CHRIST DYING, AND Drawing Sinners to himselfe.

IT is a question whether these words of our Sa­viours Soule-trouble be nothing but the same words and prayer which Matthew chap. 26. and Luke 22. relate, to wit, O my Father, Opening of the words. if it be possible, let this cup passe from me, when his soule was troubled in the garden, in his ago­nie: Some think them the same, others not. It is like they are words of the same matter; for first, when Christ uttered these words, hee was neare his sufferings, and on the brink of that hideous and dark sea of his most extreme paine, and drew up against hell, and the Armies of darknesse; as the story shew­eth. But that the Lord uttered these same words in the garden, and not before, is not apparent; because upon this prayer it is said, Then came there a voyce from heaven, &c. A voyce speaketh to him from heaven: now, Mat. 26. Luk. 22. no [Page 2] voyce is like to have come from heaven; for when hee prayed in his agonie, there were no people with him, as here, because of the voyce the people being present, Some said it thundered, others said, an Angel spake from heaven: there being now with Christ in the garden, when hee prayed, O my Father, &c. none save Peter, James, and John, the three famous witnesses of his extreme suffering, and of his young heaven, of his transfigu­ration on the Mount, when hee acted the Preludium and the image and representation of heaven before them, as is cleare, Mat. 26. vers. 37. And he was removed from them also, Mat. 26.39. Luk. 22.41. and they were sleeping, in his agonie, Mat. 26.40, 43, 45. But now there is a waking people with Christ, who heard this voyce. But I deny not but it is the same prayer in sense: even as suppose it were revealed to a godly man, that hee were to suffer an extreme, violent, and painfull death; and withall, some fearfull soule-desertion, as an image of the second death; it should much affright him to remember this, and hee might pray that the Lord would either save him from that sad houre, or then give him grace with faith and courage, in the Lord, to endure it: so here; Christ, God and man, knowing that hee was to beare the terrors of the first and second death, doth act over afore-hand (the time being neare) the sorrow and anguish of heart that hee was to suffer in his extreme sufferings: Its good in our mind to act our sufferings ere they come. as it were good, ere the crosse come, to act it in our mind, and take an essay and a lift of Christs crosse, ere wee beare it, to try how handsomely wee would set back and shoulders under the Lords crosse. I doe not intend that wee are to imitate the Martyr who put his hand in the fire, the night before hee suf­fered, to try how hee could endure burning-quick; but that wee are to lay the supposition, what if i [...] so fall out; (as Christ being perswaded his suffering was to come, acted sorrow, trou­ble of soule and prayer before-hand;) and to resolve the sad­dest, and antedate the crosse, and say with our owne hearts, Let the worst come; or to suffer our feare to prophecy, as Job did, chap. 3. vers. 25. yet suppose the hardest befall me, I know what to doe; as the unjust Steward resolveth on a way, before-hand, how to swimm [...] through his necessities, Luk. 16.4. The Lord acteth judgement▪ and what they shall pray in the time of their extremity, who now spit at all praying and Religion; they shall be religious in their kind, when they shall cry, Revel. 6.16. [Page 3] Mountaines and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. You cannot beleeve that a Lambe shall chase the Kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and every bond-man, and every free-man, into the dennes and the rocks of the moun­taines, to hide themselves. But the Lord acteth wrath and judge­ment, before your eyes. Men will not suppose the reall story of hell. Say but with thy selfe, Oh! shall I weep, and gnaw my tongue for paine, in a sea of fire and brimstone? Doe but fore-fancie, I pray you, how you shall look on it, what thoughts you will have, what you shall doe, when you shall 2 Thes. 1.9. be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. 1. Fore-seen sorrowes have not so sad an impression on the spirit. 2. Grace is a well-advised and resolute thing, and has the eyes of providence to say in possible events, What if my Scarlet embrace the Dung­hill, and Providence turne the Tables. 3. It is like wisedome (grace is wise to see afarre-off) to fore-act faith, and resolve to lie under Gods feet, and intend humble yeelding to God; as 2 Sam. 15.25, 26.

In the Complaint wee have 1. the Subject-matter of it, Parts of the Text. The Lords troubled- soule. 2. The Time; Now, is my soul [...] trou­bled. 3. Christs Anxiety wrought on him by this trouble; What shall I say? or, which is the sense, What shall I doe? 4. And a shoare is seen at hand in the storme, a present rock in the raging sea: What shalt thou say? Lord Jesus, what shalt thou doe? Pray: and hee prayeth, Father, save me from this houre. 5. There is a sort of correction, or rather a limitation; But for this cause came I to this houre. The Lord forgetting his paine, embraceth this evill houre. 6. Going on in his resolu­tion to embrace this sad houre, hee prayeth, vers. 28. Father, glorifie thy Name.

Touching the first, the Soule-trouble of Christ, Five Particu­lars touching Christs soule-trouble. wee are to consider, 1. How it can consist with peace. 2. How with the personall union. 3. What cause there was. 4. What love and mercy in Jesus to be troubled for us. 5. What use wee must make of this.

1. Pos. This holy soule thus troubled, How pure and heavenly Christs affe­ctions are. was like the earth be­fore the Fall, out of which grew roses without thorns, or thistles, before it was cursed. Christs anger, his sorrow, were flowers [Page 4] that smelled of heaven, and not of sinne: All his affections of feare, sorrow, sadnesse, hope, joy, love, desire, were like a foun­taine of liquid and melted silver; of which the bankes, the head-spring, are all as cleare from drosse, as pure Chrystall: such a fountaine can cast out no cl [...]y, no mudde, no dirt. When his affections did rise and swell in their acts, every drop of the foun­ [...]aine was sinlesse, perfumed and adorned with grace; so as the more you stirre or trouble a well of Rose-water, or some pre­cious liquor, the more sweet a smell it casts out: Or, as when a summer soft wind bloweth on a field of sweet Roses, it dif­fuseth precious and delicious smells through the aire. There is such mudde and dregs in the bottome and banks of our affecti­ons, Our affections are muddie. that when our anger, sorrow, sadnesse, feare, does arise in their acts, our fountaine casteth out sinne. Wee cannot love, but wee lust; nor feare, but wee despaire; nor rejoyce, but wee are wanton and vaine and gaudie; nor beleeve, but wee presume: wee rest up, wee breath out sin, wee cast out a smell of hell, when the wind bloweth on our field of weeds and thistles; our soule is all but a plat of wild-corne, the imagi­nations of our heart being onely evill from our youth. O that Christ would plant some of his flowers in our soule, and blesse the soyle, that they might grow kindly there, being warmed and nourished with his grace: If grace be within, in sad pressures it comes out: A Saint is a Saint in affliction; as an hypocrite is an hypocrite: and every man is himselfe, and casts a smell like himselfe, when he is in the furnace. Troubled Christ prayes. Tempted Job beleeves, Job 19.25. The scourged Apostles re­joyce, Act. 5.41. Drowned Jonah looks to the holy Temple, Jonah 2.4.

2. Christs affections were rationall; reason starts up before feare: reason and affection did not out-run one another. Joh. 11.33. when Christ sees his friends weep, hee weeps with them: and that which is expressed in our Text by a Passive Verb, [...], My soule is troubled; is there expressed by an Active Verb, Hee groned in the Spirit, [...], and hee troubled himselfe: Hee called upon his affections, and grace and light was Lord and Master of his affection's. The perfection of Christs af [...]ctions.. There was in CHRIST three things which are not in us: First, The God-h [...]ad personally united with a Man, and a Mans soule had an immediate influence on his affections. This was Christs [Page 5] personall priviledge; and to want this, is not our sinne: to have it, was Christs glory: But the nearer any is to God, the more heavenly are the affections. Secondly, When God framed the humane nature and humane soule of Christ, hee created a more noble and curious piece, then was the first Adam: It is true, hee was like us in all things, except sinne, and essentially a man; but in his generation there was a cut of the art of hea­ven in Christ more then in the forming of Adam, or then in the generation of men, suppose man had never sinned; as Luk. 1.35. The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee: never man was thus to be borne. Whence give me leave to think, that there was more of God in the humane nature of Christ, as nature is a vessel coming out of the Potters house, then ever was in Adam, or living man; though man had never sinned: And so, that hee had a humane soule of a more noble structure and fabrick, in which the Holy Ghost, in the act of sanctificati­on, had a higher hand, then when Adam was created, according to the image of God; though hee was a man like us in all things, sinne excepted.

3. Pos. Undeniably, Grace did so accompany Nature, that hee could not feare more then the object required. Had all the strength of men and Angels been massed and con­temperated in one, they should have been in a higher measure troubled, then Christ was: So how much trouble was in Christs affections, as much there was of reason, perfumed and lustered with grace. Hee was not as man in his intellectualls, wise, or desirous to be wise, (as Adam and Evah, and men now are taken with the disease of curiosity) above what was fit: So neither were his affections above banks; hee saw the blackest and dark­est houre, that ever any saw; suppose all the sufferings of the damned, for eternity, were before them in one sight, or came on them at once, it should annihilate all that are now, or shall be in hell. Christ now saw, or fore-saw as great sufferings, and yet 1. beleeved, 2. prayed, 3. hoped, 4. was encouraged under it, 5. suffered them to the bottome with all patience, 6. rejoy­ced in hope, Psal. 16.9. Now our affections rise and swell before reason: 1. They are often imaginary, and are on horse-back and in armes at the stirring of a straw. 2. They want that clearnesse and serenity of grace that Christ had, through habituall grace following nature from the womb. 3. Wee can raise our affec [...] ­ons, [Page 6] but cannot allay them: as some Magicians can raise the Devill, but cannot conjure, or command him: or, some can make warre, and cannot create peace. It is a calumnie of Pa­pists, that say, that Calvin did teach there was despaire, or any distemper of reason in Christ; when as Calvin saith, Hee still beleeved with full assurance. And this extremity of soule-trouble was most rationall, coming from the infallible appre­hension of the most pressing cause of soule-trouble, that ever li­ving man was under.

What peace Christ had with his soule-trouble.4. Pos. Christ had now and alwayes Morall peace, or the grace of peace, as peace is opposed to culpable raging of Con­science. First, Hee never could want faith, which is a serenity, quietnes, and silence of the soule and assurance of the love of God. Secondly, Hee could have no doubting, or sinfull disturbance of mind; because hee could have no conscience of guilt, which could over-cloud the love and tenderest favour of his Father to him. But as peace is opposed to paine, and sense of wrath and punishment, for the guilt of our sinnes, so hee wanted Physicall peace, and was now under penall disturbance and disquietnesse of soule. So wee see some have peace, but not pardon; as the secure sinners, 1 Thes. 5.3. Secondly, Some have pardon, but not peace; as David, Psal. 38.3. who had broken bones; and complaineth, vers. 8. I am feeble and sore broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietnesse of my heart. And the troubled Church, Psal. 77.1, 2, 3, 4. Some have both peace and pardon; as some, like Steven, that are so neare to the Crowne, as they are above any challenges of Conscience: It's like Sathan giveth over, and despaireth of these, whom hee cannot over-take, be­ing so neare the end of the race. When the sunne riseth first, the beames over-gilde the tops of green mountaines that look toward the East, and the world cannot hinder the sun to rise: Some are so neare heaven, that the everlasting Sunne hath be­gun to make an everlasting day of glory on them; the rayes that come from his face that sits on the throne, so over-goldeth the soule, that there is no possibility of clouding peace, or of hinder­ing day-light in the soules of such Some have neither peace nor pardon; as those in who [...]e soule hell hath taken fire. Christ never needed pardon, hee was able to pay all hee was owing; hee needed never the grace of forgivenesse, nor grace to be spa­red; God spared him not. God could exact no lesse bloud of [Page 7] him, then hee shed; but hee received an acquittance of justifi­cation, never a pardon of grace; 1 Tim. 3.16. Justified in the Spirit.

The third Point is, How a troubled soule can stand with a personall union. Can God, can the soule of God be troubled? A troubled soul consisted with the personall union. And how this must be; And how it can be. I shall shew, first, How this must be: Secondly, How this can be. It must be, first, Because the losse of heaven is the greatest losse. To ransome a King requireth more millions, then pence to ransome slaves. When wee were cast and forfeited, more than an hundred and forty foure thousand Kings (in the Lords decree they were Kings) were cast out of heaven: where 1 was there gold on earth to buy heaven, and so many Kings? And yet Justice must have payment; a God-troubled Saviour, and a Soule-troubled God was little enough. Oh, saith Love to infinite Justice, What will you give for me? will you buy me? my deare children, the heires of eternall grace? A price below the worth of so many Kings, Justice cannot heare of; equall it must be, or more.

Secondly, Law cannot sleep satisfied with a Mans soule-trouble; for as sinne troubles an infinite Gods soule, so farre 2 as our darts can flie up against the Sun, so must the soule-trou­ble of him who is God, expiate sin.

Thirdly, Heaven is not onely a transcendent Jewel, deare in it selfe, but our Father would propine Rebels with a Son­ship 3 and a Kingdome, which is deare in our legall esteeme. What standeth my Crowne to God? Why it could not possi­bly be dearer; The soule of God was weighed for it: that not onely freedome, but the dearest of prices might commend and cry up, above all heaven's, Christs love.

Fourthly, If my soule, or your soules, O redeemed of the 4 Lord, could be valued every one of them worth ten thou­sand millions of soules, and as many heavens, they could not over-weigh the soule of God; the soule that lodges in a glori­ous union with God: and the losse of heaven to the troubled soule of this noble, and high and lofty one, though but for a time, was more, and infinitely greater then my losse of heaven, and the losse of all the elect for eternity.

Fifthly, I love not to dispute here, but God, if wee speake of his absolute power, without respect to his free decree, could 5 have pardoned sinne without a ransome, and gifted all Man­kind [Page 8] and fallen Angels with heaven, without any satisfaction of either the sinner, God exacted not satisfaction for sins by ne­cessity of nature. or his Surety; for hee neither punisheth sin, nor tenders heaven to Men or Angels by necessity of nature, as the fire casteth out heat, and the sunne light; but freely: onely supposing that frame of providence, and decrees of pu­nishing, and redeeming sinners, that now is, the Lord could not but be steaddie in his decrees; yet this is but necessity con­ditionall, and at the second hand. But here was the businesse, God, in the depth of his eternall wisdome, did so frame and draw the designe and plot of saving lost man, as salvation was to runne in no other channell, The way of grace how lovely. but such an one, the bank where­of was the freest grace and tenderest love that can enter in the heart of Men or Angels; for hee drew the lines of our hea­ven through grace, all the way.

Secondly, Grace hardly can work but by choice and vo­luntary 2 arbitration: choice and election is sutable to Grace. Hence Grace casts lots on Man, not falne Angels; and the eternall lot of transcendent mercy must fall on the bosome of Jacob, and some others, not on Esau and others. And our Lord contrived this brave way, to out his grace on us.

Thirdly, And hee would not have love to lodge for eternity 3 within his owne bowels, but must find out a way how to put boundlesse mercy to the exchange or bank, that hee might traf­fique with love and mercy, for no gaine to himselfe; and there­fore freely our Lord came under baile, and lovely necessity, to straine himselfe to issue out love, in giving his one Sonne (hee had not another) to die for man: Hee framed a super­naturall providence of richest grace and love, to buy the refuse of creatures, foule sinners, with an unparallel'd sampler of ten­der love, to give the Bloud-Royall of heaven, the eternall Branch of the Princely and Kingly God-head a ransome to Justice. You sinne (saith the Love of loves) and I suffer: You did the wrong, I make the mends: You sinne and sing in your carnall joyes, I sigh, I weep for your joy. The fairest face that ever was, was foule with weeping for your sinfull rejoycing. It was fitting that free-love, in the bowells of Christ, should contrive the way to heaven through free-love: wee should never in heaven, cast downe our Crownes at the feet of him that sits on the throne, with such sense and admiration, if wee had come to the Crown by Law-doing, and not by Gospel-confiding on a rich Ransom-payer. [Page 9] O that eternall banquet of the honey-combe of the Love-debt of the Lamb that redeemed us, for nothing, all the shoulders in heaven are for eternity on an act of lifting-up, and heightening Christs free-love, who has redeemed them, with so free a redemption; but they are not all able, though Angels help them, to lift it up high enough: its so weighty a Crown that is upon the head of the Prince-Redeemer, that, in a man­ner, it wearies them, and they cannot over-extoll it.

Now, this must be a mystery; for though the essence of God, and more of God then can be in a creature, were in Christ, Christ in soul-trouble an [...] the union not dis­solved. and in the most noble manner of union, which is personall; yet, as our soule united to a vegetive body, which doth grow, sleep, eat, drink, doth not grow, sleep, or eat; and, as fire is mixt or united with an hot iron, in which is density and weight, and yet there's neither density nor weight in the fire; so here, though the God-head, in its fulnesse, was united, in a most strict union, with a troubled and perplexed soule, and the suffering nature of man, yet is the God-head still free of suffering, or a­ny penall infirmities of the soule: The vigour and colour of a faire Rose may suffer by the extreme heat of the sunne, when yet the▪ sweet smell doth not suffer, but is rather enlarged by exhalation: Yet is there great halting in these comparisons; because, though the soule cannot be sick when the body is distem­pered, for there is nothing of the Elementary nature, nor any contemperation of Physicall humours in it, because of a more sublime and pure constitution; yet there is such alliance and in­tire society between the soule and the body, that the soule, through concomitancie and sympathy, does suffer; as the In-dweller is put to the worse, if the house be rainy and dropping: The soule findeth smoke and leakings of paine, in that its pinned in a lodging of sick clay, and so put to wish an hole in the wall, or to escape out at doore or window; as often our spirits are over-swayed so with distaste of life, because of the foure acci­dents that doe convey it, that they think the gaine of life not so sweet, as it can quit the cost. But the blessed God-head, uni­ted to the Man-hood, cannot so much as for companies cause be sick, pained, or suffer; nor can the God-head be weary of an u­nion with a troubled soule: Wee conceive, in the grave and death, that glorious f [...]llowship was never dissolved.

Secondly, Many things may suffer by invasion of contraries; [Page 10] as, shoot an arrow against a wall of brasse, some impression may remaine in the wall, to witnesse the violence that has been there; and wee know that, They shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevaile: But the blessed God-head in Christ is unca­pable of an arrow, or of repercussion; there is no action against God; hee is here not so much as a coast, a bank or bulwurke, capable of receiving one spitting or drop of a sea-wave; one­ly the Man Christ, the Rose of heaven, had in his bosome, at his root, a fountaine, Oh how deep and refreshing, that kept the Flower greene, under death and the grave! when it was plucked up, it was faire, vigorous, green before the sunne; and thus plucked up, and above earth, blossomed faire!

Thirdly, Not onely the influence and effects of the glorious God-head did water the Flower, and keep strength in Christ, (so, I think, God can keep a damned man in the doubled tor­ments of everlasting wrath, with strength of grace, courage, faith, the love of Christ for ever, as hee could not be over­come by hell and devils;) but there was the fulnesse personall of the God-head, that immediatly sustained the Man Christ; it was not a delegated comfort, nor sent help, nor a message of created love, nor a borrowed flowing of a sea of sweetnesse of consolation; Famulists teach that Christ is in­carnate in be­leevers. but God in proper person, infinite subsistence, the personality of the Sonne of God bottomed all his sufferings; the Man-hood was imped and stocked in the subsistence of the tree of life. Its true, God is a present help to his Saints in trouble; but his helping is in his operation and working; but hee is not personally united to the soule. Its abominable that some Famulists teach, Rise, reigne, of Antinom. er. 11. that as Christ was once made flesh, so hee is now first made flesh in us, ere wee be carried to perfection. Be­cause, not any Saint on earth can be so united personally to God, as the Son of Man; for hee being made of a woman, of the seed of David, the Son of Man, hee, and not any but hee, is the eternall Son of God, God blessed for ever. The Child born to us, is the mighty God, the Father of age, the Prince of peace, Isai. 9.6. Rom. 9.5. Gal. 4.4. There is a wide diffe­rence between him the second Adam, and all men, even the first Adam in his perfection. 1 Cor. 15.47. If Christ suffered without dissolving of the union, God keeping the tent of clay, and taking it to heaven with him, in a personall union, then God can in the lowest desertion dwell in his Saints. We com­plaine [Page 11] in our soule-trouble, of Christs departure from us, but hee is not gone; our sense is not our Bible, nor a good rule; there is an errour in this Compasse.

The third Particular was the Cause: What cause was there? Christ s [...]ffe­red in his soule kindly, and not by concomi­tancy onely. Papists say there was no reason of Christs soule-suffering, ex­cept for sympathy with the body. Wee beleeve, that Christ becoming Surety for us, not his body onely, but his soule e­specially came under that necessity, that his soule was in our soules stead; and so what was due to our soules for ever, our Surety of justice behoved to suffer the same. Isai. 53.10. Hee 1 made his soule an offering for sinne. Sure for our sin. Nor must wee restrict the soule to the body and temporary life, seeing hee expresseth it in his owne language, And now is my soule troubled.

Secondly, There was no reason of Christs bodily sufferings, when, in the garden, hee did sweat bloud for us; nor had a­ny 2 man at that time laid hands on him; and all that agonie hee was in, came from his soule onely.

Thirdly, Nor can it be more inconsistent with his blessed person, being God and Man, and the Sonne of God, that hee suffered in his soule the wrath of God for our sinnes, then that his soule was troubled, and exceeding sorrowfull, heavie to the deaths in an agonie; and that hee complained, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the cause of this soule-trouble was for sinners; this was Surety-suffering. The choicest and most stately piece that ever God created, and dearest to God, Christs pre [...]i­ous soule lia­ble to suffering being the Second to God-man, was the Princely soule of Christ, it was a Kings soule; yet death, by reason of sinne, passeth upon it; and not a common death, but that which is the mar­row of death; the first-borne and the strongest of deaths, the wrath of God, the innocent paine of hell, voyd of despaire and hatred of God. If I had any hell on me, I should chuse an inno­cent hell, like Christs: Better suffer ill a thousand times, than sinne: Suffering is rather to be chosen, than sinne. It was pain, and nothing but paine: Damned men, and reprobate devils, are not capable of a godly and innocent hell, they cannot chuse to suffer hell, and not spit on faire and spotlesse Justice; because Christs bloud was to wash away sin, hee could not both fully pay, and contract debt also. But if it be so, that death finding so precious a Surety as Christs Princely and sinlesse soule, did [Page 12] make him obey the law of the Land, ere hee escaped out of that Land, what wonder that wee die, who are born in the Land of death? W [...]e are to beare [...] patiently, be­cause Christ [...]. No creature but it travelleth in paine, with death in its bosome, or an inclination to Mother-Nothing, whence it came. God onely goeth between the mightiest Angel in heaven, and Nothing: All things under the Moone must be sick of vanity and death, when the Heire of all things, coming in amongst dy­ing creatures, out of dispensation, by Law must dye. If the Lords soule, and the soule of such a Lord dye and suffer wrath, then let the faire face of the world, the heavens, look like the face of an old man, full of trembling, white haires, and wrinkles, Psal. 102.26. Then let man make for his long home; let Time it selfe waxe old and gray-hair'd. Why should I desire to stay here, when Christ could not but passe away?

No wonder all things be lya­ble to change, since Christ was in soule-trouble.And if this spotlesse soule that never sinned was troubled, what wonder then many troubles be to the sinner? Our Sa­viour, who promiseth soule-rest to others, cannot have soule-rest himselfe: his soule is now on a wheele sore tossed, and all the creatures are upon a wheele, and in motion; there is not a crea­ture since Adam sinned, sleepeth sound. Wearinesse and motion is laid on Moon and Sunne, and all creatures on this side of the Moon. Seas ebbe and flow, and that's trouble; winds blow, rivers move heavens and stars these five thousand yeares, ex­cept one time, have not had sixe minutes rest; living creatures walk apace toward death; Kingdomes, Cities, are on the wheele of changes, up, and downe; Man-kind runne, and the disease of body-trouble, and soule-trouble on them, they are motion-sick, going on their feet, and Kings cannot have beds to rest in. The six dayes Creation hath been travelling and shouting for paine, and the Child is not born yet, Rom. 8.22. This poore woman hath been groning under the bondage of vanity, and shall not be brought to bed, while Jesus come the second time to be Mid-wife to the birth. The great All of heaven and earth, since God laid the first stone of this wide Hall, hath been gro­ning, and weeping, for the liberty of the sonnes of God, Rom. 8.21. The figure of the passing-away world, 1 Cor. 7.31. is like an old mans face, full of wrinkles, and foule with weeping: we are waiting, when Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, and shall come and wipe the old mans face. Every creature here is on its feet, none of them can sit or lie. Christs soule now is above [Page 13] trouble, and rests sweetly in the bosome of God. Troubled Soules, Rejoyce in hope. Soft and childish Saints take it not well that they are not every day feasted with Christs love, that they lie not all the night between the Redeemer's brests, and are not dandled on his knee; but when the daintiest piece of the Man Jesus, his precious soule was thus sick of soule-trouble, and the noble and celebrious head-Heire of all, the first of his King­ly house, was put to deep grones that pierced skies and heaven, and rent the rocks, why but sinners should be submissive, when Christ is pleased to set children down to walke on foot, and hide himselfe from them? But they forget the difference be­tween the Innes of clay, and the Home of glory. Our fields here are sowne with teares, griefe growes in every furrow of this low-land. You shall lay soule and head down in the bosome, and between the brests of Jesus Christ; that bed must be soft and delicious, its perfumed with uncreated glory. The thoughts of all your now soule-troubles, shall be as shadowes that pas­sed away ten thousand yeares agoe, when Christ shall circle his glorious arme about your head, and you rest in an infinite compasse of surpassing glory; or when glory, or ripened grace, shall be within you, and without you, above, and below, when feet of clay shall walk upon pure surpassing glory: The street of the City was pure gold: There is no gold there, but glory onely; gold is but a shadow to all that is there.

It were possibly no lesse edifying to speake a little of tho Fourth, What love and tender mercy it was in Christ, to be so troubled in soule for us.

1. Pos. Selfe is precious, when free of sinne, and withall selfe-happy. Christ was both free of sin, and selfe-happy; What love is Christs un­dertaking for us. what then could have made him stirre his foot out of heaven, so ex­cellent a Land, and come under the pain of a troubled soule, except free, strong and vehement love, that was a bottomlesse river unpatient of banks? Infinite goodnesse maketh Love to swell without it selfe, Joh. 15.13. Goodnesse is much moved with righteousnesse and innocency; but wee had a bad cause, because sinners: But goodnesse (for every man that hath a good cause, is not a good man) is moved with goodnesse: we were neither righteous, nor good; yet Christ, though neither righ­teousnesse was in us, nor goodnesse, would dare to dye for us, Rom. 5.7, 8. Goodnesse and grace (which is goodnesse for no [Page 14] deserving) is bold, daring, and venturous. Love, which could not flow within its owne channell, but that Christs love might be out of measure love, and out of measure loving, would out­run wickednesse in man.

2. Pos. Had Christ seen, when hee was to ingage his soule in the paines of the second death, Christ cast up his counts, and saw what hee was to give out, and what to get in, in his dying for us. that the expence in giving out should be great, and the in-come small, and no more then hee had before, wee might value his love more: But Christ had leasure from eternity, and wisdome enough to cast up his counts, and knew what hee was to give out, and what to receive in; so hee might have repented and given up the bargaine. Hee knew that his bloud, and his one noble soule, that dwelt in a personall union with God, was a greater summe, incomparably, then all his redeemed ones. Hee should have in little, he should but gaine lost sinners; hee should empty out (in a manner) a faire God-head, and kill the Lord of glory, and get in a black bride. But there's no lack in love; the love of Christ was not private, nor mercenary. Christ the buyer, commended the wares ere hee bargained, Cant. 4.7. Thou art all faire, my love, there's not a spot in thee. Christ judged hee had gotten a noble prize, and made an heavens market, when hee got his Wife that hee served for, in his armes, Esay 53.11. Hee saw the travell of his soule, and was satisfied: Hee was filled with delight, as a full Banquetter. If that ransome hee gave had been little, hee would have given more.

3. Pos. It is much that nothing without Christ moved him to this engagement. There was a sad and bloudy warre be­tween divine Justice and sinners; Loves way of saving man. Love, Love pressed Christ to the warre, to come and serve the great King, and the State of lost Mankind, and to doe it freely. This maketh it two favours. Its a conquering notion to think, that the sinners heaven bred first in Christs heart from eternity; and that Love, freest Love was the blossome, and the seed, and the onely contriver of our eternall glory: that free Grace drove on from the beginning of the age of God ▪ from everlasting, the saving plot and sweet designe of redemption of soules. This innocent and soule-re­joycing policy of Christs taking on him the seed of Abraham, not of Angels, and to come downe in the shape of a servant, to the land of his enemies, without a Passe, in regard of his suf­ferings, speaketh and cryeth the deep wisdome of infinite Love. [Page 15] Was not this the wit of free Grace to find out such a mysteri­ous and profound dispensation, as that God and man personally should both doe and suffer, so as Justice should want nothing, Mercy be satisfied, Peace should kisse righteousnesse, and warre goe on, in justice, against a sinlesse Redeemer? Angels bow­ing and stooping downe to behold the bottome of this depth, 1 Pet. 1.12. cannot read the perfect sense of the infinite turn­ings and foldings of this mysterious love. O Love of heaven, and fairest of Beloveds, the flower of Angels, why camest thou so low down, as to be-spot and under-rate the spotlesse love of all loves, with coming [...]igh to black sinners? Who could have beleeved that lumps of hell and sinne could be capable of the warmings and sparkles of so high and princely a Love? or that there could be place in the brest of the High and lofty One, for forlorne and guilty clay. But wee may know in whose brest this bred; sure none but onely the eternall Love and Delight of the Father could have outed so much love: had another done it, the wonder had been more. But of this more else-where.

Wee may hence chide our soft nature; Vse 1. the Lord Jesus his soule was troubled in our businesse, Our softnesse and selfe-wis­dome in suffe­ring. wee start at a troubled bo­dy, at a scratch in a penny-broad of our hyde. First, There is in nature a silent impatience, if wee be not carried in a chariot of love, in Christs bosome, to heaven; and if wee walk not upon scarlet, and purple under our feet, wee flinch and mur­mure. 1

Secondly, Wee would either have a silken, a soft, a perfu­med 2 crosse, sugered and honyed with the consolations of Christ, or wee faint; and providence must either brew a cup of gall and worm-wood mastered in the mixing with joy and songs, else wee cannot be Disciples. But Christs Crosse did not smile on him, his Crosse was a crosse, and his ship sailed in bloud, and his blessed soule was sea-sick, and heavie even to death.

Thirdly, Wee love to saile in fresh waters, within a step to the shoare, wee consider not that our Lord, though hee afflict 3 not, and crush not, [...] from his heart, Lam. 3.33. yet hee afflicteth not in sport: punishing of sinne is in God a serious, grave, and reall work: no reason the crosse should be a play; neither Stoicks nor Christians can laugh it over; the Crosse cast a sad glowme upon Christ.

[Page 16] 4 Fourthly, we forget that bloody and sad mercies are good for us: the peace that the Lord bringeth out of the wombe of warre, is better then the rotten peace that wee had in the super­stitious daies of Prelats. What a sweet life, what a heaven, what a salvation is it, we have in Christ? and we know the death, the grave, the soule-trouble of the Lord Jesus, travelled in paine to bring forth these to us. Heaven is the more heaven, that to Christ it was a purchase of blood. The Crosse to all the Saints must have a bloody bit, and Lyons teeth, it was like it selfe to Christ, gallie and soure, it must be so to us. Wee can­not have a Paper-crosse, except we would take on us to make a golden providence, and put the creation in a new frame, and take the world, and make it a great leaden vessell, melt it in the fire, and cast a new mould of it.

5 Fiftly, the more of God in the Crosse, the sweeter: as that free grace doth budde out of the black rod of God, to the soule that seeth not, and yet beleeveth, and loveth; the Crosse of Christ drops honey, and sweetest consolations. Wee sigh under stroakes, and we beleeve. The first Adam killed us, and buri­ed us in two deaths, and sealed our grave in one peece of an houre; he concluded all under wrath. Now how much of Christ is in this? Omnipotencie, infinite wisedome, (when Angels gave us over, and stood aloofe at our miserie, as changed lovers) free Grace, boundlesse love, deepest and richest mercy in Je­sus Christ opened our graves, and raised the dead. Christ died and rose againe, and brought againe from the dead all his buri­ed brethren.

Sixtly, we can wrestle with the Almighty ▪ as if we could di­scipline 6 and governe our selves, better then God can do; Murmu­ring fleeth up against a dispensation of an infinite wisdome, be­cause its Gods dispensation, not our owne, as if God had done the fault, Our mis-judg­ing of God, under the Crosse. but the murmuring man onely can make amends, and right the slips of infinite Wisdome. Why is it thus with mee, Lord? (saith the Wrestler.) Why doest thou mis-judge Christ? he who findeth fault with what the Creator doth, let him be man or Angel, undoe it, and doe better himselfe, and carry it with him.

Seventhly, we judge God with sense, with the humor of 7 reason, not with reason; the oare that God rolleth his vessell withall, is broken (say we) because the end of the oare is in the [Page 17] water: Providence halteth (say we) but what if sense and hu­mour say, a straight line is a circle? The world judged God in person a Samaritane, one that had a devill, if we mis-judge his person, we may mis-judge his providence and wayes. Suspend your sense of Gods wayes, while you see his ends that are un­der ground, and instead of judging, wonder and adore, or then beleeve implicitly that the way of God is equall, or doe both, and submit, and be silent. Heart-dialogues, and heart-speeches against God, that arises as smoake in the Chimney, are challeng­ings and summons against our highest Landlord, for his owne house and land.

Secondly, If Christ gave a soule for us, hee had no choiser thing: the Father had no nobler and dearer gift, Vse 2. then his only begotten sonne; the sonne had no thing dearer then himselfe, the man Christ had nothing of value comparable to his soule, Our coldnesse of love to Christ. and that must runne a hazzard for man. The Father, the Sonne, the Man Christ, gave the excellentest that was theirs, for us. In this giving and taking world, we are hence obliged to give the best and choisest thing we have for Christ. Should wee make a table of Christs acts of love, and free grace to us, and of ou [...] sinnes and acts of unthankefulnesse to him, this would be more evident; as there was (1.) before time in the breast of Christ an eternall coale of burning love to the sinner; this fire of hea­ven is everlasting, and the flames as hot to day as ever; our coale of love to him in time, hath scarce any fire or warmenesse, all fire is hot: Oh, we cannot warme Christ with our love, but his love to us is hotter then death, or as the flames of God: Wee were enemies in our minds to him, by wicked workes, Col. 1.21. Heires of wrath by nature. Christ began with love to us, we begin with hatred to him.

2. The Father gave his onely begotten Sonne for us; how many Fathers, and Elies will not let fall one tough word to all the sonnes and daughters they have, for the Lord? God spared not his Sonne, but gave him to the death for us all. Earthly Fa­thers spare, clap their Sonnes, Servants, Friends; Magistrates, flattering Pastors, their people in their blasphemies for him.

3. Christ gave his soule to trouble, and to the horrour of the second death for you; consult with your heart, if you have quit one lust for him. Christ laid aside his heaven for you; his whole heaven, his whole glory for you, and his Fathers house; [Page 18] are you willing to part with an acre of earth, or house, and in­heritance for him.

4. In calling us out of the state of sin, to grace and glory; oh I must make this sad reckoning with Jesus Christ. Oh, Christ turneth his smiling face to mee, in calling, inviting, obtesting, praying, that I would be reconciled to God, I turne my back to him; he openeth his breast and heart to us, and saith, Friends, Doves, come in and dwell in the holes of this rock; and wee lift our heele against him. O what guilt is here to scratch Christs breast? when he willeth you to come, and lay head and heart on his breast; this unkindnesse to Christs troubled soule, is more then sin: sinne is but a transgression of the Law. I grant it is an infinite But. But 'its a transgression of both Law and Love, to spurne against the warme bowels of Love, to spit on grace, on tendernesse of infinite Love. The white and ruddie, the fairest of heaven, offereth to kisse Blacke-Moores on earth, they will not come neere to him. 'Its a heart of Flint and Adaman [...], that spitteth at Evangelike love: Evangelicke love it more then Law-love. Law-Love is Love; Evan­gelike love is more then love, 'its the Gold, the floure of Christs Wheat, and of his finest Love. Cant. 5.6. I rose up to open to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawne himselfe, and was gone, my soule passed away when he spake. There be two words here considerable, to prove how wounding are sinnes against the love of Christ. Sins against Love are wounding. 1. My beloved hath withdrawne himselfe; the Text is, [...] and my beloved had turned about. Ari. Mont. circumj [...]rat, Pagnin. in the Margen, verterat se, the old Version, declinaverat. Christ being unwilling to remove, and wholly goe away, hee onely turned aside, as Jer. 31.22. How long wilt thou goe about, [...] O thou back-sliding daugh­ter. This intimateth so much, as Christ taketh not a direct journey to goe away, and leave his owne children, onely hee goeth a little aside from the doore of the soule, to testifie hee would gladly, with his soule, come in. Now what ingratitude is it to shut him violently away? 2. My soule was gone, the old Version is, My soule melted, at his speaking [...] my soule passed over, or went away; to remember his ravishing words, it broke my life and made me die: (so is the word elsewhere [Page 19] used) that I remembred a world of love in him, when he knock­ed, saying Open to me my sister, my love, my dove; to sinne against so great a bond as Grace, must be the sinne of sinnes, and amongst highest sinnes, as is cleare, in these that sinne against the Holy Ghost; then it must be impossible to give Grace any thing, we but pay our debts to grace; wee cannot give the debt of Grace to Grace in the whole summe.

It cannot then be a sinne intrinsecally and of it selfe to bee troubled in soule, if Christ was under soule-trouble, Vse 3. for sinnes imputed to him.

Hence let me stay a little on these two; First, what a trou­bled conscience is: Secondly, what course the troubled in soule are to take in imitation of Christ. What a Soule troubled for sinne is. A soule troubled for sinne must either be a soule feared and perplexed, for the penall dis­pleasure, wrath, and indignation of God, or the eternall punish­ment of sinne, as these come under the apprehension of the evill of punishment; or, for sinne as it faileth against the love of God, or for both. In any of these three respects, it is no sinne to be soule-troubled for sinne, upon these conditions: 1. That the soule bee free of faithlesse doubting of Gods love. Now Christ was free of this, he could not but have a fixed, intire, and never broken confidence of his Fathers eternall love. If we have any sinne in our soule-trouble for sinne, it's from unbeliefe, not from soule-trouble; if their be mud and clay in the streams, it is from the bankes, not from the fountaine. Or, 2. if the soule feare the ill of punishment, as the greatest ill, and as a greater then the ill of sinne, there is more passion, then sound light in the feare, this could not be in Christ; the aversion of the Lords heart, from the party in whom there is sinne, either by reall in­herence, Or by free imputation, and the in-drawing of rayes, and irradiations, and out-flowings of divine love is a high-evill in a soule that hath any thing of the nature of a sonne in him; now there was as much of a sonne in Christ, as a mans nature could be capable of: and the more of God that was in Christ, Christs being overclouded incom [...]arably the greatest Soule-trouble that ever wa [...], be los [...]ng so much. as the fulnesse, the boundlesse infinite Sea of the God-head, over­flowed Christ over all the banks, then for Christ to be under a cloude, in regard of the out-breathings of eternall love, was in a sort, most violent to Christ, as if he had been torne from himselfe, and therefore it behoved to be an extreame soule-trou­ble; Christ being deprived, in a manner▪ of himselfe, and of [Page 20] his onely soules substantiall delight and Paradise. And this could not be a sinne, but an act of gracious Soule-sorrow, that sinne and hell intervened between the Moone and the Sunne; the soule of Christ, and his Lord; the more of Heaven in the soule, and the more of God: the want of God and of Heaven is the greater Hell. Suppose we that the whole light in the bodie of the Sun were utterly extinct, and that the Sunne were tur­ned in a body as darke as the outside of a Caldron, that should be a greater losse, then if an halfe penny candle were depri­ved of light. Christ had more to lose, then a world of millions of Angels; Imagine a creature of as much Angelike capacity, as ten thousand times, ten thousand thousand of Angels, all con­temperated in one, if this glorious Angel were filled, accor­ding to his capacitie, with the highest, and most pure and refined glory of heaven; and againe were immediatly stript naked of all this glory, and then plunged into the depth and heart of Holl, and of a lake of more then Hells ordinary temper, of fire and brimstone; or suppose, God should adde millions of degrees of more pure and unmixed wrath and curses, this Angels soule must be more troubled, then wee can easily apprehend; yet this is but a comparison below the thing; but the Lord Jesus in whole person, heaven in the highest degree was carried a­bout with him, being throwne down from the top of so high a glory, to a sad and fearefull condition, an agony, and swea­ring of blood, ( God knowes the cause) that shouting and tears of this low condition, drew out that saddest complaint, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? his losse must be in­comparably more then all we can say in these shaddowes.

This sheweth the cause, why there is not among troubles any so grievous, as the want of the presence of God, to a soule fatte­ned, and feasted with the continuall marrow and fatnesse of the Lords house. No such complaints read you, so bitter, so pathe­ticke, and comming from deeper sense, then the want of the sense of Christs love. It's broken bones, and a dryed up body to David; it's bitter weeping and crying, like the chattering of a Crane to Ezechiah; it's more then strangling, and brings Job to pray he had been buried in the wombe of his mother, or that he had never been borne, or his mother had beene alwaies great with him; it is swoning, and the soules departure out of the body, sicknesse and death to the Spouse, Cant. 5. vers. 6.8. [Page 21] it's Hell and distraction to Heman, Psal. 88.15. It is to Jere­miah the cursing of the Messenger that brought tidings to his Father, that a man-child was borne, and a wishing that hee never had being, nor life; it's death to part the lover from the beloved, and the stronger love bee, the death is the more death.

But in all that we yet have said, Christ was to bleed for sinne, as sinne. Christs greatest Soule trou­ble as a Sonne (for that he was essentially) was in that his holy soule was sadded and made h [...]avie even to death, for sinne, as sinne, and as contrary to his Fathers love. The Elect sinned a­gainst the Lord, not looking to him, as either Lord, or Father: but Christ payed full deare for sinne; eying God as Lord, as Father. Wee looke neither to Lord, to Law, nor to Love, when we sinne; Christ looked to all three, when hee satisfied for sinne. Christ did more then pay our debts; it was a summe above price that he gave for us; it is a great question, yea out of all question, if all mankind redeemed came neere to the worth, to the goodly price given for us.

So according to the sense of any happinesse, According to the fulnesse of the presence of the Godhead, so heavy was Christs losse under deserti­on. so must the Soule-trouble for the losse of that happinesse be, in due propor­tion. First, as we love, so is sorrow for the losse of what we love. Jaakob would not have mourned so, for the losse of a servant, as of his Sonne Joseph. Now no man enioying God, could have a more quicke and vigorous sense of the enjoyed God-head, then Christ▪ so his apprehension and vision of God must have been strong. 2. Because the union with the God­head, and communion of fulnesse of Grace from the wombe, must adde to his naturall faculties, a great edge of sense; his soule and the faculties thereof were never blunted with sinne; and the larger the vessell be, the fulnesse must be the greater▪ What, or who, of the highest Seraphims, or Dominions, or Principalities, among Angels, had so large and capacious a a spirit to containe the fulnesse of God, as Christ had? When Salomons heart was larger the [...] the sand in the Sea-shore; and he was but a shaddow of such a soule, as was to divell perso­nally with the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily; O how capaci­ous and wide must the heart of the true Salomon be? it being to containe many Seas, and Rivers of Wisdome, Love, Joy, Goodnesse, Mercy, above millions of Sandes, in millions of Sea-shoares. What bowels of compassion and love, of m [...] ­nesse, [Page 22] gentlenes, of free grace must be in him? Since all thou­sands of Elected soules sate in these bowels, and were in his heart, to die and live with him, and withall, since in his heart was the love of God in the highest. Love must make a strong impression in the heart of Christ, and the stronger, purer, and more vigorous that Christs intellectuals are, the deeper his ho­ly thoughts and pure apprehensions were, and more steeled with fulnesse of Grace; his fruition, sense, joy, and love of God, must be the more elevated above what Angels and M [...]n are capable off. Hence it must follow, that Christ was plunged in an uncouth, and new world of extreame sorrow, even to the death, when this strong love was Ecclipsed. Imagine that for one Spring and Summer season, that all the light, heat, moti­on, vigour, influence of life, should retire into the body of the Sunne, and remaine there, what darkeness, deadness, whithe­ring, should be upon flowres, herbs, trees, mountaines, valleys, beasts, birds, and all things living and moving on the earth? Then what wonder, that Christs Soule was extreamly troubled, his blessed Sunne was now downe, his Spring and Summer gone; his Father a forsaking God, was a new World to him, and I shall not beleeve that his complaint came from any error of judgement, or mistakes, or ungrounded jealousies of the love of God: As his Father could not at any time hate him; so neither could he at this time, actu secundo, let out the sweet fruits of his love▪ the cause of the former is the nature of God, [...]s the ground of the latter is a dispensation above the capaci­tie of the reason of Men or Angels. We may then conclude, that Jesus Christs Soule-trouble, as it was rationall, and ex­treamely penall; so also it was sinneless, and innocent, seldome have we Soule-trouble sinneless▪ but it i [...] by accident of the way. For our passions can hardly rise in th [...]ir extremity, (ex­cept when God is their onely object) but they goe over score, yet Soule-trouble intrinsecally is not a sinne.

Then to be troubled for sin, though the person be fully per­swaded of pardon, Soule-trouble for sin, is in­trins [...]cally no sin. is neither sin, no [...] inconsistent with the state of a justified person, nor is it any act of unbeleefe, as Antino­mians falsely suppose. For (1.) To be in soule-trouble for sin which cannot, to the perfect knowledge of the person troubled, 1 eternally condemne, was in Jesus Christ; in whom there was no spot of sin. And Antinomians say, Sin remaining sin essen­tially, [Page 23] must have a condemnatory power: so as its unpossible to separate the condemnatory power of the Law, Antinomians error touching the nature of sinne from the mandatory and commanding power of the Law. (2.) Be­cause as to abstaine from sin as it offendeth against the love of God sh [...]wing mercy, rather then the Law of God inflicting 2 wrath, is spirituall obedience; so also to be troubled in soule for sin, committed by a justified person against so many sweet bonds of free love and grace, is a sanctified and gracious sor­row and trouble of soule. (3.) To be troubled for sin, as offensive to our heavenly Father, and against the sweetnesse of 3 free Grace and tender love, includeth no act of unbeleef, nor that the justified and pardoned sinner thus troubled is not par­doned, or that hee feareth eternall wrath, (as Antinomians ima­gine) no more then a sons griefe of mind for offending a ten­der-hearted father can inferre, that this griefe doth conclude this son under a condition of doubting of his state of son-ship or filiation, or a fearing hee be dis-inherited. Wee may feare the Lord and his goodnesse, Hos. 3.5. as well as wee feare his e­ternall displeasure. (4.) Sanctified soule-trouble is a son­lie commotion and agonie of spirit, for trampling under feet 4 tender love, spurning and kicking against the lovely warmnesse of the flowings of the bloud of atonement; checks and love-terrors or love-feavers that Christs Princely head was wet with the night-raine, while hee was kept out of his owne house, and suffered to lodge in the streets; and feare that the Beloved with­draw himselfe, and goe seek his lodging elsewhere, as Cant. 5.4, 5. Psal. 5.9, 10▪ and that the Lord cover himselfe with a cloud, and return to his place, and the influence of the rayes and beames of love be suspended; are sweet expressions of fi­liall bowels, and tendernesse of love to Christ.

Libertines imagine, Antinomians errors touch­ing doubtings, sorrow for sin, confession ▪ &c. if the hazard and feare of hell be re­moved, there is no more place for feare, soule-trouble, or con­fession: Therefore they teach, that there is no assurance true and right, unlesse it be without fear and doubting Story of the rise, reign, and ruine of Anti­nomians, er­ror 41. pag. 8.. (2.) That to call in question whether God be my deare Father, after, or upon the commission of some hainous sinnes, (as murther, in­cest, &c.) doth prove a man to be under the covenant of works Ibid er. 20. pag. 4 ▪ (3.) That a man must be so farre from being troubled for sin, that hee must take no notice of his sin, nor of his repentance Ib. er. 64. p. 12▪. Yea, D ^r. Crisp, vol. 3. Serm. 1. pag. 20, 21, 22. saith, There [Page 24] was no cause why Paul (Rom. 7.) should feare sin, or a body of death; because in that place Paul doth (saith hee) personate a scrupulous spirit, and doth not speak out of his owne present c [...]se, as it was at this time, when hee speaks it; but speaks in the person of another, yet a beleever: and my reason is, Paul in respect of his owne person, what became of his sin, was al­ready resolved, Chap. 8.1. There is now no condemnation, &c. hee knew his sins were pardoned, and that they could not hurt him.

Answ. Observe that Arminius, as also of old, Pelagius, exponed Rom. 7. de semi regenito, of a halfe renewed man, in whom sense, which inclines to veniall sins, fights with reason; that so the full and perfectly renewed man might seeme to be able to keep the Law, and be free of all mortall sin. And Crisp doth here manifestly free the justified man of all sin: why? because hee is pardoned. So then there is no battell between the Flesh and the Spirit in the justified man, by the Antino­mian way to heaven, which on the Fleshes part, that lusteth against the Spirit, deserveth the name of sin, or a breach of the Law: Onely its Asinus meus qui peccat, non ego; as the old Libertines in Calvin's time said, The flesh does the sin, not the man; D. Crisp his foule Liberti­nisme, that Paul Rom. 7. [...]sonateth a scrupulous con­science, and had no reall cause to con­fesse sinne, or complaine of it, or feare it. for the man is under no Law, and so cannot sin. But that Paul, Rom. 7. speaks in the person of a scrupulous and troubled conscience, not as its the common case of all the regenerate, in whom sin dwells, is a foule and fleshly untruth. (1.) To be carnall in part, as Vers. 14. to doe which wee allow not, to doe what wee would not, and what wee hate, to doe, is the com­mon case, not peculiar to a troubled conscience onely, but to all the Saints, Gal. 5.17. (2.) Paul speaketh not of beleeving, as hee must doe, if hee speak onely of a scrupulous and doubt­ing conscience; but hee speaketh of [...], of working, vers. 15. doing, 17, 18. willing, 15, 19. not of beleeving onely, or doubting: Now it is not like the Apostle does personate a scrupulous soule, of whom hee insinuates no such thing. (3.) A scrupulous and troubled conscience will never yeeld, so long as hee is in that condition, that hee does any good, or that hee belongs to God; as is cleare, Psal. 88. Psal. 38. Psal. 77.1, 2, 3, 4. &c. but Paul in this case yeeldeth, hee does good, hates evill, delights in the Law of the Lord in the inner man; hath a desire to doe good, hath a law in his mind [Page 25] that resisteth the motions of the flesh. (4.) Yea, the Apostle then had no cause to feare the body of sinne, or to judge himself wretched; this was his unbeleefe, and there was no ground of his feare; because hee was pardoned, hee knew that he was freed from condemnation. It was then Paul's sinne, and is the sinfull scrupulosity of unbeleevers to say, being once justified, Sinne dwells in me, and there is a law in my members, rebelling against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity unto the law of sinne; and I am carnall, and sold under sin; and I doe evill, even that which I hate; for all these are lies, and speeches of unbeleefe: The justified man sinneth not, his heart is clean, hee doth nothing against a law. But I well remember that our Di­vines, and particularly, Chemnitius, Calvin, Beza, prove against Papists, that concupiscence is sin after baptisme, even in the re­generate; and it is called eleven or twelve times with the name of sin, Rom. c. 6. c. 7. c. 8. and they teach that of Augustine as a truth, Inest non ut non sit, sed ut non imputetur. So we may use all these Arguments against Libertines, to prove wee are, even being justified, such as can sin, and doe transgresse the Law; and therefore ought to confesse these sins, be troubled in conscience for them, complaine and sigh in our fetters, though wee know that we are justified and freed from the guilt of sin, and the obligation to eternall wrath. But sin is one thing, and the obligation to eternall wrath is another thing: Antinomi­ans confound them, and so mistake grosly the nature of sinne, and of the Law, and of Justification. Some imprudently goe so farre on, that they teach, Mr. Archer. That beleevers are to be troubled in heart for nothing that befalls them, either in sinne, or in affliction. If their meaning were, that they should not doubt­ingly, and from the principle of unbeleefe call in question their once sealed Justification, wee should not oppose such a tenent; but their reasons doe conclude, That wee should no more be shaken in mind with sinne, then with afflictions, and the punish­ments of sin; and that notwithstanding of the highest provo­cation wee are guilty of, wee are alwayes to rejoyce, to feast on the consolations of Christ. 1. Because trouble for sin ariseth from ignorance, or unbeleefe, that beleevers understand not the work of God for them, in the three Persons; the Fathers ever­lasting decree about them; the Sons union with them, and head­ship to them, his merits, and intercession; the holy Spirits in­habitation [Page 26] in them, and his office toward them, to work all their works for them, till hee make them meet for glory. 2. Be­cause such trouble is troublesome to Gods heart, as a friend's trouble is to his friends; but especially, because the Spirit of bondage never returnes againe to the justified, Rom. 8.15. M. Ar­cher, Comfort for beleevers. pag. 5, 6, 7. on Joh. 14 1.. But I crave leave to cleare our Doctrine, touching soule-trou­ble for sin, in the justified person.

Asser. 1. No doubting, no perplexity of unbeleefe, de jure, ought to perplexe the soule once justified, Propositions clearing the doctrine of a beleevers soul-trouble. and pardoned. 1. Be­cause the Patent and Writs of an unchangeable purpose to save the elect, and the subscribed and resolved upon Act of atone­ment and free redemption, in Christ, standeth uncancelled and firme, being once received by faith; the justified soule ought not so to be troubled for sin, as to mis-judge the Lords by-past work of saving Grace. Trouble of un­beleefe for sin, i [...] sinfull. 1. Because the beleever, once justified, is to beleeve remission of sins, and a payed ransome: If now hee should beleeve the Writs once signed, were cancelled again, hee were obliged to beleeve things contradictory. 2. To be­leeve that the Lord is changed, and off and on, in his free love and eternall purposes, is a great slandering of the Almighty. 3. The Church Psal. 77. acknowledgeth such mis-judging of God, to be the soules infirmity, Psal. 77.10. I said, This is my infirmity.

Asser. 2. Yet, de facto, David a man according to Gods heart, 1 Sam. 12.12, 13. fell in an old feaver, a fit of the disease of the Spirit of bondage, Some fits of the [...]gue of the Spirit of bon­dage may re­curre, and trouble a be­leever. Psal. 32.3. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long. V. 4. For day and night thy hand was heavie upon me, my moisture is tur­ned into the drought of summer. So the Church in Asaph's words, Psal. 77.2. My sore ran in the night, and ceased not: either his hand was bedewed with teares in the night, as the Hebrew beareth; or a boyl of unbeleefe broke upon me in the night, and slacked not. Vers. 7. Will the Lord cast off for ever? will hee be mercifull no more? Then faith and doubting both may as well be in the soule, with the life of God, as health and sicknesse in one body, at sundry times; and it is no argument at all of no spirituall assurance, and of a soule under the Law or covenant of works, to doubt: as sicknesse argueth life, no dead 1 corpse is capable of sicknesse, or blindnesse; these are infirmities that neighbour with life: so doubting with sorrow, because the [Page 27] poore soul cannot, in that exigence, beleeve, is of kin to the life of God: the life of Jesus hath infirmities, kindly to it, as some diseases are hereditary to such a family. 2. The habit or state of unbeleefe is one thing, and doubtings and love-jealousies is 2 another thing. Our love to Christ is sickly, crazie, Love-jealou­sies and doubt­ings argue [...]aith. and full of jealousies and suspitions. Temptations make false reports of Christ, and wee easily beleeve them. Jealousies argue love, and the strongest of loves, even marriage-love. 3. By this, all acts of unbeleefe in soules once justified, and sanctified, should be 3 unpossible. Why, then the Lords Disciples had no faith, when Christ said to them, Why doubt yee, O yee of little faith? It happily may be answered, that the Disciples Mat. 8. doubted not of their son-ship, but of the Lords particular care in bring­ing them to shore, in a great sea-storme. To which I answer, Its most true, they then feared bodily, not, directly, Doubtings may consist with faith. soule-ship-wrack; but if it was sinfull doubting, of Christs care of them, Master, carest thou not for us? the point is concluded, That doubting of Christs care and love may well inferre, a soule is not utterly void of faith, that is in a doubting condition. 4. The morning dawning of light, is light; the first springing of the child in the belly, is a motion of life; the least warmings 4 of Christs breathings, is the heat of life: When the pulse of Christ new framed in the soule moveth most weakly, the new birth is not dead; the very swonings of the love of Christ can­not be incident to a buried man. 5. When Christ rebuketh little faith and doubting, hee supposeth faith: hee who is but a 5 sinking, and cryeth to Christ, is not drowned as yet. 6. The Disciples prayer, Lord increase our faith; Christs praying that 6 the faith of the Saints, when they are winnowed, may not faile; the exhortation to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, prove, the Saints faith may be at a stand, and may stag­ger and slide. 7. The various condition of the Saints; now its full moon, againe no moon light at all, but a dark ecclipse; 7 evidenceth this truth. The beleever hath flowings of strong acts of faith, joy, love; supernaturall p [...]ssions of Grace arising to an high spring-tide, above the banks and ordinary coasts; and [...] ­gain, a low-ground ebbe. The condition in ebbings and flow­ings, in full manifestations and divine raptures of another world, when the wind bloweth right from heaven, and the breath of Jesus Christs mouth, and of sad absence, runneth through the [Page 28] Song of Solomon, the book of the Psalmes, the book of Job, as threeds through a web of silke, and veines that are the strings and spouts carrying bloud through all the body, lesse or more.

Asser. 3. The justified soule once pardoned, receiveth never the Spirit of bondage, Rom. 8.15. to feare againe, eternall wrath; that is, This Spirit in the intension of the habit, such as was at the first conversion, when there was not a graine of faith; doth never returne, nor is it consistent with the Spi­rit of Adoption. Yet happily it may be a question, if a convert brought in with much sweetnesse, and quietnesse of Spirit, shall fall in some hainous sinne, like the adultery and murther of D [...]vid, have not greater vexation of Spirit, then at his first conversion, but more supernaturall.

But yet this must stand as a condemned error, which Story of the rise, reign, er­ror, 70. pag. 13 Li­bertines doe hold, That frequency, or length of holy duties, or trouble of Conscience for neglect thereof, are all signes of one under a Covenant of Works. And that which another Saltmarsh Free Grace, art. 6. pag. 44 45. Dangerous and unsound positions of Antinomians touching trou­ble for sinne in the justified of that way, saith in a dangerous medicine for wounded soules. Where there is no Law, (as there is none in, or over the justified soule) there is no transgression, and where there is no transgression, there is no trouble for sinne, all trouble ari­sing from the obligement of the Law, which demandeth a satis­faction of the soule, for the breach of it, and such satisfa­ction as the soule knowes it cannot give, and thereby remaines unquiet; like a debtor that hath nothing to pay, and the Law too, being naturally in the soule, as the Apostle saith, The Conscience accusing, or else excusing. It is no marvell, that such soules should be troubled for sinne, and unpacified, the Law having such a party, and ingagement already within them; which holding an agreement with the Law, in Tables and Letters of stone, must needs worke strongly upon the spi­rits of such as are but faintly and weakely inlightned, and are not furnished with Gospel enough to answer the indictments, the convictions, the terrors, the curses which the Law brings. And a third, Master Ar­cher if he be the Author. Serm. Com­fort for bel [...]e­vers, pag. 19. And indeed, Gods people (saith he) need more joyes after sinnes, then after afflictions, because they are more cast downe by them; and therefore God useth sinnes, as meanes by which he leades in his joyes into them in this world, and al [...]o in the world to come, their sinnes yeeld them great joyes; In­deed, in some respects, they shall joy-most at the last day, who [Page 29] have sinned least; But in other respects, they have most joy, who have sinned most; (for sinne they little or much, they all shall enter into joy at last,) &c.

Now all this is but a turning of Faith into wantonnesse, whereas Faith of all graces, moveth with lowest sayles; for Faith is not a lofty, and crying, but a soft moving, and humble grace; for then Davids being moved, Doubting pro­veth not a soule to be un­der a covena [...]t of workes. and his heart smiting him at the renting of King Sauls garment, should be under a covenant of works, and so not a man according to Gods owne heart, for a smitten heart is a troubled soule. David, Abra­ham; Rom. 4. and all the Fathers under the Law, were justi­fied by the imputed righteousnesse of Christ, apprehended by Faith, as we are Rom. 4.23. Now it was not written for A­brahams sake onely, that it was imputed to him. Vers. 24. But for us also, &c. David ought not to have been troubled in soule for sinne, for his sinnes were then pardoned; nor could the Spirit of the Lord so highly commend Josiahs heart-mel­ting trouble at the reading and hearing of the Law: nor Christ owne the teares and Soule-trouble of the Woman, as comming from no other spring, but much love to Christ, because many sinnes were pardoned; if this Soule-trouble for sinne had argu­ed these to bee under the Law, and not in Christ; nor can it be said, that the Saints of old were more under the Law, then now under the Gospel, in the sense we have now in hand: that is, that we are to be lesse troubled for sinne then they, because our justification is more perfect, The Jewes justified, might be troubled in soule for sinne, as we, they and we justified by the same grace. and the blood of Christ had lesse power to purge the Conscience, and to satisfie the demands of the Law before it was shed, then now when it is shed: or that more of the Law was naturally in the hearts of David, Jo­siah, and the Saints of old, and so, more naturally, unbeliefe must be in them, then is in us, by nature, under Gospel mani­festations of Christ. Indeed, the Law was a severer Pedagogue to awe the Saints, then in regard of the outward dispensation of Ceremonies, and Legall strictnesse; keeping men as malefa­ctors in close prison, till Christ should come. But imputation of Christs righteousness, and blessedness in the pardon of sinne, and so freedome from Soule-trouble for eternall wrath; and the Lawes demanding the Conscience to pay, what debts none were able to pay, but the Surety onely, was one, and the same to them, and to us; as Psal. 32.1, 2. compared with Rom. [Page 30] 4▪ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. and Psal. 14. with Rom. 3.9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.19.20. and Gen. 17.9. cap. 22.18. Deut. 27.26. with Gal. 3.10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Heb. 6.13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Who dare say, that the beleeving Jewes, dyed under the curse of the Law, Deut. 27.26? For so they must perish eternally. Gal. 3.10. For as many as are of the works of the Law, are under the curse: Then there must be none redeemed under the Old Te­stament, nor any justified, contrarie to expresse Scriptures, Psal. 32.1, [...]. Rom. 4.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Gal. 3.14. Act. 15.11. Acts 11.16, 17. Rom. 10.1, 2, 3. Now Acts 15.11. We be­leeve that through the grace of the Lord Jesus, we shall be sa­ved as well as they. And as they were blessed, in that their transgression was forgiven, and their sinne covered, and that the Lord imputed no iniquity to them, Psal. 32.1, 2. our bles­sedness is the same, Rom. 4.6, 7, 8. and Christ as he was made a curse for them, so for us; that Gal. 3.14. the blessing of Abraham might come on us the Gentiles, through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, through faith: And God sent forth his Sonne made of a Woman, made under the Law; for the Jewes who as heires were under Tutors, as we are under the Morall Law by nature, that we might be re­deemed by him, That wee, who are under the Law, might re­ceive the adoption of Sonnes, Gal. 4.1, 2, 3, 4. And God gave the like gift to the Gentiles, that he gave to the Jewes, even repentance unto life, Acts 11.16, 17. Then the Law could crave them no harder then us; and they were no more justi [...]ied by works, then we are, Yea following righteousnesse, they at­tained it not, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the Law; for they stumbled at the stumbling stone, that was layed in Sion, Rom. 9.31, 32, 33. And they being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse, and going about to establish their owne righteousnesse, have not submitted them­selves to the righteousnesse of God, Trouble f [...]r sinne is, and ought to be in these, who are delivered from obligati­on to eternall wrath, Rom. 10.1, 2, 3. and so came short of justification by Grace, so doe we. If then to the justified Jewes, There was no Law, no transgression, and so no trouble for sinne; all trouble of Conscience arising from the obligement of the Law; as it must bee, because they were freed from the curse of the Law, and justified in Jesus Christ, by his Grace, as we are; then were they under no smiting of heart, nor wounding of Conscience more then we are; which [Page 31] is manifestly false in David, and in Josiah, and many of the Saints under the Old Testament. Hence what was sinnefull and unbeleeving Soule-trouble for sinne to them, must be sinnefull Soule-trouble to us in the same kind. The Law did urge the Jewes, harder then us, in regard of the Mosaicall burden of Ce­remonies, and bloody Sacrifices, that pointed out their guilti­nesse, except they should flee to Christ; (2.) In regard of Gods dispensation of the severer punishing of Law-transgressi­on, and that with temporarie punishments, and rewarding o­bedience with externall prosperitie: (3.) In urging this Do­ctrine more hardly upon the people, to cause them not rest on the letter of the law; but seeke to the promised Messiah, in whom onely was their righteousnesse; as young heires and minors are kept under Tutors, while their Non-age expire: but (1.) Who dare say, that the Saints under the Old Testament, who lived and dyed in the case of remission of sinnes, of salva­tion and of peace with God, Gen. 49.18. Psal. 37.37. Psal. 73.25. Prov. 14.32. Isai. 57.1, 2. Hebr. 11.13. Psal. 32.1, 2. Micha. 7.18, 19. Isai. 43.25. Jerem. 50.20. Psalm. 31.5. and were undoubtedly blessed in Christ, as we are, Psal. 119.1, 2. Psalm. 65.4. Psalm. 1.1, 2, 3. Psal. 144.14, 15. Psal. 146.5. Job 5.17. Psalm. 84.4, 5. and dyed not under the curse of God, or were in capacity to be delivered by Christ, after this life, from the wrath to come, and the curse of the Law? (2.) That they were to trust to the merit of their owne works, or seeke righteousnesse in them­selves, more then we? (3.) Or that they beleeved not, or that their Faith was not counted to them for Righteousnesse, as it is with us? Gen. 15.5, 6. Rom. 4.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Psal. 32.1, 2. (4.) Yea, they beleeving in the Messiah to come, were no more under the Law, and the dominion of sinne, then wee are, Rom. 6.6, 7, 8, 9. Rom. 7.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Rom. 8.1, 2. Micha 7.18, 19. Isai. 43.25. Jer. 50.20. Psal. 32.1, 2. but under grace, and pardoned, and saved by Faith, as we are, Heb. 11.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. Gal. 3.10, 13. Acts 11.16, 17. Rom. 9.31, 32, 33. (5.) Yea, the Law was no lesse a Letter of condemnation to them, then to us. Rom. 8.3. Rom. 10.3. Deut. 27.26. Gal. 3.10, 13. 2 Cor. 3, 7, 8.13.14, 15. (6.) They dranke of the same spirituall Rocke with u [...], and the Rocke was Christ, 1 Cor. 10.1, 2, 3, 4. Heb. 13.8. and were sa­ved by grace, as well as we, Acts 15.11.

[Page 32]2. It's true, Josiahs tendernesse of heart, Davids smiting of heart, the Womans weeping, even to the washing of Christs f [...]et with teares, Peters weeping bitterly for the denying of his Lord, as they were woundings, and Gospel-affections, and com­motions of love issuing from the Spirit of adoption, of love, grace, and nothing but the Turtles love-sorrow; so it is, most false, that they were no soule trouble for sinne, as if these had beene freed from all Law of God, and these soule-commotions were not from any sense of the curse, or the Law, or any de­mands of Law, to pay what justice may demand of the selfe-con­demned sinner; yet were they acts of soule-trouble for sin, as sin: and it shall never follow, that the parties were under no transgression, and no law, because under no obligement to eter­nall wrath; for such an obligation to eternall wrath, is no chain which can tye the sons of adoption, who are washed, justified, pardoned; and yet if the justified and pardoned say, they have no sin, and so no reason to complaine under their fetters, and sigh as captives in prison, as Paul doth, Rom. 7.24. nor cause to mourne for in-dwelling of sin, they are liars and strangers to their owne heart, and doe sleep in deep security; as if sin were so fully removed both in guilt and blot, as if tears for sin as sin should argue the mourning party to be in the condition of those who weep in hell, or that they were no more obliged to weep; yea, by the contrary, to exercise no such affection, but joy, com­fort, and perpetuated acts of solace and rejoycing; as if Christ had, in the threshold of glory, with his owne hand wiped all teares from their eyes already.

3. Nor see I any reason why any should affirme, That the Law is naturally as a party in the soule, of the either regenerate 1 and justified, or of those who are out of Christ. (1.) For the Law's in-dwelling, as a party ingaging, by accusing and con­demning, is not naturally in any sonne of Adam; because there is a sleeping conscience, both dumbe and silent naturally in the soule: and if there be any challenging and accusing in the Gen­tile-conscience, Rom. 2. as stirring is opposed to a silent and dumb conscience that speaketh nothing, so the Law-accusing is not na­turally in the soule; a spirit above nature (I doe not meane the Spirit of regeneration) must work with the Law, else both the Law and sin lie dead in the soule: No [...]aw-wakeni [...]gs in [...] by n [...]ure. the very law of nature lieth as a dead letter, and stirreth not, except some wind blow more [Page 33] or lesse on the soule, Rom. 7.8, 9. (2.) That the Law wakeneth any sinner, and maketh the drunken and mad sinner see himselfe 2 in the sea, and sailing down the river to the chambers of death, that hee may but be occasioned to cast an eye on shore, on Jesus Christ, and wish a landing on Christ, is a mercy that no man can father on nature, or on himselfe. (3.) All sense of a sin­full condition, to any purpose, is a work above nature; though 3 it be not ever a fruit of regeneration. (4.) Its true, Christ teacheth a mans soule, through the shining of Gospel-light, to 4 answer all the enditements of the Law, in regard that Christ the Ransomer stops the Law's mouth with bloud, else the sinner can make but a poore and faint advocation for himselfe; yet this cannot be made in the conscience without some soule-trouble for sin. (5.) Its strange that Gods people need more joy after sinne, then after affliction; and that in some respect, How the Saints need joy, rather after sinne, then after af­fliction. they have 5 most joy, who have sinned most: Sure, this is accidentall to sin, this joy is not for sin; but its a joy of loving much, because much is forgiven. Forgivenesse is an act of free grace, sin is no work of grace: Sin grieves the heart of God; as a friend's trou­ble is trouble to a friend: the beleever is made the friend of God, Joh. 15.15. and it must be cursed joy that lay in the womb of that which is most against the heart of Christ; such as all sin is. Yea, to be more troubled in soule for sinnes, then for afflictions, smelleth of a heart that keeps correspondence with the heart and bowels of Christ, who wept more for Jerusalems sins, then for his owne afflictions and crosse. As some ounces of everlasting wrath in the Law, with a talent weight of free Gospel-mercy would be contempered together to cure the sin­ner; so is there no rationall way to raise and heighten the price and worth of the soule-Redeemer of sinners, and the weight of infinite love so much, as to make the sinner know how deep a hell hee was plunged in, when the bone aketh exceedingly: for that the Gospel-tongue of the Physician Christ should lick the rotten bloud of the soules wound, speaketh more then ima­ginable free-love. Nor doe wee say, that Gospel-mourning is wrought by the Law's threatnings, then it were servile sor­row; but its wrought by the doctrine of the Law, discovering the foulnesse and sinfulnesse of sin, and by the doctrine of the Gospel; the Spirit of the Gospel shining on both: Otherwise, sounds, breathings, letters of either Law or Gospel, except the [Page 34] breathings of heaven shine on them and animate them, can do [...] no good.

Asser. 4. Sinnes of youth already pardoned as touching the obligation to eternall wrath, Sin is pardo­ned otherwise then in remo­vall of obliga­tion to eter­nall wrath. may so rise against the childe of God, as he hath need to aske the forgivenesse of them, as touch­ing the removing of present wrath, sense of the want of Gods presence, of the influence of his love, the cloud of sadnesse and deadnes, through the want of the joy of the Holy Ghost, and ancient consolations of the dayes of old. Psal. 90.7. Wee are consumed in thy wrath, and by thy hot displeasure we are terrified. Vers. 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, and our secret sinne in the light of thy face. This was not a moti­on of the flesh in Moses the man of God. Antinomians may so dreame, the furie of the Lord waxed hot against his people: so saith the Spirit of God: nor is this conceit of theirs to be credited against the Text that Moses speaketh in regard of the reprobate party; Moses by immediate inspiration doth not pray for the beauty and glory of the Lord, in the sense of his love to be manifested on a reprobate partie. Antinomian Preachers in our times confesse sinnes in publike, The double dealing of Antinomian Preachers in confessing of sinnes in pub­lique, their confession be­ing onely in regard of the unbeleevers mixed with beleevers. but its the sinnes of the reprobate and carnall multitude, that are in the Society mixed with the godly; they thinke it a worke of the flesh to confesse their owne sinnes: this is to steale the word of the Lord from his people. So David, Psal. 25.7. Remember not the sinnes of my youth, nor my trangressions. The sinnes of his youth, as touching obligation to eternall wrath, were pardoned, I que­stion it not; but in regard, God was turned from him in the flamings of love, and his sinnes sealed up in a bagge in regard of innumerable evils that lay on him: he prayeth, Vers. 16. Turn thee unto me. Hebr. Set thy countenance on me. Gods favour in the sense of it, was turned away; and Vers. 18. Looke upon mine affliction and paine, and forgive all my sinnes; the word [...] with a point in the left side of [...]. is to carry away. Jerome aufer, take away all my sinnes Isai. 53.4. hee carried, or did beare as a burden our iniquities. Vatablus, portavit. Pagnin. parce, condona, Spare or pardon all my sinnes: then sinne heere is pardoned onely according to the present paine and griefe of body and soule that was on David, Psal. 3 [...].4. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as a heavy burden, [Page 35] they are too heavie for me. Wee have no reason to beleeve that David thought himselfe already a condemned man, and now in hell, though some sparkes of hell's wrath and fire, not in any sort as satisfactory to divine justice, or as a fruit of Gods hatred and enmity, can fall on the children of God; yet its not imagi­nary, but reall anger. A two-fold pardon of sin: 1. a relaxing from eternall, 2. from tem­porary wrath. God was really angry with Moses at the waters of strife. The thing that David did against Vriah dis­pleased the Lord: not in David's opinion onely. And though the hell for a time in the soule of God's children, and the hell of the reprobate, differ in essence and nature, in that the hell of the reprobate is a satisfactory paine, 2. and that i [...] floweth from the hatred of God; but the hell of the godly not so: yet in this materially they are of the same size; that the one as well as the other, are coales and flames of the same furnace; and nei­ther are imaginary. Then againe, Sinnes of youth long-agoe par­doned, though sometimes dearly beloved, are like the ghost of a deare friend some yeares agoe dead and buried, that re-appea­reth to a man, as dead Samuel did to Saul; look how loving and deare they were alive, they are now as terrible and dread­full, when they appeare to us living out from the land of death: so are sins of youth, when they rise from the dead, and were pardoned in Christ long-agoe, they appeare againe to David, and Job, and the Saints, with the vaile and mask or hew of hell, and sealed with temporary wrath. Psal. 99.8. Thou wast a God that pardonedst, or forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. The same word [...] is given to God, when hee taketh vengeance on his enemies, Num. 31.2. Esay 1.24. I will be avenged of mine enemies. 2 King. 9.7. That I may avenge the bloud of my servants the Prophets. So is the word [...] vengeance used, Deut. 32.43. Hee will render vengeance to his adversaries. And if one and the same tempo­rary judgement in the two Theeves that were crucified with Christ, be so differenced, that mercy is stamped on the same death to the one, and wrath to the other; wee may well say there is a temporary vengeance and wrath, that befalleth both the Saints and the Reprobate in this life; and the difference is in the mind and intention of God, in both. And that God par­doneth sin, when hee removeth temporary wrath: So 2 Sam. 12.13. Nathan saith to David, The Lord also hath caused thy [Page 36] sinne to passe away, why? Thou shalt not die. This is meant of temporall death especially; as the context cleareth, V. 10. The sword shall not depart from thine house. And V. 14. The child borne to thee shall surely die. Then the Lords putting away of Davids sin, was in loosing him from the sword, in his own person, not in his house and children; for by proportion of divine justice, (though tempered with mercy) the Sword was punished with the Sword. I doe not exclude relaxation from eternall punishment, but remission going for relaxation of pu­nishment. Sinne is some­time put for temporary pu­nishment, and to remove temporary pu­nishment is to pardon sin, in Scripture-sense. Then as there be two sorts of punishmen [...]s, one temporary, and another the eternall wrath to come; so there are in Scripture two sorts of remissions, one from the tempo­rary, another from eternall punishment. Therefore sin is put for punishment, Gen. 4.13. Mine iniquity (saith Cain) is more then I can beare; or, My punishment is more then I can bear. Levit. 24.15. Hee that curseth his God, shall beare his sinne. Ezek. 23.49. And yee shall beare the sinnes of your Idols. Num. 9.13. The man that is cleane — and forbeareth to eat the Passe-over, — that man shall beare his sinne. So when God layeth sin to the charge of the sinner, in punishing it, hee is said to lay a burden on the sinner, 2 King. 9.25. And to remove this bur­den, is to pardon the sin. 2 Chron. 7.14. If my people humble themselves, then will I heare from heaven, and will forgive their sinne, and will heale their land; by removing the locusts and the pestilence. See, the pardoning of their sin is exponed to be the removing of the locusts and pestilence. And to call sins to remembrance, is to punish sin: The Shunamite saith, 1 King. 17.18. Art thou come to me (O man of God) to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my sonne? Job complaineth, c. 13.26. Thou makest me to possesse the iniquities of my youth. Now though out of unbeleefe hee might apprehend, that hee was cast off of God, and a man rejected of God, and that his sins were never pardoned, and hee himselfe never delivered from the wrath to come; these legall thoughts might keep Job in a di­stance from God, to his owne sinfull apprehension; yet it shall be unpossible to prove, that Job in all these complaints had no other but a meere legall esteeme of Gods dispensation; and that 2. God stamped not temporary wrath, and the paine of a hidden and over-clouded God, the substraction of the sense of divine manifestations of love, (the Lord standing behind the [Page 37] wall) in all these afflictions. Now its known, that as these are often trialls of the faith of the Saints, yet are they soure fruits of our fleshly indulgence to our carnall delights, and of our not opening to our Beloved, when hee knocketh, Cant. 5.2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And though the godly doe stedfastly beleeve their salvation is in a Castle, above losing; yet in reason, sin bringing broken bones, Psal. 51.10. a sad cloud, the damming up of a spring of Christs love spread abroad in the heart, a temporary hell in the soule, it must be sorrowed for, hated, mourned for, confes­sed; and yet in all these there is no necessity of such a Law-spi­rit of bondage to work these, nor is faith in any sort diminish­ed; but put to a farther exercise. And the same sad fruits fol­low from the sins of the Saints under the New Testament, as may be cleared from Revel. 2.5, 16, 22. Revel. 3.3, 17, 18. 2 Cor. 1.8, 9, 10. 2 Cor. 2.7. 2 Cor. 7.5, 6, 7. Revel. 3.20. Joh. 14.1. Nor can wee thinke, that the strictnesse of the Law gave those under the Law an indulgence not to be a whit trou­bled in soule for sin, as it over-clouded the influence and slow­ings of divine love, suppose they had assurance of freedome from the wrath to come, as is evident in the Spouse, Cant. 5.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. and chap. 2.16, 17. chap. 4.7. Nor is it true, that Gospel-grace and liberty entitleth the Saints now to such wantonnesse of peace, as that persons fully assured of deliverance from the curse of the Law, are never to be troubled for sins committed in the state of free justification; nor are they any more to mourn, nor grone under sins captivity, nor to confesse sin, in regard that Christs bloud hath washed soul, & eyes, and faces from all tears; and the salvation of the Saints in this life is not in hope onely, as wheat in the blade, but actuall, as in the life to come; and there­fore, holy walking and good works can no more be meanes or the way to the Kingdome, (as M. Towne and other Antinomians say) then m [...]tion within the City can be a way to the City, in regard the man is now in the City, before hee walk at all.

Asser. 5. If Jesus Christ had soule-trouble, because of divine wrath, for our sin, and was put to a sweat of bloud, God roast­ing Christ quick in a furnace of divine justice, though every blobe of sweat in the Garden was a sea of free grace, not his eyes onely, but his face and body did sweat out free love from his soule, Luk. 22.44. Heb. 5.7. what must soule-trouble be in a fired conscience? Its no wonder that wicked men, wrest­ling [Page 38] with everlasting vengeance, cannot endure it. The Devill's predominant sin being blasphemous despaire, Soule-trouble in devills and men must be extreme. hee tempts most to his owne predominant sin; the issue and finall intent of all his temptations is despaire: because Devills are living and swim­ming in the sphere and element of justice, they cannot beare it; they cry to Christ, the whole company and family making the despiting of Christ a common cause, Art thou come hither [...], to torment us before the time? Mat. 8.29. Pro. 18.14. The spirit of a man will beare his infirmity, the spirit is the finest mettall in the man, but a wounded spirit, who can beare that? So the Hebrew readeth. Any thing may be borne, but breake the mans soule, Conscience the sorest enemy. and breake the choycest peece in the soule, the conscience, who can then stand? As conscience is the sweetest bosome-friend of man, so it is the sorest enemy. David is per­secuted by his Prince, and hee beareth it; Jeremiah cast in the dungeon by the Rulers, Priests, and Prophets, and hee over­cometh it; Job persecuted by his friends, and hee standeth un­der it; Christ betrayed and killed by his owne servants and kinsmen, and hee endureth it; the Apostles killed, scourged, and imprisoned by the Jewes, and they rejoyce in it. But Judas is but once hunted by a Fury of hell in his owne brest, and hee leaps over-board; in a sea of infinite wrath: Cain, Saul, Achi­tophel, cannot endure it; Spira roareth as a Beare, and cryeth out, O that I were above God; though wee may hope well of his eternall state. The terrors of an evill con­science. Nero after to his other blouds hee had killed his Mother Agrippina, hee could not sleep, hee did often leap out of the bed, and was terrified with the visions of hell. Eter­nity, the resurrection, and the judgement to come, are virtually in the conscience. 2. What is feare? A tormenting passion. To hang a living man, by an untwisted threed, over a river of unmixt, pure vengeance, and let the threed be wearing weaker and weaker, what horrour and palenesse of darknesse must be on the soule? 3. What sorrow and sadnesse, when there is not a shadow of comfort? But 4. positive despaire, rancour, and malice against the holy Majesty of God; when the soule shall wish, and die of burning desire, to be above and beyond the spotlesse essence of the infinite Majesty of God; and shall burne in a fire of wrath against the very existence of God, and blaspheme the Holy One of Israel, without date. Job saith of such, ( chap. 27.20.) in this life, Terrors take hold of him as wa­ters, [Page 39] and a tempest stealeth him away in the night.

But consider what it is to the Saints; Job complaineth, chap. 14.16. Doest thou watch over my sinne? V. 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity. Vatabl. Thou appearest to be a watchfull observer of mine iniquity, and addest (as Ari. Monta.) punishment to pu­nishment, sewing sin to sin, to make the bag greater then it is. Now though there be a mis-judging unbeleefe in the Saints, yet it is certaine God doth inflict penall desertions, as reall pee­ces of hell, on the soules of his children, either for triall, as in Job; or punishment of sin, as in David; whose bones were broken for his adultery and murther, Psal. 51.10. and whose moisture of body was turned into the drought of summer, through the anger of God in his soule, till the Lord brought him to the acknowledgement of his sin, and pardoned him, Psal. 32.3, 4, 5, 6. But some will say, Can the Lord inflict spirituall punish­ment, or any of hell, or the least coale of that black furnace up­on the soules of his owne children? To which I answer, Its but curiosity to dispute whether the paines of hell, and the flames and sparkles of reall wrath, which I can prove to be re­ally inflicted on the soules of the Saints in this life, be penal­ties spirituall, different in nature. Difference be­tween the soul-torment of the damned, and of the Saints, in 3. points. Certaine there be three cha­racters sealed and engraven on the paines of the damned, which are not on the reall soule-punishments of divine wrath on the soules of the Saints. As 1. What peeces of hell, or broken chips of wrath are set on upon the soules of deserted Saints, are honied and dipped in heaven, and sugared with eternall love. 1 Gods heart is toward Ephraim as his deare child, and his bow­els turned within for their misery, even when hee speaks against them; Jer. 31.20, 21. But the coals of the furnace cast upon reprobates, are dipt in the curse of God; yea so as in a small affliction, even in the mis-carrying of a basket of bread, and the losse of one poore oxe, there is a great Law-curse, and intolera­ble vengeance; Deut. 27.26. Chap. 28.17, 31. And againe, in in the in-breaking of a sea and floud of hell in the soule of the child of God, a rich heaven of a divine presence, Psal. 22. V. 1, 89. Psal. 18.4, 5, 6. (2.) The hellish paines inflicted on re­probates, 2 are Law-demands of satisfactory vengeance, and pay­ment to pure justice; but fire-flashes, or flamings of hell on the deserted Saints, are medicinall, or exploratory corrections, [Page 40] though relative to justice and punishments of sin, yet is that ju­stice mixed with mercy, and exacteth no Law-payment in those afflictions. 3. Despaire, and blasphemous expostulating and 3 quarrelling divine Justice, are the inseparable attendants of the flames and lashings of wrath, in reprobates; in the godly there is a clearing of justice, a submission to God, and a silent Psalme of the praise of the glory of this justice, in this tempo­rary hell, no lesse then there is a new Song of the praise of free grace in the eternall glory of the Saints, perfected with the Lamb.

God punish­eth sometimes the sins of his children with spirituall pu­nishments.Nor should this seem strange, that God punisheth the sins of his children with such spirituall plagues of unbeleefe, and jea­lousies, and lying mis-judgings of God in their sad desertions, more then that the Lord punished the lifted-up heart of Heze­kiah with leaving him to fall on his owne weight; and Davids idlenesse and security, with letting him fall in adultery; and Pe­ter's selfe-confidence, with a foule denying of his Lord. But its a sad dispensation, when God cleaveth a Saint with a wedge of his own timber; and linketh one sinfull mis-judging of God, in this feaver of soule-desertion, to another: and justice seweth (in a permissive providence) one sin to another, to lengthen the chaine, if free Grace, a linck of Gold, did not put a period to the progresse thereof. Now wee are not to look at this as an ordinary calamity: Job's expressions are very full, chap. 6.4. For the arrowes of the Almighty are within me, The place Job 6.4. The ar­rowes of the Almighty, &c opened. the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrours of God doe set themselves in aray against me. An arrow is a deadly weapon, when its shot by a man, or by an Angel; but its soft as oyle in comparison of the arrow of the Almighty. 1. Its the arrow of [...]. The Almighty did frame and mould, and whet it in heaven. 2. The arrow was dipt in poyson, and hath art from hell and divine justice. One Devill is stronger then an hoast of men; but legions of Devills are mighty strong, when such Ar­chers of hell are sent to shoot arrowes that are poysoned with the curse and bloudy indignation of heaven. 3. What a sad stroke must it be, when the armes of Omnipotency draweth the bow? The armes of God can shogge the mountaines and make them tremble, and can move the foundation of the earth out of its place, and take the globe of heaven and earth and can [Page 41] cast it out of its place, more easily then a man casts a slung stone out of his hand. When hee putteth forth the strength of Om­nipotency against the creature, what can the man doe? 4. E­very arrow is not a drinking arrow, the arrowes of divine wrath drinke bloud: Suppose a thousand horse-leeches were set on a poore naked man, to drink bloud at every part of his body, and let them have power and art to suck out the marrow, the oyle, the sap of life, out of bones and joynts; say also that one man had in his veins a little sea of bloud, and that they were of more then ordinary thirst and power to drink the corpse of the living man, as dry as strawes or flaxe; what a paine would this be? Yea, but it were tolerable. 5. Arrowes can but drink bloud; arrowes are shot against the body, the worst they can doe is to drink life out of liver and heart, and to pierce the strongest bones; but the arrowes of the Almighty are shot against spirits and soules: The spirit is a fine, subtile, immortall thing. Isai. 31.3. The horses of Egypt are flesh, and not spirit. The spirit is a more God-like nature, then any thing created of God. The Almighty's arrowes kill spirits, and soules: There's an arrow that can pierce flesh, joynts, liver, heart, bones, yea but through the soule also: Never an Archer can shoot an arrow at the soule; but this the Almighty can doe. Say your arrow killed the man, yet the soule is saved. 6. Many love not their life to death, as the Witnesses of Jesus: Death is death, as clothed with apprehensions of terror; no man is wretched, actu secun­do, within and without, but hee that beleeveth himselfe to be so: here are terrors, selfe-terrors: Jeremiah could prophesie no harder thing against Pashur; The Lord (saith hee) hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missa [...]ib. Jer. 20.3. Thou shalt be a terror to thy selfe. Compare this with other paines; Job would rather chuse strangling, or the dark grave; and the grave to nature is a sad, a black and dreadfull house; but a be­leever may get beyond the grave. What doe the glorified spi­rits feare a grave now; or are they affraid of a coffin, and a winding-sheet, or of lodging with the wormes and corruption? or is burning quick a terror to them? No, not any of these can run after or over-take them; and they know that. But selfe-ter­rors are a hell carried about with the man in his bosome, hee cannot run from them. Oh! hee lieth down, and hell beddeth with him; hee sleepeth, and hell and hee dreame together; he [Page 42] riseth, and hell goeth to the fields with him; hee goes to his garden, there is hell. Its observable, a Garden is a Paradise by art; and Christ was as deep in the agonie and wrestlings of hell for our sins, in a garden, a place of pleasure, as on the crosse, a place of torment. The man goes to his table, O! hee dare not eat, hee hath no right to the creature; to eat is sin, and hell; so hell is in every dish: To live is sinne, hee would faine chuse strangling; every act of breathing is sin and hell. Hee goes to Church, there is a dog as great as a mountaine before his eye: Here be terrors. But what, one or two terrors are not much; though too much to a soule spoyled of all comfort. 7. The terrors of God (God is alwayes in this sad play) doe set them­selves in battell array against me. Or, Chap. 16.13. His ar­chers compassed me about round. Hebr. his great ones; or, his bow-men (because they are many, or because the great ones did fight afarre-off) have besieged me. So 2 Chron. 17.9. 1 Sam. 7.16. Samuel went in a circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mis­peh. And Josh. 6.3. Yee shall besiege Jericho. The wrath of God and an army of terrors blocked up poore Job, and stormed him. Now here be these sore pressures on the soule, 1. The poore man cannot look out [...]o any creature-comfort, or creature-help▪ Say that an Angel from heaven would stand for him, or a good conscience would plead comfort to him, it should solace him; but the man cannot look out, nor can hee look up, Psal. 40.12. The enmity of God is a sad thing. 2. A battell array is not of one man, but of many enemies: Say the man had one soule, it should be his enemy; and that hee had a hundred soules, hee should have a hundred enemies; but as many millions of thoughts, as in his wearisome nights escape him, hee hath as ma­ny enemies; yea, as many creatures, as many stones of the field, as many beasts, so many enemies. Job 5.23. Hos. 2.8. Christ gave to the Father Propositions of peace, and to the poore soule under sense of wrath, they are nothing: The feare of hell is a part of reall hell to the man who knowes no other thing, but that hee is not reconciled to God. Creatures behind him, and before him, heaven above, and earth below, and creatures on every side, within and without, stand with the weapons of heaven, and of an angry God, against him; friends, wife, ser­vants, acquaintance, have something of wrath and hell on them; the man in his owne thought is an out-law to them all; and the [Page 43] Leader of all these Archers is God. God, God is the chiefe par­ty. See Job 19.12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. And there you see, brethren, acquaintance, kinsfolke, familiar friends, man-servant, maid-ser­vant, wife, young children, bone, skin, flesh, are all to Job as coals of the fire of hell. And Isai. 8.21, 22. Men in this shall curse their king, and their god.

Asser. 6. These being materially the same soule-troubles of deserted and tempted Saints, and of plagued and cursed Re­probates, doe differ formally and essentially according to Gods heart, his dispensation and intentions, his mercy and his justice regulating them: Christ soule-trouble diffe­rent from ours So I shall speake of the difference betweene Christs troubled soule, and the Saints trouble. 2. Of some wayes of Gods dispensation, in the soule-trouble of the Saints. Touching the former; there was in Christs soule-trouble, 1. No mis-judging of God; but a strong faith, in that hee st [...]ll named God his Father, and God. 2. In that as this trouble came to a height, and more fewell was added to the fire of di­vine wrath, Luk. 22.44. [...], hee prayed with more extension of body and spirit: hee extended himselfe in fer­vour of praying. And, Heb. 5.7. Hee offered prayers, and [...], humble supplications of the poore, or oppressed, that make their addresse to one who can help them: hee put in to God an humble Petition, and a Bill to his Father, as an over­whelmed man, and hee offered this Bill, [...], with an hideous cry and tears. Revel. 14.18. The Angel cryed with a loud voyce. To cry with a full and lifted up voyce, or with a shout; so is the Verb used, Joh. 18.40. When men cry. and cast away their clothes, and cast dust in the aire. 3. His soule-trouble and death was satisfactory to divine justice, for our sinnes; hee being free of sin himselfe: which can agree to no soule-trouble of the holiest Saint on earth. But touching the second: These Positions may speak somewhat, to cleare the way of the soule-trouble of Saints.

1. Position. Conscience, being a masse of knowledge, and if there be any oyle to give light, its here; its then likest it self, The causes of soule-diserti­ons. when it most beares witnesse of well and ill-doing. Now, we are more in sinning, then obeying God; and because of the cor­ruption of nature, the number of naturall consciences that are a­wake to see sin, are but very few. And when the renewed con­science is on the worke of feeling and discerning guiltinesse, in [Page 44] its best temper, The more life the more sense: Sick ones in a swoon, Soule-disserti­ons, sharpened with sense. or dying persons that doe neither heare, see, nor speak, are halfe-gate amongst the dead. The conscience sick of over-feeling, and so under over-sense of sin, is in so farre in a feaver: for often a feaver is from the exsuperancy of too much bloud, and ranknesse of humours, the vessels being too full; and there­fore its like a river that cannot chuse but goe over banks, the channell being a vessell too narrow to containe it all.

2. Pos. Therefore often the time of some extreme dissertion and soule-trouble is, Dissertions after evident and full mani­festations of God. when Christ hath been in the soule with a full, high spring-tyde of divine manifestations of himselfe. And if wee consider the efficient cause of dissertion, which is Gods wise dispensation: when Paul hath been in the third hea­ven, on an hyperbole, a great excesse of revelations, God thinketh then good to exercise him with a messenger of Satan; which by the weaknesse and spirituall infirmity hee was under, wan­ted not a dissertion, lesse or more, what ever the messenger was; as it seems to be fleshly lust, after a spirituall vision. Paul was ready to think himselfe an Angel, not flesh and bloud; and therefore, 2 Cor. 12.7. hee saith twice in one Verse, This be­fell me, [...], That I should not be lifted up a­bove ordinary Comets, up among the starres. But if wee con­sider the materiall cause, it may be, that extreme and high over­flowing of Christs love brake our weake and narrow vessells: Cant. 5.1. there is a rich and dainty feast of Christ, I am come into my garden, my Sister▪ my Spouse, I have gathered my myrrhe with my spices, I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milke: eat, O friends, drinke, yea drinke abundantly, O beloved. Yet in that Song, the Spirit of God speaketh of a sad dissertion in the next words, I sleep, but mine heart waketh: it is the voyce of my Be­loved that knocketh, &c. There is not onely impiety, but want of humanity, that the Church had rather that wearied Jesus Christ should fall down and dye in the streets, in a rainy and snowie night, when his locks were wet with raine, then that he should come in and lodge in the soule. And let us not thinke that the threed and tract of the Scriptures coherence, one Verse following on another, as the Spirit of God hath ordered them, is but a cast of chance, or an humane thing: When the Spouse rideth on the high places of Jacob, and saith, Isai. 49.13. Sing, [Page 45] O heaven, and be joyfull, O earth, and break forth into sing­ing, O mountaines: for God hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted. Yet this was nothing to the afflicted people; Verse 14. But Sion said, The Lord hath for­saken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. When the Lord's Disciples, Mat. 17. are in the sweetest life that ever they were in, at the transfiguration of Christ, when they saw his glory, and Peter said, Master, it is good for us to be here, even then, they must appeare to be weak men; and Christ must forbid and rebuke their faithlesse feare, Vers. 6. They fell on their fa­ces, and were sore affraid. I leave it to the experience of the godly, if Jeremiah his singing of praise in one Verse, Chap. 20.13. and his cursing of the day that hee was borne on, in the next Verse, vers. 14. the order of Scripture being of divine in­spiration, doe not speak Gods dispensation in this to be such, as to allay and temper the sweetnesse of the consolation of a feast of Gods high manifestation, with a sad dissertion. So John his glorious soule-ravishing comforts, in seeing the seven golden Candlesticks, and the Sonne of man in such glory and majesty, Revel. 1.12, 13, 14, 15. Yet it appeares to be a dissertion that hee is under, when Christ forbiddeth him to feare, and when hee must have the hand of Christ laid on his head, and when hee falleth down at Christs feet as dead, V. 17.18. And when Isaiah saw the glorious vision, Chap. 6. The Lord sitting on his throne, high and lifted up; it must be a throne higher then the heaven of heavens, that he siteth on; and his traine filling the Temple. It's a dissertion he falleth in. vers. 5. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of uncleane lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seene the King, the Lord of Hoasts; he was a pardoned man before. It's so with us, while the body of sin dwelleth in us, that we cannot, being old bottles, beare new wine; and therefore the fulnesse of God, breaketh crazie lumps of sinfull flesh and blood: as a full tide, is preparatorie to a low ebbing; and full vessels in the body, to a feaver. Would Christ in his fulnes of the irradiations of glory, breake in upon us; he should breake the bodily organs, and over-master the soules faculties, that all the banks of the soule, should be like broken wals, hedges, or clay channels; which the inundation of a river, has demolished, and carried away from the bottom. Flesh and [Page 46] blood is not in a capacitie of over-joy, and can hold but little of heaven, no more then earth, cold beare such a glorious creature as the Sunne: we must be both more capacious, and wider, and stronger vessels, before we be made fit to containe glory; wee are leaking, and running-out vessels, to containe grace. Manifesta­tions, and rays of Divine love; are too strong wine that grew up in the higher Canaan, for our weake heads.

Desertion un­der a three­fold consid [...] ­tions. Asser. 3. Dissertion commeth under these considerations: 1. As it's a crosse, and a punishment of sinne; 2. As a triall from meere Divine Dispensation: 3. As it's a sinne on our part, full of sinfull mis-representations of Christ.

In the first consideration; wee are to submit to any penall over-clowding of Christ: 1. Because the eye cannot water to looke on any Crosse of Christ, where Faiths aspect goeth before, and saith, Though I sit in darkenesse, yet I shall see light. 2. There is required a sort of patience under sinne, as 'its either a punishment of an other sinne, Patience re­quisite under soule-trouble. as David was sub­missive to the sinfull railing of Shimei, and the wicked trea­sons, and incestuous pollutions of his Concubines, by his son Absolom. Or as sinne dwelleth in us, and in Divine Dispensa­tion must be our Crosse, as well as our sinne; we are to bee grieved at our sinnes, as they crosse Gods holy will: but as they are our owne crosses, and thwart our owne desires, and now are committed by us, or dwell in us, we are not to bite at, and utter heart-raylings against Divine providence, who might have prevented, and efficaciously hindred these sinnes; and yet did not hinder them. 3. This Dispensation should be adored, as a part of Divine wisdome; that broken soules are not wholly cured, till they be in heaven. Sinne is a dis-union from God: Jesus doth not so compleatly soder the soule to God, We are not so freed from sin, even being ju­stified, but there is a ground of dis-union be­tween the Lord and us. but the seame hath holes and gapings in it, by reason of the in-dwellings of sinne, Rom. 7.17.18.19.22.23. And since Libertines will confound Justification with Regeneration, we say, ther Justification they speak off, is never perfected in this life. And because sinne, as sin which remaineth in our flesh, must make God and the soule at a distance; there cannot be such per­fect peace as excudeth all soule-trouble; the blew scarre of the wound remaineth so, and the dreggs of that domestick falling-ill, that we have of our first house of Adam, are so s [...]ated in us, that as some diseases recurre, and some paine of the head, when [Page 47] an East-wind bloweth; so the disease wee have in our head, the first Adam, sticketh to us all our life; and when tempta­tions blow, wee find the relicts of our disease working, and foaming out the smell of the lees, and sent that remaineth. Christ has need to perfume our ill odours, with his merits, for our begun Sanctification is so unperfect, as that yet our water smelles of the rotten vessell, the flesh; and we cannot but have our ill houres, and our sicke daies, and so a disposition to sinful dissertions. 4. Unbeliefe naturally stocked in the body of sin, is humerous and ill minded to Christ: Mis-judging thoughts of Christ in us by nature. there is a lyar in our house, and a slanderer of Christ, that upon light occasions can raise an ill fame of Christ, That he is a hard man, and gathers where he did not sow: that Christ is nice and dainty of his love, that he is too fine, too excellent, and majestick to condi­scend to love me: and take this as the mother-seed, of all sinne­full desertions, to blame Christs sweet inclination, to love us as well, as his love. I knew thou wast a hard man; it's dange­rous to have ill thoughts of Christs nature, his constitution, actu primo. The next will bee to censure his waies, his save­ing, and his gathering; which I take to bee the currant ob­jection of old Pelagians, and late Arminius. O, he must ga­ther where he did never sow, if he command all to beleeve un­der the paine of damnation, and yet he judicially in Adam, re­moved all power of beleeving: so hee putteth out the poore mans eyes, and cutteth off his two leggs, and commandeth him to see with no eyes, and walke with no leggs, under paine of damnation: men beleeve not they hate Christ by nature; and hatred hath an eye to see no colour in Christ, but blacknesse; as the instance of the Pharisees doth cleare; who saw but de­vilry in the fairest works of Christ, even in his casting out of Devils.

Asser. 4. Dissertions on the Lords part, are so often meere trials; Sin not ever the cause of desertion. as we may not thinke they are greatest sinners who are most disserted. Dissertion smelleth more of Heaven, and of Christ disserted for our sinnes, then of any other thing; it's the disease that followes the Royall seed, and the Kings blood; it's incident to the most heavenly spirits; Moses, David, He­man, Asaph, Ezechiah, Job, Jeremiah, the Church, Psal. 102. Lament. chap. 1. chap. 2.3.4. it is oare that adhereth to the choisest gold. But how is it, say some, that you read of so little [Page 48] soule-dissertion in the Apostles, and Beleevers under the New-Testament, and so much of it under the Old-Testament? Is it not, because it belongeth to the Law and the Covenant of Works, and to the Spirit of the Old Testament, and nothing to the Gospel of Grace? So Antinomians dreame. I answer, We read indeed of heavier and stronger externall pressures laid on men, to chase them to Christ under the Law, then under the Gospel: Because the Gospel speaketh of curses and judge­ment in the by; Externall heavy judge­ments, and soule-disserti­ons not Peda­gogicall, but common to the Saints un­der the New Testament. and the Law more kindly, and more frequently, because of our disobedience; and of the preparing of an infant- Church, under none-age for Christ. But though the Gospel speake lesse of Gods severitie in externall judgements, as in kil­ling so many thousands, for looking into the Arke, for Idola­trie; yet the Apostle saith, that these things were not meerely Pedagogicall, and Jewish: so, as because the like are not writ­ten in the New-Testament, it followeth not, they belong not to us; for (saith he) 1 Cor. 10.6. Now these things were our examples vers. 11. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Ergo, the like for the like sins do, and may befall men under the Gospel. Moreover, never greater plagues then were threatned, by Christs owne mouth; never wrath to the full came upon any, in such a measure, as upon the Ci­ty of Jerusalem and the people of the Jewes, for killing the Lord of glory. And though no such dissertions, be read of in the A­postles, as of Job (who yet was not a Jew, and yet more disser­ted then David, Heman, or any Prophet) Ezechiah, the Church, Lament. Chap. 2. and 3. Yet we are not hence to be­leeve, that there were never such dissertions under the New-Testament. For as externall judgements, so internall soule-trials, are common to both the Saints under the Old, and New-Testa­ment: as is evident in Paul 2 Cor. 1.8, 9. 2 Cor. 5.11. 2 Cor. 7.4, 5, 6. 1 Pet. 1.6, 7. and as both were frequent under the Old-Testament, so were they written for our learning. And if it were to the Jewes meerely Pedagogicall, to have ter­rors without, and feares within, and to be pressed out of mea­sure: or to afflict their soules for sinne, were a worke of the law; then to be afflicted in conscience, were a denying that Christ is come in the flesh. And simply unlawfull, whereas the Lords absence is a punishment of the Churches, not opening to [Page 49] Christ, Cant. 5.4, 5, 6. And Gods act of with-drawing his lovely presence, is an act of meere free dispensation in God, not our sinne. For this would be well considered, that the Lords active dissertion, in either not co-operating with us, Active d [...]sser­tion is not [...] sinne, but the Lords [...]ying of us. when wee are tempted, or 2. his not calling, or the suspending of his active pulsation and knocking at the doore of our soule, or 3. the not returning of a present comfortable answer, or 4. the with-drawing of his shining manifestations, his comforts, and the sense of the presence of Jesus Christ, cannot be formally our sinnes: indeed, our unbeleefe, our sinning which resulteth from the Lords non-co-operating with us, when wee are temp­ted, our mis-judging of Christ, (as if it were a fault to him to stand behind the wall) which are in our dissertions passive, are sinnes.

Asser. 5. Saddest dissertions are more incident to the godly, Dissertions more proper to Saints then to the unregene­rate. then to the wicked and naturall men; as some moth is most or­dinary in excellent timber, and a worme rather in a faire rose then in a thorne or thistle. And sure, though unbeleefe, fears, doubtings, be more proper to naturall men, then to the Saints, yet unregenerate men are not capable of sinfull jealousies of Christ's love, nor of this unbeleefe, which is incident to dis­sertion wee now speak of; even as marriage jealousie falleth not on the heart of a Whore, but of a lawfull Spouse. 2. Ac­cording to the measure and nature of love, so is the jealousie, and heart-suspitions for the want of the love, whence the jea­lousie is occasioned: The soule which never felt the love of Christ, can never be troubled, nor jealously displeased for the want of that love. And because Christ had the love of God in another measure, possibly of another nature, then any mortall man, his soule-trouble, for the want of the sense and actuall influence of that love, must be more, and of an higher, and it may be of another nature, then can fall within the compasse of our thoughts: never man in his imagination, except the man Christ, could weigh, or take a lift of the burden of Christ's soule-trouble. The lightest corner or bit of Christ's satisfacto­ry Crosse, Christs disser­tion of another [...] then ours. should be too heavie for the shoulders of Angels and Men. You may then know how easie it is for many to stand on the shore, and censure David in the sea; and what an oven, and how hot a fire must cause the moisture of his body turne to the drought of summer. The Angels, Joh. 20. have but a theory [Page 50] and the hear-say of a stander-by, when they say, Woman, why weepest thou? Shee had slept little that night, and was up by the first glimmering of the dawning, and sought her Saviour with teares, and an heavie heart, and found nothing but an empty grave; O they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And the daughters of Jerusalem stood but at the sick Spouses bed side, and not so neare when shee complaines, I am sick of love. To one whose wanton reason denyed the fire to be hot, another said, Put your finger in the fire, Dissertion not me [...]a [...]choly, and try if it be hot. Some have said, All this soule-trouble is but melancholy and imagination: Would you try whether the body of an healthy and vigorous man, turned as dry as chaffe, or a withered halfe-burnt stick, through soule-paine, be a cold fire, or an imagination; and what physicke one of the smallest beames of the irradiation of Christ's smi­ling countenance is to such a soule, you would not speake so.

Asser. 6. Why some of the Saints are carried to Abraham's bosome, and to heaven in Christ's bosome, and for the most, feast upon sweet manifestations all the way, The various dispensations of God in leading soules to heaven. and others are oft­ner in the hell of soule-trouble, then in any other condition, is amongst the depths of holy Soveraignty. (1.) Some feed on honey, and are carried in Christ's bosome to heaven; others are so quailed and kept under water, in the flouds of wrath, that their first smile of joy is when the one foot is on the shore, and when the morning of eternities Sunne dawnes in at the window of the soule. Some sing, and live on sense all the way; others sigh, and goe in at heavens gates weeping, and Christ's first kisse of glory dryes the tears off their face. (2.) Christ walkes in a path of unsearchable liberty, that some are in the suburbs of heaven, and feele the smell of the dainties of the Kings higher house, ere they be in heaven; and others, children of the same Father, passengers in the same journey, wade through hell, darknesse of feares, thrones of doubtings, have few love-tokens till the marriage-day. (3.) There be not two sundry wayes to heaven; but there are (I doubt not) in the latitude of Soveraignty, hundreds of various dispensations of God, in the same way. Jerusalem is a great City, and hath twelve, and ma­ny ports and angles and sides to enter at; but Christ is the one onely way: hee keeps in all, and brings in all; hee keeps [Page 51] in Angels that they never came out, hee brings in his many children to glory. But some goe to heaven, and till the twelfth houre know nothing of sinne, death, God, Christ, heaven and hell. Grace tooke a short cut, and a compendious way with the repenting Thiefe. Christ cannot onely runne, but fly post with some in few houres to heaven: Grace hath Eagles wings to some; and some wrestle with hell, fight with beasts, make warre with lusts, and are dipt in and out, as the oars in the river, in flouds of wrath from their youth, and a long time. Caleb and Joshua for two generations were in the Journey to Canaan; many thousands not borne when they entered the Journey, yea new generations arose, and entered into that good land with them, and were there as soone as they

Asser. 7. In consideration of dissertions, as actively they come from God, and passively they are received in us, Divers causes of d [...]ssertions in divers re­spects. and con­secutively, or by abused resultance are our sinnes, they have sundry and divers causes.

1. Sorrow for the with-drawing sense and influence of Christ's love, as formally a dissertion passive in us, is not sin­full; except sorrow, which is a luxuriant and too indulgent pas­sion, exceed measure. For 1. Its a mark of a soule that liv [...]th and breatheth much on Christ's love: now, if love be the life of some, it must be continued in sense, or some fruition of love, lesse or more. Now, Continuated manifestations of Christ ne­cessary. as the irradiation of the sunne's beames and light in the aire yesterday, or the last yeare, cannot enlighten the aire and earth this day; and the m [...]at I did eat a yeare a­goe, the sleep I slept the last moneth, cannot feed and refresh me now; but there must be a new application of new food, and new sleep: So the irradiation of the manifested love of Christ in the yeares of old, must goe along with us; though as experiences of old favours, they may set faith on foot again, when its fallen; yet the soule that liveth by fruition of divine love, must have a continuated influence of that love: and to live on divine love, of it selfe, can be no sin. O its a life liable to many clouds, over-castings of sadnesse and jealousies, that lives on the manifestations of Christ's love: Its sweet and comfor­table, but has mixtures of hardest trialls; for such set on no duties comfortably, without hire in hand, as it were: when Christ's love-letter from heaven miscarries, and is intercepted, the soule swoons: its surer to live by faith.

[Page 52]2. To murmure, and impatiently to so sorrow, as if God had forgotten to be mercifull, Divers rea­sons why we are not to quarrell with divine d [...]spensation in dis­sertions. is sinfull sorrow. 1. Because the ob­ject of it is materially blasphemous, The strength of Israel can­not lie, nor repent; nor can any change, or shadow of change fall on him. 2. Its most unjust to complaine and quarrell with him, who hath jus, [...], right, law, full and unconstrained li­berty to doe with his owne what hee pleaseth; but the heavenly irradiations and out-shinings of Christ's love, and the influ­ence of his free grace, are all his owne, and most free; for if the Sea-man have no just cause to quarrell with God, because the wind bloweth out of the East, when he desireth it may blow out of the West; and the Husband-man cannot in reason plead male-government in the Almighty, Gods [...] his owne, and most free. because hee restraines the clouds, and bindeth up the wombe of heaven, in extreme drought, when hee cryeth for raine and dew to his withered earth, and meddowes, and valleys; so neither is there any just pleading (a sinlesse desire of the contrary is a farre other thing) with the Lord, because hee bindeth up the bowels of Christ ▪ from outing his love, or restraineth the winds and breathings of the Spirit from blowing. 3. Wee may desire the wind of the Lord to blow, because its an act of free grace in him, so to doe; but to contend with the Lord, because hee will not act himselfe in works of free grace, at our pleasure, is to complain that grace is grace; for if grace were obnoxious, in all its sweet spirations and motions, to my will, or to your desires, it should not be grace, but a work of my hireing and sweating. 4. This sorrowing must accuse the free, holy, and innocent love of Christ, as if his love were proud, nice, humorous, high, passionate; whereas infinite freedome, infinite majesty, and lovelinesse and meeknesse of tenderest love, doe all three concurre admirably in Jesus Christ. Love cannot be hired; Cant. 8.7. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would ut­terly be contemned. And for the strength of tendernesse of love, the same place pleadeth; Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the flouds drown it. And Paul asserteth, Ephes. 3.18. Submission re­quired & [...]ha­rity to Gods dispensations under disserti­ons. The breadth, and length, and de [...]th, and height of it. 5. There is required a submission under such a divine dispen­sation; else wee upbraid grace, and will be wicked, because God will not be (actu secundo,) as gracious in his influence, as wee are humorous in our sickly desires. 6. If wee could [Page 53] understand the sense of divine dispensation, the Lord often in­tendeth grace, when hee suspendeth grace; and his dissertions are wrapped up in more invisible love and free grace, then wee are aware of: and why should not wee, in faith, beleeve his way of dispensation to be mercy?

Asser. 8. Sometimes (2.) Gods immediate lashes on the soule, is the occasion of our sinfull mis-judging of God; Psal. 38.2. Thine arrowes stick fast in me, and thine hand presseth me sore. Hence cometh a sad reckoning, Vers. 4. Mine iniquities are gone over my head, as a heavie burden they are too heavie for me. And Psal. 77.4. Thou holdest mine eye waking▪ I am so troubled that I cannot speake. And what followeth from this? A great mis-judging of God. Vers. 7. Will the Lord cast off for ever? will hee be favourable no more? Vers. 8. Is his mercy cleane gone for ever? doth his promise faile for ever­more? Vers. 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Its but a poore ground of inferring that God hath forgotten to be mer­cifull, and Christ is changed, because there is night and winter on your soule: Is the God of Nature changed, because its not ever summer, and day-light? because a rose withereth, and a flower casteth its bloome, and the sunne is over-clouded, there­fore God hath forgotten himselfe? Dispensations of God are no rules to his good pleasure; but his good pleasure regulates all his dispensations. If the Souldiers of Christ quarter in the dry wildernesse, not in the suburbs of heaven, their Leader is wise.

3. Darkenesse and night are blind judges of coulours; in dis­sertion, it's night on the soule; Apprehensions biggest and most terrible in d [...]ssertion, because of the darknesse of the mind. and imaginations are strongest and biggest in the darkenesse; the species of terrible things plow deepe furrowes of strong impressions on the phancie in the sleepe, when the man walketh in darknesse, and hath no light, either of sound judgement, or soule-comfort: it's night with the soule, and then a bush moved with the wind, is an armed man; every conviction of conscience is condemnation. 2 Cor. 1.8. Wee were pressed out of measure, above strength, in so much that we dispaired even of our life, Ver. 9. But we had the sentence of death, there were loads and weights laid on us above strength: darkned soules put on Christs deepe representations of wrath, and blacknesse of indignation; and change him in their apprehensions, in another Christ.

[Page 54]4. Satan can drinke up at one draught, a grieving and sor­rowing spirit, Sathan can raise our ap­prehensions to swelling thoughts of Gods dispen­sation, as too grievous to be borne. 2 Cor. 2.7. and he hath accesse to the phancie, and out-workes of the soule of the child of God, so hee can enlarge the species to a double bignesse; let it be considered, if the Grammer of Heman, be not a little swelled, in more then ordinary Rhetorick, Psal. 88.4. I am counted as these that go downe to the pit, as a man that hath no strength. Vers. 5. free amongst the dead, like the wounded that lie in grave, whom thou remembrest no more; and they are cut off by thy hand. Ver. 7. Thy wrath lyeth hard on me, and thou hast afflicted mee with all thy waves. If God forgot him as a buried man, and not a wave of Gods wrath, but was gone over his soule, what could God doe more? And Jobs words are a little beyond the line, Chap. 1 [...].24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face from mee, and takest me for thine enemy? Words arise up to Mountaines. Job was not holden of God to bee an enemy: Sathan can make every pinne in the Crosse an hell, and put a new sense on Gods dealing, other then ever he meaned. When Christ o­pens a veine, to bloud a conscience, Sathan if hee may have leave, shall shut in his Lyon-teeth to teare the veine, and make the hole of the wound as wide as heart and life may come out; and therefore hee raiseth up apprehensions, and sowes strife, and pleas with Christ, and waters his owne seed. Can love kill thee? Were it Christ that doth all this, would he not once come to the bed-side of a sicke Sonne? Can Christs love throw a poore friend into hell, and leave him there? He hath forgotten thee. Sathan can argue from dispensation and trialls to the state. Which is false Logicke. This thou sufferest: ergo thou art not in the state of adoption. It's not good that such a Mineon as Sathan, have the eare of a disserted soule; he can carry tales between Christ and the soule, to separate between friends. Never beleeve ill of Christ; Love thinks no ill. If yee love Christ, two Hells may cast water on your fire of love, but cannot quench it. Christ will beleeve no ill of you, let Sathan speake his will.

Our love is swayed with jealousie▪ and misgivings.5. Even the love of a Saint to Christ, under an hard dis­pensation is sicke with jealousie, and travelleth in birth with phancied suspitions of Christs love. Our love is swayed with mis-givings; it's full of cares, and feares, and doubtings; be­cause it's not alwaies edged with heavenly wisdome. It takes [Page 55] life from sense, and felt embracings, from presence, and re­ciprocation of warmenesse from Christs bowels: and when face answereth not face, Divine Dis­p [...]s [...]tion not our Rule. and Christs love doth not eccho and resound to our love, then it fainteth: we too often mea­sure Christs love by our foot; wee calculate Christs love by our owne elevation, not by his: and Christs mysterious dis­pensation, should not point the houre; nor is the full Moone, nor the noone-day Sunne of Christs love, the compasse that our affections and love, should saile by. Yea, having not seen Christ, 1 Pet, 1.8. nor felt him, yet wee love him, and be­leeve in him; and this is most spirituall love, and has most of love in it; the more jealousie without ground, the lesse love of Christ, at least, the lesse solid constancie of love.

6. Unbeliefe is a speciall cause of Soule-trouble. Vnbeliefe is qu [...]r [...]lous. 1. In bo­dily diseases paine doth not create it selfe; but sinnefull pas­sive dissertion does create it selfe. Christ cannot owne unbe­liefe, 1 as comming within the compasse of his creation; though by him all things were created. Unbeliefe spinning out new ca­lumnies of Christ, addeth oyle to the fire, and maketh deser­tion a thousand talent weight heavier then it would bee. This may be evidenced in all the complaints of the Saints under dis­sertion; in which more is laid on Christs name, then is true. Unbeliefe is a querulous thing. Isai. 49.14. But Sion said, un­beleeving Sion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me; this was an untruth, and is confuted in the next verses. Mary Magd [...]len, thought they had taken away her Lord, and he was as neere her, as the turning about of her body; and shee within speaking to him face to face; and when unbeliefe doth raise such thoughts, as Christ hath forgot­ten to be mercifull; Christ is changed, he loveth not to the end. What paine must be at the soules bottome, where such mis-judging of Christ, and his love is in the brimme? and yet there is a coale of the love of Christ, smoaking in the bottome of the soule? A loving opinion of Christ is hardly expelled. Especi­ally, one particular mis-report should not make me receive a mis-understanding of Christ, I never heard ill of Christ before, but much of his excellency and sweetnesse, and why should I admit an untried impression, that the Sunne that giveth light to all, is darke; that fire is cold, it's not true-like; that Christ is an enemie, if once a friend▪ Had we a store-house, and a high-bended [Page 56] habit of honourable, sublime, and high thoughts of Jesus Christ, his excellencie, the weight of his preciousnesse, eminencie, wee should the more hardly give way to the lies that our unbeleeving heart raiseth against him.

Beleeving of our state to frequent in d [...]ssertion, but more of Christ.2. Our second mis-giving from unbeliefe, is in beleeving our state. Psal. 31.22. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes. I am none of Christs, is a too ordinary mi­mistake; as (he is changed, and not mine) often goeth before. 2 We often find more fault, and first blame in Christ, if not on­ly, ere we see our owne provocations. Hence the complaints of Job, chap. 6. chap. 13. chap. 16. chap. 19. and of Jeremiah, chap. 20. chap. 15. of Ezechiah, Esai. 38. of Asaph, Psalm. 77. of Heman, Psal. 88. of the Church, Esay 49.14, 15. Esay 63. chap. 64. Psal 102. Psal. 6. Psal. 42. Psalm. 31. runne more on the straine of complaning of God, and his unkind dis­pensation, then of the Plaintiffes sinnes, and provocations; and where there is one mistake of our selves under dissertion, the rea­der may find out ten mistakes of Christ, and when the disser­ted soule mis-judgeth his owne state; it issueth from, and re­flecteth on the mis-judged apprehension of Christ.

3. From unbeleefe issueth the mis-judging of our own acti­ons: 3 I doe no good; or if I doe, its not bene, on the right motives, Mis [...]judging of ou [...] a [...]tions frequent in d [...]ss [...]rtion. and for the right end, the good that I doe. The ante­cedent is true, but not the consequence: There is a cloud in our fairest sun, and clay in our water; but because good works are not our Saviours, its no good ground to say, they have no in­fluence in the way of our salvation; and they are not way-marks in our journey; because they are no part of the ransome that bought heaven. Wee have a grand opinion of our owne righteousnesse, and when wee misse it, wee think wee misse Christ himselfe; which is a great mis-judging, and argueth a beleeving in our selves, not in Christ. And often soule-trouble ariseth from defects, omissions, and sinnes in our selves. If sim­ple griefe for sin as offensive to love arise, that's good soule-trouble; but such soule-trouble as shaketh the bottome of faith, and turneth the soule off Christ, to seek righteousnesse in it self, is damnable: as it's hard for an unregenerate man to see sinne in it's dreadfullest colours, and not despaire: so it's hard for a regenerate person to see sinne, as sinne, and not to fall on un­beliefe, and doubting of Christs love. Antinomians thinke any [Page 57] anxiety for sinne, which expelleth actuall rejoycing in Christ, our turning off Christ, Ant [...]nomians mistake touch­ing anxietie for sinne. and our casting of the conscience againe under the Spirit of bondage, and worke of the Law. Which is contrary to truth, and the command of James, to be affli­cted and mourne; and Christs saying, Blessed are they that mourne, for they shall be comforted; and Peter, who saith, there may be need, that the Saints be in heavinesse for a season.

It's a great point of wisdome, 1. to know how farre forth our spirituall walking may be a seed of comfort, we may easi­ly erre on either hands. 2. The Logick would bee humble; Lord I am not hauty, Ergo, I am comforted in thee. Paul saith, well, I know nothing by my selfe, yet am I not hereby justified; we would not build a Towre on a Moale-hill. 3. From our sinnefull walking, we may draw grounds of godly sorrow, yet not grounds of unbeliefe; Faith and Godly sorrow are consistent together. 4. It's not safe to argue that wee are not in Christ, from the wants adhering to our sincere performan­ces. While we slander our selves, we may slander the Spirit of God. 5. The measure of our obedience, cannot bee a war­rant to counter-argue Christ, as want is no warrant to stand farre off from Christ: no more then it's good Lo­gicke; to flee from the fire, because you are cold; or to bee at odds with gold, because you are needy, and poore; poverty may conclude a sayling with low sayles, and humility, but not unbeliefe; your want of all things, should not empty rich Je­sus Christ.

7. Absence of Christ mis-apprehended through unbeliefe, occasioneth soul-trouble. In which there is something which e­videnceth saving grace in the troubled soule, as is afore said. For the want of the thing loved, cannot but here be a graci­ous torment to the lover. The Spouse is sicke, and dyeth, when she wanterh him whom her soule loveth, We are ex­tremly to long for Christ absent, but there be many reasons why we may not mis-judge him in his absence. Cant. 2.5. chap. 5. vers. 6, 8. David so expresseth himselfe, Psalm. 84.2. My soule longeth, yea even fainteth, or dyeth, or is at an end, for the Courts of the Lord, my flesh and my heart cryeth out for the living God. The word [...] is to desire, or to bee consu­med, or to make an end of any thing. Davids desire of injoy­ing God, was such, as it was his death to want God; it may hold forth, as Pagnine observeth, that Davids soule, either [Page 58] extremely desired the Lord, or dyed upon the absence of God. But to be anxiously troubled in an unbeleeving manner, is the sinnefull soule-trouble. Why doth the soule doubt of Christs Winter, more then of his Summer? Absence and presence, his comming, and his departing, are both his owne workes. God hath liberty in the one, as in the other; as it is Gods li­berty to make faire weather and stormes, to make a faire day, and a cloudy day; To make David a King, and his brethren shepherds and common souldiers, so hath he his own freedome in the breathings of his owne Spirit, and the blowing of his own winde, or of the drawing a curtaine over his owne face, and hiding himselfe: and neither in this, nor in any of his waies of freedome, can we challenge the Lord, or plead against him. And if we thinke we doe well to be angry, even to the death, at the motions and breathings of Christs free love, then may we compel Christ to be kind, and visit us, as we think good. What ever yee be, Christ is Lord of his owne presence and vi­sits, and it's good the Kings Chamber of presence be a Dainty; and Christs wine bee not so common as water: nor can wee here force kindnesse, or acts of heavenly manifestations on him; he hides himselfe. Why, he is as reasonable and wise, in his going, as in his comming.

2. We should take on us to steward and husband the kisses 2 and embracements of Christ, better then he can doe himselfe; and should quarrell, because the Lord hath not thought fit to make Heires and Minors, that are yet under Non-age, Masters and Lords of their owne young heaven; this were not a good world for us. Christs love is better then wine, Cant. 1. Nei­ther our head, nor our heart could endure to drinke, at our own will, of this new wine of the higher Kingdome. Better for us it is that Christ beare the key of the Well of life, then children have it; and if the Government of the higher and lower fa­milie 3 bee upon the shoulders of Christ, the leading of this or that single person to heaven, Divers consi­derable rea­sons of Christs absence, to wit, 13. is worthy Christs care.

3. And consider, that Christ goeth not behind the moun­taine, or hideth himselfe upon meere hazard, but so weighty reasons, that love may bee sharpened through absence; that the 1 house may be adorned with new Hangings, and Christs bedde 2 made greene; that care may bee had, when he resteth in his 3 love, not to stirre up, nor awake the beloved, untill he please; [Page 59] that the high Tydes and rich Feasts of Christs love, after sad and heavy desertions, may heighten the worth and esteeme of 4 Christ; that faith and love, may with more of the violence of ven, lay hold on Christ, after long seeking, and not part with 5 him, on so easie termes, Cant. 3.1, 2, 3, 4. that we may know, what weakenesse is in our owne clay legs, under desertion, and 6 how we are to walke on Christs legges, which are pillars of marble set on sockets of gold; that absence and presence, the frownings and smilings of Christ, may bee to the Saints the little images of hell and heaven, and broken men may read their 7 deb [...]s in Christs count-booke of free grace, with teares in their eyes, and songs of praise in their mouth. That wee may bee in high love, and sicke for absent Christ; and may be at the pains 8 through thicke and thin to seeke him. And l [...]arne to live lesse 9 by sense, and more by faith, and resolve to die beleeving; and 10 be charitable of Christ absent, and kisse his veile, when we can 11 see no more; and be upon our watch-towre, and know what 12 of the night, and observe a soule-communion with God; which 13 the Spirit of the world cannot doe.

4. No thing doth more allowd cry the softnesse and baseness of our nature, then our impatiencie under sad dispensations, Mis [...]judging a [...]gue [...] s [...]ft­n [...]sse of nature and weaknesse of judgmens. when we are positively resolved upon this, that God loveth us; yet because of a cloud over our Sunne, and one scruple of Gall in our joy, to lodge a new opinion, that Christ is changed in another God, and that his love doth plot, and contrive our de­struction, argueth a weake, and soone shaken Faith. It speak­eth lightnesse of love to Christ, that it's loosed at the root, with the scratch of a pinne; hee hides himselfe, and you say, oh, it's not Christ, but some other like him; for Christ would not so goe, and come. Well rooted friendship can scarse suffer you to beleeve so much of a brother, or a companion. But when ye thus mis-judge Christ, wee may gather, if he should appeare in the garments of vengeance, as he doth to the dam­ned; it's to be feared, this would drinke up our faith and love, if Christ were not more gracious, then we are constant; Lord, leade us not into temptation.

5. I deny not but seeming wrath, and Christ's intercepting of messengers of love, and flamings of hell's fury on the soule, are prodigious-like Comets, glimmering over a trembling con­science; and that its much to keep orthodox, sound, and preci­ous [Page 60] thoughts of Christ, when the Christian is not himselfe; yet when the child myleth about in a round, to say, the earth run­neth about in a circle, or to think the shore or the rock saileth from the ship that carrieth you, when the ship moveth, and the shore standeth still, are but signes of a weak-headed and green Sailer: So because you are deeply affected with a sad absence, to beleeve Christ's love runneth a circle, and that you stand still as a rock, and the change is in Christ, argueth a green, raw wit, and instability of faith; and that the s [...]a-sands can no more ea­sily drink-up a gallon of water, then that temptation would swallow-up the poore mans faith thus fainting, if the invisible strength of the Advocate, who intercedeth for the Saints, did not uphold him.

2. The second circumstance in the Text, is the time, [...], Now is my soule troubled. There is an Emphasis in this Now: Christ had a troubled soule before, and was sensible of afflictions; but now hee saw more in this crosse, then in all afflictions; hee saw the curse of the Law, and the wrath of God stamped on this crosse. Saints must looke for a growing crosse. And the rea­sons. Christ had never any Now, or juncture of time, be­fore or after, comparable to this Now. Observe that, Christ and his followers must look for growing and swelling crosses. Mat. 26.37. Jesus began to be sorrowfull, and very heavie. He had all his life, Isai. 53. sorrow; vers. 3. hee was a man of sor­rowes; 1 as if every piece of Christ had been sorrow, and had acquaintance with griefe: Hebr. [...] and was knowne and noted to all, marked out to all, by his griefes; but now hee wadeth deeper in troubles. Let all Christ's followers look for a growing crosse, and a sadder and sadder Now. Psal. 3. [...]. Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Psal. 25.17. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Hebr. become most broad. Psal. 42.7. Deep calleth unto deep, at the noyse of thy water-spouts, all thy waves and thy flouds are gone over me. One crosse calleth to another, God raineth them downe, as one wave of the sea calleth another. So Job's afflictions came on him in a growing way. David, Psal. 69.2. I sink in the deep mire, where there is no standing. I wade on deeper and deep­er, till I lose ground and bottome. I am come into the deep [Page 61] waters, where the flouds over-flow me. (2.) Christ's suffer­ings 2 are called a Cup; it behoved to be filled to the brim, and Christ weigheth out in ounces and drams, so much gall in the Cup, and yet some more; and because that worketh not the cure, yet an ounce more. (3.) Christ can appoint clothes for 3 us, as wee have cold; and a burden answerable to the bones and strength of the back. Its a doubt if David's faith would reach so farre, as that hee should beare it well, that another should sacrifice a wicked sonne Absalom to God's justice; O how did David mourne that hee was killed! Yet the Lord measured out to Abraham a Cup of deeper gall, to kill with his owne hand his one sonne, a beleeving sonne, an heire of the promise. (4.) What if twelve yeares bloudy issue be little e­nough 4 for to work a woman to a necessity of seeking to Christ; yet another must be eighteen years; and a sick-man thirty and eight years. Our Physician knoweth us well. Let us study for a growing faith to growing crosses: A growing faith for grow­i [...]g crosses. and if a crosse as broad and large as all Britaine, and a sword as publike as three Kingdoms, yea as all the bounds of Christendome come; so that there be no peace to him that goeth out, or cometh in, we are to be armed for it. Nor 2. is it enough after pestilence & the sword to sit down, and say, Now Ile die in my nest, and multiply my dayes as the sand. Stay, in heaven onely there be neither widdowes, nor killed husbands, nor beggars, nor plundered houses; under­stand the sense of providence right; wee have not yet resisted unto bloud: wee have yet seas and flouds of bloud to swimme through, ere wee come to shore. A private crosse is too narrow a plaister to our sore; and therefore a publike one, as broad as all Scotland, as all your Mother-Countrey and Church is little enough. It must be yet broader, and wee must yet lose more bloud.

3. The third circumstance in Christ's soule-trouble, is his anxiety of mind, What shall I say: it is as much as, Anxiety in Christ. What shall I doe? But what meaneth this anxiety of Christ? Its like a doubting of the event; but there is neither doubting nor de­spairing in it. There is feare, exceeding great heavinesse and sor­row in it; and as an anxious man through extremity of suffer­ing is put to his wits end, as destitute of counsell, to say, I [Page 62] know neither what to doe, nor say; so Christ had a sinlesse anxi­ety. Learned Divines acknowledge there was an innocent and sinlesse oblivion in the sensitive memory, A sinl [...]sse obli­vion in Christ. in regard it was in­tent onely upon the extreme agonie, and not oblieged in all 1 differences of time to remember every duty: And affirmative precepts obliege not in all, and every juncture of time.

2. Nor is faith actu [...]lly, alwayes, without exception, to be­leeve: 2 Its possible that faith in the act, and extreme feare in the same act, be physically inconsistent.

3 3. Neither were Christ's sensitive affections, in their physi­call and naturall operations, How Christs sensitive affe­ctions are un­der a law. so restrained and awed by a divine Law, as that they may not put forth themselves to the utmost and highest degree of intension, when the light of reason shew­eth the object in the superlative degree of vehemency. Rea­son and light could never shew to any suffering man, at one time, such a great death of evill of losse and positive evill of sense, as it did shew to Christ, at this instant of time. To be suspended from an immediate, full, perfect, personall, intuitive fruition, Chris [...]'s l [...]sse great. and vision of God, is a greater ecclipse, then if ten thou­sand sunnes were turned into pieces of sack-cloth of haire, and the light totally extinguished; or, then if all the Angels, all the glorified Saints that are, or shall be, in heaven, were utterly ex­cluded from the comfortable vision of God's face. You cannot imagine what a sad suspension of the actuall shining of the im­mediatly enjoyed majesty of God this was; and what a posi­tive curse and wrath was inflicted on Christ, so as his anxiety could not exceed.

4. Christ was to suffer in his naturall affections, of joy, sor­row, 4 confidence, feare, love, yet without sinne; and though I could not shew how this anxiety and faith could consist, The personall union hindred not the opera­tions of sinless humane infir­mities. yet it cannot be denyed; for Grace doth not destroy Nature, nor could the vision of personall union hinder the exercise of all hu­mane affections and infirmities in Christ, in the state of his hu­miliation, as clothes of gold cannot allay the paine of the head and stomack: Grace is a garment of cloth of gold, and the uni­on personall, the perfection of grace; yet it hindred not Christ from being plunged in extreme horror and anxietie.

5. There were in Christ at this time some acts of innocent and sinnelesse darken [...]sse in the sensitive soule, Christ's anxi­ety sinlesse. that hee actually thinking of the blackness and dreadful visage of the second death, [Page 63] was now like a man destitute of counsell. But 1. This was meerely penall, and out of dispensation; for Christ's soule-paine is an excellent skreen and shaddow, or a sconce between the soule-troubled beleever and hell; and Christ's anxiety, and his, What shall I say? is a bank and a great high coast between a distressed conscience who is at, What shall I doe? whither shall I goe? where shall I have reliefe and help? and the extremity of his forlorne condition.

2. Christ's anxiety was not opposite to any light of faith, or morall holinesse; as the simple want of light is not night, an ecclipse of the sun removeth no light, nay not at all one beame of light from the body of the sun; all is light that is on the o­ther side of the covering, it removeth onely light from us, who are on this side of the interposed covering which causeth the ecclipse. This anxiety was onely opposed to the actuall happi­nesse and naturall fruition of God enjoyed in the personall uni­on, not to any light of a morall duty required in Jesus Christ. But 2. Wee are not to conceive that Christ's anxiety, feare and sorrow, were onely imaginary, and supposed upon a mistake that had not any fundamentum in re, ground in the thing it self; No mistake in Christs soul deserted. as Jacob mourned and would not be comforted, at the supposed death of his sonne Joseph, thinking hee was torne with wild beasts, when the child was alive and safe; and as the beleever will sorrow that God hath forsaken him, and hath forgotten to be mercifull, and that hee is turned of a friend an enemy, when its not so, but a great mistake; God hath not forgotten to be mercifull, The Strength of Israel cannot repent and change. Christ's darknesse in this was negative, and naturally negative, hee looking wholly on reall sadnesse, death, wrath, the curse of the Law, but not privative, or morally and culpably privative; for Christ h [...]d never a wrong thought of God, hee did never bel [...]eve God to be changed; nor did hee upon a mis-judging of God conceive God had forsaken him, when as hee had not forsaken him, as if Christ's spirituall sense were deceived, in taking up a mis-apprehension of God, or his dispensation. And therefore that complaint, Why [...] hast thou forsaken me? hath not this meaning, as it hath in many places of Scripture, Psal. 2.1. Psal 74.1. Christ's deser­tion reall. There is no cause why thou shouldest forsake me; for there were just causes why the Lord, at this time, should forsake his Son Christ. And therefore the forsaking of Christ was reall; be­cause [Page 64] grounded upon justice. The elect had forsaken God, Christ stood in their place, to beare their iniquities, Isai. 53. that is, the punishment which the elect should have suffered eternally in hell, for their owne iniquities: And in justice God did for a time forsake his Son Christ, not onely in sense and apprehensi­on, but really. 2. Satan doth so myst and delude the weake beleevers, The judiciall mispending of our affections, and the cause thereof. that because they will not mourne, nor be humbled, for reall objects, sins, unbeleefe, mis-spending of time, which are true causes of sorrow and mourning, they waste sorrow needlesly and sinfully, the righteous dispensation of God inter­vening, for false and supposed causes, as through ignorance, for these things that are not sins, yet are falsly conceived to be sins; or through mis-apprehension, imagining that the Lord is chan­ged, and become their utter enemy, when hee cannot forget them, Isai. 49.14, 15. or through mis-judging their owne state, conceiving they are reprobates, when there is no such matter. So when wee will not duely object, place and time our affecti­ons, its righteousnesse with God that wee lose our labour, and spill and feed away our affections prodigally, in a wood of thorns, for nothing; because wee doe not give them out for Christ: and so wee must sow, and never reap. But Christ could not thus lavish away his feare, sorrow, sadnesse. I know there is a forsaking in God, In what re­spect▪ Christ was forsaken. joyned with hatred: God neither in this sense forsook Christ, nor did Christ complaine of this forsaking. God's forsaking of him, was in regard of the influence of actuall vision, 2. of the actuall joy and comfort of union, 3. of the penall in­flicting of the curse, wrath, sorrow, sadnesse, stripes, death, on the man Christ.

Vse. If Christ was put to, What shall I say? what shall I doe? How shiftlesse the sinner is in judgement. what a sad and forlorne condition are sinners in? how shiftlesse are they? Isai. 10.3. When God asketh of them, What will yee doe in the day of visitation, and in the desolation that shall come upon you from farre? to whom will yee flee for help? where will yee leave your glory? Jer. 5.31. What will yee doe in the end? Guiltinesse is a shiftlesse and a forlorne thing. Take a man pained and tormented with the stone, hee cannot lie on this side, hee turneth to the other, hee cannot lie, his couch can­not ease him; hee casteth himselfe out of the bed to the floore of the house, hee cannot rest there; no place, not Paradise, say a man were tortured up heaven before the throne, the place of [Page 65] glory, simply considered, should not ease him. What a despe­rate course doe the damned take, to se [...]ke dennes and rocks of the earth to hide themselves in? Canst thou lodge under the roofe of the creature, when the Creator armed with red and fierie wrath pursueth thee? And when that faileth them, and they dare not pray to God, they petition hills and mountaines to be graves above them, to bury such lumps of wrath quicke, Revel. 6.

2. I defie any man, with all his art, to be an Hypocrite, No hypocrites formally in hell and at the last judgment. and to play the Politician in hell, at the last judgement, in the houre of death, or when the conscience is wakened. A robber doth ne­ver mocke the Law and Justice at the Gallowes, what ever he doe in the woods and mountaines. Men doe cry, and weep, and confesse sinnes right downe, and in sad earnests, when Con­science speaketh out wrath, there is no mind then of Fig-leave-coverings, or of colours, veiles, masks, or excuses.

3. Conscience is a peece of eternity, a chip that f [...]ll from a Deity, and the neerest shaddow of God, Conscience en­deth with the sinner, as it beginnes. and endeth as it be­gins. At first, even by it's naturall constitution, Conscience warreth against Concupiscence, and speaketh sadly out of A­dam, while it is hot, and not cold-dead; I was afraid, hea­ring thy voice, I hid my selfe; and this it doth, Rom. 1.19. chap. 2.15. While lusts buy and bribe conscience out of of­fice, then it cooperateth with sinne, and becommeth dead, in the end, when God shaketh an eternall rod over conscience, then it gathereth warme bloud againe, as it had in Adams daies; and hath a resurrection from death, and speaketh grave­ly, and terribly, without going about the bush; O how pon­derous and heavy! How farre from tergiversation, cloakings, and shifting, are the words that dying Atheists utter, of the deceitfulnesse of sinne, the vanitie of the World, the terrours of God? Was not Judas in sad earnest? did Saul speake poli­cie, when he weepeth on the Witch, and saith, I am sore di­stressed? Did Spira dissemble and sport, when he roared like a Beare against divine wrath?

What shall I say?

This saith, A truely wake­ned Consci­ence is spech­lesse. that Christ answering for our sinnes had nothing to say; The sufferer of Satisfactorie paine, has no words of Apo­logie for sinne. The friend that was to bee cast in utter darknes, for comming to the Supper of the great King, without his wed­ding [Page 66] Garment, [...], his mouth was muzled, as the mouth of a mad dog; he was speechlesse and could not barke, when Divine justice speaketh out of God. Job chap. 40. answereth ver. 4. Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand on my mouth. When the Church findeth justice pleading against her; It's thus, Ezech. 16.63. That thou mayest re­member (thy sinnes) and be confounded, and there may bee no more an openining of a mouth, because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee, for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord. I grant, satisfactory justice doth not here put men to si­lence, but it proveth how little we can answer for sinne. Even David remembring that Shimei, and other Instruments had deservedly afflicted him, in relation to Divine justice, saith, Psalm. 39.9. I was dumbe, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it. Three de­mands of Ju­stice given in against Christ and answered by him. There were three demands of justice given in a­gainst Christ, all which hee answered: Justice put it home upon Christ. 1. All the elect have sinned, and by the law are under eternall wrath: To this claime, our Advocate and Sure­tie could say nothing on the contrary. It's true Lord. Christ doth satisfie the Law, but not contradict it. The very word of the Gospel answereth all these. In this regard, Christs silence was an answer; and to this, Christ said, What shall I say? I have nothing to say.

2. Thou art the sinner in Law; to this Christ answered, A body thou hast given me. The Sonne of man came not to be ser­ved, but to serve, and to give himselfe a ransome for many. Matth. 20.28. The whole Gospel saith, Christ who knew no sinne, was made sinne for us.

3. Thou must die for sinners. This was the third demand; and Christ answereth it, Psal. 40. Hebr. 10. Thou hast given me a body, here am I to doe thy will. To all these three Christ answered with silence: and though in regard of his patience to men, it be said, Esai 53.7. Hee was brought as a Lambe to the slaughter, and as a sheepe before the shearer is dumbe, so he opened not his mouth. Yet it was most true, in relation to Divine justice, and the Spirit of God hath a higher respect to Christs silence (which was a wonder to Pilate) before the bar of Gods justice. O could we by faith see God giving in a black and sad claime, a bill written within, and without, in which are all the sinnes of all the elect, from Adam to the last [Page 67] man; and Christ with watery eyes receiving the claime, and saying, Lord, It's just debt, crave me, what shall I say on the contrary? We should be more bold, not barely to name our sinnes, and tell them over to God, but to confesse them, and study more for the answer, of a good Conscience; by faith to substitute an Advocate, to answer the demands of Justice for our sinnes; and if men beleeved that Christ, as suretie satisfie­ing for their sinnes, could say nothing on the contrary, but granted all; they should not make excuses and shifts, either to wipe their mouth with the whoore, and say, I have not sinned, nor be witty to make distinctions, and shifts, and excuses to cover, mince, and extenuate their sinnes.

The fourth part of this complaint, Helpe neerer in trouble then we apprehend. is an answer that Faith maketh to Christs question. What shall I say? What shall I doe? Say praying wise (saith Faith) Father, save me from this houre. A word of the Coherence, then of the words. Wee often dreame, that in trouble, helpe is beyond Sea, and farre off; as farre as heaven is from earth. When help is at our el­bow; and if the Spirit of Adoption bee within, the prisoner hath the Key of his owne Jayle within, in his owne hand. God was in Christs bosome, when he was in a stormy Sea, and the light of Faith saith, behold, the shore at hand. Death taketh feet and power of motion from a man; but, Psal. 23.4. yet Faith maketh a supposition, that David may walke and live, breathe in the grave, in the valley of the shaddow of death. It's the worke of Faith to keep the heate of life in the warme bloud, even among clods of clay, when the man is buried. This anxi­ous condition Christ was in, as other straits are to the Saints, is a strait and narrow passe, there was no help for him on the right hand, nor on the left; nor before, nor behind, nor below. Christ, as David his type, Psal. 141.4. Looked round about, but refuge failed him, no man cared for his soule; but there was a way of escape above him, it was a faire easie way to heaven. The Church was in great danger and trouble of warre and desolation, when shee spake to God, Psalm. 46. Yet their faith seeing him to bee very neere them; God is our re­fuge and strength: true, he can save (saith sense) but that is a fowle flying in the woods, and over-Sea-hop, farre off: Not [Page 68] far off (saith Faith) A very present help in trouble: or a help easily, or [...] Exceedingly found in troubl [...]. So Psalm. 44▪9. Thou hast cast us off. Hebr. Thou art farre from us, thou hast put us to shame. What lower could the people be? Vers. 19. We are in the dungeon, in the place of dragons: We are in the cold grave, beside the wormes and corruption; and thou hast covered us with the shaddow of death, a cold bed. Yet then see what Faith saith, Vers. 20. Wee have not forgotten the name of our God. Our God is a word of great faith. And to come to Christ; his Soule was troubled; He was at, What shall I say? In a great perplexitie. Yet he hath a strong faith, both of his Fa­ther, and of his owne condition. He beleeved God to bee his Father, Christ used f [...]ith in tro [...]ble for our cause. and calleth him Father. Yea, in this hell, hee applyeth the relation of a Father to himselfe, Matth. 26.39. O my Fa­ther; this is the warmest love-thought of God; and when his comfort was ebbest, his confidence in the Covenant strongest. My God, my God, &c. Its much glory to our Lord, that Faith sparkle fire and bee hot, when comfort is cold and low. O what an honour to God, the man is slaine, and cold dead, yet he beleeves strongly the salvation of God. Christ kills the poore man, and the mans faith kisseth and hangeth about Christs neck, and sayes, If I must dye, let Christs bosome be my death-bed. Then hee must beleeve, if God was his Father, by good Logick, he must be the Sonne of God, and if God was his God, then the heire of all must claime the priviledges of all the Sons of the house in Covenant. God (I may say) was more then Christs God, and more then in covenant with God, as he was more then a servant, so more then a Sonne, then a common one, and Christs faith is so rationall, and so binding with strength of reason, that he will but use such a weapon, as we may use, even the light of Faith, and hee will claime but the common benefit of all the Sonnes in covenant, when he saith, My God, my God. What ever Papists say, if ever Christ was in hell, it is now; but see, hee hath heaven present with him in hell. If God could be apprehended by faith, in hell, as a God in covenant, then should hell become heaven to that beleeving soule. Christ tooke God, and his God, and his Father; as Jo­nah, a type of him, downe to the bowels of hell with him: and as we see some dying men, they lay hold on some thing [Page 69] dying, and dye with that in their hand; which wee call the dead-gripe: so Christ died with his Father, by faith, Christ's death-gripe. and his Spouse, in regard of love stronger then the grave, in his arms: this was Christ's death embracings, his death-kisse; and Job professeth so much. Lower hee could not be, then hee com­plaineth hee is, chap. 19. in all respects, of body, which was a clod of bones and skin; in regard of wife, servants, deare friends, of the hand of God in his soule. Yet vers. 25. I know that my goel, my kinsman, Redeemer liveth, and that hee shall stand the last man on the earth.

This leadeth us, in our forlorn perplexities, Vse. to follow Christ's foot-steps, both under evills of punishment and sin. The peo­ple in their captivity in Babylon, Ezek. 37. were an hoast of dead and (which is more) dry bones; the Churches in Germa­ny, in Scotland, are dry bones, and in their graves▪ the Churches in England and Scotland, in regard of the sinfull di­visions, and blasphemous opinions in the worship of God, are in a worse captivity, and lower then dry bones, and our woes are not at an end; yet the faith of many seeth, that deliverance, and union there must be, and that our graves must be opened, and that the wind of the Lord must breathe upon the dry bones, that they may live. God hath in former times opened our graves, when strange lords had dominion over us, I would wee were freed of them now also, but our yoke is heavier then it was; but God shall deliver his people from those that oppresse them.

Again, as you see in great perplexity Christ beleeved God to be his Father, and that hee himselfe was a Son; so are wee under pressures of conscience, and doubtings because of sinne, to keep precious, high, and excellent love-thoughts of Jesus Christ.

Object. 1. But what if a soule be brought to doubt of its conversion; because hee findeth no good hee either doth, Object. 1. or can doe? true faith, is a working faith.

Answ. Some so cure this, as they prove Physicians of no va­lue to poore soules, I mean, Antinomians: For, say they, This is the disease that you in doubting of your faith, Doubtings from want of qualifications how cured. because you find not such and such qualifications in you, therefore seek a righ­teousnesse in your selfe, and not in Christ. I should easily grant that man's inherent righteousnesse is, in his carnall apprehensi­on, [Page 70] his very Christ and Redeemer; but in the mean time, These are two carnall and fleshly extremities, and faith walketh in the middle between them. 1. Its a fleshly way to say, that, be­cause I find sinne reigning in me, I have killed my brother, saith a Cain; Saltma [...]sh, Free grace. c. 5. p 92, 93 I have betrayed the Lord of glory, saith a Judas; yet I am not (saith a Libertine) to question whether I beleeve or no; for this putteth fleshly and prophane men on a conceit, Be not solicitous what you are, Two false wayes in [...]u­ring doubtings whether the soule be in Christ or no. take you no feare of serving sin and divers lusts, but beleeve, and never doubt, whether your faith be a dead, or a living faith, though you goe on to walk after the flesh; but beleeve, and doubt not whether you beleeve or no. The other extremity is of some weak Christians, who because they find that in them, that is in their flesh, dwelleth no good, and they sinne daily, find much untowardnesse and back-draw­ing in holy duties; therefore (say they) I have no faith, I am none of Christ's: This is a false Conclusion, drawn from a true Antecedent, and springeth from a root of selfe-seeking, and righteousnesse which wee naturally seek in our selves; for I am not, being once justified, to seek my justification in my sancti­fication; but being not justified, I may well seek my non-justi­fication in my non-sanctification: as Libertines say, this is the fault of all, To argue from faint perfor­mance of du­ties no faith, is unjust rea­soning. when it is the fault onely of some weak mis-judging soules; so doe they take the Saints off from all disquietnesse and griefe of mind for neglect of spirituall duties, as if all god­ly sorrow and displeasure for our sinfull omissions, were nothing but a legall sorrow for want of selfe-righteousnesse, and a sin­full unbeleefe: but its formally not any such thing, but lawfull and necessary, to make the sinner goe with a low sayle, and e­steem the more highly of Christ; and its onely sinfull, when abused to such a legall inference, I omit this and this, I sinne in this and this, ergo, God is not my Father, nor am I his sonne.

But I hold this Position, as evidently deducible out of the Text, In the roughest and most bloudy dispensation of God to­ward Saints, neither soule-trouble, nor anxiety of spirit can be a sufficient ground to any, why they should not beleeve, or question their son-ship and relation to God, as their Father. Its cleare that Christ in his saddest condition beleeved, and stood to it, that God was his Father: The onely question will be, If sinfull and fleshly walking be a good warrant. To which I an­swer, [Page 71] If any be a servant of sin, and walk after the flesh, and be given up to a reprobate mind to commit sin with greedinesse, How f [...]rre we may a [...]g [...]e to conclude no faith, from sin­full walking. such a one hath good warrant to beleeve that God is not his Fa­ther, and that hee is not in Christ; because, 2 Cor. 5.17. If any man be in Christ, hee is a new creature. If any be risen with Christ, he seeketh the things that are above, where Christ is at the right hand of God. Hee is dead, and his life is hid with Christ in God. And, Hee mortifieth his members on earth. Col. 3.1, 2, 3, 4. Hee is redeemed from this present evill world, Gal. 1.4. Hee is dead to sinnes, and liveth to righteousnesse. 1 Pet. 2.24. Hee is redeemed from his vaine conversation. 1 Pet. 1.18. Hee is the Temple of the Holy Ghost; hee is not his own, but bought with a price; and is, being washed in Christ's bloud, a King over his lusts, a Priest to offer himselfe to God, an holy, living, and acceptable sacrifice, 1 Cor. 6.19, 20. Revel. 1.5, 6. Rom. 12.1. But hee that remaineth the servant of sin, and walk­eth after the flesh, and is given up to a reprobate mind, &c. is no such man; ergo, such a man hath no claime to God as his Father: and upon good grounds may, and ought to question his being in Christ. Onely, let these cautions be observed. 1. It is not safe to argue from the quantity of holy walking; for ma­ny sound beleevers may find untowardnesse in wel-doing, yet must not cast away themselves for that. A smoking flaxe is not quenched by Christ, for that it hath little heat, or little light; and therefore ought not by us. 2. Beware we lean not too much to the quality of walking holily, to inferre, I fast twice a weeke, I give tithes of all I have; then, God I thanke him, I am not an hypocrite, as the Publican, and a wicked man. Sincerity is a sensible, speaking grace; its seldome in the soule without a witnesse. Lord, thou knowest that I love thee (saith Peter;) hee could answer for sincerity, but not for quantity: hee durst not answer Christ, that hee knew that hee loved him more then these. Sincerity is humble, and walketh on positives, Lord, I love thee; but dare not adventure on comparatives, Lord, I love thee more then others. 3. There be certain houres, when the beleever cannot make strong conclusions, to inferre, I am holy, therefore I am justified; because in darknesse wee see nei­ther black nor white, and Gods light hides our case from us, that wee may be humbled, and beleeve. 4. Beleeving is surer then too frequent gathering warmnesse from our own hot skin.

[Page 72] Saltmarsh, and other Libertines make three Doubts that persons have, as sufficient grounds, to question their being in Christ: 1. Back-sliding. 2. The mans finding no change in the whole man. 3. Unbeleefe. Give me leave therefore in all meeknesse to offer my thoughts, in sifting and scanning this Doctrine.

This is then (saith hee) your first doubt, that you are not therefore beloved of God, Saltmarsh in hi [...] Free-grace, or flowings of Christs bloud, &c. c. 4. p. 79 80. or in Christ, because you fell backe againe into your sin, so as you did. Suppose I prove to you, that no sin can make one lesse beloved of God, or lesse in Christ.

Answer.

Then I shall conclude, that sinne cannot hinder the love of God to my soule.

Question.

Antinomians doubts touch­ing the spiri­tuall state of a s [...]ule, discus­sed and im­proved. This I prove▪ 1. The mercies of God are sure mercies, his love, his covenant everlasting: Paul was perswaded that nei­ther life, nor death, &c. could separate him from the love of God. The Lord changeth not in loving sinners. 2. Whom the Lord loveth, hee loveth in his Sonne, hee accounts him as his Sonne; for hee is made to us, righteousnesse, sanctification, and redemption. But God loveth his Sonne alwayes alike; for hee is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever: ergo, Nothing can make God love us lesse; because hee loves us not for our selves, or for any thing in our selves, &c. 3. God is not as man, or the sonne of man. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's chosen? The foundation of God standeth sure. God's love is as himselfe, ever the same.

Answer 1. The thing in question to resolve the sinner, whe­ther hee be loved of God, The immutabi­lity of Gods love no ground but multitudes may doubt whether they be in Christ or not. from eternity, as one chosen to glo­ry, is never proved, because no sinne can make one lesse be­loved from eternity; and sin cannot hinder the love of God, (non concluditur negatum;) for its true, sinne cannot hinder the flowings and emanation of the love of election, it being e­ternall; else not any of the race of mankind, God seeing them all as guilty sinners, could ever have been loved with an eter­nall love. But the consequence is nought, ergo, back-sliders in heart, and servants of sinne, have no ground to question, whether they be loved with the love of eternall election, or not.

2. This Physician layes downe the conclusion in question, which is to be proved, to the resolving of the mans conscience, [Page 73] that hee may be cured; the thing to be proved to the sick man, say hee were a Judas, wakened in conscience, is, that notwith­standing his betraying of Christ, yet God loved him with an everlasting love, and hee is in Christ. Now hee cureth Judas thus, God's love is everlasting, his covenant everlasting, no sin can hinder God to love Judas, or separate a traitor to Christ, from the love of Christ. Seperation, supposeth an union; lesse loving, supposeth loving: so he healeth the man thus; no di­sease can overcome or hinder the Art of such a skilled Physitian, to cure a dying man. But what if this skilled Physitian will not undertake to cure the man, nor to move his tongue for ad­vice, nor to stirre one finger to feel the mans pulse: Ergo, The man must be cured. For if the man be a back-slider in heart and a servant of sinne, Christ never touched his pulse. He hath as yet sure grounds to question, whether he be loved of God, or be in Christ, or no; for except you prove the man to be loved with an everlasting love, you can prove nothing: And your argument will not conclude any thing for the mans peace, except you prove him to be chosen of God; which is his onely question. But say that hee is loved from everlasting, and that hee is in Christ, by faith, its easie to prove, that his sinnes can­not change everlasting love, nor make him lesse beloved of God, A necessity of inherent signes and qualifica­tions to doubt­ing soules. nor separate him from the love of God. You must then either remove the mans doubting, from signes inherent in the man, (and if hee be a back-slider in heart, you fetch fire and water from beyond the Moone to cure him;) or you must fetch war­rants to convince him, from the mind, eternall counsells of love and free grace within God; and that is all the question between the poore man and you. You cannot prove God hath loved him from everlasting, because hee hath loved him from everlasting. If Libertines in this Argument intend to prove, that a chosen convert in Christ hath no ground to question, that hee is not be­loved of God, and not in Christ ▪ 1. That is nothing to the Thesis of Antinomians, maintained by all, that sinners, as sin­ners, are to beleeve Gods eternall love in Christ to them; and so all sinners, elect or reprobate, are to beleeve the same. 2. Its nothing to the universall commandement, that all and every one in the visible Church, wearied and loaden with sin, or not wearied and loaden, are immediatly to come to Christ and rest on him, as made of God to them their righteousnesse, sanctifi­cation, [Page 74] and redemption, without any inherent qualification in them. 3. Its nothing to the point of freeing all, and building a golden bridge to deliver all who are oblieged to beleeve, elect or reprobate, from doubting whether they be in Christ or not, that they may easily come to Christ, and beleeve his eternall love and redemption in him, though they be in the gall of bit­ternesse, and bonds of iniquity, and that immediatly. Which golden Paradise to heaven and Christ, Antinomians liberally promise to all sinners, as sinners. I cannot beleeve that its so easie a step to Christ.

How God lo­veth his Son Christ, and beleeve [...]s wit [...] with the same love.For the second: It's a dreame, that God loveth sinners with the same love every way, wherewith hee loveth his owne Sonne Christ. And why? Because God loveth us onely for his owne Sonne, and for nothing in us Ergo, Farre more it must fol­low, its a farre other, an higher, fountaine love, wherewith the Father loveth his owne eternall and consubstantiall Sonne, the Mediator betweene God and man; and that derived love wherewith he loveth us sinners. As the one is 1. Naturall; the latter, free? 2. The love of the Father to the Sonne, as his consubstantiall Son, and so farre as it's essentially included in his love to Jesus Christ Mediator, is not a love founded on grace and free-mercy, which might never have beene in God; because essentially, the Father must love his Sonne Christ, as his Sonne; and being Mediator, he cannot for that renounce his naturall love to him, which is the fundamentall cause, why hee loveth us for Christ his Sonne, as Mediator; but the love where­with the Father loveth us for his Sonne Christ, is founded on free Grace and mercy; and might possibly never have been in God. For, 1. as he could not but beget his Sonne, he could not but love him; nature, not election can have place in either: but it was his Free will to create a man, or not create him. 2. He cannot but love his Sonne Christ, but God might either have loved neither man nor Angel, so as to chuse them to Salvation, and he might have chosen other Men and Angels, then these whom he hath chosen; God hath no such freedome in loving his owne Consubstantiall Sonne. 2. Its an untruth, that God loveth his chosen ones, as he doth love his Sonne; that is, with the same degree of love, wherewith he loves his Sonne; I thinke that not farre from either grosse ignorance, or blasphe­mie. It possibly may bee the same love by proportion, with [Page 75] which the Father tendereth the Mediatour, or Redeemer, and all his saved and ransomed ones; but in regard of willing good to the creature loved, he neither loveth his redeemed with the same love, wherewith hee loveth his Sonne; except blas­phemously we say, God hath as highly exalted all the redeemed, and given to them a name above every name, as he hath done to his owne Sonne; nor doth he so love all his chosen ones, as hee conferreth equall grace and glory upon all alike; as if one starre differed not from ano [...]her starre in glory, in the highest hea­vens. Our owne good works cannot make our Lord love us lesse or more, with the love of eternall election; but they may make God love us more with the love of compl [...]cency, and a sweeter manifestation of God in the fruits and gracious effects of his love. According to that, John 14.23. Jesus said, if a man love me, he will keepe my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

The third reason is the same with the first, and pro­veth nothing but a Major Poposition, not denied by the dis­quieted sinner, which is this: Who ever is justified and chosen, cannot be condemned; whom ever the Lord once loveth to sal­vation, he must alwaies love to salvation; for his love is like himselfe, and changeth not. But the disquieted sinner is cho­sen and loved to salvation. This Assumption is all the questi­on: and the truth of a Major Proposition, can never prove the truth of the Assumption.

Saltmarsh, Free Grace, Chap. 4. Pag. 83.84, 85.

Because you feele not your selfe sanctified, you feare you are not justified. If you suppose that God takes in any part of your faith, repentance, new obedience, or sanctification, as a ground upon which he justifieth or forgiveth 1. you are cleare against the Word; for if it be of Workes, it is no more of Grace. 2. It must then be the onely evidence you seeke for; and you aske for sanctification to helpe your assurance of justi­fication: but take it in the Scriptures way.

1. In the Scriptures, Christ is revealed to be our sanctifi­cation. Christ is made unto us righteousnesse, sanctification. I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Yee are Christs, but yee are sanctified, but yee are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. He hath quickned us together with Christ. Wee are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good workes. [Page 76] Jesus Christ himself being the chiefe corner stone: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that new man which after God was created in righteousnesse and true holinesse; Wee are members of his body, of his flesh, and his bones. And being found in him, not having mine own righteousnesse. I can d [...]e all things through Christ which strengthneth me. But Christ is all in all. Your life is hid with Christ in God, Heb. 13.20, 21. All these set forth Christ as our sanctification▪ the fulnesse of his, the all in all. Christ hath beleeved perfectly for us, he hath sorrowed for sinne perfectly, he hath obeyed perfectly, he hath mortified sinne perfectly; and all is ours, and we are Christs, and Christ is Gods.

2. The second thing is Faith about our owne sanctification we must beleeve more truth of our owne graces then we can see or feele: the Lord in his Dispensation hath so ordered, that here our life should be hid with Christ in God, that we should walke by faith, not by sight: So we are to beleeve our repentance true in him, who hath repented for us; our mortifying sinne true in him, through whom we are more then conquerors, our new obedience true in him, who hath obeyed for us, and is the end of the Law to every one that beleeveth, our change of the whole man true in him, who is righteousnesse and true holi­nesse. And thus without faith, its unpossible to please God. This is Scripture-assurance to see every one in himselfe as nothing, and himselfe every thing in Christ, Faith is the ground of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. All other assurances are rotten conclusions from the Word, invented by Legall Teachers not understanding the mystery of the King­dome of Christ. The Scriptures bid you see nothing in your selfe, or all as nothing. These teachers bid you see something in your selfe: so as the leaving out Christ in Sanctification, is the foundation of all doubts, feares, distractions. And he that look­eth on his repentance, on his love, on his humility, on his obedi­ence, and not in the tincture of the bloud of Christ, must needs beleeve weakely and vncomfortably.

Answer.

How farre sanctification may evidence, that a soule is in Christ.If a servant of sinne, any Cain, wakened with the terrors of God, see his sinnes, feele hell in his soule for them, and have no warme thoughts of love, and farre-off-affiance, at least in Christ [Page 77] Jesus; but flee from Christ, and goe to the enemies of Christ for comfort, as Judas did, hee may strongly conclude: I feele, I am not sanctified; I hate the Physitian Christ, and runne from him: Ergo, I am not justified. And from a true reall non-feeling of sanctification, its a strong consequence, there's no justification. But from a mis-prizing of Grace and Sanctificati­on in my selfe, I cannot conclude, I am not justified. From non-sanctification▪ any m [...]y con­cl [...]de truly, non-j [...]stif [...]ca­tio [...]. We know Papists in point of certaintie of salvation, argue so; many de­luded Hypocrites beleeve, or imagine, they have oyle in their lamps, yet they are deceived; therefore the Saints can have no certainty they are in Christ. Its just like the answer now in hand. A mis-judging of sanctification, cannot argue no justifi­cation: Ergo, A true and reall judgement of no sanctification in Hypocrites, and slaves of sinne, cannot argue the persons to be justified, who thus argue. It is as if I should argue thus; A frantick and a sleeping man cannot know that he is frantick, and sleeping; therefore a sober and a waking man, cannot know that he is sober and waking. For a deserted child of God is in some spirituall Phrensie and sleepe, and does mis-prize Christ in himselfe, and sanctification; and therefore argueth often, that he is not in Christ, upon false principles. But a wakened con­science in Cain, and Judas, doe strongly conclude, I am not a new creature, but a servant of sinne: Ergo, I am not justifi­ed, and not in Christ; and Cain in this consequence is sober, and not asleepe.

2. Not any Protestant Divine, Protestants make mortifi­cation and re­pentance some other thi [...]g then Faith. whom the Author calleth Le­gall Teachers, ignorant of the mystery of the Gospel; did ever teach, that Faith, new Obedience, Repentance, are grounds up­on which God justifieth a sinner. Antinomians, who make Re­pentance and Mortification all one with Faith; and as Master Den saith, they are but a change of the minde, to seeke righte­ousnesse and mortification in Christ▪ not in our selves. Thus much [...] doth signifie, must say, as wee are justified by faith, so also by repentance, and mortification: if repentance be nothing but faith, as they say.

3. We seeke onely the evidence of justification in our holy walking; as the Scripture doth, 1 Pet. 1.24. Galat. 1.4. 1 Pet. 1 18. 1 Joh. 3.14. Infinite places say, these that live to Christ, and are new Creatures must be in Christ, and justified, 2 Cor. 5.17. 1 Cor. 6.9, 10, 11, 12. Gal. 2.20. Col. 3.1, 2, [Page 78] 3, 4. Then the arguing from the effect to the cause can be no rotten conclusion, except by accident, in a soule distempered under desertion and weakenesse.

4. These places that make Christ our sanctification, and Christ to live in us, and beleevers to be the workemanship of Jesus created in him, unto good workes, &c. Make not these to bee acts of Christ formally repenting perfectly in us, sorrowing for sinne, mortifying sinne perfectly in us: as if wee were meere patients, and were onely obliged to repent, sorrow, mortifie sinne, when the Spirit breatheth [...]n us, and not otherwise, as Libertines explaine themselves; which I hope to refute hereaf­ter. Townes as­ser▪ of grace, pag. 32. Regeneration and justificati­on not one, as Antinomians teach. 2. Nor doe these places make Justification and Regene­ration all one; as Master Towne, with other Antinomians doe. For we are not regenerated by faith, but that we may beleeve; but we are justified by faith. 2. Regeneration putteth in us a new birth, the image of the second Adam; Justification for­mally is for the imputed righteousnesse of Christ, which is in Christ, not in us. And it seemes to me, that they make Justifi­cation and Sanctification all one: for the Author saith, that Christ not onely repenteth in us, but for us, Christ obeyed for us, and is the end of the Law to every one that beleeveth. Now what mysterious sense can be here, I cannot dreame; Sure, it is no Gospel-secret; if the meaning (that Christ repenteth, and obeyeth for us,) be, that Christ by his grace worketh in us repentance, and new obedience, and mortification, and the change of the whole man; its a good and sound sense. But then how must all assurances from repentance and new obedience, be the rotten conclusions of Legall Teachers? To see all these wrought by Christ, as the efficient and meritorious cause, and to ascribe them to the Spirit of Jesus, and thence conclude, we are Justified, as all Protestant Divines teach, is no rotten con­clusion of Legall Teachers. For sure, if we ascribe them to na­ture, to free will, to our selves, and confide in them, as parts of our righteousnesse, No assurance can flow from acts of sancti­fication perfor­med by our good nature. and from them, in that notion, draw the assurance of our Justification, as Papists, and Arminians doe, and as the Saints out of fleshly presumption may doe; this is no doctrine of Protestants. Is the Sunne obliged to me, because I borrow light from it? Or the Flouds and Rivers beholden to men because they drinke out of them? The new man is a crea­ture of Christs finding; cursed bee they that sacrifice to Free-will; [Page 79] Its a strange God. The kingdome of grace, is a Hospitall of free graces to sick men: all we doe, the least good thought, or gracious motion in the soule, is a flower, and a rose of Christs planting, and an Apple that grew on the tree of life; a sinner is the stocke, but free Grace the sap. Christs Father the Hus­bandman, life and growing is from Jesus the wine tree; wee are but poore twigs that bring forth fruit in Christ. But I feare the sense of this, that Christ repenteth for us, and obeyeth for us, he being the end of the Law to overy one that beleeveth; be farre otherwise, to wit, that Christs obedience of the Law, The Antino­m [...]an Mortifi­cation, a delu­sion. he being the end of the Law, as also his passive obedience is ours. If this be the intended sense, then all our Sanctification is nothing, but the Sanctification and holy active obedience of Christ. I yeeld this to be a broad, a faire and easie way to hea­ven. Christ doth all for us, Christ weeped for my sinnes, and that is all the repentance required in me, if I beleeve that Christ was mortified, and dead to the world for me, that is my mortifi­cation; and if I beleeve, that the Change of the whole man was truely in Christ, this is my true holinesse: then my walking in holinesse cannot bee rewarded with life eternall, nor have any influence as a way, or meanes leading to the king­dome. 2. Christs active obedience imputed to the sinner, can be no evidence of justification, because it is in Christ, not in me; any evidence, or marke of Justification must bee inherent in the beleever, not in Christ. 3. And one and the same thing can­not be a marke and a signe of it selfe. Now the active obedience of Christ imputed to the sinner, is holden to be a part of Justi­fication.

5. The Scripture doth indeed bid you see nothing in your self, How we see righteousnesse in our selves. that can buy the righteousnesse of Christ, or be an hire and wa­ges to ransome imputed righteousnesse; and Legall Teachers, not any Protestant Divines, b [...]d you see something, Rise, reigne, er. 7. pa▪ 2. a great some­thing of merit, and selfe-righteousnesse in your selfe. And Anti­nomians say, that the New creature, or the New man mentioned in the Gospel, is not meant of Grace, but of Christ. The Scrip­ture maketh Christ and Justification the cause, and Sanctifica­tion and the New creature the effect; 2 Cor. 5.17. If any man be in Christ, hee is a new creature. And this assertion maketh Sanctification, as form [...]lly distinguished from Christ and Justifi­cation, just nothing. And Antinomians say, Rise, reigne, er. 15. pag. 3. that in the re­generate [Page 80] and Saints there is no inherent righteousnesse, no grace or graces in the soules of beleevers, but in Christ onely. And M. Saltmarsh saith the same, that our sorrow, repentance, mor­tification, and change of the whole man, are nothing in us; but they are in Christ, Holinesse and mortification, inherent in us. and must be apprehended by faith, as things unseen: whereas the divine nature is in the Saints, 2 Pet. 1.4. Faith dwelleth in us. 2 Tim. 1.5. The new creation and image of Christ is in the mind, Ephes. 4.23. The seed of God abideth in us, 1 Joh. 3.9. The anoynting that teacheth all things, [...], remaineth in you, 1 Joh. 2.27. and Ezek. 36. [...]6. I will give you an heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit [...] in the inner part, or in the midst of you.

Antinomians teach, Rise reigne er, 17. pag 4. That true poverty of spirit doth kill and take away the sight of grace. And, Rise, reigne er, 77 pag. 15. Antinomians deny all inhe­rent holinesse to be in us. Sanctification is so farre from evidencing a good estate, that it darkens it rather; and a man may more clearly see Christ, when hee seeth no san­ctification, then when hee sees it; the darker my sanctification is, the brighter is my justification. So Saltmarsh, The Scrip­tures bid you see nothing in your selfe, or all as nothing; these Teachers bid you see something in your selfe. And its a walk­ing by faith, and not by sight; and a life hid with Christ in God, to beleeve more truth in our owne graces, then wee see or feel. Now its true, How we are to see grace in our selves. the Saints out of weaknesse mis-prize the Spi­rit's working in them, and while they under-value themselves, they under-rate the new creation in themselves, and tacitely upbraid and [...]lander the grace of Christ, and lessen the heaven­ly treasure, because it is in an earthen vessell; but poverty of spirit and grace will see, and doe see grace inherent in it selfe, though as the fruit of grace. Cant. 1.5. I am black (O daugh­ters of Jerusalem) but comely, as the tents of Kedar. Vers. 11. While the King sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. The Saints as they make a judgement of Christ and his beauty, so also of themselves; My heart waked. I am sick of love. Psal. 116.16. O Lord, truly I am thy servant. Psal. 63.1. My soule thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth after thee. Psal. 73.25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Psal. 130.6. My soule wait­eth for the Lord, more then they that watch for the morning. So Ezekiah, Esay 38.3. Paul, 2 Cor. 1.12. 2 Tim. 4.7, 8. [Page 81] 1 Cor. 15.9, 10. And others have set out in its colours the image of Christ in it selfe; but not as leaving out Christ, and taking in merit; nor doth the sense of sanctification darken justifica­tion, or lessen it to nothing, except where wee abuse it to me­rit, and selfe-confidence, as Peter did; who in point of selfe-confidence ought to have forgotten the things that are behind. 2. Yea, to say wee see justification more clearly, when wee se [...] no sanctification, is to make the water and the Spirit, 1 Joh. 5.8. dumb or false witnesses, that either speak nothing, or tell lies. 3. It is against the office of the Spirit, which is to make us know [...], the things that are freely given us of God, such as faith, repentance, love, mortification, Act. 5. [...]. 2 Tim. 2.25. Phil. 1.29. Ephes. 2.8. Rom. 5.5. Gal. 2.20. I grant by accident, when sin appeareth to a Saint out of measure sinfull, and hee seeth how little good hee hath, that hee is blind, naked, poore, and hath no money, nor price, that hee is sold as a wretched man under a body of sin, Rom. 7.14, 24. it heighteneth the excellency and worth of the ransome and bloud holden forth in Just [...]fication: And white righteousnesse, Nothingn [...]sse in our selves heighteneth the price of Christ. free and glo­rious, set beside black guiltinesse, and no sanctification compea­ring as price or hire, maketh Christ appeare to be choycer then gold or rubies. Yea, when I see no sanctification to buy Christ, then justification is more lovely, eye-sweet, taking, and soule-ravishing; as the more light, the more darknesse is discovered; and the more sin, the higher is Jesus Christ. And by all this, the Saints professing their owne integrity, and holy walking before God, should see something in themselves, not under­standing the mystery of the Gospel, and erre miserably with Legall Teachers, and darken free justification by grace: And one grace of God should obscure and destroy another; for to see, feel, and professe sanctification, is an act of supernaturall feel­ing, and of grace; how then can it darken the faith of the re­mission of sinnes in Christ?

But it may be asked, When the Saints cannot be assured that God is their Father, in regard of sin, unbeleefe, and present dead­nesse, what reasons would you use to raise their spirits up to the assurance of their interest and relation to God, as to their Father?

Ans. There is no way of arguing Saints out of their unbe­leefe, except hee that laboureth to strengthen them, being an [Page 82] Interpreter, How Ministers are to deale with troubled soules. one of a thousand, who can shew a man his righ­teousnesse, be so acquainted with the condition of the afflicted soule, that hee see in him some inherent qualification, that may argue to the Physician there is some, lesse or more of Christ in the soule of the man; else if hee know him to be a person yet utterly void of Christ, sure hee must deale with him that is un­der the Law, in a more legall and violent manner, then with him whom hee conceiveth to be under the Gospel; for one and the same physick cannot suit with contrary complexions. The Au­thor professeth hee dealeth with sinners as sinners, and so with all sinners; as if physick for the gut were fit physick for the stone in the bladder. I goe not so high, but speak to a weak son, who hath God for his Father, but under soule-trouble doubteth whether God be his Father or not.

If hee lay downe a principle that hee was never in Christ, because of such and such sinnes; you are not, who ever intends to cure him, to yeeld so much, and to deale with him according to a false supposall, as if hee were not in Christ: but must la­bour to prove hee is in Christ; which to no purpose is done, by proving fair generalls, as Saltmarsh, with other Libertines, doth; that is, you but till the sand, and beat the aire to prove, that Gods love is eternall, and his covenant and decree of electi­on to his chosen so stable and unalterable, as no sin can hinder the flowings of eternall love, when you make not sure to the man, that hee is loved with an everlasting love.

Hence these considerations for easing the afflicted conscience of a weak child of God.

Asser. 1. The soule labouring under doubts whether God be his Father, is to hold off two rocks, either confiding or resting on duties, or neglecting of duties: the former is to make a Christ of duties; as if Christ himselfe were not more lovely and desirable, Christ more to be chosen then the comforts and peace that results from duties. then the comfortable accidents of joy, comfort, and peace in doing duties. Yea, take the formall vision of God, in an immediate fruition in heaven, as a duty, and as in that no­tion contra-distinguished from the objective vision of Christ, then Christ is to be enjoyed, loved, rested on, infinitely above the duties of vision, beatifice love, eternall resting on him, yea, above imputed righteousnesse, assurance of pardon, reconcilia­tion; as the King is more then his bracelets of gold, his myrrhe, Spikenard, perfumes, oyntment, kisses; the tree more desire­able [Page 83] then a fleece of apples that groweth on it for the fourth part of a yeare. 2. Sinne, it must be to sue and woe the Kings Attendants and Courtiers by himselfe, or to make duties Christ, and Christ but a Man-servant and Mediator to duties, sense, comfort, assurance, or the like. 3. The Whelps of the Beare are taken from her by swift riding away with them, and by casting down one of them, that shee may lose time in gaining the rest, while shee returneth back againe so many myles to bring that one to the den. And the smell of some delicious fields, they say, so taketh the dogs, that they forget the prey, and follow it no more. To smell so much in duties, and to be so sick and impo­tent in loving and resting on them, as to lie down in the way, and seek Christ no more, is doubtlesse a neglect of Christ. And thus high our Doctrine never advanced Sanctification, nor en­throned any acts, duties, or qualifications, under the notion of witnesses, or creators of peace or reconciliation; how our hearts may abuse them, is another thing.

Asser. 2. What, advise you then a deserted soule to goe on in duties? and seek righteousnesse in himselfe? By no meanes; to seek righteousnesse in himselfe, that is highest pride: but will you call it pride for a starving man to beg? Is it selfe-deny­all for such a one to be starke dumb, and to pray none in his fa­mishing condition for food? Did the Spouse seek her selfe in this duty? Cant. 3. Watchmen, Vnder soule-trouble we are to doe▪ but not to rest and [...] in what wee doe. saw yee him whom my soule loveth? Was this a resolution of pride? Chap. 3.2. I will rise now, and goe about the City in the streets, and in the broad wayes, I will seek him whom my soule loveth. And is it selfe-righteousnesse for the Spouse to send her hearty respects of ser­vice to Christ, when shee cannot have one word from him, nor one smile? Cant. 5.6. Tell my beloved that I am sick of love. Nor doe I think Mary Magdalen was in a distemper of Phari­saicall righteousnesse, when shee rose and prevented the morn­ing skie, and came weeping to the grave; O Angels, saw yee the Lord? Gardener, whither have you carried him? May I not doe these duties, when I misse him? May I not wake in the night? May I not doe well to f [...]ed a love-feaver for the want of him? May I not both pray, and say, Daughters of Jerusa­lem, pray for mee? May I not make a din through all the streets and the broad wayes, and trouble all the Watch-men and Shep­herds, and pray them, Can you lead me to his tent, and tell me [Page 84] where hee lieth? O but all these were to be done in faith: True; but are they not duties of love-sicknesse I owe to Christ also? I know they cannot bring to mee everlasting righteous­nesse; but is not seeking and knocking, stairs to finding and opening?

Asser. 3. Another counsell is; force not a Law-suit, seeke not, Love-Iealou­sies under de­senti [...]n. buy not a plea against Christ. Conscience a tender peece under Jealousies saith, O he loveth not me, Christ hath forgot­ten me, joyne not in such a quarrell with conscience. Have not cold and low thoughts of Christs love to you, because he is out of sight, he is not out of languor of love for you.

Asser. 4. Unbeliefe is a Witch, an Inchantresse, and co­vers Christs face with a veile of hatred, wrath, displeasure. Examine what grounds of reason you have to mis-beleeve, or breake with Christ; say, he had broken with you, yet because you know it not, for suspition; lose not such a friend as Christ, if you get never more of him, you may sweare and vow to take to hell with you (if so he deale with you) the pawnes, and love-tokens you once received, that they may bee witnesses what Christ is, and may be the remnants, seedes, and leavings, of the high esteeme you once had of him.

Desertions have a time. Asser. 5. A time Christ must have to goe and come, and therefore must be waited on. We give the Sea houres to ebbe and slow, and the Moone dayes to decrease and grow full; and the Winter-sunne and the Summer-sunne monthes to goe away, and returne; and whether we will, or no, God and Na­ture take their time, and aske us no leave: Why has God given to us eyes within, and without, but that David may weare his eyes, while they be at the point of failing, in looking up, and in waiting for God, Psal. 69.

Christ recom­pences his ab­sence with doubled smi­lings. Asser. 6. And though you were in hell, and he in heaven, he is worthy to be waited on; the first warme smile of a new returne, is sufficient to recompence all sorrow in his absence, to say nothing of everlasting huggings, and embracings.

Asser. 7. Nor is this a good reason; I find sinne, rottennesse, and so a deserved curse in all my workes of sanctification; Saltmarsh Free Grace, c. [...]. pag. [...]8. therefore why should I make them any bottome for assurance, but I must take in Christ heere for Sanctification: for if workes of this kind be not done in Faith, to the knowledge of the doer; they can witnesse nothing, but beare a false testi­mony [Page 85] of Christ; nor doe we ever teach, that Christ is to bee decourted from our workes of Sanctification; Works of san­ctification, though pollu­ted with sinne may bottome assurance. but even faith it selfe, which is a bottome of peace to Antinomians, by this reason, must be cashiered; for as the love of Christ, our pray­ers, humility, are not formally sinnes, but onely concomitant­ly, in regard that sinne adhereth to them; as muddy water is not formally clay and mudde, but in mixture its clayie, and mud­die; so our Faith is concomitantly sinnefull; both because often its weake, and so wanting many degrees, and mixed with sinne, deserves a curse, as well as works of Sanctification, but it apprehendeth Christ and righteousnes in him, and so it bottom­eth our assurance: If by apprehending, you meane to bring to you certaine knowledge, and assurance, that Christ is made my righteousnesse; then you beg the question, if you deny this to works of Sanctification. For, 1 John 2.3. Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandements. Ver. 5. And who so keepeth his word, in him verily the love of God is per­fected: hereby, (that is, by keeping his word, called twise be­fore, vers. 3.4. The keeping of his Commandements; and vers. 6. Walking as he walked:) Hereby (saith he) know wee, that we are in him, in Christ our propitiation and righte­ousnesse; and thus are we justified by keeping the Commande­ments of God, because by this we apprehend, and know that we are justified. 2. But then all that are justified must bee fully perswaded of their justification, and that faith is essential­ly a perswasion and assurance of the love of God to me in Christ, its more then I could ever learne to bee the nature of Faith, a cons [...]quent separable I beleeve it is. 3. If by apprehending Christ and his righteousnesse, be understood a relying, and fi­duciall acquiescing and recumbencie on Christ for salvation: It is granted in this sense, that Faith is a bottome to our assu­rance of our being in Christ; but that it breedeth assurance, in a reflect knowledge, alwaies that a beleever is in Christ, is not true: for, 1. I may beleeve, and be justified, and not know; yea positively doubt, that I beleeve and am justified; We doe not at all times know that we be­leeve. as thousands have pardon, and have no peace nor assurance of their pardon, and have faith in Christ, and in his free love, and have no feeling of Christ, and of his free love. For we beleeve Saltmarsh ibid. 84. more truth of our owne graces (and so of our faith and assurance of our pardon) then we can see or feele, which is Gods dispensa­tion, [Page 86] that our life should be hid with Christ in God; Ergo, the life of Faith, by which the just doth live, is hid; and above the reach of feeling at all times. 2. As Faith which is the direct act of knowing and relying on Christ for pardon, is a worke of the Spirit, above the reach of reason; so also the reflect act of my knowing and feeling, that I beleeve and am in Christ, which proceedeth sometime from Faith, and the immediate Testimony of the Spirit; sometime from our walking in Christ, 1 John 2.3, 4. 1 Joh. 3.14. is a supernaturall work, above the com­passe and reach of our Free-will, and is dispensed according to the spirations and stirrings of the free grace of God; and as the keeping of his Commandements, There is need of the a [...]uall influ [...]nce of grace to the refl [...]ct know­ledge of ou [...] faith, and spi­rituall condi­tion. actu primo, and in it selfe, giveth Testimony that the soule is in Christ, and justified, even as the act of beleeving in it selfe doth the same; yet that wee actu secundo, efficaciously know and feele that we are in Christ, from the irradiation and light of Faith, and sincere walking with God, is not necessary, save onely when the winde of the actuall motion and flowing of the Spirit, concurre with these meanes; just as the Gospel-promises of themselves are life, and power, but they then onely actually, actu secundo, animate and quicken whithered soules, when the Lord is pleased to contribute his influence, in the shinin [...] of his Spirit. Otherwise I may walke in darkenesse, yea, b [...]eeve, pray, love, die for paine of love, and have no ligh [...] [...] reflect knowledge, and feeling that I am in Christ, Esay [...]0.10. I may be sicke of love for Christ, call, knock, pray, conferr with the watchmen, and daughters of Jeru­salem, and be at a low ebbe in my own sense; yea the beloved may to my feeling and actuall assurance have withdrawne him­selfe, Cant. 3.1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Cant. 5.5, 6, 7, 8. and all my inhe­rent evidences cannot quicken me in any tollerable assurance. It's true, Sanctification may bee darkned, yea, and Faith also, when there is nothing to the faith-failing and outer dying but this onely of Christ the head, The witnes­sing of [...]ancti­fication some­time darke. (all the life of a Saint retyring not to his faint heart, but to his strong head,) I have prayed for you, that your faith faile not: but the darke evening of Da­vids, both Faith and Sanctification, and of Peter in his denying of his Master, and his Judaizing, Gal. 2. When he and others, ver. 14. [...], do crook and halt betweene Grace and the Law, as the people did between Jehovah and Baal; their profession of Jehovah, and Christs [Page 87] grace being long, and their practise short, and inclining too much to Baal, and salvation by the Law: as halting is a walking with a long and a short legge, the body unevenly inclining to both sides of the way: this darkening (I say) was in the se­cond acts of Faith and Sanctification: but life and sap was at the roote of the Oake-tree, when it was lopt, hewed, and by winter stormes spoyled of the beauty of its leaves. Wee doe not say, that Sanctification doth at all times, actually beare wit­nesse, or a like sensibly, and convincingly, that the soule is justi­fied, is in Christ; there be degrees, and intermission, and sicke dayes, both of Faith and Sanctification. But we say, roses and flowers have been ever since the creation, and shall be to the end of the world, because though they vanish in winter, yet in their causes they are as eternall as the earth: so is Faith, and the bloo­mings, and greene blossomings of Sanctification, alwaies; but there is a Sommer, when they cast forth their leaves and beau­tie.

Asser. 8. To presse duties out of a principle of Faith, is to presse Christ upon soules, nor can the seeing of beames, Duties per­formed in faith, not con­trary to free Grace. and light in the ayre, or of Wine-grapes on the tree, be a denying of the Sunne to be in the firmanent, or of life and sap to be in the Vine-tree: to see and feele in our selves grapes, and fruits of righteousnesse, except we make the grace of Christ a bastard, and mis father it, is no darkening of Christ, and free Grace, 1 Cor. 15.9, 10.

Asser. 9. There is a great difficultie, yea an impossibility, when the Lord hides himselfe, The difficulty of a [...]tai [...]i [...]g comfort when God deserteth and goeth behind the Moun­taine, to command the flowing and emanations of Free grace.

1. Because desertion were not desertion, if it were under the dominion of our Free-will. For desertion as a punishment of sinne, cannot be in the free-will of him that is punished; eve­ry punishment, as such is contrary to the will of the punished: and desertion as an act of free dispensation for triall, must be a worke of omnipotent dominion.

2. As in workes of nature and art, so is it heere, that God may be seene in both; doth not men sweat, till, sow much, and the sun and summer, and clouds, warme dewes and raines smile upon cornes and meddowes, yet God steppeth in betweene the mouth of the Husbandman and the sickle, and blasteth all; and the Lord takes away the physme, stay and staffe of corne and [Page 88] grasse; and there is bread enough, and yet famine and starving for hunger. Doe not some rise early, and goe late to bed, eat the bread of sorrow; yet the armed souldier of God, extreme poverty, breaketh in upon the house? Doe not watch-men wake all the night, yet the City is surprised and taken in the dawning, because the Lord keepeth not th [...] City? The Lord doth all this, to shew that hee is the supreme and absolute Lord of all second causes. Why, but hee hath as eminent and inde­pendent a Lordship in the acts of his free departure, and returns, in the sense of his love. Hath not the King of Saints a with­drawing roome, and an hiding place? Is not his presence and manifestations his owne? The deserted soule prayeth, cryeth, weepeth; the Pastor speaketh with the tongue of the learned; the Christian friend argueth, exhorteth; experience and the dayes of old come to mind; the promises convince, and speake home to the soule; the poore man remembreth God, and hee is troubled; the Church, and many Churches pray, Christians weep and pray; yet Christ is still absent, the man cannot have, from all these, one halfe smile from Christ's face; the vision will not speak one word of joy: All these can no more com­mand a raging sea and stormy winds to be still, and create calm­nesse in the soule, then a child is able to wheele about the third heavens, in a course contrary to its naturall motion. Omnipo­tency is in this departure. God himselfe is in the dispensation, and absolute freedom of an independent dominion acteth in the Lord's covering of himselfe with a cloud, and putteth an iron crosse-barre on the doore of his pavilion; and can you stirre Omnipotency, and remove it? Think you praying can charme and break independent dominion, working to shew it selfe as a dominion?

3. The sense of Christ which is wanting in desertion, can­not be enforced by perswasion, no more then you can, by words, perswade the deafe to heare. Oratory cannot make the taste feele the sweetnesse of honey. There is a light that cometh from heaven, Sense of Christ's ab­sence cannot be out-rea­s [...]ned. above the sunne and moone; yea, above the Gospel; and is not extracted, or educed out of the potency of either the soule, nay nor of the Gospel, (I conceive,) that bringeth forth, in act, the white stone, and the new name: and as nature and instincts naturall performe their naturall duties without any o­ratory, so as perswasion cannot make the fire to burne, nor the [Page 89] sunne to shine, nor the bird to build its nest, nor the lambe to know its mother; nature doth all these: So neither doth the perswasion of Paul, preaching the Gospel, Act. 26.28. Act. 16.14. the same thing, and every way the same worke, that the Lord doth, in perswading Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem, Gen. 9.27. I could easily admit, that wee are patients in recei­ving the predetermination active of the Holy Ghost in either beleeving, or in actuall enlightening, and the actuall witnesse-light by which Christ shineth in the heart, for producing actu­all assurance; though in the same moment and order of time (not of nature) wee be also agents.

Asser. 10. Though meanes must not be neglected, as pray­ing, and waiting on the watch-tower, for the breathings of re­newed assurance; yet as touching the time, manner, way and measure of the speaking of the vision, God's absolute dominion is more to be respected here, then all the stirrings and motions of the under wheels of prayer, preaching, conference.

Asser. 11. The soule should be argued with, and convinced, thus: Why, Wee may [...] argue a trou­bled soule. will you not give Christ your good leave to tu­tor and guide you to heaven? He hath carried a world of Saints over the same seas you are now in, and Christ payed the fare of the ship himselfe, not one of them are found dead on the shore; they were all as black and sun-burnt as you are, but they are now a faire and beautifull company, without spot before the throne, and clothed in white; they are now on the sunny side of the river, in the good Land where glory groweth, farre above sighing and jealousie. You are guilty of the breach of the Priviledge of Christ; 1. Hee is a free Prince, and his Prero­gative Royall is uncapable of failing against the Fundamentall Lawes of Righteousnesse, in the measuring out either worke or wages, grace or glory. Mat. 20.13. Friend, I doe thee no wrong: mine owne is mine owne.

Object. O but hee is sparing in his grace, his love-visits are thin sowen, as straw-berries in the rock.

Answ. I answer for him; 1. The quantity of grace is a branch of his freedome. 2. Why doe you not complaine of your sparing improving of two talents, rather then of his nig­gard giving of one only. Hee cannot sin against his liberty in his measuring out of grace; you cannot but sin in receiving. Never man, except the man Christ, durst, since the creation, [Page 90] (the holiest I will not except) face an account with God, for Evangelick receipts; All in glory farre short of what they owe to Christ. Christ to this day is behind with Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, Peter, John, Paul, and all the Saints, in the using of grace, they were below grace, and Christ was necessitate to write in the close of their counts with a pen of grace, and ink of his bloud, Friend, you owe me this, but I forgive you. They flew all up to heaven with millions of ar­rear [...]s, more then ever they wrought for: As some godly rich man may say, This poore man was addebted to me thousands, now hee is dead in my debt, I forgive him, his grave is his ac­quittance; I have done with it. Christ upbraids not you with old debts, that would sink you; why cast yee up in his teeth, his free gifts? 3. Think it mercy hee made you not a gray-stone, but a beleeving Saint: And there is no imaginable com­pari [...]on, between his free gifts, and your bad deserving.

God cannot [...]e quarrelled in deserting.2. The way of his going and coming should not be quarrel­led. The Lord walketh here in a liberty of dispensation; a sum­mer-sunne is heritage to no Land. It was not a bloud of a dai­ly temper that Paul was in, when hee said, Rom. 8.38. For I am perswaded, that neither death, nor life, &c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. It was a high and great feast, when Christ saith to his Church, Cant. 5.1. I am come into my garden, my Sister, my Spouse, I have gathered my myrrhe with my spice, I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey: eat, O friends, d [...]inke, yea drinke abundantly, O be­loved. Its true, hee is alwayes in his Church, his Garden, ga­thering lillies; but stormes and snowes often cover his Gar­den.

Wee cannot beare fulnesse of glory in this life.3. Were assurance alway full moon, as Christ's faith in his saddest soule-trouble was bank-full sea, and full moon; and were our joy ever full, then should the Saints heaven on earth, and their heaven above the visible heavens, differ in the acci­dent of place, and happily, in some fewer degrees of glory; but there is a wisdome of God to be reverenced here. The Saints in this life are narrow vessels; and such old bottles could not containe the new wine that Christ drinketh with his, in his Fathers Kingdome, Mat. 17. When the Disciples see the glory of Christ in the Mount, Peter saith, Vers. 4. Lord, it is good for us to be here: but when that glory cometh nearer to them, and a cloud over-shaddowes them, Luk. 9.34. and they heare [Page 91] the voyce of God speak out of the cloud, Mark. 9.7. They fell down on their face, Mat. 17.6▪ [...], They were sore afraid. Why afraid? Because of the exceeding glory, which they testified was good, but knew not what they said. Wee know not that this joy is unspeakable. We rejoyce, [...], with joy that no man can relate: How then can a man containe it? I may speak of a thousand millions of things more excellent and glorious then I can feel. Should God poure in as much of Christ in us in this life, as wee would in our pri­vate wisdome, or folly desire, the vessell would break, and the wine runne out: We must cry sometimes, Lord, hold thy hand. Wee are as unable to beare the joyes of heaven in this life, as to endure the paines of hell. Every drop of Christ's honey-comb is a talent weight; and the fulnesse of it must be reserved, till wee be enlarged vessels, sitted for glory.

Asser. 12. Wee doe not consider, that Christ absent hath stronger impulsions of love, Longings after Christ▪ strong­est in absence. then when present in sense and full assurance: as is cleare in that large Song of the high praises of Christ, which is uttered by the Church, Cant. 5. when he had with-drawn himselfe, Vers. 6. and Shee was sick of love for him. Vers. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 2. There is a sort of hea­venly antiperistasis, a desire of him kindled, through occasions of absence; as wee are hottest in seeking after precious things, when they are absent, and farthest from our enjoying. Absence sets on fire love. The impression of his kissing, embracing, love­ly and patient knocking, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove; the print of his foot-steps, the remanents of the smell of his precious oyntments, his shaddow when hee goeth out at doors, are coals to burne the soule. Psal. 63.6. When I remem­ber thee, upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. I cannot sleep, for the love of Christ, in the night. What fol­lowes? Vers. 8. My soule followes hard, cleaveth strong af­ter thee. Psal. 77.3. I remembred God, and was troubled: ra­ther, I remembred God, and rejoyced: But the memory of old love, and of absent and with-drawing consolations, break the heart. How doe some weep, and cast-aside their harps, when they remember the seven yeare old embracements of Christ, and Christ's virgin-love, and Sion-sweet songs in the dayes of their youth? Cant. 5. when the Church rose, but after the time, to open to Christ, when hee was gone, and had with­drawn [Page 92] himselfe, Vers. 5. Mine hands (saith the Church) drop­ped with myrrhe, and my fingers with sweet-smelling mirrhe upon the handles of the barre. Then her love to Christ was strongest, her bowels moved, the smell of his love, like sweet-smelling myrrhe, was mighty rank, and piercing.

Asser. 13. Why, but then when the wheeles are on moving, and the longing after Christ awaked, When the soul is in la [...]gui­shi [...]g disp [...]siti­on after Chris [...], its fittest to pray him home againe. and one foot, wee should pray Christ home againe, and love him in to his owne house, and sigh him out of his place, from beyond the mountaine into the soule againe; as the Spouse doth, Cant. 3.1, 2, [...], 4, 5. if ever he be found, when he is sought, it will be now, though time, and manner of returning be his owne.

Asser. 14. Nor are we to beleeve that Christs love is coy, or humorous in absenting himselfe, Christs love not lordly. or that he is lordly, high, dif­ficill, inexorable, in letting out the sense, the assurance of his love, or his presence; as we dreame a thousand false opinions of Christ under absence, nor doe wee consider that security and indulgence to our lusts loses Christ, and therefore its just, that as we sinne in roses, we should sorrow in thornes.

Asser. 15. If the Lords hiding himselfe, be not formally an act of Grace, yet intentionally on Gods part, it is; as at his re­turne againe, hee commeth with two heavens, and the gold chaine sodered is strongest in that linke which was broken; and the result of Christs returne to his garden, Cant. 5.1. is a feast of honey, The Lords joy­full returne af­ter desertion. and milke, and refined wines: when he is returned, then his Spicknand, his perfume, his myrrhe, aloes, and cassia, casteth a smell even up to heaven; in the falles of the Saints, this is seen; David after his fall hearing mercy, feeling God had healed his bones, that were broken, Psal. 51. there is more of Gods prai­ses within him, then he can vent, he prayeth God would broach the vessell, that the new wine may come out, Vers. 15. O Lord open thou my lips, that my mouth may shew forth thy praise: and after the meeting of the Lord and the forlorne Sonne, be­sides the poore sonnes expression, full of sense: consider how much sense and joy is in the Father; It is a Parable, yet it sayeth much of God. Luke 15. vers. 20. And when he was yet a great way off, his Father saw him. Christ the Father of age or eternity, [...] Esay 9.6. knoweth a friend a farre off, and his heart kindles, and growes warme when hee sees him, [Page 93] Were he thousands and millions of miles from God, yet ayming to come, he sees him, and had compassion; he sees with moved bowells, and ranne, how swift is Christs love, and fell on his necke, and kissed him. O what expression of tendernesse! and to all these, is added a new robe, and a Ring for ornament, and a feast, the fatte Calfe is killed, and the Lord sings, and daun­ces, Vers. 23, 24, 25. Peters denyall of Christ, brought him to weeping, flowing from the Spirit of Grace powred on Da­vids house, Zach. 12.10. And Peter had the more grace, that he losed grace, for a time. As after drawing bloud and cutting a veine, more commeth in the place; and after a great Feaver, and decay of strength, in a recovery, Nature repaireth it selfe more copiously. And often in our sad troubles, wee have that complaint of God, which he rebuketh his people for; Esay [...]0.27. Why sayest thou O Jaakob, and speakest O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgement is passed over from God; that is, the Lord takes no notice of my affliction, and hee for­gets to right me, as if I were hid out of his sight: and David Psal. 31.22. I said in my hast, I am cut off from before thine eyes. Its not unlike a word which Cain spake, with a farre other mind, Gen. 4.14. From thy face shall I be hid. But this is 1. To judge God to be faint and weake, as if hee could doe no more, but were expi [...]ing, Esay 40. vers. 28. He will bee both weake and wearied, if he forget his owne; and our darkenesse cannot rob the Lord of light, and infinite knowledge, he can­not forget his office as Redeemer. God is not like the Storke that leaves her egges in the Sand, and forgets that they may be crushed and broken. When Christ goes away, hee leaves his heart and love behind in the soule, till hee returne againe him­selfe; if the young creation be in the soule, he must come backe to his nest, to warme with his wings, the young tender birth.

Asser. 16. Nor is Christ so farre departed at any time, but you may know the soule he hath been in, yea hee stands at the side of the sicke bed, weeping for his pained childe; yea your groanes pierceth his bowels, Jer. 31.20. How neare Christ is in desertion. For since I spoke a­gainst him (saith the Lord) I doe earnestly remember him; its not the lesse true, that the head of a swoning sonne, lyeth in the bosome and the two armes of Christ; that the weake man beleeveth, that he is utterly gone away.

[Page 94] Asser. 17. Nor will Christ more reckon in a Legall way, for the slips, Christ pardo­neth love-er­rors, and can hardy punish them. mis-judgings, and love-rovings of a spirituall di­stemper, then a Father can whip his childe with a rod, because he mis-knoweth his Father, and uttereth words of folly in the height of a feavor. Christ must pardon the fancie, and sinnes of sicke love; the errors of the love of Christ, are almost inno­cent crimes, though unbeliefe make love-lyes of Jesus Christ. There be some over-lovings, as it were, that foames out, rash and hasty jealousies of Christ, when acts of fiery and flaming de­sires doe out-runne acts of faith: as hunger hath no reason; so the inundations and swellings of the love of Christ, flow over their banks, that we so strongly desire the Lord to returne, that we beleeve he will never returne.

Asser. 18. Though hid Jewels be no Jewels, a losed Christ, no Christ, to sense, yet is their an unvisible, and an undiscerned instinct of heaven, that hindered the soule to give Christ over.

Shall we upon all this, extend all these Spirituall considerati­ons to all men, Saltmarsh in hi [...] Free-grace, cap. V. pag. 92 93. It is a lie and not a Gospel-secret, that none are to question their faith, whether it be true or no. whether they bee in Christ, or not. Some teach us this, as the great Gospel-secret concerning Faith; That none ought to question, whether they beleeve God to be their Father, Christ their Redeemer, or no; but are to beleeve till they bee perswaded, that they doe beleeve, and feele more and more of the truth of their faith, or beliefe; righteousnesse being revea­led from faith to faith: The 1. ground of this is, Christs com­mand to beleeve; now commands, of this nature are to be obey­ed, not disputed.

But this is so farre from being a Gospel-secret, that it is not a Gospel truth; and sends poore soules to seeke honey in a nest of Waspes, the path-way to presumption. For though these who truly beleeve, ought not to doubt of their beliefe, yet these who have lamps of faith, and no oyle, ought to question, whe­ther there be oyle in their lamps, or no, and true faith with their profession, else the foolish Virgines were not farre out, who never questioned their faith, till it was out of time to buy oyle; and that these Virgines should beleeve, they had oyle in their lamps, when they had none, till they should bee per­swaded, that empty lamps, were full lamps, and a bastard faith, true faith, were to oblige them to feed upon the East-winde, till there should be a faith produced in the imagination, that the East is the West. 2. All the Scriptures that charge us to trie [Page 95] our selves, 1 Cor. 11. [...]8. To examine our selves, whether we be in the faith, and to know our selves, We may so far question our faith, as to try whether it be true or not. that Jesus Christ is in us, except we be reprobats. 2 Cor. 13.5. and to know the things that are freely given us of God. 1 Cor. 2.12. and so to know our faith, Phil. 1.29. doe evince that wee are to trie, and so farre to question, whether we beleeve, or not; as multi­tudes are obliged to acknowledge, their faith is but fancy, and that there is a thing like faith, which is nothing such; and that we are not to deceive our selves, with a vaine presumption, which looketh like faith, and is no faith. And James 2. many who beleeve there is a God, and imagine they have faith, be­ing voide of good works, and of love, in which the life and efficacie of faith is much seene, have no more faith, then Devils have, Vers. 18, [...]9▪ 20. ( [...].) It is true that we are to beleeve on the name of his Sonne Jesus Christ, without any disputing concerning the equity of the command of beleeving, or of our obligation to beleeve: For both are most just. And to dispute th [...] holy and just will of God, is to oppose our carnall reason, to the wisdome of God; but we are no [...], because wee cannot dis­pute the holy command of God; nor to reason our duty, not to examine whether that which wee conceive, wee doe as a dutie be a bastard and false conception, or a true and genuine dutie; We are to be­leeve after Christs fashi­on and order not after our owne. nor, because I may not reason the precept of beleeving, given by Jesus Christ, am I therefore to beleeve, in any order that I please, and to come to Christ, whether I bee weary and laden with sinne, or not weary and laden. Christ commandeth mee to beleeve, Ergo, remaining in my wickednesse, regarding ini­quity in my heart, without despairing of salvation in my selfe, I am to beleeve, I shall deny this c [...]ns [...]quence. It is all one, as if Antinomians would argue thus; All within the visibl [...] Church are obliged to beleeve and r [...]st on Christ for salvation; whe­ther they be elect or reprobate? whether their whoorish heart be broken with the sense of sinne, or whole? Ergo, they are obliged to presume, or to rest on Christ, their righteousnesse, whether they distrust their owne, or not.

Object. 2. Wee find not any, in the whole course of Christ's preaching, or the Discioles, that asked the question, Saltmarsh, [...]6.64. whether they beleeved or not; or whether their faith were true faith or no. It were a disparagement to the Lord of the feast to aske, whether his dainties were reall or delusions.— The way to be [Page 96] sure of the truth of good things, is tasting and feeling: Eat, O friends, drinke, yea drink abundantly, O beloved.

There is no­thing in Scrip­ture to prove that the Saints have not doubted of their tempta­tions. Answ. This reason would inferre, that there is not a Saint on earth capable of such a sinne, as to doubt whether they be­leeve or not; because wee read not of it in any of the hearers of Christ, or the Apostles: This is a bad consequence, except you say, All the various conditions of troubled consciences are set down, in particular examples, in the New Testament. Which is contrary to all experiences of the Saints. 2. It is one thing to doubt of the truth of the promises, and another thing to doubt, whether my apprehension of the promise be true or false: The latter is not alwayes sin; for it may be my appre­hension of the truth of the promises be beside the line, and off the way; and then I question not Christ's dainties (which to doe were unbeleefe) but my owne deluded fancie, which may appeare to be faith, and is nothing lesse: the former is indeed unbeleefe, not the latter. 3. Its true, tasting makes sure the truth of the Lord's good things, that are inclosed in the promi­ses; but then, an unconverted sinner, who is void of spiritu­all senses, cannot be the beloved, nor the friend that Christ speaketh to, Cant. 5.1. Wee doe not say, a beleever ought to doubt, whether hee hath true faith or no: but because the com­mand of beleeving obliegeth the non-converted, as well as the converted, shall the naturall man eat as a friend and a beloved, hee remaining in nature, and not yet converted, and this man in nature ought not to doubt, whether his fancie be faith or not, but hee is oblieged to beleeve, that is, to imagine that his fancie is faith? 4. I see not how, if the faith of the Saints be tried as gold in the fire, they may not through the prevalencie of temptation be shaken in their faith, as Peter was, when hee denyed his Saviour; Beleevers doe doubt whether they beleeve or not, under gre [...]t tempta­tions. and Paul; who 2 Cor. 1, 8. was pressed out of measure, above strength, despaired of life, had the sentence of death. 2 Cor. 7.5. was troubled on every side, fightings with­out, and feares within: and the sonnes of God, who may feare that they have received the spirit of bondage to feare againe, opposite to the Spirit of adoption, Rom. 8.15. but that they may faint in their tribulations, Ephes. 3.13. and may be surprised with feare, which hath torment, and must be cast out, 1 Joh. 4.18. and may be ready to faint and die, Revel. 3.2. and turne luke-warme, be wretched, miserable, poore, blind, naked, and [Page 97] yet beleeve the contrary of themselves, Revel. 3.16, 17. All these may come, and often doe come to that low condition of spirit, after Justification, as to say and think that all men are liars, their faith is no faith, that they are forsaken of God, to their own sense, and cast out of his sight, and question whether they ever did beleeve, or no: And why would the Apostle say, Patience bringeth forth experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, Rom. 5.4. if experience that ever God loved me, or that ever I beleeved, to my present sense, cannot be removed? But this is but the Doctrine of Story rise, reign, er, 32▪ Famulists; who teach, That after the revelation of the Spirit, neither devill nor sinne can make the soule to doubt. And Er. 10. To question whether God be my deare Father, after, or upon the committing of some hai­nous sinnes, (as murther, incest, &c.) doth prove a man to be in the Covenant of works. Doe not they then teach us a way of despairing, who say, that Saltmarsh Free-grace, cap. 5. pag. 93. Wee find not in the whole course of Christ's preaching, or the Disciples, that any asked the que­stion, whether they beleeved, or no; whether their faith were true faith, or no? What then shall thousands of smoking flaxes and weak reeds doe, who often ask this question, Doubting in beleevers no signe that th [...]y are under the Law. and say and think, Ah, I have no faith; my faith is but counterfeit met­tall? And then by this Doctrine of despaire, beleevers ought to conclude, I am not under Grace, but under the Law, and a Covenant of works, and so not in Christ; yea, whatever lusters were in me before, I am in no condition of any wee read of in the New Testament, who were hearers of Christ and the A­postles; for Libertines, never true beleevers, doubted whether their faith was true, or not.

Object. 3. For any to doubt whether they beleeve or no, is a question, that Christ onely can satisfie, Saltmarsh, Ibid. pag. 64. who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Who can more properly shew one that hee sees, then the Light which enlightens him?

Answ. Christ solves not questions that no man ever made: S. thinkes that beleevers never doubt whether their faith be true faith, or not; which is a strong way of beleeving: and those must be so strong in the faith, who doubt not of this, as they are above all temptations. But this will be found against the experience of all beleevers. It is most true, none can work faith, but the onely Creator and Author of faith: but will the Author hence inferre, no man, the most wicked, nor any that e­ver [Page 98] heard Christ or his Apostles preach, doubted of their faith? 2. The sunne, with all its light, cannot perswade a blind man who seeth not, that hee seeth: beleevers often think they see, when they see not, and think they are blind, when they see; as experience and Scripture, Revel. 3.16, 17. Joh. 9.38, 39. teach us.

Object. 4. Faith is truly and simply this, A being perswa­ded more or lesse of Christ's love: and therefore it is called a beleeving with the heart. Now, what infallible signe is there to perswade any that they are perswaded, when themselves que­stion the truth of their perswasion: God onely shall perswade Japhet. Who can more principally, and with clearer satisfaction perswade the Spouse, Saltmarsh▪ pag 95. of the good will of him shee loves, but himselfe? Can all the love-tokens, or testimoniall rings and bracelets? They may concurre and help in the manifestation, but it is the voyce of the beloved, that doth the turne: My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise my love, my faire one; saith the Spouse.

Answ. 1. Faith may be a perswasion in some sense, but that it is a perswasion that my faith or perswasion is true, not coun­terfeit, and so formally, is utterly denyed. How many beleeve and love Christ with the heart, who are not perswaded that they doe so; yea, much doubt whether they beleeve with the heart, and would give a world to know (if it were possible) that they truly love God? No Divine, who knoweth that a di­rect act of faith and to beleeve, is, when there is no reflexe act, can deny this. 2. Arguments or signes, in accurate speech, are not called infallible, actu secundo; the word of God is in it selfe infallible, Sanctification in it selfe is an infallible sign [...] of justificati­on, but not e­ver so to us. actu pr [...]o: But to Aristotle, this, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, is not infallible, actu se­cundo; nor are the promises, Hee that beleeveth, shall be saved. Knocke, and it shall be opened. Hee that overcometh, shall inhe­rite all things; actu secundo; to a beleever, who, under a di­stemper, doth doubt of them, infallible. So, The love of the bre­thren, 1 Joh. 3.14. The keeping of the Commandements, and the word of Jesus, is infallible in it selfe. That I know Christ sa­vingly, and that hee dwelleth in me, 1 Joh. 2. vers. 3.5. but that it infallibly concludeth so to me, actu secundo, is not sure, except the wind blow faire from heaven, and the Spirit act in me. So the love-tokens and testimoniall rings and bracelets of the Hus­band, [Page 99] my love to the Saints, my keeping of his word, my holy walking in Christ, being the works of his Spirit, which dwelt in Jesus Christ, are actu primo, in themselves, as infallible signes of the Bridegromes love to me; as the Beloved's word who spake and said, Arise, my love: And if the spirations and brea­things of the Spirit goe not along, both the voice and the love-bracelets (for Christ is no more counterfeit in his love-tokens, then in his word, when hee speaks as a Husband) are alike in­effectuall to perswade the soule. I see no reason to call the workes of Sanctification inferiour helps in the Manifestation, more then the voice of the Beloved; for both without the Spi­rit are equally ineffectuall: and if the Spirit breathe and move with them, both are effectuall, & actu primo, & secundo, and they infallibly perswade. It is then a weake Argument, None can simply perswade Japhet but God; ergo, The word of the Bridegrome onely can infallibly perswade; or, therefore love-bracelets cannot infallibly perswade: for the word not quick­ned by the Spirit of Jesus, cannot simply perswade; and the Lords perswading of Japhet, is the Lords work of converting Japhet, not his enlightening of Japhet to know his faith to be true faith. Hence for that which infallibly perswadeth us, I say,

1. Our act of beleeving doth no more perswade of it selfe that wee doe beleeve, How acts of sanctification make good that wee be­leeve. except the Spirit breathe with the act of beleeving, for actuall illumination and perswasion, then any o­ther act of loving Christ, his Saints, or universall intention, or sincerity of heart to obey, doth prove to us that wee beleeve; for many beleeve who know not, yea, doubt of their beleeving, because the Holy Ghost maketh not the light of faith effectuall to perswade, that they truly beleeve.

2. Asser. The testimony of the Holy Spirit, is the efficacious and actuall illumination and irradiation of the Sunne of righte­ousnesse and his Spirit, Assurance may flow from o­th [...]r ma [...]ks the [...] the im­mediate testi­mony of the Spirit. assuring us that wee are the sonnes of God. This light cometh from inherent acts of grace in us: 1 Joh. 2.3, 4, [...]. chap. 3.14. (2) From the testimony and re­joycing which resulteth from a good conscience: 2 Cor. 1.12. 2 Tim. 4.6, 7, 8. 1 Tim. 6.17, 18. Heb. 13.18. (3.) From the experience they have had of the Lords dealing with their soules, and the love of God spread abroad in the heart, by the Holy Ghost: Rom. 5.3, 4, 5. (4) From a sincere aime and respect to [Page 100] all the Commandements of God, Psal. 119.6. Acts 24.16. 1 Joh. 3.20, 21. 1 Thess. 5.23. Phil. 4.12. Revel. 22.14, 15. (5.) From the positive marks that Christ putteth on his Chil­dren as markes of true blessednesse, Math. 5.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Psal. 119.1, 2. Psal. 32.1, 2. (6.) From the judge­ment that the Saints maketh of themselves, and their owne be­gunne communion with God, Psal. 73.25. Psal. 18.20, 1, 22. Psal. 26.3, 4.8. Psal. 40.9 10.7.8. Job 31. Job 29. Esay [...]8.3. Psal. 42.1, 2. Psal. 6 [...].1, 2, 3, 4 8. Psal. 84.2, 3, 4, 5. Psal. 119. [...]0, 31, 40.46.50.57.60, 62, 63.81.82.97.98▪ 99.101, 103, 111, 112.125.127.128.136.139, 145.148.162.164. Cant. 1.5. chap. 2.4.5.6.16. chap. 3.1, 2, 3, 4, 5. chap. 5.6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. All which were needlesse floorishes, if they had neither peace, consolation, nor assurance from these, as from marks and signes which do infallibly convince, (the light, breathings and irradiations of the Holy Ghost concurring with them) that they are in a saving condition, who have these qua­lifications, in them. (7.) Because by holy walking, the Saints make their calling and election sure and firme, not to God, but to themselves, 2 Pet. 1.10, 11, 12. vers. 5.6, 7.

The inward testimony of the Spirit. Asser. 3. As there is in the eye, lumen innatum; in the eare, aer internus; a certaine inbred light, to make the eye see lights, and colours without; and a sound and aire in the eare within, to make it discerne the sounds that are without. So is there a grace, a new nature, an habituall instinct of heaven, to discerne the Lords Spirit immediatly testifying, that we are the Sonnes of God, Rom. 8.16. 1 Cor. 1.12. Grace within know­eth Christ speaking without, the voice of my beloved. As the Lambe knoweth, by an internall instinct, the mother; but for wakening and quickening of the instinct to apprehend this, there is neede of opened eyes, and the presence of the mother to the eye, or of the bleating of the mother, to a waking eare; for in­stincts cannot worke in the sleepe, if the Spirit speake, and the voice behind be heard, the soule knoweth what sound it hear­eth, but not otherwaies; it is but curiositie so to compare the evidence by signes and markes of Sanctification, The holy Ghost speaketh by marks of San­ctification. with that evi­dence, that commeth from the Spirits immediate voice, or testi­monie, so as the former should be lesse sure, fallible, conjectu­rall; and the latter infallible, sure and efficaciously convincing. For the evidences are both supernaturall, certaine, divine, and [Page 101] strongly convincing, if there bee any deception in either, it is because of the dulnesse of our apprehension, or our imaginati­on, which fancieth, we see, what we see not, or from our unbelief who will not be convinced. For the Holy Ghost speaketh the same thing, by his operations of grace, in holy walking, that he speaketh by either the Word preached, or by the Word, and immediat voice of the Spirit, witnessing to our Spirit; and there is the same authority revealing to us a thing hid, and the same thing revealed; it maybe, there be a variation of the degrees, of light and divine irradiation: Or the one may cary in to the soule a more deepe impression of God then the other, and the radiati­on of light in the subject, may be more strong in the one, then in the other; but of themselves they are both infallible, supernatu­rall, and convincing.

It is doubted which of these evidences bee more free, and partake more of the nature of Grace. How An [...]i [...]o­mians com­pare the evi­dence from marks of san­ctification, and that which is from faith, together. Antinomians conceive that an evidence by marks in our self is more selfie, lesse free, and neerer to a seeking of assurance in our selfe, then that evidence which resulteth from the immediate testimony of the Spirit. But the ground they build on is false, and the superstructure is lesse sure. If it were a matter of giving and receiving, or of wages and worke, it were something, but its a matter of meere knowledge, God reveiling our condition to us one way, not an­other. Possibly the more externall, the more immediate, and farre a thing be from a condition, even of Grace, the more free, as the election to Glory, the paying of the ransome of Christs bloud, or the act of attonement are most free, for they require not so much as the condition of faith wrought by the free Grace of God; but Justification (say our Divines) requi­reth faith, as a condition. And heere God may keep his hands free of any knot, or obligation of a condition; and it would seeme that the immediate testimony of the Spirit, Degrees of freedome of grace. is more free then evidence from inherent marks, the wind seemeth to be freer in its motion, which hath not a restriction to fixed causes, rather at this houre, then at that; the Sea againe in its ebbing and flow­ing, and the Sunne in its rising and going downe, are more fet­tered to set times, and condition of naturall causes, yet all these detract nothing from the freedome of God the creator, in his concurring with these causes; nor doe conditions that are wrought in us irresistably by the grace of God, lay any tye on [Page 102] that independent, soveraigne, and high freedome of Grace, which doth no lesse justifie, and save us freely, then chuse us to glory, and redeeme us with the same freedome, without p [...]ice and hire: Antinomians who deny all preparations before faith, must hold that faith [...]loweth from naturall principles in us, as Pelagi [...]ns of old aid. onely I will mind Libertines, who deny that Justifi­cation, the covenant of grace and salvation, have any the most gracious conditions in us; for that should obscure the freedom of Grace, (they say) all within the visible Church, without a­any preparations, are immediatly to beleeve salvation and re­mission of sinnes to themselves in particular. But I hope, Faith is a worke of free Grace, and must presuppose, conversion and a new heart, as an essentiall condition, else with Pelagians, they must say, that out of the principles of nature, all are to be­leeve; and this obscureth farre more the freedome of the grace of God working Faith in us, then all the conditions of Grace, which we hold to be subservient, not contrary to the freedome of grace.

Pag. 95.Object. 5. We ought to beleeve, till we be perswaded that we beleeve. Ephes. 1.13. In whom after yee beleeved, yee were sealed. The way to be warme, is not onely to aske for a fire, or whether there be a fire or no, or to hold out the hands a little toward it, and away, and wish for a greater; but to stand close to that fire, and gather heat.

Answ. 1. That beleeving bringeth perswasion, I doubt not; but not such a sealing with the broad and great seale of heaven, The broad seal of the Spirit puls no man beyond all ha­zard of doubt­ing, is Liber­tines dreame. as excludeth all doubting, as Antinomians teach; nor doth the place proove it. For these who can flee with such strong wings, and are above all doubting, (1.) need not Christs intercession, that their faith faile not, they are above, and beyond the Sphere of all obligation to Grace: nor (2.) need they pray, Leade us not into temptation. Nor (3.) need they beare in meekenesse, the overtaken weake ones, who trip and stumble unawares, con­sidering lest they also be tempted, Gal. 6.1. (4.) The faith of the strongest is not full Moone, or uncapable of growing, Phil. 3.12. (5.) There is neede of praising of Grace, for the pre­vailing victory of a faith beyond doubting. (6.) Nor neede such pray Christ to encrease their faith. Judge then of Liber­tines, who talke of a broad seale, of perfect assurance, and say, Rise, reigne, er, 42. There is no assurance true and right, unlesse it be without feare and doubting.

2. The way to be warme at a painted fire, such as is the im­mediate [Page 103] revealing of Christ to an unconverted sinner, never humbled, nor despairing of himselfe, which is the Libertines dead faith, is not the way to be warmed, nor are we to beleeve in Christ, but in Christs owne way and order: and its safe to call in question, whether such a painted fire be fire; nor are wee to goe on in this beleeving, till wee be perswaded that we be­leeve, truely this is no Gospel-secret.

If Libertines say, its unpossible to beleeve, but we must de­spaire in our selves. I answer, So I beleeve; but then must it follow, that Libertines deceive, and are deceived, when they teach, that sinners as sinners are to beleeve, because sinners de­spairing of salvation in themselves, must be fewer in number, then sinners as sinners; for sinners as sinners, comprehendeth Pharisees, and all secure and malitious slaves of hell; but selfe-despairing sinners include not any such, farre lesse include they all sinners, they be onely such sinners as are halfe sicke, looking a farre off, with halfe an eye to Jesus Christ, not daring fully to make out to Jesus Christ; proud Pharisees despaire not of salvation in themselves, for then they should not be proud Pha­risees in so farre; but Libertines teach us, that Pharisees re­maining Pharisees, without any preparations going before, are immediatly to beleeve in Christ, if they say, Selfe-despaire is an essentiall part of Faith, not a preparation going before faith; they erre: Judas, Cain, despaire of salvation both in them­selves and in Christ, yet have they not any essentiall part of sa­ving faith, nor can any essentiall part of saving faith bee in such, nor can any come to Christ, and beleeve in him, whil first they know sin by the law, and their mouth be stopp'd, that the law can­not justifie nor save them, Rom. .19 20, 21. An [...] M [...]. Eaton and the Antinomians that are not meere Familists, and Enthy­siasts rejecting all written Scripture, doe also grant this; then it must be unpossible, that any can beleeve, but some preparati­on fore-going there must be; and because all sinners as sinners have not such preparation, all sinners as sinners are not at the first clap, to beleeve in the soule Physitian Christ, but onely such as in Christs order are plowed, ere Christ sow on them, and selfe-condemned ere they beleeve in Christ.

Object. 6. Wee are no more to question our faith, then wee ought to question Christ the foundation of our faith, Saltmarsh 65. for salva­tion to the soule in particular is destroyed by unbeliefe, they [Page 104] entered not in because of unbeleefe: The word profitted not, be­ing not mixed with faith.

Answ. 1. Wee cannot question Christ, more then wee can question whether God be God; but wee may examine Paul's Doctrine, Doubting whether the sound belee­vers [...]aith be true or not, is not that unbe­leefe that ex­cludeth us out of the eternall rest. as the Beroans did; wee may try our owne faith, if it can hold water. If some would wash their false coyne, and bring it to the touch-stone, the false mettall would be seen. 2. The unbeleefe in weake ones doubting of their faith, is not that which destroyes salvation, and excludeth men out of the holy Land: they are cruell to weak reeds, who exclude them out of heaven, because in their mis-judging distempers they ex­clude themselves; were Christ as cruell to a faint beleever, who is sick of mis-givings, as hee is to himselfe, who could be saved? But a beleever may appeale from himselfe ill-informed, and doubting groundlesly, to meek Jesus well-informed, and judging aright a weak reed, to be a reed; a sick beleever, and a swouning faith, to be a beleever, and a faith, that will beare a soule to heaven. A weak hackney, if spritie, may accomplish a great journey.

Object. 7. Satan puts us cleane back here; wee are proving o [...] faith by our works, Ibid. 69. when as no works can be proved solidly good, but by our faith; for without faith its unpossible to please God. Wee know that every piece of money is valued according to the image and superscription; if Cesar be not there, though it be silver, yet it is not coyne, it is not so currant: So there is not any thing of Sanctification currant, and of true practicall use and comfort to a beleever, if Christ be not there. Crispe Crisp. Vol. 2. Ser. XV. saith, Sanctification and good works are litigious grounds of our faith. This bordereth with the language of Libertines. Rise, reigne, er, 72. It is a fundamentall and soule-damning errour to make san­ctification an evidence of justification. And Ibid. 73. Christ's worke of grace can no more distinguish betweene an hypocrite and a Saint, then the raine that falls from heaven, between the just and the unjust. And Er. 75. The Spirit gives such full evidence of my good estate spiritually, that I have no need to be tryed by the fruits of sanctification, this were to light a candle to the sunne.

Answ. 1. That which the Spirit of God calleth saving know­ledge, 1 Joh. 3.14. Hereby know we, &c. 1 Joh. 2.3, 4, 5. that doth Libertines affirme to be a policy of Satan, leading us back [Page 105] againe, and a soule-condemning errour. (2) 1 Joh. 3.10. In this are the children of God manifest, Scriptures and reasons from thence make good that we know our ju­stification by our sanctifica­tion. and the children of the Devill: whosoever doth not righteousnesse, is not of God, nei­ther hee that loveth not his brother. This is some other diffe­rence then the raine can make between the just and the unjust. And 1 Joh. 5.8. And there are three that bear witnesse on earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the bloud; and these three agree in one. And that wee may know that the Spirit is in us, is evident, 1 Joh. 4.12, 13. No man hath seen God at any time. If wee love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is per­fected in us. H [...]reby wee know that wee dwell in him, and hee in us; because hee hath given us of his Spirit. Now, 1 Joh. 3.3. Every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himselfe, even as hee is pure. And, Rom. 8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, which walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 Cor. 7.1. Having there­fore these promises (dearly beloved) let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and Spirit, perfecting holinesse in the feare of God. Hence wee argue, Whoever walketh after the Spirit, must know his Guide that leads the sonnes of God, Rom. 8.14. and whoever purgeth himselfe, and loveth his bro­ther, and perfecteth holinesse in the feare of God, he must know that hee so doth; but hee that doth walk so, knoweth that he is in Christ, freed from condemnation, and that God dwelleth in him; for it is expresse Scripture: Hee that is holy, may know hee is chosen to be holy, Ephes. 1.4. Now, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods chosen? It is God that justifieth, Rom. 8.33. Hee that is conformed to the image of his Son, and called, may know that hee is predestinated thereunto, Rom. 8.29, 30. and shall be glorified. Now, Crispe Ser. 15. Vol. 2. laboureth to prove, that these which commonly goe for marks and infallible signes of our justification and interest in Christ, which are uni­versall obedience, sincerity, love to the brethren, Libertines say there be no m [...]rks in the children of God of true sanctification, which can dif­ference them from hypo­crites. are either found in no man in their perfection, or they be such marks as agree to good and bad, to hypocrites and Saints; and so are not infallible marks; just as the falling of raine, and the shining of the sunne, doth not difference between just and unjust men, because both have a like portion and share in sunne and raine. Now for the former reason; Faith and the light of it is un­perfect, capable of accession, and so tainted with sinne: and if [Page 106] this be a strong reason, it cannot give assurance; which Liber­tines doe not all hold. The other is the saying of Papists, teach­ing us to doubt of our salvation, because there be such shifts, wiles, circuits, and lurking places in a mans heart, that hee can give no infallible judgement, with any divine certainty, of him­selfe or his owne spirituall state. But is there not so much dark­nesse, so much night and blindnesse in our mind, as in admitting of the light of immediate witnessing of the Spirit, (which they call, the Broad-seale of heaven) wee may no lesse be deceived, then wee are in the light that resulteth from our signes of san­ctification? There is a like darknesse, and no lesse delusions, from the white Spirits, the day-light-ghosts and Angels of Enthusi­asts, and dumbe and Scripture-lesse inspirations, then in black Spirits. But sure wee walke not in the wayes of sanctification sleeping, Works of san­ctification are not doubtsome warrants and evidences of justification. nor doth the Spirit perfect holinesse, in the Saints, as in a night-dreame; wee being led with fancie as frantick men are. Shall the Saints, when they attest the Lord of their sincere desire and unfained intentions, though mixed with great weak­nesse, bring before God their integrity, and their rejoycing of a good conscience, as Paul, the Apostles, Peter, John, James; Lord, thou knowest that I love thee; David, who desired God might try him; Job, Ezekiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, &c. hold forth to God their conjectures, fancies, and such moth-eaten and rot­ten signes of their justification, as Crispe, and others say may be, and were in Pharisees, in Papists, Hypocrites, and bloudy Op­pressours, carnall Jewes following the righteousnesse of the Law, Publicans, Heathen, Harlots, all the wicked Sects? for Crispe saith, All these have your marks Vol. 2. Ser. XV. pag. 434, 435, 436, 437 438, 439, 440 441, &c. of sanctification, such as are universall obedience, sincerity, zeale for God, love to the brethren. Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous be­fore God, walking in all the commandements and ordinances of the Lord, blamelesse, Luk. 1.6. was this such a righteousnesse, attested by the Holy Ghost, as is in Paul a persecuter, in Hea­thens, in Pharisees, in carnall Jewes? I grant it was not that righteousnesse of God through faith, Phil. 3. yet it was a fruit and infallible signe of that righteousnesse, and such as did prove them to be in Christ. And 2. all our acts of sanctification are no acts, no infallible marks of justification to my soule, ex­cept they be done in faith; yea, without faith they are sinne, Rom. 14.23. but when I find they are done in faith, they adde [Page 107] a further degree of evidence and certitude, that they argue me to have saving faith and interest in Christ, as in the Lord my righteousnesse, Jer. 23.6. for that is his name. And this reason doth conclude, its unlawfull to seek any ground of assurance in sanctification, except wee would with Papists argue in a circle, thus, How know you that your works are signes of justification? Because they are stamped with faith. And how know you that your justification and faith are not counterfeit? By your works.

But this is not the Papists circle, because workes to my sense and spirituall discerning, may, Works may prove faith, and faith workes to be done in Christ and doe adde evidence and light to faith, and faith addeth evidence and light to works; as wee prove the cause from the effect, and the effect from the cause, especially under desertion, without the fault of circular arguing; but Papists beleeve the Scripture to bee the word of God, be­cause the Church saith so, else it should be no word of God, to them more then the Turkes Alcaron; and they beleeve that the Church saith, that Scripture is the Word of God, because the Scripture saith, that the Church saith so.

This is no proof at all, and a vaine consequence, without Faith its unpossible to please God, no worke can bee proved solidly Gods, without faith, but how then followeth it; Ergo, we can­not prove faith to bee true from good works. Saltmarsh can make no Logicke out of this; nothing followeth from this ante­cedent, but ergo, by hypocriticall works done without faith, we cannot prove our faith to be true faith, valeat totum, the conclusion is not against us. Wee acknowledge, except good works carry the stampe and image of faith, they are not good works; but if they carry this stampe, as we presuppose they do, in this debate, because works are more sensible to us then faith it followeth well, then we may know our faith by our workes; and a beleever doing workes in faith, and out of warmenesse of love to Christ, and a sincere sense of his debt, he may bee ig­norant that he doth them in faith, but a coale of love to Christ, smoaking in his soule, and the sincere sense of the debt that love layeth on him to doe that; yea, and to swimme through hell to pleasure Christ, are ordinarily more sensible then faith, and led us to know, there must be faith where these are.

3. Nor are ours litigious and disputable marks, except when our darknesse raiseth disputes, more then the Gospel it selfe, is litigious; for men of corrupt minds, raise doubts against the [Page 108] Gospel, and weake beleevers sometime would argue themselves out of faith, Christ, out of imputed righteousnesse, election of grace and effectuall calling; yet are not these litigious points, and say, that the evidence of the Spirit be as light and evident as the Sunne light in it selfe: so is the Gospel, yet are we to seeke evidences for our faith and peace, in such markes as the Holy Ghost has made way-markes to heaven; by this we know, &c. but we build our knowledge and sense on these markes, as on secondary pillars and helps, which a divine, and supernaturall certitude, furnisheth, though without the influence of the Spirit, they shine not evidently to us; but our faith resteth on the te­stimony of the Spirit, witnessing to our hearts; and this is not to bring a candle to give light to the Sunne; but to adde the light of supernaturall sense, to the light of divine faith; else they may as well say, that the confirming evidence that comes to our sense from the Sacraments, addeth some thing to the Word, which is a light, and a Sunne-light to our eyes, if we did confide in them, as causes of our justification, it were Pharisaicall: but divine motives, and secondary grounds, though they bee mixed of themselves with sinnefull imperfections, may be, by divine Institution, helps and confirmatory grounds of our faith and joy; and the Scripture saith so, as we heard alledged.

The question proposed by F. Cornewell I shall not father upon that learned and godly Divine, Master Cotton: Whether a man may evidence his justification by his Sanctification: hee should have added, whether he may evidence to himselfe, or his owne conscience, his justification; for that so, he may evidence i [...], The question mistated by M. Cornwell. in a conjecturall way to others, no man doubts. 2. The question is mistated; as if Sanctification did formally evidence Justification, as Justification, in abstracto, and Faith in its actu­all working; its enough against Antinomians, if it evidence to the sense of the person, that he is in the state of justification, and that hee hath faith to lay hold on Christs righteousnesse, when he esteemes the Saints precious, Wh [...]t wa [...] Sanctifi [...]on doth evidence Justification. and placeth his delight in them. Sanctification doth not as Libertines would imagine, evidence justification, as faith doth evidence it, with such a sort of clearenesse, as light evidenceth colours, making them actu­ally visible; now light is no signe or evident marke of colours. Love and workes of sanctification doe not so evidence justifica­tion; as if justification were the object of good works; that [Page 109] way faith doth evidence justification, but sanctification doth evi­dence justification to be in the soule, where sanctification is, though it doth not render justification actually visible to the soule, as light maketh colours to be actually visible; or as faith by the light of the Spirit, rendreth justification visible: for even as smoake evidenceth there is fire, there where smoake is, though smoake render no fire visible to the eye; and the moving o [...] the pulse evidenceth that there is yet life, though the man be i [...] a swoone, and no other acts of life doe appeare to the eye, an [...] the morning starre in the East when its darke, evidenceth tha [...] the Sunne shall shortly rise, yet it maketh not the Sunne visibl [...] to the eye; and the streames prove there is an head-spring, whence these streames issue; yet they shew not in what part of the earth the head-spring is; so as to make it visible to the eye: so doth Sanctification give evidence of Justification, onely as markes, signes, and gracious effects giveth evidence of the cause; as when I find love in my soule, and a care to please God in all things; and this I may know to bee in mee, from the reflect light of the Spirit, and from these I know there is faith in me, and justification, though I feele not the operation of faith in the meane time, yet the effect and signe makes a report of the cause; as acts of life, eating and drinking, and walking in me doth assure me, that I have the life of nature. So the vitall acts of the life of Faith doe, as signes and effects give evidences of the cause and fountaine; yet there is no necessity that with the same light, by which I know the effect, I know the cause; because this is but a light of arguing, and of heavenly Logick, by which we know (by the light of the Spirits arguing) that we know God, by the light of Faith; because wee keep his Commandements: and know arguitivè, by Gods Logick, that we are translated from death to life, because wee love the Bre­thren; in effect we know, rather the person must bee justified, in whom these gracious evidences are, by heare-say, report, or consequence; then we know, or see justification it selfe, in ab­stracto, or faith it selfe; but the light of faith, the testimony of the Spirit, by the operation of free Grace, will cause us, as it were, with our eyes see justification and faith, not by report, but as we see the Sunne light. A 3. Error there is in the state of the question, that never a Protestant Divine ( Armini­ans and Socinians I disclame, as no Protestants) made either [Page 110] Sanctification a cause of Justification, but an effect; nor com­mon Sanctification that goeth before Justification, and union with Christ, voide of all feeling of our need of Christ, an evi­dent signe of Justification. If Master Cornewell dreame, that we thus heighten preparations before conversion, as he seemes in his Arguments, against gratious conditions in the soule, be­fore faith; he knowes not our mind; and as other Antino­mians doe, refutes he knowes not what. And 4. We had ne­ver a question with Antinomians, touching the first assurance of justification, such as is proper to the light of faith. Hee might have spared all his Arguments, to prove that we are first assured of our justification by faith, not by good workes; For wee grant the arguments of one sort of assurance, which is proper to Faith; and they prove nothing against another sort of assu­rance; by signes and effects, which is also Divine. To An­tinomians 1. to be justified by Faith; 2. and to come to the sense and knowledge of justification, which either was from eter­nitie, as some say; or when Christ dyed on the Crosse, as others; or when we first take life in the wombe, as a third sort dreame: And 3. to be assured of our justification, are all one. And so to be justified by faith, Peace from justification, and peace from sanctification how different. should be, to bee justified by workes, which they in their conscience know, we are as farre against, as any men. But they should remember, that the peace and com­fort that the Saints extract out of their holy walking, is a farre other peace, then that peace which is the naturall issue of justifi­cation, of which Paul saith, Rom. 5.1. Being therefore ju­stified by faith, we have peace [...] with God through Jesus Christ our Lord; and the peace that issueth from our ho­ly walking; or at least, if they bee the same peace, it comes not one and the same way. For 1. Peace which is the fruit of justification, is a peace in the court of God, as the peace that a broken man hath in the court of justice, when he knoweth his Surety hath payed the debts; he dare looke Justice in the face without any warre, having assurance that warre is removed, and enmity with God cried downe, and all sinnes are freely par­doned; the peace that issues from our holy walking is in the court of conscience, and sense of sincerity, and straightnesse of walking; and is grounded on holy walking, as on a secondary helpe; and if there were not some confidence, that the sinful­nesse of these works, are freely pardoned, there should be lit­tle [Page 111] peace at all. 2. The former peace is immediatly from pardon, that is the true cause of peace; the latter from signes, which dwell as neighbours with pardon; and is onely peace, as it hath a necessary relation to pardon; and is resolved in some promise of God, and not as it is a worke of our owne: as hungering for Christ, as its not the ground of pardon, so its not the ground of peace that issueth from pardon; yet it is the ground of a comfortable word of promise, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for Righteousnesse, for they shall be satisfied. And the like, I say, of assurance, comfort, joy, that result from holy walking, and from justifying faith; we never placed good works in so eminent a place, as to ascribe these same effects to them, and to faith in Christ.

Then Master Cornewell loseth his labour to prove, that God doth not first declare and pronounce us righteous, upon sight and evidence of our sanctification, which is a righteousnesse of our owne. For to pronounce us righteous, is to justifie us; and doth Master Cornewell know any Protestant Divines, who teach that God, either first or last doth justifie us for our inherent San­ctification?

Then M ^r. Cornwell does confound evidence and assurance of justification, as if they were both one. To be [...]ssured of righteo [...]s­nesse, and to know that we are in that state, are two diffirēt things, For many Saints have assu­rance of justification, so far as they are assuredly justified, & doubt much of their estate, through want of evidence: as many be­leeve, and many times doubt, whether they beleeve or no. There­fore the Argument to prove Abrahams assurance of justifica­tion, Rom. 4. cannot conclude, that Abraham had not divine e­vidence and assurance, that hee was justified, by his holy walk­ing, as by signes and fruits of faith. The assurance of Christ's righteousnesse is a direct act of faith, apprehending imputed righteousnesse: the evidence of our justification we now speak of, is the reflect light, not by which wee are justified, but by which we know that we are justified: and the Argument that proves the one, cannot prove the other.

Object. 3. If the promise be made sure of God unto faith, Cornwell▪ pag. 12. of grace, then it is not first made sure of faith unto works;

But the promise is made sure of God, to faith, out of grace, Rom. 4.5. to him that worketh not, but beleeveth: The oppo­sition between grace and works, Rom. 11.6. Rom. 4.4. is not onely between grace and the merits of works, but between grace [Page 112] and the debt due to works: Now to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, Rom. 4.4. Right of promise maketh a worke to be of debt, not of grace.

Answ. The promise is made of righteousnesse and free justi­fication by the grace of Christ; by the promise, that is, by the promised seed, Rom. 4. but these places speak not one word of the reflect evidence that a man hath in his owne soule, by which hee knowes in himselfe hee is justified. This Disputer knowes not what hee sayes: M Cornwell proveth what is not in que­stion. hee proves we have no promise to be justi­fied by works, nor any assurance thereof from working; that is not the question now; but hee should prove, that wee cannot know and make evident to our owne soules that wee are assu­redly justified, and that wee beleeve, when we bring forth the fruits of faith: There is one cause why there is life in this tree, and another cause, why all that passe by, and the tree it selfe, (if wee suppose it to be capable of reason, as man is) doth know it hath life and sweet sap: this latter is knowne to the tree and to others, by bringing forth good fruit. As if there may not be sundry causes, [...] and [...], of the being of a thing, and to know the being of a thing: Bringing forth fruit is not the cause of the life of the tree, good works are not the cause of our justification; but we know well the tree hath life, when wee see it brings forth fruit; as wee know we are justi­fied, and in Christ, when we walke after the Spirit, and not af­ter the flesh. The whole Argument is of a direct assurance, called certitudo entis, or of the object: The Question is, touching re­flect certainty, how persons may be sure in their own consci­ence, called certitudo mentis; and so it concludeth not the Question.

Many things are made over to vs, by the debt of pro­mise, that a [...]e ours ou [...] of free gra [...]c also.2. Its Antinomian doctrine to make opposition between the Gospel promise, and the debt of the promise: the debt of works, Rom. 4. and Rom. 11. is Law-debt due to the worker, as an hire­ling is worthy of his wages, because hee hath done the work perfectly, according to a covenant made with his Master: In which case, no man sayes the wages of the labourer is a free-gift. But if whatever the Lord promise to us in the Gospel, make God a debter, and the thing promised to be debt, then let Antinomians speak out, for they say, Rise, reign, a [...]d ruine, cr [...]. The whole letter of Scripture (and so of the whole Gospel-promises) hold forth a covenant of works, contrary to Gal. 4. where there be two [Page 113] covenants, one of works, another of grace; and contrary to the promises of grace in the Gospel, Joh. 2.16. Heb. 8.10, 11, 12. Mat. 11.28. 1 Tim.1.15. (2) All the promises of the Gospel must make salvation debt: was not Christ promised in the Pro­phets to the lost world? Rom. 1.2. The inheritance is not by Law, but by promise, Gal. 3.17, 18. Rom. 9.8, 9. Luk. 1.45, 54, 55, 68, 69, 70. Is Christ come to save sinners by debt, or by grace? is salvation debt? its promised. Is not righteous­nesse promised to him that beleeves, Rom. 4.5? then righteous­nesse must be debt, and so not of grace; for Cornwell telleth us, Pag. 13. The right which a man hath by promise to a worke, maketh the assurance of the promise but of debt unto him; and then the promise is not sure to him out of grace. Conditionall Gospel-promi­ses argue free grace, not debt. Then all the promises of an established Kingdome to David, and his seed, if they should keep Gods commandements, all the blessings and salvation promised to beleevers in the Old and New Testament, so they bring forth the fruits of a lively faith, are mercies of debt, not of free-grace. I well remember that the Famulists Rise, reign, er. 62. say, It is dangerous to close with Christ in a promise. And Rise, er. 38. There can be no true closing with Christ in a promise that hath a qualification or condition expressed. I rather beleeve the Holy Ghost, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come to the wa­ter, come buy wine and milke without money and without price, Isai. 55.1. And if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink, Joh. 7.37. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely, Revel. 22.17. Mar. 1.15. If Cornwell can free willing, thirsting, desiring, from working, hee hath much divinity: Yet the water of life and salvation promised to such cannot be debt, but free grace; for they are promised to these freely, and to be bestowed without money. Of the same straine is the fourth Argument of Cornwell.

Object. 5. When sanctification is not evident, Cornwell, pag. 15. it cannot be an evidence of justification:

But when justification is hidden and doubtfull, sanctification is not evident;

Therefore sanctification cannot be our first evidence of justi­fication.

The Minor is proved, Because when faith is hidden and doubtfull, sanctification is not evident: But when justifica­tion is hidden and doubtfull, faith is hidden and doubtfull; there­fore [Page 114] when justification is hidden and doubtfull, sanctification is not evident.

The proofe of the Major is, 1. Faith is the evidence of things not seen; and so makes all things evident: then when faith is hidden, what can be cleare?

2. Because no sanctification can be pure and sincere, but when it is wrought in faith; and so it cannot be evident, but when it clearely appeareth to be wrought in faith.

Answ. 1. There is in the Conclusion (first) the first evidence of justification, that is not in the premises, against all art. The Proposition, When sanctification is not evident, it cannot be an evidence of justification, is weake, and weakly proved: For there is a twofold evidence, one of sense and feeling spirituall, another of faith. When sanctification wants the evidence of faith, that I cannot beleeve salvation from mine owne Christian walking, yet may the soule have evidence of feeling and sense, that we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly, Heb. 13.18. and wee dare say, Lord, wee delight to doe thy will, and long for thee, O Lord, as the night-watch watcheth for the morning; and, whom have wee in heaven but thee, &c. and can out of sense give a testimony of our selves, yea, and can place all our delight in the excellent ones, Psal. 16.3. & 119.62. 1 Joh. 3.14. so as the heart warmes, when we see the Saints; and in this case sanctification is evident, when re­mission of sinnes may be under cloud; else this Argument does conclude, if it have any feet, that sanctification ever and at all times is dark, when justification is dark; and so sanctification is never an evidence of justification, but when justification is evi­dent: So the wisdome of God is taxed, as if hee would never have us to know that wee are translated from death to life, be­cause wee love the brethren, but when wee evidently know, wee are thus translated, though wee had no love to the bre­thren: Then the Lord hath provided a candle for his weak ones, by this Argument, when it is day-light; but hath deny'd any candle-light, moon-light, or star-light, when it is darke night. 2. The Major is not proved: Faith is not so the evidence of all things, as that it maketh all things evident to our spirituall sense; for Cornwell granteth, faith may be hidden; then it can evidence nothing when it is is hidden. Love to the brethren, keeping of his commandements, yeeld sensible evidences that [Page 115] wee are justified, even when faith is not evident; and how ma­ny are convinced they have undoubted marks of faith and justi­fication, who doubt of their faith and justification? And so the Minor and Probation of it is false; for it is most false, that when faith is hidden and doubtfull, sanctification is not evident: this is asserted gratis, not proved: As if yee would say, Ever when the Well-head is hidden, the streames are not seen; when the sap and life of the tree is not seen, but hidden, the apples, leaves and blossomes are not evident. This is a begging of the conclusion: for then should a man never, neither first nor last, know that hee is translated from death to life, because hee loves the brethren: Why? Because when translation from death to life, or when faith and justification is hidden, the love to the brethren, and all the works of sanctification are hidden; saith this Author.

3. The second proofe of the Major is lame; Sanctification is never pure and sincere, without faith, (saith hee;) Ergo, It cannot be evident, but when it appeareth to be wrought in faith. The consequence is null; just like this, Sweet streames cannot flow but from a sweet spring; ergo, It cannot be evident and cleare to my taste that the streames are sweet, except I taste the water at the fountaine-head, and see it with mine eyes; and my taste cannot discerne the sweetnesse of the fruit, except my senses were within the trunk or body of the true, to feel, see, and taste the sap of life, from whence the fruit cometh. Yea, the con­trary consequence is true, because I smell sincerity, love, single intentions to please God in my works of sanctification; there­fore I know they came from Faith; so the Holy Ghost should delude us, when hee saith, Wee know, wee know, or beleeve in Christ, because we keepe his commandements. Ergo, We can­not know this, except it bee evident, that our keeping of his Commandement come from faith, and the knowledge of God.

Object. 6. Such a Faith as a Practicall Syllogisme can make, is not a faith wrought by the Lords almighty power; Cornwell pa. 16.17.18▪ for the conclusion followeth, but from the strength of reasonings, not from the power of God, by which alone divine things are wrought, Ephes. 1.19, 20. Col. 2.20.

But faith wrought by a word and a worke, and the light of a renewed conscience, without the testimony of the Spirit, is such a [Page 116] faith as a practicall Syllogisme can make: Ergo, such a faith so wrought, is not wrought by the Lords almighty power.

The Minor is proved, because all the three, the Word, the Worke, and the light of Conscience, are all created blessings and gifts, and therefore cannot produce of themselves a word of almighty power; and the word of it selfe is a dead letter, the worke is lesse: for faith commeth by hearing a word, not by a worke.

Answ. When Master Cornwell saith, By the power of God alone, Divine things (such as faith that layeth hold on Christs righteousnesse) are wrought, Ephes. 1.19. Col. 2.20. hee excludeth the ministery of the Gospel, and all the promises thereof, for they are created things, and so they have no hand nor influence in begetting faith. Antinomians will have us be­leeve, that Paul, Ephes. 1.19.20. Col. 1.20. thinkes no mini­stery of the Word, nor any hearing of the preached Word, be­getteth faith; contrary to Rom. 1.16. Rom. 10.17. but by the onely immediate power of the Spirit we are converted without the Word. Nor is here that which is in question concluded; never Protestant Divine taught, that without the actuall influ­ence of omnipotent Grace, can faith or spirituall sense that we are justified, be produced by the Word, worke, or created light alone; nor can the corne grow alone by power in the earth, clouds, or raine; nor any Creature move without the actuall in­fluence of the omnipotent Lord, in whom we move: therefore by this reason we could not know that the Sunne shall rise, by the rising of the morning starre; nor can we have any superna­turall sense, by our holy walking, contrary to Scripture, 1 John 2.3. 1 John 3.14. But we know by this, all faith is ascribed by Antinomians, to the immediate testimonie and Enthusiasticall inspiration of the Spirit, as for the searching of Scripture (say Rise, er. 39. they) its not a sure way of searching and finding Christ, its but a dead letter, Er. 9. and holds forth a covenant of works in this letter; and therefore, with the old Anabaptist, they'll have no teaching by Scripture, but onely teaching by the Spirit. We hold that conditionall promises are made to duties of Sanctifi­cation, Gospel-promi­ses are made to acts of Sancti­fication. therefore we may have comfort and assurance from them, in our drooping condition. Cornewell answereth, Pap. 23.24, 25. The promises are not made to us, as qualified with such duties of sanctification; for then they should belong to us of [Page 117] debt, not out of Grace, Rom. 4.4. But in respect of our Vnion with Christ, in whom they are tendered to us, Antinomians deny all condi­tionall promi­ses. and fulfilled to us. Satisfaction is made to the thirstie, not for any right his thirst might give him in the promise, but becaus [...] it directeth to Christ, who fulfilleth the condition, and satisfieth the soule, and the soule must first have come to Christ, and gotten his first assu­rance from faith in Christ, not from these conditions and duties.

Answ. 1. This is a yeelding of the cause. We say there bee promises of the water made to thirsty soules, not as if the right, jus, law, merit, debt, that we have to them, belonged to us, for the deede done, but for Jesus Christ onely. 2. Not as if wee upon our strength, and the sweating of free-will did conquer both the condition and reward. 3. But yet wee have com­fort and assurance, when we by grace performe the duty, that our faithfull Lord, who cannot lye, will fulfill his owne pro­mise. 4. He knoweth nothing of the Gospel, who thinketh not God by his promise commeth under a sweet debt of free-grace to fulfill his owne promise; and that this debt and grace are consistent. But Antinomians breath smell of fl [...]shly li­berty, for they tell us, Rise, raigne er. [...]. Conditionall promises are Legall, con­trary to the Gospel, Rom. 10.9. John 3.16. Joh. 5.25. That Er. 38. that its not safe to close with Christ in a conditionall promise, if Er. 30. any thing be concluded from water and bloud, its rather dam­nation then salvation. That Er. 69. its a sandy foundation to prove that Christ is mine, from a gracious worke done in me by Jesus Christ, were it even Faith; For we are Er. 37. compleatly u­nited to Christ, without faith wrought by the Spirit. Er. [...]7. Its in­compatible with the Covenant of Grace, to joyne faith with it. To be Er. 2 [...]. justified by faith, is to bee justified by workes. That Er. 38. to say there must be faith on mans part to receive the Cove­nant, is to undermine Christ. Neither Cornwell, nor Saltmarsh, oppose these blasphemies, but extoll the Patrones of them in New-England.

Father is a word of Faith. But had Christ need of Faith?

Answ. Not of faith of confiding in him that justifieth the sin­ner, except he had faith of the justifying of his cause, in Gods acquitting him of suretieship, when he had payed all; but hee had faith of dependencie on God in his trouble, that God would [Page 118] deliver him, and he was heard in that which he feared. And Q. 2. how could there be a faith of dependencie in Christ, for hee was the same independent, God with the Father?

Answ. There were two relations in Christ; one as Viator, going toward glory, How faith of dependencie was in Christ. and leading many children with him to glo­ry; another, as comprehensor, seeing and enjoying God. 2. There were two sights in Christ, one of Vision, another of Vnion; the sight of Vnion of two natures, is the cause of the sight of vision. Christ being on his journey travelling toward glory, did with a faith of dependency rest on God, as his Father, seeing and knowing that the Union could not be dissolved; but as a Com­prehensor, and one at the end of the race, injoying God in habit, there was no necessitie, that Christ should alwaies, Et in omni differentiâ temporis, actually see and enjoy God, in an immedi­ate vision of glory.

For, 1. this implyeth no contradiction to the personall uni­on, How the not-seeing of God might stand with the per­sonall union. even as the seeing of God habitually, which is the most joy­full sight intelligible, and by necessitie of nature, does produce joy and gladnesse, may, and did consist in Christ, with groan­ings and sadnesse of Spirit, even before his last sufferings: so the interruption for a time, of the actuall vision of God, might stand with Christs personall happinesse, as God-man. 2. If we suppose there were just reasons, why God should command that Angels, and glorified Spirits, should not actually see God for a time, there were no repugnancy in this, to their true bles­sednesse, so it fell not out through their sinnes, no more then the Sunne should lose any of its nature, if wee suppose God should command it to stand still, and to be covered with darke­nesse many dayes, as in Joshuahs time, it stood still in the firma­ment some houres, and for a time was covered with darkeness at the suffering of Christ. What an enterposed cloud of covering it was, or what a skreene did interrupt the flux of the beames and rayes of the Godhead from actuall irradiation on the soule and faculties, and powers of the soule of the man Christ is more then I can determine. Certaine it is, God was with the Man­hood, and so neere as to make one person, but there was no actu­all shining on the powers of the soule, no heate and warmnesse of joy, but as if his owne infinite Sea of comfort were dryed up, he needed a drop of the borrowed comfort of an Angel from heaven. Now whether this Angel, Luk. 22.43. did [Page 119] wipe the sweat of bloud off his holy body, and really serve him that way; or if the Angel was sent with good words from the Father, to comfort him, and say to this sense, O glorious Lord, courage, peace, and joy, and salvation, shall come; thy Father has not forsaken thee utterly: it cannot be knowne, but Luke saith, an Angel appeared from heaven [...], strength­ning him. But it was admirable, A rare provi­dence that Christ is put to, (God save me.) that the Lord of all consolati­on, should stand in need of consolation, and a good word from his owne creature; or that the great Lord, the Law-giver, should need the comfort of Prayer, or any Ordinance. O what a pro­vidence! what a world is this! that God-man, sweet Jesus, is put to his knees, and his prayers with it. Come see the Lord of life at a weake passe, he is at, God helpe me, at Teares and sighing, God save me. This is more then if the whole light of the Sunne were extinguished, and it behoved to borrow light from a candle on earth; and the whole Sea and Rivers dryed up, and they behoved to begge some drops of dew from the clouds to supply their want.

2. Christ himselfe refused comfort to himselfe: There was a sea of joy in Christ, within him; but not one drop can issue out on the powers of his soule: joy is sad, fairenesse black, faith feareth and trembleth; the infinite All, lieth under the drop of the comfort of a creature-nothing. Riches beggeth at poverty's doore; the light is dark, greennesse withereth and casteth the bloome, life maketh prayers against the death of deaths, the glory and flower of heaven standeth sad and heavie at the jawes and mouth of hell. 3. Mat. 26. Hee prayed to this sense, falne on his face to the earth once, O my Father, remove this cup; but hee is not answered: Hee knocketh the second time, O my Father, if it be possible, remove this cup. O but here's a hard world, the substantiall Sonne of God knock­ing and lying on his face on the earth, and his Father's doore of glory fast bolted, the Sonne cannot get in. The like of this providence, you never read, nor heare of. The naturall Son of God cryeth with teares and strong cryes, with a sad, heavie and low Spirit to his Father; hee cannot get one word from hea­ven, nor halfe a glympse of the wonted glory that was naturall and due to him as God. O rare and sad dispensation! He must cry the third time, O my Father, remove this cup. We storme, [...]f the Lord doe not open his doore at the first knock: O what [Page 120] hard thoughts have some of God, if a floud of love issue not from his face at the first word! We are not to be discouraged▪ when we are not heard at first. but the Lords Saints are not to look for a providence of the honey drops of the fattest consola­tions of heaven, in every ordinance of prayer and praises. O what a sad administration, Psal. 22.2. O my God, I cry in the day time, and thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. The Church speaketh sadly to God. What can be worse then this? Lam. 3.7. Hee hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out; hee hath made my chaine heavie. Yet to open a sad heart in the bosome of a friend, farre more to God, is much ease; but here is worse, Vers. 8. Also when I cry and shout, hee shutteth out my prayer. Psal. 69.3. I am weary of crying, my throat is dryed: mine eyes faile, while I wait for my God. It is grace to put a construction of love and faith on the Lord's not answering our desires. Prayers of the Saints not e­ver heard [...]t first; and the Reasons. These experiences may silence us; 1. It may be good that the Lord answer, and not good that hee answer now: The Saints are often ripe for praying, when they are unripe for the mercy of a reall answer and help from God. 1 Two things necessitate prayer, 1. Our duty to worship. 2. Our necessity and straits. But on our part wee are not ripe for an answer for any of these, being yet not humbled, and praying with slow desires, little fervour of faith. 2. Its possible it be 2 our duty to pray, as supposing a reall necessity of what wee need, and yet it is not our good that God heare us now. No doubt Abraham and Sarah both prayed for a son, many years before the one was an hundred, the other ninety and nine years old; but it was not good that God should heare them till it be a miracle, and a new way, and more then ordinary providence they were answered. 3. God refuseth never to heare us, for 3 favours that are non-fundamentalls toward everlasting life, but when its better be not heard, then heard: Moses might possi­bly not know a reason, but it was better for him that he saw afarre-off the good land, (more for faith and mortification and heavenly mindednesse, which hee saw not) then that hee should enter with the people into that land, which hee prayed for. 4. Not any of the Saints, considering that all things worke to­gether 4 for good to them that love God, but as they praise God that hee hath heard their prayers, so they praise God in some things that their prayers lie at a fast bolted doore, and take it well in other things that hee was displeased with them, and so [Page 121] that they have cause to be humbled, that God did grant their desire. Let it be that David prayed for a sonne, and God gave him Absalom; its a question, if David had not cause to wish hee had never been born. 5. God hath equally regulated and 5 limited our desires to be heard, and our willingnesse, faith, sub­mission, and patience, and our praises according as we are heard, or not heard; yet wee are lesse in praises, when wee are heard, and our desires fulfilled, and in submission, We are rea­dier to pray then to praise. when wee are not heard, then wee are forward to praise; because necessity and straits can more easily obtaine of us to pray, and set on moving the wheels of our affections, then grace can keep our spirituall affections in heat of motion, or limit and border our naturall affections in praising, when they take them to their wings. Da­vid, Psal. 22. Psal. 69. O my God, I cry night and day, till my throat be dry in asking: but where doth hee say, O my God, I praise night and day, till my throat be pained in praising, and my heart and eyes are wasted and spent in submissive waiting for thee, and praising, for not hearing mee in some things. 6. God is equally gracious to his own, in not hearing and grant­ing, as in fulfilling their desires. 7. No man should take it 6 hard not to be answered at the first, when the prime heire Christ 7 was kept knocking at his Fathers doore. 8. Heard or not heard, the prayers of faith have a gracious issue, though the drosse 8 of them be cast away. 9 As praises have no issue, but to give to God, not to our selves; so prayers in faith are to be offered 9 to God as God, though nothing returne in our bosome, that God may be extolled. Christ knew deliverance from this hour cannot be granted, yet hee prayes. 10 Faith is required no lesse to beleeve the good that the Lord mindeth us in not hear­ing 10 us, then the good hee intendeth in hearing and fulfilling our desires: No condition of providence can fall wrong to faith; which can flie with any wings, and saile with every wind, so long as Christ liveth.

Christ bottometh his prayer on the sweetest relation of a Father and a Son; Father, save me. So Joh. 17. Father, Christ bottom­eth his prayers on the sweet relation of a Father. glo­rifie thy Son. Vers. 5. And now Father▪ glorifie me. Six times in that prayer h [...] useth this stile. Mat. 11.25. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Mat. 26. O my Father, [Page 122] remove this cup. His Father was great in his esteem: none like his Father. Its a strong argument to Christ, to perswade an hearing and a deliverance; and hee was heard in that which hee feared. Hee had no end in his coming into the world, but to doe the will of his Father ▪ Joh. 5.30. (2.) Love is a sweet ingre­dient in prayer: the beloved Disciple John, who onely of all the Ev [...]ngelists setteth down Christ's love-prayer, chap. 17▪ useth it more frequently then any of the other three Ev [...]nge­lists. 3. Propriety, interest, and covenant-relation is a sweet bottome and a strong ground for prayer: So in praying hath Christ taught us to say, Our Father which art in heaven. And Psal. 5.2. Hearken unto my voyce, my King, and my God. 2 King. 19.19. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee save us out of his hand. Ezra bottometh his prayer on this, Chap. 9.6. O my God, I am ashamed and blush. And Jehosha­phat, 2 Chron. 20.12. O our God, wilt thou no [...] judge them?

Vse.In prayer consider what claime and interest you have to God, if you be a sonne, and hee a Father: Bastards cannot pray; strangers without the Covenant, Sonnes onely can pray. and Heathen, having no right to God as their God and Father, may petition God as a subdued people doe their Conqueror, or as ravens cry to God, for food, and as some howle upon their beds for corne and wine, Hos. 7.14. but they cannot pray; for praying aright to God there is required not onely gracious ingredients in the action, but also a new state of adoption and filiation: many speake words to God, who doe not pray; many tell over their sinnes, who con­fesse not their sinnes to God; many speake good of God, who doe not praise God; many sigh and grone in praying, and have no deep sense of God or their owne sinfull condition. Trees growing together make not alwayes a wood. Ah, our prayers, God knowes, are often out of their right wits. Many cry, Fa­ther, to God, but lie; for they are not sonnes, and their words are equivocation. Thousands claime Father-ship in God, where there is no Son-ship, nor fundamentum in re, no ground in the thing it selfe. A new nature is that onely best bottome of pray­ing, that taketh it off from being a taking of the Name of God in vaine. All creatures speak of God, and, in their kind, to God; but onely a sonne can speak to God in prayer, as to his Father: calling upon God, with a pouring out of the soule to him in Christ, is essentiall to sonnes.

Christ had no meanes of refuge safer and surer in his trouble, when hee knew not what to doe, then prayer. Christ had ne­ver a greater businesse in hand, The power of prayer. then now hee was to transact with God, and divine Justice, the Law of God, in the weighty bargaine of paying a ransome of dearest and preciousest bloud, to open the new way to heaven; hee had to doe with devills, principalities and powers, and hell, to subdue devills, and death and hell, and to redeeme his Catholike Church from the second death; and hee was to offer himselfe a Sacrifice to God, through the eternall Spirit, for the sinnes of the whole elect, and hee must use prayer in all this great work. The greatest works have been thus effectuated. For the dividing of the red sea, Moses cryed to the Lord, and it was done. Hezechiah obtaineth 15. yeares lease of his house of clay from Jehovah his Land-lord; and how? 2 King. 20.2. Hee turned his face to the wall, and prayed. Jonah broke the prison of hell by prayer. Jeremiah had many against him, Chap. 20.12. Vnto thee (saith hee to the Lord) I have opened my cause. Daniel, in his captivity; Ezra, when the people were under wrath; Ester and her maides, when the Churches destruction is warped, and in wea­ving, by prayer loose the captive bands, and break death's jawes. So low a man as Job, Chap. 7.20. was, What shall I say to thee, O preserver of man? David looketh back to his prayers, Psal. 34.6. and when hee is over-whelmed, Psal. 61.2. From the ends of the earth will I cry to thee, when my heart is over­whelmed. To Elias this is the key that openeth heaven. The last great work, the perfecting of Mysticall Christ, the judge­ing of the world, the putting crownes on the heads of so many thousand Kings, must have prayer to bring it to passe: Even so come Lord Jesus. The putting and keeping on the crowne on Christs head, is by prayer: his Sword, Crowne and Scep­ter, stand and prosper by this prayer, Thy Kingdome come. 2. Though Christ kn [...]w of his owne deliverance, and was sure of it, yet hee will not have it but by prayer. Christ had Son right to heaven, yet he will take a new gift of heaven, by prayer-right: Christ maketh prayer his new Charter. Joh. 17.5. Fa­ther, glorifie me, with the glory which I had with thee b [...]fore the world was. Christ will have his Spouse, though his by con­quest, and the law of buying, and ransome, made over to him [Page 124] by a De novo damus, Psal. 2.8. Ask of me, (pray to me) and I will give thee the Heathen. His Kingdomes pillar is prayer. Psal. 72.15. Prayer also shall be made for him continually, that his Throne may stand, and hee may beare the Crown. What, must wee pray for Christ, hee prayes for us? Yea, wee pray for Mysticall Christ, and his Crowne. Its better to hold lands of Christ by prayer, then by conquest or industry, by right of re­demption or heritage; even the rich who have broad lands, when the bread is at their lip, and on the table before them, are to pray, Give us this day our daily bread. Have you wisdome, honour, learning, parts, eloquence, godlinesse, grace, a good name, children, peace, ease, pleasure, wife, houses, lands, see how yee got them; if not by prayer, in so farre they are unjustly purchased: the next best is to get a new charter of them by prayer. I grant, conversion is not obtained by my praying, be­cause an unconverted man cannot pray, no more then the birth can pray it selfe out of the mothers womb; yet its gotten by Christs prayer. Some after sicknesse have health, as robbers have the Travellers purse, they have them by spoile, not through Christ, or any prayer-right: Victories, and subdued Cities, are better taken and enjoyed by prayer, then by bribes or mo­ney.

Vse. They know not the use of prayer, who teach, that we are not to pray against that which cannot bee avoyded: So Libertines Rise, reign, ruine, [...]r. 34. say, we are not to pray against all sinne, because it cannot be avoyded: but the old man must bee in us, so long as we live, The Lord hath so decreed the end, as that he hath or­dained Prayer to be a necessary way to accomplish his end. Yea, Paul 1 Thess. 5.23. prayeth, that the very God of peace may sanctifie the Thessalonians throughout, [...]. And we know that we cannot bee free of temptations in this life; yet pray we not to be led into temptation, which is not so much, that the body of sinne may be fully rooted out of us, and inherent Sanctification may bee perfected in this life, as that wee may bee delivered from guilt and damnation, and from the power and dominion of sinne, and that praier may bee staires up to the laying of the last stone of the new buil­ding; yea though it was revealed to Peter, and the Disciples, that they should deny Christ, and as sheep bee scattered away. When the sword should awake against the Shepheard, [Page 125] and this was unavoidable, in regard of the decree of God, and fulfilling of the Scripture, Zach. 13. Yet were the Disciples to pray they might be so guarded against that temptation, as they might not leave, and forsake Christ in his sufferings.

That which Christ deprecateth hath two things considerable. 1. That his sufferings were so tymed, and de [...]ined, as they should endure, but for an houre. 2. But it was a sad houre; there is an Emphasis put on it, this houre.

1. Christs sufferings are but houre-sufferings, Christs suffe­rings but for an houre. wee behoved to suffer eternally.

Object. Ergo, Christ suffered not that same punishment that we were to suffer for sinne, if Christ had never dyed for us.

Answ. 1. He suffered not all, Christ suffered [...] value, what wee should have suffered▪ according to every accident and circumstance, that we were to suffer; it is true, we should have suffered sinnefull despaire, and there could bee no mixture of sinne in his cup. 2. We should have suffered for ever, hee exhausted all the paine, and the curse in some few houres. But he suffered all that wee were to suffer according to the due e­quivalencie, worth, and substance of the suffering. Christ payed (as we say) as good; A d [...]bter oweth ten thousand Millions to a Prince, to be payd in silver, at so many severall termes; the Surety of this broken debter payeth the whole summe at one terme, and in gold, the excellentest mettall: it is the very same debt, and the same bond acquitted, as if the summe had been payd by the chiefe debter. Christ, by paction, payed all in cumulo, at one terme, and in excellent mettall and coyne, be­ing the deare blood of God. A Traitor is to die, and suffer hang­ing, or headding for such a high point of treason; the Princes Sonne will die the same death for him; onely, by paction, hee hath, because of the eminency of his person, a priviledge, which the principall man had not: what if hee bee hanged in a chaine of Gold, and a crowne on his head, or bee beheaded with a silver-Axe, it is the same satisfactory death for Law and justice, as if the other had dyed like himselfe, there were some sparkles of the Majesty and Crowne of heaven, or some gliste­ring Rubies and Diamonds did shine in Christs death, which could not have been in ours, and it was convenient it should be so,

[Page 126]2. Christs time-sufferings is more then our eternall suffe­rings, because of the dignity of his person. Its true, a poore mans life is as sweet and deare to him Physically, Whence com­meth the dig­nity of Christs sufferings. as the life of a Prince, in the court of nature, in curia naturae; its a like taking to every man; but in curia forensi, if we speake legally, and in relation to many. David a king is more, for his royall place, to save and judge many thousands, then ten thousand of the people. 2. A prince shamed and disgraced, sh [...]ll lose more honour, then a man of a low, The more ex­ce [...]lent the life of Christ was, the more hea­vie was the l [...]sse thereof. poore, and base condition; the honour of a free, and just prince, is by a thousand degrees more then the losse of ho­nour in a wicked and base slave. Sinners had litle to lose in com­parison of the Prince of life, like us in all things, except sinne.

3. The more noble priviledge that life hath, as the more im­mediate communion with God, the losse of life is a greater losse. It is more for glorious Angels to lose their happy and blessed life in the fruition of God, then for damned Devils to lose their being, who are in chaines of darkenesse. It is more for the Spi­rits of just and perfect men, who are now up before the throne, to be made miserable, to lose life, and such a life; glory, and such a glory, then for slaves of hell, living in wickednesse, to be thrust downe to hell with everlasting shame; It is more that the whole Sea, and all the Rivers be dryed up, then that one win­ter-fountaine be dried up. Christ had more to lose then all An­gels and Men, even to be suspended of the vision of God, for a time was more then all that Angels and Men could lose for ever.

4. Its true, the influence meritorious from Christs person on his suffering is not reall, but infinite in a morall estimation. But give me leave to thinke it disputable, whether or no, it de­pendeth not on the free decree and pleasure of God, that the punishment of sinne be infinite in duration, or if it depend on the nature of sinne, and of divine justice; so as essentially God be necessitated, not from any free decree (that is not properly necessitie) but essentially from that spotlesse and holy justice, which is essentially in him, to punish those who equally sinned on earth, with equall torments in hell, and all with eternall pu­nishment. Yet notwithstanding all this, Christ, by his death, not onely exhausted, the infinite punishment due to us; as infi­nite mountaines of Sands can drinke up all the finite Seas, Ri­vers, Brookes, and fountaines of the earth; but he purchased to [Page 127] us an infinite and eternall weight of glory, by the worth of his merit, Now, by this there must be more in Christs death, then we can easily conceive: as it is more to bring Israel out of E­gypt onely, and devide the red Sea, and to present them living men on the shore, then to doe that, and also to give them in peaceable possession, that good land which floweth with milke and honey; And its much to deliver a slave from perpetuall po­verty, misery, and bondage; and not onely that, but positively to make him a rich, honourable, and glorious King; all which Christ by his bloud purchased to us: I leave it then to be dis­puted, whether Christs sufferings had not onely a morall, me­ritorious and legall worthynesse, from the free act of Gods ac­ceptation, or also an intrinsecall worth and weight, reall, and intrinsecally congruous, and proportionable to the paine and shame he delivered us from, and the glory that positively he conquesed for us. It is more to pay a poore mans debts, then to make him rich.

Quest. 1. If Christs sufferings were limited, in regard of time and houres, why then could he suffer infinite punishment? How Christs sufferings were were limited, being infinite. It involleth a contradiction to limit that which is infinite; and if an Angel was sent to comfort him, it is like, God did extend mercy, and not unmixed and satisfactory justice to him.

Answ. Moderation in suffering, as an Angel to comfort him, that not a bone of him should be broken; that he should not lye three full dayes in the grave, that his body should not see corrup­tion; all these may well stand with sufferings, that are infinite, morally, and from the worth of his noble and glorious person, who is God blessed for ever. And it proveth that all the exactest justice that the Lord followed in the persuing Christ to the second death for our sinnes, was not in inflicting punishment on Christ intensively, and intrinsecally infinite, and which should be infinitely satisfactory, if wee lay aside all supposition of the punishment of the person suffering, who was infinite, and of the free and voluntary acceptation of God.

Quest. 2. But then was not all the infinitenesse of justice in punishing Christ, not in inflicting paine infinitely and inten­sively extreame on him, but in that the person was infinite▪ but the paine finite, both in time and otherwise.

Answ. Wee hold that the suffering for the time, was so ex­treme, that hee and hee onely could [...]ndure the infinit [...] wrath [Page 128] of God; but whether all the infinitenesse of paine flow from this, that the person was infinite, or that the paine was intrin­secally infinite, we desire not too curiously to determine: Sure the infinitenesse of his person conferred infinitenesse of worth to his merit; so as hee purchased a Church by the bloud of God, Act. 20.28. The Lord Jesus gave himselfe for his Church, E­phes. 5.25, 26. and a ransome for many, Mat. 20.28. 1 Tim. 2.6. But I see no reason, why Christs suffering should be thought fi­nite, because hee suffered in some few dayes; then the Lords acts of creating the world, of raising the dead, working of mi­racles, should be finite acts, because absolved in a short time.

Our debt of love to Christ eternall.Hence wee cannot say, what an obligation is on us to Jesus Christ, [...]ove for love is too little; because our drop of dew can [...] no proportion to his infinite and vast sea of tender love to us. As Christ gave himselfe an infinite ransome, by Law, for us; so hee brought us under an infinite debt of love and service to him. Christ payed all our debts of Law to infinite Justice, but wee shall never pay all our debt of love to him. O how many thousand talents are wee owing to Christ? And because glory is a love-engagement to Christ, the longer we enjoy the glory of heaven, through millions of Ages, the debt to the Lamb, to him that sitteth on the throne, will be the great­er, and shall grow infinitely: Praises for eternity shall take no­thing down of the debt. Know, you are the sworne and over-engaged and drowned debters of Jesus.

Vse 2. The sufferings of Mysticall Christ are but for an houre; Our sufferings short, and mea­sured by yards for a night, and joy in the morning; Psal. 30.5. A lit­tle season, Revel. 6.11. Three dayes, Hos. 6.1. A short time, and the vision will speake, and will not tary, Hab. 2.3. Heb. 10.37. Its but tribulation ten dayes, Revel. 2.10. And which is shorter then all, a moment, 2 Cor. 4.17. and the shortest of all, Isai. 54.7. a little moment. All the generations of the first-born, that were in great tribulations, and in the wombe and belly of the red sea, are now come off safe, and landed on the shore, and are now up before the throne in white, triumphing with the Lamb; the houre is ended, some of them two thou­sand yeares agoe are eased of burning quick, of the sword, of the t [...]th of lyons. Jobs face now is not foule with weeping; Davids soule droopeth away and melteth no more with heavi­nesse, as Psal. 119. The traces of tears on Christs faire face, [Page 129] are fifteen hundred yeares agoe washed off, and dryed with his Fathers hand. Paul is now beyond fears without, terrors with­in, and the sentence of death. All the Martyrs now are above the fire, the faggo [...]s, the rack, the gibbet, the axe. What thoughts hath John Baptist now of beheading? or Steven of stoning to death? the gashes and wounds of the stripes of the Apostles, scourged for the name of Jesus, are over now: There is not one sigh, nor one t [...]are, nor one cry, nor one death, now in hea­ven, all the former things are gone. Afflictions are but a short transe, for an houre; our short-living sufferings will be over quickly: We are near the shore. Our inch of winter shall weare out, there is but a little bit of soure death before us; the Cere­monies of death's approaching, of the noyse of its feet, of its awsome and dreadfull gloome, the train of little images of death, the aking of bones, the stiches of heart, the paine of the side, and such soft passing accidents, and the name are more then death it selfe; and all these shall passe over quickly. Wee have not Centuries nor Millions of yeares to suffer; hee who limited a time to the Head Christ's suffering, hath set so many sand-glasses, and determined so many houres for all our sufferings. Yea, 2. the gall in our cup must be weighed by Gods owne hand: Not a man killed more in the two Kingdomes, nor a house burnt, nor a scratch in the body, nor one wound in the poore souldier of Christ, but all are numbred; all goe by oun­ces, graines, and scruples in heaven: there is a paire of just and discreet ballances before the throne. Crucifie Christ, and pierce his side, but not one of his bones can be broken: there be broken bones of two, one at either side of him, within the breadth of five fingers to him. Cast Joseph in the dungeon, but hee must not die there. Cast Moses in the river, when hee is an infant, to die there, but Pharaoh's daughter must bring him up as a Prince. Let Job's body be afflicted, but save his life. Imprison and scourge the Apostles, but there is more to doe, by them, ere they be killed. Make the Kingdome of Judah weeping captives in Babylon, but the dry bones must live a­gaine. Let David be sore afflicted, but hee cannot be delive­red unto death, Psal. 118. Let Daniel be a captive, and meat for the lyons, but hee must be saved and honoured. Appoint a day for the destruction of the Jewes under Ahashuerus, let death be shaped and warped, but they shall not dye. Love, [Page 130] even the love of Christ, whose seven spirits full of wisdome are before the throne, is a straight line, a just measure, and weigh­eth all to the tempted soules, that nothing shall goe above their strength: no burden more then their back, no poyson, no death in their cup, no gall, more then the stomack can endure. You may, O redeemed ones, referre your hell to Christs love, and make over all your sorrowes to his will; see if hee will de­stroy you. Let Christ be Moderator to brew your cup, and Free-Grace be Judge of your portion of Christs crosse, and the crosse may bruise your shoulder, [...]weetn [...]ss of love [...] Christ measureth by yards, and weigheth by ounces all the sufferings of the Saints. it shall not grind you to pow­der. Had I ten eternities of weale or woe, I durst referre them to the bowels of Christs boundlesse mercy and free love▪ shall I be the first that Christs warme love over-killed and over-de­stroyed? Christs love is infallible, and above error. Fatherly providence determines all so equally, measureth all so straightly, tempereth all so sweetly, that black death is suggered with white heaven, the sad grave a palace royall for a living and victorious King: Apples of life grow on the saddest crosse that the Saints beare. The love of Christ hath soft and silken fingers; love measureth out strokes, Revel. 3.19. And can love kill and de­stroy a sonne of Gods love?

Vse 3.The sufferings of Christ and the Saints be measured by hours: God is the Creator of Time, and tempereth the horologe. My times are in thy hands, Psal. 31. How long Ephraim a raw cake 1 shall be in the oven, is decreed from eternity. 2. Put away 2 your scum, your froth, and the ill bloud, and you have a dyet-drink from Christ, the shorter while. 3. You think long to 3 have Britaines houre, or the ten dayes of Pestilence and Sword on Scotland, We are not to weary for length of time under suffering or the vastations of Ireland, the warres, divisions, and new blasphemies of England, gone, and over; but though wee lose much time, and have bidden farewell to yesterday, and shall never see it againe, yet the Lord of time loseth not one moment; if through acquaintance and familiarity you may be­come good friends with the crosse, and beare it patiently: doe for Christ, what you will doe, for time the former is an act of grace, the Lord will thank you for it; the latter is the work of a carnall man, and will yeeld you no thanks. 4. Life is a bur­den to you, when it hath such a soure and sad convoy as heavie afflictions; and the soule looks out at the windowes of the clay- [...]rison, O when will the Jaylor come with the keyes, and en­large [Page 131] a prisoner? But why would you fall out with a friend, for a foes cause. Christ hath sewed them together for a time; the vision will not tarie. Christ is on his journey, wait on, let pa­tience have its perfect worke, its a floore that lyeth long under ground, it is a long quarter betweene sowing and earing, yet Faith hath ay a good crop.

Among all the houres that Christ had, this was the saddest. 1. Christ saw that his life in this houre would be taken from him; it was convenient that Christ, who was a man, like us in all things except sinne, should not be a stock in dying; but have actuall paine and sense in the losing of his life, Death soure and blacke to nature, and to Christ, for sund [...] reason [...] for Christ had as much nature, though no corruption, as any man; and life is a sweet inheritance, its natures excellent free-hold, and no man is willingly, and without one sigh or teare cast out of this free-hold, and Christs nature was not brasse or yron. Sorrow 1 and sadnesse found a kindly lodging in him. 2. Hee had a clay tent of flesh and bloud, as the children have, that Hebr. 2.15. 2 he might deliver them, who through the feare of death, were all their life time subject to bondage. He must in our nature put on actuall feare to deliver the Saints, from habituall feare. Nature cannot, without horrour, and a wrinkle on the brow, looke straight out on the breadth of deaths black face. The Martyr [...] kissed death, because the joy of heaven took lodgeing in their soule, by anticipation before the terme day, to confirme the truth of God; but death has a soure bite, and sharpe teeth, with all its kind kisses. Yea, but Christ must read in the face of Death more millions of curses, (a curse for every elect, single man, Deut. 27.26. Gal. 3.10.) then would have affrighted millions of Angels. O! but there was black and dolefull paintrie, hell; and thousand thousands of deaths in one, all wri­ten on the visage of death, which was presented to Christ now; and when there was a sad, darke, and thicke courten drawne over Christs heaven, it must bee a soure kisse, to lay his holy mouth to such a black face as death now had. Christ was in sad earnest, when he said, Matth. [...]6.38. My soule is [...], extreamly, out of measure, heavie, even to the death. 3. Christ having well tempered affections, his soule never be­ing 3 out of joynt with sinne, was not in dying foole-hardy, or [Page 132] bolde-life-wasting, or casting away the soule for a straw, is for­bidden in the sixth Commandement. Christ sensible of paine and death as a [...]y man. Hee saw sad and bloudy bils given in against him. O how many thousands of sinnes, were all made his sinnes, by imputation? And Justice was to sell all the elect over to Christ, and to deliver them all, by tale, to free grace, at no cheaper rate, then the rendring of the soule of Christ, to harder then ten thousand millions of ordi­nary deaths. Christ behoved to earne heaven at the hardest cost, for all his owne, with no lesse then the noble and eminent life and bloud of God; such a summe was never told downe in heaven, before or after. 4. There is much weight on this houre, in regard of Christs opposites; Coelestis ira quos premit miseros fa [...]it. Humana nul­los. Gods Anger against Christ. Many edges of words in Christs com­plaint, My God, my God why hast thou, &c. three hoasts came against Christ, Heaven, Hell, Earth; any Adversary but God, the enimity of men cannot make me, or any man formally miserable. There be great edges and Emphasis, in these words, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. Not a point, not a letter of them can be wanting, they are so full and Emphatick. 1. My God, my God, the forsaking of Angels is nothing, that Men, all men, friends, all my inward friends, forsake me, is not much; they doe more then forsake, they abhorre Job their friend, Job. 19.19. that father and mother, and all my mothers sonnes forsake me, is hard, yet tollerable, Psal. 27.10. Psal. 31.11. Psal. 88.18. Yea, that mine own heart, and flesh forsake me, is an ordina­ry 1( may bee) amongst men, Psal. 73.26. But Gods forsaking of a man is sad. 2. If he bee a God in covenant with me; 2 both God, and then my God, that is a warme word, with childe of love; if he forsake me, it is hard: When our owne leave us, we forgive all the world to leave us. 3. In forsaking there is a great Emphasis; any thing but unkindnesse, and change of heart 3 and Love is well taken; this speaketh against Faith; though Christ could not apprehend this; the Lord cannot change, Christs could not beleeve such a blasphemy, yet the extremity of so sad a condition, offered so much to the humane and sinne­lesse and innocent sense of Christ, a change of dispensation. 4. Me, Why hast thou forsaken me, the sonne of thy love, thy 4 onely begotten Sonne, the Lord of glory, who never offended thee; but the relation of Christ to God, was admirable; hee was as the sinner, made sinne for us; in this contest, the enimity of a Lyon and a Leopard is nothing, Hos. 13.7.8. the ren­ting of the caule, of the webbe that goeth about the heart is [Page 133] but a shaddow of paine, to the Lords running on a man as a Giant, in furie and indignation. 2. Hell, and all the powers of darkenesse, came against Christ in this houre, Col. 2.14, 15. (3.) All the earth, and his dearest friends, stood aloofe from his calamity; there was no shoare on earth to receive this ship-broken man.

In regard of that which was taken from Christ, it was a sad houre; which I desire to be considered thus. Christs soule-s [...]ff [...]rings most [...] how his life was inva­ded. 1. The most spi­rituall life that ever was, the life of him who saw and enjoyed God, in a personall union was vailed and covered. (1. Posses­sion in many degrees was lessened: but in jure, in right, and in the foundation not removed. 2. The sense and actuall fruition 1 of God, in vision, was over-clouded, but life in the fountaine 2 stood safe in the blessed union. 3. The most direfull effects, in breaking, bruising, and grinding the Sonne of God, betweene 3 the millstones of Divine wrath, were heere. Yet the infinite love and heart of God, remained the same to Christ, without any shaddow of variation or change. Gods hand was against Christ, his heart was for him. 4. Hence his saddest sufferings were by 4 divine dispensation and oeconomy. God could not hate the Son of his love, in a free dispensation, he persued in wrath the sure­ty, and loved the Sonne of God. 5. It cannot bee determi­ned 5 what that wall of separation, that covering and vaile was, The persona [...] union not dis­solved in C [...]rists suf­fering. that went between the two united natures, the union personall still remaining intire, how the God-head suspended its divine and soule-rejoycing influence, and the man Christ suffered to the bottome of the highest and deepest paine, to the full satis­faction of divine justice. As it is easie to conceive how the bo­dy in death, falleth to dust, and ill smelling clay, and yet the soule dieth not, but how the soule suffereth not, and is not sad­ned, is another thing. How a Bird is not killed, and doth flee out, and escape, and sing, when a window is broken, with a great noise in the cage, is conceivable: but how the bird should not suffer, or be affected with no affrightment, is harder to our apprehension; and how ship-broken men may swime to the shoare, and live, when the shippe is dashed in an hundreth pieces, is nothing hard; but that they should be nothing affrigh­ted, not touch the water, and yet come living to shoare, is not so obvious to our consideration. Yea, that the soule should re­maine united with the body, in death, and the Ship sinke, the [Page 134] passengers remaining in the ship, and not bee drowned, is a strange thing. The Lord suffered, and dyed; the Ship was bro­ken and did sinke, the soule and body seperated, and yet the God-head remained in a personall uinion, one with the Man-hood, as our soule and body remaine together, while we live and subsist entire persons.

Vse 1. Christ hath suffered much in these sad houres for us: hee hath drunken Hell drie to the bottome, Vse 1. and hath left no Hell behind for us, Christ did [...] the whole Crosse, we but [...] bit [...] and [...] of it. Heb. 12.2. Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith, he hath not onely suffered so much of the Crosse, but he hath suffered all the crosse; he hath endured the crosse, despised shame. In the originall, the words are without any Article, [...]. It is as much as he hath left no crosse, no shame at all to be suffered by us; and Phil. 2.8. He was obedient to the Father: he saith not to the death, but to death, even death of the Crosse, [...]. It holdeth forth to us, that Christ suffered so much for us, as hee hath ta­ken up to heaven with him the great Crosse, and hath carried up with him, as it were, the great death; and hath left us no­thing, or very little to suffer; and indeed Christ never denyed, but affirmed, he himselfe behoved to dye: but for the beleever, he expressely denieth, hee shall dye, and that with two negati­ons, Joh. 11.26. [...], He shall never in any sort, dye; and for our sufferings, Paul calleth them, Col. 1.24. [...], the remnants, the leav­ings, the dregs, and after-drops of the sufferings of Christ, the sips and dew-drops remaining in the bottom of the cup, when Christ hath drunken out the whole cup; so are our affe­ctions, and being compared with what Christ suffered, they are but bitts, fragments, and small pieces of death, that we suf­fer, for the first death that the Saints suffer, is but the halfe, and the farre least halfe of death; its but the lips, the outer porch of death; the second death, which Christ suffered for us, is onely death, and the dominion, Lordship, and power of death is removed. Why doe you then murmur, fret, repine under a­flictions, when you beare little wedges, pinnes, and chips of the Crosse? Your Lord Jesus did beare for you the great and onely Crosse, that which is death, shame, and the Crosse, [...], by way of excellencie so called. It is true, the Spouse of Christ, since the beginning of the world, and since Christs [Page 135] time these 1600. Yeares, hath been crying as a woman travel­ling in birth of a Man-childe, and the Dragon neare persuing her, and is not yet brought to bed. Lord Jesus, when will the Man-childe be borne, and thy Spouse be eased of the birth? Yet is not this disease deadly; Sion, as soone as shee travelled, brought forth her child, Isai. 66.8. All her shaddowes of suffer­ings shall be quickly gone. The Spouse cannot die of child­birth paine; Christ will save both the Mothers life, and the Babe.

2. Sinne is a deare and costly thing: In heaven, in the Count-book of Justice, it goeth for no lesse then the bloud of God, Vse 2. the shaming of the Lord of glory; Justice, for the request of all the world, and the prayers of Christ, could not abate one farthing. Soules are of great value with God. A mans soule is a deare thing: Exchange of commodities, of silkes, purple, fine linnen, is much; exchange of Saphires, Dia­monds, Rubies, and other precious stones, for baser commodi­ties, is much more; and that ships-full of the gold of Ophir should bee given for bread, and things obvious, is a rich traf­fiquing: but the market and value of soules, as it hath not, since God made man on earth, fallen or risen; so it is ever above a world. Mat. 16.26. What hath a man profitted, if hee lose this? God will not take Silkes, nor Purples, nor Saphires, nor Rubies, nor Navies loaden with fine gold, nor any corruptible thing, 1 Pet. 1.18. for soules. The price is one and the same; soules were never bought, nor sold, nor exchanged, nor ran­somed, but once; and the price is one, and as high as the soule and bloud of the Lord of life. Job 27.8. What is the hope of an hypocrite, though hee hath gained, when God taketh his soule from him? let him cast up his accounts, and lay his charges, hee stands a poore man, a man without a soule. What mad men are wee, who sell soules daily for prices so farre below the Lords price? We sell soules at an easie rate. A man that would wood-feet a Lord-ship of many thou­sands yearly, for a base summe, some pence, or for a nights sleep in a straw-bed, and bind himselfe not to redeeme it, what a waster were hee? how worthy to begge? Satan is going through the world, and hee gives some pence in hand; O how sad a reckoning, when the Devill the cozening Creditor comes at night, with his back counts, Pay mee for your sweet lusts I gave you: answer my Bill for your idle oaths, your lies, op­pressions, cozening, Covenant-breaking, your unjust judging, [Page 136] your starving, and murthering of the widdow, and the fatherlesse, by detaining of the wages of the Souldier, your sleighting of Christ, and reformation, and the price is referred to God, and the market knowne. Sathan can abate nothing, thy soule he must have, and within few dayes the body too; is this wisdome to earne hell? and to make away a noble soule for a straw?

3. What are wee to give for Christ? what bonds of love hath he layd on us, who earned our Heaven for us at so deare [...] price? I desire onely these considerations to have place in our thoughts.

1 1. As God had but one Sonne, and one onely begotten Son, and he gave him for sinners; How great & strong was Christs love. God h [...]d one Son, he gave him for us, Christ had 2. loves, [...]. glo­ries he bestow­ed them on us. so Christ had two loves, one as God, and another as man, he gave them both out for us; and two glories, one as God, one as Man, and Mediator, the one was darkened for us, [...]; he emptied a Sea of glory for us, he powred it out for us, and for his other glory, he laid it downe, as it were in hell, endured infinite wrath for us.

2. He went to death and the grave, made his testament, and left his love, grace, and peace in legacie to us.

3. Greater love then this hath no man; but he saith not, 2 greater love then this hath no God. That God did let out so much 3 love to men is the wonder of the world, and of heaven. Wee may find words to paint out creatures, and the garment may be wider then the thing; but should Angels come and helpe us to find out expressions for Christs love; words should bee below and in this side of Christ.

4 4. Behold the man, saith an enemy of Christ, but behold him more then a man, behold the Lord in the Garden, sweat­ting out of his holy body, great blobs and floods of Love, trick­ling downe upon sinners of clay. Men and Angels come see, and wonder, and adore.

5. Love was Christs cannon-Royall, he battered downe 5 with it all the forts of hell, and triumphed over Principalities, and powers; Christ over­come with love. Christ was judgement-proofe; he indured the wrath of God, and was not destroyed: he was hell-proofe, and grave-proofe, hee suffered, and rose againe; but hee was not love-proofe, (to borrow that expression) he was not onely love-sicke for his Church; but sicke to death, and dyed for his friends. Cant. 2.4. His banner over his Church, was love; Saints bee sworn to his collours, die and live with Christ: and take Christ [Page 137] in the one arme, his cause, and Gospell in the other, and your life betweene both, and say to all enemies; take one, take all. The midst of Christs Chariot is paved with love, for the daugh­ters of Jerusalem, Cant. 3.10. Christs royall seat, both in the Gospel, in which he is carried through the world as a Con­querour, Revel. 6.2. and in the soules of his children, is love. From the sense of this, it were our happiest life, to live and love with Christ, for hee hath carried up to heaven with him, the love and the heart, and the treasures of the sonnes of God; so as all ours are with him above time.

6. Wee are not to feare death extreamely, nor hell at all. 6 Christ feared both for our comfort: How death is sweetned to us [...]n Christ. hee hath taken away the worst of death; In that 1. He hath subdued hell and sinne, and there remaineth to us, but the outer side of death. 2. The beleever but halfe dies, and swoneth, or rather sleepeth in the grave. 3. He dyeth by will, because he chooseth to be with Christ, Phil. 1.23. rather then by nature, or necessity. 4. As dying, and sufferings are the cup that Christ dranke; so are we to love the cup the better, that Christs lip touched it, and left the perfume of the breathings of the Holy Ghost in it. In com­mon Innes, by the way side, Princes, and common travellers, and thousands lye in one bed; the clothes may be changed, but the bed is the same. Christ tasted of death, Heb. 2. for us; but there was gall in his cup, that is not in ours: Christs worm-wood was bitter with wrath, ours sweetned with conso­lation.

7. All the Saints are in Christs debt, of infinite love. When we grieve the Spirit purchased by Christ, Christ repents not of his love to us. we draw blood of 7 his wounds a fresh, and so testifie, that wee repent that Christ suffered so much for us. The Father hath sworn, and will not repent, that he is an eternall Priest, and stands to it, that his bloud is of eternall worth; and when the Father sweareth this, Christ is the same one God with him, and sweares, that he thinketh all his bloud well bestowed, and will never give over the bargaine, his Bride is his Bride, though deare bought, and his intercession in heaven speaketh his hearty Amen, and fullest consent of love to our Redemption.

8. All this was done by Christ for nothing; Grace fell 8 from God, on the creature, by meere grace. Grace is the onely hire of grace.

[Page 138] 9 9. When Ancient Love looked first on sinners, how [...]glie and black did the Lord see and fore-see us to be? but Christ loved us, not according to what wee were, but to what Grace and Love was to make us; and that was faire and spotlesse. And this love was so free in the secret of eternall election, that it was not increased by Christs merits and death; but the me­rits, death, and fruit of this love, had being and worth from Christs eternall love, and Christs love hath no fountaine and cause, but love.

10 10. The Law of Gratitude tieth us to love Christ; for hee hath loved us. If the love of Christ be in us, it worketh no­thing in order to merit or hire; ( Libertines need not weaken Christs love from doing, upon this feare;) but love doth all in order to the debt of love and oblieged expressions to love, which excludeth not Law, but the Law's rigid cursing and im­perious commanding. Christs love is most imperious, but is no hireling, and looks not to the penny wages, but the free Crown.

The fifth arti­cle of Christs prayer, the Correction.Here is the fifth Article in this Prayer; a sort of correction, in which Christ doth resigne his will, as man, to the will of God; as Mat. 26.39. Luk. 22.42. Neverthelesse, not my will, but thine be done.

In this there is offered to us a question, Whether or no there be in this Prayer any repugnancy in the humane will of Christ to the will of God? For 1. a correction of the humane will seemeth to import a jarring and a discord; 2. Christ desired that, the contrary whereof, hee knew was from eternity decreed of God. 3. The Law of God is so spirituall, straight and holy, that it requireth not onely a conformity to it, and our will, acti­ons, Christs will in his suffering subordinate to Gods will. Doubts on the contrary re­moved. words and purposes; but also in all our affections, desires, first motions, and inclinations of our heart, that no unperfect and halfe-formed lustings arise in us, even before the compleat consent of the will, that may thwart or crosse the known Law and command of God; and by this, Thou shalt not lust, Rom. 7. and the duty of the highest love wee owe to God, to love him with all the heart, soule, mind, and whole strength, Mat. 22.37. Mark. 12.33. Luk. 10.27. Some Arians and Arminians, Joh. Geysteranus at the Synod of Dort, have said blasphemously, that [Page 139] there was concupiscence and a will repugnant to Gods will in the second Adam, as in the first. But this they spoke against the consubstantiality and deity of the Sonne of God. To which wee say,

Asser. 1. Jesus Christ that holy thing, Luk. 1.35. was a fit high Priest, holy, harmlesse, undefiled, separated from sinners, Heb. 7.26. Which of you (saith Christ to the Jewes) convin­ceth me of sinne, Joh. 8.46. There could not be a spot in this Lamb sacrificed for the sinnes of the world, no prick in this Rose, no cloud in this faire Sunne, no blemish in this beautifull Well-beloved.

Asser. 2. An absolute, resolved will or desire of heart, to lust after that which God forbiddeth in his Law, must be a sinfull jarring betweene the creature's and the Creator's will. Now, Christ's will was conditionall, and clearly submissive; it lay ever levell with his Father's holy will.

Asser. 3. I shall not with some affirme, that, which in the generall is true, We are to con­f [...]rme our will to Gods re­vealed will, as a rule; not to his decree, as it is his decree. a will contrary to Gods revealed command and will, called voluntas signi, which is our morall rule to obliege us, is a sinne; but a will contrary to Gods decree, called vo­luntas bene-placiti, which is not our rule oblieging, except the Lord be pleased to impose it on us, as a morall Law, is not a sinne. Peter and the Apostles, after they heard that prophecie of their denying of Christ, and their being sinfully scandalized, and their forsaking of Christ, when the Shepherd was smitten, were oblieged to have a will contrary to that decree, and to pray that they might not be led into temptation, but might have grace to confesse their Saviour before men, and not flee, nor be scattered: Here is a resolute will of men lawfully contrary to the revealed decree of God; yet not sinfull. But the Lords will that Christ should die for man, as it was a decree of the wise and most gracious Lord, pitying lost man, so was it also a revea­led commandement to Christ, that hee should be willing to die, and be obedient to the death, even the death of the crosse; Phil. 2.8. Yea, a rule of such humble obedience, as wee are ob­lieged to follow; as is said, Vers. 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, &c. If the Lords will that Christ should die be nothing, but his meere decree, it could not obliege us in the like case to be willing, as John saith, to lay down our life for the brethren. Yea, Joh. 10.18. Christ hath a com­mandement [Page 140] of God, and the revealed will of God, to die for us; No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of my selfe: I have power to lay it down, I have power to take it againe: this commandement have I received of my Father. Here is an ex­presse commandement given to Christ, to die for sinners; and the Father loveth Christ for obedience to this commande­ment.

Asser. 4. A conditionall and a submissive desire, though not agreeable to a positive Law and Commandement of God, A conditionall desire though not a [...]eable to a positive l [...]w of God, no sinne▪ is no sinne, nor doth the Law require a conformity in all our inclina­tions, and the first motions of our desires, to every command of God, though most contrary to nature, and our naturall and sin­lesse inclinations.

1. If God command Abraham to kill his onely begotten sonne, and offer him in a sacrifice to God, which was a meere positive commandement; for its not a command of the law of nature (nor any other then positive) for the father to kill the sonne; if yet Abraham retaine a naturall inclination and love, commanded also in the law of nature to save his sonnes life, and to desire that hee may live, this desire and inclination, though contradictory to a positive command of God, is no sinne; be­cause the fifth command, grounded on the law of nature, doth command it. Nor did Gods precept (Abraham, kill now thy sonne, even Isaac thine onely begotten sonne) ever include this, Abraham, root out of thine heart all desire and inclination na­turall in a father to preserve the life of the child. So the posi­tive command of the Father, that the Son of God should lay down his life for his sheep, did never root out of the sinlesse na­ture of the man Christ a naturall desire to preserve his owne being and life, especially hee desiring it with speciall reserva­tion of the will of God commanding that hee should die.

2. A Martyr dying for the truth of Christ; may have a na­turall and conditionall desire and inclination to live, though his living be contrary to the Lords revealed will, commanding him to seale the Gospel with his bloud, and to confesse Christ before men.

3. If the brother, sonne, daughter, wife or friend, that is as a mans owne soule, Deut. 13.6. blaspheme God; yea, if father or mother doe it, Deut. 33.8, 9. yet is a father oblieged to stone the son or daughter; the son, being a Magistrate or a Levite [Page 141] and Priest, to judge according to law, ( the Priests lips should preserve knowledge, Mal. 2.8.) that his father or mother ought to be stoned to death; yet ought not father or son [...]e to lay aside that naturall desire of being and life to sonne, father, brother, which the law of nature in the fifth Command doth require; especially the desire being conditionall, with submission to Gods will, as the desire of Christ is here; and the Command to stone the blasphemer, that the father stone the son, the son the fa­ther, being positive, and though founded on the law of nature, that a man preferre his Lord Creator and God before sonne, or father and mother, yet are they not precepts of the law of na­ture, such as is the precept of nature that a man desire his owne life and being, the father the life and being of the son.

Asser. 5. The apparent opposition (for it is not reall) is ra­ther between Christ's sensitive and his sinlesse meere naturall desire and affection, and his reasonable will, then his will, and the will of God: Nor can any say there is a fight or jarring be­tween the conditionall desire of Christ subjected, in the same act of praying, to the Lords decre [...], and the resolute and immu­table will of God. The Law of God, because holy and spirituall, doth require a conformity between all the inclinations and mo­tions of our soule, and the law of nature; but an absolute con­formity betweene all our inclinations and every positive com­mand of God, such as was the Lords command that Christ should die for sinners, is not required in the Law of God. If Adam submit his naturall hunger or desire to eat of the forbidden tree, to Gods Law, and eat not, there is no sinfull jarring between his will and Gods positive Law, Thou shalt not eat of the tree of Knowledge of good and evill.

It becomes us, as Christs example goeth before us, Rules touching our submission to Gods will. to submit in the hardest and most bloodie providences, to the straight and holy will of God. 1. Christ pr [...]esseth he hath no will divi­ded from Gods will; he layeth down his glory, his heaven, his life, his fruition of the sweet influence of an highest vision, love, presence, feeling of God in a personall union at the feet of God, that the Lord may carve and cut and dispose of him, and his blood, as he thought good. 2. All the difficulty in us, in whom dwelleth a body of sinne is to answer the objections, that flesh and blood hath against a sad providence; which I will labour to doe, and then give some rules for direction.

[Page 142]Obj. 1. This is a bloody and rough way that the Lord leadeth his people, Providence mysterious. that they drink wormwood, and gall of blood, and not tears onely.

Ans. Providence is full of mysteries, let the way be shame, the crowne is glory, and the present condition be hell, the end is heaven; Providence is a hand-writing of mercy, though we cannot ever read it, more then Belshazzar could read his bill of justice; we see a woman with child, but cannot tell whether it be a living or a dead birth, shee shall bring forth; or whether the child shall be base and poor, or honourable and renowned, ere he die. The births in the wombe of providence are invisible to us; out of the ashes of a burnt and destroyed Church, the Lord raiseth up a Phenix, a Kings daughter, a Princesse that shall rule the Nations with a rod of iron, a Zion that hath the strength of an Vnicorne; yea, Iacobs seed shall be in many waters, his King shall be higher then Agag, and his Kingdom shall be exalted: God brought him out of Egypt, Num. 24.7, 8. Christ breweth the water of life, out of drinke of gall, wormwood, and blood; if the head be gold, as Christ is, the body cannot without great incongruity be base clay.

Confusions no­thing against providence.Obj. 2. But all go wrong, confusion and vastation lye on the people of God.

Ans. To him who sitteth on the Throne, and gives Law and Judgement to the most unconstant things imaginable, the waves of the Sea, and orders them, and rules a Sea of glasse, a brittle and fraile thing, and a Sea of most unnaturall confusions, a Sea mingled with fire, nothing can be out of order, hell, the Beast and Dragon that make warre with the Lambe, the laying wast the holy City, the killing of the Witnesses; are all orderly means ranked by the Lord whose Armies cannot reele, nor spill their march, when he drawes them up to the execution of his wife decrees, the confusion is to our eye; but judgement law, and order there are, though not visible to us. Who can pull him out of his invisible and high Throne of wisedome, counsell and pow­er? it may be he sits not alwayes on his Throne of justice.

1 Obj. 3. But what a providence is it, that those that open their mouth against heaven are fat, Prosperity of the wicked, adversity of the godly not against provi­dence. and shine, and prosper, and those that fear God are plagued every day; and killed all the day long and counted as sheepe for the slaughter?

Answ· 1. Offend not against the generation of the children of [Page 143] God, as if it were lost labour, and as good to sow wheat in the Sea, as serve the Lord, and walk mournefully before him, you see their work, but not their wages. 2. It is painfull to trace 2 providence in all its wayes, circuits, bout-gates, lines, turnings. But 3. surely in the end God turneth the tables, [...]he maketh all odds equall, the emptie bucket goeth downe, the full cometh 3 up. 4. The Lord hath set the wicked in a chaire of Gold, but on 4 the top of a house, and rouling stone above the mouth of a pit ten hundred fathom deep: This is a jogging and slippery con­dition. 5. They slip away to eternity and to Hell in a moment. 5 6. Their happinesse is a golden dream, Psal. 73.12, 13, &c. 6

Obj. Meanes faile, men chan [...]e, creatures are weake.

Answ. So long as Christ changeth not, All goes well, so long as Christ liveth. and your Head li­veth, and stirreth the helme of heaven and earth, all must be well, if all life, all health, and so much as eternall life be in the Head, how can the heart ake or quake, except it first create, and then fancie fears, and doe not really suffer?

Obj. 5. Our Kingdomes strength is gone, we cannot subsist.

Ans. Col. 1.17, 18. In Christ all things subsist, Faith looks to God in sad providences. he is the head of the body the Church. Faith is the substance, Bude [...]s the bold­nesse and fortitude; Beza the firme and constant expectation; the Syrian, and Arabian, the confident gloriation of, or in things hoped for, and a convincing light and evidence of things not seen. There is good reason to beleeve that God will lift up a fallen people, who desire to fear him, and wait for his help.

Obj. 6. They plow upon Christs back, and make long and deep furrowes on Israel from her youth, Psal. 129.1. The enemie plow and sow, and Christ reaps.

Ans. True, plowing is a work of hope, but have you not seen Enemies digging a grave for Christ, and preparing a coffin for him ere he be dead? and they have been fain to fill up the living mans grave, and they plow, but Christ cometh in and soweth joy in the hot furrow, and reaps the crop, and the quiet fruits of righteousnesse. The enemies plant, and the Vintage is Christs, one sowes, but another reaps.

Object. 7. But the soules under the altar doe cry to God, and their bloud is not avenged: their bloud, Providence hath a time for all things. and their graves in their kind, make supplications before the throne for justice, yet the enemies prosper.

Answ. Hath not the Lord appointed a time for fighting, and suffering, and a time for triumphing, when these that have [Page 144] gotten the victory over the Beast, and over his Marke, and over the number of his name, stand on the Sea of glasse, having the harps of God, singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lambe: there was a time when the Lamb did weep, and in the daies of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and teares, unto him that was able to save him from death. Revel. 15.23. Heb. 5.7. It is a sin to carve a date of our owne for justice.

Object. 8. But he delayes his comming.

Answ. But he is not slack, as some count slacknesse. If gene­rall justice to a world must be measured by thousands of years, as but one day to God; particular judgements may have hun­dreth of yeares; and when the Saints are killed, Christ survi­veth them, to redeeme them from bloud, and disgrace, when they are dead, when their cause is judged, and they rotten into powder in the grave, they are redeemed, even when the soules under the altar, are avenged on their Murtherers.

Object. 9. It stumbleth many, that wicked men are fat, and their faces shine, as if God were with them.

Its a shame that the wic­ked are fat on common mer­cies, and not we on th [...]se same perfumed with Christ. Answ. If they be fat on common mercies, the more shame to the Saints, if they bee not fat, and their bones greene as an herbe upon the same fare, and the same mercies, perfumed with Christ, and there is more fatnesse and marrow in the higher, then in the lower house: Saints are leane through their own unbeliefe.

Now for rules of submission to providence in order to the Text, let these be considered;

Rule 1. Christs patience, and so our submission must bee bottomed on a looking above-hand to the will of God; every wheele in a great worke, All wheeles of provide n [...]e move accor­ding to the first. moves according to the motion of the highest and first wheele that moves all the rest. Every inferiour Court acts, as ordered by the highest and supreme Senate, the greatest in the Kingdome. Every inferiour or be in the heaven is moved in subordination to the Primum mobile, the highest that moveth all the rest; the motion of rivers regulate the flow­ings of lesser brooks. And things that move on earth, as the heavens move, so are they carried; the principle of motions and wayes in all morals, beginneth at the Highest mover, the just and wise will of God; all are to say, not my will, but thy will be done.

[Page 145] Rule 2. There is no ground of submission in a crosse-provi­dence, but to looke to the end that Christ looked to, Looking to God, the onely ground of faith in a crosse-providence. the Lords wise and holy will; He curseth, because the Lord bideth him, saith David of Shimei; and there hee fixeth his stake. The Lord hath taken away, saith Iob, and upon the Lords taking away, he saith, Blessed be the name of the Lord; Any man can say, Blessed be the name of the Lord, who giveth; the greatest part of men breake their teeth, in biting at the neerest linke of the chaine of second causes, but they arise never up to God, the first Mover.

Rule 3. Christ not onely submitteth to Gods will, but he approveth that it may be done. So Ezechiah, Esai. 39.8. We must both submit to, and approve of providence. Hee said moreover, good is the word of the Lord, the thing was hard, that all in his house should be caried away to Babylon, and his sonnes should be captives. Yet the will of the Lord was good and just, when the thing willed and decreed of God was evill to him.

Rule 4. Christ will not hinder God to doe what he thinkes good; Thy will be done. Murmuring is a stone in Gods way; We are not to murmure. Murmuring is an Anti-providence, a litle God, setting it selfe against the true God, that stirres all in wisdome; and the Mur­murer doth what he can to stop up Gods way. Old Eli, when he heard sad newes, saies, 1 Sam. 3.18. It is the Lord, [...] Let him, I hinder him not to doe, what is good in his eyes. Da­vid saith, 2 Sam. 15.26. If the Lord say, I have no delight in thee, behold here am I, let him doe to me, what seemes good in his eyes, here am I; is as much, as I will not flee him, nor hin­der him, I lay my selfe under him to receive his stroakes. So Christ, Heb. 10.5. Psal. 40. Thou hast prepared my eares, or my body, here am I; Verse 7. Here am I to doe thy will.

Rule 5. Christ gave not away his naturall will; but in the act of willing, he submitted it; We make no [...] away our will when we sub­mit it to God▪ it was a broken will that Christ reserved to himselfe, or a submitted will, hic & nunc. Christ seeketh not the resigning of naturall faculties in heard providen­ces, but that we quite contest with God; and that our will be not abolished, but broken: especially, that we doe not quarell with Justice. Lament. 3.28. He sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. Vers. 29. Hee putteth his mouth in the dust, if so bee there may bee hope. Vers, 30. Hee [Page 146] giveth his cheeks to him that smiteth them; hee is filled with re­proach: there bee here many sweet signes of a broken will. 1. Solitary sadnesse. 2. Silence, the soule not daring to quar­rel with God. 3. The stooping to the dust, and putting clay in the mouth, for feare that it speake against Gods dispensation, as Job 40.4.5. (4) A willing accepting of buffets on the cheeks, and reproaches; So Micha 7.9. I will beare the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned. When the soule is made like a broken and daunted heifer, or a silly heartlesse Dove, so as the man like a w [...]ll-nurtured childe, kisseth the rod of God. He is a bad Souldier, Mul [...]s est miles qui [...], [...]rato­rem gemens s [...] ­quitur. who follows his Captaine sighing, and weeping; Faith sings at teares, and rejoyceth under hope in the ill day.

Rule. 5. Its the childs happinesse, that the wise fathers will be his rule, not his owne; and for the Orphane, the Tutors wit, Gods w [...]ll for us, better then our owne is better then his owne will. Our owne will is our hell, E­zech. 18.31. Why will ye dye, ô house of Israel? Christs will is heaven. Christ thinks it is best, that his Fathers will stand, 1 and his humane will be repealed. Rom. 15.3. for even Christ pleased not himselfe; to have no will of your owne, is the Pearle in the ring, a Jewel in submission. (2.) that the Lords 2 end is good, he minds to have me home to heaven; then as in his six dayes workes of creation, he made nothing ill, so hee hath been working these five thousand years; and all his works of providence are as good, as his works of creation; hee can­not chuse an ill meane for a good end: if God draw my way to heaven through fire, tortures, bloud, poverty, though hee should traile me through hell, hee cannot erre in leading, I may erre in following.

Object. But there is a better way beside, and hee leades o­thers through a rosie and greene valley, and my way within few inches to it, is a wildernesse of thornes.

Answ. Gold absolutely is better then a draught of water: but comparatively, water is better to Sampson, dying for thirst, then all the gold in the earth: Gods wisdome in creating good, and framing evill. So cutting a veine, is in it selfe ill; but comparatively, letting bloud through a cut veine, is good for a man in danger of an extreame Feaver; there is no better way out of heaven for thee, then the very way that the Lord leades thee. God not onely chuses persons, but also things; and every crosse that befalls thee, is a chosen, and selected crosse, and it was shapen in length, and breadth, and measure, and [Page 147] weight, up before the Throne, by Gods owne wise hand: Hea­ven is the workehouse of all befals thee, every evill is the birth that lay in the wombe of an infinitely wise decree; so God is said to frame evill, as a Potter doth an earthen vessell, (so [...] jatsar signifieth;) Jer. 18.11. to frame a vessell of clay is a work of art and wisedome; so its a worke of deliberation and choise: God is said to devise judgement against Babylon, Jer. 51.12. And the Lord hath done to his people the things which he devised [...] is to think, meditate, studie, devise, Deut. 19.18. and Isai. 45.7. he creates darknesse and evill, it is such a worke of omnipotency and wisedome, as the making of a world of nothing, then if God follow infinite art in shaping vengeance against Babylon, farre more must he wisely study to mould and shape afflictions for his owne; for no afflictions be­falleth the Saints, but they be well framed, chosen, wisely stu­died, forged, and created crosses. A Potter cannot frame by deeper Art and judgement, a water-pot for such an end and use; a fashioner cannot frame clothes in proportion for a mans body so fitly as the wise Lord in judgement and cunning, shapes & frames this affliction as a measure for thy foot only, poverty for this man, Affl [...]ctions proport [...]ned to every mans meas [...]re. and its shapen to his measure; wicked children and the sword on Davids house, fittest for him; such a loathsom disease for this Saint; want of friends and banishment for such a man, another more and heavier should be shapen to wide for thy soule, and another lighter should have been too strait, short, and narrow for thee. Its comfortable, when I beleeve the draught, portrai­ture, and lineaments of my affliction, were framed and carved in all the limmes, bones, parts, qualities of it, in the wise decree and in the heart and breast of Christ: It were not good to bear a Crosse of the Devils shaping; were there as much wormwood and gall in the Saints cup as the Devil would have in it, then hell should be in every cup, and how many hells should I drink; and how often should the Church drinke death? Its good I know Christ brewed the cup, then it will worke the end, for be it never so contrary and soure to my taste, and so unsavory; Christ will not taste poyson in it, he hath purposed I should sail with no other winde to heaven, and I know its better, then a­ny winde to me, for that Port.

Rule. 6. Christ prescribes no way to his Father, but in the [Page 148] generall, The Lords will be done on me, (saith he) be what it will: Let hell, and death, and Devils malice, and heavens indig­nation, Gods will for every Saint a safe rule [...] and enmity, and warre, ill-will, and persecution from earth, hard measure from friends and lovers, if the will of my Father so be, welcome with my soule; welcome black crosse, welcome pale death, Faith wel­cometh all. welcome curses, and all the curses of God, that the just Law could lay on all my children, (and they are a faire number) welcome wrath of God, welcome shame, and the cold grave. The submission of faith subscribeth a blanke pa­per, let the Lord write in what he pleaseth, patience dares not contest and stand upon pennies or pounds, on hundreds or thou­sands with God; Moses and Paul dare referre their heaven, and their share in Christ, and the book of life to Christ, so the Lord may be glorified: Submissive faith putteth much upon Christ, Let him slay me, yet I will trust in him, said Iob 13.15. He­man alledgeth it was not one single crosse, Psal. 88.7. Thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. And David Psal. 42.7. All thy waves and thy billowes are gone over me: One of Gods waves could have drowned David, afflictions coming in Armies, and in a battle-array, say that one single Souldier cannot subdue us. Lawfull warre is the most violent, and the last remedy against a State, and it argueth a great necessity of the Sword. Job had an Army sent against him, and from heaven too, cap. 6.4. The terrors of God doe set themselves in array against me. See what a catalogue of sufferings, Paul did referre to God, 2 Cor. 11.23, 24, 25, &c. one good violent death would have made away a stronger man then Paul, Many afflicti­ons must be re­ferred to God. yet he was willing for Christ to be in deaths ofen, [...], many deaths, many stripes, many prisons, five times nine and thirty stripes, this was neer two hundred stripes, every one of them was a little death: Thrice beaten with rods, once stoned, thrice in shipwrack, night and day sailing in the deep, in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of his owne country men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the City, in perils in the wildernes, in perils in the Sea, in perils among false brethren, in wearinesse, and painfulnesse, in watching often, in hunger, in thirst, in fa­sting often, in cold, in nakednesse, &c. Many of us would either have a crosse of our own carving, We love will-suffering as well as will-duties. as we love will-worship, and will-duties, so we love will-suffering, and desire nothing more then if that we must suffer, Christ with his tongue would licke [Page 149] all the gall off our crosse, and leave nothing but honey, and a crosse of sugar and milk, we love to suffer with a reserve, and to die upon a condition; an indefinite and catholique resignation of our selves without exception to Christ, and to undergoe many fur­naces, many hels, many deaths as Christ will, is a rare grace of God, and not of ordinary capacity.

Rule 7. Christ, in submitting his will, In duties Gods revealed will should be our rule, in suf­fering his high decree. maketh the Prophe­cies, the revealed Gospel his rule: and in the matter of duty, is willing to be ruled by Gods revealed will; in the matter of suf­fering, hee is willing that the Lords will stand for a Law, to which hee doth willingly submit, and will in no sort quarrell with everlasting decrees. To be ruled by the one, is holinesse; to submit to the other, is patience: For patience is higher then any ordinary grace, in regard its willing to adore and reverence something more and higher then a commanding, promising, and threatning will of God. It was a grace in Christ most eminent, Patience an [...] high grace. in the Lamb of God, dumb, meek and silent before his shearers, the meekest in earth and in heaven, that hee did not onely never resist the revealed will of God, but never thought, motion, nor any hint of a desire was in him, against the secret and o [...]ernall decree and counsell of God. The Image of God is in his works. Christ will not have us to make I­mages of him, who is the invisible God; but, when in his works of justice, power, love, free grace, hee setteth before us the image of his glorious nature and attributes, hee will have us to adore him in these. According to his decree of reprobation, hee rai­sed up Pharaoh to be clay to all men; on whom, as on a volun­tary and rationall vessell of wrath, they might read power, ju­stice, truth, soveraignty; in these works wee are to tremble be­fore him, and adore the Lord. So in works of Grace, that are the Image of the invisible God, the Lord is to be loved. 1 Tim. 1.16. In Paul, the chiefe of sinners, the Lord holds forth an image of the freest grace, no lesse then in the revealed will of God; for, 1. Christ made an example of mercy and free grace in him. 2. Hee made a speaking and crying spectacle to all A­ges, an [...], a printed copy of crying grace to all the world: and in this wee are to adore and submit to him. Such a limb of hell hath received mercy, not I, who before men was holier. O submit to this worke of grace, as to the copy of his eternall decree, and be silent.

Rule 8. Christ putteth nature and naturall reason, that his [Page 150] naturall will might seem to plead withall, under the Lords feet: So it would seeme strange. Many v [...]rtues in Christs s [...]b­mi [...]sion to his fathers will. God hath many sonnes, but none like Christ: hee was a Sonne, his alone; hee had never a bro­ther by an eternall generation; hee was the onely heire of the house; but never a son so afflicted as hee: This seemes against all reason. But Christ brings in his Fathers will with an [...], But, Mat. 26.39. Joh. 12.27. Luk. 22.42. Mark. 14.36. But thy will be done. Its against submission to put absolute inter­rogatories upon the Lord: Wee love to have God make an ac­count of his providence to us, and that the last and finall ap­peale of the wayes of the Lord should be to our reason, as to the great Senate and supremest Court in heaven and earth. Its true, Christ putteth a Why upon God, My God, my God, why 1 hast thou forsaken me? but, 1. with the greatest faith that e­ver was, What and how much reason was in Christs why, or [...] he [...]uts on the Father. a doubled act of beleeving, My God, my God. 2. With the extremest love, that ever was in a man; its also a two-fold cord of warmnesse of heart to his Father, My God, my God. 3. Its a word relative to the covenant between the Father and the Son; for My God is a covenant-expression, that the Fa­ther will keep what he hath promised to his Son; and relateth 2 to the infinite faithfulnesse of the Covenant-Maker. 4. God, 3 relateth to the Dominion, Lord-ship and Soveraignty that the 4 Lord hath, and therefore that Christ will submit to him. 5 5. Christs complaint of the Lords forsaking, sheweth the ten­dernesse of his soule, in prizing the favour of his Father, more then any thing in heaven and earth. And therefore Christs why is a note of 1. Admiration: 2. Of sinlesse Sorrow; con­joyned with love, tendernesse and submission to God. Christ cannot speak to his Father, beside the truth: But every man is a lyar; and wee seldome put questions and queries upon So­veraignty, but wee preferre our reason to infinite wisdome. Job is out, and takes his marks by the Clouds, and the Moone, when hee saith, Job 13.24. Why holdest thou me for thine ene­my? Chap. 3.11. Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost, when I came out of the belly? And Jere­miah 15.18. Why is my paine perpetuall, and my wound incu­rable, All Gods workes are with child of reason and causes. which refuseth to be healed? Chap. 20.18. Wherefore came I out of the wombe, to see labour and sorrow, that my dayes should be consumed with shame? All the Lords works are full, yea with child of reason, wisdome, and grave, and [Page 151] weighty causes: and though wee see not his acts to have a why, yet there is a cause, why hee doth all hee doth; reason is neces­sity to him, and an essentiall ingredient in all his actions.

Rule 9. In this Administration of Providence, with Christ, Providence goes many wayes at once. the Lord goeth many wayes at once: In this very act hee re­deemeth the world, judgeth Satan, satisfieth the Law and Ju­stice, glorifieth Christ, destroyeth sin, fulfilleth his owne eter­nall will and counsell. In one warre hee can ripen Babylon for wrath, humble his Church, deliver Jeremiah, punish Idolatry. In the same warre hee can humble and correct Scotland, harden Malignants, that they will not hearken to offers of peace; and blow up their haters, that they may be lofty through victories, and be ripened for wrath through unthankfulnesse to God. Pro­vidence hath many eyes, so also many feet and hands under the wings, to act and walk a thousand wayes at once. There is a manifold wisdome in Providence, as in the work of Redempti­on. In every worke that God doth, hee leaveth a wonder be­hind him: No man can come after the Almighty, and say, I could have done better then hee. Its naturall to blame God in his working, but unpossible to mend his work.

Rule 10. Nor is Christ made a loser, by losing his will for the Lord, but his will is fulfilled in that which he feared, Providence can do more then we can expect. Heb. 5.7. Providence submitted unto, rendereth an hundred fold in this life, Matth. 19.29. God makes the income above hope, Gen. 48.11. And Israel said to Ioseph, I had not thought to see thy face, and lo God hath shewed me also thy seed. One berry is not a cluster, that two men cannot bear, but its a field, an earth of Vine-trees in the seed, Ephes. 3.20. He is able to doe above all things [...] more then aboundantly above that we can aske or thinke, above the shaping or frame of my words and thoughts. But I can ask heaven, he can give more then heaven, and above heaven, yea I can think of Christ, but he can give above the Christ that I can thinke on, because I cannot comprehend infinite Jesus Christ.

Rule 11. Christ is not so intent and heart-bended on freedom from death and this black and sad hour, Visible and in­visible provi­dence [...]ow dif­ferenced. but he reverences a high­er providence, that Gods will be done; so are we to look to provi­dence, and we are not to stumble at an externall stroake in sad occurences, when Iob 9.22. God destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. And he furbishes his Sword Ezek. 21.3. and saith, [Page 152] I will draw out my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee, the righteous and the wicked.

1 Then 1. Arise, goe downe to the potters house, Jer. 18. The earth is Gods work-h [...]use; for clay, good and bad are equally on the wheeles; Christ as punishable for our sinnes, though a vessell of burning Gold, is under art; Soveraignity rolles a­bout three in one wheele, the Blaspheming, the Repenting Thiefe, and Christ, who is Uertue, Grace, yea Glory in the midst. An elect and a reprobate man may bee both sewed in the same winding-sheet, they may touch others skins in the same grave, but they are not rolled in, in the same hell. Yea Cham is saved in the Arke, but as the uncleane beasts are, hee is pre­served from drowning, but reserved to cursing.

2 2. There is a providence of grace, as there is in God a speci­all love of free-grace; the good and the bad figs are not in the same invisible basket; there is a Pavilion, a Cabinet of silke in Gods privie Chamber, seene to no eye: Psal. 27.5. And upon all the glory shall be a covering, Esai. 4.9. Christs free and in­visible love, is a faire white webbe of gold, that a Saint is wrap­ped in in the ill day. Where is he? he is hid, yet he goes through the sieve, and sifted he must be, but not a graine of him falles to the earth, Amos 9.9.

3. There have been questions about the Prerogative of Kings 3 and the Priviledge of Parliaments too, but undeniably in the Market-roade of Providence, Royall Prero­gative of pro­vidence and the waies thereof. the Lord hath kept a Prerogative Royall of justice to himselfe, to cut off the innocent and righ­teous with the wicked, in temporall judgements. 2. And of speciall grace of Providence, when the godly man is blacked 1 with a death-marke, and condemned to die; Gods Prerogative 2 sends him a reprievall of grace, above the law, and current of providence. Esai. 38.5. Ezechiah (saith the high Land-lord) is summoned to slit and remove, yet he shall dwell in his Farme 3 of clay, fifteene yeares. 3. This Prerogative dispenseth with fire, not to burne; with the Sea, not to ebbe and flow, so long as the soles of the feet of Christs bride are upon the new-found sands in the heart of the Sea. Yea with hungry Lyons not to eat their meat, when they have no food but the flesh of Daniel, be­loved of the Lord. Christ here commits himselfe unto an un­seen Soveraignty. For Abraham to kill his owne onely begot­ten sonne of promise; to reason, its a worke of God, but its a [Page 153] providence of non-sence. Neither Law nor Gospel, for ought that reason can see, shall warrant it; yet Soveraignity com­mands it, and that's enough. Afflictions of trialls, such as the prosperitie of the wicked, and the trying sufferings of the god­ly, seeme more to contradict Gods promises, and revealed will in the Word, then any other visitations of God, therefore be­side that they require patience, they must have faith in an eminent manner. To beleeve infinite wisdome can tye the mur­thering of Isaak by his owne Father, against the Law of Na­ture (as it seemes) with the Gospel, which cannot command unnaturall blouds, must require much faith.

Rule 12. Christ declares when matters are at the worst, there is good will for him, in the done will of God; its an ob­jection to sense, and to sinlesse Nature in Christ-man: O doest thou not see sad and four-faced death, is not thy soule thy dar­ling in the power of dogs? hath not hell long and bloody teeth? is not the furnace, the oven of the Lords highest indignation, for the sins of all the chosen of God very hot? To stand at the wil [...] of God and goe no far­ther, [...] s [...]b­mission. when the flames of it makes thee a troubled soule, and causes thee to sweat out blood; what blood shall be l [...]ft for scourging, for the Iron nails of that sad crosse? True (saith Christ) I have (God knowes) a heavy soule, my strength is dried up like a potsheard: This cup casteth a savour of hell and fiery indignation, a sight of it would kill a man, yet i'le drinke it, the good and just will of my Fa­ther be done, there I stand, further I goe not. To be at a stand, and to lay silence on our tumultuous thoughts, who are com­passed with a body of sin, and to be satisfied with the will of the Lord is our safest, we should not be perswaded by the crosse, or all that sense can say, far lesse what sin can say from this, The will of the Lord be done. The friends of Paul hearing what he must suffer, say, Acts 20.14. When he would not hee perswaded, we ceased saying, The will of the Lord be done. It is grace to cease and say no more, when we see the Lord declare his mind to us; An holy heart will not goe one haires breadth beyond the Lords revealed will.

1. Because love which thinketh not [...]ll, Fai [...]h s [...]th [...] gra [...]e in a sad provi­d [...]ce. does not black the spotlesse and faire will of God, when it is revealed to be from God, though Hell were in that will.

2. Faith seeth even in permitting of persecution from Pharaoh and Egypt, the Lords good will in the burning bush, the very [Page 154] good will by which he saveth his people redeemed in Christ, Mat. 11.26. Phil. 1.13. who dwelleth in the bush, Deut. 33.16. And it's considerable that the same good will which is the root of reprobation, and of permitting hell and Devils, and Devils per­secuting instruments to turn his Church into ashes, and to a burnt bush; and Devils and men to crucifie Christ is free grace, and the root of Election to glory, and is extended to the Saints, Rom. 9.15, 16, 17. Ephes. 1.11. Faith seeth and readeth free grace in a providence, which of it self, is extended to Devils and reprobate men, though not as extended to them; and it is an Argument of true grace, if any can say Amen to Hell and the sadest indig­nation coming from this will, though against a particular will of of our owne.

3 3. As we are obliged to adore God, so also his Soveraignty and holy will, when its revealed to us; and to murmure against it, because it crosseth our short-sighted, and narrow-witted will, is the highest contempt of God, and that which is the Soule and Formale of sinne, Providence wise and can­not be coun­ter-wrought. and the determination of a wicked and ill-stated question. Whether should my short and pur-blind will, stand for eternity; or the holy and infinitely-wise will of God, which had eternity of duration, infinitnesse of wisdome, and not seven, but millions of eyes, to advise what was decreed as fittest to be done.

4. Since there is not a Fatum, nor an Adamantine destiny 4 and irrevocable decree but this; is it holy wisdome to knocke hard heads with God? Its true, Pride growes greene, and ca­steth out its golden branches in the fattest soile: But Job 9.4. He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength; who hath hardned himselfe against him, and prospered? There is infinite wisdome in God, and infinite power to bring to pas [...]e his Decrees; will clay counterworke Gods infinite counsell? The Former of all things makes fire-workes under the earth against sinners; can sinners make counter-mines to out-worke the Almighty? Sure if he be wise in heart, who hath a most eminent, holy, and just providence in all that falleth out, when we heare that the Gos­pell, and the Church of Christ are oppressed in judgement, we are to looke on that oppression, as on the sinne of other men, and as our crosse, and to mourne for it: In the former con­sideration, and in the latter, as it troubles us, to judge it good, ne­cessary, and better, then if it had been otherwise. The formall [Page 155] reason of goodnesse is the will of God, and your judgement is to esteeme that good, which is ill to you, though it bee sowre and heavie; for it hath goodnesse from this, and goodnesse to you that the Lord hath decreed it; to be sowre and sweet make up a middle taste most pleasant; Christ twisteth blacke and white in one web; the Jewes sinnes, which he willeth not; and their sinne is the redemption of man, which hee loveth; and these two are pleasant to behold, and when they are mixed in one, and come from the most wise God, they have beauty to God, farre bee it from mee, to judge them blacke, or unjust, which are faire to him.

Rule 13. Christ submits his will to the will of God, in soule-desertions, so should we doe. Christs love to his Father, is no Critick, no knotty Questionist to spinne, and forge jealousies a­gainst 1 the Lords dispensation in the influence of heaven on his soule. He is willing to lay his soule-comforts in the bosome and free-will of his Father; and in this he judgeth the Lords will, better then his owne will. We have too many querelous love-motions against the reality of Christs love, when he hides him­selfe. O but wee are covetous and soule-thirsty after our owne will, in the matter of soule-manifestations; either I see little here, or we Idol comforts, We d [...]te to much on the sweet [...] dents of Christ, and love [...]im­selfe to l [...]ttle. and would gladly have a Christ of created grace, rather then Christ, or his grace; and when we are thirsting for Christ, it is his comforts, the Rings, Jew­ells, Bracelets of the Bridegrome, wee sick after, rather then himselfe; its not an unmixed, nor a poore mariage-love, to ma [...]y the riches and possessions, and not the person, Math. 22.2. The Kingdome of heaven is like unto a certaine King, which made a Mariage [...], for his Son, not for his daughter in law. The glory of Gospel-dainties resembled to a Marriage, are for the Kings Sonne, and the glory of Christ; not for our glory, but for our grace. Christ is the finall end, for whom all the Honey-combes, the Myrrhe, the Spices, the Wine, and the Milk of the banquet are prepared. Cant. 5.1. We have need of Christ to cure, even our perfections: there be some wild oats, some grains of madnesse and will-wit in our best graces. 2. You can­not Idolize Christ himselfe; love in pounds, in talent weights is too little for him; his sweet accidents, his delights, consolations love-embracements are sweet; but swel-ling, and too fatning, and if Christ send these to a beleever, in a box of gold, or in [Page 156] a case made of a piece of the heaven, or of a chip of the noone-day-Sunne, and not come himselfe, they should not satisfie the soule. Cant. 3.1. I sought him whom my soule loved; Watch­men saw yee him? O it is the beloved himselfe, that is a great man in the Spouses bookes, his Wine, his Spiknard, his Myrrhe, his Oyntments, his Perfume, the Savour of his Garments, his Apples of love, are all in that heavenly song set out for himselfe. Love-tokens are nothing, duties nothing, inherent righteous­nesse nothing, heaven nothing, if separated from Christ; but Christ himselfe is all in all.

2 Our 2. disease is, we forget that hee that created the love of Christ in the heart, God who created supernatu­rall love can rule it. can onely cure our love, when its sicke for Christ: As he that created the first World can rule it, so he that created the second new world, can guide it, and all the creatures in it, though our faith stagger, touching his speciall providence, in particulars of either, as we are deserted, and left to our selves.

3. We often thirst after comforts, and sense, as the people 3 did, and ( Esai 58.5.) were reproved for their fast: Is it such a Fast as I have chosen? And Zach. 7.5. Did yee at all Fast to me, We desire Christ often for ourselves. even to me? So may Christ blame us for the like sinne, and say, Have ye thirsted to me, and for me, and not rather for your selves? Let us examine delusions, and not father them upon Christ, except we know he will owne them.

4 4. We desire a never interrupted presence and sense of God, whereas Christ submitted, to want it for a time; when he saw it was Gods will so to doe; and though we have not, nor can we have positively, alway an edge of actuall hunger; yet wee negatively can be submissive to want, when wee see it is his will, Submission to the absence of G [...]d is requ [...] ­red. we want; whereas he is the same Christ, with the same immanent, and eternall love of election, without variation of the Degrees of the altitude and height thereof, the same infi­nite wisdome, when he frownes, and hides his face, and when he shines and smiles in his kingly manifestations. Cloudes alters not the Sunne-light, coverings changeth not Christ, that he can­not love behind the curtaine. Except we take a cloud to be the Sunne, or created sweetnesse to be Christ; were the beame sepa­rated from the Sunne; what should it be but as good as nothing? We dreame that the curtaines and robes of Christs manifesta­tions of love, adds somewhat to his excellency; then hee must [Page 157] be of more eminency, when hee expresseth himselfe in love-em­bracements to us, then when hee was from eternity the floure of his Fathers delight. Christs out-side in revealed sweetnesse, and in transient manifestations of his beauty, must then be more excellent then himselfe; this is too selftie a conception of Christ. The Lord Jesus is more within, then we can enjoy of him, in his love-expressions; he loses none of that immanent sweet­nesse, under his wise withdrawings; though you, or I, or Men, or Angels, should never feed upon any time-injoyments of sweetest love, and manifested glory from his revealed kindenesse.

5. Its a great Quere, if it be expedient, that our motion to heaven, should bee as the motion of the Sunne that never rests, but moves as swiftly in the night as in the day, and if we should ever be on wings, I know its our dutie; but even the falling on our owne weight, and the conscience of our clay-mould, our short breath, Natures weake leggs in walking up the Mount, are good for the adding wind and tyde, [...] expedient that we [...] on our own leggs some time. and high sailes to the praysing of Christ, and free Grace: Vtile est pec­cavisse, noc [...]t p [...]ccare. It is profitable that we have sinned, that Grace may be extolled, it is ill to sinne. Even to the nature of man its good that hee hath dyed, and hath beene in the grave, yet its not good, but contrary to nature, to die, and to ly in the grave. Oblisse bonum est n [...]turae, obire mulum.

6. Its our forgetfulnesse, that wee see not the dearest to Christ hath beene kept lowest, and most empty in their owne eyes; hidden grace extolleth Christ. 2. That often the Saints are kept in a condition of sayling with as much wind as blows, 2 with praying, and beleeving. 3. That yet prayer and the 3 sweating of Faith cannot earne, Returne of Christ no me­rit. nor promerit the renewed sense of Christ, so as Christ returneth to eate his honey-combe, and his wine, and milke, and banquet with the soule, rather at the presence of these acts, then for them, as some have said, (thou [...]h with no strength of reason) that fire burneth not, the Sunne enlighteneth not, the [...]arth doth not send forth floures, and herbes; but God at the naked presence of these causes, doth produce all effects; yet in this case it hath a truth; that the sweating of all supernaturall industry, cannot redeeme the least halfe glimpse of Gods presence, in the sense of eternall love, when God is pleased for trial [...] to hide himselfe.

7▪ Our great fault heere is merit, that we tye the flowings [Page 158] and inundations of Christs love to the becke of our desires, whereas we may know: 1. That the Sunne doth not shine, nor the raine water the earth, in order to merit. 2. Wee should know that grace, and all the acts of grace are almes, not debt, and that a rich Saviour giveth grace to us as beggars, and payeth it not to hirelings, as the due, or as wages wee can crave for our worke; but wee love peny-worth's better then free-gifts.

The work of redemption most rationall and full of causes Christs worke of redemption was a most rationall worke, and was full of causes, [...]; this saith, that to redeeme lo­sed sinners, was not a rash and reasonlesse worke.

1. There was no cause compelling. Love cannot be forced, John 3.16. God so loved the world, that he gave his onely be­gotten 1 Sonne, &c. Grace worketh more from an intrinsecall cause, and more spontaneously then nature. For Nature often is provoked by contraries for selfe-defence to worke: as fire worketh on water, as on a contrary; the wolfe and the dogge pursue one another as enemies. But Grace, because grace hath abundance of causality and power in it selfe, but hath no cause without it.

2 2. Any necessitie of working from Goodnesse in the Agent, as from such a principle is strong. 1 Tim. 1.15. Its a true say­ing, and by all meanes worthy to be received, that Christ Ie­sus came into the world to save sinners. If the thing be worthy [...], of all receipt and embracing, then it must bee good; an Agent working from a Principle of goodnesse doth in his kind worke necessarily, though he may also worke from another principle freely. Grace a cause of it selfe. John 10.11. I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheepe. Luke 19.10. For the Sonne of man is come to seeke, and to save that which is lost.

3

3. God will seeke reasons or occasions without himselfe, to be gracious to sinners. When no reason or cause moveth a Phy­sitian to cure, but onely sicknesse and extreame misery; wee know grace and compassion is the onely cause; Ezech. 36.23. I will sanctifie my great name, Sin an occasi­on of actes of grace. Why? Which was prophaned among the heathen; and which ye have prophaned in the midst of them; then the true cause must bee expressed, Vers. 22. Thus [Page 159] saith the Lord God, I doe not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy Names sake.

4. The Lord taketh a cause from the end of his comming, 4 Math. 20.28. The Sonne of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransome for many. Joh. 18.37. To this end was I borne, and for this cause came into the world, that I should beare witnesse to the truth. Joh. 10.10. I am come that they might have life, and have it in aboundance.

5. Some thing, yea very much of God, is in the creation; 5 much of God in his common providence; but most of all, Much of God in the work of redemption. yea whole God in the redemption of man. God manifested in the flesh is the matter and subject of it, Grace the moving cause, most of all his attributes, working for the manifestation of the Glory of pardoning mercy, revenging justice, exact faithful­nesse and truth, freest grace, omnipotency over hell, devils, sinne, the World; patience, longanimity to man, cooperate as the formall and finall causes, it is a peece so rationall and full of causes, that as he is happy, (Felix qui potuit rerum cognos­cere causas,) who can know the causes of things: so Angels de­light to be Schollers to read and study this mysterious art of free Grace, Eph. 3.10. 1 Pet. 1.12 Works without reasons and causes are foolish. The cause why we doe not submit to God, is, Afflictions are to be weighed in all the cau­s [...]s. 1. Who afflicts. 2. How or in what manner. 3. For what cause. be­cause we lye under blind and fatherlesse crosses: its true, Af­fliction springs not out of the dust, and crosses considered with­out God, are twise crosses. Three materiall circumstances in crosses are very considerable. Quis, quare, quomodo. 1. Who, for what cause, and how doth God afflict us. Who afflicts is worthy to be known. Esai. 42.24. Who gave Jaakob for a spoile, and Israel to the robbers? The highest cause of causes did it. Did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? 1 1 Sam. 3.18. It is the Lord, let him doe what seemeth good to him. 2. For what end God the Lord did this, is a circum­stance of comfort; Why led the Lord Israel through a great 2 and terrible wildernesse, wherein were fiery Scorpions, and Ser­pents, and drought? Deut. 8.16. That he might prove thee, to doe thee good at thy latter end. 3. And how the Lord cor­recteth, is worthy to be known. He correcteth Jaakob in mea­sure, 3 Jer. 6.28. Mercy wrapped about the rod, and a cup of gall and wormewood honeyed, and oyled with free love, and a piece of Christs heart, and his stirred bowels mixed in with [Page 160] the cup, is a mercifull little hell. Psal. 6.1. Jer. 31.18, 19, 20. The Law saith, Blind and dumb cr [...]sses not good. A Bastard hath no father, because his father is not knowne. The Philistimes are plagued with Emerods, but whether that ill was from the Lord, or from Chance, they know not. The crosse to many is a bastard. We suffer from Prelats, because wee suffered Prelats to persecute the Saints. Papists shed our bloud, why? Our fore-fathers burnt the witnesses of Christ, and we never repented. Christ and Anti-christ are at bloudy blowes in the camp: Anti-christ hath killed many thousands in the three kingdomes for Religion; that is the quarrell: and when England had often before, and have now opportunity, they will not lift Christ up on his throne, nor put his Crowne Royall on his head, but doe put it on their owne head, but the judgement is not yet at an end. Scotland hath not walked worthy of the Gospel, but have fallen from their first love. We take not a deliberate list of every limbe, thigh, legge, and member of this nationall wrath, and we neither see where­fore we are afflicted, nor how.

There is some peculiar act of Christs will here holden forth, and that is Christs peculiar intention, to die for his people; in which we are to consider the activenesse of Christs will in dying for man, which may be seene.

1. In his free offering of himselfe, and his service to the Fa­ther. 1 Psalm. 40.6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine eares hast thou opened. How actively wil [...]ing Christ was to serve for us. Heb. 10.5. A body (that is, the office house, and instrumentall subject of obedience to the death, as the eare is of hearing, and obeying the commandements of God) thou hast prepared me. Vers. 7. Then said I, loe I come (in the volumne of thy booke it is written of me) to doe thy will ô God. In these words Christ is brought in as a servant, with three excellent quallities. Excellent qua­lities in Christ as he [...] a servant to God in the work of re­demption. 1. Physically, he is fitted with a body and a soule to offer to God for us; as in a servant there are required strong limbs and armes to endure drudgery, in this he was borne of his mother, for this sad service: his Master furnished him for this, even the seed of mans flesh and bloud for suffering.

2. There were morall habilities in him; promptitude of of will. So the Lord is brought in, as a Lord and Master in [Page 161] justice crying, servant; O Sonne and servant Jesus, I have a businesse for thee of great concernment. At the first word, as all good servants doe, Christ takes him to his feet, and com­peares before his God, his Master and Lord, Loe I come, here am I; so servants of old answered their Master: What service wilt thou command so hard, which I will not undergoe? Ma­ster, here's a body for thy worke, here be cheekes for the nip­pers, a face for those that will plucke off the haire, a backe for smiting, a body for the crosse and the grave. Christ as a ser­vant uncovered, standing on feet, would say; Lord, send mee thy seruant to the Garden, to worke under the burden of thy wrath, till I sweat blood; bid me goe to shame, to scourging, and spitting, is it thy will I goe up on the cursed crosse, and bee made a curse for sinners, that I be crucified and die, that I goe lower in to the utter halfe of hell, the grave, which is a sad journey; loe here am I, willing to obey all.

3. There was in Christ, not onely willingnesse, but delight, Psal. 40.8. [...] My God I delight to doe thy will, 3 every servant cannot say this to his Master, thy Law is in the 1 midst of my heart.

2. His willingnesse to die was a part of his Testament and last Will, he dyed with good will, and left in Legacy his death, and 2 the fruits of it, his blessing, his heart, his love, his peace, his life to his bride in Testament, confirmed by Law, to all his poore brethren and friends, Heb. 9, 17. and John 14.27. Peace I leave (in testament) with you. But the Orphane, and the poore friend gets not all that his dying Father and friend leaves in Testament, but Christ gives possession himselfe ere he die, My peace I give to you; but to the point: His latter Will, was wil­lingnesse to die.

3. No externall force could take his life from him, against his will. John 10.18. No man taketh my life from me, Christ [...] wil­li [...]gnesse to die. but I lay 3 it downe of my selfe, I have power to lay it downe, and I have power to take it againe. Yet lest it should seeme a will-action in Christ, and [...]o not obedience, he addeth. This Commandement (that is the will of a Superiour) have I received of my Father. Compelled obedience, is no obedience: exact willingnesse was a substantiall and essentiall ingredient in Christs obedience. Acts of Grace cannot be extorted; can yee teare a shoure of [Page 162] raine, from God in an extreame drouth: or bread from him in your hunger, against his will? Farre lesse, since Christs dy­ing was an act of pure grace, can any compell him to dye for man. Love arrested his holy will, and that made him runne apace to dye for us: O blessed be his good will, who burned himselfe in the Bush, in a fire of free love.

4. Though dying be a passion; yet Christs dying was both 4 a passion, Christ an A­gent in his passion. and an action. Will added as much perfume and strength of obedience, as nature, and paine, shard-ship, shame, and abasement could doe; his life was not so much plucked from him, as out of his owne hand, As an Agent he offered his bloud, and soule; yea, himselfe to God, through the eter­nall Spirit, Hebr. 9.14. Love was the coard, the chaine that did bind Christ to the Altar.

5 5. Christ [...] on this intention came to this houre; so is [...] often in Scripture. Christ special­ly intended to have a spouse in all his suf­ferings, and labours. Not onely his will, but the floure of his will, his intention was to die, for Christs eye and his heart, and his love was on his Bride; the intention is the most eminent act that Love can put forth. Christs eye and his heart being upon his Spouse, he made our salvation his end and mea­sure of his love, to compasse this end: the Lord laid many Oares in the water; his rising earely, his night watching, his toyling, his sweating, his soare and hard Soule-travell, as being heavy with Child of this end, (O might I have a redeemed people) was all his care; and his soule was eased, when dying, bleeding, crying, he went thorough hell and death, and slept in deaths blacke and cold prison, and his Redeemed ones in his armes. When hee came to the end of this sad journey, and found his Ramsomed ones, he said; I have sought you with a heavie heart; faire and foule way, sad and weary; and all is well bestowed, since I have gained you. Let us up together to the hill of Spices, to our Fathers house, to the highest mountaine of Frankincense. All that Christ did, was for this end, That he might deliver us from this present evill world, Galat. 1.4. That he might be a ransome for many, Matth. 20.28. That we might have life, and have it more abundantly, Joh. 10.10. That he might seeke and save the lost, Luke 19.10. That he might present his wife a glorious Church to himselfe, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that she should bee holy and without blemish, Ephes. 5.26, 27. that wee being dead to [Page 163] sinne, should live to righteousnesse, 1 Pet. 2.24. Christ came to seeke, and travelled ever till he found his desire, a redeemed and saved people, and then hee rested; Even as hee journyed through all the Creation, but till he found man, a creature that he made according to his owne image, hee had no Sabbath, no rest. His willingnesse to die, respected his redeemed people, whom out of meere mercy he loved, and the worth of will and merit respected infinite justice, which hee exactly satisfied.

Hence we learne; Vse 2. 1. To imitate and follow our patterne Christ, in voluntary obedience, delighting to doe Gods will, and to suffer Gods will. Its said of Christ, Hebr. 5.8. Though hee were a Sonne, yet learned he obedience through suffering. Hee was the excellentest Scholler among all his Schoole-fellowes, and yet the rod of God was heaviest, and most frequent on him; he learned his Lesson beyond them all. He was quick in understanding, in the feare of the Lord, Esai. 11.3. He had in him an excellent Spirit; The Spirit of Wisdome, of Counsell, Its much to be active for God but more to be passive. of Knowledge, and of the Feare of the Lord; And was holy and obedient to the death, the death of the Crosse. Its much to learn to be active for God, but more to learne to be passive. That is a profound science. Phil. 4.12. I know how to be abased, — I am instructed to be hungry, —and to suffer need. It's the singular art of Grace to know how to love, feare, and obey God, under death, paine, and hell. It is a high lesson to learne the My­stery of that deepe Science, of hunger, want, suffering, stripes, and torment, and death for Christ. This is high, Hebr. 10.34. Yee, tooke patiently the spoiling of your goods, knowing that in heaven ye have a better, and more enduring substance. They are but accidents wee have heere, and these very separable. Heaven is all substance. Our obedience passive is not willing, its constrained. We might by Grace turne clay into gold, hell into heaven: if we could looke in faith and patience, To looke to highest provi­dence a safe ground of sud­mission. on the persecution, and reproaches of men, as on the brutish and ir­rationall motion of a staffe, or an axe that beates and cuts us; suppose we knew no hand under God that wronged us; hee curseth, because the Lord hath bidden him. For the freedome of Christs kingdome, and the right government of his house, and for opposing blasphemies, and reproaching of Christ, his Word, Scripture, Ordinances, We are killed all the day long, and counted the off-s [...]ourings of men; could wee over-looke [Page 164] unthankfulnesse, malice, wickednesse, persecution from men, whom wee with our lives and bloud have redeemed from per­secution, and behold the highest Mover, and first Wheele that moveth all under wheeles, as if God onely were our party, who humbles us, that wee may be humbled; then should wee be silent, and our hearts should not rise at the exorbitances of men. There is too much of nature in our sufferings, too little submissive willingnesse. The more action of a sanctified will in our sufferings, its the more acceptable, and cometh nearest to Christ, who did both runne for the Crown, and was active, and endured the Crosse, and was most passive in an heavenly manner, Heb. 12.

2. Let us learne of Christ to intend obedience, to put a [...] to our obedience. Vse 2. Many heare the word, but they in­tend not to heare; many pray, and intend not to pray; many die in these warres for Christ, but intend not to spend their life for Christ: The holy and cleane cause of God cometh through many dirty and foule fingers. This is the deep art of Providence.

Quest. What is a right and straight intention in serving God?

Asser. 1. When the deliberation of a bended will concurres with the intention, What is a right inten­tion in ser­ving God. its right; as when there is an heart-conclu­sion for God. Psal. 39.1. I said I will take heed to my wayes, that I offend not with my tongue. Psal. 31.14. But I trusted in the Lord: I said, Thou art my God. Psal. 102.24. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my dayes. This was an intended prayer. Psal. 119.57. I have said that I would keep thy words.

Asser. 2. The Saints are not so perfect in their intentions, as God is their onely end. 1. Because a piece of our selfe is mix­ed with our end; there is some crook in our straightest line; an angle in our perfectest circle: when wee run most swiftly, be­cause of the in-dwelling of corruption, we halt a little. 2. Self-deniall is not perfect in this life.

Where Christ is the predo­minant, hee is the over-swaying end in the soule. Asser. 3. Its good, when God is so pre-conceived in the in­tention, as the principall actions and motions both have being and denomination from their predominant element. Hony is is hony, though not pure from wax. A b [...]leever is not a simple element, nor all grace, and all sincerity. Now in bodies carried [Page 165] with a predominant element, the predominant is affirmed, the subordinate denyed. 1 Cor. 15.10. Yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 2 Cor. 4.5. For wee preach not our selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and our selves your servants for Christs sake. Where Christ is the predominant element, he is of weight to sway the whole soule in its motion. And its right-down sin­cerity (whatever Crispe, with Papists say on the contrary) though it require some graines of allowance to make it passe.

Asser. 4. Where Selfe is the predominant, Where Selfe is predomi­nant, the in­tention cannot be sincere. the intention is bastard and adulterate. Jehu saith, Come see my zeale for the Lord; but hee onely saith it. Hee could have said, Come see my zeale for my selfe. In the Jewes zeale, Rom. 10.1. there's a pound of selfe-righteousnesse, for one halfe graine of Christ, and of free-grace; therefore its not the right zeale of God.

Asser. 5. There be two characters of an intended end, Two Chara­cters of the thing which is our inten­ded end. which are also here: 1. All that the agent doth, hee referreth to his end; for his end is his God. The wretch doth all in reference to gold, that is his end: And Joab did all for Court and honour; for the chiefe end is the mans Master, and useth a lord-ship o­ver him. Christ is so mighty through God, that hee darkens the Scribes and Pharisees light; because their end lieth in the fat womb of the world, and it is gaine and glory; all they doe is to make Christ out of the way. So when the beleever sailes all winds, rolleth every stone, presseth all meanes for Christ, as his end, and his weight, then stirres hee to the right port. Christs love hath a dominion over lord-will: One Adamant will cut an­other; the sinner is a rock, Christs love an Adamant. Christs love setting on the wills intention, burnes the soule to the bone. The love of Christ strong, and takes stre [...]gth fro [...] difficulties. Mary Magdalen cannot sleep, (and its a ticklesome game where the heart is at the stake) and Christ shee must have; Apostles, Angels, Christ himselfe shall heare of it ere shee want him. And the rougher and harder the meanes be, when under-taken for Christ, Christ must be a stronger and more love-working end. When torment and burning quick are chosen for Christ, its like hee is the end; for love over-comes a rough and dangerous jour­ney: A sweet and desirable home, is above a dirty and thorny way. Christs love is stronger then hell. Our affections often take fire from difficulties; as absence of the Beloved kindles a new fire; Stollen bread, because stollen, is sweeter, and not our nature onely; but longing after Christ, nititur in vetitum, in­clineth [Page 166] to that which is forbidden. What if Christ be longed for and loved more when absent, then present?

2. The other Character is, That when the end is obtained, all operation for, That is our e [...]d, which ob­tained [...] the de [...]ire in th [...] pros [...]ution of meanes or about the meanes ceaseth, and the soule hath a complacency in the fruition of the end. When the wretches chests are full, hee hath an heart-quietnesse in gold; Luk. 12. Soule, take thine ease; but if the soule have an ake­ing and a disquieting motion after gold is obtained, it is not because gold was not his end, but because hee hath not ob­tained it in such a large measure as hee would; or because its but a sick and lame end, and cannot satiate, but rather sharpen soule-thirst after such corruptible things. When Christ is ob­tained, the soule hath sweet peace; Hee that drinketh of the water of life thirsts no more, appetitu desiderii, as longing with anxiety for this, as wee doe for earthly things, which we want; though hee have appetitum complac [...]ntiae, a desire of compla­cency, and a sweet self-quietnesse, that his heritage pleaseth him well, and his lines are fallen in pleasant parts, and rests on his portion, and would not change it with ten thousand worlds. Men by this, who are fishing and hunting after some other thing then Christ, may know what is their end: when Christ and Reformation come to their doores, they will have neither; but cast out their lines for another prey: Men now fish and angle for gaine, in lieu of godlinesse.

Here is the last Article of Christs prayer, Father, glorifie thy Name. 2. The Returne of Christs prayer by an audible answer from heaven.

This Prayer, Glorifie thy Name, Father; is of an higher straine: Father, I am willing to die, so thou be glorified in giving to me strength to suffer, and thou redeeme lost man by me, and by so doing glorifie thy Name. Christ never in his hardest suffering would be wanting to glorifie God. Now how farre the glory of God, in doing and suffering, should be in­tended and desired by us, in these considerations I propose.

1. Wee are to preferre the Lords glory to our owne life and salvation: no point of self-denyall, and renouncing of self-plea­sing [Page 167] can reach higher then this, when Christ is willing to be the passive object of the glory of God; Put me, Father, Wee glorifie God when we are willing that our losse may [...]e the gaine of the Lords glo [...]y. to shame and suffering, so thou maist be glorified. Paul and Moses are not farre out, but they are farre out of themselves, when the one for the glory of the Lord, in savin [...] the people of God, wil­leth his name may be razed out of the book of life: and the other, to be separated from Christ, for the salvation of his kins­men, Gods chosen people. When Abraham is willing that Glo­ry to the Lord should be written with the ink of his sonne I­saac's bloud; and the Martyrs, that their paine may praise God, they then levell at the right end; for that must be the most perfect intention, that comes nearest to the most perfect. This is nearest to Gods intention; for hee created, and still worketh all for this end, that hee may be glorified. Pro. 16.4. Revel. 4.11. Rom. 11.37. Now if Christ put all to sea, and ha­zard all hee hath to guard the Lords Name from dishonour, and made his soule, his life, his heaven, his glory a bridge to keep dry and safe the Glory of God, that it sink not; and if God would rather his deare Son should be crowned with the Crosse, and his bloud squeezed out, with his precious life, then that any shame should come to his Name, then are wee to in­terpose our selves, even to sufferings, and shame, for the glory of God. Suppose a Saint were divided in foure, and every mem­ber with life in it, and torment of paine, fixed in the foure cor­ners of the heaven, East, and West, and South, and North, and the soule in the convexity of heaven, under the paine of the tor­ment of the gnawing worme that can never die, We are to de­si [...]e that our paine may prais [...] reven­gi [...]g justice, in hell, as g [...]ace [...]e [...]g [...]t [...]neth the glory of pardoning mercy, in heaven. these five were oblieged to cry with a loud voyce, in the hearing of hea­ven, of earth, of hell, of Men, and Angels, and all creatures, Glory, glory be to the spotlesse and pure justice of the Lord, for this our paine: and when the damned are noted to speake against their sentence of condemnation, When saw we thee hun­gry, and fed thee not? &c. Mat. 25. it is cleare they are ob­lieged to acquiesce to this, that they are made clay-vessels, pas­sively to be filled to the brim with the glory of revenging justice, and ought in hell to praise the glory of revenging wrath, as the Saints in heaven are bottles and vessels of mercy, from bottom to brim, filled with the glory of mercy, to praise his grace in heaven, who redeemed them: the one Psalme is as due and just as the other. What the damned doe not, or doe in the [Page 168] contrary, is their sinne. One prayed, his death, paine, torment, sad afflictions that may out-runne him, ere hee escape into the grave, yea, that his hell might with his owne good will be a printed booke, on which Angels and Men may read the glory of inviolable justice.

2. Wee love that the holinesses and grace of others were 2 ours, that we might glorifie God, but we glorifie him not with that which he hath given us; We des [...]re God m [...]y be glorifi­ed by our wi­shes, rather t [...]n [...] indeavour to glorifie him. yea, we have a sort of wicked e­mulation and envy if others glorifie God, not we. Moses acqui­esced to Gods dispensation, that the Lord might be glorified in the peoples possessing of the holy Land, though hee himselfe should not bee their leader, but not at the first. There is a cumbersome piece called, I, ego, selfe, that hath an itching soule for glory due to another.

3 3. O how unwilling are wee, that the Lords glory over­weigh our ease, and humour? Master, forbid Eldad and Me­dad to Prophecie, saith Joshua. No, Moses will have God glo­rified, be the instruments who will.

4. There is a two fold glory here due to God. 1. Active; 4 the glory of duties to be performed by us. 2. Passive; the glory of events, We care more for th [...] Lords passiv [...] gl [...]y of [...] for his active glory in our duties. that results from the Lords government of the world; wee are to care for both, but wee doe it not orderly. We are more carefull of Gods passive glory, which belongs to himselfe, then we ought to be. Hence say we, what confusi­ons be there in the world? Nation breakes covenant with Na­tion; Heresies and blasphemies prevaile; Antichrist is yet on his throne; the Churches over Sea oppressed, the people of God led to the Shambles, as slaughter-sheep, and destroyed, and killed. Hundreds of Thousands killed in Ireland, many thou­sands in England, and very many thousands about the space of one year taken away in Scotland, with the Sword and the Pesti­lence. And [...]he Lords justice is not yet glorified, nor his mercy in avenging the enemies, the cry of the soules under the Altar is not heard, the Church not delivered. We would here yeeld patience to Divine providence; God hath more care of his owne glory, then we can have. 2. What men takes from God, hee can repaire infinitly another way. But we are lesse anxious for the Lords active glory, to doe what is our duty, and serve him, and glorifie him in the sincere use of meanes. Some learn their Schoole-fellowes lesson better then their own. For Gods glory [Page 169] of events, we are to be grieved, when he is dishonoured, but not to take the helme of heaven and earth out of his hand, but leave to God these, who would plunder Christs Crowne off his head. We have nothing to doe in the glory of events, but pray it flourish: but we take too much adoe in it, and we doe too lit­tle in the other.

5. There is a glory of God; two-fold also: one of holy­nesse and grace; another of blisse and happinesse. This I consider, 5 either as in the kingdome of grace, or of glory. A glory of ho­lynesse, and of grace. In Graces king­dome, the Saints for their holinesse, and Titus and the Brethren, 2 Cor. 8.23. are the glory of Christ. I will place (saith the Lord Esai. 46.13.) salvation in Sion, for Israel my glory. Faith­full Pastors take in cities, and subdue crownes, and kingdomes, to Christ. Paul conquered many crownes to Christ, Saints are the glory of God, and God [...] the glory of Saints. 1 Thess. 2.19. For what is our hope, or joy, or crowne of reioycing? are not even yee in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his comming? Christ weares the Church on his head as a crowne of glory, Esai. 62.3. How glorious is it to bee for holynesse Christs garland, his diademe, and crowne? But in this there is a rent of the crowne of Heaven, a soveraigne peculiar flower due to the King of Ages, that no man must seeke after: in this the contexture and frame of the worke of Redemption is so contrived, that 1 Cor. 1.29. No flesh should glory in his pre­sence. No man can devide the glory of grace with Christ. In the higher Kingdome, there is a glory ordained for Saints. The Gospel is a glorious peece, which 1 Cor. 2.7. God hath ordained before the world was, unto our glory. 1 Thes. 2.12. God hath called us unto his kingdome and glory. 1 Pet. 5.4. And when the chiefe Shepherd shall appeare, yee shall receive a crowne of glory, that fadeth not away. This is the reward of faithfull Elders, that feed the flock of Christ. The heaven of glory is called the holy heaven, Psal. 20.6. The Lord will heare from his holy heaven, and the new Jerusalem the Church, hath a brave crowne on her head. Revel. 21.10, 11. Shee comes downe out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Grace, grace is a glorious thing.

6. O, but we come short in doing and suffering; when our 6 doing, suffering, eating, drinking, dying, paine, abasement, shame, Our [...]ymes are low, when we intend not the Lords glory. wants this end of the glorifying God; that addes an excellent luster, beauty, and glory to all that we doe. When Christ, the [Page 170] Father, heaven, are tyed to the furthest end of all our actions, we are above our selves. But wee differ little in our aymes from beasts, when the intention riseth no higher then this side of clay and time; Psal. 49.11. That our houses may continue. Esai. 5.8. That we may be placed, our alone on the earth.

In this Answer observe these. 1. The Answer. 2. The aire it came from; Foure particu­lars in the an­swer retur [...]ed to Christ. From heaven. 3. The way and manner of its comming; by an audible Voice. 4. The matter of the Answer. I have both glorified it, and will glorifie it againe.

Christ is alwaies answered of his Father: either in the thing he sueth, Christ praying ever heard. Joh. 11.42. Or, in that which he feares, Heb. 5.7. Or, by reall comfort, Luk. 2 [...].42, 43. Or in a full and perfect deliverance, Psalm. 22.20, 21. compared with Psalm. 16.10, 11. Acts 24.25. Acts 5.31. Or, in supply of strength for his suffering, Esai. 50.7, 8.

Its a proofe of the worth of Christs advocation and inter­cession. If I know my selfe to be in Christs Prayer-booke, in his breast, among Christs askings of the Father; its comforta­ble. Psal. 2.8. Aske of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. When Christ asketh soules of the Father, hee gives him his asking: the Lord cannot withhold from this King, the desire of his heart, Psalm. 21.2. He asked a wife of his Father, and it was granted. Christ will have them all in one house to be copartners of the Crowne of heaven with him: for its his Prayer, Joh. 17.24. The King and the Queene in one Pal­lace. We cannot fall from grace, for we stand by Christs pray­ers, Luke 22.31, 32. Heb. 9.24.

Our failings in expecti [...]g an answer of our Prayers.We have many diseases, in the matter of the returne of an answer. 1. We wait not on an answer; wee speak words, we pray not, we breath out naturall desires for spirituall mer­cies; we have no spirituall feeling of our wants, and there is an end; Psalm. 18.41. The wicked cry, but there is none to save; they doe not pray, but cry. 2. We storme, and offend that our humour, rather then our faith is not answered, either at our owne time, or that the thing which we aske to spend on our lusts (as James 4.3.) is not granted. 3. Wee are more [Page 171] carefull, and troubled, that we are not heard, then anxious to of­fer the rent, and pay the calves of our lips, in praying, which is Gods due. Were we as serious in worshipping in Prayer, as we are desirous of seeking wants, it were good; but there is more seeking in our Prayer, for our selves, then there is adoring for God. 4. We employ not Christ as Mediator, and High Priest in praying, and exercising Faith so much, as we put forth pith and strength of words, that we may extort rather our needs, then obtaine grace; as if praying, and hearing of prayers, were worke and wages, rather then begging, and giving of meere grace. 5. We consider not when we pray, and prayer is not returned in the same coyne that we seeke; That the Father hearing Christs prayers, virtually, and meritoriously answered all our prayers in substance, and for our good. For, 1. Christ can cull out, and chuse petitions more necessary and fundamen­tall for my salvation, then I can doe. 2. He is answered in all points; We are answered often in the generall, and in as good onely. 3. Christ could, with more submission and sense pray, then we can do. Nature in Christ cannot boast and compell God to heare prayers; Often our zeale is but naturall boasting and quarrelling, as if we could force God to answer. Grace in Christ (and grace is the most lowly, and modest thing of the world) prayes with all submission, Not my will, but thy will be done. 4. All prayers are hard for Christ, Ergo, his pray­ers are better heard, then the prayers of the Saints; except our prayers be folded in his prayers, they cannot be answered. The perfume, the sweet odours of Christs prayers are so pow­erfull and strong, as comming from God-man in one person, they must be both asking and giving, desiring and granting, praying and hearing, flowing from the same person, Christ. When our prayers goe to heaven; Christ, ere they come to the Father, must cast them in a new mould, and leaveth to them his heart, his mouth, though the Advocate taketh not the sense and meaning of the Spirit from them; yet Christ presenting them with his perfume, he removeth our corrupt sense, so as they are Christs prayers, rather then ours. Hebr. 13.15. Let us by him (as our High Priest) offer the sacrifice of praise (then of prayers also) to God continually. The offering is the Priests, aswell as the peoples, Revel. 8.3. and farre more here, because Christ [Page 172] by his Office, is the onely immediate person who maketh re­quest to God for us. Romanes 8.34.

All Christs good, and all ours for him, came from heaven.Hence, Christ troubled in soule, and afflicted beleevers on earth, keep correspondence and compliance with heaven.

1. Christs prayers, in his saddest dayes, have their returne from heaven. Posts and Messengers fly with wings between 1 God and a Soule in a praying disposition: possible, ten Posts in one night. Prayer hath an Agent lying at the Court of heaven, and an open eare there. Psal. 18.6. Hee heard my voyce out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his eares. Christ takes care that the Messenger get presence, and be quick­ly dispatched with a returne. Psal. 102.19. The Lord (ere the Messenger come) looked down from the height of his Sanctua­ry, Vers. 20. To heare the groning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death. So Lam. 3. Teares lie in hea­ven as Solicitors with God, untill hee heare; Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, Vers. 50. Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven. 1 King. 8.30. Heare thou in the heaven, thy dwelling place, and when thou hearest, forgive: saith Solo­mon. Isai. 63.15. Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holinesse. Our Saviour hath appointed the Post-way in that Prayer, Our Father which art in heaven. We have a Friend there who receives the Packet; An high Priest set at the right hand of the throne of Majesty, Heb. 8.1. Who hath passed into the heavens, Heb. 4.14. And is made higher then the heavens, Heb. 7.26. And liveth for ever to make intercessi­on for us, Vers. 25.

2 2. In Christs hardest straits comfort came out of this aire. Luk. 22.43. When hee was in his saddest agony, there appea­red to him an Angel from heaven strengthening him. In his lowest condition, when hee was in the cold grave among the dead, heaven was his Magazin of help and comforts. Mat. 28.2. An Angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and rolled away the stone. Heaven came to his bed-side, when hee was sleeping in the clods.

3. The Saints have daily traffiquing with heaven: O my dear 3 Friend, my Brother, my Factor is in that Land. Psal. 73.25. [Page 173] Whom have I in heaven but thee? What, are not Angels, Pro­phets, Apostles, and Saints there? Yea; but wee have no ac­quaintance by way of mediation in that Land, but Christ: hee is the choice Friend there. 1 Cor. 15.47. The second Man (both first, highest, second and all) is the Lord from heaven.

4. All our good, every perfect gift comes from heaven, Jam. 4 1.17. Manna came not from the clouds. How then? Joh. 6.32. My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. We are ill lodged in bits of sick and groning clay; our best house is in heaven. 2 Cor. 5.2. We groning, desire to be clothed with our house from heaven.

5. The earth is but the beleevers Sentinell, or at best, his 5 Watch-tower; but our hope is in heaven. 1 Thes. 1.10. Wee wait for the Son of God from heaven. Our life and treasure is there. Mat. 6.20. Lay up treasure for your selves in heaven. Our [...], our city-dwelling and our haunting is in hea­ven, Phil. 1.21.

What acquaintance have yee in heaven? what bloud-friend have you in that Land? The wicked man, [...] is, Vse. Vatab. à tem­pora rariis. [...] Pagnin. à vi­ris de tempore. the man of the earth. And Psal. 17.14. Save me from men of time; men of this life. Are you a Burgesse of time, or a Citi­zen of the earth? or a man of the higher Jerusalem? Imagine there were a new-found Land on earth, and in it there be twelve Summers in one Yeare, all the stones of the Land are Saphyres, Rubies, Diamonds; the clay of it, the choicest gold of Ophir; the trees doe beare Apples of life; How easie traf­fiquing with heaven is to the Saints. the inhabitants can neither be sick nor die; the passage to it, by sea and land, is safe; all things there are to be had for nothing, without money, price, or change of commodities; and gold is there for the gathering: if there were such a Land as this, what an huge navie would be lying in the Harbours and Ports of that Land? how many Tra­vellers would repaire thither? Heaven is a new Land that the Mediator Christ hath found out, it is better then a Land where there is a Summer for every Moneth of the Yeare; there is nei­ther winter, nor night there; the Land is very good, and the fruits of it delectable and precious; grace and peace, righteous­nesse, joy of the Holy Ghost, the fruits of that Kingdome, Rom. 14.17. are better then Rubies, Saphyrs, or Diamonds: Christ the tree of life is above all Lands on earth, even his alone: and [Page 174] there's no need of price or money in this Kingdome; grace is the cheapest thing of the world; wine and milk are here with­out money, and without price, Esay 55.1. Its a Land that stands most by the one onely commodity of Grace and Glory. Oh, there is little traffiquing with heaven; when was you last there? It is an easie passage to heaven; David, who often prayed even seven times a day, was often a day there. Prayer in faith is but one short Post thither. Oh wee have too much compliance with the earth.

The third particular in this Returne, is the Manner: In an 3 audible voyce, the Lord answereth him. The multitude heard this voyce, though they understood it not. Wee read not often of an audible voyce from heaven to Christ; onely at his Bap­tisme, there was a testimony given of him from heaven, Mat. 3.16, 17. and at his Transfiguration, Mat. 17. of which Peter speaketh, 2 Pet. 1.18. And this voyce we heard, when we were with him on the holy Mount. The Lord, in the hearing of men, gives a testimony of his Son Christ, and his good cause. Hee was accused because he made himself the Son of God; hee prayes to God, and calleth him Father, openly; a voyce from heaven openly answering, acknowledgeth him to be the Son of God; though they knew not the Lords testimony from heaven. God maketh a good cause, God [...]areth a good cause, though dark­ned. though darkened, to shine as day-light, if men would open their eyes and see. Psal. [...]7.5. Roll over thy way upon the Lord, and trust in him, and hee shall bring it to passe. But flesh and bloud saith, Innocencie lieth in the dark, and weepeth in sack-cloth in the dungeon, and is not seen. The Lord answereth, Vers. 6. And hee shall bring forth thy righte­ousnesse as the light, and thy judgement as the noon-day. It is true, [...] signifies to goe from one place to another; its here applied to the sun, and elsewhere to things that grow out of the earth, Judg. 13.14. The sun in the night seems dead, and lost, as if there were no such thing; yet the morning is a new life to the day, and the sunne. The grape of the wine tree sowne in the earth, is a dead thing; yet it springeth in some dayes, and cometh to be a fruitfull tree. Christ was crucified, and bu­ried; yet the Wine-tree grew againe: and, Rom. 1.4. Hee was [Page 175] declared to be the Son of God, with power, according to the Spi­rit of sanctification, by the resurrection from the dead. The Gospel, and a good cause seems buried, and weeps in a dunge­on. Joseph in the prison, and a sold stranger; yet in the eyes of his brethren hee is exalted. The Lord cleared Daniels cause. Psal. 97.11. Light is sowne for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. The light and joy of the Saints, are often un­der the clods of the earth.

1. The Reformation of Religion goes vailed under the mask of Rebellion, and of subverting Fundamentall Lawes; but God must give to this work, that is now on the wheels, in Britain, the right name, and call it, The building of the old waste places, The rearing up of the Tabernacle of David; and cause it come above the earth.

2. The crosse is that great stumbling block, The scandall of the crosse removed. for which many are offended at Christ and the Gospel. It is a sad and offensive Providence to see joy weep, glory shamed; this is the gall, the worm-wood, the salt of the crosse, that the Lord of life should suffer in his owne person: yet here is heaven and the Father speaking, and returning a comfortable answer to Christ, in that which hee most feared. The crosse maketh an ill report of the Gospel and Christ: for this the Apostles are made a theatre, a gasing-stock to Men and Angels, a worlds wonder; and Paul would take this away, Ephes. 3.13. Wherefore I desire that yee faint not at my tribulation. Then Saints may fall a swooning at the very sight of the crosse in others. And Peter, 1 Pet. 4.12. saith, [...], Be not stricken with wonders, or astonished, as at new things and miracles, Acts 17.20. when yee are put to a fiery triall. The comforts of the crosse are the sweet of it, and the honey-combs of Christ, that drop upon that soure tree.

3. That the Father saith from heaven, There shall grow the fairest and most beautifull Rose that ever higher or lower Para­dise yeelded, out of this crabbed thorne, A faire rose growes out of the crosse when Christ waters it. was much consolation to Christ. Here growes out of the side and banks of the lake of that river of fire and wrath that Christ was plunged in, ma­ny sweet flowers: as, 1. A victorious Redeemer, who over­came hell, sinne, devils, death, the world. 2. A faire and spot­lesse righteousnesse. 3. A redeemed, a washed and sanctified Spouse to the Lamb. 4. A new heaven and a new earth; be­hold, Hee hath made all things new, and hath cast heaven and [Page 176] earth in a new mould. 5. A new Kingdom, a new Crown to the Saints, a choiser Paradice then the first that Adam lost. 6. Ri­ches of Free-grace, unsearchable treasures of mercie and love: all these blossome out of the Crosse.

4. The Crosse is bought by, and in its nature much altered to the Saints. Its true, its become a necess [...]ry in-let, and an in­evitable passage, The Crosse a p [...]sse that Christ keepes. and a bridge to heaven; but the Lord Jesus, not Satan, keeps the passe, and commandeth the bridge; and letteth in, and leteth out Passengers at his pleasure. But 1. Christ hath straw­ed the way to heaven with bloud and warres, and forbids us to censure his sad Patrimony, in that the servants are no worse then the Lord, and floure of all the Martyrs; though bloud hath been, and must be the Rent and In-come of the Crowne of the noble King of Kings, and the consecrated Captaine of our salvation. Yet it is short, and for a moment, and Christ hath a way of out-gate, that none of his shall be buried under the Crosse, Revel. 7.14. Psal. 4.19. (2.) Christ hath broken the iron chaines of the Crosse, and the gates of brasse: that the Crosse hath but a number of free Prisoners, who have faire quarters, and must goe out with flying colours, and be ransomed from the grave, John 16.33. Hos. 13.14. (3.) When you are in glory, and in a place above death; there shall be neither marke, nor print; no ceatrix of the sad crosse, on backe or shoulder, but the very furrow of teares wiped away, and per­fectly washen off the face with the water of life, For the for­mer things shall be away. Death altered by Christ. Revel. 21.4. Yea, the saddest of Crosses, the utmost and last blow that the Crosse can inflict, is death. I should thinke that Christ is the Saints factor in the land of death; He was there himselfe, and though hee will not adjourne death, yet hath our Factor made it cheap, and at an easie rate, all tole and custome is removed, and he hath put a negation upon death, Joh. 11.26. He that beleeveth shall not die. John 14.19. Much dependeth on our wise husbanding of the rod of God; yet if Christ did not manage, order, and oversee our fur­nace, it could not be well with us.

I have both glorified it, and will glorifie it againe.

This is the fourth considerable point, the matter of the An­swer.

Here is a Lord-Speaker from heaven, testifying that the Lords [Page 177] name shall be, and was glorified: How the Lord was glorified in Christ. As 1. In Christs person and incarnation, Joh. 1.14. The word was made flesh, & dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory. So the Angels did sing at his birth. Luke 2.14. Glory to God on the highest. Christs laying aside of 1 his glory, and his emptying of himself for us, was the glory of rich mercy. 2. His Miracles glorified God. Joh. 2.11. This first 2 miracle did Jesus to manifest his glorie. When he cured the Paralytick man, Luk. 2.12. they were amazed and glorified God. When hee raised Jairus his daughter. Luke 7.16. There 3 came a feare on all, and they glorified God. 3. In all his life he went about doing good; and sought ( Iohn 8.49.) to glorifie 4 his Father. 4. In his death, God was in singular maner glo­rified. When the Centurion (Luk. 23.49.) saw what was done, he glorified God. The repenting Theife preached him on the Crosse to be a King: and this was a glorifying of Christ in his greatest abusement and shame. Yea, his glory was preached by the Sunne, when it was, contrary to the course of nature, darke­ned: and by the Rocks, when they were rent, and the Temple cloven asunder, and the Graves opened, when men weakely, or wickedly denyed him, and would not onely not preach his glo­ry, 5 but blaspheme his name, 5. He was glorified in his re­surrection, being declared to be the Sonne of God, and obtained a name above all names, and was by the right hand of God, ex­alted to be a Saviour, and a Prince, to give repentance to Isra­el, and forgivenesse of sinnes, Phil. 2.9. Ephes. 1.20. Act. 5.31. Act. 3.13. (6.) He shall come againe in his glory, Math. 6 25.31. And shall be glorified and admired in all his Saints. (2 Thess. 1.10.) The fairest and most glorious sight, that ever the eye of man saw, shall be, when Christ shall come riding through the cloudes, on his Chariot of glory, accompanied with his mighty Angels, and with one pull, or shake of his mighty armes, shall cause the Starres to fall from heaven, as figges fall from a fig-tree, shaken with a mighty wind, and blow out all these candles of heaven with one blast of his ire; and A fire shall goe before him, and burne up the earth with the works that are there­in; when the higher house of heaven, and the lower of the earth shall meet together, and when Mystical Christ shall be glorified.

If there be so much glory in Jesus Christ, and his sufferings as he must beare the glory, Zach. 6.13. Vse 1. And All the glory of his fathers house be upon him, Esai. 22.24. His Crowne of glory [Page 178] on his head, must be so weighty, and ponderous, with Rubies, Saphires, Diamonds, that it will break the neck of any mortall man, King, or Parliament to beare it. None on earth have a head or shoulders, for this so weighty a Diademe; Parlia­ments have not necks worthy to carry Christs golden brace­lets, nor a backe to be honoured with his robe Royall; if they will but take his Scepter in their hand, it shall crush them as clay-vessels: this stone hewen out of the Mountaine without hands, shall crush the clay-leggs of Parliaments, and then how shall they stand?

Vse 2. God properly glorifies himselfe; Angels and Men are but chamberlaines and factors, to pay the rent of his glory; and be­cause he will give himselfe, his Sonne, his Spirit to us, and his grace, and yet will not give his glory to another; let us beware to intercept the rents of the Crowne. Wee have grace, but must not share with the Lord in his glory.

Object. The Lord giveth grace and glory, Psalm. 84. And he hath a crowne of glory laid up for his Saints, in the hea­vens.

Answ. That glory is but matured and ripened grace, Gods glory is the eminent, celebrious, and high esteeme that Men and Angels have of God, as God, or the foundation of this; to meddle with this is to encroach upon the Crowne and Preroga­tive royall of God. How the glory of God and grace doe dif­fer. Glory imparted to Saints in heaven, is but a beame, a lustre, shaddow, or way of that transcendent and high glory that is in God; and is as farre different from the in­communicable glory of God, as the shaddow of the Sunne in a Glasse, or in the bottome of a Fountaine, and the Sunne in firmament. We may desire the chips, and shaddows, and raies of glory, but beware that we meddle not with that which de­vels and men, alwaies seeke after, in a sacrilegious way.

Vse 3.3. We are hence taught, to admire the excellencie of the un­searchable knowledge and skill of Divine providence; out of Christs abasing himselfe to take on him our nature. 2. Out of his miracles, God art of omnipotency in extracting glory out of all the b [...]sest and most shamefull things of the world. that were just nothing to blind-naturall-men. 3. Out of his death and shame, the Lord extracteth the most eminent and high glory of his name. That Omnipotencie should triumph in the jaw-bone of an Asse, in a straw, in a crucified man, commends the glory of God, and the art of his work­manship; to make Gold out of clay and iron, Diamonds and Rubies out of the basest stones, would extoll the art of man. [Page 179] A creation out of nothing; and Flowres, Roses, Forrests, Woods, out of cold earth, is the praise of the wisdome and power of the Creator; the baser the matter be, the art of the Author is the more glorious, if the worke be curious and excellent.

God here 1. Out of death, shame, sinfull oppressing of the Lord of glory, raiseth the high worke of mans Redemption. 2. When we spill businesse and marre all, through sinning and provoking God, then Israel must bring a spilt businesse to God, that he may right them, Judg. 3.10, 11. God can find the right end of the threed, when matters are ravelled, and disorde­red. We see now, Nations confounded, enemies rising against: us. But bloud, warres, confusions, oppression, and crushing downe of Christ and his Church, are good and congruous meanes, when they have the vantage of being handed by om­nipotencie. When we worke, the instrument must bee as big as a mountaine, and then our eye cannot see God, All things most base are most corgruous for high ends, when omnipo­tencie hand­le [...]h them. for the big­nesse of the Instrument. God regardeth not the nothings, and the few that he worketh withall. Dead men can sight, when God putteth a sword in their hand; Men shall fall under woun­ded men: beware of robbing God of his glory. Did ever a de­cree or a counsell of God part with child? Or can Omnipotencie bring forth untimely births, or prove abortive? You see Christ now in the death-house of Adams sonnes, and wrestling with hell; yet God by Christ at the weakest, works his end; death is a low thing, sinne is farre more base; but when God acts at the end of either, they have a scope and end as high as God, to glorifie God.

3. If God hath been, and must be glorified in all that is done▪ what doe we doe, we trouble our selves to seeke glory one of another. We are created for this end, Glory from men a vaint thing. and its our glory to fetch in glory to God. What? can the aiery applause of men bee golden stilts for creeples to walke to heaven withall? Or can the peoples poore Hosannas be silken sailes to our ship, or golden wings, that by these you man saile and flye up to heaven? Where is Belshazzer, who but built a house for the glory of his owne name? Where is Herod, who did receive one word of a God, which the people did steale? Doe not these fooles take little roome in print, and at this day, as little in the clods of the earth? The Roman State would not permit Christ to be a God: What was their doome, must not a Kingdome cast [Page 180] its bloome, fall, and wither, that will not suffer Christ to be a King in his Church?

Another effect of the Prayer of Christ, doth follow in the people. They had sundry judgements of this Answer from heaven: Some said it was a thunder; for they understood it not. Others, nay, but it is above nature; An Angel hath spo­ken to him.

Doth not any rude shepherd, or the most simple ideot know a thunder? Its a place that holds forth to us, how ignorant we are of God, and of the Gospel-way. Consider what was in this Answer: Many false o­pinions touch­ing the Gospel. 1. It was the Gospel. In what language it was spo­ken, (belike not in a known language) cannot be determined out of the Text. 2. It was a cleare expression of that Commu­nion between Christ and his Father. 3. What God meanes, or what is his sense in his word or works, is unknown to us. 4. That they say the Gospel is a thunder, and a work of nature, is a meere imagination and a dreame. Yet these wayes are a­mong themselves all false, and they doe not agree one with an­other.

Consid. 1. The Gospel is the will of God from heaven; yet 1 it is a riddle, a parable not understood, Mat. 13.14. In the Law it is written, The Gospel dark to many. With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak to this people, 1 Cor. 14.21. And, Isai. 29.11. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And hee saith, I cannot: for it is sealed. Vers. 12. And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Reade this, I pray thee. And hee saith, I cannot; I am not learned. 1 Cor. 1.18. For the preaching of the crosse is to 2 them that perish, foolishnesse.

God must use Logick to our affections, as well as to our mind, ere we know him [...] ­vingly. Consid. 2. God reasoneth not only with mens minds, to con­vince them; but also with their will and affections. Act. 9. Christ from heaven proposeth a Syllogisme to Saul's fury, Its hard for thee to kick against pricks. God hath Logick against anger, which hath neither cares nor reason; for if hee could not [Page 181] out-argue Laban's hatred, and the haters of the Saints, to whom hee saith, Touch not mine anointed, and doe my Prophets no harme, Psal. 107. hee would not speak to their affections, nor would it be said, that in their affections they repute Christ and the Gospel foolishnesse, if there were not a contrariety between the affections and the Gospel.

Consid. 3. The understanding is a dark-lanthorne, that hath 3 some light within, but casts none at all out, The mind dark in the things of God. to apprehend things above hand: and as the will is irony and stiffe to heaven, so is it waxy and apt to receive the impressions of the flesh, except Christ draw-by the curtaine of the flesh, to let you see the glo­ry of the Gospel. Otherwise, God speaks, and Samuel saith, Eli, here am I; for thou calledst me. To the woman of Sama­ria, Jacob is greater then Christ; and Jacob's Well, as good as the water of life. Justice often puts one seale on the Gospel, and another on the mans two eye-lids, that the vision is as dark as mid-night.

Consid. 4. The communion between Christ and the soule, 4 as here between the Son Christ and the Father, is quid pro quo, a thunder, a work of nature, or any thing to the naturall man; God speaking to the heart, is a mystery to him. Joh. 6.52. The Jewes say among themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Very hardly, according to their Papisticall fancy of a bodily eating. 2. The high esteeme of Christ above other Be­loveds, is a mystery to naturall Saints, in so farre as they are naturall. Its a strange question for Professors of the Gospel to say, What more is in Christ then other Well-beloveds? Yet they say it, Cant. 5.9. (3.) The naturall understanding is the most whorish thing in the world: The under­standing vain. There is a variety of fancied gods there. According to the number of thy cities, were thy gods, O Judah, Jer. 2.29. They have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their owne understanding, Hos. 13.2. The understanding, even in the search of truth a­mongst the creatures, is a rash, precipitate, and unquiet thing; and like a Silk-worme, first makes a work of many threds, and then lies fettered and intangled in that which came out of its owne bowels. The mind spins and weaves out of it selfe, fan­cies, dreames, lies, and then its work must be spent on these, and so creates its own chaines and fetters. But in the matters of God it runs mad, playes the wanton; in the Gospel-knowledge [Page 182] it turnes frantick, and when it comes to move and act within the sphere of supernaturall truths, it but laughs and sports till it come out againe. 1 Cor. 1.23. If Christ preached be foolish­nesse, then Christ himselfe must be a foole to the Grecians, the excellentest wits in the world. 1 Cor. 2.14. The Gospel can­not come within the brain of a naturall man, but as a notionall fancie, a chymera. Yea, when the greatest wits came to the bor­ders of divine truth▪ to look on the out-side of Divinity, called Theologia naturalis, to look on the Lords back-parts, and con­template and behold God in his works, they knew not what to make of God, Rom. 1.23. Some thought God to be a dainty Bird of Paradise; nay, said other great wits, hee is a foure-footed Beast; nay, said another, but hee is a creeping thing: and the most eminent of them, even head of wit among them, said, hee was a corruptible man: yea, all of them, [...]. They turned vaine, foggie, reasonlosse, and stark nought in their finer discourses and reasonings, in weigh­ing and poyzing things. Gen. 6.5. The frame of the heart of man is onely evill. [...] Gen. 8.21. signifies, a Potters vessel. Esay 29.16. Your turning of things up-side-down, shall be re­puted as the clay [...] of the potter: From the root [...] to thinke, desire; to forme a thing of clay as the potter doth. From this is the potter named [...] Zach. 11.13. Gen. 2.7. Deut. 31.21. I know their imaginations, or earthen pots, that be in the heart, mind, and head of men. Many vaine frames are in our heads, as there be variety of pots, bottles, and earthen vessels in the potters house. Many wind-mills, many pitchers and clay-frames are in the vaine heart, but they are evill, wicked, and onely evill from the womb. But especially, how many devices and new moulds of Religions, and sundry gods are in the heart of men? How many sundry opinions of Christ, are in mens braines? for concerning Christ, Mat. 16.14. Some said he was John Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah. 4. The love and affections are most whorish, light, and wanton; if Martha seek not one thing, The affections vaine. shee seeks many things: no one God is the naturall mans God. It may be maintained, that an unrenewed man hath not one predominant, but indefinitely, sin is his king; [Page 183] and as many sins, as many kings. Rom. 5.14, 17. Rom. 6.7, 8, 9. A naturall man hath not one certaine predominant. Its true, pride, covetousnesse, or some particular sins may come to the throne by turnes, as either complexion, strength of cor­rupt nature, or times beare sway; for as Satan is not divided a­gainst Satan, so not any naturall man will be a Martyr for a false god, or a predominant lust, in opposition to another known false god, though all may oppose the Gospel. The Lord complaines of a whorish heart, that playeth the harlot with many lovers, Jer. 3.1. and heaven and saving grace stands on an indivisible point, like the number of seven; one added, one removed, vari­eth the nature: no man is halfe in heaven, halfe in hell: almost a Christian, is no Christian. When Adam fell from one God, hee fell upon many inventions; not upon one onely, Eccles. 7.29. Our wandering is infinite, and hath no home: either God is a thunder, or then hee is an Angel, speaking from hea­ven.

Consid. 5. Men think the supernaturall wayes of God a thun­der in the aire, which is a most naturall work; We are hetero­dox and hereti­call in mis-in­terpreting the works of God as well as his word. the ebbing and 5 flowing of the Spirit, either naturall joy or melancholly, natu­rally following the complexion of the body. Its Grace that puts a right sense on the works of God, as on the word: wee are no lesse heterodox in mis-interpreting the wayes and workes of God, then in putting false and unsound senses on his word. Emrods plagues the Philistines; they doubt if chance, or if the God of Israel have thus plagued them. Moses works miracles, the Magicians work miracles, and the Egyptians doubt whe­ther their false god, or the living God that made the heaven and the earth, hath wrought the miracles. When God and Nature both worke, naturall men, or Saints as naturall, betake them­selves to the nearest God. As sicknesse comes, the naturall man saith, Neglect of the body, health, the moone, humours, the air, cold weather did it; but hee looks not to God. And the be­leever, guilty of a breach of the Sixth Command, in neglecting second causes, and in needlesse hurting the body, seeth not this; but fathers all upon God, onely in a spirituall dispensati­on, and considereth onely dispensation in God, not sin in him­selfe. 2. Mercies grow invisibly, and wee see not; wee are ready to sleep at mercies offered. When Christ knocks in love, wee are in bed; Cant. 5. (3.) Judgements speak in the dark, but wee heare not: the Lord fatteneth some slaughter-oxen for [Page 184] hell, and death, is on some mens faces, even the second death on their person, but they see not. To heare the Lords rods, and who hath appointed it, is the man of Wisdomes part, Micha 6.9. There is an Orthodoxe Wisdome and Will, A Heterodox will. as there is an Or­thodox Faith. Will, as well as the minde, can frame Syllo­gismes; every unrenewed man hath a faith of his owne in the bottome of his will. 2 Pet. 3. Some are willingly ignorant; Some Jer. 9. through deceit refuse to know the Lord; where­as lusts puts out reason, and takes the chaire. Lust hath stout Logick against Christ; a fleshly minde vainely puffed up, is a badge of bastard wit, out-reasoning all the Gospel. O but grace is quick-eyed, sharpe, and a witty thing, to see God vailed in, under the curtaine of flesh; to see Christ and heaven through words, and the Gospel with childe of so great a salvation.

Consid. 6. What wonder that there bee divisions about Christ. Division the birth of weake minds. Some will have the Lord speaking from heaven, a thun­der; others, an Angel. Christ is the most disputable thing in the world, Math. 16.13, 14. there be five Religions, and sun­dry opinions touching Christ, the Scribes and Pharisees had many sundry opinions, and one of them is the right way onely, and tenne false. Joh. 7.40. Many say Christ is a Pro­phet. Vers. 41 Others said, this is the Christ; Others no: Shall Christ come out of Galile, and there was a division among them Luke 2.34. Christ is for a signe that shall bee spoken a­gainst. And amongst Christs sufferings this is one, Hebr. 12.3. He sustained [...], contradiction of sinners. Math. 24. Many false Christs shall arise. There is but one heaven, and one way to heaven; and there is but one hell: but there be thou­sands of wayes to hell: Sinne and er­ror broodie, truth but one. from one point to another, you can draw but one straight line; but you may draw tenn [...] thousand crooked, and circular lines. The truth is one, and very narrow, the lie is broad and very fertile, and broodie, error is infinite. Its a blessed thing to find wisdome to hit upon Christ, and ad­here to him; [...]en erri [...]g, though in non-funda­mentals may displease God, and deface truth▪ and hee damned eter­nally. there be some dicets and couseners, Ephes. 4.14. that lye in wait to deceive the simple; and they cast the dice for heaven, and can cast you up any thing on the dice, either one, or seven; do yee then resigne your selves in this wood of false Re­ligions that now is, to Christ, to be led to heaven. Many now teach, there be some few fundamentals, beleeve them, and live well, and you are saved. And many false Teachers that turne [Page 185] the Gospel upside downe, say, it is the same Gospel, though the head be where the feet should be; and for errors, we wrong not truth, so long as we hold nothing against fundamentals: Should a man remove the roofe of your house, cut down the timber of it, and pick out all the faire stones in the wall, and say, Friend, I wrong not your house, see, the foundation stones are safe, and the foure corner stones are sure, in the meane time, the house can fence off neither winde nor raine, would not this man both mock you, and wrong you? He that keeps the foundation Christ, shal be saved, though he build on it hay and stubble, 1 Cor. 3. Its true. But it was never the intent of the Holy Ghost, That a man beleeving some few fundamentals, though he hold, and spread lyes and false Doctrines, is in no hazard of damnation; or that hee hath liberty of conscience, to adde to the foundation hay, and stubble, and untempered morter: and to daube dirt upon the foundation Christ, and not sinne, the place speaks no such thing, but of this else where.

These come neerer to the truth; for they conceive there is more in this voice, then a worke of Nature, such as a thunder is; they think, an Angel spoke to Christ; and they are convin­ced, that Christ keeps correspondence with Heaven and Angels.

Angels have been, and are in high estimation among men alwaies; and there is reason for it.

1. There is more of Heaven in Angels, and more of God, then in any of their fellow-creatures. El [...]ct A [...]g [...]ls kept fast their [...]t th [...] right. Sinnefull men have been stricken with feare at the sight of them; they are persons of a more excellent countrey then the earth. John the Apostle did overvalue an Angel, Revel. 19. Revel. 21. And fell downe to worship him.

2. Angels elect and chosen, never lost their birth-right of creation, as Men and Devils have done; they were created as the Lilies and Roses, which no doubt, had more sweetnesse of beauty and smell, before the sin of man made them vanity-sick, Ro. 8.20. but they have kept their robes of innocency, their cloth of gold above five thousand yeares, without one sparke of dirt, or change of colour, for they never sinned; innocencie and freedome from sinne, hath much of God. Adam (as many think) kept not his garments cleane one day. Courtiers of heaven, [Page 186] and Saints should walke like Angels, and keepe good quarters with Christ. Grace is a pure, cleane, innocent thing; teach­eth Saints to deny ungodlinesse; and so much the more have Angels of God, that they are among devils and sinnefull men, and yet by Grace are kept from falling; the more grace, the more innocencie. Grace as pardoning hath its result from sinne, but is most contrary to sinne. Grace payeth debt for sinne, but taketh not on new arreares; its abused grace that doth so.

2. But these thus convinced, that the Lords voice is more then a thunder. Goe no further, they say here, others said it was an Angel.

Hence touching conviction.

Pos. 1. Conviction of conscience may bee strong, and yet 1 at a stand. Never man spake like this man, say the Jewes, yet they hate him. Conviction how farre it goes. Joh. 7.28. Jesus cryed in the temple, as he taught, saying, Yee both know me, and yee know whence I am; I am not come of my selfe, but he that sent me is true, whom yee know not. Vers. 29. But I know him. Then they knew Christ, for conviction, and they knew him not; for, they crucified the Lord of glory; and if they had known him under the superna­turall notion of the Lord of glory, they would not have cruci­fied him, Light is a cumbersome captive. 1 Cor. 2.8. Felix trembles, and is convinced, but imprisons Paul. The Devils beleeve there is a God, and trem­ble, Iam. 2. but Light is made a captive, and made a prisoner, Rom. 1.18. Its a most troublesome prisoner, it holds the con­querour waking, and yet he cannot be avenged on it.

Pos. 2. Conviction turned to malice, becomes a Devill; the 2 Pharisees convinced, goe on against heaven, and the operation of the Holy Ghost. Conviction with malice most devil-like. And the Jewes saw the face of Stephen, as it had been the face of an Angel, Acts 6.15. Yet Acts 7.57▪ 58. they runne on him, and stone him to death.

Pos. 3. Conviction maketh more judiciall hardning then a­ny 3 sinne; it revengeth it selfe upon heaven; hell neere heaven is a double hell. Joh. 12.37, [...]8. Though hee had done so ma­ny miracles before them, yet they beleeved not. A reason is, 4 Verse 40. Hee hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their

Will heresie more dange­rous then minde-heresie. Pos. 4. Omnipotencie of grace can onely convince the will. heart.

Preachers may convince the minde, and remove mind-heresie, [Page 187] but Christ onely can give [...]ares to love, feare, sorrow, and re­move will-heresie, John 6.45. There be reasonings and Logick in the will, stronger then these in the mind; the will hath rea­son why it will not be taken with Christ, Joh. 5.40. and a Law, Rom. 7.23. of sinne, why it is sweet to perish, and death is to be chosen.

Pos. 5. It is the right conviction of the Spirit, to be con­vinced; 1. Of unbeliefe: Its right con­viction when love is con­vinced to du­ties that lye under the drop of the crosse. 2. Of the excellencie of Jesus 5 Christ, that I must have Christ, cost me what it will; say it were all that the rich Merchant hath, Math. 13.45, 46. There is a white and red in his face, hath convinced the mans love, and hath bound his affection, hand and foot; that hee takes paines on despised duties that lye under the very drop of the shame of the Crosse, Acts 5.4.

Pos. 6. To be willing to doe a duty that hath shame writ­ten 6 on it, as to be scourged for Christ, as the Apostles were, and for an honourable Lord of counsel, as Joseph of Arima­thea was, to petition to have the body of a crucified man to bu­rie, it being a duty neere of bloud to the Crosse; both appa­rent losse, and present shame, is a strong demonstration, that the whole man, not the minde onely, but the will and affe­ctions are convinced. Some duties grow among thornes, as to be killed all the day long, and to take patiently the spoiling of our goods, for Christ. Some duties grow among Roses, and are honourable and glorious duties; as to kill and subdue, in a law­full warre, the enemies of God. The former are no signe of wrath, nor the latter of being duely convinced of the excel­lency of Christ, except in so farre as we use them, through the grace of Christ, as becommeth Saints; or abuse them, but it is more like Christ to suffer for him, then to doe for him.

Pos. 7. God will have some halfe gate to heaven, though they should dye by the way; some are more, some lesse con­vinced: 7 the more conviction, if not received, the more dam­nation. The Gospel is not such a messenger as the Raven that returneth not againe: Esay 55.11. My word that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not returne to mee void, it shall ac­complish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. The Gospel, and opportunity of reformati­on, falleth not in the Sea-bottome, when a Nation receive it [Page 188] not, but it returnes to God to speak tydings: We will not give an account of the Gospel, but the Gospel gives an account of us. 2. Even when the Ordinances are rejected, they prosper, Esay 55.11. to harden men: they are seed sowne, and raine falne on the earth, they yeeld a crop of glory to God, even a sweet savour to God, A d [...]spised Gospel prospe­rous. in those that perish, as in those that are saved; 2 Cor. 2.15, 16. The lake of fire and brimstone, as a just punish­ment of a despised Gospel, smells like Roses to God.

Now followeth the other effect of Christs Prayer, toward the world.

1. In generall. The Prayer is answered (saith Christ) not so much for my cause, to comfort me, (for hee might other­wise be comforted) as for you, that yee may beleeve in mee, hearing this testimony from heaven. 2. In particular: Hee sets down the fruit of his death. 1. On the unbeleeving world, they shall be judged and condemned. 2. On the spirituall ene­mies, and by a Synecdoche, the head of them, Satan, the god of this world shall be cast out, and sin, and death, and hell with him. 3. The prime fruit of all, Vers. 32. When I am crucifi­ed, by my Spirit of grace, the fruit of the merit of my death, I will draw all men to me.

Christs well and woe, his joy, his sorrow, is relative, and for sinners. Christ as Christ is a very publike person, and a giving-out Mediator. And it addeth much to the excellency of things, that they are publike, and made out to many: As the sun, the starres, the rain, the seas, the earth, that are for many, are so much the more excellent: It is a broader and a larger good­nesse, that is publike. Heaven is an excellent thing, because pub­like, to receive so many crowned Kings, and Citizens, that are redeemed from the earth. Christ a most publike person. The Gospel is a publike good for all sinners: Eternity is not a particular duration, as time is, that hath a poore point to begin with, and end at; but the publike good of Angels and glorified Spirits. Time indeed is a publike [Page 189] thing, but because its the heritage of perishing things, it is not publike in comparison of eternity. And Christ, because a pub­like Spirit, for the whole family of elect Angels and Saints in heaven and earth, is a matchlesse excellent one. Heaven and all things there most publike, and so much the more excel­lent. And its obser­vable, that there is nothing in heaven, that is the seat and ele­ment of happinesse, and the onely Garden and Paradise of the Saints felicity, but it is publike and common to all: The inha­bitants the glorified Saints and Angels, all see the face of him that sitteth on the Throne, (of degrees of fruition, I speak not;) they all drink of the river of water of life; all have accesse to eat of the apples of the tree of life, there is no forbidden fruit in heaven; all have the blessing of the immediate presence of the Lamb, and there is neither need of Sunne, or Moon, or light of a candle to any; all equally enjoy eternity, there is one Lease and Terme-day to the lowest inhabitant of glory, and that is e­ternity; there is common to them all one City, the streets whereof are transparent gold; that the poorest inhabitants of a Town, walk on a street of gold of Ophir, is a great praise to the City: it is common to them all that they shall never sigh, ne­ver be sad, never sicken, never be old, never die; and eternall life is common to them all: and then all feele the smell of the fairest Rose that Angels or Men can think on, the Flower, the onely delight, the glory, the joy of heaven, the Lord Jesus; all walk in white, and can sin no more. Then, a publike Spirit, who is for many, is the excellentest Spirit. Men of private spi­rits, who carry a reciprocation of designes onely to themselves, and die and live with their owne private interests, are bad men. When our selfe is the circle, both center and circumference, wee are so much like the devill, who is his owne god, adores himselfe, and would have God to adore him, Mat. 4.9. Now, Christ is the most publike, relative, and communicative Spirit and Lord that is. 1. All Christs offices are for others then himselfe: Hee is not a Mediator of one: A Redeemer is for captives, a Saviour for sinners, a Priest for offenders and tres­passers, a Prophet for the simple and ignorant, a King to vindi­cate from servitude, all that are in bondage; the Physician for the si [...]k: and this speaks for you, sinners. 2. Why did hee empty himselfe, Luke 19.10. 1 Tim. 1.15. and come into the world▪ [...] sinners. 3. Why was he a fitted Sacrifice to die? Joh. 7.19. For their sake also sanctifie I my selfe, that they [Page 190] also may be sanctified by the truth. 4. His dying was a pub­like and relative good. Joh. 10.10 For his sheep. For, Joh. 15.13. his friends. For, Rom. 5.10. his enemies. For his Wife, to present a Bride without spot or wrinkle to God, Ephes. 5.25, 26. Christs [...]ffi [...]e warrants us to apply him. (5.) And hee rose againe for us, even for our justifica­tion, Rom. 4.25. (6.) And whose cause doth Christ advocate in heaven now? Ours. For us, if wee sinne, 1 Joh. 2.1. hee in­tercedes for us, Heb. 7.25. That wee may have boldnesse to en­ter into the holy of holiest, Heb. 10.19. (7.) Christ hath so publike an heart, that hee longs to returne againe, and to see us, Joh. 14.3. I will come againe, and receive you to my selfe. A Surety is a very relative person, and for another: the head is for all the members, the meanest and lowest: and it is not e­nough to him to rent the heaven, and digge a hole in the skyes once, when hee was incarnate, but hee makes a second journey in coming down to rent the heaven, and fetch his Bride up to himselfe. They are hence rebuked, that so improve Christ, as if hee were a Jewel locked up in a Cabinet in heaven, to be touch­ed and made use of by none: Oh, I am a sinner, I am a wretch­ed captive▪ what have I then to doe with so precious a Lord, as Christ? But, I pray, (1.) wherefore is Christ a Saviour? is hee not for sinners? Wherefore a Redeemer? is it that hee should lye by God, as uselesse? was he not a Redeemer for cap­tives? (2.) What if all the world should say so? Christ should be a Saviour, and save none; a Redeemer, and ransome none at all; for all are sinners, all are captives. Christs very office be­gets an interest in the sick to the Physician: Claime thine inte­rest, O sick sinner.

Now this voyce was unknowne to those that heard it, and yet it was for men that understood it not: Christ acteth for us, when wee are sleeping. The people of God were to be seven­ty yeares in Babylon, and were going on in their obstinacy, yet 1 then God saith, Much of the busi [...]sse of our salvation wa [...] transacted without our knowledge. Jer. 29.11. I know the thoughts I thinke to­ward you, (you know them not; I love you, but yee know not) even thoughts of peace and not of evill, to give you an expected end. Many glorious mercies are transacted in Gods mind, with­out our knowledge: Ere the corner stone of the earth was laid, hee had made sure worke of our election to glory, Ephes. 1.4. Rom. 9.11. (2.) The everlasting covenant between the Fa­ther 2 and the Son, that blessed bargaine of free-redemption in [Page 191] Christ, was closed from eternity, Jer. 32.39, 40. To doe us good when wee are farre-off, and know no such thing, is a great and free expression of love. (3.) Wee should be narrow vess [...]ls, not able to containe our joy, without breaking, if wee under­stood 3 what an house not made with hands were prepared for us in the heavens; but our life is hid with Christ in God, it appeares not now what wee are. You never saw the Bride the Lambs Wife broydered with heaven, free-grace, and riches of glory. Every Saint is a mystery to another Saint, One Saint a mystery to an­other. and that is the cause that love to one another is so cold: Every Saint is a rid­dle, and a secret to himselfe. It was a priviledged sight, even a priviledge of the higher House, and of the Peeres of Heaven, that John saw, Revel. 21.10. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountaine, and shewed me the great City, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Vers. 11. Having the glory of God: and the light was l [...]ke a stone most precious, even like a Jaspar stone, cleare as Chrystall. Here is a Kings daughter, a beautifull Princesse, in the gold of heavens glory, arrayed with Christ; who seeth this while wee are here? every one seeth not such a sight of glory.

If there be such an active application on Gods part, Vse 1. that Christ is fitted and dressed for sinners, there should be a pas­sive application on our part: O what an incongruity and un­sutablenesse betweene Christ and us! hee is a Saviour for sin­ners, wee are not sinners for a Saviour: hee is open and forward to give, wee narrow and drawing to receive. A Phy­sician that thrusteth his art and compassion to cure, is unfitting for a sick one, froward and unwilling to be cured. Wee should be for Christ, as for our onely perfecting end; but it is not so. Oh, men are for their owne gaine, from their quarter, Esay 56.10. Their eyes and hearts are not but for covetousnesse; Jer. 22.17. For the glory of their owne name, Dan. 4.30. For the continuance of their houses to many generations, Psal. 49.11. For the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof, Rom. 13.14.

If Christ be for the Saints, then all other things are for them; Vse 2. all things are theirs: All things are for the Saints. Death is a Water-man to carry them to the other side of time; the earth the Saints Innes; the crea­tures their servants; as sun, moon, and starres, are candles in the house for them: Providence for them, as the hedge of thornes, is to fence the wheat, the flowers, the roses, not the [Page 192] thistles, and all because Christ is their Saviour. Verse 31. Now is the judgement of this world, now shall the Prince of this world be cast out.

Two enemi [...]s are here judged, the World and Satan.

As touching the former enemie: Wee are to consider the time. What is the the judged World. Now; 2 the enemy, the World: 3 The restrictive Pronoune; This world: 4 That which Christ acteth, hee judgeth the world. But what is meant by the judgement of the world. Some understand, that now by Christs death is the right constitution of the world, as if the world were put in a right frame, and delivered from vanity, and restored to its per­fection by Jesus Christs death. Others thinke by the world, is meant the sinne of the world, or the sinning world; in that Christ condemned sinne, in the flesh, by his death. But by the World is meant the reprobate, and wicked world, that are here ranked with Sa [...]an, for Christ in his death gives out a doome and sentence on the unbeleeving World; because they receive not him; as John 3.19. This is the ( [...]) judgement of the world) that light is come into the world, and men loveh darke­nesse, &c.

Now for the first of these: We see that Hope helps the weake; before Christ yoake with devils, hell, and death, he seeth and beleeveth the victory: Hopes goo [...] prophecying in saddest times, and the sweet fruits thereof It was now a darke, and a sad providence with Christ in his soule-trouble; but hope lying on the cold clay, prophecieth good; Hope among the wormes breathes life and resurrection. Psal. 16.10. Thou wilt not leave my soule in grave. Vers. 11. Thou wilt shew me the path of life. Psalm. 118.17. I shall not die, but live; and declare the works of the Lord. He was at this time, in regard of danger, almost in deaths cold bosome. Saw yee never Hope laugh out from under dead bones in a bed? Boylie, rotten, and halfe dead, Job Chap. 19. [...]6. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day on the earth: Vers. 26. And though after my skinne, wormes destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. And 2 Cor. 5.1. Hope doth both die, and at the same time prophecie heaven and life: Wee know, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternall in the heaven. Would any man say, Paul, how know yee that? the Answer is; Faith holdeth the candle to Hope, and Hope seeth the Sun [Page 193] in the Firmament at midnight. We know if this house be destroy­ed, we have a better one.

2 Hope is one of the good Spies, that comes with good tydings, bee not dismayed, God will give us the good land; 2 when they were plucking the haire off Christs face, and nip­ping his cheekes, Hope speakes thus to him, and to all standers by, Esay 50.7. For the Lord God will helpe me, therefore I shall not be confounded: therefore have I set my face as flint, and I know that I shall not bee ashamed. It is a long Cable, and a sure Anchor; Hebr. 6.19. Which Hope wee have as an Anchor of the Soule both sure and stedfast, and which entreth into that which is within the vaile. Hope is Sea-proofe, and Hell-proofe, and Christ is Anchor-fast in all stormes: Christ in you the hope of glory, Col. 1.27.

3 A praying grace is such a prophecying grace; as both 3 asketh when he prayeth, Father glorifie thy Name, and ta­keth an answer: so doth Christ here take an answer. Now is the judgement of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out. He was not yet cast out, but hope in Christ with one breath, prayeth, Father save me from this houre; and an­swereth, I shall be saved: the world, and the prince-enemy shall be cast out. Its a wine-battel, all shall bee well. Faith and Hope laugh and triumph for to morrow, Psalm. 6. Re­buke me not, Lord, in thine anger: Vers. 4. Returne, O Lord, deliver my soule; Vers. 8. He takes an answer, For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping: Vers. 9. The Lord hath heard my supplication. Psal. 35. He prayes that the Angel of the Lord would chase his enemies. And hee answers himselfe in Antedated praises, Verse 9. And my soule shall bee joyfull in the Lord. Verse 10. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, &c. He makes a bargaine afore-hand, Hope layeth a debt of prayses upon every bone and joynt of his body, Psalme 42. Banished, forgotten, and whithered David, com­plaines to God, and in hope takes an Answere, Verse 8. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindnesse in the day time. We have need of this now. When Scotland is so low, Scotland though low, is to hope in the Lord. they cannot fall that are on the dust, and more thousands under the dust, with the Pestilence, and the Sword, and the heart­breake of forsaking and cruell friends, that not onely have pro­ved broken cisternes to us in our thirst, but have rejoyced, as [Page 194] Edome did, at our fall, then ever Stories at one time, in An­cient records can speake: and God grant friends turne not as cruell enemies, as ever the Idolatrous and bloudy Irish have beene. Yet there is hope in Jsrael concerning this thing. The Lord must arise, and pitty the dust of Sion: Our bones are scattered at the graves mouth, as when one heweth wood. Though we sit in darkenesse, we shall see light. Some say, there is no help for them in God. O say not so, they that are now highest, must bee lowest. God must make the truth of this ap­peare in Britaine, Ezech. 17.24. And all the trees of the field shall know, that I the Lord, have brought downe the high tree, and have exalted the low tree, and have dryed up the greene tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish, I the Lord have spoken it, and have done it. Others say, wee shall bee delivered, when we are ripened by humiliation for mercy. No, its not needfull it bee ever so. God sometime first delivereth, and then humbleth, and hath done it; the Lord delivered his low Church, when they were in their graves, Ezech. [...]7. but they were never prouder, then when they loaded the power, the faithfulnesse, and free grace of God with reproaches, and said, Ezech. [...]7.11. Our bones are dryed, and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts.

This is the lost World. 1. Because it is the judged World, John 3.19. (2.) It is that World of which Sathan is Prince. The world being the damned, is the worst of the creation; which I prove from the word, and withall shall give the signes and characters of the men of the world.

1. The World is the black company that lyes in sinne, all 1 of them, Characters of the world. 1 John 5.9. The whole world lyes in sinne; They are haters of Christ, and all his. John 15.18. If the world hate you, yee know (saith Christ) that it hated me before you.

2 2. They are a number uncapable of grace, or reconciliati­on: The world un­capable of grace. which is terrible, and have no part in Christs prayers. Joh. 17.9. I pray not for the world; nor of Sanctification; the Comforter that Christ was to send, is Joh. 14.17. the Spirit that the world cannot receive.

3 3. It is one of the professed enemies on Christs contrary side that he overcommeth, and wee in him. Joh. 16.33. In [Page 195] the world you shall have tribulation. The world as enemy to Chr [...]st. They are the onely trou­blers of the Saints, But be of good cheere, I have overcome the world. 1 Joh. 5.4. Whosoever is borne of God overco­meth the world.

4. Its a dirty and defiling thing, Pure religion (saith Iames 1.27.) keeps a man unspotted of the world. It is the praise of the 4 Church of Sardis, The world a [...], Revel. 3.4. that there was amongst them a few names, that had not defiled their garments; but kept themselves from the pollutions of the world; its a sutty Pest­house: there bee drops of sutt that defiles men in it.

5. There can be no worse Character, then to be a child of 5 the world. It is a black mark, Luke 16.8. A childe of the world. You know the He­braisme; Children of disobedience: that is, much addicted to disobedience; as the Sonne hath the nature of Father and Mo­ther in him: Children of pride, of wrath; much addicted, and farre under the power of wrath, and pride: So the sparks of fire are called, Job 5. [...] the daughters of the bur­ning coale: then a childe of the world, is one that lay in the wombe of the World, one of the worlds breeding, opposed to a Pilgrime and a stranger on earth; for a stranger is one that is borne in a strange land, Psal. 119.19. Psal. 39.12. Hebr. 11.13. and contrary to a childe of light. Who hath the Pil­grimes sigh, ordinarily night and day; The Pi [...]grimes sigh. Oh if I were in my owne Countrey. Wrong him not; his mother is a woman of heaven, she is a mighty Princesse, and a Kings daughter, Rev. 21.10. the New Jerusalem, the Church of God came down from heaven; Father, Mother, Seed, Principles, and all are from heaven. 2. There is a Spirit called the Spirit of the world, 1 Cor. 2.12. This Spirit is the Genius, the nature, and disposi­tion of the World, 1 Ioh. 2.16. and is all for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; and these bee the Worlds, all things. Such a soule knoweth not the white stone, and the new name, nor can he smell the rose of the field, and the Lill [...]y of the valley; nor knowes he the Kings ban­queting house, nor the absence, or presence of Christ in the soule; the mans portion is in this world. Psal. 17.14. within the foure angles of this clay-globe.

The World, the Lord Jesus judgeth, is this World; a thing that cometh within the compasse of time, This world so differenced from that which is to come. and may be pointed with the finger.

1. It is neere our senses, therefore called, Gal. 1.4. The pre­sent evill world, the world that now is, on the stage: so 2 Tim. 1 4.10. D [...]mas hath forsaken me, and hath loved [...], the world that is upon its present Now. The World that is on its Post, Why this World. and Now, in its flux, motion and tendencie to corrup­tion. 1 Tim. 6.17. Charge them that are rich in THIS WORLD, that they be not high minded; this World is op­posed to eternity, and to life eternall, for the which the rich are to lay up a sure foundation, Luke 20.34. The sonnes of THIS WORLD Marrie, and are given in Marriage ▪ Vers. 35. But these that shall be counted worthy of that World and the resurrection from the dead, neither Marry, nor are given in Marriage. Vers. 36. Neither can they doe any more, [...], that world; this puts a great note of excellencie on the World to come.

2. This World is a thing that comes under our senses, and 2 that [...], a single one creature, that we may point with our finger. The world may be pointed out with the finger; the world to come is above our senses. Satan from the top of a mountaine shewed Christ, [...], All the kingdomes of the World. and the glory, or opinion of them, Matth. 4.8. and it is, Luke 4.5. all the Kingdomes, [...], hee shewed him the phancie of the habitable earth in a point of time; the life to come cannot come under your senses. Yee cannot point out the throne of God, and the Lambe, and the Tree of life, and the pure River of water of life, that proceeds out of the throne of God, and of the Lambe, there be such various treasures of glorie in the infinite Lord Jesus, so many dwelling places in our Fathers house, that yee cannot number then all. The Kingdomes of this world, and the glory of it comes within tale and reckoning; I grant this is meant of the structure and dwellings of the World, but they are the setled home of Reprobate men.

Vse.It were good, if wee could beleeve that the [...] of the world, the figure and paintrie of this house of lost men, 1 Cor. 7.30. is in a transe, and passing away; ah! are yee conform'd [Page 197] to the World? Your condition is woefull. The World sweares, and so doe you, the World serves the time in Religion, and so doe you; the World is vaine in their apparell; the World cousens, lyes, whores, and so doe you; the world hates Christ, and his friends, and so doe you; the World lyes in sinne, it is the fashion of the World, and so doe you. Oh! if you would be conformed to the new World, in righteousnesse and holy­nesse. 1. The in-dwellers are all the children of a King, and Princes, and their mother a Princes daughter. 2. The low­est piece of the dwelling house of that other World, the heavens, we see are curious worke; any one pearle, or candle of Sunne, or Moone, or Starres, is worth the whole Earth, setting aside the soules of men. 3. The foundation of the City is preci­ous Stones, Revel. 21. &c. What fooles are we, who kill eve­ry one another for peeces and bitts of the Lords lowest foot-stoole; for the earth, the seat of the worldly man, is but the foot-stoole of God.

How did Christ condemne and passe sentence on the wicked world in his death?

1. He did it Legally, in that his offering of a sufficient Ran­some 1 for sinne, How Christ judged this world; and how many waies. there is a seale put on the condemnation of all impenitent men, that they shall not see life, but the wrath of God (that they were by nature under, being the captives of the Law) abideth on them, John 3.36. Because they beleeve not in the Sonne of God, John 16.9. Christs dying day was the un­beleevers Doomesday.

2. Hee condemneth the World, Declaratorily; in remo­ving the curse from all the persecutions of the ill world; 2 which was also more then a declaration, it being a reall over­comming of the world, John 14.33. Hee hath removed all of­fence from the enemitie, and deadly fewd that the World bea­reth against the Saints. Christs good will in dying, hath sancti­fied, sweetned, and perfumed the Worlds ill-will to the Saints.

3. He judgeth the World in his death exemplarily; as its 3 said, Hebr. 11.7. Christs dying exemplarily condemneth the world. Noah condemned the world in preparing an Arke. So Christs example of obedience in dying for the world, at his Fathers command John 10.16. condemnes the [Page 198] Worlds disobedience. Christ dying, and in his thirst, not Ma­ster of a cup of water, is a judgement of the drunkard; his dying, being stript of his garments, is a condemning of vaine and strange apparell; his face spitted on, saith beauty is vanity; his dying b [...]tweene two theeves saith, a high place among Princes is not much, when the Prince of the Kings of the earth was marrowed with theeves; his being forsaken of lovers and friends, condemneth trusting in men, and confidence in Princes, or the Sonn [...]s of men: all this is for our mortification, that we love not the World, for its Christs condemned male­factor.

Here two things are considerable. 1. Who is the Prince of this world. 2. How he is, by Christ cast out.

The Prince of this World is Satan, so called, John 14.30. And the Prince that rules in the Children of disobedience, Ephes. 2.2. called with a higher name, 2 Cor. 4.4. [...]. The God of this world. What Princedome, or what God-head can the Devill have in the world? or who gave to him a Scepter, a Crowne, and a Throne? For Satan hath a Throne, Revel. 2.3.

1 The Devill is not 1. a free Prince. 2. Not an absolute Monarch. S [...]t [...]an n [...]t 1. a [...]ree, not 2 a [...] abs [...]lu [...]e, [...]ot 3. a ju [...]t Prince. 3. Nor a lawfull King; not free, because he is a captive Prince, reserved in everlasting chaines of darkenesse, unto the judgement of the great day, Jude 6. The Sonne of God is the onely free prince in the world, there be none inde­pendently free in heaven and earth, but he, John 8.36. The kingdome of grace is an ancient free estate; and never was, ne­ver can be conquer'd, not by the gates of hell, Mat. 16.18. Zach. 12.3. and in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone, though all people of the earth be gathered together against it. Sure, Christ is a free king, by all the reason, and lawfull au­thority in heaven and earth, Psal. 2.6, 7. Hell is no free prince­dome, all in it are slaves of sinne, Iohn 8.34, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44. The libertie of loving, injoying, seeing, and praysing God, and leasure, or thoughts, or cares to doe no other thing, is the onely true liberty, and liberty to be a King, and absolute over lusts, and wicked will is the onely liberty, Psal. 119.45. I shall walke [...] in latitude, in breath, in liberty; for I seeke thy [Page 199] precepts. (2.) Hee is not an absolute Prince. 1. Hee is under 2 baile, and in chaines of irresistible providence: Satans provi­dence, in power, is narrower then his will and malice; other­wise hee had not left a Church on earth. 2. Hee can doe no­thing without leave asked and given, against Job; nor could hee winnow Peter, till hee petitioned for it. (3.) Hee is not a 3 lawfull Monarch, but usurpeth; and therefore is called the god of this world, 2 Cor. 4.4. not that hee hath any God-head, pro­perly so called.

1. Its true, a black Monarch weareth Christs faire Crown, 1 and intrudes on his Throne, in every false worship: as Levit. 17. Hee that killeth oxe, or goat, or lamb to the Lord, in the camp, and bringeth it not to the doore of the Tabernacle of the Congre­gation, unto the Priest, Vers. 7. Offereth sacrifice to devills. 2 Chron. 11.15. Jeroboam ordained him Priests for the high places, and for the devills, and for the calves that hee had made.

2. To feare the Devill, the Sorcerer, or him that can kill the 2 body, (as Satan may beare the keyes of prison houses, How Satan is a God. and the sword, Revel. 2.10.) more then the Lord, is to put a God-head on the Devill.

3. Satan usurpeth a God-head, over that which is the flower and most God-like and divine peece in man, the mind. Satan hath a God head over minds. 2 Cor. 4.4. 3 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the mind of them that beleeve not: and hee makes a work-house of the soules of the children of disobedience, Ephes. 2.2. they are the Devill's forge and shop, in whom hee frames curious peeces for him­selfe.

4. His crowne stands in relations: Fathers, Tyrants by strong hand, and Lords by free-election were Kings, of old; Satans crown stands by rela­tions. 4 so the Devill is a father, hath children, and a seed, Act. 13.10. 1 Joh. 3.10. the world is his conquest, and his vassalls, Acts 10.38. 2 Tim. 2.26. 1 Pet. 4 3. & 5.8. are the world which hee governes and rules, by the three fundamentall principles of his Catholike Kingdome, which hee hath holden these 5000. years, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, 1 Joh. 2.16. Sinners hold the crown on the Devill's head; their loy­alty to Prince Satan acteth on them to die in warres against the Lamb and his followers.

A cause is not good, because followed by many. Vse. Esay 17.7. in that day, when the Church is but three or foure berries on the [Page 200] top of the olive tree, a man, one single man, shall looke to his Maker. Few in the way to hea­ven. Men come to Sion, and follow Christ in ones and twoes of a whole Tribe, Jer. 3.14. They goe to hell in thou­sands; a whole earth, Revel. 13. worships the Westerne Beast; and the Easterne Leopard hath the farre greatest part of the ha­bitable world; Indians and Americans worship Satan. Christs are but a little flock; ah the way to heaven is over-grown with grasse, there the traces of few feet to be seen in the way: onely you may see the print of our glorious Fore-runner Christs foot, and of the Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and the handfull that follow the Lamb. Follow yee on, and misse not your lodging.

Satan twice judged.There is a two-fold casting out of Satan; one for his first sin, 2 Pet. 2.4. God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, Jude vers. 6. This is a personall casting out, not spoken of here: But Satan must have two hells; for though the Gospel was never intended to Satan, yet Satan is guilty of Gospel-rebellion, in that the Dragon fighteth with the Lamb, and the weak woman travelling in birth, by the Gospel, to bring forth a man child to God. And (2.) as Satan is the my­sticall head and Prince of that condemned body, hee is cast out; and hee hath a power, in regard of the guilt and dominion of sin, both over the elect and the reprobate. Christs death hath broken hells barres, and condemned sinne in the flesh, Rom. 8.3. and dissolved the works of the devill, and taken his Forts and Ca­stles; and, 1 Joh. 3.8. taken many of Satans Souldiers captives. Death was the Devills Fort-royall; Death the de­vills Fort-royall. Hell is his great Prison-house, and principall Jayle; these hee hath taken, 1 Cor. 15.55, 56. Hos. 13.14. I will ransome them from the power of the grave, I will redeeme them from the power of death. O death, I will be thy plague: O grave, I will be thy destruction. And these captives can never be ransomed out of Christs hand again; for (saith hee) repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. When Christ spoyles, All the devils Forts taken from him, and his Courts cry­ed down, and his Lawes an­nulled by Je­sus Christ. hee will never restore the prey againe. Hee hath overcome the world, Joh. 16.33. and that was a strong Fort: and hee hath delivered the Saints from the dominion of sin, be­cause they are under a new Husband; Rom. 6.6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Rom. 7.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. All crosses have lost their salt and their sting; even as when a City is taken by storming, all the Com­manders [Page 201] and Souldiers are dis-armed: and when a Court is cry­ed down, by Law, all the members and Officers of the Court, Judge, and Scribe, and Advocates that can plead, Pursevants, Jayles, are cryed down; they cannot sit, nor lead a Processe, nor summon a Subject: So when Christ cryed down Satans Judicature, and triumphed over principalities and powers, and annulled all Decrees, Lawes, hand-writings of Ordinances, that Satan could have against the Saints, Col. 2.14, 15. all the Offi­cers of hell are laid aside; the Devill is out of office by Law, jure, the Jayles and pits are broken, Esay 49.9. That thou maist say to the prisoners, Goe forth: to them that are in dark­nesse, Shew your selves. Zech. 9.11. When a righteous King cometh to the crown, hee putteth down all unjust Vsurpers.

If Satan be cast out, wee are not debtors to the flesh, to ful­fill the lusts thereof, Rom. 8.12. Sin hath no law over us. Vse. There is a law of sinne, a dictate of mad reason, by which the sinner thinks hee is under the Oath of Allegiance to Satan, and his crown, scepter, and honour hee must defend; but there is no reason, no law in hell, and in the works of hell. Take not in a dislodged Spi­rit, lest you have eight for one. And if hee be once cast out, who is this usurping lawlesse lord, if you sweep the house to him, and take him in againe to a new lodging, one devill will be eight devills; for Satan, thus cast out, will re­turne with seven devills worse then himselfe: Remember Lot's wife, if yee be escaped out of Sodome. Looke not over your shoulder with a wanton and lustfull eye to old forsaken lovers, let repentance and mortification be constant.

But yet to consider more particularly, Satans Princedome, and Satans Power: I adde yet more of these two heads,

• 1. The Power of Satan.
  Satans power and punish­ment.
• 2. The Punishment of Satan.

His Power is held forth, in that hee is a Prince.

• 1. In his might and power naturall.
• 2. In his power acquired.
• 3. In his power sinfull, and judicially inflicted.

The Devil's Power, hee was created in, both in the mind, and will, and executive faculty, by no Scripture or Reason can be imagined to be lesse, before the fall of these miserable Spirits, then the power of their fellow-Angels.

[Page 202]1. The Angels being all created holy, and according to Gods image, The ill Angels created good, as the elect A [...]gels. they must have been created with their face to God, and in their proper place and sphere; and so with power to stand in their place. Now, what station can these immortall Spirits be created in, rather then in a state of seeing God? 2. Satan abode not in the truth, (saith the Lord Jesus, Joh. 8.44) and the bad Angels left, (saith Jude vers. 6.) [...], their proper dwelling. These two places compared together, seemeth to hold forth that truth, Ill angels saw God before their fall, as did the elect. and the first truth; God seene and knowne, though not immutably, was the first element, native countrey of the Angels: They must then see God and his face.

It is a bold and groundlesse conjecture of some rotten School­men, to say, That truth from which the Angels are said to fall, was the Gospel-truth; and that, They envied that man was in Christ, to be advanced above the Angelike nature.

The ill Angels before their fall knew no­thing of the incarnation of Christ.1. Its a dreame, that the Gospel was revealed to the Devils before their fall; for then their owne fall and future misery, that they were to be kept eternally in chaines of darknesse, on the same ground, must be revealed to them. What horror and sadnesse must fill Adams mind, and the Angels spirit, if hell and the necessity of God manifested in the flesh, was revealed to them in the state of happinesse? 2. The mystery of the riches of the glorious Gospel was hid, from the beginning of the world; and the glorious elect Angels come in time, Ephes. 3.8, 9, 10. to learn that manifold wisdome of God; and delight, in Peters time, to looke into it, as to a great secret of God, 1 Pet. 1.12. Wee have not then reason to think this secret was whispered in the eares of the Devils, before they fell.

2. Its true, Mat. 18. The elect Angels, [...], alwayes now behold the face of Christs Father; for now they are con­firmed, that they cannot look awry, and turne their eyes off Gods face; even when they come downe as servants, to the heires of glory on earth, they carry about with them their heaven, and the pleasures of the Court they enjoy; no reason their posting among sinners should decourt them, or deprive them of the actuall vision of God: But it followeth not therefore, the falne Angels never saw the face of Christs Father; it followes one­ly, they saw it not immutably, and in a confirmed way of grace, and [...], alwayes, as now the elect Angels doe.

[...]. Its no Princedome in Satan to know the thoughts of the [Page 203] heart; this is proper to God onely, 1 King. 8.39. Jer. 17.10. Psal. 44.21. Nor hath hee, or the good Angels, Satan know­eth not the thoughts of the heart. any immediate Princedome over the will, to know what are my thoughts, or to know one anothers thoughts, or to act immediatly upon free will: not because the thoughts of the heart are objects of them­selves so abstruse and high, that they are not intelligible; for a mans owne spirit knowes the things in himselfe, 1 Cor. 2.11. Yea, (2.) then they could not be known by revelation; for God cannot, by revelation, cause a finite understanding com­prehend an infinite object; because the object exceedeth the faculty in proportion infinitely. The thoughts of a mans heart, cannot so exceed the understanding faculty of a man, farre lesse of an Angel: Therefore God, in the depth of his wisdome, by an act of his own free will, not from any mystinesse or intrin­secall darknesse of the object, hath cast a covering over the thoughts of mans heart, that they are not seen clearly to any other Men or Angels. Nor could humane Societies, now in the state of sin, subsist, if but the father could read the heart of the sonne.

Nor have Angels, good or bad, Satan hath no immediate power over free-will; nor tempteth he to a [...]l sins that are committed in the in-most Court of the heart. any immediate Princedome over free will: nor would I say, Satan is the Author, yea, or the immediate Tempter to all sinnes: many sinfull thoughts, and wicked acts, are transacted in this darke chamber of pre­sence, the heart of man, to which Satan can have no personall accesse, neither with his eyes to see, nor his hands of power to stirre or move in them. The heart is the privie garden, weeds grow there without Satans immediate industry: he may knock, or cast fire-balls over the wall, or in at the windowes, or send letters and messages in, but hee cannot immediatly talke with the heart, or act immediatly on the will: wee are to keep this virgin-love of the heart, to Christ; hee can ravish it, and none but hee. Its the will that maketh the bargaine in sinning: With all keeping keep the heart. Wee make away the created domi­nion over free-will, that God gave us in our creation.

3. Satan hath a Princedome in 1. knowledge naturall, 2. in acquired knowledge. In naturall; Satans know­ledge naturall, and acquired. because hee is a piece of light, a lamp once shining in heaven; but now, for his sinne, smoking and glympsing in hell. The naturall intellectualls of the Devill are depraved, not removed. Its a question, if hee can remaine a Spirit, if that candle were extinct, by which hee [Page 204] beleeveth there is a God, but trembleth, Jam. 2. The acquired knowledge of the Devill is great, hee being an advancing Stu­dent, and still learning now above five thousand yeares; and hee that teacheth others, becometh more learned himselfe: He is the great Mint-master and Coyner of knowledge, in Ma­gicians, Wise-men, Soothsayers, Sorcerers, is a carefull Reader in turning over the pages of the book of Nature, and the whole works of Creation. But still Satan studieth man, better then man doth himselfe: hee knoweth nature, in generall, may sin; and that corrupt nature, must sin: hee observeth second incli­nations, of humour, complexion, temper of body, disposition, ere hee tempt; as no Sea-man sailes, till hee know how the wind bloweth: and hee learned that by the Prophets, and ex­perience, which hee saith, Luk. 4.34. I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God.

Satan hath a l [...]gall power over man.4. Hee hath a particular Princedome of Power, legally, over mankind, till Christ set them at liberty; as the Executioner hath over the condemned man, from the Judge. Heb. 2.14. Christ tooke part with the children of flesh and bloud, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devill; Vers. 15. And deliver them, who, through the feare of death, were all their life time subject to bondage. Satan, from mens sins, hath a sort of conquered Princedome, till the Sonne of God make us free, Joh. 8.36. And this Prince­dome hee keepeth over all the sons of disobedience, as their fa­ther, Joh. 8.44. as the king of the bottomlesse pit: And we have no ground to say, Its not certain by Scripture that Beelze­bub loseth the Princedome o­ver his fellow-Angels at the last judgement that Satan at the day of judgement leaveth off to be king, because the damned and the Devill and his Angels are said to be tormented together in everlasting fire, Mat. 25. for communion in paine, maketh not Satan to have no Angels under him, or damned men, whom hee torments.

Quest. But how keepeth Satan still power over Job, Peter, to winnow them and afflict them, in this life, if Christ have cast him out of his Princedome? How Satan keepeth still, and exerciseth his power of tempting, though he hath lost his Prince­dom, by Christs death.

Answ. 1. Its meere service for the trying of the Saints, and mortifying of their lusts, not dominion, not any legall power, such as he hath over the Sonnes of disobedience, whom he keepeth captives at his will.

2. In relation to Satan it is a meere grant of permission; as a Noble-man forfeited for treason, and kept, some yeares, [Page 205] in prison, before he dye, hath the life-rent of his own Lands, for his necessity, not by heritage as before, but by a grant or gift of grace, from the bounty of the Prince and State; so hath Sa­than, not by grace to himselfe, but by a grant of meere per­mission, as it were his life-rent to tempt, winnow, and try the Saints, so long as Satan is in the way to his full doome in Hell. Now, if Christ had not spoiled Satan, and dissolved his workes; the use of this power had beene, as it were, heri­tage, to Satan, in regard the Law giveth him a sort of right o­ver sinners, not made free in Christ. Yet I doe not say, its his proper right, because Satan sinneth in tempting any to sinne; yet the temptation, as it falleth passively on the Sonnes of dis­obedience, is a worke of Divine justice, and as it falleth on the Saints, an act of spotlesse, and holy dispensation, for most just reasons known to God.

2. Satan is a prince in regard of magnificence, cal­led a Prince, a Prince of the aire, a God, Satan a prince for his power over other. for he hath a royall army under him, the Devill and his Angels, are a great hoast, Revel. 12.9. The Devill, and Satan, and his Angels, were cast out. Vers. 7. The Dragon and his Angels fought with Mi­chael; and he hath Legions garisoned in one poore man, hee hath kept the fields above these five thousand yeares, with a huge and mighty army, both by Sea, and Land. Ephes. 6.12. For wee wrestle not against flesh and bloud, but against Principa­lities, and powers, against the rulers in the darkenesse of this world, against spirituall wickednesse in high places. Heere bee great persons in eminent places, and they can leade armies a­gainst us, and have in every single souldier, a strong garrison of concupiscence, and fleshly lusts, that warre against the soule, 1 Pet. 2.11. And the flesh is a strong Fort-royall, a towre of imaginations, which exalt themselves against a strong King, the Lord Jesus, and cannot bee his captives, Satan an en [...] ­mie not to be d [...]spised for his lownesse. but by the mighty power of God. 2 Cor. 10 5. The Devill is not a despic [...]ble and poore enemy to be despised, it is not good warre-wisdome to despise a meane enemy, farre more should we not sleepe, but watch and be sober; When the Peer [...]s of hell, What it is to tempt, and how Satans power is put forth in tem­pting. and Princes and Rulers in high places, who have the vantage of the Mount above us, are against us.

3. Satans Princedome is especially seene in temp­ting to sinne, which that it may be better cleared. I shall short­ly [Page 206] shew what a temptation in generall is. 2. Open Satans power in tempting. To tempt is to take a triall of any, to try what is in them; G [...]l. Pa [...]isi­ens t [...]act [...] Cha [...]twright Cat [...]h. c. 4 [...]. therefore the neerest end of tempting is know­ledge; Now the waies or manner of bringing out this know­ledge, rendreth the temptation good or ill: for God tempteth, and Satan tempteth. So Temptation is a working upon the senses, reason, inclin [...]tion, affections, by which any is, or may be moved under the colour of good, toward that which is offensive to God.

Satan can not fire the wil, against our will.1. Temptation is a working, or an act of stirring in the tempte [...], not Physicall, but Morall, and Objectiv [...]; no tempter, who is only a tempter, can by any reall action fire the will. Satan doth but knock, by his Logick, at the out-side of the doore, but cannot open. Free-will is a tender, excellent, piece of creation; and either the best or the worst of the whole creation of God. See well to it, its a worke of your whole life time to watch this doore.

Every tempted cre [...]ture is a sufferer.2. Tentation is an act of moving, or stirring the powers of the man: As when wine is stirred, and wine and dreggs are jumbled through other; or a Fountaine troubled, and water and clay mixed in one; hence every tempted person is some way a sufferer, [...], Perforo tento. though hee know not particularly it is so. As the Fish tempted with the ba [...]te, the Bird with the Fow­lers song, are sufferers, though they know not; there is a breaking in upon the phancie, sense, reason, will, and affecti­ons to strike a hole in the soule; So tempting is called piercing, though the foole going to the chambers of death, knoweth not that it is for his life, Prov. 7.23. To be tempted is a matter of great concernment; Its good to know when we are tempt­ed, and what God and Sa­tan ayme at. illumination is most necessary here, and specially to know that God aymeth at the tryall of our Faith, and other glorious ends. And that 1. Satan seekes some of his owne worke in us, as God seeketh to bring out some of his worke in us. 2. That Satan aymes to goe betweene the be­leever and his strong hold. 3. That he aymeth at house-roome in the soule.

3. The temptation works upon both, the inward and out­ward man; on senses, fancie, minde, inclination, will, and af­fection, but hath a speciall designe at the soule.

4. By the temptation any is, or may be moved to sinne; for all tempted, are not actually induced to sinne. Christ was real­ly [Page 207] tempted of the Devill, but was never induced to sinne. Sa­tan shot his arrowes at Job for nothing; he lost his labour in seeking the failing, and drinking up of Peters faith. Therefore to be tempted of the Devill, or the World, is not a sinne.

5. The temptation worketh under the colour of good. The first Printing iron and Master samplar of tempting, Every temp­tation cometh under the va [...] of good. hath this Character of apparent good. Gen. 3.6. The Woman saw that the fruit was good. 1. Because tempted persons are reaso­nable creatures, and as instinct taketh with birds, and beasts, and poore nature swayeth elements in their motion, so reason is a strong tying chaine.

2. Every temptation hath a garment, or rather a shirt of truth in the understanding, and comming under the shaddow and rooffe of the desiring facultie as good, nothing hindereth it to take, but a marring of the understanding, in apprehending some blacke spot, in the fairenesse of it; When Satan sayleth faire with favour of the winde, and commeth in his Whites, and in cloth of Gold, as an Angel of light, wee are as readily moved often (such is our childishnesse) with good-like as with good. Things are [...]li­gibl [...], rat [...]er because law­full and honest▪ then because good and plea­sant. Beleeve not therefore a white Devill, because white. O beware to yeeld your tongue to licke a honey-temptation, under the veile of sweetnesse. Receive things rather because lawfull, then because good or pleasant. 2. Beleeve it, there can be no reason for sinne, no reason can wash the Devill to render him faire; neither thirst, nor company, can bee a reason of drunkennesse. An injury cannot justifie every Warre and bloud-shed; because injury is a sinne, and to wash one sinne with another, is as if you should wash a foule face with Inke-water. 3. Beleeve sinne to be folly and darknesse, and light of reason can bee nei­ther father nor mother to folly and darkenesse: holinesse is white and faire, within and without.

6. The object of the temptation, in the definition; the terminus ad qu [...]m, How tempta­tions te [...]d to sinne. is that which is offensive to the majesty of God. That we may understand this, remember foure are said to tempt. 1. God, his tempting neither in the condition of the worke, or intention of the worker is sinne, But the Lord pro­veth you (saith Moses to Israel) that he might know, whether yee love the Lord your God. 2. Our owne lusts tempt and lead aside. Jam. 1.14. And as fire cannot but make fire; so both in the intention of the worke, and the worker, the end of temp­tation [Page 208] is sinne. Concupiscence is a mother that cannot bring forth a good daughter. 3. If men tempt to sinne, as a Ma­gistrate by good Laws tempteth wicked men, the end is not necessarily sinne in the intention of the doer; though no man can formally tempt another to sinne, but he sinneth and tempt­eth to sinne both wayes. And when Satan tempts, hee dri­veth ever at sinne; both waies we are to feare God, to watch, to stand out, when he tempteth

2. Now we are to consider, that though Satan be senten­ced already, and as a Malefactor under baile, and in chaines, yet hath he leave to walke too and fro in the earth, and is not yet cast in prison, nor are wee freed from his temptation, the personall persecution and malice of Satan; as we are from the persecution of the damned now in hell, who did persecute us here on earth, but cannot now. No doubt but as the good An­gels, Satans power on the outward man. strooke the men of Sodome with blindnesse, so the ill An­gels have the like power on the senses, a man possessed with the Devill, was both dumbe and deafe, Job 2.7. Satan smote Job with sore boiles, from the sole of his foot unto his crown; and so Devils have power over the senses, and bodily organes; and so of necessitie over the bloud, to cause rottennesse in it, which must be in boyles, and to alter and infect the humors. Psal. 78.49. Evill Angels were ministers of the Lords plagues on the Egyptians. Its no good argument, we can d [...]e and all this on our selves, there­fore Satan can doe it. But I shall not thinke it a good Argument, to prove, that Angels can jumble the humours, to make many things appear without that they are not; and that they can work on the internall senses, the fancie and imagination, because we our selves, by an act of free-will, can stirre up the memory of things, and provoke our fancies to the apprehension of things. Ergo, Angels either good, or evill, can doe the like. This is but a sorry poore reason, for we our selves can doe many things within our selves, which the Angels cannot doe; I know the thoughts of my owne heart, when they come forth in act, 1 Cor. 2.11. No Angels good or ill can know them; I can with an obedientiall act of free-will, by grace, set my free-will on acts to command my memory, fancy, imagination, thoughts, to meditate on by-passed experiences of Divine favours, and sweetly solace my selfe in God, with these thoughts; no An­gels in heaven or hell, can determine my free-will to those Spirituall acts; yet, by the grace of God, I can doe it. Nor is [Page 209] that true, what ever an inferiour power can doe, that a superi­our can much more doe; if there be orders in Angels, a supe­riour Angel cannot determine the will of an inferiour, as hee himselfe can doe. Sure my knowledge and will are inferiour powers, in comparison of Angels, 1 Cor. 13.1. We have a greater power over our owne u [...]d [...]standi [...]g and will, then [...]i [...]her good or bad Angels can have. Yet have I greater dominion over my owne understanding and will, then th [...] Angels have over my understanding and will, and can know my owne actuall thoughts, and determine mine owne will, by grace, which no superiour powers of Angels, or any els, save the Almighty, can doe.

I rather conceive that the outward and inward senses, hu­mors, imagination, fancie, memory, b [...]ing naturall agents; and Scripture clearely shewing, that Angels and Devils can, and doe worke upon naturall agents, Devils have power over our naturals, [...]t our mo­rals. have a power over all our dispositions, temperature, senses, fancie, imagination, memory; therefore what is naturall in the acts of understanding and me­mory, not morall, Angels doe, and may know. What heart-se­crets Devils know from the disposition of body, palenesse, rednesse, trembling, dejected countenance, are good conje­ctures; and surer it may be then wee can apprehend, but no certaine knowledge.

God onely knowes all the thoughts of man, and his se­crets, 1 King. 8.39. God on [...]ly knoweth the [...]eart and thoughts, and acts thereof, considerable g [...]ounds there­of. For thou (even) thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of men, Prov. 15.11. H [...]ll and di­struction are before the Lord, how much more then the hearts of the children of men. He that can read hell, and destruction, and all the secrets of darknesse, can also read, as a booke ope­ned at noone-day, the midnight-thoughts of all the children of men. Psal. 44.21. Jerem. 17. Rom. 8.27. 1 Thess. 2.4. Rev. 2.23. Acts 1.24. Prov. 17.3. Prov. 21.2. Joh. 2.24▪ 25. Yea to know the present thoughts is prop [...]r to God, Matth. 19. [...]. And Jesus knowing their thoughts, said, wherefore think yee evill in your heart. Nor can Angels see the present thoughts come out in action; for otherwise the man himselfe knoweth his owne thoughts, when he actually thinketh them, 1 Cor. 2.11. els he could not be convinced of the sinnefuln [...]sse of them, nor comforted in the spiritualnesse and preciousnesse of them.

Its a fond opinion of some, who say, Angels can see the thoughts of the heart, when they are, but not what they are, [Page 210] whether they he good or bad, love or hatred; for that is non­sense, to see Morall acts, and not bee able to passe any judge­ment on them: or that Angels see our thoughts, but not whe­ther they be intense, and vehement; or cold, and remisse; for its proper to God, as the searcher of hearts, to know the secrets of the heart, and all the qualities of it, that he may according­ly judge them. And if Angels see them as Morall acts, they must know the vehemencie, or slownesse of them, the Scripture placeth also the difficultie of knowing the thoughts, and the di­stance, and remotenesse of them, from the understanding of men, or Angels in the thoughts themselves, not in the vehemencie or slownesse of the thoughts; and its but an evasion that some have, that Angels may know the thoughts, and acts of the will in themselves, but not know to what end they are directed, and that the intention of the minde is the great secret that God hath reserved to himselfe; because 1. The Scripture placeth the secrecie of the free acts of will and understanding in the acts themselves, and not in the intention; for so most of the actions of Men and Angels, their speaking this, not that; their walking to this Citie, their eating, sleeping, now, not another time, their praying, hearing, reading, shall be secrets, known to God onely, not to Angels, or Men, just as the acts of understanding, the will, are, because the particular intention, whether wee doe these sincerely, for a good or bad end; yea, often for what end we doe them, is amongst the secrets of the heart as farre di­stant from the understanding of Men or Angels, as any secret can be. 2. The intention of all our elicite acts that issueth from w [...]ll and understanding, are also acts of the heart and reines, that fall under the present question, and the greatest se­crets in man, The true rea­son why God onely knoweth the h [...]art, the reason of Sua­rez refused. Suarez tom. de D [...]o & Angel [...]s, lib 2▪ de poten­tia inte [...]lecti [...]a Angelo­ [...]um natura. c [...]p. 23. n 17. Hebr. 4.12.

Neither see I any reason, from the disproportion betweene the knowing faculty and the understanding of Angels; why An­gels may not know the thoughts of my heart, aswell as I may know them my selfe; nor can the reason bee, as Suarez saith, Because Angels, though they have sufficient power in the facu [...]ty of understanding to know these things; yet have not in their understanding the species, the babies, images, and represen­tations of heart-secrets, but with his good leave; this is Petitio principij. For the question is, how commeth it to passe, that Angels, who have the species of higher and more profound [Page 211] things, as of the naturall knowledge, that there is a God, that hee is infinite, eternall, yet have not the species of an object, farre inferiour, and yet intelligible, to wit, of the heart-actions of a man. 2. When I aske how commeth it, that an Angel, or a Man, knoweth not this; I aske indeed, how cometh it to passe, that an Angel, or a Man, wanteth such a species of such a thing, so Suarez saith in effect, Angels know not heart-se­crets, because they know not heart-secrets. I conceive God hath laid a covering over the hearts of Men and Angels, from his own free and wise will, and reserved that secret to himselfe: For God gave speech to men, and a way how Angels should communicate their thoughts to Angels, and Men, which is Angel-speaking; and this gift had bin uselesse, if Angels and Men could intuitive­ly read and behold the thoughts of one anothers hearts, nor is it usefull for the end of reasonable nature, for love and societie that we know the secrets of one anothers hearts, for the au­thor of nature giveth not that by nature, which with lesse im­peachment of love, and not without danger of contention and hatred, may by industrie be acquired. And we should take heed, what is written in the booke of our heart, when such a search­ing eye readeth it, as God; and will one day read out to the hearing of Men and Angels, all these secrets, Eccles. 12.14. except we bee pardoned in Christ, many state-secrets, many foule contrivances may come out, to our everlasting shame.

And for this cause, we are to blesse the Lord, who hath re­served from Satans Princedome, and left out of his charter a­ny power to compell our will. Its true, Satan hath a borde­ring or (as it were) some out-land Prince-dome over Sauls will, in that he can sit and ride on his melancholie; Satan hath no power over our [...]ill▪ but wh [...]t leaveth guiltinesse on us. so as he is moved to throw a Javeling at Jonathan, and to seeke to kill David; yet so as he, that is so acted by an evill Spirit, is blame-worthy; and then it must be presumed, he hath some dominion over his will. Acts 5.2. Peter saith to Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lye to the holy Ghost? Here the Holy Ghost arraigneth not Satan, but Ananias for a lye, which yet came from the Father of lyes. Which is, 1. Because there was few­ell and powder in the harth before, and Satan did but blow the bellowes, and brought forth the flame. 2. Because wee wil­lingly joyne, and love to have it so. 3. Because the act of sin­ning, commeth formally from free-will, which cannot be for­ced, [Page 212] but may keep out the siedge without violence, but yet base­ly rendreth.

If Satan be the Prince of the aire, and can raise mighty stormes and winds, Satans power over the crea­tures. that can smite the foure corners of an house, which is not like an ordinary wind, that bloweth from East, or West, or North, or South, but rather right down, Job 1.19. If hee have power of flouds, and seas, and be a roaring Lyon, and, by reason of his sagacity and skill in the secrets of nature, can doe wonders, though no miracles, as to raise the dead, by applying actives and passives together; no question, the Lord letting loose some links of the chaine hee is fettered withall, hee can work curiously and strongly on the walls of bodily or­gans, on the shop that the understanding soule lodgeth in, and on the necessary tooles, organs, and powers, of fancie, imagi­nation, memory, humours, senses, spirits, bloud, so nearely joyn­ed with the soule, as will, understanding, conscience, and affecti­ons sit in dangerous neighboured, with such malignant Spirits.

It is (no question) hard enough to give an exact delineation of the length and breadth of the borders of the Princedome of Satan; nor is it necessary, for our edification, to know all the secrets and mysteries of the Devils Power, how hee assumeth a body, what hee can doe in the sphere of nature, how he acts upon men: Sure, hee hath some in his snare, as poore birds, who are taken captives by him, at his will, 2 Tim. 2.26. and that hee sitteth at the helme, as it were, of some, and acts and stirreth them so, the wind and tyde of their lusts complying with him, that they cannot chuse but saile, and walk according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the aire, the Spirit that now worketh in the children of dis­obedience, Ephes. 2.2. And that hee can borrow tyde and faire wind at his nod, and woe the soule by the shop and office-house, the body, the flesh, the senses; and reciprocally, act, indirectly, by forraigne Embassies and missive Letters, on the will and un­derstanding, and the lusts, that are domestick friends within, to draw in the senses, and the fancies and imagination, to joyn with him; as is cleare in his first dealing with Evah. It is not his way to deale with the senses onely, or with reason onely, or to keep such a method, as peremptorily to begin at one before an­other; but in Satans first temptation of Evah, hee acteth col­laterally and reciprocally; hee acteth on the eare, by speaking; [Page 213] and on the mind, by speaking reason; Hath God said yee shall not eat of every tree? Doth hee so strictly tye you? Satan acteth at one time on sense and on re [...]son. Is that rea­son and justice, to put a Law on an Apple? Then you may not eat of every tree, which God hath made for eating. And Satan worketh on the sense by reason, Gen. 3.5. For God doth know, that in the day yee eat, then your eyes shall be opened, and yee shall be as gods knowing good and evill. And this wrought upon the sense; for its added, Vers. 6. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food. And againe, by the sense of seeing, Satan wrought on the will, to bring out the consent; Vers. 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, shee tooke of the fruit thereof, and did eat. Sa [...]an work­eth on the soul thro [...]gh the body, and on the body thro [...]gh the soule. So Satan can make the body a tempter to the soule, and the soule and reason a tempter to the body: As when the husband is leprous, and the wife infected with the pestilence, hee rendereth her a leper, and shee rendereth him sick with a running botch. When the body is pampered, and the vessels full, it draweth the soules consent to fleshly lust; and the soule findeth reason, but corrupt reason, why the body should be a member of an harlot. And there is mutuall help between concupiscence and conscience; the one tempting with strong acts of lusting, the other tempting with lustfull reason, shewing it should be so, and may be so: As in a wa [...]er-work, drawing water from such a place, twen­ty empty buckets come downe, and twenty full buckets come up, and every one serveth another, for one common work. Nor is it a wond [...]r, that one Devill doth kisse and embrace another▪

The Prince of this world's casting out, leadeth us to a fur­ther consideration of Satan's punishment: A double sin, and a double punishment of Satan. As there is a double sin in Satan, so a double punishing and casting out. The ill An­gels first sinne I determine not; They abode not in the truth: They kept not their first and proper station. God made all things good, and placed them all in due and fit houses and stations, and God was the station and house of the Angels; the Devils first I [...] God, and left their owne house; its like they would have been high [...]r, and aff [...]cted a God-head: They would not sit, contentedly, in the place God set them in. Shifting Spirits, Climbing men­like the devil. climbing men, that would be higher then God hath placed them, [Page 214] and would be without their owne skin, and above their owne element and proper sphere, have this, as a graine of the ill seed, that the old Serpent spewed in Evah. The Devill knew how to goe out of his owne house, and to climbe above his own pro­per station, and hee would lead Evah up the staires, whither he did climbe himselfe, to seek to be like God, knowing good and evill, Gen. 3.5. The whole Creation was like a well-ordered Army, at the beginning, all kept rank, and martched in order; the Devils were the first Souldiers in the Army that spilt the comely rank, Satan first mar [...]ed the com [...]ly order of creation. and marred the first order: the Prince of darknesse, that great Lord of confusion, made the first jarring, and Sampler and prime discord in the sweet musick and song of the praises of the Creator, that all creatures did sing: Therefore God the Creator, in his justice, spared not him, and his fellow-mutiners, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them unto chaines of darknesse, to be reserved unto judgement, 2 Pet. 2.4. Christ, as Med [...]ator, did not inflict this punishment on the falne An­gels.

Now, there is a second sinne of the Devils, and that is not onely the casting down of man, Satan [...] second sin, and how hee is yet in acting his first sinne. but the continuing without re­treiting in the first sin. 1 Joh. 3.8. Hee that committeth sin is of the devill: for the devill sinneth from the beginning. Joh. 8.44. Satan was a murtherer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth; because there is no truth in him. What, is not Satans first sin a transient act gone and past? Is Satan this day in the very act of murthering all mankind, and of murthering Adam and Evah, who many thousand yeares agoe are dead? Its true, the act physically considered, is gone; but morally, Sa­tan is yet on that same sin. 1. Because hee did, and doth spin out, in a long threed, the very first sin; and all Satans life, from that day to this, is one continuated act of apostacy: In 1. the not retreiting, nor repenting his first sin, and his first murther; Satans hands are wet and hot this very day with the bloud of Adam and Evahs soule. 2. In the continuing in, and the ap­proving of the act of his first sinning, by still envying the glo­ry of God, malicing his workmanship and image, so as the guilt of that sin go [...]th along with him. Hence Christ addeth his seale, as Mediator, to the Lords first sentence of justice, in casting him out of heaven; and in regard hee continueth in that sin, and addeth new soule-murthers, to his first transgression, in tempt­ing, [Page 215] tormenting, hating, opposing the redemption of man, the Gospel, the offices of Christ, the Church of Christ, Christ cometh in, by his office, as his Judge, to adde to his chaines. In which a word,

• 1. Of the punishment of Devils.
• 2. Of Christ, as hee is the Judge of Devils.

The punishment hath relation to his first sin: His first sin was against the Holy Ghost, in that being a lamp of light, Satans sin the s [...]nne in nature with the sin against the ho­ly Ghost. shining up in the high Palace, and standing before the Throne, wanting not any wicked principle of concupiscence within, or any habituall aversion from God, looking God in the face, and beholding the first truth, hee sinned against God, and therefore was made an exemplary spectacle to Angels and Men of pure and unmixed justice, without mercy, and cast down to hell without hope of a Saviour, or redemption; Heb. 2.16. For verily hee took not on him the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham.

The evils of punishment inflicted on Satan, are 1. His being cast out of the presence of God, never to see his face againe, Punishments infl [...]cted on Satan. nor enjoy his favour. 2 Pet. 2.4. For God spared not the An­gels that sinned, but cast them downe to hell. Hence from this Schoolmen inferre a 2. punishment, a perpetuall sadnesse and dejection of mind, for the losse of that happy fruition of God. But I much doubt, whether sadnesse for the want of Gods love­ly presence, can consist with the extreme hatred of God, What sadnesse is in Satan. and fiery aversnesse, implacable wrath, and burning envie, that Satan hath against the glory of God, or image of God, or any thing of God; especially against the Lamb and his followers; against whom he warreth continually. A sadnesse there may be in him, because hee is a rationall creature, in regard hee is falne from the good of happinesse, not of holinesse; but conjoyned with wrath and hatred against God: and this is without question in all the damned.

2. The paine inflicted on the understanding, is the hurting of his naturall speculative knowledge. Sure, Satans natu­rall knowledge hurt, his pra­cticall know­ledge that was found, is lost. if hee see not God as the first truth, hee seeth all deductions from the will, soveraign­ty, wisdome, justice of God, &c. more darkly then hee did be­fore; but, if his naturall speculative knowledge was utterly lost, there should be no foundation remaining in him of wrath and envie against God, and his creatures and image. 2. His true and saving practicall knowledge is lost, and in place there­of [Page 216] a crafty, versutious, cunning, deceitfulnesse and subtilty to deceive and tempt; such as is in the Serpent to sting; such a bloudy instinct as is in the Dragon, in the Lyon to devoure; but otherwise, the Devill is the first foole of the creation of God, The devill a foole. and hath played the foole above five thousand yeares; for, in rationall policy, the tempting of our first Parents to sin, though it was a master-piece of wit, was the ruine of his Kingdome: and the Serpent, even in the crucifying of Christ, did buy a scratch in Christs heele at a deare rate, with the bruising and grinding to powder the head and life of the Serpent, and the full destruction of his Kingdome. And by experience Satan knoweth hee is a loser, in tempting and persecuting the Lord Jesus and his members, yet malice having put out the light of prudence, hee knowingly soweth sin, bloud, wrath, in Christs field; and in so doing hee sweateth in labouring the vineyard of the Lord, to make an harvest and vintage for Christ.

Satan hath no infused grace.3. Infused grace Satan hath not at all; because, grace super­naturall is a stemme and blossome of heaven: its hard to think that since Satan was thrust out of heaven, any of the fruits or blossomes of that Paradise can grow in him. Acquired know­ledge Satan may have. And,

4. From this Satan hath faith against his will, Jam. 2.19. Its necessary in the specification rooted in a naturall understand­ing; What faith Satan hath. but in the exercise, as it were, forced, and compelled, hee would wish to want the constraining power of a naturall know­ledge: so as this is a wicked faith, and a tormenting vertue in the Devill, as it is in many wicked men, who desire nothing more then to have conscience cut off from their soule. As some men are so pained with a Gangrene in the foot, that they are willing their legge be sawen off. Or like a man that hath a ne­cessary servant, and most usefull, yet because hee hath one in­tolerable gadde, hee must put him away. For light addeth feare and terrour to some distracted persons, and maketh them out of measure furious; therefore yee must close doore and window on them, and they are most sober when they have least light: So here, glancings of conscience serve but to make some see ghosts of hell, and terrifying sights.

5. Satan can have no hope of deliverance, but knoweth his prison-doore is locked on him with a sad key, Satans despair without all hope. eternall despaire, that so long as the Almighty liveth and is God blessed for ever, [Page 217] so long shall he be miserable. Would sinners lend their thoughts and faith to eternity, that runneth out in so long a threed as ever and ever, and on paine, horror, and torment for ever and ever, it might be they would not run and sweat so much in the way of sin.

6. Obstinacy, and invincible obduration and hardnesse lieth on the mind, will, and affections of the Devils; Satans obdu­ration. the cause of which is his habituall continuance in, and love of the sin against the faire shining and convincing light of seen and enjoyed God, the justice of God, and the withdrawing of all grace and reme­dies against wilfull hardening the heart.

7. The breaking of Satans hopes and counsels in all his ill at­tempts, his burning hatred of God, the Lambs victories over the Dragon, the chaining and bordering of his malicious power, &c. are great punishments.

8. I dare not, nor cannot determine what the fire is that tor­menteth him; nor the place of hell: its more praise-worthy labour, to seek to be delivered, in Christ, from it, then to search curiously into it.

Satan's Judge and caster out is Christ; as may clearly be gathered from the words, Now is the Prince of this world cast out. Hence,

Consid. 1. When Christ came to the office of Redeemer and Mediator of his Church, to deliver his people out of the hands 1 of Satan, Christ is Sa­tans Judge and caster out. hee found Satan under old treason committed against God; for before this hee kept mankind captive, and found him under a sentence for it, and cast downe to hell: and because Christ was God, and the same God equall with the Father, therefore hee made good his Fathers deed, and putteth his seale and Amen to that sentence; and for new treason against God, in man his Image, whom God had made lord and little king of the earth, Christ gave out a new sentence against Satan, Gen. 3.25. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Consid. 2. All punishment on Satan is now inflicted by the Mediator Christ; for since Satan came in the Play, Christ Satans Iudge, and how. to appeare 2 a Satan and Adversary to man, hee set up another kingdome of darknesse, opposite to the kingdome of the Son of God, Col. 1.13. Joh. 14.30. hee persecuteth the woman that brought forth [Page 218] the Man-child, Revel. 12.13. hee goeth forth in his Instru­ments to gather the kings of the earth, and the whole world, to the great battell of that great day of God almighty, Revel. 16.14. and maketh warre with the Lamb. Revel. 17.13, 14. Hee is the accuser of the brethren, Revel. 12.10. The king of the bottomlesse pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon, Revel. 9.11. Hee is the Arch-destroyer, and destroyeth all in relation to the Man Christ and his Church; therefore is Christ raised up a Re­deemer, a Saviour, to revenge the cause of his brethren, and came in the flesh to destroy Satan his kingdome and works, to enter in Satans house to bind the strong man, and spoyle him of his goods, Heb. 2.14. 1 Joh. 3.8. Joh. 14.30. Mat. 12.29, 30. Gen. 3.16. Col. 2.15, 16. And when Christ, by reconciling all things in heaven and earth to God, Col. 1.20. became the head of An­gels and Men, Col. 2.9. Col. 1.18. Col. 2.10. hee was stated in an headship over all the tribes of men and Angels, to confirm the good Angels that they should not fall, and to redeeme falne Men; and when all State-solemnities at the Coronation of Je­sus Christ are performed, and the Father had said, Psal. 2.6. Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Sion, Act. 5.31. hee must, by his office and Royall place, reigne over the Rebells, that are mixed with the willing Subjects, and bruise them with a rod of iron, whether they will or no: And as when there is fewd and warres betweene two Houses, and bloud on either side, there is an h [...]ire borne of one of the Houses to make peace be­tween them, and take order with, and subdue the rebellious, who refuse peace, and to revenge the injuries; so were there warres between the Soveraigne Majesty of the Lord our God ▪ and both Angel-nature and Mankind. Angels and Men ▪ had highly injured the Lord, and wounded his honour; Christ Je­sus, a borne Heire of the seed of David, and of the Royall line of heaven, God equall with the Father, comes to the Crowne, and makes peace between the Lord and Men and so farre re­concileth the good Angels, that they cannot fall out with God, but stand by the grace of the new Heire; and Christ revengeth upon the Devils and the world the wrongs done to God, and subdueth both under God.

3 Consid. 3. It is considerable, what wisdome and counsell is here in warre: Satan foiled man, and subdued him as his vassall [Page 219] and slave, to the condemnation hee himselfe was under; and Man must be king, lord and Judge over Devils. Satan foiled man as a tem­pter, a Man destroyeth Sa­tan as a Iudge. Angels who envied Mans happinesse, and destroyed mankind, must appeare personally, be arraigned, sentenced, and condemned before the Man Christ. Man was shut out of Paradise by the envie of An­gels; now hath the Man Christ the keyes of Paradise, of hea­ven and hell, and death and the grave. Christs garments are wet and stained, not with Edoms bloud, Esai. 62. but (to bor­row the expression) hee goeth to heaven in triumph, and his apparell red with Angel-bloud, and so leadeth captivity it self captive. Other Warriours take away the life of the living; but he taketh away the life of death it selfe. Others subdue captives; never one, save the Man Christ, subdued captivity.

Consid. 4. Victory over Devils, by the man Christ, is more glorious, then if God had interposed absolute Soveraignity 4 and Power, because mercie, grace, truth, justice, Vi [...]o [...]y over the D [...]vils by th [...] man Chr [...]st m [...]r [...] glori [...]us th [...]n [...]f G [...]od a [...]so [...]ut [...]ly ha [...] s [...]bdue [...] h [...]m. are the sweet ingredients, going out with the bloud of God in it, and om­nipotencie is much seene, in that one little despised man of clay, totally rout [...]th and destroyeth Satan, and many legions, so that though Devils keepe the fields, and dayly sight; yet th [...]y can ne­ver make head againe against Christ, nor win one battle, or pull one captive out of Christs hand.

Consid. 5. Heaven is not conquered againe, nor Hell and Devils subdued by a sudden surprise, or a stratageme, H [...]ven not cu [...]ered by a surprisall or wil [...]s, but [...]y open warr [...] 5. but in 5 faire warres, and in an open set battell, Coloss. 2.15. Hee on the Crosse made a shew openly, and triumphed over Devils.

Vse 1. If God onely know the heart, and its secrets, and Men and Angels cannot; Vse 1. we should aime and studie sinceri­tie: one witnesse of integritie here, The Lords knowing the hearts, should teach us s [...]nce­rity. is more then millions of witness [...]s; this one witnesse, the Searcher of hearts, will cast a man, though he had a jury of Angels to absolve him, and all the men on earth were on the Inquest and Assise, to carry him up above the skies, and the heaven of heavens, as more innocent then all the Angels; and if Angels, all Angels and men were on you jury to condemne you, to be as foule and guiltie, as the Prince of Devils, yet Rom. 8. If yee be in Christ. Vers. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth; Vers. 34. Who is he that condemneth? Rest upon the Testimony of no man; there bee thousands faire and and spotlesse standing before the Throne, whom the World con­demned [Page 220] to hell, as foule and black; wee may instance in Jesus Christ, his Apostles, and the Martyrs of Christ; and thou­sands, the blind world have written in heaven amongst the stars, and Gods above the clowds, in the Quire of Angels, as Au­gustus Caesar and thousands of these, whom Jesus Christ did never owne, but as enemies. O what is the worth and price of a conscience sprinkled in the bloud of the Lambe? And what a precious voice is the testimony of the Spirit? And what a valide Passe and a Magna Charta, a noble testificate, is that in heaven and eternity, if Jesus Christ say, Behold, a true Js­raelite indeed, in whom is no guile.

Vse 2. Vse 2. What is light, and knowledge, though you had as much as the Devils have, State-wit a­gainst Christ jolly. who are torches and lamps of hell for knowledge, if all your wisdome be against Christ? Its a black commendation, Jer. 4.22. My people are foolish, they have not knowne me, they are sottish children, and they have no un­derstanding. Yet they are wise as the Devill is, They are wise to doe evill, but to doe good, they have no knowledge. They go for heads of wit, and wise men, who are deep, politick, pro­found State-Atheists, who can with their contrivances, roul a­bout the wheeles of two Kingdomes, and can stirre the helme of Europe, and yet know nothing of God, but all their wit runneth in the Devils channell, to plot, brew, and hatch wic­kednesse, lies, subvert the cause of the just, crush the Wid­dow, and murther and starve the Fatherlesse, beare downe Re­ligion, set up a humane, earthly, civill structure of Government in Christs Kingdome. Let them goe for wise men, but they are wise for the Devill, Let the Lord speake to such, Jerem. 8.8. How doe yee say, we are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us. Vers. 9. Loe they have rejected the Law of the Lord, and what wisdome is in them? Can these bee wise men and great State-wits, and not rather State-sots, who reject the Wisdome of God? Its now counted State-wisdome in Scot­land, to patch up a false peace with Amaleck, contrary to the Covenant of God, though Saul give the Amalekits, and their Kings peace, God will give them no peace.

Vse 3. Vse 3. If Satan be so understanding and subtile, so active a Spirit, Then the Familists erre, not knowing the Scriptures; For they say, the Devill is nothing, yea, not the creature any thing; but God: as (saith the Bright-starre, cap. 8. pag. 68. [Page 221] 69.) Nothing is but God and his will; pag. 77. There is no­thing in the creature, which is not the Creator himselfe; and therefore the Sunne is no sooner hid, but the beames cease to be; So if God hide himselfe, and withdraw his hand from the creatures, they suddenly returne to their nothing. But as the beame and beat, though they containe nothing but Sunne and Fire, yet lookt upon essentially, as they are in themselves, they are not Sunne and Fire, but onely a certain dependant, or a Spark of those: right so the creature, though all it consisteth of, is God; yet considered in the owne proper nature depends up­on God, its consequently somewhat. And that Blasphemous peece, called Theologia Germanica, written by a Priest in High Dutch, and Englished by Giles Randall, Printed at London 1646 by tolleration, saith, Sinne and the Devill is nothing, Theolog. Germanica. chap. 2 p. 5. but when the creature will challenge any good to it selfe; as to live, know, briefly to be able to doe any thing that can bee termed good, as though that good thing were appertaining to it, then the crea­ture averteth it selfe from God, and that aversion is sinne. And the Devils sinne was, that he did arrogate this to him­selfe, that he was some thing, and would bee some thing, and that some thing was his, and in his right and power, this arro­gancie to bee I, to my selfe to bee mee, and to bee mine, was Satans aversion and fall, and this is still in use. So this Au­thor. Hell and the Devill cannot devise subtiller and vainer blasphemie; for so the creature is not the creature, the Devill is not a creature, not a Spirit, not a tempter, not the Prince of the ayre, not a roaring Lyon, not a lyar; and the Holy Ghost in terming the Devill an Angel created in the truth should sinne. Its true, nothing hath being of it selfe, and independently, and as the cause of all being, but onely God the cause of causes, and prime fountaine of being, goodnesse, and actions: but hence it cannot follow, that creatures are not true beings, by par­ticipation of, and dependance from the first Ocean, fountaine, and cause of all being, and that goodnesse and actions, may not be ascribed to them from their derived being they have from God.

2. Christ-man in ascribing to himselfe that hee is man, that he doth the will of his Father, that hee loved his owne to the death, should sinne. Which is blasphemy.

3. It is false for Men or Devils, and sinnefull arogancy to [Page 222] say, they can subsist, or doe keepe their being, without a de­pendance on God, the onely first essentiall being; but it is con­trary to all truth, that they sinne, when they say, they are the creatures of God, and the dependent rayes and beames that flow from God, and the good creatures of God (though by created and dependant goodnesse) they neither lye, nor sinne, not commit any act of arogancie; then should it bee sinne to say that there were any creatures in the world, which is to belie the Scripture.

4. Its the cursed selfe-deniall of Familists, to say, when they doe good or ill, righteousnesse, or sinne; Its not I, but God in me that doth all. And so that there is but one Spirit of life that acteth, and working in all things in heaven, and in earth, and that is essentially God, and the will of God, which is all one with God.

5. That vaine annihilation, and nothinging of our selves, in being and working, yea to the annihilating of the man Christ, under pretence of extolling God, because God worketh imme­diately all good and evill in us (say they) and wee but suffer Gods will, and when wee thus are mere patient, and suffer G [...]d to worke his will in us, we are God himselfe, perfect as God, conforme to his will, nothing in our selves, we being no creatures, but the Creator. That God manifested in the flesh, is God manifested in the flesh of all men, that the passion of Christ, in it selfe is imaginary, but Christ crucified is our paines and tribulation, which we should welcome as Jesus Christ, and so cast all our afflictions into the furnace and flames of Christs torments. As it is said, Let that minde bee in you, that was in Christ. Bright starre. cap. 18. pag. 205. This (I say) is the dreadfull blasphemy now Printed and Preached at London, without controlement, for the which the judgements of God, sad, and heavie, cannot bee farre from the Land. I crave the Readers pardon, that I named such non-senses and fooleries.

Vse 4. Vse 4. By all meanes, beware of sinnes against light, such as the Devils first sinne was. Its to j [...]low the Devill, to sinne against light. 1. To sinne with a witnesse, in the breast, and a witnesse in heaven, is to laugh at Christ in his face. 2. Its the Devils backe fall; he by such a sinne, fell first from heaven, by staring God on the face, and out-dating light, God, Conscience, and actuall conviction; the Devill, no [Page 223] question, by himselfe was warned of his sinne, and how deare it would cost him, before he sinned. Suppose wee, that there is a way in a mountaine of yee, where thousands in former times have slidden, and fallen, and bruised all their body and [...] to powder, would we willingly climb the same rocks, and dreame we should escape the same danger? Legions and millions of Devils fell and bruised their soules to dust, on sinnes against light and knowledge, yet doe we too daringly climbe the same rocks, and sinne dayly, against the Sunne-light of the Gospel-grace of God, teaching us to deny ungodlinesse, and worldly lusts, and the warnings of our owne conscience; yea, too ma­ny goe on against supernaturall illumination, and wee will but leap the damned Devils unhappy leap, we know not that victo­ry over one graine weight of light, leaveth behind it pound weights of disposition, and bentnesse to farther provoking of the Lord: a daring boldnesse to looke God in the face, and sin, turneth quickely in the very sinne, as neere, in kinne, to the De­vols sinne, as can be; and rendreth its Devilish stonpe, and fall downe before the light of a shining command, as the Elect An­gels doe, who receive Gods commands with wings, and flee up­on obedience as ministring Spirits.

Vse 4. Hearden not your hearts, be not obstinate in evill, Vse 4. that is the plague of Devils also, O [...]d [...]ration. men render themselves De­vils; with their owne hands, they open hell and goe in, and lay the Devils chaines and fetters on their own will and mind, when they resolutely, and deliberately, resist God, and God in a deepe judgement in them bindeth them, and they cry not; he is deservedly a captive, who twists his owne coards and chaines about himselfe. Selfe-induration is a selfe-hell, and a selfe-bon­dage. How affraid should we bee to keepe loose watch over the heart, or to give the raines to our owne will, to goe on a­gainst God. For he 1. needs doe no more, but loose an Ar­my, and a strong armed Garison of sinfull thoughts, as so many Spirits of hell, that are within the towne already, and they can destroy us. 2. The Devill is neere by to put in our heart all wickednesse, he hath the command of the out-workes; the humours, fancie, disposition, the spies, and Posts that goe in and out, the Sen [...]s, we have need to lay the bands of a cove­nant on the eye, and if the devil be master of all the Forts and Sconces wit [...]ou [...] the walls, we are in no small danger.

[Page 224] Vse 5. From Satans power, and opposition against us, wee want not both motives and incouragements to watch. Vse. 5. For 1. Satan is a great partie; The good fight. hee is a Prince, Ephes. 2. And 2. a Prince above us, the Prince of the ayre. 3. He hath large ter­ritories; the Text saith, He is the Prince of this World. 4. He is not a common Prince, he is Prince of Kings; many of the Kings of the earth give their power and strength to him, and so he is a Principalitie, 5. Not that onely, but he is a great ar­my, Principalities, Powers, Rulers, Potentates; we have a mighty army of Lords and Kings to fight against. 6. The more Spirituall the enemy be, and the more subtile to come in at closed iron gates, and through strong walls, the more dan­gerous; Satan, for all your keyes and locks, will be at the in­ner doore of the heart, ere ever yee know of it: You watch, and he is at your elbow, and covenanting with your watches on the walls, to corrupt them. 7. When the enemy is strong, if he be wicked, so much the worse. Now Ephes. 6.12. we fight against wickednesse it selfe, against spirituall wicked­nesse; the more wicked the enemy is, he hath a greater minde to fire, and destroy. 8. The more active, the worse is the enemy; Satan hath no office, but to bee the butcherer and exe­cutioner of justice, and hath no distractions to withdraw him, he may attend upon blouds, and soule-murthers, and walketh in a circle, compassing the earth too and fro, and goeth about like a roaring Lyon, seeking whom he may devoure. 9. Hee hath friends within us, every Saint is a devided party.

2. The Quarrell is not Money, civill Liberties, Lawes, Hou­ses, Lands, nor corruptible things, yet wee runne and strive for pence and pounds, but here peace of Conscience, an in­corruptible Crowne, 1 Cor. 9.25. the Lords glory is the gar­land at the stake.

3. We have noble Witnesses. The Father, the Lord Je­sus, the Spirit of glory, the glorious Angels, are behol­ding us.

4. The battle will not last for Centuries, nor for many scores of yeares, the issue will bee quickly, death will end the controversie.

5. We have Christ on our side, he hath spoiled Principa­lities and powers; the Lord, the master of the game, hath pro­mised us his might, his strength, all his forces, grace, wisdome, [Page 225] power, his Angels, that are stronger then ill Angels; here An­gels against Angels. God ingaged against hell.

6. We fight, but with a broken and overcommed Devill, both spoiled, Coloss. 2.15. and disarmed, Hebr. 2.14. 1 Cor. 15.55.56.

7. There is little required of us to the victory, but a strong negative; consent not, render not▪ treat not with the enemy, though he fire, and kill.

8. The losse is the greatest of all, eternall misery, once ful­ly ende, close, and make a covenant with the enemy, and yee can hardly be everable to rebell, or make head against your con­querour, but once a slave, and eternally a slave.

9. The Garland is faire and glorious, The tree of life that is in the midst of the paradise of God, Revel. 2.7. The hidden Manna, the white stone, and the new name, Vers. 17. Power over the nations, and the morning starre. Vers. 26.27.28. To be clothed in white, and his name confessed before Christs Father, and his holy Angels. Revel. 3.5. And hee is made a pillar in the house of God, and on him is written the name of Christs God, and the name of the citie of Christs God, Je­rusalem that commeth downe out of heaven, and Christs new name. Vers. 12. And he sits with Christ on a throne, and with the Father of Christ, vers. 21.

10. The victory is certaine, and ours by promise, all which should arme us with sobriety; a drunken warriour is seldome victorious, worldly pleasures and lusts are above our head and strength; and to put on the whole armour of God, and watch, and pray is wisdome.

Vse 6. Let us thankfully acknowledge our obligation to Je­sus Christ who hath cast out this Prince of this world. What service owe we to Jesus Christ, who hath ransomed us from such an enemy? Sure wee are his debtors for ever; the cap­tives whole service is little enough for his ransome-payer.

And 1. we cannot be the servants of the World, if Christ 1 have ransomed us from this present evill world, Galat. 1.4. The reall ex­pressions of our obligati­on to the con­queror of Devils. and from the Prince thereof. It is base to bee the vassall of the tyrant, from whose hands wee are redeemed; the World is but Satans vassall.

2. He is a Spirit, who hath redeemed us from a cruell Spi­rit. Christ-God is a Spirit, out-side-service cannot please him. 2 [Page 226] When corruption, like poyson, strikes into the heart, and the hands are pretty cleane, its most dangerous.

3 3. Redemption argueth not freedome from infirmities, but from such sinnes as are called the pollutions of the world. There is sinne in all, but in the redeemed; sinne desileth the actions, not the person because he is washed; in the Hypocrite it black­eth both person, and actions.

4 4. Wee cannot serve our ransome-prayer in the strength of false principles, or naturall gifts, but of his owne grace.

5. Glorifie God, by shewing forth his glory, for yee can 5 adde nothing really to him, and he will really glorifie you, and put a weighty Crowne on your head, and also pay you home in your owne coyne, and declaratorily glorifie you. I will con­fesse him (saith Christ) before my Father, &c.

We have spoken of the power of Christs death, and of his enemies, the World, and Satan. Now Christ speakes of the power of his death on the Elect, in drawing sinners to him­selfe.

The scop of the words is to hold forth the efficacie of Christs death, [...]ix considera­ble points tou­ching Christs drawing of sinners. in drawing sinners to him. In which we have these con­siderable points.

1. The drawing it selfe.

2. The Drawer. I will draw, saith Christ. Christ is good, and of excellent dexterity at drawing of men to God.

3. The persons drawn. All men.

4. The person to whom; the terminus ad quem; To mee, saith Christ.

5. The condition. If I be lifted up from the earth. Which is not a note of doubting, whether he would die for us; as we shall heare, but of a sure condition.

6. The way and manner of his lifting up from the earth is ex­pounded, Verse 33. To signifie, to the hearers, what sort of death he would die, to wit, the death of the Crosse.

Foure conside­rable points touching drawing.Of drawing it selfe; these are considerable.

1. The expression and Metaphore of drawing.

2. The reasons moving Christ to draw; the fountain [...], cau­ses, [Page 227] and the disposition and qualifications going before drawing, in the party drawn.

3. The manner of drawing, or the way, and if it bee some other thing then justification.

4. The power and efficacie of drawing.

[...] to draw; as the word [...] Cant. 1.4. Draw mee we will runne after thee. Is first, a word of violence and strength. Drawing is by either vio­lence, wiles, or pers [...]asion. 1 King. 22.34. A certaine man drew a bow, [...] Job 41.1. Wilt thou draw Liviathan with thy hook? Joh. 21.11. Simon Pe­ter, [...], drew a net to land. Acts 16.19. They caught Paul and Silas [...], and drew them to the market place to the rulers. 2. Drawing is by wiles, and perswation, or love; (For wiles is covered, or pretended love,) Judg. 4.6. Draw them (by perswasion) to Mount Tabor to battle. Hos. 11.3. I will draw them [...] with cords of man, with bands of love. It is such a drawing as is ascribed to the Whore, (though ano­ther word) Prov. 7.21. the Whore, which made the young man to decline, with the softnesse of her lips, in faire words, forced him. Jam. 1.14. Every man is tempted, when hee is led, or drawne aside, by his owne lust, and inticed. This draw­ing is by wiles, to steale a man off his feet. So Psal. 10.9. A bird is drawne in the net. It is then a word borrowed from bodily strength, which draweth heavy bodies out of one place to another, by strong hand. The sinner is a heavy creature. Grace is a strong thing to pull the man out of his element. There be then in Christs drawing. 1. Violence. 2. Per­swasions of love, strong love runneth from the heart, through all the nerves and veines of Christs right arme, to draw a sin­ner to God. 3. There is art and wiles, He drawe [...]. which is nothing but masked love, for wiles cannot worke upon the soule to draw it, but by the taking of reason, with apprehension of good; Hope is the painted net that draweth men to Christ, and the hope of the prey draweth the Fox to the net, the hope of food, the bird to the snare. The violence that Christ useth, is not on the reason, will, or any vitall principles of the soule; no principles of life, can act as principles of life, No proper vio­lence in draw­ing the will. from externall drawings, and stirrings, life is an internall [Page 228] thing; the line, and first point of the line, in motions of life, is from within, all the violence is done to the corrupt accidents, and sinnefull qualities of the soule, as to darkenesse, and sinnefull ignorance, to unbeliefe; frowardnesse and sowrenesse to Christ, hatred of God, enimity of the car­nall minde to the law of God; put the will once on moving, and set the wheeles a stirring toward Christ, (which is all the difficulty) and the principles of life smile on Christ, and move apace; but the corruption of will must be removed first, as sup­pose, a milstone were kept fast in the ayre by a strong chaine of▪ iron, there is violence required to snap in pieces the iron chaine, How there is no violence in being drawn, and yet a ne­cessity from new principles but none at all to draw the milstone down to the earth, it falles downe of its owne accord; this is but a comparison; For the will in its motion to Christ must not onely bee freed from the dominion of the clog of the body of sinne, and these naturall chaines and fetters; but Christ must put new princi­ples, and a new life, and new wings, and new wheeles; and with them act, stirre, and move the will, and then, hee drawing, we runne, Cant. 1.4.

He that is drawn to Christ, Joh. 6.44. is not altogether wil­ling; as the fish hath no propension of nature, to bee haled out of its owne element, all the propension commeth from that which setteth the will on worke. A child taketh medicine, but his propension is stirred from the sugar, that pleaseth his tast. He learneth, being hyred, that which sets him on work, is not the good that he seeth in the booke, nor the beauty that he con­ceiveth to be in vertue and learning, its the apples, the babies you give him as his hire, that acteth him; nor is the will here forced. A hireling caries a heavie burden, not with a forced will, but there is nothing in the burden that doth take his heart; but the sweating under the burden, come all from mo­ney, he is hired, and therefore doth all from the stirrings of his will, that ariseth from his wages. Mens comming to Christ, comes not from their naturall good-liking they beare to Christ, but from some higher principle within, and the discovered ex­cellency, that the Spirit layes open to the soule▪