The Souls Conflict With Itself, Chapter 19
CAP. XIX.
Faith to be prized, and other things undervalued, at least not to bee trusted to as the chiefe.
THat faith may take the better place The meanes to get an high esteeme of Faith, is to undervalue all things elsein the soule, and the soule in God, the heart must continually be taught of what little worth all things else are, as reputation, riches, and pleasures, &c. and to see their nothingnesse in the word of God, and in experience of our selves and others, that so our heart being …ed from these things, may open it selfe to God, and imbrace things of a higher nature; otherwise baser things will be neerer the soule then faith, and keepe possession against it, so that faith will not be suffered to set up a throne in the heart; There must bee an unloosing of the heart, as well as a fastning of it, and God helpes us in both: for (besides the word discovering the vanity of all things else out of God) the maine scope of Gods dealing with his children in any danger or affliction whatsoever is to imbitter all other things but himselfe unto them; Indeed it is the power of God properly which makes the heart to trust, but yet the Spirit of God useth this way to bring all things else out of request with us in comparison of those inestimable good things, which the soule is created, redeemed, and sanctified for; God is very jealous of our trust, and can endure no Idoll of jealousie to be set up in our hearts. Therefore it behooves us to take notice, not onelyonly of the deceitfulnesse of things, but of the deceitfulnesse of our hearts in the use of them; Our hearts naturally hang loose from God, and are soone ready to joyne with the creature; Now the more we observe our hearts in this, the more wee take them off, and labour to set them where they should be placed; for the more wee know these things, the lesse we shall trust them.
But may wee not trust in riches, and friends, and other outward helps at all?Object.
Yes, so farre as they are subordinace to God our chiefe stay, with reservation Answ.and submission to the Lord, onelyonly so far, and so long as it shall please him to use them for our good. Because God ordinarily conveyes his help and goodnesse to us by some creature; we must trust in God to blesse every mercy wee in joy, and to make all helps serviceable to his love towards us. In a word, we must trust & use them in & under God, and so as if all were taken away, yet to thinke God (being al-sufficient) can doe without them, whatsoever hee doth by them for our good. Faith preserves the chastitie of the soule, & cleaving to God is a spirituall debt which it oweth to him, whereas cleaving to the creature, is spirituall adultery.
It is an error in the foundation to substitute false objects either in Religion, or in Christian Conversation; for 1. in religion 1.trusting in false objects as Saints, & workes, &c. breeds false worship, and false worship breeds Idolatry and so Gods jealousie, and hatred. 2. In Christian Co… versation 2.false objects of trust breeds false Comforts, & true feares; for in what measure we trust in any thing that is uncertaine, in the same measure will our griefe bee when it failes us; the more men relye upon deceitfull Crutches the greater is their fall; God can neither indure false objects, nor a double object, (as hath beene shewed) for a man to rely upō any thing equally in the same ranke with himselfe; for the propounding of a double object, argues a double heart, and a double heart is alwayes Iames 1. 8.unsetled, for it will regard God no longer then it can injoy that which it joynes together with him; Therefore it is said you cannot serve two Masters, Luk. 16. 13not subordinate one to another; whence it was that our Saviour told those worldly men which followed him, that they could not beleeve in him, because Ioh. 5. 44.they sought honour one of another; and in case of competition, if their honour and reputation should come into question, they would be sure to be fals to Christ, and rather part with him then their … vne credit and esteeme in the world.
David (here) by charging his soule to trust in God, saw there was nothing else that could bring true rest and quiet unto him; for whatsoever is besides God, is but a creature; and what ever is in the creature, is but borrowed, and at Gods disposing, and changeable, or else it were not a creature; David saw his error soone, for the ground of his disquiet was trusting something else besides God, therefore when he began to say, My hill is strong, I shall not bee moved, &c. then presently his soule was troubled. Psal. 30. 6.Out of God there is nothing fit for the soule to stay it selfe upon; for
1. Outward things are not fitted to 1.the spirituall nature of the soule; they are dead things and cannot touch it being a lively spirit, unlesse by way of …aint.
2. They are beneath the worth of the 2.soule, and therefore debase the soule, & draw it lower then it selfe. As a Noble woman, by matching with a meane person much injures her selfe, especially when higher matches are offered. Earthly things are not given for Stayes wholly to rest on, but for Comforts in our way to Heaven; they are no more fit for the soule, then that which hath many angles is fit to fill up that which is round, which it cannot doe, because of the unevennesse and void places that will remaine; Outward things are never so well fitted for the soule, but that the soule will presently see some voidnesse and emptinesse in them, and in it selfe in cleaving to them; for that which shall be a fit object for the soule, must be 1. for the nature of it spirituall; (as the soule it selfe is) 2. constant, 3. full, and satisfying, 4. of equall continuance with it, and 5. alwayes yeelding fresh contents: we cast away flowers, after once we have had the sweetnesse of thē, because there is not still a fresh supply of sweetnesse. What ever comfort is in the creature, the soule will spend quickly, and looke still for more; whereas the comfort we have in God is undefiled and fadeth not away; How can wee trust to that for comfort, which by very trusting proves uncomfortable to us? Outward things are onelyonly so far forth good, as wee doe not trust in them; thornes may bee touched, but not rested on, for then they will pierce; we must not set our hearts upon those things which are never evill to us, but when we set our hearts upon them.Psa. 62. 10
By trusting any thing but God, wee make it 1. an Idoll, 2. a curse and not a Jere. 17. 5.blessing, 3. it will prove a lying vanity, not yeelding that good which wee looke for, and 4. a vexation bringing that evill upon us we looke not for.
Of all men Solomon was the fittest to judge of this, because 1. hee had a large heart able to comprehend the variety of things, and 2. (being a mighty King) had advantages of procuring all outward things that might give him satisfaction, and 3. he had a desire answerable, to search out and extract what ever good the creature could yeeld; and yet upon the tryall of all, hee passeth this verdict upon all, that they are but vanity; Eccles. 1. 2.whilest he laboured to find that which he sought for in them, hee had like to have lost himselfe; and seeking too much to strengthen himselfe by forreine combination, hee weakned himselfe the more thereby, untill he came to know where the whole of man consists. Eccles. 12. 13.So that now wee need not try further conclusions after the peremptory sentence of so wise a man.
But our nature is still apt to thinke there is some secret good in the forbidden fruit, and to buy wisedome dearly, when wee might have it at a cheaper rate, even from former universall experience.
It is a matter both to be wondred at and pittyed, that the soule having God in Christ set before it, alluring it unto him, that hee might raise it, inlarge it, and fill it, and so make it above all other things, should yet debase & make it selfe narrower and weaker by leaning to things meaner then it selfe.
The Kingdome, Soveraignty, and large command of Man, continueth while he rests upon God, in whom hee raignes (in some sort) over all things under him; but so soone as he removes from God to any thing else, hee becomes weake and narrow and slavish presently; for,
The soule is as that which it relyes upon; if on vanity it selfe becomes vain; for that which contents the soule must satisfie all the wants and desires of it, which no particular thing can doe, and the soule is more sensible of a little thing that it wants, then of all other things which it injoyes.
But see the insufficiency of all other things (out of God) to support the soul, in their severall degrees. First, All outward things can make a man no happier, 1.then outward things can doe, they cannot reach beyond their proper spheare: but our greatest grievances are spirituall. And as for inward things, whether 2.gifts or graces, they cannot be a sufficient stay for the minde; for 1. gifts as policy, and wisedome, &c. they are at the best very defective, especially when wee trust in them; for wisedome Esa. 47. 10makes men often to rebell and thereupon God delighteth to blast their projects: None miscarry oftner then men of the greatest parts; as none are oftner drowned then those that are most skilfull in swimming, because it makes them confident.
And for grace though it be the beginning of a new creature in us, yet it is but a creature, and therefore not to be trusted in, nay by trusting in it we imbase it, and make it more imperfect; so farre as there is truth of grace, it breeds distrust of our selves, and carryes the soule out of it selfe to the fountaine of strength.
And for any workes that proceed from grace, by trusting thereunto they 3.prove like the reede of Aegypt, which not only deceives us, but hurts us with the splinters: Good workes are good, but confidence in them is hurtfull; and there is more of our owne in them (for the most part) to humble us, then of Gods spirit to embolden us so farre as to trust in them. Alas they have nothing from us, but weaknesse and defilement, and therefore since the fall, GOD would have the object of our trust to be (out of our selves) in him; and to that purpose he useth all meanes to take us out of our selves, and from the creature, that he only might be our trust.
Yea wee must not trust trust it selfe, but God whom it relyes on, who is 4.therefore called our trust. All the glorious things that are spoken of trust are onelyonly made good by God in Christ, who (as trusted) doth all for us.
God hath prescribed trust, as the way to carry our soules to himselfe, in whom we should only rely, and not in our imperfect trust which hath its ebbing and flowing; Neither will trust in God himselfe for the present suffice us for future strength and grace, as if trusting in God to day, would suffice to strengthen us for tomorrow; but wee must renew our trust for fresh supply, upon every fresh occasion. So that wee see God alone must be the object of our trust.
There is still left in mans nature a desire of pleasure profit, and of what ever the creature presents as good, but the desire of gracious good is altogether lost, the soule being wholy infected with a contrary taste. Man hath a nature capable of excellency, and desirous of it, and the Spirit of God in and by the word reveales where true excellency is to bee had; but corrupt nature leaving God, seeketh it elsewhere, and so crosseth its owne desires, till the Spirit of God discovers where these things are to be had, and so nature is brought to its right frame againe, by turning the streame into the right current, Grace, and sinfull nature, have the same generall object of comfort; onelyonly sinfull nature seekes it in broken Cisterns, and grace in the fountain; the beginning of our true happinesse is from the discovery of true and false objects, so as the soule may cleerely see what is best and safest, and then stedfastly rely upon it.
It were an happy way to make the We should labour to subdue the first inclination of our soules to the creatures.soule better acquainted with trusting in God, to labour to subdue at the first all unruly inclinations of the soule to earthly things, and to take ad…antage of the first tendernesse of the soule, to weede out that which is ill, and to plant knowledge and love of the best things in it; otherwise where affections to any thing below get much strength in the soule, it will by little and little be so overgrowne, that there will be no place left in it, either for (obiect or act) God or trust; God cannot come to take his place in the heart by trust, but where the powers of the soule are brought under to regard him and those great things hee brings with him, above all things else in the world beside.
In these glorious times wherein so great a light shineth, whereby so great things are discovered, what a shame is it to be so narrow hearted as to fixe upon present things; Our aymes and affections should be sutable to the things themselves set before us; Our hearts should be more and more inlarged, as things are more and more revealed to …s; Wee see in the things of this life, as wisedome and experience increaseth, so our aimes and desires increase likewise; A young beginner thinkes it a great matter if hee have a little to begin withall, but as he growes in trading, and seeth further wayes of getting, his thoughts and desires are raised higher; Children thinke as Children, but riper 1 Cor. 13. 11.age puts away childishnesse, when their understandings are inlarged to see, what they did not see before; we should never rest till our hearts according to the measure of revelation of those excellent things which God hath for us, have answerable apprehension of the same. Oh if we had but faith to answer those glorious truths which God hath revealed, what manner of lives should we leade?