with flesh vnto a iust proportion So is it in the soule for first there is wrought a small degree of sauing knowledge and spirituall desire after God in Christ and then flowes from thence the veines and sinewes that take hold of the promises of grace and lastly by degrees as our knowledge and experience increaseth the whole body of Faith growes after a compleate manner formed in vs when our hearts are filled with increase of sound and solid knowledges but because this point toucheth the spirituall free-hold of many godly Christians I would therefore beate it out more distinctly And so foure things are to be considered 1. How it may be knowne that Faith is weake 2. How weake Faith may be knowne to be a right Faith 3. How the beleeuer may be comforted that findes hee hath but a weake Faith 4. Admonition to him that is weake in the Faith not to rest in that condition for diuers reasons For the first a weake Faith is easily discerned by these signes and the like to them 1. By daily doubts of Gods fauour and feares least their estate be not right 2. By ignorance not onely in many ordinary truthes but in many of the promises of the Gospel Matthew 8. 26. 16. 8. 3. By the hastie and violent vnquietnesse of the heart in aduersitie euen in the daily and lesser crosses of life and by those sudden feares in time of danger notwithstanding Gods promise and the experience of Gods assistance and deliuerance and by the vnrest of the heart if there be not present helpe Iames 1. 5. 6. Mat. 14. 30. 31. Luke 18. 8. 4. By the daily cares of life about foode and rayment Mat. 6. 31. 5. Aptnesse to stagger and be carried about with the winde of contrary doctrine Ephes 4. 13. 6. Feare of death For the second a weake Faith may be discerned to be a true Faith by these signes 1. By the constant and earnest desire of Gods fauour in Christ Psal 10. 17. Mat. 5. 6. Reuel 21. 6. 2. By their griefe for their vnbeliefe and frequent complaint of it Marke 9. 24. 3. By their constant desire after the sincere milke of the Word 1. Pet. 2. 2. 4. By their feare to offend God in the least euill they know to be a sinne For the third the beleeuer may be comforted many waies though his Faith be but weake for 1. Christ hath promised that he will not breake the bâ—uised reede nor quench the smoaking flaxe Mat. 12. 20. 2. Weake Faith doth apply the mercy of God and the benefits of Christs death aswell as a strong Faith as a weake or paraliticke hand will receiue a gift aswell as a sound and sted die hand he that hath a weake sight though he see not so well as he that hath a persect sight yet he sees so much of the light of the Sunne as may serue his turne to walke safely Though an Infant cannot eate so much as a strong man yet he eates so much as preserues life and makes him grow 3. God hath receiued him that is weake in Faith Rom. 14. 13 4. The power of God is manifested in their weakenesse 2. Cor. 12. 9. Lastly the weake in Faith must be admonished to looke to their Faith and to labour for growth Though God accepts their weake Faith in the beginning of their conuersion yet he likes not the neglecting of Faith and continuing in ignorance and vnbeliefe Heb. 5. 12. Besides so long as they continue in weakenesse of Faith they keepe themselues without many and singular comforts Though weake Faith bee sufficient to Saluation yet it is not sufficient to consolation Hitherto of the Nature of Faith The ground of Faith were worthy to be considered for it is not inough to know that we must beleeue or what things are to be beleeued but vpon what ground or warrant wee doe beleeue it And so heere I might consider of the Word of God as the ground of Faith or originall of Faith for he that will euer prosper in beleeuing these Articles must be resolued of these things 1. That the things he beleeueth are warranted to him by the testimonie of God himselfe for no humane testimony of particular men or of the whole Church can be the ground of a mans Faith 2. That the bookes of the Prophets and Apostles are the very word of himselfe and so infallible 3. That the writings of the Prophets and Apostles are euery way perfect and doe containe all things necessary to be beleeued in the matter of his Religion 4. That he can see how each Article of his Faith is grounded vpon the Word of God 5. That he will cleaue vnto this Word of God all the daies of his life as the principall meanes of his direction and comfort and of his further increase in Faith and knowledge for his knowledge and Faith comes in but by degrees and in part and the truth is opposed by his owne reason corrupted and by the suggestions of the diuell and by almost infinite varieties of opinions against all which he resolues to cleaue to the Word of God as his perpetuall warrant But because this principle concerning the Word of God is not expressed in the Creed I will therefore forbeare the proofe and explication and illustration of these things which concerne the Word of God And I conceiue that this Head of the Word of God was left out in the Creed in the first Age of the Church for two reasons The one was because as then it was not questioned so much as the rest of the Articles But the other Reason is the most important and that is that these doctrines of the Creed though they be principles yet are of another sort then these doctrines that concerne the Original perfection or authority of the Scriptures for these principles are conclusions framed out of those principles concerning the Word and so containe a frame of doctrins which are built vpon the granting of the former or thus they are distinguished from them These are parts of Theologie whereas the Word of God is not a part but principiuÌ„ cognoscendi the foundation of Theologie The doctrines concerning the Scriptures are not properly Articles of Faith but grounds or the foundation of Faith Not things to bee beleeued so much as things by which we beleeue I Beleeue in God Psal 11. 1. HItherto of our duty in the first word I beleeue The doctrine to be beleeued followes and it concernes either God or the Church The doctrine that concernes God lookes vpon him either as Father or Sonne or holy Ghost In the first Person of the Trinity Faith sees and wonders at his Nature his Relation his Power and his Workes His Nature in the Word God his Relation in the word Father his Power in the word Almighty and his Workes in the words Creator of heauen and earth The first thing we are to studie to know and beleeue is God This is the first doctrine of the Creed
makes sufficient payment to Gods iustice and ouercomes death for vs and that by reason of the worthinesse of his person It is more for Christ to die one houre than for all the world to be dead for euer For it is in this as it is in a prison into which many debtors are cast It is an euerlasting prison to such as cannot pay their debts but it is but a temporarie prison to such as either by themselues or any other make full payment of what is owing 6. That by his death he might make a medicine to kill sinne in vs which might so eat downe the power of sinne that it should no more reigne in vs and so by degrees abolish sinne He died that we might die to sinne by the vertue of his death Rom. 6. 7. That thereby he might buy life for the world He gaue his flesh for the life of the world euen to purchase eternall life for the elect world Ioh. 6. 51. 8. That many sonnes might be borne to God Christ was like seed falling from heauen to the earth and there dying it quickned and brought forth many sonnes to God Esay 53. 10. Ioh. 12. 24. yea the doctrine of Christ dead for our sins is still like to diuine seed falling into our hearts which conuerts men and turnes them to God Thus of the Reasons Now what vse may we make of the consideration of the death of Christ Many things we may learne from hence 1. It should teach vs to be stedfast in the faith and to beleeue and trust vpon Gods mercies for Christ died for our sinnes and therefore wee are certainly reconciled vnto God 1 Cor. 15. 3. Rom. 5. 10. And God doth assure vs of so much in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Matth. 26. 2. We should neuer be afraid of Death and Hell 1 Thess 5. 9 10. Christ by dying for vs hath deuoured and euen swallowed vp Death and Hell so as they shall neuer hurt vs. As the fire consumes the stubble so by wonderfull Art Christ by dying hath consumed all the forces and power of Death and the sting of it 1 Cor. 15. 54. Heb. 2. 15. 14. Death as a curse was laid vpon Christ that our death might be blessed to vs. 3. It should maruellously inflame our hearts with the admiration of the loue of Christ to vs 1 Ioh. 3. 16. 4. Henceforth we that liue should not liue to our selues but to him that died for vs and carry our selues as men that are dead to the world and the sinfull pleasures and lusts thereof and shew the proofe of the vertue of Christs death in vs by the mortification of our sinnes 2 Cor. 5. 15. Rom. 6. 2. 6. 5. It should breed in vs a holy resolution to suffer any thing for his sake euen to forsake Father Mother Wife Children Husband yea and Life it selfe for his sake and the Gospels Iohn 12. 24 25 26. yea it should make vs willing to lay downe our liues one for another if our life may doe seruice to the Church of God and our brethren 1 Ioh. 3. 16. 6 Seeing Christ in death falls to the ground like a dead carkas we should be like spirituall Eagles to flie to it wheresoeuer we finde it whether in the Word or Sacraments and our soules should feed heartily but spiritually vpon it Matth. 24. And seeing God in his ordinances presents vs still with the dead body of his Sonne it should be a meanes to draw all men to it and to gather into one all the children of God that were scattered abroad Iohn 11. 52. and 12. 32 33. 7. The meditation of the death of Christ should make vs in all estates to liue at rest and in a holy security as knowing that Christ died for vs that whether we wake or sleepe we might liue together with him 1 Thess 5. 10. If we liue we liue to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord Whether we liue or die we are the Lords Rom. 14. 7 8. Thus of the generall proposition concerning the death of Christ and the Reasons and Vses of it In the Explication these things are to be confidered 1. Who died 2. Who were the speciall witnesses of his death 3. How he died 4. For whom he died 5. When he died 6. The consequents of his death For the first if we aske who died the Apostle Paul Rom. 8. 34. answers It is Christ which is dead Which is to be obserued the better to stirre vp our hearts to consider both the wonder of it and the reason of it That any other man should die is no wonder because all other men were sinfull and mortall but here Iesus Christ the Righteous who onely hath immortality dies and withall it leads vs to thinke of the reason of it for he did not die nay he could not die if he had beene considered as a priuate person because he deserued not death in his owne person but he died as our suretie and as a publike vndertaker for vs all hee died in our roome But yet we are further to inquire into this question and to consider whether this death belong to the person of Christ or only to his Natures or to each of them he being God and man in one person And in this we must take heed what our hearts answer for though it be true that Christ died in respect of the flesh so as it was only the flesh that suffered death in respect of the Nature that died yet his death belonged to the Word in respect of the Person for the Word the Lord of life and glory suffered and died not in respect of his Diuinitie which is immutable and altogether impassible but in respect of his Humanitie or in his flesh God did not die with the flesh but in the flesh and he died in his flesh that is in that flesh which was vnited to the diuine Nature If the flesh of Christ were the flesh of the Sonne of God then his dying in the flesh doth belong to him as the Sonne of God Thus his bloud is said to be the Bloud of God Act. 20. 28. and this we must needs beleeue for else his death as a bare man could not haue beene of sufficient merit for all our sinnes There is yet one thing more to be thought on about this Question and that is that the Humanitie that is the soule and flesh of Christ did in death and after death remaine in the Person of the Sonne of God firmely vnited Though the Soule was disvnited from the Body yet neither Body nor Soule were dis-vnited from the Person of the Sonne of God The parts of the Humane Nature were diuided in death one from another so as one was on earth and the other in heauen but yet both of them remained and subsisted in the Diuine Nature else if in death there had beene a new manner of subsisting Christ had had two Persons as well as two Natures which is Heresie to
he beleeued the man answered as the Church beleeued and the diuell asking him how the Church beleeued he answered as I doe and hereupon the diuell ranne away and was vanquished And it mâ—y well bee the diuell durst aske him no more questions for feare least he should get out of his Snare now that by these answers he had made it manifest he was fast in for hee that takes not in the doctrine of faith parâ—icularly takes it not in at all for as the Childe may starue though you set before it a whole loafe of bread or other prouision if you cut it not for him bit by bit so is it with vs in beleeuing To set the body of faith before vs and not teach vs how after it is diuided to take any part is to starue our soules To bee short then we must looke to it that we vnderstand and beleeue these Articles not in the whole lumpe onely but in the partes not by trusting to other mens iudgements but distinctly taking notice of each doctrine of faith our selues 4. We must beleeue all the Articles of the faith totally not in some parts onely faith is copulatiue heere we must beleeue all or none He cannot be sound in the faith that is corrupted in his iudgement about any these Articles faith that is a sound faith beleeues all that is written 5. We must beleeue with application It is not inough to beleeue that these doctrines are true or good but wee must beleeue that they belong to each of vs in particular or else we shall haue little profit or comfort by them What can it comfort vs to beleeue that these things are or that others shall haue the benefit of them if they belong not to vs Thus I must beleeue that I haue the benefit of Gods power or prouidence and of Christs Incarnation and Passion and exaltation and that I am a member of the Church and haue my parte in his priuiledges This is a maine thing to be attained for a reprobate may goe so farre to beleeue that these doctrines are true 6. We must beleeue with all Christian simplicity which should haue two things in it first wee must cast away all trust in our owne merits It is a compounded and corrupted faith that beleeues any of these things vpon the perswasion of his owne merits or deserts To beleeue aright and merit cannot stand together true faith casteth out merit For if they which are of the law inherit any of these treasures then faith is void and the promise and gift of Gods grace of none effect Rom. 4. 14. secondly we must beleeue so as we will giue glory to God though the things to bee beleeued bee neuer so vnlikely to carnall reason or be things absent and not yet giuen or things aboue our vnderstanding in the full glory of them our faith must not bee curious or vnquiet to binde God to giue vs a reason of his promises or actions Herein we must take heede that the Serpent beguile vs not nor seduce vs from the simplicity that is in Christ Iesus 2. Cor. 11. 3. Yea this is the glory and triumph of faith in these things without doubting to giue glory to God Our faith must bee the substance of things hoped for and the demonstration of things not seene Wee must beleeue eternall life though we must die and a blessed resurrection though we shall be rotten in the graue and that we are Iustified though sinne yet dwell in vs and that we are blessed though yet exposed to much miseries c. 7. We must beleeue with full assurance wee must not wauer or doubt but bee fully resolued and established in the perswasion of these things and our right in them Colos 2. 2. 1. Thes 1. 4. this we ought to labour for and this may bee had and therefore we should giue all diligence to get this full assurance of faith I grant that a lesse degree of faith may be true faith as shall bee shewed afterwards but yet this is that which we should striue for that we may effectually glorifie God by beleeuing 8. We must beleeue with perseuerance we must so giue entertainement to these sacred truthes now as that wee also meane to liue and die in this faith The faith that is temporarie will little auaile vs we must so prouide that our faith may last to the end And therefore the word is I do beleeue in the present time not I haue beleeued or I will beleeue to note that there must be no time wherein a Christian may truely say now I beleeue not Now that we may not be deceiued herein we must looke to three things First that we cast off all carnall ends in our profession of faith and looke to it that wee take not vp the profession of religion for sinister respects as many haue done for such ends as these to wit to get credit and the fauour of men or to make themselues capable of the preferment of this world or to shew their gifts or which is worse to couer secret wicked practises or open faults Secondly that we build not our Faith vpon wrong Causes or grounds such as are the respect of any mans person or opinion or the intising words of mens wisedome or the meere colours and probabilities of mens arguments but be sure we place our Faith vpon the Word of God Thirdly that we be not deceiued with the seeming effects of Faith but learne to distinguish betweene the force of the Word vpon our hearts when we are meerely as it were patients and the force of the Word working a habit or action in vs. I expresse my meaning thus Many a man liues in a place where the word is taught in the power and glory of it comes to heare without any care or purpose to regard or profit by it yet the truth in the deliuerie of it so shines in his heart that he is not only conuinced but for the time delighted and heares with great gladnesse as feeling his heart to be warmed with the doctrine he heares yet cares not for it when he is gone away nor makes any vse of it at all as being destitute of any gift by which he should receiue or apply the doctrine so that this heat in his heart did not arise from any habit in him receiuing the Word and making vse of it but onely from the forcible penetration of the doctrine As a stone that is heated by the beames of the Sunne that neither had heat in it selfe before nor keepes heat when the Sunne hath done shining but is a meere patient Now this hearer hath not so much as a temporarie Faith for he that hath the temporarie Faith hath a kinde of habit be gotten in him so as he doth receiue the doctrine and keepe it after a sort and from the force of it so kept doth bring forth some fruit and so the seede receiued into his heart is like grasse vpon the house top or seede sowen
1000. yeares in our age since the Gospell was restored many men haue laboured mightily to assigne either the yeare or at least the age when these things should be As those that assigned the yeare 1587. which experience hath proued false It had beene much to haue beene wished that diuers Writers vpon the Reuelation which are held in good fame in the Church had forborne that curiositie of computation in reckoning so strictly by yeares for it doth much hurt in the mindes of weake Christians when either experience or reason beats them from those grounds which they haue sucked in from such writings There is a tradition that sticks in the minds of many pretended to come from one Elias not Elias the Thisbite that the world should last 6000. yeares 2000. before the Law 2000. vnder the Law and 2000. after the Law and then the end shall be only for the elects fake those dayes should be shortned Now this is a manifest dotage for it was more than 2000. yeares before the Law and lesse than 2000. yeares vnder the Law as the Learned know How then shall we beleeue this tradition to be true for the time to come that is proued false for the time past And as for the shortning of the time for the elect that is spoken by our Sauiour about the destruction of Ierusalem not about the end of the world To let goe then all these false opinions the iudgement of such as speake according to the Scriptures containes three assertions 1. That God hath precisely set and appointed the time and day when he will iudge the world by Christ this appeares by Scripture Act. 17. 31. Heb. 9. 27. and God will haue this knowne both for the consolation of his seruants that they may haue hope in their afflictions and to leaue the wicked without excuse that being warned will not repent and to driue out of the godly securitie that so they may keepe themselues in the good way and walke in the feare of God watching and prouiding for that day 2. That this Iudgement day shall be in the end of the world and not before therefore it is said in Scripture it shall be at the last day Quest But why doth God put off the generall Iudgment so long not call men to an account til after some thousands of yeares after some of them died Answ First God hath vnsearchable respects of his owne glory in dispatching by his prouidence the great businesse that concerns the rising or alteration of things in the state of mankinde As in disposing of the Monarchies of the world the kingdome of Antichrist raised and ruined the reiection and recalling of the Iewes and such like which will not be effected till the day which he hath appointed for the comming of Christ Secondly it is put off so long that the elect may be all gathered it being Gods pleasure to gather them by ordinarie meanes so as the Iust haue a time to be borne liue heare the word fulfill their measure of worke c. Thirdly it is put off for the more effectuall triall of the faith and patience of Gods elect and exercise of their hope and prayer Fourthly that he might by the confession of all men be iustified in this that he hath allowed vnto the world space and time enough to repent in Rom. 2. 4. and 9. 22. 2 Pet. 3. 9. and therefore if wicked men doe not repent they may be left without excuse and the rather seeing he can no way be charged to proceed in iudgement against them rashly or with more respect of his owne Iustice seeing before he passeth the finall sentence he staies so exceeding long Fifthly as he glorifies his mercy in sauing the elect and his iustice in damning the wicked so doth he by his exceeding long stay glorifie his patience and clemencie 3. That the precise day moneth or yeare when this Iudgement shall be is knowne to no man or Angell Mark 13. 32. Act. 1. 7. Quest. But seeing God will haue vs certaine that there is a time for Iudgement why will he haue vs vncertaine when it shall be Answ That thereby he may teach vs at all times to watch and striue to be prepared He will not let vs know what day it shall be that we may be euery day prepared And besides he thereby the better exerciseth our faith and patience and making vs lay hold on his promises without limiting him to times and seasons And therefore we should make this vse of it and restraine our curiofitie and neuer search or inquire after that which God will not haue vs to know but looke to our taske for it is our dutie to thinke it neere at hand and therefore to get oyle into our lamps to be ready when the Bridegroome shall come and to stand alwaies vpon our watch like the wise Master of the house that keeps all things carefully because he knowes not when the theefe may assault his house Mark 13. 32 to the end Matth. 24. 42 43. and 25. 3 4. If Christians were taught to say it was the last time when S. Iohn wrote to them how much more cause haue wee to thinke wee liue in the last time vpon whom the ends of the world are more apparently come Another question is moued about those words Mark 13. 32. How it was true that the Sonne of Man himselfe did not know the day and houre of his owne last comming Diuers answers haue beene giuen to this question As first hee did not know it that is hee did not know it so as to make vs know it or it was no part of that knowledge which as the Prophet of the Church he was bound to make knowne to vs as in that speech The Lord your God proues you that hee may know that is that hee may make you know c. and when wee say O Lord arise we meane make vs arise and such like phrases are vsed in Scripture or their answer is that as our Sauiour assumed diuers infirmities of ours yet without sinne so did hee assume ignorance Ignorance I say of some things that were not necessarie for him as man to know which belongs onely to the estate of Humiliation for now hee is glorified and hath laid downe all infirmities he now in heauen as man knowes both the day and houre Thirdly it may be answered that as Man he could not know it without reuelation from his Diuinitie and therefore if the Sonne of Man did then know it it was not a knowledge that belonged to his Humane Nature in it selfe but he had that knowledge giuen him from his Diuine Nature Thus of the time For the place where the Iudgement shall be we haue nothing in particular certaine of the Scriptures Some men haue thought that it should be held in the valley of Iehoshaphat which was a place neere to Ierusalem and to that purpose they alledge the words of the Prophet Ioel Chap. 3. 2. But this opinion is rash and
Creeds Ibid. The Word of God not handled in the Creed why page 41 Christs actiue obedience not mentioned in the Creed why page 303 Customes of the Country to bee obserued page 441 A fearefull example for such as curse page 377 D. DAmned in hell suffer 4. things page 530 Dangers of life sustained by Christ for diuers ends â—24 Darknesse vpon the whole earth how page 403 What this did signifie Ibid. Death of the godly more comfortable then the life of the wicked page 385 Death of Christ page 415 418 eight reasons of it page 416 Christ by his Death did abolish the power of death Ibid. How Christ frees vs from eternall Death seeing he suffred it not page 416 Christs Death teacheth vs seuen things page 417 Whether Christ Dyed in his humanity or diuinity page 419 The manner how Christ Dyed page 420 Death of Christ painfull Ibid. For whom he Dyed page 4â—4 When he Dyed page 426 The Dead Body of Christ not forsaken page 437 Death not to be feared page 417 Christ Derided for three reasons page 393 How God departs from men page 99 Christs Descension our ascension page 431 Diuell workes strange mischiefs from small beginnings page 330 Diuels companions of wicked men page 528 Diuel policy to make men suspect Christs Diuinity page 238 Diuels cannot take vs out of Christs hand page 239 Disciples Fishers of men page 466 Disciples drousinesse page 343 Christ preserues his Disciples safe from the Souldiers page 349 Diues message is sent to vs. page 531 What Doctrine is vnwholsome page 4 True Doctrine vnwholsome how Ibid. Dreames offoure sorts page 374 Dreame of Pilats Wife page 375 Dreames how wee may giue heede to them Ibid. E. AS Eagles we must flye to the dead Carcase page 418 Earth trembles at Christs death to signifie three things page 432 Earth six things admirable in the making thereof page 182 Seuen vses from hence page 183 In the Earth foure things admirable Earth-quakes how they come page 173 Ecclesiasticall courts corruption and iniustice in them page 358 Elect Gods goodnesse to them in foure things page 68 Enemies Christ prayes for them page 422 Essence of God page 110 Diuers Essences Ibid. Eternall how so called page 101 Eternity described by Boetius Ibid. Eternity of God described and explaned page 102 Difference between eternity and time page 102 Eternity of God proued by Scripture page 103 Doctrine of Gods Eternity should teach vs six things Ibid. Comfortable in fiue respects page 104 Euidence against wicked men at the last day page 522 Exaltation of Christ page 452 His diuine nature how Exalted page 452 His humane nature how Exalted page 453 The benefit that comes to vs by Christs Exaltation Ibid. F. FAith diuersly taken page 18 Profession of Faith hath in it two things Ibid. Implicite Faith a policy of Antichrist page 19 That we may not be deceiued about a temporary Faith we must looke to three things page 22 Effects of Faith differ in the true beleeuer and wicked man how Ibid. Paucity of such as haue true Faith appeares in six things page 24 How farre a temporary Faith goeth and wherein it is sufficient page 25 Tryall of a temporary Faith by diuers questions Ibid. Try whether we be in the Faith or no. page 27. Nine things repugnant to Faith Ib. Some things like Faith which are not page 28 Faith 5. kinds of it page 29 5. Signes of an effectuall Faith page 30 10. Effects of Faith Ibid. Assurance of Faith comfortable page 32 Extraordinary effects of Faith page 33 Faith procureth admirable things for our selues Ibid. For others page 34 Faith is our life in diuers respects Ibid. A christians Faith opposed in many things Ibid. Godly men offend about Faith in eight things page 35 Three meanes to breed Faith page 36 Le ts of Faith page 37 They that haue Faith must looke to two things Ibid. Faith wrought by degrees page 39 Foure things considered about a weake Faith Ibid. Signes of a weake Faith page 39 Signes of a true though weake Faith page 40 Comforts against weaknesse of Faith Ibid. Labour for growth in Faith Ibid. Ground of Faith the Word of God page 41 Concerning this ground we must resolue of fiue things Ibid. Faith of the godly shall neuer faile page 355 A right Faith in Christ breeds adoration and worship of Christ page 469 Faith and hope not in Christ page 254 Faithfull rest vpon God three wayes page 114 Father How attributed to God page 128 God a Father six wayes Ibid. God the Father of Christ proued and opened page 129 This teacheth vs three things page 131 It is comfortable in eight particulars page 132 God our Father foure wayes page 133 Hee is our Father by way of resemblance page 133 Faith lookes vpon God as Father in Christ page 134 Six signes of these who haue God to their Father Ibid. God is our Father this teacheth vs twelue things page 135 Acknowledge God as a Father page 134 Goe vnto him in all wants page 135 This is comfortable in diuers things page 136 God more then an ordinary Father page 137 Want of Feare of God the cause of all disorder 407 Christ layed downe infirmities of the Flesh but not the Flesh it selfe page 453 Fishing of the Disciples teach vs diuers things page 467 Wicked men Foolish page 356 Christ Forsaken in two respects page 396 Two obiections answered Ibid. Forsaken by all for soure reasons page 350 Fiuerules to be obserued in if we would prosper in the Fruitfulnesse of these outward things page 188 Cost in Funerals of Saints not vnlawfull page 440 Fowlâ—s of the ayre page 168 Gods care for them in Fiue things Ibid. What vses they serue for Ibid. They teach vs three things page 169 G. CHrist chose the Garden to begin his Passion in of purpose page 336 He was buried in a Garden why page 435 He put off his Garments before his sufferings for seuen reasons page 389 God Doctrine concerning God to be knowne for fiue reasons page 42 True knowledge of God hindred in six things page 44 We are vnable to conceiue of God for nine reasons page 46 God makes himselfe knowne seuen waies page 47 God is knowne diuers waies by seuerall things page 49 God knowne to man foure wayes Ibid He is described Ibid. Seuen rules for the attaining to the knowledge of God page 51 Three things to bee auoided in inquirong after the nature of God page 53 Many things spoken of God by way of likenesse page 55 Gods properties of two rankes Ibid. Foure things in Gods Nature matchlesse Ibid. Life of God admirable in three respects Ibid. This teacheth vs eight things page 56 Knowledge of God to bee admired in eight respects page 57 God the Fountaine of all wisdome page 58 Gods knowledge infinite Ibid. And most perfect as appeares in foure things page 59 God knowes all things at one view page 60 Consideration of Gods knowledge is vsefull page 61