of Eden rather than the Wilderness of Sinai Act. 9.31 It is the Office of the Spirit our Guide to be our Comforter and not a Spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 Peace and Joy are great Duties in this way Phil. 4.4 5 6. God doth not drive us on with Whips and Terrors and by the Rod of the Schoolmaster of the Law but leads us and wins us to walk in his ways by Allurements Cant. 1.3 Hos 11.4 See such Alurements 2 Cor. 5.14 15. c. 7.1 Rom. 12.1 5. Our very Moving Acting Walking in this way is a Pleasure and Delight every good Work is done with Pleasure the very Labour of the way is pleasant Carnal Men wish Duties were not necessary and they are burthensome to them but they are pleasant to us because we do not gain Holiness by our own carnal Wrestling with our Lusts and crossing them out of carnal Fear with Regret and Grief and setting Conscience and the Law against them to hinder their Actings but we act naturally according to the New Nature and perform our own New spiritual Desires and Lusts by walking in the ways of God through Christ And our Lusts and Pleasures in Sin are not only restrained but taken away in Christ and Pleasures in Holiness freely given us and implanted in us Rom. 8.5 Gal. 5.17 24. Joh. 4.34 Psal 40.8 Psal 119.14 16 20. We have a new Taste and Savour Love Lust and Liking by the Spirit of Christ and look on the Law not as a Burden but as our Priviledge in Christ 6. It is a high exalted way above all other ways Unto this way the Prophet Habbakuk is exalted when upon the Failure of all visible Helps and Supports he resolves to rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of his Salvation and making God his Strength by Faith his Feet should be as Hinds Feet and should walk upon his high places Hab. 3.18 19. These are the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that God hath set us in being quickned and raised up together with him Eph. 2.5 6. 1. We live high here for we live not by the flesh but by the Spirit and Christ in us with all his fullness Rom. 8.1 2. Gal. 2.20 c. 5.25 We walk in Fellowship with God dwelling in us and walking about in us 2 Cor. 6.18 And therefore our Works are of higher Price and Excellency than the Works of others because they are wrought in God Joh. 3.21 And are the Fruits of Gods Spirit Gal. 5. Phil. 1.11 And we may know that they are accepted and good by our Gospel Principles which others have not Rom. 7.6 2. We are inabled to the most difficult Duties Phil. 4.1 3. and nothing is too hard for us See the great Works done by Faith Heb. 11. Mar. 9.23 Works that carnal Men think Folly and Madness to venture upon they are so great and honourable Atchievements in doing and suffering for Christ 3. We walk in an honourable State with God and on honourable Terms not as guilty Creatures to get our Pardon by Works nor as Bond-Servants to earn our Meat and Drink but as Sons and Heirs walking towards the full Possession of that Happiness to which we have a Title and so we have much boldness in Gods Presence Gal. 4.6 7. We can approach nearer to God than others and walk before him considently without slavish Fear not as Strangers but as such who are of his own Family Eph. 2.19 20. And this prompts us to doing greater things than others walking as free Men Rom. 6.17 18. Joh. 8.35 36. It is a Kingly way the Law to us is a Royal Law a Law of Liberty and our Priviledge not a Bond and Yoak of Compulsion 4. It is the way only of those that are Honourable and Precious in the eyes of the Lord even his Elect and Redeemed ones whose special Priviledge it is to walk therein No unclean Beast goeth there Jer. 35.8 9. No carnal Man can walk in this way but only those that are taught of God Joh. 6.44 45 46. Nor would it have come into our Hearts without Divine Revelation 5. The preparing this way cost Christ very dear it is a costly way Heb. 10.19 20. 1 Pet. 3.18 6. It is a good old way wherein thou mayest follow the Footsteps of all the Flock 7. It 's the way to Perfection it leads to such Holiness which shall in a while be absolutely perfect It differs only in the degree and manner of Manifestation from the Holiness of Heaven there the Saints live by the same Spirit and the same God in all 1 Cor. 15.28 Joh. 4.14 And have the Image of the same spiritual Man 1 Cor. 15.49 Only here we have but the first fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 And live by faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 And are not full grown in Christ Eph. 4.13 Sanctification in Christ is Glorification begun as Glorification is Sanctification perfected ERRATA PAge 6. l. 18. r. works p. 7. l. 5. Ã fine for not r. yet p. 23. l. 6. Ã fi for that r. there p. 27. l. 18. for either rather p. 33. l. 9. for an r. in p. 36. l. 5. Ã fi r. yet for that p. 41. l. 9. Ã fi r. receiving for recovering p. 42. after them r. it were better if p. 42. l. 2. for God r. Gods p. 46. l. 7. for hope r. Trope ibid. l. 11. for this r. the. p. 46. l. 17. for particulars r. particularly p. 48. l. 4. Ã fi r. for wisely c. r. wisdom by the knowledge of which c. p. 49. l. 19. r. from Christ p. 52. l. 3. Ã fi for has r. had p. 63. l. 19. r. principal act p. 64. l. 13. add after Lord. called hoping in the Lord because c. p. 65. l. 12. for procure r. secure p. 66. l. 5. after right r. to use any Instrument for the actual c. p. 68. l. 4. Ã fi for right title r. right or title Ib. l. 2. Ã fi for condition r. conditional work p. 69. l. 2. Ã fi r. 5ly true c. p. 73. l. 19. put that after first p. 80. l. 21. r. it is p. 85. l. 6. Ã fi for on r. off p. 87. l. 7. Ã fi for it hath r. it is p. 88. l. 22. for lying r. thing p. 95. l. 1. for do r. toyl more p. 97. l. 5. Ã fi r. for the worst p. 108. l. 12. Ã fi r. done away p. 114. l. 8. Ã fi for ways r. wages Ib. l. 16. for which r. what p. 122. l. 18. r. for it prescribeth c. p. 125. l. 6. these words without any farther practice of Holiness add them after the l. 14. p. 160. l. 6. r. this is p. 171. l. 10. de that p. 172. l. 3. Ã fi r. of it it c. p. 194. l. 7. r. to the life of c. p. 196. l. 12. r. by all the c. p. 197. l. 20. free Salvation p. 201.
of the Flesh and to the Perfection of the New Man in Christ Yet it holdeth true also that our reception and enjoyment of Christ himself and all his Perfections is but in an imperfect measure and degree until Faith be turned into heavenly Vision and Fruition of Christ and therefore our old sinful State with the Evils thereof is not perfectly abolished during this Life The Kingdom of Heaven or the Grace of Christ within us is like leaven in Meal and doth not unite it self perfectly to the Meal in an Instant but by degrees until the whole be leavened Mat. 13.35 or like the morning Light that expelleth Darkness by degrees shining more and more unto a perfect day Prov. 4.18 This cannot be justly accounted any derogation to the Merits of Christ's Death or to the power of his Spirit seeing Christ never intended to bring to pass by his Death or by the power of his Spirit that we should enjoy his spiritual Blessings any further than we are in him and enjoy him by Faith or that we should be made holy or happy according to the Flesh by a Reformation of our natural State as hath been shewed Neither doth this diminish the Consolation of Believers in Christ for thereby they may know that they have the Perfection of Grace and Happiness in Christ and that they enjoy it in this World as far as they enjoy Christ himself by Faith and that they shall enjoy it in a perfect measure and be fully freed from their old Sins and miserable State when that frame of Nature which they received from the first Adam is dissolved by Death This Instruction is very useful to frame our Souls aright for the practising of Holiness only by those Gospel Principles and Means that belong to our new State which we are Partakers of by Faith in Christ And thus it is easily vindicated from another great Objection wherein the Papists and Quakers do much Triumph They appeal to Mens Conscience to answer this Question which Doctrin is most likely to bring People to the practice of true Godliness theirs which teacheth That perfect Holiness may be attained in this Life or ours which teacheth That it is impossible for us to keep the Law perfectly and to purge our selves from all Sin as long as we live in this World though we use our best Endeavours They think that common Reason will make the Verdict pass for them against our Doctrin as that which discourageth all Endeavours for Perfection and hardneth the Hearts of People to allow themselves in Sin because they cannot avoid it But on the contrary the Doctrine of Perfection hardens People to allow themselves in Sin and to call Evil Good as the Papists account That the Concupiscence of the Flesh against the Spirit is no Sin but rather good matter for the Exercise of their Vertues because the most perfect in this Life are not without it It also discourageth those that labour to get Holiness in the right way by Faith in Christ and maketh them to think that they labour in vain because they find themselves still sinful and far from Perfection when they have done their best to attain it It hindereth our Diligence in seeking Holiness by these Principles and Means whereby only it can be found For who will be Diligent and Watchful to avoid walking according to his own carnal Principles if he think that his own carnal State with it's Principles is quite abolished and is out of him so that at present he is in no danger of walking according to them Whatsoever good works the Doctrin of the Perfectionists may serve to promote I am sure it hindereth a great part of that work which Christ would have us to be employed in as long as we live in this World we must know that our old State with its evil Principles continueth still in a measure or else we shall not be sit for the great Duties of confesing of Sins loathing our selves for them praying earnestly for the Pardon of them a just sorrowing for them with a Godly Sorrow accepting the Punishment of our Sins and giving God the glory of his Justice and offering to him the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Spirit being poor in Spirit working out our Salvation with fear and trembling Some have doubted how it can consist with our Justification by Christ that we should be still lyable to be punished for our Sins and obliged to pray for the Pardon of them because they have not well considered the twofold State of Believers in this Life and except we know this and keep it in Mind we shall never be sit to practise continually the great Duties that tend to the putting off the Old Man and putting on the New Man and mortifying the Deeds of the Body by the Spirit praying continually that God would renew a right Spirit in us and sanctify us throughout pressing forward to Perfection desiring the sincere Milk of the Word and the Enjoyment of other Ordinances Christ hath appointed that his Church on Earth should be employed in such works and Perfectionists either do or sain would account them needless for them and that they have no longer need of Christ himself to be their spiritual Physician and Advocate with the Father and Propitiation for their Sins Therefore they are not fit to be Members of the Church on Earth and are never likely to be Members of the Church in Heaven except they can make a Ladder and climb up thither before their time 2. Despair of purging the Flesh or Natural Man of its sinful Lusts and Inclinations and of practising Holiness by your willing and resolving to do the best that lyeth in your own Power and trusting on the Grace of God and Christ to help you in such Resolutions and Endeavours rather resolve to trust on Christ to work in you to will and to do by his own power according to his own good Pleasure They that are convinced of their own Sin and Misery do commonly first think to tame the Flesh and to subdue and root out its Lusts and to make their corrupt Nature to be better natured and inclined to Holiness by their strugling and wrestling with it And if they can but bring their Hearts to a full purpose and resolution to do the best that lyeth in them they hope that by such a Resolution they shall be able to atchieve great Enterprizes in the Conquest of their Lusts and performance of the most difficult Duties It is the great work of some zealous Divines in their Preaching and Writings to stir up People to this Resolution wherein they place the chiefest turning Point from Sin to Godliness And they think that this is not contrary to the life of Faith because they trust on the Grace of God through Christ to help them in all such Resolutions and Endeavours Thus they endeavour to reform their old State and to be made perfect in the Flesh instead of putting it off and walking according to
they know at what time and by what Text of Scripture they were converted and can make large Discourses of the workings of God upon their Hearts and are prone to talk unseasonably with Vain-glorying of their own Experiences when at last all their Experiences are not sufficient to evidence that they ever attained to the least measure of true saving Faith Therefore that we may not unjustly condemn or justify our Faith by proceeding on in-sufficient Evidences in its Tryal our best way is to examine it by the inseparable Properties of a true saving Faith by putting to our selves such Questions as these Are we made throughly sensible of our Sinfulness and of the Deadness and Misery of our natural State so as to despair absolutely of ever attaining to any Righteousness Holyness or true Happiness while we continue in it Are the Eyes of our Understandings enlightned to see the Excellency of Christ and the alone Sufficiency and All-sufficiency of his Grace for our Salvation Do we prefer the Enjoyment of him above all things and desire it with our whole Heart as our only Happiness whatsoever we may suffer for his sake Do we desire with our whole Heart to be delivered from the Power and Practice of Sin as well as from the Wrath of God and the Pains of Hell Do our Hearts come to Christ and lay hold on him for Salvation by trusting him only and endeavouring to trust on him confidently notwithstanding all Fears and Doubts that assault us If you find in your self a Faith that hath these Properties though as small as a Grain of Mustard-Seed and opposed with much Unbelief and manifold Corruptions in your Soul you may conclude that you are in a state of Salvation at present and that your remaining work is to continue and grow in it more and more and to walk worthy of it you should also examine the Fruits of your Faith and try whether you can shew your Faith by your works as you are taught Jam. 2.18 that you may be sure not to be deceived in your Judgment concerning it And though it be true as I have noted that Doubts concerning your Faith will breed doubting concerning the Sincerity of other Qualifications that are Fruits thereof yet possibly you may get such clear Evidences of your Sincerity as may overcome and expell all your Doubts And here you are not only to enquire whether your Inclinations Purposes Affections and Actions be materially good and holy but also by what Principles they are bred and influenced Whether it be by slavish fears of Hell and mercenary hopes of getting Heaven by your Works which are legal and carnal Principles that can never breed true Holiness or by Gospel Principles as by love to God because God hath loved you first and to Christ because he hath dyed and by the hope of eternal Life as the free Gift of God through Christ and dependance on God to sanctify you by his Spirit according to his Promises Remember that the New Testament is the ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 and the Spirit will sanctify us not by legal but by Gospel Principles Take notice further that you need not trouble your self to find out a multitude of Marks and Signs of true Grace if you can find a few good ones Particularly you may know That you are passed from death to life if you love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 i. e. if you love all whom you can in Charity judge to be true Believers and that because they are true Believers and for the Truth Sake that dwelleth in them As Solomon discerned the true Mother of the Child by her Affection towards her Child so the Mother Grace of Faith may be discerned by the Love that it breeds in us toward all true Believers To conclude this Point Happy are you if you can find so much Evidence of the Fruits of your Faith as may enable you to express your Sincerity in these moderate Terms Pray for us for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly Heb. 13.18 3. Meditation on the Word of God is of very great use and advantage for the attainment and practice of Holiness through Faith in Christ It is a Duty whereby the Soul doth Feed and Ruminate upon the Word as its Spiritual Food and digesteth it and turneth it into Nourishment whereby we are strengthned for every good Work Our Souls are satisfied therewith as with marrow and fatness When we remember God upon our Beds and meditate on him in the Night-watches Psal 68.5 6. The new Nature may well be called the Mind Rom. 7.25 because it liveth and acteth by minding of and meditating on spiritual things Therefore it is a Duty to be practised not only at some limited times but all the day Psal 119.97 yea day and night Psal 1.2 even in our ordinary Employments at home and abroad An habitual knowledge of the Word will not profit us without an active minding it by frequent Meditation Some think that much Preaching of the Word is not needful where a People are already brought to the knowledge of those things that are necessary to Salvation But they that are regenerated by the Word find by Experience that their Spiritual Life is maintained and encreased by often minding the same Word And therefore as new born Babes they desire the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 and would by the Preachers be put often in remembrance of the same things that they may feed upon them by Meditation tho they know them already and are established in the present Truth 2 Pet. 1.12 But here our greatest Skill and chiefest Concernment lies in practising this Duty in such a manner as that it may be subservient and not at all opposite to the Life of Faith We must not rely upon the performance of a daily task of Meditation as a work of Righteousness for the procurement of the Favour of God instead of relying on the Righteousness of Christ as indeed we are prone to do to catch at any Straw rather than to trust only on the Free Grace of God in Christ for our Salvation And the end of our Meditation must not be meer Speculation and Knowledge of the Truth but rather the vigorous pressing it upon our Consciences and the stirring up our Hearts and Affections to the Practice of it And in stirring up our selves to holy Practice we must warily observe how far the several parts of the Truth of God are powerful and effectual for the attainment of this End that we may make use of them accordingly We must not imagine as too many do yea and some great Masters in the Art of Meditation that we can bring our Hearts effectually to the Love of God and Holiness and can work strange Metamorphoses and work or frame in our Hearts any holy Qualifications or Vertue meerly by working in our selves strong Apprehensions of God's eternal Power and God-head his
in vain when you utter Petitions for the coming of his Kingdom and doing of his Will and yet hate Godliness in your Heart This is Lying to God and slattering with your Lips but no true Prayer and so God takes it Psal 78.36 and you must have a sense of your wants and necessities and that God only can supply 2 Chron. 20.12 And fervency in those desires is required Jam. 5.16 And you must pray with attention minding your selves what you pray or else you cannot expect that God should mind it 1 Pet. 4.7 Watch to it Dan. 9.3 Set your selves to this Duty intently God seeth where your Heart is wandring when you pray without attention Ezek. 33.31 When you say never so many prayers without Understanding Attention Affection it is not praying at all but sinning and playing the Hypocrite as Papists mumble over their Latin Prayers upon the Beads by Tale prating like Parrots what they cannot understand And thus ignorant People say over their Forms of English Prayers and account they have well-discharged their Duty tho their Heart prayed not at all and were minding other things This is a meer Lip-labour and bodily Exercise offering a dead Carcass to God plain deceit Mal. 1.13 14. a form of Godliness with denying the Power 2 Tim. 3.5 whereby Popery hath cheated the World of the Power of this and all other Holy Ordinances They say God minds and knows what they speak and approves it I answer He doth so as to Judg them for Hypocrites and profane persons for not knowing minding and approving what they utter themselves He hath no pleasure in Fools Eccles 5.1 2. They would not deal so with an Earthly Prince 2. You must pray in the Name of Christ for the Spirit glorifies Christ Joh. 16. and leadeth us to God through Christ Eph. 2.18 As I have shewed that walking in the Spirit and walking in Christ is all one so praying in the Spirit and by and through Christ And as we are to walk in the Name of the Lord and to do all things in his Name as is commanded Joh. 14.13 14. It is not enough to conclude our Prayers through Jesus Christ our Lord but we must come for Blessings in the Garments of our elder Brother and must depend upon his Worthyness and Strength for all So also we must praise God for all things in his Name as things received for his sake and by him Eph. 5.20 We must lay hold on his Strength only and plead nothing and own nothing for our Acceptance but him We must not plead our own works arrogantly like the proud Pharisee Luk. 18.11.12 except only as Fruits of Grace and Rewards of Grace Isa 38.1 2. Praying in the Spirit is upon Gospel not legal Principles Rom. 7.6 with 2 Cor. 6.3 with great Humiliation and sense of Unworthyness Psal 51. with a broken Spirit with Despair of Acceptance otherwise than upon Christ's Account Dan. 9.18 If your Enlargements Struglings Meltings have been never so great yet without this all is Abominable 3. Hence you must not think to be accepted for the Goodness of your Prayers and trust on them as works of Righteousness which is making Idols of your Prayers and putting them into the place of Christ quite contrary to praying in the Name of Christ Thus Papists hope to be sav'd by saying their Tale of Prayers upon their Bead-Rows and they have Indulgences granted upon their saying so many Prayers and of such a sort Yea some ignorant Protestants trust on their Prayer as Duties of Righteousness and they think one Prayer to be more acceptable than another by reason of the Holiness of the Form if it were made by Holy Men especially the Lords Prayer which they use to help them in any Exigence or Danger how little soever they can apply it to their own Case they make an Idol of it And some use it and other places of Scriptures as a Spell or Charm to drive away the Devil And others think their Prayers more acceptable in one place than in another by reason of the Holiness of the place Joh. 4.21 24.1 Tim. 2.8 Others trust on their much speaking Mat. 6. which they call the enlarging of their Hearts They think to put off God and stop the Mouth of Conscience with a few Prayers and so to live as they list 4. Pray to God as your Father through Christ as your Saviour in Faith of Remission of Sins and your acceptance with God and the obtaing of all other things which you desire of him as far as is necessary for your Salvation Jam. 1.5 6 7. ch 5.15 1 Joh. 5.14 15. Mar. 11.24 Heb. 10.24 and Psal 62.8 and 86.7 and 55.16 and 57.1 2. and 17.6 This is praying in Christ Eph. 3.12 and by the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.16 Gal. 4.6 Without this Prayer is Lifeless and Heartless and but a dead Carcass Rom. 10.14 Psal 77.4 By this you may judge whether you have prayed rightly more than by your melting Affection or largeness in Expression Though you be not assured that you shall have every thing that you ask yet every thing that is good This Faith you must endeavour to act and therefore if any Sin lye on Conscience you must strive first to get the Pardon of it Psal 32.1.5 and 51.14 15. and Purisication from it by Faith that you may lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting 1 Tim. 2.8 The sin of wrath there is especially mentioned because that is contrary to Love and forgiving others Here lyes the Strength Life and Powerfulness of Prayer Set Faith on work and you will be powerful and prevail 5. You must strive in Prayer to stir up and act every other sanctifying Grace through Faith moving you thereunto Thus your Spikenards will yield their Smell as godly sorrow Psal 38.18 peace Isa 27.8 joy Psal 105.3 hope Psal 71.5 desire and love to God Psal 4.6 and love to all his commands Psal 119.4 5. and to his people out of love to him Psal 122. you must seek the Spirit it self in the first place Luk. 11.13 Psal 37.5 and all spiritual things Mat. 6.33 Praying only for carnal things shews a carnal Heart and leaves it carnal Pray for faith Mar. 9.24 and for such things as may serve most for the glorifying God 2 Chron. 1.11 12. and for outward things you must act in submission to his Will and thus Prayer sets you in a holy frame Mat. 26.42 Luk. 22.42 43. Hallowing Gods Name must be your aim Mat. 6. not your Lusts Jam. 4.3 6. Strive to bring your Soul into order by this Duty however disordered by Guilt Anguish inordinate Cares or Fears Psal 32.1 5. and 55.16 17 20 22. and 69.32 Phil. 4.6 7.1 Sam. 1. A Watch must be often wound up you must wrestle in Prayer against your Unbelief Doubting Fears Cares Reluctancy of the Flesh to that which is good against all Evil Lusts and Desires Coldness of Affection Impatience trouble of Spirit every
thing that 's contrary to an Holy Life and the Graces and holy Desires to be acted for your selves or others Col. 4.12 Rom. 15.30 Stir up your selves to the Duty Col. 2.1 2. Isa 64.7 Though the Flesh be cross and reluctant we must not yield but resist by the Spirit Mat. 26.41 And thus we shall find the Spirit helping our Infirmities Rom. 8.26 27. Though God seem to defer long we must not faint or be discouraged Luk. 18.1 7. The greater our Agonies be the more earnestly we are to pray Psal 22.1 2. Luk. 22.42 This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.12 Eph. 6.18 Thus you will find Prayer a great Heart-work and not such a thing as may be done while you think on other things and that it requireth all the Strength of Faith and Affection that you can possibly stir up Thus you may get a holy Frame 7. You must make a good use of the whole matter and all the manner of Prayer as ordinary and extraordinary Exigencies may require to stir up Grace in you by wrestling and to bring your Hearts into a holy Frame As in Confession you must condemn your self according to the Flesh but not as you are in Christ You must not deny that Grace that you have as if you were only wicked hitherto and now to begin again which hinders Praise for Grace received in those that are already converted In Supplication you must endeavour to work up your Heart to a godly Sorrow Psal 38.18 and a holy sense of your own Sin and Misery and lay before you the Aggravations thereof Psal 51.3 Psal 102. Complaint and Lamentation are one great part of Prayer as Lamentations of Jeremiah And you must add pleading to your Petitions with such Arguments as may serve to strengthen Faith and to stir up and kindle Affection Job 23.4 which pleadings are taken from Attributes Num. 14.17 18. Promises 2 Sam. 7.27 28 c. Gen. 32.9 12. the equity of our cause Psal 17.2 3. the advantage and benefit of the thing to the glory of God and our comfort Psal 115.1 2. Psal 79.9.10 13. Naked Petitions are not sufficient when the Soul findeth special cause of strugling and wrestling against Corruptions and Dangers and for Mercies Christs large Prayer is made up Joh. 17. of pleading and very few Petitions And we must make use also of Praise and Thanksgiving for to stir up Peace Joy Love c. Gen. 33.10 Psal 18.1 2 3. and 33.1 and 74.14 and 104.34 Especially be much in praising God for Mercies of the new State in Christ Eph. 1.3 and then you will the better give thanks for all benefits on his account Eph. 5.20 1 Thess 5.18 and plead those Benefits to stir up to Faith and Duty That brief Ejaculation Lord have mercy on me is very good to be used but it will not answer the end and use of the whole Duty of Prayer as some lazy carnal People would have it and so harden themselves in the neglect of the Duty Though the large Improvement and use of all the matter of Prayer at all times is not required but only as ordinary or extraordinary Occasions may require 8. You must not confine and limit your Prayers by any prescribed Form seeing it is impossible that any such Forms should be contrived as should answer and fit all the various Conditions and Necessities of the Soul at all times I do not condemn all Forms as that made by Christ the Lords Prayer though it were easie to shew that Christ never intended it for a Form of Prayer so as to bind any to the precise Form of Words and it 's plain the Spirit of God hath expressed it in different Words Mat. 6. Luk. 11. But better to pray by that Form or other Forms than not at all It is uncharitable to take away Crutches or Woodden Leggs from lame People yet none will look upon them but as dead helps I say it is utterly unlawful to bind our selves to any Form because none can answer the Duty fitly and suitably to particular occasions Eph. 6.18 Phil. 4.6 Joh. 15.7 1 Thess 5.18 Eph. 5.20 You must make the whole Scripture your Common-Prayer-Book as the Primitive Church did being the Language of the Spirit reaching all Occasions and Conditions and sittest to speak to God in And if you use a Form you must follow it by the Spirit further than the Form goes according as he shall guide you by the Word or else you quench the Spirit 1 Thess 5.19 If you know the Principles of Prayer and have a lively sense of your Necessities and hearty Desires of Gods Grace and Mercies you will be able to pray without Forms and your Affections will bring forth words out of the fulness of your Heart And you need not be over-solicitous and timorous about words for doubtless the Spirit who is the help to us in speaking to Men will also much more help us to speak to God if we desire it 1 Cor. 1.5 Mar. 13.11 Luk. 12.12 And God regards not eloquent Words nor artificial Composure neither need we regard it in private Prayer Isa 38.14 If you limit your self to Forms you will thereby grow formal and limit the Spirit 7. Another means appointed of God is Singing of Psalms i. e. Songs of any sacred Subject composed to a Tune are Hymns or Songs of Praise and spiritual Songs of any sublime spiritual Matter as Psal 45. and the Song of Solomon God hath commanded it Col. 3.16 Eph. 5.19 in the New Testament Though now in these days many question whether it be an Ordinance or no and there were many Commands for it under the Old Testament Psal 149.2 3. and 96.1 and 100. Moses and the Children of Israel sang before David's time Exod. 15. David composed Psalms by the Spirit to be sung publickly 2 Sam. 23.1 2. yea privately too Psal 40.3 2 Chron. 29.30 Psal 105.2 Other Songs also were made upon several Occasions and used whether they were parts of the Scripture or no as Solomon made 1005. 1 King 4.32 And they made Songs upon occasion which teacheth that it is lawful for us to do so so they be according to the Word Isa 38.9 14. The matter of Scripture may be sung Psal 119.54 Christ and his Disciples sang a Hymn Mat. 26.30 supposed to be one of David's Psalms and they were written for our Instruction as well as other parts of Scripture Rom. 15. and so to be used now in singing They speak of the things of the New Testament either figuratively or clearly and we may understand them better now than the Jews could under the Old Testament 2 Cor. 3.16 Col. 2.7 Christians heretofore practised this Duty as well as Jews Act. 16.25 Hence their Antelucani Hymni were noted by Pliny a Heathen These Songs or Hymns may be used at all times especially for holy Mirth or Rejoycing Jam. 5.13 But is not to be taken exclusively in Singing any more than in Prayer Psal 38.18 2 Chron. 35.25
of God by faith i. e. the redeeming and propitiation-righteousness of Christ whereby he desired only to be justified and which he believed in for that end opposing it to any thing inherent in himself which therefore he calls his own righteousness Phil. 3.6 8 9. Rom. 4.5 3. Dost thou trust with any confidence in Christ not continuing in a meer suspence In a way of meer doubting we can receive no good thing from God James 1 6 7. meer doubting will not loose the conscience from the guilt of sin Heb. 10.22 but leaveth the Soul under terrors Abrahams confidence is the example and pattern of our justifying saith that we should endeavour to come up unto believing with a fullness of perswasion in hope against hope Rom. 4.20 24. though a believing Soul may be assaulted with many doubtings but it fights against them and doth not give up it self to the dominion of them Psal 42.11 Marâ— 9.24 it hath always some thing contrary to them and striving with them 4. Dost thou come to Christ for Remission of Sins for the right end namely That thou may'st be freed from the dominion of Sin before the Living God Heb. 9.14 Psal 130. Tit. 2.14 1 Pet. 2.24 otherwise thou dost not receive it for the right end and desirest not really the favour and enjoyment of God and to be in friendship with him 5. Dost thou walk in holiness and strive to evidence this Justification by the fruits of faith in good works otherwise thy faith is but a dead faith for a true faith purifieth the heart Act. 15.9 If Christ be thine he will be sanctification as well as righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 Rom. 8.1.9 Joh. 13.8 If God hath taken thee into his favour he will doubtless cleanse thee though faith alone justifie without the concurrence of works to the Act of Justification yet that faith is not so alone as not to be accompanied with good works As the eye alone seeth yet it is not alone without other Members So the Apostle James declareth faith that is alone to be dead and biddeth us shew our faith by our works which is to be understood not as if works were the conditions of attaining Justification but sure evidences of Justification attained by faith and very necessary Jam. 2.14 15. The Gospel is no Covenant of works requiring another righteousness for Justification by doing for life works justifie us from such accusations of men as will deny us to have Justification by faith or that we have a true and lively faith or are good Trees Mat. 12.33 37. not as being our righteousness themselves or conditions of our having Christs righteousness or qualifying us for it Vse III. It serveth for Exhortation to several Duties 1. To the wicked its dehortation unto them from continuance in sin under Gods wrath running headlong to Damnation for here is a door of Mercy opened to them a Righteousness prepared that they may be freely accepted of God some men are Desperadoes over Shooes over Boots they are resolved to run the risque of it and please themselves they shall speed as well as others And some men would be justified but seek for it in some wrong way some will go to the Pope to quiet their Consciences by his Deceits some to their own works and performances but you are Exhorted to look out for the true Righteousness Christ saith in the Gospel Behold me behold me the Kingdom of Heaven is open mercy and righteousness are freely offered Isa 55.6 7. Jer. 3.12 Repentance is preached with Remission of sins Luk. 24.47 Act. 2.38 Beware you do not neglect this acceptable time this day of Salvation Heb. 2.1 For 1. If you do you remain under the wrath of God Joh. 3.36 under the curse of the Law which like a Flood sweeps away all that are found out of this Ark the Lord Christ Psal 11.5 6. 2. Your condemnation will be aggravated by refusing so great Salvation Heb. 2.3 you will have no cloak for your sins when you refuse mercy Joh. 15.22 you cannot say you are undone by your past sins beyond recovery and therefore it is in vain to strive for behold Remission of sins is proclaimed unto you Ezek. 33.10 11. and what an horrid sin is it to despise the blood of the Son of God Joh. 3.11 Obj. I. If God justifie the Vngodly what need I forsake Vngodliness at all Rom. 6.1 A. Thou canst not seek Justification truly except thou hast a mind to live to God in friendship with him for Justification is Gods way of taking us into friendship with him Rom. 5.1 2. and of reconciling us 2 Cor. 5.19 The use that thou art to make of it it is to seek Gods friendship by it and the enjoyment of him why doth a Man seek a pardon if he intend to go on in Rebellion and stand out in desiance to his Prince 1 Pet. 2.24 They seek pardon in a mocking way that intend not to return to obedience Gal. 6.7 8. Obj. II. My sins are so great that I have no encouragement to hope A. Christs Righteousness is for all sorts of Sinners that believe whether Jews or Gentiles and now great sinners were of both sorts Rom. 1.2 3. and even for those that killed and murdered the Lord of glory Act. 2. for the chief of sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 Act. 16. Where sin abounds grace superabounds Rom. 5.20 your sins are but the sins of a Creature but his righteousness is the righteousness of God Joh. 6.37 Rom. 10.11 13. Exhort II. It Exhorts those that have a mind to turn to God to turn the right way by faith in Christ for Justification Let them not seek by Works as most in the World do and all are prone to do Rom. 9.31 32. but this Doctrine seems very foolish yea pernicious to a Natural man Become a fool that thou may'st be wise 1 Cor. 3.18 otherwise you will labour in the sire and weary your selves for very vanity and be under continual discomforts and discouragements for you can do no good work while you are in the flesh under the Law and its Curse before God have received you into favour for Justification is in order of Nature before true Holiness of Heart and Life 1 Tim. 1.5 Heb. 9.14 Faith is the great Work and Mother Duty Joh. 6.29 Gal. 5.6 Isa 55.2 therefore while you believe not you dishonour Christ and his Death Gal. 2.21 ch 5.2 3 4. therefore come boldly though a great sinner Act. 10.43 and seek Righteousness in Christ with Holiness Rom. 8.1 Q. But how shall I get Faith A. Faith is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 and by the Gospel Rom. 1.15 10 17. Faith comes by hearing the Gospel preached and that comes in working of faith not in word only but in power 1 Thes 1.5 beyond what can be done by natural or humane attainment Joh. 6.63 therefore If thou hast no beginning in thee of it thy only way is to attend to the Gospel and to meditate
THE Gospel-Mystery OF SANCTIFICATION Opened in Sundry Practical Directions Suited especially to the Case of those who labour under the guilt and power of Indwelling Sin To which is added a Sermon of Justification 1 Cor. 1.27 28 29 30 31. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen yea and things which are not to bring to nought things that are That no flesh should glory in his presence But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption That according as it is written He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. By Mr. WALTER MARSHAL late Preacher of the Gospel LONDON Printed for T. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1692. THE PREFACE READER MR. Walter Marshal Composer of these Directions how to attain to that practice and manner of Life which we call Holiness Righteousness or Godliness was Educated in New Colledge in Oxford and was a Fellow of the said Colledge and afterwards he was chosen a Fellow of the Colledge at Winchester but was put under the Bartholomew Bushel with nigh two Thousand more Lights a Sin not yet repented of whose illuminations made the Land a Goshen He was esteemed a Presbyterian and was called to be Pastor to a People at Gospert in Hampshire where he shined though he had not the Publick Oile the substance of these Meditations were there Spun out of his own Experiences he having been much exercised with troubled Thoughts and that for many Years and had by many Mortifying Methods sought Peace of Conscience but notwithstanding all his Troubles still increased Whereupon he consulted others particularly Mr. Baxter whose Writings he had been much conversant with who thereupon told Mr. Marshal he took them too Legally He afterwards consulted an Eminent Divine giving him an Account of the State of his Soul and particularizing his Sins that lay heavy on his Conscience who in his Reply told him He had forgot to mention the greatest Sin of all the Sin of Unbelief in not believing on the Lord Jesus for the Remission of his Sins and Sanctifying his Nature Hereupon he set himself to the studying and preaching of Christ and attained to eminent Holiness great peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost Mr. Marshal's dying Words were these The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord having but just before said to those about him that he now dyed in the full perswasion of the Truth and in the comfort of that Doctrine which he had Preached the sum whereof is contained in the ensuing Discourse Some time since he was translated by Death Elijah-like dropping these sheets as his Mantle for succeeding Elisha's to go forth with for the Conversion of Sinners and Comfort of drooping Souls These Papers are the profound Experiences of a studious Holy Soul Learned of the Father coming from his very Heart and smell of no Party or Design but for Holiness and Happiness yet it is to be feared they will scarcely go down with the heady Notionalists of this Age who are of the Tribe of Reuben wavering with every Wind of Modish Doctrine but in Judah it will be praised and we may hope that many Shrubs and Cedars hereby may advance in knowledge and comfort But not to detain thee longer read over all these Directions that you may fully understand the Author or read none if you do it with the serious humble spirit in which they were wrote it may be hop'd the matter being so weighty and from so able an Hand through the Grace of God they will sink into thy Conscience and make thee a solid Christian full of Faith Holiness and Consolation N. N. THE Author of these Directions was well known to me and was with me in my House a Month together above twenty years past and I esteem him a Person deserving the Character which this Preface giveth him T. Woodcock The GOSPEL MYSTERY OF SANCTIFICATION DIRECTION I. That we may acceptably perform the Duties of Holiness and Righteonsness required in the Law our first Work is to learn the powerful and effectual Means whereby we may attain to so Great an End EXPLICATION THIS Direction may serve instead of a Preface to prepare the Understanding and Attention of the Reader for those that follow And First It acquainteth you with the Great End for which all those Means are designed that are the principal Subject to be here treated of the Scope of all is To teach you how you may attain to that Practice and Manner of Life which we call Holiness Righteousness or Godliness Obedience True Religion and which God requireth of us in the Law particularly in the Moral Law Exod. 20. summed up in the Ten Commandments and more briefly in those Two great Commandments of Love to God and our Neighbour Mat. 22.37 39. and more largely explained throughout the Holy Scriptures My work is to shew how the Duties of this Law may be done when they are known therefore expect not that I should delay my intent to help you to the knowledge of them by any large Exposition of them which is a Work already performed in several Catechisms and Commentaries yet that you may not miss the Mark for want of discerning of it take notice in few words that the Holiness which I would bring you to is spiritual Rom. 7.14 It consists not only in external Works of Piety and Charity but in the Holy Thoughts Imaginations and Affections of the Soul and chiefly in Love from whence all other Good Works must flow or else they are not acceptable to God not only in refraining the execution of sinful Lusts but in lusting and delighting to do the Will of God and in a chearful Obedience to God without repining fretting grudging at any Duty as if it were a grievous Yoak and Burthen to you Take Notice further That the Law which is your Mark is exceeding broad Psal 119.96 and yet not the more easie to be hit because you must aim to hit it in every Duty of it with a performance of equal breadth or else you cannot hit it all Isai 2.10 The Lord is not at all loved with that Love that is due to him as Lord of all if he be not loved with all our Heart Spirit and Might We are to love every thing in him his Justice Holiness Sovereign Authority All-seeing Eye and all his Decrees Commands Judgments and all his Doings We are to love him not only better than other things but singly as Only Good the Fountain of all Goodness and to reject all fleshly and worldly Enjoyments even our own Lives as if we hated them when they stand in competition with our Enjoyment of him
meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand And shall we dare to rush into Battel against all the Powers of Darkness all Worldly Terrors and Allurements and our own inbred domineering Corruptions without considering whether we have sufficient Spiritual Furniture to stand in the Evil day Yet many content themselves with such an ability to will and do their Duty as they would have to be given to Men universally whereby they are no better enabled for the Spiritual Battel than the generality of the World that lie vanquished under the wicked One and therefore their standing is not at all secured by it It is an hard matter to find what this universal ability is that so many contend so earnestly for of what it consisteth by what means it is conveyed to us and maintained Bodily Ability hath Spirits Nerves Ligaments Bones to subsist by but this Spiritual Universal Ability seemeth to be some occult Quality that no sufficient Account can be given how it is conveyed or of what it is constituted That none may deceive themselves and miscarry in their Enterprizes for Holiness by depending on such a weak occult Quality I have here shewed four Endowments of which a true ability for the Practice of Holiness must necessarily be constituted and by which it must subsist and be maintained intending to shew afterward by what means they are given unto us and whether the inclination or perswasion here mentioned be perfect or imperfect And they are of such a mysterious nature that such as own the necessity of Endowments to frame them for Holiness are prone to think that less than these will serve and that some of these frame us rather for Licentiousness than Holiness as they are here placed before any actual performance of the Moral Law and that some things contrary to them would put us into a better frame for Holiness against all such surmises I shall endeavour such a demonstration of these Endowments particularly as may gain the assent of right Reason insisting on them in the same order wherein I have placed them in the Direction In the first place I assert that an Inclination and Propensity of the Heart to the Duties of the Law is necessary to frame and enable us for the immediate Practice of them and I mean not such a blind Propensity as inanimate Creatures and Brutes have to their natural Operations but such an one as is meet for intelligent Creatures whereby they are by the Conduct of Reason prone and bent to approve and chuse their Duty and averse to the Practice of Sin And therefore I have intimated that the Three other Endowments mentioned in the Direction are subservient to this as the chief of all which are sufficient to make it a rational Propensity This is contrary to those that out of Zeal for Obedience according to Knowledge contend so earnestly for Free-will as a necessary and sufficient Endowment to enable us to perform our Duty when once we are convinc'd of it and of our Obligation to it and that extol this Endowment as the great Benefit that Universal Redemption hath blessed all Mankind with though they Consider this Free-will without any actual Inclination to Good yea they cannot but acknowledge that in most of Mankind that have it it is encumbred with an actual Bent and Propensity of the Heart altogether to evil Such a Free-will as this is can never free us from Slavery to Sin and Satan and fit us for the Practice of the Law and therefore is not worthy the pains of those that contend so hotly for it Neither is the Will so free as is necessary for the Practice of Holiness until it be endued with an inclination and Propensity thereunto as may appear by the follow Arguments First The Duties of the Law are of such a nature that they cannot possibly be performed while there is wholly an aversness or mere indifferency of the Heart to the Performance of them and no good Inclination and Propensity toward the Practice of them Because the chief of all the Commandments is to love the Lord with our whole Heart Might and Soul to love every thing that is in him to love his Will and all his Ways and to like them as good and all Duties must be influenced in their Performance by this Love we must delight to do the Will of God it must be to us as our Meat and Drink we must long and thirst for it it must be sweeter to us than the honey or honey comb Psal 40.8.30.4 34. Psal 63 1. and 119.20 and 19.10 And this Love Likeing Delight Longing Thirsting Sweet-relishing must be continued to the end and the first indeliberate Motions of Lust must be regulated by Love to God and our Neighbour and Sin must be lusted against Gal. 5.17 and abhorred Psal 36.8 If it were true Obedience as some would have it to love our Duty only as a Market-man loveth foul Ways to the Market or as a Sick man loveth an unpleasant medicinal Potion or as a Captive Slave loveth his hard Work for fear of a greater Evil then it might be performed with averseness of Inclination but we must love it as the Market-man Gain as the Sick man Health as pleasant Meat and-Drink as the Captive Liberty Doubtless there can be no Power in the Will for this kind of Service without an Agreeableneâ—â— of our Inclination to the Will of God a Heart according to his own Heart an Averseness of our Hearts from Sin and a kind of Antipathy against Sin for we know the Proverb Like loveth like there must be an Agreeableness of the Person or thing beloved to the Disposition of the Lover Love to God must flow from a clean heart 1 Tim. 1.5 Cleansed from evil Propensities and Inclinations and Reason will tell us that the first Motions of Lust which fall not under our Choice and Deliberation cannot be avoided without a fixed Propensity of the Heart to Holiness 2ly The Image of God wherein God according to his infinite Wisdom judged it meet to frame the first Adam in righteousness and true holiness and uprightness Gen. 1.27 Ephes 4.24 Eccles 7.29 consisted in an actual Bent and Propensity of his Heart to the Practice of Holiness not in a mere Power of Will to chuse Good or Evil For this in it self is neither holy nor unholy but only a Ground-work on which either the Image of God or of Satan may be drawn nor in an indifference of Propensity to the choice of Sin or Duty for this is a wicked Disposition in an intelligent Creature that knoweth his Duty and fitteth us only to halt betwixt God and Baal God set Adam's Soul at first wholly in a right Bent and Inclination though Adam might act contrary to it if he would as we may be prevailed upon to do some things contrary to our natural or rational Inclinations and it is easie to fail of our Duty though great Preparation and Furniture be required for the Performance
willing until he hath gone through the whole Work of Obedience acceptably such an one was never yet truly humbled and brought to know the Plague of his own Heart neither doth he truly believe the Doctrine of Original Sin whatever formal Profession he makes of it Secondly Those that think sincere Conformity to the Law in ordinary Cases to be so passing easie shew that they neither know it nor themselves Is it an easie thing to wrestle not against Flesh only but against principalities powers spiritual wickedness in high Places Ephes 6.12 Is it an easie thing not to lust or covet according to the Tenth Commandment The Apostle Paul found it so difficult to obey this Commandment that his Concupiscence prevailed the more by occasion of the Commandment Rom. 7.7 8. Our work is not only to alter vicious Customs but to mortisie corrupt natural Affections which bred those Customs and not only to deny the fulfilling of sinful Lust but to be full of holy Lust and Desires that even the restraining the execution of corrupt Lusts and crossing them by contrary Actings is in many cases like the cutting off of a right hand and plucking out a right eye Mat. 5.29 30. If Obedience be so easie how came it to pass that the Heathens generally did those things for which their own Consciences condemned them as worthy of Death Rom. 1.32 And many among us seek to enter into this strait gate and are not able Luke 13.24 And break so many vows and Purposes of Obedience and fall back to the Practice of their Lusts though in the mean time the Fears of eternal Damnation press hard upon their Consciences As to those that find Persecution for Religion to be so rare a thing in late days they have cause to be suspected that they are of the World and therefore the World loveth his own else they would find that national Profession of Religion will not secure those that are truly godly from several sorts of Persecutions And suppose Men do not persecute us for Religion yet there is great Difficulty in bearing great Injuries from Men on other Accounts and Losses Poverty bodily Pains long Diseases and untimely Deaths from the ordinary Providence of God with such hearty Love to God and to injurious Men for his sake and such a patient acquiescence in his Will as the Law of God requireth I acknowledge that the work of God is easie and pleasant to those whom God rightly furnisheth with Endowments for it but those that assert it to be easie to Men in their common Condition shew their Imprudence in contradicting the general Experience of Heathens and Christians Though many Duties do not require much labour of Body or Mind and might be done with ease if we were willing yet it is easier to remove a Mountain than to move and encline the Heart to will and affect the doing of them I need not concern my self with those that account that all have sufficient Strength for an holy Practice because they can do their endeavour that is what they can do for God requireth actual sulfilling of his Commands What if by our Endeavours we can do nothing in any measure according to the Rule shall the Law be put off with no Performance and shall such Endeavours be accounted sufficient Holiness And what if we cannot so much as endeavour in a right way If Man's Ability were the measure of acceptable Duty the Commands of the Law would signifie very little Thirdly The Wisdom of God hath ever funished People with a good Perswasion of a sufficient Strength that they might be enabled both to will and do their Duty The first Adam was furnished with such a Strenght and we have no cause to think that he was ignorant of it or that he needed to sear that he should be left to his own Corruptions because he had no Corruptions in him until he had produced them in himself by sinning against Strength and when he had lost that Strength he could not recover the Practice of Holiness until he was acquainted with a better Strength whereby the Head of Satan should be bruised Gen. 3.15 Our Lord Christ doubtless knew the insinite Power of his Diety to enable him for all that he was to do and suffer in our Nature He knew the Lord God would help him therefore he should not be confounded Is 50.7 The Scripture sheweth what plentiful Assurance of Strength God gave to Moses Joshua Gideon when he called them to great Imployments and to the Israelites when he called them to subdue the Land of Canaan Christ would have the Sons of Zebedee to consider whether they were able to drink of his cup and to be baptized with the baptism that he was baptized with Matth. 20.22 Paul encourageth Believers to the Life of Holiness by perswading them that sin shall not prevail to get the Dominion over them because they are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.13 14. And he exhorteth them to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that they might be able to stand against the wiles of the divel Ephes 6.10 11. John exhorteth Believers not to love the world nor the things of the world because they were strong and had overcome the wicked one 1 Jo. 2.14 15. They that were called of God heretofore to work Miracles were first acquainted with the gift of Power to work them and no wise Man will attempt to do them without knowledge of the Gift Even so when Men that are dead in Sin are call'd to do the works of holy Life which are in them great Miracles God maketh a Discovery of the gift of Power unto them that he may encourage them in a rational way to such a wonderful Enterprise DIRECT III. The way to get holy Endowments and Qualifications necessary to frame and enable us for the immediate Practice of the Law is to receive them out of the fulness of Christ by Fellowship with him and that we may have this Fellowship we must be in Christ and have Christ himself in us by a Mystical Vnion with him EXPLICATION HEre as much as any where we have great cause to acknowledge with the Apostle that without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness even so great that it could not have entred into the Heart of Man to conceive it if God had not made it known in the Gospel by supernatural Revelation Yea tho' it be revealed clearly in the holy Scriptures yet the Natural Man hath not Eyes to see it there for it is foolishness to him and if God express it never so plainly and properly he will think that God is speaking Riddles and Parables And I doubt not but it is still a Riddle and Parable even to many truly Godly that have received an holy Nature in this way For the Apostles themselves had the saving benefit of it before the Comforter discovered it clearly to them John 14 20. And they walked in Christ as the
Goodness of God that it is no worse DIRECT VI. Those that endeavour to perform sincere Obedience to all the Commands of Christ as the Condition whereby they are to procure for themselves a Right and Title to Salvation and a good ground to trust on him for the same do seek their Salvation by the Works of the Law and not by the Faith of Christ as he is revealed in the Gospel And they shall never be able to perform sincerely any true holy Obedience by all such Endeavours EXPLICATION FOR the understanding the terms of this Direction note here that I take Salvation as comprehending Justification as well as other Saving Benefits and sincere Obedience as comprehending holy Resolutions as well as the fulfilling of them The worst of Men that have any Sense of Religion are prone to imagine that the sure way to establish the Practice of Holiness and Righteousness is to make it the Procuring Condition of the Favour of God and all Happiness This may appear by the various false Religions that have prevailed most in the World In this way the Heathens were brought to their best Devotion and Morality by the knowledge of the Judgment of God that those that violate several of the great Duties to God and their Neighbour are worthy of Death and by their Consciences accusing or excusing them according to the Practise of them Rom. 1.32 2.14 15. Our Consciences are informed by the common Light of Natural Reason that it is just with God to require us to perform these Duties that we may avoid his Wrath and enjoy his Favour and we cannot find any better way than this to obtain Happiness or to stir up our selves to Duty without divine Revelation Yet because our own Consciences testifie that we often fail in the performance of these Duties we are enclined by Self-Love to perswade our selves that our sincere Endeavours to do the best we can shall be sufficient to procure the Favour of God and Pardon for all our Failings Thus we see that the Perswasion of Salvation by the Condition of sincere Obedience hath its original from our corrupt Natural Reason and is part of the Wisdom of this World it is none of the Wisdom of God in a Mystery that hidden Wisdom God ordained before the World to our Glory it is none of those things of the Spirit of God which have not entred into the Heart of Man and which the Natural man cannot receive for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.6 7 9 14. It is none of the foolishness of Preaching whereby it pleased God to save them that believe 1 Cor. 10.21 And though we have a better way revealed to us in the Gospel for the enjoyment of the Favour of God and Holiness it self and all Salvation without any procuring Condition of Works by the free Gift of God's Grace through Faith in Christ yet it is very difficult to perswade men out of a way that they are naturally addicted to and that hath forestalled and captivated their Judgments and is bred in their Bone and therefore cannot easily be gotten out of the Flesh Most of those that live under the hearing and profession of the Gospel are not brought to hate Sin as Sin and to love Godliness for itself though they be convinced of the necessity of it to Salvation and therefore they cannot love it heartily The only means that they can take to bring themselves to it is to stir up themselves to an Hypocritical Practice in their old natural way that they may avoid Hell and get Heaven by their Works And their own Consciences witness that the Zeal and Love that they have for God and Godliness their Self-denial Sorrow for Sin strictness of Life are in a manner forced and extorted from them by slavish Fear and mercenary Hope so that they are afraid that if they should trust on Christ for Salvation by Free-Grace without Works the fire of their Zeal and Devotion would be quickly extinguished and they should grow careless in Religion and let loose the Reins to their Lusts and bring certain Damnation upon themselves This moveth them to account them the only Boanerges and powerful Preachers that preach little or none of the Doctrine of Free-Grace but rather spend their Pains in rebuking Sin and urging People to get Christ and his Salvation by their Works and thundering Hell and Damnation against Sinners It hath been farther observed that some that have contended much for Salvation by Free-Grace without any Condition of Works have fallen into Antinomian Opinions and licentious Practices The Experience of these things hath much prevailed with some learned and zealous men of late amongst our selves to recede from the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works formerly professed unanimously and strongly defended by the Protestants against the Papists as a principal Article of true Religion They have perswaded themselves that such a way of Justification is ineffectual yea destructive to Sanctification and that the practice of sincere Obedience cannot be established against Antinomian Dotages and prevailing Lusts except it be made the necessary Condition of our Justification and so of our eternal Salvation Therefore they conclude that God hath certainly made sincere Obedience to be the Condition of our Salvation And they have endeavoured to new-model the Protestant Doctrine and to interpret the holy Scriptures in a way agreeable and subservient to this their only sure Foundation of Holiness But I hope to shew that this their imagined sure Foundation of Holiness was never laid by the Holy God but that it is rather an Errour in the Foundation pernicious to the true Faith and to Holiness of Life I account it an Error especially to be abhorred and detested because we are so prone to be seduced by it and because it is an Error whereby Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light and a Patron of Holiness hath greatly withstood the Gospel in the Apostles times and stirred up men to persecute it out of zeal for the Law and hath since prevailed to set up and maintain Popery whereby the Mystery of Iniquity worketh apace in these days to corrupt the Purity of the Gospel amongst the Protestants and to heal the deadly wound that was given to Popery by preaching the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works One thing asserted in the Direction against this fundamental Error is that it is a way of Salvation by the Works of the Law and not by the Faith of Christ as revealed in the Gospel Though the maintainers of it would have us believe that it is the only way of the Gospel that so we may not doubt of its Power and Efficacy for our Justification Sanctification and our whole Salvation Their Reasons are because the Law as a Covenant of Works requireth us to do all its Commandments perfectly that we may live whereas they plead only for a milder Condition of sincere doing
the Old or New Testament shall at last stand or fall according to those Terms Thirdly Sincere Obedience cannot be performed to all the Commands of Christ in the Gospel except it be also performed to the Moral Law as given by Moses and as obliging us by that authority Some Assertors of the Condition of Salvation by sincere Obedience to the Commands of Christ would fain be free from the authority of the Law of Moses because that justifieth none but thundereth out a Curse against all those that seek Salvation by the Works of it Gal. 3.10 11. But if they were at all justified by sincere Works their respect to Moses's Authority would not hinder their Success for many that were good Christians accounted themselves bound to obey not only the moral but the ceremonial Law and if they had sought Justification by any Works they would have sought it by those Acts 20 20 21. They knew not of any Justification by sincere Works as commanded only in the Gospel yet if they had erred in any thing absolutely necessary to Salvation the Apostles would not have tolerated their weakness And whether they will or no they must seek their Salvation by the Works of the moral Law as given by Moses or else they can never get it by sincere Obedience to the Commands of Christ Christ never loved their new Condition so well as to abolish the Mosaical Authority of the moral Law for the establishment of it he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them in the Practice required by them and hath declared that those that break one of the least of these Commandments and teach men so shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.17 19. He commandeth us to do to men whatsoever we would they should do to us because this is the Law and the Prophets which is sufficient to prove that He would have us to account the Law authoritative to oblige us in this matter He requireth his Disciples to observe and do whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees bid them because they sate in Moses's Seat Mat. 23.23 And to come to the point in hand when Christ had occasion to answer the Questions of those that were guilty of the same Error that I am now dealing with in seeking their Salvation by their own Works He shewed them that they must obey the Commands as they were already established by the Mosaical Authority in the Scripture of the Old Testament What is written in the Law how readest thou This do and thou shalt live Luke 10.26 If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments which are Thou shalt do no Murder Thou shalt not commit Adultery c. In like manner the Apostles of Christ urged the performance of moral Duties upon Believers by the authority of the Law given by Moses The Apostle Paul exhorteth to love one another because He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law Rom. 13.8 and to honour our Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with Promise Ephes 6.2 The Apostle John exhorteth to love others as no new but an old Commandment The Apostle James exhorteth to fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self and to keep all the Commands of the Law one as well as another because He that said Do not commit Adultery said also Do not kill Jam. 2.8 10 11. Sound Protestants have accounted the denial of the Authority of the moral Law of Moses to be an Antinomian Error tho' our late Prevaricators against Antinomianism maintain this Error yet they establish a worse Error of Justification by their sincere Gospel-works I think the denomination of the Antinomians arose from this Error The Law of Moses had its Authority at first from Christ for Christ was the Lord God of Israel that ordained the Law by Angels on Mount Sinai in the hand of Moses a Mediator for the Israelites who were then his only Church and with whom we believing Gentiles are now joyned as fellow-Members of one and the same Body Eph. 3.6 And though Christ hath since abrogated some of the Commandments then given by Moses concerning figurative Ceremonies and judicial Proceedings yet he hath not anulled the obligative Authority of the moral Law but hath left it in its full force to oblige us in moral Duties that are still to be practised as when some Acts of any Parliament are repealed the Authority of the same Parliament remaineth inviolable in other Acts that are not repealed I know they object that the Ten Commandments of the Moral Law the Ministration of Death written and engraven on Stones are also done away by Christ 2 Cor. 3.7 but this maketh altogether against their Conditional Covenant for they are the ministration of Death and done not as they commanded perfect Obedience for even Christ himself commandeth us to be perfect Mat. 5.48 but as they were Conditions for procuring Life and avoiding Death established by promise of Life to the Doers and a Curse to the Breakers of them Gal. 3.10 12. The Covenant made with Israel on Mount Sinai is abolished by Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant Heb. 8.8 9 13. And the Ten Commandments bind us not as they were words of that Covenant Exod. 34.28 I mean they bind us not as Conditions of that Covenant except we seek to be justified by Works for the Law as a Covenant doth still stand in force enough to curse those that seek Salvation by their own Works Gal. 3.10 and if abolished it is only to those that are in Christ by Faith Gal. 2.19 20. 15.15 But the Ten Commandments bind us still as they were then given to a People that were at that time under the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham to shew them what Duties are holy just and good well pleasing to God and to be a Rule for their Conversation The result of all is that we must still practise moral Duties as commanded by Moses but we must not seek to be justified by our Practice If we use them as a Rule of Life not as Conditions of Justification they can be no ministration of Death or killing Letter unto us their Perfection indeed maketh them to be harder Terms to procure Life by but a better Rule to discover all Imperfections and to guide us to that Perfection which we should aim at And it will be our Wisdom not to part with the Authority of the Decalogue of Moses until our new Divines can furnish us with another System of Morality as compleat as that and as excellently composed and ordered by the Wisdom of God and more authentick than that is 4ly Those that endeavour to procure Christ's Salvation by their sincere Obedience to all the Commands of Christ do act contrary to that way of Salvation by Christ's Free-grace and Faith discovered in the
Gospel though they own it in Profession never so highly They act contrary to the way of Salvation by Christ for they would heal themselves and save themselves from the Power and Pollution of Sin and prooure God's Favour by performing sincere Obedience before they are come to Christ the only Physician and Saviour They lay their own Obedience lowest in the Foundation of their Salvation and build the Enjoyment of Christ upon it who ought to be the only Foundation They would sanctifie themselves before they have a sure Interest in Christ and going about to establish their own Righteousness they do not submit themselves to the Righteousness of God in Christ Rom. 10.3,4 Sometimes they will call the Righteousness of Christ their Legal Righteousness that they may make room for an Evangelical Righteousness of their own Works to be the immediate procuring cause of their Justification by Christ whereas the Apostle Paul knew no Evangelical Righteousness but that of Christ which he calleth the righteousness of faith without the law Rom. 3.21 22. and not of the law Phil. 3.9 Thus they make void Christ's Salvation while they pretend to own it and Christ profiteth them nothing Christ is become of none effect to them while they would be justified by the Law Gal. 5.2 4. If we would be saved by Christ we must own our selves dead lost Sinners that can have no Righteousness for Justification but his no life or ability to do Good until God bring us to Union and Fellowship with him They do also act contrary to Salvation by Grace according to the true meaning of the Gospel For we are not saved by Grace as the supreme Cause of Salvation by the Intervention of Works given and accepted by Grace as the procuring Cause in which sence we might be saved by Grace though by a Covenant of Works As a Servant that hath Monies given him by his Master to purchase an Annuity of his Master at a low rate may profess that he had an Annuity given him freely and yet that he hath purchased it and may claim it as a due Debt But we are saved by Grace as the immediate and complete cause of our whole Salvation excluding procurement of our Salvation by the condition of Works and claiming it by any Law as a due Debt The Scripture teacheth us that there is a perfect Opposition and utter Irreconcileableness betwixt Salvation by Grace and Works If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more of grace otherwise work is no more work Rom. 11.6 So also there is an Opposition betwixt a Reward reckoned of grace and of debt Rom. 4.4 Betwixt a Promise of Happiness by the law and by grace Rom. 4.13.16 God is so jealous of the Glory of his Free-grace that he will not save us by any Works though of his own working in us lest any man should boast Ephes 2.9 He knoweth that when he healeth Men by Physick or maintaineth them by the Labour of their hands they are prone to attribute the Glory rather to the means they use than to his sole Bounty and Goodness 3dly They do also act contrary to the way of Salvation by Faith For as I have shewed already the Faith which is required for our Salvation in the Gospel is to be understood in a sense contrary to doing good Works as a Condition to procure our Salvation that so the true difference between the Terms of the Law and of the Gospel may be maintain'd Believing is opposed to all working for Salvation and the Law of Works to the Law of Faith Rom. 4.5 3.27 against Antinomian Errours by making it the procuring Condition of their Salvation when after all this ado the Remedy is found to be as bad as the Disease equally unserviceable and destructive to that great end for which they designed it and that it hath an Antimonian Effect and Operation contrary to the Power of Godliness Much more might be said for the Confutation of this novel Doctrine but if this one thing be well proved it may be sufficient to make the zealous Contrivers of it to be ashamed of their Crast and angry with themselves and sorry that they have taken so much Pains and stretched their Wits to maintain such an unprofitable unsanctifying Opinion It will be sufficient for the Proof of it if I shew that the practice of true holiness cannot possibly be attain'd unto by seeking to be saved by the Works of the Law because I have already proved that this Doctrine of Salvation by sincere Obedience is according to the Terms of the Law and not of the Gospel And hereby those also may see their Errour that ascribe Justification only to the Gospel and Sanctification to the Law Yet because those Assertors of the Condition of sincere Obedience will hardly be perswaded by what hath been said that it is the way of the Law of Works I shall for their more full Conviction sufficiently manifest that it is of no other nature and operation than any other Doctrine that is proper to the Law and hath no better Fruit as I proceed to prove by the following Arguments that holiness cannot be attained by seeking it by the Law of Works that so it may appear not worthy to be called Gospel Doctrine First The way of Salvation by the Works of the Law is contrary and destructive to those necessary means of an holy Practice that have been laid down in the foregoing Directions and manifestly proved out of the holy Scripture I have made it appear that a hearty Propensity to an holy Practice cannot be attained without some good Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God by Justification and of our everlasting Happiness and of sufficient strength both to will and to perform our Duty and that these and all other Endowments necessary to the same end are to be had only in Christ by Union and Fellowship with him and that Christ himself with all his Fulness is united to us by Faith which is not a Condition to procure a Right or Title to Christ but an Instrument whereby we receive him actually into our Hearts by trusting on him for all Salvation freely promised to us in the Gospel All these means of an holy Practice are things wherein our spiritual Life and Happiness doth consist so that if we have them everlasting Life is begun in us already and because they are the necessary means of an holy Practice therefore the beginning of everlasting Life in us must not be placed after such a Practice as the fruit and consequent of it but must go before it as the Cause before the Effect Now the Terms of the Law are directly contrary to this Method they place the Practice of Holiness before Life and make it to be the means and procuring cause of Life as Moses describeth them Rom. 10.5 The man that doeth these things shall live by them By these
of these Consolations by Faith in the very first Beginning of a holy Life Besides the Gospel proposeth Peace and Comfort freely to those that are not yet brought to Holiness yet if they have Hearts to receive it they may be converted from Sin to Righteness When the Apostles entred into an House they were first to say Peace be to the house Luke 10.5 At their very first Preaching to Sinners they acquainted them with the glad Tidings of Salvation by Christ for every one that would receive it as a Free-gift by Faith Acts 3.26 13.26 32 38. 16.30 31. They assured them if they would but trust heartily on Christ for all his Salvation they should have it although they were at present the chief of Sinners which was Comfort sufficient for all that duly esteem Spiritual Comfort hungring and thirsting after it And this is a Method agreeable to the Design of the Gospel which is to advance the Riches of the Grace of God in all our Spiritual Enjoyments God will give us his Consolations before our good Works as well as after them that we may know that he giveth us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace and not through the Procurement of our Works 2 Thess 2.16 Fourthly The Nature of the Duties of the Law requireth a comfortable state of the Soul for the Performance of them I have before proved sufficiently that they require a Perswasion of our Reconciliation with God and of our future Happiness and Strength whereby we may be able to walk in holy Obedience Joshuah must be strong and very couragious that he might observe to do according to the Law that Moses the Servant of the Lord commanded him Josh 1.7 I shall instance briefly in the Comforts without which several great Duties cannot be sincerely performed Can we love God and delight in him above all while we look upon him as our everlasting Enemy and apprehend no Love and Mercy in him towards us that may render him a suitable Good for us and lovely in our Eyes What doleful Melody will the Heart make in the Duty of Praise if we account that all those Perfections for which we praise him will rather aggravate our Misery than make us happy What a heartless Work will it be to pray to him and to offer up our selves to his Service if we have no comfortable Hope that he will accept us Is it possible for us to free our selves from carking Cares by casting our Care upon the Lord if we do not apprehend that he careth for us Can we be patient in Affliction with Chearfulness and under Persecutions except we have peace with God and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.1 2 3. What Reason can perswade us to submit willingly according to our Duty to the Stroak of present Death if God be pleased to lay it upon us when we have no Comforts to relieve us against the horrible Fear of intollerable Torments in Hell for ever If we should be called to suffer Martyrdom for the Protestant Religion as our Ancestors in this Nation have done we should find it necessary to abandon the late upstart Notions that have been bred in a time of Ease and to embrace the comfortable Doctrine of former Protestants which through the Grace of God made so many couragious and joyful Martyrs Fifthly The state of those that are to be brought from Sin to Godliness requires necessarily that after they be convinced of the Vnnity of their former false Confidences and of their Deadness in Original-sin and Subjection to the Wrath of God they should have a Supply of new Gospel Comforts afforded to encourage their fainting Souls to holy Practices How little do many Physicians of Souls consider the Condition of their unconverted Patients that are altogether without Spiritual Life and Strength and are or must be convinced He that prescribeth bodily Exercise to a Man lying Bed-ridden under a dead Palsie before any effectual means be used to strengthen him deserveth the name of a merciless insulting Tormentor rather than of a wise and tender-hearted Physician How unreasonable is it to prescribe the immediate Practice of Love to God and universal Obedience to him out of Love as the means of Cure for those that see nothing but Wrath and Enmity in God towards them in their present Condition what is it but to require a Man to work without Strength promising him that he shall have Strength when his Work is done for Comfort and Fortitude is so called because it comforteth and strengtheneth True it is That the Law which is the Ministration of Condemnation obligeth them to Obedience but our merciful God expecteth no sincere Performance of his Law from such impotent miserable Wretches in order to their Salvation by Christ till he hath first delivered them in some measure from those Discomforts slavish Fears and Despondencies that hold them captive under the Law of Sin and Death We may require a strong healthy Person first to work and then to expect Meat Drink and Wages but a fainting famished Person must first have Food or a reviving Cordial to strengthen his Heart before he can work Sixthly Both Scripture and Experience shew That this is the Method whereby God bringeth his People from Sin to Holiness though some of them are brought under Terrours for a while that Sin may be the more imbittered and the Salvation of Christ rendred more precious and acceptable to them yet such are again delivered from their Terrors by the Comfort of God's Salvation that they may be fitted for Holiness and generally a holy Life beginneth with Comfort and is maintained by it God gave to Adam at his first Creation the Comfort of his Love and Favour and the Happiness of Paradise to encourage him to Obedience and when he had left those Comforts by the Fall he was no longer able to obey until he was restored by new Comfort of the promised Seed Christ the Second Adam set God always before his face and he knew that because God was at his right hand he should not be moved therefore his heart was glad and his glory rejoyced Psal 16.8 9. This made him willing to bear his Agony and bloody Sweat and to be obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross God drew the Israelites to Obedience with the Cords of a Man with the Bonds of Love by taking off the Yoke on their Jaws and laying Meat before them Hos 11.4 David telleth us for our Instruction how he was brought to an holy Conversation Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Psal 26.3 Lord I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy Commandements Psal 119.166 We have several Examples in the New Testament of the Joy that Sinners had in the first receiving of Christ Acts 2.41 And when the Gospel first came to the Thessalonians they received the Word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost 1 Thess 1.4 5.
foregoing Directions That Faith in Christ is the Duty with which a holy Life is to begin and by which the Foundation of all other holy Duties is laid in the Soul It is before sufficiently proved That Christ himself with all Endowments necessary to enable us to an holy practice is received actually into our hearts by Faith This is the uniting Grace whereby the Spirit of God knitteth the knot of mystical Marriage betwixt Christ and us and maketh us Branches of that noble Vine Members of that Body joyned to that excellent Head living Stones of the spiritual Temple built upon the precious living Corner-stone and sure Foundation partakers of the Bread and Drink that came down from Heaven and giveth Life to the World This is the Grace whereby we pass from our corrupt natural State to a new holy State in Christ also from Death in Sin to Life in Righteousness and whereby we are comforted that so we may be established in every good Word and Work If we put the Question what must we do that we may work the works of God Christ resolveth it That we believe on him whom he hath sent Joh. 6.28 29. He putteth us first upon the work of believing which is the work of God by way of eminence the work of works because all other good works proceed from it The scope of the present Direction is to put you upon the performance of this great work of believing on Christ and to guide you therein for which end you are to consider distinctly four things contained in it 1. The first is you are to make it your diligent endeavour to perform the great work of Believing on Christ Many make little Conscience of this Duty It is not known by Natural Light as many moral Duties are but only by supernatural Revelation in the Gospel and it is foolishness to the natural Man These are sometimes terrified with apprehensions of other sins and will examine themselves concerning them and it may be will write them down to help their Memories and Devotion but the great sin of not believing on Christ is seldom thought of in their self-examinations or registred in the large Catalogues of their sins and even those who are convinced that Believing on Christ is a Duty necessary to Salvation do neglect all diligent endeavours to perform it Either because they account that it is a motion of the heart which may be easily performed at any time without any labour or diligent endeavour or on the contrary because they account it as difficult as all the works of the Law and utterly impossible for them to perform by their most diligent endeavours except the Spirit of God work it in them by its mighty power And that therefore it is in vain for them to work until they feel this working of the Spirit in their Hearts Or because they account it a Duty so peculiar to the Elect that it would be presumption for them to endeavour the performance of it until they know themselves to be elected to Eternal Life through Christ I shall urge you to a diligent performance of this Duty notwithstanding all these Impediments by the following consideration It is worthy of our best endeavours as appeareth by the preciousness excellency and necessity of it already discovered If the Light of Nature were not darkned in the matters of Salvation then it would shew us that we cannot of our selves find out the way of Salvation and would condemn those that despise that Revelation of the way of Salvation that God hath given us in the Gospel declared in all the holy Scriptures The great end of Preaching the Gospel is for the Obedience of Faith Rom. 1.5 that so we may be brought to Christ and all other Obedience yea the great end of all revealed Doctrines in the whole Scriptures is to make us wise to Salvation by Faith that is in Christ Jesus 2 Cor. 3.15 The end of the Law given by Moses was for Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 and Christ was that end for Righteousness The moral Law it self was revealed in order to our Salvation by believing on Christ or else the knowledge of it had nothing availed fallen Man that was unable to perform it Therefore they that slight the Duty of Believing and count it foolishness do thereby slight despise and villisie the whole Counsel of God revealed in the Scripture The Law and the Gospel and Christ himself are become of none effect to the Salvation of such the only fruit that such an one can attain to of all the saving Doctrines of the Scripture is only some hypocritical moral Duties and slavish performances which will be as filthy rags in the sight of God in the great day However many mind not the sin of unbelief in their self-examinations and write it not in their Scrouls yet let them know that this is the most pernicious sin of all All the sins in their Scrouls would not prevail to their Condemnation yea they would not prevail in their Conversation were it not for their unbelief This one sin prevailing maketh it impossible for them to please God in any Duty whatsoever Heb. 11.6 If you will not mind this one main sin now God will at last mind you of it with a Vengeance For He that believeth not on the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3.36 The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire taking Vengeance on those that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.5 2. Believing on Christ is a work that will require diligent endeavour and labour for the performance of it we must labour to enter into that rest lest any man fall by unbelief Heb. 4.11 we must shew diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end that we may be followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherited the promises Heb. 6.11 12. It is a work that requireth the exercise of Might and Power and therefore we have need to be strengthned with might by the Spirit in the inward Man that Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Eph. 3.16 17. I confess it is easie pleasant and delicious in its own nature because it is a motion of the heart without any cumbersome bodily Labour and it is a taking Christ and his Salvation as our own which is very comfortable and delightful and the Soul is carried forth in this by Love to Christ and his happiness which is an Affection which maketh even hard works easie and pleasant yet it is made difficult to us by reason of the opposition that it meeteth withall from our own inward Corruptions and from Satans temptations It is no easie matter to receive Christ as our happiness and true Salvation with true confidence and lively affection when the guilt of sin lyeth heavily upon the Conscience and the wrath of God manifested by the Word and terrible Judgments especially when we have been
long accustomed to seek Salvation by the procurement of our own works and to account the way of Salvation by Free Grace foolish and pernicious when our Lusts encline us strongly to the things of the flesh and the World when Satan doth his utmost by his own suggestions and by false Teachers and by worldly Allurements and Terrors to hinder the sincere performance of this Duty Many works that are easie in their own nature prove difficult for us to perform in our Circumstances To forgive our enemies and to love them as our selves is but a motion of the mind easie to be performed in its own nature and yet many that are convinced of their Duty find it a hard matter to bring their hearts to the performance of it It is but a motion of the mind to cast our Care upon God for worldly things and rich Men may think that they can do it easily but poor Men that have great Families find it a hard matter That easie comfortable Duty which Moses exhorted the Israelites to when Pharoah with his Chariot and Horse-men overtook them at the Red Sea Be ye not afraid stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord which he will shew you this day Exod. 14.13 was not easily performed The very easiness of some Duties makes their performance difficult as Naaman the Assyrian was hardly brought to wash and be clean because he thought it to be too slight and easie a Remedy for the Cure of his Leprosie 2 Kings 5.12 13. even in this very case people are offended at the Duty of Believing on Christ as too slight and easie a remedy to Cure the Leprosie of the Soul they would have some harder thing enjoyned them to the attainment of so great an end as this everlasting Salvation The performance of all the moral Law is not accounted work enough for this end Mat. 19.17 20. However easie the work of Believing seemeth to many yet common Experience hath shewed that Men are more easily brought to the most burdensome unreasonable and inhumane Observations as the Jows and Christian Galatians were more easily brought to take upon their Necks the Yoke of Moses's La w which none were able to bear Acts 15.10 The Heathens were more easily brought to burn their Sons and their Daughters in the Fire to their Gods Deut. 12.31 The Papists are brought more easily to the Vows of Chastity and Poverty and Obedience to the most rigorous rules of Monastick Discipline to macerate and torture their Bodies with Fastings Scourgings and Pilgrimages and to bear all the excessive Tyranny of the Papal Hierarchy in a multitude of burdensome superstitious and ridiculous Devotions They that slight the work of Faith for its easiness shew that they were never yet made sensible of innumerable sins and terrible Curse of the Law and Wrath of God that they lye under and of the darkness and vanity of their Minds the corruption and hardness of their Hearts and their bondage under the power of Sin and Satan and have not bin truly humbled without which they can't Believe in a right manner Many sound Believers have found by experience that it hath bin a very hard matter to bring their Hearts to the Duty of Believing it hath cost them vigorous struggles and sharp conflicts with their own Corruptions and Satans Temptations It is so difficult a work that we can't perform it without the mighty working of the Spirit of God in our Hearts who only can make it to be absolutely easie to us and doth make it easie or suffer it to be difficult according as he is pleased to communicate his Grace in various degrees unto our Souls 3. Tho we cannot possibly perform this great work in a right manner until the Spirit of God work Faith in our Hearts by his mighty Power yet it is necessary that we should endeavour And that before we can find the Spirit of God working Faith effectually in us or giving strength to Believe We can perform no holy Duty acceptably except the Spirit of God work it in us and yet we are not hereby excused from working our selves but we are the rather stirred up to the greater diligence Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. The way whereby the Spirit works Faith in the Elect is by stirring them up to endeavour to Believe and this is a way suitable to the means that the Spirit useth i. e. The Exhortations Commands and Invitations of the Gospel which would be of no force if we were not to obey them until we find Faith already wrought in us Neither can we possibly find that the Spirit of God doth effectually work Faith or give strength to Believe until we Act it for all inward Graces as well as all other inward Habits are discerned by their Acts as Seed in the Ground by its Springing We cannot see any such thing as Love to God or Man in our Hearts before we Act it Children know not their Ability to stand upon their Feet until they have made trial by endeavouring so to do so we know not our spiritual Strength until we have learned by Experience from the use and exercise of it neither can we know or assure our seives absolutely that the Spirit of God will give us Strength to Believe before we Act Faith for such a Knowledge and Assurance if it be right is saving Faith it self in part and whosoever trusteth on Christ assuredly for strength to believe by his Spirit doth in effect trust on Christ for his own Salvation which is inseparably joyned with the Grace of saving Faith Tho the Spirit worketh other Duties in us by Faith yet he worketh Faith in us immediately by hearing knowing and understanding the Word Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10.13 And in the Word he makes no absolute Promise or Declaration that he will work Faith in this or that unbelieving Heart or that he will give strength to Believe to any one in particular or begin the work of Believing in Christ for Faith it self is the first Grace whereby we have a particular Interest in any saving Promise It is a thing hidden in the secret Counsel and Purpose of God concerning us whether he will give us his Spirit and saving Faith until our Election be discovered by our Believing actually Therefore as soon as we know the Duty of Believing we are to apply our selves immediately to the vigorous performance of the Duty and in so doing we shall find that the Spirit of Christ hath strengthned us to Believe tho we knew not certainly that it would do it before-hand The Spirit cometh undiscernably upon the Elect to work Faith within them like the Wind that bloweth where it lists and none knoweth whence it cometh and whither it goeth but only we hear the sound of it and thereby know it when it is
past and gone Joh. 3.8 we must therefore begin the work before we know that the Spirit doth or will work in us savingly And we shall be willing to set upon the work if we Believe for thy People shall be willing in the day of thy Power Psal 110.3 It is enough that God discovereth to us before-hand in the Gospel what Faith is and the ground we have to Believe on Christ for our own Salvation and that God requireth this Duty of us and will help us in the performance of it if we apply our selves heartily thereunto Fear not I command thee to be strong and of good courage Josh 1. Arise and be doing and the Lord will be with thee 1 Chron. 22.16 Therefore whoso receiveth this Gospel-discovery as the Word of God in hearty Love is taught by the Spirit and will certainly come to Christ by Believing Joh. 6.45 Every one that receiveth it not despiseth God maketh him a lyar and deserveth justly to perish for his Unbelief 4. Tho the Spirit worketh saving Faith only in the Elect and others believe not because they are not of Christ's Sheep Joh. 10.26 and on that account its called the Faith of Gods Elect Tit. 1.1 yet all that hear the Gospel are obliged to the Duty of Believing as well as to all the Duties of the moral Law and that before they know their own particular Election and they are lyable to Condemnation for Unbelief as well as for any other sin He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed on the Navie of the only begotten Son of God Joh. 3.18 The Apostle Paul sheweth That the Elect Israelites obtained Salvation and the rest that were not Elected were blinded and yet even these were broken off from the good Olive-tree because of their Unbelief Rom. 11.7 20. We cannot have a certain knowledge of our Election to Eternal Life before we do Believe it is a thing hidden in the unsearchable Counsel of God until it be manifest by our effectual Calling and Believing on Christ The Apostle knew the Election of the Thessalonians by sinding the evidence of their Faith that the Gospel came to them not in Word only but also in Power and in the Holy Ghost and in much Assurance and that they had received the Word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1.4 5 6. We are to see our Calling if we would find out that God hath chosen us 1 Cor. 1.26 27. therefore we must Believe on Christ before we know our Election or else we shall never know it and shall never Believe and it is no presumption for us to trust confidently on Christ for Everlasting Life before we have any good evidence of our Election because God that cannot Lye hath made a general promise That whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed without making the least difference among them that perform this Duty Rom. 10.11 12. The Promise is as firm and sure to be fulfilled as any of Gods Decrees and Purposes and therefore it is a good and sufficient ground for our Confidence It is certain that all that the Father hath given to Christ by the Decrees of Eternal Election shall come to Christ And it is as really certain that Christ will in no wise cast out any that cometh to him whosoever he be Joh. 6.37 And we need not fear that we shall infringe God's Decree of Election by Believing on Christ confidently for our Salvation before we know what God hath decreed concerning us For if we Believe we shall at last be found among the number of the Elect. And if we refuse to Believe we shall thereby wilfully sort our selves among the Reprobates that stumble at the Word being disobedient whereunto also they are appointed 1 Pet. 2.8 I shall add further that tho we have no Evidence of our particular Election before we Believe yet we are to trust on Christ assuredly to make it evident to us by giving us that Salvation which is the peculiar Portion of the Elect only All spiritual saving Blessings wherewith God blesseth his People in Christ are the peculiar Portion of them whom God hath chosen in Christ before the foundation of the World Eph. 1.3 4. yet we must necessarily trust on Christ for those saving Blessings or have none at all We are to pray in Faith nothing doubting that God will remember us with the favour that he beareth to his People that we may see the good of his Chosen and glory with his Inheritance Psal 106.4 5. therefore we are to trust assuredly on God that he will deal with us as his Chosen People Thus it appeareth that it is not presumption but your bounden Duty to apply your selves to the great work of Believing on Christ for Salvation without questioning at all before-hand whether you are Elected or no Secret things belong to God but those things that are revealed belong unto us that we may do them Deut. 29.29 The second thing directed to is that you should endeavour for a right manner of performing this Duty This is a point of great concernment because the want of it will render your Faith ineffectual to Sanctification and Salvation The great Duty of Love which is the end of the Law and the principal fruit of Sanctification must flow from Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 There is a feigned Faith that doth not really receive Christ into the Heart and will not produce Love or any true Obedience such as Simon Magus had Acts 8.13.23 for notwithstanding his Faith he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity And such as those Jews had to whom Christ would not commit himself who did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue Joh. 2.23 and 12.42 and such as the Apostle James speak of What doth it profit you my Brethren if a man say he have Faith and have not Works Can that Faith save him The Devils also believe and tremble Jam. 2.14 19. Take heed therefore lest you deceive your Souls with a counterfeit Faith instead of the precious Faith of God's Elect. The way to distinguish the one from the other is by considering well what is the right manner of that Believing which is effectaal to Salvation Hypocrites may perform the same Works for the matter with true Saints but they are defective in the manner of performance wherein the excellency of the Work doth chiefly consist One great reason why many strive to enter in at the strait Gate and are not able is because they are ignorant and defective in the right manner of Acting this Faith whereby they are to enter Now I confess that God only is able to guide us effectually in the right way of Believing and we have this great Consolation when we see our own folly and proneness to mistake our way that if we heartily desire and endeavour to Believe on Christ aright we may considently trust on Christ to guide
mis-spending the precious time of their Health and Strength which is most meet for the performance of this great Work They highly provoke God never to give them Time or Grace to Repent hereafter Others imagine that after they have heard the Gospel of Salvation by Christ they may lawfully defer the Believing of it until they have sufficiently examined the Truth of some other different Doctrin or until God be pleased to afford them some other means to assure them fully of the Truth of the Gospel Thus they that are called Seekers mis-spend the day of Grace ever learning but never coming to the knowledg of the Truth 2 Tim. 3.7 But the Truth of the Gospel doth so clearly evidence its self by its own Light That if People do not wilfully shut their Eyes or blind themselves by their own Pride and love of their Lusts they would easily perceive that it is the Truth of God because the Image of his Grace Mercy Power Justice and Holiness appears manifestly engraven upon it It is a sign People are Proud when they consent not to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 If they were humble and sincerely inclined to do the Will of God they would know whether the Doctrine be of God or no Joh. 7.17 They would quickly be persuaded of the Truth by Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles spoken to them in the Scripture and if they will not hear them neither will they not be persuaded tho one rose from the dead or whatever other Miracle be wrought to confirm the Divine Authority of the Gospel Luke 16.31 Another sort of People there are that delay the great work of Believing to the ruin of their Souls upon the outward means of Grace and Salvation instead of any endeavours to receive Christ by Faith tho they be convinced of the Truth of the Gospel This they call waiting upon God at the doors of his Grace and Salvation in the use of Means appointed by him and sitting under the droppings of the Sanctuary But let them know that this is not the right waiting on God required in Scripture it is rather disobedience to God and to the Name of his appointment which requires that we should be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving our selves Jam. 1.22 and that we should come in to the spiritual Feast Luke 14.23 and not only stand at the door or sit under the droppings of the House of God lest Christ repute us no better than eve-droppers That holy waiting on the Lord commended to us in Scripture is ever accompanied with Believing and Hoping in the Lord and dependeth thereon I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Psal 23.13 14. It is good that a Man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. 3.26 What is it that these deluded ones wait for before they perform the Duty of Believing Is it for more knowledge of the Gospel The way to encrease thy Knowledge as well as any other Talent is to make use of what thou hast received already Believe heartily on Christ for all thy Salvation according to that little knowledge of the Gospel which thou hast and thou wilt have an interest in the promise of knowledge contained in the New Covenant They shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them saith the Lord Jer. 31.34 Is it for the appointed time of thy Conversion that thou waitest then thou waitest as those impotent folk lay at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the Season when the Angel would come down and move the Water know then that if thou enter into Christ now by Faith thou shalt find in him Waters of Life and the Spirit moving them for the Healing and Quickning of thy Soul God hath appointed by his Word that it shall be thy Duty to endeavour that the present time should be the time of thy Conversion as the Holy Ghost saith To day if thou wilt hear his Voice harden not thy Heart Heb. 3.7 8. and thou shalt never know at what time God hath purposed in his Secret Counsel to give Faith to thee until thou dost actually believe Dost thou wait for any Manifestations or Flowings in of Gods saving Love to thy Soul Then the way to obtain it is to believe that the God of Peace may sill thee with all Joy and Peace in Believing Rom. 15.13 Thou hast sufficient Manifestation of Gods Love to thy Soul by the free Promises of Life and Salvation by Christ do but trust on the Name of the Lord and stay upon thy God when thou walkest in Darkness and seest no Light of sensible Comforts any other way Otherwise thou waitest for Comfort in vain and this thou shalt have at the Lords hand thou shalt lye down in Sorrow Isa 50.10 11. Dost thou wait for any Qualifications to prepare thee for the work of Believing If they be good and Holy Qualifications thou canst not have them before Faith but they are either included in the Nature of Faith or they are Fruits of it as hath been largely proved If they be bad and Sinful it 's strange that any should wait for them and yet no more strange than true Some foolishly wait to be terrified with the Sense of Gods Wrath and despairing Thoughts and these they call the Pangs of the New Birth tho in their own Nature they are rather the Pangs of the Spiritual Death and bring forth Hatred to God rather than Holiness and therefore we should strive to prevent them by believing Gods Love in Christ rather than to wait for them It is true that God maketh these despairing Thoughts as well as other Sins work for good to them that are delivered from them by Faith in Christ they are moved thereby to hate Sin and to prize Christ the more and the Comforts of his Gospel and to loath and abhor themselves yet many are brought to Christ without them by Gods giving them the knowledge of their own Sins and of Christ's Salvation together several Examples of these were above mentioned who received the Word with Joy at the first hearing of it And we must not desire or wait for any evil of Sin such as these despairing thoughts are that good may come of it Neither should we expect to be worse before we be better when we may and ought to be better presently by believing on Christ 4. In the direction it is that we should continue and increase in the most Holy Faith and that we may we must not think that when we have once attained to the Grace of saving Faith and thereby are begotten anew in Christ our Names are up in Heaven and perfect we may lye in Bed till Noon but as long as we continue in this Life we must endeavour to continue in the Faith grounded and setled not moved away from the
hope of the Gospel Col. 1.23 and to hold the beginning of our Confidence and the rejoycing of hope stedfast to the end Heb. 6.14 and build up our selves in the most Holy Faith Jude 20. abounding therein with Thanksgiving Col. 2.7 Tho we receive Christ freely by Faith yet we are but Babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3.1 and we must not account that we have already attained or are made perfect Phil. 3.12 13. but we must strive to be more rooted and built up in him until we come to the perfect Man to the measure of the Stature of the fullness of Christ Eph. 4.13 If the new Nature be really in us by Regeneration it will have an Appetite to its own continuance and Increase until it come to Perfection as the New Born Babe 1 Pet. 2.2 And we are not only to receive Christ and a new Holy Nature by Faith but also to live and walk by it and to resist the Devil and to quench all his fiery Darts by it and also to grow in Grace and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God for we are kept by the mighty Power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 as all our Christian Warfare is the good Fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 All Spiritual Life and Holiness continue grow or decay in us according as Faith continueth groweth or decayeth in Vigour but when this Faith beginneth to sink by Fears and Doubtings the Man himself beginneth to sink together with it Matt. 14.29 31. Faith is like the Hand of Moses while it is held up Israel prevails when it is let down Amaleck prevails Exod. 17.11 this continuance and growth in Faith will require our Labour and Industry as well as the beginning tho we â—â—e to ascribe the Glory of all to the Grace of God in Christ who is the Finisher as well as the Author of it Heb. 12.2 The Church meeteth with great Difficulties in her marching through the Wilderness of this World to the Heavenly Canaan as well as in her first Deliverance from Egyptian Bondage yea we often meet with greater Difficulties in going to Perfection than we did in the beginning of the Good Work The Wisdom and Mercy of God so ordering it that we shall be exercised with the sharpest Dispensations of Providence and the fiercest Assaults of our own Corruptions and Satans Temptations after we have Grace given us to stand in the Evil Day You must therefore endeavour to continue and go on in the same â—ight manner as I have taught you to begin this great Work of Believing in Christ that your Faith may be of the same Nature from the Beginning to the End though it increase in Degrees for our Faith is imperfect and joyned with much Unbelief in this World and we had need to pray still Lord I believe help my Vnbelief Mar. 9.24 and therefore we have need to strive for more Faith that we may receive Christ in greater Perfection If you find your Faith hath produced good Works you should thereby increase your Confidence in Christ for Salvation by his meer Grace But take heed of changing the nature of your Faith from trusting on the Grace and Merits of Christ to trusting on your own Works according to the Popish Doctrin that our first Justification is by Grace and Faith only but our second Justification is also by Works Beware also of trusting on Faith it self as a work of Righteousness instead of trusting on Christ by Faith If you do not find that your Believing in such a right manner as I have described doth produce such Fruits of Holiness as you desire you ought not to diminish but rather to increase your Confidence in Christ knowing that the weakness of your Faith hindereth its Fruitfulness and the greater your Confidence is concerning the Love of God to you in Christ the greater will be your Love to God and to his Service If you fall into any gross Sin after the work is begun in you as David and Peter did think not that you must cast away your Confidence and expect nothing but Wrath from God and Christ and that you must refuse to be comforted by the Grace of Christ at least for some time for thus you would be the more weak and prone to fall into other Sins but rather strivo to believe more confidently that you have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and that he is the Propitiation for our Sins 1 Joh. 2.1 2. and let not the guilt of Sin stay at all upon your Conscience but wash it away with all speed in the Fountain of Christs Blood which is opened for us that it may be ready for our use on all such incident Occasions that so you may be humbled for your Sins in a Gospel way and may hate your own Sinfulness and be sorry for it with Godly Sorrow out of Love to God Peter might have been ruined for ever by denying of Christ as Judas was by betraying him if Peter's Faith had not been upheld by the Prayer of Christ Luke 22.32 If a Clould be cast over all your inward Qualifications so that you can see no Grace at all in your selves yet still trust on him that justifyeth the Ungodly and came to seek and to save them that are lost If God seem to deal with you as an Enemy by bringing on you some horrible Affliction as he did upon Job beware of demning your Faith and its Fruits as if they were not acceptable to God but rather say with holy Job Though he slay me yet will I trust in him but I will maintain mine own ways before him Strive to keep and to increase Faith by Faith i. e. by acting Faith frequently by trusting on God to keep and increase it being confident that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 DIRECT XII Make diligent use of your most holy Faith for the immediate Performance of the Duties of the Law by walking no longer according to your old natural State or any Principles or Means of Practice that belong unto it but only according to that New State which you receive by Faith and the Principles and Means of Practice that properly belong thereunto and strive to continue and increase in such manner of Practice This is the only way to attain to an acceptable Performance of those Holy and Righteous Duties as far as it is possible in this present Life EXPLICATION HEre I am guiding you to the manner of Practice wherein you are to make use of Faith and of all other effectual means of Holyness before treated of which Faith layeth hold on for the immediate Performance of the Law which is the great end aimed at in this whole Treatise And therefore this deserveth to be diligently considered as the principal Direction to which all the foregoing and following are subservient As for the meaning of it I have already shewed that our old natural
or New Testament which is the Ministration of the Spirit and the Power of God unto Salvation 2 Cor. 3.6 8. Rom. 1.16 7. For the performance of other Duties of the Law you are to consider not only these Endowments Priviledges and Properties of their new State which are meet and forcible to enable you to the Love of God and Universal Obedience but also those that have a peculiar force and aptitude suitable to the special Nature of such Duties And you must endeavour to assure your selves of them by Faith that you may be encouraged and strengthned to perform the Duties I shall give you some instances of this manner of practice in several Duties whereby you may the better understand how to guide your selves in the rest And as to the Duties of the first Table if you would draw near to God in a Duty of his Worship with a true Heart you must do it in full assurance of Faith concerning your enjoyment of Christ and his Salvation And would you perform the great Duty of trusting on the Lord with all your Heart easting your Care upon him and committing the disposal of your self to him in all your Concerns Perswade your self through Christ that God according to his Promise will never fail you nor forsake you that he taketh a Fatherly Care of you that he will with-hold no good thing from you and will make all things to work for your Good And thus you will be strong and couragious in the practice of this Duty Whereas if you live in a meer suspence concerning your Interest in the Priviledges you will be subject to carnal fears carping cares in despite of your Heart and you will be prone to trust on the Arm of Flesh tho your Conscience tell you plainly that in so doing you incur the hainous guilt of Idolatry Would you be strengthned to submit to the hand of God with a chearful Patience in bearing any Affliction and Death it self The way to fortifie your selves is to Believe assuredly that your Afflictions that are but for a moment do work for you a far more exceeding eternal weight of Glory that Christ is your gain in death and life that his Grace is sufficient for you and his strength made perfect in your weakness and that he will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able and will at last make you more than Conquerours over all evil Until you attain to such perswasions as these you will be prone to fret and murmur under the burden of Affliction and to use indirect means to deliver your selves notwithstanding the clearest Convictions to the contrary Would you limit your selves to the Observation of Gods own Institutions in his Worship Believe that you are compleat in Christ and have all perfection of spiritual Blessings in him and that God will build you up in Christ by the Ordinances of his own Appointment This will make you account his Ordinances sufficient and Mens Traditions and Inventions needless in the Worship of God Whereas if you do not apprehend all fulness in Christ you will be like the Papists prone to catch at every Straw and to multiply Superstitious Observations without end for the supply of your spiritual Wants Would you confess your sins to God pray to him and praise him heartily for his Benefits Would you praise him for Afflictions as well as Prosperity Believe assuredly that God is Faithful and Just to forgive your sin through Christ that you are made an Holy Priesthood to offer spiritual Sacrisices of Prayer and Praises that are acceptable to God through Christ and that God heareth your Prayers and will fulfill them so far as they are good for you and that all Gods ways are Mercy and Truth toward you whether he prosper or afflict you in this life If you be altogether in doubt or otherwise perswaded concerning these Priviledges all your Confessions Prayers and Praises will be but heartless Lip-labours Slavish or Pharisaical Works In like manner you will be enabled to hear and receive the Word as the Word of God and to meditate on it with delight and you will be willing to know the strictness and spirituality of the Commands of God and to try and examine your ways impartially by them if you believe assuredly that the Word is the Power of God to Salvation and that Christ is your great Physician willing and able to heal you be the case never so bad And where your sin abounds his Grace towards you doth so much the more abound Whereas without these Comfortable Apprehensions all the works of Hearing Meditation Self-examination will be but uncouth heartless Works and they will be performed negligently and by halves or hypocritically and out of slavish Fear with much reluctancy without any good will or readiness of mind So also for the right receiving of the Sacraments you will find your selves much strengthned by Believing that you may have Communion with God and Christ in them and that you have a great High-Priest to bear the Iniquity of your holy things and to make you for ever accepted before the Lord. In the same way you are to apply your selves to all Duties towards your Neighbour required in the second Table of the Law by Acting in a perswasion of such priviledges of your new Estate as have a peculiar force to encourage and strengthen you for the performance of them That you may love your Neighbour as your self and do to him in all things as you would he should do to you without partiality and self-seeking that you may give him his due Honour and abstain from injuring him in his Life Chastity worldly Estate good Name or from Coveting any thing that is his according to the several Commands in the second Table of the Decalogue You must walk in a perswasion not only that these things are just and equitable toward your Fellow-Creatures and that you are strictly bound to the performance of them but that they are the will of your heavenly Father that hath begotten you according to his own Image in Righteousness and true Holiness and hath given you his Spirit that you may be like-minded to him in all things And that they are the mind of Christ who dwelleth in you and you in him That God and Christ are kind tender-hearted long-suffering full of goodness to Men whether good or bad Friends or Enemies Poor or Rich and that Christ came into the World not to destroy but to save and that you are of the same Spirit that the Injuries done to you by your Neighbours can do you no harm And you need not seek any good for your selves by injuring them because you have all desirable happiness in Christ and all things tho intended by your Enemies for your hurt certainly work for your good through Christ Such apprehensions as these wrought in us by the Spirit of Faith do certainly beget in us a right frame of Spirit throughly furnished for every good work towards our Neighbour
Likewise your Hearts will be purified to unfeigned love of the Brethren in Christ and you will walk toward them with all lowliness meekness long-suffering forbearing one another in Love if you maintain a stedfast belief and perswasion of those manifold Bonds of Love whereby you are inseparably joyned with them through Christ as particularly that there is one Body and one Spirit one hope of your Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Finally you will be able to abstain from all fleshly and worldly Lusts that war against the Soul and hinder all Godliness by an assured perswasion not meerly that Gluttony Drunkenness Letchery are filthy Swinish Abominations And that the pleasures profits and honours of the World are vain empty things but that you are Crucified to the Flesh and the World and quickned raised and set in heavenly places through Christ and that you have pleasures profits honours in Christ to which the best things in the World are not worthy to be compared And that you are Members of Christ the Temple of his Spirit Citizens of Heaven Children of the Day not of the Night nor of Darkness So that 't is below your State and Dignity to practise deeds of darkness and mind fleshly worldly things Thus I have given Instances enough to stir you up to acquaint your selves with the manifold endowments priviledges properties of your New State in Christ as they are discovered in the Gospel of your Salvation whereby the new Nature is fitted for holy Operations as the common Nature of Man is furnished with the Endowments necessary for those Functions and Operations to which it is designed and also to stir you up to make use of them by Faith as they serve to strengthen you either for Universal Obedience or for particular Duties And by this manner of Walking your Hearts will be comforted and established in every good Word and Work and you will grow in Holiness until you attain to Perfection in Jesus Christ 8. If you endeavour to grow in Grace and in all Holiness trust assuredly that God will enable you by this manner of Walking to do every thing that is necessary for his Glory and your own everlasting Salvation and that he will graciously accept of that Obedience through Christ which you are enabled to perform according to the measure of your Faith and pardon your Failings though you offend in many things and fall short of many others as to degrees of Holiness and high Acts of Obedience And therefore attempt not the performance of Duty in any other way though you cannot yet attain to do so much as you would in this way This is a necessary Instruction to establish us in the life of Faith that the sense of our manifold Failings and Defects may not move us eitheir to Despair or to return to the use of carnal Principles and Means for help against our Corruptions as accounting this way of living and acting by Faith to be in-sufficient for our Sanctification and Salvation The Apostle Paul exhorts the Galatians to walk in the Spirit though the flesh lusts against the spirit so that they cannot do the things that they would Gal. 5 10 17. We are to know that though the Law requireth of us the utmost perfection of Holiness yet the Gospel maketh an allowance for our Weakness and Christ is so meek and lowly in heart that he accepteth of that which our weak Faith can attain to by his Grace and doth not exact or expect any more of us for his Glory and our Salvation until we grow stronger in Grace God shewed his great Indulgence to his People under the Old Testament that Moses the Law-giver suffered them because of the hardness of their hearts to put away their Wives Though from the beginning it was not so Mat. 19.8 and also in tolerating the customary practice of Polygamy tho Christ will not tolerate the continuance of such Practices in his Church since his Spirit is more plentifully poured forth under the Gospel Yet he is as forward as ever to bear with the Failings of his weak Saints that desire to obey him sincerely We have another Instance of God's Indulgence more full to our present purpose in his commanding that the fearful and faint-hearted should not be forced to enter into the Battel against their Enemies but suffered to return home to their Houses Though sighting in Battel against Enemies without Fear and Faint-heartedness was a Duty that God did much exercise his People in at that time Deut. 20.3 8. So under the Gospel though it be an eminent part of Christ's Service to endure the greatest Fight of Afflictions and Death it self courageously for his Name sake yet if any be so weak in Faith that they have not sufficient Courage to venture into the Battel no doubt but Christ alloweth them to make use of any honest means whereby they may escape the hands of Persecutors with safety to their holy Profession He will accept them in this weaker kind of Service and will approve of them better than if they should hazard a denial of his Name by venturing themselves upon the Tryal of Martyrdom when they might have escaped it Peter came off with Sin and Shame by venturing beyond the measure of his Faith into the hands of his Persecutors when he went after Christ to the High Priest's Hall whereas he should rather have made use of that indulgent Dismission that Christ gave to him and the rest of his Disciples Let these go their way Joh. 18.8 Christ dealeth with his People as a good careful Shepherd that will not over-drive his Sheep He gathereth his Lambs with his Arms and carrieth them in his Bosom and will gently lead those that are with young Isa 40.11 He would not have his Disciples urged rigorously upon the Duty of Fasting when their Spirits were unfit for it because he knew that imposing Duties above their Strength is like putting a piece of new Cloath into an old Garment and new Wine into old Bottles which spoyleth all at last Mat. 9.14 17. That Precept of Solomon Be not righteous overmuch Prov. 7.10 is very useful and necessary if rightly understood We are to beware of being too rigorous in exacting Righteousness of our selves and others beyond the measure of Faith and Grace Overdoing commonly proveth undoing Children that venture on their Feet beyond their Strength have many a Fall and so have Babes in Christ when they venture unnecessarily upon such Duties as are beyond the strength of their Faith We should be content at present to do the best that we can according to the measure of the gift of Christ though we know that others are enabled to do much better and we are not to despise the day of small things but to praise God that he worketh in us any thing that is well-pleasing in his sight hoping that he will sanctify us throughout and
5 6 7. and in publick Assemblies Heb. 10.25 Zach. 14.16 17. And doubtless it ought to be used for the Attainment of Holiness as may be proved First in General Because God communicates all Salvation to a People ordinarily by or in a Church either by taking them into Fellowship or holding forth the Light of Truth by his Churches to the World A Church is the Temple of God where God dwells 1 Tim. 3.15 He hath placed his Name and Salvation there as in Jerusalem of old Joel 2.32 2 Chron. 6.5 6. He hath given to his Churches those Officers and Ordinances whereby he Converts others 1 Cor. 12.28 His Springs are there Psal 87. He makes the several Members of a Church Instruments for the Conveyance of his Grace and Fulness from one to another as the Members of the Natural Body convey to each other the fulness of the Head Eph. 4.16 All the New-born are brought forth and nourished by the Church Isa 66.8 10. ch 49.20 60.4 And therefore all that would be saved should joyn to a Church They shall prosper that love the Church so as to stand in its Gates and unite as Members Brethren and Companions Psal 122.2 4 6. And wrath is denounced against those that are not Members of it at least of the mystical Body They cannot have God for their Father that have not That for their Mother Can. 1.7 8. This maketh those that desire Fellowship with God to take hold of the Skirts of his People Zech. 8.23 2. In particular Fellowship with the Saints conduceth to Holiness many ways 1. By manifold helps to Holiness which are received thereby As 1. The Word and Sacraments Act. 2.42 Isa 2.3 Mat. 28.19 20. And all the Ministerial Office and Labour in watching over Souls Heb. 13.17 1 Thess 5.12 13. Isa 25.6 None of these Helps can be enjoyed without Fellowship of Saints each with other and if Believers had been to have stood single by themselves and not maintained Fellowship with each other for mutual Assistance and common Good none of these things could have continued neither could any Believer been extant at this day in an ordinary way but even the very Name of Believers had been Abolished 2. Mutual Prayer which is the more forcible when all pray together Mat. 18.19 20. 2 Cor. 1.10 11. Jam. 5.16 Rom. 15.30 3. Mutual Admonition Instruction Consolation to help each other when they are ready to fall and to promote the good work in each other 1 Thess 5.14 He that walketh with the wise shall be wise Prov. 13.20 Wo to him that is alone when he falleth See Eccl. 4.9 12. In Church-Fellowship there are many Helpers many to watch Soldiers have their Security in Company and the Church is compared to an Army with Banners Cant. 6.10 So for quickning Affections Iron sharpneth Iron Prov. 27.17 Likewise the counsel of a friend like ointment and perfume rejoyceth the heart Prov. 27.9 Yea the Wounds and Reproofs of the Righteous are as precious Balm Psal 141.5 4. External Supports which mitigate Afflictions and are to be communicated mutually Eph. 4.28 1 Pet. 4.9 10. The Affliction is increased when none careth for our Souls Psal 142.4 5. Excommunication when Offences are exceeding hainous or Men obstinate in sin This Ordinance is appointed for the destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit may be saved 1 Cor. 5.5 Better and more hopeful it is to be cast out by the Church for a persons amendment than to be wholly without the Church at all times and better to be a lost Sheep than a Goat or Swine For Excommunication cuts off Actual Communion only until Repentance be evident and not absolutely abolisheth the Title and Relation of a Brother and Church-member tho it judgeth one to be an unnatural Brother and a pernicious rotten Member at present not fit for Acts of Communion Besides Admonition which is still to be afforded 2 Thes 3.15 and any means is to be used that may serve to Cure and restore him the Church reacheth forth a Hand to help such a person tho they do not joyn Hands in Fellowship with him or it communicateth to him not with him Yet if he have not so much Grace as to Repent it were better he had never known the way of Righteousness 2 Pet. 2.21 6. The lively Examples of Saints are before our Eyes in Church-fellowship to teach and encourage Phil. 3.17 ch 4.9 2 Tim. 3.10 11. 2 Cor. 9.2 2ly By those holy Duties that are required and do appertain to this Fellowship and Communion all Acts that belong to this Fellowship are Holy as Hearing receiving the Sacraments Prayer mutual Admonitions c. I shall consider some such holy Acts whereby we are rather doers than receivers and which we perform towards others As 1. Godly Discourse Teaching Admonishing Comforting others in Christ which we cannot so perform towards others as towards those we have strict Fellowship with in Christ Others like Swine trample these Jewels under Foot and Saints therefore are forced to refrain from Godly Discourse in their Company Amos 5.10 13 16. and 6.10 But holy Discourse is most acceptable to the Saints and to be practised with them Mal. 3.16 and is greatly to the advantage of Holiness Prov. 11.25 2. In helping succouring and conversing with Christ in his Members we do good to Christ in his Members in Church-fellowship and we our selves as Members of Christ Act as well from Christ as towards Christ whereas if we do good to others without we do good only for Christs sake but not to Christ Mat. 25.35 49. Psal 16.2 3. We have advantage in general to do all Duties that belong to us as Members of Christ to Fellow-members which we cannot do if separate from them as a Natural Member cannot perform its Office to other Members if separate from them 2ly The means must be used rightly for the attaining of Holiness only in Christ 1. One Rule is Do not trust on Church-membership or on Churches as if this or that relation in Fellowship commended you to God of it self whereas a Church-way is but a help to Fellowship with Christ and walking in the Duties of that Fellowship The Israelites stumbled at Christ by trusting on their Carnal Priviledges and set them in opposition to Christ whereas they should have only made them subservient to Christ Confidence in them should have bin abandoned as Pauls example teacheth Phil. 3.3 4 5. c. We must not Glory in Paul Apollos Cephas but in Christ else we Glory in the Flesh and in Men 1 Cor. 1.12 13. 3.21 Trusting on Church-priviledges is an inlett to Formality and Licentiousness Jer. 7.4 8 9 10. and thence the Corruption of Churches Isa 1.10 2 Tim. 2.20 2. Follow no Church any further than you may follow it in the way of Christ and keep Fellowship with it only upon the Account of Christ because it follows Christ and hath Fellowship with Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 Zech. 8.23 If a Church
or our Duty toward him We must love him as to yield ourselves wholly up to his constant Service in all things and to his disposal of us as our absolute Lord whether it be for Prosperity or Adversity Life or Death and for his sake we are to love our Neighbour even all Men whether they be Friends or Foes to us and so do to them in all things that concern their Honour Life Chastity Worldly Wealth Credit and Content whatever we would that Men should do to us in the like Condition Mat. 7.12 This Spiritual Universal Obedience is the Great End to the attainment whereof I am directing you And that you may not reject mine Enterprize as impossible observe that the most I promise is no more than an acceptable performance of these Duties of the Law such as our gracious merciful God will certainly delight in and be pleas'd with during our State of Imperfection in this World and such as will end in Perfection of Holiness and all Happiness in the World to come Before I proceed further stay your thoughts a while in the contemplation of the great Dignity and Excellency of these Duties of the Law that you may aim at the performance of them as your End with so high an esteem as may cast an amiable luster upon the ensuing discovery of the Means The principal Duties of Love to God above all and to each other for his sake from whence all the other Duties flow are so excellent that I cannot imagine any more Noble Work for the Holy Angels in their glorious Sphere They are the chief Works for which we were at first framed by the Image of God engraven upon Man in the first Creation and for which that beautiful Image is renewed upon us in our New Creation and Sanctification by Jesus Christ and shall be perfected in our Glorification They are Works which depend not meerly on the Sovereignty of the Will of God to be commanded or forbidden or left indifferent or changed or abolished at his pleasure as other Works that belong either to the Judicial or Ceremonial Law or to the means of Salvation prescribed by the Gospel but they are in their own Nature holy just and good Rom. 7.12 and meet for us to perform because of our natural relation to our Creator and Fellow-Creatures so that they have an inseparable dependance upon the Holiness of the Will of God and an indispensable Establishment thereby They are Works sufficient to render the Performers holy in all manner of Conversation by the Fruits which they bring forth if no other Duties had ever been commanded and by which the performance of all other Duties is sufficiently established as soon as they are commanded and without which there can be no Holiness of Heart and Life imagined and to which it was one great Honour of Mosaical and is now of Evangelical Ordinances to be subservient for the performance of them as Means which shall cease when their End this never-failing Charity is perfectly attained 1 Cor. 13. They are Duties which we were naturally obliged to by that Reason and Understanding which God gave to Man at his first Creation to discern what was just and meet for him to do and to which even Heathens are still obliged by the Light of Nature without any written Law or supernatural Revelation Rom. 2.14.15 Therefore they are called Natural Religion and the Law that requireth them is called the Natural Law and also the Moral Law because the Manners of all Men Infidels as well as Christians ought to be conformed to it and if they had been fully conformable they would not have come short of Eternal Happiness Mat. 5.19 Luke 10 27 28. under the penalty of the Wrath of God for the violation of it This is the true Morality which God approveth of consisting in conformity of all our Actions to the Moral Law and if those that in these days contend so highly for Morality do understand no other than this I dare joyn with them in asserting The greatest Saint is the greatest Moralist that the best morally honest Man is the greatest Saint and that Morality is the principal part of true Religion and the Test of all other parts without which Faith is dead and all other Religious Performances are a vain shew and meer hypocrisie for the faithful and true Witness hath testified concerning the two great Moral Commandments of Love to God and our Neighbour that there is none other Commandment greater than these and that on them hang all the Law and the Prophets Mar. 12.31 Mat. 22.40 The Second thing contained in this Introductory Direction is the necessity of learning the powerful and effectual Means whereby this great and excellent End may be accomplished and of making this the first Work to be done before we can expect success in any attempt for the attainment of it This is an Advertisement very needful because many are apt to skip over the Lesson concerning the Means that will fill up this whole Treatise as superfluous and useless When once they know the Nature and Excellency of the Duties of the Law they account nothing wanting but diligent performances and they rush blindly upon immediate Practice making more hast than good speed They are quick in promising Exod. 19.8 All that the Lord hath spoken we will do without sitting down and counting the cost They look upon Holiness as only the Means of an End Eternal Salvation not as an End itself requiring any great means to the attaining to the Practice of it The enquiry of most when they begin to have a sence of Religion is What good thing shall I do that I may have Eternal Life Mat. 19.16 Not How shall I be enabled to do any thing that is good Yea many that are accounted powerful Preachers spend all their Zeal in the earnest pressing the immediate Practice of the Law without any discovery of the effectual means of performance as if the Work of Righteousness were like those servile Employments that need no skill and artifice at all but industry and activity That you may not stumble at the Threshold of a Religious Life by this common oversight I shall endeavour to make you sensible that it is not enough for you to know the matter and reason of your Duty but that you are also to learn the powerful and effectual means of performance before you can successfully apply yourselves to immediate Practice And for this end I shall lay before you the Considerations following 1. We are all by Nature void of all strength and ability to perform acceptably that Holiness and Righteousness which the Law requireth and are dead in Trespasses and Sins and Children of Wrath by the Sin of our first Father Adam as the Scripture witnesseth Rom. 5.12 15 18 19. Eph. 2. v. 1 2 3. Rom. 8.7 8. This Doctrine of Original Sin which Protestants generally profess is a firm Basis and Ground-work to the assertion now to be proved