and hence it is said John 6. 10. No man comes to me but whom the Father draws Why It is the immediate office and work of the holy Ghost to draw and apply the soul unto Christ why then is it said Unless the Father draw The reason is because that which was perfected and consummated by the holy Ghost was intentionally and by way of purpose and decree begun originally by the Father this is that which Christs words have chiefly reference unto viz. the Father through the Son by the holy Ghost draws But I have waded too far in this Divinity the clear knowledg of which is reserved for us in heaven But thus much to satisfie you Yet the word Father in the Lords Prayer I conceive under correction as it doth not exclude any person of the God-head so it s chiefly set down there not so much to denote the Person of the Father as the affection of God as a Father to us his Sons by Christ which we are to believe in our first approaching to our prayers to be as nay to transcend the affection of any Father to his Son when we come to call upon him for those six things which the Petitions set down for those three ends Kingdom Power and Glory which the Prayer concludes withal Quest 4. Your fourth trouble is your aptness to go to God immediately especially when his graces are most striving in his ordinances contrary to that of Christ Ye believe in God believe also in me Answ So indeed it is usual for religious nature often to out-run and get the start of grace as it appears in many other so in this case you put look as it is with every man when God awakens him effectually he first seeks to his kitchin physick to save himself by his duties praying 〈◊〉 reforming endeavouring 〈◊〉 working before he will 〈…〉 to the Physician and to Christ to save him Because it was natural to 〈◊〉 to seek to live by his working it is natural to every Son and branch of that root to seek to save himself by doing as well as he can or as God gives him the strength and grace So it is here It was natural to Adam to depend upon and go to God immediately as a creature to a Creator as a Son to go nakedly to God as a Father Christ was not then known nor seen so it is natural to every man when rectified Nature is stirred up to go immediately to God It is grace in the second Covenant that reveals and draws to Jesus Christ and to God by Christ Heb. 7. 25. For cure of this distemper ponder but these three things 1. Clearly convince the soul that the immortal invisible and most holy God that dwelleth in an unapproachable light his set out himself to be seen or made himself only visible in Jusus Christ so that he would have no man look upon him any other ways then as he has revealed himself in his Son In whom tho' in all other creatures his vestigia and footsteps are to be seen as he is God the face of God is to be seen which no creature is able to behold but there being the brightness of his glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. 1. 3. And as he is man the very heart of God both in respect of affection and will to be seen So that in and through Jesus Christ especially his human nature the glory of the great God breaks out like the Sun through the clouds most brightly in respect of us and therefore in and through his human nature we are only to behold God in whom all that a Christian desires to know is to be seen which is the face and heart of so dear a friend 2 Cor. 4. 6. Joh. 14. 9 10. For we know by too lamentable experience how the whole world vanishing in their smoaky thoughts of the glory of God as he is considered in himself and not able to conceive or retain the knowledg of him did hence invent and set up Images as fit objects for their drunken staggering understanding to fasten upon to be limited with and hence adored God before these as our Popish Hypocrites do before the Altar and in these and at these as Papists do in respect of their Images Hence the Lord to cure this inveterate natural malady has in the second Person united himself to man Christ Jesus through whom we are both able to our everlasting wonderment to see him and also here bound only to behold him who as he is a fi◠handle for our faith so he is a fit object for our weak minds to behold the glory of the most high God in Wherefore then do you offer to go unto God without Christ whenas you are not so much as to look upon God but as he appears in Christ Is not the human nature of the Lord Jesus more easie to be seen and conceived of than the invisible unlimited eterual God-head 2. Secondly See evidently that there is not any dram or drop of God you have especially in Gods ordinances but it issues from the blood and is purchased by the intercession and delivered unto you by the hand of Jesus Christ Ephes 1. 7. Hebr. 7. 25. John 5. 22. You should never have heard the sound of the gospel nor never have had day of Patience nor never have heard of Gods ordinances to find him in nor never have been comforted quickned enlarged affected by Gods Ordinances were it not for Jesus Christ the efficacy of whole blood and power of whose glorious intercession doth at the very instant you feel any good in Gods Ordinances prevail with God the Father for what you feel for the Father loveth the Son and has put all things into his bands John 3. 3 5. that all men might honour the Son all the three Persons plotting chiefly for the honour of the second so that you may see may you are bound to believe at the time you feel your heart savingly affected in any ordinance now the Lord Jesus who is at the right hand of God in heaven who is now in his glory now be remembring me a poor worm on earth now I feel the fruit of his death O what a miserable forlorn wretch had I been were it not for Jesus Christ Mercy could never have helped enlightned comforted quickned assured enlarged me and Justice could never have relieved my dead bloody perishing lost Soul had it not been for Jesus Christ whose Spirit power grace comfort presence sweetness I taste drink and am satisfied abundantly with and now do enjoy Oh Sir methinks the sad meditation of this should make you in all Gods ordinances where you are apt to say you go immediately to God to hasten suddenly in your thoughts affections praises to Jesus Christ Nay methinks you should speedily have your heart clevated and lifted up to Jesus Christ and say I receive this and taste this from Jesus Christ Oh but this is but a taste of the
a sick man tells his Physician who comes not to him on these terms If you will make your self half whole then I will cure you and do the rest for you but being utterly unable to cure or to know how to cure himself he tells his Physician I am content you should begin and perfect the cure and so honour your skill and love in me to be contented to take any thing if you will give it me and if I offer to resist that you should bind me and so do any thing with me 2. The second act is earnestly to long and come to Christ to cleave unto Jesus Christ by fervent and ardent desire that he would make good those absolute promises to you seeing that they are made to some and that they do not exclude you for when you ponder well and see what wonderful great things the Lord promiseth to some whose heart cannot but be stirred up to say as that woman in another case Lord give me of that water to drink and as they in the fifth of John Lord evermore give us that bread Now doing this reflect upon this Second act and see if unto it no conditional promise belongs and you shall find an affirmative answer from the word For what is this longing afteâ— the good not of some which many hypocrites do but of all the promises but that which the Scripture calls thirsting who are commanded to come drink of the waters of life freely Isa 55. 1 2. and hungring to which all good things are promised Mat. 5. 6. and which coming to Christ as I spake even now who has given this as the first fruit of eternal election and which kind of people he will never cast away John 6. 37. Now when you see these promises belonging unto you why dare you not conclude but that all these absolute ones are yours also 3. The third act is this Seeing God hath promised absolutely such good things in the Second Covenant but hath not set down the time when or how much grace he will give and seeing only he can help therefore look up and wait upon the Lord in the use of all known means until he makes good what he hath promised to do and perform and work for you Say as beggars that have but one door to go to for bread if none hear or hearing help not lay themselves down at the door and say I will wait here I am sure I perish if I go away or quarrel with them in the house because they help me not so soon as I would and therefore â— will wait for it may be their compassions may move them as they pass by to help me So do you Many a Soul comes and longs for the good of the Promises but if the Lord do not speedily help him he goes with discouragements fears and discontents or despair or sin away and saith one of these two things either I shall never have help or I come not truly and hence I feel no help Oh remember that bread is only to be had at the door to be distributed when the Lord seeth need not when we would or think we have need and therefore wait here and say if I perish here I will at the feet of God and at the feet of the promises and covenant of God c. Now reflect upon this act and see if you may not find some conditional promise annexed unto it which surely you may and I will name you but two Isa 40. 29 30 31. Isa 64. 4. and if the conditional promise belongs to such a Soul you may easily conclude the absolute promises are your own and the chiefest use you are to make of them when you know them that they are your own is to press God to make them good daily to you and to believe as verily and really as if you had the performance of them that they shall It may be you will ask me how shall I know whether I have these conditions truly in me I answer sincerity is a very witnessing grace the frequent meditation of the Scripture will give you much light to judge of the sincerity of them and that which Saint Paul speaks 1 Cor. 2. 12. I say unto you We have not received the spirit of the World but of God whereby we know or may know the things that are freely given to us of God 3. Thirdly If he be out of the covenant but yet God begins to work with some common work of his grace upon him all that I would say to him and all the use he can make of such absolute promises consists in these things 1. Let him consider the freeness of God's promise whereby he may be stirred up to conceive some hope it may be made good to him in time For the promise is very free large excluding none except those that sin unpardonably be their sins and natures never so vile before God and yet not including any by name for that is in the conditional promise and hence such an one is to make this use of it who knows but the Lord may have pity upon me in time and so hang thy hope upon him 2. Let him consider the worth and price of Gods promise bought by blood and for which some men would give a thousand worlds for the benefit comfort of and hereby raise up his heart as by the freeness of it to hope so by the price of it to esteem of the thing promised above pearls and all the honour and pomp of the world 3. Let him consider the fulness of the promise which is a plaister as big as his foâ—e just answerable to all his wants nay infinitely more large than his wants And surely these three things will draw his heart to long for the promise and then you know what is conditionally promised and bequeathed to them that thirst For similitude is the ground of love Now when the fulness of the Promise is seen there will appear such a suteableness and fitness of the promise to his soul that he cannot but long for it thus much for the fifth trouble Quest Your sixth trouble set down in two heads put into one for brevity viz. secret unwillingness to seek God in the strictest solemn services before you enter into them weariness of them while they last and glad when they are gone the reasons which you mention are partly fear of not using them aright together with melancholy lastly the strictness of them Answ It is very true there is abundance of wildness in our hearts which naturally seek to have their liberty abroad and cannot endure to be pent in the narrow room of holy performances extraordinary duties c. no more than children can be pent up from their play And hence it is weary of them and glad to think of their departures and ends And truly it is one of the most grievous miseries that a holy heart can feel and I beseech the Lord of heaven and earth
hony comb with the end of my nod and if this presence of Christ's Spirit I feel now be so sweet what is himself then 3. Thirdly Labour for increase of love familiarity with Jesus Christ by taking notice of him by coming often to him by musing daily on his love as on a fresh thing by banishing slavish false fears of his forgetfulness of you and want of everlasting love towards you and then you know love will carry you speedily to him amor meus pondus meum nay grant that you have been a stranger to Christ yet restore the love of Christ to life again in your Soul and when you come to his ordinances where he dwells your Soul will make its first enquiry for him neither will it be satisfied till it has seen him as we do them we love towards whom we have been greatest strangers Quest 5. Your fifth trouble is you know not how to apply absolute promises to your self as in Heb. 8. because they are made indefinitely without condition Conditional promises you say you can if you can find the qualification that gives you right to the good of the promise within you Answ This useful fruitful question how to apply absolute promises to ones particular deserves a larger time and answer than now in the midst of perplexities I am able yet willing to give For when the Lord saith absolutely without condition that he will take away the stony heart and he will put his fear into his peoples hearts c. and these kind of promises are made to some not to all to those only whom the Lord will and in general to his people Hereupon the Souls of many Christians especially such as question Gods love towards them are most in suspence and therefore when they complain of the vileness of their hearts strength of the lusts let any man tell them that the Lord has undertaken in the Second covenant to heal their backslidings and to subdue their iniquities they will hereupon reply it is true he has promised indeed to do thus for some absolutely tho' they have no good in them but I that feel so vile a heart so rebellious a nature will he do this for me or no and thus the Soul floats above water yet fears it shall sink at last notwithstanding all that God has said I will answer therefore briefly these two things in general 1. I shall shew you to what end and for what use and purpose Go has made absolute promises not only to them that be for the present bâ—â— people but to them that in respect their estates and condition are not 2. I shall shew you how every Christian is to make use of them and how and when he ought to apply them For the first of these 1. First I conceive that as in respect of God himself there are many ends which I shall not mention as being needless so in respect of man there are principally these two ends for which the Lord has made absolute promises 1. To raise up the Soul of a helpless sinful cursed lost sinner in his own eyes to some hope at least of mercy and help from the Lord. For thus usually every mans Soul is wrought to whom the Lord doth intend grace and mercy he first turns his eyes inward and makes him to see he is stark naught and that he has not one dram of grace in him who thought himself rich and wanting nothing before and consequently that he is under the curse and wrath of God for the present and that if the Lord should but stop his breath and cover his face and take him away which he may easily do and this to be feared he will that he is undon forever Hereupon the Soul is awakened falls to his kitchin physick as I spake before prays and hears and amends and strives to grow better and to stop up every hole to amend it self of every sin but finding it self to grow worse and worse and perceiving thereby that he doth but stir not cleanse the puddle and that it is not amending of nature that he must attain to but he must believe and make a long arm to Heaven and apprehend the Lord Jesus which so few know or ever shall enjoy and hereby quench the wrath of God I say finding he cannot do thus no nor no means of themselves can help him to this hereupon he is for saken of all his self-wisdom and of all his vain hopes and now sits down like a desolate widow comfortless and sorrowful and thinks there is no way but death and hell the wrath of a displeased God to be expected And if any come and tell this Soul of Gods mercy and pity to sinners I saith he its true he is even infinitely merciful unto them who are rent from their sins and that can believe but that I cannot do am sure shall never be able for to do therefore what cause have I but to lie down in my sorrow to expect my fatal stroke every moment Reply again upon this Soul tell him that tho' he cannot believe or loosen his heart from sin yet that the Lord has promised to do it that he will subdue all his iniquity and he will pardon all his sin and that he will cause men to walk in his ways c. True saith the Soul again he will do thus for his own people and for them he has chosen but I never had dram of grace in my heart and there is no evidence that the Lord is mine own or that I am his Here again the Soul lies down until the Lord discovers to the Soul that he will do these things for some that have no grace or never had grace for these promises were made to such Hereupon the Soul thinks thus these promises are made for some that are filthy for why should God pour clean water upon them for some that be hard-hearted for why should he promise to take away the stony heart from them c. and if unto some such and I being such a one why may not the Lord possibly intend and include me seeing he has not by his promise excluded nor shut me out Indeed I dare not say he will but yet how do I or men or Angels know but yet I may be one Hereupon Hope is raised to life again seeing God has undertaken the work for the vilest it is possible he may do it for me now when I am vile and can do nothing for my self And thus you may see the first end and use of absolute promises to be as it were twiggs to uphold the sinking Spirits of hopeless helpless distressed Souls 2. The Second end and Use of them is this To create and draw out faith in Jesus Christ in the promises For as the Law begets terror so the promises beget Faith Now no conditional promise firstly begets Faith because he that is under any condition of the Gospel in that man there
is a presupposed faith Its Gods absolute promise that firstly begets faith for faith is not assurance but the coming of the whole Soul to Christ in a promise John 6. 3 5. And then the Soul believes in Christ when it comes to Christ now this God works in the Gospel 1. The Soul is raised up by hope And being raised it Secondly comes to Christ which is faith by vehement unutterable desire And being come to him it 3. Embraceth Christ by love and thus the match is made and the everlasting knot is tied Now as you have heard the absolute promise works hope of relief from Christ and if it works hope it also works a desire or coming to Christ by desire Oh! that thou Lord wouldst honour thy grace thy power thy love thy promise in helping me a poor cast-away And thus faith is created as it were by this absolute promise for it cannot but move the heart of any one that ever felt his want to cry mightily to the Lord for help if he has any hope seeing the Lord has promised to do it for some Oh saith the Soul that thou wouldst do it for me And surely were it not for this absolute promise of God no Soul would desire because he would have â—o hope to be saved or to seek for any thing as from the hands of God And thus you see to what end God makes and to what use a Christian may put these absolute promises 2. For the second thing viz How and How to apply Absolute Promises when a Christian may apply these promises I answer every Christian is either 1. Within Covenant with God and knows it or 2. Within covenant with God and knows it not or 3. Out of covenant indeed for his present estate and condition yet he is in fieri or making towards it 1. If he be in Covenant and knows it then you may easily perceive how and when he ought to apply promises unto himself for he may boldly conclude If God be his God then all the promises of God shall be made good unto him if he be a Son of God he may boldly challengeatall times at the hands of God nay if in some respects at the hands of Justice it self the fulfilling oâ— God the Fathers will delivered in the several Legacies of the promise bought by the blood sealed by the same blood of Jesus Christ that they may and shall be made good unto him that is clear 2. Secondly If he be in Covenant and knows it not and questions hence whether God is his or not and consequently whether the promises belong unto him then the rule is to be observed let him so sue and seek for the good of the absolute promise until by reflecting upon his own acts herein he perceive himself adorned and dignified with the qualification of some conditional promise and then if he can find the condition or qualification within himself then as you judge and write he may conclude that the conditional promise belongs to him if one promise then all Gods promises and therefore that absolute promises are his own because at least one condional promise is For no unregenerate man is within the compass of any one conditional promise of grace unless you will say he is under the everlasting love of God the promises of grace being but the mid-way between the eternal purpose and decree of love and the glorious certain execution of that love in time The promise being the break day of Gods most glorious love which must shine out in time Object But here you will say is the difficulty viz. how I should so seek for the good of absolute promises as therein to find may self within the compass of some conditional one I answer It is done chiefly by three acts 1. By being humbly contented that seeing the Lord has absolutely promised to work and do all for the Soul he intends for to save even when it can do nothing for it self and that he has taken the work into his own hands so that it is his promise offer office and honour to do all that therefore you lie down not sluggishly but humbly at the feet of God and contented to have him to be your God and for ever to be disposed of in any thing by God if he will fulfil his covenant in you contented to part with any sin if he will rend it from you contented to know any truth if he will reveal it to you contented to do any duty if he will enable you contented to shine bright with all his glorious graces if he will create and maintain them in you contented to bear any evil if he will lay his hand under your head and thereunto strengthen you and so seeing the Lord promised to undertake the work for some put out the work and put over your Soul to him that he would fulfil the good that his covenant promiseth in your self Now when you do thus which no question you and many a Soul doth many times reflect upon this act and see if you cannot or may not find your self by it under the condition of some conditional promise and if you do then are you bound to believe all Gods promises are and will be Yea and Amen unto you Now that you do so by this act it self speaks plainly for how many conditional promises are made to the meek Blessed are the meek Mat. 5. and to the humble whom God will raise up For this is not saving meekness to be quietly contented to be or to do or to bear any thing that the Lord will have me from mine own strength and feeling but to be to do or to bear any thing that the Lord will have me if the Lord enable me Many a stout heart would gladly have Christ but if he cannot have him in his own terms viz. Christ and his lusts Christ and the world too or by his own strength and power he will have none of him but desperately casts him away and saith what shall I look after him any more I cannot pray I cannot believe I cannot break this vile and unruly will this stony adamant hearr thus the pride of a mans heart works Now he that is truly meekned and humbled he is contented gladly to have God his God and Christ his Redeemer and that upon Jesus Christ his own terms First on his own covenant now what is that why it is this I will give you the good and work in you the condition to I will give you my self and therefore will not stick to give you an eye to see and a heart to receive too This is the covenant now hereupon a humbled Soul accepts of Christ according to his covenant on his own terms thus viz. Upon that condition Lord that thou wilt humble me teach me perswade me cause me to believe and in every thing to honour thee Lord I am contented gladly and joyfully to have thee do therefore what thou wilt with me Just as
present I have no books about me where I am and therefore cannot satisfie you in this neither know I when I shall seek to find out the book and place If I have leisure I will either write to you or tell some of your friends before I am gone what he hath said or writ that way c. Quest 3. Again thirdly You desire me to tell you how my self came to the cure of Atheistical Thoughts and whether they did wear out or whether they were rationally overthrown Answ I answer at first they did wear out meeting with fruitless and dead-hearted company which was at the University 2. The Lord awakened me again and bid me beware lest an old sore broke out again and this I found that strength of reason would commonly convince my understanding that there was a God but I felt it utterly insufficient to perswade my will of it unless it was by fits whenas I thought Gods Spirit moved upon the Chaos of those horrible thoughts and this I think will be found a truth 3. I did groan under the bondage of those unbelieving thoughts looking up and sighing to the Lord that if he were as his works and word declared him to be he would be pleased to reveal himself by his own beams and perswade my Heart by his own Spirit of his Essence and Being which if he would do I shold account it the greatest mercy that ever he shewed me And after grievous and heavy perplexities when I was by them almost forced to make an end of my self and sinful life and to be mine own Executioner the Lord came between the bridge and the water and set me out of anguish of spirit as she prayed for a child to pray unto him for light in the midst of so great darkness In which time he revealed himself manifested his love stilled all those raging thoughts gave return in great measure of them so that tho' I could not read the Scripture without blasphemous thoughts before now I saw a glory a majesty a mystery a deprh in it which fully perswaded and which light I desire to speak it to the glory of his free grace seeing you call me to it is not wholly put out but remains while I desire to walk closely with him unto this day And thus the Lord opened mine eyes and cured me of this misery and if any such base thoughts come like Beggars to my door to my mind and put these scrupies to me I use to send them away with this answer Why shall I question that Truth which I have both known and seen Object But you say this remedy is good viz. of prayer but that you cannot use it especially because you question the truth of God Answ Yet dear Sir give not over this Trade you will doubtless find it gainful when it may be God hath laden you more with these thoughts and made you loath your self for them But the thing seems strange to me if I mistake you not viz. that your heart will not be perswaded but that you must resolve your doubts concerning the perfection of Scripture not by seeking to harmonize those passages that seem to cross one another but by ascribing some humanity or error if I may interpret you to the pen-men seeing St. Paul saith We prophesie but in part and seeing one of the Evangelists leaves out the doxology in the Lords prayer Sir if you can take these thoughts arising from these the like grounds as your burden I do not blame you but pity you in that respect but if your judgment indeed think so I am sorry you should harbour such thoughts one hour within doors for you know that holy men writ the Scriptures but so far they might err but it is added as they were inspired or as the Original has it as they were moved or carried in the arms of the holy Ghost and so how could they err how could God lie It is true Paul did prophesie but in part and is this an argument because he did not prophesie fully therefore in some things he did not prophesie truly I am perswaded you will say there are many things my poor thoughts have suggested to you as true and yet I am perswaded I do in them prophesie if I may so say but in part The Spirit of God directed the four Evangelists to write yet so as they did not all write what another writ but in great wisdom left some things doubtful and short in one which are more clear and full in another and hence the Doxologie is fully set down in one and not in another and many reasons I could set you down why but that it is needless I grant you ought not to put up all with a charitable opinion of Scripture but if you can by reason reading and comparing help your heart to a full perswasion this is Scripture but many things you cannot get satisfaction for by that way and means but still your Spirit will be left dark and doubtful What course will you here take for resolution which is Scripture The Papists say it is so because the Church has christened it for Scripture you say you will see reason for it that it is so or else you cannot be satisfied then I fear you will never be sarisfied I think In this case therefore these two things you are to do 1. To go to God by prayer to give you a resolution of all your doubts and by some means or other some light to see whether this is his word or not Secondly if this be his word then he would perswade your heart of it that it is so For the least resolution which is Scripture and which is not is made by the same perswasion and sole perswasion of the same Spirit that writ the Scripture Concerning the Angels that appeared to Mary see Gerard and he briefly I think will satisfie you in your answer to the particular scurples about the Scripture sense and the dissonancy of them Only this I will add to the last clause about these things that if the Scripture be inspired by the holy Ghost that not in the sum and substance of it but to every word and sentence of it which I think you will not doubt of when you have considered it then I think it will undeniably follow that the same Spirit of truth is also a Spirit of order and hence the method of various penning of it is from the Spirit too which you say you stick at Answ 2. Again to your third thing concerning your spirit being burthened with involuntary infirmities as burdens but not as sins I say nothing now because I preceive by one part of your reply that the Lord has done you some good by the first answer only it is your grief you cannot fear them nor condemn your self for them as damning sins For satisfaction of which I hope this reply to your second trouble will give you some satisfaction Quest 4. Again to your fourth