Media: the middle things, in reference to the first and last things: or, The means, duties, ordinances, both secret, private and publike, for continuance and increase of a godly life, once begun, till we come to Heaven. Wherein are discovered many blessed medium's or duties, in their right method, manner and proceedings; that so a Christian (the spirit of Christ assisting) may walk on in the holy path, which leads from his new birth to everlasting life. / Drawn, for the most part, out of the most eminently pious, and learned writings of our native practical divines: with additionals of his own, by Isaac Ambrose, minister of the Gospel at Preston in Amoundernes.

SECT 4. Of the Sanctification of Experiences in their several Uses.

THe Sanctification of Experiences is evidenced (as we said) by such Dispositions as these: —

1. When Divine discoveries are more strongly believed; this is one fruit of Experience, it wonderfully strengthens our faith: When the Israelites saw the Egyptians drowned, then they be∣lieved the Lord, and his servant Moses. When we finde all things in the event to be as we believed, this confirms our Faith, as David knew that God favored him, by his deliverances.

2. When the heart by threats is more kindely awed: This another fruit of Experience, The righteous also shall see and fear; first see, and then fear: When the Primitive Christians saw Ananias fall down, and give up the ghost, then great fear came on them that heard those things; this holy fear many a time possesseth the Saints: My flesh trembled for fear of thee (saith David) and I am afraid of thy judgements.— When I heard, my belly trembled (saith Habakkuk) my lip quivered at the voyce; rottenness entred into my bones, and I trembled in my self, that I might rest in the day of trouble: As the childe quaketh when he seeth his Father correct a servant, so the faithful tremble when they observe the severity of Gods wrath against impenitent sinners.

3. When the deceitful heart is more narrowly watched: Hath it cozened us once and again? Experience hereof will

breed in us a godly jealousie and suspition over our hearts; we are now conscious of our own weakness, and of the snare that is in every creature, to take and entangle us; and this will make waking Believers circumspect and careful, how they entertain evil motions, how they keep up holy thoughts, how they per∣form holy duties, how their affections move towards that which is above, lest they should miscarry upon the sands.

4. When Satans suggestions are more watchfully resisted, this is the voyce of Experience in such a case, Doth Satan furiously assail us? be not dismayed; Are his temptations most fierce? be we most diligent in the means of grace, the practice of holiness, the labors of an honest calling; Pray earnestly, exercise faith, stick faster to the word of promise, stop our ears against scruples and doubtings; Draw nigh to God, for Satan will then cease to vex thee with his temptations any more: Resist the Devil, and he will fly from you: it is true, the Believer is too weak of himself to withstand the least assault, but if we relie on the Lord, we may through his power be made victorious in the greatest assaults whatsoever; and here is the comfort of Experience, That a Soul having once returned with victory, through the power of his might, He will abide in the secret place of the most high for ever.

5. When the bewitchings of the world are kept at a great distance from the Soul: This was Solomons case and cure, after all his travels and great delights, he no sooner returns as to him∣self, but he fills the world with this news; What news? Vanity, And what more? Vanity of vanities; And what more? All is vanity: Experience of its vanity, weans him from the love of this earth, it takes him off the creature, and lifts him unto the Lord his Creator; so should we (if ever we were charmed with such Syren songs) be more careful, lest we be drawn away with the pleasing delights of things transitory, and keep them at a greater distance from us.

6. When the Lord Jesus is more studied and advanced: The man that feels Christs gracious power and vertue, will be sure to exalt Christ, and set him up on high; when Israel saw the mighty work of David in overthrowing Goliah, then David was much set by: The Believers experience of Christs mighty and gracious working, makes Christ very precious to him, then

he cryes, as the Soldiers of David, Thou art worth ten thousands of us: Hence it is that Gods people value him above all their profits, friends, ease, credit and lives. Matthew left the Re∣ceipt of Custom, James and John their Ships, and Nets, and Father, and followed him, yea, many for his sake loved not their lives unto death; no wonder they had many sweet experiences of Christ: Christ to their apprehension was the fairest of ten thousand, none but Christ, none but Christ.

7. When the peoples edification is endeavored: Have we tasted of the goodness of God? let us then provoke others to believe, and to serve the Lord together with us; this is one end of Experience, and that use we should make of it towards others. When Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpre∣tation thereof, he worshipped, and turned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise, for the Lord hath delivered the host of Midian into your hands.

8. When a mans own self is more abased: Do we live the life of grace and true holiness? this will teach us to deny our selves whol∣ly: If any man (saith Christ) will come after me, let him deny him∣self; q. d. If any man will come after me in the knowledge of my Will, in the belief of my Promises, in the love of my Truth, in the obedience of my Precepts, let him deny himself, let him lay aside his own wisdom, his own will, his own imagination, his own affections, his own ends, as base and unworthy marks to be aymed at: Let him deny himself; whatsoever is of himself, or belonging to himself, as a corrupt and carnal man; let him go out of himself, that he may come to me; let him empty himself of himself, that he may be capable of me, that I may rule and reign in him, and that he may wholly subject himself to me and my service: This the Apostle stiles, A living, not unto our selves, but unto him that dyed for us; he alone understands, and hath experience of the end of Christs death, that makes Christs glory the end of his life, and lives not to himself, but to Christ.

9. When holy love is more encreased: I love the Lord, be∣cause he hath heard my voyce and my supplication: We cannot taste of the Lord, but we must have an hearty love to the Lord: Will you hear the voyce of Experience? this 'tis, O taste, and see how good the Lord is; and then, O stay me with flaggons,

and comfort me with Apples, for I am sick of love; such a one truly affects Christ, and all that follow Christ; such a one loves the person of Christ, without his priviledges; a naked Christ, as well as a Christ cloathed with all his robes, in all his glory and resplendent beauty; Christ in a Prison, as well as Christ in a Throne: Thus John (after all his Experiences of Christs love to him) could love Christ on the cross, when other forsook him, as well as in the Temple, when he was working miracles.

10. When hope is quickened, such times may come, that death and darkness may surround us, and we may grovel in the dust: But here is our comfort, That tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope: Have we any Ex∣perience of Gods gracious dealings with us in former times? have we sometimes been refreshed by his hand? hath he sometimes helped us? was he found of us when we sought him? nay, often unsought for? hath he come to our souls, and renewed our stock, and filled our becalmed spirits with fresh gales of grace? how should we then but hope? As it was in this respect, it is, and ever shall be; if new temptations arise, and new lusts break in and spoil, it is the voyce of Experience, I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon, and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever—and, We had the sentence of death in our selves, that we should not trust in our selves, but in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver us, in whom we trust he will yet deliver us.

11. When joys of the Spirit are raised and stirred up: Who is he that hath not been delivered out of some miserable exigents? and if we have, we may well say with David, Thou hast shew∣ed me great troubles and adversities, but thou wilt return and re∣ceive me, and wilt come again, and take me up from the depth of the earth, and comfort me: Former comforts are as a bill obli∣gatory under Gods hand, to assure us that he will not forsake us: Whom God loves, he loves unto the end—Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce.

12. When Faith is more and more strengthened, Expe∣riences should be turned into Confidences: Thus David im∣proved his Experiences, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lyon, and out of the paw of the Bear, he will deliver

me out of the hand of this Philistine: In like maner should we take notice of Gods dealings, and after we have once tryed him and his truth, let us trust him for the future; Tryed Truth, and tryed Faith unto it, sweetly agree, and answer one ano∣ther. Hence it is that Experience of Gods love, should refresh our Faith upon any fresh onset; So let all thine enemies perish (said Deborah, the heart of that blessed woman was enlarged, as it were Prophetically) when one falls, they shall all fall; there is the like reason, So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord. Expe∣rience in our selves or others, will inlarge our faith to look for greater matters still from our gracious powerful God: Hath the Lord given us a victory over the Philistins? then Awake, awake Deborah, awake, and be inlarged, O my faith! Every new Ex∣perience is a new knowledge of God, and should fit us for new encounters: I deny not but we ought to trust God upon other grounds, though we had never tryed him; but when he helps our faith by former Experiences, this should strengthen our confidence, and shore up our Spirits, and put us on to go more chearfully to God, as to a tryed friend. It was the speech of one eminent in holiness, upon occasion of the accomplishment of a great request made to God by him, I have tryed God often, now I will trust him indeed. If we were read in the story of our own lives, we might have a Divinity of our own, drawn out of the observation of Gods particular dealings towards us: we might say, This and this truth I dare venture upon, I have found it true, I dare build all my happiness upon it; as Paul, I know whom I have trusted, and I am perswaded he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day; q. d. I have tryed him, he never yet failed me, I am not now to seek how faithful he is to all those that are his.

13. When scruples and doubts are removed, O (cryes the soul) I have many Experiences, but no Comfort as yet. Thus Da∣vid, after the remembrance of his songs in the night, left his soul still in doubt; and he goes on to say, Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favorable no more? In this case it is the duty of Christians, to call to minde their former Experiences of Faith and Joy again and again: for though they comfort not at one time, yet they may at another. Have we found a Promise (which is a breast of Consolation) milkless? yet again suck, Com∣fort

may come in the end: If after we have impanell'd a Jury and Grand Inquest to search, and our first Verdict condemns us, or they bring in an Ignor••mus; yet do, as wise Judges often do, send them about it again, they may finde it the next time: Jo∣nah look'd once, it seems, and found no comfort, for he said, I will look again towards thine holy Temple: So some have look'd over their hearts by signs at one time, and have to their thinking found nothing but Hypocrisie, Unbelief, Hardness, Self-seeking, &c. but not long after, examining their hearts again by the same signs, they have espyed the Image of God drawn fairly upon the Tables of their hearts, and so found a world of com∣fort.

O but (cryes the soul) I have tossed and tumbled over my heart, I have searched into the Registers and Records of Gods dealings, and me thinks, I can call nothing into remembrance betwixt God and me: What, nothing? look again: Did God never speak peace to our hearts? Did Christ never shed his love abroad into our souls? Have we at no time found in our heart pure streins of love to Christ? Pure drops of godly sorrow for offending Christ? Have we never an old tryed Evidence, which hath been acknowledged and confirmed again and again in open Court? What, not one? Surely, if we can now call to minde but one, if in truth, it may support us: If one Promise do belong to us, all do; for every one conveys whole Christ, in whom all the Pro∣mises are made, and who is the matter of them: As in the Sa∣crament, the Bread conveys whole Christ, and the Wine conveys whole Christ: so in the Word, every Promise conveys whole Christ; if we can but say as the Church of Ephesus, This thing I have, that I hate sin: we may plead this to God, yea though it be in a lesser degree, if in truth and sincerity (for God brings not a pair of Scales to weigh, but a Touchstone to try our gra∣ces) if it be true gold, though never so little of it, it will pass current with him: He will not quench the smoking flax, though it be but a smoke, not a flame; though it be but as a wick in the socket, (as it is in the Original) likelier to dye and go out, then to continue, which we use to throw away, yet he will not quench it, but accept it. O let us comfort our selves with these words!

O but (cryes the soul again) I have searched all crevases for light, but alas, I cannot see the least beam of it: What help now re∣mains?

If it be thus, poor soul, Be not faithless, but belie∣ving. Christ helps some to live above glorious Manifestations; sometimes in absence of these Manifestations, just ones may live, and rejoyce in the invisible Essence of God: Christians may live waiting on God, when his face is wholly hid from them; or Christians may live depending on God, when all other subordinate stays or helps are lost: In such a soul there may be this resolution, Let God do what he will with me, Ile hang on him still, Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him, and there is comfort in this.

If so (saith the soul) then what need of Experiences, so long as I have the Promises, and may live by Faith? O but for all this, be not careless of Experiences: for 1. It is the goodness of God, that besides the promises of good things to come, he is pleased to give us some present evidence and taste of what we believe: This heightens his mercy, that besides Faith, he should train up his Children by daily renewed Experiences of his father∣ly care. 2. Though it be one thing to live by Faith, another thing to live by sight, yet the more we see, and feel, and taste of God, the more we shall be lead to relye on him, for that which as yet we neither see nor feel: This is the very meaning of God, that by that which we feel, we might be strengthned in that we look for.

Notes

• Exod. 14 31.
• Psal 41.11.
• Psal. 52.6.
• Acts 5.5.
• Psal. 119.120.
• Hab. 3.16.
• Lam. 4.7.
• Eccle. 1.2.
• 2 Sam. 18.3.
• Rev. 12.11.
• Iudges 7.15.
• Luke 9.23.
• 2 Cor. 5.15.
• Psal. 116.1.
• Psal. 34.8. Can. 2.5.
• Rom. 5.4.
• 2 Tim. 4.17, 18
• 2 Cor. 1 9, 10.
• Psa. 71.20, 21.
• Iohn 13.1. Psal 63.7.
• 1 Sam 17.36, 37.
• Iudg 5.31.
• 2 Tim. 1.12.
• Psa. 77.7.
• Ionah 2.4.
• Rev. 2.6.
• Isa. 42.3.