Set forth in Two Discourses in Commemoration of the Happy Birth, &c. of the Only Son of a Person of QUALITY.
By the late Reverend
Mr. MATTHEW MEAD.
Minister of the Gospel.
Published from the Original Copies wrote out fair fit for the Press with the Author’s own Hand, and by him Dedicated to the said Person of Quality.
LONDON, Printed for Edmund Parker, at the Bible and Crown in Lombard-Street near Stocks-Market Nath. Hillier, at the Prince’s Arms in Leadenball-Street over against St. Mary Ax; and Daniel Mead, at the Bible by George-Inn-Gate on Snow-Hill. 1707.
READER,
THE ensuing Sermons are by a Providence somewhat peculiar presented
to thy View. They were first Preached at the Request of a Person of Quality, the
Right Honourable the Lady
This (Reader) is the Account of that Providence which has attended these Sermons. They might have fallen into the Hands of an Enemy, who might have evilly intreated them, by committing them to the Flames, or otherwise, They might have fallen into the Hands of one who knew not the Reverend Author, and who might, on that account, ignorantly have slighted them. The Person into whose Hands they did fall, might (when he came at them) have unwittingly thrown them by without a notice, as he had done many of their Companions before. And therefore that they have been thus preserved, is a Ground to hope, that God hath design’d them for singular Use and Service.
As to the Reverend Author, to expatiate on his Praises were to hold a Candle to light the Sun: His Name and Memory is and will be precious to every serious Christian; and if it were possible these should fail, he has not only a Name in Heaven, which shall never be blotted out, but also a Place there, whence he shall never be removed: And as for the Sermons, they are of age to speak for themselves. It is enough to say of them, that they are the genuine Issue of the Reverend Mr. Matthew Mead, from whom nothing little, nothing mean, was wont to proceed.
As the Providence of God has preserved them, so may his Blessing attend them and thee in thy reading of them.
To the Honourable the Lady Diana Verny.
MADAM,
I Here present Your Honour with the Transcript of that Sermon which
your Command, at first to Preach, and since to Write out, made a Duty. It is a great
Interest which your noble Favours have purchased in all I call mine, and therefore
Obedience to your Commands herein is but a just Debt; which I was the more willing
to pay, that so your Honour might have a fit Opportunity for a more leisurely Contemplation
of those things which your Attention and Affections were so concerned in at the
hearing. My
The World is too little and too strait for our boundless Affections;
the Soul is too much confined whilst Sense terminates its Respects, because this
Bed is too short for a Man stretch himself upon it,
Madam, Your Honour´s most
humbly devoted Servant
Matthew Mead.
LUKE x. 20.
—In this rejoice not, that the Spirits are subject to you: but rather rejoice, because your Names are written in Heaven.
IT is the Philosopher’s Opinion, that Joy (considering the effects
which it accidentally produceth within) doth more harm in the World than sorrow
and sadness; and they give this Reason, That Joy, naturally dilating the Spirits
brings the Mind to a loose carriage, and takes the Sense of Weariness from about
it: but sadness, contracting the Spirits, keeps the Mind within the limits of sobriety,
and brings it to serious Thoughts. And the wise Man, in favour of this Opinion,
tells us in
But this seems a great Paradox, that joy should hurt, and sadness do good, that Sorrow should be better than Laughter. Is Hell better than Heaven? is not Hell a Place of sorrow? And who is made better by it? and is not Heaven a Place of Joy? And who is made worse by it?
The End of all our Motions and Desires is to avoid Sorrow, Perturbation,
and to attain Rest and Delight; which is nothing else but the Sabbath of our Thoughts,
and that sweet Tranquility of Mind which results from the Fruition of that Good
whereto our Desires have carried us. The great End of Religion is to promote and
stablish the Joy of the Soul, sin being the proper parent of Grief and Sorrow. Nay
the great End of the coming of our Lord Christ was to bless the World with Peace
and Joy, and therefore his Birth is called by the Angel that
This then being the End of all our Desires and natural Motions,
the End of Religion, the End of Christ’s coming and Doctrine, to fill us with Peace
and Joy in believing; it no way interfereth either with the Opinion of the Philosopher,
or the Doctrine of the Preacher to averr, that Joy is better than Sorrow, as Peace
is better than Trouble, Light better than Darkness, Sweet better than Bitter, and
Heaven better than Hell; the one being a Place of boundless Joy, the other a Place
of endless Sorrow. That Joy therefore which the Philosopher charges with such mischievous
Consequences, and which Solomon prefer’s Sorrow to, is that which results
from the Presence and Fruition of improper and
And hence it is that our Lord Christ here in the Text, calls off his Disciples from rejoicing much in that which yet was as lawful and likely a Cause of Rejoycing as any, viz. Victory over infernal Spirits, and Successes against the Powers of Darkness; to fix their Joy upon a Good, infinitely to be preferred to that, and desired before it, and that is, a Name written in Heaven. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the Spirits are subject to you; but rather rejoice, because your Names are written in Heaven.
In the Words you have,
A Prohibition,
An Exhortation:
Somewhat from which they are dehorted; somewhat to which they are invited.
That from which they are dehorted is, rejoicing in their Success over infernal Spirits; rejoyce not in this that the Spirits are subject to you.
That to which they are invited is, to rejoyce in a Mercy of a much nobler Nature, and that is, their Share and Interest in the Glory and Blessedness above; Rejoice that your Names are written in Heaven.
I shall begin with the Prohibition, and speak a little to that, Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the Spirits are subject to you.
You will think a (rejoice not) very unwelcome Entertainment when
the Work ye come about is to rejoyce, to remember the Mercy of this Day, the Pangs
and Throws the Lord brought ye through on this Day; the hopeful Son that took his
Birth and Breath from this Day.
But I hope by that time I have done ye will justify my choice of this Text, which hath not the least Design to suppress your Joy; but to raise it from Objects of Sense to Spiritual Delights, from lower and lesser Mercies to greater and higher Priviledges, from a Name on Earth, to a Name in Heaven.
Rejoice not in this that the Spirits are subject to you.
This Prohibition of our Lord Christ doth clearly imply that this casting out of Devils, by the Power of the Disciples’ Ministry in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, was matter of great Joy to them; and one would think, if any thing in the World could justify the running out of their Joy below God, this casting out of Devils might.
For, I. It was a great and miraculous Gift of Jesus Christ.
II. It was a Gift foretold by the Prophets, as reserved for Gospel time.
III. It was a Victory over the most potent Enemy, who laughs to scorn all humane Power, a stronger than he must come and bind him.
IV. It was a Victory very conducing to the Honour of the Lord
Christ, that his naked Disciples in his Name alone, could make the Powers of Hell
submit and stoop; so that certainly here was in the Success of this Service sufficient
Cause of Joy to the Disciples; and yet saith our Lord Christ to them, Notwithstanding,
1. To free them from the Danger of spiritual Pride, which is very apt to insinuate it self into our rejoycing: The Success of Duty is too apt to puff up and swell us beyond our Proportions. The Prosperity of the Creature in its Attempts, becomes a Temptation to sacrifice to its own Net, and burn Incense to its own Drag. When spiritual Pride mixeth it self with our Joy in God, we take from him more than we give to him, we rob him of his Glory, whilest we rejoyce in his Mercy.
Therefore the Lord Christ takes them off from this to a higher
Object, the Devils are subject to you, it is true; the Power of the Gospel in
Your joy in the subduing Infernal Spirits may be your snare, whilst they are subjected to you one Way, spiritual Pride may subject ye to them in another; and so, though ye conquer, yet they will overcome; Therefore in this rejoice not.
2. To teach us that no external Mercy should terminate the Delight of our Souls, but that we should use all outward Benefits as a Ladder whereby to ascend to God in our Affections.
The Way to allay and moderate the Joy of the Soul, in common and
Quest. But ye will say, why should we not?
Answ. I will give ye a threefold reason for it.
Reas. 1. Because this Gift may be
given where the Love of God is not injoyed;
That Injoyment, whatever it be (be it Gifts, be it Relations, be it Honours) which may be separated from the Love of God in Christ; can be no true Ground of Rejoicing. Therefore what our Lord Christ saith of casting out of Devils, I may (upon a Parity of Superiority of Reason) say of all things below which we place our Contentment in, and look upon as matter of Joy, Notwithstanding in this rejoice not.
Reas. 2. It is a Vanity to rejoice much in anything which
we cannot rejoice in long. What the Apostle saith,
What Pleasure can that Man take in his Expedition whose Voyage
is for a Year, and his Victual but for
Reas. 3. Why should we rejoice much in that which cannot rescue us out of the Hands of eternal Misery? None of these things which we glory in can: They are poor lying Delights, which like Jordan, empty all their Sweetness into a stinking and sulphurous Lake.
When I see the rich Man in the Parable clothed with
purple, and fine Linnen, and faring sumptuously every Day,”
We may have all the Comforts that this World can afford, and yet die comfortless? May we be rejoicing in our Relations to Day, and yet shut out of all Relation to God to Morrow? then whatever we possess of the Comforts of this World, yet notwithstanding in this rejoyce not.
But rather rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven.
And this brings me to the Exhortation, in which the true Ground of a Christian’s Joy is propounded, and preferred before all other. Rejoice not in this, &c. but rather in that, that your Names are written in Heaven. Joy in this Mercy is not absolutely prohibited, but a higher Joy is preferred; an interest in Heaven is another-guise Mercy than casting out Devils on Earth, and therefore rejoice much more in this than that.
The Expression is in manner of Speech, much like that of our Lord
Let us a little consider the Expression, Rejoice because your Names are written in Heaven.
The Lord Christ might have said, Rejoice in your Discipleship
to me, that I have called ye out of the World; when not many wise Men after the
Flesh, not many Mighty, not many Noble are called,
Rejoice that ye have followed me in the Regeneration, and that
ye are become new Creatures, when the whole World liveth in Wickedness,
Rejoice that ye are inlightned in the Mysteries of the Gospel,
when they are hid from the Wise and Prudent,
Are ye called out of the World? It is because your Names are written in Heaven.
Are ye begotten of God, and born again? It is because your Names are written in Heaven.
Are ye taken into Membership to Christ, and thereby become the Sons and Daughters of God? It is because your Names are written in Heaven.
Have you the Earnest of your Inheritance in the Sealings of the Spirit upon your Hearts? It is because your Names are written in Heaven.
Can ye subdue Corruptions within, and resist Temptations without? Are the Devils subject to you? It is because your Names are written in Heaven. Therefore rejoice not so much because the Spirits are subject to you; but rather Rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven.
Query, But what is meant by having our Names written in Heaven? How must we understand this?
Answ. The Name is in Scripture Phrase frequently put for
the Person.
So that we are not to understand it, as if God did Litterally write down the Names of Men; but the Expression is to shew us what a Peculiar and Distinct knowlege God hath of Persons in the World.
When our Names are said to be written in Heaven, it is a way of Speaking borrowed from the Customs of Men, whose Names are Registered and Inrolled in some Publick Records, to keep in Memory, and assure them of their Freedom and Privilege in that Corporation.
The Apostle in
They that have an Interest in the Electing love of God, that are his Chosen Ones, their Names are written in the Book of Life. But these lying in a fallen State with the rest of the lost World, must be redeem’d with the Blood of Christ, and when they come to share in the redeeming Love of Christ, then they may be said to have their Names written in the Book of the Lamb.
And when the Spirit of Grace hath changed and sanctified them, and given them a Right to eternal Life, then their Names may be said to be written in Heaven.
If ye share in the electing Love of God, ye shall also share in
the redeeming Grace of Christ; and if ye are redeemed by Christ, ye shall
If your Name is written in the Book of Life, it shall be written in the Book of the Lamb; and if it be in the Book of the Lamb, it shall be written in Heaven, and if it be written there, then Rejoice not that the Spirits are subject to you: But rather Rejoyce, because your Names are written in Heaven.
But I conceive that all these various Phrases of the Holy Ghost, signify one and the same Thing, to be written in the Book of Life, and in the Book of the Lamb, is all one in Sense, with this Phrase before us in the Text, of having our Names written in Heaven.
Now the writing our Names in Heaven, imports and implies Three things.
1st. The Foreknowledge of God; the Names of Believers are said
to be written in Heaven, because they are as certainly and as distinctly
God is said not to know the Wicked,
2d. The writing our Names in Heaven, implies an Interest in the
Electing Love of God.
3d. The Writing the Name implies and supposes the begetting Faith
in the Heart. A Man’s Name may be said to be written in Heaven, when he can by Faith
apply the Promises of Life and Glory to his Soul, and see his Part in them, and
A Man’s Name is then written in Heaven, when by Faith in Christ he doth obtain a Right to the eternal Inheritance; and I will add this, when by a constant growth in Grace and Sanctification, he doth labour after a fitness for Participation and Possession.
For you must know that there is a double Right to Heaven, which every one must have that would Inherit.
The one is appendant to Faith, the other is annexed to the utmost Degrees of Grace and Holiness.
Faith gives a Title to Heaven and Blessedness; we have a right
of Inheritance granted by Christ upon our first Believing,
Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the Sons of God,
But then there is a Right of Fitness, and this lies in our Attainments in Grace; when we are sanctified throughout, when Grace is improved to the utmost, and our Measure filled up, then we have a Right of Fitness for Heaven, and a State of Glory.
We are decreed to this State by the Eternal Love of God from before the Foundation of the World; we are redeemed to it by the Blood and Death of Jesus Christ; we are called to it by the Preaching of the Gospel; but we are not actually entered into it, till we are renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
There are four Doctrines which the Words of the Text afford to us.
Doctr. 1. That rejoycing in outward Mercies is warrantable; the Lord Christ doth here allow of it, even when he preferreth the Joy of a Name written in Heaven before it.
Doctr. 2. That when the Lord vouchsafeth us any Matter of Rejoicing in the Mercies and Blessings which he bestoweth upon us, the best of us are too prone to take up with a carnal selfish Joy; this Doctrine is imply’d in that, Rejoice not.
Doctr. 3. That though rejoicing in outward Mercies is good and warrantable, yet to terminate our Joy, and let our Hearts rest in them, is evil and sinful.
Rejoice not in this, that is, not in this as the chief Good, not as the highest Cause of Joy, not so as to hinder your Hearts from a higher and nobler Matter of Rejoicing.
Doctr. 4. That a Right to, and Interest in the Glories
of the World to come, is a greater Ground of Joy
I shall pass by the Two former Doctrines, being only implyed in the Text, and speak a little to the Third, to make way to the Last, which I chiefly intend to insist upon.
Doctr. 3. That though rejoicing in outward Mercies is good and warrantable, yet to terminate our joy, and let our Hearts rest in them, is evil and sinful.
It proceeds from an evil Cause,
It hath an evil Effect.
1. It proceeds from an evil Cause, and that is inordinate Love of sensual Objects; for Joy in any thing is proportioned to Love, we never rejoice much in any thing but what we love much, now, to have the choicest Respects of an immortal Soul, laid out upon, and center in present and perishing Comforts, is a great evil.
2. It hath an evil Effect; hereby God is disparaged, the Lord
Christ
3. We hereby make a wrong Use of the Mercies of God, which are given to raise our Hearts, not for our Hearts to rest in; to elevate our Affections, not to terminate them; to Pully our Hearts up, not to Swallow them up!
Present Injoyments should be as a Glass for the Soul to take a
view of the Goodness of God in; David saith, The Earth is full of his
Goodness,”
To the believing Eye, there is a Transparency in the Creature; Faith can see divine Goodness and Bounty beaming thro’ every Mercy; and they that cannot, can never rightly use them, nor innocently injoy them.
The sensual Heart makes a Cloud to hide him, of that which God made for a Glass, in which we might see him. God made it for a Window to let in the Light of his Love, and we make it a Curtain to shut it out.
To let our Hearts rest in present Mercies is to make them our Images, our Idols, and this is the highest Abuse of God’s Mercy.
1. This God hath expressly forbidden, Thou shall not make for
thy self the Likeness of anything in Heaven above.
2. This hazzards the Continuance of our Mercies: When once we begin to set up Idols, it is time for God to pull them down: When once our Hearts center in them, he will quickly remove them, one of these Two things God always doth in this case.
Either he takes our Comforts away from us to recover our Respects to himself, or if he leaves them with us, then he withdraws himself.
Application.
Would you not have your Hearts should terminate in any thing below? Hearken then to a double Exhortation.
1. Whatever you Love, let it be also your Fear; Fear will be a
Bridle to Love, nothing hath such Advantage upon us to Steal our Hearts from God,
as the Things we love and delight in. Have you a Child or Relation you love, a Friend
or Ccompanion you love, &c. O be jealous of them, for these, like Wine,
and New Wine take away the Heart.
If what you love be not your Fear, it will be your Loss and Sorrow;
if Samson had feared his Delilah as much as he loved her, he had sav’d
both his Locks and his Life. Solomon’s Wives became his Woe,
2. Then live above the Pleasures of thy Sense; what have you no nobler Delights? Have you not a God to delight in? A Christ to solace your Souls in Communion with? What a poor thing it is to put your Souls off with those Delights wherein the Bruits have as great a share as you. Where is peace with God? Where is joy in the Holy Ghost? Where is Peace of Conscience? Where is the Hope of Glory? Where is a Name written in Heaven? These are the only proper Pastime for immortal Souls. And this leads me to the Observation which I chiefly aim at.
Doctr. 4. The greatest Ground of Joy imaginable is to have
a Name written in Heaven. An Interest in the Glories of the other World
is a truer and nobler Cause of
I need produce no other Proof of the Truth of this Doctrine than the Authority of the Text it self; it stands clear in the Light of its own Evidence; the Lord Christ himself hath said it, and therefore we ought to believe it is so.
But why is it so?
Reas. 1. A Name written in Heaven is a rich Result of Electing
Love. Love is the most comfortable Attribute in God, the best Name the Creature
knows him by. God is Love,
1. Love acts with a Priority to all other Attributes; Wisdom contrives
the Good and Felicity of the Creature; Power and Providence maturate, and bring
the Contrivements of Wisdom to pass; but Love hath the first hand in the Work. It
was Love that first summoned the great Counsel held by all the Three
It was Love that first pitched upon the Son, and laid him as the
Foundation of the whole Structure of Man’s Salvation and Blessedness. Love sent
Christ into the World, Love put him to Death, Love made him an Offering for Sin,
2. Electing Love is the proper Source of all our other Mercies.
So the Apostle makes it,
In whom we have Redemption through his Blood, the forgiveness
of Sins according to the Riches of his Grace,
He hath abounded toward us in all Wisdom and Prudence.
Having made known to us the Mystery of his Will.
In whom we have obtained an Inheritance,
3. Love is the only Attribute which God hath acted to the utmost:
we have never seen the utmost of his Power, what God can do; but we have seen the
utmost of his Love; He hath found a ransom for lost Souls;
It is infinite Love, and it gives the Soul Interest in an infinite Good, intitles it to an infinite Blessedness, and so fills the Soul with an infinite Satisfaction.
And is not an Interest in Electing Love the highest Cause of rejoycing?
The Scripture compares the Love of God to Wine,
Reas. 2. A Name written in Heaven is a Mercy with a Distinction,
a peculiar appropriated Priviledge; David prays,
What if God give you Life, Riches, Relations, Honours? There is
no Distinction in all this; can you prove your Title to the Love of God by any,
or all of these? Solomon says no,
Peculiar Mercy causes peculiar rejoycing, common Mercies can cause
but common Joy; a Name in Heaven is a Mercy with a Distinction, this is not the
Lot of all, the Names of the greatest part of the World are written in the Dust,
The Earth is opposed to Heaven; as a Name in Heaven imports the greatest Happiness, so a Name written in the Earth implys the greatest Misery.
The Earth is a Place of short Duration, it shall not last always;
Heaven (that is the lower Heaven) and Earth shall pass away, our Lord
Christ says,
The Earth is a Place of Putrifaction and Corruption; what is buried
in the Earth soon turns to Rottenness. so that a Name in the Earth implies Rottenness,
according to that of Solomon,
The Earth is a Place of Oblivion, what is written in Heaven is
recorded for ever, but what is written in the Dust is soon forgotten; so says
Bildad of the Wicked,
The Earth is designed for burning; it is decreed to be Fuel for
the Conflagration of the great Day, when the Lord Christ shall be revealed from
Heaven in flaming Fire,
You see what a Curse a Name written in the Earth is, and yet the
Names of the greatest part of Men and Women in the World are written
Reas. 3. A Name written in Heaven speaks the Soul in the highest Relation to God; you are his Children, his Sons and Daughters, the Adopted of the Lord, and what greater Ground of Joy imaginable
Whatever Excellency there is in the Relation, the Benefit of that Excellency redounds to the Correlate by Virtue of the Tie of that Relation.
What is it that first cloathes your Child with Honour and Name,
but the Nobleness of his Descent; and how comes your Honour and Greatness to descend
upon him but by being of the same Blood? It is the nearness of the Relation, that
intitles him to all. So all that is in God, all his Excellency’s, all his Attributes,
There is a twofold Relation to God,
| A Relation | { | of Servants, of Sons. |
But the Difference between them is very great, especially in five Things.
1st. The Relation of Servants is a common Relation; all Creatures
in the World are Gods Servants, as he is the great Master and Householder of Heaven
and Earth. God hath Servants of all sorts, Good and Bad; he hath good and faithful
Servants,
All Creatures stand in this Relation
But the relation of Sons is a peculiar special Relation, that appertains but to few. God hath many Servants, but he hath but few Sons; he hath many in Subjection, but few in this Relation: All are his Subjects, but all are not his Sons and Daughters.
2. The Relation of Servants is a mercenary Relation; the Duty
of that Relation is drawn forth by the Rewards of it; Servants work for Hire, it
is Wages they chiefly look at. God hath many such Servants, that are meerly mercenarys
in all their Duties. They know, God is a good Master, pays well, and keeps a good
Table; his Commands are equal, and his Rewards are bountiful, therefore they own
him. As many followed the Lord Christ when he was upon Earth, not because
But now the Relation of Sons is more ingenuous: Sons
obey and serve in Ingenuity; not for Reward, but Duty, they Labour, because they
Love. Not but that the Children of God may look at the Rewards promised. Moses
was Ingenuous in all his Performances, and yet he had a Respect to the Recompense
of Reward,
3. The Relation of Sons, is a Communicative Relation: The
Relation of a Servant is not so. A Master doth not impart all his Mind, nor
disclose his Secrets to his Servant;
4. The Relation of Servants gives no Claim; it doth not intitle them to the Estate of their Lord: The Law allows them a present Maintenance, but no Share in the Inheritance.
But the Relation of a Son is Intitling; it gives a Claim. By Virtue of his Sonship, he hath a Title to what is his Father’s; his Father’s Riches, his Father’s Honours, &c.
If you are the Children of God, you are born Heirs,
and your Inheritance is the greatest in this World or in the next; for God
Himself is your Portion; and all He is, and
5. The Relation of Servants is not lasting; it is Arbitrary,
founded in Will and Pleasure: You take one Servant, and put away another, at your
Pleasure. But the Relation of a Son is abiding, it lasts for Ever,
to the end of Being: So says our Lord Christ,
How should we rejoyce in this near Relation to the Great
God! Sons and Daughters of God is the highest Title I ever heard
of in the World. David was made but Son-in-Law to a King, not born
a Son; he was not of the Blood-Royal, but by Favour taken in and
Reas. 4. A Name written in Heaven, gives an assured
Hope of Heaven: We are by this, for ever set free from all fear of miscarrying.
If ye have a Title, never question the Possession: If the Right is yours, ye shall
surely Inherit. When you look over a company of Deeds, and see the Name of such
a particular Person run through them all, and expressly mention’d in the Conveyance,
It is so in the Case in hand; if ye have a Name written in Heaven, the Estate is yours, the Conveyance is made to you: The Covenant is the Main Deed, which is sealed in the Blood of Christ, and therein the Inheritance is made-over and conveyed to you!
There is an inseparable Connexion between Election and
Salvation: Tho’ there are many Links in the Golden-Chain that reach from
one to the other, yet not one of them can be broken: Whom he did predestinate,
them he called; and whom he called; them he justified; and whom he justified, them
he also glorified,
It is observable in what Tense the Spirit of God puts it; not
in the Future, as a thing to be done, but in a Tense that notes it done
Partly in Christ, who is already enter’d upon the Inheritance
in our Right;
Partly by the Promise: We have the Deeds, though we do not enjoy the Estate; we keep the Title, though we do not possess the Inheritance.
Partly in the First-fruits of Glory,
The First Use, shall be for Examination. Is a
Name written in Heaven, the truest Cause of Rejoycing? Then let us see what
Cause of Rejoycing we may have in our selves upon this Account. The Apostle’s Counsel
is plainly to this Purpose,
You have heard, That there can be no true Cause of Joy in the Heart, but a Name written in Heaven.
You have (Madam) set this Day apart for an Anniversary
of Rejoycing in the Birth, and Life, and Hope of your
Pleasant and Tender Son; and you do well: But doth your Joy begin here? or
is God the
Quest. But you will Reply, Who can say his Name is written in Heaven? Who hath thus far known the Mind of the Lord? To whom hath he at any time opened the Sealed Book of his Secret Decrees? Was ever any Man admitted into the Regions above, to search the Eternal Records of the Divine Purpose?
Answ. Surely, No: But yet let me, in Answer to this, lay down Two Conclusions.
1. The Knowledge of this, That our Names are written in Heaven, is attainable: Why else are we commanded to make our Calling and Election sure? Wou’d the Lord Christ have call’d upon us to rejoyce, because our Names are written in Heaven, if it were a thing that cou’d not be known? Surely therefore it is no such Secret, as lies out of the reach of Faith’s Attainment.
Indeed, to Wicked, Unbelieving, and Impenitent Sinners, the Knowledge of this is impossible. How can a Man who forsakes God, know that his Name is written in Heaven, when God says, They that forsake him, their Names shall be written in the Earth? But Believers may attain to the Knowledge of this.
2. As the Knowledge of it is attainable, so it is evident from
Scripture Instance, that many have attained to it: God hath sometimes unsealed
the Book of his Decrees, and held it open to the Believing Eye; so that the Soul
hath been inabled to read its Interest in Divine Love, by the Spiritual Opticks
of Faith; For Faith is the Evidence of things not seen,
Now Faith enters within the Vail, removes the Soul out
of the Valleys of Sense, and sets it upon the highest Ground of Gospel-Consolation,
that it may stand at the fairest advantage to get a Prospect into the Glory of the
other World. Faith draws infallible Conclusions of the Goodness of its State,
from the immutable Decrees of Electing Love: What else made Job say,
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
Earth; and that though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for my self?
And what made St. Paul glory in the Lord Christ,
crying out, Who
Ques. But the great Question is, How shall a Man be able to know, that his Name is written in Heaven?
Answ. There are certain Discoveries of this in a Man’s self; which if we attend to, we may have a sure Proof and Witness of.
1. Effectual Calling is a sure Proof of this: If the
Call of God hath took hold of our Hearts, then our Names are
written in Heaven. There is an inseparable Connexion between Election
and Vocation; and therefore, when the Apostle bids us give all
diligence to make our Calling and Election sure; though Election is before
Calling (the one being an Immanent Act of God in Eternity; the other
a Transient Act of God in Time), yet the Apostle puts the making our
Now then, if ye wou;d know whether your Names are written in
Heaven; satisfie your selves in this, That the Call of God hath
took effectual hold of your Hearts. Hath it brought your Souls off from everything
below Christ, wholly to follow Christ? It is said, when Christ
called Peter and Andrew, they presently left their Nets, and followed
him,
For it is not every Call, that will witness the Truth of
our Election: There is an External Call of the Word, that is ineffectual,
it prevails not upon the Sinner’s Heart, he turns a deaf Ear upon it; this Call
leaves Sinners as it finds them, in their sins and lusts,
But then there is an Internal Call; when Word and Spirit go together, and work together, to bring the Soul off from Sin, and Lust, and Self, and World, and all to Jesus Christ, to live upon him as its Portion, and conform to Him as its Pattern. Now if thou art thus Called, then is thy Name written in Heaven: And therefore ye may’st go and rejoyce indeed; for if any in the World hath cause, thou hast.
2. If the Law of God be written in thy Heart, then
thy Name is written in Heaven. It is one of the great Promises of the
New Covenant, That God will write his Law in our Hearts,
Quest. Now you will say, What is this Law of God?
Answ. It is the Law of Love, the Law
of Holiness, a Law that takes in all the Duties that God requires of us,
a Law of Universal Obedience:
Quest. When is God said to write his Law in the Heart?
Answ. When He doth powerfully impress a Divine Principle
of Grace, by his Holy Spirit, in the Heart. Believers
are said to be the Epistle of Christ, written not with Ink, but with
the Spirit of the Living God,
So that if the Law of God be written in your Heart, then may you know that your Name is written in Heaven.
Converting Grace in the Heart, is the best Comment upon the Election of God; without which, the Eternal Decree concerning us, can never be read with Clearness, nor understood with Comfort. The Decree travails and brings forth, in a work of Grace in the Heart: The Mind of God, concerning our Eternal Condition, is best known by a sound Conversion; for there he speaks plainly; that Fountain of Love which ran under Ground before, now bubbles up, and breaks forth. In Election, God spake within Himself; but in Conversion, God speaks to the Soul: In Election, God wrote our Names in Heaven secretly; but in Conversion, we see them written there openly.
A Work of Grace in the Heart, carries in it a Four-fold Witness:
1. That we are the Objects of God’s Election.
2. That Sin is Pardoned through Christ’s Satisfaction.
3. That God is Reconciled by Christ’s Intercession.
4. That we are Secure, as to Eternal Salvation.
And the least of these is worth a whole World. Who would not be
willing to know himself the Chosen of God? Who would not be glad to see Sin
Pardoned? Who would not rejoice in a Friendship with God, whose Wrath
burns to the lowest Hell? Who would not triumph, in an Assurance of being Saved
for Ever? Now if Grace be wrought in thy Heart, this is thy Privilege,
and may’st say, with Tamar,
As Sinners need not descend into the Deep, to search for Hell,
to see if
3. If true Faith be wrought in thy Heart, then is
thy Name written in Heaven.
Wou’d you know then whether your Name be written in Heaven?
Then see what Faith is wrought in your Heart. Have ye ever truly closed
with the Lord Jesus Christ? Do ye heartily embrace Him, upon the Terms He
is offered in the Gospel? Can ye venture your Souls, your Salvation, your Eternal
All, upon the single bottom of a Redeemer’s Righteousness? Have you ever
made actual Application of the Blood and Righteousness of Christ
to your own Consciences, to take off that Guilt of Sin whereby your Souls
stand Bound-over to Wrath and
4. If the Father’s Name be written in your Foreheads, then are our Names written in Heaven. In Rev. xiv: 1. it is said of those who stood with the Lamb upon Mount-Sion, That the Father’s Name was written in their Foreheads.
The Name of God is written in the Forehead, when
we openly confess the Truths of God, and are not ashamed of Religion, nor
ashamed to own God, and his Ways, and Ordinances, and People, in the midst of a
Profane, Scoffing, and Adulterous Generation. Now says our Lord Christ, He who
confesses me before men, (that’s the Name of Christ written in the Forehead)
him will I
Now where is the Name of God written? Do ye Repine at Difficulties, Shrink at Sufferings, Blush at being counted Religious? Are you Ashamed of Christ, his Ways, his Name, his People? why if so, his Name is not in your Foreheads.
Or can you lift up your Heads, and shew your Faces, in the Cause of
Christ? It
should be thus, God is not ashamed to be called our God,
5. If your great Work be, is to
lay up treasure in Heaven, then your Names are written
in Heaven. This is the Counsel of the Blessed Jesus,
The Treasures of most Men are Perishing, Earthly Treasures, canker’d and Moth-eaten Treasures, Treasures of Vanity.
Christians! Where is your Treasure? Is it in this World, or the next? Is it in present Vanities, or future Glory? Is it in present Contentments, or in Everlasting Inheritance? Is it in Corn, and Wine, and Oil; or is it in the Light of God’s Countenance? Is it in Profits, Pleasures, and Honours; or is it in Grace and Glory? Do ye build, and plant, and sow in the other World, that hereafter ye may reap an Eternal Harvest of Blessedness? If so, then are your Names written in Heaven.
6. If your Conversations are in Heaven, then are
your Names written in Heaven,
Let a Man’s Profession be never so Heavenly, his Prayers and
Duties never so
Heavenly; yet if they are over-topp’d by an Earthly Conversation, that Man’s
Religion
is vain. The Scripture says expressly, If any man love the World, the love of the Father is not in him,
Never talk of a Name in Heaven, so long as your
Hearts are buried in the
Earth:
Where your Hearts are, there your Names are: If your Hearts are Earthly,
your Names
are in the Earth, Carnal, Worldly, Sensual, Enemy to God, that is thy Name, and
the Scripture gives thee no other,
Now what is your Life? How
It is said of the Vertuous Woman,
From far.] That is, far out of the sight and ken of the
Natural Eye: for it is Bread the World knows not of. The Natural Man is blind,
and cannot see afar off. God hath set the world in their hearts,
From far.] A man’s life consists not in the abundance of
things which he possesseth,
Do ye fetch your Food from far, or nearer home? Are you fed by
Sense, with what
is next; or doth Faith feed you, with Clusters fetch’d from the Holy-Land?
Do ye
serve Flesh, Lust, and Sins, and Times, (which is the basest Thraldom) or do ye serve
God, and Christ, whose service is perfect freedom?
I press forward towards the mark. He is now ascending upon the wings of Faith and Love, above this Dung and Darkness, to the Regions of Light and Glory
If your Conversation be in Heaven, it is thus with you in one degree or other.
Heavenly Concernments are your Work, and Heavenly Comforts are your Support. It
is not the Fig-tree blossoms, nor the Olive’s labour,
If thus your Conversation be in Heaven, then is your Name written in Heaven.
The next Use shall be by way of
Exhortation.
IS a Name written in Heaven the highest Cause of Rejoycing?
And can you, upon
examination, find that your Names are written there? Oh, then set your
Selah upon
this Mercy! Fix your Heart, your Joy, your Thankfulness upon this Privilege. Other
things you may rejoyce in, in their place, and by the by;
His Heart dwells in triumph upon this Mercy; and so should ours also; the Lord Christ, here in the Text, commands it; Rejoyce, because your Names are written in Heaven.
Now give me leave to propound to you Six Considerations, which are very proper
Motives to stir up
Consider (1.), There is no Name like this.
1. It is an Honourable Name:
If God poureth Contempt upon the Creature, it must needs be vile and base: God is the true Fountain of Honour; if he puts Honour upon us, it is the truest Honour in the World.
2. It is a better Name than that of Sons and
Daughters:
Your Honour Rejoyces in the Name of a Son, this
Day; and you do well: God forbid that I should make your Rejoycing void:
Nay to encourage it, let me tell Your Honour, That God takes it kindly,
that you own him, in the Mercies and Blessings of Providence. But I am, in Duty,
to mind you of a better Name than that of Sons and Daughters; and this is
it, to have a Name written in Heaven. To have a Child from God, is
an inferiour Name to this of being call’d a Child of God. Solomon
saith, If a Man beget an hundred Children, and live many years, and his soul
be not filled with good, I say, that an untimely birth is better than he,
3. It is a Durable and Lasting Name. A name in the world may be lost:
The Wicked may Defame it.
Wickedness may Corrupt it.
God may Blast it: Thou hast put out their name for ever and
ever,
Time may eat it out of the Records of Honour.
But a Name written in
Heaven, is
a durable Name, it can never be blotted out: I will give them an everlasting
Name, that shall never be cut off,
Consider, (2.) A Name written in Heaven, is a Blessing that sweetens all our other Blessings. This Land is mine, and these Riches are mine, and this Child is mine, and this Honour is mine: yea, and God is mine, and Christ is mine, and the white Stone and the new Name is mine, and Heaven and Eternal Life is mine: Ay, this, this sweetens all.
What if you could be supposed to enjoy all Outward Blessings imaginable? the
fairest Estate, the highest Honours, the sweetest Children, the richest Pleasures;
yet in the midst of all these, if Conscience should secretly gripe you within, and
tell
Consider, (3.) This is that which gives confidence and comfort in Death, and makes us strong to grapple with that King of Terrors.
What is it which makes even Believers themselves (many of them) shrink at the
thoughts Death? Why it is want of Evidence, they have never seen their Names
written in the Book of Life. The sight of this, by Faith, makes the
Soul triumph
We know, (saith the Apostle,
This we know, and are assured of; Well, and what is the fruit of this
Assurance?
He tells you, in the
What is Death, to the assured Believer, but a speedy Conveyance to the Possession of that Glory which Divine Love has Intitled him to from Everlasting?
Consider, (4.) Herein Joy can never run into Excess:
In temporal things it may;
it is possible and
Hear what the Prophet says in the Case,
How unsuitable is a short Bed for a long Body! so are perishing
Comforts to an
Immortal Soul. And from hence it is that the Apostle adviseth, (in
Consider, (5.) This will be a lasting and perpetuated
Joy. Therefore
It is true, That the Children of God have many causes of sorrow, if they look inward; strong Corruptions, hard Hearts, weak Graces, many Temptations: But yet in God they have continual cause of Rejoycing.
A Name in Heaven, is an induring ground of Comfort; not like these transient Shadows. Can Stability be moved, or Eternity expire?
Nothing is Matter of lasting Joy, but that Good which is commensurate in Duration to the Soul that is to be satisfy’d with it.
The Times we live in are changeable and uncomposed; the hatreds of
Religion great;
we see Distractions
Who would not therefore retire from the Noise of Laughter, from the Courtships of flattering Gallants, the Clutter and Vain-glory of a distracted World, to solace his Soul in the Joys and Delights of the World to come?
Consider, (6.) What Heaven is; and that will raise your Hearts to glory in this Privilege, of a Name written in Heaven.
1. Heaven is the Habitation of the Great God, where
He dwells in his Infinite
Glory. So that a Name written in Heaven, imports our future
Inheritance of that
Glory; according to that of the Apostle,
2. Heaven is a freedom from all Evil both of Sin and Suffering; so that a Name in Heaven, intitles us to a blessed Redemption from all Evil.
There is no Sin there. Grace weakens Sin, but it is
Glory that abolishes it.
Old Adam shall there be put off, never to be put on again. The Lord Christ will
present his Church, in that day, faultless before the throne of his glory, with
exceeding joy,
There is no Affliction there: Sin and Sorrow came in together, and they shall
go out together. There the Shunamite’s Son complains no more of his
aching head,
nor Mephibosheth
3. Heaven is a Place of all Perfection. So that a Name written in
Heaven, intitles us to a Perfection of State, which we cannot hope for in this
World: Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect,
All Perfection is above.
There is perfection of Faculties: The Understanding shall be elevated by the
Light of Glory, into the Vision of God,
The Nature of God, the Mystery of Three in One, the Union of Two Natures in One Person, the Course of God’s Decrees, and Providence; these are the Deeps of God, and at present, there is Darkness upon the face of these Deeps; but there the glorified Eye shall see all.
The Will shall There be perfectly Holy, and swallowed up into the Will of God.
There is Perfection of Privileges; perfect Union and Communion. Here we lay hold of Christ; but There we shall have full Possession: Here we hang upon him, but There we shall dwell in his Embraces.
There is Perfection of Graces: Here the Children of God have Perfection of Parts, but not of Degrees.
Holiness in the best Saint Here, is mixed with some
Dregs of Flesh and Defilement;
but There it shall be compleat; we shall appear not having spot or wrinkle,
Love shall There be Perfect: Here we are either weary of the Act, or apt to make a change of the Object of our Love, ever and anon swerving and starting aside to the Creature; but then we shall act Love without ceasing, upon one and the same Object, without changing. There shall be an Eternal Solace and Complacency in God.
4. Heaven is the Abstract of all Blessedness, the Sum of all Felicity. Reckon up all Comforts and Pleasures, and Satisfactions, and Delights, and Happinesses, and put them all together, and then separate from them Finiteness and Imperfection, and that is Heaven.
So that a Name written in Heaven, imports our future Fruition of all Blessedness. Yet a little while, and ye shall be let into all this.
All the Objects of Joy which are scattered among the Creatures, are everlastingly heap’d up in Heaven: So that say what it is you delight and joy in, and I will shew it you there.
Is it Wealth? Why there are unsearchable Riches in
Heaven,”
Do ye delight in Honour and Dignity? Why in Heaven, the
St. John tells us, It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know, when he shall appear, we shall be like him,
Is it Pleasure you delight in? Why in Heaven there are
Rivers of Pleasures,
Do ye delight in Feasting? Why in Heaven there is Plenty and Variety, Fulness without Satiety; Bread of Life, the Tree of Life, the Fountain of Life.
Do ye delight in Musick? (it is not fit that such a Feast should be without it:) In Heaven the Saints and Angels are in one Concord, singing eternal Halelujah’s to Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever.
Do you delight in stately and magnificent Structures?
Why in
Heaven
Thus you see Heaven is the Comprehension of all Good, the
Abstract of all Felicity.
And your Name is written upon all this; it is all yours, as the Apostle says,
Ministers are yours, to Instruct you.
The World is yours, to Supply you.
Life is yours, to Prepare you for Heaven.
Death is yours, to Convey you to Heaven.
Things present are yours, to Support you in the Way.
Things to come are yours, to Reward you in the End.
What then remaineth? but as David adviseth, Be glad in the Lord,
and rejoyce, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart,
Whatever ye enjoy in the World, yet let your Joy be in God. Have ye Riches, Honours, Pleasures, Children, Health, Beauty, Parts? &c. Notwithstanding, in this rejoyce not; but rather rejoyce, because your Names are written in Heaven.
Only SON to the truly Vertuous and highly Honourable the Lady Diana Verny.
By the late Reverend
Mr. MATTHEW MEAD.
LONDON: Printed for Edmund Parker,
Nath. Hillier, and Daniel Mead. 1707.
MADAM,
THIS Sermon doth of right intitle it self to your Honour’s Tutelage, as being ..de by the Word of your
Command; who said, Let it be, and it was so.
The Weaning of your hopeful and only Son, was the occasion of that
Meeting which this Discourse ..ve a plain and
..ly Entertainment to. That
as Guests that come upon us uninvited take in good
part such as they find, if a chearful Look and a
hearty Welcome be but the Sauce to such Dishes as a
Surprize can set upon the Table; so I know your
Honour liked the Treat, which this Discourse gave
you, not the worse because it was plain, and ...ch
as could be soonest got ready; but the ...ter,
because of your hearty Welcome, and ...ecially
because it was (like Jacob’s Venison
Madam, It is for the compleating the Temple of God in your Soul, that this Offering is made; and I can truly say, it is with as wiling an Heart as ever Israelite offered, from him that brought Goats-hair to him that brought Silver and Gold to the Tabernacle.
One thing that inclined me to a Willingness to put it into your Honours hands, was the Use God made it of to my own Soul in the review of it; for I can say, I found God teaching my Heart by it, and giving me some Experience of that in the Transcribing, which lay only in the Notion in delivering: which made me cry out, What rare Christians would Ministers be, could we but believe all we Pray, and experience all we Preach.
Now, Madam, if the Heart of one
Christian answers another’s (as the Wise-Man averrs it doth,
Madam, Would God prosper me into a ...acity of Serviceableness to Your Honours ...cious and immortal Soul, I should value self more upon such an Happiness, than upon any other I can think of in this World: the unparallel’d Acts of Nobleness by which have so often borne witness to the Greatness of your Respect to me (which I must ...ays thankfully mention) have so far out my Merits, that unless God (who ha not Suretiship for his Servants) will ...ise to see Satisfaction made (and your Honour may take his Word) I must live die your Debtor.
Lord make your Honour as good as ...t, that in you Nobility and Godliness may ...t together, and Grace and Grandure may each other, (this being that which will ...er your Honour truly lovely in the eye of and Man;) so prayeth daily and incessantly,
Madam, Your ever obliged
and most humble Servant,
MATTH. MEAD.
(The Latter part of the Verse)
—My Soul is even as a Weaned Child.
Chrysostom, in his Homily of Evangelical Perfection, commending the Grace of Humility, saith, Humility is the Foundation of Christian Philosophy. Indeed, it is the Ornament of all the Graces of God’s Spirit: Grace is the Beauty of the Soul, and Humility is the Beauty of Grace.
Now the Prophet David, being about to commend this Grace to the
Saints, doth
propound himself as an Example of it, in this Psalm; Lord, my Heart is not
haughty, nor
my eyes lofty: neither do I exercise my self in great matters, or in things too
high for me,
But what was it that thus humbled David’s Heart, and took him off from doting upon the World’s Grandeur, and from delighting himself in present Enjoyments?
Why God had, by the Power of his Grace, took his Heart off from
all things here Below, by shewing him the Vanity and Emptiness of them; so that
he was wholly weaned from them. So he says,
Doctr. That where the Grace of God takes hold of the Soul, it makes it as a weaned Child, to all Worldly things.
I. In the Discussing this Doctrine, I shall shew you what it is to be as a Weaned Child.
II. Shew you, That there is a great Resemblance between
a
III. Shew you how Grace weans the Heart from all Worldly things.
1st. What is it to be as a Weaned Child?
| This I shall shew, both |
{ | Negatively, and Affirmatively. |
Negatively First, and that in Two things:
1. It is not to be without the Comforts and Contentments of the
World. It is possible to have Much of the World, and yet be weaned
from the World: So had David here; he had Riches in abundance, Honour
in abundance, for he was advanced to the Throne, he was the greatest Man in
the Kingdom, and yet his Soul was as a weaned Child. Many may have Little of the World, and yet their Hearts
not weaned; and many
2. It is not to Slight and Undervalue our Enjoyments; for they are a real Mercy; they are Gifts from above, the noble Effects of the Bounty of Providence.
But Affirmatively.
This being as a weaned Child, carries three things in it:
| { | Content, Humility, Teachableness. |
1st. Content. To be as a weaned Child, is to be
Content in every State, in every Condition of Life. Whatever you give a Child, it is content, be
the Bread whiter or browner, be the Meat hot or cold, be the Cloathes finer or coarser.
So that to be as a weaned Child, is to have a Contented Spirit in every
Condition,
under every Providence. So had David,
2dly. To be as a weaned Child, is to be Humble. None
so humble as little Children, they do not aim at or aspire after great things:
Therefore our Lord Christ propounds them to his own Disciples for Patterns
of Humility,
So that to be as a weaned Child, is to be of an humble and lowly Spirit. So was David here: Lord, my heart is not haughty; I have behaved my self as a child that is weaned of his mother.
Oh, what an excellent Spirit is this! Solomon tells us,
3dly, To be as a weaned Child, is to be Teachable.
None so Tractable, none so Teachable, as Children.
To be a weaned Child, is to be Teachable: Naturally we are the most Unteachable Creatures in the World. How will you Teach one that can neither See, nor Hear, nor Understand?
This is the very Case of every natural Man.
1. He is blind and cannot see,
2. He is deaf and cannot hear,
3. He is sottish and foolish, and cannot Understand,
And therefore, a teachable frame of Spirit is a special Mercy
of God, it is one of the great Blessings of the New Covenant. They shall all
be taught of God,
An unteachable Heart is a great Judgment. This was
Pharaoh’s Judgment; no Councel, no Message, no Reproof, no Warning, no Plague
could soften him. When the Lord designs to bring Judgment upon a Soul, then he gives
it up to an unteachable frame,
And when the Lord intends good to a Soul, he gives a tractable
Teachable frame of Spirit; a seeing Eye,
Thus you see, what it is to be as a weaned Child.
To be content, to be humble, to be teachable.
2. I will shew you that there is a great Resemblance between a weaned Child and a gracious Soul.
You may consider a weaned Child Three Ways:
1. In regard to its Infirmities.
2. In regard to its manner of weaning.
3. In regard to its Disposition.
1st. In regard to its Infirmitys; What is weaker than a weaned Child? What Creature more helpless, more feeble?
It cannot feed it self.
It cannot defend it self.
It cannot govern it self.
1. It cannot feed it self. If it be not suckled, it must be fed: if it hath not the Breast, it must have the Spoon: it cannot feed it self without the hand of the Mother or Nurse.
It is the same, in a spiritual sense, with the gracious Soul; if it be weaned, yet it must be fed; If it be weaned from the Earth, it must be fed from Heaven; If it be weaned from the Creature, it must be nourished from the Promises.
Every Believer depends upon God for feeding, yea, for natural
Bread; and therefore we pray, Give us this day, our daily bread,
There are three things which are the peculiar Privileges of Believers:
1. To be Born of God.
2. To be Taught of God.
3. To be Fed of God.
They are born of God by the power of the Word.
Taught of God by the Precepts of the Word.
Fed of God by the Promises of the Word.
2dly. A weaned Child cannot defend it self. The security of an Infant lies in the Care of the Parent. Though the Breast doth feed it, yet the Arms must guard it: It is liable to many Harms: Set it down, and leave it alone, and what will become of it? It falls into the Fire, or into the Water; into one Mischief or another.
It is so with a Child of God; he cannot preserve himself, no not a moment: The greatest measure of Grace attainable will not do it. If God should set up a Believer with a stock of Grace, and then leave him to trade for himself, how quickly would he prove Bankrupt, and perish!
Alas! Grace is a mutable thing: though it shall never perish, yet in its own nature it is perishable. I have three Witnesses to prove it.
1st. That which is subject to decay in part, is subject
to decay in whole: But Grace is subject to decay in part.
2dly. Whatever is a Creature, may perish. Now Grace is a Creature of God, as all other things are; it is indeed the noblest and best of Creatures; yet it is but a Creature: and all Creatures have a principle of perishing in them; and therefore Grace, considered in it self, may perish.
3dly. If ever Grace did perish, then it may perish. But there was a time when Grace did perish. Did not the Angels that fell, lose their Grace? Did not Adam, in Paradise, lose his? These had true Grace, and yet they fell from it.
By the same Reason that a Believer falls gradually when God withdraws himself, by the same Reason he would fall finally if God should leave him to himself.
It is not from anything in us that we stand and are preserved,
but from without us; yea, from above us; even from the Power of God: So saith the
Apostle,
A Christian hath the Stream of Grace flowing in him; but God is
the Spring of Grace ever flowing for
It is renewing Grace that changes us, or else we had never
stood: It is supporting Grace that keeps us, or else we had quickly
fell. This David averreth in the
Consider but two things, and you will say, it is impossible a Believer can preserve himself:
1st. The Power of indwelling Lust and Corruption. There is not only much of the Presence of Sin in every Believer, but much of the Power of Sin also.
Though where Grace is wrought, there the Power of Sin is much abated; yet it is not utterly removed:
though the reigning Power be destroyed, yet Sin hath a raging Power still; and this too
too often captivates
the best of Saints: a Paul
I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.
I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Now if so holy a Saint of God as Paul was, complains thus; what Complaints may we make, whose Corruptions are many and strong, and whose Grace is little and weak?
Suppose you should put a spark of Fire into the Sea, would it not quickly be quenched? Why our Grace is but like a spark of fire in the midst of a Sea of Corruption, and therefore would quickly be quenched if God did not preserve it alive.
2dly, Consider the Frequency and Strength of
Temptation.
The greatest degree of Grace will give us no immunity from Temptation; for the Lord
Jesus Christ had no sin,
Satan’s great Design is to Destroy the believer’s Grace; yea, and he would do it, if the Lord should not hold him in, and hold us up.
There is a great Strength in every Temptation.
Partly as being managed by so Potent, and Subtle an Enemy.
Partly as being suited to our remaining Corruptions. Tho’ when the Devil came to Christ, he found no Sin in him, nothing for Temptation to Work upon; yet when he comes to Christians, he finds much in them. Much Pride, much Worldly Love, much Lust, much Carnal Concupiscence, much Unbelief, much Deadness of Heart, much Unprofitableness, &c. and this is the Matter he Works upon.
When Satan surrounds us without, Sin is Ready to surprize
us within: When Satan besets us, Sin is ready to betray us; and therefore if the
So that you see the gracious Soul is unable, like the weaned
Child, to defend it self. The Lord is his defense.
3dly. A weaned Child is not able to govern it self: it is destitute both of Strength and Wisdom.
And so it is with every
Believer: he is not able to direct his own Actions; he cannot govern his own
Thoughts; he hath not the least Self-sufficiency. So says Agur of himself,
And therefore David seeing this, betakes himself to the Lord
for Counsel and Guidance,
Now there are two ways especially whereby the Lord doth direct and guide his People:
1st. By the Counsels of
his Word,
So foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a Beast before thee,
Nevertheless,
I am continually with thee, thou hast holden me by my right-hand.
Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel,
and afterward receive me to glory.
The Word of God is the best Counsellor; and therefore David betakes
himself to it for Guidance and Direction,
David was a King;
and therefore, no doubt, had the wisest Men of the Nation to be of his Council.
We should follow the Counsels of the Word in all things, and
make it the Guide of our Way: so good David did: Thy Word is a light to my feet, and
a lamp to my paths,
1st. It is the safest Counsel: We may, and too often
do, err in following the Counsels of others: for Man’s Wisdom is short-sighted;
the blind lead the blind, and both fall into the ditch. But we can never err or
miscarry in following the Counsels of the Scripture. Solomon says,
2dly. It is the most profitable Counsel. It
steads the
Soul in all Concerns of Life: yea, the Happiness and Salvation of the Soul is the
sure issue of following the Counsels of the Word. See what an Account David gives
of the Word, in
The Statutes of
the Lord are right, rejoycing the heart: the Commandment of the Lord is pure,
inlightning the eyes.
The Fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the
Judgments of the Lord
are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than Gold, yea, than much fine
Gold; sweeter also than Honey, and the Honey-comb.
Moreover, by them is thy Servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward.
O what a Mercy it is to be under the Guidance of the Word of God!
2dly. God guides his People by the Counsels
of his Spirit.
The Spirit of the Lord is called a Spirit of Counsel.
How happy is the Condition of God’s people, that have the Word
and the Spirit to guide them! The Word without the Spirit cannot, the
Spirit without the Word will not guide us. The Word is a Light without
us, the Spirit is a Light within us: The Word propounds the Way to walk in, the Spirit enables the Soul to walk in that
Way.
Thus I have shewed you how the state of a Believer resembles that of a weaned Child, in regard of its Infirmities.
II. There is a Resemblance also in regard to its Manner of Weaning; and that in three particular Circumstances:
1st. Many when they wean a Child from the Breast, will rub Wormwood, or some bitter and unpleasant thing, upon the Pap, to create a loathing in the Child to that it was so fond of before: and so the Bitterness of the Taste makes the Child forsake the Breast.
Now in this the Soul of a Believer is as a weaned Child. The Breast of the Creature is that which naturally Man lies at; for natural Man fetches all his Comfort from sensual things, and savours only earthly things.
Now, when the Lord designs to work Grace in the Heart, and redeem
a Soul to himself, he ever weans it first from the World.
Now, the Difficulty of Conversion lies here, in taking the Heart from the Creature, and placing it upon God: for in the Fall we turned from God to the Creature, and in Conversion-work the Heart is turned from the Creature to God again.
Now because (I say) this is difficult, for the Creature is
loth
to leave the Breast of carnal Enjoyments where it hath sucked in such sensual
Delights so long: Therefore the Lord, when he would wean the Soul from things
below, he
rubs Wormwood upon the Breasts of all our Comforts, and imbitters all our
Enjoyments;
so that though we
This was the way of God’s dealing with the Prodigal Son. The Parable of the Prodigal is to represent to us the State of every Natural Man.
Now,
it is said,
God is never better to us than when the Creature is most bitter to us:
He famishes all the Gods of the Earth that Men may be brought to worship him,
Thus God dealt with Israel, Hos. ii: 6, 7. I will hedge up thy way with thorns, that she shall not find her paths: And what then? Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first Husband, for then was it better with me than now.
God has two Hedges which the Scripture takes notice of:
The Hedge of his Protection, that you read of
The Hedge of Affliction, that you read of here: I will hedge up her way with thorns.
Now the Lord make use of both these Hedges.
The Hedge of God’s Protection, that is to keep his People from Danger.
The Hedge of Affliction, that is to stop them that wander.
The Hedge of Protection is to keep them in God’s way.
The Hedge of Affliction is to keep them out of Sin’s way.
The Hedge of Protection is to keep them from Suffering.
The Hedge of Affliction is to keep them from Sinning, and to put them upon returning.
So it was with Israel here; when God had hedged up her way, that,
she could not find her Paths, nor
It is a great Mercy for God to wean a Soul from the World; for
it never suffers greater Loss than when it forsakes God to live upon the Creature: This
is to regard lying Vanity, and so forsake our own Mercies, as the Prophet
expresseth it,
By our Excesses in Creature-Enjoyments, Reason is commonly drowned in Sense, and Judgment extinguished in Appetite. The excessive letting out our selves to sensual Fruitions, is both a Sin and a Punishment; while thereby we lose both God, and the Creature, and our selves at once.
Now, when the Lord weans a Soul from the World, he doth imbitter the World to the Creature; either by some Affliction, or by some Disappointment in the Creature, which makes the Soul look out for more pure and lasting Satisfactions in Christ.
In a time of outward Prosperities, we are all Martha’s Children, carried away too much with the World; but when God imbitters our Cup, then, with Mary, we look more after the one thing necessary, and mind the chusing the better part.
So long as we are full of the World, the Lord Christ can find no room in our Hearts: present Comforts have gotten Possession, and thrust him out.
As it was when he was born, there was no Room for him in the Inn: that was taken up with other Guests; therefore Christ must be laid in the Manger, in an Out-room.
Truly, thus it fares with the Lord Jesus Christ in the World still: the most of us lay him in the Manger, in an Out-room to this very Day.
Pray deal plainly with God and your own Souls, and tell me, What
Entertainment do you give to the Lord Jesus when he comes to your Souls in an Ordinance,
and offers to make his Abode with you, for so he doth:
Now, how do you treat the blessed Jesus? Where do you lay him? in the Inn, or in the Out-room? I mean thus: Do ye receive him into your Hearts and Affections? or, Do ye take him only into the Out-room of an empty Profession?
Truly, a lifeless, graceless Profession of Christ, is only a laying
him in the Out-house; but a hearty embracing of, and a holy Affection
Now when God, by any Providence, doth imbitter the Creature to us, then this makes us remove Christ out of the Manger into the Inn; out of a lifeless Profession into our Hearts and Affections.
2dly. When a Child is weaned, the Nurse is many times hid, or put away, or removed, that the sight of her may not make the Child to cry for the Breast.
So the Lord many times strips a Man of the World, takes from him his Enjoyments, all his Comforts, meeely to wean his Heart from the World.
3dly. When a Child is weaned, the nature and kind of its Food is changed; he is fed with stronger Meat.
Now in this also the Resemblance holds: the Soul of a Believer
is as a weaned Child: He hath another
As Christ says, I have Meat to eat which ye know not of,
1st. He hath the Comforts of the Promises: When God brings a Soul into a state of Grace, he brings him from living upon the Creatures, to live upon the Promises. And which is best, think ye, to live upon the Creature, or to live upon the Promise?
The Creature dies; but the Promise lives.
The Creature is Yea and Nay; the Promise is Yea and Amen.
The Creature is deceitful; but the Promise is sure and faithful.
The Creature feeds but Sense; the Promise fills the Soul.
The Creature is but a scanty Good; the Promise travails with all Good.
He who lives upon the Promise lives by Faith; and the Life of Faith is the only Life in the World.
1st. It is the only safe and secure Life. As the
weak Ivy secures it self by twisting about the great Oak; so the
weak Christian secures
himself by cleaving to the great God. His place of Defence shall be the
munition of Rocks; Bread shall be given him, his Waters shall be sure.
The Life of Sense is full of Disappointments, like a
deceitful Brook.
Sisera runs to Jael to save him, and she destroys him:
he lays
his Head in her Lap, and she nails it to the ground.
2dly. It is the only quiet Life.
The Life of Sense is full of distracting Cares and Vexations: the Soul
The Philosopher tells us, if we could live in the Upper Region, there we should enjoy a perpetual Calm: there are no Storms, no Winds, no Tempests; these are only found in this Lower Region: Nearer the Sun it is not so.
Sense
is as the Lower Region, where there is nothing but Storms, and Shakings, and
Vexations. Could we, by Faith, live in the Upper Region, and have the Moon
under our feet; could we live above the World, by Faith in God, resting in the Lord
Jesus Christ; we should enjoy a perpetual Calm there. In me ye shall have Peace.
3dly. It is the only sweet and comfortable Life.
The Life of Sense, like a smoaking Chimney, causes many a wet eye: When we live by
Faith, then the Fire burns clear;
Is it not a sweet Life, to fetch all our Waters from the Fountain? Thus
Faith doth. Sense drinks out of the muddy Chanel, but Faith
goes to the Well-head. All my springs are in thee.
Is it not a comfortable Life to be fixed amongst all the
Changes and Mutations that are in the World? Why Faith fixes the Soul upon God, and
in that Fixation it is safe. He shall not be afraid of evil-tidings, his heart is
fixed
trusting in the Lord.
Is it not a comfortable Life to live free from all Burdens in the World? There are but two sorts of Burdens;
The Burden of Sin and Guilt.
The Burden of Care and Trouble.
Now Faith takes off both these, and frees the Soul from the one and the other.
It takes off the Burden of Guilt, by resting upon Christ and his Righteousness.
And it takes off the Burden of Care and Trouble, by resting upon God and his Providence.
Ah (my beloved) there is no comfort to be compared to the comfort of believing; no Life to be compared to the Life of Faith. We may talk of Comfort, but till we come to live by Faith we shall never taste of Comfort.
4ly. It is the only Christian Life. Sense makes a Beast, Reason makes a Man, but Faith makes a Christian. We are no farther Christians, than as we can live upon Christ in all Conditions.
5ly. It is the only honourable Life. The World’s Honour is but an imaginary thing, a meer Bubble, compared with the Honour that Faith leads the Soul into.
Is it not an Honour to have the King’s Ear at pleasure,
without tracing
Why,
the Believer (as I may speak it with Reverence) hath the Command of God’s Ear.
Concerning
the work of my hands, command ye me.
Is it not an Honour to be of the Blood-royal, to be born of God? We are very apt to value our selves upon the Nobleness of our Descent and Birth.
Why, the Believer is born of God.
Is it not an Honour to live with God? Why Believers live with God, and walk with God, and have Fellowship with God here; and shall have an eternal Fellowship with God in Heaven hereafter. Such honour have all his Saints.
6ly. It is the only lasting Life. The Stability of all
sorts of Lives, is according to their Principles and Causes. The Life which depends
Now the Life of Faith, proceeds from a living Principle; the Grounds of it are in God and Christ, and the Promise, no Change reaches to these.
Our Comforts may change, but Christ never changes; Yesterday,
and to day, and the same for ever,
The Creature may change, but God changes not: I am the
Lord that changes not.
The Promises are unchangeable: They are not yea and nay, but
yea
and Amen in Christ,
Now Faith must needs be a lasting Life, that hath such lasting Grounds and Principles.
The Life of Sense is a fading decaying Life, it lives upon
fading Objects: a Man hath Friends and delightful Relations, and these chear and
refresh his Spirits; but anon they die, and drop into the Dust,
But the Soul that lives by Faith can never be at a loss.
What can he lack who hath him who is all? And what can he lose who hath him who knows no change at all?
The Mariner, when he puts forth to Sea, quickly loses a sight of Land; but though he sails never so far, yet he never loses a sight of Heaven.
Thus the Soul of a Believer is as a weaned Child in this sense also: it lives upon other kind of Comforts than it did before, viz. the Comforts of the Promises.
2. I might add, That the Believer lives upon the Comforts of
the Ordinances. I sat under his shadow with great delight, and his Fruit was sweet to
my taste.
3. He lives upon the Comfort of Experiences:
Leviathan here, is meant of Pharaoh and all his Host: When God drowned him and all the Host of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, then he brake Leviathan’s Head: And God is said to give him to be Meat to his People in the Wilderness, in that the Experience they had had at the Red Sea, of the wonderful Care and miraculous Doings of God for them and their Deliverance, was intended to be Food for their Faith, that by this Experience they might learn to live upon God in Wilderness-straits.
4. He lives upon the Comfort of the Divine Presence. Thou shalt make me glad with the light of thy countenance.
This is the Food that the weaned Soul hath to feed on,
| { | Promises. Ordinances. Experiences. The divine presence. |
3dly. There is a Resemblance between a weaned Child and a Believer, in regard of its Disposition and Affection.
As for instance,
Take a weaned Child, and lay it to the fullest and fairest Breast, and it will suck no more; it turns from it, and loaths it as much as heretofore it loved and delighted in it.
Now in this the gracious Heart is as the weaned Child: The fullest
Breast of Creature-comforts and sensual Delights cannot allure it: and why? Because
it hath chosen God for its chiefest good, and therefore cannot be better. Whom
have I in Heaven but thee? And there is none upon Earth I desire in comparison
of thee.
The Soul sees a greater beauty in God, than in all worldly Comforts; it tastes a greater Sweetness in communion with the Lord Christ, than in all worldly Friendships and Fellowships.
So did David; and therefore he cries out, One day in
thy Courts is better than a thousand elsewhere,
III. I will shew you briefly, how Grace doth wean the Heart from all worldly things.
By a threefold Efficiency.
1st. Grace sets up a Light in the Soul, which discovers the true
Nature of things: Every natural Man
Grace is Light in the Understanding, as well as Holiness in the
Will; and by this Light the Soul is able to pass a right Judgment of things, to distinguish
between seen and unseen Good, between perishing and durable Comforts; to discern
between things that differ. The spiritual Man judgeth all things, the
Apostle says in the first Epistle to the Corinthians,
2dly. Grace has a farther Efficiency upon the Heart, and that is this: It extinguisheth and removes that out of the Soul which makes the things of the World to be our chief good.
There is that in every carnal Man that propounds to the Soul
somewhat
Now by a work of Grace in the Heart, the sensual Mind is extinguished, the Old-Man is put off, that which savours only the things of the Flesh is abated and removed.
3dly. Grace elevateth the Soul above sensual Objects, to live upon more real, more suitable Comforts; Grace to live upon God, to lay up Treasure in Heaven, to fetch its Refreshments from the Fountain of divine Fullness: and how easily is that Soul weaned from all earthly Enjoyments, that hath learned to fetch all its Comforts from Heaven?
Use 1. Shall we now improve this Doctrine to the use of Tryal? Shall we be serious in this matter, and call our Hearts to a strict account of what we experience of the Power of God upon our Souls in weaning them from things below?
There is the greatest Reason in the World that moves me to urge this Duty upon you. For,
1. There is no greater Duty incumbent upon a Christian, than
frequent Tryals of Self and State by the measure of present Truths. When
the Word of the Lord is spoken, and Truth discovered, then to bring it home to the
Heart, and try our Spirits and Condition by it, this is a great Duty. This is the
meaning of that in the second Epistle to the Corinthians,
2dly. Herein doth the Vitality and Power of Godliness
formally consist.
It is not what we profess outwardly, but what we are inwardly, that
God looks at.
Many profess much, pretend to great measures of Mortifiedness, and Weanedness from worldly things; but look upon them in their Conversations, follow them into the World, and none are more carnal, more vain than they.
3dly. We can never be able to adjust our Claim to a Work of Grace, unless we are able to satisfy our selves in this point. There is no greater, no surer Evidence of a Work of Grace in the Heart, than Weanedness of Soul from present things.
4. If we be not brought into this weaned state by the
Power of Grace here, we shall be shut out of Heaven hereafter. Will you hear what
our Lord Christ says in the case? Then see
Except ye be converted: is that all? No, but ye must become as Little Children, in Meekness, Humility, Self-denial, Weanedness. So says the next Verse; Whoever shall humble himself as this little Child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is one thing to be converted, it is another thing to become as little Children, to be wrought into a childlike Disposition. This is the true Qualification, the proper Fitness of the Soul for Glory: No Weanedness, no Blessedness.
Is there not then great Reason for my urging you to this Self-examination?
Let us therefore to the Touchstone: that is not true Grace that will not endure Tryal.
Put the Question: Is my Soul as a weaned Child? Am I under the Weanings of God, or am I not?
Quest. Now you will say, How may I know whether my Soul is under the Weanings of God? whether I am weaned from the World or not?
Answ. In Answer to this, I shall lay down some Rules to try your selves by:
1st. To have heavenly Affections amidst earthly Possessions, this is a sign of a weaned Heart.
2dly. To reckon our Happiness, our Riches, rather from divine
Fruition
than from any worldly Accommodation, this is a sign of an Heart under the Weanings of
God.
3dly. What do we most desire; most hunger after? This shews whether we are weaned or not.
The sucking Child cries for the Breast: whatever you offer it, or put into the hand, nothing can quiet it till it is laid to the Breast.
Now, what is it that quiets our Minds, that satisfies our Desires soonest? If it be worldly Pleasures, worldly Comforts, worldly Honors, &c. then our Hearts are not weaned.
4. To bear worldly Evils, worldly Troubles, worldly Losses,
5thly. To chuse Holiness with Affliction and Loss, rather than Sin
with Pleasure and Preferment; this is a sign of a weaned Heart. Thus did Moses,
The Whore, in
This her Cup is full of; ay, but yet the Inhabiters of the
Earth are said (
6thly. To be able by Faith to overcome all the Smiles and Frowns of the World; this is another sign of a weaned Heart.
Now can ye do this?
When the World smiles upon us with its Splendours, Honours, Riches, Pleasures, Delights and Glories; can we then look upon all these as mean and abject things in comparison of Christ? Can you look through all this to the Righteousness of Christ? as that noble Marquis (Galeacius Caracciola) did, Their Money perish with them that count all the Gold in the World worth one days Communion with Jesus Christ.
Or, when the World frowns upon us with Crosses, Losses, Sufferings,
Reproaches, &c. Can we then overcome it by laying aside carnal Fear, by Patience
in Tribulation, by looking upon Afflictions and Sufferings for Christ as our
Honour
and Happiness; by eying the invisible God in all, as Moses did?
Use 2. Are your Souls under the weanings of God? Then there is a double Duty incumbent upon you from this Doctrine.
Duty 1. Bless the Lord, magnify the Riches of his Mercy, in calling and taking your Hearts off from the World.
It is said in
It is not said, that the Child was born, and Abraham made a Feast: indeed that was not so proper a time, because then the Mother was in Weakness and Grief.
Nor is it said the Child was circumcised,
and Abraham made a Feast: nor was that so proper a time, because then the Child was
sore and in Grief; but the Child was weaned, and Abraham made a Feast. This seems the proper time, because now
There was, no doubt, a Mystery wrapt up in this Feast of Abraham: and what was that? Why the Mystery is this.
Believers, who are the Seed of Abraham, should rejoyce in the Lord when the Soul is become spiritual, and weaned from carnal Desires.
To have the World, and yet be weaned from the World; to possess it, and yet not to be possessed by it; this is a great Mercy.
It is an easie matter to profess Weanedness from the World, where
but little of the World is enjoyed; it is a common thing for them that are poor
to declaim against Riches and Greatness. I would not be in their Condition,
says one. I would
not be under their Temptations for all they enjoy, says another, I would
not have that to answer for as they have, says a third; for as they are great, so they are proud,
high-minded, and covetous.
But to live above all, amidst the enjoyment of all, this is the greatest Mercy in the World.
To see no Greatness in anything but in the great God, no Beauty in anything but
Holiness, no Glory in anything but Christ, no Goodness in anything but Religion; O what a Mercy is this! How few can
look through worldly Greatness to this Prospect! and therefore not many mighty,
not many noble, are called &c.
Duty 2. Labor to wean others from the World; as Christ
said to Peter, When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren,
We preach of the Vanity and Emptiness of the World; but alas! few believe our Report. They say we know nothing of the Grandure, Honour, and Glory of it in our selves: God placed us below it, and laid our Lot in a narrow compass; and therefore we envy it to those who enjoy it, because we want it.
But when such whom God hath advanced to Greatness in the World shall yet live above it, and prefer the Interest of Religion, and the honouring of God, before all worldly Grandure; this will carry a strong Conviction with it to the Consciences of others.
Therefore endeavour to be instrumental to wean others, especially Relations: Labour that they that are near to us may not be far from God; and chiefly our Children, whose Souls God will more immediately require at our hands.
The Lord hath graciously given Your Honour a Child, a Son: you have taken great care to wean him from the Breast, and the Lord hath blessed your Care in it: And if Your Honour would be thoughtful and prayerful about weaning him from worldly Lusts, would not the Lord bless that Care too?
A second Branch of the Exhortation is to them who are not yet as a weaned Child, whose Souls are not, as yet, taken off from present things.
Is not this our Case? May we not fear it is? For if we are weaned from the World, why do we doat upon it? Why are we so fond of present things? Why do we conform so much to the World, and study the Guise and foolish Fashions of the World?
If we are weaned from the World, why is our Joy and Grief so great, and proportionated to present Comforts, or present Losses?
Surely therefore we have cause enough to fear our Hearts are not yet under the Weanings of God.
Nay let me tell you this, that it is possible to be a true Believer, a true Christian, and yet not weaned from the World.
It is one thing to be born of God, as every Believer is; it is another thing to have a weaned Heart: this every Believer hath not.
This Child is a living Child so soon as it is born; but it is
not weaned from the Breast till it has got Strength to live without it: and
therefore it is said of Isaac (
So a Man is a Believer so soon as he is born of God, so soon as he is wrought upon by Grace; but he is not weaned from the World, but by a superadded Strength, and growth of Grace.
Truth of Grace proves a Man a Child of God; but it is Growth of Grace that makes the Soul as a weaned Child.
This Weanedness is begun indeed in Conversion, for that is the Seed-time of all Grace; but it is only perfected in the growth of Sanctification.
You read in Scripture of a twofold Redemption:
One is a Redemption by the Blood and Death of Christ, from Hell and Damnation: Thus every Believer is actually redeemed at his first Conversion.
The other is a Redemption by the Spirit of Christ from carnal
Affections: this follows Conversion. In
Many are redeemed from Hell that are not yet redeemed from the Earth; redeemed through Grace from Damnation, that yet are not redeem’d from a carnal Conversation.
Well then, are we born of God, and yet not weaned from the Breast of worldly Comforts?
Oh then go away, and beg of God for this Mercy of a weaned Soul; that you may no longer fetch in your Satisfactions and Comforts from the Creature, but from God in Christ.
And lastly, Let us do that which is our Duty in order to Weanedness of Heart.
1. Inuring our Souls to Wants and Abatements: Whilst we satiate
our selves, and surfeit our Spirits in the
Fullness and Excesses of present Enjoyments, we are not like to learn this Lesson.
One way to put
2. Be much in mortifying carnal Appetites and inordinate Desires; and let this be our daily Work; for the sooner it is done, the easier it is done: A Child is easier weaned at one Year old than at two; Affections are not yet so strong, nor Custom so prevailing.
It is in like manner with the Soul: the longer it lives upon the Comforts of the World, and fetches its Contentments from the Creature, the harder it will be to draw off the Affections, and wean the Soul from them.
FINIS
Genesis
Exodus
Judges
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
Job
1:10 6:15 18:16 18:17 18:18 18:19 18:21 19:25 19:26 19:27 20:22 21:7-15 29:3 29:4 29:6 33:24
Psalms
6:21-23 9:5 16:5 16:6 16:11 19:7 19:7-11 19:8 19:9 19:10 31:3 32:11 33:5 36:8 40:8 45:10 45:11 58:3 58:4 66:9 73:22 73:22 73:23 73:23 73:24 73:24 73:25 74:14 82:7 84:10 87:7 87:7 89:19 104:15 106:4 106:5 112:7 116:7 119:24 119:105 131:1 131:1 131:2 149:9
Proverbs
2:10 2:11 8:18 10:7 14:10 16:19 27:19 29:23 30:2 30:3 31:14
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
4:5 6:9 6:9-12 6:10 6:11 6:12 11:2 28:20 28:20 29:8 33:16 40:22 40:23 42:16 43:4 45:11 53:11 56:4 56:5 56:5
Jeremiah
Hosea
Amos
Jonah
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Malachi
Matthew
4:18 4:19 5:18 6:11 6:20 7:22 7:23 7:23 8:4 11:25 17:5 18:3 18:3 18:4 20:16 25:23 25:26
Mark
Luke
1:53 2:10 2:29 2:30 5:39 10:17 12:15 12:33 15:14 15:20 16:19 22:32
John
1:11 1:12 1:12 3:16 4:32 6:26 6:27 6:45 8:35 10:26 15:11 15:15 16:13 16:22 16:33
Acts
Romans
1:9 2:29 3:11 6:16 7:21 7:23 8:23 8:30 10:6
1 Corinthians
1:26 1:26 2:15 3:21 3:22 5:2 5:4 7:30 7:31 13:8 13:12
2 Corinthians
1:20 3:3 4:4 5:1 5:1 5:1 5:21 13:5
Galatians
Ephesians
1:3 1:3 1:3-4 1:4 1:4 1:5 1:5 1:6 1:6 1:6 1:6 1:7 1:8 1:9 1:11 1:11 2:6 2:6 3:8 5:27
Philippians
2:10 3:12 3:13 3:20 4:3 4:3 4:11 4:12
Colossians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Hebrews
6:20 8:10 10:34 11:1 11:16 11:24 11:24 11:25 11:25 11:26 11:26 11:26 11:26 11:27 12:2 13:8
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
Jude
Revelation
2:4 2:5 2:17 3:2 3:4 3:20 13:8 14:3 17:2 17:4 21:18 21:19 21:21
i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80a 80b 80c 80d 80e 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139