Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	believe_v	conscience_n	faith_n	2,015	5	5.1852	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79474	The man of honour, described in a sermon, preached before the Lords of Parliament, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, March 26. 1645. The solemn day of the publique monethly-fast. / By Francis Cheynell, minister of Gods Word. Die Jovis, 27. Martii, 1645. It is this day ordered by the Lords in Parliament, that this House doth hereby give thanks to Master Cheynell for his great pains, taken in the sermon, he preached on the 26. of this instant March, in the Abbey Church Westminster, before the Lords of Parliament, it being the day of the publique fast. John Brown, Cler. Parliament.	Cheynell, Francis, 1608-1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing C3812; Thomason E279_3; ESTC R200026	64,263	74

heart even before the man hath any cleer bright evidence of his own election that there are better things laid up for the elect in Christ then any the world can bestow upon them better honour better riches better glory Christ is a pretious Christ to all true beleevers to you who beleeve he is an Honour 1 Pet. 2. 7. The originall will bear it for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is the word Would ye then my Lords and you dear Christians gain an immortall glorious Honour you see the ready way beleeve beleeve and Jesus Christ will be an Honour to you But remember that your Faith must be the Faith of Christians not the faith of Divels it must be such a pretious faith as purifies the heart purges the conscience assents and consents to Christ such a faith as overcomes the world and quenches the fiery darts of the divell by resting upon Christ and drawing vertue from him But I must not forget in the next place that your faith must work by love and therefore as you must have a victorious faith so you must have a transcendent an heroicall Love to the Lords Jesus you must love him better then your friends better then your estates better then your honour for you must lay down all your Coronets all your Honour at the feet of Christ nay you must love Christ better then your lives Christ turned to the great multitudes and said to them If any man come to me and hates not his own life in comparison of me for my sake and the Gospels he cannot be my Disciple Luke 14. 25 26. And again Verse 33. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all he hath he cannot be my Disciple Our Saviour doth not mean such a Disciple as Peter and the rest but by Disciple he means Scholar Subject Member Servant Friend Heir for he speaks to the multitude and therefore the meaning is That one of the poorest and meanest men in the throng could not have any interest in Christ or benefit by him unlesse he love the Lord Jesus better then his estate and life better then all the world and can men in Honour think to go to Heaven upon cheaper and easier terms then one of the multitude No sure where God gives more he requires more Come then my Brethren Let this day of sorrow be a day of Love or else it will not be a day of godly sorrow for godly sorrow arises from the love of God from Faith working by love from Faith in Christ and love to him The bitterest tears flow from the sweetest Love Come you that have any tender hearts or rowling bowels let me this day speak to your hearts and bowels and cast you into the melting pangs of a divine and Christian love Consider your want of Christ and the worth of Christ Oh consider the benefits of Christs death the sweetnesse of Christs promises the pleasantnesse of his commands the pretiousnesse of his graces and above all the infinitenesse of his love And you cannot but love him your hearts must needs be ravished into an extasie if you consider that soul-ravishing Text Revel. 1. 5 6. And you cannot but cry out with the ardency of affection with the strength the zeal of love Oh to him to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion love and subjection for ever and ever Amen Come you that never studied the Art of spirituall love Consider that Jesus Christ saw your distressed souls weltring in blood and filthinesse and his bowels were turned his compassions were kindled within him and he said unto you even then when you were polluted in your own blood live yea when you were polluted in your own blood and filthinesse he said Live and Live eternally Was not that a time of love with him Why now turn your eyes inward and look upon your own souls sprinkled with the blood the heart-blood of Jesus Christ that they may be purged and you may be saved and tell me is it not a time of love now with your beloved souls Do you not feel your hearts begin to burn within you Are you not transported beyond your selves are you not even mounting up to Heaven and flying into the Arms and Bosome of your beloved Lord Come give up your hearts to Christ for I must prevail I am sure you are convinced that Jesus Christ is the best husband in the world for your pretious souls for he is the onely All-sufficient Saviour there is no choice you must have him or none Come be not thus dull of understanding or affection be not carelesse and peevish in a businesse which concerns the happy welfare of your eternall souls Away with all prejudicate opinions and vain conceits Come let us be setled men and spend some sad thoughts about the saving excellencies of Jesus Christ Be not so impudently presumptuous as to imagine That you love Christ well enough already if you have not as yet sufficiently known or judiciously considered what reason and equitie there i● that you should love Christ better then all the World Come let me close with you a little and speak home to every one of your souls in particular Friend be not such a sott as to doate upon trifles I le shew thee wonders The wonder of our redemption the most admirable and most astonishing Plot of the blessed Trinitie sitting in counsell about the Salvation of thy beloved soul A mystery which the Angels stoop down to pry into an Orient Pearl that will out-shine all the sparkling Jewels of the whole Creation if they should be digged out of Natures Cabinet and hung up with such advantage that they might all unite their beams upon some day of triumph Hear what a worthy Divine of ours saith Our slighting the offers of Grace and not laying to heart what God hath done for us is a sin next to wilfull apostasie and malicious blasphemy For he who doth not see such glorious miracles of love and inestimable treasures of grace in Christ as to take of his minde and heart from the glittering vanities of the world that he may fix his thoughts and setle his affections upon God in Christ as an all-sufficient Portion and Inheritance That man doth offer an affront to the majestie of Heaven he befools the Wisdom and scorns the love of the blessed Trinity for he slights the most excellent wonder that ever the Wisdom of God contrived or his power compassed or his goodnesse bestowed upon the sons of men And what reason hath such a soft to expect favour from God mercy from Christ or comfort from the Holy Ghost Do ye beleeve the Scriptures Why then tell me Whether the favour of God will not comfort the heart better then corn and wine Psal. 4 6 7. Then sheep and oxen strong sons and polished daughters full barns and

Men in Honour are extremely degraded and debased when they are made slaves Jere. 2. 14. Is Israel a servant is he a Hom●-born slave then he hath lost all his glory But consider I beseech you That a man of a slavish disposition is in a far more Honourable condition then a man of a bruitish disposition for a slave may be staved off from sin for fear of future evils but a Beast is not affected with things future Oh how many such Beasts do we meet with every day God threatens a man with Hell and damnation if they go on in any sinfull course and yet how common is it for men to practise these sins in the face of Heaven if they besins in request and fashion which God doth sentence and damn to the Pit of Hell Surely God will deal with these men according to their bruitish disposition he will powre some drops of his wrath scalding hot into their conscience or sting them to the quick with some present evil that they may be restrained by the smart and anguish of present evils since they will not be warned by the threatning of future evils Observe what a threatning message is sent to the house of Jeroboam 1 Kings 14. 14. Moreover the Lord shall raise him up a King over Israel who shall cut of the house of Jeroboam that day But what Even now very now As if he had said ye are not moved with the threats of future vengeance therefore I will spare you no longer but will cut you of presently even now very now It is a sad Text be pleased to think sadly of it in your cool blood and morning thoughts 5. As Beasts are not sensible of future evils so neither are they sensible of those traps and snares which are for the present laid to entrap and take them Men of Honour had need walk circumspectly there are traps and snares laid for them at their Tables in every tempting Dish nay in their Bedchambers in their very Closet every Counsellour Companion Friend Servant is made use of to ensnare them and how few are there that discover the snare before they are caught how many great men are surprized in this evill time and are as unexpectedly caught as fish in a net or birds in a snare Eccles. 9. 12. Nay as fish do catch at the bait and birds haste to the snare not knowing not suspecting that it is for their life so do men in Honour catch at those temptations whereby they are ensnared it is the comparison of the Wiseman the master of Similitudes Prov. 7. 22 23. Tell me are not these men as naturall bruit Beasts made to be taken and destroyed As the Apostle presses it home 2 Pet. 2. 12. 6. He is a Beast who hath the minde of a Beast though he hath the shape of a man It would be a foul disgrace for a man to be transformed into the shape of a Beast though he retained the minde and reason of a man Quanto miserius est in hominis figurâ animo esse efferato saith Lactantius Lib. 5. cap. ● It is far more dishonourable to have the shape of a man and the minde of a beast then the shape of a beest and the minde of a man Every carnall man mindes the things of the flesh Rom. 8. 5. Mindes earthly things as if he had no other God then his belly Phil. 3. 19. And therefore he hath the minde of a Beast nay I do the beasts wrong men that are carnally minded are enemies to God Rom. 8. 7. and enemies to the crosse of Christ Phil. 3. 18. A sad truth not to be spoken without tears I tell you even weeping saith the Apostle they are so far from being Christians that they are enemies of the Crosse of Christ They live as if they had been born ventri corruptioni inservire to serve their paunch and their lusts I beleeve you 'l easily grant that drunkards and unclean persons are very Beasts they have not the minde or heart of a man in them Whoredom and Wine take away the ●eart Hos. 4. 11. Oh ye sons of Nobles give not your strength to women nor your heart to that which destroyes Kings that is to wine and strong drink Prov. 30. 3 4. least ye loose your reason forget the Law and pervert the judgement of the afflicted verse 5. 7. They who adhere to the Antichristian faction in minde and heart though they do yet keep company with men are to be ranked among the Beasts for their heart goes after the Beast and they have a minde to follow him onely they want a more powerfull temptation and fairer opportunity upon every considerable defeat that is given us these men wonder after the Beast nay are even ready to worship him and to cry out Who is like unto the Beast Who is able to make war with him Revel. 13 3 4. I doubt not but all of this temper will in good time be discovered and driven from among men by the power of them that are truely Noble For it is not fit that Beasts should be suffered amongst men let them follow the Heard It is not for Noble Lords and Counsellours to seek unto them or comply with them till they have the heart of a man and their reason be returned unto them My Lords we live under the glorious Ministery of the Gospel and therefore I dare not put a vail over the beautifull face of Truth The face of truth must shine that it may appear lovely and remain glorious and therefore I use great freedom plainnesse boldnesse of speech as it becometh a Minister of the Gospel of Christ The Holy Ghost commands me to be thus faithfull by irresistible Arguments in the third Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians especially in the eleventh twelfth and thirteen Verses you may read the whole Chapter at your leasure My Text is a kinde of Paradox an harsh truth and therefore I have laboured to clear this truth unto you I learnt to Preach of the Apostle who assures me that they Preach deceitfully wh● do not manifest the truth of God to the consciences of men 2 Cor. 4. 2. I● my Sermon seem too precise give me leave to say that your conscience is as precise as my Sermon I have a friend in your bosome that joyns with me I speak to your conscience your conscience will clear both God and me for all that I have spoken tends to this end That the saying of God in my Text may be justified My designe is the same with the wisest of Kings Eccles. 3. 18. That the sons of men might clear God and see that they themselves are Beasts You may see the translation corrected to that effect in the Margine of your Bibles Your conscience bids me proceed and so I passe to that which it is high time for us all to come to and that is a Use of Humiliation When an Ambassadour of Rhodes asked a Lacedaemonian Why Lycurgus was so

better satisfaction in future employments and then you will acknowledge That though God did in your apprehension chastise you with Scorpions nay Serpents also yet he hath turned these Serpents into Rods and wrought wonders with them I hope I have quitted my first score I proceed to answer The second Quere How your Honour may be preserved increased By your leave my Lords if you desire to preserve your Honour you must preserve the Fundamentals of Honour and then let times alter as they will you 'l be sure to preserve all the Realitie of your Honour He who hath learnt to preserve a just Order and true Decorum in all things which concern God the Common-wealth and himself he will by Gods blessing preserve nay increase his Honour every day more and more That Honour which is maintained by vulgar breath is But like Lightning it appears and vanishes in an instant But he who deserves doth in the judgement of good and wisemen preserve his Honour though the people cease to do him Honour The strongest Foundation of Honour which layes a man lowest and yet raises him highest is Reall Pietie The Philosophers were acquainted with some kinde of Pietie to order us in those things which belong to God They could treat of a certain Reverence and Divine Respect due from rationall Creatures to the Creatour Preserver and Governour of all things They perceived by the light of Nature that Deprecations Petitions and Thanks were to be duly presented by us Mortals to the God of Heaven They were convinced that God was offended with sin and concluded That he was to be appeased by Sacrifice for it could not enter into their reasonable mindes to conceive That all our prayers or any of our performances could give satisfaction to the Justice of God and yet they were invincibly ignorant that our Emmanuel our Jesus and none but our Jesus alone could give him all-sufficient satisfaction And this Piety they laid as the ground and foundation of all other vertues They did poor Pagans remember that there was an omnipresent God which did overlook them and a Conscience a Genius or as some were pleased to speak a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} within to reprove and check them and by these sublimenotions they did restrain men from running into exorbitant and dishonourable courses For if you have say they God and conscience within you these have no need of a Candle to see what mischief you do in the dark Next to Piety the Philosophers conceived that Prudence and Morall vertues were the sure Fundamentals of substantiall Honour 1. Prudence was in their conceit as a silken string which runs thorow all the Morall vertues as so many Pearls knitting them all together and making a Bracelet a Chain of Honour fit to adorn the Necks the Souls of Nobles for Prudence is that vertue which doth order even Reason it self which being carnall is apt to be irregular The other vertues which they called Morall were to regulate our will and affections indeed our whole life and conversation These these are the Fundamentals of Reall Honour He then that desires to preserve his Honour must be a prudent and knowing man because Honour is as unseemly for a fool as Snow is unseasonable in Summer or Rain in Harvest Prov. 26. 1. Honour conferred on such is not onely an Inconvenience but an ill Omen a sad presage for you know this by experience That unseasonable Weather in Harvest will certainly cause a Famine and a Famine will bring a Plague Honour cannot be secured without knowledge and prudence for the highest Tower is easily undermined if its foundation be hollow Humane societie doth consist in communicating prudent notions to one another for the preservation of the whole societie and therefore a man cannot be an usefull member of a body Politique because he cannot be a sociable man muchlesse sociable in an high degree in a way of Honour without knowledge and prudence 2. He must be Temperate else he cannot long be wise for Intemperance will exhaust his spirits weaken his parts and drown his wisdom Temperance is by the Greeks called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} it is clear and evident That he who cannot moderate himself in those pleasures which are common to us with beasts will fall from all his honour and become like the beasts that perish 3. He must be valiant else he is no man {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and therefore cowards are said to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} An army of cowards is but as a Table of Cyphers cast up the totall sum and it will not amount to a single unite Give me a man of a compact solid heart that is full of spirits else hee 'l not stand upon his guard nor keep his watch no nor the faith neither hee 'l not quit himself like a man but turn Apostate in perilous times {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith the Apostle play the men 1 Cor. 16. 13. Watch ye stand fast in the Faith quit your selves like men If the beams of an house then certainly the pillars of a State had need be strong Heart of Oak We use to say That Horse is not fit to lead the way who is given to starting He is a man of Honour in whom there is an happy Vnion between wisdom and boldnesse Boldnesse will carry them on to charge thorow in despight of danger with convenient courage and wisdom will bring them off with sufficient Honour The boldnesse of Hannibal was not void of Counsell and the boldnesse of a Christian must not be void of Religion For a valiant man fears nothing but what is dishonourable And nothing is indeed dishonourable but that which is in some respect dishonest The Ancients therefore said That Fortitude was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the fear of a dishonourable check and as he said well They who are most fearfull to offend against the Law are most bold to fight against an enemy Certainly that man that is not afraid of death and judgement sin and Hell is not valiant but mad He saith Aristotle who doth not fear what he ought to fear is not valiant but impudent Fools make a mock at sin Prov. 14. 9. And Atheists make a mock at Hell as if sin and Hell were Bug-bears to affright children that are neither wise nor bold But there is a secret witnesse in the heart of man which doth dictate severe and terrible truths to obstinate Roysters and curious Sceptiques without and above any Humane Tradition Civill Imposition or Scientificall Demonstration 4. He must be liberall and in some cases magnificent Remember the words of the Lord Jesus how he said It is more blessed and therefore more honourable to give then to receive Acts 20. 35. 5. He must be magnanimous and then he will be just not onely in respect of

between both Houses of Parliament Lords and Commons may avoid contention and preserve Libertie Honour Religion all And let me once more remember you That you had need be quick and nimble in these Active times Cunctatione non opus est ubi perniciosior sit quies quàm temeritas All the danger in Civil Wars is in not being active enough Tyrants saith the Politician do miscarry because they are not Tyrants enough let us make an Antidote of this poyson and conclude That honest zealots may miscarry because they are not zealous enough He was no fool that said Inter ancipitia deterrimum esse Mediasequi The strength of our Kingdom would be seen in the Field if every true hearted man would take the boldnesse to declare himself Every magnanimous person hates n●●tralitie and is as Aristotle hath it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} open-breasted in his love and hatred If he be your friend you shall know it and if he be your enemy he will make you feel it Brave souldiers love to follow professed Patriots Qui aperte in causam descendunt tanquam Culpae vel gloriae socii Come come my Lords Honesty is the choicest policie Come then and shew your Wisdom your Justice shew your Zeal your Valour your Magnanimitie your Pietie for God and your Countrey This this is the way to encrease your Honour with more ease and preserve it with lesse envy But stay stay saith some much Honoured Silk-worm If I should loose my life in the quarrell what becomes of my honour then Alasse when I am gone all the world is gone with me Why then look after another world and a better life look after it in the first place though I handle it in the last and so I passe to my Third Quere How may one gain an immortall glorious Honour in the highest Heaven This Quere concerns all estates and degrees of men The poor and the Noble may be Peers in Heaven I have in part answered this Quere already for I have shewn you cleerly That we must be justified regenerated converted or else the greatest is not truely noble in our Spirituall and Christian account My Lords If you desire this new honour you must lead new lives and you 'l never do that till you have new natures new-bearts by a new creation Ye must be new creatures in Jesus Christ For God in Christ is the Fountain of all Christian Nobility and glorious Honour And if any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. Now Christ puts forth his creating power in his Ordinances and therefore you must all high and low attend upon the quickning Ordinances of God that ye may be made new creatures in Christ by the effectuall working of the Holy Ghost Oh that this day might be that happy working-day the day of Christs power transforming all our deformed souls into the beauty of holinesse that we might become the willing subjects of Jesus Christ as it is written Psal. 110. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holinesse Oh that whilst I am directing what ought to be done our Lord Jesus would put to his Fiat and say Let it be done it shall be done this very hour My Lords I am affectionately desirous of you as the Apostles speaks and willing to impart unto you not onely the Gospel of God but that very Character which the Gospel by the Spirit hath stamped upon my own beloved soul because your pretious souls are dear unto me My Lords Remember your selves You are not now in your Robes sitting in State to passe sentence upon that Word whereby you must be judged But you and I and all here present are holding up our hands at the bar Come open your bosomes the Spirit is now about to set the Word home upon your conscience the Spirit of God tels you plainly That notwithstanding your great birth you were born in sin and we have too many of us nay too many of you lived as if you and we had been born to no other purpose then to sin My Lords What do you mean Brethren what do you mean not onely to live in sin but to die in sin O it is a dangerous thing to live in sin but it is a desperate thing to die in sin for he that dies in his sins perishes in his sins and is damned eternally It is no matter of what strain or complexion your sins are or how they rellish when the pallate is distempered be they sweet or sowre sins of pleasure or malice nay ignorance sins of gain shall I say sins of Honour Yes this ignoble age hath plotted how to dishonour God in an honourable way In a word Be your sins old or new sins received by Tradition from your forefathers and therefore received with honour as if they were some noble vices which ought to be standers to your noble Families yet consider and sadly consider it He that resolves to live in any sin but till to morrow morning may for ought he knows die and perish in his sin the Divell may come and fetch away his soul this night and he may be in Hell ere morning The God of Heaven set that consideration home to your hearts you must fall down upon your faces and acknowledge That God is in this Meditation of a trueth The Lord Jesus did presse this point home in his powerfull preaching you may read it thrice in one Chapter John 8. 21 24. It is one of the most fearfull threats in Scripture for it doth indeed contain all threatnings in it My Lords Will nothing touch your hearts yes I beleeve your hearts have been touched to day and touched to the quick Now then my Lords what say you now Why sure you are come to this resolution ye would not die in your sins that were to die basely to die dishonourably Why then my Lords If you would not die in your sins ye must not live in them Oh but how shall we be saved from all our sins our ignoble sins Why though Joshuah be called Jesus Heb. 4. 8. and the people were wont to bow every time that Text was read yet there is but one Jesus the Lord Jesus who can save us from our sins Matth. 1. 21. Oh now your hearts relent and give a little Now now consider how you have abused and undervalued how you have crucified and tormented this Jesus who alone can save you from your sins How you have made a sport and pastime of those sins which let out the heart blood of Jesus Christ What are your hearts like Nabals dead within you Or are you cast into a trembling fit are you fainting and even swowning under the weight of Gods wrath and your sin why now now you are in this agony and bloody sweat the Lord Jesus offers himself to be your Saviour upon fair and honourable terms do you deliberate whether you should be saved Why then

take him Jaylour clap some bolts upon his conscience and let the iron enter into his soul let him taste a cup of brimstone and see how he likes it before hand let the Law thunder curses upon him and the spirit of bondage flash some lightning into his soul Oh base unworthy wretch doest thou capitulate with thy Judge and scorn thy Saviour is thy minde preposessed with prejudice against Christ and are thy affections preingaged to the flesh the world the divell dost love thy sin better then thy Saviour Why then thou art mad upon thy pleasure thou art drunk with honour and bewitched with gain enjoy thy sin and hug thy damnation the Lord Jesus will not bestow himself on such a sot Yet once more I le ask the question for ought thou knowest it may be the last time of asking Wilt thou have Jesus Christ for thy antiquitie for thy nobilitie for thy husband thy King thy Prophet thy Priest thy Saviour thy All Jesus Christ will binde Kings in chains and Nobles in setters of Iron he will powre contempt upon Princes if they contemn him What say you then my Lords and what say you Brethren will you submit your necks to the yoak and your shoulders to the burthen of Jesus Christ Will you deny your selves take up your crosse daily and follow him Will you beleeve him trust him love him obey him Give me leave to insist a little upon those two speciall duties of Faith and Love and I pitch upon them the rather because Faith and Love are Radicall Graces and you can never prove your selves to be new creatures in Christ but by Faith and Love Be pleased to compare two Scriptures together for the cleering of this truth the Scriptures are not far asunder one is in the sixth Chapter of the Epistle to the Galathians the fifteenth verse In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Would you know what this new creature is Read the fifth Chapter of the same Epistle and the sixth verse In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith working by Love Mark I beseech you it is worth your observation Nothing avails but a new creature in one place Nothing avails but Faith working by love in the other No man then is a new creature but he whose Faith worketh by Love There is the sum of the Gospel the substance marrow power spirit quintessence of Christianitie First Then examine whether you have any knowledge of Christ or Faith in him any heart and well grounded assent to the Gospel of Christ with the heart man being convinced beleeves Have you any pretious Faith If you have no true Faith you cannot understand the Mystery of Godlinesse after a spirituall and saving manner Now man that is in honour and understandeth not saith my Text you know what follow● Faith is the eye of the soul Reason is blinde without Faith Except a man be born from above except his reason be raised elevated by Faith inlightned by the Spirit he cannot see the Kingdom of God as our Saviour told that Ruler of the Jews when he catechised him John 3. 3. Every true beleever hath so much understanding as to assent to the truth and so much ingenuity as to consent to the goodnesse of all the promises Secondly The pretious Faith of Gods elect is an holy Faith nay Saint Jude exhorts Christians to build up themselves on their most holy Faith Jude vers. 20. True Faith ayms at the highest degree of holinesse it is ever labouring to build up the soul one story higher in holinesse that we may be every day nearer Heaven He that thinks he is holy enough already hath neither true Faith nor Holinesse of Truth They are unbel●eving men that are afraid they shall be come too strict in dutie and too precise in abhorting and declining sin they say they have holinesse enough to carry them to Heaven though there are many that were as holy as themselves gone to H●ll already Remember that though Jesus Christ be King of all the world in a providentiall way yet he is King of Saints onely in a spirituall and saving way Christ will save none but Saints such honour immortall honour have all his Saints and none but Saints none but his Saints whose consciences Christ hath purged from the guilt and allowance of sin and whose hearts he hath purified from the Love and their whole man from the power and dominion of sin by a lively Faith that they may serve the living God Thirdly True Faith is a resting and relying grace Faith doth support the feeble soul the sinking soul by leaning upon Gods arm and Christs bosome because thou didst relie on the Lord saith the Se●● to Asa Help us O Lord saith Asa to God for we rest upon thee Doth thy soul rest upon Christ not onely for pardon of sin but power against sin Dost thou relie upon the free grace of God the all-sufficient satisfaction compleat righteousnesse and perfect merits of Christ for justification Then it is well but a beleever must likewise live in a constant dependance upon God for perseverance in grace and then he is right Fourthly Faith is a radicall grace and therefore as the root of a tree sucks nourishing moisture from the earth fo a ●●leever sucks and draws nourishing vertue fresh vertue and new supplies every day from Jesus Christ Faith doth not onely depend upon Christ and adhere to him but suck from him it hangs upon the Ordinances of Christ the Breasts of Christ as the Infant hangs upon the Mothers breast Fifthly Faith is a mortifying and quickning grace Because it draws vertue from Christ to mortifie our lusts and quicken us to a lively performance of all duties in their due place and season Upon dayes of Humiliation the beleever draws much power from the death of Christ to mortifie his lust and sets upon all tasks of mortification in the strength of Christ Sixthly Faith is a victorious grace it overcomes the world and the Divel and it doth both by purifying our hearts and mortifying our lusts For if our hearts be purified and our lusts mortified the world and divell are not able to prevail against us We shall come of with honour in the main battle at the latter end of the day though we may be foiled now and then in a skirmish and give ground a little when we are too hotly charged and over-borne by violence The divel cannot throw a fiery dart at us but faith will quench it If our lusts do not fire us the dart cannot wound us Take the shield of Faith saith the Apostle That ye may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the divel Above all other pieces of Christian armour take the shield of Faith Ephes. 6. 16. The least degree of true Faith doth in some measure overcome the world because it doth perswade the

there is nothing amiable or lovely in Hell therefore there is no use of love there is no joy or delight no good to be hoped for there onely the tormenting affections of grief shame despair and the rest of that black crue remain to vex and torture the soul though they cannot devour or consume it Let us then so place our affections here as that we may enjoy the comfort of them in another world let our love and confidence be placed on Christ let us delight and rejoyce in him and his service that our souls may be for ever satisfied with his goodnesse and even ravished with his love Remember that Faith and Love are both Active it is Faith working by Love you have heard of the obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 26. And if ye Love me keep my Commandments Joh. 14. 15. Consider that Jesus Christ is the Authour of eternall Salvation to all them and none but them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Beloved in the Lord Jesus If you will learn to perform all your duties in faith and out of love trusting onely upon free grace and aiming onely at Gods glory My soul for yours you will be of the Christian circumcision you will worship God in the spirit rejoyce in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh You will be justified by free-grace acted and lead by effectuall Grace into all necessary Trueths and Holinesse of Trueth Faith and love will finde out their way to Heaven Faith and love will establish your hearts and mindes These graces will make you not onely patient and constant but zealous also For zeal can never boil high enough unlesse it be raised by Faith and enflamed by Love Zeal is the strength of affection and heighth of grace it is the heighth of knowledge the heighth of prudence and therefore not to be ordered by discretion as they talk who mistake policie for wi●dom and subject matters of Religion to reasons of State nay zeal is the heighth of Faith also When we read that something was imputed to Phinehas for righteousnesse Some say it was Justice others say Zeal but I say Faith for I know nothing else imputed for righteousnesse in any Scripture notion And Faith is said to be imputed for righteousnesse because the object of Faith the Lord Christ is Jehovah our righteousnesse Come then let your Faith and Love and Zeal kindle burn rise flame higher and higher Beleeve it you 'l be but uselesse men without zeal for your parts and gifts will be uselesse As a knife without an edge a ship without sails sails without winde a bird without wings wheels without oyl an horse without mettall such is a man any man a man in Honour without Zeal But a word or two more my Lords and I have done You must shew your selves noble Christians in your places relations correspondencies and improve all your Interests for the Honour of Jesus Christ and if you Honour God he will Honour you and your house 1 Sam. 2. 30. Honour God not onely with outward but inward worship honour him with your soul and body and substance Perform Honourable actions do not disdain to anoint the feet of our Saviour the lower you do stoop to serve Christ the higher you will be preferred for your humble service You may smell the perfume of that womans ointment that anointed the feet of Christ even to this very day wheresoever the Gospel is Preached Salvator noster faeminae monnumentum curr● triumphali vel Statuâ Imperatoris illustrius erexit Study Honorabilia legis The great and honourable things of the Law and Gospel Consider that vile affections base lusts will dishonour your bodies and damn your souls Rom. 1. 24 26. O possesse your vessels in sanctification and honour 1 Thes. 4. 4. It will not be for your honour to be guiltie of those sins which ye ought to punish Jehu was a murtherer in the sight of God for slaying of Idolatours because he was an Idolatour himself Mordecai was next to the King great among the Jews and accepted of the people by doing what was right in the sight of the people Hester 10. 3. You shall be near to Jesus Christ and accepted of God if ye do what is right in the sight of God Glory and Honour and Peace shall rest upon you for to them who by Patient continuance in wel-doing seek for glory and honour and immortalitie God will give immortall honour eternall life Rom. 2. 7 10. You know that they are good men who are good in their places and they are men of Honour who keep a good conscience in places of honour My Lords I do not desire to deal with you in a full Body as you make an House of Peers but I consider you as you will be considered and dealt with at the day of judgement then Christ will take you out every Lord single by himself one by one and say Sir you had the honour to sit in the House of Peers why did you hold correspondence with my utter enemies the Antichristian faction and commonly give your Vote against me when the welfare of three Kingdoms the building up of my Church and the making of a new heaven upon earth did much depend upon your Vote When it was put to the Vote in the Senate at Rome Whether Christ should be worshipped as God in the Romane Territories It was carried against him by a major part of Votes But my Lords I hope nay I know better things of your House then of the Romane Senate for the House of Peers hath passed a Vote lately much conducing to the Honour of Jesus Christ and the Reformation of particular Congregations Be pleased to proceed and perfect the Work let the ignorant be better instructed and the scandalous better disciplined the Liberties and Priviledges of Gods people restored Heretikes Blasphemers Seducers severely punished Oh that you could form and new mould our Armies into Churches also Is it not possible that there should be a spirituall Militia a powerfull Ministery and some Ecclesiasticall as well as Military Discipline set up and countenanced amongst them I must acknowledge That when I had the honour to serve the Sate and attend the Army I received all encouragement from His Excellency the Noble Generall in the work of my Ministery But I beleeve the want of Ministers was one defective cause or at least occasion of many disorders in that Army and how highly God was provoked by those disorders we have all cause to acknowledge yet give me leave to say That your sins had an influence into that sad defeat as well as ours and notwithstanding all the faults of that Army Surely my Lords That Army which had borne the heat and burthen nay carried away the glory of the day in so many set-battles and solemn victories should not have been so much neglected but timely relieved You see my Lords I know not how to flatter you but I beseech you I beseech you That