Page images
PDF
EPUB

righteousness, is righteous, even as he is righteous, 1 John iii. 7. Little children, let no man deceive you. Many in. these days under pretence of high and glorious enjoyments of God, neglect and despise righteousness and holiness, crying up visions and manifestations, when their visions are only the visions of their own hearts, and their manifestations are plainly delusions. Ah but,' says the apostle, Little children, let none of these deceive you. 'I tell you he, and only he, that doeth righteousness, is righteous, as God is righteous. Children, you know, may be easily cozened, and made to take counters for gold, because they are broader and brighter: children in grace too are soon deceived; hence is it that they are so cozened. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. So in Heb. xii. 12; Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. Some think that the apostle alludes to those combats of the heathens, wherein it was a token of yielding, when a man hung down his hands. • You are weak,' saith the apostle, and by reason of trials you are apt to hang down your hands, and to give up all as lost; therefore lift up your hands to fight, and your feet to run; take heart and courage; faint not; give not over; turn not aside because of the sharpness of afflictions.' souls strong in grace will hold on in the ways of grace and holiness, in the face of all dangers and deaths.

[ocr errors]

But

9. Weak Christians are apt to make sense and feeling the judge of their spiritual estate and condition; and therefore upon every turn they are apt to judge themselves miserable, and to conclude that they have no grace, because they cannot feel it, nor discern it, nor believe it; and so, making sense, feeling, and reason, the judge of their estate, they wrong, and perplex, and vex their precious souls, and make their lives a very hell; as if it were not one thing to be the Lord's, and another thing for a man to know that he is the Lord's; as if it were not one thing for a man to have grace, and another thing to know that he has grace.

The Canaanite woman had strong faith, but no assurance that we read of. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, `Abba, Father, Gal. iv. 6. Mark; they are first the sons

These

of God, and then the Spirit cries, Abba, Father. things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, 1 John v. 13. Mark; they did believe, and they had eternal life in respect of Christ their head, who as a public person was gone to heaven, to represent all his saints; and they had eternal life in respect of the promises; and they had eternal life in respect of the beginnings of it; and yet they did not know it, they did not believe it. Therefore these things write I unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, says he, that ye may know that have eternal life, and that this life is in his Son. Ponder on Mich. vii. 7. 9. Much of this you may read in my treatise called HEAVEN ON EARTH, or, A well grounded assurance of men's everlasting happiness and blessedness in this world; and to that I refer you.

ye

The word shall judge us at last, and therefore strong saints make only the word of God the judge of their spiritual condition now, as Constantine made it the judge and decider of all opinions.

10. Their thoughts and hearts are more taken with the love tokens and the good things they have from Christ, than with the person of Christ.

But now

O their graces, their comforts, their enlargements, their meltings, and their warmings, are the things that most take them. Their thoughts and hearts are so exercised and carried out about these, that the person of Christ is much neglected by them. The child is so taken with babies and rattles, that the mother is not minded. And such is the carriage of weak Christians towards Christ. souls strong in grace, are more taken with the person of Christ than they are with the love tokens of Christ. They bless Christ indeed for every drop of grace, and for every good word from heaven, and for every good look from heaven; but yet the person of Christ, that is more to them than all these. This is remarkable in the church in Cant. v. 9, 10; What is thy Beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? My Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. She does not say,My Beloved is one that I have got so many thousands by, and heaven by, and pardon of sin by, and peace

of conscience by:' O no; but He is white and ruddy. Her soul was taken most with the person of Christ. Not but that every one is to mind the graces of Christ, and to be thankful for them, but it is an argument of weakness of grace, when the heart is more exercised about the bracelets, and the kisses, and the love-tokens of Christ, than it is about the person of Christ. But now says one strong in grace, My bracelets are precious, but Christ is more precious; the streams of grace are sweet, but the fountain of grace is most sweet; the beams of the sun are glorious, but the sun itself is most glorious. A naked Christ, a despised Christ, a persecuted Christ, is more valued by a strong Christian, than heaven and earth are by a weak Christian.

[ocr errors]

11. Souls weak in grace are easily stopped and taken off from acting graciously and holily, when discourage ments face them.

This you may see in that remarkable instance concerning Peter in Matt. xxvi. 69. A silly wench outfaces him; she daunts and dis-spirits this self-confident champion; she easily stops and turns him by saying, Thou wast with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied it before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. He makes as if he did understand neither her words or her meaning, and this false dissembling was a true, denying of Christ. Now Mark says, that upon the very first denial of Christ, the cock crew, and yet this fair warning could not secure him; but when another maid saw him, and said, This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth, he denied it with an oath, saying, I do not know the man. This was fearful and dreadful, and the worse because the Master whom he forswore, was now upon his trial, and might say with wounded Cesar, ، What, and thou my son Brutus ! Is this thy kindness to thy friend, to him that has loved thee, and saved thee, and owned thee?' Then in verse 73, Surely thou art one of them, for thy speech bewrayeth thee. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. The Greek word that is rendered curse, imports à cursing and a damning of himself, an imprecation of God's wrath, and a separation from the presence and glory of God, if he knew the man. Some writers say, that he

eursed Christ, I know not the man, says he. Though it were ten thousand times better to bear than to swear, and to die than to lie, yet when discouragement faces him, he is so amazed and daunted, that he tells almost the most incredible lie that could be uttered by the mouth of man; for there was scarcely any Jew, says Grotius, that knew not Christ by sight, he being famous for the abundance of miracles that he wrought before their eyes. Neither could Peter allege any cause why he came thither, if he had not known Christ. But he went out, and wept bitterly. One sweet look of love breaks his heart in pieces; he melts under the beamings forth of divine favour upon him. Once he leaped into a sea of waters to come to Christ, and now he leaps into a sea of tears for that he had so shamefully denied Christ. Clement notes, that

Peter so repented, that all his life-time after, every night when he heard the cock crow, he would fall upon his knees and weep bitterly, begging pardon for this dreadful sin. Others say, that after his lying, cursing and denying of Christ, he was ever and anon weeping, and that his face was furrowed with continual tears. He had no sooner taken in poison, but he vomits it up again, before it got to the vitals. He had no sooner handled a serpent, but he turns it into a rod to scourge his soul with

remorse.

This truth is further confirmed by the speech and carriage of the disciples, We trusted, say they, that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel, but now we cannot tell what to say to it, Luke xxiv. 21. Here their hope hangs the wing extremely. Weak souls find it as hard to wait for God, as it is to bear evil. This weakness Christ checks; O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And in John xvi. 5; the first news Christ tells them, is of their sufferings, and of his leaving of them; and upon the thoughts hereof, their hearts were so filled with sorrow, that they could not so much as say, Master, whither goest thou? But now souls strong in grace will hold on in holy and gracious actings in the very face of the greatest discouragements, as those in Psal. xliv; Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death, yet

our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy ways. And so the three children; they hold up in the face of all discouragements. And so those brave worthies, of whom this world was not worthy; their hearts were carried out exceedingly, notwithstanding all discouragements, to hold on in the ways of holiness, and in their actings of faith upon God in the face of all dangers and deaths that did attend them.

When Henry the eighth had spoken and written bitterly against Luther, Luther said, 'Tell the Henries, the bishops, the Turks, and the devil himself, Do what they can, we are the children of the kingdom, worshipping the true God, whom they, and such as they, spat upon and crucified.' And of the same spirit and metal were many martyrs. Bazil affirms of the primitive saints, that they had so much courage and confidence in their sufferings, that many of the heathens seeing their heroic zeal and constancy, turned Christians.

12. Weak saints mind their wages and vails, more than their work.

Their wages, their vails, are joy, peace, comfort and assurance; and their work is waiting on God, believing in God, walking with God, acting for God. Now the minds of weak saints are more carried out and taken up about their wages, about their vails, than they are about their work, as experience does abundantly evidence. Ah, Christians, if you do not mind your wages more than your work, what means the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen? what mean those earnest and vehement cryings out and wrestlings for joy, peace, comfort, and assurance, when the great work of believing, of waiting, and of walking with God, is so much neglected and disregarded? But now strong saints are more mindful of their work, than they are of their wages. Lord,' says a strong saint, 'do but uphold me in a way of believing, in a way of working, in a way of holy walking, and it shall be enough, though I should never have assurance, comfort, peace or joy, till my dying day. If thou wilt carry me forth so as thou mayest have honour, though I have no comfort, so thou mayest have glory, though I have no peace, I will bless thee.' 'I know,' says such a soul, though a life of

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »