instinct knows this is good for such a condition and that for another and when he comes to that promise I will be thy God he saith this is the universal Medicine and good for all things as infinite a sea as Gods grace is as vast a treasure as Christs merits the believer cannot tell how to climb up to these unless he have somewhat of a promise to set his faith upon if there be but an half-promise faith will ascend up by it when God saith seek righteousness seek meekness it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger Zeph. 2.3 faith will hang upon a may be but where there is nothing at all of a promise faith does not cannot tell how to approach for the unpromised thing The Perfectionists fay that sinless perfection is attainable in this life Joseph is yet alive perfection of life figured by Joseph may be found so thinks a Learned Doctor My yoke is easie said Christ and from thence Bellarmine concludes Legem Dei possibilem esse renatis imo facilem observatu but alass these are but dreams and not acts of faith It s true the believer groaning under the burden of sin wishes nothing more then sinless perfection he works he walks he prays he weeps he runs he strives but after all he may not believe sinless perfection attainable here not but that the grace of God in Christ is sufficient to effect it but there is no channel for such a grace to run in no promise in all the word to bottom such a persuasion upon there is a promise for the subduing of iniquity but not for the annihilating it a promise that sin shall not reign in us but none that it shall not be therefore the believer would not seek for that in himself which is only found in Christ nor for that on earth which is reserved for heaven that mercy or comfort which is not let down in the promise faith doth not expect or look for Trubern a German Divine on his deathbed seeking comfort spake thus textum textum volo let me have the text the text well knowing that comfort streams out in the promises the believer is ever for one promise or other to give advantage to his faith in its ascension to God for mercy and comfort Fourthly This resignation is a voluntary act It hath been disputed between Romanists and Protestants where the seat of faith is whether in the Vnderstanding only or in the Will also the Apostle clearly determines it with the heart man believeth Rom. 10.10 the heart includeth both faculties ad esse fidei virtutis concurrit actus rationis simul voluntatis quod benè innuit Apostolus in ipsâ notifieatione fidei cum dicit fidem esse substantiam rerum sperandarum argumentum non apparentium tangens quod est in eâ cognitionis quod est assectionis saith Bonaventure the assent of faith is in the Understanding but the resignation is in the Will credere est consentire consensio autem volentis est saith St. Austin We read in Scripture of faith unfeigned and sincerity is in the Will of the obedience of faith and obedience is in the Will of leaning rolling resting casting our selves upon God and all these are in the Will all the resignations which the believer makes are acts of his Will if he resign to the Promises and through them to the meriting Mediator and through him to the free-grace of God this recumbency or fiducialness is in his Will if he resign to the commands and through them to the kingdom of the Mediator and through him to the holiness of God this obediential frame is in his Will if he resign for instruction to the Word and through it to the great Prophet and through him to the wisdom of God this docibleness this tender holy flesh is in his Will he would have salvation coming in a way of grace and grace flowing through the Mediator Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ for a teacher and ruler as well as for a Saviour and all this is his choice 'T is not a meer velleity or effluvium of a light desire like that of Balaam let me dye the death of the righteous but an act of his Will 't is not a mood or hot sit of devotion such as falls on men under warming and awakening ordinances but a deliberate act 't is not a constraint or piece of servility such as men usually have in sick and dying hours when they are rolling off from this world and upon the brink of eternity with a prospect of heaven and hell before them but it is a true and a free-will cordially and freely offering up the soul to the terms and methods of salvation in the Gospel Fifthly This resignation is made in Humility The believer like his father Abraham is called to Gods foot there to lye in the lowest posture of a sinful creature in an humble docibleness he lyes at the foot of Gods wisdom waiting as they that watch for the morning till the holy irradiations make the day dawn and the day-star arise in the heart in an obediential frame he lyes at the foot of Gods holiness crying out like Paul struck down to the earth Lord what wilt thou have me to do and in a fiducial recumbency he lies at the foot of Gods grace as a forlorn beggar full of fores and extremities waiting if free-grace will take him in and like the good Samaritane bind up his wounds pouring in the oyl and wine of mercy into his heart The men among the Israelites could not enter into the Land of promise but the little ones did so the mystery is the Christians though the history be theirs the men among us such as can few sig-leaves together and cloath themselves such as can feed themselves at home and keep house upon their own reason such as are Lords of their own actions coming and going ad placitum these do not believe nor enter into the promises of the Gospel but the little ones who cannot dress themselves but as free-grace swadles and wraps them up in Christs righteousness nor feed themselves unless free-grace pluck out the breast and milk out instruction nor rule themselves or go alone but as free-grace takes them by the hand and leads them in holy ways these are they that believe and enter into rest hence our Saviour saith Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Mat. 18.3 The proud man will not suffer grace to reign in or over him but the believer is as a little child ruleable by all the will of God humbly submitting to all the methods of salvation in the Gospel To shut up this discourse about the Adjuncts of faith I shall only add a caution or two When I say that all true believers do thus resign I mean not that all have the same formal notions or expressions but the same faith and resignation for the substance of
upon God in the 119 Psal thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts but O that my wayes were directed to do so ver 4 5. I will keep thy statutes but O forsake me not utterly ver 8. with my whole heart have I sought thee but O let me not wander from thy commandements ver 10. I will run the way of thy commandements but do thou enlarge my heart ver 32. I love thy precepts but quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness ver 159. I have chosen thy precepts O let thine hand help me ver 173. how working is David and how depending how sweetly do mans obedience and Gods influence accord together this a believer practically understands and none but he whilest others labour to fathome it by speculation the mystery is too deep for them but the believer hath it practically and in experience every day As to spiritual extractions the believer is very sagacious Chymists by racking and torturing of nature have forced her to a confession of many secrets and choice mysteries which made Paracelsus so triumph over Galen vaunting proudly that the least hair of his head had more learning then all the Vniversities besides The believer is the best of Chymists no extractions are like those of faith he extracts heaven out of earth could a man extract gold out of base metals it would be but earth out of earth purer out of grosser but the believer extracts heaven out of earth As Jacob saw more then meer Esau he saw Gods face in Esaus so the believer sees more then the meer creature-comfort he sees the goodness of God in it which is the sweetness of all Carnal men are content with the bulk and gross matter of an earthly blessing but the believer draws out the spirits and quintescence thereof that is the love of God without which oil and wine and corn and all other earthly things are but a caput mortuum a piece of dross and dead mattor in his eyes earthly things are transient and perishing in themselves but he hath an art to melt them down by charity into a fixed condition though he cannot say his house yet he can his charity shall continue for ever Silver and gold will not go in speeie in the upper world but he knows how by the poor which are Christs bankers to return them thither for everlasting habitations given in exchange by free-grace Again he extracts good out of evil Carnal men see nothing in affliction but a lump of sorrow but the believer knows that there is a blessing in it the sharpness of it may let out his corruption the suddenness of it may alarum his spiritual watch the bitterness of it may wean him from the breast of the creature the weight of it may try the back of his faith and patience it is no longer meer trouble but made out into fans to unchaff him of his vanity into furnaces to resine his golden graces into moulds to cast him into the image of a meek suffering Christ into spiritual wings to elevate the soul in devotions and heavenly affections towards the everlasting rest which is above much of the love and faithfulness of God is to be seen in it which made Munster sick of the pestilence to shew the ulcers and plague-tokens on his arm ut armillas preciosas Christi gemmas as the bracelets and rich jewels of Christ such noble extractions can faith make out of sore afflictions as if they were the only love-tokens to feal up a son of God according to that old saying Qui excipitur à numero flagellatorum excipitur à numero siliorum Again he extracts strength out of weakness Satans shocks and the fluxes of inward corruption may make him weak and ready to perish but his faith tells him that the power of God which can do all things is perfected in weakness and the weakness of man under which he groans is a capacity for that power to shew forth it self in when our power is gone there is room for Gods when there is no might he increaseth strength as it was in Christ the weakness the humane flesh was anointed with the divinity so it is in the believer the weakness the humane frailty is anointed with the power of grace when he is weak in himself then he is strong in God when weak in the flesh then strong in the spirit The Psalmist hath some Psalms upon Machalath that is upon instruments Musical say some but upon infirmity say others the believer is able to glory and make Musick over his weaknesses because his faith can fetch down the power of God upon him wait on the Lord and he shall strengthen thine heart Psal 27.14 as faith goes up so power comes down hence the believer out of weakness is made strong as the Apostle expresses it Heb. 11.34 Again he extracts grace out of unworthiness well knowing that the way of grace is to move it self into act from our unworthiness a notable instance whereof we have Hos 2.13 14. she went after her lovers and forgate me saith the Lord therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her as if he had said she is idolatrous therefore behold I will be gracious Oh what a stupendious therefore is here deservedly is it followed with a behold a note of admiration So wonderful it is that some Learned men among the Papists not understanding how such a connection could possibly be have thought that it referrs not to that which immediately went before but to some precedent words about the beginning of the Chapter a parallel place to this we have Isa 57.17 18. he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his wayes and will heal him Oh! what strange grace is here one would have thought he would have said he went on frowardly I have seen his wayes and will damn him but it is I have seen his wayes and will heal him Some Jewish Commentators gloss it thus I have seen his repenting wayes and will heal him I suppose not understanding how grace should immediately follow upon perversness but the believer knows that this is the method of grace and therefore by an holy art presses for it even from his own unworthiness Our Saviour Christ calls the Canaanitish woman crying out for mercy no better then dog Math. 15.26 a word of reproach such as the proud Jews put on all the Gentiles such as made the Saracens revolt from the Emperour Heraclius his army and set up for themselves under their Captain Mahomet but see how admirably her faith gathers upon him and even from that word presses for mercy truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their Masters table ver 27. ipsum Dominum in verbis capit she takes the Lord in his own words saith Ferus proving her title to the crumbs from her being a dog Holy David prayes O Lord pardon mine iniquity for
Soul by Faith doth by little and little work out and extirpate Sin as the day breaks upon the Heart darkness goes off as Holiness flows in Corruption departs the more of Heaven is there the less of Earth Thirdly Faith discovers the great evil of Original Sin and so raises up an hatred against it and hatred is a murderer and would if it could annihilate its opposite Faith shews it to be an All-evil a Mother of abominations Some particular Sins are such monsters in Morality that when viewed only in the light of Nature they appear very odious such was the cruelty of Nero Effeminacy of Sardanapalus and the like much more odious when inspected by the light of Faith must that appear which is All-sin in one a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or universal Seminary of iniquity Anthony holding Caesars bloody Coat up to the People moved them against the Conspirators Faith holding up the Murders Adulteries Blasphemies Villanies in the World unto the Believers eyes stirs his Heart against the venemous root of all these Faith shews it to be an universal evil all over the Soul breaking forth like the boyls of Egypt upon man and upon beast upon the intellective and sensitive faculties and all over the Believers duties lying as the locusts there upon every herb and green thing upon the verdure and glory of every good work it is a blemish in the Believers eye a plague in his Heart an ataxy in his Affections a damp on his Prayers a cooler to his Charity and Zeal and a dead fly in all the precious Oyntment of his duties and good works Faith shews it to be an utter enemy to God Antichrist-like opposing every appearance of him in the Heart quenching every good motion trampling on every holy beam slighting at the two great periods of Mankind Heaven and Hell and jeering at that holiness and iniquity which lead thither Faith shews it to be an evil always present the Believer shakes himself and it adhers flys and it encompasses mortifies and it lives prays weeps sweats and fights and yet the Canaanite is in the land like a living man chained to a dead he carries about his own loathsomness a body of death all his days this cleaves to him as the blackness to the Ethiopian and as the fretting spreading Leprofie to the house after all his washing and scraping of himself it will yet be in him till death dissolve him into dust Such representations as these made by Faith fill the Believer with shame and self-abhorrency and raise up in him an irreconcileable hatred against it Fourthly Faith so far as it is acted though it make not a total riddance of it doth yet imprison it that it cannot go at large and riot in scandalous Sins No nor steal out in an evil thought but it will be arrested in its passage to the Will for a consent as it was Gods caution beware that there be not a thought in thy Belial-heart against Charity Deut. 15.9 So it is Faiths endeavour to stop corruption even in a thought the flesh is still a lusting and would have one piece of forbidden fruit or other in its mouth but Faith opposes and would if it could leave nothing of it to breath in the Believer This is that the Scripture calls The crucifying of the old man Faith arraigns the old man as the Arch-malefactor in the World condemns him as worthy to die strips him of his veils and false coverings and by holy restraints nails him to the Cross that unless in a slumber of Faith he cannot move or stir himself but dies away by little and little As the light of Nature being imprisoned in unrighteousness as the Apostle speaks Rom. 1.18 is every day exhausted and weakned so the corruption of Nature being thus restrained by Faith gradually loses its life and vigor Martinus Polonus tels of a terrible Dragon at Rome who killed many daily with his poysonous breath but was at last shut up with Brasen gates through the Prayers of Sylvester Bishop there Were this Fable true Faith doth a nobler work in restraining the inward Serpent of corruption whose deadly poyson hath spread it self over all Men and is eternally fatal to all but Believers To conclude In all this Faith applies it self to a Crucified Christ from thence it fetches its pattern As the pure flesh of Christ upon which as an expiatory Sacrifice the Sin of the World was laid suffered on the Cross so the corrupt flesh of Man unto which as the universal Seminary the Sin of the World may be justly imputed must suffer also Hence Saint Peter 1 Pet. 4.1 From the suffering of Christ in the flesh exhorts Believers to suffer in their corrupt flesh ceasing from Sin and from thence it derives a spirit for the work Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit on the Cross and the Believer through the Spirit of Christ offers up his corrupt self to be crucified Hence St. Paul Rom. 6.6 saith Our old man is crucified with him that is by a secret virtue drawn from his Cross Thus far of this Fundamental Mortification I now come to particular Sins which are but the foul issues of Original breaking forth in this or that as temper education place custom or other accidents give vent thereunto these also doth Faith mortifie and that in some such way as this First Faith doth restrain the outward acts of Sin there may be many restraints in which yet there is nothing of Mortification one Sin may restrain another Vitia inter se contraria pugnant in which case Satan casts out Satan a predominant lust its opposite The fiery Law with its threats may meet a man in his perverse way as the Angel with his drawn Sword did Balaam and turn him back from committing the act nevertheless the unchanged Heart hankers and inwardly mourns after it as Phaltiel did after Michal when she was forced away from him and which is a better restraint because meerly from an in ward principle Moral Virtue may hold him back from it as it did Abimelech from Sarah yet this restraint is but partial only from outward Sins of shame and withal selfish aiming at no higher thing than repute and self-excellency But Faith restrains upon higher and nobler Motives speaking to the temptation as Joseph to his Mistress How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God May I break his Law which is more than the Interdicts of all the Princes and Potentates of the World or stain his glory which is more precious than the light of the Sun Moon and Stars or trample on that precious Blood which paid my ransom from Hell and Death or grieve away that Spirit which is the life of all my Graces and Comforts or pollute this Heart which may be a Temple or Tabernacle for the Holy One to dwell in or run my self again into the pangs of the New Birth and forget the wormwood and gall of my old Sins and eclypse the light
upon men the high Thrones with its train made Isaiah cry out as an undone man Isa 6. the voice out of the whirl-wind caused Job to abhor himself in dust and ashes Job 42.6 The bright thining man turned Daniel's comeliness into corruption Dan. 10.8 And what those outward appearances did in a sensible way that Faith which is an inward Vision of God doth in a Spiritual looking on him by Faith a dread falls on us from every Attribute or Work of his His glorious Majesty makes us go and hide our selves in the dust of our own vileness and nothingness His pure Holiness comparatively turns us and all our comely Graces into rottenness His dreadful Justice sounds so loud in the threatning that we cannot but tremble at every word of it Nay his very goodness and tender bowels lying all about us make us afraid to trample thereon by finning even those in Nature do so much more those richer ones in Grace His very rain calls for out fear Jer. 5.24 And what do those dews of the Spirit which are not common as the other His bounding the Sea doth so Jer. 5.22 and what doth his bounding corruption which else would drown Soul and all in perdition Oh how tremendous is our life our Bodies living on the Blood of Creatures and our Souls on the Blood of God our natural being lying in the arms of that Power which bears up the World and our Spiritual in the arms of that Grace which saves it Earth flowing round about us with Blessings and Heaven it self coming down in Promises and carrying back our Hopes thither Who in such Visions of Faith would not fear the Lord and his goodness Who would not tremble at Sins indignity and ingratitude After such mercies as these should we again transgress against him If we wax wanton under Goodness how soon may Soveraignty come down and recover all from us as forfeited Heaven may shut up it self and the dews of the Spirit cease our Graces may all droop and wither and our Hearts grow hard and stony one lust or other may carry us into captivity and our little remnant of Grace and Life may cry out as the Church doth O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy ways and hardned our hearts from thy fear return for thy servants sake Isa 63.17 After all our wantonness we shall be glad to come to holy Fear again Soveraignty will make us fear him in every thing such a fight of him by Faith as this makes him practically to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fear as he is called Psal 76.11 Moreover Faith moves this Fear into act by shewing the great evil of Sin Sense looks on penal evils which press on the outward man but Faith on Sin as the greatest of evils it being an opposite to God a blot to the Soul a blast to the World a forfeiture of Heaven and fuel for the flames of Hell a thing not to be done Pro quantiscunque bonis lucrandis aut pro quantiscunque malis pracavendis for the gaining never so great a good or for the avoiding never so great an evil as Bradwardine speaks Hence St. Austin said That a man must not tell a lie to save a world And Henry Flander being a Prisoner for the Protestant Religion would not say That his Wife was his Whore no not to save his life offered to him on those terms Now Fear being a kind of flight from evil the greater the evil is the greater is the flight and when an evil is the greatest of evils such as Sin appears to Faith the flight from it is as from Hell it self and more if possible according to the saying of Anselm That if Sin were set before him on the one band and Hell on the other he would rather leap into Hell than fall into Sin Another Grace actuated by Faith is Zeal which is an intense Love or a mixture of Love and Anger or rather the heat and boyling up of all the affections in the concerns of God and his Glory This is a coal from the Altar which warms Hearts and Lives and sparkles out in every Grace and Duty without it all is in spirituali gelicidio cold and frozen as in a Sunless World Indeed without Faith Zeal is blind as in the Jew who in his heat for the Law opposes the Gospel and true Righteousness Or it runs out upon Humane things as in the Papist who crys up Traditions as a second Oracle or it moves upon selfish Principles as in the Pharisees who did all theatrically to be seen of men But when Faith comes Zeal is according to the Word as its Rule and for Divine things as the worthiest Object and out of a pure intention to Gods Glory as the supream end Faith brings us into Communion with God and makes us one spirit with him and hence it comes to pass that those things which are dear to him are so to us and those injuries which move his jealousie above stir up our Zeal here below To Faith Gods name is nomen Majestativum holy reverend fearful glorious precious a name above every name and therefore cannot be profaned but Zeal will break forth the reproaches cast on it fall more heavily on the Believer than those on himself or his near relations Nay they press harder on him than if he should hear one railing at Princes or Angels Maris the blind Bishop of Chalcedon being brought into the presence of the blasphemous Emperour Julian fell severely on him as upon an enemy of God and when Julian told him That he was blind and his Galilean God would not cure him Maris gave thanks to God who had taken away his eyes that he might not look on so wicked a wretch as Julian Such a Zeal doth Faith put forth for Gods name In like manner the Worship of God is to Faith his Homage honour on Earth Crown of glory Sanctuary of Presence a thing too precious and pure to be allayed with Humane mixtures if this be corrupted our Zeal must needs kindle at it and so much the more because his facred jealousie hangs more over his Worship than over any thing else in all the World To the other Commandments we find this annexed I am the Lord Lev. 19 but to the second I am a jealeus God Exod. 20.5 Hence Moses at the light of the Calf forgets his Meekness and in a holy Passion brake the holy Tables In the Constantinopolitan Council held about the year of our Lord 754 how hot were the Bishops against Images as a meer Pagan custom and when they were cast down how triumphant was the Peoples Zeal crying out Hodiè salus mundo now is salvation come to the world In the fifth Council of Carthage they would have the very reliques of Idolatry totally blotted out Nay Leo Bishop of Rome when the Manichees Worshipped the Sun forbade the Christians to worship towards the East that they might have nothing common with them Such
Barbara St. Dorothy St. Margaret to these came the Foolish for Oyl that is as the Actor interpreted it That they would intercede with God for their admission into Heaven They knocked and wept and instantly prayed but the Wise denied and bid them be gone At this sight the Nobleman was astonished crying out What is the Christian Religion if none of the Saints will hear and intercede for us And soon after he died of an Apoplexy 'T is sad being shut out from the presence of God The Believer is as they say of the Rhodians in sole positus He is nigh unto God and hath his Religion proved to him in that he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 access or manuduction unto God The way into the Holy of Holies is open through the veil of Christs flesh and the Holy Spirit doth conduct him in thither He may come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with boldness unto the throne of Grace and there utter all his mind as a Child doth to his Father David in the 13th Psalm begins as if God were totally absent How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me But a little after we have him in the joy and triumph of Faith I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation saith he ver 5. The door of Mercy which for a little time was shut up soon opened again and gave him a free access unto God Thirdly He experiments it in the returns of Prayer the Promises by which God binds his own bowels above are let down here below in the Gospel And as the Believer takes hold of them by Prayer so God is touched with a compassionate feeling thereof Whilst Ephraim was bemoaning himself in his Supplication Gods bowels are troubled and fall a-sounding at it Jer. 31.18 20. Coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus saith Tertullian We knock at Heaven and fetch down mercy from God Prayer hath done Wonders in the world At Abrahams Prayer God stoops to such low terms that he would have saved Sodom for ten righteous persons Jacob by Prayer wrestles and becomes a Prince with God which is more than to have all the Monarchies of the World Moses by it binds as it were the Almighty and will not let him alone to consume Israel Joshua stopt the Chariot of the Sun and so made a long day for the improvement of his Victory Elias locked up Heaven and till he turned the Key of Prayer the contrary way there was no rain upon the Earth In the time of Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher the Christian Legion by their Prayers procured Water for the Roman Army and a scattering Tempest against their Enemies and were therefore called Legio fulminatrix The thundring Legion Prayer hath a kind of Omnipotence in it and can do every thing Sometimes the Prayer is returned in Specie in the very thing desired as Hannah's was in a Son whom therefore she called Samuel that is Asked of God In this case the Believer hath a double Blessing in one over and above the common Providence he hath a pregnant proof of his Prayer in it A Blessing which is a meer Providence comes up as the Corn doth with the husk or chaff of one vanity or other as a Memento of that blast which Sin brought upon the World But that which is a Fruit of Prayer is as Manna from Heaven pure and unmixt a Blessing and no sorrow added to it as being the Birth of the Promise and Covenant The Blessings of the former sort are gathered up by Men as Acorns are by Swine without looking up to that Grace which as a Tree of Life bears all the good Fruit But the latter raises up the Heart in the admirations and high-praises of the great Donor as we see in Hannah who returned back her Son assoon as received unto God in Praise and Dedicacation Criticks have observed an elegant Paranomasia in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore I have lent him to the Lord 1 Sam. 1.28 Samuel was first Shaiil meel Asked of God and then Shaiil leel lent or returned to God Those Blessings which are drawn down by Prayer lie not dead here below but are sent back again in Praise Sometimes the Prayer returns another way though it be not heard ad voluntatem it is ad utilitatem The answer is in some thing that profits us though not to the express desire of our Hearts it may be it is in the sweet composure of the Heart Upon Prayer God comes in and rebukes the Winds and Seas of Passion and there is a calm and Divine serenity in the Soul Hannab before Prayer was a Woman of a sorrowful spirit but her Soul being poured out unto God returned with a Divine sweetness Her countenance was no more sad 1 Sam. 1.18 It may be there is an inward support which is tantamount to the Blessing desired Our Saviours Prayer against the Cup of Wrath was heard in that he was enabled to drink and overcome it And St. Paul's against the Thorn in the Flesh in that he had sufficient Grace to withstand it Preclarè nobiscum agitur dum adest Dei Gratia quae nobis subveniat saith Reverend Calvin In the Supports of Grace there is a signal answer of Prayer it may be over and above the Support the Beams of Gods Love break in upon the heart This is a little Heaven here below and richly transcends all this world Bellarmin tells us a Story of an old Man who used to rise from Duty with these words Claudimini Oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jam videbitis Be shut O my Eyes be shut for I shall never behold a fairer Object than Gods Face which I have now beheld The Love of God irradiating a Prayer is a ravishing sight far better than life and all its comforts It may be there is a transmutation of the Blessing into another such as God who improves the stock of Prayer to the best advantage knows to be better for us David prayed earnestly for his sick Child and the return of it was in a Solomon a Jedidiah beloved of God One way or other the Believers Prayer returns into his bosom being answered at least secundum cardinem according to the main hinge and scope of it which is Gods glory and Mans comfort or happiness Thus Moses's Prayer to go into Canaan was answered according to the ground of it Instead of the type God takes him up to Heaven the true Canaan which was most for Mases's comfort And instead of Moses a type of the Law Joshua a type of Christ leads the people into Canaan which was most for Gods Glory Which way soever the Prayer returns to the Believer it seals up the Ordinance for Divine In the last Place I come to the Ordinance of the Lord Supper The outward Elements of this Sacrament our Lord Christ took as Learned Men conceive from a custom observed among the
God come out of Egypt out of the straits of sin and pass through a wilderness of wants and extremities towards the Land of promise the valley of Achor trouble and perplexity for the accursed thing is a door of hope husks and hunger make the Prodigal come to himself and his father Thirdly Upon this humiliation and strait of soul there ensues a deliberation a standing as the King of Babylon did Ezek. 21.21 at the parting of the way to make a true enquiry Lo saith the afflicted soul in a self-parley here is the way of life and there of death this is the way everlasting and that 's the way of time If you live after the flesh you must dye but if you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live if you sow unto the flesh you must reap corruption if unto the spirit life everlasting O my soul be not deceived God and sin Christ and Belial heaven and hell cannot mix together Say then O my soul what wilt thou have the mess of pottage or the birth-right the pleasures of sin or those at Gods right hand the worlds trinity of lusts or communion with the blessed Trinity in heaven Thus the soul sits down and casts up the cost sin on and burn in hell for ever turn to God and shine in eternal glory spare thy lusts and damn thy soul slay thy lusts and save it Oh! what a fearful cheat is sin it proffers a profit or a pleasure and asks a soul it holds out a moment or two and would have eternity in pawn for it it tickles the sense and stabs the conscience it courts and flatters like the strange woman and leads down to hell and death Such deliberations as these make way for resignation an indeliberate resignation is but a flash and away but a deliberate one is fit to endure Fourthly After all this the holy spirit doth so far press in the holy light as to work a denial of a mans self and his lusts in some measure I say in some measure for without some measure of self-denial a man will never resign up himself to God and Christ Thus our Saviour If any man will come after me let him deny himself Mat. 16.24 first deny himself and then go to Christ and again Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Mat. 11.28 first be weary of sin and then go to Christ no man can serve two Masters he that will follow Christ must do as Peter and Andrew did leave his nets all the entangling lusts of his heart and so follow him Whilest a man sits at the receit of custome driving on a trade of sin he cannot follow him First he must with Mathew rise up from thence and then he may follow him Also I say in some measure for the self-denial before precious faith must be distinguished from the self-denial after it self-denial before faith is wrought in us by the holy spirit making impressions and darting in light into the heart in a transient way self-denial after faith is wrought in us by the holy spirit dwelling in the heart by faith and acting therein as an abiding principle of all grace Before faith it is in a far lesser measure and degree after faith it grows up to a full stature before faith it doth in some sort cast off the soveraignty of sin the soul no longer chuses to live under its dominion but looking upon it as cruel bondage casts off its allegiance after faith it strikes at the very life of sin in the work of mortification What is said of the beasts in Daniel their dominion was taken away and yet their lives were prolonged Dan. 7.12 the same may be said of sin first it loses its crown and then its life The holy spirit in the first measure of self-denial doth as it were dethrone sin in order to resignation and in the after-measure thereof it mortifies and nails it to the cross there to dye and expire Now this measure of self-denial which precedes resignation stands in divers things First There is a denial of a mans reason Reason as the candle of the Lord is not to be denied but reason as it is a false light as it pleads for Baal the lording lust of the soul as it plays the serpent seducing from holy truths as it sows pillows under presumptuous sinning as it laughs at holiness and divine mysteries above its comprehension is surely to be denied We must become fools that we may be wise put out our lamp that it may be lighted by the spirit and crucifie our why's and wherefores that we may believe the Gospel Abraham having Gods promise for a seed considered not Rom. 4.19 and staggered not or as in the original discerned not v. 20. he did not play the critick upon the dead body and dead womb he laid by his discretion that he might give glory to God by believing Secondly There is a denial of a mans will This is the forbidden fruit and womb of concupiscence unless this be renounced there is no hope of resignation our own will is a thing of Belial and unless subdued by grace will not take Christ's yoke it is an inward Antichrist and unless consumed by the divine spirit and brightness will exalt it self above the will of God Saul must have a light from heaven and a fall to the earth a fit of trembling or else he will not resign and say Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9.6 the will must be un-selved and the man become as a little child without any will of his own or else there can be no resignation Thirdly There is a denial of a mans carnal affections These are the camels which cannot go thorough the needles eye the weights and plummets which press down the soul from God unless these be cast off there can be no resignation our Saviour is positive in it how can ye believe which receive honour one of another Joh. 5.44 A soul breathed into vain-glorious air or drowned in sensual pleasures or laden with the thick clay of the world cannot resign he that will offer up himself to God must leave the world behind his back his affections must be gathered in from earth and Angel-like ascend in the flame of faith the vail of time must be put by and an entry made upon eternity Fourthly There is a denial of a mans own power Proud persons puft up in their fleshly mind vainly dream that their Reason can span all mysteries and their Will teem out all graces no temptations are too strong for them nor duties too weighty Alass these are so far from resignation that they are not come to illumination through prodigious blindness they are strong in their impotency rich in their poverty free in their chains and something in their nothingness And what should they go to God for as yet they are not so much as in the way thither but let the man put off his false ornaments and
his faith eyes the soveraignty of it naturally we would be Gods to our selves and set up our wills as supream and therefore we make war upon God and his Law But when faith comes God is God and the Law a royal Law and all the commands in Power and Majesty by them saith David is thy sorvant warned or as it is in the Hebrew illustrated Psal 19.11 the command to the believer is as if a light shone from heaven and a voice came from the excellent glory saying Do this or that Gods will rides in triumph and mans falls to the earth as not able to stand before the Lord The voice of a superior if perceived puts an awe upon the inferior nature so doth the voice of man upon beasts so doth the voice of Angels upon men and which is the greatest awe because from the highest nature so doth the voice of God upon the believer After this manner doth faith yield up the soul to the command and in it to God and Christ Thus far of the fourth thing resignation for a holy government Fifthly Faith resigns up the soul for the gracious reward of eternal life And here to keep the old Method First This resignation is made to Jesus Christ the Mediator Faith cannot be satisfied with earth that 's but the Paradise of sense no nor with present graces these are but the pawns and earnest-pennies of eternal life faith aspires after heaven Oh! let me go over and see the good Land where the Mountains are all spices the Rivers pleasures the Mountains are all spices the Rivers pleasures the Air pure holiness the Eternal light God himself saith faith and for a title thereunto faith yields up the soul to Christ who as a Priest hath merited heaven for us and as a King is able to give it out to us The Plebeian saith Epictetus looks for his gain from things without the Philosopher looks for it from himself but which is a strain higher the Believer looks for his reward from Christ Evagrius the Philosopher gave as the story goes three hundred pounds to Synesius for the poor to be repaid him by Christ in another world the believer doth all at the same rate hears and reads and prays and gives alms and all to be paid in another world Worldly men wonder at his hot pursuits after grace and holiness but he knows what these will go for in another world that 's the reason he follows hard after them but in the pursuit still his eyes are upon Christ as the great purchasor and pay-master Secondly This resignation in and through the Mediator is made to God It is he that glorifieth eternal life is Gods gift our heavenly Fathers meer pleasure faith therefore yields up the soul to him for it and herein it climbs up to him by his free-grace the pure river of life flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22.1 out of the regnant grace of God and merit of Christ as out of a fountain the believer expects no eternal life but what issues out from thence Thus the Reverend Soknius on his death bed expressed himself Pendeo totus à Dei miserieordiâ I wholly depend on Gods mercy Thirdly This resignation is made to the Word There is the promise of eternal life extant and there the way to eternal life is chalked out there is the promise of eternal life mapped out a mercy above all the sphear of nature Hence the antient believers were as pilgrims here Heb. 11.13 as if the world were too little for them they were altogether for the heavenly country which faith sees at a distance in the promise There also the way to eternal life is chalked out the world passes away but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever 1 Joh. 2.17 Riches and pleasures are but the way of time but holiness and righteousness are the way everlasting Psal 139.24 the good acts may pass but their record is in heaven the good men must dye but the holiness shall never see corruption the repentant tears which fall to the earth are bottled with God the charity which seems lost as bread cast on the waters will come to hand again Polycrates when he cast his ring into the sea little thought to have met it again in his fish but the believer doing good works expects to meet them again in another world sowing to the spirit he looks for a crop in eternal life Dorcas may leave her coats and garments behind her but the charity will follow her into another world the commandement is eternal life saith our Saviour Joh. 12.50 the very way to it The believer obeying may in some sense say as dying Pollio jam ingredior in vitam aeternam now I am entring into eternal life into that which will survive the world and live in glory Faith resigns to the word not only as it is the charter of eternal life in the promise but as it is the director to it in the command Thus far of the second thing for what things and purposes this resignation is made But to proceed to the third thing Thirdly What are the Adjuncts and Properties of this resignation Vnto which I shall answer in the following particulars First This resignation is made in the way of God Believers wait upon God for very great things Since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides these what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him saith the Prophet Isa 64.4 But where do they wait for these great things where but in Gods own way Thus it follows those that remember thee in thy ways v. 5. Look in what way or method God gives out a mercy in the same way or method doth faith wait to receive it Would a man have a pardon faith waits for it in Gods way free-grace as immense a sea as it is in God doth not flow out every way upon sinners but through the bleeding wounds of Christ We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ saith the Apostle Rom. 3.24 Mark free-grace issues out through redemption and in that way faith waits for it Thus St. Peter We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved Act. 15.11 he calls the grace of God the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as being merited by him The believer waits for pardoning mercy but it must be the mercy of David coming through the Messiah the true David Whether God might not per potentiam suam absolutam remit sin without a satisfaction is a question may be spared Gods will is declared the Scripture is definitive there is no other name given among men but the name of Jesus no other remission but through his blood the glory of the Lord that is his free-grace comes into the Temple of the Church by the way of the East Ezek. 43.2 that
is through Jesus Christ who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the East Luk. 1.78 towards which the true believer bows down himself for all grace The Socinians grace such as is supposed to issue forth without the satisfaction of Christ is not indeed the grace of God but a fancy an Idol of their own heart He that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God saith S. John 2 Joh. v. 9. therefore such an one must not be received or saluted with God speed v. 10. Let the Socinian who abides not in the doctrine of a redeeming and satisfying Christ cry up free-grace and that as he thinks in the purest and highest strains without all money and price even without that of the Mediator After all this he hath not God or free-grace in the right notion of it the true believer dares not entertain such a grace or say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to it lest he should bless an Idol and rejoyce in a thing of nought such a grace is a meer stranger to Scripture and therefore faith whose skill is only in that Dialect cannot own it though humane reason speak never so fair for it Again would a believer have mortification he would have it in Gods way he seeks it not Macedonius-like by standing in a ditch all the day nor as the Palestine-monks by lying as dead unburied men on the earth nor with the Papists by Pilgrimages and outward pennances nor with the Flageliantes in their scourging and bloody whipping their own bodies No this is not Gods way in all this Pageantry of mortification they are at hostility with nature rather then with sin and in shooting all their arrows at the body they miss the mark the chief seat of sin in the heart Nesciunt superstitiosi saith a Learned man Deum amare immutationem cordium non dilaniationem corporum superstitious men know not that God loves changing of hearts rather then renting of bodies the true believer seeks mortification in and by Jesus Christ our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6.6 As long as we are in the old Adam sin will be lively but as soon as we are in Christ the wisdom and power of God sin which is the weakness and folly of man dies in us The believer seeks after the spirit of Christ as after that which can lay our lusts a steep in godly sorrow and nail them to the cross of Christ and let out their vital blood even the inward love thereof Moreover a believer would have instruction and teaching but he would have it in Gods way The Papists say that Images are Lay-mens books and whilest the Bible is to the unlearned a sealed letter these are Letters Patents open to all men he that runs may read God as it were in great Capital letters Gregory the Great though he condemned their adoration yet he allowed their presence in Churches tanquam essent memoracula rudium literae but alas can the dumb Idol speak or if it could can a teacher of lies instruct may that be our memorial which hath made many forget God Did God ever licence the printing of such Lay-mens books and if it have not his Imprimatur by an institution how can we expect his benediction surely this is none of Gods way faith saith the image of God is in the word and the only crucifix in the Gospel The Enthusiasts would be taught in an immediate and extraordinary way but the believer goes to the word there is the School where he would be taught of God there are the gates and door-posts where he would hear wisdom speak Secondly This resignation is made to its entice object and not by piece-meal As to God the ultimate object the believer would not pick and chuse among his Attributes but is for them all he would not have a God all of grace but such as he is an holy one and a just who will be sanctified even in our approaches to touch his golden Scepter The believer whilest he casts himself upon Gods grace would be assimulated to his holiness when he catches hold on mercy withall he trembles at divine justice as he waits for the smilings of Gods face so he walks as in his presence all places to the believer are Bethels and Peniels full of God and too dreadful to sin in If any man go about by his faith to single out grace from among the other Attributes and suck that honicomb of infinite sweetness by it self alone he doth not believe but presume like those in the Prophet The heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for money yet will they lean upon the Lord Mic. 3.11 O vain presumption for them standing upon such unholy ground to lean upon the Lord is an utter impossibility A traitor who strikes off his Soveraigns Crown or with Hacket stabs at his image doth not cannot at that time cast himself on his Grace or Royal favour A sinner whilest by his sinful rebellions he strikes at the Soveraignty or stabs at the holiness of God doth not cannot lean upon his free-grace St. John hath determined the case If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.6 Let such an one cry up free-grace free-grace never so much he doth but trust in a lye there is no such grace as he dreams of none but what comes from the holy one as the giver of it none but what teaches the receiver a lesson of holiness Again as to Jesus Christ the Mediator the believer is for All Christ not only for him as a meriting and atoning Priest but for him as a teaching Prophet and ruling Lord also Whilest he wraps up himself in the pure robes of Christs righteousness at the same instant his ear is open to discipline and his heart unfolds the everlasting doors to let in the King of glory he puts the Crown upon his head and sets him upon the throne of the heart singing blessing honour power glory to the Lamb for ever That Christ who is in glory in heaven at the right hand of Majesty comes to be in glory in the heart by the resignations of faith Thus he himself faith the spirit shall glorifie me Joh. 16.14 that is by working faith in the heart as the Father glorifies him above so the spirit and under that faith glorifie him below If any man go about by his faith to pick out the merits and righteousness of Christ for salvation without a respect to his teaching and ruling offices he mangles and tears in pieces Christ as much as in him lieth renting of Jesus from Christ nay and Jesus in twain whom he admits only to save him from the guilt of sin and not from the power and love of it separating the blood of his Saviour from the water and his merits from the spirit which are and ever must be in conjunction such an half and
Head and Advocate and will not cannot condemn the Believer being a piece of himself standing in his image and righteousness Sin and Satan have nothing at all to say against him The Law cannot object the breach of the least jot or tittle he comes to the Judgment only to be absolved before Men and Angels and after an Enge of praise to enter into the joy of his Lord which is an happiness beyond all expression CHAP. VIII Of Adoption the third fruit of Faith the peculiar Priviledg of sound Believers The Excellency thereof demonstrated under several Considerations THus far of the second fruit of Faith being Justification The next fruit thereof is Adoption Justification and Adoption are twin-Graces brought forth by Faith at once only in order of nature Justification goes first and then follows Adoption as presupposing the other hence the new name is said to be written in the white stone Rev. 2.17 Alexander the Great Conqueror of the World was by the flattering Oracle saluted as a Son of Jupiter but the Believer who overcomes the World in a more noble Spiritual way is by the true Oracle stiled a Son of God As many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 The Believer in the instant of believing is no longer a meer Son of Adam but a Son of God he is in unity with the natural Son of God and so becomes an Adopted one The Human nature is in the natural Son by Hypostatical union and so is taken into the natural Sonship and the Believer is in him by a Mystical union and so becomes a Son by Adoption Neither is this a meer empty title He is born not of blood in a way of carnal Generation not of the will of the flesh in a way of Concupiscence not of the will of man in the way of Moral Virtues and Excellencies but he is born of God he is one of the seed-Royal of Heaven the blood of God runs in his Conscience a Divine Spirit breaths in him Christ is formed in his heart and that in the very same manner as he was in the Womb that is by the overshadowing power of the Holy Ghost Nay further as Aquinas observes Tertia pars Quest 23. Art 2. Filiatio Adoptiva est quaedam similitudo filiationis aeternae Adoptive Sonship is a shadow of the eternal one The natural Son is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or brightness of his Father and in the Adopted there is a splendor of Grace resembling God in a measure The natural Son was begotten from Eternity and is still a begetting and in the Adopted the holy thing is begotten And yet in respect of the successive supplies of Grace afforded for its preservation it is as it were still a begetting hence the Adopted Son as well as the Natural abides for ever Joh. 8.35 The Natural Son is the image of Gods Nature and the Adopted the image of his Will Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 The Excellencies of this Priviledg are unutterable I shall express them only in some Considerations First Adoption is a very glorious thing it redounds to the glory of Free-grace and puts a lustre upon the Believer it redounds to the glory of Free-grace Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 That the indefectible God who hath a Son of his own lying in his bosom as an eternal joy should Adopt that the great Creator who as such hath all possible right to his Creature should Adopt that the Immortal One to whom by reason of his Immortality there can be no succession should yet Adopt that such a Majesty as he is should Adopt such as we are worms and sinful dust and Adopt us to such an Inheritance as Heaven is and by putting a new nature into us make us meet for the same is stupendious and wonderful beyond expression Such Considerations as these made the great School-man Durandus as Medina relates affirm That God did not Adopt properly but Secundum Translationem in a Metaphorical way But to pass that these things signally demonstrate that Divine Adoption is full of rich Grace and in a transcendent manner above Humane Moreover Adoption puts a lustre upon the Believer such as is not to be found upon the Princes and Potentates of the Earth Par. Medulla hist The proud Sultan Achmet used in his Letters to arrogate these high Titles to himself I Achmet head of Prophets Emperour of Emperours Lord of Europe Asia and Africa Lord of the White Black and Red Seas subjoining a long Enumeration of all the Provinces under him But to be a Son of God is incomparably more than all these All that train of Titles whereby Potentates spread out their Glory is fumus seculi the smoke of this lower World and glitters only in the eyes of flesh and blood but Adoption is radius Caeli a ray of Heavenly Glory and makes the Believer shine to the eyes of Angels who as they rejoice over a repenting Sinner cannot but wonder to see such an one transfigured into a Son of God Nay Adoption puts such a glory upon the Believer as was not upon Adam in Paradise Adam was a Son of God only by Creation but the Believer is one by Mystical Union and Communion with Christ the Natural Son hence Christ calls him Brother Heb. 2.11 a Compellation not used to Angels and he is one of the first-born Heb. 12.23 a title in an eminent way given to Christ Secondly Adoption carries with it an excellent spirit of Prayer Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father Gal. 4.6 This praying Spirit is the breath of the New-creature and as much excels all meer modes and gifts of Prayer as a pair of natural Lungs doth artificial ones others may pray artificially and as it were mechanically but the Adopted man prays naturally without this Spirit all words and expressions in Prayer are but poor low things like the Vrim and Thummim made under the second Temple by which the Jews could not tell how to ask counsel of God because the holy Spirit was not present with it In the Adopted that Spirit makes the Prayer issue forth with life and power when the Blood and Merits of Christ plead above and the holy Spirit makes intercession in the heart for the same blessings there is such a Harmony that the Almighty sloops and bows down his car to it Thus the sweet Singer In waiting I waited for the Lord and he enclined unto me and beard my cry Psal 40.1 God himself enclines and stoops down at the Prayer of Faith Vacula Pater that little word Father spoken in the heart is more than all the Eloquence of Cicero and Demosthenes Com. in Gal. cap. 4. saith Luther No sooner doth the Child of Grace cry but God says
Cures on the bodies and Heavenly Truths on the Souls of Men or admirable patience under great sorrows and at last upon a tormenting Cross where he drunk the bitter cup of wrath up to the bottom and over and above all the rest sweet Love and Obedience run through them all with a pure intention to his Fathers Will and Glory And Oh! what a Samplar of Grace is here and how strongly can Faith press for an imitation what shall I not tread in such pure steps my Saviour being before Of whom shall I learn if not of my Redeemer Did he sweat and bleed and die on a Cross for me and shall I not follow him Can I rest on his Merits and precious Obedience and wave his holy Pattern Was he to fulfill all Righteousness and I none at all If I abide in him must I not walk as he walked If I know the truth as it is in Jesus must not those very Graces which were true in him be true in me also Why doth the Spirit come and work those Graces in my Heart but that they should be actuated Unto what was I created in Christ if not to good works I find nothing but vanity in my self and my own ways and shall I not walk in Christ and his holy Graces If I follow him fully shall I not see the Heavenly Canaan at last and there receive a Crown of Life Such a Pattern so pressed on a Believer must needs be a strong motive to the exercise of Grace The Apostle would have us run our race looking unto Jesus Heb. 12.1 2. Fancy as Naturalists tell us hath done strange things a Woman much looking on a beautiful Picture brought forth her Child very like it as Galen relates to be sure Faith looking unto Jesus brings forth his Image in the Heart and Life Thirdly Faith holds out the Promises as incentives to the work The Believer is an Isaac a Child of Promise the new Creature with its Graces is born of the Covenant and ever after lives upon it Every Grace hath some Promise or other to feed on Love hath God dwelling with it Fear hath his secret Meekness his Salvation Patience a crop of Comforts and all of them have an entail of Eternal Life And when Graces are acted there is a Promise of encrease To him that hath that is useth Grace more shall be given more of the same Grace his Talent shall be doubled his Path shineth more and more to the perfect day in Heaven and withal more of the Divine Indwelling Secret Salvation and Comfort promised and at last more of Glory Thus St. Peter speaking of divers Graces saith That if they be and abound in us we shall have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Christ 2 Pet. 1.8 11. Every Grace hath an entrance into it and abounding Grace an abundant entrance and all these Promises are sure in themselves sealed by Gods Veracity and Christs Blood and sure to the Believer being realized by Faith and therefore must needs be very attractive to Obedience Faith in a meer Command will make a Man follow God though like Abraham he know not whither he go Much more impulsive is Faith in a Promise when he knows in so following he is going into an abundance of Grace and Glory The lying Promises of Sin received into a carnal fancy will draw out Corruption into act as we see in Men who are drawn into Sins carnal and spiritual much as their Father Adam was by some Apple of Sensual happiness or appearance of Self-excellency how much more attractive must the precious true Promises of God be when entertained by Faith at the sight of these the Believer as old Jacob at the sight of the Chariots revives and puts himself forth in the exercise of Grace that he may inherit the Promises and the vast treasures of good in them Fourthly Faith observes Seasons and Providences and stirs up Graces suitable thereunto Insidels smother the greatest Works of God some have said That Sodom happened to sire as standing on a Sulphureous soil Others that Moses did but take the advantage of a low-tide to carry the Israelites over the Washes Nay in the Jewish Church the Pharisees and Sadducees though great Rabbies could not because without Faith discern the Signs of that glorious time wherein the Messiah shewed himself on Earth in such excellent Doctrines and Miracles But Faith where it is understands the language of Providence and calls for suitable Graces under a storm of Judgments it calls for the mourning Graces of Repentance and Humiliation lamenting after the Lord under a Sun of Prosperity it awakens the Psaltery and Harp Praise and holy joy in God the Fountain of all When Iniquity abounds it is for Davids rivers of tears to weep over it When Gods Name or Worship or Truth are at the Stake it blows up the fire of Zeal as we see in Paul's Paroxism at Athens Epiphanius his renting the Veil and Athanasius's ardent adherence to the Truth against an Arrian World As the Poor appear Charity must come forth and scatter Alms. As Injuries and Reproaches fly abroad Meekness must shew it self and rather than revenge turn the other cheek In Asslictions Patience must have her perfect work And in Desertions there must be an humble waiting on him that hides his face As God comes forth in this or that Providence so Faith meets him in this or that Grace Every Grace is one time or other called out by a Providence and every Providence hath some Grace to answer it Fifthly Faith actuates Graces in a way of dependence on the Spirit of Christ This is instar omnium Commands Patterns Promises Providences are ineffectual without it The New Creature moves not but by influence from the Head the holy Spirit must first stir up the nest of gracious Principles and then Love and Joy and all other Graces shew forth themselves As the Humane Nature of Christ never acted in a separate way but did all in Union with the Divine So the Believers Graces do nothing apart but all in Union with Christ Those who think that gracious Powers or Principles may go alone and act themselves know not the life of Faith in which all Graces hang upon Christ as beams upon the Sun The Milevitan Council pronounces an Auathema on those that deny the Adjutorium gratiae which worketh to will and to do And the Arausican speaking of that Adjutorium saith Quoties bona agimus Deus in nobis atque nobiscum ut operemur operatur When we do good God works our works in us and with us What the life of Faith is St. Paul excellently describes I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith he Gal. 2.20 And again I labour yet not I but the grace of God with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Faith is ever in dependence leaning on its Beloved and breathing after the holy Spirit that the gales thereof may make the spicy Graces flow out and upon this