it is great Psal 25.11 a strange argument for pardon for it is great such as no malefactor would use to an earthly Prince but the holy man knows that it will pass with God who loves to make grace superabound there where sin hath abounded Again he extracts hope out of despair When he is ready to faint and swoon away in cold fits of spiritual deadness faith revives and points him to the fountain of life which runs over in quickning graces upon the whole Church and if he scruple his access to that fountain faith tells him that the Well is open to all comers whosoever will may take of the water of life freely whosoever hath the bucket of faith may draw out of it and if he yet reply true whosoever will may do so but oh I want a will I want an heart for God and Christ and heavenly things faith is able if awakened both to tell him that these are living groans and withall to drop some Scripture cordial into his heart such as that is Prov. 9. where Christ the wisdom of God builds his house the Church kills his beasts mingles his wine furnishes his table that is provides all heavenly blessings sends out his virgins his holy ministers and after all invites the simple and him that wanteth understanding to eat of his bread and drink of his wine in the Original it is him that wanteth heart Oh! if thou sensibly wantest an heart for spiritual things here thou art particularly called to the Gospel seast where Christs flesh is meat indeed and his blood wine indeed able to make thee live for ever Again he extracts joy out of sorrow The Apostle Paul rejoyced over the godly sorrow of the Corinthians because they received no damage in it 2 Cor. 7.9 when faith looks over all the tears and groans of the believer it saith there is no damage in these these tears are bottled in heaven the holy spirit breaths in those groans he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psal 126.6 Oh! saith faith observe the word doubtless tears and sorrows in a godly sort are a sure sign that the harvest of joy and comfort is nigh at hand one may see the crop in the seed sown When the Emperor Julian banished Athanasius he said Nubecula est citò transibit it is but a little cloud and will soon be over when the night of darkness and discomfort is upon the soul faith is able to say 't is but a short night of sorrow joyes come in the morning Psal 30.5 and for that morning I will trust the sun of righteousness O how soon can he make it day in the soul Moreover he extracts wisdome out of folly There is not there cannot be any thing in all the world so foolish as sin and yet out of this he picks up wisdom hereby he comes to know more of his own heart There is a Mahometan fable that the heart of Mahomet being a child was cut open and a black grain called the devils portion taken out of the midst thereof A believers sins make rents and holes in his heart and through these the inward core and blackness thereof becomes visible Good Hezekiah by his fall comes to know what was in his heart Peter denying his Master comes to understand the desperate deceitfulness of his own heart which cheated him against his own resolutions into so horrible an iniquity every actual sin is to the believer a sad Commentary on his inward corruption Again hereby he comes to understand free-grace better then before that God should melt as man hardens heal as man falls and bruises himself afiesh drop pardons as man doth sins return the holy spirit as man grieves it away lengthen out patience as man abuses it use lavers as fast as man runs into pollutions evidently argues riches of immense superabounding grace towards sinners Moreover hereby he comes to know the necessity of a continual dependance on God considering the heats and colds of his heart the ups and downs of his life and the interchangeable actings of Hetis and spirit he plainly perceives that he falls of himself and stands from God dies of his own spirit and lives from Gods sins of his own and repents believes obeyes of meer grace and so understands the necessity of depending on God praying continually with the devout Psalmist Hold up my gomgs in thy paths that my footsteps slip not Psal 17.5 Lastly to name no more he extracts all out of nothing Thus the Apostle as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 all things in God who is all in all Zuichemus gave Erasmus a ring which when it was unfolded represented a mundane sphear with Astrological notes engraven upon it telling him withall that now he might wear the whole world on his finger the conjugal ring whereby the soul is married to God in Christ by faith hath this posie I will be thy God which if it be unfolded is a sphear of all things the believer need not ask with Peter what shall we have Math. 19.27 for he hath all in God It is storied of the Laudanum of Paracelsus that it was almost good in all cases but however that might fail faith well understands that all things may be made out of an interest in God the universal good hence it can rationally part with all for him because it knows that there be fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and children and houses and lands and infinitely more in God CHAP. VII Of the second holy fruit of Faith in Justification its growth upon Faith as a fruit thereof with the manner continuance perfection and various excellencies of the same THUS much for the first fruit of faith being the spiritual sagacities thereof whereby it appears that the believer is the only wise man who hath eyes in his head whilest all the rest of the world be they what they will in notional knowledge walk on in darkness The second holy fruit of faith is Justification which is a very great blessing so great that in Luthers phrase it is articulus stantis cadentis Ecclesiae and in Chemnitius arx propugnaculum religionis Christianae a blessing that is pregnant with many more which occasioned a good Divine to say sin committed is every judgment radically and pardon of sin is every mercy radically you may cut out any blessing or comfort out of it particular mercies are but pardon of sin specificated and individuated brought into this or that mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin and that is pardon of sin Touching this precious fruit of faith I shall endeavour to shew these things First That it grows upon faith as a fruit Secondly The manner how it grows there Thirdly The continuance of it Fourthly The perfection of it Fifthly The various excellencies of it First This holy fruit grows upon faith in the
Jews at the Passeover at the end of the Celebration whereof the Father of the Family was wont to take a Cake of Bread and after the blessing thereof to break and distribute it to the Communicants and also after that a Cup of Wine in like sort unto which some refer that Cup of Salvation Psal 116.13 The Bread and Wine among the Jews were but a Customary Rite but Christ consecrated them into a Sacrament saying of the Bread This is my Body and of the Wine This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood which could not before be said of them In the Paschal Rite it was only said of the Bread This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of affliction and of the Cup This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cup of the Hymn But now This is my Body and this is my Blood In this great Ordinance the Body and Blood of Christ are evidently figured out and set forth before our eyes as if he were Crucified among us The seventh General Council at Constantinople who knocked down all other Images saith of this Sacrament That it is Vera Christi Imago the only true Crucifix or Image of Christ And which is much more than an Image the very Body and Blood of Christ are here truly and really though Spiritually present to our Faith being exhibited ut epulum faederale as a Covenant-feast or Love-banquet chearing the heart of God and Man The same Body and Blood which in the Sacrifice on the Cross were a sweet savour unto God and satisfied his Justice are set forth in the Sacrament as meat and drink for our Faith feeding us to Life Eternal Here is Epitome Evangelti a compend of the Gospel the whole Covenant and Contrivance of Salvation is sealed in a bit of Bread and drop of Wine Here the Believer meets with many rich Experiments he feeds and lives upon a Crucified Christ eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood and what a Feast is this 't is much that our Bodies may live upon the Body and Blood of Creatures but Oh incomparable Grace Our Souls may live on the Body and Blood of God One drop whereof saith Luther is more worth than Heaven and Earth Cruci haeremus sanguinem sugimus intra ipsa Redemptoris nostri vulnera figimus linguam saith St. Cyprian Haustu interiori in a Spiritual Mystical way we do in this Ordinance cleave to Christs Cross suck his precious Blood and as it were fasten our Tongues within his healing Wounds Whilest the Bread and Wine are Physically and Carnally united to us we are Mystically and Hyperphysically united to Christ becoming Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Spiritually dwelling in him and he in us The same holy Spirit which is upon him in Heaven falling down upon us on Earth and the Faith which is in us here below ascending up to clasp and embrace him In sinu Christi recumbimus in cor Christi introspicimus saith Luther We lie in his bosom and look into his heart In our Pardon sealed we taste the sweetness of his atoning Blood and in the effusion of the holy Spirit we drink at the sountainhead of Grace sprung up in his Humane Nature We have here the whole Covenant or Charter of Grace sealed to us and may believe not only ex promisso but ex pignore Over and above the Promise we have a pawn or pledg of the Truth thereof We saw not the inspired Prophets and Apostles penning down the Promises but Ecce Signum lo here is a visible sign and seal set thereunto and sense leads in Faith to claim and possess them for its own Hence our Saviour calls the Cup the New Testament in his Blood Luk. 22.20 The Cup saith Luther contains the Wine the Wine exhibits the Blood of Christ the Blood of Christ natifies the New Govenant and the New Covenant promises remission of Sins and with it a vast treasure of Blessings Again we have here the rich anointings of the holy Spirit Among the Oriental Nations and in particular among the Jews there was Vnctio convivalis a Feastival Vnction which they used as a token of welcome to pour on the head of their Guests Thus there came unto Christ a Woman having an Atabaster box of very precious Ointment and poured it on his head as he sate at meat Mat. 26.7 Whilest we are at the Lords-Table we are anointed with fresh Oyl the holy Spirit is poured out in richer measures of Grace and Comfort than it was at first As a Spirit of Grace and Supplication it melts the Heart into godly sorrows at the sight of a Crucisied Christ Sin being indeed the Jew and Judas the betrayer and murderer of the Son of God the Nails in his Cross and Spear in his Side the Gall and Wormwood in the Cup of Wrath which made him sweat drops of Blood and under an horrid Eclipse of Gods favour to cry out of forsaking To look upon a groaning World travelling under an universal vanity would stir up sorrow in any that had a sense of it much more to look upon a Christ a Creator bleeding and dying upon a Cross to the least drop of whose Passion the dashing down of a World is a poor inconsiderable nothing To look upon the broken Tables of a Law dearer to God than Heaven and Earth is very grievous but to stand and see God for our Sin bruising and breaking his own Son and Effential Image in our assumed Nature is matter of amazing sorrow Never was Sin set forth in such bloody Colours as in his Passion never do repentant tears flow more purely than at such a spectacle Here the Heart breaks in its closing with a broken Christ and bleeds afresh over his Wounds and turns the Sacrament of the Supper into a Baptism of Tears and out of an holy hatred and revenge would have the violence done to Christ be put upon Sin the great Crucifier of him in the true Mortification thereof As a Spirit of Faith it causes us to live upon Christ Having no Righteousness of our own to answer the Law with we feast and satisfie our selves in the Righteousness of Christ as in that which satisfied the heart of God and is here made over to satisfie ours We may surely say The Righteousness of God is upon us and as it hath no spot or wrinkle in it self so it leaves no ground of scruple or jealousie in our Hearts in the midst of our Sins which have Death and Hell virtually in them We yet live upon the atoning Sacrifice of Christ His Blood which was offered up to God through the Eternal Spirit and by him accepted as a plenary Satisfaction for Sin is now put into Promises and Sacraments as into so many Basins and from thence sprinkled on our Conscience to purge away all our guilt our Sins are pardoned and our Pardon passed under the Seal of Heaven In the midst of our Wants Faith can triumph in the
PRECIOUS FAITH CONSIDERED In its Nature Working and Growth By Edward Polhill of Burwash in Sussex Esq LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Atlas in Cornhil near the Royal-Exchange 1675. To the CHRISTIAN Reader HE that with serious eyes looks on that dreadful spectacle lapsed Angels lying in Chains of Darkness for ever and that for one Sin may very well stand and wonder at the Salvation of Men in which worms are as it were Angelized and little lumps of corrupted dust are first refined by Grace and then transfigured into Glory The pure Origine of this great Work is no other than the Divine Grace and Love which have so fairly pourtraied and limmed out themselves upon every piece of it that all the Saints above and below may read the Characters thereof and have reason to cry out Grace Grace Indeed Heaven and Earth too should ring with the Praises of it and Eternity it self will be short enough to behold and admire it in To compass this Glorious design the Son of God left his Fathers Bosom and appeared in our Flesh to make a Robe for us of his own Righteousness and a Laver for us in his own Blood Our Nature in him is now in Heaven and his Spirit is descended to impress his Image on us thereby to make us meet for that Blessed Region to secure all to us Heaven hath let down a great Charter in the precious Gospel in which we have a Map of Glory and Eternal Life set before us to elevate our Souls which are sparks of Immortality out of the dust and rubbish of the Fall and to set them aspiring after the true Pleasures and Beatitudes which are above That we may not mistake our way or faint in it the holy Spirit hath in the Gospel drawn many lines of Holiness and Comfort There are pure Precepts to chalk out the Way to Heaven and sweet Promises to cordial us therein and to give us some Tastes of Heaven before we come there The great condition of this Salvation which streams down out of the fountain of Grace through the Blood of Christ into the Evangelical Promises is no other than Faith This is the Aurora of Glory Heaven and Eternal Life dawn in it This is the Hypostasis of Things hoped for It presentiates the Celestial Paradise and in some sort sets the Believer by the rivers of Pleasures which are there This receives all from Grace and ascribes all to it prompting the Believer to confess touching his Spiritual Being and Working By the Grace of God I am what I am and by the Grace of God I do what I do This unites to Christ wraps up it self in his Righteousness feasts on his precious Body and Blood unto Life Eternal and surrenders up Heart and Life to the blessed duct of his Spirit and Word Walking on in holy Precepts it drinks Comfort out of Promises following hard after Holiness it meets with Peace such as passes understanding overcoming earth with all its Troops of vanity it ascends and takes Heaven by violence and renting off the dark veil of Time it looks into Eternity and aspires after that Bliss-making Vision which is the true Center of it Where this Grace is there the Gospel is not in word only but in power The Truth stands not meerly without in the letter but is entertained within and springs up in the Heart as a seed of Immortal Happiness The Divine Excellencies of this noble Grace have drawn out my Thoughts in the ensuing Discourse now offered to publick view The Errata's and Infirmities in it beg the Readers kind Indulgence And the holy Truths therein call for a Practical Improvement If but any Mite may get into the Treasury if any thing thereby may redound to the Glory of God or profit of Men it is enough and a sufficient recompence for him who is A Lover of Truth Edw. Polhill PRECIOUS FAITH CHAP. I. Some general acceptions of the word Faith in Scripture premised Precious Faith described and considered in the general nature of it as it is a grace of the Holy Spirit THE word Faith hath many acceptions in Scripture among which I shall touch upon some Sometimes it imports the Gospel or object of Faith thus St. Paul preached the faith Gal. 1.23 that is the Gospel which is worthy to be so called because it is the great Engine which lets down Gods faith to men and catches up mens faith to God Sometimes it imports a dogmatical or historical Faith which is an assent to the word of God as true and infallible thus the very devils believe a God and which is more then many sinful worms do they tremble Jam. 2.19 Sometimes it imports a temporary Faith which is but a dogmatical faith budding and blossoming with some tasts and joys in the things of God thus the stony ground received the word with joy Mat. 13.20 Sometimes it imports a miraculous Faith which by a special instinct gives such a touch upon the power of God as to produce wonderful effects in nature a grain of this is enough to remove mountains Mat. 17.20 Sometimes it imports saving Faith called by the Apostle precious Faith 2 Pet. 1.1 Omitting the rest I shall fix my Discourse upon this and that upon a double account First This precious faith virtually includes the rest In Faith in the first notion there is only the Gospel or object standing alone by it self but in this faith the act and the object are in sweet conjunction the soul is Gospellized and the Gospel which outwardly runs in the letter is inwardly glorified in the believers heart In dogmatical faith there is an assent to the truths of God and so there is in precious faith but in a more eminent manner the first embracing the Gospel only in its naked truth and history is but a dead and a cold notion but the second embracing the same in its goodness and spiritual mystery carries life and warmth in it temporary faith hath some joys in the things of God but precious faith hath the same in a more excellent way the former is but a flash and away a flower without a root the Gospel is not radicated in him but lies as it were upon the surface of his heart Jesus Christ is not entirely received by him but by parcels only hence a little storm of persecution blows off all the blossoms of his joy but the latter is a thing of a higher excellency and permanency In the true believer the Gospel is intimately rooted and Christ impartially received even cross and all Hence such an one can joy in tribultions and under afflictions wait for consolations Miraculous faith can work wonders and so can precious too the first works wonders in the body of nature by a touch upon Almighty power and the second works wonders in the souls of men by a touch upon Almighty grace A grain of this can remove spiritual mountains mountains of guiltiness off from the Conscience mountains of hardness
divided Christ as this is is not the Christ of God but a Christ of his own fancy one that will save him in his sins and justifie him in his ungodliness he that believes in such a Christ doth at once miserably cheat his own soul and as much as in him lieth profanely trample on the blood of Christ as if it were shed on purpose that sinful men might have the reins laid down on their necks to riot in their cursed lusts with all impunity Moreover as to the word of God the believer is for all of it he is not only for cordials and pots of Manna and distillations of grace in the promises but for precepts also his meat and his drink is to do the will of his Father in heaven whilest his eyes are on the Land of promise his feet are in the Land of uprightness Antinomians boast themselves to be above the Law and as free as if they were in heaven and that their sins are but seeming sins sins to sense and to the world outwardly but no sins to faith and before God who seeth no sin in them But alass these are but swelling words of vanity to be above the Law is Antichrist-like to be above God himself whose Majesty and holiness break forth in it and if sins be but seeming sins the Law is but a seeming Law and God whose authority and sanctity shine forth in it is but a seeming God Promises and Precepts run together in the Scripture and must be taken together into the heart by faith Promises are effluxes out of Gods grace and faith takes them in by recumbency Precepts are effluxes out of Gods holiness and faith takes them in by obediential subjection both must continue and be owned by faith as long as there are grace and holiness in God The true believer neither with the Antinomian picks out the promises from the precepts nor yet with the Hypocrite doth he pick out only such commands as do not cross his beloved lusts as the Papists have razed out the second Commandement in some of their Catechisms because of their outward images so the Hypocrite razes out the displeasing Commandements in his practice because of the Idol-lusts in his heart but the true believer as David is for all the wills of God without any salvoes because without any indulged lusts Thirdly This resignation is made purely upon a Scriptural warrant There may be hay and stubble in the believer but there is none in his faith which so far as it is faith stands only upon holy ground All faiths assents stand upon Scripture-propositions all its affiances upon Scripture-promises and all its obedience upon Scripture-precepts What Balaam said by an over-ruling providence that saith the believer by the instinct of faith I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord to do less or more Num. 22.18 he would not as to doctrinals be wise above what is written nor as to worship be religious above what is written nor as to mercies and comforts be an expectant above what is written He would not as to doctrinals be wise above what is written when the Lutherans and Papists met at Ratisbon the Papists would first dispute about the Canon of Faith the Lutherans replyed that the Scriptures were the only rule at which the Papists cried out that it was very unequal to tye them to one kind of weapon only but faith is content with Scriptural doctrines only There is one Mediator in Scripture and faith dares not multiply them there is one Scripture purgatory in Christs blood and faith will not invent another there is one propitiatory sacrifice offered up once for all upon the Cross and faith will not seek after any more All the points in Popery are but so many additions to the word and upon that account insignificant to faith The first error in the first sin was an addition to the word the woman saying ye shall not touch it Gen. 3.3 whereas Gods word only was ye shall not eat of it Gen. 2.17 and the first and primordial error which hath ushered in all the Romish doctrines into the Church hath been the very same thing and because they are additions faith cannot own them no not faith in a Papist opinion may own them but faith cannot for it is but the souls Eccho to the voice of God in Scripture and where there is no voice there can be no return humane doctrines found not at all to faith Scripture is all Bishop Fisher a little before his suffering lighting on that one sweet passage this is life eternal to know thee and Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 brake out into these words here 's learning enough for me the believer who hath the whole Scripture before him may well say here 's doctrine enough for me faith will not turn vagrant and lye about at humane doors for doctrines there is enough in the word Again the believer would not as to worship be religious above what is written that of the Schoolmen cultus est à naturâ modus à lege virtus à gratiâ worship is from nature the manner from the Law the power from grace is very excellent The very light of nature saith God is to be worshipped but faith goes to the word for the manner and to free-grace for the power God in the second Commandement forbids graven Images not as false objects of worship which are forbidden in the first Commadement but as false means and manner of worship and under graven Images as being the chiefest and groffest kind of false worship God doth forbid all other false worship humanely devised such as these were hence true faith looks on all humanely devised worships as so many graven Images a kind of Teraphim expressing though not as they did an humane shape yet an humane devise and invention things void of God without institution and without benediction That of the Prophet who hath required this at your hand Isa 1.12 falls like thunder on all the imagery of humane inventions dashing them to pieces in a moment Quintinus the Libertine being present at a solemn Mass with a Cardinal boasted that he saw the glory of God I suppose according to his loose principles of being under no outward Law he would have said as much if he had been among Pagans at their Idolatrous worship but the true believer looks for that glory only in the Sanctuary of Divine Institutions there and there only God records his Name and commands the blessing even life for evermore Moreover the believer as to mercies and comforts would not be an expectant above what is written 'T is said of Moses that he died according to the word of the Lord Deut. 38.5 or as the Original may be read he died upon the mouth of the Lord the believer loves to live and dye upon Gods mouth in the promises there watching for the sweet words of grace dropping from him he walks among the Promises as the Physitian among his herbs and by a divine