Reproof of such as sin against this merciful disposition in Christ. Of quenching the Spirit

WE are now to take notice of divers sorts of men that offend deeply against this merciful disposition of Christ: as, 1. Such as go on in all ill courses of life upon this conceit, as if it were in vain to go to Christ, their lives have been so ill; when as so soon as we look to heaven, all encouragements are ready to meet us, and draw us forward. Amongst others this is one allurement, that Christ is ready to welcome us, and lead us further. None are damned in the church — but those that will. Such as either enforce upon themselves hard conceits of Christ, that they may have some shew of reason to fetch contentment from other things: as that unprofitable servant, Mat. xxv. 30, that would needs take up a conceit, that his master was a hard man ; hereby to flatter himself in his unfruitful courses, in not improving that talent which he had. 2. Such as take up a hope of their own, that C will suffer them to walk in the ways to hell, and bring them to heaven: whereas all comfort should draw us nearer to Christ, else it is a lying comfort, either in itself or in our application of it. And 3. Those that will cast water themselves upon ‘those sparks which Christ labours to kindle in them, because they will not be troubled with the light of Such must know that the Lamb can be angry, and they that will not come under his sceptre of mercy, shall be crushed in pieces by his sceptre of power, Psalm ii. 9. Though he will graciously tender and maintain the least spark of true grace, yet where he findeth not a spark of grace, but opposition to his spirit striving with them, his wrath once kindled shall burn to hell. There is no juster provocation than when kindness is churlishly refused. When God would have cured Babylon, and she would not be cured, then she was given up to destruction, Jer. li. 9. When Jerusalem would not be gathered under the wing of Christ, then their habitation is left desolate, Mat. xxiii. 37, 38. When Wisdom stretcheth out her hand and men refuse, then Wisdom will laugh at men’s destruction, Prov. i. 26. Salvation itself will not save those that pill the potion, and cast away the plaster. A pitiful case, when this merciful Saviour shall delight in destruction: when he that made men shall have no mercy on them, Isai. xxvii. 11. O, say the rebels of the time, God hath not made us to damn us. Yes, if you will not meet Christ in e ways of his mercy, it is fit you should eat the it of your own ways, and be filled with your own devices, Prov. i. 31. ; This will be the hell of hell, when men shall think, G that they have loved their sins more than their souls ; when they shall think, what love and mercy hath been almost enforced upon them, and yet they would perish. The more accessary we are in pulling a judgment upon ourselves, the more the conscience will be confounded in itself, when they shall acknowledge Christ to be without all blame, themselves without excuse.

If men appeal to their own consciences, they will tell them, the Holy Spirit hath often knocked at their hearts, as willing to have kindled some holy desires in them. How else can they be said to resist the Holy Ghost, but that the Spirit was readier to draw them to a further degree of goodness than stood with their own wills? whereupon those in the Church that are damned are self-condemned before. So that here we need not rise to higher causes, when men carry sufficient cause in their own bosoms.

4. And the best of us all may offend against this merciful disposition, if we be not watchful against that liberty our carnal dispositions will be ready to take from it. Thus we reason ; Christ will not quench the smoking flax, what need we fear that any neglect on our part can bring us under a comfortless condition? If Christ will not do it, what can ?

Answ. You know the apostle’s prohibition notwithstanding, 1 Thess. v. 19, Quench not the spirit. These cautions of not quenching are sanctified by the spirit as means of not quenching. Christ performeth his office in not quenching, by stirring up suitable endeavours in us; and none more solicitous in the use of the means than those that are most certain of the good success. The ground is this: the means that God hath set apart for the effecting of any thing, fall under the same purpose that he hath to bring that ‘thing to pass; and this is a principle taken for granted, even in civil matters; as, who, if he knew ‘before it would be a fruitful year, would therefore hang up his plough and neglect tillage Hence the apostle stirs up from the certain expectation of a blessing, 1 Cor. 16; and this encouragement herd from the good issue of final victory is intended to stir us up, and not to take us off: if we be negligent in the exercise of grace received, and use of means prescribed, suffering our spirits to be oppressed with multitudes and variety of cares of this ‘life, and take not heed of the damps of the times, for ‘such miscarriage God in his wise care suffereth us oft to fall into a worse condition for feeling, than ‘those that were never so much enlightened; yet in “mercy he will not suffer us to be so far enemies to ourselves, as wholly to neglect these sparks once kindled. Were it possible that we should be given up ‘ito give over all endeavour wholly, then we could look ‘for no other issue but quenching; but Christ will ‘tend this spark, and cherish this small seed, so as he will preserve in the soul always some degree of care. If we would make a comfortable use of this, we must consider all those means whereby Christ doth preserve grace begun; as first, holy communion, whereby one Christian heateth another: two are better than one, &c. Eccles. iv. 9. Did not our hearts burn ? Luke xxiv. 32, said the disciples. Secondly, much communion with God in holy duties, as meditation “and prayer, which doth not only kindle, but addeth a lustre to the soul. Thirdly, we feel by experience the breath of the spirit to go along with the ministerial breath, whereupon the apostle knits these two together: quench not the Spirit: despise not prophecies, 1 Thess. v. 19, 20. Nathan by a few words blew up the decaying sparks in David. Rather than God will suffer his fire in us to die, he will send some Nathan or other, and something always is left in us to join with the word as connatural to it; asa coal that hath fire in it will quickly catch more to it: smoking flax will easily take fire. Fourthly, grace is strengthened by the exercise of it: up and be doing, and the Lord be with thee, said David to his son Solomon: stir up the grace that is in thee, for so holy motions turn to resolutions, resolutions to practice, and practice to a prepared readiness to every good work, 1 Chron. xxii. 17. < Yet let us know that grace is increased in the exercise of it, not by virtue of the exercise itself, but as Christ by his spirit floweth into the soul, and bringeth us nearer unto himself the fountain, and instilleth such comfort in the act, whereby the heart is further enlarged. The heart of a Christian is Christ's garden, and his graces are as so many sweet Spices and flowers, which his spirit blowing upon makes them to send forth a sweet savour: therefore keep the soul open for entertainment of the Holy Ghost, for he will bring in continually fresh forces to subdue corruption, and this most of all on the Lord’s day.. John was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, even in Patmos, the place of his banishment, Rev. i. 10; then the gales of the spirit blow more strongly and sweetly. As we look, therefore, for the comfort of this doctrine, let us not. favour our natural sloth, but exercise ourselves to godliness, 1 Tim. iv. 7, and labour to keep this fire always burning upon the-altar of our hearts, and dress our lamps daily, and put in fresh oil, and wind up our souls higher and higher still: resting in a good condition is contrary to grace, which cannot but promote itself to a further measure: let none turn this grace into wantonness, Jude 4. AInfirmities are a ground of humility, not a plea for negligence, not an encouragement to presumption. We should be so far from being ill, because Christ is good, as that those coals of love should melt us; therefore those may well suspect themselves in whom the consideration of this mildness of Christ doth not work that way: surely where grace is, corruption is as smoke to their eyes, and vinegar to their teeth, Proy. x. 29. And therefore they will labour in regard of their own comfort, as likewise for the credit of religion, and the glory of God, that their light may break forth. If a spark of faith or love be so precious, what an honour will it be to be rich in faith ? Who would not rather walk in the light, and in the ‘comforts of the Holy Ghost, than to live in a dark jperplexed estate ? and not rather be carried with full sail to heaven, than be tossed always with fears and doubts? The present trouble in conflict against a ‘sin is not so much “as that disquiet which any corwuption favoured will bring upon us afterward: true peace is in conquering, not in yielding. The comfort in this text intended is for those that would fain do ‘better, but find their corruptions clog them; that are tin such a mist, that ofttimes they cannot tell what to ‘think of themselves ; that fain would believe, and yet oft fear they do not believe, and think that it cannot ‘be that God should be so good to such sinful wretches ‘as they are; and yet they allow not themselves in (these fears and doubts. And among others, how do they wrong themselves ‘and him, that will have other mediators to God for them than he? Are any more pitiful than he, who became man to that end, that he might be pitiful to his own flesh? Let all at all times repair to this meek Saviour, and put up all our suits in his prevailing name. What need we knock at any other door? can any be more tender over us than Christ? What encouragement have we to commend the state of the Church in general, or of any broken-hearted Christian, unto him by our prayers? Of whom we may speak unto Christ, as they of Lazarus, Lord, the Church whieh thou lovest, and gavest thyself for, is in distress : Lord, this igh Christian, for whom thou wert bruised, Isai. liii. 5, is bruised and brought very low. It cannot but back his bowels when the misery of his own dear bowels is spread before him.

Again, considering this gracious nature in Christ, let us think with ourselves thus : when he is so kind unto us, shall we be cruel against him in his name, in his truth, in his children? how shall those that delight to be so terrible to the meek of the earth, Zech. ii. 3, hope to look so gracious a Saviour in the face? they that are so boisterous towards his spouse, shall know one day they had to deal with himself in his Church. So it cannot but cut the heart of those that have felt this love of Christ, to hear him wounded who is the life of their lives, and the soul of their souls: this maketh those that have felt mercy weep over Christ whom they have pierced with their sins ; there cannot but be a mutual and quick sympathy between the head and the members. When we are tempted to any sin, if we will not pity ourselves, yet we should spare Christ, in not putting him to new torments. The apostle could not find out a more heart-breaking argument to enforce a sacrificing ourselves to God, than to conjure us by the mercies of ‘God in Christ.

This mercy of Christ likewise should move us to “commiserate the state of the poor Church, torn by enemies without, and renting itself by divisions at home. It cannot but work upon any soul that ever felt comfort from Christ, to consider what an affectionate entreaty the apostle useth to mutual agreement in judgment and affection. If any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil my joy, be like-minded, Phil. ii. 1: as if he should say, Unless you will disclaim all consolation in Christ, &c. labour to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. What a joyful spectacle is this to Satan ‘and his faction, to see those that are separated from the world fall in pieces among themselves! Our discord is our enemy’s melody.

The more to blame those that for private aims affect differences from others, and will not suffer the wounds of the Church to close and meet together. Which must not be understood, as if men should dissemble their judgment in any truth where there is just cause of expressing themselves ; for the least truth is Christ’s and not ours, and therefore we are not to take liberty ‘to affirm or deny at our pleasures: there is a due in a penny as well as in a pound, therefore we must be . faithful in the least truth; when season calleth for it, then our words are like apples of gold with pictures of silver. One word spoken in season will do more good than.a thousand out of season. But in some eases peace, by keeping our faith to ourselves, Rom. xiv. 22, is of more consequence than the open discovery of some things we take to be true; considering the weakness of man’s nature is such; that there car’ hardly be a discovery of any difference in opinion, without some estrangement of affection. So far as men are not of one mind, they will hardly be of one heart, except where grace and the peace of God, Col. iii. 15, bear great rule in the heart: therefore open show of difference is never good but when it is necessary ; howsoever some, from a desire to be somebody, turn into by-ways, and yield to a spirit of contradiction in themselves ; yet, if St. Paul may be judge, are they not carnal? 1 Cor. iii. 3; if it be wisdom, it is wisdom from beneath ; for the wisdom. from above, as it is pure, so it is peaceable, Jam. iii. 17. Our blessed Saviour, when he was to leave the world, what doth he press upon his disciples more’ than peace and love? And in his last prayer with what earnestness did he beg of his Father that they might be one, as he and the Father were one ? John xvii. 21. But what he prayed for on earth, we shall only enjoy perfectly in heaven. Let this make the meditation of that time the more sweet unto us.

And further to lay open offenders in this kind, what Spirit shall we think them to be of, that take advantages of the bruisedness and infirmities of men’s Spirits to relieve them with false peace for their own worldly ends? A wounded spirit will part with any thing, Most of the gainful points of popery, as confession, satisfaction, merit, purgatory, &c. spring from hence, but they are physicians of no value, or rather ‘tormentors than physicians at all. It is a greater blessing to be delivered from the sting of these scorpions than we are thankful for. Spiritual tyranny is the greatest tyranny, and then especially when it is where most mercy should be shewed ; yet even there some, like cruel surgeons, delight in making long cures, to serve themselves upon the misery of others. It bringeth men under a terrible curse, when they will not remember to shew mercy, but persecute the poor and needy man, that they might even slay the broken in heart, Psalm cix. 16.

Likewise to such as raise temporal advantage to themselves out of the spiritual misery of others: join such as raise estates by betraying the Church, and ‘are unfaithful in the trust committed unto them: when the children shall cry for the bread of life, and there is none to give them, bringing thus upon the people of God that heavy judgment of a spiritual famine, starving Christ in his members. Shall we ‘so requite so good a Saviour, who counteth the love and mercy shewed in feeding his lambs, John xxi. 15, as shewed to himself?

Last of all, they carry themselves very unkindly ‘towards Christ, who stumble at this his low stooping unto us in his government and ordinances, that are ashamed of the simplicity of the gospel, that count preaching foolishness.

They out of the pride of their heart think they may ido well enough without the help of the word and ‘sacraments ; and think Christ took not state enough upon him, and therefore they will mend the matter with their own devices, whereby they may give the better content to flesh and blood, as in popery. What greater unthankfulness can there be than to despise any help that Christ in mercy hath provided for us ? In the days of his flesh, the proud Pharisees took offence at his familiar conversing with sinful men, who only. did so as a physician to heal their souls. ‘What defences was St. Paul driven to make for himself, for his plainness in unfolding the gospel? The more Christ in himself and in his servants shall descend to exalt us, the more we should with all humility and readiness entertain that love, and magnify the goodness of God that hath put the great work of our salvation, and laid the government upon so gentle a Saviour, that will carry himself so mildly in all things wherein he is to deal betwixt God and us, and us and God. The lower Christ comes down to us, the higher let us lift him up in our hearts: so will all those do that have ever found the experience of Christ’s work in their heart.