not believe the Articles of the Creed do we not believe the first four generall Councels we do who then will not say that these are sufficient being understood and believed to make a man that he be no heretick I may answer hence another question whether a Papist may be saved or no It is a curious question you will say but it is so ordinary that somewhat I must say I answer no doubt but many of them are saved How comes that to passe They reverse their false grounds and stick to those positive truthes that they and we hold together they reject their owne workes and help of Saints and go to Christ onely for as I said Poperie is full of contradictions Now a Papist when he comes to have his conscience awakened heleaves the Pope Indulgencies their 5. Sacraments Justification by works and then imbracheth only Christ and then he comâ—… our part They live by their Religion and die by ours So the question is whether living or dying Luther saith If they live and die peremptorily in all the points professed in the Tridentine Counsell they cannot But no doubt many of them the Lord hath mercy on to open their eyes to see the vanity of their works and of all their fooleries which those that are wise and have their consciences enlightened turn off then and so may be saved but it must be with reversing the grounds of their religion and sticking to ours which is agreeable to the Word Nay to speak a little more of it I say we do more safely believe we are more safe and on better grounds led into some lesse errours then they do believe maine truths It may seeme strange but it is most true For if so be a sound Protestant maintain an errour it is because he thinks it is in the Scripture that it is in the Word if it be discovered out of the Word of God to be an errour he leaves it as St. Cyprian and other Fathers blessed Saints in heaven they held some errours but if they saw the Scripture held otherwise they had prepared minds to believe otherwise therefore holding the maine fundamentall truths though they held particular errours they were saved The Papists maintaine fundamentall truths with us they believe the Word of God they believe in Christ and to be saved by mercy but upon what grounds They believe the truth upon heretical divellish grounds As upon what grounds do they believe the Articles of the faith to be so and the Scriptures to be so because the Church saith so Who is the Church but the Pope And what man is the Pope oft-times A man if we believe their own Writers led with a divellish spirit some of them have been Magicians If they believe the truth they do it not as divine truth they believe the truth for matter but the grounds of believing those truths are humane nay worse many times divellish for you know in the Revelation the beast is inspired with the spirit of the Dragon with the spirit of the Divell and teacheth the doctrine of Divels Now to teach that which is materially true upon reasons that are diabolicall or humane at the best it is but humane as the testimony of the Church is what an unsafe thing is this Nay I say it is the most horrible witchery the most horrible abomination one of them that ever was since the beginning of the World this principle that their Church cannot erre that is the reason of the believing of all divine truths Hereupon they come to practise most abominable treacheries hereupon they defend lies hereupon they kill Princes and dissolve the bonds of allegiance that Subjects owe to Princes And all humane and Divine things all the light of nature and Scripture all becomes a nullitie Why because the Church cannot erre And this they have from their holy Father the Pope he is above all Councells and all and cannot erre We know if principles be false all other things are false an errour in principles is a dangerous errour An errour in the ground is the worst thing in the VVorld As to maintaine treason to be lawfull it is worse then to be a Traitor for his judgement is convinced alreadie but he that maintaines a false principle he is a dangerous man indeed So to have this abominable principle that the Church that the Pope cannot erre Hence come all those dangerous practices in this Common-VVealth ever since the beginning of Queen Elisabeths time Who would have thought but that God gave up bitter proud poisonfull spirits vain spirits that rejected the Word of God that men of parts and understanding should ever be so sotted to believe such a thing that a wretched ignorant man should get into the Chaire and he should judge infallibly of the truths that he never knew in his life being of another profession as some are Canonists and not Divines But I leave that point To touch one thing more that borders a little upon this that Divine truth is of an inflexible nature whatsoever men think of it and that crosseth another rule of theirs that they will give what sense they will of Scriptures and the Current of the present Church must judge of all former Councels Now doth truth vary according to mens judgements according to the pcesent Church Must we bring the rule to the crooked timber or the timber and the things to be measured to the rule Shall the judgment of any man be the rule of truth shall it be the rule in one time and not in another shall present men interpret it thus and say it is so now and others that succeed say whatsoever it was now thus it must be believed Hereupon likewise if it be the constant nature of truth alway to be believed hereupon it comes to crosse another thing their dispensation no man can dispense with Gods Law truth is truth indispensible Laws divine and naturall are indispensible because they are alike in all things Reason is reason in Turkie as well as here the light of nature is the light of nature in any countrey as well as here Principles of nature varie not as languages do they are inbred things If the Principles of nature be invariable and indispensible much more divine principles saith the Heathen filthinesse is filthinesse whether thou think it to be so or no. Opinion is not the rule of things but the nature of the thing it self Therefore whatsoever is against nature none can dispense with God cannot deny himself What was naught in one age is naught in another and is for ever naught Whatsoever is divine or natural is indispensible No Monarch in the world can dispense with the law of nature or the Divine Law the Word of God for the opinion of any man in the world is not the rule of his course but the undoubted light of God whether the light of nature or the light of Divine truth I speak this the rather to crosse base
after there is inward intrinsical grounds in the Word that make us to know the Word without the Church Now they would have the authority of the Word depend upon the Church and so over-rule mens consciences in that case Whereas all that the Church hath is a leading inducing perswading to hear the Word under which Word and Ordinance we shall see such light and majestie in the Scriptures that from inward grounds we shall be perswaded that the Word of God is the Word of God Therefore the Church is the first inducer to believe the Word of God not the last object to which all is resolved For they themselves crosse it in their tenents when they speak discreetly Is this opinion so and so The Church holds it but what authority hath the Church to maintain it where is the authority of your Church then they bring some place of Scripture I will be with you to the end of the world And He that heareth you heareth me c. I do but a little discover to you the danger of this errour They make the Word of God to be believed because the Church saith so they make truth to be believed because their man of sin whom they depend upon saith so Do we believe the Trinity or that Christ is our Redeemer because the Church saith so should we not believe it except the Church say so what if the Church teach the Doctrine of Devils as they do they cannot shake it off we must believe because the Church saith so so upon equal grounds they shall teach the Doctrine of Devils and the Doctrine of Christ because the Church saith so As it was said anciently he that believes two things the one for the other he believes not two but one in effect because he believes the one for the other So in effect they believe nothing but the Church that is themselves believe the truth to be divine because they say so so they may believe any devillish errour because they say so so any treason or rebellion must go current because they say so because they cannot erre Yyou see how they domineer over the faith of others shall not Christ be Christ nor God be God nor the Devil be the Devill except the Church say so Again in the very matters themselves in the points that themselves do not urge the Church of Rome domineers and tyrannizeth over the souls of people For example they hold that the intention of a Minister in the Sacrament makes it effectual What a fear doth this breed in the souls of men that they know not whether they be baptized or no because it must be in the intention of the Minister And then in confession they must confesse all what a tyranny is this to the souls of people when perhaps there is somewhat that they have not confessed and so their confession is of no worth And in satisfaction perhaps I have not made satisfaction enough by their injunction laid on me and therefore I must satisfie in hell what a rack is this to conscience So what a rack to conscience is that opinion that the Pope cannot erre when I cannot tell perhaps whether he be the right Pope or no if he came in by Simony or is not in Cathedra and many conditions they have to salve that Point If any of those conditions be not observed he is not the man he should be what tyranny do they force upon people over their faith Therefore they are called in the Revelations scorpions indeed they are spiritual Scorpions that sting the souls of Gods people The Devil is the King of darknesse and is not he the Prince of darknesse that maintains ignorance of the Word of God that all his old tenents and opinions may have the better sway that he may sit in the blind and dark consciences of people It is said 2. Thess. 2. that he sits in the Temple of God that is in the Church nay he labours to have another Temple to sit in mans soul which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost It is not sufficient for him that is the man of sin to have any other place he must sit in the very souls and consciences of men Satan hath a special malice to sit in the place of God since he was turned out of heaven and cannot come thither he will come to that place if he can upon earth where God should be and where will God be God will especially be in the hearts of his people in the souls and consciences of his people Conscience is Gods throne Satan being thrust out of heaven labours to stablish his throne there Now they that are Satans vicars led with his spirit they are of the same mind let them be what kind of great ones they will they desire to sit in Gods throne in the conscience and if a man will not tie his conscience to them he is no body to them This is the property of Antichrist in the highest degree as far as any are addicted to this that they will not be satisfied but the consciences of men must be tied to them they must deny all honesty and justice and law and all to please them and to gratifie them with particular kindnesse so farre they are led with the spirit of Antichrist and of the Devil himself who labours to sit in Gods throne that is in the hearts and consciences of people And therefore as I said they labour to keep people in darknesse for this very purpose that people may let them into their consciences and rule them as they please As Sampson when they had put out his eyes they led him to base services so do they with Gods people they put out their eyes and then they lead them to grind in the mill to all the base services they can It is not to be spoken of the brutish slavery and ignorance that is in Spain and other Countreys where that Devillish Inquisition reigns which is a great help to Popish Tyranny What should I speak of the state of the Romish Church indeed the main scope of it is to subdue all to them to subdue all Kings and Kingdomes to them that is the grand scope of the greatest of them others have their particular scope for their bellies and base ends but those among them that have brains that are Governours their scope is to bring all under their girdle and how shall they do this They cannot bring their persons but they must bring their consciences for where the conscience is the person will follow presently therefore they labour to lay a tie upon the conscience of Prince and people upon all that so they may domineer and rule over their consciences And for that end they labour to nourish them up in blindnesse for by blindnesse they rule in the conscience and ruling their conscience they may rule their persons and Kingdomes This is their main scope this hath been their plot for many hundred years So
a hair cannot fall from my head without his providence much lesse can the disposing of my calling which is a greater matter therefore I will seek his glory and frame my self and courses answerable to the will of him by whose will I am in this place Men have not their callings onely to get riches and to get preferment those are base ends of their own to serve themselves God placeth us in our particular callings not to serve our selves but to serve him and he will cast in those riches honour preferment dignity and esteem so much as is fit for us in the serving of him in our places The other party in the inscription from whom the Epistle is is Timothy our Brother HE sends his Epistle from Timothy as well as from himself This he doth to win the more acceptance among the Corinthians by the consent of so blessed a man as Timothy was who was an Evangelist Unitie by consent is stronger And there is a natural weaknesse in men to regard the consent and authority of others more then the things themselves And indeed if God himself in heavenly love and mercy condescend to help our weaknesse much more should all that are led by the Spirit of God We are subject to call in question the truths of God therefore he helps us with Sacraments and with other means and allurements and although that be truth that he saith yet because he would undermine our distrustful dispositions by all means he useth those courses So S. Paul that they might respect what he wrote the more as from a joynt spirit he writes Paul and Timothy our Brother It was an argument of much modestie and humility in this blessed Apostle that he would not of himself seem as it were to monopolize their respect as if all should look to him but he joyns Timothy with him so great an Apostle joynes an inferiour There is a spirit of singularity in many they will seem to do all themselves and carry all themselves before them and they will not speak the truths that others have spoken before them without some disdain As a proud Critick said I would they had never been men that spake our things before we were that we might have had all the credit of it Oh no those that are led with the Spirit of God they are content in modestie and humility to have others joyned with them and they know it is available for others likewise they will respect the truth the more And thus far we yield to the Papists when we speak of this whether the Church can give authority to the Word of God or no. In regard of us the Church hath some power in regard of our weaknesse but what is that power It is an inducing power an alluring power a propounding power to propound the mysteries of salvation but the inward work the convincing power is from the Evidence of the Spirit of God and from the Scripture it self All that the Church doth is to move to induce and to propound this quoad nos it hath some power in the hearts of men The Church thus far gives authority to the Scriptures in the hearts of men though it be an improper phrase to say it gives authority for as the men said to the woman of Samaria Now we believe it our selves not because thou toldest us c. The Church allures us to respect the Scriptures but then there is an inward Power an inward Majestie in the Scriptures and that bears down all before it Again here is a ground why St. Paul alledged humane authority sometimes in his Epistles and in his dealing with men because he was to deal with men that would be shamed the more with them Any thing that may strengthen the truth in regard of the weaknesse of those with whom we have to deal may be used in a heavenly policy One of your own Prophets saith St. Paul Tit. 1. towards the end And so in the Acts of the Apostles he quotes a saying out of an Atheist Timothy our Brother Brother he means not only by Grace but by calling As we know in the Law and other professions those of the same profession are called before Brethren So Timothy was St. Pauls Brother not only by Grace but by calling and two bonds binde stronger Here is a treble bond Nature Grace Calling They were men they were fellow Christians and they were teachers of the Gospel therefore he saith Timothy our Brother Timothy was an Evangelist yet notwithstanding it was a greater honour to him to be a Brother to St. Paul then to be an Evangelist an Hypocrite may be an Evangelist but a true Brother of St. Paul none but a true Christian can be All Christians are Brethren It is a word that levels all for it takes down the Mountains and fills up the Vallies the greatest men in the World the mountains if they be Christians they are Brethren to the lowest and it fills up the Vallies the lowest if they be Christians are Brethren to the Highest howsoever in worldly respects they cease in death as personal differences and differences in calling they all cease in death All are Brethren therefore he useth it for great respect St Paul was a great Apostle Timothy an inferiour man yet both Brethren Timothy our Brother To the Church of God at Corinth VVE have seen the persons from whom Paul and Timothy Now here are the persons to whom To the Church of God at Corinth Corinth was a very wicked City as where there is a great confluence of many people there is a contagion of many sins of the people and yet notwithstanding in this Corinth there was a Church For as Christ saith No man can come to me except my Father draw him so where the Father will draw who can draw back Even in Corinth God hath his Church he raiseth up a generation of men a Church which is a company of creatures differing as much from the common as men do from Beasts And yet such is the Power and Efficacy of the blessed Gospel of Salvation having the Spirit of God accompanying it that even in Corinth a wretched City this Word and this Spirit raised up a company of men called here by the name of a Church and Saints And such power indeed hath the Word of God with the Spirit not only in wicked places but in our wicked hearts too Let a man have a world of wickednesse in him and let him come and present himself meekly and constantly to the means of Salvation and God in time by his Spirit will raise a new frame of grace in his heart he will make a new Creation As at the first he created all out of nothing order out of confusion so out of the heart which is nothing but a Chaos of confusion of blindnesse and darknesse and terror there is a world of confusion in the heart of man God by his creating Word for his Word of the Gospel is creating as well
himself for they run from the Church essentiall to to the Church representative they run to Councels and when we force them with Councels that they may erre then the Pope he is the Church virtually so I say the Church their mother is nothing but the Pope their father and what manner of men they have been Histories tell us well enough We see on what ground they build Jesus Christ that is the Gospel by him is not yea and nay but yea that is it is certainly and infallibly and eternally true Hereupon we may answer that curious question that hath been and now is every where How we may know that our Church was before Luther's time or no as they idly say How we may know that the faith that we professe is the ancient faith I answer hence take these grounds First there is but one faith men have varied but faith hath not varied as S. Austin saith well for there is but one faith as there is one God one heaven and one happinesse There was one faith from Adam The times vary but not the faith of the times the same fundamental truth hath been in all times Sometimes it hath been more explicated and unfolded as we have the Canon inlarged now in the time of the New Testament in many books There is not a new faith but a larger explication of the old faith Divine truth is alway the same It was one faith from the beginning of the world from the first promise to Adam in Paradise till now Abraham believed as we do now so they were all saved by faith Heb. 11. Even as there is one Catholike Church consisting of all the members the triumphant being the greater part from the beginning of the world to the end of the world so there is one faith take that for a ground Indeed the Church varies as a man varies when he is a child and when he is a man he hath one manner of cloathes when he is a child and another when he is a man so the Church varies in cloathes it was cloathed with Ceremonies then which were cast off in Christ but this is but a variation of garments the Church had one faith Hereupon comes a second there is one Catholike Church that is built on that one faith one essential Church one Catholike company rhat believe in Christ from the beginning of the world to the end of the world which we believe in the Apostles Creed Well then this being so as it is undeniable that it is so what Church is built upon that one faith that was yea in the Apostles and was yea before then as the Apostle saith here Our Preaching was yea certain and true you may build on it what Church builds on that that Church all the while hath been for there is but one faith and one truth that runs along in all ages which is the seed of the Church therefore there must be a Church in all ages that is a branch of the Catholike Church why The Church must be built upon that one faith therefore all particular Churches before us that were branches of the general Church were built upon that preaching of the Apostle which he saith was yea There is but one faith and therefore all Churches that are true are built upon that one faith If we can prove that the Apostolicall doctrine agrees with our times that ours hath consanguinity with the Apostles doctrine then our Church was before we were ever since the Apostles it hath been alway yea for there is but one truth The Church is built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and Christ saith Matth. 16. when Peter said to Christ Thou art the Son of God c. saith he Thou art Peter and upon this Rock that is upon this confession of thine will I build my Church So the confession of faith is the Rock of the Church Now there is alway one Rock of the Church that is alway yea if our Church be built upon that Rock then it is founded upon Apostolicall doctrine upon the Prophets and Apostles it was before we were and if there were any Church then it was ours which professeth that one faith If we conjure the Papists they are silent they dare say nothing Dare they say their doctrine is nearer Apostolical then ours they dare not say but ours is nearer why then our Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles why so All the Churches since have been built upon one foundation because there is one faith and one Church unity of faith makes the unity of the Church The seed of the Church is the Gospel is Divine truth now if Divine truth hath been alway there hath been a Church alway and if there hath been a Church alway there hath been Divine truth that hath been yea alway Now it is an Article of our faith in all times to believe a Catholike Church therefore there is a certain truth that is alwayes yea to be the seed and foundation of that Catholike Church Therefore we must search out what that yea was what was the Apostolical doctrine the positive doctrine in those Apostolical times in the Virgin-times of the Church before the Church was corrupted The Church was not long a Virgin as the Father said What was the yea of those truths some there must be alway that held Apostolical truths in all ages Our Church holds that positive truth that the Apostles held for directly in so many words we defend the Apostolical faith out of the Apostles Therefore we say our Church was before Luther because our doctrine is Apostolical and the Church continually hath been Apostolical because it was built upon the Apostles doctrine Our Church hath no doctrine in the positive fundamental points of it contrary therefore our Church hath continued Put case we cannot name the men as idly and ridiculously they urge what is that to the purpose shall we go from ignorance of particular men to ignorance of the Church we must believe that there is a Catholike Church and there must alway be a positive doctrine and truth the seed of that Church The Papists cavil with us and say we professe a negative Religion Ye cut off our opinions say they but what have you of your own what affirmatives have ye It is most certain that all our affirmatives have been ever since the Apostles time for we and the Papists differ not in affirmatives onely they adde patcheries of their own Religion stands most in affirmatives that is the ground first For we believe negatives because they agree not to affirmatives we believe a lie to be a lie because it is contrary to positive truth and the truth is before a lie the affirmation is before the negation a thing is before the contrary is not This laying for a ground affirmatives being truths our positive truths that we hold have been held in the Apostles times before and since even in
then it though it doe not wholly expel it but the discomfort remains still in some degree it may be said well to be a comfort The reason why I speake of this mittigation is because in this life God never so wholly comforts his Children but there will be flesh left in them and that will murmure and there will be some resistance against comfort while there are remainders of sinne there will be ground of discomfort by reason of the conflict between the flesh and spirit For instance a man hath some crosse on him what saith the flesh God is mine enemy and I will take such and such courses I will not indure this this is the voyce of the flesh of the old man What saith the spirit Surely God is not mine enemy he intends my good by these things So while these fight here is the flesh against the spirit yet here is comfort because the spirit is predominant but it is not fully comfort because there is the old man in him that withstands comfort in the whole measure of comfort Therefore we must take this degree we cannot have the full comfort till we come to Heaven there all teares shall be wiped from our eyes in this world we must be content to have comfort with some griefe the maladie is not wholly purged Sometimes God removes the outward grievance more fully God helps many times altogether as in sickness to health perfectly but I speake not of that Comfort is that which is opposite to miserie and it must be stronger for there is no prevailing but by a stronger when the Agent is not above the Patient there is no prevailing there is a conflict till one have got the masterie The God of all comfort All that is of all comfortable things and of all divine reasons it must be most substantiall comfort The soule in some maladies will not be comforted by Philosophicall reasons saith the Heathen the disease is stronger then the Physick when he considers Platoe's comforts and the like so we may say of the reasons of Philosophical men Romanists and Moralists when they come to terrour of conscience when they come to inward grievances inward stings that are in a man from a mans conscience as all discomforts usually when they press hard it is with a guilty conscience what can al such reasons do to say it is the state of other men and it is in vaine to murmure and I know not what such reasons as Seneca and Plato and others have it will scarce still the conscience for a fit They are ignorant of the root alas how can they tell the remedie when they know not the ground of the maladie It must be God it must be his Word his truth the conscience must know it to be Gods truth and then it will comfort God is the God of comfort of the things and of the reasons they must be his reasons And he also is the Author of that spiritual presence he is with his children when they are in the fire he goes with them into the water as it is in Esay 45. he is with them in the valley of death they shall find God with them to comfort them so there is a kind of presence with Gods comforts and a banishing of all discomfort And this comfort is as large as the maladies as large as the ills are he is a God of comfort against every particular ill if there be diverse ills he hath diverse comforts if they be long ills he hath long comforts if there be strong ills he hath strong comforts if there be new ills he hath new comforts take the ills in what extent and degree you will God hath somewhat to set against them that is stronger then they and that is the blessed estate of Gods Children he is the God of all comfort St. Chrysostome an excellent preacher yields me one observation upon this very place It is the wisdome of a Christian to see how God describes himself there being some thing in God answerable to whatsoever is ill in the world The spirit of God in the scripture sets forth God fitting to the particular occasions speaking here of the misery and the disgraceful usage of St. Paul being taught by the spirit of God he considereth God as a Father of mercies and a God of Comfort Speaking of the vengeance on his enemies the Psalmist saith thou God of vengeance shew thy self In God there is help for every maladie Therefore the wisdom of a Christian is to single out of God what is fitting his present occasion in crosses and miseries think of him as a father of Mercies in discomforts think of him as a God of comfort in perplexities and distresse think of him as a God of wisdom and oppression of others and difficulties which we cannot wade out of think of him as a God and father almighty as a God of vengeance and so every way to think of God appliable to the present occasion And though many of us have no great affliction upon us for the present yet we should lay up store against the evill day and therefore it is good to treasure up these descriptions of God The father of mercies and God of all comfort To explaine the word a little what doth he mean by God in this place That he is the God of comfort that hath a further comfort in it in the very title that is called the God of comfort In that he is called the God of comfort it implyes two things First it shewes that he is a Creator of it that he can work it out of what he will out of nothing And then that he can raise it out of the contrary as he raised light out of darknesse in the creation and in the government of this world he raiseth his Children out of misery As he raised all out of nothing order out of confusion so in his Church he is the God of comfort he can raise comfort out of nothing out of nothing that is likely to yield comfort Put the case that there be neither medicine nor meat nor drink nor nothing to comfort us in this world as we shall have none of these things in heaven he is the God of Comfort that shall supply all our wants As he shall then be all in all so in this world when it is by the manifestation of his glorie when Moses was 40. dayes in the mountain he wanted outward comforts but he had the God of comfort with him and he supplied the want of meat and drink and all other comforts because he is the God of all comfort in him are all comforts originally and fundamentally and if there be none he can create and make them of nothing God as a God properly makes something of nothing that is to be a God for nothing but God can make somewhat of nothing Gods upon earth call men their creatures in a kind of imitation of God but that is but a
phrase that puffs them up they are but Gods in a kind of sence and the other are but creatures in a kind of sence because perhaps they have nothing in them and in that sence deservedly creatures but it is proper to God to make somewhat of nothing and so he is the God of Comfort where there is no comfort at all he can raise comfort as he made the World of nothing by his very Word And which is more it is the property of God as God it is peculiar to God to make comfort out of that which is contrary therein he shews himself most to be a God of all he can raise comfort out of discomfort life out of death When Christ had been three dayes in the grave he raised him As it is with the head of comfort with the head of believers so it is with every particular Christian he raiseth them out of death those that sow in sorrow they reape in joy What cannot he do that can raise comfort out of discomfort and discomforts oftimes are the occasions of the greatest comforts Let a Christian go back to the former course of his life and he shall find that the greatest crosses that ever he suffered will yeeld him most comfort and who did this certainly it must be God that can raise all out of nothing and that can make comfort not only out of comfortable creatures that are ordained for comfort but he can draw honey out of the Lions belly Out of the eater came meat and out of the stronge câ—me sweetnesse saith Sampson in his Riddle When a hony combe shall câ—â—â— out of the Lions belly certainly this is a miracle this may well be a Riddle This is the Riddle of Christianity that God who is the God of comfort he raiseth comforts out of our chief discomforts he can create it out of that which is contrary Therefore Luthers speech is very good All things come from God to his Church especially in contraries as he is righteousnesse but it is in sin felt he is comfort but it is in misery he is life but it is in death we must die before we live indeed he is all but it is in nothing in the soul that feels it self to be nothing there is the foundation for God to work on Therefore the God of comfort can create comfort if none be he can make comfort if the contrary be he can raise contraries out of contraries he is the God of all comfort Every word hath Emphasis and strength in it The God of all Comfort Amongst divers other things that flow from hence mark the order he is the God and Father of Christ first and then the Father of mercy and the God of comfort Take him out of this order and think not of him as a God of comfort but as a Consuming fire but take the method of the text now he is the God of comfort after he is the Father of Christ. This being laid as a ground the text it self as a doctrine what subordinate truths arise hence First of all if God be God of all comfort there is this conclusion hence that Whatsoever the meanes of Comfort be God is the spring of it Christ is the Conduit next to God for he is close to God God is the God of Christ and the Holy Ghost is usually the stream The streams of comfort come through Christ the Conduit from God the Father the fountain by the graces of the Spirit But I speak of outward comforts Blessed be God the Father Son and Holy Ghost all are comforters God the father is the father of comfort the Holy Ghost is the comforter Christ Jesus likewise is the God of Comfort whatsoever the outward meanes be yet God the Father Son and Holy Ghost are the comforters take them together that is the conclusion hence I observe it the rather to cure a disposition to Atheisme in men that look bruitishly to the thing they look to the comfort and never look to the comforter even for outward comforts Wicked men their bellies are filled with the comforts of God but it is with things that are comfortable that are abstracted from the comforter they care not for the root the favour and mercy of God so they have the thing they care not Therefore they are not thankful to God nor in their wants they go not to the God of comfort why they think they have supply enough they have friends they have riches that are their strong hold and if they have outward necessaries to supply and comfort them that is all they care for as for the God of comfort they trouble not their hands with him A Christian whatsoever the comfort be if it be outward he knowes that the God of comfort sends it and that is the reason he is so thankful for all outward comforts if they be the necessaries for this life in meat he tasts the comfort of God in drink he tasts the comfort of God in the ornaments of this life he tasts the comfort of God It is God that heates him with fire it is God that cloaths him with garments it is God that feeds him with meat it is God that refresheth his senses in these comforts Therefore the Heathen out of their Ignorance they made every thing a God that was comfortable out of which they received comfort they made a God of the fire and of the water these are but instruments of the God of comfort but the Heathen made gods of them A Christian doth not so but he sees God in them and drives these streames from the fountain God is seen to be the God of Comfort in them all Again considering that God is The God of all comfort This should teach us as thankfulnesse to God so prayer in the want of any comfort that he would both give the thing and the comfort of the thing We may have the thing and the wrath of God with it but thou that art the God of comfort vouchsafe the outward comforts to us and vouchsafe comfort with them thou that art the God of every thing and of the comfort of the thing vouchsafe both Again if God be the God of all comfort whatsoever then here is a ground of diverse other truthes as for instance that if we look for any comfort from the things or from reasons and discourse or from God we should go to God in the use of the thing before the use after the use at all times before the use that God would suggest either by reading or hearing c. reasons of comfort in the use that he would settle and seal comfort to our souls Lord I hear many sweet things I read many comfortable things these would affect a stone almost yet unlesse thou set them on my soule they will never comfort me thou art the God of comfort the materials are from thee but except with revelation discovery thou joyne application all will not
yet we may build certainly upon them I hope stedfastly that if you be partakers of the sufferings you shall be partakers of the comforts A man cannot say so of any thing else but divine truths a man cannot say of any other or of himself I hope stedfastly to be rich I hope stedfastly to be great or I hope stedfastly to live long the nature of the thing is uncertaine the state of the world is vanitie and life it self and all things here will not admit of a certain apprehension For the certaintie in a mans understanding it follows the certaintie of the thing or else there is no adequation when there is an evenness in the apprehension to the thing then it is true but if we apprehend any thing that is here that either riches or life or favour will be thus or thus long it is no true apprehension we cannot build a certain hope upon an uncertain ground But of divine truthes we can say if we see the one undoubtedly the other will follow if we see the signs of grace in any man that he is strong to indure any disgrace for religion any discomfort then we may say Certainly as you partake of the afflictions of Christ and of the afflictions and sufferings of his people his body mysticall so undoubtedly you shall be partakers of the comfort of Gods people heaven and earth shall faile but this shall never faile Is not this a comfort to a Christian that when he is in the state of grace he hath something that he may build on when all things else faile In all the changes and alterations of this life he hath somewhat unalterable the certainty of divine comforts the certainty of his estate in grace though he be in an afflicted estate as verily as he is afflicted so verily he shall be comforted If we suffer with Christ we shall be glorified with him Upon what ground is this certainty built that if we suffer we shall be glorified It is built upon our union with Christ it is built upon the communion we have with the Church of God we are all of one body and it is built upon his own experience as verily as I have been afflicted and have comfort so shall you that suffer be comforted what I feele you shall feele Because in things necessary there is the like reason from one to all if one be justified by faith all are justified by faith if one suffer and receive comfort all that suffer shall receive comfort Divine comforts are from one to all from the head to the bodie from the body to every member If Christ suffered I shall suffer if I be of his body if Christ was comforted I shall be comforted Divine truths they agree in the head and the Members if it be true in one it is true in all St. Paul felt it in his own person and saith he as I have felt afflictions increase and comforts increase so shall it be with you you shall be partakers of the comfort now or hereafter And it is built likewise upon Gods promise which is surer then heaven and earth If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him as the Apostle saith Rom. 8. All these are grounds to found this stedfast hope on And then the nature of God he is a just God a holy God and when we have taken the ill we shall finde the sweet as in 2 Thess. 1. It is just with God to render to them that afflict you trouble and to you comfort God hath pawned his justice upon it and he will observe this order where he begins in trouble he will end in comfort it is just with God and therefore I may be perswaded It should be a special comfort to all that are in any sanctified cross whether it be for a good cause or no. If a man find that he stands out for a good cause then there is more matter of joy it is matter of triumph then but if they be crosses common to nature if a man find them sanctified as they are onely to Gods Children they learn humility by them they learn heavenly-mindednesse they learn patience they learn more carefulnesse by their afflictions if it be thus sanctified then a man may say to such a one As you partake of the sufferings so you shall partake of the comfort though you feel it not for the present Is it not a comfort for a Patient to have his Physician come to him whom he knowes to be wise and speaks by his book to say to him Be of good comfort you shall never die of this disease this that I give you will do you good there was never any that took this potion but they recovered would not this revive the patient Now when the Physicians of our soules shall come and tell a man by discerning his state to be good by discerning signes of grace in his abasement Be of good comfort there is good intended to you your sufferings shall end in comfort undoubtedly we may well be perswaded of this God will never vary his order Therefore when we are in any trouble find God blessing it to us to abate our pride to sharpen our desire to exercise our graces when we find it sanctified let it comfort us it shall turn to our further comfort We find a present good that is a pledge of a further good It will make a bitter potion to go down when the Physitian saith it will do you good how many distastfull things do poore Creatures endure and take down to cure this carcase it were offensive to name what distastfull things they will take to do them good Let us take this cup from Gods hand let us endure the Crosse patiently whatsoever it be It is a bitter cup but it is out of a Fathers hand it is out of a sweet hand There may be a miscarrying in other Physick but Gods Physick shall certainly do us good God hath said it All things shall work for the best to those that love him he hath said it before-hand we may presume and build our perswasion upon this issue that all things shall worke for our good What a comfort is this in all the entercourses and changes of this life when we know before that whatsoever we meet with it hath a command from God to do us good it is medicinable though it seem never so ill to do us good to work ill out of us by the blessing of God But to proceed VERS 8 9. For we would not Brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired even of life But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead HEre Saint Paul comes to the particular explication of what he had generally spoken before he had generally said before that he had both comfort and
long then we see ere God deliver and why and at the last he will deliver one way or other and therefore let us waite quietly and this the Saints of God have practised in all ages Psal. 62. Yet my soul keep silence to the Lord. He had a shrewd conflict with himself when he saw how good causes were trampled on and he saw the insolence of wicked persons how they lift up their heads Yet my soul keep silence to the Lord. So he begins Psal. 73. Yet God is good to Israel for all this And God chargeth it upon his people that they should waite If I tarry wait thou Hab. 2. 2. And the blessing is promised to those that can wait and not murmur as in Psal. 147. 11. It is a duty that we are much urged to and very hardly brought to the practice of therefore we are to hear it pressed the more Psal. 147. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy in those that trust in his mercy The like you have in many places Isay 30. 18. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious to you therefore he will be exalted that he may have mercy upon you he is a God of judgement Blessed are all that wait for him So in Lament 3. The Church still waits upon God How oft doth David charge himself Wait and trust in God O my soul Let us learn this upon these grounds that God is long ere he deliver but at last he will deliver and that is sufficient to force this to wait still upon God with patience and silence Well thus we see God doth deliver Who dilivered us c. What will he do for the time present he hath delivered and doth deliver and he will deliver From all joyntly together you see that Gods people in this World stand in need of deliverance alway They have alwayes troubles when one is past another is present deliverance supposeth dangers There have been dangers there are dangers and there will be dangers Our life is a warfare a temptation we are absent from God we are alway exposed to dangers We live in the middest of Divels and of Divellish-minded men we have corruptions in us that expose us to sin and sin drawes on judgments we are alway in danger one way or other while we live in this VVorld But our comfort is that as there have been dangers and are dangers and will be dangers so there hath been deliverance there is deliverance and there will be deliverance It is a trade that God useth it is his Art God knoweth how to deliver his as Saint Peter saith he hath alway exercised it he is excellent at it he hath delivered his Church he doth deliver his Church and he will deliver his Church and so every particular member he hath and doth and will diliver them VVonderfull is the entercourse that God useth with his people and their estate Even as in nature there is a change and entercourse of day and night of light and darknesse of morning and evening of summer and winter of hot and cold so in the life of a Christian there are changes dangers and deliverance There is a sowing in tears and a reaping in joy there is a night of affliction and a morning of joy and prosperity Heavinesse may be in the evening but joy commeth in the morning And thus we go on till we end our daies till we be taken to Heaven where there shall be no Change where all teares shall be wiped from our eyes If we had spirituall eyes eyes to see our danger to see how full the World is of Divells then to consider how many dangers this weak life is subject to how many casualties we cannot go out of doores we cannot take a journey but how many dangers are we subject to we are invironed with perpetual dangers the snares of death compasse us almost every where abroad and at home in our greatest security But our comfort is that God doth compasse us with mercy as it is Psal. 32. As dangers are round about us so God is a Wall of fire about us we have dangers about us Divells about us we have a guard about us we have God about us we have his Angels about us we have all his creatures about us All things are yours saith the Apostle c. It is God that hath delivered us that doth deliver us Who restraines the divels from having their wills of us they are enemies not only to our souls and to our salvation but to our bodies they are enemies to our health as we see in Job we live in the middest of Lyons oft-times in the middest of enemies who restraines their malice we are preserved from dangers day and night who shuts in the doores who watcheth over us but he that keeps Israel It is God that delivereth us Without his deliverance all deliverances were to little purpose all shutting in were to little purpose except he shut us in that shut Noah into the Ark he must watch over us It is God that delivereth us But doth he deliver us onely outwardly No he hath delivered and he doth deliver us spiritually He hath delivered us from the power of hell and damnation he doth deliver us from many sins that we should commit and when we have sinned he delivers us from despair he delivers us from presuming by touching our hearts with saving grief for sin if we belong to him one of the two wayes he delivers either from the sin or from the danger of the sin either from the committing of the sin or from despairing for the sin or presuming in a course of sin Who delivereth us from our inbred corruptions Should we not run every day into the sins that we see others commit Who cuts short our lusts and suppresseth them that we are not swearers that we are not licentious persons that we are not Godlesse persons are we not hewn out of the same rock Who keeps us from sin Is it any inbred goodnesse Are we not all a like tainted with originall fin Children of wrath Who puts a difference between us and others It is God that hath delivered us and that doth deliver us It is his mercy that we do not commit sin it is his preventing deliverance and when we have committed sin it is his mercy to pardon it there is his preserving deliverance from despair after the committing of sin All are beholding to God for deliverance those that have committed sin that he delivers them from the wrath to come from the damnation that they deserve and those that have the grace not to commit sin they are beholding to him that he delivers them from that which their corruptions else would carry them to if he should take his government from their hearts We have an inward guard as well as an outward an invisible guard We are kept by the Spirit of God through Faith to salvation
naturall to man much more to the spirit of a man For if a man know what is in himself naturally his own wit and understanding which is alway with him bred up with him much more he knowes by his spirit the things that are adventitious that come from without him that is the work of Grace If a man by a reflect knowledge know what naturally is in him in what part he hath it and how he exerciseth it if he know and remember what he hath done and the manner of it whether well or ill then he may know the work of the Spirit that comes from without him that works a change in him We say of light that it discovers it self and all other things so the soule it is lightsome and therefore knowes it self and knowes other things The Spirit of God is much more lightsome where it is it discovers it self and lighteneth the soule it discovereth the party in whom it is As the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have the Spirit whereby we know the things that we receive of God It not onely worketh in us but it teacheth us what it hath wrought Therefore a Christian knowes that he is in the state of grace he knowes his virtues and his disposition except it be in the time of temptation and upon those grounds named before Therefore we should labour to know our estate to examine our selves whether we be in the faith or no except we be reprobates and cast awayes as the Apostle speakes A Christan should aime at this to understand his own estate in grace upon good grounds But it may be objected how can we know our estate in Grace our virtues are so imperfect our abilities are so weak and feeble I answer the ground of judging aright of our estate it is not worthiness or perfection but sincerity We must not look for perfection For that makes the Papists to teach that there may be doubting because they look to false grounds but we must look to the ground in the covenant of grace to grace it self and not to the measure Where there is truth and sincerity there is the condition of the covenant of grace and there is a ground for a man to build his estate in grace on The perfect righteousnesse of Christ is that that gives us title to heaven but to know that we have right in that title is the simplicity and sincerity in our walking in our conversation as the Apostle saith here This is our reoycing c. Therefore Christians when they are set upon by temptations of their own misdoubting hearts and by Satan they must not go to the great measure of grace that is in others that they have not so much as others and therefore they have none nor to the great measure of grace that they want themselves but to the truth of their grace the truth of their desires and endeavours the truth of their affections Hereby we know that we are translated from death to life because we love the brethren This should stir us up to have a good conscience that we may rejoyce Why should we labour that we may rejoyce Why what is our life without joy and what is joy without a good conscience What is our life with out joy without joy we can do nothing we are like an instrument out of tune an instrument out of tune it yiels but harsh musick Without joy we are as a member out of joynt we can do nothing well without joy and a good conscience which is the ground of joy A man without joy is a palsie-member that moves it self unfitly and uncomely he goes not about things as he should A good conscience breeds joy and comfort it inables a man to do all things comely in the sight of God and comfortably to himself it makes him go chearfully through his businesse A good Conscience is a continuall feast without joy we cannot suffer afflictions we cannot die well without it Simeon died comfortably because he died in peace when he had imbraced Christ in his heart and in his armes Without joy and the ground of joy we can neither do nor suffer any thing Therefore in Psalme 51. David when he had lost the peace and comfort of a good conscience he prayes for the free Spirit of God Alas till God had enlarged his heart with the sense of a good conscience in the pardon of his sins and given him the power of his Spirit to lead a better life for the time to come his spirit was not free before he could not praise God with a large spirit he wanted freedom of spirit his conscience was bound his lips were sealed up Open my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise His heart was bound and therefore he prayes to have it inlarged Restore to me thy joy and salvation intimating that we cannot have a free spirit without joy and we cannot have joy without a good conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ in the pardon of our sins If it be so that we cannot do any thing nor suffer any thing as we should that we cannot praise God that we cannot live nor die without joy and the ground of it the testimony of a good conscience let us labour then that conscience may witnesse well unto us Especially considering that an ill conscience it is the worst thing in the world there is no friend so good as a good conscience there is no foe so ill as a bad conscience it makes us either Kings or slaves A man that hath a good conscience that witnesseth well for him it raiseth his heart in a Princely manner above all things in the world a man that hath a bad conscience though he be a Monarch it makes him a slave a bad conscience imbitters all things in the world to him though they be never so comfortable in themselves What is so comfortable as the presence of God What is so comfortable as the light yet a bad conscience that will not be ruled it hates the light and hates the presence of God as we see Adam when he had sinned he fled from God A bad conscience cannot joy in the middest of joy it is like a goutie foot or a goutie toe covered with a velvet shoe alas what doth it ease it what doth glorious apparel ease the diseased body nothing at all the ill is within there the arrow sticks And so in the comforts of the Word if the conscience be bad we that are the messengers of comfort we may apply comfort to you but if there be one within that saith thus it is true but I regarded not the Word before I regarded not the checks of conscience conscience will speak more terrour then we can speak peace And after long and wilful rebellion conscience will admit of no comfort for the most part Regard it therefore in time labour in time that it may witnesse well An ill conscience when it should be most
hidden windings and turnings for plotting makes it more odious of all men doublers are most hateful How shall we come to attain this Grace to converse in the world in simplicity First of all take it for a rule though many think it no great matter to be a dissembler our nature is full of dissimulation since the fall the heart of man is unsearchable there is deep deceit in man Take a Child and see what dissimulation he learns it is one of the first things he learns to dissemble to double to be false We see the weakest creatures what shifts what windings and turnings they have to save themselves It is a vertue to be down-right for therein a man must crosse himself It is no thanks for a man to shuffle and to shift in the world nature teacheth this to dissemble to turn and wind c. A man need not to plough to have weeds the ground it self is a mother to them though it be a stepmother to good seed So we need not teach men to dissemble every man hath it by nature but it must be strength of grace that makes a man down-right Take that for a ground There are a company of sottish men that take it for a great commendation to dissemble and rather then they will be known not to dissemble in businesse they will puzzle clear businesse when a thing is fair and clear they will have projects beyond the Moon and so carry themselves in it as if they desired to be accounted couzeners and dissemblers Alas poor souls nature teacheth men to be naught in this kind well enough Know therefore whosoever thou art that studiest this Art of dissembling and doubling thy own nature is prone enough to this and the divel is apt to lead thee into it This being laid for a ground how may we carry our selves in the world in holy simplicity that may yield comfort to our conciences in life and in death First consider that the time will come that we shall deal with that that will not dissemble with us Let the cunningest dissembler hold out as long as he can he shall meet with sicknesse or with terrour of conscience he shall meet with death it self and with the judgement of God and hell torment although now he carry himself smoothly and dance in a net as we say and double with the world though he make a fair shew yet ere long thou shalt meet with that that will deal simply with thee that will deal plain enough with thee Thou shalt be uncased and laid open to the world ere long let us consider this We see a Snake or Serpent it doubles and winds and turns when it is alive till it be killed and then it is stretched forth at length As one said seeing a Snake dead and stretched out so saith he it behoved you to have lived So the Divel that great Serpent that ancient old Serpent he gets into the Snake into the wilely wit and makes it winde and turn and shift and shuffle in the world but then some great crosse comes or death comes and then a man is stretched out at length to the view of the world and then he confesseth all and perhaps that confession is sincere when it is wrung out by terrour of conscience then he confesseth that he hath deceived the world and deceived himself and laboured to deceive God also If we would have comfort in the hour of death labour we to deal plainly and directly and of all other sins as I said before remember this is that which will lie the heaviest on us as comming nearest the sin against the holy Ghost For what is the sin against the holy Ghost when men rush against their knowledge in malice to the truth known Where there is most knowledge and most will there is the greatest sin Now in lying and dissembling and double-dealing a man comes near to the sin against the holy Ghost for he knows that he doth ill he plots the ill that he knows and when there is plotting there is time to deliberate a man is not carried away by passion Consider the time will come when you will be uncased when you will be laid open and naked and then at that time of all sins this will lie heavy on thee thy dissembling in the world Therefore every one in his calling take heed of the sins of his calling among the rest of this one of double-dealing And therefore that we may avoid it the better labour for faith to live by faith What is the reason that men live by shifts and by doubling in the world They have not faith to depend upon God in good and plain down-right courses Men are ready to say If I should not dissemble and double and carry things after that manner hwo should I live why where is thy faith The righteous man lives by his faith and not by his shifts not by his wits God will provide for us are we not in Covenant with God Do we not professe to be Gods Children Do children use to shift No a child goes about to do his fathers will and pleasure and he knowes that he will maintain him It is against the nature of the Child of God as farre as he knowes himself to be a Child of God to use any indirect course any windings and turnings in his calling let us depend upon God as a Child depends on his father and of all others God will provide most for them that in simple honesty in plain downe-right dealing depend on him in doing good For God accounts it a prerogative to defend and maintain them that cast themselves on him he will be their wisdom that can deny their own wisdom and their own shifts by nature and in conscience labour to deale directly he will be wise for them and provide for them It is his prerogative to do so and not to suffer his Children to be deserted A little faith therefore would help all this and would make us walke in simplicity If we could make God our alsufficiencie once then we should walk uprightly before God and men For what makes men to double This certainly makes men to double they think they shall be undone if they be direct for if they deale directly they shall lose their liberty or their lives or their opportunity of gaining c. Well come what will deale thou directly and know this for a rule thou shalt have more good in Gods favour if thou be a Christian then thou canst lose in the World if upon grounds of conscience thou deal directly in what estate so ever thou art If thou be a Judge if thou be a Witnesse deale directly speake the truth If thou be a divine speak directly in Gods cause deale out the Word of God as in Gods presence come what will whatsoever thou losest in thy wealth or liberty c. thou shalt gain in God Is not all good in him what is all the
them and makes them grow more afterward and recover their former backwardnesse A true Christian is alway on the mending hand An hypocrite growes worse and worse alway till he be uncased altogether and turned into hell These and such like considerations may stirre us up to labour to have a conversation in simplicity and godly sincerity Now how shall we come to carry our selves in sincerity that we may have comfort in all estates That we may carry our selves in sincerity First we must get a change of heart our nature must be changed for by nature a man aimes at himself in all things and not at God A man makes himself his last end he makes something in the world either profits or pleasures c. the term that he looks unto therefore there must be a change of heart a man must be a good man or else he cannot be a sincere man Such as we are such our actions will be therefore we cannot be sincere till we have our hearts changed No man can aim at Gods glory but he that hath felt Gods love in himself therefore as a particular branch of that labour to get assurance of the love of God in Jesus Christ for how can we endeavour to please him unlesse we love him and how can we love him unlesse we be perswaded that he loves us in Christ Therefore let us stablish our hearts more and more in the Evidences of his love to us and then knowing that he loves us we shall love him and labour to please him in all things These are grounds that must be laid before we can be sincere to get assurance of Gods love to us in the pardon of our sins Our conscience must be purged from dead works to serve the living God as the Apostle saith that is we cannot serve God to our comfort till our consciences are sprinkled with the blood of Christ which assures us of the pardon of our sins Therefore saith Zachary We are redeemed that we might serve him in righteousnesse and holinesse before him all the dayes of our life So that unlesse a man be redeemed he cannot serve him in righteousnesse and holinesse before him all the daies of his life that is he cannot serve God in sincerity For who will labour to please his enemy Therefore the Papists maintain hypocrisie when they say we ought not to be perswaded of the love of God for then we ought to be hypocrites for how shall we seek him with the losse of favour and of credit and of life it self if we know not that his favour will stand us in stead if we lose these things for him Again that we may be sincere let us labour to mortifie all our earthly affections to the world for how can we be sincere when we seek for honours and pleasures and riches and not for better things Therefore we must know that there is more good to be had in truth in a down-right Christian profession then in all worldly good whatsoever And if we be hypocrites in our profession there is more ill in that then in any thing in the world This will make us sincere when we can be perswaded that we shall get better things by being sincere in Religion then the world can give us or take away from us For why are men insincere and false-hearted Because they think not Religion to be the true good they think it is better to have riches then to have a good mind these things therefore must be mortified and a man must know that the life of a Christian is incomparably the best life though it be with losse of liberty yea with the losse of life it self Simon Magus grew to false affections in Religion because he thought to have profit by it So the Pharisees they had naughty hearts and therefore they had no good by Religion No man can profit by Religion so long as his heart is naught so long as there is some Idol in his heart A good Christian had rather have a large heart to serve God and rather grow in the Image of God to be like him then to grow in any thing in the world and that makes him sincere out of a good judgment because Christian excellency is the best excellency incomparably For he knowes well what all else will be ere long what will all do good riches honours friends what good will they do in the hour of death There is nothing but grace and the expression of it in the whole conversation that will comfort us therefore he undervalues all things in the world to sincerity and a good conscience Again that we may have our conversation in sincerity let us labour in every thing we do to approve our selves to the eye of God We see the Scripture every where shewes that this hath made Gods Children consciencious in all their courses even when they might have sinned not only securely but with advantage What kept Joseph from committing folly with his Mistresse Shall I do this and sin against God Gen. 39. And so Job in chap 31. he shewes what awed and kept him from ill doing in vers 3. Doth not he see my wayes and account all my steps this was it that kept him in awe So the Church of God Psal. 44. being in great distresse they kept themselves from Idolatry and from the contagion of the times wherein they lived upon what ground you shall see in vers 21. If we had done thus and thus shall not God search it out for he knowes the very secrets of the heart So a Christian being perswaded of the eye of God upon him it makes him sincere The eye of God being Ten thousand times brighter then the Sun he being light it self he made the heart and he knowes all the turnings of the heart The consideration of this will make us sincere in our closets in our very thoughts for they all lie naked and open to his view What is the reason that men practise secret villainy secret wickednesse and give themselves to speculative filthinesse because they are atheists they forget that they are in the eye of God who sees the plots and projects of their hearts and the nets that they have laid for their brethren Therefore David brings them in saying Tush God sees us not And that is the reason they are unconscionable in their desires in their hearts in their secret thoughts It is from a hidden Atheisme For if we did consider that the eye of God sees us in all our intents and actions and sees us in what manner we do all and to what end that he sees every action with the circumstances the aimes and ends if the heart did well ponder this it would prevent a great deal of evil Conscience is the witnesse of our conversation a witnesse that will keep us from offending If there were a witnesse by and that witnesse were a great person a Judge c. it would keep us in our
why do you not take them Your justifying them in the end will be little to your comfort if you condemne them all your life against your conscience for afterwards it is not so much a work of Grace for you to justifie good courses and to acknowledge good things in most men it is not so much a work of Grace as it is the evidence of the thing and when the cloud of sensuallity and the fume that riseth out of worldly pomp is taken away then the naturall conscience comes to see clearly better things not from the love of them not that it is changed and transformed with the love of them but God so discovers it to them to make them justifie his sentence of Damnation the more he discovered to them better courses then they tooke it shall justifie their damnation We are deceived oft-times in mens ends they acknowledge good waies and good courses and on the other side some of Gods good Children they pronounce the contrary but let none trust to that good courses are so evident and clear that if men be not Atheists they must acknowledge them especially when the impediment that hindred them before is taken away You must acknowledge therefore acknowledge now not in your hearts onely but acknowledge them in laying aside your opposition in casting away your weapons and by joyning with them in good courses set not your hands against good courses and good persons set your tongues to speak for their good Take Gods part stand on Gods side it is the best side if you allow it onely hereafter it will be a barren allowance it will be no comfort to you it often falls out to be so O beloved whatsoever courses else you take they will sink and fall they will sink first in your own soules and none will be readier to condemn you then your own conscience when God shall make you wiser you will censure your selves What folly was it how was I deluded with this ill company and with that as wicked company is wondrous powerfull to infuse ill conceits as the Spies they infused discouragement by the Oration they made of the Giants in the Land c. they altered the mind of the whole people It is a dangerous thing to converse with naughty persons the Devil slides together into the soul with their carnal reasoning and alters the judgement for the time that they are not so wise as conscience would make them and as they might be if they did not hearken to the hissing of the Serpent First if you take any conrse but good your own conscience is by and will be the first that will find you out For sin is a base thing a work of darknesse it must be discovered it is a madnesse it must be manifest to all men Popery and all their slights must be discovered and the Whore must lie naked and stink nothing shall be so abominable as Popery and Popish persons ere long Truth will get the victory in the consciences of people and good courses will get approbation Therefore if you approve them not first you shall be unhappy in this life and everlastingly hereafter this shall be the principal torment in hell that you saw better courses then you lived in and you would not give your judgments leave to lead you There was something better Conscience told you but you gave way to your lusts and to the insinuations of wicked men instruments of the Devill rather then to the motions of conscience and of Gods Spirit that awakened conscience This I say will more ease your torment in hell that you might have done otherwise if you had had Grace but you willingly betrayed your selves you silenced conscience you willingly condemned your selves in the things that you acknowledged were naught you did that which you condemned and you did not practise that which your judgment did allow God will have little to do at the day of Judgment with most men in the Church to condemn them for alas their own consciences will condemn them the consciences of all will condemn them that their courses were naught And that makes wicked men so cruel especially if they get into place of authority they know they are not allowed they are not acknowledged in the consciences of those that are judicious thèy know they are condemned there and they fret and fume and think to force another opinion of themselves upon others but it will not be and that makes them that they cannot endure the sight of them that are of a contrary judgment they think themselves condemned in the hearts of such men and that makes them cruel Especially those that have some illumination they cannot abide their own conscience to take its course they cannot abide to see themselves They think themselves condemned in the judgment of others and those that think they have the prejudice of others that their courses are naught they carry an implacable hatred it is a desperate case Hast thou knowledge that they think thy courses naught and on good ground and doest thou hate them and hate to be reformed thy self will this alway hold out No as I said before truth is eternal that which thou acknowledgest must continue it will be acknowledge it will get the victory at the day of Judgment by Men and Angels truth will have the victory it is eternal Take that course for the present that thou mayest be good for the present and hold out to the end as we see the Corinthians here You do acknowledge me and you shall acknowledge me to the end and testifie to the world that you acknowledge the best things and the best persons that you may be one with them by love here and in heaven for ever hereafter I trust you shall acknowledge to the end To shut up this point Let me seal it up with this Make this Quaere to your selves what estate you are in when you come to the Communion whether it be well with you or no if not why will you live any whit at all in the uncertainty of our lives and the shortnesse of them and the danger of the wrath of God when there is so little between you and eternal Damnation in a doubtful in a dangerous estate Are you resolved to be naught then No if you be not Atheists you will not say so Do you intend to be good and come and make your Covenant with God Yes why then resolve to be so A good conscience looks not onely back to sins past to repent of them but for the time to come it resolves to please God in all things and to hold out to the end Some make a mockery of the holy things of God one part of the year they will be holy a rotten foolish affection of people that are Popish In Lent they will use a little austerity O they will please God wondrously but before and after they are devils incarnate so they make that part of the
and serious and weighty and firm in their resolutions that they may build on them and know where to have them as we say it breeds authority and maintains authority For then what they say is regarded and how their affections stand if it be love it is much sought after if displeasure it is much feared for they are men of a fixed disposition it gains wondrous respect Let men be never so great if they be such as S. Paul here declines from himself that they use lightnesse they lose their authority Authority is the special help that Governours have to rule and that Ministers have to prevail now nothing weakens esteem and authority more then when men are tossed between the waves of contrary affections when men are such as we know not where to have them as we say off and on fast and loose one while fitting another standing no man will build on them or much regard their love or hatred Now you know Authority is a beam of Majesty and God hath put it upon Magistrates above others and imprinted likewise the respect of it in the peoples hearts to maintain the World the pillars of the earth will shake else as the Psalmist saith What would become of the Pillars of Government if it were not for Authority in them that are above and respect of that Authority an impression of it in them that are under Now there are many grounds of Authority as successe when God blesseth them with it wonderfully to admiration and good parts c. but one main Ground of Authority is Constancy and firmnesse this raiseth a high respect in the hearts of the people I will not multiply reasons why those that are in place should avoid the imputation of lightnesse Ministers especially should take heed of it because they are Ministers of Gods truth and if they take not heed of it people will be ready to go from their moral civil carriage to their doctrine and think there is an uncertainty in that they speak because they do not regard what they say But let me adde this by the way Mater erroris similitudo Likenesse is the mother of errour so there is somewhat like Constancy in Governours and others when they are nothing lesse but meerly refractory and obstinate to maintain the reputation of constancy they will run into the fault of wilfulnesse Such as are subject that way had need of strong wits to rule their strong wills to guide them or else wo be to those that have to deal with them that I thought good to adde left we mistake We should all labour to avoid inconstancy and lightnesse in our resolutions in our purposes and affections If we ought to avoid it how shall we come to know it what is the ground of lightnesse The grounds are many Sometimes from the temper of the body some are of a moveable temper of a moveable quick spirit that they cannot out of their constitution fix long except they set weights upon nature I am by disposition thus but my resolution shall be otherwise as where Grace and wisdome is it will fix the temper and fix the resolution and the thoughts This I could not do if I should yield to my own disposition but this I will do and I should do there are many resolutions as in the younger sort and some out of their very temper are more fixed and resolved But now consider it as it is in Religion Lightnesse comes out of the disposition of the mind Inconsideration oft-times is the ground when we do not see the circumstances of a thing that we promise or purpose You know there is nothing comes to action but it is beset with circumstances there are advantages of it and there are stops and hinderances of it somewhat may fall out Every thing that comes to action is besieged with circumstances circumstances you know have their name of standing about a businesse about a thing now when the things that are about the impediments and the hindrances and le ts are not weighed a rash man sees not the things he considers not the things that he enters upon he resolves without considering the circumstances that beset the thing he never considers what oppositions he may meet with or what advantages there be which perhaps he neglects but he thinks of the thing it is good and suitable to his purpose he resolves and never considers the circumstances about a thing but runs on in confidence of his own wit and parts and thinks to rule all by the strength of his wit not foreseeing not casting in his mind to prevent before-hand what may fall out It is just with God to shame such men frustration of their purposes it is a just reward of their folly Therefore we should take heed of Inconsideration and have our eyes in our heads to set the soul to foresee what possibility there is of the businesse and what may fall out this is the right way if we would avoid imputation of lightnesse Again another ground of lightnesse and of that decay in authority and respect that comes from it is the passion of men therefore they are light they are carried with the hurry and wind of their passion And Satan joynes with passion A passionate man is subject to Satan more then a man that is led by reason or with grace For that is a beam of God even reason it self judgment it is an excellent thing and it prevents many temptations Give not way to passion for those are unreasonable things As we see Saul in his passion Satan the evill spirit mingled with his passion of anger So let men be in any passion over-joy or be over-angry let them give the rains to unruly passion and they give advantage to Satan that we cannot settle our soules in any good resolution Again in the things themselves there is cause of lightnesse and inconstancy from the nature of the things and then it is not so great a fault to change then it is not properly inconstancy but it is inconstancy when the things are mutable and variable and we do not think of it as we should Now the things of this life are variable and uncertain the event of things in this life is wondrous variable Grace and glory they are certain things and the way that God directs us to heaven they are certain promises and certain grounds but the things of this life are subject to much change God takes a great deal of liberty in altering things in this world they fall out divers wayes But now therefore we must take heed that we take not inconstancy for that which is not Every change of opinion and purpose is not lightnesse It is not inconstancy for a man to change his mind and purpose when it is from the things Men are men and the things that we deal with in the world are subject to variety and inconstancy and for a man to alter according to the
variety of things it argues no inconstancy if the aime be good As for example a Mariner a Sea-man he is not inconstant when one time he strikes sayl another time he hoyseth up sayl when he makes indentures and goes with a side wind he goes on his way and his aime is still to come to the Haven he is not inconstant because he changeth not his starre he alway aimes at the right starre and to his compasse and card that he sayles by He varies not from his rule he varies from the things because the winds and the Seas vary because he deals with variable objects the things vary but he doth not vary he comes to his project to the Haven and hath his direction from the North-Pole c. So the Husbandman sometimes he sowes sometimes he barrowes sometimes he reapes is he inconstant and varies No the matter about which he is varieus So in Governours sometimes they do this and sometimes that they are about variable matters yet here is no variablenesse nor lightnesse of disposition because they deal with mutable with variable objects So God in managing his Churches affaires in his dispensation in that point you see he used one dispensation before Christ and another since Christ. God changeth not but the times are changed In the Infancy of the Church one dispensation was requisite and now another Therefore it is not inconstancy for a man to change on good ground or when the things themselves change Therefore this should have made them thought well of S. Paul his affection was not changed to them but the businesse was changed as we shall see after other things let him So a good man his honest ' resolution should not change his aime to serve God and his Countrey and to deserve well of mankind this should be constant but the manner how the circumstance of time and place and ordering of these things they are variable They do not change but maintain their constancy and resolution in the variety of occasions that fall out for we cannot frame our life otherwise then it is to be unvariable When a man is guided by a certain principle though the things of this life be uncertain and he vary sometimes according to his principle and aime and end yet it is no inconstancy And it will excuse a mans conscience exceedingly when his aime is good and the rules and principles he goes by are good and honest if things fall out otherwise then he aimes at though there be a change of his course because his heart tells him his rules and his purposes were good One other main cause of lightnesse and sinful inconstancy it is irreligion casting our selves upon future things without a dependance on Divine providence An Atheistical independance when we project things to come and never call upon God to assist us and never have divine reservations as we should have but boast This I will do and sometimes negatively This I will not do I have time enough to do it as if we had future times at our command Saint James excellently taxeth such people Jam 4. 13. Go to now you that say To day and to morrow we will go to such a City and buy and sell and get gain Go to now see here how he shames them by a kind of ironical permission Go to now you will do great matters whereas saith he you know not what shall be to morrow God that hath given us the time present to repent in and to do good the time to come he hath reserved in his own power we know not what shall be to morrow Where he shewes the ground of this Atheisme and rushing upon businesse without dependance they forget the condition of this life that it is a vapour What is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away Your life is inconstant God is the Lord of your purposes he is the Lord of your life and of all opportunities and circumstances Your life is but a vapour here all things fall under his providence and guidance You consider not this and therefore you project so for the time to come What is your life it is even a vapour c. Then he comes to direct them how they should entertain resolutions for the time to come Ye ought to say If the Lord will or if we live we will do this and that If the Lord will in whose power are our intentions and resolutions and affections he guides the inward man and all the things in the world to the falling of a hair from our head to the falling of a Sparrow to the ground even the least things you should say thus And he calls it vain boasting what makes God confound insolent attempts as indeed he triumphs over insolent attempts of Kings and Captains or whatsoever that set up great businesse in high conceits they will do this and that Saith S. James You rejoyce in your boasting they boast they will do this and that that makes God confound them so because they will be gods to themselves Man is a dependant creature every thing is Gods and we are dependant In him we live and move and have our being Man being a dependant creature yet he resolves to do this and that as if he had the guidance of his own thoughts and purposes this provokes God to jealousie when he makes himself a god and sets not God before him in his actions he sets upon things without dependance without prayer or reservation if God permit this because God rejoyceth to confound these bold attempts therefore they never thrive in such attempts Therefore a true Christians joynes modesty for the time to come he will attempt nothing but what he may expect to have Gods protection in he that thinks God may crosse him will do nothing ill that he feares God will crosse him in he will be modest The best Christians are the modestest they consider the uncertainty of the things of this life and the weaknesse of man in foreseeing things they see a dependance of all things on the Majestie of God even to the least things that he guides things that are most casual and that he rules even the hearts of Princes as Solomon saith as the rivers of water they are guided by him they are in his hand hereupon a wise Christian becomes modest for the time to come in his resolutions he undertakes all with a holy dependance on God if God will and if God permit he will undertake nothing for the time to come but with warrant that he may without tempting of God look for his assistance for to go to God to blesse us in ill projects is to make God the Patron of that which is bad which is contrary to his nature Therefore he learns to depend upon God for the time to come and will entertain or enter upon no businesse but such as he may safely without tempting of God â—…epend upon him for his
assistance this is the disposition of a modest Christian. You see in Psal. 2. how the Psalmist there insults over those that threaten to do this and that Why do the Heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing c. against the Lord and against his anointed As if they would swallow up the Church and Christ the anointed why do they do this and that God that sits in heaven he laughes them to scorn You see the grounds of lightnesse so far forth as is needful I will name no more The way to prevent it may be in observing these grounds of constancy Especially this Stablish your thoughts with counsel for the time to come consult go not rashly and headlong about matters It is not with our common life as with those that run in a race for their swiftnesse gets all but in matters of government in Common-Wealth there the most staid get all those that weigh things and then execute upon mature deliberation that ripen things first and go not rawly and indeliberately about it this every man takes for granted but it is not thought on Then again labour to suppresse passion in any thing that comes from us speak nothing in passion for one of these things will follow If we execute it we are in danger for the things in passion and inconsiderately spoken if not we shall have the shame of being frustrate we undergo the shame of lightness that we speak that in our passion and heat that we retract after One of these inconveniencies will follow either you will do it and then it will be dangerous or you will not do it and then you will be ashamed a fit reward of rashnesse God gives us passions to be guided and ruled and not to rule us they are good servants and onely servants that should be raised up and stirred up onely when reason and judgment raiseth them and not otherwise But to go on Another cure of this rashnesse is holy dependance on God by prayer and by faith to commit our wayes to him our thoughts to him for the time to come leave all to him entertain nothing wherein we cannot expect his gracious assistance the best Christian is the most dependant Christian. That is the first thing the Apostle declines What is the second thing Or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh They thought he was a Politician as this is the lot of Gods Children sometimes if so be that God hath given them parts either of nature or breeding carnal devillish men that are led altogether by plots themselves esteem them by themselves The things that I purpose do I purpose according to the flesh He propounds this interrogatory to their conscience not idly but he knew that they had a prejudice in them by his corrivals false Apostles therefore he labours to wipe away that imputation likewise that he did not purpose and consult of things according to the flesh What is flesh here Flesh is the unregenerate part of man whereof fleshly wisdome is the chief for that guides the old man that is the eye of old Adam Carnall wisdome it is the fleshes counsellour in all things therefore especially he means that But why is it called flesh For many reasons among many this is one that the soul so far as it is sinful it is led with things that are fleshly that are outward and thereupon a man is called flesh and the soul it self is called flesh because it cleaves in its affections and desires to earthly things And because the poor understanding now which ruled all and should rule all is become an underling to the carnal will and carnal lusts Therefore it self is called flesh likewise The wisdome of the flesh is enmity with God For now it is swayed even which way carnal fancy and opinion and the flesh lead it The reason is it is betwixt God and heavenly things and betwixt earthly things And if it were in its right original as it came out of Gods hands being a Spirit it should be led by God and by Gods Spirit and Gods Truth by better things then it self as every infirm thing is guided by that which is better then it self as brute creatures are guided by men and weaker persons by Magistrates that are or should be better but now since the fall without Grace renew a man the understanding part of mans soul instead of lighting its candle from heaven it often lights it from hell and is ruled by Satan himself and takes advice even from things meaner then it self and plots and projects altogether for things worse then it self It was not given for that end God knows that give it this soul of ours to proul for earthly things for the ease and honour and profits and pleasures of the world That excellent Jewel that all the world is not worth it was not given for that end no it was given to attain a higher end then this world to attain communion with God but now since the fall it is thus with it that it is a slave Carnal wit is a slave to carnal will and that carnal will is drawn by carnal affections affections draw the will and the will drawes the wit and makes it plot and devise for that which it stands for for carnall lusts and affections which whet the wit that way therefore the whole soul is called flesh even reason it self And hereupon wicked men are called the world why the world because they are led with the things of the world with the guise and fashion of the world A man in the language of the Scripture is termed by that which he cleaves to therefore if the heart and soul cleave to the flesh and the things of the flesh it is flesh if it be led with the world and the things of the world it is called the world Wicked men are the world because the best thing in them is the love of worldly things and their wit is for worldly things all the inward parts of their soul are spent upon worldly things therefore they are called flesh and the world And sometimes Satan himself a man as far as he is carnal is called Satan yea good men Go after me Satan saith Christ to Peter A man as far as he yields to any thing he is named from that which he yields to when fleshly things rule a man he is called flesh when worldly things rule him profits and pleasures a man is the world when a man yields to Satan he is Satan This should make us take heed by whom we are led under whose government we come Saith S. Paul Do I purpose according to the flesh that is according to the profits and pleasures and honours which the flesh looks after are those my advisers my intelligencers my counsellours in the things I take in hand what may make for my honour my pleasure my estate my worldly ease here No saith he I
we must swear by him And indeed it is a service of God and to good purpose when Christians swear to stablish and determine truths that otherwise are doubtfull They were doubtfull of S. Paul's doctrine and his person saith he To put you out of doubt of the truth I speak to you I dare call God to witnesse it is true and sound The Apostle doth so once after in this Chapter therefore I reserve the further handling of an oath to verse 23. because the word there is more infallible I call God to record upon my soul c. The next thing I observe hence is this That The believing that Gods Word is Gods Word and is certain it is a matter of great consequence It is of great consequence for Gods people that look to be saved to be stablished in their opinion and judgment of Divine truth that it is certain and not flexible and mutable according to our wills and conceits and dispositions but is yea alway the same as God himself the Authour of it For laying this for a ground that I said before that S. Paul takes God to witnesse he would not enterpose an oath but in a matter of great consequence therefore it is a matter of great consequence to be setled in this that the Scripture is Divine truth unalterable and unchangeable An oath is never good as I said but when it is necessary It must not onely be in truth but there must be a necessity It must not only be taken in righteousnesse but in judgment a man must do it in discretion when the thing is not determinable any other way Therefore it is a matter of great consequence that men take the Word of truth not to be as the Oracles of Apollo and of the Devill true one way and false another The Devil would escape the imputation of a lie though he be a liar but Gods Oracles be Divine they be yea And it is good that we think them to be so to be constant undoubted certain and unmovable Therefore the Apostle seales it with an oath he would not seal a slight truth by an oath but saith he As God is true our word to you was not yea and nay c. And Saint Paul saw a disposition in them to suspect the truth of God as indeed we are proner to believe the lies of our own hearts and the suggestions of Satan and the counsell of Politicians of carnall friends then to believe God himself Therefore partly for the indisposition in us and partly for the great exigence and necessity of the thing to believe that Gods Word is his Word that it is truth he seales it with an oath God is true It is a point of great consequence The reason is God can have no service else and we can have no comfort If we do not believe the Word of God to be undoubtedly true in great temptations and assaults what armour of proof shall we have we can have no comfort nor grace For sometimes subtile and strong temptations to evill come if the Word of God be not more undoubted to me then the present profit or pleasure or whatsoever if the temptation be ready and I be not built on and settled on some grounded truth that I know to be true as God is true when the temptation is strong and our faith weak where are we a man presently yields to base lusts and temptations And so in matter of danger and despair when a man is tempted to despair if he cannot build on this God is true and his Word is as true as himself he will not the death of a sinner c. here a man is swallowed up It is no matter how strong the foundation be if the building on that foundation be weak If a strong man stand in a slippery place down he falls if a man stand slippery and have a weak standing on a strong place on a strong foundation if he have a weak building on a strong foundation he shall soon be cast off So the Word of God is true in it self but if we be not perswaded so that it is infallibly true that it is alway yea we shall be shaken with temptations When we are tempted to sin the temptation is present we are sure of the temptation if we be not more sure of somewhat against the temptation somewhat out of the Word to beat back the darts of Satan when we are tempted to sin and to despair for sin down we go and therefore it is a matter of infinite consequence to be perswaded of Divine truth What makes many as they are in courses that are corrupt in their callings nothing but this they stagger whether it be true or no that there shall be a Judgment they stagger whether it be true or no that the Scripture saith if they were perswaded that it were yea as true as God is in heaven as true as they have soules so their soules must be called to Judgment for that they speak and do would they do as they do Therefore S. Paul stablisheth them by an oath God is true and as God is true our Word to you was not yea and nay Therefore take in good part with thankfulnesse the means that God hath ordained to strengthen our faith and assurance of the Word of God and the Promises of God Therefore he hath appointed the Sacrament for that purpose I say there is nothing in the world so strengthened as the soul of a Christian if he give himself to Gods truth to be ruled by it For if we will believe God we have his promise That Whosoever believes in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life rich promises precious promises as the Scripture calls them We have not onely promises but they are sealed with an oath Now an oath is an unchangeable thing Heb. 9. 16. we have promises and oath that we might have strong consolation whatsoever might secure man we have Besides his oath we have his seal his Sacrament It was his love to condescend to make any Covenant with sinfull creatures that upon any terms he would give them life everlasting It was a higher degree of love to set Christ to be the foundation of this peace and of this Covenant that now God and we may be at peace with satisfaction to Divine Justice that he is the foundation of the peace between God and us Now God may be mercifull without wrong without impeachment to his Justice that is a higher degree of mercy to enter into Covenant and to give Christ to be the foundation of all And then it is a higher degree then that to secure us of the Covenant that Christ is ours to seal the Word with an oath and with the Sacrament which is the seal of the Covenant what could God do more What a horrible sin therefore is unbelief that we should tremble at to call Gods love and truth in question But yet we are prone to it
there is a God and God is unchangeably true there would be nothing true in the world for all truth is therefore true because it is answerable to that exemplar truth that is true in God answerable to Gods conceit and decree of things This I observe the rather because it is a fundamental thing it doth wondrously stablish our faith in Divine truths when we know it comes from God that is true If we would seek for evidences of our faith then we must go within us and see what love and what hope what combat between the flesh and spirit there is but if we look for any thing to stablish our faith go out of us consider the unchangeable truth of God whose truth it is God as God creating a reasonable creature he must give him some revealed truth he could not be worshipped else How must we know this revealed truth whereby he will be worshipped by the reasonable creature for no man will be served by his servant as he pleaseth how shll we know these certain truths because they come from his nature God is true and as God is true so our word to you was not you and way that is it was true There is the same ground of the certainty of Evangelicall truth as there is of God himself to be true To add a little further in the Point consider the truth of God every way the faithfulnesse of God as it signifies in the originall as God is faithful Consider what relations God hath put upon him in his divine truth how he will be thought on And then bring those relations to his nature for there we must pitch at last What is he to us and how hath he revealed himself to us Thus and thus What is he in his nature So and so and there we must rest For instance The Lord hath made many promises who is it that hath made them he that is true and unchangably true there the soul rests in the nature of God But what relations hath he put upon him he is a God and a Lord and a Judge and a Father c. Now as he is God he is true therefore he will do all things that a true God should doe he will uphold his creature while he will have his creature continue he will give it life and being and motion And as a Lord he will do with his own what he list and it is not for us to contend with him why he will do this or that why he makes one rich and another poore He is Lord of all and a true Lord therefore we must give authority to this true Lord. And then as he is a Judge he corrects men for sin and rewards them for the good they do As a Judge sometime he punisheth them inwardly in conscience sometimes outwardly All the good we have is from this that he is a faithful and true God therefore there we must rest He is a true Judge he rewards every man according to his works whether they be good or evill And so in the relation of a Father he is a true Father he corrects when time serves he rewards and encourageth when time serves he gives an inheritance to his Children and hath pity and compassion on his Children when time serves He is a true Father Other fathers do this and that out of passion not out of truth and goodnesse but he doth So when we consider God in his relations consider of the attribute of his truth All truth in his Word comes from this God is true This truth is sealed by this that our truth to you our word to you was not yea and nay uncertain Gods truth is not uncertain and variable There is no shadow of change in him and his Word is like himself We say usually in the word of an honest man and that is something In verbum Sâ—…rdotis in the word of a Priest it was accounted in former times a great matter it should be so indeed In the word of a King is a great matter But when God saith in the Word of a God The Word of the Lord hath spoken so It is not yea and nay it was not flexible and doubtful because it is the Word of him that hath the command of all that he saith it is his VVord that is Lord of Heaven and Earth Now when he that saith a thing is the Lord of Heaven and Earth he is Lord of his own Word therefore what he saith is not yea and nay uncertain for he can make good what he saith There is the same ground of Evangelicall truth as there is of God himself to be true I will speak no more in the unfolding of the Point it is plain that God is true Is this true that God is true that he is truth it self then many things issue from hence It is a ground of many other truths It was the ground of all the Uses that S. Paul makes of the Word of God it is profitable every way I will name some principall to avoid multiplicity in a plain Point God is true and his Word is true hereupon the threatenings of God must needs be true even as true as God himself If this be so then unlesse we will make another Scripture another Word this Word is yea That Word that threatens sin that Idolaters and covetous and wantons shall never enter into the Kingdome of heaven Be not deceived saith the Apostle that Word is yea it is true God is true this must follow therefore that whatsoever he saith is true therefore his threatenings are true It is a truth that hath influence into all other truths whatsoever that which is prefixed here by S. Paul not onely as an oath As Gad is true so his Word is not yea and nay but certain but I say it hath influence into all other truths whatsoever threatnings promises directions all are therefore true because God is true Therefore those that shuffle off the threatnings and think they shall do well and blesse themselves Gods wrath shall smoak against them for God must alter his nature and his Word must be altered or else his judgments must stick on them to death and damnation without repentance If God should not be avenged on ordinary swearers and blasphemers if adulterers should live in such sins and ever come to heaven they must have another God and another Word of God this hath said they shall not enter into heaven that live in these sins If it be true as God is true what horrible Atheisme is in the hearts of men to think that God will change his nature though they do not change their course and that the Word of God shall alter though they will not alter what hope can prophane blasphemous persons have that make but a trifle of swearing when God hath said they shall not go unpunished and those that live in a filthy course when God hath said Whor emongers and adulterers God will judge without horrible
atheisme how can these men hope for favour from God when he hath sealed his Word with this that as he is true and truth it self his Word is true they shall never enter into heaven So again if this be true that God is true and his Word thereupon is not yea and nay it serves to comfort us many wayes When we are oppressed in the sense of sin If we confesse our sins he is merciful to forgive our sins he that is true hath said it whose Word is not yea and nay but yea trust to it If we doubt of perseverance for the time to come he that hath begun a good work will perfect it to the day of the Lord. He is yea and his Word is yea he is true and his Word is true Again hence for our judgment we learn this truth That the Word of God hath the same ground of truth as God himself therefore it is the Judge of all Controversies of all things questionable in Religion the Word of God is Judge because it is not yea and nay but yea and it is true as God is true And it is Judge of this controversie too whether it be the Word of God The question between the Papists and us is whether the Epistles and the Prophets be the Word of God or no whether is it or no I answer from Apostolical testimony S. Paul saith As God is true his Word is true the true Word of God and All Scripture is given by inspiration The Word of God therefore is the Judge of all Divine truths because it is most certain even as certain as God himself What are the properties of a chief Judge He must be true without errour authentical without appeal such as can from himself without a higher determine He must be infallible without perill of errour All these belong to Gods truth It is yea it is true without errour it is alway yea And then it is authenticall there is nothing higher but God himself whose Word it is and it hath the same authority that himself hath As God is true so it is true It is authenticall without all appeal we cannot go higher then God himself in his Word We cannot call God or Christ from heaven he hath left us his VVord and therefore it is to be credited of it self And it is infallibly true without danger of errour one depends upon another As God is true so our Word is true If God be true infallibly this issues by consequence that the Scripture is the Judge and infallibly true without danger of errour Hence we may know what to judge of that Romish assertion There are no other Judges in the world can be said to be yea alway Councels are not alway yea they are yea and nay what one Councell hath set down another hath reversed In the Councel of Basile the Pope was above the Councel In another Councel that is above the Pope So one Popes decrees thwart another The Popes are yea and nay and not yea for many hundred years they laboured to crosse and thwart one another So Councels and Popes are yea and nay and not alway yea Traditions of the Fathers are yea and nay and not alway yea they thwart themselves S. Austin the best of the Fathers to whom the Church is most chiefly beholding of all the rest he was yea and nay Doth he not retract He wrote a book of Retractations of his former opinions then he was yea and nay and yet a holy man That which is the Judge of controversies must be yea that is infallibly true authentically true that there be not a higher From all others from Fathers and Councels there may be appeal to Scripture but from Scripture to none because it is the Voice and Word of God All things else are yea and nay they are changeable and they may be so without prejudice to the being of them A Councell may be a good Councel and unconstant in many things Fathers may be holy Fathers and uncertain it is onely the prerogative of God to be infallible like himself unchangeable in his nature and his Word is like himself Hence likewise issues this That whatsoever agrees not with the Word of God which is not yea and nay is false and naught Therefore those opinions of the Church of Rome that say they cannot erre if they be not yea with this yea then they are not yea for onely the Word of God is not yea and nay but onely yea that is onely certain and true All other Religions that are not Divine are yea and nay Popery is not grounded upon the Word of God because it is yea and nay that is it is uncertain See how they crosse many wayes this Word of God that is alwayes yea and true as God himself is true Is it yea that they saw no Image of God and therefore they must make and worship no Image Nay saith the Church of Rome they have a nay for this yea they will make Images and worship them the Image of Mary and other Saints Yea saith the Scripture drink ye all of this Nay saith the Church of Rome they have a nay for this yea only the Priest must drink the wine Let the Word dwell plenteously in you is the yea of Scripture The Church of Rome hath a nay for this yea it is dangerous for the people to read the Scripture and therefore they are forbidden it VVe must pray with the understanding as well as with a good affection 1 Cor. 14. that is we must know how we pray it is proved at large excellently Nay understand or not understand so the intention be good saith Rome pray in Latine or howsoever there is their nay to this yea Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers is the yea of Gods Book therefore the soules of the Clergy and whosoever The Church of Rome hath a nay for this yea therefore their doctrine is bad for only God is true and his VVord is only not yea and nay but alway yea infallible therefore that which is contrary to it must needs be false If onely yea be true then that which is contrary to it must needs be false And likewise again if Gods VVord be not yea and nay that is not unconstant then whatsoever is unconstant and thwarts it self in contradictions is not Gods VVord Popery is full of inconstancy full of contradictions to it self First besides inconstancy and uncertainty it is full of contradictions it is yea and nay for a body to be in many places at once and yet a true body to be in a hundred in a million of places at once as they would have Christs body to be in the Sacrament here is to be and not to be a body and no body for it hath not the properties and quantity of a body for a body can be but in one place at one time here is yea and nay For Christ to be a perfect
with reasons discovering an absolute necessity of geting into Christ and of having him to be our Husband except we will lye under the wrath of God and be damned and withal discovering the fulnesse and excellency that is in Christ. Again it is God onely that must stablish the soul all the parts of it both judgment and conscience For I beseech you what can any humane creature what can any thing under God work upon the soul I mean so firmly as to stablish it and therefore our controversie with the Papists is just and good We say The reason and ground of our believing the Word of God to be the Word of God must not be the testimony of the Church and the authority thereof for alas what can the judgment of man what can the judgment of the Church do It may incline and move the will by inducing arguments and so cause a humane consent but to establish the soul and conscience and to assure me that the Word of God which is the ground of my faith is the Word of God it must be God by his Spirit that must do it the testimony of the Church will never do it The same Spirit that inspired holy men to write the Word of God works in us a belief that the Word of God is the Word of God The stablishing argument must be by the power of Gods Spirit God joyning with the soul and spirit of a man whom he intends to convert besides that inbred light that is in the soul causeth him to see a Divine Majestie shining forth in the Scriptures so that there must be an infused establishing by the Spirit to settle the heart in this first principle and indeed in all other Divine principles that the Scriptures are the Word of God And to go on a little further this is a fundamental errour in our practice For what is the reason we have so many Apostates what is the reason so many are so fruitlesse in their lives what is the reason that men despair in death but even this because men are not built and stablished aright Gods Spirit never stablished their soules in Divine truths For first concerning Apostasie ask them what is the reason they are of this or that Religion They will say they have been taught so they have been brought up to it the company with whom they have conversed have been devout men and have been alwayes led with this opinion and they see no reason to thwart it Is that all Hath not the Spirit wrought these things in thy heart hath he not given thee a taste of them hath he not convinced thee in thy judgment that it is so hast thou not found the power of the Spirit working upon thy soul changing of thee raising of thee drawing of thee out of the world nearer to God hast thou not I say felt the power of the Spirit this way No but thus I was catechized and thus I have been bred and thus I have heard in the Ministery And no otherwise Alas it will never hold out there will be a falling away for when a man believes not that which he believes from the Spirit of God he will be ready when dangerous times come when there is an onset made by the adversaries to fall and to fall clean away as we see it was in the time of Popery for whatsoever is not spiritual whatsoever knowledge is not Divine and from the Spirit of God never holds out Therefore I beseech you what 's the reason that you have many illiterate men that set upon the truth and hold out to the end and on the contrary many great seeming Scholars that are skilful in school-learning and in other Authours do not The reason is the one hath the truth from the Spirit discovering all the objections that the heart of man can make against it and the strength that is in the truth to answer and silence all those objections The other man hath onely a discoursing knowledge an ability to gather one thing from another and to prove one thing by another by strength of parts But the Spirit of God never discover'd the sleights and the corruptions of his heart never fastned and settled his heart upon the truth he never had experience of the truth For indeed nothing doth stablish so much as the experience of the truth on which we are stablished Again what is the reason of that unfruitfulnesse that is amongst men but because truths were never settled in the soul by the Spirit of God That which men know out of the Word of God concerning Christ and the priviledges by him they were never perswaded of it in their hearts therefore they come not to a fruitful conversation It is impossible but that men should be abundantly fruitful that have spiritual apprehensions of Divine things of Evangelical truths Hence comes all our unthankfulnesse and undervaluing of the Gospel The Gospel of it self is an unprized thing however we esteem of it God values it highly we value it not because our apprehensions of it are customary and formal gotten by breeding and education and discourse and not by the Spirit we feel not the spiritual and heavenly comforts of those truths we think we know How comes likewise Despair in time of temptation and in death but onely because men want this stablishing by the Spirit of God Men go on in evil courses trusting to a formal dead humane knowledge gotten by humane meanes and not settled in them by the Spirit of God that hath not sealed the truth in their hearts and hereupon when sharp tryals come they despair because they have no feeling of the truths of the Gospel and so when conscience is awakened and smarts it clamours and cryes out upon all their formall and humane knowledge For they having not a spiritual sense of the mercies of God in Christ and the perswasions of comfort are not so near to support the soul as the tentations and vexations and torments are how can they but despair Now who can still the conscience but the Spirit of God Why now if the knowledge that men had were spiritual and heavenly in all accusations of conscience it would set conscience down and still it I am a sinner indeed I am this and this but I have felt the sweet mercies of God in Christ God hath said to my soul I am thy salvation he hath intimated to my spirit by a sweet voyce Son thy sinnes are forgiven thee Where there is I say a knowledge and an apprehension of these Evangelical truths wrought by the Spirit it sets down Conscience and stills it though the heart rage at the same time There are thousands in the very bosome of the Church that miscarry because of this resting in a literall outward formall knowledge gotten onely by discourse and by reading and commerce with others and never labour to have their hearts stablished in Christ by Gods Spirit You see here then a
the sweetnesse of his spirit joynes us with you he saith not you with us but as if they were as firmly set in Christ as himself he saith us with you he puts them together with himself for indeed all of us one with another weak Christians and strong Christians fetch all that we have from one Fountain draw all from one Spring are led all by one Spirit You have here also the Character of a sound Christian he loves and values all Christians A carnal man may value excellent Christians that have excellent parts of whom he hopes for kindnesse in some peculiar regard but he loves not all the Saints Love to all Christians as they be Christians because they have some anointing of the Spirit some earnest somewhat they have to be valued is a note of a good and sound Christian Another reason why he joynes us with you is to shew that the working of the Spirit it is not in the members severed from the body but as they are in the body The Spirit works in us but in us with you and in you with us that is as all the spirits come from the head and heart to the severall members of the body so they must be united they must be in the body before they can have the benefit of the spirits there must be an union with Christ the head and with the rest of the members before we can have the Spirit to strengthen us and anoint us those that rend themselves from the body cannot hope for stablishing from the head This should be a bond to ty us to the communion of Saints we have all that we have in the body we all grow in the body we are all stones in one building whereof Christ is the foundation therefore as stones in an Arch strengthen one another so should we Let us look for grace to be given in the communion of Saints it is an ill sign when any man will be a solitary Christian and will stand alone by himself As we are knit to Christ by faith so we must be knit to the communion of Saints by love That which we have of the Spirit is had in the communion of Saints It is worth ohserving the better to cherish Christian lovingnesse Thus you see the parts of this sentence in which we have the grace it self here spoken of Stablishing In whom we are stablished In Christ. By whom by God And who those are that are stablished Us with you To make now some Application of all If it be God that stablisheth us let us make this Use of it Let God have the glory of our stablishing If we have it in dependance upon God by Prayer let us return all by praise and thanksgiving all comes of his meer grace let all return to his meer glory Not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise It is the song of the Church on earth and the song of the Church triumphant in heaven that all glory be to God in all the whole carriage of salvation The promises are his stablishing is his that he would make a Covenant it is his that he will perform his Covenant to us it is his that he will enable us to perform the Covenant it is by his strength all is his therefore both the Church here and the Church in heaven our song should be Great and gracious and merciful is the true God that is so gracious and righteous in all his promises Let us labour I beseech you for stablishing especially in these times Is it not a shame that we have gotten no more ground now then we had threescore yeares ago nay that we rather call principles into question The Pope hath been Antichrist and Traditions have been accounted Traditions and not equal with the Word what shall we now stagger in the foundation is here our progresse Oh beloved labour to be stablished in the present truth that you may not be a prey for every subtile man And here especially I would speak to the younger sort that they should labour for this stablishing betimes before they be engaged in the world and before other businesses possesse them over-deeply for falshood hath more correspondency and suits better with our corruption specially if it be forced from subtil wits it prevailes much with unstable dispositions those that are uncatechized and ungrounded they are soon led away and therefore with other studies we should study the truth and remember that our best calling is to be a Christian and our best honour to be able to stand for the truth we professe Labour to have fundamental graces established and then all will be stablished if the root be strengthened the tree stands fast radical graces must be strengthened First Humility The foundation of Religion is very low and humility and abasing is in all parts of Religion every grace hath a mixture of humility because our graces are from God they are dependences Now humility is an emptying grace and acknowledgeth that in my self I am nothing Spiritual poverty with humility acknowledgeth that I in my self am a dependent creature if God withhold his influence if God withdraw his grace I shall be as other men as Sampson when his hair was cut Our strength is in God altogether Let us pray that we may be humble God gives grace to the humble When I am weak saith blessed S. Paul then I am strong that is when I am humble and feel and acknowledge my weaknesse then I am strong or else a man is not strong when he is weak but when he feeles and acknowledgeth his weaknesse Therefore let us labour to grow in humility and self-denial and we shall grow in strength Then again another radical grace to be stablished is Faith Depend upon God altogether for considering our strength is out of our selves and faith being a grace that goes out of our selves and layes hold of that that is out of our selves faith is necessary to our stablishing Believe and ye shall be stablished saith the Prophet Though the Promise be sure in it self yet we must be established by faith How doth God stablish us by working a spirit of faith therefore strengthen faith strengthen all other graces all have their issue from faith And faith comes from sound knowledge knowledge therefore hath the name of faith This is eternal life to know thee strengthen and increase knowledge Historical faith is nothing but knowledge when we know the Word of God to be as it is and that is the ground of justifying faith and dependance For the more I know God in Covenant as he hath revealed himself and the more I know the promise and the more I know Christ the more I shall depend upon him and trust in him They that know thy Name will trust in thee Psal. 9. Therefore let us labour for certainty of knowledge that we may have certainty of faith What is the reason that our faith is weak because men
have it in Psal. 1. As the chaffe that the wind driveth to and fro because it hath no consistence it is a light body or as the drosse Psal. 119. God shall destroy the wicked as drosse see how the Scripture compares men not onely for their wickednesse but for their misery that have no certain being but on earthly things though they be never so great and as they think deeply rooted when troubles come they are as drosse they are as chaffe that hath no firmnesse before the wind when the wind of Judgment comes they are as stubble presently wasted and brought to nothing I beseech you therefore without deceiving of our own hearts let us enter into our own soules and examine for our knowledge first and then for our boldnesse What doest thou know in Religion that thou wouldest die for or die in we are stablished in no more to purpose then we would dye for Are those truths thou knowest so firmly wrought in thee by the Spirit of God hast thou such experience of them such spiritual sense and taste of the goodnesse of them that thou wouldest be content to part with thy life rather then to part with them thou art stablished then by the Spirit of God in Christ. I do not speak of every little truth it needs not that a man should die for that but I speak for fundamental truths canst thou prove them so out of the Scripture and doest thou find the testimony of Jesus Christ witnessing to thy heart that they are true then thou art confirmed and stablished in these truths I beseech you let us often examine upon what grounds and how firmly we know what we know For have we not many that if the Adversaries should come would conform to Popery and joyn themselves to Rome because they cannot back their principles with Scriptures and because they have not a spiritual understanding and apprehension of Divine truths Now he that is stablished stands firm against temptations and against arguments he will not be won away from his faith but remains unmoveable Therefore I say let us often examine our selves in this particular I believe this and this against the Papists and others I but how shall I stand out for this If tryals should come am I able to prove this from the Scriptures so clear as if it were written as he saith with a Sun-beam The temptation and assaults of the Devil by mens subtile wits and arguments will shake our judgments will hurt more and if time should come try us better then fire and fagot Those Spies that brought an evil report upon the Land of Canaan we see that though the Land when it was won was fruitful enough and the conquest of it honourable c. and therein those Spies discovered their own weaknesse yet when they had made that shrewd Oration and brought subtile arguments to the eye of flesh and blood we see I say how the people were discouraged and how they staggeted So a man that is not stablished he may sometimes have shrewd men to deal withal perhaps Atheists Papists Jesuites and the Devil joyning with them to unsettle men and they will prevail if men be not well settled and stablished before And so for the course of our life and conversation amongst men we should examine how we are stablished in that for we are not onely to stand firm in cases of Religion but for causes of honesty John Baptist was as good as a Martyr though the cause he dyed for was not Religion but a bold telling of Herod when he thought he took an unlawful course in keeping his brothers Wife An honest man may dye and suffer much for civil matters Therefore examine your selves in this I have undertaken this cause upon what ground in what confidence how far would I willingly go in it could I be content to lose the favour of great ones to dye in the quarrel if need be So far as a man is stablished by Gods Spirit so far is he settled also in this You have had Heathen men that would stand out firmly even to the death against all disfavours against all losses and crosses for evidence of Civil truths as you have it storied of Papinian an excellent Lawyer that in the defence of right stood forth to the losse of his life and many other the like examples have been But much more doth the Spirit of God stablish men this I understand this cause is good this I will stand in come what will when I am called to it Let us oft call our selves to an account what we believe and upon what ground what we do and upon what ground we undertake it whether on grounds of conscience or out of spleen and passion When a man undertakes things on natural grounds in great temptations if God do not assist him he will sink Take the strongest courages that are if they have no more but nature though they may stand out sometimes to the shame of Christians yet in some cases they will shew themselves to be but meer natural men And therefore labour for the Spirit to stablish us It is not necessary that we should enjoy our wealth nor the favour of men nor our life it self but it is necessary that we should keep a good conscience it is necessary that we should be saved it is necessary that we should look upon our Judge with confidence at the day of Judgment It becomes Christians who besides the light of nature have the Spirit to stablish them to be settled in their courses to look that the conscience be good the cause good the aym good If such a one give over when the cause is clear and good it is a sign that his heart is not stablished by the Spirit of God in Christ he hath either corrupt aymes or else he is weak and understands not the grounds of Religion and the vanity of this life as he should do There are none that flinch and give over in a good quarrel but either it is from hypocrisie that he pretends to believe in Christ and life everlasting and yet he doth not or else it is from extream and wonderful weaknesse which if he belong to God he shall recover as Peter did and shall stand more strongly another time It is but a forced a false encouragement and stablishing when a man that hath not the Spirit of God shall set light by death though perhaps he die in a good quarrel and with some comfort For when a man shall know that after death there is a Judgment and that God hath many things to lay to his charge when his conscience shall tell him that he is guilty of a thousand deaths if he be not in Christ and his pardon sealed by the Spirit of God in the blood of Christ is it not madnesse to be couragious in that which he cannot conquer It is good for a man to be couragious in time of conquest It is a dastardly thing for
to domineer over faith because it is onely a drawing from outward inforcement to the use of means Again it is not a ruling over faith nor a base slavery when men hear the Word of God opened directly and clearly when men shall perswade others according to their own judgment that this is so and when others shall yield There is some faith that may be called in some degree implicite faith and obedience that is not sinful but good and discreet As when men by their standing in the Church and by their experience and holinesse of life are thought to be men that speak agreeable to the ground of Scripture though they have not a direct rule and place of Scripture for it other mens conscience may follow what they say I have been directed by such men at such times that by reason of their calling have opportunity to advise But this frees it from base service that it must be with reservation till it appear otherwise by some place of Scripture or till better counsel may be yielded obedience to others with reservation and counselling with others this is no domineering because it is with reserving our selves to a further discovery and a further light That the Moralists use to call the opinion of an honest man where the Law speaks not it is much to be esteemed especially an honest discreet Christian when the Law of God speaks not directly then he that speaks out of conscience and some light he may perswade another man with this reservation till further light be discovered this is no domineering over faith I might take away many things that might breed a suspition as if we domineered over the faith of others when we do not But to come to shew you this positive truth what this tyranny over the faith of others is and where it is practised Those tyrannize over the faith of others that do equalize mens Traditions some Canons of their own with the Word of God and presse them with equal violence perhaps more because they are braâ—…s of their own brain Those that will devise a voluntary worship of God and so intangle people and tell them This you must do when there is no ground for it in the Word of God it is will-worship God loves willing worship when we worship him willingly but he loves not-will-worship when it is the device of our own brain how we will serve him As if a servant or a slave must devise how his Lord will be served what impudency is this if we consider what God is They tyrannize over peoples consciences that equalize their own dotages though they account them witty devices and their own inventions with the worship of God that jumble all together as if conscience were equally bound to any device of their own as to Gods Word Again those do tyrannize over the faith of others that think they can make Articles in Religion to bind conscience Those that think to free themselves from the danger of errour as if what they said were unfallible they tyrannize over others Those that for trifles excommunicate whole Churches because they hold not correspondency with them in their errours they tyrannize over the faith of others Those that withhold the means of knowledge that so in a dark time all their fooleries may be more admired As we see masks and such like overly things they must have the commendation of some light that is not so glorious as the Sun to win admiration of men so those that would win admiration of their fooleries they shut people as much as they may in darknesse that they may have their persons and all other things in admiration this is to tyrannize over faith and to hinder them from that that is the means to reform them better But who are guilty of all this We see what Church especially is guilty of this of domineering over the faith of others that is the Church of Rome The Councell of Trent equalizeth Traditions with the Word of God they divide the Word of God into the written and unwritten and under a curse they pronounce that all must be received with the same reverence And then they have devised a will-worship of their own and follow and force their will-worship with greater violence then the worship of God and they set Gods stamp upon all their fooleries to gain authority under the name of Christs Church and the Word of God they carry all Again you know they hold the Church to be infallible they hold the judgment of the Pope the man of sin to be infalible he cannot erre and hereupon whatsoever he saith it must bind conscience because he is in his Chair and cannot erre whatsoever he saith is the scope of Gods Word infallible And this is a fundamental errour as we call it a first lie a leading lie This is moving to errour this is the mover that moves all other errours under it For where upon is all the abominations of Popery justified They are iustified by this though they seem ridiculous grosse and blasphemous they came from the Church and the Church is virtually in the Pope An absurd Position that the whole Church should be virtually in one man yet that is the Jesuitical opinion and the Church cannot erre therefore it is good because these tenents come from him whose judgment is infallible That is the errour that leadeth to and establisheth all other errours under it it is the first lie And in lies there is a leading one goes under another they never go alone so this is the leading lie of all Popery that the Pope cannot erre by this means they domineer over the faith of others and make the people even beasts indeed But to see the indignity of this that the Pope cannot erre it is the greatest errour of all and the prevention of all amendment on their side do you think that they will ever amend their opinion when they hold this that is a block in the way of all reformation that the Pope can erre for deny that and you call all the fabrick of their Religion in question and grant that it stops all reformation on their side What reformation may we hope for on their side that hold this Position that they cannot erre Hence come all their treasons and rebellions they have some dispensation from the Pope and he cannot erre though he prescribe rebellion and treason Another opinion they have that the Church is the Judge of all Controversies in which the faith of men must be resolved at last but it is the Pope that the Jesuits mean Now this is indeed to domineer over the faith to make a man of sin to be a Judge over all points of faith and faith to be resolved at last into that into the judgment of the Church The Church hath an inducing power a leading power perswading to the belief of the Scriptures and to hear what God saith in his Word but
book comforts against sin comforts against trouble outward and inward and all but till the Comforter come till God send his holy Spirit we shall not make use of them Therefore let us labour to have more communion with God before we come to hear the Word and after we have heard it let us have communion with God again that he would seal whatsoever is spoken to our soules and make it effectual to us Therefore we must learn to give the just due to the Ordinance of God and not to idolize it to make it the means of comfort not to make it the chief Comforter but the Spirit of God by it What is Paul or Apollo what are we but Ministers of faith and by consequent Ministers and helpers of comfort but not the authors of comfort Oh if I had such and such here I should do well I should be so and so Alas all is to no purpose unlesse thou hast the Holy Ghost the Spirit of God that can help by weak means Therefore we must not tie comfort and joy to this or that means but in all means look to the ground of comfort and the spring of all the Holy Ghost The reason why men do nor profit more that they are not more cheared and lift up with the Ministery of the Word which is a Word of reconciliation and of joy and comfort it is because they are more careful in the use of means then in going to God for his Spirit to blesse the means Now these must go together a care of using the means and a care to pray to him that he would give us wisdome and strength and blessed successe in the use of all means Then if we would joyn religiously and conscionably these two together the use of all means conscionably and in the use of all to lift up our hearts to God to blesse them we should find a wondrous successe upon the Ministery and all other good means likewise So much for that I go on to the last clause of the Chapter For by faith ye stand Why doth the Apostle vary the word we have not dominion over your faith but are helpers of your joy whereas the consequence it seems might run thus we do not domineer over your faith but are helpers of your faith he puts joy instead of faith and afterward he brings in faith again for by faith ye stand This is one main reason because joy riseth from faith therefore he names it in stead of faith for the Holy Ghost is not curious of words but when the same Spirit wroks both he names that which he thinks will fittest suit the purpose Faith breeds joy How is that Because faith first of all doth shew to us the freedome from that that is the cause of all discomfort whatsoever it takes away all that may discourage For it takes away the fear of damnation for our sins it shewes our reconciliation in Jesus Christ. Faith shewes liberty and deliverance and so discovering deliverance by a Mediator it works joy Is not a prisoner joyful when he is set at liberty Then likewise faith discovers to us the face of God shining to us in Jesus Christ it shewes not only deliverance but favour It shewes us the ground of all the righteousnesse and obedience of our Saviour whereby we are delivered and brought into favour Now from this comes peace from the knowledge of our deliverance and acceptance with God founded upon the obedience of God-man a Saviour there comes in peace and peace breeds joy because faith discovers all these the ground of reconciliation with God in Jesus Christ and thereupon peace therefore it causeth joy For this is the pedigree and descent of joy as the Apostle hath it Rom. 14. The Kingdome of God is in righteousnesse and peace and joy There must be righteousnesse first of a Mediatur to satisfie the wrath of God and procure his favour From righteousnesse comes peace peace with God peace of conscience From peace comes joy there is no joy without peace no peace without righteousnesse And this whole pedigree of joy as it were is excellently set down Rom. 5. Being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord and have accesse to the throne of grace by which grace we stand and not only so but rejoyce So there is justification by the righteousnesse of Christ and thereupon peace with God and from peace boldnesse and accesse to God and thereupon joy So we see how faith brings in joy because it shewes the spring of joy whence it comes it shewes peace and peace riseth from reconciliation and reconciliation from righteousnesse of Christ Mediator whereupon we are delivered from all that we may fear and set in a state of true joy God being our friend When God is reconciled all is reconciled all is ours have we not cause of joy then Therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 15. The God of peace fill you full of joy in believing shewing that faith is the cause of all spiritual joy And the same you have in 1 Pet. 1. 8. In whom ye rejoyced after ye believed with joy unspeakable and glorious In whom after ye believed that is in Christ you rejoyced with joy unspeakable and glorious And therefore you see the Apostle might well substitute joy in stead of faith because it springs and riseth from faith in Jesus Christ the Mediatour Hereupon we may come to make this Use of tryal how we may know whether our joy be good or no. Among many other evidences this is one that spiritual joy is good if it spring from the Word of faith If it spring from the Ordinance of God unfolded in the Word shewing us the ground of believing For he that truly joyes can shew the ground of his joy Herein joy differs from presumption from presumptuous swelling conceits true joy that is not the joy of an hypocrite it doth shew from whence it comes it riseth from grounds out of divine truth Then again this joy doth more immediately spring from faith in the Word from assurance that God is ours and that Christ is ours that God is at peace with us and that we are at peace with him it ariseth from peace that is wrought by faith Then again this joy if it be sound it is such a joy as S. Peter saith is an unspeakable and glorious joy joy arising from the Word of God and from faith and peace it is above discouragement because we have in the Word of God matter of joy above all discouragements and all allurements whatsoever It is a joy above the joy of riches or pleasures or profits why because the Word shewes matter of joy above all these The Prophet David rejoyced in the Word of God above Gold and Silver as one that had gotten great spoyles you see how oft he repeats it Psal. 119. It was sweeter to him then the honey and the honey-comb Psal.
more perform the conditions of the Covenant of grace of our selves then the Covenant of the Law Nature cannot do it because it must be done by the Spirit altogether Now here is a foundation for faith to stand on God so farre condescends as he gives his Word and his Seal and his Oath with his Word to convey that Word by way of a Covenant and to make that Covenant a Testament and Will to us that he will do this and to seal that Will with his own blood for a Testament is of no force till the Testatour be dead his own blood hath sealed the Testament you see here what ground there is for faith to stand upon Then again the sweet relation that God hath taken upon him in Christ he is our Father faith builds not on naked God divested of his sweet relations for then he is a consuming fire but upon God a Father in Christ what a sweet thing is it to consider God a Father In Christ the nature of God is Fatherly to us and our nature is sweet to him We are sonnes in Christ his nature is sweet to us and ours to him he will surely perform his relations For in Christ he is a Father not in creation onely but in the Covenant of grace Faith relies upon the Word of God upon the Covenant and Testament and upon God himself altered and changed in the Covenant of Grace to be a sweet Father But what is a further ground of this The nature of God himself who is a Father for if God himself were not cloathed with properties that might satisfie faith and satisfie the soul fully though he were a Father it were not a sufficient ground for faith But now who hath taken the relation of a father upon him God who is infinitely good infinitely merciful above all our sins it must be infinite mercy faith would not have footing else For the soul will so upbraid in the sense of sin that if God were not a Father and a Father infinite in mercy nothing but infinite mercy will satisfie the soul when conscience is awaked and infinite power to subdue all enemies and infinite wisdome to go beyond the reach and subtilty of all the Devils in hell God is such a Father as in his Nature is of infinite mercy and wisdome and power here is a foundation for faith to lay hold upon indeed to have a Father and such a Father that is Jehovah there we must rest in his essence he is Jehovah I am he is eternal and immutable an eternal being of himself and he gives being to all and all things have their dependance upon him The Devils in hell and wicked men he can quell them all and substract their being and turn them to their first nothing from whence they came You see if we resolve all to Jehovah I am to the eternity of God and then to his nature cloathed with power and wisdome and mercy and then to his relation of a Father and then how he condescends to convey himself sweetly by way of Covenant and Testament I beseech you is not here a foundation for faith to build upon in the Word of God when God hath thus opened himself to us You see what this standing is And how by faith we stand and what faith stands on and may well stand on To come to some Observations then First of all Observe hence That The foundation of faith must be out of a mans self That bottom that a man must lay his soul upon must be out of himself it must be Divine it must be God For the soul rests not till it come to God and if the Word were not Gods Word it would not rest on that God must open himself by his Word It must be Divine revelation that the soul must stand upon and at last resolve to pitch and build and rest there It must not be humane authority therefore not the authority of any creature that the soul must stand on because that that the soul stands on must stand it self Now nothing hath a firm consistence but that which is Divine Which I prove thus There is no creature but though it be true and good yet it is changeably true and may be otherwise then it is and yet be a creature still and a good creature There is no man but he is changeable and is changeable as a creature and as a creature severed from the consideration of sin he is changeable The very Angels are changeable as they are creatures all things created are mutable it is the Observation of Damascene Now that that is the foundation of faith must not onely be true but infallibly and unchangeably true there must be no danger of errour in that that faith layes it self upon It is an old rule Falshood cannot be under faith because faith must lye upon truth infallible and immutable truth and who is so but God and what revealed truth is so but Divine truth Therefore faith onely relyeth upon the first good and the first truth upon God and his truth Therefore we may see what to judge of that controversie between us and our adversaries that would have our faith to be resolved into the authority of the Church and not of the Scriptures and by consequent not to the authority of God himself The question is Who hath the best standing the Papists or we We say we stand by faith therefore we stand better then they They say they stand by faith too but how Their faith is resolved into the authority of the Church at length and there they rest But I say even by the confession of themselves or of any reasonable man the Word of God is more Divine then the authority of the Church can be For the authority of the Church is therefore infallible and true because the Word of God saith so That he will be with the Church c. and save his Church The ground is determined upon the Word Now the Word to which they have recourse to prove that they cannot erre that must be trusted before them if they have credit from the Word the Word must be believed before them before men for there is no man if God speak by him but he speaks by him so far as he understands the Scripture and builds upon the Scriptures first Therefore we must first found our selves upon the Scriptures and upon men as far as they agree to the Scriptures If the Scriptures were not the Word of God indeed they could not be the foundation of faith we could not stand upon them but they are the Word of God indeed for men wrote as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost Now that that comes from men it is not infallibly the Word of God but if they speak any thing that is good it is so far as it is agreeable to the first truth the Word of God Indeed the resolution of their faith is very rotten and unsound and bewrayes what their
their worst if you will needs fear I will tell you whom you shall fâ—…ar Fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell So if we be forced to suffer the losse of any thing that is good in the world or be cast into any ill condition what saith S. Paul The troubles and afflictions of the world are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed Let us set that glory before us and that will prevail against that all the world can threaten or take from us what is all to it nothing Therefore by faith we stand we keep our own standing and withstand all oppositions whatsoever Oh but what if there come more subtile temptations end the Lord himself seemes to be our enemy that we have sinne and God is angry and we see he followes us with afflictions that are evidences of his anger how shall we stand now and keep our selves from despair This is a fiery dart of Satan when a man hath sinned and conscience is awakened to make him sink in despair O but faith will make the soul to stand in these great temptations against those fiery darts faith puts a shield into the hand of the soul to beat back all those fiery darts For faith will present Christ to God Indeed I have been a sinner but thou hast ordained a Saviour and he is of thine own appointing of thine own aâ—…ting a Saviour of thine own giving and thou hast made a promise that Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life I cast my self upon thy mercy in him hereupon faith comes to withstand all such fiery temptations whatsoever nay against God himself Lord thou canst not deny thine own Saviour thou â—…mest to be an enemy and though I be a sinner and have deserved to be cast into hell yet I come to thee in the Name of thy Son that is at thy right hand and pleads for me by vertue of his blood shed for me I came in his Name thou canst not refuse thy owne Son For all temptations when a man hath faith in him it will send Satan to Christ to answer for him Go to Christ he is my husband he hath paid my debts he hath satisfied for my sins So that whatsoever the temptation be make it as subtle as you will there is a skill in faith to stand against it and to beat back all the fiery darts of Satan Therefore to end all we see here what an excellent estate a Christian is in above all others that he hath a better standing then others have not onely a better standing in Religion then the Papists have but in the profession of Religion he hath a better standing then common professors why he stands by faith by sound faith He stands not upon opinion or because he hath been bred so he stands not upon his wit because he sees reason for it he stands upon faith and faith stands upon divine authority he stands partly upon his own experience that seconds faith Those then that care not for Religion what standing have they those that stand only in pleasures and profits and in the favour of great men what standing have they They stand as the Psalmist saith in slippery places There is no man but if he nave not faith he stands slippery though he be never so great if he be a Monarch alas what is it to stand a while all these things are but uncertain though they yield present content they are but uncertain contentments the Wise-man saith they are but vanity they are like the reed of Egypt that will not uphold they will not sustein the soul in the time of trouble there is nothing that a man can stand upon and fasten his soul upon if he be not Religious that will hold scarce the fit of an ague that will hold in the pangs of death even in the entrance of it that will hold in terrours of conscience How little a trouble will blow away all those that stand on so weak a foundation as an earthly thing is For they have but an Imaginary good to speak of and that Imagination is driven out by the sense of the contrary Let contrary troubles come and all their fooles Paradise and their happinesse they had before is at an end it goes no deeper then Imagination All the things in this world stablish not the heart Those that do not stand by faith in the favour of God in Christ let their standing be what it will it will soon be over turned by any temptation they can stand out against nothing Therefore let us labour above all things in the world to have that faith strengthened by which we stand and let us often be encouraged to strengthen our faith by all means that we may stand the better upon it and try our faith before we trust it it is that that we must trust to and stand to in life and death Therefore let us often think Is my faith good is it well built Let us oft put this query to our soules I believe the Religion I professe but upon what grounds I believe the truths in the Word of God but upon what grounds have I a clear understanding of them because they are divine doth the Spirit of God open them and shew a light in the Scripture that is divine doth the Spirit of God give me a relish of the Scriptures above all the pleasures in the world Do I find God speaking to my heart in the Word do I find the Spirit of God with his Ordinance then my knowledge and my faith will hold out I can stand by that faith in the Word that is wrought by the Spirit and fastened upon the Word with the Spirit But if I believe the Religion I professe only because the State doth so and if the King and State should do otherwise I would change my Religion or if it be because my parents were so or my friends and Patron is of that religion whom I depend upon or because I see greater seeming reason for this then for the other I can hold argument for this and not for the other Alas this will not hold But labour to know the truth of the Word of God by experience as much as we can and by the Spirit of God giving evidence to our soules from the inward grounds of Scripture that it is the Word I know whom I have trusted I know the promises are good I have felt them in my soul the Spirit hath reported them to my soul they are sweeter then all the things in the world It is a sure Word I bottome upon it I have found the comfort of it before therefore I will build upon it We can never stand unlesse we can make our knowledge spiritnal it is but acquisite knowledge else We fall in three things vilely we labour that our knowledge of Religion be spiritual and fetched divinely out of the Word of God together with the Spirit We
fall into sin from this very ground for why do men fall into sin because at that time they stand not upon the Word of God revealed by conscience to be the Word of God Ask them why they sweat if they did believe the truth the Word saith I will not hold them guilâ—…lesse that take my Name in vain But I am not convinced by the Spirit assuring my soul that it is the Word of God if men did believe it would men bring a curse upon themselves And so whoremongers the Word of God saith Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge would men if they did believe this truth live in these sins But they have only an opinion of these things I hear that these things are divine perhaps they are not so and the knowledge that we have is not divine faith is not mingled with the Spirit Then again from sin we fall into despair for sin at last why because our knowledge of divine truthes is not spiritual nor from inward grounds of Scripture felt by experience the Spirit sealing the Scripture to my heart by some spirituall experience and thereupon men fall into despair for sin at length For Satan plies them with temptations from their own guilty conscience the grounds of their fears are present and the grounds of their terrours are present to their soules for they are there as it were sealed and branded in their very soules but their comforts are overly the promises are overly the Word is not rooted in their hearts by faith it is not sealed there by the Spirit of God the sanctifying Spirit never brought the Word and their soules together Hereupon they fall into desperation when their terrours are present and their comforts are overly If a man have never so sound a foundation if he stand not but float upon it he may fall and sink if a man be never so weak if he lie on a rock the strength of the rock is his so in our temptations if we have a strong foundation if we do not rest on it the foundation will not uphold us Now how can those rest on it that stagger in it that were never convinced by the Spirit that these things are so and that have had no spiritual experience Satan drawes thousands of soules to perdition because their terrours are present and their comforts are overly they are not built upon divine truth by the Spirit of God Again for Apostasie in the times of the alteration of Religion why do men alter as the State alters they are ready to have every Moneth a new faith if the times and Goverment alter why because they were never convinced by the Spirit of God of divine truths They had it from forreign arguments The former State of things countenanced this way now another State countenanceth another opinion therefore I will be of the safest This is because the soul was never convinced of the truth Therefore I beseech you labour to have arguments from the experience of the power of the Word in your soules and arguments from the Spirit of God to your spirits that it is the Word of God I will stand to divine truth I find such a majesty such a humbling pacifying satisfying power in it to all my perplexities and doubts that it cannot but be the Word of God it stayes my soul in all oppositions in all temptations and corruptions it gives a stay and foundation to my soul that no truth in the world else can do When the soul is brought to such a frame such a soul will not fall into grosse sins while it is in such a frame much lesse will it despair for sin and if there be altering of Religion a thousand times it stands as a rock unmovable because it knowes from inward grounds from the Word of God it self sealed by the Spirit to my spirit that it is the Word of God such a soul will hold out and only such a soul. We should labour therefore by all means to have our faith strengthened and amongst other meanes by the use of the Sacrament whereby God sweetly conveys himself to us by way of a banquet strengthening our faith in Christ he presents Christ to us as the food of our soules to refresh us even as the bread and wine doth Our blessed Saviour is wiser then we he knowes what we stand in need of that we have need to strengthen our faith For we have need to strengthen that that must be our strength which is faith And what is the Ordinance of God to strengthen faith is it not the Sacrament The proper use of the Sacrament is to strengthen faith which the Sacrament doth being a visible Sermon to us for here we see in the outward things Christs body broken and his blood shed it is a lively representation a visible crucifying of Christ a breaking of his body and pouring out of his bloud And withall here is an offer of Christ to us in the elements sealing of what it represents to our soules if we come prepared God feeds us not with empty signes but together with the outward things themselves he gives the spiritual to the soul that is a worthy Receiver Therefore come with a humble stooping to Gods wisdom in appointing these Ordinances to this end to strengthen faith And come with a desire to have faith strengthened that will uphold us against all temptations to sin or to despair for sin Oh beloved if we knew what good our faith must do us ere long we would labour to have it strengthened by all means What will become of us in the hour of death and in great temptations we shall be as chaffe driven with the wind if we have no consistence and stability in divine truth if our soules be not built on that if we have not faith whereby our soules may be rooted in Christ we shall be but a prey for Satan Therefore considering that faith is of such wondrous consequence it is the root of all other graces whatsoever as the Apostle saith here By faith ye stand He doth not say By patience or by hope or the like they are drawn from faith Strengthen that and strengthen all other that are infused from it As a tree we cast not water on the branches but on the root all the branches are cherished by the root so strengthen faith we strengthen love and hope and all if we strengthen faith and assurance of Gods love in Christ. Thus I have at length gone over this fruitfull portion of Scripture FINIS AN Alphabetical Table DIRECTING The Reader to the Ready finding out the Principal Points and Matters handled in this Book A. Achaia AChaia the Countrey wherein Corinth was Page 5 Acknowledge Acknowledge or Acknowledgment what p. 316 331 To acknowledge Christ what pag. 331 Christ acknowledged in the Minister p. 331 333 How to know whether we acknowledge the Minister p. 331 332 333 Action Three sorts of Actions good ill indifferent p. 254
See Hope Opinion Confidence Certain account of and looking for death is a not able means to draw us from self confidence p. 136 Gods Children prone to self confidence p. 137 See Trust. Conformity A threefold conformity with Christ p. 118 Conscience Conscience what p. 219 220 c. Three things joyned with Conscience p. 221 God hath set up a Court in man wherein Conscience is 1. Register 2. Witnesse 3. Accuser 4. Judge 5. Executioner p. 222 Conscience Gods Hall wherein he keeps his Assizes ibid. Judgment of Conscience a forerunner of the great and general Judgment ibid. Conscience beareth witnesse p. 223 What manner of witnesse Conscience is viz. 1. Faithful 2. Inward ibid. How to have Conscience witnesse well p. 224 227 An ignorant man cannot have a good Conscience p. 225 Why men have bad Consciences ibid. Papists cannot have a good conscience why p. 226 The witnesse of a good Conscience the ground of joy why p. 227 235 A good Conscience breeds joy 1. In life p. 228 to 232 2. In death 3. At the day of Judgment A good Conscience comforts in all estates and conditions whatsoever p. 228 229 230 Why a good Conscience doth not alwayes witnesse comfort p. 231 232 Means how to joy and rejoyce in the witnesse of Conscience p. 233 Nothing worse then a bad Conscience p. 236 237 238 239 Labour for a good Concience ibid. Commenâ—…atior of a good Conscience ibid. How to have a good Conscience p. 240 Gods Children have place in the Conscience of others p. 320 Contraries God is able to raise comfort out of contraries p. 42 43 God carries on the work of our salvation by contraries why p. 146 Conversation Conversation what p. 266 Christianity may stand with conversing abroad in the world p. 267 Keligion makes a man converse abroad in the world untainted ibid. A Christians Conversation is best where he is best known p. 273 Corinth Corinth a very wicked City yet ever there God hath a Church p. 4 What is now become of the Church of Corinth p. 5 Corinth the Metropolis or Mother-City of Achaia p. 6 See Achaia D. Danger God suffers his Children sometimes to fall into extream perils and dangers why p. 125 126 c. Day Christ hath a Day p. 339 There be two special dayes of Christ ibid. The measure of a Christians joy is as it will be esteemed at the day of Judgment p. 340 We should often think of the day of the Lord Jesus p. 341 See Judgment Death Gods Children are sometimes very sensible and much afraid of death why p. 130 131 How and in what respect the Saints desire death p. 133 Christ was afraid of death and yet thirsted after it how p. 132 133 Gods Children are often deceived concerning the time â—…f their death why p. 134 Death uncertain how ibid. The time of death uncertain why p. 134 135 Certain account of and looking for death is a means to draw us from self-confidence and from the world and to make us trust in God p 136 Physicians fault in flattering the sick and feeding them with false hopes â—…f long life at the point of death taxed ibid. Affliction called Death p. 171 Deliver God doth not deliver his children at the first but suffers them to be brought to a low ebbe to a very sad condition and why p. 171 172 God delivers after he hath done his work p. 172 Gods time to deliver when p. 173 Gods children alway stand in need of deliverance p. 175 God delivers both outwardly and inwrdly p. 176 180 Christians have deliverance from trouble p. 177 A double deliverance of God p. 178 Experience of Gods deliverance in time past a ground of confidence to expect the like for time to come p. 172 178 182 Objection against the Doctrine of Gods delivering his people from trouble answered p. 179 Deliverance various or manifold p. 180 God will deliver his people out of all trouble p. 181 Dispense No dispensing with Gods Law p. 399 Dissembling Dissimulation Grounds of Dissimulation p. 244 A threefold Dissimulation 1. Before the project p. 224 2. In 3. After Objection for dissembling answered pag. 247 Man naturally prone to dissemble p. 244 250 Dissembling to be avoided and declined p. 371 372 A Christian is no Dissembler p. 317 See Simulation Dominion No man hath dominion over anothers faith p. 519 What is no domineering over the faith of others p. 520 What is domineering over the faith of others ibid. Who are guilty of domineering over other mens faith p. 521 The Church of Rome guilty of domineering over the faith of others how and wherein ibid. Grounds from whence this domineering over other mens faith ariseth p. 527 Double Doubling a great sin p. 247 Man by nature is prone to double and the grounds of it p. 250 Some persons and callings are more prone to doubling then others ibid. A Christian is no doubler p. 317 E. Earnest VVHat the Spirit is an Earnest of p. 486 The Spirit resembled to an Earnest in fiv e particulars p. 486 487 How to know whether we have the Earnest of the Spirit p. 493 494 495 How to get this Earnest of the Spirit pag. 501 502 503 Motives to labour for this Earnest pag. 504 505 End Holy men work for holy Ends p. 347 Equivocation Popish Equivocation odious and abominable p. 246 372 516 Errour How Prophets and Apostles were subject to errours and mistakes and how not p. 374 See Infallible Mistake Experience Former Experience a ground to expect like mercies for the future p. 182 to 188 Extremity God sometimes suffers his children to fall into great extremities and why p. 126 127 Gods people are sensible of their extremity p. 129 See Afflictions Sufferings Tribulations F. Faith Difference between Faith and Presumption p. 441 A double act of Faith 1. Direct pag. 488 2. Reflect Of standing by Faith See Standing To have dominion over the Faith of others See Dominion The foundation of Faith must be out of a mans self p. 544 True Faith is built upon the Word or the Scriptures not upon unwritten Traditions p. 544 545 546 Popish Faith not built upon the Scriptures but upon Traditions p. 545 546 Faith sure and certain p. 546 True Faith will persevere and hold out to the end ibid. It 's by Faith that we stand and withstand all opposition whatsoever ibid. Faith a Christians victory by it he conquers all adversary powers ibid. The Sacrament a means of strengthen Faith p. 550 Falshood Falshood to be declined p. 371 372 Father God as the Father of Christ to be praised p. 21 See Praise God the Father of Christ our Father and the Father of mercies how pag. 21 22 Why God is called the Father of mercies p. 23 Why not the Father of mercy but of mercies ibid. Uses to be made of this Title of God The Father of mercies p. 25 26 27 28 29 30 See Mercy Flesh. Flesh what 276 364 Carnal wisdome why called
Use. Not to set a period to our growth in Grace Triall of our estate by desire to grow Simile Doctr. Every blessing a Grace Use. To look on every bâ—…nefit as a Grace Thankfulnesse Application 〈◊〉 the Sacrament Observ. A good man must take all occasions to do good Saint Paul's Circuit Observ. A commendable custome for Christians to bring one another on their way Religion teacheth not incivility Observ. Men prone to suspition Suspition what Whence it is 1. From guilt 2. Envy Quest. Answ. How to arm against suspition 1. By Innocency 2. Patience 3. Prayer 4. Apology Quest. Answ. Suspition when evill 1. 2. 3. Doctr. Publick men to avoid the imputation of lightnesse Reason To preserve Authority Obstinacy like Constancy Grounds of lightnesse and inconstancy 1. Temper of body 2. From the disposition of the mind 1. Inconsideration 2. Passion Inconstancy mistaken Simile 5. Want of dependance on God Christians modest for the future Remedies against lightnesse 1. Deliberation 2. Suppresse passion Inconveniency of passion Dependance on God Flesh what Why so called Wicked men called the world Use. Take heed by whom we are led Observ. A Christian to avoid the imputation of carnal policy Reason It is Gods and our enemy Use. To suppresse it Observ. To purpose according to the flesh a ground of lightnesse A wicked man no sound friend Nor a good Christian. How to know we consult with the flesh We consult not according to the flesh 1. In denial of parts 2. Of opportunities 3. When we are humble in our consultations Quest. Answ. How to avoid fleshly wisdom God judgeth us not by passion but by our tenour of life Worldly men make all serve the flâ—…sh Application to the Sacrament Observ. Carnal men inconstant Not over-much to trust carnal men Observ. Carnal men vehement Simile Ground of yea and nay Falshood and dissembling Equivocation 1. If it be allowed there can be no lie 2. It hinders suffering 3. Equivocation a lie A lie what Quest. Answ. S. Paul sustained three persons Holy men are but men Not knowing things to come no sin Difference in the things delivered by Apostles as Apostles and as men Our journey to heaven certain Men prone to censure mens callings for particular actions Saint Paul's care to fence his doctrine from suspition An Oath what Kinds of oathes Conditions of an oath An oath not good unlesse necessary Qualifications of an oath What meant by the prohibition not to swear at all Observ. A matter of consequence to believe Gods Word is certain Reason We cannot else resist temptations to sin Or to despair Ground of going on in sin Use. To be thankful for means of strengthening faith in this Doctr. God is true and faithful God true out of necessity of his nature Object Answ. Promises absolute or conditional That God is and is true the prime truth Evidences of faith in us ground of it out of us The relations of God to us comfortable from his truth Use 1. Gods threatenings true Use 2. Comfort Use 3. Gods Word Judge of all Controversies Properties of a Judge No other Judge alway yea Use 4. What agrees not with Gods Word is false Popery crosseth the Word of God Popery contradicts it self Popery full of uncertainties Quest. How to know the Word to be true Answ. 1. 2. Quest. Answ. To yield obedience to Gods Word Four Points Doctr. 1. Chrise the main object of preaching Prerogatives of Christs Generation Preaching an instrument to work faith Use. To desire most to hear of Christ. How to think of Christ. Doctr. 2. All good by Christ conveyed by the Ministery Doctr. 3. Consent of Ministers a help to faith Doctr. 4. Evangelical truth is most certain Quest. How to know the doctrine of the Gospel true Answ. Office of the Church concerning Gods Word Simile Object Answ. How God speaks in the Church Quest. How to know our faith is the true ancient faith Answ. August One Faith One Catholike Church Rock what Object Answ. Papists and we have the same affirmatives Popish negatives novelties Quest. Answ. Additions in Popery dangerous Quest. Answ. Safer to be a Protestant then a Papist Quest. Answ. Whether a Papist may be saved Papists give what sense they will of Scriptures No dispensing with Gods Lâ—… Use. To get certainty of faith answerable to the certain truth Three senses of Amen God since the Fall hath made a Covenant of Grace Observ. God deals with man by Promises Reason 1. Else man dares look for nothing from God Reason 2. To exercise faith and hope Reason 3. To arm us against discouragements Quest. Answ. Promise what Three degrees of love No promise no faith nor hope Observ. 2. All Promises in Christ. Christ first beloved 1. As God 2. As Man 3. As Mediatour 4. As our Head and Husband Our nature odious to God since thn fall Gods love first in Christ and then in us in regard of execution All in Christ first Use. Ground of boldnesse to God Observ. 3. All the promises yea in Christ. Christ the first promise All types fulfilled in Christ. 1 Personal types 3. Real types 2. All promises and prophecies All good things by Christ yea Benefit to former ages by Christ. Simile Inlargment of Grace by Christs coming Christ the word how Use. A comfortable way to study Christ in promises and acplishment All other promises Amen for Christ. Pròmises yet unfulfilled Use. Direction of judgment that every man cannot be saved by his own Religion Use. To magnifie God for promises Use Direct in to go to God in Christ. Severall kinds of promises 1. Universal to all mankind 2. Concerning the Church Manner of promising 1. Absolute 2. Conditionally propounded but absolutely performed Conditional of outward things Use. To get into Christ. Object Answ. The good things wicked men enjoy are not blessings How to know blessings are snares How to know we have them in love Attend on the meanes to get into Christ. Rest in Christ. Use. The stability of the estate of a Christian. Comfort in dangers * 1625. Quest. Answ. Till a man be in Christ he hath no good by the promises Quest. Answ. Hope of wicked men while they live Object Answ. Object Answ. How the promise is made to the poor in spirit Quest. What right a man out of Christ hath to claim the premises Answ. Wilful rebellion keeps men from Christ. Comfort from the promises to them that are in Christ. Of forgivenesse In want of Grace In imperfections Object Against falling away In Troubles of this world For issue of our labours In weak performances Promise to posteritys Comfort to Parents Comfort to Children Wicked Pare cruel to poste rity How to make use of the Promises To suit the promises to our wants Look to Christ in whom they are made Look to God in Christ. God our Father God our Husband Christ our Head Christ our brother The Spirit ours What to do when we remember not particular Promises Rules touching the Promises 1. Not to
abuse Promises of this life 2. Gods Promises wondrously performed 3. God deferreth his performance To wait Gods time Believe contraries in contraries To have Amen for Gods Amen Complaint of Unbelief Faith in the Promises honours God Why God honors faith so much To make the Promises familiar How to make use of former examples What use to make of the story of our own lives Comfort in the false dealing of men To deceive trust odious Comfort in all changes in the world How the Word of the Lord endures for ever To rely constantly on the constant Promises To observe how God daily fulfills his Promises 1. For temporals 2. For spirituals Turn Promises into Prayers Labour to know the Promises Work the Promises on our hearts Evidences of believing the Promises 1. They breed joy 2. They quicken to obedience 3. They purge 4. They quiet the soul. 5. A staying of tâ—…e soul when all iâ—… contrary 6. Faithfulnesse in our Promises to God Quest. Answ. God gives grace to perform the Covenant God promiseth the things be requires Promises Legacies Covenant a Testament Threatnings of God Amen as well as Promises 7. Opposition of flesh and fleshly men Carnal men despise those that trust in Gods Promises To go to God in Christ to perform the promises How to think of Christ. All in the world nothing without Christ. Observ. Gods glory manifested in the Gospel More then in the Creation Our estate in Christ better then Adam's Glory of Gods Justice His Mercy Wisdome Power Truth To see Gods Attributes in Christ. To honour God by believing the Gospel Glory of God by the Ministery Observ. A double Amen 1. In Gods Promises 2. In our Faith Necessity of application Difference between faith and presumption Observ. Stablishing grace necessary Reason 1. In regard of our indisposition 2. In regard of oppositions Difference between true Christians and others Degrees of faith Observ. Christ the foundation of our stability 1. Our Judgment stablished in Christ. 2. Our Will 3. Our affections A Christians stability more then Adam's or Angels None are firm but Christians Observ. God onely can stablish the soul. 1. By shewing our misery and Christs excellency The ground of believing Gods Word Reason of Apostasie The reason of unfruitfulnesse The reason of Despair Spiritual knowledge necessary Observ. God will stablish us 1. Because he is constant All of Grace from God Ground of a Christians not falling away God stablisheth bâ—… working stablishing graces Fear Wisdome Faith Peace To value all good Christians The Spirit works as we are in the body Bond of communion of Saints Use. To give God the glory of our stablishing Strengthen radical graces 1. Humility 2. Faith 3. Knowledge Knowledge must be spirituall 1. Be acquainted with Gods Word 2. Take no scandal at those that shrink 3. Retain the truth in love 4. Practise truths â—…nown 5. Be frequent in holy conference 7. Pray to God to stablish us 8. Be spiritually poor 9. Hate lukewarmnesse Use 2. Examination of our stablishing 1. When it is grounded on the Word 2. When weak men overcome strong temptations 2. By freedome from base fears cares c. Examine our knowledge Examine our course of life None but a Christ an truly couragious in death 2. Desire of Christs coming Why God useth so many several words to secâ—… us What the Spirit is an Earnest of The Spirit an Earnest 1. For security 2. It is part of the whole 3. An Earnest is little to the whole 4. It serves the party receiving it 5. It is never taken away Observ. A Christian man be assured of his estate in grace All in the work of Redemption is for that end Christians not alike assured at all times Double act of saith 1. Direct 2. Reflect The reflect act may be hindred Naughty hearte content with a state of doubling Observ. Gods Children may be assured they shall held out to the end Grace and glory differ but in degrees Observ. Those that look to be happy must first be holy Observ. We may be assured from a little measure of grace The Spirit appears not in all graces at once A Christian is a mixed creature Use 2. To examine the truth of grace We may know grace is true though little 1. The soul mournes that it is little 2. Wait 3. To wait with Patience 4. Constancy 5. To purge our selves 6. Desire of accomplishment Cautions 1. When conscience is wounded 2. Have been carelesse 7. Growth in grace 8. Quieting of the soul. 9. True gold will endure the tryal 10. It will persevere Christians get strength by their falls To labour for assurance Earnest given for our sakes To labour against unbelief Earnest the work of the Spirit 1. He proceeds from Father and Son 2. He only can quiet the soul. How to know we have the Spirit 1. By life and motion 2. By transforming us 3. By Conflict 4. By supernatural obedience 5. It dwells in us 6. It mortifies sin 7. It leads us 8 It is a Spirit of adoption 9. It teacheth to pray 10. And to wait Directions to have the Spirit 1. Attend Gods means 2. Not to grieve the Spirit 1. By cherishing Lusts. 2. Obey the Spirit 3. Pray for the Spirit The Spirit makes impregnable No thankfulnesse without the Spirit No joy without the Spirit No willâ—…ngnesse to dye without it Parts of the Verse Observ. Mans nature prone to suspition Grounds of suspition 1. The infirmity of men 2. Guiltinesse 3. From Probabilities Suspition more then fear lesse then judgment Suspition what Suspition makes the worst construction Why the Devil cherisheth suspition Mischief from suspition Observ. To labour to avoid suspition Suspition a Canker That that is suspected is made unprofitable God labours â—…o free himself from suspition Christ labours to be freed from suspition Sin must be censured and judged Doctr. Gentle courses first to be used Reason 1. It is suitable to â—…ns nature Reason 2. To Gods disposition Reason 3. To the carriage of our salvation Reason 4. Gods course Reason 5. It is most successeful Reason 6. It is tasting Use. To deal gently with others Doctr. When gentle means prevail not severe must be used Reason Men must not spare that God may Against selfrâ—…spects in reproos of sin Use. People to be willing to bear of their sins How to prevent severity in others Vexation in hell to those that were cherished in sin Three-fold correction 1. Private admonition 2. Before others Definition of an Oath None but good men should take an Oath To swear by none but God Invocation in an Oath Imprecation Oath to be taken onely in serious matters An Oath must be 1. In Truth 2. In Judgment 3. In Justice Against equivocation An oath only in matters in determinable Oath lawful Ordinary Swearing forbidden Object Answ. Swearing without good life nothing Object Answ. Custome no plea for swearing Object Answ. Company no excuse for swearing Swearing ordinarily argues a vile heart Original of common swearing 1. Atheisme 2. Cherishing passion 3. Affectation 4. Shame Men should abstain swearing in love to the Kingdome For love to theâ—…r own sam lies Conscience of lessâ—…r oathes Ordinary Swearers curse themselves A Christians life a kind of oath Doctr. No man hath dominion over anothers faith 1. What it is not to have dominion over the faith of others What â—…ranny over the faith of others is Quest. Answ. The Church of Rome domineers over the faith of others 1. By Traditions 2. Will-worship 3. That the Pope cannot erre A grand lie that hinders their Reformation 4. Church Judge of Controversies 5. In the intentioâ—… of the Minister in the Sacrament Confession Satans malice to sit in Gods throne Popery would subdue all Use. To be thankful for freedome from this tyranny How to think of Popery Grounds of spiritual Tyranny Salvation termed joy why Doctr. 1. The state of a Christian is joy Nature teacheth it God gives matter of joy 1. Freedom from ill 2. The good they are brought to Reason 1. That God may have glory Reason 2. It makes active in doing good Reason 3. And able to suffer ill Reason 4. To encourage others Doctr. 2. The Word unfolded helps this joy To comfort what The Ministers helpers of joy 1. By shewing people their ill 2. By shewing the remedy 3. By advice Light Liberty Victory 4. By forcing it as a duty 5. In death Object Answ. Ministers trouble the joy of carnal men Object Answ. Private means will not comfort when publick are neglected Object Answ. The sorrow caused by the Ministery tends to joy Simile Object Answ. Simile Comfort what Use. To esteem the Ministery To open the case of our soules to spiritual Physitians Doctr. 3 Ministers but helpers not the authours of joy Simile Gods Spirit only specks comfort 1. He only knowes our hearts 2. He only can set down the soul. Use To look for comfort from the Spirit by the means Not to idolize the Ordinances why S. Paul varies the phrase Observ. Faith breeds joy 1 Faith takes away all that may discourage 2. It shewes Gods love in Christ. Pedigree of joy Use. To try if our joy be good 1. If it spring from the Word 2. It springs from faith 3. It is above discouragements or allurements 4. It is with humility Standing what meant by it Quest. Answ. Why our stand ing is by faith Four degrees of assent 1. Opinion 2. Knowledge 3. Believing 4. Experience How we stand by faith Quest. Answ. What faith it self stands on God our Father The nature of God Observ. The foundation of faith out of us Faith withstands opposition Quest. Answ. How we stand by faith when conscience is awakened for sin The firmnesse of a Christians standing If our knowledg of Scripture be not spiritual 1. We fall into sin 2. To despair 3. To Apostasie The Sacrament strengthens faith Faith the radical grace