Christian Observations and Resolutions, Observations · Observation 27 – Observation 38
27. Atheisme poyson.
ATheisme is both the most vniuersal & most vncureable disease of the world: It is a coūtersconce erected by Satā against the Gospel, to elude the force of it, and to hold men still in the bandes of sinne: It goeth vnderunder one name, but hath many branches, some more open, and some more secrete, and in their worke some more dangerous than other: A dissolute man is not so powerfull to perswad his opinions, as he who colloureth his profannesse: Open Atheisme almost refuteth it selfe, but couert Atheisme may deceiue the wise. There is neither such a ground nor couerture for Atheisme, as to maintaine that men of all Religions may be safe: To make so many doores to Heauen, is to cast wyde open the gates of Hell; Christ hath tolde vsus, that the way to heauen is narrow, and few finde it, and hee calleth himselfe the VVay, but not the wayes: As there is but one God, so there is but one way to him by Faith and Obedience in Christ.
The signes of it, are an humane & officious carriage to man, but licentious and irreligious, before God: a praise of all other religious, and a carping of the Religion professed in the place of their dwelling: And if necessitie draw them to the publicke worship, their behauiour bewrayeth an absence of their soule from that exercise: They jest at Sermons, and make none other use of holy Scripture, than profanlie to apply it to eueryevery profane purpose & trifling occasion: & at their meales, their vnhalowed morsels must be set ouer with the sauce of some abused sentence of Scripture: they care not to offend God, for pleasing their companie, who partak of their profannes, if they be not offēded at y• offēce of God.
As mettals are known by their sound, so their grosse Atheisme is discouered by their profane noyse. They who feare God, dare not carie themselues so before him: And they who hauehave found sacred Scripture the seed of their regeneration, the foode of their soule, and their comfort in trouble, will neuer turne so heauenly Oracles to the matter of their sporting. But they are not long vnpunished, and their damnation sleepeth not.
Nature in Athiests findeth it selfe vexed with the dumbe choppe of conscience crying vntounto them, that there is a God, But this surmyse is out-cryed, and Conscience out-faced, by this, when they thinke any course is a way to heauen. Such men are not so much justifying their course before men, as prouyding libertie of sinning against the cheeke of their owne conscience: There is no such compendious way to libertie, as the lacke of Gods feare: And that heart is voyde of his feare, who sayeth, That there is no God: Though hee be most glorious in himselfe, and gracious to them that know him, yet hee is nothing to the hart that denyeth him.
But Athiests will finde a fearefull wakning: God whom they deny, hath his witnesse in them, and in ende will testifie his trueth to their destruction, except they amend: It turneth men in beastes, yea, in Deuils: While their heart is saying, There is not a God, their Conscience giueth them the lie, and by secrete checks, both arreasteth them before, and tormenteth them in the Name of that God, whom they denye. They can neither destroy GOD in himselfe, though they desire it, neither in the hearts of the godly. All the fruites of their godlesse spurring, is to moue him to destroy themselfe: It is good to soften our heartes in the feare of God, and to seeke out and follow that straite way of life: Blessed is hee, who feareth alwayes, but hee that hardeneth his heart, shall fall in mischiefe. Prov. 28. 14.
28. Sinne is an euill guest.
SInne is the worst Guest that commeth in any place: It bringeth double destruction: One in the beeing of it, the other in the fruite: It is plaine that the wages of it is death, but euen the being of it (such as it hath) is destruction of the thing wherein it is: Men, Angels, Thoughts, Words and deedes, are good in themselues, but sinne in them, maketh them euill: It hath no being of it selfe, and is nothing, but the breake of Gods Law, a discord and deformitie, a priuation of good, & deprauation of its owne dwelling, the beeing it hath, is in these thinges, and so soone as it commeth in them, it spoileth them, they become euill Men, Angels, Thoughts, Words and deedes by it: He is an euill Guest, who for his reckoning putteth the Pest, or a fire in his lodging.
I wonder not so much at the euill recompense, it giueth as at our selues who welcome it againe: No receiuer will welcome him, who put his house on fire: Yet wee receiue sinne, and welcome it, though wee were euen now smerting for the worke of it: Some doe marke the second worke of sinne, the punishment of it, but fewe marke the first destruction by the beeing of it, so as to abhor it, be like, it so destroyeth vsus, that wee hauehave not a sound minde to make its destroying Nature.
O! what ods in Grace? It both changeth vsus by renovation, and bringeth vsus to glorie, the verie beeing of it, is the health of Soule and body: next to God himselfe, there came neuer a better Guest in man, than sauing Grace: Of Adams Sonnes, it maketh vsus the Sonnes of God: Of Naturall men, spirituall: And of vile Sinners, it turneth vsus in Sainctes.
It is extreame miserie to bee desirous and patient of sinne: But a token of a renewed Nature, to abhorre sinne, and thirst for Grace.
29. Fittes of Insolencie.
THeir is no Spirit so modest, which hath not some fittes of Insolencie: If any odde thing appeare in them, they are puffed vp in a conceat of wrath, and as farre transported from their wonted modestie, as they conceate of that supposed worthinesse: These fits are more marked of other than themselues: their humour blindeth them, so that they cannot obserue that change, others remembereth their former dejection, and foresee it to come againe, & so marketh that startling as insolent indeede.
An Equable cariage proueth an well fraughted Soule: Our true worthinesse is in Gods fauour; our dignitie is his dignation, and the exalting or downecast of our heart, is from the sense of his fauour, or lacke of it: If wee bee sure of his fauour, wee shall then alike euenlie carrie our selues in all other things.
But fits of insolencie bewray a double weaknesse, one, of little true worth, that seemeth so great to vsus: another, of a racked judgement, making vsus to passe boundes vponupon so small occasion: The wise man is euer like himselfe: And at any odky thing, he is rather dejected, thā puffed vp. If the speeches of other make him ouerweene himselfe, he chasteneth himselfe in secrete for it seuerly: When hee returneth to his wonted thoughts, he abhorreth that insolencie, and guardeth himselfe, that they surprysse him not thereafter.
30. Constant Inconstancie.
THe vpright heart must encounter with many thorters: When it meeteth with vprightnesse, there is no difficultie, but such are as rare, as a whyte Rauen in the world: When it meeteth with crookednesse, there is the strife, yet this is not the greatest: Doublenesse is worse for conuersing, than open and constant peruersenesse, hee cannot rectifie the other, and they cannot peruert him, and while all of them keepe their stand, there is neither application to other, nor peace among them: Yet it is easier to escape the euill of the brush, & rudelie backeward, than of the fickle Chameleon.
Flat oppositiō is lesse dangerous, than couered agreement: A winde blowing cōstantly from one point, doth not so endanger a ship, as when in an instant it turneth to a contrare point: To say and gaine-say in two moments of tyme, and to blow both from the East and West, is a greater crosse to them, who deale with such men, than to themselfe.
A man who is alwayes the same in good, is both easie courted and keeped but none can either know or keepe the double hearted▪ He changeth thoughts, resolution, and practise as oft as breathing: When we grip him in one, hee breaketh out in another, and his turninges are oftner in contraritie than diuersitie; to deale with him craueth a necessitie of turning with him,, or else of discorde: but a free Spirit can neither bee actiue in such turnings, neither so basely passiue as to endure them: The best dealing with such, is no dealing at all.
31. Wrong Iudging.
OUr estimation of things, is a valuing of our selfe, and a balance is tryed by trying of weightes: Many count highlie of base thinges, and basely of great things: Heauēly things are nought to them, but they admire earthly trifles: This error of their compt proueth weaknesse in their judgement, little is much to little, and few shillings are great riches to a begger, and course foode is delicate to the hungrie.
It were tolerable if they keeped their error within them, but they obtrude it vponupon the thinges themselues, they must bee so named, as they misconceiue them. The nature of these must bee changed, because (for sooth) such Dictators hauehave so spoken of them: Common gifts must be excellent, and most excellent Graces must bee but common giftes; because it pleaseth them so to thinke of them. It is a violent forcing of things, to ranke them so as wee conceate, and a tyrannie ouer the minds of others, to obtrude our error on them as trueth: It is too much that our owne affections and cariage to things, flow from that false ground.
The gift of true judging is as rare, as true good it selfe: He who hath it, ought to thanke God for his gift, in securing him from the whirling giddinesse of the world: But withall let him resolue that hee and his gift will fall vnderunder the same erronious censuring of other: But hee hath enough, who hath God approuing his judgement, and courses that flow from it.
32. Injuries inflame Corruption.
GReat corruption lurketh in the best, and is as secret to them as to others: But Injuries are Sathans bellowes to blow it vp: Hee is somewhat more than ordinary sanctified, who at great wrongs uttereth not more corruption, than either himselfe or others could thinke were in him: But Sathan stirreth not for the injurie alone; hee intendeth thereby to draw more sinne out of vsus, by loosing our corruption: Hee knoweth that if all our thoghts be set on our injurer, Grace will bee disbanded, and Corruption breake out in grieuous sins.
We hauehave more to doe, than to busie our selues with our injurer: Sathans ambush in our owne heart, is more dangerous, thā al our outward injuriers. Many hauehave keeped their strong hold, so long as they abode in it, but being wyled out of it by the craftie enemie, they hauehave both lost it and themselfe. So soone as wee are injured, it is good to turne from our injurer, to our owne heart, except our corruption be ordered, it will break loose, and harme vsus worse than our enemie; if our passions can bee curbed, the injurie is soone disgested.
33. How to please God. and man.
WE ought a duety both to God & man, but mans importunitie and our weaknesse, maketh difficultie in caruing their dueties: we know by his word, how to please him, LoueLove the Lord thy God with all thine heart. Matt. 22. But how to please man, is as hard to know, as to doe it: If reason can content him, it may bee knowne, but the rule of humour and opinion is vncertaine. How shall I know mans rule, since he knoweth it not himselfe? Neither are all mē of one minde, neither is one man for few houres in that same mind: God in a sort craueth lesse, than wee owe him, but man is mislearned, and craueth more than his due; God is most high, and higher than the highest. Ecclesi. 5. 7. But mans due is as farre inferiour to Gods due, as man himselfe, is vnderunder him.
It may serue man then to bee respected, when God is first pleased: If hee bee not content with this place, hee maketh himselfe a competitour with God, and from that may bee a corrivall, and bring judgement on himselfe, and his obsequious obeyers. Hee is worthie of none other regard, than misregard: And declareth himselfe an enemie to God and his honour, who is not pleased with this just caruing of dueties.
The difficultie is in this, that wee stand betwixt two parties, God and man: There is no question in the matter it selfe: For Gods will is just, and mans foolish: And if either man were conforme to God, or if wee were onelie flesh, or onelyonly Spirit, there would bee as little question: But man is contrare to God in many things, and flesh in vsus inclineth most to mans will, as more greeable with our owne corruption.
Hee must bee more Spirit, than flesh, who can both expede himselfe of these difficulties, obeying GOD, and patiently indure trouble for his obedience.
To ouer…come this difficultie, three blessinges are necessar: Wisdome to direct vsus in the right: LoueLove in doing the right: And Peace, that though we find wrongs for our right, and hatred for our louelove, yet so farre as wee may to keepe peace with them: Wisedome craueth the duetie, LoueLove seasoneth it to them; and Peace burieth their injuries, and will neither reuenge them, nor be at discord from them: God shall bee his portion for euer, who thus preferreth God to man.
34. Resolutions performed.
REsolution is a good Precedent to our actions, but is not the actions themselues: If we dwell on it, wee shall doe nothing commendable: That Resolution is as a false conception, that is buried in the birth, and commeth not to execution: If the husbandman shall bee euer preparing his plough, and neuer teill, he can neither sow nor reape: A weake and staggering Resolution, is broodie of scruples, and findeth matter of stay in it selfe, but so soone as the worke is well begun, then Resolution endeth.
There is oft-times more difficultie in Resolution, than in doing: For in Resolution, the minde is on many thinges atonce, but in the Action, it is vponupon the worke alone. It is rent in diuersities, and contrarieties in resoluing, but trussed vp in doing: Many times wee are in torture resoluing, but in the Action wee finde peace. A solide and masculus Resolution giueth vsus no rest, till it put vsus ouer in the hand of Practise, yea, it resolueth for doing, and turneth all the resoluing powers to execution.
These are twinnes of a rype Spirit: both to resolue and doe; to doe without Resolutiō, is rashnesse, & to resolue without doing, is faintnesse: He who doeth without Resolution, dreameth of none impediment; but hee who resolueth and delayeth execution, waiteth vponupon impediments, and rather than hee lacke them, hee will faine a thousand in his owne fansie. Euen fansied difficulties doe terrifie the lazie, as much as reall difficulties doe the wise and diligent. The Sluggard sayeth, There is a Lyon in the way, I dare not goe foorth, least I bee killed. Prov. 26. 13.
35. Callings are our tryals.
AS Callings are Gods taske appointed for vsus, so are they his Tryalls to proue what is in vsus: Hee hath ordained many callings for mans good, but many turne these meanes of good in a snare: There is no lawfull Calling without the owne good end, and right way to come by that end. But the most part passeth that good, and chooseth the wrong. Equitie, Honestie, Humanitie, Vprightnes, are Gods ordinance for Callinges: Deceat, Circumvention, Doublenesse, and such like, are Sathans inuention, and yet many shift the first as a vyce, and follow the second as the vertue of their Calling: God setteth before them the good of mankind, but they set nothing, but their owne priuate good, and care not for obtaining of it, to hurt their neighbour.
How can God blesse the breach of his owne ordinance? They may scrap together a state to themselues, but God will blow vponupon it: They thinke that Callings are not Gods ordinance, nor themselues lyable to reckoning. And exerce them, as though they were of their owne vptaking, and had none other end, than to make them great in the Earth. But O miserable greatnes, that diminisheth Grace, and destroyeth them that hauehave it! The losse is heere incomparablie greater, than the conceated gaine. What profite is it, to gaine the world, and loose their soule? To conquesh Hell to themselus, for enriching their posteritie.
It is a pittie to see men forsake honey, and sucke Venome greedily, but greater pittie to see men of an euill cariage in their Calling counted the onelyonly men, and these who are consciencious to bee counted no men: I wonder not to see that same error, which misleadeth men, to approue them in their wrong, but I wonder that mankynd injured by them, doeth honour them for their euill: It is a just thing with God, to make them hurt man more, who so foolishlie alloweth them, whome hee disdaineth: They cannot complaine to him of their wrong, since they approue it.
This is a saifer course to honour God by following his will in an honest and faythfull discharge of our Calling: It is good for mankynde, and for our selfe, and acceptable to GOD. Heereby hee proueth to other, and sealeth it in our owne conscience, that hee hath placed vsus in our Calling in me…cie, both to mankynde and to our selfe.
36. Foode of our Soule.
OUr care for the bodie condemneth our brutishnesse about our Soule: both are substances, and hauehave neede of entertainment, but wee are more sensible of the bodies necessities, and carefull to supplie them: The Soules necessities, are both greater and more urging, than the bodies: Our bodies lye vnderunder colde and heate, and the decay of our naturall moystnesse, which must bee duelie supplyed by nurishment: But the necessitie of entertaining the life of God, and the sparke of Grace in the midst of our corruption, is daylie and hourely: It is senslesnes, and death when these greater necessities are not felt and supplyed.
No man is so foolish as to feede his body with imaginations, or if he would doe so, it will not bee so deceiued, it is a substance, and must hauehave substance to maintaine it.
How many know not what their soule is, and what necessitie it hath, and how to supplie it? And other who thinke they know all those, doe content themselues with imaginations: They doe worse to their soule, than to their bodie, and their Soule is more blokish, than their bodie, in standing content with these conceats: Aske them what certaintie they hauehave of happinesse, and securitie from miserie, they hauehave no more reason of both, than their apprehension, and yet that supposed absent euill, is as neere to them, as that conceated good is farre from them.
What man can bee seased in a worldlie inheritance by imagination? and yet the most part hauehave no more warrand for their Saluation. The estate of our Soule heere, and eternall Saluation heereafter, is too great a pointe to hazard vponupon a fansie: It is a wholesome body that findeth the owne necessitie, craueth good foode, and turneth it in it owne substance: It is a wholesome Soule, that alwayes desireth God, findeth sensiblie his union, and by a continuall communion pa…taketh of the diuine Nature.
When I finde my Soule burnt vp with the desire of him, paunting like the Hart for water, and gaping like the thirstie ground for raine. I am sure that is of the life of God: It is not fedde with fansies, that is filled with God himselfe, it is filled with him, that cannot rest on any thing beside him, and finding him in it selfe, doth sweetelie rest on him who only filleth it, and resteth in it. Nothing can fill the Soule, but that which is greater than it: Though in substance it bee finite, yet it is infinite in the desires.
And God alone doth infinitely exceed it, both in substance & desires: It would bee counted frenesie in a man, who would prease to driue himselfe in a Nut shell: So is hee, who seeketh contentment in the world alone.
37. A constant dyet of Gods Worshippe.
APpetite is a good preparation for meate, so is a zealous affection for the worshippe of God: It is good to hauehave our appointed tymes for Spirituall exercises, and to keepe them: But withall, to striue for the spirituall Appetite.
How sweete is that Exercise to the Soule? wherein our necessitie wakeneth our desire: Our desire sharpneth our Appetite: and our Appetite thrusteth our heart to God, and GOD pulleth both our heart and our selfe to him: In one instant, it is both pressed with sense of miserie, and burnt with a desire of God: And sweetly allured and drawen by him to himselfe: These are wonderfull actions betweene God and vsus, and all wrought in vsus by his Spirit, to carie vsus vp to him.
Though I tye mee not superstitioussie to houres of holy Exercise, yet religiouslie I will keepe them: These houres are sweete to mee, when God draweth my Soule by strong desires and fayth to him: It is pleasant, when either these Exercises doe tryst with our desires, or God in them, bringeth vsus to an holy disposition; and great is the fruite of these Exercises: Thereby our Soules euen at other times are keeped, if not vnderunder the sense, yet vnderunder the Conscience, or at least vnderunder a fresh remembrance of God.
Such a disposition is both a virtuall supplie of feeling bygone, and a seale of our eternall fruition of him to come: GOD hath promised a blessing to his worship, & the neglect of it is punished with profannesse and hardnesse of heart.
It is good to keepe acquaintance with God: And there is none houre wherein wee hauehave not an businesse to him, and hee neuer sent away an holy heart from him without some comfort, hee needeth none exhortation to the wo…ke, who findeth the daylie fruite of it. Seuen times a day doe I praise thee Lord, because of thy righteous judgements. Psal. 119. 164.
38. Mans securitie in GOD.
TWo thinges greatly trouble vsus in this life, sudden Accidents, and vncertaine Events: The first shaketh vsus, because they are vncertaine: When we looke to the present dint of trouble, wee cannot gather our Spirites, and when wee wander, or sticke on second causes, wee cannot light vponupon the certaine end.
There is but one remeed for both, to make the Lord our Habitation, Ps. 91. 1. So lōg as our Soules remaine beneath amōg the creatures, wee are tossed with euerie thing; but when wee rest on God, wee find Peace. The conscience of his Working, the assurance of his Wisedome, and sense of his LoueLove, lifteth vsus aboue these troubles, and maketh vsus partake that rest which is in him, and is himselfe: Though hee moue all, yet hee is not moued, and impartes this rest in some measure to them who rest in him.
What wonder is it, that his prouidence shake vsus, finding vsus downe among the creatures, but if wee abide in him, wee shall bee free of stormes: Hee shall giuegive vsus rest, while these calamities passe ouer: Psal. 57. 1. Who so dwelleth in his secret, looketh downe securelie on all the toyles of the worlde. The Doue abiding in the cliftes of the Rocke: Cant. 2. 14. And the Chicken vnderunder the winges of the Henne that hatcheth it, doe neither feare the stormes nor the Eagle. So the Soule that by the woundes of Christ creepeth to his bowels, and is warmed with Gods electing louelove, is sure of his protecting power.
His absolute power is able to doe more, than hee will: And his limited power is set to worke to doe his will: And that both in producing of thinges and sustaineing them. This is a maine decreete of his will, committed to the executing of his power, to bring his Elect through all difficulties, to their appointed happinesse.