The Saints Safety in Evil Times, Sermon 4

The Saints Safety in Evil Times · Sermon 4

p. 125THE SAINTS SAFETY IN EVILL TIMES.

SERMON IIII

1 PET. 4. 19.

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit their so…les to him in well doing, as to a faithfull Creator.

THough Divinity be cleare in other differences from carnall or naturall reasons; yet it hath hom…geniall reasons and grounds p. 126Of its owne, whence come inserences as naturall as for the tree to beare fruit, or the Sunne to shine; so upon the former divine grounds (for it is a matter of suffering wherein wee must have pure Divinity to support our soules) The Aposlle comes to bring a spirituall inference sutable to the same, in the words read unto you: Wherefore concluding all to bee true that was said before, Let them that suffer, &c. Wherein consider, 1. That the state and condition of Gods children is to suffer. 2. The dispensation of that suffering, (they suffer not at all adventures, but) according to the will of GOD. 3. Their duty in this estate, namely, to commit the keeping of their soules to God.

In the duty we have these particulars comprehended. 1. An action, To commit. 2. An object, p. 127what wee must commit, the soule. 3. The person to whom, to God. 4. The maner, in well doing. Lastly, the reason which should move us hereunto, implyed in these words, as unto a faithfull Creator. Whatsoever may support the doubting of a godly man in any trouble, and inforce upon him this duty of committing his soule to God, is briefly coprised in this, that God stands in that near relatiō of a Creator, yea, of a faithfull Creator to us; this is the scope of the words.

Observ. 1.Obser. 1. That the state of Gods children is to suffer, That the state of Gods chil… diē is to suffer.yea, to suffer of God, for sometimes hee seemes to bee an enemy to his dearest servants, as unto Iob; but chiefly they are in a militant estate and condition here.

Because they live among those that they cannot but suffer from wheresoever they live: p. 1281Why Gods children must suffer here.Suppose they live among Christians, yet there are many Christians in name, that are not so in deed, there hath beene secret underminers in all ages, and what else may they looke for but suffering from these? All that ever truly …eared GOD, and made conscience of their wayes, have found afflictions among false brethren: It was never heard of that a Sheepe should pursue a Wolfe.

2They must suffer also in regard of themselves, for the truth is, the best of us all have many lusts to be subdued, and a great deale of corruption to bee purged out, before wee can come to heaven, that pure and holy place, into which no uncleane thing can enter. Though a Garden he never so fruitfull, yet after a showre it will need weeding; so after long peace the p. 129Church of God gathers Soyle, and needes clensing.

But some carnall wretch will say,Object. I thanke God I never suffered in my life, but have enjoyed peace and prosperity, and my hearts content in every thing.

Then suspect thy selfe to bee in a bad estate,Answ. for every true Christian suffers in one kinde or other,In the best estate there will bee suffering one way or other. either from without or within; sometimes Gods children are troubled more with corruption than with affliction; at other times their peace is troubled both with corruption within, and with affliction without; at the best they have sufferings of sympathy. Shall the members of Christ suffer in other countries, and wee professe our selves to bee living members, and yet not sympathize with them? wee must bee con…rmable to our Head, before wee p. 130can come to heaven. But the dispensation of our suffering is according to the will of God, where note two things.

1. That its Gods will be should suffer.

2. When we suffer we suffer according to his will.

To passe briefly over these, as not being the thing I ayme at.

Gods will concerning our suffering is permissive in respect of those that doe us harme, but in regard of our patient enduring injuries, it is his approving and commanding will; wee are enjoyned to suffer, and they are permitted to wrong us.

It seemes then there is some excuse for those that persecute the Saints,Object. they doe but according to Gods will, and if it bee so who dares speake against them?

It is not Gods cōmanding will,Answ. p. 131but his suffering will; hee useth their malice for his owne ends; God lets the rayne loose upon their neckes; as a man is said to set a dogg upon another when he unlooseth his chaine; so God is said to command them, when hee lets them loose to doe mischiese; they are full of malice themselves, which God useth as Physitians doe their poyson to cure poyson; God and they goe two contrary wayes, as a man in a shipp walkes one way, but is carryed another. In the death of Christ the will of Iudas and the rest went one way, and Gods will another; so in all our sufferings, when God useth wicked men, their will is destructive and hostile, but Gods will is cleane otherwise, ayming at the good of his people in all this. Nebuchadnezar did the will of God in carrying the people captive, Esay. 10.Isa 10how p. 132ever he thought not so. Esay 10. 7.Isa 10:7Every sinful wretch that offers violēce to the poor Saints, imagine they do God good service in it, when as indeed they doe but execute the malice and venome of their owne hearts. In the highest heavens (as they say in Philosophy) the first thing moved is by a violent motion; the Sunne is carried about the heavens violently, against its owne proper motion, which inclines to a cleane contrary course; so GOD dealeth with wicked men, hee carries them they know not whither; they are set to doe mischiefe, and God useth their sinfull dispositions for his owne ends, which plainly shewes, that God is without all fault, and they without all excuse.

But observe further,Obser. that we never suffer but when God will; That we never suffer, but wh… God will.and beloved, his will is not, that p. 133wee should alwayes suffer: (though generally our estate be so in one kinde or other) God is not alwayes chiding, Psal. 103. 9.Ps 103:9but hath times of breathing and intermission, which hee vouchsafes his children for their good. Hee knowes if we had not some respite, some refreshment, wee should soone be consumed and brought to nothing:Psal, 103. 14. The Lord knowes whereof wee are made, and considers wee are but dust; therefore he saith, Though for a season you are in heavinesse, 1 Pet. 1. 6.1 Pet 1:6yot rejoyce, &c.

And this the Lord doth o…t of mercy to his poore creatures, that they might not sinke before him, but gather strength of grace, and bee the better fitted to beare further crosses afterwards. You know, Acts 9. after Sauls conversion, when hee was become a Paul, then the p. 132duplicate page p. 133duplicate page p. 134Church had rest, and increased in the comforts of the Holy Ghost; Acts 9. 31.Acts 9:31God gives his people pauzing times, some lucida intervalla; our time of going into trouble is in Gods hands; our time of abiding trouble is in Gods hand, our time of comming out is in gods hands: As in our callings hee preserves our going our and our comming in, so in every trouble that befals us wee come in and tarry there, and goe out of the same when hee pleaseth. Hee brings us to the fire as the Goldsmith puts his metals, and holds them there, till he hath refined them, & purged out the drosse, and then brings them out again, Our times (as David saith excellently) are in thy hands, O Lord. Psal. 31. 15.Ps 31:15Beloved, if our times were in our enemies hands, we should …ever come out; if they were in our owne hands, wee would never p. 135stay in trouble, but come out as soone as wee come in; nay, we would not come into trouble at all if we could chuse. Beloved, every thing of a Christian is deare unto God,Psal. 116. 15.Ps 116:15 his health is precious, his blood is precious, especially precious to the Lord is the death of his Saints: Doe you thinke therefore he will let them suffer without his will? No, hee will have a valuable consideration of all those that are malignant Persecutors of his people, at last; and it is for matters better than life that God lets his children suffer here; for alas, this life is but a shaddow, as it were nothing; God regards us not as we are in this present world, but as strang…rs; therefore hee suffers us to sacrifice this life, upon better termes than life, or else he would never let us suffer for his truth, and p. 136seale it with our dearest blood, as many of the Saints have done.

I beseech you therefore,Vse. considering all our sufferings are by the appointment and will of God; let us bring our soules to an holy resignation unto his Majesty, not looking so much to the grievance wee are under, as to the hand that sent it; wee should with one eye consider the thing, with another eye the will of GOD in the same. When a man considers, I suffer now, but it is by the will of God, he puts me upon it, how cheerfully will such a one commit his soule to the Lord? It is as hard a matter to suffer Gods will, as to doe his will; Passive obedience is as hard as active; in the active, we labor that what we doe may please God, in the Passive we must indeavor that what p. 137hee doth may please us; our hearts are as untoward to the one as to the other; therefore let us begge of GOD to bring our wils to the obedience of his blessed will in every thing: Would you have a patterne of this? Looke upon our blessed Saviour, to whom wee must bee comformable in obedience, if ever wee will be conformable in glory: Loe I come (saith hee) I am ready to doe thy will O Lord; Heb. 10. 9.Heb 10:9what was the whole life of Christ, but a doing and a suffering of Gods will? Behold, it is written in the Volume of thy Booke, Vers. 7that I should doe thy will; and here I am ready prest for it. It should he therefore the disposition of all those that are led by the spirit of Christ, (as all must bee that hope to raigne with him) to bee willing to suffer with Christ here, and say with him, p. 138Lord, I am here ready to doe and suffer whatsoever thou requirest; when once wee are brought to this, all the quarrell is ended betweene God and us.

I come now to that which I chiefly intend, which is the Christians Duty.

Let him commit his soule to God in well doing; wherein observe.

1. The manner how hee must commit, in well doing.

2. What, his soule.

3. To whom, to God.

4. The reasons moving, implyed in these words, as unto a faithfull Creator.

Now this well doing must bee distinguished into two times.

11. Before our suffering; when a sonne of belial shall offer violence to a poore Saint of God, what a comfort is this, that hee suffers in well doing; Oh beloved, wee should so carry our p. 139selves that none might speak evil justly against us, that none, unlesse it were wrongfully might doe us hurt; we should be in an estate of well doing continually in our generall and particular callings, wee must not goe out of our spheare, but serve God in our standings, that if trouble comes it may finde us in a way of well pleasing, either doing workes of charity, or else the workes of our particular calling, wherein God hath set, us; In all that befals thee looke to this, that thou suffer not as an evill doer.

So likewise in suffring wee 2must commit our soules to God in well doing in a double regard.

1. Wee must carry our selves generally well in all our sufferings.

2. In particular, Wee must doe well to them that doe us wrong.

First, I say, in affl…ction our p. 140carriage must bee generally good in respect of God, by a meeke behaviour under his hand, without murmuring against him.

22. In regard of the cause of God, that wee betray it not through feare or cowardise, through base aymes and intentions, &c. but indeavour to carry it with a good conscience in all things; when wee make it cleare by managing any thing, that wee are led with the cause and conscience of our duty, it works mightily upon them that 1wrong us. 1. It winnes those 2that are indifferent; and, 2. Cō founds the obstinate, and stops their mouthes. Therefore let us carry our selves well, not onelyonly before, but in suffering; we may not fight against them with their owne weapons, (that is) be malicious as they are malicious, p. 141and raile as they raile: Beloved, this is as if a man should see another drinke poyson, and hee will drinke too for company; he is poysoned with malice, and thou to revenge thy selfe, wilt bee poysoned too. What a preposterous course is this? Ought wee not rather to behave our selves as befits the cause of Christ, as becomes our Christian profession, and as befits him whose children wee are.

Wee should have an eye to God, and an eye to our selves, and an eye to others, and an eye to the cause in hand, so wee shall doe well. Wee must not commit our soules to God in idlenesse, doing nothing at all, nor yet in evill doing, but in well doing; We must have a care (if wee would suffer with comfort) not to study how to avoid suffering by p. 142trickes, so to hurt the cause of Christ; this is to avoid suffering, by sinne, to leape out of one danger into another. Is not the least evil of sinne worse than the greatest evill of punishment? What doth a man get by pleasing men to displease God? perhaps a little ease for the present. Alas, what is this to that unexpressible horrour and despaire, which will one day seise upon thy soule eternally for betraying the blessed cause and truth of Christ? How can wee expect God should own us another day, when we will not owne him in his cause, and his members, to stand for them now; thinke on that speech of our Saviour, Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, M…rke 8. 38.or of my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation, of him shall the Sonne of man be ashamed when hee commeth in the glory of his father.

p. 143Therefore avoid not any suffering, by sinne; see how blessed S. Paul carried himselfe in this case, The Lord (saith he) hath delivered me, and will deliver mee; from what, from death? no, from every evill worke. What, will God keepe him from evill sufferings? No, for immediately after, he was put to death; what then? why hee will preserve mee from every evill worke, that is, from every sinfull act, which may hurt the cause of Christ, or blemish my profession; this was it Paul chiefly regarded; not whether hee will preserve mee from death or trouble, I leave that to him; but this I hope and trust to, that he will preserve me frō every evill work to his heavenly kingdome. Thus should it bee with every Christian in the cause of religion, or in a cause of justice, &c. for there is not any p. 144good cause but it is worth our lives to stand in, if wee bee called to it; It is necessary wee should be just, it is not so necessary wee should live; A Christians main care is how to doe well, and if hee can goe on in that course, he is a happy man.

But I cannot doe well,Object. but I shall suffer ill.

Labour therefore to carry thy selfe well in suffering evill; Answ.not only in the generall, but even in particular towards those persons that doe thee wrong; endeavour to requite their evill with good; there is a great measure of selfe-deniall required, to bee a Christian, especially in matter of revenge, to pray for them that carseus, to doe good to them that persecute us, &c. and so heape coales of fire upon our enemies heads. How is that? There are,

p. 1451 Coales of Conversion.

2. Coales of Confusion.

You know Coales doe either melt or consume; How in suffe…ing we heape coales of fire.if they belong to God wee shall heape coales of fire to convert them, and make them better by our holy carriage in suffering: If they bee wicked gracelesse wretches, we shall heape coales of fire to consume them; for it will aggravate their just damnation, when they doe ill to those that deserve wel of them.

Some will say,Object. Christianitie is a strange condition, that enforceth such things upon men, that are so contrary to Nature.

It is so indeed,Answ. for we must be new moulded before ever wee can come to heaven; wee must put off our whole selfe, and he is gone a great way in Religion, that hath brought his heart to this passe: None ever overcame p. 146himselfe in these matters out of religious respects, but hefound a good issue at last. It is a sweet evidence of the state of grace, (none better) when a man can love his very enemies, and those that have done him most wrong; it is an argument, that such a man hath something above nature in him. What is above nature if this bee not, for a man to overcome himselfe in this sweet appetite of revenge? Revenge is most naturall to a man, it is as Sugar, (as the Heathen saith) and for a man to overcome himselfe in that, it argues the power of grace and godlinesse in such a one.

As Christianity is an excellent estate, an admirable advancing of a man to a higher condition, so it must not seeme strange for those that are Christians, to bee raysed to a higher p. 147pitch of soule then other men. S…e how our Saviour dealt in this particular,Luke 23. 34.Luke 23:34 Father, forgive them, they know not what they doe; and so likewise Stephen, (being led by the same spirit of Christ) desired God not to lay this sinne to their charge; Act. 7. 60.Acts 7:60and so all the Martyrs in the first state of the Church, (when the blood of Christ was warme, and the remembrance of Christ was fresh) were wont to pray for their enemies, committing their soules to God in well doing.

I beseech you let us labour by all meanes possible to bring our hearts hereunto,The excellent victory of …uffering. if any thing overcome, this will doe it, to suffer well. The Church of God is a company of men that gaine and overcome by suffering in doing good: Thus the Dove overcomes the Eagle, the Sheepe overcomes the Wolfe, p. 148the Lambe overcomes the Lyon, &c. It hath beene so from the beginning of the world, meeke Christians by suffering quietly, have at length overcome those that are malicious, and have gained evē their very enemies to the love of the truth. What shal wee thinke then of the greatest part of the world, who never thinke of suffering, (which is the first lesson in Christianity) but study their ease and contentment, accounting the blessed Martyrs too prodigall of their blood, &c.

Others there are, who if once they come to suffer, presently fall to shifting and plotting, how to get forth againe by unlawfull meanes, oftentimes making shipwracke of a good conscience, and dishonouring the Gospell of God. I beseech you consider these things. Every man p. 149would have Christ, and bee religious, so long as they may enjoy peace and quietnesse; but if once trouble or persecution arises, then farewel religion, they cast off their profession then. I wish this were not the case of many seeming Christians in these our dayes.

But suppose a man carry himselfe ill in suffering?

There is not the least promise of comfort in Scripture to such a man, unlesse hee returne, and seeke the Lord by timely repentance, for all incouragement is to well doing: Oh what a pittifull thing is it for the soule to bee in such a state, as that it dares not commit it selfe to God? A man in evill doing cannot goe home to his owne conscience for comfort, nor have any inward peace in the least action he performes, so long as hee doth it with false p. 150aymes, and carnall affections, &c. who would deprive himselfe of the comfort of suffering in a good cause for want of integrity? I beseech you therefore carry your selves well in any thing you either doe or suffer, otherwise no blessing can bee expected; for we tempt the Lord, and make him accessary to us, when we commit our soules to him in ill doing: Even as your Pirates and other Miscreants in the world, that will robbe, and steale, and doe wickedly, and yet pray to G O D to blesse them in their base courses; what is this but to make G O D like themselves, as if hee approved their thest and horrible blasphemy?

But what must wee commit to God in well doing? the keeping of our so…les: The soule is the more excellent part, witnesse he p. 151that purchased the same with his dearest blood;Mar. 8. 36.Mark 8:36 What will it profit a man (saith our Saviour) to gaine the whole world and lose his owne soule? who could know the price of a soule better than hee that gave his life for redemption of it? yea, if the whole world were layd in one ballance and the soule in another, the soule were better than all. Therefore whatsoever estate thou art in, let thy first care be for thy soule, that it may goe well with that. You know in any danger or combustion, (suppose the firing of an house) that which a man chiefly lookes after is his Iewels and precious things, I have some wealth in such a place, if I could but have that I care for no more, let the rest goe: So it is with a Christian, whatsoever becomes of him in this world, hee lookes to p. 152his precious soule, that that may bee layed up safely in the hands of God. Suppose a man were robbed by the high way, and had some speciall jewell about him, though every thing else were taken a way from him, yet so long as that is lest, he thinkes himselfe a happy man, and saith, they have taken a way some luggage, but they have lest me that which I prize more than all: so it is with a Christian, let him bee stripped of all hee hath, so his soule bee not hurt, but all safe and well there, hee cares not much.

But what should wee desire our soules to bee kept from in this world?Quest.

From sinne and the evill consequents thereof.Answ Beloved, we have great neede our soules should be kept by God, for alas, what sinne is there but wee shall p. 153fall into it, unlesse God preserve us in peace and comfort, and assurance of a better estate; what would become of our poore soules if wee had them in our owne keeping? Achitophell had the keeping of his owne soule, and what became of him? first, hee did runne into the sinne of Treason, and afterwards (being a wicked Politician, and an Atheist having no delight in God) was the executioner of himselfe. We shall bee ready (as Iob saith) to teare our owne soules if God hath not the keeping of them; wee shall teare them with desperate thoughts, as Iudas, who never committed his soule to God, but kept it himselfe, and wee see what became of him. The Apostle bids us goe to God in prayer, and committing our soules to him, to keepe from sinne, despaire, distrust, and all spirituall p. 154evill whatsoever,Phil 4. 7.Phil 4:7 and then the peace of God which passeth all understanding (as the word in the Originall is) shall guard our soules in Christ; our soules have need of guarding, and we of our selves are not sufficient to doe it, therefore wee should commit them unto God, for except hee preserve us wee shall soone perish.

I am ashamed to speake of it,Wicked men thinke that they have no soules. and yet notwithstanding the courses of men are such, that they inforce a man to speak that which hee is even ashamed of; What doe I speake of committing your soule… to God, when many thousands in the world live as if they had no soules at all? I am perswaded that your common swearers, & prophane wretches, who wrong their soules to pleasure their bodies, and prostitute both body and p. 155soule, and all to their base lusts, thinke for the time that they have no soules, they thinke not that there is such an excellent immortall substance breathed into them by God, which must live for ever, in eternall happinesse or endlesse misery; Did they beleeve this they would not wound and staine their precious soules as they doe, they would not obey every base lust out of the abūdance of prophancnes in their hearts, even for nothing, as many notorious loose persons doe: Oh could wee but get this principle into people, that they have immortall soules which must live for ever, they would soone bee better than they are; but the Devill hath most men in such bondage, that their lives speake that they beleeve they have no soules, by their-ill usage of them.

p. 156But must wee not commit our bodies and our estates to God,Object. as well as our soules?

Yes,Answ. all wee have, for that is onelyonly well kept, which G O D keepes, but yet in time of suffering we must be at a point with these things; if God will have our liberty, if hee will have our wealth, if he will have our life and a…, wee must hate all for Christs sake; but wee must not bee at such a point with our soules, wee must keepe them close to God, and desire him to keepe them in well doing.

Suppose it come to an exigent,Object, that wee must either sinne and hurt our soules, or else lose all our outward good things.

We must desire God to preserve our soules,Answ. whatsoever becomes of these;Our chiefe … must bee … soules. our principall care must bee that that bee not blemished in the least kinde; for p. 157alas, other things must bee parted with first or last, this bodie of ours, or whatsoever is deare in the world must bee stripped from us, and layed in the dust ere long. But here is our comfort, though our body be dead, yet our soules are themselves still; dead S. Paul is Paul still: our body is but the case or tabernae le wherein our soule dwels; especially a mans selfe is his soule, keepe that and keep all. I beseech you therefore, as things are in worth and excellency in Gods account, let our esteeme bee answerable: you have many complements in the world, how doth your body, &c. meere complements indeed, but how few will enquire how our soules doe, alas, that is in poore case; the body perhaps is well looked unto, that is cloathed, and care taken that nothing bee p. 158wanting to it, but the poore soule is ragged and wounded, and naked; Oh that men were sensible of that miserable condition their poore soules are in?

Beloved, the soule is the better part of a man, and if that miscarries, all miscarries; if the so…le bee not well, the body will not continue long in a good estate. Bernard saith sweetly, Oh body, thou hast a noble guest dwelling in thee, a soule of such inestimable worth that it makes thee truly noble; what soever goodnesse and excellency is in the body, is communicated from the soule; when that once departs, the body is an unlovely thing, without life or sense, the very sight of it cannot bee indured of the dearest friends: What an incredible basenesse is it therefore, that so precious a thing as the soule is, should serve these vile bodies p. 159of ours; Let the body stay its leisure; the time of the resurrection is the time of the body; in this life it should bee serviceable to our soules in suffering and doing whatsoever God cals us unto; Let our bodies serve our soules now, and then body and soule shall for ever after bee happy; whereas, if wee, to gratifie our bodies doe betray our soules, both are undone.

Beloved, the Devill and devilish minded men (acted with his spirit) have a speciall spight to the soule: Alas, what doe they ayme at in all their wrongs and injuries to Gods children? Doe they care to hurt the body? indeed they will doe this rather than nothing at all; they will rather play at small game than sit out: the Devill will enter into the Swine, rather than stand out altogether; some mischiefe hee p. 160will doe however; but his maine spight is at the soule, to vexe and disquiet that, and taint it with sinne all he can. Considering therefore that it is Sathans ayme to unloose our hold from God, by defiling our soules with sinne, so to put a divorse betwixt his blessed Majesty and us; oh let it be our chiefe care to see to that which Sathan strikes at most. Hee did not so much care in Iobs trouble for his goods, or for his house, or children, &c. alas, he aymed at a …urther mischiefe than this, his plot was how to make him blaspheme and wound his soule, that so there might be a difference betwixt God and him: Hee first tempts us to commit sinne, and afterwards to despaire for sinne.Quest.

But to whom must the soule be committed?Ans.

Commit the keeping of your p. 161soules to God; Our soules must be committed to God.Indeed hee onelyonly can keepe our soules; wee cannot keepe them our selves, neither can any thing else in the world doe it. Some when they are sick will commit themselves to the Physitian, and put all their trust in him; when they are in trouble they will commit themselves to some great friend; when they have any bad naughty cause to mannage, they will commit themselves to their purse, and thinke that shall beare them out in any thing; one thinkes his wit and policy shall secure him, another that his shifts may shelter him, &c. and indeed the heart of man is so full of Atheisme, that it can never light upon the right object, to trust God alone, untill it sees every thing else faile, as being insufficient to support the soule, or to yeeld any solid comfort in times of extremity p. 162and distresse.

But why must wee commit our soules to God?Quest.

Because he is a faithfull Creator: Ans.Whence observe,

That the soule of man being an understanding Essence, Obser.will not bee satisfied and setled without sound Reasons: Our soule is not sati fied but by strong and sound Reasons.Comfort is nothing else but reasons stronger than the evill which doth afflict us; when the reasons are more forcible to case the minde, then the grievance is to trouble it: It is no difficult matter to commit our soules to God, when wee are once perswaded that hee is a faithfull Creator. A man commits himselfe to another man, & hath no other reason for it, but onelyonly he is perswaded of his ability and credit in the world, that hee is a man of estate and power to doe him good; so it is in this businesse of Religion, p. 163our soules are carryed to any thing strongly, when they are carryed by strong reasons; as in this particular of trusting God with our soules, when wee see sufficiēt reasons inducing thereto, we easily resigne them into his hands: This shewes, that Popery is an uncomfortable Religion, which brings men to despaire; they have no reason for what they maintaine: What reason can they give for their doctrine of doubting, transubstantiation, perfect obedience to the law, &c. these are unreasonable things, the soule cannot yeeld to such absurdities, it must have strong reasons to stablish it, as here, to cōsider Godas a faithful Creator, &c. there is something in God to answer all the doubts and feares of the soule, and to satisfic it in any cōdition whatsoever. This is the very foundation p. 164of Religion; not that any worth can accrue to the Creator from the creature, but that there is an All sufficiency in the Creator to releive the poor creature. If a man consider in what order God created him, it will make him trust God; Paradise and all in it were ready for him so soone as hee came into the world. God created us after his owne Image, that as he was Lord of all things, so wee should bee Lord of the creatures, they were all at his service, that hee might serve God; therfore after every thing else was created hee was made, that so God might bring him as it were to a table ready furnished.

And not onelyonly in nature, but in holinesse, having an immortall and invisible soule, resembling God. We must take God here as a Creator of our whole man, p. 165body and soule, and of the new creature in us; God made man at the first, but that was not so much as for God to bee made man, to make us new creatures: God created our bodies out of the dust, but our soules come immediately from himself, he breathed them into us; and in this respect hee is a higher Creator thā in the other; for whē we had marred our first making, and became more like beasts than men, (for indeed every one that is not like God, sympathizeth with beasts or Devils one way or other) God in Christ made us new againe; yea, God became man, to inrich us with all grace and goodnesse, to free us from the hands of Sathan, and bring us to an eternall estate of communion with himselfe in heaven; for all the old heaven, and the old earth shall passe away, p. 166and the old condition of creatures, and a new life shall bee given them: God that made the new heaven and the new earth, hath made us for them. Considering therefore that God gave us our first being, and when we were worse thā naught, gave us a second being, in regard of our new creation, how should it stirre us up to cōmit our soules unto him? especially if we consider that in him wee live and move and have our being, Act 17. 28.Acts 17:28that there is not the least thought and affection to goodnesse in us, but it comes from God, wee are what wee are by his grace.

What is the reason that love descends so much?Quest.

Because a man lookes upon that which is his owne, Ans.and loves it; now God lookes upon us, as upon those into whom hee hath infused mercy and goodnesse, p. 167and hee loves his owne worke upon us, and therefore having begun a good worke, will perfect the same: Doe not men delight to polish their owne worke? As in the first creation God never tooke off his hand till hee had finished his worke; so in the second creation of our soules, he will never remove his hand from the blessed worke of grace, till hee hath perfected the same; therefore wee may well commit our soules to him.

But suppose a man be in a desperate estate,Object. and hath no way of escaping?

Remember that God is the same still,Answ. he hath not forgot his old Art of creating, but is as able to helpe now as ever, and can create comforts for thee in thy greatest troubles. As in the first creation hee made light out of darknesse, order out of confusion; p. 168so still hee is able out of thy confused and perplexed estate, to create peace and comfort: Thou knowest not what to doe perhaps, thy minde is so troubled and disquieted; why, commit thy soule to God, hee can raise an excellent frame out of the Chaos of thy thoughts, therefore be not dismayed, consider thou hast God in covenant with thee, and hast to deale with an Almighty Creator, who can send present helpe in time of need. Doest thou want any grace? doest thou want spirituall life? goe to this Creator, hee will put a new life into thee; he that made all things of nothing can raise light out of thy darke minde, and can make fleshy thy s…ony heart, though it be as hard as a rocke; Therefore never despaire, but frequent the meanes of grace, and still thinke of God p. 169under this relation of a Creator, and when hee hath begun any good worke of grace in thee, goe confidently to his Majesty, and desire him to promote and increase the same in thy heart and life; Lord, I am thy poore creature, thou hast in mercy begun a blessed worke in mee, and where thou hast begun, thou hast said thou wilt make an end: When thou createdst the world, thou didst not leave it till all was done; and when thou createdst man thou madest an end; Now I beseech thee perfect the new creature in my soule: as thou hast begun to inlighten mine understanding and to direct my affections to the best things; so I commit my soule unto thee for further guidance and direction to full happinesse.