure to starve and die. What seest thou in thyself but hunger and famine? no bread there ; no money to buy any in thy own purse: up, therefore, haste thee to thy God, and thy soul shall live. O are you pressed with this inward feeling of your own wants ? press to the throne of grace as the only way left for your suj)ply ; you may hope it is faith that sends you ; faith is the principle of our new life. ' I live,' saith Paul, ' by the faith of the Son of God,' Gal. ii. 20. This life, being weak, is craving and crying for nourishment, and that as naturally as the new-born babe doth for the inilk ; if, therefore, you find this inward sense prompting and provoking of you to cry to God, it shews this principle of life (faith I mean) is in thee. Olijccf. But may not an unbeliever pray in the sense of his wants, and be inwardly pinched with them, which may make him pray very feelingly? — ^ns. We must distinguish of wants : they are either spiritual or carnal. It cannot be denied but an unbeliever may be very sensible of outward carnal wants, and knock loud at heaven's gate for a supjjly. AVe find them ' howling 2 G 450 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH on their beds, and assembling themselves for corn and wine,' Hosea vJi. 14. There is the cry of the creatiu'e, and the cry of the new creature. Every crea- tm-e hath a natural cry for that which suits their nature. Hence, Psa. cxiv. 7, ' The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat of God.' But give the lion flesh, and he will not roar for want of grass ; give the ox grass, and you shall not hear him lowing for flesh ; so give the faithless, graceless person his fill of his carnal food, (sensual enjoyments,) and you shall have little com- plaints of spiritual wants from him. They are therefore spiritual wants you must try your faith by : if thou canst heartily pray for love to Christ, faith on him, or any other grace, feeling the want of them as a hungry man doth of his food, thou mayest conclude safely there is this principle of new life, which, like the veins at the bottom of the stomach, by its sucking, puts thee to pain till it be heard and satisfied ; for these graces being pi'oper to the new creature, can be truly desired of none but one that is a new creature. Secondly, Faith excites to prayer from an inward delight it hath in commu- nion with God. ' It is good for me,' saith the psalmist, ' to draw near to God.' Now mark the next words : ' I have put my trust in the Lord,' Psa. Ixxiii. 28. We take delight to be often looking where we have laid up our treasure. This holy man had laid up his soul and all he had in God bj^ faith, to be kept safely for him ; and now he delights oft to be with God ; he hath that which invites him into his presence with sweet content. By faith the soul is contracted to Christ. Now, being espoused to Christ, thei-e is no wonder at all that it should desire communion with him ; and prayer being the place of meeting where Christ and the soid can come the nearest on this side heaven, therefore the believer is seen so often walking that v/ay. Canst thou say, poor soul, that this is thy errand when praj-ing to see the face of God ? Can nothing less, and needest thou nothing more, to satisfy and recreate thy soul in prayer, than communion with God ? Certainly God hath thy faith, or else thou couldst not so freely bestow thy love on him, and take delight in him. Section II. — Secondlj^, Faith puts forth an assisting act of prayer. To instance only in two particulars. First, It assists the soul with importunity. Faith is the wrestling grace ; it comes up close to God, takes hold of God, and will not easily take a denial. It enfires all the affections, and sets them on work : this is the soul's eye, by which it sees the filth, the hell that is in every sin ; and seeing affects the heart, and puts it into a passion of sorrow, when the soul spreads its abominations before the Lord. The creature now needs no onion to make it weep ; tears come freely, as water fi-om a flowing spring. It makes a discovery of Christ to the soul, in the excellences of his person, love, and graces, fio:n the glass of the promise, at the sight of which it is even sick with longing after them ; and such pangs of love come upon it, as to make it send forth strong cries and supplications for that it so impatiently desires ; yea, further, faith doth not barely set the creature's teeth on edge by displaying the excellences of Christ and his grace, but it supplies him with arguments, and helps the soul to wield and use them both valiantly and victoriously upon the Almighty. Never could he tell what to do with a promise in prayer till now that faith teacheth him to press God with it, humbly, yet boldly. ' What wilt thou do unto thy great name?' saith believing Joshua, chap. vii. 9 ; as if he had said. Thou art so fast bound to thy people bj' promise and oath, that thou canst not leave them to perish but thy name will suffer with them. Faith melts promises into arguments, as the soldier doth lead into bullets, and then helps the Christian to send them Avith force to heaven in fervent prayer ; whereas a promise in an unbeliever's mouth is like a shot in a gun's mouth, v/ithout any fire to put to it. O how cold and dead doth a promise drop from him in pra3'er .' he speaks promises, but cannot pray promises, or press promises. And there-, fore try thyself, not by naked praying, but by importunity in prayer ; and that not by the agitation of thy bodily spirits, but the inward working of thy soul and spirit, whether carried out to plead the promise, and urge it upon God with an humble importimity, or not. Secondly, Faith enables the soul to persevere in the work. False faith may shew some mettle at hand, but it will jade at length. ' Will the hypocrite pray always?' Job xxvii. 10. No; as the wheel wears with turning, till it breaks at last, so doth the hypocrite ; he prays himself ^^•eary of praying ; something or other v.ill in time make him quarrel with that ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 45 1 duty, which he never inwardly liked ; whereas the sincere believer hath that in him which makes it impossible he should quite give over praying, except he should also cease believing: prayer is the very breath of faith; stop a man's breath, and where is he then ? It is true, tlie "believer, through his own negli- gence, may find more difficulty of fetcliiug his praying breath at one time than at another (as a man in a cold doth for his natural breath) ; alas ! who is so careful of his soul's health, that needs not bewail tins ? But for faith to live, and this breath of prayer to be quite cut off, is impossible. We see David did but hold his breath a l.ttle longer than ordinary, and what a distemper it put him into, till he gave himself ease again by venting his soul in prayer: 'I held my peace, and my sorrow stirred, my heart was bot within me ; while I was musing, the fire burned ; then spake I with my tongue, Lord, make me to know my end,' Psa. xxxix. Dost thou, O man, find thyself under a necessity of praying, as the little babe who cannot clioose but cry when it ails or wants any- thing, because it hath no other way to help itself than by crying, to hasten its mother or nurse to its help? The Cin-istian's wants, sins, and temptations, continuing to retui-n upon hiui, he cannot but continue also to pray against them. 'From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee,' saith David, Psa. Ixi. 2 ; wherever I am, I will find thee out ; imprison me, banish me, or do with me what thou wilt, thou shalt never be rid of me ; ' I will abide in thy taber- nacle for ever,' ver. 4. But how coidd David do that, when banished from it ? surely he means by prayer ; the praying Christian carries a tabernacle with him. As long as David can come at the tabernacle, he will not neglect it; and when he cannot through sickness, banishment, &c., then he will look towards it,, and as devoutly worsliip God in the open fields, as if he were in it. ' Let my prayer be set before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the even- ing sacrifice,' Psa. cxli. 2 ; he speaks of such a time when he could not come to offer sacrifice at the tabernacle. Section IIL — Faith hath a supporting act after prayer. First, It supports the soul to expect a gracious answer : ' I will direct my prayers unto thee, and will look up,' Psa. v. 3 ; or, I will look ; for what, but for a return ? An unbe- lieving heart shoots at ra)idom, and never minds where his arrow lights, or what comes of his praying; but faith fills the soul with expectation. As a merchant, when he casts up his estate, he counts what he hath sent beyond sea, as well as what he hath in hand ; so doth faith reckon upon what he hath sent to heaven in prayer and not received, as well as those mercies which he hath received, and are in hand at present. Now this expectation whicli faith raiseth in the soul after prayer, appears in the power that it hath to quiet and compose the soul in the interim between the sending forth, as I may say, the ship of pi-ayer, and its i-eturn home with its rich lading it goes for ; and it is more or less, according as faith's strength is. Sometimes faith comes from prayer in triumph, and cries, Victoria. It gives such a being and existence to the mercy prayed for in the Christian's soul, before any likelihood of it appeal's to sense and reason, that the Christian can silence all his troubled thoughts with the expectation of its coming. So Hannah prayed, 'and was no more sad,' 1 Sam. i. 18. Yea, it will make the Christian disburse his praises for the mercy long before it is received. Thus high faith wrought in David, Psa. Ivi. 3, 4 : ' At what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee ;' and in the next words, ver. 4 : 'In God will I praise his word ;' that is, he would praise God for his promise, before there were any performance of it to him, when it had no existence but in God's faithfulness, and David's faith. This holy man had such a piercing eye of faith, as he could see the promise when he was at the lowest ebb of misery, so certain and unquestionable in the power and truth of God, that he could then praise God, as if the promised mercy had been actually fulfilled to him. But I would not have thee, Christian, try tlie truth of thy iaith by this heroic high strain it mounts to in some eminent believers. Thou mayest be a faithful soldier to Christ, though thou attaine.st not to the degree of a few worthies in his army, more honourable in tliis respect than the rest of their brethren. There is a lower act of faith, which, if thou canst find, may certify thee of its truth; that, I mean, which, though it doth not presently disburthcn the soul (upon praying) of all its anxious, disquieting thoughts, yet keeps the soul's head above the waves, and gives a check to them, that they abate, though by little and little, 2 (i 2 452 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. as the stream in a channel doth at a falling tide. When God took the deluge from the earth, he did not do it in a moment ; it is said, ' the waters returned from off the earth continually,' Gen. viii. 3 ; that is, it was falling water from day to day, till all was gone. Canst thou not find. Christian, that some of thy tumul- tuous disquieting thoughts are let out at the sluice of prayer, and that it is some ease to thy encumhered spirit, that thou hast the bosom of a gracious God to empty thy sorrowful heart into? And though praying doth not drain away all thy fears, yet it keeps thee, doth it not, from being overflown with them, which thou couldst not avoid witliout faith? A soul wholly void of faith, prays, and leaves none of its burthen with God, but carries all back with it that it brought, and more too ; calling on God gives no more relief to him than throwing out an anchor that hath no hooks to take hold on the firm earth doth the sinking ship. If, therefore, poor soul, thou findest upon throwing out thy anchor of faith in prayer, that it takes such hold on Christ in the promise, as to stay thee from being driven by the fury of Satan's affrighting temptations, or thy own despairing thoughts, bless God for it. The ship that rides at anclior is safe (though it may be a little tossed to and fro) so long as the anchor keeps its hold. And so art thou, poor soul ; that faith will save from hell, that will not wholly free the soul here from fears. Section IV. — Fourthly, True faith is uniform. As sincere obedience doth not pick and choose, take this commandment and leave that, but hath respect to all the precepts of God ; so faith unfeigned hath respect to all the truths of God : it believes one promise as well as another. As the true Christian must not 'have the faith of our Lord Jesus with respect of persons,' James ii. 1, so not with respect to tniths. To pretend to believe one promise, and to give no credit to another, this is to be partial in the promises, as the priests are charged to be in the duties of the law, Mai. ii. 9. 'The honoin- of God is as deeply en- gaged to perform one promise as another. Indeed, as the breach but of one commandment would put us under the guilt of the whole, so God's failing in one promise (which is blasphemy to think) would be the breaking of his whole covenant. Promises are copulative as well as commands; and therefore neither can God keep one, except he perform all ; nor we believe one, excejit Ave be- lieve all. God hath spoke all these words of promises, as he did those of precepts : his seal is to all, and he looks we should compass all within the em- braces of our faith. David bears witness to the whole truth of God, Psa. cxix. 160 : 'Thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.' Try now tliy faith here: possibly tliou pre- tendest to believe the promise for pardon, and art often pleasing thyself with the thoughts of it ; but what faith hast thou on the promise for sanctifying thy nature, and subduing thy corruptions ? May be thou mindest not these, im- provest not these ; this fi'uit may hang long enough on the branches of the promises, before thou gatherest it; the other is for thy tooth, not these: whereas true faith would like one as well as the other. See how heartily David prays for the performance of this promise, Psa. cxix. 132 : ' Be merciful imto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name ; oi'der my steps in thy word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.' David would not lose any privi- lege that God hath by promise settled on his children : do v.'ith me, saith he, as thou usest to do. This is no more than family fare, what thou promisest to do for all that love thee ; and let me not go worse clad than the rest of my brethren. May be thou fanciest thou hast a faith for the eternal salvation of thy soul ; but hast thou faith to rely on God for the things of this life? A strange believer, is he not, that lives by faith for heaven, and by his wits and sinful policy for the world ? Christ proves that they (John v. 44) did not be- lieve on him, because they durst not trust him with their names and credits. If we cannot trust him with the less, how can we with the greater? I deny not, but he that hath a true faith, yea, a strong faith for heaven, may be put to a plunge, and his faith foiled about a temporal promise ; but we must not from an hour of temptation, wherein God leaves his eminentest saints, to humble them, judge of the constant ordinary frame of the believer's heart. Though Abraham dissembled once to save his life, which he thought in some danger for his wife's beauty; yet he did at other times give eminent testimony that he trusted God for his temporal life, as well as for his eternal salvation. I do not ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 453 thei-efore bid thee question the truth of tliy faith, for every fainting fit that comes over it, as to the good tilings of the promise foft tliis life. A man may, in a time of war, have some of his estate lie under the enemy's power for a time, and he so long have no profits from it ; but still he reckons it as his estate, is troubled for his present great loss, and endeavours as soon as he can to recover it again out of his enemy's hand: so in the hurry of a temptation, when Satan, the soul's great enemy, is abroad, and God withdraws his assistance, the believer may have little support from some particular promise ; but the believer ever counts that his portion, as well as any other, mourns he can act his faith no more upon it, and labours to reinforce his faith with new strength from heaven what he can, that he may be able to live upon it, and im])rove it more to his comfort ; so that still it holds true, if we believe not God for this life, neither do we for the other. In a word, may be thou pretendest to a faith for th)' temporals, and seemest to trust God for things of this life, but art a mere stranger to those prime acts of faith, whereby the believing soid closeth with Christ, and receiveth him as his Lord and Saviour, and so seals to the covenant that in the gospel is tendered to poor sinners. Canst thou so far fight against thy own reason as to think that any temporal promise belongs to thee without these ? What gives the woman right to her jointure, but her marriage-covenant? And what gives the creature a true claim to these promises, or any other in the covenantof grace, but its union to Christ, and accepting of him as he is offered? The first act of God's love to the creature is that whereby he chooseth such a one to be his, and sets him apart in his unchangeable pui-pose, to be an object of his special love in Christ, and therefore called the foundation, as that on which God laj's the superstructiu-e of all other mercies. ' The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his,' 2 Tim. ii. 19. First, God chooseth a person to be his, and on this foinidation he builds, and bestows all his further cost of mercy upon the creatui-e, as one that is his. So on the creature's part, first, fiiith closeth with Christ, severs him in his thoughts from all others, and chooseth him to be his Savioiu-, in whom alone he will trust, and whom alone he will serve ; which done, then it trades with this pi-omise and that, as the portion which falls to him by marriage with Christ. And therefore see how preposterous thy course is who snatchest these promises to thyself, before there hath passed any good-will from thee to Christ. CHAPTER VIL AN EXHORTATION TO ALL IN A STATE OF UNBELIEF, TO ENDEAVOUR FOR FAITH, WITH ONE DIRECTION TOWARD THE ATTAINING OF IT. Use 3. Is faith so precious a grace 1 Let it provoke you, who want it, to get it. Can you hear of this pearl, and not wish it were yours ? Wherefore hath the Spirit spoken such great and glorious things of faith in the word, but to make it the more desirable in your eyes? Is there any way to get Christ, but by getting faith ? or dost thou not think that thou needest Christ as much as any other ? There is a generation of men in the world, would almost make one think this was their judgment ; who, because their corruptions have not, by breaking out into plague-sores of profaneness, left such a brand of ignominy upon their name as some others lie under, but their conversations have been strewed with some flowers of morality, whereby their names have kept sweet among their neighbours, therefore do they not at all listen to the off'ers of Christ, neither do their consciences much check them for this neglect. And why so ? Surely it is not because they are more willing to go to hell than others, for they do that to escape it which many others will not ; but because they think the way they are in will bring them in good time to heaven, without any more ado. Poor deluded creatures ! is Christ then sent to help only some more debauched sinners to heaven, such as drunkards, swearers, and of that rank? And are civil, moral men left to walk thither on their own legs? I am sure, if the word may be believed, we have the case resolved clear enough : that tells but of one way to heaven for all that mean to come there ; as there is but ' one God,' so but ' one Mediator between God and mari, the man Christ Jesus,' 1 Tim. ii. 5. And if but one bridge over the gulf, judge what is like to become of the civil, righteous man, for all his sweet-scented life, if he miss this one bridge, and 4.54 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. goes on hi the road he hath set out in for heaven. O remember, proud man, who thou art, and cease thy vam attempt. Art not thou of Adam's seed? Hast not thou traitor's blood in thy veins? If 'every month be stopped,' Rom. iii. 19, 20, how darest thou open thine ? If 'all the world is become guilty before God, that by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified in his sight,' where then shalt thou stand to plead thy innocency before him, who sees thy black skin under thy white feathers, thy foul heart through thy fair carriage? It is faith on Christ that alone can purify thy heart, without which thy washed face and hands (external righteousness I mean) will never commend thee to God. And therefore thou art under a horrible delusion, if thou dost not think that thou needest Christ, and a faith to interest thee in him, as much as the bloodiest murderer or filthiest Sodomite in the world. If a company of men and children in a journey were to wade throvigh some brook, not beyond a man's depth, the men would have the advantage of the children ; but if to cross the sea, the men would need a ship to waft them over, as well as the children : and they might well pass for madmen, if they should think to wade through without the help of a ship, that is offered them as well as the other, because they are a little taller than the rest are : such a foolish desperate adventure wouldst thou give for thy soul, if thou shouldst think to make thy way through the justice of God to heaven, without shipping thyself by faith in Christ, because thou art not so bad in thy external conversation as others. Let me therefore again and again beseech all that are yet destitute of faith, to endeavour for it, and that sjieedilj^ There is nothing deserves the precedency in your thoughts before this. David resolved 'not to give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids till he found out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob,' Psa. cxxxii. 4, 5. The habitation which pleaseth God most, is thy heart; but it must be a believing heart, Ephes. iii. 17: ' That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.' O, how dare you sleep a night in that house where God doth not dwell? and he dwells not in thee, if thou carriest an unbelieving heart in thy bosom. There is never a gospel-sermon thou hearest, but he stands at thy door to be let in. Take heed of multiplying unkindnesses in denying him entertainment; how knowest thou but God may, finding thy heart so often shut by vmbelief against his knocks, suddenly seal thee up under final unbelief. Quest. But possibly, thou wilt ask now, how thou mayest get this precious grace of faith? — Ans. The answer to this question takes in these following directions. Section I. — First, Labour to get thy heart convinced of, and affected with, thy imbelief : till this be done, thou wilt be but sluggish and slighty in thy en- deavours for faith. A man may be convinced of other sins, and never think of coming to Christ. Convince a drunkard of his drunkenness, and upon leaving his drunken trade his mind is pacified, yea, he blesseth himself in his reforma- tion, because all the quarrel his conscience had with him was for that particular sin ; but when the Spirit of God convinceth the creature of his unbelief, he gets between him and those burrows in which he did use to earth and hide himself; he hath no ease in his spirit from those plasters now which formerly have relieved him, and so kept him from coming over to Christ. Before, it served the turn to bring his conscience to sleep, when it accused him for such a sin, that he had left the practice of it, and for the neglect of a duty, that now he had taken it up, without any inquiry into his state whether good or bad, par- doned or unpardoned. Thus many make a shift to daub and patch the peace of their consciences, even as some do to keep up an old rotten house, by stopping in here a tile, and there a stone, till a loud wind comes and blows the whole house down. But when once the creature hath the load of its unbelief laid upon his spirit, then it is little ease to him to think he is no drunkard as he was, no atheist in his family, without the worship of God as he was. Thy present state, saith the Spirit of God, is as damning, in that thou art an unbeliexer, as if thou wert these still ; yea, what thou wert thou art, and will be found at the great day, to be the drunkard and atheist, for all thy seeming reformation, except by an intervening faith thou gainest a new name. What though thou art drunk no more, yet the guilt remains upon thee till faith stiikes it off with the blood of Christ. God will be paid his debt by thee, or Christ for thee ; and Christ pays no reckoning for unbelievers. ABOVE ALL, TAKING THK SHIELD OV FAITH. 455 Again, as the guilt remains, so the power of those lusts remains, so long as thou art an unbeliever, however they may disappear in the outward act. Thy heart is not emptied of one sin, but the vent stopped by restraining grace. A bottle full of wine, close stopped, shews no more what it hath in it, than one that is empty ; and if that is thy case, how is it possible thou shouldst truly mortify any one lust, that hath no faith, which is the only victory of the world? In a word, if under the convincement of thy unbelief, thou wilt find, how little a sin soever now it is thought by thee, that there is more malignity in it than in all thy other sins. Hast thou been a liar? that is a grievous sin indeed; hell gapes for every one that loveth and maketh a lie. Rev. xxii. 15. But know, poor wretch, the loudest lie which ever thou toldest is that which by unbelief thou tellest ; here, thou bearest false witness against God himself, and tellest a lie, not ' to the Holy Ghost,' as Ananias did, but a lie of the Holy Ghost ; as if not a word were true he saitli in the promises of the gospel. If ' he that believes sets to his seal, that God is true ; ' judge you, whether the vuibeliever makes him not a liar. Hast thou been a murderer, yea, had thy hand in the blood of saints, the best of men ? This is a dreadful sin, I confeps ; but by thy unbelief thou art a more bloody murderer, by how much the blood of God is more precious than the blood of mere men. Thou killest Christ over again by thy unbelief, and treadest his blood under thy feet ; yea, throwest it under Satan's feet to be tranvpled on by him. Section 11. — Quest. But how can unbelief be so great a sin, when it is not in the sinner's power to believe? — Answ. By this reason the unregenei-ate person might wipe off any other sin, and shake off the guilt.of it, with but saying. It is not my fault that I do not keep this commandment or that, for I have no power of myself to do them. This is true ; he cannot perform one holy action holily and acceptably ; ' Tli?y that are in the flesh cannot please God,' Rom. viii. 8. But, it is a false inference, that therefore he doth not sin, because he can do no other. First, Because this inability is not created by God, but con- tracted by the creature himself. ' God made man upright, but they sought oi-t many inventions,' Eccles. vii. 29. Man had not his lame hand from God; no, he was made a creature fit and able for any service his Maker would please to employ him in; but man crippled himself ; and man's favdt cannot ^Jrejudice God's right. Though he hath lost his ability to obey, yet God hath not lost his power to command. Who among ourselves thinks his debtor discharged, by wasting that estate whereby he v/as able to have paid us? It is confessed, had man stood, he should not, indeed could not have believed on Christ for salva- tion, as now he is held forth in the gospel ; but this was not from any disability in man, but from the unmeetness ofsuch an object to Adam's holy state. If it had been a duty meet for God to command, there was ability in man to have obeyed. Secondly, Man's present impotency to jdeld obedience to the com- mands of God, and in particular to this of believing, (where it is promulged,) doth afford him no excuse ; because it is not a simple inability, but complicated with an inward enmity against the command. It is true, man cannot believe : but it is as true, man will not believe : ' Ye will not come unto me, that you might have life,' John v. 40. It is possible, yea, ordinary, that a man may, through some feebleness and deficiency of strength, be disabled to do that which he is very willing to do, and this draws out our pity ; such a one was the ' poor ci-ipple,' who lay so long at the ' pool,' John v. 5. He was willing enough to have stepped down, if he could but have crept thither; or that any other should have helped him in, if they would have been so kind. But, what would you think of such a cripple, that can neither go himself into the pool for healing, nor is willing any should help him in, but flies in the face of him that would do him this friendly office ? Every unbeliever is this cripple ; he is not only un- potent himself, but a resistcr of the Holy Ghost, that comes to woo and draw him unto Christ. Indeed, every one that believes, believes willingly ; but he is beholden, not to nature, but to grace, for this willingness ; none are willing till the day of power comes, Psa. ex. 3 ; in which the Spirit of God overshadows the soul, and by his incubation fas once upon the waters) he new-forms and moulds the will into a sweet compliance with the call of God in the gospel. 456 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. CHAPTER VIII. CONTAINS A SECOND DIRECTION FOR THE OBTAINING FAITH. Secondly, Take heed of resisting or opposing the Spirit of God, when he offers his help to the work. If ever thou believest, he must enable thee ; take heed of opposing him. Master workmen love not to be controlled. Now, two ways the Spirit of God may be opjjosed. First, when the creature waits not on the Spirit, where he ordinarily works faith. Secondly, when the creature, though he attends on him in the way of means, yet controls him in his work. First, Take heed thou opposest not the Spirit, by not attending on him on the way and means, by which he ordinarily works faith. Thou knowest where Jesus useth to pass, and his Spirit breathe ; and that is in the great gospel ordinance, the ministry of the word. Christ's sheep ordinarily conceive v,'hen they are drinking the water of life here. The hearing of the gospel, it is called, Gal. iii. 2, ' The hearing of faith ; ' because, by hearing the doctrine of faith, the Spirit works the grace of faith in them. This is the still voice he speaks to the souls of sinners in : 'Thine eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying. This is the way, walk ye in it,' Isa. xxx. 20. Here are God and man teaching together. Thou canst not neglect man's teaching, but thou resistest the Spirit also. It was for something that the apostle placed them so near, 1 Thess. v. 19 : he bids us ' quench not the Spirit ; ' and in the next words, ' despise not prophesyings ; ' surely he would have us know that the Spirit is dangerously quenched, when prophesying, or preaching of the gospel, is despised. Now, the most notorious way of despising prophesying, or preaching, is to turn our back on the ordinance, and not attend on it. When God sets up the ministry of the word in a place, his Spirit then opens his school, and expects that all, who would be taught for heaven, should come thither. O take heed of playing the truant, and absenting thyself from the ordinance, upon any unnecessary occasion, much less of casting off the ordi- nance. If he tempts God, that would be kept from sin, and yet will not keep out of the circle of the occasion that leads to the sin ; then he tempts God as much that would have faith, and pretends his desire is that the Spirit should work it, but will not come within the ordinary walk of the Spirit, where he doth the. work: whether is it most fitting, that the scholar should wait on his master at school to be taught, or that the master should run after his truant scholar at play in the field to teach him there, judge you. Secondly, Take heed that, in thy attendance on the word, thou dost not control the Spirit in those several steps he takes in thy soul, in order to the pro- duction of faith. Though there are no preparatory works of our own to grace ; yet the Holy Spirit hath his preparatory works, whereby he disposeth souls to grace. Observe therefore carefully the gradual approaches he makes by the word to thy soul, for want of complying with him in which he may withdraw in a distaste, and leave the work at a sad stand for a time, if not quite give it over, never more to return to it. We read. Acts vii. 23, how it came into the heart of Moses to visit his brethren in Egypt, (stirred up, no doubt, by God himself to the journey ;) there he begins to shew his good-will to them and zeal for them in slaying an Egyptian, that had wronged an Israelite ; wliich, though no great matter towards their full deliverance out of Egypt, yet he supposed (it is said, ver. 25) his brethren would have understood, by that hint, how that God would by his hand deliver them ; but they did not comply with him, nay, rather opposed him ; and therefore he withdrew, and they hear no more of Moses or their deliverance, 'for forty years' space,' ver. 40. Thus, may be, the Spirit of God gives thee a visit in an ordinance, directs a word that speaks to thy particular condition. He would have thee understand by this, sinner, how ready he is to help thee out of thy house of bondage, thy state of sin and wrath, if thou wilt hearken to his counsel, and kindly entertain his motions; carry thyself rebelliously now against him, and God knows when thou mayest hear of him again knocking at thy door upon such an errand. God makes short work with some in his judiciary proceedings. If he finds a repulse once, sometimes he departs, and leaves a dismal curse behind him as the punishment of it, Luke xiv. 24: 'I say unto you, that none of those men which ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4,57 were bidden shall taste of my supper.' They were but once invited, and for their first denial this ciuse clapped upon their heads. It is not said, they shall never come where the supper stands on the board, but they shall never taste. Many sit under the ordinances, where Christ in prospel dishes is set forth admirably, but througli the efficacy of this curse upon them never taste of these dainties all their life ; they hear precious truths, but their hearts are sealed up in unbelief, and their minds made reprobate and injudicious, that they ai-e not moved at all by them. There is a kind of frenzy and madness, I have heard of, in which a man will discourse soberly and rationally, till you come to speak of some one particidar subject that was the occasion of his distemper, and first broke his brain ; here he is quite out, and presently loses his reason, not able to speak with any understanding of it. O how many men and women are there among us (frequent attenders on the word) who, in any matter of the world, are able to discourse very understandingly and rationally, but when you come to speak of the things of God, Christ, and heaven, it is strange to see how soon their reason is lost, and all understanding gone from them ; they are not able to speak of these matters with any judgment ! Truly I am afraid in many (who have sat long under the means, and the Spirit hath been making some attempts on them,) this itijudiciousness of mind in the things of God is but the consequence of that spiritual curse, which God hath passed upon them, for resisting these essays of his Spirit. I beseech you, therefoi-e, beware of opposing the Spirit. Doth he beam any light from his word into thy under- standing, whereby thou, who wert before an ignorant sot, comest to know something of the evil of sin, the excellency of Christ, and canst discourse rationally of the truths of the Scripture ? Look now to it, what thou dost with this candle of the Lord that is lighted in thy mind; take heed thou art not found sinning with it, or priding thyself in it, lest it goes out, and thou, for ' rebelling against the light,' comest at last 'to die without knowledge,' as is threatened. Job xxxvi. 12. If the Spirit of God goes yet further, and fortifies the light in thy understanding, that it sets thy conscience on fire with the sense of thy sins, and apprehensions of the wrath due to them, now take heed of resisting the Holy Spirit, that in mercy to thy soul kindles this fire in thy bosom, to keep thee out of a worse in hell, if thou wilt be ruled by him. Thou must expect that Satan, now his house is on fire over his head, will bestir him what he can to quench it : thy danger is, lest thou shouldst listen to him for thy present ease. Take heed, therefore, where thou drawest thy water with which thou quenchest this fire, that it be out of no well but out of the word of God. In thinking to quiet thy conscience, thou mayest quench the Spirit of God in thy conscience, which is the mischief the devil longs thou shouldst pull upon thy own head. There is more hope of a sick man, when his disease comes ovit, than when it lies at the heart, and nothing is seen out- wardly. You know how Hazael helped his master to his sad end, who might have lived for all his disease, 2 Kings viii. 15 : ' He took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died ;' and it follows, ' and Hazael reigned in his stead.' Thus the wretch came to the crown : he saw the king like to recover, and he di-ove his disease, in all probability, to his heart by the wet cloth, and so by his death made away for himself to the throne. And truly, Satan will not much fear to recover the throne of thy heart, (which this present combustion in thy conscience puts him in great fear of losing,) can he but persuade thee to apply some carnal coolings to it, thereby to quench the Spirit hi his ccmvincing work. These convictions are sent thee mercifully in order to thy spiritual delivery, and they should be as welcome to thee as the kindly bearing pains of a woman in travail are to her : without them she could not be delivered of her child, nor without these, more or less, can the new creature be brought forth in thy soul. Again, May be the Spirit of God goes yet further, and doth not only dart light into thy mind, hell-fire into thy conscience, but heaven-lire also into thy affections : my meaning is, he, from the word, displays Christ so in his own excellences, and the fitness of him in all his offices to thy wants, that thy affections begin to work after him ; the frequent discourses of him, and the mercy of God through him to poor sinners, are so luscious, that thou l)cginnest to taste some sweetness in hearing of them, which stirs up some passionate 458 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. desires, whereby thovi art, in hearing the word, often sallying forth in such like breathings as these : O that Christ was mine ! Shall I ever be the happy soul whom God will pardon and save ? Yea, possibly, in the heat of thy affections, thou art cursing thy lusts and Satan, who have held thee so long from Christ, and sudden purposes are taken up by tliee, that thou wilt bid adieu to thy former ways, and break through all the entreaties of thy dearest lusts, to come to Christ. O soul ! now the kingdom of God is nigh indeed unto thee. Thou art, as I may so say, even upon thy quickening ; and therefore, above all, this is the chief season of thy care, lest thou shouldst miscarry. If these sudden desires did but ripen into a deliberate choice of Christ, and these purposes settle into a permanent resolution to renounce sin and self, and so thou cast thyself on Christ, I durst be the messenger to joy thee with the birth of this babe of grace (faith I mean) in thy soul. I confess affections are up and down, yea, like the wind, how strongly soever they seem to blow the soid one way at present, are often found in the quite contrary point very soon after. A man may be drunk with passion and affection as really as with wine or beer ; and as it is ordinary for a man to make a bargain when he is in beer or wine, which he repents of when he is sober again, so it is as ordinary for poor creatures who make choice of Christ and his ways in a sermon, (while their affections have been elevated above their ordinary pitch by some moving discourse,) to repent of all they have done, awhile after, when the impression of the word, which heated their affections in hearing, be worn off, and then they come to themselves again, and are what they were, as far from any such desires after Christ as ever. Content not, therefore, thyself with some sudden pangs of affections in an ordinance, but labour to preserve those impressions which then the Spirit makes on thy soul, that they be not defaced and rubbed ofl^, like colours newly laid on, before they are dry, by the next temptation that comes. This is the caveat of the apostle, Heb. ii. 1 : ' Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip,' or run out like leaking vessels. May be, at present, thy heart is melting and in a flow with sorrow for thy sins, and thou thinkest, Surely now I shall never give my lust a kind look more ; (indeed, one might wonder, to see the solemn mournful countenances under a sermon, which of these could be the man or woman that would afterwards be seen walking hand in hand with those sins they now weep to hear mentioned.) But as thou lovest thy life, watch thy sovd, lest this prove but as the early dew,* none of which is to be seen at noon. Do thou, therefore, as those do who have stood some while in a hot bath, out of which when they come they do not presently go into the open air, (that were enough to kill them,) but betake themselves to their warm bed, that they may nourish this kindly heat, and now, while their pores are open by a gentle sweat, breathe out more effectually the remaining dregs of their distemper. Thus betake thyself to thy closet, and there labour to take the advantage of thy present relenting frame for the more free pouring out of thy soul to God, now the ordinance hath thawed the tap, and with all thy soul beg of God he would not leave thee short of faith, and suffer thee to miscarry, now he hath thee upon the wheel, but make thee a vessel unto honour, which follows as the third direction. CHAPTER IX. CONTAINING THREE DIRECTIONS MORE TOWARDS THE OBTAINING FAITH. Thirdly, Lift up thy cry aloud in prayer to God for faith. Section I.- — Quest. But may an unbeliever pray ? Some think he ought noti — Ans. This is ill news if it were true, even for some who do believe, but dare not say that they are believers. It were enough to scare them from prayer too ; and so it would be as Satan would have it, that God should have few or none to vouch him in this solemn part of his worship ; for they are but the fewest of believers that can walk to the throne of grace in view of their own faith. Prayer it is medium culius, and also medium gratia; ; a means whereby we give worship to God, and also wait to receive grace from God ; so that to say a wicked man ought not to pray, is to say he ought not to worship God, and acknowledge him to be his Maker: and also, that he ought not to wait on the ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 459 means whereby he may obtain grace, and receive faith. ' Prayer is the soul's motion Godward,' says Baxter, ' and to say an unbeliever should not pray, is to say he should not turn to God, who yet saith to the wicked, Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. Desire is the soul of prayer,' saith the same learned author, 'and who dares say to the wicked. Desire not faith, desire not Christ or God?' in his Right Method for Peace of Conscience, p. 63. It cannot, indeed, be denied, but that an unbeliever sins when he prays; but it is not his praying is his sin, but in his praying unbelievingly. And therefore he sins less in praying, than in neglecting to pray ; because when he prays, his sin lies but in the circumstance and manner ; but when he doth not pray, then he stands in a total defiance to the duty God hath commanded him to perform, and means God hath appointed him to use for obtaining grace. I must, therefore, poor soul, bid thee go on for all these bugbears, and neglect not this grand duty, which lies upon all the sons and daughters of men ; only go in the sense of thy own vileness, and take heed of carrying purposes of going on in sin with thee to the throne of grace ; this were a horrible wickedness indeed. As if a traitor should put on the livery which the prince's servants wear, for no other end but to gain more easy access to his person, that he might stab him with a dagger he hath under that cloak. Is it not enough to sin, but wouldst thou make God accessory to his own dishonour also ? By this bold enterprise thou dost what lies in thee to do it. Should this be thy temper, (which God forbid,) if I send thee to pray, it must be with Peter's counsel to Simon Magus, Acts viii. 22 : * Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.' But I suppose thee, to whom now I am directing my advice, to be of a far diflTerent complexion, one brought to some sense of thy deplored state, and so softened lay the word, that thou couldst be content to have Christ upon any terms : only thou art at a loss in thy own thoughts how such an impotent creature, yea, impudent sinner as thou hast been, should ever come to believe on him. So that it is not the love of any present sin in thy heart, but the fear of thy past sins in thy conscience that keeps thee from believing. Now for thee it is that I would gather the best encouragements I can out of the w^oi'd, and w'ith them strew thy way to the throne of grace. Go, poor soul, to prayer for faith ; I do not fear a chiding for sending such customers to God's door. He that sends us to call sinners home unto him, cannot be angry to hear thee call upon him. He is not so thronged with such suitors, as that he can find in his heart to send them away with a denial that come with this request in their mouths. Christ complains that sinners ' will not come imto him, that they may have life;' and dost think he will let any complain of him that they desire to come, and he is vmwilling they should ? Cheer up thy heart, poor creature, and knock boldly ; thou hast a friend in God's own bosom that will procure thy welcome. He that could, >VTthout any prayer made to him, give Christ for thee, will not be luiwilling, now thou so earnestly prayest, to give faith imto thee. What thou prayest God to give, he commands thee to do : ' This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ,' 1 Johniii. 23. So that in pi-aying for faith, thou prayest that 'his will maybe done by thee :' yea, that part of his will which, above all, he desires should be done, called therefore with an emphasis, ' The work of God,' John vi. 29 : ' This is the work of God, that ye believe on him wliom he hath sent.' As if Christ had said. If ye do not this, ye do nothing for God : and surely Christ knew his Father's mind best. O how welcome must that prayer be to God which falls in with his chiefest design ! Joab found his request in the mouth of the woman of Tekoah to take as he would have it : how could it do otherwise, when he asked nothing but what the king liked better than himself did, or could ? And doth it not please God more, thinkest thou, how strong soever thy desires for faith are, that a poor humbled sinner should believe, than it can do to the creature himself.' Methinks, by this time, thou shouldst begin to promise thyself, poor soul, a happy return of this tliy adven- ture, which thou liast now sent to heaven. But for thy further encouragement know, that this grace which thou so wantest and makcst thy moan to God for, it is a principal part of Christ's purchase. That blood, which is the price of pardon, is the price of faith also, by which poor sinners may come to have the benefit of that pardon. As he hath bought off that wrath which man's sin had 460 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. justl}' kindled in God's heart against liim ; so he hath also that enmity which the heart of the creature is filled with against God : and paid for a new stock of grace, wherewith his hankrupt creature may again set up : so that, poor so\il, when thou gocst to pray for faith, look up unto Christ, as having a bank of grace l}'ing by him, to give out to poor sinners who see they have nothing of their own to begin v/ith, and in the sense of this their beggary, repair to him. ' Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast re- ceived gifts for men ; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them,' Psa. Ixviii. 18. This is, beyond all doubt, meant of Christ, and to him applied, Eph. iv. 8. Now observe. First, A bank and treasure of gifts in the hand of Christ, — ' Thou hast.' Secondly, Who intrusts him with them, and that is his Father, — 'Thou hast received gifts;' that is, Christ of his Father. Thirdly, When, or upon what considerations, doth the Father deposit this treasure into Christ's hands ? — ■' Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received,' &c. That is, when Christ had van- quished sin and Satan by his death, and rode in the triumphant chariot of his ascension into heaven's glorious city, then did Christ receive these gifts as the purchase of his blood, and the payment of an old debt, which God, before the foundation of the world, when the covenant was transacted and struck, pro- mised his Son, upon the condition of his discharging sinful man's debt, with the effusion of his own precious blood unto death. Fourthly, The persons for whose use Christ received these gifts, — ' For men,' not angels ; for ' rebellious ' men, not men without sin ; so that, poor soul, thy sinful nature and life do not make thee an excepted person, and shut thee out from receiving any of this dole. Lastly, Observe the nature of these gifts, and the end they are given Christ for, — ' That God may dwell in them,' or with them. Now nothing but faith can make a soul that hath been rebellious, a place meet for the holy God to dwell in. This is the gift, indeed, he received all other gifts for, in a manner. W^herefore the gifts of the Spii'it and ministry, ' apostles, teachers, pastors,' &c., but that by these he might woi-k faith in the hearts of poor sinners ? Let this give thee boldness, poor soul, humbly to press God for that which Christ hath paid for : say. Lord, I have been a rebellious wretch indeed, but did Christ receive nothing for such ? I have an unbelieving heart, but I hear there is faith paid for in thy covenant ; Christ shed his blood that thou mightest shed forth thy Spirit on poor sinners. Dost thou think, that while thou art thus pleading with God, and using Christ's name in prayer to move him, that Christ himself can sit within hearing of all this, and not befriend thy motion to his Father ? Surely he is willing that what God is indebted to him should be paid ; and therefore when thou beggest faith upon the account of his death, thou shalt find him ready to join issue with thee in the same prayer to his Father. Indeed, he went to heaven on purpose that poor returning souls might not want a friend at court, when they come with their humble petitions thither. Section IL — Fourthly, Converse much with the promises, and be frequently pondering them in thy musing thoughts. It is indeed the Spirit's work, and only his, to bottom thy sold upon the promise, and give his word a being by faith in thy heart ; this thou canst not do ; yet as fire came down from heaven upon Elijah's sacrifice, when he had laid the wood in order, and gone as far as he could ; so thou mayest comfortably hope that then the Spirit of God will come with spiritual light and life, to quicken the promise upon thy heart, when thou hast been conscionably diligent in meditating on the promise ; if withal thou ownest God in the thing, as he did, who, Avhen he had laid all in order, lifts up his heart to God in prayer, expecting all from him, 1 Kings xviii. 36. I know no more speedy way to invite the Spirit of God to our assistance than this. As he tempts the devil to tempt him, that lets his eyes gaze or his thoughts gad upon a lustful object; so he bespeaks the Holy Spirit's company, that lets out his thought upon holy, heavenly objects. We need not doubt but the Spirit of God is as willing to cherish any good motion, as the infernal spirit IS to nourish that which is evil. We find the spouse sitting under the shadow oi her beloved, as one imder an apple-tree, Cant. ii. 3 ; and presently she tells us, ' his fruit was sweet to her taste.' What doth this her sitting under his shadow better signify, than a soul sitting under the thoughts of Christ, and the precious promises that grow out of him, as branches out of a tree? Do but, O Christian, ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 461 place tliyself here awhile, and it were strange if the Spirit should not shake some fruit from one branch or another into tliy lap. Thou knowest not, hut as Isaac met his bride when he went into the fields to meditate, so thou mayest meet thy beloved, while walking by thy meditations in this garden of the promises. Section III. — Lastly, Press and in-gc thy soul home with that strong obligation that lies upon thee, a poor humbled sinner, to believe. Possibly God hath shamed thee in the sight of thy own conscience for other sins, that thou loathest the very thought of them, and diu-st as well run thy head into the fire, as allow thj-self in them. If thou shoiddst wrong thy neighbour in his person, name, or estate, it would kindle a fire in thy conscience, and make thee afraid to look within doors, (converse, I mean, with thy own thoughts,) till thou hadst repented of it ; and is faith the only indifferent thing, a business left to thy own choice, whether thou wilt be so good to thyself, as to believe or no? Truly the tenderness of conscience which many humbled sinners express, in trembling at, and smiting them for other sins, compared with the little sense they express for this of imbelief, speaks as if they thought they offended God in them, and only wronged themselves by this their unbelief. O how greatly art thou deceived and abused in thy own thoughts, if these be thy apprehensions ; yea, if thou dost not think thou dishonourest God, and oflendest him in a more ti-an- scendent manner by thy unbelief, than by all thj' other sins. What Bernard saith of a hard heart, I may say of an unbelieving heart : lUud cor vere chinim, quod non trepldat ad nomen cordis diiri. That is a hard heart indeed, saith he, that trembles not at the name of a hard heart. And that an unbelieving heart indeed, that trembles not at the name of an unbelieving heart. Call thyself, O man, to the bar, and hear what thy soul hath to say for its not closing with Christ, and thou slialt then see what an unreasonable reason it will give. It must be cither because thou likest not the terms, or else because thou fearest they are too good ever to be performed. Is the first of these thy reason, because thou likest not the terms on which Christ is offered ? Possibly mightest thou but have had Christ- and thy lust with him, thou wouldst have been better pleased; but to part with thy lusts to gain a Christ, this thou thinkest is a hard saying. It is strange this should offend thee, which God could not have left out, and truly have loved us. Thou art a sot, a devil, if thou dost not think thy sins the worst piece of thy misery. O what is Christ Avorth in thy thoughts, if thou darest not trust him to recompense the loss of a base lust ? That man values gold little, who thinks he shall pay too dear for it by throwing the dirt or dimg out of his hands, with which they are fidl, to receive it. Well, sinner, the terms for having Christ, it seems, content thee not ; ask then thy soul how the terms on which thou boldest thy lusts like thee ; canst thou, thinkest thou, better spare the blissful presence of God and Christ in hell, where thy lusts, if thou boldest of this mind, are sure enough to leave thee at last, than the com- pany of thy lust sin heaven, whither faith in Christ would as certainly bring thee? Then take thy choice, and leave it for thy work in hell to repent of thy folly. But I should think if thou wovddst be so faithful to thyself, as to state the case right, and then seriously acquaint thy soul with it, giving it time and leisin-e to dwell upon it daily, that thou wouldst soon come to have better thoughts of Christ, and worse of thy sins. But may be, this is not the reason that keeps thee from believing; the terms thou likest highly ; but it cannot enter into thy heart to think that ever such great things as are promised should be performed to such a one as thou art. Well, of the two, it is better that the rub in thy way to Christ should lie in the difficulty that thy understanding finds to conceive, than in the obstinacy of thy will not to receive what God in Christ offers ; but this nuist be removed also. And, therefore, fall to v.'ork with thy soul, and labour to bring it to reason in this particular; for, indeed, nothing can be more irrational, than to object against the reality and certainty of God's promises. Two things well wrought on thy soul, would satisfy thy doubts and scatter thy fears tis to this. First, Labour to get a right notion of God in thy luiderstanding, and it will not ajipcar strange at all that a great God should do so great things for poor sinners. If a beggar shoidd promise you a thousand poimds a year, you might indeed slight it, and ask where he should have it; but if a prince should promise more, you would listen after it, because he hath an estate that bears proportion to his promise. God is not engaged for more by 4(52 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. promise, than infinite mercy, poAver, and faithfulness can see discharged. ' Be still, and know that I am God,' Psa. xlvi. 10 ; of this psalm Luther would say in times of great confusion in the church, ' Let us sing tlie forty -sixth psalm in spite of the devil and all his instruments.' And this clause of it, poor lumibled soul, thovi may est sing with comfort in spite of Satan and sin also. ' Be still,' O my soul, and know that he who offers thee mercy, 'he is God;' they that know his name will trust in him. Secondly, Peruse well the securities which this great God gives for the performance of his promise to the believer, and thou shalt find them so many and great, (though his bare word deserves to be taken for more than our souls ai-e worth,) that if we had the most slippery cheating companion in the world under such bonds for the payment of a sum of money, we should think it were siu-e enough ; and Avilt thou not rest satisfied, when the true and faithful God puts himself under these for thy security, whose truth is so immutable, that it is more possible for light to send forth darkness, than it is that a lie shoidd come out of his blessed lips ? CHAPTER X. AN EXHORTATION TO BELIEVERS, ABOVE ALL TO LOOK TO THEIR FAITH, WITH SOME DIRECTIONS FOR THE PRESERVING IT. I NOW turn myself to you that are believers, in a double exhortation. First, Seeing faith is such a choice grace, be stirred up to a more than ordi- nary cai'e to preserve faith. Keep that, and it will keep thee, and all thy other graces. Thou standest by faith ; if that falls, thou fallest : where shall we find thee then but under thy enemy's f^et? Be sensible of any danger thy faith is in ; like that Grecian captain, who, being knocked down in fight, asked as soon as he came to himself, where his shield was. This he was solicitous for above any- thing else. O, be asking in this temptation, and that duty, where is thy faith, and how it fares ; this is the grace which God would have us chiefly judge and value ourselves by, because there is the least danger of priding in this self- emptying grace of any other, Rom. xii. 3 : ' I say, through the grace of God given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think more highly than he ouglit to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.' There were many gifts which the Romans received from God, but he would have them think of themselves rather by their faith ; and the reason is, that they may think soberly. Indeed, all other graces are to be tried by our faith ; if they be not fruits of faith, they are of no true worth. This is the difference between a Christian and an honest heathen. He values himself on his patience, temperance, liberality, and other moral virtues which lie hath to shev\' above others ; these he expects will commend him to God, and procure him a happiness after death ; and in these he glories, and makes his boast while he lives. But the Christian is kept sober in the sight of these, though they commence graces in him, that were but virtues in the heathen, because he hath a discovery of Christ, whose righteousness and holiness by faith becomes his; and he values himself by these, more than what is inherent in him. I cannot better illustrate this than by two men ; the one a courtier, the other a countryman, and a stranger to court ; both having fair estates, but the cour- tier greatest by far. Ask the country gentleman that hath no relation to court, or place in the prince's favour, what he is worth, and he will tell you, as much as his lands and moneys amount to; these he values himself by : but ask the courtier what he is worth, and he, though he hath more land and money by far than the other, will tell you he values himself by the favoin'of his prince, more than by all his other estate. I can speak a big word, saith he ; what my prince hath is mine, except his crown and royalty ; his purse mine to maintain me, his love to embrace me, his power to defend me. The poor heathens being strangers to God, and his favour in Christ, they blessed themselves in the improvement of their natural stock, and that treasure of moral virtues which they had gathered together with their industry ; and the restraint that was laid upon their corrup- tions by a secret hand, they were not aware of. But the believer having access by faith into this grace, wherein he stands so high in court favour with God by Jesus Christ, he doth and ought to value himself chiefly by his faith, rather than any other grace. Though none can shew these graces in their true, heavenly ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4(33 beauty besides himself, yet it is not in these, but in Christ, who is his by faith, that he blesseth himself. Tlie beUever, he can say, through mercy, that he hath a heart beautified with those heavenly graces, to which the heathen's mock virtues, and the proud self justiciary's mock graces also, are no more to be compared, than the image in the glass is to the face, or the shadow to the man himself. He can say, he hath that holiness in truth, which they have but in shew and semblance. And tliis grace of God in him he values infinitely above all the world's treasure or pleasure; he had rather be the ragged saint, than the robed sinner; yea, above his natural life, which he can be willing to lose, and count himself no loser, may he thereby but secure this his spiritual life. But this is not the biggest word that a believer can say ; he is not only partaker of the Divine nature by that principle of holiness infused in him, but he is heir to all the holiness, yea, all the glorious perfections that are in God himself. All that God is, luith, or doth, he hath leave to call his own. God is pleased to be called his people's God, ' the God of Israel,' 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. As a man's house and land bears the owner's name upon it, so CJod is graciously pleased to carry his people's name on him, that all the world may know who ai-e they he belongs to. Naboth's field is called ' the portion of Naboth,' 2 Kings ix. 21 ; so God is called 'the portion of Jacob,' Jer. x. 16. Nothing hath God kept from his people, saving his crown and glory : that, indeed, ' he will not give to another,' Isa. xlii. 8. If the Christian wants strength, God would have him make use of his; and that he may do it boldly and confidently, the Lord calls himself his people's strength, 1 Sam. xv. 29 : 'The Strength of Israel will not lie.' Is it righteousness and holiness he is scanted in ? behold where it is brought unto his hand : ' Christ is made unto us righteousness,' 1 Cor. i. 13, called therefore ' the Lord our righteousness,' Jer. xxxiii. 16. Is it love and mercy they would have? all the mercy in God is at their service : Psa. xxxi. 19, ' O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee ! ' Mark the phrase, ' laid up for them ;' his mercy and goodness it is intended for them, as a father that lays by such a sum of money, and writes on the bag, This is a por- tion for such a child. But how comes the Christian to have this right to God, and all that vast and imtold treasure of happiness which is in him? This indeed is greatly to be heeded; it is faith that gives him a good title unto all this. That which maketh him a child makes him an heir. Now faith makes him a child of God : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on him.' As therefore, if you would not call your birthright into question, and bring your interest in Christ, and those gloriovis privileges that come along with him, under a sad dispute in your soul, look to your faith. Quest. But what counsel, may the Christian say, can you give for the pre- serving of my faith ? — Ans. To this I answer in these following particulars. First, That which was instrumental to beget thy faith will be helpful to preserve thy faith ; I mean the word of God. As it was seed for the former purpose in thy conversion, so now it is milk for the present sustentation of thy faith : lie sucking at this breast, and that often. Children cannot suck long," nor digest nnich at a time, and therefore need the mope frequent returns of their meals ; such children are all believers in this world. ' Precept must be upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little ;' the breast often drawn out for the nourishing of them up in their spiritual life, or else they cannot subsist. It was not ordinary that Moses shoidd look so well as he did after he had fasted so long, Exod. xxxiv. And truly it is a miraculous faith they must have who will undertake to keep their faith alive without taking any spiritual repast from the word. I have heard of some children that have been taken from their mother's breast as soon almost as born, and brought up by hand, who yet have done well for their natural life ; but I shall not believe that a creature can thrive in his spiritual life who casts off ordinances, and weans himself from the word, till I hear of some other way of provision that God hath made for the ordinary maintenance of it besides this; and I despair of living so long as to see this proved. I know some, that we may hope well of, have l)een for a time persuaded to turn their backs on the word and ordinances; but they have returned well hunger-bitten to their old fare again ; yea, with Naomi's bitter complaint in their mouths, ' I went out full, and the liord hath brought me 4(34 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. home again empty,' Ruth i. 21. And happy for them that they are come to their stomachs in this life, before this food be tai^en off the table, never more to be set on. He that taught Christians to pray for their daily bread, did suppose they had need of it ; and surely he did not mean only or chiefly corporeal bread, who in the same chapter bids them 'seek first the kingdom of God,' Matt. vi. 33. Well, Christian, prize thou the word, feed on the word, wliether it be dished up in a sermon at the public, or in a conference vt'ith some Christian friend in private, or in a more secret duty of reading and meditation by tliy solitary self. Let none of these be disused, or carnally used by thee ; and, with God's blessing, thou shalt reap the benefit of it in thy faith. When thy stomach fails to the word, thy faith must needs begin to fail on the word. O that Christians who are so much in complaints of their weak faith, Avould but turn their complaints into inquiries why it is so weak and declining ! Is it not because faith hath missed its wonted meals from the word ? Thou haply hast formerly broke through many straits to keep thy acquaintance with God in his word, and wert well paid for that time which thou didst borrow of thy other occasions for this end, by that sweet temper then thou foundest thy heart in to trust God and rely upon him in all conditions ; but now, since thou hast dis- continued thy acquaintance with God in those his ordinances, thou perceivest a sad change : where thou couldst have trusted God, now thou art suspicious of him ; those promises that were able in a mutiny and hubbub of thy unruly passions to have hushed and quieted all in thy soul at their appearing in thy thoughts, have now, alas! but little authority over thy murmuring, unbelieving heart, to keep it in any tolerable order. If it be thus with thee, poor soul, thy ease is sad, and I cannot give thee better counsel for thy soul than that which physicians give men in a consumption, for their bodies. They ask them where tbey were born and bred up ; and to that their native air tlxey send tliem as the best means to recover them. Thus, soid, let me ask thee, if thou ever hadst faith, where was it born and bred up ; was it not in the sweet air of ordinances, hearing, meditating, conferring of the word, and praying over the word? Go, poor creature, and get thee as fast as thou canst into thy native air, where thou didst draw thy first Christian breath, and where thy faith did so thrive and grow for a time. No means more hopeful to set thy feeble faith on its legs again than this. Secondly, Wouldst thou preserve thy faith, look to thy conscience. A good con- science is the bottom faith sails in ; if the conscience be wrecked, how can it be thought that faith should be safe? If faith be the jewel, a good conscience is the cabinet in which it is kept ; and if the cabinet be broken, the jewel must needs be in danger of losing. Now you know what sins waste the conscience ; sins either deliberately committed, or impenitently continued in. O take heed of deliberate sin ; like a stone thrown into a clear stream, it will so disturb thy soul, and muddy it, that thou, who even now couldst see thy interest in the promise, wilt now be at a loss, and not know what to think of thyself They are like a fire on the top of the house, it will be no easy matter to quench it. But if thou hast been so imhappy as to fall into such a slough, take heed of lying in it by impenitence : the sheep may fall into a ditch, but it is the swine that wallowsin it ; and therefore how hard wilt thou find it, thinkest thou, to act thy faith on the promise when thou art, by thy filthy garments and besmeared countenance, so unlike one of God's holy ones! It is dangerous to drink poison, but far more to let it lie in the body long. Thou canst not act thy faith, though a believer, on the promise, so as to apjily the pardon it presents to thy soul, till thou hast renewed thy repentance. Thirdly, Exercise thy faith, if thou meanest to preserve thy faith. We live by faith, and faith lives by exercise. As we say of some stirring men, they are never well but at work ; confine them to their bed or chair, and you kill them : so here, hinder faith from working, and you are enemies to the very life and being of it. Why do we act faith so little in prayer, but because we are no more "frequent in it ? Let the child seldom see its father or mother, and when he comes in their presence, he will not make much after them. Why are we no more able to live on a pi-omise when at a plunge? surely, because we live no more with the promise. The more we converse with the promise, the more confidence we shall put in it. We do not trust strangers as we do oin- ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 465 neighbours, in whose company we are ahiiost every day. It were a rare way to secure our faith, yea, to advance it and all our other graces, would we, in our dailv course, labour to do all our actions, as in obedience to the command, so in faith on tlie promise. But, alas ! how many enterprises are undertaken M-hcre faith is not called in, nor tlie promise consulted with from one end of the business to the other ! And, therefore, when we would make use of faith in some particular strait wherein we think ourselves to be more than ordinarily at a loss, our faith itself is at a loss, and to seek, like a servant who, because his master very seldom employs him, makes bold to be gadding abroad, and so when his master doth call him upon some extraordinary occasion, he is out of the way and not to be found. O Christian, take heed of letting your faith be long out of work; if y-ou do not use it when you ought, it may fail you when you desire most to act it. Fourthly, Take special notice oftliat unbelief which yet remains in thee, and as it is putting forth daily its head in thy Christian course, be sure thou loadest thy soul with the sense of it, and deeply humblest thyself before God for it. What thy faith loseth by every act of unbelief, it recovers again by renewing thy repentance. David's faith was on the mending hand when he could shame himself heartily for his unbelief, Psa. Ixxiii. 22. He confessethhow foolish and ignorant he was : ' Yea,' saith he, ' I was a beast before thee ; ' so irrational and brutish his unbelieving thoughts now appeared to him. And by this ingenuous, humble confession, the malignity of his distemper breathes ont, that he is presently in his old temper again, and his faith is able to act as high as ever. ' Thou hast holden me by my right hand ; thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and after receive me to glory,' ver. 23, 21. But, so long thy unbelief is sure to grow upon thee, as thou art mihumbled for it. We have the reason why the people of Laish were so bad, Judges xviii. 7 : ' There was no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in anything.' Christian, thou hast a magistrate in thy bosom, commissioned by God himself, to check, reprove, and shame thee, when thou sinnest : indeed, all things go to wreck in that soul where this doth not its otRce ; hear, therefore, what this hath to charge thee with, that thou mayest be ashamed. There is no sin dishonours God more than unbelief, and this sword cuts his name deepest when in the hand of a saint. O to be wounded in the house of his friends ! this goes near the tender heart of God. And there is reason enough why God should take this sin so unkindly at a saint's hand, if we consider the near relation such a one stands in to God. It would grieve an indulgent father to see his own child come into court, and there bear witness against him, and charge him of some untruth in his words, more than if a stranger should do it ; because the testimony of a child, thougli when it is for the vindication of a parent, m^iy lose some credit in the opinion of those that hear it, upon the sus^iicion of partiality ; yet when against a parent, it seems to carry some more probability of truth than what another that is a stranger says against him ; because the bond of natural affection with which the child is bound to his parent is so sacred, that it will not be easily sus])ected ; he can offer violence to it only upon the more inviolable necessity of bearing witness to the trutli. O think of this, Christian, again and again. I3y thy unbe- lief thou bearest false witness against God ; and if thou, a child of God, speakest no better of thy heavenly Father, and presentest him in no fairer character to the world, it will be no wonder if they be confirmed in their hard thouglits of God, even to final impenitency and unbelief, when they shall see how little credit he finds with thee, for all thy great profession of him, and near relation to him. When we would sink the reputation of a man the lowest possible, we cannot think of an expression that will do it more effectually, than to say he is such a one as those that are nearest to him, even his own children, dare not trust him, or will not give him a good word. O Christian, ask thyself whether thou couldst be willing to be the unhappy instrument to defame God, and take away his good name in th.e world : certainly thy heart trembles at the thought of it, if a saint ; and if it doth, then surely thy unbelief, by which thou hast done this so oft, will wound thee to tlie very heart ; and, bleeding for w'bat thou hast done, thou wilt beware of taking that sword into thy hand again with which thou hast given so many a wound to the name of Ciod and thy own peace. Fifthly, If thou wouldst preserve thy faith, labour to increase thy faith. None in more danger of losing what they have, than those poor-spirited men who are 2 1£ 4,gg ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. content with what they have. A spark is sooner smothered than a flame ; a drop is easier drank up and dried than a river. The stronger thy faith is, the safer tliy faith is from the enemy's assaults. The intelligence which an enemy liath of a castle being weakly provided for a siege, is enough to bring him against it, which else would not have been troubled with his company. The devil is a coward, and he loves to fight on the greatest advantage, and greater he cannot have than the weakness of the Christian's faith. Didst thou but know, Chi'istian, the many privileges of a strong faith above a weak, thou wouldst never rest till thou hadst it. Sti-ong faith comes conqueror out of those temptations where weak faith is foiled and taken prisoner. Those Philistines could not stand before Samson in his strength who durst dance about him scornlully in his weakness. When David's faith was up, how iindauntedly did he look death in the face ! 1 Sam. xxx. 6 ; but when that was out of his heart, O how poor-spirited is he ! ready to run his head into every hole, though never so dishonourably, to save himself, 1 Sam. xxi. 13. Strong faith, it frees the Christian from those heart-rending thoughts which weak faith nmst needs he oppressed with. ' Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee,' Isa. xxvi. 3. So much faith, so much inward peace and quietness. If little faith, then little peace and serenity, through the storms that our unbelieving fears will necessarily gather. If strong faith, then strong jieace, for so the repeti- tion in the Hebrew, ' Peace, peace,' imports. It is confessed, weak faith hath as much peace with God through Christ, as the other hath by his strong faith, but not so much bosom peace. Weak faith will as surely land the Christian in heaven as strong faith ; for it is impossible the least dram of true grace should perish, being all incorruptible seed ; but the weak, doubting Christian is not like to have so pleasant a voyage thither as another with strong faith. Though all in the ship come safe to shore, yet he that is all the way sea-sick hath not so comfortable a voyage as he that is strong and healthful. There are many delightful prospects occur in a journey, which he that is sick and weak loseth the pleasure of; but the strong man views all with abundance of delight; and, though he wisheth with all his heart he was at home, yet the entertainment he hath from these do much shorten and sweeten his way to him. Thus, Christian, there are many previous delights, which saints travelling to heaven meet on their way thither, besides what God hath for them at their journey's end. But it is the Christian whose faith is strong and active on the promise that finds them. This is he who sees those spiritual glories in the promise, that ravish his soul with unspeakable delight, while the doubting Christian's eye of faith is so gummed up with unbelieving fears, that he can see little to affect him in it. This is he that goes singing all the way with the promise in his eye ; while the weak Christian (kept in continual pain with his own doubts and jealousies) goes sighing and mourning with a heavy heart, because his interest in the promise is yet under a dispute in his own thoughts. As you v.ould not there- fore live uncomfortably, and have a dull, melancholy walk of it to heaven, labour to strengthen your faith. Quest. But, may be, you will ask. How may I know whether my faith be strong or weak ? — Ansiv. I answer, by these following characters. First, The more entirely a Christian can rely on God, upon his naked word in the promise, the stronger his faith is. He surely putteth greater confidence in a man that will take his own word, or single bond for a smn of monej', than he who dares not, except some others will be bound for him. When we trust God for his bare promise, we trust him on his own credit, and this is faith indeed. He that walks without staff or crutch, is stronger than he that needs these to lean on. The promise is the ground faith goes on ; sense and reason, these are the crutches which weak faith leans on too much in its acting. Now, soul, inquire. First, Canst thou bear up thyself on the pi'omise, though the crutch of sense and present feeling be not at hand? May be, thou hast had some discoveries of God's love, and beamings forth of his favour upon thee, and so long as the sun sinned thus in at thy window, thy heart v.-as lightsome, and thou thoughtest thou shouldst never distrust God more, nor listen to thy unbelieving thoughts more ; but how findest thou thy heart now, since those sensible demonstrations are withdrawn, and may be some frowning providence sent in the room of them? dost thou presently dispute the jjromise in thy ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4g'J' thoughts, as not knowing whether thou niaycst venture to cast anchor on it or no? Because thou liast lost the sense of his love, does thj' eye of faith fail tliee also, tliat tliou liast lost the sight of his mercy and truth in the promise ? Surely the eye of fnitli is weak, or else it would read the promise without these spectacles. The little child, indeed, thinks the mother is quite lost, if she goes but out of the room where he is^ but as it grows older, so he will be wiser, and truly so will the believer also. Christian, bless God for tlie experiences and sensible tastes thou hast at any time of his love ; but know, that we cannot judge of our faith, whether weak or strong, by them. Experiences, saith Parisiensis, are like crutches, which do indeed help a lame man to go, but they do not make the lame man sound or strong ; food and ph}'sic must do that. And therefore. Christian, labour to lean more on tlie promise, and less on sensible expressions of God's love, whether it be in the present feeling, or past experiences of it. I would not take 3'ou oif from improving these, but leaning on these, and limiting the actings of our faith to these. A strong man, thougli he doth not lean on his staff all the way he goes, as the lame man doth oji his crutch, which bears liis whole weight, yet he may make good use of it now and then to- defend himself, when set upon by a thief or dog in his way. Thus the strong Christian may make good use of his experiences, in some temptations, though he doth not lay the weight of his faitli upon them, but the promise. Canst thou, secondly, bear thyself upon the promise, when the other crutch of reason breaks under thee, or does thy faith even fall to the ground with it? That is a strong faith, indeed, that can trample upon the improbabilities and impossibilities which reason would be objecting against the performance of tlie promise, and gives credit to the truth of it with a ?ion obstante. Thus Noah fell hard to work about the ark, upon the credit he gave both to the threatening and promissory part of God's word, and never troubled his head to clear the matter to his reason, how these strange things could come to pass. And it is imputed to the strength of Abraham's faith, that he would not suifer his own naiTow reason to have the hearing of the business, when God promised him a Michaelmas spring, (as I may so say,) a son in his old age : Rom. iv. 19, ' And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, that was now dead:' and skilful swimmers are not afraid to go above their depth; whereas young learners feel for the ground, and are loth to go far from the bank-side. Strong faith fears not, when God carries the creature beyond the depth of his reason : ' We know not what to do,' saith good Jehoshaphat, 'but our eyes are upon thee,' 2 Chron. xx. As if he had said, We are in a sea of troubles, beyond our own help, or any thought how we can wind oiit of these straits ; but our eyes are upon thee : we dare not give oiu- case for desperate, so long as there is strength in thine arm, tenderness in thy bowels, and truth in thy promise. Whereas weak faith, that is groping for some footing for reason to stand on, it is taken up, how to reconcile the promise and the creature's understanding; hence those many questions which drop from its mouth. When Christ said, 'Give ye them to eat," Mark vi., his disciples ask him, 'Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread?' as if Christ's bare word could not spare that cost and trouble. 'Whereby shall I know this,' saith Zacharias to the angel, 'for I am an old man ?' Luke i. Alas ! his faith was not strong enough to digest, at pre- sent, this strange news. Secondly, The more composed and contented the heart is under the changes which Providence brings upon the Christian's state and condition in the world, the stronger his faith is. Weak bodies cannot bear change of weather so well as healthful and strong do ; hot and cold, fair or foul, cause no great alteration in the strong man's temper; but, alas! the other is laid up by them, oj- at best goes comi)laining of them. Thus strong faith can live in any climate, travel in all weather, and fadge with any condition. ' I liave learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,' saith Paul, Phil. iv. 11. Alas! all Christ's scholars are not of Paul's form; weak faith luith not yet got the mastery of this hard lesson. When God turns thy health into sickness, thy abundance into penury, thy lionour into scorn and contempt, in what language dost thou now make thy condition known to God? Is thy spirit embittered into discontent, which thou ventest in mui-muring complaints ? or art thou well satisfied with God's dealings, so as to acquiesce cheerfully in thy ]n-esent portio7i, not from an insensibleness 468 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OP FAITH. of the affliction, but approbation of divine appointment? If the latter, thy faith is strong. First, It shews God hath a throne in thy heart; thou reverencest his authority, and ownest his sovereignty, or else thou wouldst not acquiesce in his orders. ' I was dumb, because thou didst it,' Psa. xxxix. 9. If the blow had come from any other hand, he could not have taken it so silently. When the servant strikes the child, he runs to his father and makes his complaint ; but though the father doth more to him, he complains not of his father, nor seeks redress from any other ; because it is his fathei-, whose authority he reveres. Thus thou comportest thyself towards God, and what but a strong faith can en- able thee? 'Be still, and know that I am God,' Psa. xlvi. 11. We must know God believingly to be what he is, before our hearts will be still. Secondly, This acquiescence of spirit, under the disposition of Providence, shews that thou dost not only stand in awe of his sovereignty, but hast amiable, comfortable thoughts of his mercy and goodness in Christ. Thou believest he can soon, and certainly will make thee amends, or else thou couldst not so easily part with these enjoyments. The child goes willingly to bed, when others, may be, ai-e going to supper at a great feast in the family ; but the mother promiseth the child to save something for him against the morning : this the child believes, and is content. Surely thou hast something in the eye of thy faith which will recompense all thy present loss, and this makes thee fast so willingly when others feast ; be sick when others are well. Paul tells us why he and his brethren in affliction did not faint, 2 Cor. xiv. 16. They saw heaven coming to them, wliile earth was going from them. ' For which cause we faint not, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, woi-ketli for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' Thirdly, The more able to wait long for answers to our desires and prayers, the stronger faith is. It shews the tradesman to be poor and needy when he must have ready money for what he sells. They that are forehanded are willing to give time, and able to forbear long. Weak faith is all for the jn-esent ; if it hath not presently its desires answered, then it grows jealous, lays down sad conclusions against itself, — his prayer was not heai'd, or he is not one God loves, and the like ; much ado to be kept out of a fainting fit. ' I said in my haste, All men are liars;' but strong faith, that can trade with God for time, yea, wait God's leisure: ' He that believes makes not haste,' Isa. xxviii. 16. He knows his money is in a good hand, and he is not over-quick to call for it home, knowing well that the longest voyages have the richest returns. As rich ground can do without rain longer than lean or sandy, which must have a shower ever and anon, or the corn on it fades ; or as a strong healthful man can fast longer without faintness than the sickly and weak ; so the Christian of strong faith can stay longer for spiritual refreshing from the presence of the Lord, in the returns of his mercy, and discovei'ies of his love to him, than one of weak faith. Fourthly, The more the Christian can lose or suffer upon the credit of the promise, the stronger his faith is. If you should see a man part with a fair inheritance, and leave his kindred and country, where he might pass his days in the embracements of his dear friends, and the delicious fare which a plentifiU estate would affiard him every day, to follow a friend to the other end of the world, with hunger and hardship, through sea and land, and a thousand perils that meet him on every hand, you would say that this man had a strong con- fidence in his friend, and a dear love to him, would you not? Nay, if he should do all this for a friend whom he never saw, upon the bare credit of a letter which he sends to invite him to come over to him, with a promise of great things that he Avould do for him, now, to throw all his present possessions and enjoyments at his heels, and willingly put himself into the condition of a poor pilgrim and traveller, (with the loss of all he hath,) that he may come to his dear friend, this adds to the wonder of his confidence. Such gallant spirits we read of, 1 Pet. i. 6 — 8 : ' Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice,' &c. Observe the place, and you shall find them in sorrowful plight, ' in heaviness through manifold tempta- tions ;' yet, because their way lies through the sloughs to the enjoyment of God and Christ, (whom they never saw or knew, but by the report the word makes of them,) they can turn their back on the world's friendship and enjoyments, ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4,(39 with which it courted them as well as others, aiwl go with a merry heart through the deepest of them all : here is glorious faith indeed ! It is not praising of heaven, and wishing we were there, hut a cheei'ful abandoning the dearest pleasures, and embracing the greatest sufferings of the world, (when called to the same,) will evidence our faith to be both true and strong. Fifthly, The more easily that the Christian can repel motions, and resist temptations to sin, the stronger is his faith. The snare or net which holds the little fisli fast, the greater and stronger fish easily breaks through. The Chris- tian's faith is strong or weak,, as lie finds it easy or hard to break from tempta^ tions to sin. When an ordinary temptation holds thee by the heel, and thou art entangled in it, like a fly in a spider's web, much ado to get off and persuade thy heart from yielding ; truly it speaks faith very feeble ; to have no strength to oppose the assaults of sin and lust, speaks tlie heart void of faith. Whers faith hath not a hand to prostrate an enemy, it yet hath a hand to lift up against it, and a voice to cry out for help to heaven ; some way or other, faith will shew its dislike, and enter its protest against sin ; and to have little strength to resist evidenceth a weak faith. Peter's faith was weak, when a maid's voice dashed him out of coimtenance; but it was well amended, when he could withstand, and with a noble constancy disdain threats of a whole council. Acts xiv. 17. Christian, compare thyself witli thyself, and give righteous judgment on thyself: do thy lusts as powerfully inveigle thy heart, and carry it away from God, as they did some months or years ago? or canst thou in truth say, thy heart is got above them ; since thou hast known more of Christ, and had a view of iiis spiritual glories, thou canst now pass by their door and not look in ; yea, when they knock at thy door in a temptation, thou canst shut it upon them, and disdain the motion ? Surely thou mayest know thy faith is grown stronger. When we see that the clothes, which a year or two ago were even fit for the person, will not now come on him, they are so little, we may easily be persuaded to believe the person is much grown since that time. If thy faith were no more grown, those temptations which fitted thee then would like thee as well now ; find but the power of sin die, and thou mayest know that faith is more lively and vigorous. The harder the blow, the stronger the arm is that gives it. A child cannot strike such a blow as a man- Weak faith cannot give such a home blow to sin as a strong faith can. Sixthly, The more ingenuity and love is in thy obediential walking, the stronger thy faith is. Faith works by love, and therefore its strength or weak- ness may be discovered by the strength or weakness of that love it puts forth in the Christian's actings. The strength of a man's arm, that draws a bow, is seen by the force the arrow which he shoots flies with. And certainly, the strength of our faith may be known by the force tliat our love mounts to God with. It is impossible that weak faith (wliich is unable to draw the promise as a strong faith can) should leave such a forcible impression on the heart to love God, as the stronger faith doth. If, therefore, thy heart be strongly carried out from love to God, to abandon sin, perform duty, and exert acts of obedience to his command; know thy place, and take it with humble thankfulness, thou art a graduate in the art of believing. Tiie Christian's love advanceth by equal paces with his faith, as the heat of the day ihcreaseth with the climbing sun ; the higher that moimts towards its meridian, the hotter the day grows ; so, the higher faith lifts Christ up in the Christian, the more intense his love to Christ grows, which now sets him on work after another sort than he was wont. Before, when he was to mourn for his sins, he was acted by a slavish fear, and made an ugly face at the work, as one dotli that drinks some unpleasing ])otion ; but now acts of repentance are not distasteful and formidable, since faith hath dis- covered mercy to sit on justice's brow, and undeceived the creatiu'e of those false and cruel thouglits of God, which ignorantly he had taken up concerning him. He doth not now hate the word 'repentance,' (as Luther said he once did, before he understood that place, Ronu i. 17,) but goes about the work with amiable, sweet apprehensions of a good God, that stands ready with the sponge of his mercy, dipped in Christ's blood, tt) blot out his sins as fast ashe scores them up by his Inimble, sorrowful confession of tlu'm. And the same might be said concerning all other offices- of Christian piety. Strong faith makes the soul ingenuous : it doth not pay the performance of any duty, as an oppressed 470 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. subject cloth a heavy tax, with a deep sigh, to tliink how much he parts with, but as freely as a child would present his father with an apj)le of that orchard which he holds by gift from him ; indeed, the child, when young, is very servile and selfish, forbearing what his father forbids for fear of the rod, and doing wliat he commands for some fine thing or other that his father bribes him with, more than for pure love to his person, or obedience to his will and plea- siu'e : but as he grows up, and comes to understand himself better, and the relation he stands in, with the many obligations of it to filial obedience, then his servility and selfishness wear off, and his natural afl'ection will prevail more with him to please his father, than any other argiunent whatever. And so will it with the Christian, where faith is of any grov/th and ripeness. Seventhly, to name no more, The more able faith is to sweeten the thoughts of death, and make it desirable to the Christian, the stronger his ftuth. Things that are very sharp or sour, will take much sugar to make them sweet. Death is one of those things, which hath the most ungrateful taste to the creature's palate that can be. O it requires a strong faith to make the serious thoughts of it sweet and desirable. I know some, in a pet and passion, have professed great desires of dying ; but it hath been as a sick man desires to change his place, merely out of a weariness of, and discontent with his present condition, without any due consideration of what they desire. But a soul that knows the consequences of death, and the unchangeableness of that state (whether of bliss or misery) that it certainly marries us to, will never cheerfully call for death in his cordial desires, till he be in some measiu-e resolved from the promise, what entertainment he may expect fi'om God when he comes into that other world; and that a weak faith will not do, without abundance of fears and doubts. I confess, that sometimes a Christian of very weak faith may meet death with as little fear iipon his spirit, yea, more joy, than one of a far stronger faith, when he is helped up by the chin, by some extraordinary comfort poured into his soul from God immediately ; which should God withdraw, his fears would retiu'n upon him, and he feel again his faintings, as a sick man that hath been strangely cheered with a strong cordial does his feebleness, when the efficacy of it is spent : but we speak of the ordinary way in which Christians come to have their hearts raised above the fear, yea, into a strong desire of death, and that is by attaining to a strong faith. God can indeed make a feast of a few loaves, and multiply the weak Christian's little faith on a sudden, as he lies on a sick bed, into a spread table of all varieties of consolations ; but I fear God will not do this miracle for that man or woman, who upon the expectation of this, contents himself with the little provision of faith he hath, and laboui's not to increase his store against that spending-time. CHAPTER XL SHEWETH, IT IS THE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN TO OWN THE GRACE OF GOD IN HIM, AND NOT DENY IT ; WITH THE RESOLUTION OF SOME SCRUPLES WITH WHICH WEAK SAINTS DISPUTE AGAINST THE TRUTH OF THEIR OWN FAITH. Secondly, We come to the second word of exhortation we have to speak to the saints. If faith be such a choice grace, and thou hast it, deny not what God hath done for thee. Which is worst, thinkest thou, the sinner to hide and deny his sin, or the Christian to hide and deny his faith ? I confess the first docs worst, if we look to the intention of the persons; for the sinner hides his sin out of a wicked end, and the doubting soul means well ; he is afraid to play the hypocrite, and be found a liar in saying he hath, what he fears he hath not : but if we consider the consequence of the Christian's disowning the grace of God in him, and what use the devil makes of it, for the leading him into many other sins, it will not be so easy to resolve Avhose sin is the greatest. Good Joseph meant piously, when he had thoughts of putting away secretly his espoused Mary, (thinking no other, but that she had played the whore,) and yet, it would have been a sad act, if he had persisted in his thoughts ; espe- cially after the angel had told him that Avhicli was conceived in her to be of the Holy Ghost. Thus thou, poor mourning soul, may be, art thinking to put away thy faith, as some by-blow of Satan, and base-born counterfeit grace, begot on thy hypocritical heart by the father of lies. Well, take heed what AI50VE ALL, TAKING TlIK SHIELD OF FAITH. 4 ~ | thou dost; hast thou had no vision, not extraordinary, of an angel, or inunediato revelation, but ordinary, of the Spirit of God, I mean, in his Avord and ordi- nances, encouraging thee from those characters which are in the Scripture given of faith, and the conformity thy f lith hath to them, to take and own thy faith, as that which is conceived in thee by the Holy Gliost, and not a brat formed by the delusion of Satan in the womb of thy own groundless imagination? If so, be afraid of bearing false witness against the grace of God in thee. As there is that makes himself rich in faith, tliat hath nothing of this grace, so there is that maketh himself poor, that hath great store of this riches. Let us therefore hear what are the grounds of this thy suspicion, that we may see whether thy fears or thy faith be imaginary and false. Object. First, Saith the poor soul, I am afraid I have no true faith, because I have not those joys and consolations which others have who believe. Ans. First, Thou mayest have inward peace, though not joy ; the day may be still and calm, though not glorious and sunshine; though the Comforter be not come with his ravishing consolation, yet he may have hushed the storm of thy troubled spirit ; and true peace as well as joy is the consequent of faith un- feigned. Secondly, Suppose thou hast not yet attained so much as to this inward peace, yet know thou hast no reason to question the truth of thy faith for want of this. We have peace with God as soon as we believe, but not always with ourselves. The pardon may be passed the prince's hand and seal, and yet not put into the prisoner's hand. Thou thinkest them too rash, dost not, who judged Paul a mui'derer by the viper that fastened on his hand ? And what art thou, who condenmest thyself for an unbeliever, because of those troubles and inward agonies which may fasten for a time on the spirit of the most gracious child God hath on earth ? Object. Secondly, But can there be any true f\uth where there is so much doubting as I find in mj^self? Ans. There is a doubting which the Scripture opposeth to the least degree of faith. Our blessed Saviour tells them what wonders they shall do if they believe and doubt not, Matt. xxi. 21 ; and Luke xvii. 6, he tells his disciples, ' if they have faith as a gl'ain of mustard-seed,' they shall do as much. That which is a faith without doubting in Matthew is faith as a grain of mustard-seed in Luke. But again, there is a doubting which the Scripture opposeth not to the truth of faith, but the strength of faith : Matt. xiv. 31, *0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?' They are the words of Christ to sinking Peter, in which he so chides his doubting, as yet to acknowledge the truth of his faith, though weak. All doubting is evil in its nature ; yet some doubting, though evil in itself, doth evidence some grace that is good to be in the person so doubting ; as smoke proves some fire, and peevishness and pettishness in a sick person, that before lay senseless, is a good sign of some mending, though itself a thing bad enough. But the thing here desirable, I conceive, would be to give some help to the doubting soul, that he may know what his doubting is symptomatical of, whether of true faith, though weak, or of jio faith. Now for this I shall lay down four cha- racters of those doubtings which accompany true faith. First, The doubtings of a true believer are attended with much shame and sorrow of spirit, even for these doubtings. I appeal to thy conscience, poor doubting soul, whether the consideration of this one sin doth not cost thee many a salt tear, and heavy sigh, which others know not of? Now I pray from whence come these ? Will unbelief mourn for imbelief ? or sin put itself to shame ? No sure, it shews there is a principle of faith in the soul, that takes God's part, and cannot see his promises and name wronged by unbelief with- out protesting against it, and mourning under it, though the hands of this grace be too weak at present to drive the enemy out of the soul. Dent. xxii. 27, the law cleared the damsel that ' cried out in the field ;' and so will the gospel thee, who sincerely moiu-nest for thy unbelief. That holy man, whoever he was, Psa. Ixxvii., was far gone in this doubting disease. How many times do we find his unbelief putting the mercy and faithfulness of God (which should be beyond all dispute in our hearts) to the question and dubious vote in his dis- tempered soul ! He might with as nuich reason have asked his soul whether there was a CJod, as whether his mercy was clean gone, and his promise fail'; yet so far did his fears in tliis hurry carry him aside ; but at last you have 47'2 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. him acknowledging his folly, ver. 10, * And I said, This is my infirmity.' This I may thank thee for, O my unbelief, thou enemy of God and my soul : thou wilt be puzzling me with needless fears, and make me think and speak so unworthily of my God. This proved there was faith at the bottom of his . unbelief. Secondly, The doubtings of a sincere believer are accompanied with ardent desires after those things which it most calls in question and doubts of. The weak believer, he questions whether God loves him or no, but he desires it more than life ; and this is the language of a gracious soul, Psa. Ixiii. 3 : ' Thy loving- kindness is better than life.' He doubts whether Christ be his ; yet if you should ask him what value he sets upon Christ, and what he would give for Christ, he can tell you, and that truly, that no price should be too great if he were to be bought : no condition that God offers Christ upon appears to him hard, but all easy and cheap. And this is the judgment which only the believing soul can have of Christ, ' Unto you therefore which believe he is precious,' 1 Pet. ii. 7. In a word, he doubts whether he be truly holy or only counterfeit, but his soul pants and thirsts after those graces most which he can see least : he to him should be tlie more welcome messenger, that brings hini the news of a broken heart, than another that tells him of a whole crown and kingdom fallen to him. He disputes every duty and action he doth, whether it be according to the rule of the wordj and yet he passionately desires that he could walk without one wry step from it ; and doth not quarrel with the word because it is so strict, but with his heart, because it is so loose ; and how great a testimony these give of a gracious frame of heart, see Psalm cxix. 20, 140, where David brings these as the evidence of his grace. Canst thou, therefore, poor soul, let out thy heart strongly after Christ and his graces, while thou dost not see thy interest in either? Be of good cheer, thou art not so great a stranger with these as thou thinkest thyself; these strong desires are the consequent of some taste thou hast had of them already ; and these doubts may proceed, not from an absolute want, as if thou wert wholly destitute of them, but the violence of thy desires, which are not satisfied with what thou hast. It is very ordinary for excessive love to be- get excessive fears, and those groundless. The wife, because she loves her hus- band dearly, fears when he is abroad she shall never see him more ; one while she thinks he is sick, another while killed, and thus her love torments her with- out any just cause, when her husband is all the while well, and on his way home. A jewel of great price, or ring that we highly value, if but laid out of sight, the extreme estimate we set on them makes us presently think them lost. It is the nature of passions in this our imperfect state, when strong and violent, to disturb our reason, and hide things from our eye, which else were easy to be seen. Thus many poor doubting souls are looking and hunting to find that faith which they have already in their bosoms, being hid from them merely by the vehemence of their desire of it, and fear they should be cheated with a false one for a true ; as the damsel opened not the door for gladness to Peter, Acts xii. 14. Her joy niade her, forget wliat she did; so the high value the poor doubting Christian sets on faith, together with an excess of longing after it, suffers him not to entertain so high an opinion of himself as to think he at pre- sent hath that jewel in his bosom which he so infinitely prizeth. Thirdly, The doubtings of a truly believing soul make him more inquisitive how he may get what he sometimes fears he hath not. Many sad thoughts pass to and fro in his soul, whether Christ be his or no, whether he may lay claim to the promise or no ; and these cause such a commotion in his spirit, that he cannot rest till he come to some resolution in his own thoughts from the word concerning this great case ; therefore as Ahasuerus, when he could not sleep, called for the records and chronicles of his kingdom, so the doubting soul betakes himself to the records of heaven, the word of God in the Scripture, and one while ho is reading there, another while looking into his own heart, if he can find there anything that answers the characters of Scripture-faith, as the face in the glass doth the face of man. David, Psa. Ixxvii., when he was at a loss what to think of himself, and many doubts did clog his faith, inso- nuich that the thinking of God inci-eased his trouble, he did not sit down and let the ship drive, as we say, not regarding whether (iod loved him or no, but ' commimcs with his own heart, and his spirit makes .diligent search :' thus it is ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. /^"^f^ with every sincere soul under doubtings ; lie dares no more sit down contented in that iniresolved condition, than one who thinks he smells fire in his house dares settle himself to sleep till he hath looked in every room and corner, and satisfied himself that all is safe, lest he should be waked witii the fire about his ears in the night ; and the poor doubting soul nmch more afraid, lest it should wake with hell-fire about it; whereas a soul in a state and inider the power of luibelief, is secure and careless. The old world did not believe the threatening of the flood, and they spent no thoughts about the matter; it is at their doors and windows ])efore they had used any means how to escape it. Fourthly, In the midst of the true believer's doubtings, there is a leaning of his heart on Christ, and a secret purpose still to cleave to him. At the same time that Peter's feet were sinking into the waters, he was lifting up a prayer to Christ, and this proved the truth of his faith, as the other its weakness. So Jonah, he had many fears, and sometimes so predominant, that as bad humours settle into a sore, so they gathered into a hasty unbelieving Conclusion ; yet then his faith had some little secret hold on God, Jonah ii. 4 : ' Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.' And verse 7 : ' When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord.' Holy David, also, though he could not rid his soul of all those fears which got into it tlixough his weak faith, as water into a leaking ship, yet he hath his hand at the pump, and takes up a firm resolution against them, Psa. Ivi. 3 : * At what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.' The doubting Christian sinks, but as a traveller in a slough, where the bottom is firm, and so recovers himself; but the unbeliever sinks in his fears as a man in a quicksand, lower and lower, till he be swallowed up into despair. The weak Christian's doubting is like the wavering of a ship at anchor ; he is moved, yet not removed from his hold on Christ ; but the unbeliever's, like the wavering of a wave, which having no- thing to stay it, it is wholly at the mercy of the wind, James i. 6 : 'Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering ; for he that wavei-eth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.' Object. Thirdly, O but, saith another, I fear mine is a presumptuous faith, and if so, to be sure it cannot be right, ylns. For the removal of this objection, I shall lay down three characters of a presumptuous faith. First, A ])resumptuous faith, it is an easy faith ; it hath no enemy of Satan, or our own corrupt hearts to oppose it, and so, like a stinking weed, shoots up and grows rank on a sudden. The devil never hath a sinner surer, than when dream- ing in this fool's paradise, and walking in his sleep, amidst his vain phantastical hopes of Christ and salvation. And therefore he is so far from waking him, that he draws the curtains close about him, that no light nor noise in his conscience may break his rest. Did you ever know the thief call him up in the night, whom he meant to i-ob and kill ? No, sleep is his advantage. But true faith he is a sworn enemy against ; he persecutes it in the very cradle, as Herod did Christ in the manger ; he pours a flood of wrath after it, as soon as it betrays its own birth, by crying and lamenting after the Lord. If thy faith be legitimate, Naph- tali may be its name ; and th.ou mayest say. With great ' wrestlings have I wrestled ' with Satan and my own base heart, and at last have prevailed. You know the answer that Rebecca had, when she inquired of God about the scuffle and striving of the children in her womb. Two nations, God told her, were in her womb. If thou canst find the like strife in thy soul, thou mayest comfort thyself, that it is from two contrary principles, faith and unbelief, which are lusting one against another ; and thy unbelief which is the elder, (however now it strives for the mastery,) shall serve faith the younger. Secondly, Presumptuous faith is lame of one hand; it hath a hand to receive {)ardon and heaven from God, but no hand to give up itself to (iod : true faith lath the use of both her hands. ' My beloved is mine,' there the soul takes Christ; 'and I am his,' there she surrenders herself to the use and service of Christ. Now didst thou ever pass over thyself freely to Ciu-ist ? I know none but will profess they do this. But tlie presumptuous soul, like Ananias, lies to the Holy CJhost, by keeping back part, yea, the chief part of that he promised to lay at Clu-ist's feet. This lust he sends out of the way, wiu'U he should deliver it up to justice ; and that creature-enjoyment he twines about, and cannot per- suade his heart to trust God with the disposure of it, but cries out when the 474 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. Lord calls for it, Benjamin shall not go ; his life is bound up in it, and if God will have it from him, he must take it by force, for there is no hope of gaining his consent. If this is the true picture of thy faith, and temper of thy soul, then verily thou blessest thyself in an idol, and mistakest a bold face for a believing heart ; but if thou art as willing to be faithfid to Christ, as to pitch thy faith on Christ ; if thou countest it as great a privilege, that Christ should have a throne in thy heart and love, as that thou shoiddst have a place and room in his mercy ; in a word, if thou art plain-hearted, and wouldst not hide a sin, nor lock up a creature-enjoyment from him, but desirest freely to give up thy dearest lust to the gibbet, and thy sweetest enjoyments, to stay with, or go from thee, as thy God thinks fit to allow thee, though all this be with much regret and discontent, from a malignant party of the flesh within thee, thou provest thyself a sound believer. And the devil may as well say that himself believeth, as thou presumest; if this be to presume, be thou yet more presump- tuous. Let the devil nick-name thee and thy fiiith as he pleaseth ; the rose- water is not the less sweet, because one writes wormwood-water on the glass. The Lord knows who are his, and v-ill own them for his true children, and their graces for the sweet fruits of his Spirit, tlioiigh a false title be set on them by Satan and the world, yea, sometimes by believers on themselves. The father will !iot deny his child, because he is in a violent fit of a fever, talks idle, and denies him to be his father. Thirdly, The presumptuous faith is a sapless and unsavoury faith. When an unsound heart pretends to greatest faith on Christ, even then it finds little savour, tastes little sweetness in Christ. No, he hath his old tooth in his head, which makes him relish still the gross food of sensual enjoyments above Christ and his spiritual dainties ; would he but freely speak what he thinks, he must con- fess, that if he were put to his choice, whether he would sit Avith Christ and his children, to be entertained with the pleasures that they enjoy, from spiritual com- munion with him in his promises, ordinances, and holy waj's ; or had rather sit with the servants and have the scraps, while God allows the men of the world their full bags and bellies of carnal treasure ; that he would prefer the latter before the former. He brags of his interest in God, but he cares not how little he is in the presence of God in any duty or ordinance ; certainly, if he were such a favourite as he speaks, he would be more at coiirt than he is. He hopes to be saved, he saith, but he draws not his wine of joy at his tap ; it is not the thoughts of heaven that comfort him, but what he hath in the world, and of the woi-ld, these maintain his joy ; when the world's vessel is out, and creature-joy spent, alas ! the poor wretch can find little relief from, or relish in his pretended hopes of heaven, and interest in Christ, but he is still whining after the other. Whereas true faith alters the very creature's palate ; no feast so sweet to the believer as Christ is ; let God take all other dishes off the board, and leave but Christ, he coimts his feast is not gone, he hath what he likes ; but let all else stand, health, estate, friends, and what else the world sets a high value on, if Christ be withdrawn, he soon misseth his dish, and makes his moan, and saith, Alas ! who hath taken away my Lord ? It is Christ that seasons these and all his enjoyments, and makes them savoiuy meat to his palate ; but without him, they have no more taste than the white of an egg without salt. CHAPTER XII. THE saint's enemy DESCRIBED, WITH HIS WARLIKE PROVISION, FIERY DARTS, AND WHAT THEY ARE. We have done with the exhortation ; and now come to the second general part of the verse, i. e., a powei'ful argument pressing this exhortation, contained in these words : ' Whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.' ' Ye shall be able,' not an uncertain may be ye shall ; but he is pe- remptory and absolute ; ' Ye shall be able ;' but what to do ? ' able to quench,' not only to resist and repel, but to quench ; but what shall they quench ? not ordinary temptations only, but the worst arrows the devil hath in his quiver, '•fiery darts,' and not some few of them, but ' all the fiery darts of the wicked.' In this second general, there are these two particulars. ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 475 First, The saint's enemy described. Secondly, The power and puissance of faith over this enemy. First, of the first. First, The saint's enemy described, that in three particulars. First, In its nature, 'wicked.' Secondly, In their imity, 'wicked,' or wicked one, in the singular niunber. Thirdly, Their warlike furniture and provision, M'ith which they take the field against the saints, darts, and they iiery. First, Here is the saint's enemy described by their nature, ' wicked.' Something I have said of this, ver. 12, where Satan is called ' spiritual wickednesses;' I shall at pre- sent, therefore, pass it over with the lighter hand. Certainly there is some special lesson that God would have his people learn even from this attribute of the devil and his limbs, (for the whole pack of devils, and devilish men, are here intended,) that they are represented to the saint's consideration by this name so oft as ' wicked.' 1 shall content myself with two ends, that 1 conceive God principally aims at by this name ; first, they are called wicked, as an odi- ous name, whereby God would raise his people's stomachs to a loathing of them, yea, provoke their pure souls to the greatest hatred of them, and especi- ally of sin, that makes them so odious. First, They are called wicked, as an odious name, whereby God woidd raise his children's stomachs into a loathing of sin above all things in the world, and provoke their pure souls as to hatred and detestation of all sin, so a vigorous resistance of the devil and his instruments, as STich who are wicked; which is a name that makes him detestable above any other. God would have us know, that when he himself would speak the worst he can of the devil, he can think of no name for the purpose like this, to say he is the ' wicked one.' The name which exalts God highest, and is the very excellency of all his other excel- lences is, that he is ' the Holy One,' and ' none holy as the Lord.' This therefore gives the devil the blackest brand of infamy, that he is the wicked one, and none wicked to that height besides himself. Could holiness be separated from any other of God's attributes, (which is the height of blasphemy to think,) the glory of them would be departed. And could the devil's wickedness be removed from his torments and misery, the case would be exceedingly altered; we ought then to pity him whom now we must no less than hate and abominate with a perfect hatred. First, Consider this all ye who live in sin, and blush not to be seen in the practice of it. O that you would behold your faces in this glass, and you should see whom you look like ; truly, no other than the devil himself, and in that which makes him most odious, which is his wickedness. Never more spit at the name of the devil, nor seem to be scared at any ill-shapen picture of him, for thou earnest a far more ugly one, and the truest of him that is possible, in thy own wicked bosom. The more wicked, the more like the devil; who can draw the devil's picture like himself? If thou art a wicked wretch, thou art of the devil himself. Cain, as it is said, ' was of that wicked one,' 1 John iii. 12. Every sin thou committest is a new line that the devil draws on thy soul. And if the image of God in a saint, which the Spirit of God is di'awing for many yeai's together in a saint, will be so curious a piece when the last line shall be drawn in heaven, O think then how frightful and horrid a creature thou wilt appear to be when, after all the devil's pains here on earth to imprint his image upon thee, thou shalt see thyself in hell, as wicked to the full as a wicked devil can make thee. Secondly, Consider this, O ye saints, and bestow, first, yoiu" pity on those poor forlorn souls that are under the power of a wicked devil. It is a lamentable judgment to live under a wicked govern- ment, though it be but of men ; for a servant in a family to be under a wicked master, is a heavy plague ; David reckons it among other great curses, Psa. cix. 6, ' Set a wicked man over him :' () what is it then to have a wicked spirit over him ! He would shew himself very kind to his friend that should wish him to be the worst slave in Tm'key, rather than the best servant of sin and Satan. And yet see the folly of men. Solomon tells iis, ' When the wicked bear rule, the people mourn,' Prov. ix. 2. But when a wicked devil ndes, poor besotted sinners laugh and are merry. Well, you who are not out of your wits so far,, but know sin's service to be the creature's utmost misery, mourn for them that go themselves laughing to sin, and by sin to hell. And, secondly, let it fill thy heart. Christian, with zeal and iiulignation against Satan in all his temjjta- tions ; i-emcmber he is wicked, and he can conic for no good ; thou knowest the A-Q ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. happiness of serving a holy God, surely then thou hast an answer ready by thee, against this wicked one comes to draw thee to sin. Canst thou think of fouling thy hands about his base, nasty drudgery, after they have been used to so pure and fine work as the service of thy (iod is ? Listen not to Satan's motions, ex- cept thou hast a mind to be wicked. Secondly, They are called wicked as a name of contempt, for the encouragement of all believers in their combat with them ; as if God had said, Fear them not, they are a wicked company you go against ; cause, and they who defend it, both wicked. And truly, if tlie saints must have enemies, the worse they are tlie better it is. It would put mettle into a coward to fight with such a crew. Wickedness must needs be weak ; the devil's guilt in their own bosoms tells them their cause is lost before the battle is fought. They fear thee, Christian, because thou art holy, and therefore thou needst not be dismayed at them who are wicked. Thou lookest on them as subtile, mighty, and many, and then thy heart fails thee ; but look on all these subtile, mighty spirits as wicked, ungodly wretches, that hate God more than thee, yea, thee for thy kindred to him, and thou canst not but take heart. Whose side is God on, that thou art afraid ? Will he that rebuked kings for touching his anointed ones, and doing them harm in their bodies and estates, stand still, thinkest thou, and suffer these wicked spirits to attempt the life of God himself in thee, thy grace, thy holiness, without coming into thy help? it is impossible. Secondly, The saints' enemy is set out by their unity ; fiery darts of the wicked, ' of the wicked one ;" as if all were shot out of the same bow and by the same hand ; as if the Christian's fight were a single duel with one single enemy. All the legions of devils, and multitudes of wicked men and women, make but one great enemy ; they are all one mystical body of wickedness, as Christ and his saints one mystical holy body. One spirit acts Christ and his saints ; so one spirit acts devils, and ungodly men his limbs : the soul is in the little toe, and the spirit of the devil in the least of sinners. But I have spoke something of this subject elsewhere. Thirdly, The saints' enemy is here described by his warlike provision, or weapons he usetli in fight against them : ' darts,' and those of the worst kind, ' fiery darts. ' First, Darts. The devil's temptations are the dai-ts he useth against the soids of men and women^andmay fitly be so called in a threefold respect. First, Darts, or arrows, they are swift ; thence is our usual expression, ' As swift as an arrow out of a bow.' Lightning is called God's arrow, because it flies swiftly, Psa. xviii. 14 : 'He sent out his arrows and scattered them ; he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them ;' that is, lightning like arrows. Satan's temptations fly like a flash of lightning, not long of coming. He needs no more time than the cast of an eye for the dispatch of a temptation. David's eye did hut im- awares fall upon Bathsheba, and the devil's arrow was in his heart before he could shut this casement. Or the hearing of a word or two : thus when David's servants had told what Nabal, the churl, said, David's choler was presently up ; an arrow of revenge wounded him to the heart. What quicker than a thought ? yet how often is that a temptation to us : one silly thought riseth in a duty, and our hearts, before intent upon the work, are on a sudden carried away, like a spaniel after a bird that springs up before him as he goes after his master ; yea, if one temptation speeds not, how soon can he send another after it ! as quick as the nimblest archer ; no sooner than one arrow is delivered, but he hath another on the string. Secondly, Darts or arrows fly secretly, and so do tempt- ations. First, The arrow often comes afar ofi^; a man may be wounded with a dart, and not see who shot it. The wicked are said to ' shoot their arrows in secret at the perfect,' Psa. Ixiv. 4 ; and then ' they say, Who shall see them,' ver. 4. Thus Satan lets fly a temptation so secretly that he is hardly suspected in the thing. Sometimes he useth a wife's tongue to do his errand ; another while he gets behind the back of a husband, friend, servant, Src, and is not seen all the while he is doing his work. Who would have thought to have found a devil in Peter tempting liis Master, or suspected that Abraham should he his instrument to betray his beloved wife into the hands of a sin ? yet it was so. Nay, sometimes he is so secret that he borrows God's bow to shoot his arrows from, and the poor Christian is abused, thinking it is God chides and is angry, when it is the devil that tempts him to think so, and only counterfeits ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 477 God's voice. Job cries out, ' The arrows of the Ahnighty ! ' how the poison of them drank up his spirit, and of the terrors of God that did set themselves in array against him, Job vi. 4 ; when it was Satan all the while that was prac- tising his malice and playing his pranks \ipon him. God was friends with this good man, only Satan begged leave, and God gave it for a time, thus to aftright him ; and poor Job cries out, as if God had cast him otf, and were become his enemy. Sccondlj', Darts or arrows, thej^ make little or no noise as they go ; they cut their passage through the air without telling us by any crack or report, as the cannon doth, that they are coming : thus insensibly doth temptation make its approach, the thief is in before we think of any need to shut the doors. The wind is a creature secret in its motion, of which our Saviour saith, ' We know not whence it comes, nor whither it goes,' John iii. 8 ; yet ' we hear the sound thereof,' as our Saviour saith in the same place : but temptations many times come, and give us no warning by an}' sound they make. The devil lays his plot so. close, that the soul sees not his drift, observes not his hook till he finds it iu his belly ; as the woman of Tekoa told her tale so handsomely that the king passeth judgment against himself in the person of another before he smelt out the business. Thirdly, Darts have a wounding, killing nature, especially when well headed, and shot out of a strong bow by one that is able to draw it ; such are Satan's temptations, headed with desperate malice, and drawn by a strength no less than angelical ; and this against so weak a creature as man, that it were impossible, had not God provided good armour, for our soul, to outstand Satan's power and get safe to heaven. Christ would have us sensible of their force and danger, by that petition in his prayer, which the best of saints on this side of heaven have need to use : ' Lead us not into temptation.' Christ was then but newly out of the list, where he had tasted Satan's tempting skill and strength, which though beneath his wisdom and power to defeat, yet well he knew, it was able to worst the strongest of saints. There was never any besides Christ that Satan did not foil more or less ; it was Christ's prerogative to be tempted, but not led into temptation. Job, one of the chief worthies in God's army of saints, who from God's mouth is a none-such ; yet was galled by these arrows shot from Satan's bow, and put to great disorder. God was fain to pluck him out of the devil's gripe, or else he had been quite worried by that lion. Secondly, Satan's wai'like provision is, not only darts, but fiery darts. Some restrain these fiery darts to some particular kind of temptation, as despair, blas- phemy, and those which fill the heart with terror and horror ; but this, I con- ceive, is too strait, because faith is a shield for all kind of temptations, and in- deed there is none but may prove a fiery temptation ; so that I shoidd rather incline to think all sorts of temptations to be comprehended here, yet so as to respect some in an especial manner more than others, which after shall be in- stanced in. Quest. Why are Satan's darts called fiery ones? Ansiv. First, They may be said to be fiery, in regard of that fiery wrath with which Satan shoots them ; they are the fire this dragon spits, full of indignation against God and his saints. Saul, it is said, 'breathed out threatening and slaughter against the church,' Acts ix. 1. As one that is inwardly inflamed, his breath is hot, a fiery stream of persecuting wrath came as out of a burning furnace from him; temptations are the breathings of the devil's wrath. Secondly, Fiery in regard of the end they lead to, if not quenched, and that is hell-fire ; there is a spark of hell in every temptation. As all sparks fly to their element, so all temptations tend to hell and damnation, according to Satan's intent and purpose. Thirdly, and chiefly, Fiery, in regard of that malignant eft'ect they have on the spirits of men, and that is to enkindle a fire in the heart and conscience of poor creatures : the apostle alludes to the custom of cruel enemies, who used to dip the heads of their arrows in some ])oison, whereby they became more deadly, and did not only woimd the part where they light, but inflame the whole body, which made the ciu'e more difficult. Job speaks of ' the poison of them which drank up his spirits,' Job vi. 4. They have aji envenoming and inflaming quality. 478 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. CHAPTER XIII. THE FIERY NATURE OF SATAN's ENTICING TEMPTATIONS, WITH FAITll's POWER TO QUENCH THEM. They are of two sorts, either those that do pleasingly entice and bewitch with some seeming promises of satisfaction to the creature ; or, Secondly, Such as affright and carry horror with them. Both are fiery, and quenched by faith, and only faith. We shall begin with the first, such as do pleasingly entice. And the note is this : Doct. That faith will enable a soul to quench the fire of Satan's most pleasing temptations. First, We shall shew you, that these enticing temptations have a fiery quality in them. Secondly, That faith is able to quench them. First, of the first, They have an inflaming quality. There is a secret dispo- sition in the heart of all, to all sin ; temptation doth not fall on us, as a ball of fire on ice, or snow, but as a spark on tinder, or lightning on a thatched roof, which presently is in a flame ; hence in Scripture, though tempted by Satan, yet the sin is charged on us. Jam. i. 14 : ' Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lusts, and enticed.' Mark ! it is Satan tempts, but our own lust draws us. The fowler lays the trap, but the bird's own desire betrays it into the net. The heart of man is marvellous prone to take fire from these darts. 'Where no wood is, the fire goeth out,' Prov. xxvi., and does no hurt: thus did they on Christ ; there was no combustible matter of corruption in him for Satan to work upon. But our hearts being once heated in Adam, could never cool since. A sinner's heart is compared to an oven, Hos. vii. 4 : ' They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker.' The heart of man is the oven, the devil the baker, and temptation the fire with which he heats it, and then no sin comes amiss. ' I dwell,' saith David, Psa. Ivii., 'among those that are set on fire;' and pray who sets them on fire? the apostle will inform us. Jam. iii. 6: 'set on fire of hell.' O friends! when once the heart is inflamed by temptation, what strange effects doth it produce ! how hard to quench such a fire, though in a gracious person ! David himself, under the power of a tempta- tion so apparent, that a carnal ej'e could see it, Joab I mean, who reproved him, yet was hurried to the loss of seventy thousand men's lives ; for so much did one sin cost. And if the fire be so raging in a David, what work will it make where no water is nigh, no grace in the heart to quench it ! Hence the wicked are said ' to be mad on their sins,' Jer. 1. o8. Spurring on without fear, or wit ; like a man inflamed with a fever that takes his head, there is no hold- ing of him in his bed ; thus a soul possessed with the fmy of temptation, runs into the mouth of death and hell, and will not be stopped. Use 1. O how should this make us afraid of running into a temptation, when there is such a witchery in it ! Some men are too confident, they have too good an opinion of themselves, as if they could not be taken with such a disease, and therefore will breathe in any air. It is just with God to let such be shot with one of Satan's darts, to make them know their own hearts better. Who will pity liim, whose house is blown up, that kept his powder in the chimney corner? ' Am I a dog?' saith Hazael, 2 Kings viii. Do you make me a beast, sunk so far below the nature of man, as to imbrue my hands in these horrid murders? yet how soon did this wretch fall into the temjitation, and by that one bloody act upon his own liege lord, which he pei'petrated as soon as he got home, shew that the other evils which the prophet foretold of him were not so improbable as at first he thought. O stand oft" the devil's mark, unless you mean to have one of the devil's arrows in your side ! keep as far from the whii-1 of temptation as may be ; for if once he get you within his circle, thy head may soon be dizzy. One sin helps to kindle another; the less the greatei', as the brush the logs : Hos. vii. 5, when the courtiers had got their king to carouse and play the drunkard, he soon learned to play the scorner ; ' The princes have made him sick with bottles of wine, he stretched out his hand with scorners.' Secondly, Hath Satan's darts such an enkindling nature? Take heed of being Satan's instrument in putting fire to the corruption of another. Some on purpose do it. Thus the whoi-e per- fumes her bed, paints her face. Idolaters, as whorish as the other, set out their temples and altars with superstitious pictures, embellished with all the cost that gold and silver can aftbrd tliem, to bewitch the spectator's eye. Hence they ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 479 are said, * to be inflamed witli their idols,' Isa. Ivii. 5, as much as any lover with his minion in her wliorish dress. And the drunkard he enkindles his neighbour's lust, 'putting the bottle to him,' Hab. ii. 15. Oh! what a base work are these men employed about ! By the law it is death for any wilfully 10 set fire on his neighbour's house ; what then deserve they, that set fire on the souls of men, and that no less than hell-fire ? But it is possible thou mayest do it unawares, by a less matter than thou dreamest on. A silly child playing with a lighted straw, may set a house on fire, which many wise men cannot quench. And truly Satan may use thy folly and carelessness, to kindle lust in another's heart. Perhaps an idle, light speech drops from thy mouth, and thou meanest no great hurt ; but a gust of temptation may carry this spark into thy friend's bosom, and kindle a sad fu'e there. A wanton attire, perhaps naked breasts and shoulders, which we will suppose thou wearest with a chaste heart, and only because it is the fiishion, yet may ensnare another's eye. And if he that kept a pit open but to the hurt of a beast, sinned, how much more thou, who givest occasion to a soid's sin, which is a worse hurt? Paul ' would not eat flesh while the world stood, if it made his brother to offend,' 1 Cor. viii. l',i. And canst thou dote onafoolish dress and immodest fashion, whereby many may offend, still to wear it ? ' The body,' Christ saith, * is better than raiment.' The soul then of thy brother is more to be valued surely than an idle fashion of thy raiment. We come to the second branch of the point, That faith will enable a soul to quench these temptations. This is called our ' victory over the world, even our faith,' 1 John v. 4. Faith sets its triumphant banner on the world's head. The same St. John will tell you what is meant by the world, chap. ii. 1.5, 16 : ' Love not the world ; for all that is in the world, the lust of ihe flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world.' All that is in the world is said to be lust, because it is food and fuel for lust. Now faith en- ables.the soul to quench those darts which Satan dips and envenoms wiih these worldly lusts, called by some the worldling's trinity. First, For the lust of the flesh, under which are comprehended those temptations that promise pleasure and delight to the flesh ; these, indeed, carry fire in the mouth of them ; and when they light on a carnal heart, do soon inflame it with unruly passions and beastly affections. The adulterer is said to ' burn in his lust,' Rom. i. 27 ; the drunkard 'to be inflamed with his wine,' Isa. v. 11. No sort of temptation works more strongly than those which present sensual pleasure, and promise delight to the flesh ; sinners are said, ' to work all uncleanness with greedi- ness ; ' with a kind of covetousness, for the word imports they never have enough ; when the voluptuous person hath wasted his estate, jaded his body in luxury, still the fire burns in his wretched heart ; no drink can quench a poisoned man's thirst ; nothing but faith can be helpful to a soul in these flames. We find Dives in hell burning, and not a drop of water to cool the tip of his tongue found there. The unbelieving sinner is in a hell above ground, he burns in his lust, and not a drop of water (for want of faith) to (juench the fire. By faith it is said those glorious martyrs, Heb. xi., ' quenched the violence of the fire ; ' and truly the fire of lust is as hot as the fire of martyrdom ; by faith alone this is quenched also. Tit. iii. 3,4:' We were sometimes foolish, serving divers lusts and pleasures ; but after that the kind- ness and love of God our Saviom- towards man appeared, before he saved us.' Never could they shake off these lusts, their old companions, till by faith they got a new acquaintance with the grace of God revealed in the gospel. CHAPTER XIV. HOW FAITH QUENCHETH THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH, LUSTS OF THE EYE, AND PRIDE OF LIFE. Section I. — Quest. How does faith quench this fiery dart of sensual delights? Jnsw. As it undeceives, and takes off the mist fronr the Christian's eyes, whereby he is now enabled to see sin in its naked being, and callow ])rinciples, before Satan hath plumed. It gives him the native taste and relish of sin, before the devil hath sophisticated it with his sugared sauce. And truly, now sin proves a homely piece, a bitter morsel. Faith hath a piercing eye ; it is the evidence of things not seen ; it looks behind the curtain of sense, and sees sin before its finery is on, and it be dressed for the stage, to be a brat that comes from hell, 480 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. and brings hell with it. Now let Satan come, if he please, and present a lust never so enticing, the Christian's answer is ready : Be not cheated, O my soul, saith faith, with a lying spirit. He shews thee a fair Rachel, hut he intends thee a blear-eyed Leah; he promises joy, but he will pay thee soitow. The clothes that make this lust so comely are not its own. The sweetness thou takest is not native, but borrowed to deceive thee withal. ' Thou art Saul,' said the witch of Endor, ' why hast thou deceived me?' Thus faith can call sin and Satan by their own names, when they come in a disguise ; Thou art Satan, saith faith, why wouldst thou deceive me ? God hath said, sin is bitter as gall and wormwood, and wouldst thou make me believe I can gather the sweet fruits of true delight from this root of bitterness ? grapes from these thorns ? Secondly, Faith doth not only enable the soul to see the nature of all sin void of true pleasure, but also how transient its false pleasures are ; I will not lose, saith faith, sure mercies for transient, uncertain pleasures. This made Moses leap out of the pleasures of the Egyptian court into the fire of affliction, Heb. xi. 25, because he saw them ' pleasures for a season.' Should you see a man in a ship throw himself overboard into the sea, you might at first think him out of his wits, but if a little while after you should see him stand safe on the shore, and the ship swallowed up of the waves, you would then think he took the wisest course. Faith sees the world and all the pleasures of sin sink- ing ; there is a leak in them which the wit of man cannot stop. Now, is it not better to swim by faith through a sea of trouble, and get safe to heaven at last, than to sit in the lap of sinful pleasiu'es, till we drown in hell's gulph ? It is im- possible the pleasure of sin should last long. First, Because it is not natural. Whatever is net natural soon decays ; the nature of sugar is to be sweet, and therefore it holds its sweetness, but sweeten beer or wine never so much with sugar, in a few days they will lose their sweetness. The pleasure of sin is extrinsical to its nature, and therefore will corrupt. None of that sweetness which now bewitches sinners will be tasted in hell. The sinner shall have his cup spiced there by his hand that will have it a bitter draught. Secondly, The pleasures of sin must needs be short, because life cannot be long, and they both end together. Indeed, many times the pleasure of sin dies before the man dies : sinners live to bury their joy in this woi-ld. The worm breeds in their con- science before it breeds in their flesh by death. But be sure the pleasure of sin never survives this world. The word is gone out of God's mouth, every sinner shall ' lie down in sorrow, and wake in sorrow.' Hell is too hot a climate for wanton delights to live in. Now, faith is a provident, wise grace, and makes the soul bethink itself how it may live in another world ; whereas, the cai-nal heart is all for the present; his snout is in the trough, and while his draught lasts, he thinks it will never end. But faith hath a large stride : at one pace it can reach over a whole life of years, and see them done while they are but begin- ning. ' I have seen an end of all perfection,' saith David; he saw the wicked when growing on their bed of pleasure, cut down, and burning in God s oven, as if it were done already, Psa. xxxvii. 2 ; and faith will do the same for every Christian, according to its strength and activity. And who would envy the condemned man his feast which he hath in his way to the gallow^s ? Thirdly, Faith outvies Satan's profiers, by shewing the soul where choicer enjoyments are to be had at a cheaper rate. Indeed, best is best cheajJ. Who will not go to that shop where he may be best served? This law holds in force among sinners themselves : the drunkard goes Avhere he "may have the best wine ; the glutton, where he may have the best cheer. Now faith presents such enjoyments to the soul, that are beyond all compare best ; it leads to the pro- mise, and entertains it there at Christ's cost, with all the rich dainties of the gospel ; not a dish that the saints feed on in heaven, but faith can set it before the soul, and give it, though not a full meal, yet such a taste as shall melt it in joy vmspeakable and full of glory. This sure must needs quench the tempt- ation. When Satan sends to invite the Christian to his gross fare, will not the soul say. Should I forsake those pleasures that cheered, yea, ravished my heart, to go and debase myself with sin's polluted bread, where I shall be but a fellow- commoner with the beast, (who shares in sensual pleasures with man,) yea, become worse than the beast ; a devil, like Judas, who aro^e from his Master's table to sit at the devil's. ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 48 J Section II. — Secondly, The lusts of tlie eye, these are quenched by faith ; by the lust of the eye, the apostle means those temptations which are drawn from the world's pelf and treasiu-e, called so, first, because it is the eye that connnits adultery with these things ; as the unclean eye looks upon another man's wife, so the covetous eye looks on another's wealth to lust after it. Secondly, Because that all the good that in a manner is received from them, is but to please the eye, Eccl. v. 11 : ' What good is thei-e to the owners thereof, saving the beholding them with their eyes?' That is, if a man hath but to buy any food and raiment, enough to pay his daily shot of necessary expenses, the sui-jilusage serves only for the eye to play the wanton with ; yet we see how pleasing a morsel they are to a carnal heart. It is rare to find a man that will not stoop, by base and sordid practices, to take up this golden apple. When I consider what sad effects this temptation had on Ahab, who, to gain a spot of ground of a few acres, (that could not add much to a king's revenues,) durst swim to it in the owner's blood ; I wonder not to see men, whose condition is necessitous, nibbling at the hook of temptation, where the bait is a far greater worldly advantage. This is the door that the devil entered into Judas by ; this was the break-neck of Demas's faith, he embraced this present world. Now faith will quench a temptation edged with these. First, Faith persuades the soul of God's fatherly care and providence over it. And where this breast- work is raised, the soul is safe so long as it keeps within its line. Oh ! saith Satan, if thou wouldst but venture on a lie, make bold a little with God in such a command, this wedge of gold is thine, and that advantage ivill accrue to thy estate. Now, faith will teach the soul to reply, I am well provided for already; Satan, I need not thy pension, why should I play the thief for that which, if good, God hath promised to give ? Heb. xiii. 5 : 'Let your conversation be with- out covetousness, and be content with such things as you have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' How canst thou want, Omy sold, that by the promise hast command of God's jJurse ? Let him that is with- out God in the world shift and shei-k by his wits ; do thou live by thy faith. Secondly, Faith teaches the soul, that the creature's comfort and content comes not from abundance, but God's blessing, and to gain the world by a sin, is not the road that leads to God's blessing, Prov. xxviii. 20 : 'A faithful man abounds with blessings ; but he that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent.' Shouldst thou, saith faith, heap up the world's goods in an evil way, thou art never the nearer to the content thou expectest; it is hard to steal one's meat, and then crave a blessing on it at God's hands. What thou gettest by sin, Satan cannot give thee quiet possession of, nor discharge those suits which God will certainly commence against thee. Thirdly, Faith advanceth the soxd to higher projects, than to seek the things of this life. It discovers a world beyond the moon ; and there lies faith's merchandise ; leaving the colliers of this world to load themselves with clay and coals, while it trades for grace and glory ; faith fetcheth its riches from afar. Saul did not more willingly leave seeking his father's asses, when he heard of a kingdom, than the believing soul leaves prowl- ing for the earth, now it hears of Christ and heaven, Psa. xxxix. G, 7. Verse 0, we find holy David branding the men of the world for folly, that they troubled themselves so much for nought. ' Surely,' saith he, ' they are dis- quieted in vain : he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them;' and ver. 7, we have him with a holy disdain turning his back upon the world, as not worth his pains ; ' and now. Lord, what wait I for ?' As if he had said. Is this the portion I could be content to set down with, — to set upon a greater heap of riches than my neighbour hath ? 'My hope is in thee, deliver me from all my transgressions,' ver. 8. Every one as they like. Let them that love the world, take the world ; but, Lord, pay not my portion in gold or silver, but in pardon of sin : this I wait for. Abraham, he by faith had so low an esteem of this world's treasure, that he left his own counti'y to live here a stranger, in hope of a better, Heb. xi. Section III. — Thirdly, The lust of the world, the pride of life. There is an itch of pride in man's heart after the gaudy honours of the world ; and this itch of man's proud flesh, the devil labours to scratch and irritate by suitable prof- fers. And when the temptation without, and lust within meet, then it works to purpose. Balaam loved the wav that led to court, and therefore sj)urs on his 2 1 482 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. conscience, tliat boggled more than tlie ass he rode on, till the blood came. The Jews, when convinced of Christ's person and doctrine, yet were snch slaves to their hononr and credit, that they part with Christ rather than hazard that, John xii. 43 : 'For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.' Now faith quenches this temptation, and with a holy scorn disdains that all the preferment the world hath to heap on him, should be a bribe for the least sin, Heb. xi. 24 : ' By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.' Though by his adojjtion he might have been heir, for aught we know, to the crown ; yet this he threw at his heels : it is not said he did not seek to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter, though that would have sounded a high commendation, having so fair an opportunity; some would not have scrupled a little court flattery, therebj' to have worked them- selves into further favour, having so fair a stock in the king's heart to set up with; but he 'refused to be called;' honour came troulingin upon him, as water at a flowing tide ; now, to stand against this flood of preferment, and no breach made in his heart to entertain it, tliis was admirable indeed. Nay, he did not refuse this preferment for any principality that he hoped for elsewhere. lie forsook not one court to go to another, but to join with a beggarly reproached people; yea, by rejecting their favour he incurred the wrath of the king, yet faith carried him through all those heights and depths of favour and disgrace, honour and dishonour ; and truly, wherever this grace is, (allowing for its strength and weakness,) it will do the like. We find, ver. 33 of the same chapter, how 'Samuel and the prophets through faith subdued kingdoms;' which sm'e is not only meant of the conquest of the sword, (though some of them performed honourable achievements that way,) but also by despising the honoiu' and preferments of them. This indeed many of the prophets are famous for; and in particular, Samuel, who at God's command gave away a kingdom from hi? own house and family, by anointing Saul, though himself at present had possession of the chief magistrate's chair. And others, ver. 37, we read, 'were tempted :' i. e., when ready to suffer, -were offered great prefer- ments if they would bend to the times, by receding a little from the bold pro- fession of their faith ; but they chose rather the flames of martyrdom than the favour of princes on those terms. But more partic\darly to shew you how faitli quenches this temptation. First, Faith takes away the fuel that feeds this temptation. Withdraw the oil, and the lamp goes out. Now that which is fuel to this temptation, is pride ; where this lust is in any strength, no wonder the creature's eyes are dazzled with the sight of that which suits the desires of his heart so well. The devil now by a temptation does but broach, and so give vent to what the heart itself is full with. Simon Magus had a haughty spirit, he woidd be some great man, and therefore when he did but think an opportunity was offered to mount him up the stage, he is all on fire with a desire of having a gift to work miracles, that he dares offer to play the huckster with the apostle. Whereas an lunnble spirit loves a low seat, is not ambitious to stand high in the thoughts of others, and so, while he stoops in his own opinion of himself, the bullet flies over his head, which hits the proud man on the breast. Now it is faith lays the heart low. Pride and faith are opposed ; like two buckets, if one goes up, the other goes down in the soul, Hab. ii. 4: 'Behold, his soul that is lifted up is not \ipright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.' Secondly, Faith is Christ's favourite, and so makes the Christian expect all his honour from him ; indeed it is one of the prime acts of fiuth to cast the soul on God in Christ, as all-sufficient to make it completely happy. And therefore when a temptation comes. Soul, thou mayest raise thyself in the world, to this place, or that esteem, if thou wilt but dissemble thy profession, or allow thyself in such a sin ; now faith chokes the bullet. Remember whose thou art, O my soul ; hast thou not taken God for thy liege Lord, and wilt thou accept prefer- ment from another's hand? Princes will not sufler their courtiers to become pensioners to a foreign prince, least of all to a prince in hostility to them. Now, saith faith, the honour or applause thou gettest by sin makes tliee pensioner to the devil himself, who is the greatest enemy God hath. Thirdly, Faith shews the danger of such a bargain, should a Christian gain the glory of the M'orld for one sin. First, says faith, hadst thou the whole ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 433 world's empire, with all bowing before thee, this would not add to thy stature one cubit in the eye of God. But thy sin which thou paycst for the piu'chase, blots thy name in his thcnights, yea, makes thee odious in his sight ; God must first be out of love with himself, before he can love a sinner as such. Now wilt thou incur this for that? Is it wisdom to lose a prize to draw a blank? Secondly, says faith, the world's pomj) and glory cannot satisfy thee; it may kindle thirst- ings in thy soul, but quench none ; it will beget a thousand cares and fears, but quiet none. But thy sin that procures these, hath a power to torment and torture thy soul. Tliirdly, when thou hast the world's crown on thy head, how long shalt thou wear it? They are sick at Rome, and die in ])rinces' courts, as well as at the Spittle ; yea, kings themselves are put as naked to their beds of dust as others. In that day all thy thoughts will perish with thee ; but the guilt of thy sin, which was the ladder by wliich thou didst climb up the hill of honour, will dog thee into another world. These and such like are the considerations by wliich faith breaks off the bargain. Fourthly, Faith presents the Christian with the exploits of former saints, who have renounced the world's honoiu- and applause, rather than defile their consciences, aiul prostitute their souls to be deflowered by the least sin. Great Tamerlane carried the lives of his ancestors into the field with him, in which he used to read before he gave battle, that he might be stirred up, not to stain the blood of his family by cowardice, or any unworthy behaviour in fight. Thus faith peruses the roll of Scripture-saints, and the exploits of their faith over the world, that the Christian may be excited to the same gallantry of spirit. This was plainly the apostle's design in recording those worthies, with the trophies of their faith, Heb. xi., that some of their nobleness might steal into our hearts while we arc reading of them, as appears chapter xii. 1 : ' Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that does so easily beset us.' Oh, what courage does it put into the soldier, to see some before him to run upon the face of death ! Elisha having seen the miracles God wrought by Elijah, smites the waters of Jordan with his mantle, saying, ' Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and they parted,' 2 Kings ii. 14. Thus faith makes use of the exploits of former saints, and turns them into prayer. O where is the Lord God of Abraham, Moses, Sanuiel, and those other worthies, who by their faith have trampled on the world's pomp and glory, subdued temptations, stopped the mouths of lion-like lusts ? Art not thou, O God, the God of the valleys, the meanest saints, as well as of the mountains, more eminent heroes? Do not the same blood and spirits run in the veins of all believers ? Were they victorious, and shall I be the only slave, and of so prostrate a spirit, like Issachar, to crouch under my burden of cor- ruption without shaking it off? Help me, O my God, that I may be avenged of these mine enemies. And when it hath been with God, it will also plead with the Christian himself. Awake, saith faith, O my soul, and prove thyself akin to these holy men, that thou art born of God as they were, l)y thy victory over the world. CHAPTER XV. SHF.VVETH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAITIi's CONQUEST OVER TUE WORLD BY QUENCHING THE FIERY DARTS SHOT FROM IT, AND THAT VICTORY WHICH SOME OF THE BETTER HEATHENS ATTAINED TO ; AS ALSO A TRIAL OF OUR FAITH PROPOUNDED BY THIS POWER TO QUENCH SATAn's ENTICING TEMPT- ATIONS MORE OR LESS. Object. But some may say, If this be all faith enables to, this is no more than some heathens have done. They have trampled on the profits and pleasures of this world, who never knew what faith meant, yiiis. Indeed, many of them have done so much by their moral principles as may make some, who would willingly pass for believers, ashamed to be outdone by them who shot with so weak a bow. Yet it will appear that there is a victory of faith which, in the true believer, outshoots them more than their moral conquest doth the debauched conversations of looser Cliristians. First, Faith quenches the lust of the heart ; /'. e., those very embers of corruption which are so secretly raked up in the inclination of the soul, find the force and power of faith to quench them, 2x2 484 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. Faith purifies the heart, Acts xv. 9. Now, none of their conquests reached the heart. Their longest ladder was too short to reach the walls of this castle ; they swept the door, trimmed a few outward rooms, but the seat and sink of all (in the corruption of man's nature) was never cleansed by them ; so that the fire of lust was rather pent in than put out. How is it possible that could be cleansed, the filthiness of which was never known to them? Alas! they never looked so near themselves as to find that enemy within them which they thought was without. Thus, while they laboured to keep the thief out, he was within, and they knew it not ; for they did either proudly think that the soul was natyrally endued with principles of virtue, or vainly imagined it to be but an abrasa tabula — white paper, on which they might write good or evil, as they pleased. Thus, yovi see, the seat of their war was in the world without them, which after some sort they conquered ; but the lust within remained untouched, because a terra i7icopiita to them. It is faith that first discovers this. Secondly, Faith's victory is imiform. Sin, in Scripture, is called ' a body,' Rom. vi. 6, because made up of several members, or as the body of an army, con- sisting of many troops and regiments. It is one thing to beat a troop, or put a wing of an army to flight, and another thing to rout and break the whole aiuny. Something hath been done by moral principles like the former ; they have got some petty victory, and had the chase of some more gross and exterior sins ; but then they were fearfully beaten by some other of sin's troops. When they seemed to triumph over the lust of the flesh and eye, the world's profits and pleasiu'es, they were at the same time slaves to the pride of life, mere glories animalia, kept in chains by the credit and applause of the world. As the sea, which, they say, loses as much in one place of the land as it gains in another ; so what they got in a seeming victory over one siji, they lost again b}^ being in bondage to another, and that a worse, because more spiritual. But now faith is uniform, and routs the whole body of sin, that not one single lust stands in its unbroken strength : ' Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace,' Rom. vi. 14. Sin may stir like a woiuided soldier on his knees, — it may rally like broken troops, but never be long master of the field where true faith is. Thirdly, Faith enables the soul not only to quench these lusts, but the temptation being quenched, it enables him to use the world itself against Satan, and so beat him with his own weapons, by striking his own cudgels at his head. Faith quenches the fire of Satan's darts, and then shoots them back on him. This it doth by reducing all the enjoyments of the world which the Christian is possessed of into a subordination for the glory of God. Some of the heathen's admired champions, to cure the lust of the eye, have plucked them out ; to shew the contempt of riches, have thrown their money into the sea ; to conquer the world's honour and applause, have sequestered themselves from all company. Shall we call this a victory, or rather a frenzy ? But faith enables us to accomplish a nobler conquest. Indeed, when God calls for any of these enjoyments, faith can lay all at Christ's feet ; but while God allows them, faith's skill and power is in correcting the flatulent nature of them, so that what on a wicked heart rots and corrupts, by faith turns to good nourishment in a gi-acious spul. If a house were on fire, which would you count the wiser man, he that goes to quench it by pulling the house down, or he that by throwing water on it doth this as fully, and leaves the house standing for your use? The heathen, and some superstitious persons, think to mortify by taking away what God gives us leave to use ; but faith puts out the fire of lust in the heart, and leaves the creature to be improved for God's glory, and enjoyed to the Christian's comfort. First, This may be a touchstone for our faith. Is thy faith a temptation- quenching faith? Many say they believe : yes, that they do! They thank God they are not infidels. Well, what exploits canst thou do with thy faith? Is it able to defend thee in a day of battle, and cover thy soul in safety when Satan's darts fly thick about thee? or is it such a sorry shield that it lets every arrow of temptation pierce thy heart through it ? Thou believest, but still as great a slave to thy lust as ever. When a good fellow calls thee out to a drunken meeting, thy faith cannot keep thee out of the snare, but away thou goest, as a fool to the stocks. If Satan tells thee thou mayest improve thy estate by a lie, or cheat in thy shop, thy faith stands very tamely by, and makes no resistance. ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4g5 In a word, tliou hast faith, and yet drivest a trade of sin in the very face of it. O, God forbid that any should be under so great a dehision, to carry such a lie in their hand, and think it a saving faith ! Will this faith ever carry thee to heaven, which is not able to bring tliee out of liell? for there thou livest while under the power of thy lust. ' Will you steal, niurdei-, and connnit adultery, and swear falsely, and come and stand before me ?' Jer. vii. 9, 10. If this be faith, well fare the honest heathens who escaped these gi-oss pollutions of the world, which jou, like beasts, with your faith, lie wallowing in. I had rather be a sober heathen than a drunken Christian, a chaste heathen than an unclean believer. O, venture not the life of your souls with such a paper shield ; come to Him for a faith who is the faith-maker ; he will help thee to a faith that shall quench the very fire of hell itself, though kindled in thy bosom, and divide the waves of thy lust, in which now thou art drowned, (as once he did the sea for Israel,) thatthoushaltgoon di'yland to heaven, and thy lust not be able to knock off the wheels of thy chariot. But if thou attemptest tliis with thy false faith, the Egyptians' end will be thine. ' By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians essaying to do, were drowned,' Heb. xi. 29. Though true faith gets safely througli the depths of temptation, yet false faith will drown by the way. But perhaps thou canst tell us better news than this, and give us better evidence for the truth of thy faith. Let us therefore hear what singular thing hath been done by thee since thou hast become abeliever. The time Avas, thou wei-t as weak as water; every blast of temptation blew thee down; thou wert carried as a dead fish with the stream ; but canst thou say since thou hast been acquainted with Christ, thou art endued with a power to repel those tempt- ations which before held thy heart in perfect obedience to their commands ? Canst thou now be content to bring thy lusts, which once were of great price, with thee, as those believers did their conjuring books, Acts xix. 19, and throw them into the fire of God's love in Christ to thy soul, there to consume them ? Possibly thou hast not them at present under thy foot in a full conquest, yet have they begun to fall in thy thoughts, and is thy countenance changed towards them to what it was? Be of good comfort, this is enough to pi'ove thy faith of the royal race. ' When Christ cometh,' said the convinced Jews, ' will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?' John vii. 31. And when Christ comes by faith into the heart, will he do greater works than these thy faith hath done ? CHAPTER XVI. AN OBJECTION AGAINST BELIEVING ANSWERED; AND SOME DIRECTIONS HOW TO USE THIS SHIELD TO QUENCH ENTICING TEMPTATIONS. Tins helps to answer that objection, by which many poor souls are discouraged from believing, and closing with the promise. O, says the tempted soul, you bid me believe : alas ! how dare I, wiien I cannot get the victory over such a lust, and am overcome by such a temptation? What have such as I to do with a promise ? See here this Goliath prostrated : thou art not to believe because thou art victorious, but that thou mayest be victorious. The reason Vv'hy thou art so worsted by thy enemy is for want of faith : ' If ye will not believe, ye surely shall not be established,' Isa. vii. 9. Wouldst thou be cured before thou goest to the physician ? That sounds harsh to thy own reason, and is as if thou shouldst say, tliou wilt not go to the physician till thou hast no need of him. No, go and touch Christ by faitli, that virtue may flow from him to thy soul. Thou must not think to eat tlie fruit before thou plantest the tree. Victory over cor- ruption is a sweet fruit, but found growing only upon faith's branches. Satan does by thee as Saul did by the Israelites, wlio weakened their hands in battle by keeping them fasting. Up and eat. Christian, a full meal on the promise, if thou wouldst find thy eyes enlightened and thy hands strengthened for the combat with thy lusts. It is one part of the doctrine of devils, which we read of, 1 Tim. iv. 3, ' to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with tlianksgiving.' But the grand doctrine of the devil, which above all he would promote, is to keep poor, treinl)ling souls from feeding by faith on the Lord Jesus, as if Christ were some forbidden fruit ; whereas God hath appointed him above all others, that he slioiild be received with thanksgiving of all humble sinners. And, therefore, in tlie name of God, I invite you to his feast. 485 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. O, let not your souls (who see your need of Christ, and are pinched at your very heart for want of hini) be lean from day to day through your unbelief; but come, eat, and your souls shall live. Never was child more welcome to his father's table than tliou art to Christ's, and that feast which stands on the gospel-board. Make use of faith, O ye saints, as for other ends and purposes, so particularly for this, of quenching this kind of fiery darts. It is not the having a shield, but the holding and wielding it, that defends the Christian. Let not Satan take thee with thy faith out of thy hand, as David did Saul in the cave, with his spear sticking in the ground, which should have been in his hand. Quest. But how would you have me use my shield of faith for my defence against these fiery darts of Satan's enticing temptations ? Ans. By f^iith engage God to come in to thy succour against them. Now there are three engaging acts of faith, which will bind God (as we may so say with reverence) to help thee, because he binds himself to help such. The first is the praj'erful act of faith. Open thy case to God in prayer, and call in help from heaven; as the governor of a besieged castle would send a secret messenger to his general or prince, to let him know his state and straits. The apostle James, chap. iv. 2, saith, ' Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.' Our victory must di-op from heaven, if we have any ; but it stays till prayer comes for it. Though God had a purpose to deliver Israel out of Egypt, yet there was no news of his coming till the groans of his people rang in his ears. This gave heaven the alarm ; their cry came up unto God, and he heard their groaning, and remembered his covenant, Exod. ii. 24. Now, the more to prevail upon God in this act of faith, fortify thy pi-ayer with those strong reasons which saints have used in like cases. First, Engage God from his promise, when thou prayest against any sin ; shew God his own hand in such promises as these: 'Sin shall not have dominion over you,' Rom. vi. 14. ' He will subdue our miquities,' Micah vii. 19. Prayer is nothing but tlie promise reversed, or God's word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again. Know, Christian, thou hast law on thy side, — ■ bills and bonds must be paid. David prays against the sins of a wanton eye and a dead heart : ' Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way,' Psa. cxix. 37; and see how he urgeth his argument in the next words, — ' Establish thy word unto thy servant,' ver. 38. A good man is as good as his word, and will not a good God? But where finds David such a word for help against these sins ? Surely in the covenant, it is in the Magna Charta. The first promise held forth thus much, — ' The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.' Secondly, Plead with God from relation. Art thou one whom God hath taken into his family.' O what an argument hast thou here ! *I am thine; Lord save me,' saith David. Who will look after the child, if the father will not ? Is it to thy honour, O God, that any child of thine should be a slave to sin? ' Be merciful imto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name ; order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me,' Psa. cxix. 132. Thirdly, Engage God, from his Son's bloody death, to help thee against thy lusts, which were his nuu'dei'ers. What died Clu-ist for, but to ' redeem us from all iniquity, and pvn-ify unto himself a peculiar people ?' Tit. ii. 14. And shall not Christ be reimbursed of what he laid out ? Shall he not have the price of his blood, and piu-chase of his death? In a word, what is Christ praying for in heaven, but what was in his mouth when praying on earth, that his ' Father would sanctify them, and keep them from the evil of the world?' Thou comest in good time to beg that of God which thou findcst Christ hath asked for thee. A second way to engage God is by faith's expecting act : when thou hast been with God, expect good fi-om God. ' I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up,' Psa. V. 3. For want of this many a prayer is lost. If you do not believe, why do you pray ? And if you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God ; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence. What is this, but to take his name in vain ? O, Chi istian ! stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of the promise, and you cannot miss of the ruin of your lusts. Quest. O but, saith the poor soul, shall not I presume, to expect, when I have prayed against my corruptions, that God will bestow so great a mercy onine as ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 487 this is ? Ans. First, Dost thou know what it is to presume 1 He presumes that takes a thing before it is granted. He wofe a prcsuiiiptuous man indeed that shouUl take your meat oft' your table wlio never was invited; but 1 hope your guest is not over bold who ventures to eat of what you set before him. For one to break into yoiu- house, upon whom you shut the door, were presumptuous; but to come out of a storm into your house, when you are so kind as to call him in, is no presumption, but good manners. And if God opens not the door of his promise to be a sanctuary unto poor, humbled sinners, flying from the rage of their lust, truly then I know none on this side heaven that can expect welcome. God hath promised to be a King, a Lawgiver to his people. Now, it is no presumption in subjects to come under their prince's shadow, and expect protection from him. God promiseth, Isa. xxxiii. 21, 22, that he will be 'a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby; for the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.' God speaks to his people as a prince would to his subjects. He will secure them in their traffic and mer- chandise. Now, soul, thou art molested with many lusts that infest thee, and obstruct thy conunerce with heaven ; yea, thou hast complained to thy God, what loss thou hast suli'ered by them ; is it now presumption to expect relief from him, that he will rescue thee from them, that thou mayest serve liiin without fear who is thy liege Lord? Secondly, You have the saints for your precedents; who, when they have been in combat with their corruptions, yea, been foiled by them, have even then exercised their faith on God, and expected the ruin of those enemies, which for the present have overrun them : Psa. Jxv. 3, ' Liiquities prevail against me:' he means his own sins ; but see his faith: at the same time that they prevailed over him, he beholds God destroying them ; as appears in the very next words, * As for our transgressions, thou slialt purge them away.' See here, poor Christian, wlio thinkest that thou shalt never get above deck, holy David has a faith, not only for himself, but also all believers, of whose number I suppose thee one. x\nd nuu'k the ground he hath for this his confidence, taken from God's choosing act: ' Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts,' ver. 4. As if he had said, Surely he will not let them be under the power of sin, or in want of his gracious succour, whom he sets so near hhnself. This is Christ's own argument against Satan in the behalf of his people : ' The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan ; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee,' Zech. iii. 2. Thirdly, Thou hast encouragement for this expecting act of faith, from what God already hath enabled thee to do. Thou canst (if a believer indeed) through mercy say, that sin is not in that strength within thy soul, as it was before thy acquaintance with Christ, his word and ways. Though thou art not what thou wouldst be, yet thou art not what thou hast been. There was a time when sin reigned in thy heart without control : thou didst go to sin as a ship to sea, before wind and tide; thou didst spread thy aft'ections to receive the gale of temptation ; but now the tide is turned, and runs against those motions, though weakly ; yet thou findest a secret wrestling with' them, and God seasonably succouring thee, so that Satan hath not all his will on thee. Well, here is a sweet beginning, and, let me tell thee, tliis promiseth thee a readiness in God to perfect the victory ; yea, God would have thy faith improve this into a confidence for a total deliverance. Moses, when he slew the Egyptian, ' supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them,' Acts vii. 25. O, it is a bad improvement of the succours which (Jod gives us, to argue from them in favour of unbelief: ' He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out; but can he give bread also?' He broke my heart, saith the poor creature, when it was a rock, and brought me home when I was walking in the pride of my heart against him; but can he give bread to nourish my weak grace? I am out of Egypt ; but can he nuister those giants in iron chariots, that stand between me and Canaan ? He helped me in such a temptation, l)ut what shall I (lo in the next ? Oh ! do not grieve a good God with these heart-aching (piestions. You have the former rain, why should you (juestion the lattt-r ? Benjamin was a good pledge to nuike old Jacolj willing to go himself to Egypt. The grace whicli God hath already enriclicd thee with, is a sure pledge that more is coming to it. 488 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF I'AITH. The expecting act of faith must produce an endeavouring act to set tlie soul •on work, in the confidence of that succour it expects from God. When Jehoshaphat had prayed, and estahlished his faith on the good word of promise, then he takes tlie field, and marches out under this victorious banner against his enemies, 2 Chron. xx. Go, Christian, do as he did. "What David gave in counsel to his son Solomon, that give I to thee, 1 Chron. xxii. 16, 'Arise, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee.' That faith which set thee on work for God, against thy sins as his enemies, will undoubtedly set God on work for thee against them as thine. The lepers in the gospel were cured, not sitting still, but walking : ' It came to pass, thatasthey went, they were cleansed,' Lukexvii. 14. They met their cure in an act of obedience to Christ's command. The promise saitli, 'Sin shall not have dominion over you;' the command bids, ' Mortify yoiu- earthly members :' go thou, and make a valiant attempt against thy lust, upon this word of command ; and in doing thy duty, thou shalt find the performance of the promise. The reason of so many fruitless complaints among Christians, concerning the power of their corruptions, is, that they endeavour without exercising faith on the promise, and such indeed go at their own peril, like those bold men. Numb. xiv. 40, who presumptuously went up the hill to fight the Canaanites, though Moses told them the Lord was not among them ; thus slighting the command of Moses, their leader, as if they needed not his help to the victory ; a clear resemblance of those who go in their own strength to resist their corruptions, and So fall before them ; or else they pretend to believe, their faith doth not set them on a vigorous endeavour. They use faith as an eye, but not as a hand ; they look for victory to drop from heaven upon their heads, but do not fight to obtain it. This is a mere fanciful faith. He that believes God for the event, believes him for the means also. If the patient dare trust the physician for his cure, he dare also follow his prescription in order to it : and, therefore. Christian, sitnot still, and say thy sins shall fall, but put thyself in array against them. God, who hath promised thee victory, calls thee to thy arms, and means to use thy own hands in the battle, if ever thou gettest it. ' Get thee up,' said the Lord to Joshua; 'wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?' Josh. vii. 10. God liked the prayer and moan he made very well ; but there was something else for him to do, besides praying and weeping, before the Amorites could be overcome ; and so there is for thee. Christian, with thy faith, besides praying and expecting thy lust down, and that is, searching narrowly into thy heart, whether there be not some neglect on thy part, as an Achan, for which thou art so worsted by sin, and fleest before the face of every temptation. CHAPTER XVII. OF THE SECOND SORT OF TEMPTATIONS, THAT ARE MORE AFFRIGHTING, AND HOW FAITH QUENCHETH THESE DARTS IN PARTICULAR TEMPTATIONS TO ATHEISM, WHICH IS OVERCOME, NOT BY REASON, BUT BY FAITH. Having thus dispatched the first kind of fiery darts, temptations, which are enticing and alluring, we now proceed to the second kind, such as are of an affiighting nature, by which Satan would dismay the Christian ; and my task is still the same, to show the power of faith in quenching these fiery darts. Section I. — Faith, and only faith, can quench the fiery darts of Satan's affrighting temptations. This sort of fiery darts is our enemy's reserve ; when the other proves unsuccessful, then he opens this quiver, and sends ashower of these aiTows to set the soul on flame, if not of sin, j'et of terror and horror. When he cannot carry a soul laughing to hell, throiigh the witchery of pleasing temptations, he will endeavour to make him go mourning to heaven, by affr-ighting him with the other. And truly, it is not the least support to a soul exercised with these, to consider, that they are a good sign, that Satan is hard put to it when these aiTows are upon his string. You know an enemy that keeps a castle will preserve it as long as he can hold it : but when he sees he must quit, he sets it on fire, to render it, if possible, useless to them that come after him. While the strong man can keep his house under his own power, he labours to keep it in peace ; he quenches those fire-balls of conviction that the Spirit is often shooting into the conscience : but when he perceives it is no longer tenable, the mutiny within increases, and there is a secret whisper in the soul of yielding unto Christ, ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4g9 now he labours to set the soul on fire, by his affrighting temptations; much more doth he labour to do it, when Christ hath got the castle out ofhis hands and keeps it by the power ofhis grace. It is very observable, that all the darts shot against Job were of this sort ; he hardly made any use of the other, when God gave him leave to practise his skill. Why did he not tempt him with some golden apple of profit or pleasure, or such-like enticing temptations? Surely, the high testimony God gave to this his eminent servant discouraged Satan from this method : yea, no doubt, he had tried Job's manhood before this, as to those, and found him too hard ; so that now he had no other way left probable to attain his design but this. I shall content myself with three instances of this sort of fiery darts, showing how faith quenches them all : temptations to atheism, blasphemy, and despair. Skction II. — -The first is, his temptation to atheism, which, for the horrid nature thereof, may well be called a fiery dart; partly because by this he makes so bold an attempt, striking at the being of God himself; as also, because of the consternation he produceth in a gracious soul wounded with it. It is true, the devil, who cannot himself tiu-n atheist, is much less able to make a child of God an atheist, who hath not only, in common with other men, an indelible stamp of Deity in his conscience, but such a sculpture of the Divhie nature in his heart, as irresistibly demonstrates a God ; yea, lively represents a holy God, whose image it is ; so that it is impossible a holy heart should be fully overcome with this temptation, having an argument beyond all the world of wicked men, and devils themselves, to prove a Deity, that is, a new nature in him, ' created after God in righteousness and true holiness;' by which, even when he is buffeted with atheistical injections, he saith in his heart there is a God, though Satan, in the paroxysm of the temptation, clouds his reasoning faculty for the present with this smoke of hell, which doth more offend and affi-ight, than persuade his gracious heart to espouse such a jirinciple, as it doth in a wicked man ; who, when on the contrary he is urged by his conscience to believe on God, saith in his heart, 'There is no God;' that is, he wisheth there were none. And this may exceedingly comfort a saint, (who, notwithstanding such injections to atheism, clings about God in his affections, and dares not for a world allow liimself to sin against him; no, not when most oppressed with this temptation,) that he shall not pass for an atheist in God's account, whatever Satan makes him believe. As the wicked shall not be cleared from atheism by their naked profession of Deity, so long as those thoughts of God are so loose and weak, as not to command them into any obedience to his commands, Psa. xxxvi. I : ' The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes;' the holy prophet argues from the wickedness of the sinner's life, to the atheism of his heart; so on the contrary, the holy life of a gracious person, saith in mine heart, that the fear of God is before his eyes : it appears plainly, that he believes a God, and reveres that God whom he believes to be. Well, though a gracious heart can never be overcome, yet he may be sadly disquieted with it. Now in the next place, I am to show you how the Christian may quench this fiery dart, and that is, by faith alone. Quest. But what need of faith ? Will not reason serve the turn to stop the devil's mouth in this point? Cannot the eye of reason espy a Deity except it look through the spectacles of faith ? Ans. I grant that this is a piece of natural divinity, and reason is able to demonstrate the being of a God ; whei'e the Scriptures never came, a Deity is acknowledged : Micah iv. 5, ' All people will walk, every one in the name of his god:' where it is supposed, that every nation owns some deity, and hath a worship for that god which they own : yet in a furious assault of temptation, it is faith alone that is able to keep the field, and quench the fire of this dart. First, That light which reason affords, is duskish and confused, serving for little more than in general to shew there is a God ; it will never tell who or what this God is. Till Paul bi-ought the Athenians acquainted with the true God, how little of this first principle in religion was known among them, though that city was then the very eye of the world for learning ! And if the world's eye was so dark, as not to know the God they worshipped, what then was the world's darkness itself, — those barbarous places, which wanted all tillage and cvdturc of human literature, to .idvanco and perfect their understandings? This is a Scripture notion, and so is the object of faith. 490 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. rather than reason, Heb. xi. 6: ' He that cometh to God, must believe that he is.' Mark that, — •' he must believe.' Now faith goes upon the credit of the word, and takes all upon trust from its authority : he ' nnist believe that he is ;' which, as Mr. Perkins, on the place, saith, is not nakedly to know there is a God, but to know God to be God ; which reason of itself can never do. Such is the blindness and corruption of our nature, that we have very deformed and mis- shapen thoughts of him, till with the eye of faith we see his face in the glass of the word ; and therefore the same learned man affirms, that all men whoever came of Adam (Christ alone excepted) are by nature atheists ; because, at the same time that they acknowledge a God, they deny his power, presence, and justice, and allow- him to be only what pleaseth themselves. Indeed, it is natural for every man to desire to accommodate his lusts with such conceptions of God as may be most favourable to and suit best with them. God chargeth some for this : ' Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself,' Psa. 1. 21. Sinners do with God as the Ethiopians do with angels, whom they picture with black faces, that they may be like themselves. Secondly, Suppose thou wert able by reason to demonstrate what God is, yet it were dangerous to enter the list, and dispute it out, by thy naked reason, with Satan, who hath, though the worst cause, yet the nimbler head. There is more disparity between thee and Satan, than between the weakest idiot and the greatest scholar in the world. Now, who would put a cause of so great importance to such a hazard, as thou must do, by reasoning the point with him, who so far outmatches thee ? But there is a divine authority in the word which faith builds on, and this hath a throne in the conscience of the devil himself; he flies at this : for which cause, Christ, though he was able by I'eason to have baffled the devil, yet, to give us a pattern what arms to use for our defence in our conflicts with Satan, he repels him only by the word. ' It is written,' saith Christ, Luke iv. 4, and again, ver. 8, ' It is written.' And it is very obsei'vable, how powerful the word quoted by Christ was to defeat the devil ; so that he had not a word to reply to any Scripture tliat was brought ; but upon the very mention of the word, was forced to go to another argument. Had Eve but stood to her first answer, ' God hath said. Ye shall not eat of it,' Gen. iii. o, she would have been too hard for the devil ; but letting her hand go, which she had by faith on the word, presently she fell into her enemy's hand. Thus, in this particular, when the Christian, in the heat of temptation, by faith stands upon his defence, intei'posing the word between him and Satan's blows, — I believe that God is, though I cannot comprehend his nature, nor answer thy sophistry ; yet I believe the report the word makes of God : Satan may troul)le such an one, but he can- not hurt him : nay, it is probable he will not long trouble him. The devil's antipathy is so great to the word that he loves not to hear it sound in his ear ; but if thou thro west down the shield of the word, and thinkest by the dint or force of thy reason to cut tliy way through the temptation, thou may est soon see thyself surrounded by thy subtle enemy, and put beyond an lionourable retreat. This is the cause, I conceive, why, among those few which have professed themselves atheists, most of them have been great pretenders to reason : such as have neglected the word, and gone forth in the pride of their own understanding, by wliich (through the righteous judgment of God) they at last have disputed themselves into atheism. While they have turned their backs upon God and his word, and thought, by digging into the secrets and bowels of natiu-e, to be admired for their knowledge above others, that hath befallen them wliicli sometimes does to those in mines, who delve too far into the bowels of the earth — a damp from God's secret judgment hath come to put out that light which at first they carried down with them ; and so, that of the apostle is verified on them, ' Where is the disputer of the world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?' 1 Cor. i. 20. Indeed, it is the wisdom of God, that the world, by wisdom, should not know God. Thirdly, .He that assents to this truth, that there is a God, merely upon grounds of reason, and not of faith, and rests in that, he doth not quench the temptation, for still he is an infidel, and a Scripture atheist: he doth not believe there is a God, at the report of God's word, but at the rejjort of liis reason, and so indeed he doth believe but himself, and not God, and in that nuikcs himself a god, preferring the testimony of his own reason before the testimony of God's word, wliich is dangerous. ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 49I But some may say, Is there no use of reasou in such principles as this, which are within its sphere? May I not make use of my reason to confirm me in this truth, that there is a God .' It is heyond all doubt that there is ; wherefore else did God set up such a light, if not to guide us ? But it must keep its place, and that is to follow faith, not to be the ground of it, or to give law and measure to it. Our faith must not depend on our reason, but our reason on our faith. I am not to believe what the word saith, merely because it agrees with my reason ; but believe my reason, because it is suitable to the word. The more perfect light is to rule the less. Now the light of the word which faith follows, is more clear and sure than reason is, or can be ; therefore it was written, because man's natural light was so defective. Thou readest in the word, that there is a God, and that he made the world ; thy eye of reasou sees this also, but thou layest the stress of thy faith on the word, not on thy reason ; and so of other truths. The carpenter lays his rule to the timber, and by his eye sees it to be right or crooked ; yet it is not the eye, but the rule, which is the measure, without which his eye might fail him. All that I shall say more to such as are annoyed with atheistical injections, is this : fix thy faith strongly on the word, by which thou shalt be al)le to overcome this Goliath ; and when thou art more free and composed, and the storm is over, thou shalt do well to strengthen thy faith what thou canst with thy reason. Let the word (like David's stone) in the sling of faith, first prostrate the temptation, and then, as lie used Goliath's sword to cut off his head, so mayest thou, with more ease and safety, make use of thy reason to complete the victoiy over these atheistical suggestions. CHAPTER XVIII. OF TEMPTATIONS TO BLASPHEMY, AND HOW FAITH QUENCHETH THEM, AND DEFEATS SATAn's DOUBLE DESIGN. The second fiery dart with which he affrights the Christian, is his temptation to blasphemy. Every sin, in a large sense, is blasphemy ; but here we take it more strictly. When a man does, speaks, or thinks anything derogatory to the holy nature or works of God, with an intent to reproach him or his ways, this properly is blasphemy. Job's wife was the devil's solicitor, to provoke her husband to this sin: ' Curse God,' said she, 'and die.' The devil was so impudent as to assault Christ himself with this sin, when he bade him fall down and worship him ; but he hath an advantage of making a nearer approacli to a saint than he had to Christ. All that he could do to him, was to offend his holy ear with an external motion. It would not stand with the dignity or holi- ness of Christ's jierson to let him come any farther ; but he can shoot this fiery dart into the imagination of a saint, to the great disturbance of his thoughts, endeavouring thereby to stir up some unworthy thoughts of (Jod in him ; though these commonly are no more welcome to a gracious soul, than the frogs which crept into the bed-chamber of Pharaoh were to him. Two things Satan aims at by these injecti(nis: First, To make the saint defame (>od, which he loves to hear ; but if this fail, then he is content to play a lower game, and intends the Christian's vexation, l)y forcing these unwelcome guests upon him. Now faith, and only faith, can (juench these fire-balls in both respects. Faith is able to defeat Satan's first plot, by keeping the soul from entertaining any unbecoming or blasphemous thoughts of C«od, and none but faith can do this. There is a natural disjiosition in every wicked man to l)laspheme God. Let- God but cross a carnal wretch in his way, and then suffer Satan to edge his corruption, and he will soon fly in (iod's face. If the devil's supposition had been true, that Job was a hypocrite, then that tale whicJi he brought against him to God, would have been true also : ' Put forth now thy iiand, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face,' Job i. 11. Had J0I) been the man he took him for, the devil had not lied; l)ecause it is natural for every wicked man to liave base tlio>ights of (iod; and when provoked, the inward rancour of his heart will ajijiear in (he foulness of his tongue. 'This evil is of tlie I>i)rd ; what should I wait for the Lord any longer.'' 2 Kings vi. .'53 ; a loiul blaspliemy, the seed of which is found in every unbeliever. There is but one spirit of wickedness in sinners, as but one spirit of grace in saints. Peter tells Simon Magus, he was ' in the gall of 49;2 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. bitterness,' Acts viii. 23 ; that is, in a state of sin. Every unbeliever hath a bitter spirit against God, and all that bears his name. There is no trusting the tamest of them all. Let the lion out of his cage, and he will soon shew his bloody nature. An unbeliever hath no more in him to quench such a temptation than dry wood hath to quench fire. But now let us see what exploits faith can do in quenching this fiery dart, and how it does it. First, Faith sets God before the soul, within sight and hearing of all its thoughts and ways ; and this keeps the soul in awe, that it dares harbour nothing unworthy of God in its most secret thoughts. David gives the reason why the wicked are so bold, Psa. Ixxxvi. 14: 'they have not set thee before them.' Such as defame and asperse the names of others, do it commonly behind their backs. Sin in this life seldom comes to such a ripeness, as to blaspheme God to his face ; this is properly the language of hell. There is a mixture of atheism with the blasphemy of sinners while on earth. They do with God as those wretched miscreants did with Chi-ist, they cover his face, and then smite him ; they draw a curtain of atheistical principles between God and them, and then belch out their blasphemies against that God, whose onniiscience they do not believe. Now faith sees God eyeing the soul, and so preserves it. 'Curse not the king,' saith Solomon, ' no, not in thy thought ; and curse not the rich in thy bed- chamber ; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter,' Eccles. x. 20. Such kind of language faith useth. Blaspheme not, saith faith, O my soul, the God of heaven ; thou canst not whisper it so softly, but the voice is heard in his ear, who is nearer to thee than thou to thyself: and thus it breaks the snare the devil lays. Those vmbecoming speeches which dropped from Job's mouth, throvigh the length and extremity of his troubles, though they did not amount to blasphemy, j'et when God presented himself to him in his majesty, they soon vanished, and he covered his face with shame before the Lord for them: 'Now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes,' Job xlii. 5, 6. Secondly, Faith credits no report of God, but from God's ov/n mouth, and thus it quencheth temptations to blasphemy. It is impossible a soul should have any but holy and loyal thoughts of God, who shapes his apprehensions of him by the word, which is the only true glass to behold God in, because it alone presents him like himself in all his attributes, which Satan by this sin of blasphemy one way or other asperses. Faith conceives its notions of God by the word, resolves all cases of conscience, and deciphers all providences (which God writes in myste- rious figures) by the word, for want of which skill Satan drives the creature very often to have hard thoughts of God, because he cannot make presently good sense of his administrations in the world. Thus there have been some who foolishly have charged God's justice, because some outrageous sinners have not been overtaken with such speedy judgment as they deserve; others have charged as deeply his care and faithfulness, in providing no better for his servants, whom they have seen kept long under the hatches of great afllictions : like him who seeing a company of Christians in poor ragged clothes, said, he would not serve that God, who kept his servants no better. These and such like are the broken glasses that Satan presents God in, which disfigure him to the creature's eye ; and truly, if we will look no farther, but judge God to be what he appears to be by them, we shall soon condemn the Holy One, and be within the whirl of this dangei'ous temptation. Thirdly, Faith quenches temptations to blasphemy, as it is full of praise. It disposeth the Christian to bless God in the saddest con- dition that can befall it. Now blessing and blasphemy are most contrary ; by the one we think and speak evil, and by the other, good of God, and therefore they cannot well dwell under the same roof; they are like contrary tunes, they cannot be played on the same instrument without changing all the strings. It is past Satan's skill to strike so harsh a stroke as blasphemy is, on a soul tuned and set to praise God ; now faith doth this. ' My heart is fixed,' saith David: there was his faith; then follows, ' I will sing and give praise,' Psa. Ivii. 7. It was faith that tuned his spirit, and set his affections praising. And would not Satan, think you, have found it a hard task to make David blaspheme God, while his heart was kept in a praising frame ? Now two wa)'S faith doth this : first, as it seeth mercy in the greatest affliction, an eye of comfort in the saddest mixture of providence ; so when the devil provokes to blasphemy from ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 4.93 the evil that the creature receives from God, faitli shows more good received than evil. Thus Job quenched this dart, which Satan sliot at him from his wife's tongue : ' Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall not we receive evil V Shall a few present troubles be a grave to bury the remembrance of all my past and present mercies? ' Thou speakest as one of the foolish women.' What God takes from me is less than I owe him ; but what he leaves me is more than he owes me. Solomon bids us, ' in the day of adversity consider.' Our unbecoming thoughts and words of God are the produce of a rash, hasty spirit. Now faith is a considering grace; he that believes will not make haste; no, not to think or speak of God. Faith hath a good memory, and can tell tjie Christian many stories of ancient mercies ; and when his ])rcsent meal falls short, it can entertain the soul with a cold dish, and not complain that God keeps a bad house. Thus David recovered himself, when he was even timibling down the hill of temptation : ' This is my infirmity ; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the IMost High ; I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember thy wonders of old,' Psa. Ixxvii. 10, 11. Therefore, Christian, when thou art in thy depths of afHiction, and Satan tempts thee to asperse God, as if he were forgetful of thee, stop his mouth with this : No, Satan, God hath not forgot to do for me, but I have forgot what he hath done for me, or else I could not question his fatherly care at present over me. Go, Christian, play over thy own lessons, praise God for past mci'cies, and it will not be long before thou hast a new song put into thy mouth for a present mercy. Secondly, As faith espies mercy in every afHiction, so it holds an expectation in the soul for more ; which confidence disposcth the soul to praise God as if the mercy were then in being. Daniel, when in the very shadow of death, the plot being laid to take away his life, three times a day he prayed, and gave thanks before his CJod, Dan. vi. 10. To have heard him pray in that great strait would not have afforded so much matter of wonder ; but to have his heart in tune for giving thanks in such a sad hour was admirable. Mercy in the promise is as the apple in the seed; faith sees it growing up — the mercy coming. Now a soul imder expectation of deliverance will scorn a blasphemous thought. When relief is known to be on its way for a garrison besieged, it raiseth their spirits ; thej' will not then hearken to the traitorous proposal of the enemy. It is when unbelief is the counsellor, and the soul under doubts and suspicions of God's disposition toward it, that Satan finds welcome upon such an errand : an excellent instance of both we have in Isaiah viii. ; we find, ver. 17, what is the effect of faith, and that is a cheerful waiting on God in difficulties : ' I will wait upon the Loi-d, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him ;' and, ver. 21, we have the fruit of unbelief, and that is no less than blasphemy: 'And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.' Faith keeps the believer in a waiting posture; and unbelief sets the sinner cursing both God and man. None escapes his lash that crosses him in his way ; no, not God himself. Fourthly, Faith quenches this fiery dart by purifying the heart of that enmity against God which, in man's corrupt natm-e, is fuel for such a temptation. ' Backbiters, haters of God,' and 'despiteful,' are joined together, Rom. i. ,'30. No wonder that a man whose spirit is full of rancour against another should be easily persuaded to revile him whom he hates so much. Every unbeliever is a hater of God, and so he is in a disposition to blaspheme God when his will or lust is crossed by God ; but faith slays this enmity of the heart, yea, it works love in the soul to God, and then works by this love. Now, it is one property of love ' to think no evil,' 1 Cor. xiii. .5 ; that is, a man will neither plot any evil against him whom he loves, nor easily suspect any evil to be plotted by him against himself. Love reads the actions of a friend through sucli clear spec- tacles of candour as will make a dark print seem a fair character ; she interprets all he doth with so much sweetness and simjilicity, that those passages in his behaviour towards her, which to another would seem intricate and suspicious, are plain and pleasing to her, because she ever puts the most favourable sense upon all he doeth. The believer dares not himself plot any sin against God, whom he loves so dearly. And as love will not suffer him to turn traitor against a good God, so neither will it suffer him to harbour any jealous thoughts of God's heart towards him ; as if he who was the first lover, and taught the soul to 494 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. love him by making love to it, could, after all this, frame any plot of real iinkindness against it. No ; this thought, though Satan may force it in a man- ner upon the Christian, and violently press for its entertainment under the advantage of some frowning providence, yet it can never lind welcome so far as to be credited in the sonl where love to God hath anything to do. And surely there is no fear that the soul will be persuaded wickedly to throw out blasphemies against God, who so abominates the least suspicion of God in its most secret thoughts. The second design Satan hath in these blasphemous temptations is the Christian's trouble and vexation. Though he doth not find the Christian so kind as to take these guests in and give them lodgings, yet he knows it will not a little disturb and break his rest to have them continually knocking at his door ; yea, when he cannot pollute the Christian by obtaining his consent to them, then he hopes to create him no little disquiet by accusing him for what he will not commit ; and so of a defiler he is forced to turn slanderer, reviler, and false accuser. Thus the whore sometimes accuseth the honest man, merely to be revenged on him, because he will not yield to satisfy her lust. Joseph woidd not lie with his mistress, and she invented a horrible lie on him. The devil is the blasphemer; but the poor Christian, because he will not join with him in the fact, shall have the name and bear the blame of it. As the Jews compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry Christ's cross, so Satan would compel the tempted Christian to carry the guilt of his sin for him ; and many times he doth with such sleight of hand shift it from himself to the Christian's back, that he, poor creatiu'e, perceives not the juggler's art of conveying it unto him, but goes complaining only of the baseness of his own heart : and, as it sometimes falls out that an lionest man, in whose house stolen goods are found, suffers because he cannot find the thief who left them, so the Christian suff'ers many sad terrors from the mere presence of these horrid thoughts in his bosom, because he is not able to say whose they are,— whetlier shot in by Satan, or the steaming forth of his own wicked heart. The luimble Christian. is prone to fear the worst of himself, even where he is not conscious of being guilty ; like the patriarchs, who, when the cup was found in Benjamin's sack, took the blame to themselves, though they were innocent in the fact ; and such is the confusion sometimes in the Christian's thoughts, that he is ready to charge himself with those brats that should be laid at Satan's door. Now, here I shall show you how faith defeateth this second design of the devil in these blasphemous motions ; and this it doth in two ways: first, by helping the Christian to discern Satan's injections from the motions of his own heart ; secondlj', by succouring him, though they rise from his own heart. First, Faith teaches the Christian to distinguish those fire-balls of temptations, which are thrown in at his window by Satan, from those sparks of corruption which fly from his own heartli, and take fire at his own sinful heart. And, certainly, those blasphemous thoughts, of which many graciovis souls make such sad complaint, will be found very often of the former sort, as may appear if we consider the time when they first stir and are most busy, the manner how they come, and lastly, the effect they have on the Christian's heart. First, The time when they begin to stir, and the soul to be haunted with them ; and that is ordinarily when the work of conversion hath newly passed, or is passing, upon him ; when the creature falls off from his own sinful course to embrace Christ, and declares for him against sin and Satan. This is the time when these blas- phemous suggestions begin to make their appearance. There is a strong proba- bility that they do not breed there, but are sent from Satan by way of revenge for the soul's revolt from him ; the devil dealing by the Christian in this not much unlike to witches, who, to express their spite against those that cross them, sometimes cause them to swarm with vermin, to make them loathsome to themselves ; and, as one who never found such vermin crawling about him before, might well wonder to see himself so suddenly covered with them, and would rather impute it to the witch's malice than to the corruption of his own body, so in this case, it is very improbable to think that' the creature should in this juncture of time, above all, fall so fold with God liy sinning against him to such a height as this. Is it likely that he can, while he is in tears for the sins of his past life, commit a greater than any of them which he mourns for? or. ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 495 that he clave, while he is crying for pardoning mercy with a trembling heart, block up the way to his own prayers, and harden God's heart into a denial of them, by such horrid sins as these? In a word, does it not seem strange, that all the while he was a stranger to and an enemj' against God, he durst not venture on this sin, for the prodigious nature of it; and tliat now, when he begins to love God, those blasphemies should fit his mouth which were too big and liorrid before for him to meddle with? Secondly, Tlie manner how these blas- phemies rise in the Christian's thouglits will increase the probability that they are injections from Satan rather than motions of the Christian's own heart. They are commonly violent and sudden ; they come like lightning, Hashing into the Christian's thouglits before he hath time to deliberate with hiniself what he is doing : whereas that lust which is the ebullition of oiu- own hearts is ordinarily gradual in its motion ; it moves in a way more still and suitable to man's natiu-e ; it doth entice the soul, and by degrees inveigles it into a consent, bringing first the afi'ections on its side, which then it employeth to corrupt the understanding, and take it off from appearing against it by putting its eye out with some bribe of sensual pleasure and profit, and so by these paces it comes at last to have a more easy ticcess to, and success over, the will, which, being now deprived of her guard, yields the sooner to the sunnnons which lust makes. But these sudden dartings of blasphemous thoughts make a forcible entry upon the soul without any application used to gain its good will to come in ; their driving is like the driving of that hellish Jehu, it is the devil that is got upon the box ; who else could drive so furiously ? Yea, not only their suddenness and Violence, but inco- herence with the Christian's former thoughts and com-se, do still heighten the probability that they are darts shot from the devil's bow. Peter was once known to be of Christ's company by his voice : ' Thy speech,' say they, ' betrayeth thee;' he spake like them, and therefore was judged one of them. On the contrary, we may say of these blasphemous motions, they are not the Christian's ; their language betrays them to be rather the belchings of a devil than the voice of a saint. If they were woven by the soul, they would be something like the whole piece from which they are cut off. There is ordinarily a dependency in our thoughts ; we take the hint from one thought for another ; as circle risetli out of circle in the moved water, so does thought out of thought, till they spread into a discourse. Now, may not the Christian well wonder to see, may be when he is at the worship of God, and taken up with holy and heavenly meditations, a blasphemous thought on a sudden appearing in the midst of such company, to which it is so great a stranger, and also how it could get in among them ? If a holy thought siu'priseth us on a sudden, when we stand, as it were, with ovn* back on heaven, and there be nothing in the discourse which oin- hearts at ])resent are holding to usher it in, we may take it as the pure motion of the Spirit of Christ. Who, indeed, but he could be so soon in the midst of the soul, when the door is shut, even before the creature can turn liis thoughts to open it for him? And probably these blasphemies which rush upon thee, O C'hristian, at a time when thy soul is at the farthest distance from such thoughts, yea, sailing to the contrary ]>oiut, in thy ])raying to and praising of God, are tiie eruptions of that wicked one, and tliat on purpose to interrupt thee in that work, which of all other he fears and hates most. Thirdly, The effect these blasphemous motions have on the heart may make us think they are Satan's brats, rather than the birth of the Christian's own heart; and that is a dismal horror and consternation of the Christian's spirit, which reacheth often to the discom])osure of the body; so that an apparition of the devil to their bodily eyes could not affright them more than tliese blasphemies do, who walk in their imagination. Yea, they do not only cause an horror, but stir up a vehement indignation and abhorrence in the soul at their presence. If now they be the birth of the Christian's own heart, why this horror, — whence this indignation? These motions which arise from ourselves use to please us better. It is natural for men to love the children of their own loins, though black and deformed, and as natural to like the conceptions of their own minds. Solomon found out the true mother, by her tenderness to the child. If tliesc blas])hemies were the issue of the heart, familiarity with them might be expected, rather than horror at the sight of them ; favour to them rather than abhorrence of them. Were it not more likely, poor soul, that thou wouldst kiss them, if thy own, than seek ^QQ ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. to kill them ; draw out thy hreast to nurse and suckle them, than the sword of the Spirit to destroy them ? And if so, saith faith, that these he Satan's brats, why then art thou troubled because he lays them at thy door ? Is the chaste woman unchaste because some foul tongue calls her so? Have patience a little, poor soul, the Judge is at the door, and when he comes thou shalt be called by thy right name. Sit not thou any longer wounding thy soul with his dart, and troubling thyself for the devil's sin, but go and complain of him to thy God ; and when thou hast spread his blasphemies before the Lord, as Hezekiah did Rabshakeh's, comfort thyself with this, that God will spread thy cause against this false accuser, and send him away with as much shame, and as little success, as he did that barking dog, who so reviled God, and railed on his people. But, secondly, suppose these blasphemous motions be the Christian's own sins, bred in his own heart, and not the devil's brats, yet here faith relieves the Christian, when distressed with the guilt of them, and Satan labours most to aggravate them. Now the succour faith brings the soul here is manifold. Faith can assure the soul, upon solid Scripture bottoms, that these blasphemous thoughts are pardonable : ' All manner of sin and blasphem)? shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men,' Matt. xii. 31. And it were strange, if thy fancy should be so wild and melancholy, as to think thou seest this only impardonable blasphemy (which is marked on the forehead with final impenitency and desperate hatred against God) in those loose, roving thoughts, that never yet could gain any consent from thy heart, but continues to disavow and protest against them ; I say, it were very strange that thou couldst long mistake those unwelcome guests for that wicked sin. Now, for thy comfort, thou hcarest that all manner of blasphemy, except that one, shall be forgiven ; a pardon for them may be sued out in the court of meixy, how terrible and amazing soever their circumstances may be to thy trembling soul ; and if the creature believes this, Satan's dart is quenched ; for his design is to make use of these temptations as a trap-door by which he may let thy soul down into despair. Faith resolves the soul, that the ebullition of such thoughts is not inconsistent with the state of grace ; and if the soul be well satisfied in this point, the devil's fiery dart hath lost its en- venomed head, so that it cannot drink up the Christian's spirits. The common inference which he makes tempted souls draw from the presence of these thoughts is, Surely I am not a saint ; this is not the spot of God's children ; but faith is able to disprove this, and challenges Satan to show one place in all the Bible that countenanceth such a conclusion. Indeed there is not one. It is true, the blasphemy of blasphemies, (I mean the sin against the Holy Ghost,) with this the evil one shall never touch a true believer ; but I know no kind of sin, short of that, from which he hath any such protection or immunity, as makes it impossible he shoidd for a time be foiled by it. The whole body of sin, indeed, is weakened in every believer, and a deadly wound given by the grace of God to his corrupt nature ; yet as a dying tree may bear some fruit, though not so much, nor that so full and ripe as before ; as a dying man may move his limbs, though not so strongly as when he v/as in health ; so original cor- ruption in a saint will be stiri'ing, though but feebly ; and thou hast no cause to be discoiu'aged because it stirs, but to be comforted that it can but stir. O be thankful thou hast got thy enemy, who was master of the field, and had thee tied to his triumphant chariot, now himself on his knees under the victorious sword of Christ and his grace, ready to drop into his grave, though lifting up his hand against thee, to show his enmity continues, when his 'power fails to do execution. Faith can clear it to the soul, that these blasphemous thoughts, as they are commonly entertained in a saint, are not such great sins in God's accoinit, as some other that pass for less in ours. The Christian commonly contracts more guilt by a few proud, unclean, covetous thoughts, than by many blasphemous, because the Christian seldom gets so clear a victoiy over those, as over these of blasphemy. The fiery darts of blasphemy may scare the Christian more, but fiery lusts wound sooner and deeper. The warm sun made the traveller open his cloak, but the blustering wind made him wrap it closer to him. Temptations of pleasure entice the heart, whereas the horrid nature of the other stirs up the Christian to a more valiant resistance of them. O the Christian is soon overtaken with temptations of pleasure,- — they are like ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD UF I'AITH. 49Y poison in sweet wine, tliey are down before he is aware, and do diffuse apace in liis affections, poisoning the Christian's spirits, but tliose of blasphemy are like poison in some bitter potion ; either it is spit out before it is down, or vomited by the Christian before it hath spread itself far into his affections. Sins are great or small by the share the will hath in the acting of them ; and blasphemous thoughts, commonly having less of the Christian's will and affections in them thaft the other, cannot be a greater sin. Faith tells the soul that God hath gracious ends in suffering him to be haunted with such troublesome guests, or they should not be quartered on him. Possibly God saw some other sin, which thou wert in great danger of, and he sends Satan to trouble thee with thesie temptations, that he may not overcome thee with the other ; and though a plaster may be very offensive and loathsome, yet it is better to endure that awhile, than a disease which will hazard thy life. Better tremble at the sight of blaspliemous thoughts, than strut thyself in the pride of thy heart at the sight of thy gifts and privileges. The first will nrake thee think thyself as vile as the devil himself in thy own eyes; but tlie other will make thee prodigiously wicked, and so like the devil in God's eyes. Faith will put the Cln-istian on some noble exploits for God, thereby to vindicate himself, and prove the devil's charge a lie, as one that is accused of some traitorous design against h's prince, to wipe off that calumny, doth undertake some notable enterprise for honour. This, indeed, is the fullest revenge the Christian can take, either of Satan for troubling him with such injections, or his own heart for issuing out such impiu'e streams. When David preferred Saul's life in the cave above a kingdom, which one hearty blow might have procured him, he proved all his enemies liars that had brought him under a suspicion at court. Thus, Chris- tian, do thou by the honour of God, when it cometh in competition with sin and self; and thou wilt stop the devil's mouth, who sometimes is ready to make thee jealous of thyself, as if thou wert a blasphemer. Such heroic acts of zeal and self-denial would speak more for thy purgation before God and thy own conscience than these sudden thoughts can do against thee, CHAPTER XIX. THE THIRD FIERY DART OF DESPAIR, AND THE CHIEF ARGUMENT WHICH SATAN URGETH MOST UPON SOULS, TO DRIVE THEM INTO IT, (tAKEN FROM THE GREATNESS OF SIN,) REFUTED; AS ALSO THE FIRST ANSWER WITH WHICH FAITH FURNISHETH THE SOUL FOR THIS PURPOSE. The third fiery dart which Satan lets fly at the Christian is his temptation to despair. This cursed fiend thinks he can neither revenge himself farther on God, nor engrave his own image deeper on the creature, than by this sin, which at once casteth the greatest scorn upon God, and brings the creature nearer the complexion of devils and damned sovds ; who, by lying continually under the scorching wrath of God in hell, are black with despair. This is the sin Satan chiefly aims at: other sins are but as previous dispositions to introduce that, and make the creature more receptive for such a temptation. As the wool hath a tincture of some lighter colour given it before it can be dyed into a deep grain, so Satan hath his more lightsome and pleasant sins, which he at first entices the creature to, that he may the better dispose him for this. The devil is too cunning a fowler to lay his net in the bird's sight; despair is the net, other sins are but the bait, whereby he lures them in. This, above all sins, puts a man into a kind of actual possession of hell. Other sins bind over to wrath, but this gives fire to the threatening, and sets the soul in a flame with horror. As it is faith's excellency to give a being to the word of promise ; so it is the cruelty of despair to give an existence to the torments of hell in the conscience. This is the arrow which drinks up the spirits, and makes the creature executioner to itself. Despair puts a soid beyond all relief; the offer of a pardon comes too late to him that hath turned himself off the ladder. Other temptations have their way to escape ; faith and hope can open a window to let out the smoke that ofl'ends the Christian in any condition ; but the soul nuist needs be choked, when it is shut up within the despairing thoughts of its own sins, and no crevice of hope left, to be an outlet to any of that horror with which they fill him. Section I.— I might here instance those many arguments which Satan useth to bring souls into despair, and how able faith, and only faith, is, to 2 K 498 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. answer and repel them ; but I shall content myself with one, which is the chief of all Satan's strength, and that is taken from the greatness and multitude of the creature's sin, which, when it is enlightened to see, and hath the hrawni- ness of its conscience pared off, and made to feel with remorse, then if God hut allows Satan to use his rhetoric in declaiming against the heinousness of sin, the poor creature must needs be in a doleful condition, and of necessity sink into the depths of despair, for all the help it can find from itself within, or any other creature witliout. Perhaps some of you, who have slight thoughts of your own sins, think it proves but a childish spirit in others, to be so troubled for theirs ; and in this you shew that you never were in Satan's stocks, pinched by his temptations : those who have, will speak- in another language, and tell you, that the sins which are unfelt by you, have pressed like a mountain of lead upon their spirits. O ! when a breach is once made in the conscience, and the waves of guilt pour over the soul, it soon overtops all the creature's shifts and apologies, as the flood did the old world. As nothing then was visible but sea and heaven, so in such a soul, nothing but sin and hell : his sins stare him in the face, as with the eyes of so many devils, ready to drag him into the bottom- less pit ; every silly fly dares creep upon the lion while asleep, at whose voice all the beasts in the forest tremble when awake. Fools can make a mock of sin, when conscience's eye is out ; they can then dance about it, as the Philis- tines did about blind Samson ; but when God arms sin with guilt, and caiiseth this serpent to put forth its sting upon the conscience, then the proudest siinier flies before it. Now it is faith alone that can grapple with sin in its strength : which it doth in several ways. Section II. — Faith gives the soul a view of the great God. It teacheth the sold to set his ahnightiness against sin's magnitude, and his infinitude against sin's multitude ; and so quencheth the temptation. The reason why tlie pre- sumptuous sinner fears so little, and the despairing soul so much, is for want of knowing God as great ; therefore, to cure them both, the serious consideration of God, under this notion, is propoimded, Psa. xlvi. 10, ' Be still and know tliat I am God:' as if he had said. Know, O ye wicked, that I am God, who can avenge myself when I please upon you, and cease to provoke me by your sins to your own confusion. Again, Know, ye trembling souls, that I am God ; and, tlierefore, able to pardon the greatest sins, and cease to dishonour me by your unbelieving thoughts of me. Now faith alone can thus show God to be God. Two things are required to the right conception of God. First, We nuist give him the infinitude of all his attributes ; that is, conceive of him not only as wise, for that may be a man's name, but infinitely wise ; not mighty, but almighty, &c. Secondly, This infinitude which we give to God, we must deny to all besides him. Now faith alone can realize and fix this principle so in the heart, that the creature shall act suitably thereunto ; indeed, there are none so wicked, who will not say, (if you will believe them,) that they believe God is infinite in his knowledge, and omnijiresent, at their heels wherever they go : infinite in his power ; needing no more to eflect their ruin than his speaking it: but would they then in the view of these go and sin so boldly? They diu-st as well run their heads into a fiery oven, as do it in the face of such a principle. So others believe God is infinite in mercy ; but would they then carry a hell flaming in their bosoms with despair, while they have infinite mercy in their eye? No; it is plain God appears not in his true greatness to such. Despair robs God of his infinitude, and ascribes it to sin : by it the creature saith his sin is infinite, and God is not ; too like those unbelieving Israelites, Psa. cvi. 7, ' They remembered not the multitude of his mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea;' they could not see enough in God to serve their turn at such a strait ; they saw a nudtitude of Egyptians to kill, and midtitndes of waters to drown them, but could not see multitude enough of mercies to deliver them. Thus the- despairing soul sees a multitude of great sins to damn, but not an infinitude of mercy in the great God to save him. Reason, alas ! is low of stature, like Zaccheus, and cannot see mercy in a crowd of sins. It is faith alone that climbs the promise ; then, and not till then, will the soul see Jesus ; faith ascribes mercy to God with an overplus ; Isaiah Iv. 7, ' He will abundantly pardon :' multiply to pardon, — so the He- brew. He will drop pardons with our sins, ' He will subdue our iniquities, ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 499 and thow wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.' This is faith's language ; lie will pardon with an overflowing mercy. Cast a stone into the sea, and it is not barely covered, but buried many fathoms deep. Cod will pardon thy greatest sins, saith faith, as the sea doth a little pebble. A few pins poiu-ed out upon the conscience, like a pail of water spilled on the ground, seems a great flood : but the greatest poured into the sea of God's mercy, are swallowed up, and not seen. Thus when 'the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,' the Scripture saith, 'there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, they shall not be found ; f(n- I will ])ardon,' Jer. 1. 20. Section III. — (), but, saith the trembling soul, the con.sideration of God's infinitude, especially in two of his attributes, drives me fastest to despair. When I think how infinitely holy (Jod is, may I not fear what will become of me, an unholy wretch? When again I look upon him as just, yea, infinitely just, how can I think he v/ill remit such great wrongs as I have done to his glorious nanu; ? Faith will, and none but faith's fingers can, untie this knot, and give the soul a satisfactory answer to this question concerning the holiness of God. Faith hath two things to answer : First, that though the infinite holiness of God's na- ture doth make him vehemently hate sin, yet the same doth strongly incline his heart to show mercy to simiers. What is it in the creature that makes him hard- hearted but sin ? 'The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel,' Pro v. xii. 10 : if wicked, then cruel ; and the more holy the more merciful. Hence it is that acts of mercy and forgiveness are with so much difficulty drawn from those that are saints, because there are remains of corruption in them, which cause some to have hardness of heart, and unwillingness to that work. ' Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good,' saith the apostle, Rom. xii. 21 ; imply- ing that it is hard work, which cannot be done till a victory be got over the Christian's own heart, who hath contrary passions, and will strongly oppose such an act. How oft, alas ! do we hear such language as this, from those that are gra - cious ! — My patience is spent, — I can bear no longer, and forgive no more ; but God, who is purity without dross, holiness without the least mixture of sin, hath nothing to sour his heart into any unmercifulness. 'If ye, being evil,' saith Christ, *know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him V Matt. vii. II. Christ's design in this place, is to help them to larger apprehensions concerning the mercifulness of God's heart ; in order to which, he directs them to the thoughts of his holiness, as that which would infallibly demonstrate the «ame. As if Christ had said. Can you persuade your hearts (distempei-ed with sinful passions) to be kind to your children? How miich more easy is it to think, that God, who is holiness itself, will be so to his poor creatures, pros- trate at his feet for mercy ! Secondly, Faith can tell the soul, that the holiness of God is no enemy to ])ardoning mercy ; for it is the holiness of (Jod that obligcth him to be faithful in all his promises ; and this, indeed, is as full a breast of consolation as any I know, to a poor trembling soul. When the doubting soul reads those many precious promises which are made to returning sinners, why doth he not take comfort in them ? Surely, it is because the truth and faithfulness of God to perform them is yet under some dispute in his sou!. Now, the strongest argument that faith hath, to put this question out of doubt, and make the sinner accept the promise as a true and faithful word, is that which is taken from the holiness of God, who is the ])romisc-makcr. Tl,ie promise nuist be true, (saith faith,) because a holy God makes it, therefore God, to gain the more credit to the truth of his jjromise in the thoughts of his people, prefixeth so often this attribute to his promise : ' I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel;' Isa. xii. 14. Indeed, the mercies of God are founded in holiness, and therefore are sure mercies. Tlie reason of man's imfaithfulness in promises j)roceeds from some unholiness in his heart; the more holy a man is, the more faithful we may expect him to be; a good num will be as good as his word ; and so you may be sure a good God will. How many times did Laban change Jacob's wages, after promise? But God's covenant with him was inviolably kept, though Jacob was not so faithful on his part as he ought to have been : and why, but because he had to do with a holy God in this, but with a sinful man in the other, whose passions altered his thoughts and changed his countenance toward him. 2k 2 500 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. We come to the second attribute, which scares the tempted soul, and seems so little to befriend this pardoning act of God's mercy ; and that is justice, which proves often matter of amazement to the awakened sinner, rather than encouragement, especially when the serious thought of it possesses his heart. Indeed, the naked consideration of this attribute, and the musing on it, without a gospel comment, through which alone it can be safely and comfortably viewed by a sin-smitten soul, must needs dispirit him, yea, kindle a fire of horror in his bosom : for the creature seeing no way that God hath to vindicate his pro- voked justice, but by the eternal destruction and danmation of the sinner, cannot without an universal consternation of all the powers of his soul, think of that attribute, which brings to his thoughts so fearful an expectation and looking-for of judgment. Heman, though a holy man, yet even lost his wits with musing on this subject, Psa. Ixxxviii. 15, 16 : ' While I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted.' But faith can make good work of this also ; faith will enable the soul to walk in this fiery attribute, with his comforts unsinged, as those three worthies (Dan. iii.) did in the flaming furnace ; while unbelieving sinners are scorched, yea, swallowed up into despair, when they do but come in their thoughts near the mouth of it. There is a threefold consideration with which faith relieves the soul when the terror of this attribute takes hold of it. Section IV. — First, Faith shews, upon the best evidence, that God may pardon the greatest sinner, if penitent and believing, without the least prejudice to his justice. Secondly, Faith goes farther, and shews, that God in pardoning the believing sinner, doth not only save his justice, but advance the honour of it. Thirdly, That God doth not only save and advance his justice in pardoning a believing soul, but (as things stand now) he hath no other way to secure his justice, but by pardoning the believing soul his sins, be tliey never so great. These three well digested, will render this attribute as amiable, lovely, and com- fortable to the thoughts of a believer, as that of mercy itself. First, Faith shews, upon the best evidence, that God may pardon its sins, though never so great, with safety to the justice of God. That question is not now to be disputed, whether God can be just and i-ighteous in pardoning sinners. This, saith faith, was debated and determined long ago, at the council-board of heaven by God himself. God expresseth thus much in the promise, Hoseaii. 19 : ' I will betroth thee unto me for ever, yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment.' Who is this that God means to marry ? One that had played the harlot, as appears by the former part of tlie chapter. What doth he mean by betrothing ? No other, but that he will pardon their sins, and receive them into the arms of his love and peculiar favour. But how can the righteous God take one that hath been a filthy strumpetinto his bosom, — betroth such a whorish people, pardon such high- climbing sin? How? Mark, — ' He will do it in judgment and in righteousness.' As if God had said. Trouble not your thoughts to clear my justice in the act; I know what I do; the case is well weighed by me. It is not like the sudden matches that are huddled up by men in one day, and repented of the next ; but is the result of the counsel of my holy will. Now when Satan comes fidl mo\xth against the believer with this objection. What, such a wretch as thou find favour in the eyes of God ! Faith can easily retort. Yes, Satan, God can be as righteous in pardoning me, as in damning thee. God tells me, it is in judgment and in righteousness. I leave thee therefore to dispute this case out with God, who is able to justify his own act. Now, though this were enough to repel Satan, yet faith is provided with a more particular evidence, for the vindication of the justice and righteousness of God in this his pardoning act. And this is founded on the full satisfaction whicli Christ hath given to God for all the wrong the believer hath done by his sin. Indeed, it was the great undertaking of Christ to bring justice to kiss mercy ; that there might not be a dissenting attribute in God when this vote should pass, bat the act of pardoning mercy might be carried clear, nullo contradicetde. Therefore Christ, before he solicits the sinner's cause with God by request, pei-forms first the other of satisfaction by sacrifice. He pays, and then prays for what he hath paid : presenting his petition in the behalf of believing sinners, written with his own blood, that sojustice might not disdain to read or grant it. I will not dispute, whether God could by prerogative mercy (without a satisfaction) have issued out an act of pardon ; but in this way of satisfaction, the righteous- ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 501 ness of God, I am sure, may be vindicated in the conscience of the greatest sinner on earth ; yea, the devil liimself is but a faint disputant, when faith pinches liim with this arginnent : it is a trencli which he is not able to climb. Indeed, God laid out salvation in this method, that even we weak ones might be able to justifv him, in justifying us, to the most malicious devil in hell. Peruse that incompai'able place, which hath balm enough in it to heal the wounds of all the bleeding consciences in the world, where there is but faith to drop it in, and for ever to quench the fire of this dart, which is headed with t!ie justice of God: ' Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the foi'bearance of God : to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness ; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believcth in Jesus,' Rom. iii. 2t — 26. O, what work will faith make of this scripture ! A soul castled within these walls is impregnable. First, observe, Christ is here called ' a propitiation,' or if you will, 'a propitiatory,' alhuling to the mercy-seat, where God promised to meet his people, that he might converse with them, and no dread from his majesty fall upon them, Exod. xxv. Now, you know, the mercy-seat was placed over the ark, to be a cover thereunto, it being the ark wherein the holy law of God was kept, fi'om the violation of which all the fears of a guilty soul arise ; therefore it is observable, that the dimensions of the one was proportioned to the other. The mercy-seat was to be as long and broad to the full as the ark, that no part thereof might be unshadowed by it; ver. 10, compared with ver. 17. Thus, Christ, our true * Propitiatory,' covers all the law, which else would come in to accuse the believer ; but not one threatening now can arrest him, so long as this screen remains for faith to interpose between God's wrath and the soul. Justice now hath no mark to level at; God cannot see the sinner, because Christ hides him. This is not the man, saith wrath, that I am to strike. See how he flies to Christ, and takes sanctuary in his satisfaction, and so is got out of my walk and reach, that being a privileged place, where I must not come to arrest any. It is usual, you know, in battle to wear a ribband, handkerchief, or some such thing, to distinguish friends from foes. Christ's satisfaction, worn by faith, is the sign that distinguisheth God's friends from his enemies. The scarlet thread on Rahab's window, kept the destroying sword out of her house: and the blood of Christ pleaded by faith, will keep the soul from receiving any hurt at the hands of Divine justice. Secondly, Observe, what hand Christ hath his commission from, — 'whom God hath set forth, to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.' Christ, we see, is the great ordinance of heaven ; him the Father hath sealed ; he is singled out from all others, angels and men, and set forth as the person chosen of God, to make atonement for sinners, as the Lamb was taken out of the flock, and set apart for the passover. When, therefore, Satan sets forth the believer's sins in battle array against him, and confronts him with their greatness ; then faith runs under the shelter of this rock. Surely, saith faith, my Saviour is infinitely greater than my greatest sins. I should impeach the wisdom of God, to think otherwise, who knew what a heavy burden he had to lay upon his shoulders, and was fully satisfied of his strength to bear it. He that refused sacrifice and burnt-oft'ering, because of their insufficiency, would not have called him, had he not been all-sufficient for the work. Indeed, here lies the weight of the whole building ; a weak faith may save, but a v/eak Saviour cannot ; faith hath CIn'ist to plead for it, but Christ hath none to plead for him : faith leans on Christ's arm, but Christ stood upon his own legs : and if he had sunk inider the biu'den of our sins, he had been past the reach of any creature in heaven or earth to help him up. Thirdly, Observe the reason why God chose this way of issuing out his pardoning mercy, and that is, to ' declare his righteousness for the remission of sins.' Mark, not to declare his mercy, — that is obvioiis to every eye ; every one will believe him merciful who is forgiving; but to conceive how God slioidd be righteous in forgiving sinners, this lies more remote from the creature's appre- liensions; and therefore it is i-epcated, Rom. iii. 20, 'To declare, Isay, atthistime his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which bclieveth in Jesus ;' as if God had said, I know why it appears so incredible, poor sinners, 532 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. to your thoughts tliat f should pardon all your iniquities : yoti think, because I am a righteous God, that I will sooner damn a thousand worlds of sinners than asperse my justice and bring my name under the least suspicion of un- righteousness ; and that thought is most true. I woixld indeed damn them over and over again rather than stain the honour of my justice, which is myself. But I declare, yea, again I declare it, and command you, and the greatest sinners on earth, upon pain of damnation, to believe it, that I can be just and yet the justifier of those simiers who believe in Jesus. O what boldness may the believer take at this news ! Methinks I see the soul that was even now pining to death with despair, and plotting upon hell in his thoughts as one already free among the dead, now revive, and grow young again at these tidings, as Jacob when he heard Joseph was ali\;e. What ! is justice (the only enemy I feared, an attribute in God's heart which my thoughts fled from,) now become my friend ? Then cheer up, my soul ! Who shall coiulenm, if God justifies? And how can God himself be against thee, when his very justice acquits thee ? Section V. — But Satan will not thus leave the soul. Dost thou, poor creature, saith he, believe this strange divinity ? Is it just for God to pardon thee for the satisfaction that another makes? One man commit the murder, and another man that is innocent hanged for it, — call you this just? The law demands the person sinning to be delivered up to justice ; we find no mention of a surety to be allowed by the covenant: ' In the day that thou eatest, thou shalt die.' First, Faith teaches the sold to acquiesce in the declaration that God makes of his own mind. Now, though the threatening at first acquaints us with the sinner's name onl}', yet faith fiiids a gracious relaxation of threatening in the gospel covenant, where, to the believer's everlasting comfort, God promiseth. to accept the sinner's debt at Christ's hand, whom therefore we find arrested upon our action : Isa. liii. 5, ' He was wounded for oin- transgressions, he was bruised for oin- iniquities : the chastisenuMit of our peace Avas upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed.' Here is bottom strong enough for faith to rest on ; and why should we, shallow creatures, dispute gospel truths, to the con- f\ision of our own thoughts, by tliinking to fathom the bottomless depth of God's justice with the short cordage of our reason, Avhich Ave find confused by the meanest piece in Gud's work of creation ? Faith spies a devil in this beautiful serpent, reason, which for its smooth tongue Satan usethon mischievous designs to undermine, in particular this one nu)St sweet and fundamental truth of the gospel, I mean tlie satisfaction of Christ ; and therefore faith protests against the legality of reason's court. What, indeed 5 hath reason to call before her lower bench these mysteries of our faith which are purely supernatural, and so not imder her cognizance ? There are those in this proud age of ours who would wish to go to law, as I may say, with the highest gospel truths before this heathen judge. Reason; whereby they evacuate one great end of the gospel, which is to sacrifice our shallow reason on faith's altar, that so we might give the more signal honoiu- to the truth of God in believing the high mysteries of the gospel upon his naked report of them in the word. Secondly, The believer can clear God as just in receiving the debt at Christ's hand, from the near union which is between Christ and his people. The husband may lawfully be arrested for his wife's debt, because this union is voluntary, and it is to be supposed he did or ought to have considered what her estate was before he contracted so near a relation to -her. A suit may jnstly be commenced against a sin-ety, because it was his own act to engage for the debt. Christ was most free in engaging himself in the sinner's cause. He knew what a sad plight man's nature v/as in ; and he had an absolute freedom in his choice, whether he would leave man to perish, or lend his helping hand towards liis recoveiy ; he had also an absolute power of his own life, which no mere creature hath ; so that it being his own offer, upon his Father's call, to take our nature in marriage, thereby to interest himself in our debt, and for the payment of it to disburse and pour out his own precious blood to death. How dare proud flesh call the justice of God to the bar, and bring his righteousness in tliis transaction into question, for which God promised himself the highest expressions of love and thankfulness at his creature's hand ? Secondly, 'Faith doth not only bear witness to the justice of God, that he may j^ardon a poor believing sinner, and yet be just, but it sliews that he may ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF l-AITH. 5Q3 advance tlie honour of his justice hy pardoning the believing soul more than in damning the impenitent sinner. And surely God had no less design in the gospel covenant than this, that he would not the death of a sinner, but to vindi- cate his justice. He would not certainly have consented to the death of his only Son, but for the higher advance and farther glorifying of his justice in the eye of his creature. Christ saith he came not only that we sinners might have life, but that we might have it more abundantly, John x. 10; that is, more abundantly than we should have inherited it irom innocent Adam. May we not therefore say that Christ did not die that God might only have his due debt, but that he niight have it more abundantly paid by Christ than he could have had at the creature's hand ? But more particularly the justice of God will ajjpear here clothed with four glorious circumstances, that cannot be foimd in the payment which the sinner by his own personal sufferings nuikes unto it. First, If we consider the person at whose hand Divine justice receives satisfaction. When the sinner is dannied for his own sins, it is but a poor sorry creature that is punished ; but when Christ suffereth, the debt is paid by a more honourable hand ; God hath it from one that is near to himself, yea, equal with himself. ' Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts,' Zech. xiii. 7. Who will not say a judge gives more eminent testimony of his justice when he condemns his own son than when he arraigns a stranger? llere God indeed declared his utmost hatred of sin, and inflexible love of justice, in that he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. Secondly, If we consider the manner inv.'hich the debt is paid. When the sinner is damned, it is in a poor beggarly way by retail, — now a few pence, and then a few more ; he is ever paying, but never comes to the last farthing, and therefore must for ever lie in prison for non-payment. But at Christ's hands God receives the whole debt in one lump, so that Christ cuuld truly say, ' It is finished,' John xix. 30 ; as much as if he had said. There are but a few moments, and the work of redemption will be finished. I have the sum now in my hand to pay God his whole debt, and as soon as I have bowed my head, and the breath is once out of my body, all will be finished. Yea, he hath his discharge for the receipt of the whole sum due to (iod's justice from the mouth of God himself, in which we find him triumphing, — ' He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me?' Yea, still more, Christ hath not only discharged the old debt, but by the same blood hath made a new purchase of God for his saints : so that God, who was even now the creditor, is become the debtor to his creature, and that for no less than eternal life, which Christ hath paid for, and given every believer authority humbly to claim of God in his name. See them both in one place, Heb. x. 12—14: ' But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right haiul of God ; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool : for l)y one ofFeinng he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.' He hath not only crossed the debt-book for believers, but perfected them for ever; that is, made a certain provision for their perfection in glory, as for their salvation from hell's punishment : from which he exhorts them, ver. 22, to draw near in full assurance of faith. Let us not fear but we shall receive at God's hands what Christhath paid for. Thirdly, When God damns the sinnei-, his justice indeed appears. Those condemned miscreants have not one righteous syllable to charge their Judge withal ; but mercy is not seen to sit so glorious on the throne in this sentence pronounced on the sinner. But when Christ suffered, justice and mercy met ; indeed, justice appears never more glorious in God or man than when it is in conjxmction with mercy. Now, in the Lord Christ's death they shone both in all their glory, and did mutually set off each other. Here the white and the red, the roses and the lilies, were so admirably tempered, that it is hard to say which pre- sented the face of justice most beautiful to our eye, — God's wrath upon Christ for us, or his mercy to us for his sake. Fourthly, When God damns the sinner, justice is glorified only passively, (iod f )rceth his glory from devils and danmed souls ; but they do not willingly pay the debt. 'Fhey acknowledge (Jod just, because they can do no other, but at the same time hate him, while they seem to vindicate him. Now in the satisfaction that Christ gives, justice is glorified actively, and that both from Christ, who was not dragged to the cross, as the damned are to their prison and torment, 'But gave himself for us, an ofl'ering, 504 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. and a sacrifice to God,' Ephes. v. 2; suffering as willingly for us, as ever we sinned against liim ; and also from believing souls who now sing praises to the mercy and justice of God who redeemed them ; and will for ever in heaven. Now by how much the voluntary sufferings of Christ are better than the forced torments of the damned, and the cheerful praises of saints in heaven more melodious in God's ear than the extorted acknowledgments of damned souls in hell ; by so much the justice of God is more glorified by Christ's sufferings, than theirs. O what incomparable boldness may this send the soul withal to the throne of grace ! who when he is begging pardon for Christ's sake, may, without any hazard to his eternal salvation, say, Lord, if my damnation will glorify thy justice more, or so much as the death of Christ for me hath done, and the everlasting praises which my thankful heart shall resound in heaven to the glory of all thy attributes for my salvation will do, let me have that rather than this. Thivdlj', Faith doth not only see justice preserved, yea, advanced in this act of pardoning mercy ; but it will tell the soul, that God cannot be just, if he doth not pardon the sins of a repenting, believing soul, how great soever they have been. One great part of justice consists in a faithful and punctual per- formance of promises: he is a just man that keeps his word. And can God be a just God, if he doth not ? The word is gone out of his mouth, that he will forgive such. Yea, he is willing to be accoimted just or unjust by us, as he makes performance thereof. See where he pledges his attribute upon this very accoiuit : 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness;' he doth not say 'merciful,' but ' just,' as the attribute which we fear most should vote against us; this he would have us know, is bound for the performance of the promise. It was mercy in God to make the promise ; but justice to perform what mercy hath promised: Micah vii. 20, 'Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham.' God was not bound to make a promise to Abraham and his seed ; but having once passed his word to him, it was truth to Jacob, who was heir to that bond which God had left in his father's hand. CHAPTER XX. faith's second answer to Satan's argument, taken from the greatness OF sin, to drive the soul to despair : WHERE faith OProSETII THE greatness of the PROMISES, AGAINST THE GREATNESS OF THE SOUl's SIN. Secondly, Faith quenches this temptation to despair, drawn from the great- ness of sin by opposing the greatness of the promises. Faith can only see God in his greatness ; and therefore none but faith can see the promises in their greatness, because the value of the promises is according to the worth of him that makes them; hence it comes to pass, that promises have so little efficacy on an unbelieving heart, either to keep from sin, or to comfort under terror for sin. Promises are like the clothes we wear, which if there be heat in the body to warm them, then they will warm us ; but if they receive no heat from the body, they give none to it; where there is fai'h, there the promise Avill afford comfort and peace ; it will be as a strong cordial glowing with inward joy in the creature's bosom, but on a dead, unbelieving heart, it lies cold and ineffectual ; it hath no more effect on such a soul than a cordial that is poured down a dead man's throat hath on him. The promises ha\ e not comfort actually and formally as fire hath heat: then it were only going to them and we should be warm, taking them up in our thoughts, and we should be comforted ; but virtually, as fire is in the flint, which requires some labour and art to strike it out. Now none but faith can learn us the skill of drawing out the sweetness and virtue of the promise, which it doth three ways. Section L— Faith leads the soul to the spring-head of the promise, where it may stand with best advantage, to take a view of their greatness and pre- ciousness. Indeed we understand little of things, till we trace them to their originals, and can see them lying in their causes. Then a soul will know his sins to be great, when he sees them in their spring and source, flowing from an envenomed nature that (eems with enmity against God. Then the sinner will ABOVK ALL, TAKING TUE SHIELD OF FAITH. ^Q^ tremble at the threatcniiigs, which roll like thunder over liis head, ready to fall every moment in some judgment or other upon him ; when he sees from whence they are sent, the perfect hatred that God bears to sin, and infinite wrath with which he is inflamed against the sinner for it. In a word, then the poor trembling soul will not count the consolation of the promises small, when it sees from what foiuitain it flows, the bosom of God's free mercy. This, indeed, is the original source of all promises. The covenant itself, which compreliends them all, is called 'mercy, 'because the product of mercy, Luke i. 72: 'To perform the mercy pro- mised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant.' Now, saith faith, if the promises flow from this sea of God's free mercy, then they must needs be infinite, boundless, and bottomless, as that is ; so that to reject the promise, or question the sufiiciency of the provision made in it, because thy sins are great or many, casts a dishonoiu-able reflection on that mercy, in whose womb the promise was conceived ; and God will certainly bring his action of defamation against thee, for aspersing this his darling attribute, which he can least endure to see slandered and traduced. God makes account you have done your worst against him, when once you report him to be immerciful, or scant in his mercy. How great a sin this is, may be conceived by the thoughts God hath of this disposition and frame of spirit in his creature. An unmercifid heart is such an abomination before the Lord, that it hath few like it. This lies at the bottom of the heathen's charge, as the sediment and grossest part of all their horrid sins, Rom. i. 31, they were implacable, unmerciful. Now to attribute that to God, which he so abhors in his creature, must needs make a heart which is tender of the good name of God, to tremble and exceedingly fear. It was a dreadful punishment God brought upon Jehoram, king of Judah, 2 Chron. xxi. 18, whom he smote in his bowels with an incilrable disease, that after two years' torment his bowels fell out. And why did this heavy plague befall him ? Surely to let him know his want of bowels of mercy to his brethren and princes, whom he most cruelly butchered. He had not bowels in his heart, and he, therefore, shall have none in his body. Now darest thou, saith faith, impute want of bowels to God, that he will not shew mercy to "thee, who penitently seekestit in Chi-ist's name, when thou seest what testimony he gives of his incensed wrath against those men who have hardened their bowels against their brethren, yea, their ene- mies ? O have a care of this. To shut thy own bowels of compassion against thy brother in need, is a grievous sin, and brings it into question whether the love of God dwells in thee, 1 Johniii. 17; but to asperse the merciful heart of God, as if his bowels of compassion were shut against a poor soul in need that desires to repent and return, is transcendently the greater abomination, and puts it out of all question (where it is persisted in) that the love of God dwells not in him. It is impossible that love to God should draw such a misshapen portrait of God as tliis is. Section II. — Faith attends to the end of the promises, which gives a farther prospect of their greatness. Now the word, which is the light faith goes by, discovers a double end of promises, especially of the promise of pardoning mercy. First, The exalting and magnifying the riches of free grace, which God would have appear in all its glory, so far as it is possible to be exposed to the creature's view; for the full sight of God's glory is an object adequate to his own eye, and none else. See this coxmsel and mysterious design sweetly opened, Ephes. i. 6, 9, 11, 12. The sum of all which will amount to this, that God in himself hath taken up a purpose of pardoning and saving a company of poor lost sinners for Christ's sake ; and this he hath promulgated in the promises of the gospel ; and the end of all is, that he might gather these altogether at last in heaven ; some of whom are already there, others of them at present on earth, and some yet unborn, and when they shall all meet together in one glorious choir, they may, by their triumphant songs and hallelujahs, fill the heavens witli jn-aise and acclamations of thankfulness to the glory of that mercy which hath thus pardoned and saved them. Now, faith observing the praise of God's mercy to be the end aimed at by him in the promise, comes with good news to the trembling soul, and tells it, that if God will be true to his own thoughts, and keep his eye on that mark where first he hath set it, it is impossible that he should reject any poor penitent sinner merely for tlie greatness of the sins he hath committed. It is the exaltation of his mercy, saith faith, that God hath 506 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. in his eye, -when lie promiseth pardon to poor sinners. Now, which exalts this most, to pardon little or great sinners? Whose voice will be highest in the song of 2>raise, thinkest thou ? Surely his to whom most is forgiven ; and, therefore, God cannot but be most ready to pardon the greatest sinners, when tnily penitent. A physician that means to be famous, will not send away those that most need his skill and art, and only practise upon such diseases as are slight and ordinary. When one given over by himself and others, as a dead man, is, by the skill and care of a physician, rescued out of the jaws of death, and raised to health, the physician gains great fame thereby ; this commends and gains him more reputation than a whole year's practice in ordinary cures. The great revenue of praise is paid into God's exchequer from those who have had great sins pardoned. He that hath iive hundred pence forgiven will love more than he that hath but fifty, by Christ's own judgment, Luke vii. 43 ; and where there is most love, there is likely to be most praise, love and praise being symbolical, the one soon resolving into the other. The voice of a Manasses, a Magdalen, and a Paul, will be heard, as I may say, above all the rest in heaven's concert. The truth is, greatness of sin is so far irom putting a bar to the pardoning of a penitent sinner in God's thoughts, that he will pardon none (how little sinners soever they have been) except they see and acknowledge their sins to be great before they come to him on such an errand : and therefore he useth the law, to make way, by its convictions and terrors on the conscience, for his pardoning mercy, to ascend the throne in the penitent sinner's heart with the more mag- nificence and honour, Rom. v. 20 : ' The law entered' (that is, it was promul- gated at first by Moses, and is still preached,) ' that the ofFence might aboimd,' that is, in the conscience, by a deeper sense and remorse : and why so, but that ' where sin abounded, grace might much more abound.' We must needs shape our thoughts of the mercy that pardons our sins, as to make them suitable to the thoughts we frame to om-selves of the sins we have committed. If we conceive these little, how can we think the other great? And if we tremble at the greatness of our sins, we must needs triumph and exidt at the transcen- dency of the mercy which so far exceeds their greatness. He that wonders at the height of some mountain, would much more wonder at the depth of those waters which should quite swallow and cover it, so that it could not be seen. The second end of the promise is, the believer's comfort. The word, especially this part of it, was on purpose written, that ' through patience and comfort of the Scriptures,' they ' might have hope,' Rom. xv. 4. God was willing to give poor sinners all the security and satisfaction concerning the reality of his intentions, and imnuitability of his counsel, which his mercy had resolved upon from eternity, for the saving of all those who would embrace Christ ; which, that he might do, he makes publication thei-eof in the Scripture, where he opens his very heart, and exj)oseth the purposes of his love, which he had from everlasting, for the salvation of poor sinners, to their own view, in the many precious promises that run like veins throughout the whole body of the Scrip- tures, and these with all the seals and ratifications which either his wisdom could find, or man's jealous, unbelieving heart desire ; and all to silence the querulous spii'it of poor, tempted souls, and make their life more comfortable ; who, pursued by the hue-and-cry of their high-climbing sins, take sanctuai-y for their lives in Christ Jesus. As we have it, in totidem verbis, Heb. vi. 18: ' That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fied for refuge, to lay hold on the hope that is set before us.' And because this, the greatness and multitude of the creature's sins, is both the heaviest millstone which tlie devil can find to tie about the poor sinner's neck, in order to the drowning him in despair; and that knife also which is oftenest taken up by the tempted sinner's own hands for the murdering his faith, therefore the more frequent and abundant provision is made by God against this: Exod. xxxiv. 5 ; Jer. iii., the whole chapter; Isa. i. 18; Iv. 7 — 9, and 21 ; Heb. vii. 25 ; 1 John i. 9. These, and such like places, are the strongholds which faith retreats into when this battery is raised against the soul. Canst thou, for shame, be gravelled, saith faith, O my soid, with an ar- gument drawn merely from the greatness of thy sins, Avhich is answered in almost every page in the Bible, and to confute which so considerable a part of Scripture was written ? Thus faith hisscth Satan away with this argument, AEOVE ALL, TAKING THE fflHELD OF FAITH. 5Q7 which he counts so forniiclablc, as they would do a wrangling sophist out of tlie* schools, when he boldly and ridiculously denies some known principle, acknow- ledged by all for a truth. But I would not be here mistaken : God forbid, that while I am curing despair, I shoidd cause prcsinnption. These two distempers of the soul are equally dangerous, and so contrary, that, like the cold stomach and the hot liver in the same person, while the physician thinks to help nature • in the one to a heat for digesting food, he sometimes imhappily kindles a fire in the other that destroys nature itself. Thus, while we labour to cheer the drooping soul's spirits, and strengthen him to retain and digest the promise for his comfort, we are in danger of nourishing that feverish heat of presumptuous confidence, which is a fire that will soon eat out all care to please, and fear to displease God, faith and fear being like the natural heat and radical moisture in the body, which is never well ))ut when both are preserved. ' Tiie Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, and hope in his mercy.' Let me, therefore, caiUion thee. Christian, as thou meanest to find any relief from the mercy of God in a day of distress, take heed thou dost not tliink to befriend thyself with hopes of any favour thou niayest find from thy lust. Thou needest not indeed fear to believe the pardon of thy sins, if thou rcpentest of them, merely because they are great, but tremble to think of sinning boldly, because the mercy of God is great. Though mercy be willing to be a sanctuary to the trembling sinner, to shelter him from the curse of his sin, yet it disdains to spread its wing over a bold sinner, to cover him while he is wallowing in his lust. What! sin because there are promises of pardon, and these ])romises made b)' mercy which as far exceeds our sins as God doth the creature ? Truly, this is the reverse of the object which God's mercy had in making them, and turns the gospel heels n])wards : as if j'our servant should get to your cellar of strong waters, and with them make himself drunk, which you keep for those who are sick or faint. O take heed of quafiing thus in the bowls of the sanctuary I It is the sad soul, not the sinning, that this wine of consolation belongs to. Section IIL — Faith presents the Christian with a cloud of witnesses to whom the promise hath been fulfilled, and these as great sinners as himself. Scripture examples are promises verified, which faith may make use of by way of encou- ragement, as v/ell as promises. God would never have left the saints' great blots to stand in the Scriptures, to the view of the world in all succeeding generations, had not it been of such use ami advantage to tempted souls to choak this temp- tation, which, of all others, makes the most dangerous breach, so wide, some- times, that despair itself is ready to enter in at it. Blessed Paul gives this very reason why such acts of pardoning mercy to great sinners are recorded; Ej)heK. ii. He shews, first, what foul, filthy creatures himself and other believers cotemporarj' with him were before they were made partakers of gospel grace : ver. .'5, ' Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh ;' and then he magnifies the rich mercy of Ciod, that rescued and took them out of that desperate state, ver. 4,5:' But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, hath quickened us together with Christ.' And why must the world know all this? O! God had a design and plot of mercy for more than themselves in this, ver. 7 : ' That, in the ages to come, he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness tov/ards us, through Christ Jesus.' Wherever the gospel conies, this shall be spoken of, what great sins he had forgiven to them, that imbelief might have her mouth stopped to the end of the world, and this arrow, which is so often on Satan's string, might be made harmless. CJod commanded Joshua to take twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, and set them up; and observe the reason, ver. 0, 7 : ' That this may be a sign among you, that when j'our children ask their fatliers in time to come, What mean you by these stones? then ye sliall answer them, that the waters of Jordan were cut ofi" before the ark of the covenant of the Tiord, when it passed over Jordan ; tlie waters of Jordan were cut off", and tlu'se stones shall be a memorial imto the children of Israel for ever.' Thus God hath, by his pardoning mercy, taken up some great, notorious sinners out of the very deptlis of sin, who lay at the very bottom, as it were, of hell, swal- lowed up and iiigulphcd in all manner of abomination ; and these he hath setup in his word, that wlicn any poor, tempted souls to tlic cud of the world, over- 508 ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. whelmed with fears from the greatness of their sins, may see and read what God hath done for these, and be relieved and comforted with these examples, ' by God intended to be as a memorial of what he had done for others in time past, and a sign what he can still do, yea, will, for the greatest sinners to the world's end, upon their repentance and faith. No sins, though as great and many as the waters of Jordan themselves, shall be able to stand before the mercy of God's gracious covenant, but shall all be cut off, and everlastingly pardoned to them. O ! wlio can read of a Manasseh, a Magdalen, a Saul, yea, an Adam, who undid himself and a whole world with him, in the roll of pardoned sinners, and yet turn av.^ay from the promise, out of fear there is not mercy enough in it to serve his turn? These are as land-marks, which shew what large boundaries mercy hath set to itself, and how far it hath gone, even to take into its pardon- ing arms the greatest sinners, that make not themselves incapable thereof by final impenitency. It were a healthful walk, poor, doubting Christian, for thy soul to go this circuit, and often to see where the utmost stone is laid and boundary set by God's pardoning mercy, farther than which he will not go; that thou mayest not turn, to the prejudice of the mercy of God, by thy own unbelief, nor suffer thyself to be abused by Satan's lies, who will make nothing to remove God's land-mark, if he may by it but increase thy trouble of spirit. But if after all this, thy sins seem to exceed the proportion of any one thou canst find pardoned in Scripture, which were strange; yet faith hath one way left beyond all these examples, for thy soul's siiccour, and that is, to fix thy eye on Christ, who, though he never had sin of his own, yet laid down his life to procure pardon for all the elect, and hath obtained it : they are all, and shall, as they come upon the stage, be pardoned. Now, saith faith, suppose thy sins were greater than any of the saints'; yet are they as great as all the sins of all the elect together? Thou darest not surely say or think so. And cannot Christ pro- cure thy pardon, who art but an individual, when he hath done it for so many mil- lions of his elect? Yea, were thy sins as great as all theirs are, the sum would be the same ; and God could forgive it, if it lay in one heap, as well as now it is in several. Christ is 'the Lamb, that taketh away the §in of the world;' John i. 29. See here all the sins of the elect world, and he carries it lightly away into the land of forgetfulness. Now, faith will tell thee, poor soul, that the whole virtue and merit of Christ's blood, by which the world was redeemed, is offered to tliee, and shall be communicated to thy soul in particular. Christ doth not retail and parcel out his blood, some to one and some to another, but he gives his whole self to the faith of every believer : all is yours, you are Christ's. O, what mayest thou not, poor soid, take up from the promise, upon the credit of so great a Redeemer ! CHAPTER XXI. faith's TniUD ANSWER TO SATAn's ARGUMENT, URGING THE SOUL TO DE- SPAIR; WHERE FAITH OPPOSETH THE GREATNESS OF THIS ONE SIN OF DESPAIR TO THE GREATNESS OF THE REST. Thirdly. Faith to quench this fiery dart, headed with the greatness of sin, and shot by Satan to drive the penitent soul to despair, teacheth him to oppose the greatness of this one sin of despair to the greatness of all his other sins. What, saith faith, would Satan persuade thee, because thou hast been so great and prodigious a sinner, therefore not to believe, or dare to think the promise hath any good news for thee ? Retort thou, O my soul, his argument upon himself, and tell him, that the very thing by which he would dissuade thee from believing, doth mvich more deter thee from despairing; and that is, the great- ness of this sin above all others. Grant it to be true what he chargeth thee with, that thou art such a monster in sin as he sets thee forth, (though thou hast no reason to think so upon his bare report,) dost thou think to mend the matter, or better thy condition by despairing ? Is this all the kindness he will shew thee, to make thee, of a great sinner, a desperate one like himself? This, indeed, is the only way he can think of to make thee worse than thou art ; and that this is true, faith is able to prove by these four considerations, which will easily evince more malignity to be in this one sin of despair than in any other, yea, than in all others together. ABOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. 509 Section I. — Despair opposetli God in tlie greatest of all liis commands. The greatest command, beyond all comparison, in the whole Bible, is to believe. When those .Tews asked our Lord Jesus, Jolin vi. 28, ' What shall we do that we might work the works of God?' mark the answer, ver. 2i), 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' As if he had said. The most compendious way, that I am able to give you, is to receive me into j'our hearts by faith ; do this and you do all in one. 'This is the work ;' that is, iiiHlnr omiiinm, all you do is undone, and yourselves also, till this be done, for which you shall have as much thanks at God's hands, as if you could keep the whole law ; indeed, it is accepted in lieu of it. ' To him that worketh not, but bclieveth on him that justiiieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righ- teousness,' Rom. iv. 5. Where, by he that worketh not, is not meant a slothful, lazy sinner, who hath no disposition to work; nor a rebellious sinner, whose heart riseth against the work, which the whole law of God would employ him in ; but the humbled sinner, who desires and endeavours to work, but is not able to do the task, which the law as a covenant sets him, and therefore is said, in a law sense, not to work, because he doth not work to the law's purpose, so as to answer its demands, which will accept nothing short of perfect obedience ; this man's foith on Christ is accepted for righteousness ; that is, God reckons him so, and so he shall pass at the great day by the Judge's sentence, as if he had never trod one step out of the path of the law. Now, if faith be the work of (iod above all other, then unbelief is the work of the devil, and that which he had rather thou shouldst do, than any other sin ; and despair is unbelief at the worst. Unbelief among sins is as the plague among diseases, the most danger- ous ; but when it riseth to despair, then it is as the plague, with the tokens ap- pearing, that bring the certain message of death with them. Unbelief is despair in the bud ; despair is unbelief at its full growth. Section II. — Despair hath a way peculiar to itself of dishonouring God above other sins. Every sin wounds the law, and the name of God through the law. But this wound is healed when the peni ent sinner by faith comes to Christ, and closeth with him. God makes account that reparations now are fully made, through Christ, whom the believer receives for the wrong done to his lav/, and his name vindicated from the dishonour cast upon it by the creatui'e's former iniquities ; yea, that it appears more glorious, because it is illustrious, by the shining forth of one title of honour, (not the least prized by God himself,) his forgiving mercy, which could not have been so well known to the creature, if not drawn forth into action upon this occasion. But, what would you say of such a prodigious sinner, who v/hen he hath woimded the law, is not willingto have it healed; — when he hath dishonoured God, and that in a liighly provoking manner, is not willing that the dirt he hath cast on God's face should be wiped offi Methinks your colour rises at the reading of this, against such a wretch, and you are asking, as once Ahasuerus did Esther, ' Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?' Esther vii. .5, Would you know ? Truly the adversary and enemy is this wicked despair. The despairing soul is the person that will not let Christ make satisfaction for the wrong which by his sins he hath done God. Suppose a man should wound another dangerously, in his pa.ssion, and when he hath done, will not let a surgeon come near to ciu"e the wound he hath made ; every one would say, his last act of cruelty was worse than his first. O my soul, saith faith, thou didst ill, yea, very ill, in breaking the holy laws of God, and dishonom-ing the name of the great God of heaven and earth thereby ; let thy heart ache for this. But thou dost far worse by thy despairing of mercy. In this act thou rejectcst Christ, and keepest him from satisfying the justice of the law that is injured by thee, and from redeeming the honour of his name from the reproach thy sins have scandalized it with. What language speaks thy despair, but this ? Let God come by his right and honour as he can, thou wilt never be an instrument active in helping him to do it, by believhig on Christ, in whom he may fully have them with advantage. O what shame would despair put the mercy of God to in the sight of Satan, his worst enemy? He is overjoyed at this, to see all the glorious attributes of God served alike, and divested of their honour. This is meat and drink to him. That cursed spirit desires no l)etter music than to hear the soul ring the promises, like bells backward, — nuike no other use of 510 ADOVE ALL, TAKING THE SHIELD OF FAITH. them than to confirm it in its own desperate tlioughts of its damnation, and to tell it that hell-iire is kindled in its conscience, which no mercy in God will or can quench to eternity. As the bloody Jews and Roman soldiers exercised their cruelty on every part almost of Christ's body, crovvninj^ his head witli thorns, goring Ins side with a spear, and fastening his hands and feet with nails ; so the despairing sinner deals with the whole name of God. He doth, as it were, put a mock crown on the head of his wisdom, setting it all to nought, and charging it foolishly, as if the method of salvation was not laid with prudence by tlie all-wise God. He nails the hands of his almighty power, while he thinks his sins are of that natm-e as puts him out of the reach and beyond the power of God to save him. He piercetli the tender bowels of God's mercy when he cannot see enough in him to persuade him to hope for any favour or forgiveness at his hands. In a word, the despairing soul transfixeth his very heart and will, while he unworthily frames notions of God as if lie were unwilling to the work of mercy, and not so inclined to exercise acts of pardon and forgiveness on poor sinners as the word declares him to be. Despair basely misreports him to the soul as if he were a lame God, and had no feet (affections I mean) to carry him to such a work as forgiving sin. Now, what does the sum of all this amount to, if you can without horror and amaze- ment stand to cast it up, and consider the weight of those circumstances which aggravate the flagitiousness of this unparalleled fact? Surely it riseth to no less than the highest attempt that the creature can make for the murdering of God himself; for the infinitude of God's wisdom, power, mercy, and all his attributes, are more intrinsical to the essence and being of God than the heart's blood is to the life of a mortal man. Shall he that lets out the heart's blood of a man, yea, but attempts to do it, be a murderer, (especially if he be a prince or king which the design is against,) and deservedly suffer as such ; and shall not he mvich more be counted and punished as the worst of all murderers that attempts to take away the life of God (though his arm and dagger be too short for the purpose) by taking from him in his thoughts the infinitude of those attributes which are, as I may sa)^, the very life of God ? Surely God will neither part with the glory, nor suffer the dishonour of his name, at the hands of his sorry creatiu-e, but will engage all his attril)utes for the avenging himself on the wretch that attempts it. O, tremble, therefore, at despair ! Nothing makes thy face gather blackness, and thy soul hasten faster to the complexion of damned souls than this ; now thou sinnest after the similitude of those that are in hell. Section III. — Despair strengthens and enrageth all other sins in the soul. There are none that fight so fiercely as those who look for no quarter. They think themselves dead men, therefore they will sell their lives as dear as they can. Samson desjiaired of ever getting out of the Philistines' hands, his eyes being lost, and he unfit to make an escape : what doth he meditate, now that his case is desperate, but his enemies' ruin ? He cares not though he pulls the house on his own head, so it may but fall on the Philistines also. When Absa- lom, by the wicked counsel of Ahithophel, had as he thought made himself so hateful to David as to be past all hope of being treated with, he then breaks out with a high rage, and seeks the ruin of his royal father with fire and sword. So cruel a thing is despair ; it teaches to shew no respect where it looks for none. But most clearly it appears in the devil himself, who, knowing himself to be excluded from pardon, sins with a rage as high as heaven ; and the same sin hath the same effects in men that it hath in the devil, according to the degrees of it which are found in them. ' They said. There is no hope : but we will walk after our own devices,' Jer. xviii. 12. Did you never see a sturdy beggar, after some time knocking at a door, and concluding by the present silence or denial that he shall have nothing given him, fall into a cursing and railing of them that dwell there ? Even such foul language doth despair teach the sinner to make use of against the God of heaven. If despair enters, it is impossible to keep blasphemy out : pray therefore, and do thy utmost to repel this dart, lest it soon set thy soul on a flame with this hell-fire of blasphemy. Hear, O souls smitten for sin, who spend your lives in sighs, sobs, and tears, for your horrid enemies : would you again be seen fighting against God as fierce as ever ? If you woidd not, take heed of dfespair. If thou once thinkest tliat AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 511 God's licart is hardened against thco, tliy heart will not be long hardening against him. And this, by tlic way, may administer comfort to the thoughts of some gracious but troubled souls who cannot lind that tlicy have any faith, yea, who are often reckoning themselves among despairers. Let me ask thee who art in this sad condition this one thing, Canst thou find any love breathing in thy heart toward God, though thou canst find no breath of love coming at present from him to thee, and art thou tender and fearful of sinning against him, even while thou seemest to thy own thoughts to ho])e for no mercy from him ? If so, be of good comfort ; thy faith may be weak, but thou art far from being under the power of despair. Desperate souls do not reserve any love for God, or care to please him. There is some faith surely in thy soul, which is the cause of these motions, though, like the spring in a watch, it be itself unseen, when the other graces moved by it are visible. Section IV. — The greatness of this sin of despair appears in this, that the least sin envenomed by it is unpardonable ; and without this, the greatest is .pardonable. Tliat nuist needs of all sins be most abominable which makes the creature incapable of nu-rcy. Judas was not damned merely ibr his treason and murder ; for others, who had their hands deep in the same horrid fact, obtained a pardon by faith in that blood which through cruelty they shed ; but for these, heightened into the greatest malignity possible by the despair and final impenitency witli which his wretched heart was filled, which he died so miserably of, and now is infinitely more miserably damned for. EPHESIANS VI. 17. And take the helmet of sahatlon. These words present us with another piece in the Christian's panoply — a hel- met to cover his head, in the day of battle. It makes the fifth in the apostle's order ; and what is observable, this and most of the pieces in this magazine are defensive arms, and all to defend the Christian from sin, none to secure him from suffering. First, They are mostly defensive arms. Indeed, there is but one, of all the pieces in the whole j)anoply, for offence, that is the sword. It may be to give us this hint, that this spiritual war of the Christian lies chiefly on the defence, and therefore requires arms most of this kind to wage it. God hath deposited a rich treasure of grace in every saint's heart: the devil's greatest spite is against this ; to plunder him of which, and with it of his happiness, he com- menceth a bloody war against him : so that the Christian overcomes his enemy, when himself is not overcome by him, his work being rather to keep what is his own than to get what is his enemy's. And truly, were it well heeded that the saint's war lies chiefly on the defence, it would be of singular use to direct him how to manage his combats both with Satan and his instruments. First, with Satan. Look, Christian, that thou standest always in a defensive posture, with thy armour on, as a soldier, upon thy works, ready to defend the castle of thy soul, which God hath set thee to keep, and valiantly to repel Satan's as- saults, whenever he makes his apj)roach ; but be not persuaded out of the line of thy place and calling, no, not under the specious pretence of zeal and hope, to get the greater victory l)y falling into the enemy's quarters. Let Satan be the assailant, and come if he will to tem])t thee ; but go not thou in a bravado to tempt him to do it. It is just he should be foiled that seeks his own danger. This got Peter his fall in the high-priest's hall, who was left tlu'refi)re cowardly to deny his Master, that he might learn hunil)ly to deny himself ever after. Secondly, With Satan's instruments. May be tliey revile and re])roach thee. Remember now thy part lies on the defence. Give not railing for railing, reproach for reproach. Tlie gospel allows thee no lil)erty to use their weapons, and return them quid pro quo: 1 Pet. iii. 8, 9, " Be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but, contrariwise, blessing.' Thou hast here a bridle and breastplate to defend thee from their bullets ; the com- fort of thy own sincerity and holy walking, with which thou mayest wipe o(f the dirt thrown upon thy face, but no weajx)!! for self-revenge. A shield is put into thy hand, which thou mayest lift up to quench their fiery darts, but no darts 512 -^ND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. of bitter words to retort upon them. Thou art shod with peace that thou mayest walk safely upon the injuries they do thee, without any prick or pain to thy spirit, but not with pride to trample upon the persons that wrong thee. Secondly, All the pieces are to defend the Christian from sin ; — none to secure him from suffering. They are to defend him in suffering, not privilege him from it. He must prepare the more for suffering, because he is so well furnished with armour to bear it. Armour is not given for men to wear by the fire-side, but in the field. How shall the maker be praised, if the metal of his arms be not known ; and where shall it be put to the proof, but amidst swords and bullets? He that desires to live all his days in a state of ease and security will never make a good Christian. Resolve for hardship, or lay down thy arms. Here is the true reason why so few come at the beat of Christ's dnmi to his standard, and so many of those few that have enlisted themselves by an external profession imder him, within a while drop away, and leave his colours ; it is suf- fering work they are sick of. Most men are more tender of their skin than of their conscience, and had rather the gospel had provided armour to defend . their bodies from death and danger, than their soids from sin and Satan. But I come to the words, ' And take the helmet of salvation :' in which we may observe,^ — ^First, The copulative, which clasps this to the former piece, — ' and.' Secondly, the piece of armour itself, ' The helmet of salvation.' CHAPTER I. WHEREIN THE CONCATENATION OF GRACES, IN THEIR BI'rTH, GROWTH, AND DECAY, IS SET FORTH. First. The copulative ' an'd ' — 'And take;' — that is, with the shield of faith, and all the other pieces of armour here set down, take this also into the field with you. See here how every grace is lovingly coupled to its fellow ; and all at last, though many pieces, make but one suit. The note which this points at is, the concatenation of graces. Note, The sanctifying, saving graces of God's Spirit are linked inseparably together : there is a connexion of them one to the other, and that in their birth, gi-owth, and decay. Section I. — In their birth. Where one sanctifying grace is, the rest are all to be found. It is not so in common gifts and graces ; these are parcelled out, like the gifts Abraham bestowed on the children he had by his concubines. Gen. XXV. 6. One hath this gift, another hath that ; none hath all. He that hath a gift of knowledge may want a gift of utterance, and so of the rest. But sanctifying graces are like the inheritance he gave to Isaac ; every true believer hath them all given him. He that is ' in Christ is a new creature : behold all things are become new,' 2 Cor. v. 17. Now the new creature con- tains all ; as natural corruption is an universal principle of all sin that sours the whole lump of man's nature, so is sanctifying grace an universal principle that sweetly seasons, and renews the whole man at once, though not wholly. Grace comes, saith one, into the soul, as the soul into the body, at once. In- deed, it grows by steps, but is born at once ; the new creature hath all its parts formed together, though not its degrees ; some one grace may be perceived to stir, and so come imder the Christian's notice before another. He may feel his fear of God putting forth itself in a holy trembling and awe upon his spirit at the thoughts of God, before he sees his faith in the fiduciary recumbency of his soul upon God: yet the one grace is not produced before the other. One part of the world hath been discovered to us long before the other ; yet all the world was made together. Now this connexion of graces in their birth is of double use. First, To relieve the sincere Christian when in doubt of his gracious state, because he cannot at present discern in his soid some particular grace which he inquires for. Possibly it is faith thou hast been looking for, and it is not any where to be heard of Well, Christian, do not presently unsaint thyself, till thou hast made farther trial of thyself. Send out therefore thy spies to search ior some other grace, as thy love to Christ; may be thou wilt hear some tidings of this grace, though the other is not in view. Hath not thy love to God and Christ been seen by thee in such a temptation, chasing it away with Joseph's answer to his wanton mistress, ' How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God ?' Yea, mayest thou not see it all the day long, either in thy sincere AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 513 care to please him, or hearty sorrow when thou hast clone anything that grieves him ? in which two veins runs the life-blood of a soul's love to Christ. Now know, to thy comfort, that thy love can tell thee news of thy faith. As Christ said in another case, ' He that hath seen me, hath seen my Father,' John xiv. 9, so say I to thee, thou that hast seen thy love to Christ, liast seen thy faith in the face of thy love. But may be thy love to Christ is also lodged in a cloud. Well, tlien, see whether thou canst espy no evangelical repentance, loathing thee with the sight of thy sins, as also in firing thee with revenge against them, as those enemies which drew thee into rebellion against God ; yea, as the bloody weapons with which thou hast so often wounded the name, and murdered the Son of God. Behold, the grace thou lookest for stands before thee. What is love to God, if zeal against sin, as God's enemy, be not? Did not Abishai love David, when his heart so boiled over with rage against Shimei for cursing David, tliat he could not help breaking out in a passion, saying, ' Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king .' Let me go over, I pray thee, and take offhis head ;' 2 Sam. xvi. 9. And by thy own acknowledgment, it troubles thee as much to hear thy lusts bark against God ; and thy will is as good to be the death of them, if God would but grant his consent, as ever Abishai's was to strike that traitor's head off. And yet art thou in doubt whether thou lovest God or no ? Truly, then, thou canst not see love for zeal. Thus, as by taking hold of one link, you may draw up the rest of the chain that lies under water ; so by discovering one grace, you may bring all to sight. Joseph and Mary were indeed deceived, when they supposed their son to be in the company of their kindred, Luke ii. 44 ; but thou canst not do so here ; for this holy kindred of graces go together : they are knit as members of tlie body, one to another ; though you see only the face of a man, yet you doubt not but the whole man is there. Secondly, As it may relieve the sincere Christian, so it will help to expose and put the hypocrite to shame, who makes great pretences to some one grace, when he hates another at the same time : a certain sign of a false heart. He never had any grace that loves not all graces. Moses would not go out of Egypt with half his company, Exod. x. 26 ; either all must go, or none : neither will the Spirit of God come into a soul with half his sanctifying graces, but all his train. If, therefore, thy heart be set against any one grace, it proves thou art a stranger to the rest ; and though thou mayest seem a great admirer of one grace, yet the opposition which thou shewest to others, washeth off the paint of this fair cover. He that loves or hates one saint, as such, doth the same by every saint : so he that cordially closeth with one grace, will find every grace endeared to him, for they are as like one to another, as one sunbeam is to another. Section IL — Sanctifying graces are connected in their growth and decay : increase one grace, and you strengthen all ; impair one, and you will be a loser in all ; and the reason is, because they are reciprocally helpful to each other. So that when one grace is wounded, the assistance which it would, if in temper, contribute to the Christian's common stock, is either entirely lost, or much lessened. When love cools, obedience slackens, and goes on heavily, because it wants tlie oil on its wheel which love used to drop ; when obedience falters, faith weakens : how can there be great faith, where there is little faithfulness? When faith is weak, hope presently wavers; for it is the credit of faith's report, that hope goes on to expect good from God : and hope wavering, patience becomes a bankmpt, and can keep his shop open no longer, because it trades with the stock which hope lends it. In the body you observe, there are many members, yet all make but one body ; and eveiy member so useful, that the others are beholden to it : so in the Christian there are many graces, but one new creature ; and the eye of knowledge cannot say to the hand of faith, I have no need of thee ; neither can the hand of faith say so to the foot of obedience ; but all are preserved by the mutual care they have of one another ; for, as ruin to the whole city may enter at a breach in one part of its wall, and the soul run out through a wound in a particular member of the body ; so the ruin of all graces may, yea, must, needs follow on the ruin of any one. There is, indeed, a stronger bond of union between graces of our souls, than there is between the members of our body. It is possible, yea, ordinary, for some member to be cut off from the body, without the death of the whole, because all the members of the body are not vital parts. But every grace is a vital part 2 L 514 -^^''^ TAKE THE JIKLMHT Ol' SALVATION. in the new creature, and so essential to its very being, that its absence cannot be supplied per vicariam. In the body, one eye can make a shift to do the office of its fellow which is put out, and one hand do the other's work that is cut ofl", though may be not so exactly ; but faith cannot do the office of love, nor love the work of obedience. The lack of one wheel spoils the motion of the whole clock ; and if one grace be wanting, the end would not be attained for which this rare piece of workmanship is set up in the saint's heart. First, Let it learn thee, Christian, this wisdom, whenever thou findest any grace weakened, either through thy negligence in not attending to it, or Satan's temptations wounding it, speedily to endeavour the recovery of it ; because thou dost not only lose the comfort which the exercise of this one grace might bring, but thou wcakenest all the others. Is he a bad husband who hazards the fall of his house, by suffering a hole or two in the roof? What then art thou, who puttest thy whole gracious state in danger, by neglecting a timely repair of the breach made in one of thy graces? And so, when thou art tempted to any sin, look not on it as a single sin, but as having all other sins in its belly. Consider what thou doest, before thou gratifiest Satan in any one motion ; for by one sin thou strengthenest the whole body of sin : give to one sin, and that will send more beggars to your door, and they will come with a stronger plea than the former; why mayest thou not do this for them as well as for the other ? Thy best way is to keep the door shut to all, lest, while thou intendest to entertain only one, all crowd in. But if it were possible that thou couldest break this connexion of sin, so as to take off one link that pleaseth thee best, and not draw the whole chain after thee by conm:iitting this, yet know there is a connexion of guilt also, James ii. 10: ' Whosoever shall keep the ■whole law, and yet offisnd in one point, he is guilty of all.' As he that administereth to the estate of one deceased, though it be never so little that he takes into his hands, becomes liable to pay all his debts, and brings all his creditors upon him ; so by tampering but with one sin, and that a little one, thou bringest the whole law upon thy back, which will arrest thee upon God's suit, as a transgressor of all its commands. Thus the law is copulative ; an affront done to one redounds to the dishonour of all, and so is resented by God, the lawgiver, whose authority is equally in all. Secondly, This may comfort those who trouble them.selves with the thoughts of future changes which may befall them. And what shall they do then? say they. Now, blessed be God, they make a shift to serve God in their place ; but what if straits come, — poverty, sickness, or other crosses? How shall they then behave ? Where is their faith, patience, and other suffei-ing graces, that should enable them to walk on these waves without sinking? They fear, alas ! that little of these suffering graces is in their hands. Well, Christian, for thy encouragement know, if the graces of thy present condition (those, 1 mean, which God calls thee to exercise now in thy prosperous state,) be lively, thou mayest comfortably hope the other suffering graces, which now stand unseen behind the curtain, ■will do the same, ■when God chaugeth the scene of thy affairs, and calls them upon the stage to act their part. The more hmiible thou art now with thy abundance, the more patient thou ■wilt certainly shew thyself in thy penury. So much as thy heart is now above the world's enjoyments, even so much thou wait be above the troubles and sorrows of it. Trees grow proportionably under ground to what they do above ; and the Christian will find something like this in his graces. CHAPTER II. OF THE NATURE OF HOPE, WHY STYLED HOPE OF SALVATION, AND WHY COMPARED TO A HELMET. We have done with the connective particle, whereby this piece is coupled to the former, and now come to address our discourse to the piece of armom- itself, — 'Take the helmet of salvation.' Though we have not here, as in all the other, the grace expressed, yet we need not be at a loss for it, if we consult another place, where our apostle lends us a key to decipher his meaning in this ; 1 Thess. V. 8: 'And for a helmet the hope of salvation;' so that, without any scruple, we shall determine upon the grace of ' hope,' as intended by the Holy A\D TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 515 Ghost in this place. Now in order to a treatise of this grace, it is requisite that something be said by explication, which may serve as a light set up in the entry to lead us the better into the several rooms of the point which is to be the sub- ject of our discourse. Section I. — We shall, first, shew the nature of this grace of hope, which will be best done by la3'ing down a plain description of it, and briefly explicating the parts. Hope is a supernatural gi-ace of God, whereby the believer, through Christ, expects and waits for all those good things of the promise, which at present he hath not fidly received. First, Here is the author or efficient cause of it, ' God,' who is called ' the God of all grace,' 1 Pet. v. 10; that is, the giver and worker of all grace, both as to the first seed, and the farther growth of it. It is impossible for the creature to make the least pile of grass, or being made, to make it grow ; and as impossible to produce the least seed of grace in the heart, or add one cubit to the stature of it. No, as God is the father of the rain, by which the herbs in the field spring and grow, so also of those spiritual dews and influences that must make eveiy grace thrive and flourish. The apostle teacheth us this, when he prays that God would ' perfect, establish, strengthen, settle' them ; and as of all grace in general, so of this in particular, Rom. XV. 13, where he is styled the ' God of hope,' and by whom we abound in hope also. This hope is supernatural, and therebj' distinguished from the heathen's hope, which, with the rest of their moral virtues, so far as any ex- cellency were found in them, came from God, (to whom every man that cometh into the world is beholden for all the light he hath, John i. 9,) and is but the remains of man's first noble principles ; as sometimes we shall see a broken turret or two stand in the midst of the ruins of some stately palace demolished, which serves for little more than to help the spectator to give a guess what goodly buildings once stood there. Secondly, Hope's subject, — the believer. True hope is a jewel that no one wears but Christ's bride ; a grace with which no one is graced but the believer's soul. Christless and hopeless are joined together, Ephes. ii. 12 : and here it is not amiss to observe the order in v/hich hope stands to faith. In regard of time they are not one before another, but in order of nature and operation faith hath the precedency of hope. Faith closeth with the promise as a true and faithful word, then hope lifts up the soul to wait for the performance of it. Who goes out to meet him whom he believes will not come ? The pi'omise is as it were God's love-letter to his church and spouse, in which he opens his very heart, and tells all he means to do for her. Faith reads and embraceth it with joy, whereupon the believing soul, by hope, looks out at this window with a longing expectation to see her husband's chariot come in the accomplishment thereof: so Paul gives a reason of his own hope from his faith. Acts xxiv. 14, 15, and prays for the Romans' faith, in order to their hope, Rom. xv. 13. Thirdly, Hope's object. 1. In general, something that is good. If a thing be evil, we fear and fly from it ; if good, we hope and wait for it. And here is one note of difference between it and faith ; — faith believes evil as well as good ; hope is conversant only about good. 2. It is the good of the promise ; and in this faith and hope agree : both their lines are drawn from the same centre of the promise. Hope without a promise, is like an anchor without ground to hold l)y ; it bears the promise on its name. ' I stand and am judged,' saith Paul, ' for the hope of the promise,' Acts xxvi. 6. So David shews where he moors his ship and casts his anchor; ' I hope in thy word,' Psa. cxix. 81. Tnie hope will trade only for true good ; and we can call nothing so that the good God hath not promised ; for the promise runs thus, ' No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly,' Psa. Ixxxiv. 11. 3. All the good things of the promise. As God hath encircled all good in the promise, so he hath promised nothing but good ; and therefore hope's object is all that the promise holds forth : only as the matter of the promise hath more degrees of goodness, so hope longs more earnestly for it. God is the chief good, and the fruition of him is promised as the utmost happiness of the creature : therefore true hope takes her chief aim at God, and makes all other promises in a subserviency to lift the soul nearer unto him. Ho is called, ' the hope of Israel,' Jer. xvii. 13. There is nothing beyond God, the enjoying of whom the believer projects ; and nothing short ijf (Jod that he can be conteiit with. 2 L 2 t^YQ AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. Now, because God is only enjoyed fully and securely in heaven's blissful state, therefore it is called ' the hope of glory,' Col. i. 27 ; ' of eternal life,' Tit. iii. 7 ; ' of salvation,' 1 Thess. v. 8. Lastly, The object of hope is the good of the promise, not in hand, but yet to be performed. ' Hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?' Rom. viii. 24. Futurity is intrinsical to hope's object, and distinguisheth it from faith, which gives a present being to the promise, and is * the substance of things hoped for,' Heb. xi. 1. The good of the promise hath a kind of subsistence by faith in the soul ; it brings the Christian and heaven together, as if he were there already; hence they are said by faith to embrace the promise, Heb. xi. 13, as two friends when they meet ; faith speaks in the present tense, 'We are conquerors, yea, we are more than conquerors.' Partial performance of the promise intends hope ; but complete performance ends hope, and SAvallows it up in love and joy. Indeed, either the full performance of the promise, or execution of the threatening, shuts out all hope. In heaven the promise is paid, and hope dismissed, because we have what was looked for ; and in hell the threatening is fully inflicted, and therefore there is no hope to be found among the damned, because there is no possibility of release. Fourthly. Hope's aid, by whose help, and for whose sake, it expects to obtain the promise, and that is, Jesus Christ. It waits for all in and through him; he is therefore called 'our hope,' 1 Tim. i. 1, because through him we hope for what is promised; by whose death we have leave and liberty to expect good from God, and by whose Spirit we have ability to hope ; so that both the authority and strength to hope come from Christ ; the former by the effusion of his blood for lis, the latter by the infusion of his Spirit into us. Section II. — Why is the Christian's hope styled a ' hope of salvation ?' A double reason is obvious. First, Because salvation comprehends and takes within its circle the whole object of the Christian's hope. Salvation imports a complete state of bliss, wherein meet eminently the mercies and enjoyments oi all the promises, scattered, some in one, and some in another ; as at the creation, the light which was first diffused thi'ough the firmament, was gathered after- ward into the sun. Cast up the particular sums of all the good things pro- mised in the covenant, and the total they amount unto is — 'salvation.' The ul- tima unitas gives the denomination to the number, because it comprehends all ; so salvation, the ultimate object of the Christian's expectation, and that which comprehends the i-est, denominates his hope. Secondly, It is called a ' hope of salvation,' to distinguish it from the worldling's hope, whose portion (Psalm xvii. 14,) is in this life, and so is his hope also. It is confessed, that many of these pretend to a hope of salvation ; bvit the truth is, they neither have a right to it, nor are they very eager of it. They think themselves so well seated in this world, that if they might have their wish, it should be, that God would not remove them hence. Even when they say, they hope to be saved, their consciences tell them they had rather stay here than part with this world, in hope to mend themselves in the other. They blow up themselves into a hope and desire of salvation, more out of a dread of hell than a liking of heaven. There are none, I think, so mad among them, but had rather be saved than damned ; — live in heaven, than lie in hell ; yet they like this world better than all. Section III. — The third inquiry is, why hope is compared to a helmet. First. The helmet defends the head, a principal part of the body, from bullet and sword : so this 'hope of salvation' defends the soul, the principal part of man, and the principal faculties of that, whereby no dangerous impression can by Satan or sin be made on it. Temptations may trouble, but cannot hurt, except their darts enter the will, and leave a wound there, by drawing it to some consent and liking of them ; from which this helmet of hope, if it be of the right make, and sits sure on the Christian's head, will defend him. It is hard to draw him into any treasonable practice against his prince, who is both well satisfied of his favour at present, and stands also upon the stairs of hope, expecting assuredly to be called up within a while to the highest preferment that the court can afford, or his king give. No, the weapons of rebellion and treason are usually forged and fashioned by discontent. When subjects take themselves to be neglected and slighted by their prince, think their preferments AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. ^J^ are now at an end, and must look for no favours to come from him ; this pre- pares them to receive every impression of disloyalty that any enemy to the king shall attempt to stamp them with ; as in the Israelites, who thinking the men of Judah (of whose tribe the king was) had got a monopoly of his favour, and themselves shut out from sharing equally with them therein ; how soon are they, even at a blast or two of Sheba's seditious trumpet, made rebels against their sovereign! 'We have no part in David,' saith Sheba, ' neither have we any in- heritance in the son of Jesse : every man to his tents, O Israel,' 2 Sam. xx. 1. And see how this treason runs, even like a squib upon a rope, ver. 2 : ' Every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba.' Thus, if once the soul fears it hath no part in God, and expects no inheritance from him, I know no sin so great, but it may be drawn to commit. Secondly, As the helmet defends the soldier's head from being wounded, so his heart also from swooning. It makes him bold and fearless in battle, though amidst swords and bullets. Goliath, with his helmet of brass and other furniture, how confidently and daringly did the man come on, as if he had been so inclosed in his armoiu-, that it was impossible any weapon could come near to deliver a message of death unto him. This made him carry his crest so high, and defy a whole host, till at last he paid his life for his pride and folly. But here is a helmet, which, whoever wears, need never be put to shame for his holy boasting. God himself allows him so to do, and will bear him out in this rejoicing of his hope : ' They shall not be ashamed that wait for me,' Isaiah xlix. 23. This made holy David so undaunted in the midst of his enemies, ' Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear,' Psa. xxvii. 3. His hope would jiot suffer his heart so much as to beat within him, for any fear of what they could do to him ; he had his helmet of salvation on, and therefore he saith, ver. 6, ' Mine head shall be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.' A man cannot drown so long as his head is above water. Now, it is the proper office of hope to do this for the Christian in times of any danger, Luke xxi. 28 : ' When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your re- demption draweth nigh.' A strange time, one would think, for Christ then to bid his disciples lift up their heads in, when they see other men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, ver. 26 ; yet now is the time of the rising of their sun, when others' is setting, the blackness of darkness is overtaking others; because now the Christian's feast is coming, for which hope hath saved its stomach so long. — 'Your redemp- tion draweth nigh.' Two things make the head hang down, — fear, and shame; hope easeth the Christian's heart of both these, and so forbids him to give any sign of a desponding mind by a dejected countenance. I come now to lay down the one general point of doctrine, fi'om which our whole discourse on this piece of armour shall be drawn. CHAPTER III. OF THE USE OF HOPE IN THE CHRISTIAN'S WARFARE, AND OF THE HIGH AND NOBLE EXPLOITS IT RAISETII THE CHRISTIAN TO UNDERTAKE. Hope is a grace of singular use and service to us all along our spiritual war- fare and Christian course. We are directed to 'take the helmet of salvation :' and this is not for some particular occasion, and then hang it up till another extraordinary strait calls us to take it down, and use it again ; but we must take it so as never to lay it aside, till God shall take off this helmet, to put on a crown of glory in the room of it. ' Be sober, and hope to the end,' is the apostle Peter's counsel, 1 Pet. i. 13. There are some engines of war that are of use but now and then ; as ladders for scaling a town or fort, which done, they are laid aside for a long time, and not missed. But the helmet is of continual use. We shall need it as long as our war with sin and Satan lasts. The Christian is not beneath hope, so long as above ground ; nor above hope so long as he is beneath heaven. Indeed, when once he enters the gates of that glorious city, then farewell hope, and welcome love for ever. He may say, with the holy martyr, armour becomes earth, but robes heaven. Hope goes into the field, and waits on the Christian till the last battle be fought and the field cleared, and then faith and hope together carry him in the chariot of the 518 AND TAKE THE HELMEI OF SALVATION. promise to heaven's door, where they deliver up his soul into the hands of love and joy, which stand ready to conduct him into the blissful presence of God. But that I may speak more particularly of hope's serviceableness to the Chris- tian, and the several offices it performeth for him, I shall reduce all to four heads. First, Hope of salvation puts the Christian upon high and noble exploits. It is a grace born for great actions. Faith and hope are the two poles on which all the Christian's noble enterprises turn. As carnal hope excites carnal men to their achievements, which gain them renown in the world, so is this heavenly hope influential unto the saint's undertakings. What makes the merchant sell house and land, and ship his whole estate away to the other end of the v.orld, and this amidst a thousand hazards from pirates, waves, and winds, but the hope of getting a greater by this bold adventure ? What makes the daring sol- dier rush into the furious battle, into the very mouth of death itself, but the hope of snatching honour and spoil out of its jaws ? — hope in his helmet, shield, and all, which makes him laugh in the face of all danger. In a word, what makes the scholar beat his brains so hard, sometimes with the hazard of breaking them, by over-straining his part with too eager and hot a pursuit of learning, but the hope of commencing some degrees higher in the knowledge of those secrets in natiu-e which are locked up from vulgar understanding? — who, when he hath attained his desire, is paid but little better for all his pains and study, which have worn nature in him to the stumps, than he is that tears the flesh off" his hands and knees with creeping up some craggy mountain, which proves but a barren, bleak place, to stand in, and wraps himself up in the clouds from the sight of others, leaving him little more to please himself with but this,that he can look over other men's heads, and see a little farther than they. Now if these hopes can prevail with men, so as to have such fixed resolutions for the obtaining of these poor, sorry things, which borrow part of their goodness fi-om men's fancy and imaginations, how much more effectual must the Christian's hope of eternal life be, to provoke him to the achievement of more noble exploits! Let a few instances suffice. Section I. — This hope raiseth in the Christian an heroic resolution against those lusts that held him before in bondage. The Israelites, who sufl'ered so tamely vmder their Egyptian burdens, without any attempt made by them to shake off" the oppressor's yoke, when Moses came from God to give them hope of an approaching salvation, and his report had gained some credit by them, what a mighty change the impression of their newly-conceived hope made upon them ! On a sudden their courage returns, and their blood, which anguish and despair had so long chilled, grows warm again. They who before hardly durst let their groans be heard, (so broken were their spirits with hard labour,) now, fortified with hope, burst open their prison-doors, and march out of Egypt toward the place of rest promised, in defiance of all the power and wrath of enraged Pharaoh, who pursued them. Truly, thus it is with a soul in regard of sin's bondage. O how impotent and poor-spirited is a soul void of this hea- venly hope ! What a tame slave hath Satan of him ! He is the footstool for every base lust to trample upon. He suffers the devil to ride him whither he pleaseth, without wincing. No puddle so filthy, but Satan may draw him through with a thread : the poor wretch is well enough contented with his ignoble servitude, because he knows no better master than him he serves, nor better wages than the swill of his sensual pleasures which his lusts allow him ; but let the news of salvation come to the ear of this sin-deluded soul, and a spiritual eye be given him to see the transcendant glory thereof, with a crevice of hope set open to him, that he is the person that shall inherit it, if willing to make an exchange of Satan for Christ, and of the slavery of his lusts for the liberty of his Redeemer's service ; O, what havoc then doth the soul begin to make among his lusts ! He presently vows the death of them all, and sets his head at work how he may soonest and most eff'ectually rid his hands of them. 'Every man that hath this hope, purifieth himself, even as he is pure ;' 1 John iii. 3. He now looks upon his lusts with no better eye than a captive prince would do on his cruel keepers, out of whose hands could he make his escape, he should presently enjoy his crown and kingdom; and therefore meditates his utmost revenge iipon them. There may be some hasty purposes taken up by carnal men against their lusts, upon some accidental discontent they meet with AND TAKE THE ilKLMET 01' SALVATIOX. 519 now and then in the prosecution of them; but. alas! the swords they draAv against them are soon in their sheaths again, and all the seeming fray comes to nothing in the end. They, like Esau, go out full and angry, but a present comes from their lusts which bribes them from hurting them ; yea, so reconciles them to them, that, as he did by his brother, they can fall upon the necks of those lusts, to kiss them, which awhile before they threatened to kill, and all for want of a true hope of heaven. He that hath a mind to provide himself with arguments against sin's motions, need not go far to seek them : but he that handles this one well, and drives it home to the head, will not need many more. What is the sin this would not prostrate ? Art thou tempted to any sensual lust ? Ask thy hope what thou expeetest to be in heaven. Canst thou yield to play the beast on earth, who hopest to be made like the pure and holy angels in heaven ? Is it a sin of profit which bewitcheth thee? Is not the hope of heaven a spell strong enough to charm this devil? Can gold bear any sway with thee, thou that hopest to be heir of that city where gold bears no price ? Wherefore is that blissful place said to be paved with gold, but to let us know, it shall be there trampled ujion as of no account? And wilt thou let it now lie in thy heart, that will ere long be laid under thy feet ? Is it a sin of revenge ? Dost thou not hope for a day when thy dear Saviour will plead thy cause? And what need hast thou then to take his work out of his hand ? Let him be his own judge, who hath no hope; the Judge, when he comes, will take thy part. Section II. — This hope encourages and enables the Christian to condemn the present world, with all its pomp, treasvn-e, and pleasure, to which the rest of the sons of men are basely enslaved. When once faith makes discovery of the land which the Christian hath lying in heaven, and by hope he begins to calculate upon it, as that which he shall shortly take up at his removal from earth ; truly then the price of this world's felicity tails low in his account : he can sell all his hopes from it very cheap, yea, he can part with what he hath in hand of this world's growth, when God calls him to it, more freely than Alex- ander did the cities he took; because when all this is gone, he shall leave him- self a better hope than that great monarch had to live upon. The hope of heaven leaves a blot upon the woi-ld in the Christian's thoughts. It is no more now to him, than the asses were to anointed Saul, We are told of some Turks, who have, upon the sight of Mahomet's tomb, put out their eyes, that they might not defile them, forsooth, with any common object, after they had been blessed with seeing one so sacred. I am sure manj' a gracious soul there hath been, who, by a prospect of heaven's glory set before the eye of their faith, have been so ravished by the sight, that they have desired God even to seal lip their eyes by death, with Simeon, who would not by his good-will have lived a day after that blessed hour in which his eyes had beheld the salvation of God. Abraham was under the hope of this salvation, and .therefore, he 'sojourned in tJie land of promise, as in a strange country, — for he looked for a city, which hath foundations, Vshose builder and maker is God:" Heb. xi. 9, 10. Canaan woidd have satisfied him well enough if God had not told him of a heaven that he meant to give him, in comparison to which Canaan is now but 'Cabul,' a dirty land in his judgment. So Paul tells us not only the low thoughts he hath himself of the world, but as they agree with the common sense of all believers, whose hope is come to any settlement ; ' for our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Savioiu-,' Phil. iii. 20. Mark, he sets the saints with their back upon earth ; and draws his reason from their hope, — ' from whence we look,' &c. Indeed, he that looks on heaven, must needs look off earth. The soul's eye can as little as the body's be above and below at the same time. Every man converseth most where he hopes to receive his greatest advantage. The publican sits at the receipt of custom, there comes in his gains; the courtier stands at his prince's elbow; the mer- chant, you must look for in his warehouse, or at the exchange: but the Chris- tian's hope carries him by all these doors. Here is not my hope, saith the soul, and therefore not my haunt : my hope is in heaven, from whence I look for the Saviour, and my salvation to come with him ; there I live, walk, and wait. Nothing but a stedfast, well-grounded hope of salvation, can buy off the crea- ture's worldly hopes. The heart of man rannot be in this world without a 520 AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. hope ; and if it hath no hope for heaven, it must of necessity have a hope for earth, such as it can afford. What can suit. an earthly heart better than an earthly hope? And that which is a man's hope, though poor and trifling, is highly prized, and with difiiculty parted with ; as we see in a man who is likely to be drowned, and hath only some weed by the bank-side to hold by, he will die with it in his hand rather than let go ; he will endure blows and wounds, r ither than loose his hold : nothing can take him from it, but that which he hopes may serve better to save him from drowning. Thus it is with a man whose hope is set upon the world, and whole happiness expected from thence. O how such an one hugs and hangs about the world ! You may as soon per- suade a fox to come out of his hole, where he hath taken sanctuary from the dogs, as such an one to cast off his hopes ! No, he is undone without this pelf and that honoin- ; it is that which he hath laid up his hopes in, and hope and life are kept in the same hand. Scare and threaten him with what you will, still the man's heart will hold its own ; yea, throw hell-fire into his bosom, and tell him this love of the world, and making gold his hope, will damn him another day, still he will hold to his way. Felix is an instance of this, Acts xxiv. 26. Paul preached an excellent sermon before him ; and though the preacher was at the bar, and Felix on the bench, yet God so armed the word that he trembled to hear the prisoner ' speak of righteousness, and judg- ment to come :' yet this man, notwithstanding his conscience was struggling with the fears of judgment, and some sparks of Divine vengeance had taken fire on him, could at the same time be sending out his heart on a covetous errand, to look for a bribe, for want of which he left that blessed servant of God in his bloody enemies' hands ; for it is said, ' he hoped that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him.' But he missed his market ; for, as a sordid hope of a little money made him basely refuse to deliver Paul, so the blessed hope which Paul had for another world made him more honourably disdain to purchase his deliverance at his hands with a bribe. Section III. — This hope of salvation, where it is stedfast, makes the Christian active and zealous for God. It is called ' a lively hope,' 1 Pet i. .3. They are men of mettle that have it ; you may expect luore from him than many others, and not be deceived. Why are men dull and heavy in the service of God ? Tridy because their hopes are so. Hopeless and lifeless go together. No wonder the work goes hardly off hand, when men have no hope to be well paid for their labour. He that thinks he works for a song, will not sing at his work, — I mean forward it. The best customer is sure to be served best and first; and him we coiuit the best customer whom we hope will be the best paymaster. If God be thought so, we will leave all to do his business. This made Paul engage so deeply in the service of the gospel, even to lose his worldly friends, and lay his own life at stake ; it was ' for the hope of the promise,' Acts xxvi. 6. This made the other Israelites that feared God follow the trade of godliness so close : ver. 7, * Unto* which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.' Mark, they are both instant and constant ; they run with full speed, stretching themselves forth as in a race, and this night and day ; no stop nor halting. And what is it keeps them in breath ? Even the hope that they shall at last come to that salvation promised. Nothing better to clear the soul of sloth and listlessness of spirit in the service of God than hope well im- proved and strengthened. It is the very physic which the apostle prescribes for this disease : Heb. vi. 11, 12, ' We desire every one of you to shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope imto the end, that ye be not slothful.' Section IV. — Hope begets in a Christian a holy impatience after farther attainments, especially when it grows to some strength : the higher oiu- hopes of salvation rise, the more will our hearts widen themselves in holy desires: Rom. viii. 23, ' Not only they, but we ourselves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body.' Methinks rejoicing would better become them for what they had already, than groaning for v/hat they have not. Who can better stay long for their dinner than they who have their stomachs stayed with a good breakfast? This would hold in bodily food, but not spiritual. No doubt the sweetness which they tasted from their first-fruits in hand did clieer their spirits ; but the thoughts of what was behind made them groan. Hope AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 50 [ waits for all, and will not let the soul sit down contented till all the dishes be on the board, till the whole harvest that stands on the field of the promise be reaped; yea, the more the Christian liath received in partial payments, the deeper groans hope makes the soul fetch for what is behind ; and that, First, Because these foretastes acquaint the Christian more with the nature of those joys which are in heaven, and so enlarge his understanding to have more raised conceptions of the felicity which those enjoy that are amved there; and the increasing of his knowledge must needs enlarge his desires, and those desires break out into sad groans to think what sweet wine is drank in full bowls by glorified saints, and he living where only a sip is allowed that doth not satisfy, but kindle his thirst. It is harder now for him to live on this side heaven than before he knew so much. He is like one that stands at the door where company sit at a rich feast ; he hears how merry they are ; ' through the key-hole he sees what variety they have ; and, by a little which he tastes from the trenchers brought out, he learns how delicious their fare is. O how such an one's teeth would water after their cheer, which another misseth not who hears not of it, or only hears, but tastes not of their dainties ! The nearer the soul stands to heaven, and the more he knows of their joys, the more he blesses them and pities himself. None long for heaven more than those who enjoy most of heaven : all delays now are exceedingly tedious. Their continual moan is, ' Why is his chariot so long in coming ! why tany the wheels of his chariot ?' The last year is tliought longer by the apprentice than all his time before, because now it is nearer out ; and if delays be so tedious, what then are desertions to such a soul who hatli had his hopes of salvation raised high by the sweet illapses of the Spirit and foretastes of glory ! No doubt Moses's death so nigh Canaan, after he had tasted of the fruit of the land at the hand of the spies, was exceedingly grievous. To lose a child grown up, when we seem ready to reap our hopes conceived of him, is more than to part with two in the cradle, that have not yet drawn out our ex- pectations. The Christian, indeed, cannot quite lose his hopes, yet he may have them nipped, as a forward spring by after-claps of winter weather pinches so much the more, because the warm beams of the sun had made the herbs come forth and disclose themselves. And so desertions from God make the saddest impressions upon those, above all others, whose expectation had advanced far, and, by the present sense of Divine goodness, been unfolded into a kind of rejoicing thi'ough hope of gloiy ; now to meet witli a damp from the frowns of the Almighty, and to be benighted by the withdrawing of that light which so ravished it, how dreadful must this sudden change be! Secondly, These present attainments of grace or comfort embolden the soul to expect yet more, and so provoke the Christian to press on for the full payment of all. See both these in David, Psa. Ixiii. 7, ' Because thou hast been my lielp, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.' The present boon which he hath got, makes him rejoice in hope of what is yet to come, and by this scent he is carried out with full cry to pursue the chase for more, as appears in the next words, ver. 1, ' My soul followeth hard after thee.' And no wonder, if we consider that God gives his people their experiences with this very notion stamped on them, that is, to raise their expectations for farther mercies at his hand : Hosea ii. 15, 'I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope.' God is there speaking to a soul converted and newly taken into covenant, what blessings he will bestow on it as the happy effects of its reconciliation to God and marriage with Christ; and he alludes to liis dealing with Israel, who came out of a desolate wilderness into a pleasant, fruitful country, in the very entrance whereof this Achor lay, which wlien God gave them, he would not have them look on it as in itself it was, a little spot of ground, and not so much worth, but as the opening of a door through wliich he woidd undertake to let them into the possession of the whole land in process of time ; which circumstance, believed by them, made Joshua advance his banners with so much courage against the proudest of his enemies, well knowing man could not shut that door upon them which God had opened. Thus every particular assistance (Jod gives the Chris- tian against any corniption, is intended by God to be an Achor, a door of hope, from which he may expect the total overthrow of that cursed seed in liis bosom. When he adds the least degree of strength to his grace or comfort, he gives us a door of hope that he will consiunmate both in glory. O ! what courage must ^22 ^'^^ TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. this needs bring to thee, poor heart, in thy fears and faintings. Paul had many enemies at Ephesus to oppose him ; but having ' an effectual door opened unto him,' for his encouragement, he went on undauntedly, 1 Cor. xvi. 9. As an army after stubborn resistance by the eneni}', who labour what the}^ can to keep them out, the gate of the city flies open, then the soldiers press in amain with a shout ; thus, after much wrestling with God for pardon of sin, or strength against sin, the door of the promise flies open, and God comes in with some assisting, comforting presence : now hope takes heart, and makes the soul fall on with double zeal, CHAPTER IV. SHEWETH HOW HOPE MAKES THE CHRISTIAN CONTENT WITH AND FAITHFUL IN THE MEANEST PLACE AND LOWEST EMPLOYMENT THAT GOD ORDERS FOR HIM. Secondly, as hope raiseth the Christian's spirit to attempt great exploits, so it makes him faithful in the meanest and lowest services that the providence of God calls him to : for the same Providence lays out every one his work and calling, which sets bounds for their habitations on the earth. Some he sets on the high places of the earth, and appoints them honourable employment : others he pitcheth on lower ground, and orders them, in some obscure corner, to employ themselves about work of an inferior nature all their life ; and we need not be ashamed to do that work which the great God sets us about. The Italians truly say. No man fouls his hands by exercising his own calling. Now, to encourage every Christian to be faithful in his particular place, he hath made promises that are applicable to them all. Promises are like the beams of the sun ; they shine as freely in at the window of the poor man's cottage as of the prince's palace ; and these hope trades with, and these animate the Christian at his work. Indeed, we are no more faithful in our callings than as we are influenced by faith and hope therein. Now, observe, God lays his promise so that it may strengthen our hands and hearts against the chief discouragement that weakens them in their callings. The great discouragement of those high employments (magistracy and ministry) is the difficulty of the pi'ovince, and the opposition they find from the angiy world : these, therefore, are guarded and sujjported with such promises as may fortify their hearts against the force and fury with which the world comes forth to oppose them : ' I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee ; be strong and of good courage,' Joshua i. 5, 6. This promise was given to Israel's chief magistrate ; and the minister's promise suits well with tliis, as having ordinarily the same difticidties, enemies, and discouragements, — ' Go, teach all nations ; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,' Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. Again, the temptation that usually haunts per- sons in low and ignoble callings, is the meanness of them, which occasions discontent and envy in some, to see themselves on the floor, and their brother preferred to more honourable services : in others, dejection of spirit, as if they were, like the eunuch, but dry trees, unprofitable, and brought no glory to God, while others, by their more eminent places and callings, have the advantage of being highly serviceable to God in their generations. Now, to arm the Chris- tian against this temptation, and remove this discouragement, God hath annexed as great a reward in the promise to his faithfulness in the meanest employment as the most honourable is capable of. What is there more mean and despicable than the servants' employment? yet no less than heaven itself is promised to them, if faithful. Col. iii. 23, he is speaking to such : ' Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance : for ye serve the Lord Christ.' Where observe. First, What honour he puts on the poor servant's work ! — ' he serves the Lord Chi-ist;' yea, in the lowest piece of work that belongs to his office : his drudgery is divine service, as well as his praying and hearing ; for he saith, 'Whatever ye do.' Again, observe the reward that is laid up for such; and that is as great as he shall receive who hath been faithful in ruling kingdoms,— ' The reward of the inheritance.' As if God had said, Be not, O my child, out of love with thy homely work ; ere long thou shalt sit as high as he that sways sceptres ; though your employment now be not the same with his, yet your acceptation is the same, and so shall vour reward also. Thus we see, as AND TAKE THE HELJIET OF SALVATION. 5g3 we bestow more abundant honour on those members of our body, which we think less honourable ; so doth Christ with those members of his body, which, by reason of their low place in the world, may be thought to be most despised ; he puts an abundant honour upon them in his promise ; and where hope is raised, the Christian cannot but take sweet satisfaction from the expectation thereof. The poor ploughman that is a saint, and ploughs in hope of reaping sal- vation, is as well contented with his place and work, as the courtier is with his. Think of this, when any of you have a servant to choose ; if you would have your work faithfully and heartily done, employ such about it (if they can be had) as have a hope of salvation : this will not suffer them to wrong you, though they could : their helmet will defend them from such temp- tations. Jacob was a true drudge for his master, Laban, by day and night, though he used him none of the best, in reducing and changing his wages so often ; but Jacob served in hope, and expected his reward from a better master than Laban, and this made him faithfid to an unfaithful man. Joseph would not wrong his master, though at the request of his mistress ; he chose to suffer his unjust anger, rather than accept of her unchaste love. The evidence of this grace in a servant is better security for his faithfulness than a bond of a thousand poimds. CHAPTER V. SHEWETH THE MIGHTY INFLUENCE HOPE HATH UPON THE CHRISTIAN TO SUPPORT HIM IN HIS afflictions; in PARTICULAR WHAT HELP IT GIVES, AND HOW. Thirdly, This hope of salvation supports the soul in the greatest afflictions. The Christian's patience is, as it were, his back, on which he bears his burdens ; and some afflictions are so heavy, that he needs a broad one to carry them well. But if hope lay not the pillow of the promise between his back and his burden, the least cross will prove insupportable ; therefore it is called, ' The patience of hope,' 1 Thess. i. 3. There is a patience, I confess, and many know not a better, when men force themselves into a kind of quietness in their troubles, because they cannot help it, and there is no hope. This I may call a desperate patience, and it may do them some service for a while, and but for a while. If despair were a good cure for troubles, the damned would have more ease : for they have despair enough, if that would help them. There is another patience also very common in the world, and that is a dull, stupid patience, which, like Nabal's mirth, lasts no longer than they are drunk with ignorance ; for they no sooner come to understand the true state they are in, but their hearts die within them. But the patience of hope, which we are now treating of, is a sober grace, and abides as long as hope lasts. When hope is lively and active, then it floats, yea, even danceth on the waters of affliction, as a sound ship doth in a tem- pestuous sea ; but when hope springs a leak, then the billows break into the Christian's bosom, and ho sinks articular worldly calling, it were sinful for every poor man to propound such a vast estate to himself in his own desires, as he sees some few, the wealthiest merchants, have got by their trade, so as no less shall content him. But in the spiritual trade of a Christian it is very warrantable for every one to covet to be as rich in grace as the best. Paul will not think himself wronged if thou desirest to be as holy a man as he was, and labour after as strong a faith and stedfast a hope as he had ; yea, thou oughtest not to content thyself with what thou hast, if there were but one degree of grace more to be had than what at present thou hast obtained. And, Thirdly, Observe what he imputes the weakness of the saints' grace to ; not to an impossibility of attaining more, but their sloth and laziness ; and therefore he opposeth this to that blessed frame of heart he so much wisheth them, ver. 12, ' that ye be not slothful.' Indeed, it is the diligent hand makes rich; as in this world's goods, so in this heavenly treasure also. it Section II. — Labour to strengthen thy hope of salvation, or thou wilt shew that thou little esteemest Christ and his salvation. As we pi-ize any good, so we labour more or less to assure ourselves of it. If a prince should lose a pin from his sleeve, or a penny out of his purse, and one shall bring him news they are found, the things are so inconsiderable that he would not care whether it were true or not ; but if his kingdom lay at stake in the field, and intelligence comes that his army hath got the day, and beaten the enemy, O how he would long to have his hope, that is now raised a little, confirmed more strongly by another j)Ost ! Is heaven worth so little, that you can be satisfied with a few proba- bilities and uncertainties? Thou basely despisest that blessed place, if thou be no more solicitous to know the truth of thy title to it. When Micaiah seemed to give Ahab some hope of a victory, by bidding him go up and prosper, the thing being passionately desired by the king, he fears the worst, and therefore cannot rest till he knows more of this matter. ' And the king said unto him, How often shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord?' 1 Kings xxii. 16. May be thou hast some loose, wavering hopes of heaven floating in thy soul ; if now thou didst think thy eternal woe or weal lay in the truth or falsehood of that hope, certainly thou wouldst search thy heart by the v.'ord, and adjure thy conscience after an im- partial review, to tell thee the naked truth what thy state is, and whether thou mayest in God's name, and with the leave of his word, hope it shall be thy portion or not ; and this thou wouldst do, not hypocritically, as that wretched king did, (who adjured Micaiah to tell him the truth, and then would not believe him, though he did it faithfully,) but with great plainness of heart, it being about a business of no less importance than what shall become of thee to eternity, Peter, when surprised with the tidings of Christ's resurrection, though the report did not find such credit with him as it might; yet, by his speedy running to, and looking into the sepulchre, he shewed both how dearly he loved his Lord, as also how joyful a man he should be if the news were true that he was alive. Tims, Christian, though the promise of eternal life hath not hitlierto ])roduced such an assurance ol" hope, that thou art the person that shall undoubtedly enjoy it, yet shew what thoughts thou hast of that blissful slate, by endeavour- ing to strengthen thy ho])e, and put thyself out of doubt thereof. Skction hi.— Consider this also, in the last place. That thou knowest not what stress thy hope may be i)ut to before thou diest. The wise mariner doth victual l>is ship for the longest day ; he reckons on cross winds which may retard his voyage and make it more troublesome, knowing well it is easier carrying provision to sea, than getting it there. Non facllt inven'iunliir in adver- silati' ji)re.ii(//a, qiue nonfiicrhit in pare (/ua'si/a, — a good speech of Austin. Ood himself tells us, ' we have need of patience,' (he mear.s great siorc of patience)", KAQ AND TAKE TnK HELMET OF SALVATION. ' that after we have done the will of God, we may receive the promise,' Heb. X. 36. And if of patience then of hope, because patience bears all on hope's back. Now, because we know not the certain degree of hope that will serve our turn, (God having purposely concealed the weight of affliction and tempta- tion he intends to lay on us,) therefore we should never cease our endeavour to strengthen it. There are hard duties to be performed, and strong trials to be endured, and these require a hope proportionable. We are ' to hold fast the rejoicing of our hope vmto the end,' Heb. iii. 6. Now, will the Christian of Aveak hope do this ? He, alas ! is like a leaky ship with a rich lading, — the fear of sinking before she gets the port takes away the owner's joy. Bid such an one rejoice in his inheritance that is laid up in heaven for him, and he will tell you he questions whether ever he shall come there. Patient waiting for mercy deferred is another hard duty : ' It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.' Now weak hope is short breathed, and cannot stay long with any quietness. Weak persons are commonly hardest to please ; soon peevish and froward, if they have not what they would when they desire it. When David's faith and hope were under a distemper, then he falls out with all. The prophet himself, that brought him the news of a kingdom, cannot escape his censure, and all because the promise stayed longer before it was delivered than he expected. ' I said in my haste, AH men are liars,' Psa. cxvi. 1 1 ; whereas the promise went not a day beyond its due time, but he missed of its true reckoning through his inordinate desire : but take him when his faith and hope are strong, and he is not so hasty, but thinks his estate in God's hand as safe as if it were paid into his own ; Psa. Ixv. 1, ' Praise waiteth for thee, O Lord ;' or, as the Hebrew maybe rendered, ' Praise is silent for thee.' As if the holy man had said, Lord, I quietly wait for a time to praise thee : my soul is not in an uproar because thou stayest ; I am not murmuring, but rather stringing my harp, and tuning my instrument with much patience and confidence, that I may be ready to strike up when the joyful news of my deliverance come. You have much ado to make the child quiet till dinner, though he sees preparations for a great feast ; but one that is grown up will be soon pacified when he is kept a little longer than ordinary from his meal upon such an occasion. O Christian ! it is our childishness and weakness of grace, especially of our hope, that makes us so soon out of patience to wait God's leisure : strengthen hope, and patience will grow v/ith it. In a word, Christian, thou hast great trials and strong temptations to conquer before you enter the gates of heaven. Now defend thy hope, and that will defend thee in these ; sti'engthen that, and that will carry thee through them. The head, every member is ofiScious to preserve ; the hands are lift up to keep off the blow, the feet run to carry it from danger, the mouth will receive any unsavoury pill to draw fumes and humours from it. Salvation is to the soul what the head is to the body, the principal thing it should labour to secure ; and hope is to our salvation what the helmet is to the head. Now, if he be unwise that ventures his head under a weak helmet in the midst of bullets in time of battle, then much more unwise is he that hazards his salvation with a weak hope. Know, Christian, the issue of the battle depends on thy hope ; if that fail, all is lost. Thy hope is in conflicts with temptations and suft'erings, as a prince is amidst his army, who puts life into them all, while he looks on and encourageth them to the battle ; but if a report of the king's being slain comes to their ears, their coui-age fails, and hearts faint; therefore Ahab would be held up in his chariot to conceal his danger from his people, the knowledge of v/hich would have cast a damp on their courage. Thy hope is the mark Satan's arrows are levelled at ; if possible keep that from wounds ; or if at any time his dart reach it, and thy spirit be- gins to bleed of the wound which he hath given thee, by questioning whether svich great sins can be pardoned as thou hast committed, such old festered sores , as thy lusts have been can be ever cured, or afflictions so heavy, and which have continued so long, can possibly be either endured or removed, now labour to hold up thy hope though wounded in the chariot of the promise, and bow not by despairing, to let the devil trample on thy soul. So soon as thy hope gives up the ghost, will this ciu'sed fiend stamp thee under his feet, and take his full revenge of thee, and that without any power of thy soul to strike a stroke for thy defence. This will so dispirit thee, that thou. wilt be ready to throw up AND TAKE THE HKl.MET UF SALVATION. 54.7 all endeavour and attendance on the means of salvation; yea, desperately say, To what purpose is it to think of praying, hearing, and meditating when there is no hope? What! should we send for the ])hysician when our friend is dead? What good will the chafing and rubbing the body do, when the head is severed from it? The army broke up, and ev:ry one was sent to his city, as soon as it was known that Ahab was dead. And so wilt thou cast off all thought of making any head against sin and Satan, when thy hope is gone, but fall either into Judas' horror of conscience, or with Cain, turn atheist, and bury the thoughts of thy desperate condition in a heap of worldly projects. CHAPTER XII. WHEREIN IS CONTAINED SIX DIRECTIONS, MOW THE CHRISTIAN MAY GET HOPE STRENGTHENED. Section I. — If thou meanest thy hope of salvation should rise to any strength and solidity, sludy the word of God diligently. The Christian is bred by the word, and he must be fed by it, or his grace will die. .That is the growing child that lies oftenest at the breast. Now, as God hath provided food in his word to nourish every grace, so he had a particular respect to the welfare and growth of the saint's hope, as one principal end of their writing ; Rom. xv. 4 : 'That we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope.' The devil knows this so well, that his great labour is spent to deprive the Christian of the help which the word is stored with; and, indeed, therein he is not mistaken ; for so long as this river is unblocked up, which makes glad the city of God, and the Christian receives the succours which are brought on the stream of its precious promises, the devil can never besiege him round, nor put him to any great straits. Some, therefore, he deprives of their relief, by mere sloth and laziness ; they make a few fruitless complaints of their doubts and fears, like sluggards complaining of their wants and poverty as they lie in bed, but are loth to rise, and take any pains to be relieved from them, by search- ing in the word for their satisfaction; and these sell their comfort the cheapest. Who will pity him though he should starve to death, who hath bread before him, but is loth to put his hand out of his bosom to carry it to his mouth ? Others he abuseth by false applications of the word to their souls, partly through their weak understandings and troubled spirits, which discolour the truths of God, and misrepresent them to their judgments, whereby they come to be beaten with their own staff, even those promises which a skilful hand would knock down Satan's temptations with. The devil is a great student in divinity, and makes no other use of his Scripture knowledge than may serve his turn by sophistiy to do the Christian a mischief, either by drawing him into sin, or into despair for sinning : like some wrangling barrister, who gets what skill he can in the law, merely to make him the more able to put honest men to trouble by his vexatious suit. Well, if Satan be so conversant in the word, as to weaken thy hope, what reason hast thou then to furnish thyself with a holy skill to main- tain and defend it ! Now, in thy study of the word, propound these two ends, and closely pursue them. First, Labour to clear up to thy understanding from the word, what must be experienced by every soul that liath the grant and warrant from God to hope assuredly for life and salvation. Something is necessary to be found in all such, or else it were free for all, (be they what they will, and live how they list,) actually to lay claim to a right in heaven and salvation. If God had set no bounds to Sinai, and said nothing who should come up the mount, and who not, it had been no more presumption in any of the company to have gone up than in Moses ; and if God requires nothing in the person who is to hope, then beaven is a conmion for one as well as another to crowd into ; then the beastly sinner may touch God's holy mount as well as the saint, and fear no stoning for his bold adventure. But this surely is too fulsome a doctrine for any judi- cious conscience to digest. Well, having satisfied thyself, that if ever thou hast true hope, thou must also have the requisites, inquire what they are. Now the word holds forth two sorts, according to the two different covenants. First, There is a covenant of nature, or law covenant, which God made with innocent KAQ AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. Adam ; and the condition of this was, perfect obedience of the person that claimed happiness by it : this is not the condition now required ; and he that stands groping at this door, in hope to enter into life by it, shall not only find it nailed up, and no entrance to be had, but also deprives himself of any benefit of that true door, which stands open, and by which all pass that get thither ; Gal. V. 4: 'Whosoever of you is justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace.' You must thei-efore inquire what the other covenant is. It is a covenant of grace, as the other was of nature ; — of reconciliation between God and man, as the other was a covenant to preserve those friends who had never fallen out. Now the re- quisites of this covenant are repentance and faith: see Luke xxiv. 47; John iii. 36 ; Acts ii. 38, v. 31, xx. 21 ; Gal. v. 5. Labour, therefore, to give a firm assent to the truth of these promises, and hold it as an inviolable principle, that who- ever sincerely repents of his sins, and with a faith unfeigned receiveth Christ to be his Lord and Saviour, this is tlie person that hath the word and oath of a God, that cannot possibly lie, for the pardon of his sins, and salvation of his soul. What service a strong assent to this will do thee toward exerting thy hope, thou wilt by and by see : it is the very basis thereof; the weight of the Christian's whole building bears'so much on this, that the Spirit of God, when he speaks in Scripture of evangelical truths and promises, on which poor sinners must build their hopes for salvation, he doth it with the greatest averment of any other truths, and usually adds some circumstance or other that may put lis out of all doubt concerning the certainty of them. Isa. liii. 4 : ' Surely he hath borne our griefs;' there is no question to be made of it; it was our potion that he drank, our debt he paid. What end could he have besides, in such great suf- ferings ? Was it to give us a pattern of patience how we should suffer ? This is true, for some of our fellow-saints have been admirable instances of this; but surely there was more than this, — He bare our sorrows, and was wounded for our transgressions. This, this was the great business, worthy of the Son of God's undertaking, which none of our fellow-saints could do for us. So, 1 Tim. i. 15, ' This is a faithful saying, and worthy all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners:' as if he had said, Fear no cheat or impos- ture here, it is as true as truth itself; for such is he that said it : if you believe not this, you are worse than a devil : he cannot shut this truth out of his con- science, though the most unwelcome that ever came to his knowledge. ' If we confess our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins;' 1 John i. 9. What can the poor penitent fear, when that atti-ibute is become his friend, that first made God angry with him ; yea, so fast a friend as to stand bound for the performance of the promise, which was so deeply engaged to execute the threatening on him ? Heb. vi. 17: ' Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.' What security could we have asked more of a deceitful man, than the faithful God of his own accord gives? The Romans, did not give their magistrates oaths, supposing the dignity and honoiu- of their persons and place were bond strong enough to make them true and righteous. Surely then God's word would have deserved credit, though it had not an oath to be its surety ; yet God condescends to this, that he may sink the truth of what he saith deeper into our minds, and leave the print fairer and fuller in our assents to the same, when set dn with the weight of asseverations and oaths. Secondly, Having foxmd what are the requisites of the covenant, rest not satisfied, till thou findest these are wrought in thy own soul, and art able to say thou art this repenting and believing sinner. A strong hope results from the clear evidence it hath for both these. We read in Scripture of a threefold assurance. First, An assurance of understanding ; Col. ii. 2. Secondly, An assurance of faith ; Heb. x. 22. Thirdly, An assurance of hope ; Heb. vi. 11. And it is a good note which an acute Doctor hath upon them, (D.A. Tag. Sa. p. 126,) — That these three make up one practical syllogism, wherein ' knowledge ' forms the proposition, ' faith ' makes the assumption, and ' hope ' draws the conclusion. I do, saith the Christian, assuredly know from the word, that the repenting, believing sinner shall be saved ; my conscience also tells me, that I do unfeignedly repent and believe, therefore I do hope firmly that I shall, however unworthy, be saved. Now we know there can be no more in the conclusion, than there is in the pre- mises : so that as the force is, which the Christian puts forth in his assent to AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION'. 54.9 tlie triitli of the promise, and the evidence is, which he liath, tliat the condition of the promise, namely, faith and repentance, is \vron<;;lit in his sonl, so will his hope be weak or strong. If liis assent to the trnlh of tlie })romise be weak, or his evidence for tlie truth of his faith and repentance be dark and uncer- tain, his hope, which is born, as I may say, of these, must needs partake of its parent's infirmities, and be itself weak and wavering. Section II. — Wouldst thou have thy hope strong ! Then keep thy conscience pure. Thou canst not deiile one, without weakening the other. Living godly in this present world, and looking for the blessed hope laid up for us in the other, are both conjoined, Titus ii. 13. A soul wholly void of godliness, must needs be as destitute of all true hope ; and the godly person that is loose and careless in his holy walking, will soon find his hope languishing. All sin dis- poseth the soul that tampers with it, to trembling fears, and shakings of heart : but such as are deliberately committed and plotted, they are to the Christian's hope, as poison to the spirits of his body, which presently drinks them up. They, in a manner, exanimate the Christian : they make the thoughts of God terrible to the soul, which, when he is in a holy frame, are his greater joy. ' I remembered God, and was troubled,' Psa. Ixxvii. 3. They make him afraid to look on God in a duty, much more to look for God in the day of judgment. Can the servant be willing his master should come home, when he is in his riot and excess ? Calvin, when some wished him to forbear some of his labours, especially his night studies, asked those friends, whether they would have his Lord find him idle when he came? O, God forbid. Christian, that death should find thee wanton and negligent in thy walking, that he should surprise thee lying in the puddle of some sin ! O, how loth wouldst thou then be to die, and go to the great audit, where thou must give up thy accounts for eternity ! Will thy hope then be in a proper state to carry thee up with joy to that solemn work ? Can a bird fly, when one of its wings is broken ? Faith and a good conscience are hope's two wings ; if, therefore, thou hast wounded thy conscience by any sin, renew thy repentance, that so thou mayest exercise faith for the pardon of it, and redeem thy hope, when the mortgage that is now upon it shall be taken off. If a Jew had pawned his bed-clothes, God provided mercifully, that it should be restored before night ; ' For,' saith he, ' that is his covering ; wherein shall he sleep V Exod. xxii. 27. Truly, hope is the saint's covering, wherein he wraps himself, when he lays his body down to sleep in the grave : ' My flesh,' saith David, ' shall rest in hope,' Psa. xvi. 9. O Chi-istian, bestir thyself to redeem thy hope before this sun of thy temporal life goes down upon thee, or else thou art sure to lie down in sorrow. A sad going to the bed of the grave he hath, who hath no hope of a resurrection to life. Section III. — Resort to God daily, and beg a stronger hope of him : that is the way the apostle took to help the saints to more of this precious grace, Rom. XV. 13 : ' Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.' God, you see, is the God of hope ; and not only of the first seed and habit, but of the abounding of it in us also. He doth not give a saint the first grace of conversa- tion, and then leave the improvement of it wholly to his skill and care ; as sometimes a child hath a stock at first to set up, and never hath more help from his father, but by his own good husbandry advanceth his little beginnings into a great estate at last : but rather as the corn in the field, which needs the influences of heaven to ripen it for har^'est, as much as to (piicken it in the clods when first thrown in ; and therefore be sure thou humbly acknowledge God by constantly waiting on him for growth. The young lions are said to seek their meat from God, Psa. civ. 21 ; that is, God hath taught them, when hungry, to express their wants by crying and lifting up their voice, which, did they know (iod to be their maker, they would direct to him for su})ply • as we see the little babe that at first only expresseth its wants by crying, as soon as it knows the mother, directs its moan to her : thou knowest, Christian, that thou art at thy heavenly Father's finding. He knows, indeed, what thou wantest, but he stays his supplies till thou criest, and this will make him draw forth his breast presently. Doth God take care for beasts in the field .' Surely then much more will he for thee his child, and for thy soul above all. Thou 550 AND TAKK THE HELMET OF SALVATION. niayest possibly pray for more riches, and be denied ; but a prayer for more grace is sure to speed. Section IV.— If you would strengthen yoin- hope, labour to increase your love. There is a secret, yet powei'ful influence which love hath on hope. Moses greatly befriended the Israelite, when he slew the Egyptian that fought with him. Love kills slavish fear, one of the worst of enemies hope hath in the Christian's heart, and thereby strengthens hope's hand. He that plucks up the weeds, helps the corn to grow ; and he that pm-ges out the disease, makes way for nature's strengthening. It is slavish fear which oppresseth the Chris- tian's spirit so that he cannot exercise his hope strongly. Now ' love casteth out fear,' 1 John iv. 18. The free woman will cast out the bond woman. Slavish fear is one of Hagar's breed, an affection which keeps all in bondage that have it ; this love cannot brook. Shall I, saith the loving soul, fear that he will hurt me, or be hard to me, who loves me, and I him, so dearly? Away, miworthy thoughts ! here is no room in my bosom for such company as you are. Love ' thinketh no evil,' 1 Cor. xiii. 5 : that is, it neither wisheth evil to, nor suspects evil of another. The more thou lovest Christ, the less thou wilt be jealous of him ; and the less jealous thou art of him, the more strongly wilt thou hope in him, and comfortably wait for him. Hence these two graces are so often m.eted in Scripture, 2 Thess. iii. 5 : ' The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.' Love him, and you will wait for him. So Jude 21 : ' Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking- for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.' Section V.- — Be much in the exercise of your hope. Repeated acts strengthen habits. Thus the little waddling child comes to go strongly by going often. You have no more money in your chest at the year's end than when j^ou left it there ; nay, it is well if rust or thieves have not made it less : but you have more by trading with it than your first stock amounted unto. ' Thou oughtest to have put my money to the excliangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usuiy,' saith Christ to the sloth- ful servant ; Matt. xxv. 27. Now the promises are hope's object to act upon. A man can as well live without air, as faith and hope without a promise, yea, without frequent sucking in the refreshment of the promises ; and therefore be much in meditation of them ; set some, time apart for the purpose. You that love your healths, do not content yourselves with the air that comes to you as you sit at work in your house, but you will walk out into the fields sometimes, to take the air more fresh : and if thou be a wise Christian, thou wilt not satisfy thyself with the short converse thou hast with the promises, as now and then they come into thy mind in thy calling, but will walk aside on purpose to enjoy a more fixed meditation of them. This were of admirable use, especially if the Christian hath skill to sort the promises, and lay aside the provision made in them suitable to his case in particular. Sometimes the Christian is at a stand when he remembers his past sins, and his hope is quite dashed out of counte- nance while they stare on his conscience. Now it were excellent for the Chris- tian to pick out a promise, where he may see this objection answered, and hope triumphing over it. This was David's case, Psa. cxxx. : he grants himself to be in a most deplorable condition, if God should reckon with him strictly. ' If thou. Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ?' ver. 3. But, ver. 4, he puts his soul out of all fear of God's taking this course with poor penitent souls, by laying down this 'comfortable conclusion, as an indubitable truth : ' But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared ;' that is, there is forgiveness in thy nature, — thou earnest a pardoning heart in thy bosom : yea, there is forgiveness in thy promise ; thy merciful heart doth not only incline thee to thoughts of forgiving, but thy faithful promise binds thee to draw forth the same unto all that humbly lay claim thereunto. Now, this foundation laid, see what superstructure this holy man raiseth : ver. 5, ' I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope ;' as if he had said, Lord, I take thee at thy word, and am resolved, by thy grace, to wait at this door of thy promise, never to stir thence till I have the forgiveness of my sins sent out unto me. And this is so sweet a morsel that he is loth to eat it alone, and therefore he sets down the dish, even to the lower end of the table, that AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 551 every godly person may taste witli him : ver. 7, 8, ' Let Israel hope in the Lord ; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption : and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities ;' as if he had said, That which is a ground of hope to nie, notwithstanding the clamour of my sins, aifords as solid and firm a bottom to any sincere soul in the world, did he but rightly understand himself, and the mind of God in his promise ; yea, 1 have as strong a faith for such as for my own soul, and durst pledge the eternity of its happi- ness upon this principle, that God shall redeem every sincere Israelite from all his iniquities. This, this is the way to knock down our sins indeed, and Satan, when he comes to reproach us with them, and by their batteries to dismount our hope. Sometimes a qualm comes over the Christian's heart merely from the greatness of the things hoped for. What! saith the poor soul, seems it a small thing for me to hope that of an enemy I should become a son and heir to the great God ? What, a rebel ! and not only hope to be pardoned, but prove afavoiu-ite, yea, such an one as to have robes of glory in heaven, where I shall stand among those that minister about the throne of God in his heavenly court? O, it is too good news to prove true ! Thus the poor soul stands amazed, as the disciples when the first tidings of the Lord's resurrection surprised them, and is ready to think its hope but an idle tale with which Satan deceived him, that he may presume to hope, and perish with his presimiption. Now, Christian, that thou mayest be able to step over this stumbling-block, be sure to observe those prints of God's greatness and infinitude that are stamped upon the promise : sometimes you have them expressed, on purpose to case our hearts of this scruple. When God promised what great things he would do for Abraham, to make them more credible, he adds, ' I am the Almighty God,' Gen. xvii. 1 ; so Isaiah Iv. 7 : ' Let the wicked forsake his way, and the mi- righteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and unto our God, for he will abundantly pardon.' But how can this possibly be done, that in the turn of a hand, as it were, such a great favour can be obtained, which among men could hardly be done in a lifetime ? O, that is easily answered. lie tells you he is not a sorry man, but a God, and hath a way by himself in pardoning wrongs, which none can follow him in ; for it is as far above our ways as the heavens are above the earth. This, Christian, observe, and it will be a key to unlock all promises, and let you in to the untold treasures which are in them, yea, make the greatest promise in the Bible easy to be believed. Whenever you read any promise, remember whose bond it is, — the word of no other than God ; and when you think on God, be sure you do not confine him within the little compass of your finite apprehensions, but con- ceive of him always as an infinite being, whose centre is everywhere and cir- cumference nowhere. When you have raised your thoughts to the highest, then know you are as far, yea, infinitely farther from reaching his glory and immensity than a man is from touching the body of the sun with his hand, when got upon a mountain. This is to ascribe greatness to God, as we are commanded, Deut. xxxii. 3; and it will admirably facilitate the work of believ- ing. Suppose a poor cripple should be sent for by a prince to court, with a promise to adopt him for his son, and make him heir to his crown ; this might well seem incredible to the poor man, when he considers what a leap it is from his beggar's cottage to the state of a prince. No doubt, if the promise had been to prefer him to a place in a hospital, or some ordinary pension for his main- tenance, it would be easier credited, as more proportionable to his low condi- tion; yet the greatness of the prince, and the delight that such take to be like God himself, by showing a kind of creating power to raise some, as it were, from nothing unto the highest honom- a subject is capable of, thereby to oblige them, as their creatures, to their service ; this might lielj) such a one to tliink this strange accident not altogether impossible. Thus, should a poor soul spend all his thoughts on his own unmectness and unworthiness to have heaven and eternal life conferred on him, it were not possible he should ever think so well of himself as tliat he should be one of those glorious creatures that were to enjoy it ; but when the greatness of God is believed and the infinite pleasure he takes to demonstrate that greatness by making miserable creatures happy, rather than by perpetuating their miseries in an eternal state of damnation, and vhat cost he hath been at to clear a way for his mercy freely to act in ; and, in a word, 552 AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. what a glorious name this will gain him in the thoughts of those he thus exalts ;■ these things, (which are all to he found in the word of promise,) well weighed and acknowledged, cannot but open the heart, though shut with a thousand bolts, to entertain the promise, and believe all is truth that God saith. You see how the promises may be suited to answer the particular objections raised against our hope ; it were easy to multiply instances, and to shew any other case with promises for the purpose ; but this will be most effectually done by you, who know your own scruples better than any other ; and be such true friends to your own souls as to take a little pains therein. The labour in gathering a few herbs in the field, and making them up into a medicine by the direction of the physician, is very well repaid, if the poor man finds it restores him to health. Section VI. — Preserve thy experiences of past mercies, and thy hope will grow sti-onger for the future. ' Experience worketh hope,' Rom. v. 4. He is the best Christian who keeps the history of God's gracious dealings with him most carefully, so that he may read it in his past experiences, when at any time his thoughts trouble him, and his spiritual rest is broken with distracting fears for the future. This is he who will pass the night of afiliction and temptation with comfort and hope, while others that have taken no care to retain in their memories the remarkable instances of God's love and favour to them in the course of their lives, will find the want of this sweet companion in their sorrowful hours, and be put to sad distress ; yea, it will be well if they be not driven to think their case desperate and past all hope. Sometimes a little writing is found in a man's study that helps to save his estate, for want of which he had gone to prison ; and some one experience remembered keeps the soul from despair, a prison which the devil longs to have the Christian in : ' This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope,' Lam. iii. 21. David was famous for his hope, and not less eminent for his care to observe and preserve the experiences he had of God's goodness. He was able to recount the dealings of God to him; they were so often the subject of his meditation and matter of his discourse, that he had made them familiar to him. When his hope is at a loss he doth but exercise his memory a little, and he recovers himself presently, and chides himself for his weakness. ' I said. This is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High,' Psa. Ixxvii. 10. The hound, when he hath lost the scent, hunts backward, and so recovers it and pursues his game with louder cry than ever. Thus, Christian, when thy hope is at a loss, and thou questionestthy salvation in another world, then look backward and see what God hath already done for thee. Some promises have their day of payment here, and others we must stay to receive in heaven. Now the payment which God makes of some promises here, is an earnest given to our faith that the other also shall be faithfully discharged when their date expires; as every judgment inflicted here on the wicked is sent as a pledge of that wrath the full sum whereof God will make up in hell. Go, therefore. Christian, and look over thy receipts. God hath promised, ' Sin shall not have dominion over you,' Rom. vi. 14. It is the present state of a saint in this life which is intended there. Canst thou find this promise made good to thee? Is the power of sin broke, and the sceptre wrung out of this king's hand, whom once thou as willingly obeyed as ever a subject obeyed his prince ? Yea, canst thou find that he hath but begun to fall by thy dethroning him in thy heart and affections ? Dost thou now look on sin, not as thou wert wont, as thy prince, but as an usurper, whose tyranny, by the grace of God thou art resolved to shake off, both as intolerable to thee and dishonourable to God, whom now thou acknowledgest to be thy rightful Lord, and to whose holy laws thy heart most freely promiseth obedience ? This, poor soul, may assure thee that thou shalt have a full dominion over sin in heaven, which hath begun already to lose his power over thee on earth. It is observable how Davidrears up his hope to expectheaven's perfect state of holiness, from his sanc- tification begun on earth. First, He declares his holy resolution for God, and then his high expectation from God: Psa. xvii. 15, 'As forme, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.' Hast thou found God's supporting hand in all thy temptations and troubles, whereby thou art kept from sinking under them ? David would feed his hope for eternal salvation with this ; Psa. Ixxiii. 23 : ' Thou hast holdcn me up by my AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 553 right hand ;' now observe hope's inference, vcr. 2A, — 'Thou shaltguicle nie with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.' And as exjieriences carefully kept, and wisely improved, would conduce nnich to the strengthening the Christian's hope of salvation; so also would they lift up his head above all those distr^icting fears which arise in the Christian's heart, and put him to much trouble, from those cross and afflicting providences that befall him in this life. Certainly David would have been more scared with the big looks and vain de- portment of that proud Goliath, had not the remembrance of the bear and the lion, which he slew, brought relief to him, and kept his fears down. But he had slain this uncircumcised Philistine in a iigm-e, when he tore in pieces those un- clean beasts ; and, therefore, when he marches to him, this is the shield which he lifts up to cover himself with, ' The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine,' 1 Sam. xvii. 37. If experiences were no ground for hope in future straits, then they would not have the force of an argument in prayer ; but saints use their experiences, and make account they urge God very close and home, when they humbly tell him what he hath already done for them, and expect he should therefore go on in his fatherly care over them, — ' Save me fi'om the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns,' Psa. xxii. 21. And, no doubt, a gracious soul may pray in faith from his past experience, and expect a satisfactory answer to that prayer, wherein former mer- cies are his plea for what he wants at present. God himself intends his people more comfort from every mercy he gives them, than the mercy itself, abstract- edly considered, amounts to. Suppose, Christian, thou hast been sick, and God hath at thy humble prayer plucked thee out of the jaws of death ; the comfort of this particidar mercy is the least God means thee therein ; for he would have thee make it a help to thy faith, and a shore to thy hope, when shaken by any future strait whatever, — ' Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness,' Psa. Ixxiv. H. God, in that mercy at the Red Sea, is thinking what Israel should have to live on for forty years together ; and intends that they should not only feast them- selves at present with the joy of this stupendous mercy, but ponder it up in their memories, that their faith might not want a meal in the wilderness all the while they were to be in it. Experiences are like a cold dish reserved at a feast ; some- times the saint sits down with nothing else on his table but the promise and his experience ; and he that cannot make a soul-refreshing meal with these, deserves to fast. Be sure. Christian, thou observest this in every mercy, — what is a mat- ter of present thankfulness, and what is a ground of future hope. Achor is called ' a door of hope ;' Hosea ii. 15. God, when he gives one mercy, opens a door, for him to give, and us to expect more mercy through it. God compares his promise to the rain which maketh the earth ' bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread-to the eater ;' Isa. Iv. 10. Why shoiddst thou content thyself with half the benefit of mercy ? When God performs his promise, and delivers thee out of this trouble, and that strait, thou art exceed- ingly comforted, and thy heart possibly enlarged into thankfulness for the same. It is well ; here is ' bread for the cater,' something that at pi-esent feasts thee. But where is ' the seed for the sower ?' The husbandman doth not sell all his corn that he reaps, but saves some for seed, which may bring him another crop : so. Christian, thou shouldst not only feast thyself with the joy of thy mercy, but save the remembrance of it as hope-seed, to strengthen thee to wait on God for another mercy, and farther help in a needful time. CHAPTER XIII. AN OBJECTION ANSWERED ; WITH TWO OR TUREE REFLECTIONS USEFUL FOR OUR IMPROVING EXPERIENCE. But you will possibly say, How can a saint's past experience be so helpful to his hope for the future, when God, we see, often crosseth the saint's expe- riences? He delivers them out of one sickness, and takes them away, may be, with the next; he saves them in one battle without a scratch, and in another, awhile after, they are killed or wounded; how then can a saint ground his hope from a jiast deliverance, to expect deliverance in the like strait again? 554 AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. First, There is the same power still in God, that was then ; what he did once for thee, he can with as much ease do again ; and this is one way thy experi- ences may help thee. Thou hast seen God make bai-e his arm, so that except thou thinkest that he since hath lost the strength or use of it, and is become at last a God with a lame hand, hope hath an object to act upon, and such an one as will lift thy head above water. Indeed, the soul never drowns in despair, till it hath lost its hold on the power of God ; when it questions whether God will deliver, this is a sad leak, and will let in a thousand fears into the soul ; yet so long as the Chi'istian can use this pvnnp, I mean exercise his faith on the power of God, and believe that God can deliver when he pleases, though it will not clear the ship of his soul of all its fears, yet it will keep it from quite sink- ing, because it will preserve him in a seeking posture. 'Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,' Mark i. 40; and for thee to say, God cannot deliver, who hast been an eye-witness to what he hath done, were not only to betray thy great unbelief, but to forfeit thy reason also. But, to give a more close an- swer to the question. The saint, from his former experiences even of temporal salvation, may, yea ought not only believe that God can, but also that he will save him in all future straits and dangers of this nature ; only, he cannot con- clude that he will do it in the same way as in former deliverances. And none, I hope, will say, if he hath deliverance, that his experiences are crossed, because God doth xise another method in the conveyance of it to them. A debt may be fully satisfied, as with money, so with that which is money's worth, except the bond restrains the payment otherwise. Now, there is no clause to be found in any promise for temporal mercies, that binds God to give them in specie, or in kind. Spiritual mercies, such I mean as are saving and essential to the saint's happiness, these, indeed, are promised to be given in kind, because there is nothing equivalent that can be given in lieu of them ; but temporal mercies are of such an inferior nature, that a compensation and recompence may be easily given in their stead : yea, God never denies these to a saint, but for abundant advantage. Who will say the poor saint is a loser, whose purse God denieth to fill with gold, but filleth his heart with contentment ? Or the sick saint, when God saves him, not by restoring to former health, but by translating him to heaven ? I shall wind up this head with two or three reflections to be used by the Christian, for his better improving past experiences when he is in distress. First, Look back to thy ^Jast experiences, and inquire whether thou canst not find that thy God hath done greater matters for thee, than this which thou now hast so many disquieting fears and despairing thoughts about. I will sup- pose thy present strait great; but wert thou never in a greater, and yet God did at last set thy feet free ? Thou art now in a sad and mournful posture, but hath not he brightened a darker cloud than this, and led thee out of it into a state of light and joy? Surely, thy staggering hope may prevent a fall by catching hold of this experience. Art thou not ashamed to give thyself up for lost, and think of nothing but disowning in a less storm than that out of which God hath formerly brought thee safe to land? See Dcivid relieving his hope by recognising such an experiment as this; 'Thou hast delivered my soul from death; wilt not thou keep my feet from falling?' Psa. Ivi. 13. Hast thou given me the greater, and wilt thou not the less? Perhaps thy present fear is apostasy; it runs in thy thoughts, that thou shalt one day fall by the hand of thy sins, and thou canst not be persuaded otherwise. Now it is a lit time to recall the day of God's converting grace. Darest thou deny such a work to have passed upon thee ? If not, why then shouldst thou despair of persevei'ance ? That was the day wherein he saved thy soul; 'This day,' saith Christ to Zaccheus, 'is salvation come to thy house,' Luke xix. 9. And did God save the soul by converting grace, and will he not keep thy feet fi-om falling, by his sustaining grace ? Was it not both more mercy and power to take thee out of the power of sin and Satan, than it will cost him to preserve thee from falling into their hands again ? Surely, the Israelites would not so often have feared provision in the wilderness, had they remembered with what a high hand God did bring them out of Egj'pt. But may be, it is some outward affliction that distresseth thee : is it greater than the church's was, in cruel bondage and captivity ? yet she had something of AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 555 recall, that put a new lile into her hope, — ' The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope,' Lam. iii. 24. See the soul makes a spiritual mercy, because incomparabl)'greater of the two, aground of hope fortemporal salvation, wliich is less. And hast not thou chosen him for thy portion ? Dost thou not look for a heaven, to enjoy him in for ever? And can any dungeon of outward affliction be so dark, that this hope will not enlighten ? Recall thy experience of his love to thy soul, and thou canst not be out of hope for thy body and outward condition. He that hath laid up a portion in heaven for thee, will lay out surely all the expenses thou needest in thy way thither. Secondly, Re- member how often God hath confuted thy fears, and proved thy imbelief a false prophet. Ilath he not knocked at thy door with inward comfort and outward deliverance, when thou hadst put out the candle of hope, given over looking for him, and been ready to lay thyself down on the bed of despair? Thus he came to Hezekiah, after he had peremptorily concluded his case desperate, Isa. xxxviii. 10, 11 ; thus to the disciples in their unbelief, — 'We trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel,' Luke xxiv. 21. They speak as if now they were in doubt whether they should own their own for- mer faith or no. Hath it not been thus with thee ? Wert thou never at so sad a pass, the storm of thy fears so great that the anchor of hope even came home, and left thee to feed with misgiving and despairing thoughts, as if now thy everlasting night were come, and no morning supply more expect- ed by thee ? Yet even then thy God proved them all liars, by an unlooked-for surprise of mercy, with which he stole sweetly in upon thee. If so, press and urge this experience home upon thyself to encourage thy hope in all futiu'e temptations. What, O my soul ! (thou shouldst say) wilt thou again be scared with these false alarms ? Again, wilt thou lend an ear to thy dis- ti-ustful, desponding thoughts, which so often thou hast found liars, rather than believe the report of the promise, which never put thy hope to shame, as these have done ? The saints are often feeding their hopes on the carcase of their slain fears. The time which God chose, and the instrument he used to give the captive Jews their jail-delivery and liberty to return home, were so incredible to them, who now looked rather to be ground in pieces by those two mill-stones, the Babylonian within, and the Persian without the city, that when it came to pass, like Peter, whom the angel had carried out of prison, Acts xii., it was some time before they could come to themselves and resolve whether it was a real truth, or but a pleasing dream, Psa. cxxvi. 1. Now see what effect this sti-ange disappointment of their fears had upon their hope. It sends them to the throne of grace for the accomplishment of what was so marvellously begun ; ver. 3, 4 : ' The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad, "rurn again our captivity, O Lord.' They have got hold, by this experiment, of his power and mercy, and they will not now let him go till they have more ; yea, their hope is raised to such a pitch of confidence, that they draw a general conclusion from this particular experience for the comfort of themselves, or others in any future distress, — ' They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy ; he that goeth forth and weepeth, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring- ing his sheaves with him,' ver. G. Thirdly, Remember what sinful distempei's have broke out in thy afflictions and temptations, and how God hath, notwith- standing these, carried on a work of deliverance for thee. So that thou mayest say, in respect of these enemies in thy bosom, what David spake triumphantly in regard of his enemies without, that * God hath prepared a table for tiiee in the presence of thy enemies,' yea, of his enemies. While thy corruptions have been stirring and acting against him, his mercy hath been active for thy deliverance. O what a cordial draught would this he to thy fainting hope ! That which often sinks the Christian's heart in any distress inward or outward, and even weighs down his head of hope so that he cannot look up to God for help and succour at such a time, is the sense of tliose sinful infirmities which then discover themselves in him. How, saith the poor soul, can I expect that God should raise me out of this sickness, wlierein I have betrayed so much impatience and frowardness ? Or out of that temptation, in which I have exercised so little faith, and discovered so much unbelief? Surely I must behave myself better, before any good news be sent from heaven to me. It is well, that thou art so sensible of thy sins as to be thy own accuser, and prevent ^r^Q AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. Satan's doing it foi' thee ; yet be not oppressed into discouragement by them. Remember how God hath answered the like objections formerly, and saved thee notwithstanding ; if these could have hardened his bowels against thee, hadst thou been alive, yea, out of hell at this day ? Didst thou ever receive a mercy of which God might not have made stoppage upon this very account that makes thee now fear he will not help thee ? Or, if thou hast not an experience of thy own at hand, which were strange, then borrow one of other saints ; David is an instance, beyond exception. This very circumstance with which his deli- verance was enamelled, did above all affect his heart : ' I said in my haste, all men are liars ; what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits V Psa. cxvi. 11, 12. He remembered his sinful and distempered carriage; this he mentions, to take shame for the same, and to wind up his heart to the highest pitch of thankfulness : he knows not how to praise God enough for that meixy which found him giving the lie to God's messenger, even Samuel himself, who was sent to tell him what was coming. And he doth not only make this cir- cumstance an incentive to praise for what is past ; but lays it down as a ground of hope for the future ; Psa. xxxi. 22 : ' I said in my haste, I am cut off" from before thine eyes ; nevertheless, thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried imto thee.' As if he had said, When I prayed with so little faith, that I, as it were, unprayed my own prayer, by concluding my case in a manner desperate ; yet God pardoned my hasty spirit, and gave me that mercy which I had hardly any faith to expect : and what use doth he make of this experience, but to raise every saint's hope in a time of need ? ' Be of good coui-age, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord,' ver. 24. CHAPTER XIV. AN EXHORTATION TO THEM THAT WANT THIS HELMET OF HOPE. Be you exhorted, who are yet without this helmet, to provide yourselves with it. Certainly, if you be in your right mind, it is the first thing you will go about, and that with earnestness, especially if but three considerations take place in your thoughts. Section I. — How deplorable a thing it is to be in a hopeless state ! The apostle, Ephes. ii. 12, makes him to be withovit God that is without hope, — having no hope, and being without God in the world. God to the soul is what the soul is to the body : if that be so vile and noisome a thing, when it hath lost the soul that keeps it sweet, what is thy soul, when nothing of God is in it ? ' The heart of the wicked is little worth,' saith Solomon, and why, but because it hath not God to put a value on it? If God, who is light, be not in thy un- derstanding, thou art blind ; and what is an eye whose sight is out fit for, but to help thee to break thy neck ? If God be not in thy conscience to pacify and comfort it, thou must needs be full of horror or void of sense ; a raging devil, or a stupid atheist : if God be not in thy heart and affections to purify them, thou art but a sink of sin : if God be not in thee, the devil is, for man's heart is a house that cannot stand empty ; in a word, thou canst not well be without this hope, neither in life nor death : not in life, for what comfort canst thou take in this life, without the hope of a better ? A sad legacy it is which shuts the rebellious child from all claim to the inheritance. Thou hast an estate, it may be, but it is all you must look for : and is it not a dagger at the heart of thy joy, to think thy portion is paid thee here, which will be spent by that time the saint comes to receive his ? Much less tolerable is it to be without this hope in a dying hour. AVho can, without horror, think of leaving this world, though full of sorrows, who hopes for no ease in the other ? The condemned male- factor, as ill as he likes his smoky hole in the prison, had rather be there, than accept of deliverance at the hangman's hand ; he had rather live still in his loathsome dungeon, than exchange it for a gibbet. And greater reason hath the hopeless soul (if he understands himself) to wish he may spend his eternity on earth, though in the poorest hole in it, and that under the most exquisite torment, than to be eased of pain here, and receive hell's torment hereafter. Hence is the sad confusion in the thoughts of guilty wretches, when their souls are summoned out of their bodies : this makes the very pangs of death stronger AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION. 557 than they woukl be, if these dear friends had but a hopeful parting. If the sliriek and nioiu'nful outciy of some fi-iends in the room of a dying man may so disturb him as to make liis passage more terrible, how much more then must the horror of the sinner's own conscience, under the apprehensions of that hell whither it is going, amaze and affright him ! There is a great difference between a wife's parting with her husband, when called from her to live at court under the shine of his prince's favoui', whose retiu-n after a while she expects with an accumulation of wealth and honour, and another, whose husband is taken out of her arms to be dr.agged to prison and torment. Is this thy case? and art thou cutting thv short life out into chips, and sjiending thy little time upon trifles, when the salvation of thy soid is yet to be wrought out ? Art thou trimming thy slimy carcase, while thy soul is dropping into hell ? What is this but to be painting the door when the house is on fire ! It was an imseasonable time for Belshazzar to be feasting and quaffing when his kingdom lay at stake, and an enemy at the gates. It would have become a wise prince to have been rather fighting on the wall, than feasting in his palace, and fattening himself for his own slaughter, which soon befell him, Dan. v. 30. And it woidd become thee better to call upon thy God, poor sinner, and lie in tears for thy sins at his foot, if yet haply thy pardon may be obtained, than, by wallowing in thy sensual pleasure, to stupify thy conscience, and lay it asleep, by which thou canst only gain a little ease from the troublesome thoughts of thy a])proaching misery. Section II. — Consider, it is possible that thou, who art now without hope, may, by a timely and vigorous use of the means, obtain a hope of salvation ; and certainly a possible hope carries in it a force of a strong argument to en- deavour for an actual hope. There is not a devil in hell so bad, but, if he had a thousand worlds at his disposal, (and every one better than this, which we so dote on,) woidd change them all for such a hope. It was but a possibility which brought that heathen king of Nineveh from his throne to lie grovelling at God's foot in sackcloth and ashes; and that king will rise up in judgment against thee, if thou dost not more ; for that was a possibility more remote than thine is : it took place, not from any express promise that dropped from the preacher to encourage them to humble themselves, and turn to the Lord, for we read of nothing but desolation denounced : but from that natural theology whicli was imprinted on their minds : this taught them to hope that he who is the chief good would not be implacable. But you have many express promises from God's faithful lip, that if you, in his time and way, seek him, as sure as he is now in heaven, you shall live there with him in glory, — ' Your heart shall live that seek God,' Psa. Ixix. 32. Yea, there are millions of blessed ones now in heaven experiencing the truth of this, who once had no more hope of heaven than yourselves now have ; and that blissful place is not yet crowded so full, but he can and will make room for you, if you have a mind to go thither. There is one prayer which Christ made on earth, that will keep heaven's gate open for all that believe on him unto the end of the world, — John xvii. 20 : ' Neither pray I for these, but for them that shall believe on me througli their word.' This is good news indeed. Methinks it shoidd make your souls leap within your breast, while you sit under the invitations of the gospel, as the babe once did in Elizabeth's womb, upon the Virgin Mary's salutation. Say not then, sinners, that ministers put you upon impossibilities, and bid you climb a hill inaccessible. No, it is the devil, and thy own unbelieving heart, who together conspire thy ruin, and tell thee so. And as long as you listen to these counsellors you are likely to do well, are you not? Well, whatever they say, know, sinner, that if at last thou missest heaven, which, (iod forbid! the Lord can wash his hands over your head, and clear himself of yoiu- blood: thy dam- nation will be laid at thine own door : it will then appear there was no cheat in the promise, no sophistry in the gospel, but thou didst voluntarily put eternal life from thee, whatever thy lying lips uttered to the contrary : ' My people would have none of me,' Psa. Ixxxi. 11. So that, when the jury sliall sit on thy murdered soul, to inquire how thou camest to thy miserable end, thou wilt ])e found guilty of thy own damnation. No one losetli God, but he that is willing to part with him. Now, Thirdly, consider the horrid cruelty of this act, by thy incorrigible and impenitent heart, to pull down eternal destruction on thy own head. O what ^KQ AND XHK SWORD Oi' TDK SPIRIT. a sad epitaph is this to be on a man's grave-stone, — ' Here lies one that cut his own throat, — this is the man that would not be reclaimed ! He saw hell before him, and yet would leap into it, notwithstanding the entreaties of Christ, by his Spirit and ministers to the contrary.' And the oftener thou hast attempted to do it, and God hath been staying thy hand by his gracious solicitations, the greater will be thy shame and confusion before God, men, and angels, at the last day. God hath set a brand upon those acts of cruelty, which a man com- mits upon himself, above all others. It wovild show a man to be of a harsh, currish nature, that could see his horse in his stable, or hog in his sty, starve, when he hath meat to lay before him ; more cruel still to hear his servant cry out for bread, and denied it ; yet more horrid if this were done to a child or wife ; but of all (because nature cries loudest for self-preservation) the greatest violence that can possibly be done to the law of nature, is to forget the duty we owe to our own life. What is it then for a sinner to starve his soul by rejecting Christ, the bread of life, and to let out his soul's blood at this wide sluice! This is a matchless cruelty ! Indeed, that which makes the self-murder of the body so great a crime is, because it doth so imminently hazard the destruction •of the soul. O how vuiworthy then art thou to have so noble a guest as thy soul dwelling in thy bosom, who preparest no better lodging than hell for it in another world ! — that soul whose nature makes it capable of being preferred to the blissfid presence of God in heaven's glory, if thou liadst not bolted the door against thyself by thy impenitency. But, alas! this, which is the worst murder, is most common. They are but a few monsters, that we now and then hear of, who lay violent hands upon their bodies, at the report of which the whole country trembles; but you can hardly go into any house in which you shall not find some attempting to make away with their souls; yea, that carry the very knife in their bosoms, (their beloved sins, I mean,) with which they stab them: even those that are full of natural affections to their bodies, so as to be willing to spend all that they are worth, with her in the gospel, on physicians when the life of it is in danger, yet so cruel to their dying souls, that they turn Christ, their physician, out of doors, who comes to cure them on free cost. In a word, those that discover abundance of wisdom and discretion in ordering their worldly affairs, you would wonder how rational they are, what an account they will give why they do this, and why that,^ — when it comes to the business of heaven, and the salvation of their souls, they are not like the same men ; so that, were you to judge them only by their actions herein, you could not believe them to be men. And is it not sad that the soul, which furnisheth you with reason for the dispatch of your worldly business, should have no benefit itself from that very reason which it lends you to do all yoiu* other business with ! This, as one well saith, is as if the master of the house, who provides food for all his servants, should be himself kept by them from eating, and so remain the only starved creature in the house. And is not this the sad judgment and plague of God, that is visibly seen upon many, and those that go for wise men too? Are not their souls, w^hich give them understanding to provide for back and belly, house and family, themselves starving in the meantime ? being kept by the power of some lust from making use of their understanding and reason so far, as to put them upon any sei'ious and vigorous endeavour for the salva- tion of them. EPHESIANS VI. 17. And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Here we have the sixth and last piece in the Christian's panoply brought to our hand. A ' sword,' and that of the right make, ' The sword of the Spirit.' The sword was ever esteemed a most necessary part of the soldier's furniture, and, therefoi'e, hath obtained a more general use in all ages, and among all nations, than any other weapon. Most nations have some particular weapons proper to themselves, but few or none come into the field without a swoi'd. A pilot without his chart, a scholar without his book, and a soldier without his sword, are alike ridiculous. But above all these, how absurd is it for one to think of being a Christian without knowledge of the word of God, and some AND TllK SWOKD or J'HE SPIRIT. 559 skill to use this weapon ! The usual name in Scripture for war is the ' sword,' Jer. XXV. 29 : ' I will call for the sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth;' that is, I will send war. And this, because the sword is the weapon of most universal use in war, and also that whereby the greatest execution is done in battle. Now, such a weapon is the word of God in the Christian's hand. By the edge of this his enemies fall, and his great exploits are done ; Rev. xii. 11, ' They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony.' CHAPTER I. TWO NOTES OBSERVED IN GENERAL FROM THE WORDS, AND BRIEFLY TOUCHED UPON. There are two things we may take notice of, before we come to a closer discussion of the words. First, From the sort of arms here appointed for the Christian's use. A weapon that is both defensive and offensive, — such is the word. All the rest in the apostle's armoury are set out by defensive arms, — ■ 'girdle, breastplate, shield, and helmet.' Such as are of use to defend and save the soldier from his enemy's stroke. But the sword both defends him, and wounds his enemy. Of like use is the v/ord of God to the Christian. First, It is for defence. Easily might the soldier be disarmed of all his other furni- ture, how glittering and glorious soever, had he not a sword in his hand to lift up against his enemy's assaults. And with aslittle ado would the Christian be stripped of all his graces, had he not this sword to defend them and himself too from Satan's fury. ' Unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction,' Psa. cxix. 92. This is like the flaming sword with which God kept Adam out of Paradise. The saint is often compared to Christ's garden. There would not long hang any of their sweet fruit upon their souls were not Satan kept off with the point of this sword. O, th.is word of God is a terror to him ; he cannot for his life overcome the dread of it. Let Christ say but, ' It is written,' and the foul fiend runs away with more confu- sion and terror, than Caligula at a crack of thunder. And that which was of such force coming from Christ's blessed lips to drive him away, the saints have always found the most successful instiniment to defend tliem against his fiercest temptations. Ask David what was the weapon with which he warded off the blows this enemy made at him, and he will tell you, it was the word of God ; Psa. xvii. 4, ' Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer:' that is, by the help of thy word, I have been enabled to preserve myself from those wicked works, and outrageous practices, to which others, for want of this weapon to defend them, have been hurried. Again, the sword, as it defends the soldier, so it offends his enemy. Thus the word of God is, as a keeping, so a killing sword. It doth not only keep and resti'ain him from yielding to the force of temptations without, but also by it he kills and mortifies his lusts within, and this makes the victory complete. A man may escape his enemy one day, and be overcome by him at another. We read of some that for a while escaped the pollutions of the world, yet because their lusts were never put to the sword, and mortified in them by the power of the word applied to their hearts, were at last themselves overcome and slain by this secret enemy, that lay skulking within their bosoms ; 2 Peter ii. 20, compared with ver. 22. Absalom, notwithstand- ing his being hanged by the hair of his head, might have lived to have taken revenge afterward on them by whom he was then beaten, had not Joab come in timely, and killed him, by sending his darts with a message of death to his heart. We have daily sad experiences of many that wriggle themselves out of their troubles of conscience (by which for a time they are restrained, and their sins, as it were, held by the hair,) to rush afterward into more abominable courses than they did before ; and all for want of skill to use, or courage and faithfulness to thrust, this sword by faith to the heart of their lusts. Secondly, Observe the order and place wherein this piece of armour stands. The apostle first gives the Christian all the former pieces, and when these are put on, he then girds this sword about him. The Sjjirit of God in holy writ, I confess, ia not always curious to observe method, yet methinks it should not be unpardon- able if I venture to give a hint of a double significancy in the very place and 5Q0 AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. order that it stands in. First, It may be brought in after all the rest, to let us know how necessary the graces of God's Spirit are to our right using of the word. There is nothing more abused than the word, and why, but becavise men come to it with unsound and unsanctified hearts ? The heretic quotes it to prove his false doctrine, and dares be so impudent as to cite it to appear for him. But how is it possible they should father their monstrous births on the pure, chaste word of God ? Surely it is because they come to the word, and converse with it, but bi-ing not the girdle of sincerity with them, and being imgirt, are iinblest. God leaves them justly to miss of truth, because they are not sincere in their inquiry after it. The brat is got upon their own hearts, by the father of lies, and they come to the word only to witness to it. Another reads the word, and is more hardened in his lusts than he was before. He sees some there canonized for saints by the Spirit of God, the history of whose lives is, notwithstanding, blotted with some foul falls, possibly into those very sins in which he lies wallowing, and therefore is bold to put himself into the saints' calendar. And why so impudent? Truly, because he comes to the word with an unholy heart, and wants the breastplate of righteousness to de- fend him from the dint of so dangerous a temjjtation. Another, for want of faith to give existence to the ti'uth of the threatening in his conscience, runs boldly upon the point of this sword, and dares the God of heaven to sti-ike him with it. Thus we find those wretches, mentioned by the prophet, playing with this edge-tool, ' Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now,' Jer. xvii. 15 : as if they had said, mockingly. Thou scarest us with strange bugbears; judgments that, in the name of God, thou threatenest are coming on us. When will they come ? We would fain see them. Is God's sword rusty, that he is so long getting it out of the scabbard ? And the despairing soul, for want of a helmet of hope, deals little better with the promise, than the presumptuous sinner with the threatening. Instead of lifting it up to defend him against the fears of his guilty conscience, he falls upon the point of it, and destroys his own soul. Well, therefore, may the apostle first put on the other pieces, and then deliver this sword to them to use for their good, A sword in a madman's hand, and the word of God in wicked men's mouths, are used much alike, to hurt only themselves and their best fi-iends with. Secondly, It may be com- mended, after all the rest, to let us know that the Christian, when advanced to the highest attainments of grace possible in this life, is not above the use of the word, nay, cannot be safe without it. When girded with sincerity, his plate of righteousness on his breast, shield of faith in his hand, and helmet of hope covering his head, his salvation is out of doubt to him at present ; yet even then he must take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. This is not a book to be read by the lowest class in Christ's school only, but be- coming the highest scholars, who seem most fit for a removal to heaven's aca- demy. It is not only of use to make a Christian by conversion, but to make him perfect also, 2Tim. iii. 15. It is like the architect's rule and line, as ne- cessary to lay the top-stone of the building at the end of his life, as the founda- tion at his conversion. They, therefore, are likely to prove foolish builders, that throw away their line before the house be finished. I now come to take up the weapon in the text, — ' And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:' in which words observe these three parts : — First, The weapon itself, that is, ' the Avord of God.' Secondly, The metaphor in which it is sheathed — ' the sword,' with the person whose it is — 'the Spirit.' Thirdly, An exhortation to make use of this weapon, — 'And the sword,' &c. ; that is, take this with all the other before-named pieces. So that to whom he directs the former pieces, he gives the sword of the word to use. Now those, you shall find, are persons of all ranks and relations, hus- bands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants ; he would have none be without this sword any more than without the girdle, helmet, and the rest. Though this I know will not please the papists, who woidd have this sword of the word, like that of Goliath, laid up out of their reach, in the priests' keeping. AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. CHAPTER 11. WHAT IS HERE MEANT BY THE WORD OF GOD. 501 I BEGIN with the weapon itself, ' The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.' I shall first hold forth the sword naked, and then ])nt it again into the sheath, to handle it under the metaphor of a sword. There is a twofold word of God. First, A substantial, or subsisting word, and that is the Son of God, John i. 1 : ' The Word was with God, and the Word was God.' Rev. xix. 13, ' And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of Ciod.' This is spoken of a })erson, and he no other than Christ, the Son of God. But he is not the word of God in the text. The Spirit is rather Christ's sword, than Christ the sword of the Spirit: see ver. 15, of the aforenamed chapter, — ' Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations.' Secondly, There is a declarative word of God, and this is manifold, according to the divers ways and manners whereby the Lord hath been pleased to declare his mind to the sons of men. At first, while the earth was thinly sown with people, and the age of man so voluminous as to contain many centuries of years, God delivered his mind by dreams and visions, with such-like inunediate revelations, unto faitliful witnesses, who might instruct others of their generation therein, and transmit the knowledge of the same to after ages : they living so long, that three holy men were able, from the death of .\dam, to preserve the purity of religion by certain traditions, till within a few years of the Israelites' going down to Egypt. For as the reverend and learned pen calculates the chronology, Methuselah lived above two hundred years with Adam, and from him might receive the will of God revealed to him. Shem lived almost an himdred years with Methuselah, and Shem was alive to the fiftieth year of Isaac's age, who died but a few years before Israel's going into Egypt. Thus long did God forbear to commit his will to writing, because, it passing through so few, and those trusty hands, it might safely be preserved. But when the age of man's life was so contracted, that from eight and nine hundred years (the then ordinary duration of it) it shrunk into but so many tens, as it was in Moses's time, Psa. xc. ; and when the people of God grew from a few persons to a multitude in Egypt, and those corrupted with idolatry; (iod, intending at their deliverance from thence to form them into a common- wealth, thovight it fit (for the preventing of corruption in his worship, and degeneracy in their lives) that they should have a written law to be as a public standard to direct them in both. And accordingly he wrote the Ten Com- mandments with his own finger on tables of stone ; and connnanded Moses to write the other words he heard from him on the mount. Exodus xxxiv. 27 ; yet so, that he still continued to signify his will by extraordinary revelations to his church, and also to enlarge this first edition of his written word according to the necessity of the times : reserving the canon of sacred writ to be finished by Christ, the great Doctor of the church, who completed the same, and by the apostles, his public notaries, consigned it to the use of his church to the end of the world ; yea, a curse from Christ's mouth cleaves to him that shall add to, or take from the same. Rev. xxii. 18, 19. So that now, all those ways whereby God directly made known his mind to his people, are resolved into one of the Scriptures, which we are to receive as the undoubted word of God, containing in it a perfect rule of faith and life, and to expect no other revelation of his mind to us, which is the meaning of Heb. i. 1, ' God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the projihets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son.' Therefore called ' the last days,' because that we are to look for no other revelation of God's will. And, there- fore, for ever let us abhor that ])lasphemy of Joachim, Abbas, Wigelians, and others that have fallen into the same frenzy with them, who dream of a three- fold doctrine flowing from the three Persons of the Sacred Trinity: the 'law' fr(jm the Father, the ' gospel ' from the Son, which we have in the New Testa- ment, and a third from the Spirit, whicli they call uvancjellum etemnim ; whereas tlie Sj)irit of God himself, by whom the Scriptures were indicted, calls the doc- trine in it, 'The everlasting gospel,' Rev. xiv. 6. Thus much to shew what is here meant by the word of God. From whence the doctrine follows. 2 o 562 AND THE SWORD OF TilE SPIRIT. CHAPTER III. THE DIVINITY OF THE SCRIPTURE SHEWN, AND THE SUFFICIENCY OF ITS OWN TESTIMONY TO PROVE THE SAME. That the Holy Scriptures are the undoubted word of God. By the Scriptures, I mean tlie Old and New Testaments contained in the Bible ; both wliich are that one foundation whereupon our faith is built, Eph. ii. 21 : ' Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.' That is the doctrine which God by them hath delivered unto his church, for they were vmder the unerring guidance of the Spirit, 2 Tim. iii. 16 : ' All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.' Breathed by God, it came as truly and immediately from his very mind and heart, as our breath doth from within our bodies ; yea, both matter and words were indited by God ; for the things which they spake were ' not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,' 1 Cor. ii. 12. God did not give them a theme to dilate and enlarge upon, with their own parts and abilities, but confined them to what he indicted. They were but his amanuenses, to write his infallible dictate ; or as so many scribes to transcribe what the Spirit of God laid before them. This is given as the reason why no Scripture is to be understood by our private fancy or conceit ; but we are to take the meaning of it from itself, as we find one place clears another, because it came not from the private spirit of any man at first ; but ' holy men spake as they were moved' (or carried) 'by the Holy Ghost,' 2 Pet. i. 20 and 21 compared : the power that makes the law must expound it. But may be some will say. Do you bring Scripture to bear Avitness for itself? The question is, whether the Scripture be the word of God ? And you tell us the Scripture saith so, and is that enough ? This would carry weight, if it were the word of some sorry creature that stood upon trial ; but a greater than man is here. Men need arguments and witnesses to prove and vouch what they say to be true ; but the word of God is a sufficient witness to itself, because what truth itself saith, can be no other than a sincere and true testimony. Christ, who thought it derogatory to the dignity of his person, to borrow credit from man's testimony, did yet refer himself to the report that the Scriptures made of him ; and was willing to stand or fall in the opinion of his very enemies, as the testimony thereof should be found concerning him, John v. 34, compared with ver. 39 ; and, therefore, their testimony may well pass for themselves. He that cannot see this sun by its own light, may in vain think to find it with the light of human testimony and argument. Not that these are useless. The testimony of the church is highly to be reverenced, because to it are these oracles of God delivered, to be kept as a sacred deposit ; yea, it is called, ' The pillar and ground of truth,' 1 Tim. iii. 15, and the candlestick, Rev. i. 12, from whence the light of the Scriptures shines forth into the world. But who will say, that the proclamation of a prince hath its authenticity from the pillar it hangs on in the market-cross ; or that the candle hath its light from the candlestick ! The office of the church is ministerial, to publish and make known the word of God ; but not magisterial and absolute, to make it Scripture, or unmake it, as she is pleased to allow or deny. This were to send God to man for his hand and seal ; and to do by the Scriptiu'es, as Tertullian saith in his Apology the heathen did with their gods, who were to pass the senate, and gain their good will, be- fore they might be esteemed deities by the people. And does not the church of Rome thus by the Scriptures, sending us to the pope for leave to believe Scrip- ture tobe Scripture? The blasphemous speech of Hermanus is notoriously known, who said, that the Scriptures did tantum ralere, quantum JEsopi Fahila, nisi ac- cedat Ecchsia Testimonium. O how like is Rome to Rome, — superstitious Rome to pagan Rome ! We need not travel so far to be determined in this case ; the Scripture itself will save us the pains of this wearisome journey, being more able to satisfy us of its own Divine extraction, than the pope sitting in his porphyry chair, with all his cardinals about him. Neither is thei"e any necessity to ask for a messenger to ascend on high, who may from heaven bring down their letters testimonial unto us ; seeing they bear heaven's superscription so fairly written upon their own forehead, which denies them to proceed fi-om any but God himself. May a particidar man be known from a thousand others by AND TRE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 5(33 his face, voice, or handwi'iting ? Certainly then it cannot seem strange tliat the God of lieavcn should be discerned from his sorry creature, by his voice and writing in tlie sacred Scriptiires. Do \ve not see that lu> hatli interwoven his glorious name so in the works of creation, tliat they speak liis j)ower and Godhead, and call him Maker in their thoughts, who never read the Bible, nor heard of sucli a book ? — so that they could not steal the notion tlience, but had it from the dictates of their own consciences, extorting the acknowledg- ment of a Deity ; and much more will an enlightened conscience and sanc- tified heart be commanded by the overpowering evidence that shines forth in the Scriptiu'es to fall down and cry. It is the voice of God, and not any creature that speaks in them. Indeed, tlie grand truths and cliief notions found in the Scriptures are so connatural to the principles of grace, whicli the same Holy Spirit who is the inditer of them liath planted in tlie hearts of all the saints, that their souls even spi-ing and leap at the reading and hearing of them, as the babe did in Elizabeth's womb at the salutation of the V' irgin Mary. The Lamb doth not more certainly know her dam in the midst of a whole flock (at whose bleating she passeth by them all to come to be suckled by her) than the sheep of Chi'ist know his voice in the saving truths of the Scriptxires, the sincere milk whereof tliey desire, and are taught of God to taste and discern from all other. Indeed, till a soul be thus enlightened and wrought upon by the Spirit of God, he may have his month stopped by such arguments for the divinity of them as he cannot answer ; but he will never be pei-suaded to rest on them and cordially embrace them as the word of God ; as we see in the scribes and Phaiisees, who often were confounded and struck down speechless by the dint of Christ's words; yet as those wretches sent to attack the person of Cln-ist rose up from the earth, (where the majesty of Christ's Deity looking out upon them had thrown them grovelling,) to lay violent hands on him ; so those obdurate Pharisees and scribes, after all their convictions, re- turned to oppose the doctrine he preached, and that, most of them, imto death. Yea, that part of the Scripture which they seemed to cry up so highly, the law of jMoses, and made the groimd of their quarrel against Christ, our Saviour is bold to tell them, that, as great admirers as they were thereof, they did not so much as believe it to be the word of God : how could they, indeed, have a true divine faith on it, who wanted the Spirit of God, which alone works it ? John V. 46 : ' Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me.' Erasmus tells his friend, in a letter, that he met with many things charged on Luther, by the monks, for heresies, which in Augustine passed among them for sound truths ; but certainly they did not really believe them to be truths in Augustine which they condemned in Luther. Neither did the Pharisees in truth believe what Moses wrote, because they opposed Christ, who did but verify what Moses before, from God's mouth, had spoke. But because, wlien the Spirit of God comes to raise the heart to a belief of the word of Ciod, he doth it by putting his own weight and force to those arguments which are couched in tlic word, and so leave the print or character of them sealed upon the soul, therefore I shall draw out an argument or two, among many that are to he found in the Scripture itself, proving the parentage thereof to be Divine. I know it is a beaten patli I am now walking in, and I shall rather speak the same things for substance which you may meet in many othei's, only a little other- wise shapen. For my own part, I think it more wisdom to borrow a sword of proved metal at another's hands, than to go with a weak leaden one of my own into the field, and come home beaten for my folly and pride. CHAPTER IV. AN ARGUMKNT FOR THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, DRAWN FROM THEIR ANTIQUITY AND THE SINCERITY OF THE PENMEN THEREOF. First, The very matter contained in the Holy Scriptures demonstrates their lieavenly descent, it being such as cannot be tlie birth or product of a creature. Let us search the Script ures a little, and consider the several parts thereof, and see whether they do not all bear the image of God upon them. Consider the historical, prophetical, doctrinal, and preceptive, with its promises and 2 o 2 (-^4, AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. threatenings to enforce the same, and see if the print of a Deity be not stamped upon them all. First, The historical : in which let us consider the antiquity of the matter related. There are some pieces that could not possibly drop from a creature's pen : where should or could he have his reading and learning to enable him to write the history of the creation? The heathen, by the inquiry of natural reason, have made a discovery thus far, that the world had a beginning, and could not be from eternity, and that it could be the workmanship of none but God ; but what is this to the compiling of a distinct history, how God went to work in the production thereof, what order every creatin-e was made in, and how long God was finishing the same ! He that is furnished for such an enterprise must be one that was pre-existent to the whole world, and an eye-witness to every day's work ; which man, that was made the last day, cannot pretend unto. And yet there is history more ancient than this in the Scripture, where we find what was done at the council-table of heaven, before the world began, and what passed there in favour of man, whom afterward he would make. Who could search the court rolls, I wonder, and bring us intelligence of the ever- lasting decrees then resolved on, and promises made by the Father to the Son, of eternal life in time to be conferred on his elect ? Titus i. 2. Secondly, The simplicity and sincerity of the holy penmen in relating what most concerns them- selves and those that were near and dear to them. We may possibly find among human authors some that carry their pen with an even hand in writing the history of others, the making known whose faults casts no dishonourable reflection upon him that records them. Thus, Suetonius spared not to tell the world how wicked great emperors were, who therefore is said to have taken the same liberty in writing their lives that they took in leading them. But where is the man that hath not a hair upon his pen when he comes to write the blemishes of his own house or person ? Alas ! here we find that their pen will cast no ink : they can rather make a blot in their history than leave a blot on their own name ; they have, like Alexander's painter, a finger to lay upon these scars, m-, if they mention them, you shall observe they learn their pen on a sudden to write smaller than it was wont. But in the history of the Scripture none of this self-love is to be found ; the penmen whereof are as free to expose their own shame and nakedness as any others. Thus Moses brands his own tribe for the bloody murder on Shechem, Gen. xxxiv. 30. An enemy could not have set it heavier on their name than he doth it; his own brother is not favoured by him, but his idolatry set upon the' file, Exod. xxxii. 21. The proud behaviour of his dear sister, and the plague of God which befell her, escapes not his pen, Numb. xii. No, not the incest of his own parents, Exod. vi. 20. So that we must say of him, concerning the im- partiality of his pen in writing, what he himself saith of Levi in the execution of justice, that he ' said imto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him ; neither did he acknowledge his brethren,' Deut. xxxiii. 9. In a word, to despatch this particular, he is no more tender of his own personal honour than he is of his house and family, but doth record the infirmities and miscarriages of his own life, as his backwardness to enter upon that difficult charge, Exod. iii. iv., wherein he discovered so much unbelief and pusillani- mity of spirit, notwithstanding his clear and immediate call thereunto by God himself; his neglect of a Divine ordinance in not circumcising his child, and what that sin had like to have cost him ; his frowardness and impatience in murmuring at the troubles that accompanied this place wherein God had set him, Numb. xi. 11 — 15 ; and his unbelief, after so many miraculous seals from heaven set to the promise of God, for which he had his leading staff" taken from him, and the honour of conducting Israel into Canaan denied him, — a sore and heavy expression of God's displeasure against him. Numb. xx. 12. Certainly, we must confess, had not his pen been guided by a spirit more than human, he could never have so perfectly conquered all carnal affections as not the least to favour himself in reporting.things thus prejudicial to his honour in the world. And the same spirit is found to breathe in the evangelists' history of the gospel, they being as little dainty of their own names as Moses was, as may be observed in their freedom to declare their own blemishes and their fellow- apostles'. So far were they from wronging the church with a lame, mutilated AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 565 story of Christ's life and death, to save their own credit, that they interweave the weaknesses and sins of one another all along their relations. Hence we read of the sinful passion and revenge working in the sons of Zebedee ; Peter acting the devil's part to tempt his Master at another time ; the ignoi'ance of all the twelve in some main principles of Christianity for a while ; their ambition who should be the greatest, and wrangling about it ; their unbelief and cowardice, one denying his Lord, and the rest flying their colours, when they should have interposed their own bodies between their Master and the danger, as resolved either to die for him, or at least with him, and not save their lives with so dishonourable a flight : these, and such like passages, declare them to be actuated in their writings by a spirit higher than their own, and that no other than of God himself, for whom they so willingly debase themselves in the eyes of the world, and lay their names in the dust, that the glory of his name might be exalted in this their free acknowledgment. CHAPTER V. THE DIVINITY OF THE SCRIPTURES DEMONSTRATED FROM THE PROPHETIC PART IN IT. Secondly, The prophetic part of the Sci'ipture, which contains wonderful predictions of such things to come, as could drop from no pen but one guided by a Divine hand, all which have liad their punctual performance in the just period foretold. Indeed, from whom could these come but God? ' Secret tilings belong to God,' Deut. xxix. 29. And predictions surely may pass very well for secrets ; they are such secrets, that God off'ers to take him, whoever he is, and set him with himself in his own throne, that is able to fore- tell things to come. Isa. xli. 23 : ' Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.' This must be confessed to be a flower of the crown, and an incommunicable property and prerogative of the only true God, who stands upon the hill of eternity, and from thence hath the full prospect of all things, and to whose infinite understanding they are all present ; for his will being the cause of all events, he must needs know them, because he knoweth that. The devil, indeed, who is very ambitious to be thought able to do this, and to gain the reputation hereof, hath had his mock-prophets and prophecies in all ages, with which he hath abused the ignorant, credulous world ; but, alas ! his predictions are no more true prophecies than his miracles are true miracles ; he puts a cheat upon the understanding of silly souls in the one, as he doth on their senses in the other ; for his predictions are dark and dubious, cunningly packed and laid, which, like a picture, carry two faces under one hood. In these folds the subtle serpent wrapped himself to save his credit, which way soever the event fell out : and this got Apollo the name of Loxias ; of Obliquus ; Propter oblique et torfitosa responsa ejus, because he mocked them that consulted his oracle with such ambiguous answers, that sent them as wise home as they came to him. Indeed, the devil found it necessary thus to do. Had he not with this patch of policy eked out the scantiness of his own understanding, the nakedness thereof would have been seen by every eye, to the shame and contempt of his oracles. Or if his predictions were more plainly delivei'ed, they were, First, Of such things which he spelled out by the help of nature's alphabet, and came to the knowledge of by diving into the secrets of natural causes, before they discovered themselves unto the observation of man's dulled understanding; and this made them be cried up for wonderful predictions, and supernatural, by those who could not see this clue in Satan's hand that guided him. If a man should meet you, and tell you such a friend of yours will die within a few months, whom you left well to your thinking but a few minutes before, and the event should seal the trutii of what he said, you might possibly begin to think this a wonderful prophecy ; but when you afterwards knew he that told you was a physician, and had, upon much study and strict observation of your friend's bodily estate, found a dangerous disease growing insensibly upon liiin, you would alter your opinion, and not think him a prophet, but a skilful physician. Thus, did we but consider the vastness of Satan's natural parts, (though limited, because created,) and the improvement lie hath made of them by the study and experience of so many thousand years, 5(3(5 AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. we should not count liis predictions for prophecies, but rather as comments and explications of the short and dark texts of natural causes, and acknowledge him a learned naturalist, but not deserving the name of a true prophet. Secondl}', If he hath not his hint from natural causes, then he gathers his inferences from moral and political causes, which, compared together by so deep a head as his, give him great, lielp and advantage to infer many times what in very great probability of reason will come to pass. Thus, what the devil told Saul would become of him, his army and kingdom, was nothing but what he might rationally conclude from those premises which lay before him,' in his being rejected of God, and another anointed by God's own command to be king in his stead, together with the just height and full measure to which Saul's sins might now be thought to have arrived, by his going to a witch for counsel, and a puissant army of the Philistines preparing against him ; whose wonted courage now so failed him, that he went rather like a malefactor, pinioned and bound with the terrors of his accusing conscience, to meet an executioner that should give the fatal stroke to him, than like a valiant captain to adorn and enrich himself with the spoils of his enemies: all these laid together, make it appear the devil, without a gift of prophecy, might tell him his doom. Thirdly, God may and doth sometimes reveal future events to Satan ; as when God intends him to be his instrument to execute some of his purposes, he may, and doth acquaint him with the same some time before ; and you will not say the hangman is a prophet, that can tell such a man shall on such a day be hanged, when be hath a warrant I'rom the king that ajipoints hhn to do that office. Thus Satan could have told Job beforehand what sad afflictions would certainly be- fall him in his estate, servants, children, and his own body, because God had granted him a commission to be the instrument that should bring all these upon him. But neither Satan nor any creature else are able of themselves to foretell such events, which neither arise from natural causes, nor may be rationally concluded to follow from moral and political probabilities, but are locked up in the cabinet of Divine will how they shall fall out; and such are the prophecies which we find in the Holy Scriptures, by v.diich they plainly prove their heavenly extraction. They must needs come from God, that tell us what God only knew, and depended on his will to be disposed of. Who but God could tell Abraham where his posterity should be, and what should particularly befall them four hundred years after his death ? For so long before v.ashe acquainted with their deliverance out of Egypt, Gen. xv., which accordingly came to pass punctually on the very day foretold, Exod. xii. 41. How admirable are the prophecies of Christ, the Messiah, in which his person, birth, life, and death, even to the minute, and circumstances of them, are as exactly and particularly set down, many ages before his coming upon the stage, as by the Evangelists themselves, who were upon the place with him, and saw all that was done with their own eyes ; and though some things foretold of him may be thought, because small and inconsiderable in themselves, not to deserve a mention in so high and sacred a prophecy, as our Saviour's riding on an ass, Zech. ix. 9, the thirty pieces given for him, and the purchase of the potter's field afterward with them, Zech. xi. 12, 13, and the preserving his bones whole, when they that suffered with him had theirs broken ; these, I say, and such like, though they may seem inconsiderble passages in themselves, yet upon due weighing the end for which they are mentioned, we shall find that our weak faith could not well have spared their help to strengthen it in the belief of the prophecy. Indeed, a great weight of the argument to prove the truth and divinity of the prophecy moves upon these little hinges ; because the less these are in themselves, the more admirably piercing and strong must that eye be that could see such small things at so gi-eat a distance ; none but an Infinite Understanding could do this ! And now I hope none will dare to ask, But how may we be sure that such prophecies were extant so long before their fulfilling, and not foisted in after these things were done ? seeing they were upon public record in the church of the Jews, and not denied by those that denied Christ himself. And truly this one consideration cast into the scale after all the former, doth give an over-weight to the argument we are now upon ; I mean, that these prophecies were so long and so openly read and known, and consequently impossible that Satan should be ignorant of them, and not take AND THE SWOaU OF THE SPIRIT. 567 the alarm from them to do liis utmost to impede their accompHshment, seeing his whole kingdom lay at stake, so as either he must hinder them, or they woidd ruin it; and that, notwithstanding all this, together with his restless endeavour against them, they should he all so fairly delivered in their full time ; yea, many of them hy the midwifery of those very persons that would, if possible, have destroyed them in the womb, as we see, Acts iv. 27 : here breaks out the wisdom and power of God, with such a strong beam of light and evidence, that none of the Scriptures' enemies can wishfully look against it. CHAPTER VI. THE DIVINE EXTRACTION OF THE SCRIPTURE EVIDENT IN ITS DOCTRINAL PART. Thirdly, The doctrinal part of the Scriptures, by which in this place I mean only those grounds and principles of faith that are laid down in the Scriptures, must be believed and embraced of all that desire eternal life. 'I'here is a Divine glory which is to be seen on the very face of them, being so sublime, that no creature can be the inventor of them. To instance a few. First, God himself, who is the prime object of our faith. Who but God could tell us who he is, and what his nature is? That there is a God, is a notion that natural reason hath found the way to search out ; yea, his Godhead and ])ower are a lesson taught in the school of nature, and to be read in the book of the creatures ; but how long men, who have no higher teaching, are learning the true knowledge of God, and how little progress they make therein, we see in the poor heathen, among whom the wisest philosophers have been such dunces, groping about this one principle, one age after another, and yet not able to find the door ; as the apostle tells us, when he saith, that 'the world by wisdom knew not God,' 1 Cor. i. 21. But as for the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, this is such a height as the heart of man never could take aim at, so much as to dream or start a thought of it : so that if God had not revealed it, the world, of necessity, must have for ever continued in the ignorance thereof. And the same must be said of all gospel truth.s,- — Jesus Christ, God-man, justification by faith in his blood, and the whole method of grace and salvation through him ; they are all such notions as never came into the heart of the wisest sophists in the world to conceive of; and, therefore, it is no wonder that a little child, luuler the preaching of the gospel, believes these mysteries which Plato and Aristotle were ignorant of, because they are not attained by our parts and industry, but communicated by Divine and supernatural revelation : yea, now they are revealed, how does our reason gaze at them, as notions that are foreign, and mere strangers to its own natural conceptions, yea, too big to be grasped and comprehended with its short span ; which makes it so ready, where grace is not master to keep it in subjection, to object against the possibility of their being- true, because itself cannot measure them : as if the owl shoidd say the sun had no light, because her weak eyes cannot bear to look on it. These are trutlis U> be believed, upon the credit of him that relates them, and not to be entertained or rejected as they correspond to, or differ from the mould of our reason. He that will handle these with his reason, and not his faith, is likely to be served as the smith that takes up his hot iron with his hand, and not with his tongs, — what can he expect but to burn his fingers ? CHAPTER VII. THE DIVINITY OF THE SCRIPTURE PROVED FROM ITS PRECEPTIVE PART. The fourth part in our division of the Scripture, is the preceptive, or that which contains commands and precepts. And this will be found to carry the superscription of its Divinity on its forehead, with as legible and fair characters as any of the former. Section I. — The vast extent of Scripture commands, which is such as never any human laws, of the greatest monarch, could pretend unto. Where is the prince, among the sons of men, that ever went about to give laws to all man- kind, and did not rather, in his royal edicts and laws, respect that particular people, and those nations, whose It ■ fell within the circle of his empire? Of 568 AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. all the empires the world ever saw, the Roman was the gi'eatest; and yet when the Roman eagle's wings were grown the largest, they conld not over- spread more than the third part of this lower world. And how vain and ridiculous had it heen for the emperor to have attempted to make a law for those nations, which neither knew him, nor he them. But in the Scripture we find such laws as concern all mankind, wherever they live, and which have been promulgated where the Bible was never seen. Their sound is gone into all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Many of the laws in sacred writ, they are but a second, and that fairer, edition of what was found written in the consciences of men before the Scripture came forth. So that if those laws that are cut with so indelible a character in the consciences of all the sons of Adam, be of God, then the Scripture must be confessed to proceed from God also. Yet farther, as the Scripture takes all mankind to task, and lays its bonds on all, so its laws bind the whole man ; the heart, with its most inward thoughts, is laid in these chains, as well as the outward man. Indeed, the heart is the principal subject, whose loyalty is most provided for in the precepts of Scripture. Those conmiands that contain our duty to God, require that all be done with the heart and soul. If we pray, it must be in the spirit, or else we had as good do nothing ; for we transgress the law of prayer. If it be a law that respects our behaviour to man, still the heart is chiefly intended. ' Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart,' Levit. xix. 17. ' Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought,' Eccles. x. 20. And accordingly, the pro- mises and threatenings which attend the commands of Scripture, enforce them, and are suitable to the spiritual nature of those commands ; the rewards of the one, and punishments of the other, being such as respect the spii-itual per- formance or neglect of them. ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,' Matt. v. 8. Not, blessed are they whose hands are clean, though their hearts be filthy. So Mai. i. 14, ' Cursed be the deceiver, that hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing.' 'The deceiver;' there is the hypocrite, that gives God the skin for the sacrifice, the shape of a duty for the substance, the lean of an outside obedience, instead of the fat of the inward man, namely, the obedience of the heart. And as the principal object which these are levelled against, is the obedience or disobedience of the heart; so the subject or vessel into which the one emptieth its blessings, and the other its curses, is chiefly the soul and spirit. ' They shall praise the Lord that seek him; your heart shall live for ever,' Psa. xxii. 26. 'I will comfort you ; and your heart shall rejoice,' Isa. Ixvi. 13, 14. ' Give them sor- row of heart, thy curse, O God,' Lament, iii. 65. Now, I would fain know the man that ever went about to form such laws as should bind the hearts of men, or prepare such rewards as should reach the souls and consciences of men. Truly, if any mortal man should make a law that his subjects should love him with all their hearts and souls, and not dare, upon peril of his greatest indigna- tion, to entertain a traitorous thought against his royal person, but presently confess it to him, or else he would be avenged on him ; he would deserve to be more laughed at for his pride and folly, than Xerxes for casting his fetters into the Hellespont, to chain the waves into his obedience ; or Caligula, that threatened the air, if it durst rain when he was at his pastimes, who durst not himself so much as look into the air when it thundered. Certainly, a mad- house would be more fit for such a person than a throne, who should so far forfeit his reason, as to think that the thoughts and hearts of men were within his jurisdiction. Who need fear such a law, when none but the off'ender himself can bring in evidence of the fact? There have been, indeed, some who, in- tending to take away the life of their prince by a bloody, murderous knife, have been attacked by their own conscience, and forced by it to confess their own wicked thoughts, before any other could be their accuser, so sacred are the per- sons of God's anointed ones ; but not from the power of man or his law, making them do so, but the dread of God arresting their conscience for violating his law, which, indeed, not only binds up subjects' hands from killing, but hearts also from cursing kings in our very thoughts. This is the law which rules in the consciences of the worst of men ; a bit that God rides the fiercest sinners with, and so curbs them, that they can never shake it out of their mouths. Enough to prove the divinity thei^eof. AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT 559 Section II. — The spotless purity of Scripture commands do no less evince their divine extraction. 'God is the Holy One,' Isa. xlii. 16. He alone is perfectly holy; 'The heavens are not clean in his sight,' Job xv. 15. He can charge the angels themselves (who may be the ' heavens' in the aforementioned place) with folly, Job iv. 18; because, though they never sinned, yet it is pos- sible they might sin, as some of their order have done, if not kept from it by confirming grace. And as God is the holy person, so the Scripture is the only holy book : all besides this have their errata, which are corrected by this. ' The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever,' Psa. xix. 2 ; that is, the word of God is clean — called the fear of Isaac, because the object of his fear: the word is clean, and mark, it endureth for ever ; that is, it ever continues, and shall be found so. There are dregs and sediment that will appear in the holiest writings of the best men, when they have stood awhile under the observation of a critical eye ; but the Scripture hath been exposed to the view and censure of all sorts of men, yet could never have the least impurity charged justly upon it. It is so clean and pure, that it makes filthy souls clean : "' Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth,' John xvii. 17. That which is itself filthy, may make our clothes and bodies clean ; but that which makes our souls pure and clean, must be itself without defilement. And such is the Scripture ; there is nothing there which gratifies the flesh, or affords fuel to any lust. No ; it puts every sin to the sword, and strikes through the loins of all sinners. ' To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace,' Rom. viii. G. So that, as Athenagoras well said, no man can be wicked that is a Clu-istian, unless he be an liypocrite. For the Scripture, which he pro- fesseth to be his ride of faith and life, will not allow him to embrace any doc- trine that is false, or practise that Avhich is filthy and unholy. This is that which Christianity can alone glory in. The heathens were led into many abominations by their very religion, and the gods whom they worshipped. No wonder they were so beastly and sensual in their lives, when they served drunken and filthy gods ; and the very mysteries of their religion were so horribly unclean, that they durst not let them be commonly known, as having a scent too strong to be endured by any that had not their senses quite stopped, and their foolish minds, by the judgment of God upon them, wholly darkened. But the Christian can charge none of his sins upon his God, who tempteth none to evil, but hateth perfectly both the work, and also the worker of iniquity; nor upon his Bible, which damns eveiy sin to the pit of hell, and all that live therein : Rom. ii. y, ' Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile : but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.' O, who could be the author of this blessed book, but the blessed God ! If any creature made it, he was either a wicked creature, or one that was holy. First, no wicked creature could do it ; neither angel nor man. Surely they would never have taken so much pains to pull down their own kingdom of darkness — (the great plot which runs through the Bible from one end of it to the other.) And if it were the birth of their brain, no doubt, as every one loves his own child, so would they have shewn more love to it, than yet they have done. The implacable wrath that the devil and his party of wicked ones in the world have shewn in all ages to the Scriptures, declares sufficiently it never came from them. No, no, it cannot stand with the interest of unclean spirits or wicked men, to ad- vance holiness in the world. The devil, though bold enough, durst never be so impudent, as to lay claim to this holy, heavenly piece ; but if he should, the glorious beauty of holiness that shines on the face of it would forbid any man in his wits to believe that black fiend to be the father of it. It is natural for every creature to beget his like ; and what likeness there is between light and darkness it is easy to judge. Neither can any holy creature be the author of it, be he angel or man. Can we think that any, having the least spark of love to God, or fear of his majesty dwelling in their breast, durst counterfeit his dreadful name, by setting it to their work, and abuse the world with such a blasphemy and prodigious lie, as to say, 'Thus saith the Lord,' and prefix his name all along, when not God, but themselves are the authors' Could this impudence and audacious wickedness proceed from any holy angel or man ? Doubtless il could not. Nay, farther, durst any holy creature put such a cheat 570 ^^^ ^HE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. upon the world, and then denounce the wrath and vengeance of God against those who shall speak in God's name, hut were never sent of him, as the Scrip- ture mentions? Certainly, that earth which sv/allowed Korah, and his ungodly companions, for pretending to an authority from God, as good as the priest's, to offer incense, would not have spared Moses himself if he had spoken that in God's name which he liad not from him, but was the invention of his own private bi-ain. Thus we see no creature, good or bad, can be the author of the Scriptures ; so that none remains but God to own them, which he hath done with miracles enough to convince an atheist of their divinity. CHAPTER VIII. THE HEART-SEARCHING PROPERTY OF THE SCRIPTURES. The second argument to demonstrate the divine extraction of the Scriptures shall be taken from the supernatural eftects they produce. Nothing can be the cause of an effect higher and greater than itself; if therefore we can find such effects to have been produced by the Scriptures, as are above the sphere of any ci'eature's activity, it will then be evident, that the Scripture itself is superna- tural,— not the word of a mere creature, but of God himself. What the psalmist saith of thunder, that loud voice of nature from the clouds, we may apply to the voice of God speaking from heaven in the Scriptures ; it is a mighty voice, and full of majesty ; itbreaketh the cedars, kings and kingdoms, it divideth the flames of fire. The holy martyrs have with one bucket of this spiritual water quenched the scorching flames of that furious element into which their perse- cuting enemies have thrown them : it shaketh the wilderness of the wild, wicked world, making the stout hearts of the proudest sinners to tremble like the leaves of the trees with the wind ; and bringeth thepangs of the new birth upon them, whose hearts before were never disturbed at the most prodigious crimes. It discovereth the forests, and hunts sinners out of their thicket and refuge of lies, whither they run to hide themselves from the hue and cry of divine vengeance. But, to speak more particularly and distinctly, there are four {powerful and strange effects which the word puts forth upon the hearts of men, all which will evince its divine original. First, It is a heart-searching power, whereby it ransacks and rifles the consciences of men : it looks into the most secret transactions of the heart, and tells us what we do in our bed-cham~ ber, as Elisha did by the king of Syria, 2 Kings vi. 12, It cometh where no prince's warrant can impower his officer to search— I mean, the heart. We read that Christ came to his disciples when the doors were shut, and stood in the midst of them, John xx. 19. Thus the word (when all doors are shut, so that men can have no intelligence what passeth within the breasts of men,) comes in upon the sinner without asking him leave, and stands in the midst of his most secret plots and counsels, there presenting itself to his view, and saith to him, as Elisha to Gehazi, Went not my eye with thee when thou didst this and that? How often doth the sinner fi'.id his heart discovered, by the word preached, as if the minister had stood at his window, and seen what he did, or some had come and told tales of him to the preacher. Such I have known, that would not believe to the contrary, but that the minister had been informed of their pranks, and so levelled his discourse particularly at their breasts, when he hath been as ignorant of their doings, as of theirs that live in America, and only shot his reproofs like him that smote Ahab, who drew his bow at a ven- tiu'e, without taking aim at the person of any. From whence can this property come, but God, who claims it as his own incommunicable attribute ? ' I the Lord search the heart,' Jer. xvii. 10. God is in the word, and therefore it find- eth the way to get between the joints of the harness, though sent at random out of man's bow. If any creatiu-e could have free ingress into this retiring room of the heart, the devil, being a spirit, and of such a piercing, prying eye, were the most likely to be he ; yet even he is locked out of this room, though indeed he can peep into the next. Now if God can only search the heart, then that word which doth the same can come from no other but God himself. Who, indeed, can make a key to this lock, but he that knoweth all the wards of it? Suppose you locked up a sum of money in a cabinet, and but one in AND THE SWOKD OF THE SPIRIT. 57 1 the world, besides yourself, were privy to the place where you lay this key ; if you should hud it takeu away, and the cabinet opened and rifled, you would soon conclude whose doing it was. Thus, when you find your heart disclosed, and the secret thoughts therein laid open unto you in the word, you may easily conclude, that God is in it ; the key that doth this is of his making, who is the only one besides yourself that is privy to the counsels of your heart, that seeth all the secret traverses of your inward man ; who but he can send a spy so directly to your hiding-place, where you have laid up your treasures of dark- ness out of the world's sight ? There are two secrets tliat the word discloseth. First, What a man's own heart knoweth, and no creatin-e besides. Thus Christ told the woman of Samaria, what her neighbo\u-s covdd not charge her with ; from which she concluded him to be a prophet, — a man of God. And may we not conclude the Scripture to be the word of God, that doth the same ? Se- condly, Those things which a man's own heart is not privy to : God is said to be ' greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things,' 1 John iii. 20. He knows more by us, than we by omselves : and doth not the word dive to the bottom of the heart, and fetch up that filth thence, which the eye of the conscience never had the sight of before, nor ever coidd, without the help of the word ? Rom. vii. 7 : 'I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.' And if the word find that out which escapeth the scrutiny of a man's own heart, doth it not prove a Deity to be in it.' So argueth the apostle, 1 Cor. xiv. 25, speaking of the power the word preached hath to lay open the heart, 'Thus are the secrets,' saith he, 'of his heart made manifest: and so falling down on his face, will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.' CHAPTER IX. THE PROPERTY OF THE .WORD TO AWAKEN AND TERRIFY THE CONSCIENCE. The second effect the Scripture hath on the spirits of men, by which its divine pedigree may be proved, is, the power it exerciseth on the conscience to con- vince and terrify it. Conscience is a castle that no batteries, but what God raiseth against it, can shake ; no power can command it to stoop, but that which heaven and earth obey. He that disarms the strong man, must be stronger than he ; he that masters the conscience, must be greater than it, and so God only is. Now the word being able to shake this power of the soul, which dis- daineth to stoop to any but God, must needs be from him ; and that the word exerts such a power upon the conscience, who will doubt ? Do we not see it daily chastising the proudest sinners, even to make them cry and whine under its convictions, like a child under the rod? Yea, doth it not slay them outright, that they fall down dispirited at one thunder-clap of the law let off by God upon them ? ' When sin revived, I died,' saith Paul. He who before was a man as well provided in his own opinion for his spiritual estate as Job was for his out- ward, when he had his flocks and herds, sons and daughters, health and pros- perity, as yet untouched by the hand of God ; but when the law came to charge sin home upon him, it stripped his conscience as naked as Job afterward was in his outward condition. The man's eyes are o])encd now to see how naked and void of all holiness he is ; yea, his fair skin, of pharisaical strictness, with the beauty of which he was formerly so far in love, as if he had been another Absalom, without mole or wart, he now judgeth it to be but odious deformity, and him:|elf a most loathsome creatm-e, by reason of those plague-sores and ulcers that he sees running on him. Yea, such power the word had upon him, that it laid him trembling over the bottomless pit, in a despair of Inniself, and his own righteousness. Hath any creature an arm like this of the word? Or can any book penned by the wit of man command the heart to tremble at the rehearsal thei-eof, as this can do? Even a Felix on the bench, when a poor prisoner preacheth this word at the bar to him, is put into a shaking fit. Who but a God coidd make those monsters of men, that had paddled in the blood of Christ, and who scorned his doctrine so as to account the professors of it fools and idiots, yet come afl'rightcd in their own thoughts, at a secret prick given them in Peter's sermon, and cry out in the open assembly, ' Men and bre- thren, what shall we do to be saved ?' Doth not this carry as visible a print of a Deity as when Moses clave the rock with a little rod in his hand ? gij-g AND THE SAVORD OF THE SPIRIT. But you will say, if there be such a conscience-shaking power in the word, how comes it to pass, that many notorious sinners sit so peaceably, and sleep so soundly under it? They read it at home, and hear it preached powerfully in public, yet are so far from feeling in their consciences, that they remain senseless and stupid ; yea, can laugh at the preacher, and shake off all the threatenings denounced, when the sermon is done. First, I answer, many sinners who seem so jocund in our eyes have not such merry lives as you think for. A book may be fairly bound and gilt, yet have sad stories written within it. Sinners will not tell us all the secret rebukes that conscience from the word gives them. If you will judge of Herod by the jollity of his feast, you may think he wanted no joy; but at another time we see that John's ghost walked in his conscience. And so doth the word haunt many a one, who to us appear to lay nothing to heart ; in the midst of their laughter their heart is sad ; you see the lightning in their face, but hear not the thunder that rumbles in their conscience. Secondly, It is enough that the word doth leave such an impression upon the conscience of any, though not of all, to prove its divinity ; one affirmative testimony speaketh louder for the proof of a thing than many negatives do to the contrary. The word is not a physical instrument, but moral, and works not by a virtue inherent in it, but power impressed on it by the Spirit of God that first indited it, and this power he putteth forth according to his o\yn good pleasure ; so that the same word sets one man a trembling, and leaves another (in the same seat, may be,) as little moved by it, as the pillar he leaneth on. Thus, as two at a mill, so at a sermon, one is taken, and the other left ; one is humbled, and another hardened : not from impotency in the word, butfreeness of God's dispensing it : his message shall do to whom it is sent, and none else. It is as a man strikes with a sword, back or edge, strong or weak, that makes it cut or not, gives a slight wound or deep. The word pierceth the conscience according to the Divine power that is impressed on it. The three men walked in the fire, and were not singed ; others were consumed as soon as they came within scent of it. Shall we say, that fire was not hot, because one was burnt, and the other not? Some their consciences do not so much as smell of the word, though the flames of the threatening fly about their ears ; others are set all on fire with the terrors of it. Thirdly. The senseless stupidity of some imder the stroke of the word is not to be imputed to its impotency, but to the just judgment of God, wherewith he plagueth them for sinning against the convictions thereof; for commonly they are of that sort, whose consciences are impenetrable, the withering curse of God having lighted upon them ; no wonder their judgments are darkened, and con- sciences seared. It was as great a manifestation of Christ's power (and his disciples judged it so) when with two or three words the fig-tree was blasted, as if he had caused it to spring and sprout when withered and dry. The power of God is as great in hardening Pharaoh's heart, as in melting Josiah's. CHAPTER X. THE COMFORTING PROPERTY OF THE WORD TO BLEEDING CONSCIENCES. Thirdly, Its power to comfort and raise a dejected spirit. Conscience is God's prison in the creature's own bosom, from whence none can have his release, except by his warrant that made the mittimus, and committed him thither. Indeed he is a weak prince, that hath no prison to commit offenders into, but what another can break open. This, where God lays sinners in chains, is not such. 'A wounded spirit,' saith Solomon, ' who can bear?' Yea, and who can cure ? If any creature could, surely the devils were as able as any to do it : but we see they have not to this day found the way to shake off" those fetters which God keeps them in ; but lie roaring under the unspeakable torment of God's wrath : and they who cannot cure their own wounds, are likely to be but poor physicians to help others ; indeed, they acknowledge it beyond their skill and power: 'Wherefore dost thou ask of me,' said the devil to Said, ' seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thy enemy?' 1 Sam. xxviii. 16. The distress of an afflicted conscience ariseth from the dismal sense of divine wrath for sin : now none can remove this, but he that can infallibly assure the soul of God's pardoning mercy ; and this lies so deep in God's heart, that God alone, who only knowcth his own thoughts, can be the messenger to bring the news ; AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. «;7'^ and, therefore, the word which doth this can come from none hut liim ; and that it is ahle not onlj' to do this, but also to fill the soul with joy unspeakable, and full of gloiy, is a truth so undoubted, that we need not ascend up to heaven for further confirmation ; that Spirit which first indited the word hath sealed it to the hearts of innumerable believers. Indeed, all the saints acknowledge their comfort and peace to be drawn out of these wells of salvation. ' In the midst of my perplexed thoughts, thy comforts delight my soul,' says the psalmist. Nay, he doth not only tell us his own experience, wlience he had his joy, but others also to have had theirs from the same tap, Psa. cvii. 17 : ' Fools because of transgression are afflicted.' And what then can ease them? WiU all the rarities that can be got make a diversion to their thoughts, and ease them of their pain ? No, for ' their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw near to the gates of death,' ver. 18. What cordial then have they left to use, or way to take for their relief? Truly, none, but to l)etake themselves to prayers and tears ; ' Tlien they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he savetli them out of their distress,' ver. 19. And with what key doth God open their prison door ? It follows, ver. 20, ' He sent his word, and healed them.' If you shall say, all this is meant of outward trouble, yet surely you must grant it holds more strong concerning that which is inward. What, but a word from God's mouth, can heal a distressed spirit, when the body pineth and languisheth, till God speaketh a healing word unto it? Great and mighty things are spoken of thee, and done by thee, O holy Word ! Thou outviest the world's joy, and makest the soul that hath tasted thy strong consolations to disrelish all sensual delights : so pure and powerful is the light of that joy which thou kindlest in the saint's bosom, that it quencheth all sinful, carnal joy with its beams, as the sun doth the fire of the hearth. Thou conquerest the horror of death, so it is not feared. Thou vanquishest the pains thereof, that they are not felt. Thou treadest on scorpions and serpents, and they have no power to sting or hurt those that believe in thee. Devils know thee, and flee before thee, and leave those consciences which they had so long under their power and tyranny, for thee to enter with thy sweet consolations. Thou quenchest the flames of hell itself, and makest the sold, that was thrown, bound by despair, into the fiery furnace of God's wrath, to walk comfortably. Thou bringest heaven down to earth, and givest the believing soul a prospect of that heavenly Jerusalem, as if he were walking in the blessed streets thereof; yea, thou entertainest him with the same delicacies which glorified saints (though more fully) feed on, so that sometimes he forgets he is in the body, even when pains and torments are upon him. This have the saints experienced more than their own tongue can express ; so that we may say to him that yet questions whence the Scriptui-es came, as the blind man cured by Christ did to the Pharisees, John ix. 30, ' Herein is a marvellous thing,' saith he, ' that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes :' so here. This is marvellous, yea, ridicidous, to say, we know not whence the Scripture is, when it can do all this. Since the world began was it not heard, that the word of a mere creature could remove mountains of despair, and fill the souls of poor sinners with such joy and peace, in spite of hell, and the creature's own unbelief, under the weight of which, as a heavy grave-stone, he lay buried and sealed. CHAPTER XL THE CONVERTING POWER OF THE WORD. Fourthly, The work of conversion, which none but God, who is the God of all grace, can produce. When John's disciples came to Christ to be resolved who he was, whether the Messias or not, Matt. xi. 4, 5, Christ did not tell them who lie was, but sends them to take their answer from the marvellous works he did : ' Go and shew John again those tilings which ye do hear and see ; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk ; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear ; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them,' or gospelized ; that is, they are transformed into the very nature of the gospel, and actuated by the spirit which hi-eathcs in the gos])el. By which Christ's drift was, to give an ocular demonstration of their faith, that he who did such miracles could be no other than he whom they souglit; and that which brings 574 ^^^ '^^^ SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. up the rear, is the converting power of the word, not set last, because the least among tliem, but rather because it is tlie greatest wonder of them all, and com- prehends in it all the other. When souls are converted, the blind receive their sight ; 'you were darkness, but now light in the Lord.' The lame Avalk, in that the affections (the soul's feet) are set at liberty, and receive strength to run the ways of God with delight. Lepers are cleansed, in that filthy lusts are cured, and fovil soids are sanctified; and so of the rest. Now, though the former miracles cease, yet this, which is the greatest, still accompanying the word, affords such a demonstration for its divinity, as reason itself cannot oppose. Is it beyond the skill and strength of the mightiest angel to make the least pile of grass in the field ? Much more the new creature in the heart, the noblest of God's works. 'I'hat, therefore, which new moulds the heart, and makes the creature as unlike to his former self as the lamb is to the wolf; the one meek and harmless, the other fierce and ravenous ; must needs be from God ; and such changes are the daily product of the word. How many, once under the power of their lusts, throwing, like madmen, their fire-brands about, possessed with as many devils as sins, and hurried hither and thither by these furies, yet at the hearing of one gospel sermon, have you not seen them quite metamor- phosed, and, with him in the gospel, out of whom the devil was cast, sitting at Jesus' feet in their right mind, bitterly bewailing their former coiu-se, and liating their once-beloved lusts, more than ever they were fond of them ? I hope someof j^ou can say, concerning yourselves, as the apostle doth of himself, and others of his brethren. Tit. iii. 3, 5, ' We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,' &c. ' But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, — he saved us by the washing of regeneration,' &c. And can you, who are the very epistle of Christ, written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, in the fleshly tables of your hearts, stand yet in doubt whether that word came from God, which is thus able to bring you home to God ? How long might a man sit at the foot of a philosopher, before he could find such a commanding power go forth with his lectures of morality, to take away his old heart full of lusts, and put a new and holy one in the room of it? Some, indeed, in their school, have been a little refined from the dregs of sensuality, as Polemo, who went a drunkard to hear Plato, and returned a temperate man from his lecture ; and no wonder, if we consider what violence such beastly sins offer to the very light of a natural conscience, that lesser light appointed by God to rule the night of the heathen world. But take the best philosopher of them all, and you shall find sins that are of a little finer spinning (such as spiritual wickedness and heart-sins are) that are acted behind the curtain, in the retiring room of the inner man ; these were so far from being the spoils of their victorious arms, that they could never come to the sight of them. But the word treads on these high places of spiritual wickednesses, and leaves not any stronghold of them untaken. It pursues sin and Satan to their bogs and fastnesses, it digs the sinner's lusts like vermin out of their holes and burrows. The heart itself is no safe sanctuary for sin to sit in, the word will take it thence (as Joab from the horns of the altar) to slay it ; those corruptions that escaped the sword of the moralist, and honest heathen, fall by the edge of the word. I cannot give a better instance of this converting power of the word, than by presenting you with the mira- culous victories obtained by it over the hearts of men, when the apostles were sent out first to preach the grace of Christ. Wherever they came they found the world up in arms against them, and the devil at the head of their troops, to make their utmost resistance ; yet what unheard-of victories were got by them ! Was it not strange, that, without drawing any other sword than the everlasting gospel, they should turn the world upside down, as their enemies themselves confessed ? Slighting the devil's works, casting down his holds wherever they came, and overcoming those barbarous heathens, whom the devil had held in his peaceable possession so many thousand years, to renounce their idolatries in which they had been bred, and trained up all their days, to receive a new Lord, and him a crucified Jesus, and this at the report of a few silly men loaded with the vilest reproaches that the wit of man could invent, or malice rake together, to besmear their persons, and render the doctrine they preach odious to the world ; — this, I say, is such an unheard-of conquest, as could not AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 57,5 be obtained by any less than tbe arm of the Ahnighty, especially if we take two or three circumstances into our consideration. First, The meanness of the persons employed to preach this doctrine ; being of the meanest and lowest of the peo^jle, and many of them as mean in their intellectual accomplishments as they were in tlieir external appearance in the world, having no help from human learning to raise their parts, and set a varnish upon their discourses : men very imlit for such an enterprise, had the success of their works depended on their own furniture, which put their very enemies to a stand whence thej' had their, wisdom ; knowing well how low their parentage, and unsuitable their breeding were, to give them any advantage toward such a high undertaking, Acts iv. 13. Surely these poor men could contribute no more by anything that was their own, to that wonderful success which followed their labours, than the blowing of the rams' horns could to the laying of Jericho's walls flat with the ground, or the sounding of Jehoshaphat's musical instruments to the routing of so formidable an army of his enemies : so that we must attribute it to the breath of God, by which they sounded the trumpet of the gospel, and his sweet Spirit charming the hearts of their hearers, that such mighty works were done by them. Secondly, If we consider the nature of the doctrine they held forth and commended to the world, which was not only strange and new, enough to make the hearei-s shy of it, but so contrary to the humour of man's corrupt nature, that it hath not one thought in the sinner's heart to befriend it. No wonder, indeed, that Mahomet's spiced cup went down so easily, it being so luscious and pleasing to man's carnal palate. We are soon gained to espouse that which gratifies the flesh, and easily persuaded to deliver up ovirselves into the hands of such opinions as offer quarter to our lusts, yea, promise them satis- faction. Indeed, we cannot wonder to see Christianity itself generally and rea- dily embraced, when it is presented in Rome's whorish dress, with its purity adulterated. But take the doctrine of the gospel in its own native excellencj', before it falls into these hucksters' hands, and it is such as a carnal heart cannot like, because it lays the axe to the root of every sin, and bids defiance to all that take part with it. This may make us step aside (as Moses once did to behold the bush) to see this great wonder. A doctrine believed and embraced that is pure nonsense to carnal reason, teaching us to be saved by another's righteousness, wise with another's wisdom, to trust him as a God, that was himself a child ; to rely on him to deliver us from the power of sin and Satan, that fell himself under the wrath of men, — O, how great a gulf of objections which reason brings against this doctrine, must be shot before a man can close with it ! Yet this doctrine to find such welcome, that never any prince, at the beat of his drum, had his subjects flock more in throngs to enlist themselves in his muster-roll, than the apostles had midtitudes of believers offering them- selves to come under baptism, — the military oath given by them to their converts! Thirdly, Consider how little worldly encouragement this word which they preached gave to his disciples, and you will say, God was in it of a truth. Had it been the way to thrive in the world, or had it won the favour of kings to have been their disciples, and taught them how to climb the hill of honour, we could not have wondered to have seen so many worship the rising sun ; but, alas ! the gospel comes not with these bribes in its hand ; no golden apples thrown in the way to entice them on ; Christ bids his disciples stoop, not to take up crowns for their heads, but a cross for their backs : ' If any one will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.' They must not dream of getting the world's treasure, which they have not, but prepare to part with what they have. When the apostles preached it, the way it led to was not to princes' palaces, with their preferment, but to prisons and dungeons, racks and gibbets ; now to see poor creatures so far forget all their worldly interest, estates, and honour, children of their loins, and wives of their bosom, so as to trample upon them, yea, joyfidly welcome the bloodiest deaths their enemies could invent, and thank their persecutors for the favour of admitting them to share with the torments of their brethren, as if they had gone to divide a spoil, and not to be made one ! — this sin-ely speaks a heavenly power to be in that doctrine, on whose altar, and for whose defence they were so willing to be sacrificed. But though the profession of the gospel cost them so dear, yet, woidd it but have indulged its disciples to have aimed at their own honour, and 576 A^^ ^"E SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. pleased themselves with the renown that they should win by their sufferings, and that their names should be written and read in the leaves of fame when they were dead and gone, some Roman spirit might have been found to have endured as much : or if it had taught them, that they should have ascended into their fiery chariot of martyrdom, to receive heaven's glory as the purchase of their patience and prowess, this might have hardened some popish shaveling against the fear of those bloody deaths they met with . but the doctrine they preach allows neither, but teaches them, when they have done their best, and suffered the worst that their enemies' wrath can inflict for the cause of God, to i-enounce the honour of all, and write themselves unprofitable servants. All these considerations united, make a strong cord to draw any that have stagger- ed in this particular to a firm belief of the divine parentage of the Scriptures. CHAPTER XII. WHY THE WORD OF GOD IS CALLED THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, AND FROM IT THE POINT RAISED. Having dispatched the first part, which presented us with the weapon itself commended to the Christian's use, that is, ' the word of God;' the second part of the text now comes under our consideration : and that is the notion under which this weapon is commended, or the metaphor in which it is covered, that is, ' the sword of the Spirit.' And here a double inquiry would be made. First, Why the word of God is compared to a sword. Secondly, Why this sword is attributed to the Spirit, and bears his name, — ' the sword of the Spirit. ' For the first let this suffice : — The sword being both of general and constant use among soldiers, and also that weapon with which they not only defend themselves, but do the greatest execution upon their enemies, most fitly sets forth the necessity and excellent use of the word of God, by which the Chris- tian both defends himself, and offends, yea, cuts down before him all his ene- mies. For the second, — Why is this sword attributed to the Spirit? — some take the abstract here to be put for the concrete, the sword of the Spirit, for the spiritual sword ; as if it were no more but. Take the spiritual sword, which is the word of God ; according to that of the apostle, 2 Cor. x. 4, ' tlie weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty;' that is spiritual. Indeed, Satan, being a spirit, must be fought with spiritual arms ; and such is the word, — a spiritual sword. But this, though tx-ue, reacheth not the full sense of the place ; ■TTViVfiaToc is taken personaliter, for the person of the Holy Spirit. And in these three respects the written word is the sword of the Spirit. First, He is the author of it : a weapon it is which his hand alone formed and fashioned ; it came not out of any creature's forge : ' Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,' 2 Pet. i. 21. Secondly, The Spirit is the only true interpreter of the word. Hence that known passage of Barnard, — ' Quo Spirit u fad a; sunt Scrij)tiircB, eo Spiritu legi desiderant, ipso etiam intelligendcB sunt; — The Scriptures must be read, and can be understood by that Spirit alone by whom they were made. He that made the lock, can only help us to a key that will fit its wards, and open its sense : ' No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation,' 2 Pet. i. 20. And why not? It follows, because it came not fi-om any private spirit at first; 'For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man,'&c., ver. 21. And who knows the mind of the Spirit so well as himself? Thirdly, It is only the Spirit of God can give the word its efficacy and power in the soul. It is his ofiice, as I said, — Sigillare animum charactere rerum creditarum. Except he lays his weight on the truths we read and hear, to apply them close, and as it wej-e cut their very image in our minds and hearts, they leave no more impression than a seal set upon a rock or a stone would do ; still the mind fluctuates, and the heart is unsatisfied, notwithstand- ing our own and others' utmost endeavours to the contraiy. It was not the disciples' rowing, but Christ's coming, that could quiet the storm or bring them to shore. Not all our study and inquiry can fix the mind, or pacify the heart in the belief of the word, till the Spirit of God comes. ' Do ye now believe?' AND THE SWOUD OF TIIK SPIRIT. 577 saith Christ to his disciples, John xvi. 31. How oft, alas! had the same thing sonnded in their ears, and knocked at their door for entertainment, hnt never could he received, till now that the Spirit put in his finger to lift up the latch ! B. Davenant, on Colossians, tells us a story out of Gerson, concerning a holy man whom himself knew to be sadly beaten and huftetcd with frequent doubts and scruples, even so as to call into question an article of fiiith, but afterwards was brought into so clear a light, and full evidence of its truth, that he doubt- ed no more of it, than of his own being ; and this certainty, saith Gerson, did not come from any new argument he had found out to demonstrate the truth of it, but from the Spirit of God, humbling and captivating his proud understanding, and irradiating the same. The words thus opened present this doctrine : — That the written word, or the Scripture, is the sword by which the Spirit of God enables the saints to overcome all their enemies. The Spirit will do no- thing for them without the word, and they can do nothing to purpose without him. The word is the sword, and the Spirit of Christ the arm which wields it in and for the saints. All the great conquests which Christ and his saints achieve in the world, are got with this sword; when Christ comes forth against his ene- mies this sword is girded on his thigh, Psa. xlv. 3 : ' Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty;* and his victory over them ascribed to it, ver. 4, 'And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth :' that is, the word of truth. We find, Rev. i. 16, Christ holding seven stars in his right hand, intimating the great care he hath over his people, particularly the ministers, ■who are more shot at than any other ; and how doth he protect them, but by his sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth? This is the great privilege which the poorest believer in the church hath by the covenant of grace, such a one as Adam had not in the first covenant. He, when fallen, had a flaming sword to keep him out of Paradise, but had no such sword,' when innocent, to keep him from sin- ning, and so from being turned out of that happy place and state. No, he was left to stand upon his own defence, and, by his vigilance, to be a life-guard to himself But now the word of God stands between the saints and all danger. This will the better appear if we single out the chief enemies with whom the saints' war is waged, and shew how they all fall before the word, and receive their fatal blow from this one sword, as Abimelech slew the ' threescore sons of Jerubbaal upon one stone,' Judg. ix. o. CHAPTER Xni. WHEREIN IS SHEWN HOW THE PERSECUTORS OF GOD's TRUTH AND CHURCH ARE CONQUERED BY THIS SWORD. The bloody persecutor, who breathes slaughter against the saints, and pursues them with fire and fagot. — Such a race of giants there ever was, and will be as long as the devil hath any kindred alive in the world, who, when it lies in their jiower to maintain their father's kingdom of darkness, will not fear to trample under their feet those stars of Heaven whose light acquaints the world with their horrid impieties, and so hazards the weakening of the devil's interests in the minds of men. Hence those bloody wars raised, cruel fires of martyrdom kindled, and massacres practised upon the saints, with many devilish witty in- ventions of torments, that these innocent souls might linger in their pains, and stay the longer in the jaws of death, thereby to feel themselves to die, as one of them barbarously and inhumanly said ! Well, what ladders doth God use to scale these mountains of pride? Where are the weapons with which the people of God resist and overcome these monsters of men that thus defy the Lord and his hosts? Wouldst thou know where ? Truly, they are to be seen in the tower of David, builded for an armoury, — the word of God, I mean. Here hang the shields and bucklers, the swoi'ds and darts, by which the worthies of God have in all ages defended themselves against the rage of persecutors, and also triumphed gloriously over their greatest force and power. Out of this brook they take those smooth stones by which they prostrate these Goliaths. This sort of the church's enemies are overcome two ways — either by their con- version or destruction. Now the word of God is the sword that effects both : it hath two edges, Heb. iv. 12^ and so cuts on both sides. 2 p 578 AND THE SVVOKD OF THE SPIRIT. Section I. — The elect, who for a time, tlirough ignorance and prejudice, are joined with the saints' enemies, as busy sticklers and bloody persecutors as the worst, — the word of God is a sacrificing knife, to rip open their hearts, and let out the hot blood of their sins, which made them so mad against the church of God, yea, and to prepare them also, by converting grace, as an offering acceptable unto God, as the apostle sheweth, Rom. xv. IG. Thus the murderers of oiu- blessed Lord, we find by one sermon of Peter so strongly wrought upon that they presently vomit up his blood, and, at one prick which the point of this sword gave them, crying for quarter at God's hands, yea, throwing down their persecuting arms, and most freely entering their names into his muster-roll, whose life but a few days before they had so cruelly taken away, about three thousand of them at once being baptized in his name. Acts ii. 41. Yea, Paul himself, (whom I may call, as Erasmus doth Augustine, before his conversion, the great whale, that did so much mischief to the church of Christ,) what hook did he use to strike him with but the word? Never had Christ a more furious enemy in the world than this man : his heai't was so inflamed with rage against the saints, that the fiery stream thereof came out of his lips as from the mouth of a hot furnace, breathing slaughter against them wherever he went, Actsix. 1. Now, what force of arms, besides the word preached, did Christ send to take the castle of this bloody man's heart? First, Christ himself took him immediately to task, preaching such a thundering sermon from his heavenly pulpit as dis- mountecl this proud rider, and sent him bound in the fetters of his own troubled sold prisoner even to that place where he thought to have shut up others, and then left his Spirit to carry on the work of his conversion, by applying and keeping the plaster of the word close to his heart ; and how powerfully it wrought on him, he himself tells us, Rom. vii. 9 : ' When the commandment came, sin revived and I died ;' that is, when the law came by the convictions of the Spirit to rake in his soul and pierce his conscience, then sin revived those lusts ; which law, like a sleepy lion, now in his awakened conscience, roared so dreadfully that he was as it were struck dead with the teiTor of them, as a poor damned creature, and would undoubtedly have gone away in that swoon of horror and despair, had not the joyful news of the gospel grace been by the same word and spirit applied seasonably, to bring him to the life of hope and comfort again. Thus was this boisterous, furious enemy of the saints chained and tamed by the terrors of the law, changed and renewed by the gentleness and mercy of the gospel, that he became more ready to lay down his own life now for the defence of the gospel, than, before conversion, to take away their lives that professed it. Section II. — The saints' persecuting enemies vanish, when mined and destroyed. Indeed, if they continue impenitent, and harden themselves against the truths and servants of God, that is the end they must all come to. They are like ravenous beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, 2 Pet. ii. 12, and they may know beforehand, as the certainty of their ruin, so what shall procure it, and that is the word of God : ' If any will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies.' It is spoken of those that shall dare to oppose and persecute the faithful preachers of the gospel, fire comes out of their mouths to destroy them. Though they have their will on the bodies of the saints, butchering and burning them, yet the word they preach will be their destruction : that lives, and stays behind to pay the saints' debts, and avenge them on their enemies. God has resolved they must and shall in this manner be killed : the word must give them the fatal stroke. Julian confessed as much when bleeding under his deadly wound ; though the aiTow came out of a Per- sian bow, yet the wretch knew it was sent by a higher than a Persian hand : Vicisti Galileos! — O Galilean, thou hast overcome, and been too hard for me ! His conscience told him that his spite against the truth of Christ was his death ; and many more besides him have acknowledged as much when under the hand of justice. The word of God, which they have opposed, hath appeared to them as engraven upon their judgments. O this sword of the word, it hath a long reach ! It is at the breast of every enemy God and his saints have in the world ; and though at present they cannot see whence their danger shoidd come, (they are so great and powerful, so safe and secure, as they think,) yet the word of God having set down their doom already, God will sooner or later let in their AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 579 destruction upon them. When the prophet would express the indubitable ruin of the Philistines impending-, mark what prognostic he gives, ' Woe unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast ! the word of the Lord is against you;' as if he had said. You are a lost, undone people ; the whole world cannot save you, for tlie word of the Lord is against you. The threatening of the word, like light- ning or mildew, blasts wherever it goes, and its curse burns to the very root. Hence all the seven nations of Canaan fell into the hand of the Israelites, like ripe figs into the mouth of him that shakes the tree. The word of the Lord cui'sing them had gone before them to make their conquest certain. This Balak knew, and therefore woidd have given ever so much for a few words out of Balaam's mouth to have cursed Israel in God's name. The truth is, though we look upon the monarchs of the world, and their armies, as those which have the sway of the aliairs of the world, yet these are no more than the fly on the wheel ; it is the word of God that hath the great stroke in all that is done on the world's stage : ' I have set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, to build, and to plant,' Jer. i. 10. Indeed, the whole earth is God's ground ; and who hath power to build on his ground, or pull down, but himself? And in his word he hath given his mind what he will have done to his enemies, and for his saints ; and therefore, as all the mercies they have, they receive and acknowledge as gracious performances of the pro- mise, so all the judgments executed on their enemies as accomplishments of .the threatenings of the word, called therefore, ' the judgments written.' CHAPTER XIV. "^VHEREIN IT IS SHEWN HOW VICTORIOUS A SWORD OVER THE SEDUCER AND HERETIC THE WORD OF GOD IS. The seducer is another enemy the Christian hath to cope with, and no less dangerous than the other, nay, in this respect, far more formidable ; the per- secutor can kill only the body, but the seducer comes to poison the soul. Better to be slain outright by his sword, than to be taken alive (as the apostle phraseth it) in this snare of the devil, which these whom he sends forth privily lay where they are often least suspected. When Paul fell into the hands of the persecutor, he could glory and rejoice that he had escaped the latter : ' I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, hence- forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,' 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. See how this holy man triumphs and flourishes his colours, as if the field were fought, and the day won ; whereas, good man, he was now going to lay his head on the block undei- the hand of bloody Nero, as you may perceive, ver. (5, ' I am now ready to be ofi'ered up :' alluding to the kind of death, it is likely, he was shortly to undergo. But you will say, What great cause, then, had he to cry victoria, when his affairs were in such a desperate condition ? This made him triumph, ' he had kept the faith ;' and that was a thousand times more joy and comfort to him, than the laying down his life was a trouble. If he had left the faith, by cowardice, or chosen instead of it any false doctrine, he had lost his soul by losing that ; but having kept the faith, he knew that he did but part with his life to receive a better at God's hafid than was taken from him by man's. The locusts, mentioned Ilev. ix. 3, (which Mr. Mede takes to be the Saracens, who were so great a scoiu-ge and plague to the Roman world newly Christianized,) we find, ' they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails,' ver. 10; which that learned writer interprets to be their cursed Mahometan doctrine, with which they poisoned the souls, wherever their con- quering sword came. It seems, though the sword of war in the hand of a bloody enemy be a heavy judgment to a people, yet the propagation of cursed errors is a greater; this is the sting in the tail of that judgment. I do not doubt but many that were godly might fall by the sword of that enemy in such a general calamity, but only those that were not among God's sealed ones felt the sting in their tail, by being poisoned with their cursed imposture ; and, ' therefore, they alone ai-e said to be hurt by them, ver. 4, We may be cut off" by an enemy's sword and not be hurt, but we cannot drink of their false doctrine, and say so. Now, the word of God is the sword, whereby the Spirit enables the saints to defend themselves against this enemy ; yea, to rout and ruin this 2 I- 2 580 AN^ '^^^ SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. subtle band of Satan. We read of Apollos, Acts xviii. 28, that ' he mightily convinced tlie Jews ;' he did, as it were, knock them down with the weight of liis reasoning : and out of what armoury fetched he the sword with which he so prevailed? See the same verse, ' Shewing by the Scriptures, that Jesus was Christ;' and, therefore, is said to be ' mighty in the Scriptures,' ver. 24 : a mighty man of valour, and so expert through his excellent knowledge in them, that the erroneous Jews could no more stand before him, holding this sword in his hand, than a child with a wooden dagger can against a giant formidably armed with killing weapons. When Paul warns Timothy to stand upon his defence carefully against seducers, he devises no better coimsel how he might keep out of their hands, than sending him to the Scriptures, and bidding him shut himself up within these : ' But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned,' 2 Tim. iii. 14. And in the next verse, he shews what lesson he means that he had learned, by telling him, that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation ; and, by consequence, wiser than all his enemies, if he stuck close to them. Other arms we may load ourselves with by tumbling over many authors, but he that hath this sword, and hath been taught of the Spirit the use of this weapon, is provided well to meet the stoutest champion for error which the devil hath on his side. With this, poor women have been able to disarm great doctors of their studied arguments, defeating all their art and logic with one plain place of Scriptvire : as she who killed Abimelech, that great commander, by tumbling a piece of millstone on his head. Out of this armoury came those weapons Paul tells us are so 'mighty through God, casting down imaginations,' or reasonings ; by which an ancient will have the Greek philosophers' syllogisms to be meant. Indeed, he that hath the word on his side, and a holy skill to use it, hath as much advantage of his adversary that comes with other armour (let him be never so good a fencer) as a man with a good sword hath over him that comes forth only with a bulrush in his hand. All eiTor dreads the light of the word, and fears more to be examined by that, than a thief does to be tried before a strict judge. Hereticorum sententias prodid/sse est superesse, saith Hieron. Unfold them, or bring them and the word face to face, and, like Cain, they hang down their head, they are put to shame. This is the only certain ordeal to try suspected opinions at. If they can walk upon this fiery law imhurt, unreproved, they may safely pass for truths, and none else. Paul tells of some ' that will not endure sound doctrine,' 2Tim. iv. 3. Alas I how should they, when their minds are not sound? It is too searching for them. Gouty feet cannot go but on a soft way, which generally yields to them. Such must have a doctrine that Avill comply with their humour, which the word will not, but rather judge them ; and this they think it will do too soon at the great day, therefore, now they shun it, lest it should torment them before their time. Thus, the Quakers have their skulking hole to which they run from the Scripture, at whose bar they know their opinions would be cast, and therefore appeal to another, the light within them ; or, in plain English, their natural conscience, a judge which is known too well to be coiTupt, and easily bi'ibed to speak what the lusts of men will often have him do. Ah, poor creatures, what a sad change have they made, to leave the word, that is an inflexible rule of faith, which can no more deceive them than God himself, to trust the guidance of themselves to themselves; a more ignorant, unfaithful guide, the devil could not have chosen for them. ' He that is his own teacher,' saith Bernard, ' is sure to have a fool for his master.' God himself, by Solomon, saith, ' The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth imto counsel is wise,' Prov. xii. 15 ; but he most wise, that makes the word of God the man of his coimsel. The Papist hath his thicket and wood at his back also, — antiquity and traditions, to which he flies before the face of the Sci'ipture for sanctuary, as Adam did to a bush when God came to him ; as if any antiquity were so authentic as God's own oracles ; and any traditions of men to be laid in the balance with the Scripture. To name no more, the Socinian folds himself up in his own proud reason, and assumes such state, that the sense of Scripture must be reconciled to his reason, and not his reason bent to the Scripture ; he must have a religion and Scriptiu-e that fits the model which his own reason di'aws, or he will have neither : the root of many prodigious errors and heretics, like those of whom Tertullian .speaks, Qui Platonicum et AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIKIT. 581 Anstotelicum Christianismum procitderunt, who went to the philosopher's forge to shape a Christianity. What is this, but to carry gold to be weighed in the chandler's scales, and to look for the sun by the light of the moon? A modern divine saith, 'Most heresies have sprung either from pride, ignorance, or the sophistvv of reason.' The last of which seems to be the rock on whic'.i Paul observes some to have split ; ' some professing have erred concerning the faith,' 1 Tim. vi. 21, and, therefore, so affectionately exhorts Timothy to keep off this dangerous shore, and steer his course by the word, ver. 20 : * O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust,' &c. ; for this which is here com- mitted to him, I take for ' the form of sound words' he exhorts him to hold fast in the Second Epistle, chap. i. 13. Object. But we see heretics quote Scripture for their most prodigious errors, and draw this sword for their defence, as well as the orthodox : how then is it such a powerful instrument against error? ulns. What will not men of subtle heads, con-upt hearts, and bold faces, dare to do for carrying on their wicked party, when once they have espoused an error or any sinful way ? Korah and his ungodly company dare give out that the Lord is among them, and they have as much to do with the priesthood as Aaron himself, on whom the holy oil was poured, Numb. xvi. 13. And Zedekiah, that arch flatterer, fears not to father his lie on the God of truth himself, 1 Kings xxii. 11 : 'He made him horns of iron, and said. Thus saith the Lord, With these thou shall push the Syrians until thou hast consumed them ;' whereas, God never spoke such a word. It is no f marvel, then, to see any lay their bastard-brats at God's door, and cry, they have Scripture on their side. By this impudence, they may abuse credulous souls } into a belief of what they say, as a cheater may pick the purses of ignorant people, by shewing them something like the king's broad seal, which was his own forgery ; yea, God may suffer them to seduce others of more raised parts and understanding, as a just judgment on them for rebelling against the light of their own conscience : as Pharaoh, by the false miracles of the magicians, was set far- ther from complying with Moses : and those of the antichristian faction, 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11, who, ' because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, for this cause God sends them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie.' But sincere souls, that search humbly for truth, and have no other design in their inquiry after it, but that they may know the will of God, and obey it, they shall find, upon their faithful prayers to God, a light most clear, shining from the Scrijjture to guide them safe from those pitfalls of fatal errors into which others fall, towards whom the dark side of this cloud stands : ' The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; a good understanding have all they that do his commandments,' Psa. cxi. 10. 'i'he fox, when hard put to it, will ^ fall in subtly with the dogs, and hunt with them as one of their company, but then his strong scent, which he cannot leave behind him, betrays him. Thus heretics, to shelter their errors, will crowd them in among Scripture truths, and by ) their false glosses make them seem to be of their company, but they cannot so perfume their rotten opinions, but their rank scent and savour will be smelt, and / discerned by those who have their senses exercised. A heretic can reap no advantage by an appeal to the Scripture. What Christ saith in another case, Matt. xxvi. 52, ' All they that take the sword shall perish by the sword,' is most true of all heretics ; they are confounded and confuted by that very sword of the word which they lift up to defend themselves. CHAPTER XV. OUR THIRD ENEMY, MADE UP OF AN ARMY OF CORRUPTIONS AND LUSTS WITHIN, AND THE POWER OF THIS SWORD OF THE SPIRIT TO CONQUER THEM. Thirdly, Our own lusts are the next adversary we have to grapple with. Thus the farther we go the worse enemy we meet. These are more formidable than both the former ; partly because they are within us, men of our own house, lusts of our own bosom, which rise up against us ; and partly because they hold correspondence with a foreign foe, the devil himself, who, as he beat a man at first with his own rib, so he continues to do us the worst mischief with our own flesh. The fire of our lusts is ours, but the flame commonly is his, because his temp- tations are the bellows that blow it up. And when such a fire meets with such 582 AND THE SWOKD OF THE SPIRIT. a strong wind to spread and carry it on its wings, whither will it fly ? Oh, how hard to quench it ! A whole legion of devils are as soon cast out of the body as one lust out of the soul ; yea, sooner. Satan likes his lodging better in the heart than in the house. He came the more willingly out of the man into the swine. Matt. viii. 31, because, by coming oiit of his body, and contenting himself awhile with a meaner house, he hoped for a fairer way thereby to get fuller possession of their souls, which indeed he obtained, Christ leaving them most justly to his rule, who were so soon weary of his sweet company. Now the word is the only weapon (like Goliath's sword, none to equal this,) for the hewing down and cutting off this stubborn enemy. The word of God can master our lusts Avhen they are in their greatest pride : if ever lust rageth at one time more than another, it is when youthful blood boils in oiu- veins. Youth is giddy, and lust then is hot and impetuous : his sun is climbing higher still, and he thinks it a great while to night ; so that it must be a strong arm that brings a young man off his lusts, who hath his palate at best advantage to taste sensvial pleasure : the vigeur of his strength affords him more of the delights of the flesh than crippled age can expect, and he is farther from the fear of death's gun-shot, as he thinks, than old men who are upon the very brink of the grave, and carry the scent of the earth about them, into which they are suddenly to be resolved. Well, let the word of God meet this young gallant in all his bravery, with his feast of sensual delights before him, and but whisper a few syllables in his ear, give his conscience but a prick with the point of its sword, and it shall make him fly in as great haste from them all, as Absalom's brethren did from their feast when they saw Ammon their brother murdered at the table. When David would give the young man a receipt to cure him of his lusts, how he may cleanse his whole course and way, he bids him only wash in this Jordan, Psa. cxix. 9. By what means, or ' wherewithal shall a yoimg man cleanse his way ? By taking heed thereto, according to thy word.' It is called the 'rod of his strength,' Psa. ex. 2. God, we know, wrought these great miracles whereby he plagued the Egyptians and saved the Israelites, with the rod in Moses's hand : by that he tamed proud Pharaoh, making him and his people at last to let go their hold of the Israelites, yea, in a manner to thrust them out from them, and be as glad of their room as before of their comjjany ; by that he divided the sea for Israel's passage, and covered the Egyptians in its waves; by that he smote the rock; and by this rod of his word he doth as great wonders in the souls of men ; by this he smites their consciences, cleaves the rocks of their hard hearts, divides the waves of their lusts, and brings poor sinners from under the power of sin and Satan. Never could Austin get a jail delivery from his lusts till he heard that voice, Tolle lege, tolle lege; upon which, as himself tells us, [Lib. Confess, viii.,) he presently took up the Bible, and that one place, Rom. xiii., to which his eye was directed, like a mighty earthquake so shook the powers of his soul, that the prison-doors of his heart immediately flew open, and those chains of lusts which, with all his skill and strength, he could never file off, did now on a sudden fall off. Never man, by his own confession, was more a slave to his lusts, and tied with a stronger chain of delight to them, than himself; as he saith, he tumbled in the puddle of his filthy lusts with as much delight as if he had been rolling in a bed of spices, and anointing himself with the most precious ointments; yet this one word came with such a commanding power to him, that it tore them out of his very heart, and turned his love into a cordial hatred of them, who before would have sooner let his heart be plucked out of his bosom, than to be deprived of these. And as the word is the weapon by which he with a strong hand brings poor sinners out of the power of Satan and sin into a state of freedom, so he uses it to defend his saints from all after-storms of temptations. David will tell us how he stood upon his guard, and made good his ground against his enemy, Psa. xvii. 4 : ' Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer:' as if he had said. Would you know how it comes to pass that I escape those ungodly works and practices which men ordinarily take liberty to do ? I must ascribe it to the good word of God ; it is this I consult with, and by it I am kept from those foul ways whereinto others, that make no use of the word for their defence, are carried by Satan the destroyer. Can we go against sin and Satan with a better weapon than Christ used to vanquish tlie tempter with? And certainly Christ did it, to set us an AND THE SWOKD OF THE SPIRIT. 5g3 example how \vc should come armed into the field against tliem ; for Christ could with one beam shot from his Deity (if he had pleased to exert it) have as easily laid the bold fiend prostrate at his foot, as afterward he did them that came to attack him ; but he chose rather to conceal the majesty of his Divinity, and let Satan come up closer to him, that so he might confound him with the word, and thereby give a proof of that sword of his saints, which he was to leave them for their defence against the same enemy. The devil is set out by the leviathan, Isa. xxvii. 1 : him God threatens to punish with his strong sword; alluding to that great fish, the whale, which fears no fish like the sword-fish, by whom this great devourer of all other fish is so often killed; for, receiving one prick from his sword, he hasteneth to the shore, and beats himself against it till he dies. Thus the devil, the great devourer of souls, who sports himself in the sea of this world, as the leviathan in the waters, and swallows the greatest part of mankind without any power to make resistance against him, is himself vanquished by the word. When he hath to do with a saint armed with this sword, and in- structed how to use this weapon, he then, and not till then, meets his match. CHAPTER XVI. THE FOURTH AND LAST ENEMV THE CHRISTIAN ENGAGETH, MADE UP OF MANY TROOPS OF AFFLICTIONS, TOGETHER WITH HIS VICTORY OVER THEM, OBTAINED BY THIS SWORD OF THE WORD, A FOURTH enemy that meets the Christian, is an army made up of many bands of aftlictions, both outward and inward ; sometimes one, sometimes another, assailing him ; yea, often a whole body of them pouring their shot together upon him. This was Paul's case: 'Without were fightings, within were fears,' 2 Cor. vii. 5. He endured a great fight of external afflictions and buff'etings within his own bosom, at once. And that is sad indeed, when a city is on fire within, at the same time that an enemy is battering its walls without. Yet this is often the condition of the best saints, to have both the rod on their backs, and rebukes from God in their spirits, at once, Psa. xxxix. 11 : ' When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.' God sometimes corrects with outward crosses, but smiles with inward manifestations, and then he whips them, as I may say, with a rose- mary-rod,— the one sweetens and alleviates the other. At another time he sends a cross, and encloseth a frown in it. He whips with outward affliction, and, as an angry father, every lash he gives his child, tells him, this is for that fault, and that for this, which exceedingly adds to the smart of the correction, and is the very knot on the whip, to see his Father so much displeased with him : and when the poor Christian lies under the hand of an afflicting God, or under the rebukes of a frowning God, Satan will not be long from the Christian, or wanting to throw his salt and vinegar into the wounds that God hath made in his flesh or spirit, thereby to increase his anguish and to lead him farther into temptation, if he can have his will. Indeed, God often sends so many troops of various afflictions to quarter upon some one Christian, that it puts him hard to it to bid them all welcome and entertain them with patience ; yea, it would pose any one (that knows not what service the word of God doth the Christian, and the supplies it brings him in,) to conceive how his spirit and his faith should be kept from being eaten up and swallowed into despair by them. But the word of God bears all the charge he is at : this is his counsellor and comforter. David tells us his heart had died within him but for it, Psa. cxix. 92 : ' Unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in my affliction.' The wf)rd was his spiritual Abishag, from which his soul got all its warmth ; all the world's enjoyments heaped on him would have left him cold at heart, if this had not lain in his bosom to bring him to a kindly heat of inward peace and comfort : ver. 50, of the same psalm, ' This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me.' Not the crown in hope, (for some think it was not on his head when this psalm was penned,) but the word in his heart, to which he was beholden for his comfort. A word of promise is more necessary at such a time to a poor soul than warm clothes are to the body in cold weather. When Adam was thrust naked out of Paradise into the cold blast of a miserable world, where, from his own guilty conscience within and crosses without, he ^g4i AND THE SAVORD OF THE SPIRIT. was sure to meet with trouble enough, then God gave him a woi'd of promise, as you may observe, to fence his soul, before he taught him to make coats to clothe his body, Gen. iii. 15, compared with ver. 21. The Lord knew how indispensably necessary a word of promise was to keep him from being made a prey the second time to the devil, and from being swallowed up with the dismal sight of those miseries and sorrows in which he had thrown himself and posterity ; therefore he would not suffer him to lie open to the shock of their assaults one day, but presently puts the sword of a promise into his hand, that with it he might defend and comfort his sorrowful heart in the midst of all his troubles. It was the speech of a holy man, after God had made that sweet place. Matt. xi. 28, ' Come unto me, ye that are weaiy and heavy laden,' &c., the messenger ) to open his dungeon of soul-trouble, and bring him into the light of inward joy, that he had better be withotit meat, drink, light, air, earth, life, and all, than without this one comfortable scripture. If one single promise, like an ear , of corn rubbed in the hand of faith, and applied by the Spirit of Christ, can afford such a fidl, satisfying meal of joy to a hunger-bitten, pining soul, O, what price can we set on the whole field of Scripture, which stands so thick with promises / Love is witty, and sets the head at work to devise names for the person we love dearly, such names as may at once express how highly we prize them, and also more endear them to us, by carrying on them the super- / scription of that sweetness which we conceive to be in them. Thus many holy persons have commended the promises to us with their appreciating names : — The saints' legacies ; the breasts of God, full of milk of grace and comfort ; the saint's plank to swim upon to heaven. Indeed, we might rob the world of all her jewels, and justly hang them on the ear of the promise, and apply all the excellences she boasts of unto the promises. There are more riches and j treasure to be had in one promise than all the gold and silver of the Indies is worth, — ' Exceeding great and precious promises,' 2 Pet. i. 4 : by them a poor believer may lay claim to heaven and earth at once ; for godliness hath the promise of this life and the other also. But that for which in this place I would commend their excellency is the admirable service they do, and the efficient succour they afford a poor soul in the day of his greatest distress. They are V. the granary of spiritual provision, whereby our Joseph, our Lord Jesus, nourisheth and preserveth alive his brethren in a time of famine. They are a hive of sweetness, where the believing soul in the winter of affliction (when nothing is to be gathered abroad from the creature) both lies warmly and lives plentifully on the stock of comfort thei'e laid up. They are, in a word, the fair / havens and safe road into which the tempted soul puts his weather-beaten ship, i where it lies secure till the heavens clear, and the storms are over, which the world, sin, and Satan raise upon him : yea, when death itself approacheth, and the devil hath but one chance more for the game, one skirmish more to get or lose the victory for ever, then faith on the promise can-ies the Christian's soul out of the garrison of his body (where he hath endured so hard a siege) with l colours flying, and joy triumphing to heaven, leaving only his flesh behind in \ the hands of death, and that with an assured hope of having it redeemed out of its power at the day of resurrection and restitution of all things. CHAPTER XVII. THE CHURCH OF ROME CHARGED OF HIGH PRESUMPTION AND GREAT CRUELTY IN DISARMING THE PEOPLE OF THIS SWORD OF THE SCRIPTURES. Is the word the sword of the Spirit whereby the Christian vanquishes his enemies ? Then we may justly charge the Church of Rome with cruelty to the souls of men in disarming them of that weapon with which alone they can defend themselves against their enemies that seek their eternal ruin. It is true they have some fig-leaves with which they would fain hide their shameful practice, making the world believe they do it in mercy to the people, lest they shovild cut and wound themselves with this weapon. We see, say they, how many errors and heresies the world swarms with by the mistakes of the vulgar ; yea, Peter himself they dare bring as a witness on their side, who saith that there ' are some things hard to be understood' in Paul's epistles, ' which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do the other scriptures, unto their AND THE SWOIID OF THE SPIIUT. 585 own desti'uction,' 2 Pet. iii. 16 ; and therefore they judge that as the Scripture is so dangerous for ordinary people to meddle with, it is best to put it out of their reach, as we do a sword from children, though they cry nuich for it. See what a fair glove they draw over so foul a hand. But did Peter, because some unlearned and unstable souls wrested the Scripture, forbid them or any other, how weak soever, to read the Scripture ? This had carried some weight with it ; but we find just the contrary, for, in the following verses, the counsel he gives Christians, that they may not be led away with the error of the wicked, is, ' to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,' ver. 18. Light is the chariot that conveys the influences of the sun ; so the knowledge of Christ brings with it the influences of his grace into the heart. And how did Peter mean they should grow in the knowledge of Christ, if he would not have them read the Scriptures, which is the only book where it is taught? But the Papists would have their people learn the knowledge of Christ from their preaching of him, and not from the Scriptures, which they cannot so safely converse with. But, First, How shall they be assured that what they preach is true, except they have the Scripture, to which, as imto the true touchstone, they may bring their doctrine to be tried? Thus did the Bereans by Paid's scnuon. Acts xvii. 11 ; a preacher as good, I trow, as any of theirs. And, Secondly, Suppose they preach the truth, can they warrant that their words shall not be perverted and mistaken by their hearers? And if they cannot, why then are they suffered to preach in a vulgar tongue, when the word of God, for the same reason, is forbidden to be read by the people in a known tongue ? Truly, I am of that learned man's mind, that if God himself may not speak in a vulgar tongue, I see far less reason that a friar should ; and so the people shoidd know nothing at all of Christ. — Mede on Jer. X. 11. No, the true reason why they forbid the Scripture to be read is not to keep them fi'om errors and heresies, but to keep them from discovering those which they themselves impose upon them. Such trash as they trade in would never go off their hand did they not keep their shop thus dark ; which made one of their shavelings so bitterly complain of Luther for spoiling their market, saying, that but for him they might have persuaded the people of Germany to cat hay. Anything indeed will go down a blind man's throat. I do not wonder that their people, thus kept in ignorance, do so readily embrace their fopperies, and believe all their forgeries. The blind man must either sit still or go whither he pleaseth that leads him. We i"ead of a whole anuy, when once smitten with blindness, carried out of their way by one single man that had his eyes in his head, 2 Kings vi. 19. But this we may wonder at, that men who know the Scriptures (as many of their leaders do) and acknowledge their divinity dare be so impudent and audacious as to intercept this letter sent from the great God to the sons of men, and not suff'er them, except a few whom they think fit, to look on it, though it be subscribed and directed by God himself, not to any party or sort of men, but to every man where it comes, Rom. i. 7 ; 2 Cor. i. 1. This is a piece of impudence that cannot be paralleled. Wherefore are laws made, but to be promulgated ? — Scripture written, but to be read and known of all men? I am sure the apostle, by the same authority with which he wrote his epistle, commands it to be read in the church. Col. iv. 16. And did the ministers of those churches pocket them up, and conceal them from the people's notice, lest they should, by perverting them, be made hei'etics ? It is too tnie, some wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction : and so do some, for want of care in eating, choke themselves with their bread ; must all therefore starve for fear of being choked ? Some hurt themselves and friends with their weapons ; must therefore the whole army be disarmed, and only a few chief officers be allowed to wear a sword by their sides ? Truly, if this be argument enough to seal up the Bible from being read, we must not only deny it to the meaner and more unlearned sort, but also to the great rabbles and doctors ; for the grossest here- sies have bred in the finest wits. Prodigious errors have been as much beholden to the sophistry of Arius, as to the ignorance of jEtius. So that the upshot of all will be this, — the unlearned must not read the Scriptures, because they may pervert them through ignorance ; nor the learned, because they may wrest them by their subtlety. Thus we see, when proud men will be wiser than (iod, their foolish minds darken, till they lose the reason and understanding of men. 5^(5 AND THE SWOUD OF THE SPIRIT. CHAPTER XVIII. AGAINST THE SAME CHURCH OF ROME, FOR IMPUTING INSUFFICIENCY TO THE SCRIPTURES. This falls heavily upon them that charge the Holy Scriptures with insufficiency, as not containing all things necessaiy to salvation. What a horrid blasphemy is this, and reproach to the great God, that he should send his people into the field, and put such a wooden sword into their hand as is not sufficient to de- fend them, and cut their way through their enemies' powers to heaven, whither he orders them to march ! Would any gracious prince, that loves the lives of his subjects, give them arms that are not fit to oppose such an enemy as comes out against them, if he knows how to furnish them with better? Nay, would he give them such weak and insufficient weapons for their defence, tind then charge them to use no other? This were unworthily to send them as sheep to the shambles, and could signify nothing, but that he had a mind their throats should be cut by their enemies. And doth not God himself highly conmiend this sword of the Scripture to his people, when he tells Timothy, ' It is able to make him' (as a Christian) ' wise unto salvation,' 1 Tim. iii. 15 ; and as a ' man of God' (or minister of the gospel) ' perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works,' ver. 17. Yea, doth he not also forbid us the use of any other weapon, than what the Scriptures furnish us withal ? ' To the law and to the testimony,' he sends us, Isa. viii. 21, and makes it a re- nouncing of our allegiance to him, to go any where else for counsel or pro- tection than to his written word : — ' Should not a people seek unto their God ? for the living to the dead ?' Then follows, — ■' To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them,' ver. 19, 20. It seems, then, God doth not count we seek him, except we inquii-e for him at the law and the testimony, and bring all we hear to their test. Surely, that which is intended by God to be to his people (what the standard and town-bushel are to the market) a rule to measure all doctrines by. is itself exact and sufficient. But the world, by this time, knows where the insufficiency of the Scriptui'e lies. Sufficient they are for God's ends, but not for the pope's. They are able to furnish every true Christian with wisdom enough how he should save his soul; but the pope finds himself grieved, that they are not so useful to help him to keep a triple crown on his head, and do not furnish him with grounds from which he may defend the lordly power and godlike infalli- bility which he claims, with other doctrines held forth by him ; and this is the only defect he can charge the Scriptures with, to supply which the rabble rout of traditions is brought into the church ; all taught to speak the pope's sense before they see the light : and that reputation may be gained to these unknown witnesses, this way their fine wits, with the devil's help, (who owes the Scripture an old spite, ever since the first promise rescued Adam out of his hand,) have taken, — that the Scriptures be declared insufficient and uncertain. Just as Andronicus served the emperor Alexius, who gave out that he was weak and insufficient to govern alone, and so first got a joint power with him, and at last an absolute power over him to dethrone him ; and whether their traditions have dealt better by the Scriptures, the Avorld may judge. When traditions go up, the written word is sure to go down : ' Ye have made,' saith Christ, to the Pharisees, 'the commandment of none effect by your traditions,' Matt. xv. 6; you have unlorded it, and supplanted its authority in the minds of men, who leave the word to hearken to your traditions. CHAPTER XIX. SHEWETH THE GREAT WICKEDNESS OF THOSE WHO LIFT UP THIS SWORD IN DEFENCE OF ANY SIN. This condemns those as prodigiously wicked, who, instead of using this sword to defend themselves against sin and Satan, lift it up audaciously for their de- fence in their wicked and abominable practices. Thus the heretic takes up the word to justify his corrupt tenets, forcing it, in favour of his way, to bear witness against itself: and many pi-ofane wretches we meet with, who, to ward of!" a reproof, will dare to seek protection for their ungodly courses from the word. AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 587 which they have at tlieir tongue's end, and interpose to break the blow that is made at them. Tell the sensualist of his voluptuous, brutish life, and you shall have him sometimes reply, Solomon was not so precise and scrupulous, who saith, ' A man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat and to drink, and to be merry :' as if Solomon, yea, Ciod himself, that directed his pen, meant to fill the drunkard's quaffing cup for him, and w^ere a friend of gluttons and wine- bibbers : whereas, to eat and drink, and be merrj', as Solomon meant there, amounts to no more, than to serve God with gladness in the abundance of those good things which God gives us to enjoy, as Moses says, Dent, xxviii.47. Such is the desperate wickedness of man's heart, that the sweetest portions of Scrip- ture are wrested by many to serve their lusts. The declarations of God's free grace, made on purpose to melt sinners' hearts, and draw them from their lusts to Christ, how often ai'e they abused to harden them in their sins, and keep them from him ! Examples of holy men's fall, recorded merely to make them fear who stand, and to preserve a hope of mercy alive in those that have fallen, whereby they are in danger of being swallowed up with desjjair, — how are they perverted by many, who lie like beasts wallowing in their own filth, and think all is well, because such eminent saints fell so foully, and yet came off so fairly at last, with their sins pardoned and souls saved ! The good success that late repentance hath now and then had in a few, yea, very few Scripture instances, it is strange to think what use and advantage Satan makes of them, to beg time of the sinner, and make him linger still in the midst of his sins. The eleventh hour, saith he, is not yet come ; why will .ye repent so long before you need ? Why should he set out in the morning, who may dispatch his journey well enough an hour before night ? The penitent thief, as one saith, stolen to heaven from the cross, hath, I fear, been an occasion, though on God's part an innocent one, to bring many a sinner to the gallows, if not to a place of longer execution in another world. Oh, take heed of this, sinners, as you love your souls ! Is it not enough to have your lusts, but you must also fetch your en- couragement from the word, and forge God's hand to bear you out? The devil, indeed, thus abuseth Scripture, Matt. iv. 4 ; thinking thereby to make Christ more readily hearken to his cursed motion : and wilt thou tread in his steps ? By this thou makest one sin two, and the last the worst. To be drunk was a fearful sin in Belshazzar ; but to quaff in the bowls of the sanctuary was far worse. No sin is little, but the least sin amoimts to blasphemy when thou connnittest it on a Scripture pretence. The devil cannot easily desire a greater occasion of glorying over God, than thus to wound his name with his own sword. When Julian the apostate saw the Gentile philosophers confuted by the human learning of some Christians, he said. We are taken by our own wings ; looking upon it as a great disgrace for them to be beaten and worsted at that which they counted their own weapon. The word is the Holy Spirit's sword. O, for shame ! let not Satan make his boast over thy God, Christian, by thy means, which he will, if he can persuade thee to wound his name with this his own weapon. He that fetcheth an argument from the Holy Scriptures to countenance any corrupt opinion or practice, what doth he but go about to make God fight against himself? He shoots at him with an arrow out of his own quiver. He sins, and then, as it were, says God bid him. If there be a man on the face of the earth, that God will single out as a mark for his utmost wrath, this is he, who shelters his wickedness under the wing of the Holy Scrip- tures, and so makes Ciod tlie patron of his sin. CHAPTER XX. AN EXHORTATION TO THANKFULNESS FOR THE SWORD OF THE WORD, WHERE- BY WE ARE ENABLED TO STAND ON OUR DEFENCE AGAINST OUR GREATEST ENEMIES. First, Let us be excited and provoked to bless God for this sword, with which he hath furnished us so graciously, whereby wo may stand on our defence against all our bloody enemies. If a man had a kingdom in his possession, but no sword to keep the crown on his head, he could not expect to enjoy it long. Tliis is a world, that there is no living or holding anything we have in safety, without tlie help of arms ; least of all, coidd our st)uls be safe if naked 53g AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. and unarmed, which are here in the mouth of danger, and can no way pass to the place of bliss prepared for them, but through their enemies' quarters. When Israel took their march out of Egypt toward the promised land, few or none would trust them to travel through their country, but all rose up in arms against them. The Christian will find his march much more troublesome and danger- ous to heaven : Satan is not grown tamer than he used to be, nor the wicked world better affected to the people of God. O, what a mercy is it, that we have this sword by our side, which puts us out of danger from any of them all ! This is in thy hand. Christian, as tlie rod was in Moses's. What though an army of devils be behind thee, and a sea of sins before, roaring upon thee, with this sword, by faith wielding it, thou mayest cut thy way through the waves of the one, and set thyself out of the reach of the other. Truly, the Scripture is a mercy incomparably greater than the sun in the heavens : that might be better spared out of its orb, than this out of the chiu'ch. If that were gone, we should be but knocked off our worldly business, and be only in dan- ger of losing our bodily life, by falling in this pit and that pond ; but if deprived of the word, the work of salvation would be laid aside, or gone about to little purpose, and our souls must needs miss the right way to happiness, and stumble inevitably upon hell, while we think we are going to heaven, unless a miracle should interpose to prevent it. But more particularly bless God for three mercies in reference to the Scripture. Section I. — Bless God for the translation of the Scriptures. The word is our sword ; by being translated, this sword is drawn out of its scabbard. What use could a poor Christian, that hath but one tongue in his head (that understands but one language I mean, which his mother taught him,) make of this sword when presented to him as it is sheathed in Greek and Hebrew ? Truly, he might even fall a weeping with John at the sight of the sealed book, because he could not read in it. Rev. v. 4. O bless God, who hath sent men furnished, by the bless- ing of God on their indefatigable labours and studies, with abilities to roll away the stone from the mouth of this fountain ! And were it not sad to see the water of life brought to you Avith the expense of their spirits and strength, wasted in the work, to be spilled on the grovmd, and basely undervalued by you, so as hardly to be put in the catalogue of the mercies you praise God for? O, God forbid ! It cannot be, if ever you had the sweetness of any one promise in it milked out unto you, or the power of one of its divine truths impressed on your hearts. Melchior Adam tells us that Bugenhagius, whose assistance Luther had, with others, in translating the Bible, when the work was brought to a happy conclusion, was so affected with the incomparable mercy therein to the churches of Christ in Germany, that every year he invited his friends to a solemn feast, that day whereon the work was finished, which they called 'The Feast of the Ti-anslation of the Bible.' When Queen Elizabeth, our English Deborah, opened the prisons at her coming to the crown, one piously told her, that there were yet some good men left in prison undelivered, and desired they might also partake of her princely favour, meaning the four Evangelists and Paul, who had been denied to walk abroad in the Englisli tongue when her sister swayed the sceptre. To this she answered. They should be asked, whether they were willing to have their liberty ; which soon after appearing, they had their jail- delivery, and have ever since had their liberty to speak to you in your own tongue at the assemblies of your public worship, yea, to visit you in your own private houses also. Now is that happy day come, and long hath been, which holy Mr. Tindale told a popish doctor of, when a poor ploughman should be able to read the Scriptures, and allowed as freely to converse with them as any doctor of them all ! A blessed day, indeed, it is to the souls of men ! Now, Christian, when thou art a prisoner to God's providence, and kept by his afflicting hand at home, thou hast the word of God to bear thee company in thy solitude ; and so, though thou canst not sit up with thy brethren and sisters at thy Father's table in his public ordinances, j^et thou dost not wholly go without thy meal ; thou canst not, it is likely, carve so well for thyself as the minister used to do for thee, yet it is an incomparable mercy that thou hast liberty to pick up out of the word for thy present counsel and comfort, as thou ai-t enabled to do by the Spirit of God, upon thy humble prayer for his assistance. Admirable hath been AND THE SWOHD OF THE SPIRIT. 5g9 the support the saints have found from this holy hook in their confinements. God hath graciously ordered it, that tlie most useful and necessary truths for the afHicted saints, hang on the lower boughs of this tree of life, within the reach of a poor Christian, who is but of an ordinary stature in knowledge. O, think, and think again of those sad times, when the bloody sword of persecutors was drawn to keep off the people of God from coming near this tree, and then you will better conceive your present privilege: yea, look back inito tliose times of popish ignorance, when this cellar of cordial waters was locked up in the ori- ginal tongues, and not one in a whole town to be found that had a key by whom poor sovds in their fainting fits and agonies of spirit could have it opened, so as to come by any of their sweet consolations to restore their swooning souls, and tlien you will surely bless God, who hath given you so free nn access unto them, when others cannot have access to you to communicate their help unto you. Section II. — Bless God for the ministry of the word, which is the public school he opens to his people, that in it they may learn the use of this their weapon. It is a sad fruit that grows upon the little smattering knowledge that some have got from the word to putt" them up with a conceit of their own abilities, so as to despise the ministry of the word as a needless work. The Corinthians were sick of this disease, which the apostle labours to cure by a sharp reproof, — ' Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us,' 1 Cor. iv. 8. Paul, it seems, was nobody now, with these high proficients ; the time was, when Paul came to town he was a welcome man ; the sucking child was not more glad to see his mother come home, nor could cry more earnestly to be laid to the breast, than they to partake of his ministry ; but now, like the child when he hath had his fill, they bite the very breast they so greedily before took into their mouths, as if they should never want another meal : so high did pride carry them above all thoughts of needing his ministry more. And hath not the pride of many in our days carried them as far into a contempt of the ministry of the word, though their knowledge come far short of the Corinthians'? Well, takeheed of this sin ; Miriam's plague, yea, a worse, a spiritual scab and leprosy, apparently cleaves to those, as close as a girdle to the loins, who come to despise this ordinance, that they make all afraid to come near their tents. What prodigious errors are they left unto, whereby God brands them ! Yea, what sensual lusts hath the once forward profession of many among them been quite swallowed up with ! If once a man thinks he needs no longer go to the Spirit's school, he shall find that he takes the ready way to deprive himself of the Spirit's teaching at home : 'Quench not the Spirit, de- spise not prophesyings,' 1 Thess. v. 19, 20. They are coupled together; he that despiseth one, loseth both. If the scholar be too proud to learn of the usher, he is unworthy to be taught by the master. But I turn to you, humble souls, who yet sit at the feet of Jesus in your right minds, speak the truth, and lie not ; are you not well paid for your pains ? Dare you say of your waiting on the ministry of the word, what a wretch, though a learned one, Politianus by name, said of his reading the Scripture, that he never spent time to less purpose ? Do you count it among your lost time, and misplaced hours, that are bestowed on hearing the word ? I trow not. Thou keepest thy acquaintance with the word at home, if thou be a Christian, and eatest many a sweet in a bitter corner, while thou art secretly meditating thereon ; but does this content thee, or make thee think the word preached a superfluous meal ? I am sure David knew how to improve his solitary hours as well as another ; yet, in his banishment, O how he was pinched and hunger-bitten for want of the public ordinance I And surely we cannot think he forgot to carry his Bible with him into the wilderness, loving the word so dearly as he did : ' My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is,' Psalm Ixiii. 1, Why David, what is the reason thou complainest thus ? Ilast thou not the woi'd to read in secret? Canst thou not let down thy bucket, and by meditation draw what thou wilt out of the well of the word ? Why then dost thou say thou art in a thirsty land, where no water is ? He means, therefore, compara- tively ; the sweetest refreshings he enjoyed in his private converse with the word were not comparable to what he had met in public. And can you blame a sick child for desiring to sit with his burden at his father's table, though he is not forgot in his chamber where he is a prisoner? It was the sanctuary, there to 590 ^'^^ THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. see God, his power and glory, as of old, that David's heart longed for, and could not well live without. God threatens to bring a famine of hearing the word, Amos viii. 11. Mark, not a famine of reading the word, but of hearing the word. If the word be not preached, though we have the Bible to read at home, yet it is a famine, and so we ought to judge it. ■' The word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision,' 1 Sam. iii. 1. The strongest Christians would find a want of this ordinance in time. We see in a town besieged, though it be well laid in with corn, yet when put to grind with private hand-mills, what straits they are soon put to. And so will the best grown saints, when they come to have no more from the word for their souls to live on than wliat they grind with their own private meditation and labour, — then they will miss the minister, and see it was mercy indeed to have one whose office it was to grind all the week for him. And if the stronger Christian cannot spare this office, because yet not perfect, what shift shall the weaker sort make, who need the minister to divide the word, as much as little children their nurse's help to mince their meat, and cut their bread for them ! To leave them to their own improving of the word, is to set a whole loaf among a company of little babes, and bid them help themselves: alas! they will sooner cut their fingers with the knife than fill their stomachs with the bread. Section III. — Bless God for the efficacy of the word upon thy soul. Did ever its pouit prick thy heart, — its edge fetch blood of thy lusts ? Bless God for it ; you would do as much to a surgeon for lancing a sore, and severing a putrified part from thy body, though he put thee to exquisite torture in the doing of it. And I hope thouthinkest God hath done thee a greater kindness. Solomon tell us, — ' Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful,' Prov. xxvii. 6. The wounds that God thus gives are the faithful wounds of a friend ; and the kisses which sin gives come from an enemy. God's wounds cure, — sin's kisses kill. The Italians say, that ' pla)^, wine, and women, consume a man laughing.' It is true of all pleasurable sins ; and as sin kills the sinner laughing, so God saves poor souls weeping and bleeding under the wounds which his word gives them. Happy soul, who hast made such an exchange, to get out of the enchanting arms of thy lusts that would have kissed thee to death, and to ftiU into the hands of a faithful God, who means thee no more hurt by all the blood he draws from thee than the saving of thy soul. How far mightest thou have gone, and not met with such a friend ! There is not another sword like this in all the world, that can cure with cutting ; not another arm could use this sword, to have done thus with it, besides the Spirit of God. The axe does nothing till the hand of the workman lifts it up; may be no one else can use his tools as he himself can. None could do such feats with Scanderberg's sword as himself. None can pierce the conscience, wound the spirit, and hew down the lusts which there lie skulking in their fastnesses, but God himself; and this he doth not for every one that reads and hears it, which still heightens his mercy toward thee. There were many widows in Israel when God sent his prophet to her of Zarepta. And why to her? Was there never a drunkard, swearer, or unbeliever beside thee in the congregation at the same time that God anned his word to smite thee and graciously prick thy heart ? Oh cry out in admiration of this distinguished mercy. Lord, how is it thou wilt manifest thyself to me, and not unto the world! CHAPTER XXI. AN EXHORTATION TO THE STUDY OF THE WORD. Secondly, Let this provoke you to the study of the word, that you may thereby have a familiar acquaintance with it. For this the Bereans obtained a mark of honour as more noble than others, because ' they searclied the Scriptures,' Acts xvii. 11. Shall God leave but one book to his church's care and stud}', and shall it not be read ? Shall we be told there is so rich a treasure laid up in this mine, and we continue so beggarly in our knowledge, rather than take a little pains by digging in it to come by it? The canker and rust of oiu- gold and silver, which is got with harder labour than is required here, will rise up in judgment against many, and say. You could drudge and trudge for us that are now turned to rust and dust, but coidd walk over the field of the word, where AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 59] an incorruptible treasiu'e lay, and would lose it rather than your sloth ! Oh in what breast doth the ancient zeal of former saints to the word lodge ! Have they not counted it above rubies? Have they not travelled over sea and land to get the sight of it ? — given the money out of their purse, the coat off their backs, to purchase a few leaves of it, and parted with their blood out of their veins, rather than forego the troasm-e which they found in it? And is the market now fallen so low, that thou desii-est not acquaintance with it, when it is ottered at a far lower rate ? Eitlier they must be charged for fools, to buy the knowledge of it so dear, or you that refuse it, who may have it so cheap. But lest you should think I set you upon a needless work, you are to understand there is an indispensable neces.sity of Scripture knowledge. First, We are commanded to ' search the Scriptures,' John v. 39. Indeed, were there not such an express word for this duty, yet the very penning of them, with the end for which they are written considered, would impose the duty upon us. When a law is enacted by a state, the very promulgation of it is enough to oblige the people to take notice of it. Neither will it serve a subject's turn that breaks this law, to say he was ignorant of any such law being in force ; tlie publication of it bound him to inquire after it. What other end have lawgivers in divulging their acts, but that their people might know their duty? Christ fastens condemnation on the ignorance of men where means for knowledge are afforded : ' This is the con- demnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness,' John iii. 19. They will not know the rule, because they have no mind to walk by it. Now, if ignorance of the word be condemned where its light shines, then surely he commands us to open our eyes, whereby we may let in the knowledge it sheds forth ; for a law must be transgressed before a condemning sentence be pronounced. It is the heathen that shall be judged without the written word ; but thou, who livest within its soiuul, shalt be judged by it, whether thou wilt know it or not, 2 Thess. i. 8. And if thou shalt be judged by it, then surely thou art bound to be instructed by it. The Jews once had the word deposited in their hands : imto them were committed the oracles of God ; and do you think they had well discharged their trust by locking them up safely in the ark, and never looking into them? Surely you cannot but think God intended another place, even their own breasts, where he principally would have them kept. They were committed to them, and now to us, as a dying father doth his will and testament to his son whom he makes his executor-, not to throw it aside among his waste papers, but carefully and curiously to read and observe it, that thereby nothing therein contained might be left unperformed. It is called ' the faith which was delivered to the saints,' Jude ,3 ; that is, delivered to their study and care. If any of us had lived when Christ was here in the flesh, and he (when taking his farewell of the world) should have left to us some one thing in special charge to be done for his sake after he was gone to heaven, would we not religiously have performed the will of our dying Savioiu', as did John, to whom he left the care of his mother, who, therefore, took her home to his own house? Behold here a greater charge deposited in his saints' hands ; — -' The faith once delivered to them ;' that is, once for all, to be by them kept and transmitted from one generation to another, while this world lasts : so that if thou takest thyself to be a saint, thou art concerned with the rest to take it home M'ith thee, and see that it dwells in thee richly, as becomes such a guest bequeathed by so dear a friend. Secondly, It is necessary : the word contains the whole counsel of God, for the bringing poor sinners to eternal life. If you will not search the Scriptures, and sit here at the feet of the Spirit, (who fits his scholars for heaven by this one book,) where wilt thou meet another master? In whose works else wilt thou find the words of eternal life? Apollos was a man mighty in the Scriptures, and it is said, that ' Aquila and Priscilla expounded to him the way of God more perfectly,' Acts xviii. 2(5. An exposition presu])poseth a text. The meaning is, they opened the Scriptures more perfectly to him. This is the way of God to lead us to God ; yea, the only way. In other journeys we may miss the right way, and yet come at last to the place we intended, though not so soon ; but no way will bring us to God, but this of tlie word ; neither can we walk in this way of God, if we be ignorant of it. A man may, in other joiu-neys, be in his right way, without knowing it, and he may come safe home : but we can have no benejit from tlris way of God, if wholly 592 ^'^'^ "^^^ SWORD OP THE SPIRIT. ignorant of it, because we can do notliing in faith. Labour, therefore, to study this book, though thou be a dunce in all besides ! What is it thou wouldst learn ? Jsitthe true knowledge of God? Thoumayest tumble over all the philosophers that ever wrote, and when thou hast done, not be able to frame a right notion of him. The best of them all were but brutish in their highest knowledge of God. Indeed, God left the wise world to run into a thousand follies and vanities, while they were, by their own wisdom, shaping a religion to themselves, that, having proved them dunces, he might send them and the whole woi-ld to leam this lesson in another school, and that is the ministry of the gospel, which is nought else but the explication of the word ; 1 Cor. i. 21, ' After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.' Wouldst thou come to the true knowledge . of sin ? This also is to be found uowhei-e else ; the Scripture alone dissects the whole body of sin, and reads to us a perfect anatomical lecture upon its^most minute and secret parts : this discovers the ulcers of our wicked hearts, which thousands die of, and, through ignorance of the Scriptures, can never come to know what their disease is. If lust comes not out in spots and sores, to be seen in the outward conversation, the philosopher pronounceth him a clean man. The plague of the heart, though an old disease, and epidemical, yet never was found out, or treated of, but by this sacred book ; and this doth it fully, yea, acquaints us where and from whom we got this infection : even from Adam, by whom the world was tainted, and turned into a pest-house. Which of the wise ones of the world ever dreamed of this genealogy? Poor man, till the Scripture informs him of this, lies in the pit of sin, and knows not who threw him in. In a word, wouldst thou be helped out? Thou must then be beholden to the Scripture to do this kind office for thee. Thy own cordage is too short to reach, and too weak to draw thee thence. If thou takest not hold of this cord of love, which God lets down unto thee in his word, thy case is desperate. And now, having set life and death before thee, I leave thee to thy choice. If yet thou be resolved to reject the knowledge of the Almighty, and allow thy soul to launch into eternity without this chart to direct thee, not caring at what port thou arrivest in the other world, heaven or hell ; then prepare to take up thy lodgings among the damned, and harden thy stout heart, if thou canst, against those endless flames which are kindled for all those that know not God, and obey not his gospel, 2 Thess. i. 8 : and to thy terror know, that in spite of thy now wilful ignorance, thou shalt one day understand the Scriptui-es to the increase of thy torment ; here thou shuttest out their light, but then it will shine full on thy face, when it would give thee some ease, if thou couldst forget that ever thou didst hear of such a book as the Bible ; but then, against thy will, thou shalt carry the remembrance thereof to hell with thee, that thy scornful neglect of it on earth may be continually pouring out new horror, as so much fire and brimstone, into thy guilty conscience. How must it then fill thee with amazement, to think of thy folly and madness, to sell thy soul for a little ease and sloth ! Hell from beneath will be moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming thither : it will stir up the dead for thee, and the poor heathens whom thou shalt find prisoners there will come flocking about thee, and repi'oach thee, saying, Art thou become like unto us ? Thou hast perished for thy ignorance, who hadst the key of knowledge at thy girdle, and at so easy a rate mightest have been instructed in the way of life : we, poor heathens, cannot bring an action against God for false imprison- ment, though we never heard of such a thing as the gospel, for we did not walk up to our little light, and might have known moi-e of God, had we not darkened our own foolish minds by rebelling against the light we had; but we were never at such pains to lose our souls as you, who have rejected the word of God, and broke through all the threatenings and promises thereof, to come hither. CHAPTER XXII. SEVERAL CARNAL SHIFTS AND OBJECTIONS, THAT SOME BRING TO EXCUSE THEM FROM THE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES, REMOVED. But you will say, If we had so much time to spare as others, we would not be so unacquainted with the Scriptures : but, alas ! our hands are so full with AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 59g our worldly callings, that we hope God will excuse us, thougli we have not so much knowledge of his word as others. Section I. — Is this the plea that thou meanest to use when thou comest to tlie bar, and art called to give thy answer to Christ, thy judge, upon this matter ? Does not thy heart quake witliin thy breast, to tliink how he will knit his brow, and throw this thy apology, with disdain and wrath, upon thy face ? Did so much anger sit on the countenance of meek Jesus when on earth, and such a dreadful doom proceed from his sweet lips against those that made their farms and oxen an excuse for not coming to his su))pcr, sentencing them never to taste thereof? Oh, what then will glorious Christ say, when mounted on his tribunal, not to invite, but to judge sinners, to such an excuse as this ! Could God iind heart and time to pen and send this love-letter to thee, and thou find none to read and peruse it! The sick man no time to look on his physician's bill ! The condemned malefactor to look on his prince's letter of grace, wherein a pardon is signed ! Poor wretch, n^ust the worhl have all thy time, and swallow thee up alive ! a curse not less than that of Korah. Art thou such a slave to thy pelf, as to tie thy soul to thy purse-strings ; and take no more time for the saving of it, than this cruel master will afford thee ! Thou and thy money perish with thee ! His soul is in a bad state, which hath its allowance from so base a lust : this is so far from mending the matter, that thou dost but cover one sin with another. Who gave tliee leave thus to overlade thyself with the incumbrance of the world ? Is not God the Lord of thy time ? Is it not given by him, to be laid out for him ! He allows thee, indeed, a fair portion thereof for the lower employments of this life, but did he ever intend to turn himself out of all .' This is as if the mariners, who are allowed by the merchant some small adventure for themselves, should fill the ship, and leave no stowage for his goods ; will it suffice them to say there is no room left for his commodities? Or a servant, when his master asks why he neglected such a business committed to his care for despatch, should answer that he was drunk, and therefore could not do it. Why did you not read my word, and meditate thereon? will Christ say at that day. Darest thou, then, be so impudent as to say. Lord, I was overcharged with the cares, and drunk with the love of the world, and, therefore, I could not 1 Well, if this be the thief that robs thee of thy time, get out of his hands, lest it also rob thee of thy soul. The devil can desire no greater advantage against thee ; he may better boast over thee, than Pharaoh could over Israel, — He is entangled, he is entangled, in the wilderness of the world, and shall not escape my hands ! If a friend should tell you that you kept so many servants as would beggar you, would you not listen to his counsel, and rather turn them out of doors, than keep them ? And wilt thou not be as careful of thy soul ? Wilt thou keep such a rout of worldly occasions, as will eat up all thoughts of God and heaven ? Certainly, thou must either discharge thyself of these, or dismiss thy hope of salvation. This ordinarily is but a cover to men's sloth : if they had hearts, they would find time to converse with the word in the greatest throng of their worldly occasions. These can find time to eat and sleep, to sport and recreate themselves, but no time for God and his word ; would they but allow their souls those spare ends of time to search the Scripture, which they spend in pastimes, idle visits, reading of empty pamphlets, it would not be long before they might give a happy account of their proficiency in their spiritual knowledge. What calling more encumbering than a soldier's, and, of all soldiers, the general's, to whom all resort? Such an one was Joshua, yet he had a strict command given him to study the Scriptures : Josh. i. 8, ' This book shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.' Must Joshua, in the midst of drums and tnmipets, and distractions of war, find time to meditate on the law of God, and shall a few trivial occasions in thy private calling discharge thee from the same duty ? Dost thou think that the closet is such an enemy to thy shop, and the time spent with God a thief to thy tempoi-al estate? God, I am sure, intends his people better, as appears in the former place, — 'Then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.' Section II. — But I cannot read ; how, therefore, can I search the Scriptures? It is sad, I confess, that parents, who are God's trustees, to whom the nurture of their children is committed, sliould take no more care for their souls than the 2 a ^g.J, AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. ostrich doth of her eggs, not caring what becomes of them. What do these but throw them into the devil's mouth, by sending them ovxt into a sinful world without the knowledge of God and his word, to become a prey to every lust ! To hell they must needs go, if God shews no more pity to them than their parents have done. But shall thy parents' negligence be a plea for thy ignorance? Wilt not thou be merciful to thyself, because they were cruel? In the fear of God, be persuaded to supply their defect by thy diligence. I hope thou dost not think it a shame to learn that, now thou art old, which thou shouldst have been taught when thou wert young. Had not thy parents learned thee a trade to get thy temporal living, wouldst thou therefore have lived a beggar rather than have applied thyself, though late, to some calling? There are many, for thy encouragement, who have begun late, and, by God's blessing on their dili- gence, have conquered the difRculty of the work. If thou wert in prison, thou hadst rather learn to read a verse than lose thy life for want thereof. Now, though ability to read the word be not of absolute necessity for the salvation of thy soul, yet knowledge of its saving truths is, and there are few better private means to obtain this than reading : but if thou be not capable of this, thou hast not by it an excuse for thy ignorance so long as thou hast an ear to receive instruction from others. As God sometimes recompenses the defect of one sense wi h the quickness of another, so may be thou shalt find thy inability to read supplied by a retentive memory to hold what thou hearest read or preached \mto thee. Some martyrs we find mighty in the Scriptures, able to defend the truth against learned doctors, and yet not book-learned. One who could not read, yet carried always some part of the Scripture about him, and when he met any Christian that could, he would get him to read some portion or other thereof unto him, whereby he attained to such a measure of knowledge and faith as made him wiser than his enemies, and a stout champion for the truth, even to resist to blood. Section III. — Oh, but, saith a third, though I can read, yet I am of so weak an understanding that I fear I shall make no work with such deep mysteries as are there contained. Take heed this objection comes not from thy sluggish heart, which gets this fair pretence to ease thee of a duty thou fearest will be troublesome imto thee. Didst thou ever make a trial, and set about the work, conscientiously using all means that might conduce towards thy instruction in the mind of God ? If not, lay not the blame on thy weak head, but wicked heart. When thou went fii'st to be an apprentice, what skill hadst thou in thy trade ? Didst thou therefore despair and run away ? No, but by thy diligence learnt the mystery of it in a few years, so as to maintain thyself comfortably ; and will not thy industry to leai-n that condemn thy sloth in not studying the word, which is able to bring in a better livelihood to thy soul than thy trade for thy body ? But, poor soul, if what thou sayest indeed ariseth from the deep sense thou hast of thy ov/n weakness, then ponder upon this twofold encou- ragement. First, God is able to interpret his own word unto thee : indeed, none can enter into the knowledge thereof without being beholden unto his Spirit to unlock the door. If thou hadst a riper head and higher parts than thou canst now pretend to, thou wouldst, without his help, be but like the blind Sodomites about Lot's house, groping, but not able to find the way into the true saving knowledge thereof. He that hath not the right key is as far from entering the house as he that hath none, yea, in some sense, farther off; for he that hath none will call to him that is within, while the other, trusting to his false key, endeavours to get in, but to no purpose. The Pharisees, who were so conversant in the Scriptures, and obtained the name for the admired doctors of the chair, called, 1 Cor. ii. 8, ' the princes of the world,' because so renowned and adored among the people ; yet even these missed that truth which lay before them almost in every leaf of Moses and the prophets, whom they were in their every-day's study tumbling over ; I mean that grand truth concerning Christ, of whom both Moses and the prophets speak. And at the same time the people, whom they counted so base, yea, accursed as those that imderstood not the law, could see him whom they missed. There are none so knowing that God cannot blind ; none so blind and ignorant whose eyes his Spirit cannot open. He who, by his incubation upon the waters at the creation, hatched that rude mass into the beautiful form we now see, and out of that AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 595 dark chaos made the glorious heavens, and garnished them with so many orient stars, can move upon thy dark soul, and enlighten it, though now it he as void of knowledge as the evening of the world's first day was of light. The school- master sometimes sends home the child, and bids his father to put him to another trade, because not able, with all his art, to make a scholar of him : but if the Spirit of God be the master, thou shalt learn, though a dunce : Psa. cxix. 130, 'The entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth imder- standing unto the simple.' No sooner is the soul entered into the Spirit's school, than he becomes a proficient : thence we are commanded to encourage those that discourage themselves : Isa. xxxv. 3, ' Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.' Wh}-? What good news shall we tell them ? ' The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped,' ver. 5 : ' An highway shall be there — and it shall be called, The way of holiness ; the miclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those ; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein,' ver. 8. Secondly, The deeper sense thou hast of thy own weakness, the more fit thou art for the Spirit's teaching. A proud scholar and a humble master will never agree : Christ is humble and lowly, and so resists the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Though he cannot brook him that is proud, yet he can bear with thee who art weak and dull, if humble and diligent ; as we may see in the disciples, whom our Saviour did not disdain to teach the same lesson over and over again, till at last they say, ' Lo! now speakest thou plainly,' John xvi. 29. The eunuch was no great scholar, when in liis chariot he was reading Isaiah's prophecy ; yet, because he did it with an honest heart, Philip is despatched to instruct him. CHAPTER XXIII. CONTAINETH FOUR DIRECTIONS TO THE CHRISTIAN IN THE USE OF THIS SWORD FOR HIS DEFENCE AGAINST THE FIRST ENEMY, THE PERSECUTOR. But some may say, You have said enough to let us know how necessary a weapon this sword is to defend our souls, and of what admirable use it is in all the conflicts that the Christian hath with any of his enemies ; but we hope you will not leave us thus : it is a word of counsel we now listen to hear from you, how we, poor Christians, may use this sword for our own defence and the van- quishing of the several enemies whose approach you have taught us to expect; some whereof we already, to our great terror, see in the field against us, and how soon the other may appear we know not. What good will a sword by our side, a Bible in our hand, yea, mouth do us, if we be not instructed how we may ward oflf their blows, and make them feel the impressions of ours therewith? For your better satisfaction, I shall sort the directions to the several kinds of enemies you have to gi-apple with ; for their assaults being of a different natui'e, require a resistance suitable to their way of fight. Section I. — To begin with the persecutor. Now, wouldst thou, Chris- tian, stand the shock of his furious assault when he hangs out his bloody flag, breathing slaughter to the church and flock of Christ, if they will not let him trample upon all their glory by defiling their consciences and renouncing the faith at the lust of his imperious command, then let it be thy first care to get scripture grounds for those principles and practices which stir up the perse- cutor's rage against thee. A man had need be well assured of that which brings his life and dear enjoyments into hazard. It is enough to weaken the courage of a valiant man, to fight in a mist, when he cannot well discern his foes from his friends : and to be a damp upon the Christian's spirit in a suffer- ing hour, if he be not clear in his judgment, and fixed in his principles. Look, therefore, to put that out of question in thy own thoughts, for which the perse- cutor calls thee into question ; and the rather, because it ever was, and still will be, the policy of persecutors, to disfigure as much as they can the beautiful face of those truths and practices for which the servants of Christ sufl'er, that they may put a colour of justice upon tlieir bloody cruelties, and make the world believe they suffer as evil-doers. Now thou wilt never be able to bear up under the weight of this tlieir heavy charge, except thou be fully persuaded in thy own conscience, that thou sufferest for righteousness' sake. But if thou standest clear in thy own thoughts concerning thy cau.se, thou wilt easily wipe 2 ()2 5gg A^t) THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. off the dirt they throw upon thee, and sweetly entertain thyself with the com- fort which thy own conscience will bring to thee through the reproaches of thy enemies. Salvian saith, What others say or think of us, makes us not miserable : one repi'oof from a man's own thoughts, wounds more than the reproaches of all the world besides. When the Thessalonians were once satisfied of the cer- tain truth of Paul's doctrine, — ' For the gospel,' it is said, ' came to them in much assurance,' 1 Thess. i. 5, — then they could open their door with joy to receive it, though afflictions and persecutions come along with it ; ver. 6. Section II. — Improve those scriptures which teach us to dread God more, and fear man less. Every man is most loth to fall into his hands whom he fears most : so that if God hath once gained the supremacy of thy fear, thou wilt rather leap into the hottest fire the persecutor can make, than make God thy enemy : ' Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth in awe of thy word,' Psa. cxix. 161. David had put, it seems, man's wrath, and that which God threatens in his word, into the scales, and finding God's hand to be the heavier, trembles at that, and ventures the worst that the other can do against him. Hence it is the Scripture is so much in depi-essing the power of man, that we may not be scared at his big look or threats, and representing his utmost rage to be so contemptible and inconsiderable a thing, as none that knows who God is, needs fear the worst he can do ; ' Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?' Isa. ii. 22. ' Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell,' Matt. x. 28. Children are afraid of bugbears, that cannot hurt them ; but they can play with fire that will burn them ; and no less childish is it to be frightened into a sin at the frowns of a man, who comes forth with a vizard of seeming dread and terror, but hath no power to hurt us more than oiu* own fear gives him ; and to play with hell-fire into which God is able to cast us for ever. Truly, this is to be scared with painted fire in the picture, and not in the fur- nace, where it really burns. What was John Huss the worse for his fool's cap that his enemies put on his head, so long as under it he had a helmet of hope, which they could not take off? Or how much the nearer hell was the same blessed martyr for their committing his soul to the devil? No nearer than some of their own wicked crew are to heaven, for being sainted in the Pope's Calen- dar. Melancthon said, some are Anathema secundum did, as Luther, and other faithful servants of Christ, whom the pope ciu'sed. But what saith David? * Let them em-se, but bless thou,' Psa. cix. 28. He that hath God's good word, needs not fear the world's bad ; nor need change his countenance for the rage of his persecutors. Section III. — Be sure thou givest up thy lust to the sword of the Spirit, before thy life is in danger from the sword of the persecvitor. He is not likely to be free of his flesh for Christ, when called to suffer at man's hand, that is dainty of his lusts, and cannot bear the edge of the Spirit's sword when he comes to mortify them. Canst thou be willing to lay down thy life for Christ, and yet keep an enemy in thy bosom out of the hand of justice, that seeks to take away the life of Christ ? Persecutors tempt, as well as torture. They promise the honours of the court, as well as threaten the hardships of the prison, and cruelty of the devouring fire. Now, if thy love to the world be not moi- tified, it is easy to tell what choice thou wilt make, — even as Demas did, thou wilt embrace the present world, and leave Christ. Or if thou shouldst, through a natural stoutness, bear up under sufferings, even to give thy body to be burnt, rather than renoimce the true religion thou professest, yet if any lust should at last be foimd to have been fostered by thee, thou shalt have no more thanks at Christ's hands than he who in the law ofFei-ed up an unclean beast to God. It is possible for one to die in the cause of Christ, and not be his martyr. Thy heart must be holy which thou sufferest with, as well as the cause thou suf- ferest for. Thy behaviour must be gracious in suffering as well as the cause just, that brings thee to suffer. He alone is Christ's martyr, that suffers for Christ, as Christ himself suffei-ed : for he hath not only left us his truth to maintain unto blood, when called thereimto, by his example, but to follow also in our suffer- ings,— 'If, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is accept- able with God ; for even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered AND THE SWOKD OF THE SPIRIT. 597 for US, leaving us an example, that ye slxnild follow his steps ; wlio, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not,'&c.; 1 Pet. ii. 20, 21, 23. This is hard work indeed, in the very lire to keep the spirits cool, and clear of wrath and revenge, toward those that throw him so unmerci- fully into the devouring flames ! But it makes him that by grace can do it, a glorious conqueror. Flesh and blood would bid a man call for fire from hea- ven, rather than mercy to fall upon them that so cruelly handle him. He that can forgive his enemy is too hard for him, and hath the better of him; because his enemy's blows do but bruise his flesh, but the wounds that love gives, pierce the conscience. Saul was forced to confess that David, persecuted so furiously by him, was the better man, — ' Thou art more righteous than I,' I Sam. xxiv. 17. And the people went from the execution of Christ, whom they were so mad to have crucified, sick of what they had done, shaking their heads, as if all were not i-ight they had done against so good a man, Luke xxiii. 48. Now when two contrary elements are in a contest, that overcomes which preserves- its own nature, and turns the other into some likeness imto itself, as we see fire transfuseth its own heat into the water, forcing it to assimilate and yield to it.. Thus a holy, chai'itable spirit, by forgiving an enemy, if it doth not prevail to turn his enemy's heart to him in love, yet it turns his enemy's conscience against himself, and forceth him to condemn himself, and justify him whom he persecutes wrongfully. Section IV.- — Fortify thy faith on those promises which have an especial respect to such a condition. This is the saints' victory over the world, even their faith. Thus David, when Saul seemed to have him under his foot, and had driven him from living in a court, to dwell for safety in a cave of the wil- derness, yet by faith he triumphed over his proud enemy, and sung as pleasantly in his retreat, as the merriest bird in the wood, ' My heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise.' Saul had his body higher fed, but not his heart fixed, as David's was ; and therefore could not sing to David's tune. A thousand thoughts and fears distracted his head and heart, while David lived without fear and care, even when his enemies were in the field hunting for his life. Faith on the promise will, like the widow's oil, not only set thee out of debt to all worldly fears and cares which by thy troubles thou mayest contract, but afford thee enough to live comfortably, yea, with joy unspeakable and glorious. There are two sorts of sorrow that usually distress gracious soids most in their sufferings for Christ. First, They are prone to be troubled for their own per- sons and pi-ivate aft'airs. SeconcUy, For the cause of Christ which they bear testimony unto, lest that should miscarry. Now there is abundant provision laid up in the promises to ease the Chris- tian's heart of both these burdens. First, Acquaint thyself with those promises that concern thyself as a sufferer for Christ, and see where any crevice is left unstopped, if thou canst, that may let in the least air of su.spicion into thy mind, to disturb thy peace, and discompose thy joy. The promises are so many, and fitted so exactly to every particular query of which the soul can desire satisfac- tion, that it will require thy study and diligence to gather them : God having chosen rather to scatter his promises here and there promiscuously, than to sort them, and set every kind in a distinct knot by themselves, we may think, on purpose, that we might be di-awn into an acquaintance with the whole Scrip- ture, and not leave any one corner unsearched, but curiously observe it from one end to tl>e other. And let not the present peace of the church cause thee to think it needless work. The apothecary gathers his simples fn siunmcr, which haply he may not use till winter ; and how soon persecution may arise, thou knowest not. The church ever hath had, and shall have its vicissitudes of summer and winter ; yea, sometimes winter strikes in before it is looked for, and then who is the man most likely to be ofl'ended ? surely he that received the Avord with joy in the prosperous estate of the church, but lai