Salvation for a sinner Secondly that there is a way tending thereto as a meritorious 5. Arguments cause of it Thirdly that every man is a sinner for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 22. Now then know that there are but two wayes of life according Two wayes of life to which there is a double Covenant First one Legal Secondly the other Evangelical The Legal Covenant is do this and live the Evangelical Covenant is believe and live The Legal Covenant grounds salvation in our own persons and the Evangelical in the righteousnesse of another person And these Covenants are opposite that one cannot consist with the other For and mark this though the Law and the Gospel may and do and shall consist as the Law is a word of rule for obedience yet they cannot possibly consist is the Covenant of justification and salvation that is whosoever will stand to the Covenant of works to be justified by it he rejects the Covenant of grace and so Econtra Well then this being true that our life is to be had by the Covenant of Works or of Grace I will briefly shew unto you that we sinners can never be justified and saved by the Legal Covenant which if I clear then it will be evident that our salvation is only by faith in Jesus Christ Thus then all the possibility to be justified and saved by the Legall Covenant ariseth from one of these grounds viz either because That there is a fulnesse and exactnesse in inherent holinesse 3. Things That there is a dignity and efficacy in actual obedience which they call good works That there is a latitude or sufficiency of duty to fulfil the Law which may be conceived to be in a regenerate person but none of these can justifie and save Ergo For the first viz inherent holinesse this holinesse is that 1. Inherent holinesse which is wrought in our whole soul by the Spirit of God whereby of wicked he makes us good and of unholy he makes us holy and according to the severall degrees of it is the person lesse or more holy Now this we say that though the justified person hath this infused inherent holinesse Yet this is not that which Cannot justifie and save can justifie him before God that is for the dignity of which he can stand so before the judgement of God as to be pronounced just and righteous and so acquitted which I prove thus 1. That can never be the cause of our justification which is defective and imperfect and leaves yet the person in some measure sinful I 4. Reasons of it cannot in the Court of Justice be pronounced perfectly just for that righteousnesse which is imperfectly just no more then he can in a strict court be reputed to make full satisfaction who hath not paid halfe his debt or to be throughly well who is scarse able to walk three turnes in the Chamber But that holiness which is in us inherent holinesse is very imperfect I speak of that which is in us here on earth it is not adequate or parallel to the whole will of God which requires perfection of degrees as well as of parts That it is imperfect is as cleare as day First it is at combate with sin Ergo it is not perfect the argument is good for whiles one contrary is mixed with the other there is still imperfection Sinne and Grace are contrary and conflictings shew imperfection as victory notes perfection Secondly that which may be encreased is not perfect but our inherent holinesse may receive more encrease Hence those many exhortations to perfect holiness 2 Cor. 7 1. and to labor after perfection 2 Cor. 1. 3. Thirdly all the parts of holinesse are imperfect Faith is not so clear an eye nor Hope so fixed an Anchor nor Love so pure a streame but that each of them need additions of degrees of strength of help the Moon when it draweth into nearest conjunction with the Sun and is filled with the longest beames of communicated light it hath yet her spots which like so many reproaches stick in the heart of her so is it with the holiest person on earth with the largest measures of inherent graces he hath yet great measures of sinne which like so many spots do blemish and disable the soul to stand perfectly pure and just before the eyes of God That righteousnesse by which we are justified is manifested without the Law See Rom. 3. 21. and what that righteousnesse is he expresseth in ver 22. even the righteousnesse of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe But inherent righteousnesse is not manifested without the Law Why because the Law commands this inherent righteousnesse viz. To love the Lord our God with all our hearts c. That cannot be the cause of our justification and salvation upon which the conscience dares not to rest in the secret agonies of conflict or in the eminent houres of death when the soul is to enter conflict with the wrath of God being wounded with the sense of sinne and cited as it were before the tribunal of Gods holy and strict justice dares it then to put it self seriously and in good earnest upon its own holinesse to make its peace to be its propitiation to satisfie the trials and demands of Gods justice One Chemnitius well observeth of the Papists that when they are to dispute with men they will plead for inherent holinesse but when they are to contend with God they will flie only to Christ tutissimum est said Bellarmine It was no ill meditation that of Anselme Conscientia mea meruit damnationem Paenitentia mea non sufficit ad Anselme satisfactionem sed certum est quod miserecordia tua superat omnem offensionem that is O Lord my conscience tells me I have deserved damnation all the repentance that I have or can perform comes short of satisfaction but thy mercy even thy mercy only can pardon and so exceed all my transgressions The most holy persons do every day sin and need daily pardon and daily mercy how then can we be justified or saved for the merit or dignity of any holinesse in our selves How ridiculous were it that he should think himself to stand in great favour and acceptation before his Prince for the singularity of his continued vertues and performances who every day breaks out into such acts which need the Kings gracious mercy and pardon There is no dignity or meritorious efficacy in actual holinesse or 2. Actual holiness or good works cannot justifie 2. Reasons of it in good works by reason whereof we can be justified and saved I know this fields is very large I will not expatiate but speak in a word of it with a proper respect to the thing in hand I prove the thing thus 1. No man since Adams fall can performe works in that perfection which
and mistake about beleeving Thirdly the bitter danger and sure misery of not beleeving in Jesus Christ 1. The difficulty of beleeving is increased by the singularity of so strange and wonderful a goodnesse It is so great and so unparalell'd that a man can hardly believe it to be true To have an estate in Christ in God freely all at once How can this be The depth of gilt I am an enemy God is Just I have runne into such high forfeitures so unnecessarily lost my self provoked God so often and the threatnings are planted against sinners there is no hope no probability if a small debt c But for the difficulty of it that it is not so easie a thing to beleeve in Christ Jesus this shall appeare in divers particulars First there is no natural principle of justifying faith now in man An act or motion or quality which hath a rise and bottom within the subject may spring forth with some ease a stone having a natural propension and impetus to descend Simile if you do but quit the hand of it it will down but now to make a mighty stone to mount the hill to get up into the air there being no natural aptnesse to this it is a hard and difficult attempt 'T is true that a man hath an understanding and will but the Obj. Mystery of Jesus Christ is a riddle to the natural understanding Sol. the faculties naturally considered have no elevation to this object unlesse the Lord by his Almighty power begets and works faith in the soul The soule thinks not on him neither can it draw it self to him Like the needle untill it be Simile touched it will not start up towards the pole so unlesse the Lord doth touch our hearts by his blessed Spirit we shall never close with Christ So then this is one thing to shew the difficulty of beleeving the habit of it is out of our power out of our sphear it cannot be produced by any strength of nature but by the sole Arme of God Hence that of the Prophet Isa 53 1. Vnto whom is the Arme of the Lord revealed who hath beleeved our report The testimony of the Gospel concerning Christ will not be beleeved unlesse the Lord doth reveale his own Arme that is until he doth put forth his own Almighty strength 2. There is a natural principle of infidelity and unbelief in every mans heart If the paper were faire if there were no precedent blurs and blots then it were not so hard to imprint some legible Characters Or if the wax were soft and the iron heated now it were easie to engrave what kinde of armes the Artifier pleaseth But when the wax and the iron are hard and cold now the impression is difficult because the resistance is strong if there were in our hearts any obediential principles which could before hand temper the minde and frame the will then when God offers Christ little a do would serve the turne But our hearts naturally bend the other way there is in us a natural unaptnesse nay an enmity to beleeve Enmity to the habit and nature of faith blindnesse errour pride stubbornnesse disobedience in our hearts We have such slow and untoward hearts so armed with all sorts of corrupt reasonings so consulting with sense and rational evidences so ready on every inevidence to mistrust doubt question gainsay that all Arguments will not perswade us that God will give us Christ and pardon our sinnes You know that when the Lord Jesus was personally on earth and did preach himself and in that manner that none spake with that Authority as he and confirmed the truth of his Divinity and Mediatorship by Scripture and miracles yet very few beleeved historically that he was the Christ that he was the Sonne of God Take me now a person who is sensible of his sinful guilts Tell him of the need he hath of a Saviour he will grant it represent unto him the sufferings the excellency the tendernesse of the Lord Jesus that he is the Mediator the Propitiation for sinnes that Remission of sinnes is in his blood both intensively for the great degrees and aggravations of sinne and extensively for the several kindes of sinne Tell him that the Lord Jesus came to seek such a lost person as he that he came to loose such a captive as he that he came to binde up such a broken spirit as he is that he came to ease and refresh such a burdened and laden soul Yea and answer objection after objection doubt after doubt fear after fear that the person cannot put by the arguments why he should beleeve nor urge and reinforce his reasons why he should hold off from closing with Christ and putting his soule on him yet this we finde he cannot when all is said he cannot beleeve Vnbelief doth throw up so many mists and so many feares and is many times so unreasonable that yet it will hold off the heart Neither the goodnesse of God nor the truths of God nor the mercies of God nor the freeness of them nor the person of Christ nor the merits of Christ nor the tendernesse of Christ nor the gracious offer invitation command threatning of Christ will make the heart to come in unto him 3. There is a natuâ—al opposition in the Heart against Christ and therfore it is hard to beleeve on him The opposition is manifold First to his Person the Lord Jesus Christ is an holy Person and A fourfold opposition none can take him in truth but must take him so to be holy as he is holy He is the holy one of God and he is called the holy Child Jesus and an holy undefiled high Priest separated from sinners Now the heart naturally is in love with sinne and Christ tells us that this very thing is a cause why men beleeve not See John 3. 19. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darknesse rather then light Christ comes thus to a man I am he who will save thy soule if thou wilt take me but then know that I am an holy person if thou wilt have me thou must let go thy sinnes Now this breaks off the match hinders the bargain this goes to the heart A man naturally will as soon part with his life as with the sin of his love Secondly to his condition There is a double condition of A double state of Christ Christ one is Triumphant another is Militant Gloria in excelsis that is the triumphant condition Tubulationes in Terris that is the militant condition the Crown of Glory that is the triumphant condition the Crown of Thornes that is the militant condition Now the heart naturally is unsuffering It is a terrour to it to speak of afflictions sorrowes reproaches losses We are willing to enjoy the world to taste of pleasures to handle profits to rest in ease to walk at liberty to rejoyce with our Friends to be spread abroad
pardon and to crown him with eteâ—nal glory Beleeve it assurance will make thy life more fruitful and thy heart more suffering Faith will make holy duties to be no harden and assurance will make it a delight Faith will make a man to bear the Câ—osse â—nd assurance will make a man to triumph under it We are more then conquerours said perswaded Paul Seventhly Assurance of faith it is a bathing spring to all our graces Shall I instance in some 1. The mourning heart doth much depend upon the assured minde No man ever did or ever shall take God by the hand as reconciled to him or look on Christ as redeeming him or read his pardon with assurance but his heart shall be full of joy and his eyes full of teares They shall look on him whom they have pierced and shall mourne as a man mournes for his only childe Zach. 12. 10. There is nothing softens the heart so well as faith and which melts it so much as assurance The powers of the greatest kindnesse and most gracious love do open the fountain of godly sorrow within the soul 2. Love kindles in the heart upon assurance To whom much is forgiven the same will love much said Christ Luke 7. 47. We love him because he loved us first said John The love of God to us is the cause of our love to him againe and againe and the more that love is cleared to us the more is our love rekindled to him goodnesse is a cause of love here it is bountifulnesse is a cause of love here it is knowledge of both a special provocation of love in assurance here it is What a thing is this that God should give his Covenant to me his Sonne to me his Mercies to me his loving kindnesse to me his glory in heaven unto me I love a man who defends my Name I love a man who gives me a book I love a man who gives me my ransom I loue a man who gives me a meales meat Ah! poore things in comparison how do I then infinitely exceed in love to my God who I know hath pardoned hath justified hath accepted will save me for ever More might be said of all particular graces whatsoever 8. Assurance by faith doth but ease us of the world and mounts the soul above it 1. It easeth us of the world How can he walk with cares who is indeed perswaded that God is his Father he that gave him Christ will give him all other things freely God will not stand for a little earth who hath bountifully given a whole heaven and he will surely finde me food and rayment for my body who found mercy and the blood of his own Sonne for my soul 2. Nay it mounts us above the world they do observe that these lower things grow little and lesse by how much the higher a man is seated If a man could be elevated to one of the celstial orbes the whole world would seeme but a narrow spot of ground unto him In one point this is most true the neerer God draws unto the soule the more nothing doth this world appeare O the blessed favour of God! the evidences of our union with Christ This is like the light of the Sunne which puts out the light of ten thousand candles Thou wouldest never complaine of too little in the world if thou haddest so much as made up a true assurance of heaven 9. Lastly Assurance will breed comfort in life and confidence in death Object Why are Gods people afraid many times to die they cannot say with Christ I will go to my Father They have the bond but see not the seale They are not assured of Reconciliation of pardon of salvation But if they could with Simeon Take Christ into their armes if once they could be assured Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation He who by assurance looks Christ in the face may with cheerful confidence look death in the face I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ said Paul Phil. 1. 23. How so verse 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gaine But how knows he that 2 Tim. 1. 12. For I know whom I have beleeved and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day So 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens SECT V. Quest 1. NOw I come to the last inquiry by what means the soule mâ—y get up to this assurance Sol. I shall only 〈◊〉 be such rules as reach a beleeving person Thereâ—oâ—e 〈◊〉 1. If thou be a bâ—â—eever and wouldest be assured then preserve the sense of thy own natural wretchednesse and of the darknese of thy souls state without assurance Christ came to Mary when shee was weeping and the Great God looks down upon thâ— broken Spirit The highest mountaine hath the first sight of the Sunne but the lowest Christian hath the first sight of God When the people of God were mourning then saith God Comfort ye comfort ye my people and say unto them your sins are pardoned You shall finde this That the truely sensible heart hath Note three properties in it which envite the Lord much to gratifie it with assurance viz. One that is very humble Another that is much in the prizing of Gods love and mercy And a third that it is exceeding thirsty after a good look from God after some taste of Christ and God will satisfie all these 2. Be no strangers to the Ordinances you shall finde this that the ripening of faith belongs to them as well as the seeds of it The word you know is the soule of faith it was that which did incline the heart to yeild which did make it to accept of Christ and it is that also which can make us to know our possessions 1 John 15. 13. These things have I written vnto you that beleeve on the Name of the Sonne of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life So 1 John 1. 4 These things we write unto you that your joâ— may be full More plainly In whom after you heard the Word of truth ye beleeved in whom also after that ye beleeved ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise Ephesians 1. 13. For look as the Word hath promises which draw the soul to Christ so it hath promises to clear the soul in its interest in Christ to answer all doubts and feares and to answer the feare about acceptance so it removes doubts which strive against evidence and propriety The Sacrament you know it is the Seal of righteousnesse which is by faith Rom. 4. 11. Look as a Seale doth distinguish and confirme and settle the minde so is the Sacrament ordained to satisfie and perswade the heart of a beleever God appointed this
the understanding by solid demonstration of infallible principles or else by the undeniable evidence of sense and experience as thus that every natural body hath power to move or that the Moon will suffer an Eclipse or that the fire is naturally apt to ascend and the water to moisten c. These things have both a naturall certainty and truth in themselves and there is an undoubted evidence and certainty in the minde of the person truly knowing them and so certaine and full is the perswasion of the minde about them that there is no scruple of doubt remaining to discuss as any uncertainty whether the things be so or no. Another is opinion which is an inevident evident assent if I may so phrase it My meaning is the understanding doth so assent and yield to the things as that yet it sees some contrary reason to suspect and question whether the thing be so or no for as much as in opinion the grounds are not fully evident to the minde but they are only probable and therefore the assent by opinion is but conjectural As take a man in a case of a scrupulous conscience there is to that man some evidence of argument which doth seem to warrant his action or attempt and yet that argument is not so entirely convincing of his judgment but on the other side there starts up a medium or argument which renders the practice probably sinful whereupon if you come to demand of him May you do such a thing he answers I do not certainly know that is I am not entirely and absolutely resolved of it yet I think I may I think it is lawful and this thinking which is opinion is alwayes accompanied with some fear and suspition so that the minde is like a paire of Scales tottering and tilting to either side Things are partly cleare and partly obscure partly evident and partly inevident and therefore the assent of opinion is alwayes doubtful Another is beliefe which is an assent unto things not from any evidence of the things themselves but only from the relation or testimony of another If I feel the fire to burne my hand I do not call this a believing but a sensitive knowing if Ahimaaz comes and tells David that his Son Absolom is hanged and slaine though this be knowledg in him who saw it yet it is belief in David who did heare and credit the tidings so that to be brief belief differs from knowledge in this that knowledge depends on the evidence of things themselves but belief though the things be certainly true to which it doth assent yet it assents unto them for the testimony or authority of him who relates and reports them Though this be most true That Jesus Christ was borne of the Virgin Mary and that he is the Messias and Saviour yet I beleeve it to be true because God hath given testimony or report thereof in his Word unto me Again Belief differs from opinion in this that opinion is an indifferent probable hazarding and difficultly inclinable assent but in believing the assent is firme certaine and fixed especially where testimony and authority is sufficient Believing as it is restrained to a theological and divine consideration that is in the generall an assent of the soul to the truth and goodnesse of all divine revelations upon divine testimony Here much might be said as for instance First that all divine revelations are the object of belief as supernaturally inspired Secondly that the ground of believing them is Gods own testimony Faith hath sufficient reason to believe all things there to be true in their relation because of his truth and authority who doth say so viz. God himself Thirdly of the generall nature of believing which is an assent unto all spoken by God as most true and credible Secondly particularly of justifying Faith Faith as you well know hath a double aspect one is to the whole revealed Word of God another is to God in Christ or to Jesus Christ I am not now to speak of it as an eye which may see all colours but as an eye fixing it self on some singular and special object viz. on Jesus Christ in respect of whom it is called justifying faith The believing on whom may be thus described CHAP. V. Faith in Christ what described IT is a singular Grace of God whereby the heart and will of a sensible sinner doth take and embrace Jesus Christ in his person and offices and doth wholly or only rest on him for pardon of sin and eternal life There are many things to be opened in this description forasmuch as all the force of true faith cannot at once in a few short words be clearly expressed SECT I. COnsider therefore the spring or fountaine of this faith is at heaven Gods eternall decree is the radicall cause of it so Causa Acts 13. 48 As many as were ordained to eternal life believed And the instrumental cause of it is the Word of God Rom. 10. 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And the immediate and singular cause of it is the Spirit of God Gal. 5. 22. there it is an expresse fruit So Joh. 1. 12. speaking particularly of believing on the Name of Christ he addeth verse 13. men come to this not being borne of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God That the will or heart of man should be brought off from it self and to abhor its own condition and sufficiency and to take Christ as God propounds him to be the only rock upon which I must built my salvation to be the only Lord to whose Law and Will I must resigne up my whole soul and to cleave unto him in a conjugall union and affection This I say ariseth not from naturall principles nor from the wisdome of a mans free will nor from any endeavour or action which can find footing in man himself It is observed that there are two sorts of habits Two sorts of Habits 1. Some which are acquired by the industry of the person and through a right use of a segacious and understanding mind and such may be purchased by practise and use as the Scholar by writing gets the habit of writing and the Apprentise by his wise and honest observation and industry gets into the skill of his trade and calling Now faith is no such quality we can send forth no such singular acts or operations which are able in time to ripen or beget so excellent a Grace in the soul 2. Others are plainly and entirely infused Faith is not water in the Earth which a man may pump out but it is even in the fulnesse or littlenesse of it in the allnesse of it as the drops or showers of raine which come from heaven Though the subject of it be below yet the cause of it is above it is man who doth believe but it is Gods Spirit alone who gives him that faith to believe
it is the will of man which doth take and receive Christ but it is Gods Spirit who doth bestow that grace of faith by which he doth take and receive That a man hath a will none can deny who know that they are men Nay and that the will is able to send out its own actions it is willingly confessed but infinite is the difference 'twixt the naturall actions of the will and the supernatural qualities and operation of Gods Spirit in the will It is true a dead carcase is able of it self to send forth a stinking smell but it is not able to quicken and enliven it self That the will can will I grant but that the will can of it self enliven it self to that great part of life I meane believing it is not only a vehement injury and dishonour to the fountaine and freenesse of grace but also a most foolish and senselesse error the will of man being naturally so opposite to believing and believing being an act so every way unsutable and disproportionable to the inclination and ability of the will No verily faith in God comes from God and so faith in Christ from Christ none ever could see Christ in a justifying and saving way who had not that eye of faith put into him by the Spirit of Christ No grace cōe◠from any but the God of Grace Vnto you it is given to believe Phil. 1. 29. SECT II. THe subject of this faith is a sensible sinner I do not as yet speak of the immediate subject of inhesion which respects Subjectum those parts of the soul wherein this grace is seated of this I shall speak anon But of the subject of denomination and this subject is a sensible sinner There are two sorts of sinners Two sorts of sinners 1. Some generally corrupted both in their natures and in their lives and they are as unsensible as they ere sinfull They do not know in any powerfull degree of true reflection and feeling their own vilenesse accursednesse and miserablenesse of persons being so and remaining so in an unsensible condition of sinfulnesse I dare confidently affirme that though they may have most able and strong presumptiors yet they have not as yet the least degree of justifying and saving faith How can any man by Faith look upon Jesus Christ as his Physitian who is whole in his own opinion The unsensible sinner as he cannot close with Christ so he will not care for Christ for what should now move such an heart is it this holinesse of Christs person Good Lord How ridiculous is that motive to a profane and gracelesse heart or is it the sutablenesse of Christs Office Why what is Salvation to him by another who as yet sees no ground or reason of condemnation in himself 2. Others sensibly experienced who know thus much that they in particular are sinful and there is no Salvation no hope of it from themselves but it is to be found onely in Jesus Christ I confesse there are severall degrees of this sensiblenesse neither dare I to assigne the height and latitude of it unto the tearmes of horror and terror that is that a person must be alwayes and necessarily anguished with extremities of amazement and dejections before he can believe in Christ No though these sharp throwes are manifest in some yet I dare not make them a rule for all only this I say that the heart believes not it looks not towards Christ till it feel it self to be sinful and lost by reason of sin and that there is no possibility of subsistence in it self And now there is room for faith when I feel my self a sinner now there is reason for me to look upon a Saviour and when I am sensible of my own vilenesse now is there reason to look upon another righteousnesse and when I perceive my own lostness now is there cause to look after that salvation which God hath put in the Lord Jesus Christ. Me thinks that of Christ he came not to call the righteous but sinners that he is sent to finde that which is lost that the whole need not a Physitian but the sick that he is sent to preach liberty to the captives do abundantly confirme this truth Yea and our own experiences gives in a clear evidence that not only in the beginning but in the progresse of our conversion our eyes are then most upon Christ to look after him and to prize him when we are most sensibly acquainted with our own sinfulnesse and miserablenesse of condition SECT III. THe Seat or babitation of faith is the heart or will Scriptures are copious in this Rom. 10. 10. with the heart man Sedes believeth unto righteousnesse Acts 8. 37. And Philip said if thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest and he answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Rev. 22. ver 11. whosoever will let him take the water of life freely There be who distinguish 'twixt three kindes of faith First Credere deum which is a universall and large conception of a God when the understanding is perswaded beyond Atheisme to believe that there is a God Secondly Credere Deo and this is such a disposition of the understanding by which it gives credit or belief to that God speaking and revealing as to one who is truth and cannot lye Thirdly Credere in Deum which is not only a credence to God as true in his Nature and Word but a reliance on him with the will and embracing of him and his truth and goodness with the affections Now justifying faith or faith in Christ is comprehended in this latter kinde of believing For the better apprehending of this observe a few things viz. First the things which God doth propound unto us are of different ends and uses some are propounded meerly to be known of which sort some conjecture many historicall pasages in the Word and many predictions and many Genealogies Some are propounded not only to be known but also to be done as the Divine Precepts or Commandments some are propounded to be known and to be avoided or declined as all the comminations and threatnings in the Word against sinners Some are propounded to be known and to be embraced with the will and affections of which sort are all the Promises of God and Jesus Christ our Lord. All those parts of the Word which conteine our good and our good to be embraced They have a necessary and naturall reference to the will of man which is planted in us by God to be conversant about all that which respects our good Since then Jesus Christ is our good both personally considered and also vertually considered faith therefore as conversant about him must naturally be planted in the will That there are two parts as it were of faith One is imperfect and in compleat yet is it a necessary ingredient unto faith and this respects the understanding when we are supernaturally illightned to see the
and do rest my soule on thy precious blood trusting that it was shed for the remission of my sins I have taken thee to be my Christ and therefore I commit the answering of my sinful debt to thy full satisfaction and sufferings Put the case to a beleeving heart you have many sinful debts to answer for sinnes before conversion and sinnes after conversion sins of ignorance and sinnes of knowledge these sinnes have that in them which bindes you over to wrath and curse now to whom doth it belong to pardon these sinnes your soul answers to God Who can forgive sinnes but God only And I even I am he that blotteth out thy sins c. yea but for whose sake will God pardon them the soul answers onely for Christ Jesus sake for he did shed his blood for their remission and therefore faith goes with the soul to Christ and saith O blessed Saviour thy blood was shed for the remission of sinnes and thou hast invited all that are heavy laden to come unto thee and thou wilt ease them Thou sayest if any man sinne 1 John 2. 1. he hath an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for sinnes Now I am thus and thus sinful and these guilts lie upon my conscience I am never able to get them to be pardoned for any thing in me but I do put my soul upon thee and do trust to thee to get off these sinnes I put them on thy account yea all of them and do beleeve that in thy blood they shall be pardoned c. SECT VII NOw for the second thing which faith looks on in Christ and that is Righteousnesse Beloved this know that God doth never Justifie a man nor will ever save a man who hath not a perfect Righteousnesse for he is a Righteous God and will not pronounce the sinner guiltlesse his Law and Justice must be satisfied in all points or else the sinner shall never come to heaven Now the soul of a person is marvellously distressed when it seriously thinks of this How shall I stand before the great and holy God another day being by nature so wholly sinful and at the best being but defectively and imperfectly good But faith in this case brings the soul to Christ and in him it findes a most perfect and absolute righteousnesse For whom saith the scrupulous soul for thee saith Faith what for me yea for thee for the Scripture saith That Christ was made the righteousnesse of 1 Cor. 1. 30. God for us and that he was made sinne for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him So that if thou wouldst 2 Cor. 5. 21. have such a righteousnesse as may answer the Law and satisfie God and which God will accept for Justification Thou must by faith get out of thy self and lay hold on that righteousness which is in Christ As Paul I account all things but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousnesse which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by Faith Phil. 3. 8 9. There is a twofold righteousnesse One inherent which is in us and this imperfect it can never justifie us in the sight of God Another is imputed which is not in us yet it is for us And this is the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ both in his nature and in his obedience Active and Passive which God reckons unto him who doth beleeve in Christ of which the Apostle abundantly in Rom. 4. 12. c. 5. on this doth faith rest only in the matter of justication Though inherent righteousnesse be absolutely required to salvation yet no righteousnesse but that only which is Christs and is imputed to beleevers is the matter of our justification When a sinner comes to account it with God he can never say Lord Lo here I am see if there be any sin in my person or defect in my holinesse I will expostulate with thee upon bare termes I have not offended thee or if I have here 's grace enough to answer for me my heart is wholly cleane my duties at all times in every respect for matter and manner have been performed just as thou requirest in thy holy Law enter into judgement with me if thou pleasest I will be tryed by my own holinesse by my own goodnesse O no there can be no such thing no sinner can be pronounced just this way ever the Saints must cast their crowns to the ground and give glory to the Lamb who only is worthy For when we come to the point of justification before God we must renounce our own righteousnesse as filthy rags we must cry out enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified But as they who were in danger fled to the hornes of the Altar for their lives so must we if we would be justified fly by faith to the Altar of Christs perfect righteousnesse and so doth faith when it would present the person of a sinner perfect and unblameable before God It doth bring him unto Christ and saith before God I beleeve in him to be the Lord my righteousnesse CHAP. VII How it may appeare that to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved BEfore I give you the Arguments or Reasons to evince this I must premise some particulars viz. First That beleeving or faith may be considered four wayes either 1. Absolutely as a simple habit or quality of grace apt to change the unbelievingnesse of the heart and to send forth the acts of trusting and acceptance 3. Premises Thus faith is not the only way of salvation partly because other habits are required as well as faith and partly because there is not in faith absolutely considered any meritorious dignity of it self to challenge salvation We say that a Ring is worth a hundred pound not absolutely considered not that the gold which makes the Ring amounts to that value but in respect of the Diamond set in that Ring so faith is a grace of wonderful price much more precious then gold Not so much in respect of it self as if it did by its own natural dignity cause our Justification and salvation but in respect of Christ whose person it takes and on whose righteousnesse it doth rely so though this be true we are justified by faith yet this is as true we are not justified for faith but for Christ on whom faith doth trust 2. Actually that is for the very act of beleeving Arminius and Birtius and some of that cut do say That not the righteousnesse of Christ is that which justifieth but the act of beleeving on it is that which is imputed in our Justification A righteousnesse of Christ they do grant but 't is the act of our beleeving on this which by divine acceptation or favour is imputed for
with high estimations The young man when Christ bade him sell all that he had and give it to the poore It was praeceptum experimentale he goes away sorrowfull Thirdly to the Scepter and Government of Christ we will not have this man Reigne over us say they and you reade in Psalme 2. How they did consult to break his bands asunder The Scepter of Christ is Heavenly and his Lawes are spiritual and his Wayes are righteous and straight they lay injunctions on the inward man as well as on the outward conversation and binde the thoughts and the intentions and affections Now what do you meane to pinne up a spirit which would have elbow roome what would you have a licentious heart and a turning and winding conscience to be precised and narrowed and restrained and so every way straitened You must give it leave to break the Sabbath to improve its gaines dishonestly to sweare now and then and to comply c. Fourthly to the Righteousnesse of Christ O what a do had that blessed Apostle with the Romanes with the Galatians with others to break them off from Iustification by Works And to fasten upon their hearts the Justification by Faith We are apt to stand upon our selves and to look for the matter of our acceptance and acquittance in our selves on man he thinks that his good meaning shall make him speed Another thinks that his doing no body any harme will let him into Heaven or else God help us Another stands on his devout Sacrifices Another on his charitable bounties Yea and those who should know better in the Doctrine of Justification how extreamly do they cling to their inherent Graces much a do before they can be made to cast their Crowns to the earth and to give the glory only to Christ who is worthy What paines is God forced to take to break us off from our selves we are so proud and so unwilling to be beholding to Gods free grace and Christ that God is faine to break our heart to pieces and to split our ship into shivers that we might only to Christ He must imprint the holy and mighty vigour of the Law on our consciences to shew us our utter impotency and sensibly acquaint us with our marvellous imperfections in graces and interruptions in duties and excursions of daily sinnings and all to fetch us entirely to cast our safeties only on the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ CHAP. XI The facility of error and mistake about believing SEcondly as it is hard to believe so it is easie to mistake and delude our selves in the matter of believing Four things make it to be so 1. One is the various kindes of faith 2. Another is the consimilitude of one of the extreams of faith 3. The easinesse of both And 4 the aptnesse in our hearts to be satisfied with these First there are divers kindes of faith As the Apostle spake of bodies all bodies are not the same bodies but there are bodies Coelestial and bodies Terrestial so I say of Faith all faith I speak of habitual faith is not the same kinde of faith we read of a Faith which the Devils have and we read of a Faith which the Hypocrites have and we read of a Faith which even Christs enemies whom he did not dare to trust had and we read of a Precious Faith a Faith of Gods Elect a justifying and saving faith Divines ordinarily distinguish of faith There is an Historical faith which is a crediting the word relating but not an embracing of it promising it is like the passing through a Garden and observing and smelling but not a flower is gathered so in Historical Faith the eye of the understanding goes over the Word of God and hath some apprehensions and general grants and intellectual submissions that God doth not lye but what he saith is true Neverthelesse there is not that quality of justifying faith in this which makes the heart to close with the goodnesse of truth and to embrace Christ 2. There is a wonderful faith a faith of miracles to remove mountaines to raise the dead which had some special and immediate promise and yet it was a gift bestowed on those who had no faith to save themselves Many who have cast out devils may at the last day be cast among the devils Lord Lord have not we Prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils And yet Christ bid them depart Non novi vos 3. There is a temporary faith which hath in it some great apprehensions of the truths of God yea and reverent assents yea and some delightfull contentations in the same yea and some fruitfull expressions and with all these a singular degree of profession even to a zealous forwardnesse and notoriousness so that a man may be in the eye of others like a tall Ship and yet there is a Leake in the bottome which on the sudden sinks all This temporary faith though in many respects it handles the same object with saving faith it is tampering much about Christ and the promises yet it is intrinsically and extreamly different from it It doth not differ from it in respect of eminency or degrees nor in respect of existence or duration onely for the one is a living Spring and the other is a decaying Flood but in respect of formal nature also The temporary faith doth not indeed bring all the heart and settle it on Christ 4. There is this justifying and saving faith which bestowes the whole heart on Christ and takes Christ unfeignedly to be Lord and Saviour Now where there are so many sorts it is not a great difficulty nor an impossibility to mistake error is manyfold said the Phylosopher but the truâ—h iâ— single and there is but one line to hit the mark out many to misse it Nay secondly there is a great consimilitude of one of the extreames of faith with faith it self viz. credulity It is strange yet ordinary that a man should make a heaven of his own and a God of his own and a Christ of his own and a faith of his own and a way to heaven of his own Presumption is a work much of an idle fancy and a gracelesse heart like a thiefe very apt to finger the Kings coine but without a warrant But to the thing Is there knowledge in faith why presumption pretends to that is there confidence in faith what more bold then presumption is there any sweet assurance in faith why presumption never doubted but could believe ever since a man was borne is there any joy in faith why presumpâ—ion is as jocond and carelesse as if there were no heaven to be got no sinne to be bewailed nor course to be reformed Lastly these are easie and we are apt to content our selves with these instead of a true beleeving in Jesus Christ. To get a little seeming knowledge to carry Religion upon the lip and Christ on the tongue to be bold upon Gods mercy and Christs death
alwayes hold If the Sunne be up it is day But this now Learning is or should Simile be an Antecedent to preferment it should go before it yet it is not an infallible truth that every one who gaines learning should enjoy preferment Thus is it in the nature of faith There are some Antecedents there are some things which must of necessity go before faith yet they alone do not formally and assuredly conclude that a man hath faith as for instance A man cannot beleeve in Christ he cannot receive Jesus Christ with all his heart he hath some historical evidence of Christ he must have some knowledge of Christ what he is and what he hath done or else he cannot take him to be his Lord and Saviour Yet this knowledge doth not infallibly conclude justifying and saving faith for as much as the Devils and Hypocrites may see much of Christ they may have a high degree of intellectual apprehension Again a man cannot by faith take Christ to be his Lord and Saviour unlesse he hath some sensiblenesse of his sinful condition our heart will not look towards Christ it cannot conceive of his excellencies nor of his own necessity until we feel our sinfulnesse and lostnesse and vilenesse The whole neither need nor look for a Physician yet a person may be sensible of his sinful condition he may not only by the light of natural conscience apprehend some broader and stirring enormities but he may by a smart and quick light let in by the Ministry of the Word discern heaps of wickednesse in his life and heart for which his conscience may sting him with wonderfully bitter accusations and yet such a person possibly may not rise from trouble to faith as is evident in Cain and Judas So then remember this that in the searchings and trials for faith you do not conclude the presence of the habit from the common antecedent of faith for as much as faith is but a contingent consequent of them sometimes it doth follow sometimes it doth not As in Marriage sometimes it doth follow the motion which is made and sometimes it doth not so the espousing of our soules to Christ by faith sometimes it doth follow knowledge sometimes it doth not sometimes it doth follow the preaching of the Word and yet sometimes it doth not for all have heard yet who hath beleeved said the Apostle Rom. 10. sometimes it doth follow the motions and inward excitations of the Spirit and sometimes it doth not 2. There are some things which faith only doth produce yet because it doth not produce them alwayes a man therefore must not negatively conclude from the absence of them the absence of faith You know that holy and spiritual joy it is the sole fruit of faith therefore faith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 8. Beleeving ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious There is nothing which can present to the heart of a Christian such full cause of joy as faith such a God such a Christ such a love such a blood such a mercy such happinesse such unmixt and proper and sutable good There is a carnal joy which sparkles from the cup of pleasure and there is a glistering joy which the raies of gold may produce and there is a beastly joy which the fulfilling of sinful lusts may send forth and there is a flashing and transient joy which the pride of hypocrites may dart out but sound and weighty and holy and pure and spiritual joy which is a well grounded and not to be repented affecting of the heart that comes only from faith Yet it comes from faith as a separable effect look as trouble and sorrow is a Contingent antecedent so even in actu imperato true joy is a separable fruit of faith Though the branches and green leaves do sprout out of the living root only yet this color doth not appeare at all times Though the blade comes only from the graines cast into the earth yet you cannot alwayes observe the blade Though the flesh and natural complexion flows only from health yet there may be sad occasions which though they do not extinguish health may yet fowle and blubber the complexion So even the beleeving person may sometimes have a tear in his eye an handkercheif in his hand a sigh in his breast and yet have faith in his heart He may sit down in ashes and feed on tears as David did and for all this he may be a true beleever He is not alwayes able to see the causes of his joy nor to break through the contrarieties to his faith nor to remove the quashings of his comforts Therefore when you are to try your selves about your faith do not make a negative inference from separable evidences 3. There are some things which faith only doth produce not as essential properties but as magnificent testimonies The moral Phylosophers distinguish 'twixt the effects and acts of liberality as it is absolutely considered and as it is eminently considered being raised to magnificence To give a farthing according to the rules and circumstances of morality even this is an act of liberality but to build a Colledge this is now an act of liberality grown into the greatnesse of magnificence So is it in the matter of faith there are some fruits of faith which come from it absolutely considered according to the vital constitution of it And there be other fruits which come from it eminently considered faith is come to an height to a strength when it sends them forth Though a child cannot bear a burden of an hundred pound weight yet he can desire the breast and suck the bearing of such a burden belongs to strength and yet the very sucking shews that he hath life Though a Christian be not able in all respects at all times with all moderation and silence to passe presently through every heavy occurrence which shews strength of faith yet his heart may most affectionately cling about Christ which shews the truth of faith Assurance is a fruit of an eminent faith and so is a more habitual 3. Eminent fruits stedfastnesse of quiet submission and confidence in all estates conditions and so is that maintenance of the heart upon Gods promises in the times of strong contrarieties Now as Divines should warily open their lips so should you wisely distinguish of the evidences of a true faith some being if I may so terme them essential and others being eminent some there are which discover the truth others which testifie the strength of faith It is one thing to shew unto you the properties of a man another thing to shew unto you the properties of a strong man Many a poore Christian hath been deeply gravell'd â—â— others and extreamly afflicted by his own spirit for want of this distinction of the properties of faith Because he reades and hath heard what admirable and singular fruits and effects faith hath sent out as Assurance and full assurance and with these some glorious
It doth see such a measure of goodnesse and mercy from God through Christ and such a height and depth and breadth of love to us in Christ and such an excellency of holy perfections and amiablenesse in Christ which drawes the soul with strong affections of love to Christ againe Secondly if faith might be without love then a person in Christ might be Anathema-maranatha forasmuch as he who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ is c. but it is a monstrous wickednesse to conceive that a beleever in Christ should be so Secondly there is no believer in any degree of faith but he hath a love of Christ The weak Christian as well as the strong the plant as well as the cedar The Father of a child who cryed out I believe help my unbelief as well as Abraham the father of the faithful Though one Christian may produce some testimonies which another cannot though every one cannot say with Paul I am fully perswaded yet every one can say with Peter when Christ demanded of him Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me Joh. 21. 17. He said unto him Lord thou Knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Yea thirdly whatsoever straits the believing soul is cast into when it is in death in flames for Christ yet it can love Christ when it is under the crowd of temptations when it is in the bitter dayes of desertion When the Skirmish of reasonings do prevaile upon the soul so highly and strongly that the heart is ready to conclude against it self that God looks not on it Christ will not be mine yet even then however I love the Lord Jesus Christ I love him though I can see no sensible testimony of love from him my heart is still towards him he is my Center and Loadstone No meerly unbelieving person can love the Lord Jesus Christ For what is love Love you know it is the setling and transplanting of the heart It is such an affection as knits the soule to Christ but it is impossible that this should be whiles the heart hath no faith So then love of Christ is an infallible testimony of faith in Christ But you will say this is strange that love of Christ should be so Obj. lively and so distinguishing a testimony of true faith why doth not many a man yea every man professe that he loves Christ Beloved What men professe is one thing and what they Sol. affect and love may be another thing the semblance of love is a thing distinct from the sincere affection of love If your love be true and sincere never question the matter any further assuredly thy faith is right But this is the doubt this is it we question as much as the former Obj. whether we truly love Christ or no. A word to it and so an end of that triall If the love be true Sol. which is to Christ Then It will bestow our hearts on Christ only Nothing is too good for him whom we heartily love in true love the heart is in him who is loved and not in him who loves Anima est ubi amat non ubi animat and which way the heart goes all shall go that way It pitches on the person of Christ Love is base if it be 'twixt person and estate but pure love is 'twixt person and person I confesse that a wicked man an unbelieving person may have a tooth at the portion of Christ he may marvelously desire the merits of Christ pardon of sin exemption from hell but faith is it which drawes out such a love as makes the soul to admire it and to cleave unto the person of Christ It is sincere and conjugall It is not an adulterous love which is divided amongst several Paramours O no True love of Christ knowes no husband but Christ and no Lord but Christ he is the covering of our eyes SECT III. A Second trial of our true faith in Christ Jesus is this inward change and sanctity of the heart is an infallible testimony of a living faith Divines distinguish of a common faith and of a special faith and according to their nature so are their effects a common faith may elevate the minde to singular apprehensions notable expressions outward conformities in matters either not difficult or dangerous But special faith hath a distinguishing operation it works that which no false or pretensive faith can What 's that This is it it doth change the heart and is ever a companion with inward holinesse There be three things which I will shew you about 3. Things this First that true faith doth produce a change there is a twofold change 1. One of the condition which is when a man once in the state of death is now passed over to the state of life once in the termes of condemnation is now translated to the state of absolution and this change faith findes for us in Iesus Christ the imputation of whose righteousnesse in justification changeth the state so that our guilty debts are taken off and we are reconciled Secondly which is of the person and this change is the alteration of a mans nature for faith is not only a justifying grace but it is also a sanctifying grace Hence these phrases Acts. 15. 9. purifying their hearts by faith Acts 26. 18. that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ. As the blood of Christ is a pure blood as well as a precious blood and as it is a clensing blood as well as an expiating blood so faith is a grace not only to acquit but also to purge and renew It is not onely an entitleing grace that is that grace which doth interest us into Christ and his benefits but it is also a conforming grace that is such a grace as works into us the vertues and holy qualities of Christ And therefore you read that it doth engraffe us into the similitude of his death Ro. 8. and into the fellowship of his sufferings and resurrection Phil. 3. 10. Secondly observe that every believer hath a changed and a holy heart 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ and you know that it is faith which unites to Christ and plants us into him he is a new creature that is that a man is altered in his inward frame in his faculties in his inclinations all over There is a change either in the cessation of some particular actions which an unbeliever may attaine and there is a change in the newnesse of nature when the soul is turned and biassed and enclined quite another way I confesse the Apostle doth not say if any man be in Christ he is a strong creature yet he saith he is a new creature for though every believer hath not that maturity and ripenesse and strength yet he hath a newnesse in his nature an holy change wrought in him throughout Look as the first Adam derived guilt and corruption to his posterity
so the second Adam derives pardon and holinesse therefore he is called a quickning spirit 1 Cor. 15. It is not 'twixt Christ and believers as 'twixt a root and a dead limb which hangs on but hath no life nor sap Christ hath really no such members in his body he is not like Nebuchadnezzars image whose head is of gold and the feet of clay for a man to boast much of his head of Christ of gold and yet he to remaine a piece of clay he to have a nature utterly heterogeneous unto Christ this man deceives himself For every plant every graff that is inserted into Christ hath the aliquality of his nature Hence those who in John 1. 12. are stiled Beleevers they are said in the next ver 13. to be borne of the Will of God Now as in the natural birth there is a new forme so in the heavenly there is a supernatural and holy frame of grace ingenerated Thirdly No man hath a changed nature but a Beleever Why Because no man hath grace but from Christ and none have Christ but Beleevers Again it is impossible for a man to be lovely in the eyes of God without faith but if any man might have a changed and sanctified heart and yet want faith then one might be lovely in Gods eyes wanting faith for as much as God loves and delights in an holy heart So then this is most evident that if faith goes not without a change and if every Beleever hath a change and no unbeleever hath it I say this will follow Therefore if a man can finde a change of his heart he then hath the truth of faith Now then enquire is there vertue gone from Christ to make thy dark minde seeing thy stubborn judgement yeilding and prizing thy proud heart humbling thy filthy heart cleansing thy hard hard relenting and mourning thy carnal affections to be heavenly thy sinful soul to be holy be confident of this that it is sound faith Though there be yet remainders of corruption yet if the inclination of the soul be châ—nged by grace doubt it not thou hast faith But for such as talk of a faith which stands in opposition to hoâ—inesse and please themselves in a gracelesse faith in such a faith as hath no society or companâ— of graces in the soule O farre be such a faith from any one of us An unholy beleever is as proper a phrase as an holy devil Presumption is a most confident work but it is a very loose quality 1 Cor. 6. 9. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde verse 10. Nor theeves nor covetous nor drunkarks nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Ver. 11. And such were some of you but you are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Do not abuse thy soul with a conceit of faith and justification if thou hast no change of heart by sanctification SECT IV. THirdly a third tryal of true faith in Christ Jesus is this It will stoop to Christ as well as rise to him It enters the soul into a new service it takes Christ and him only to be its Lord. You read that there was a Marriage feast to which some did come and there was the Kings son sent out to rule and reigne but few yeilded unto him Many men will come to Christ to finde a feast but few come to Christ to bear his Scepter they would come under the safe-guard of his blood who flie the Authority and dominion of his sword they like Christ the Priest but not Christ the Lord. I will briefly shew you two things to clear this tryal 2. Things First no unbeliever will accept of Christ to be his Lord only because 1. His heart hath another Lord It hath set up some sinne or other or some part of the world or other to which it gives service as to his Lord. He is our Lord to whom we give service and his servants we are whom we do obey Now the unbeleeving heart either serves the world or obeys sinne in the lusts thereof Let the commands of sinne and Christ come into an ordinary and usual competition let the commands of profit or pleasure and Christ come into competition Now you shall see that the unbelieving heart will go after its Lord it will not hearken to Christ it prefers sin before him it will easily adventure Christs displeasure to fulfil its own lusts 2. Againe his heart cannot choose Christ it cannot like him for a Lord Why because the dominion of Christ is holy and heavenly and directly opposite to the fordid principles and affections and wayes of an unbeleeving heart It is a burden yea a very vexation to such a heart to heare but the report of the holy Laws of Christ and of their power and authority to oblige the inward man and the outward conversation Psal 2. 2. They take counsel against the Lord and against his anointed saying ver 3. Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us 'T is true whether wicked men will stoop or no Christ is a Lord in respect of designation but he is not their Lord in respect of approbation They will not have this man to rule over them Secondly Every Beleever admits of Christ to be his Lord as Thomas said My Lord and My God John 20. 28. see c. and so 1. Faith sets up the Scepter of Christ and sweetly frames the soul to a willing subjection 2. Again faith takes whole Christ and therefore Christ is the only King and Lord to faith 3. Again faith knows that the whole person is Christs purchase his blood hath bought us and so passed us into the entire dominion of Christ ye are bought with a price ye are not your own said the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Now then try your selves in this who is your Lord why brethren Thus it is faith gives the propriety and title and disposition of our hearts and wayes to Christ Obj. 'T is true before we were called to faith in Christ we were disobedient we served divers lusts we set up our sins and the world Sol. But now being made partakers of rich mercy and grace in Christ we shall surely rebel against other Lords but Christ that is against all other Lords whose commands are contrary to Jesus Christ Our hearts are his and our affections his and our strength his and our service and submission his Obj. I deny not but sinne will be stirring even in a beleeving heart it will be assaulting it will now and then usurp upon the soul and vex and captivate Sol. But the rebellion of a sinful nature is one thing and the dominion of it is another thing Sinne will stir as an enemy where Christ doth reign as a Lord But it is one thing for thee to be a combitant with sinne
another thing for thee to be a servant of sin Not who assaults me but whom I love and serve he is my Lord. When the heart goes off from Christ to the approbation and love and habitual obedience of sin now sin is thy Lord But if by faith thou hast sworne fealty to Christ then though all temptations begirt thee though the insolencies of corrupt nature break in upon thee to captivate or to alienate thy heart from service to Christ yet amidst all oppressions yea under all the knocks and buffettings and interruptions by sinne the heart cries out I acknowledge no Lord but Christ him I would obey him I honour I love his I am and I yet hate those sins which yet I cannot conquer SECT V. FOurthly a fourth tryal of true faith is this It makes the heart humble and lowly Every unbeleeving heart is proud and hath high imaginations and stands upon its own bottom It hath no sound experience either of God or of it self But true faith casts a man quite out of himselfe it sees no ground of confidence and excellency from any thing in our selves Faith hath a double aspect 1. One is upon us 2. Another A double aspect of faith is upon God and Christ When faith looks down upon us alas it findes no matter of boasting in the world for either it findes sinnes which should abase our hearts or else imperfections which should curb our pride or wants which should shew unto us our indigence and dependance The Evil which it findes may confound us and the good which it findes may make us ashamed not only because it is so short and defective in what we ought to have but also because we have not answered the giving of that good with just thanks or we have not improved that good to the advantage as we might have done When faith looks upward to God and Christ there it sees all the causes of all our mercy and of all our happinesse have we pardon of sinnes why saith Faith the cause of this is in Gods love Have we righteousnesse why saith Faith the cause of this is in Christs merits Have we any gifts any acceptance any remembrance from heaven why saith faith the cause of this is only in Christs blood All that I have is given me and the cause of all that giving is utterly out of my self so that the soul sits down now and sayes O Lord in my selfe I am nothing nay of my self worse then nothing but what I am I am that by thy grace All I have is thine my bread my health my life my body my soul all thine If any love if any mercy if any Christ if any grace if any comfort if any strength if any stedfastnesse if any performances if a good work if a good word if a good affection if a good thought why all is thine thou only art the cause I am lesse then the least of thy mercies and what is thy servant that thou shouldest look on such a one as I am Thou madest me and thou boughtest me and thou calledst me and thou justifiest me and thou savest me Though faith makes thy condition high yet it makes thy person low Thou shouldst by faith be not high minded but feare Rom. 11. 20. why not high minded because standing by faith Because this standing of faith is not of our selves but in God but in Christ Faith is the foot of the soul but heaven the grace of heaven the strength of heaven is the ground upon which the foot doth stand SECT VI. FIfthly true faith is fruitful James 2. 18. I will shew thee my faith by my works ver 21. Was not our father Abraham justified by works verse 22. seest thou how faith wrought by his works and by works was faith made perfect The Apostle in that Chapter speaks of a double faith A double faith One was a counterfeit faith a shadow as it were which had the looks but not the substance it was a dead faith which hath the limbs but not the soul and life But how did it appeare that this faith was dead did it not speak many good words yes saith Saint James It gave gâ—od words praeteria nihil no good works It could say to the poore be ye cloathed and be ye warme but gave nothing to cloath or to feed why saith he this mans faith is vaine â—hat is he hath not the true quality of faith and it will stand him in no stead Another was a lively and justifying faith It had in it the true nature and property of faith but how did that appear The Apostle answers by Works You know that there is a great difference 'twixt these two viz. the justifying of a mans person before God and the justifying of a mans faith before the world That which justifies my person before God is only faith in Jesus Christ and that which Justifies as one particular my faith before men not to be a dead but a living faith is the acting of good works Hence that of Paul Tit. 3 8. This is a faithful saying and those things I will that thou affirme constantly that they which have beleeved in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men Right is the speech of Saint Augustine sequuntur justificatum though non precedunt justificandum As in a clock the finger makes not the clock to Austin go but the clock it and yet the motion of the finger without shews whether the clock goes within So although works do not cause or infuse justifying faith nor yet cause our Justification yet they do cleerly manifest whether we have such a faith as doth indeed justifie or not Obj. You will say the work of Faith is to look up and to come and to deal with God only and therefore to breath out good works which respect men seems not to be any testimony of faith Sol. I answer 1. The Apostle there expressely distinguisheth the lively and the dead faith by works as if he said it is so 2. There is if you will let me distinguish so as it were a double act of faith One is proper and personal and this is circumscribed to that Heavenly employment of receiving or presenting in and through Christ Another is Grateful and this is extended to the sending forth of good works Not as if it were a work of superarogation for faith findes the doing of good works under many commands and also the rewards of them under many promises but because faith sees also a sweet and reasonable equity that if God be good to me in Christ I should be good to some for Christs sake And verily as the worklesse person doth not now own Christ by faith so hereafter Christ will not own him by mercy depart from me Obj. But yet you will reply good works cannot be a sure testimony of faith because many evil men may performe them and some beleevers have not wherewithal
to salvation 1. Not in a by way in a false way but in a true and direct way If God doth skill the way to heaven if he hath laid out to sinners the right way then believing is it Eph. 2. 8. By grace you are saved through faith Heb. 10. 39. We are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that beleeve to the saving of the soul 2. Not in an uncertaine but firme way It 's an infallible way of salvation Heaven is the assured mansion for thy soul if thy heart be the true lodging of saith 1 Pet. 1. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in beaven for you Object True that may not fade away but we may fall away that may remain but we maâ— be lost Sol. No saith the Apostle but as that is reserved for you so you shall be preserved unto that as mercy and truth will keep your portion sure so truth and power shall keep your persons sure Ver. 5. Who are kept bâ— the power of God through faith unto salvation therefore he addes a word more ver 9. Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls Now is not this a comfort to a man that he is in the true and sure way to heaven Every man is in a journey in a way wicked men have their wayes but the end of them is bitternesse and hell after all their jollities and pleasures yet their wayes are the pathes of death But the beleeving soul is in the way of life and therefore he is said already to have eternal life John 3. and to be saved O what is this I am going to my God to my Father to my inheritance SECT II. SEcondly here is another comfort to true beleevers there 2. Simile is a real and blessed exchange 'twixt them and Christ As upon the conjugal knot there is a mutual resultancy of communion The wife partakes of the estate of her husband and the husband interchangably of the estate of his wife for the personal union draws with it the real union If thou be mine thine estate is mine So is it in the spiritual espousing of the soul and Christ by faith Christ partakes of our estate and we shall partake of his estate He is ours and all his are ours we are his and therefore ours are his This exchange consists in these things 1. Christ doth take our sins and debts upon himself Look as the man who marries the woman if he take her person he must take her debts and satisfaction too So doth Christ when he takes us to be his he takes our sinnes also to be his How to be his not by way of infusion and infection as if our sinful qualities were transmitted from our persons into his nature O no he never takes upon him our sinnes to make his nature sinâ—uâ— â—ut by way of imputation and of satisfaction The guilt of our sinnes is imputed unto him as to a willing surety who doth present himself in our stead to make payment and satisfaction As Paul said to Philemon concerning his servant Onesimus If he hath wronged thee or oweth thee ought put that upon mine account So saith Christ to the penitent and beleeving Philem. 18. soul if thou hast any guilt and debt to be answered for unto God put them all upon my account if â—hou hast wronged my Father I will make the satisfaction to the utmost for I was made sinne for thee 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. I poured out my soul for thy transgression It cost me my heart blood to reconcile thee to my Father and to slay enmity And as Rebekah said to Jacob in another case upon me my sonne be the curse so saith Christ to the beleeving soul Why thy sinnes did expose thee unto the curse of the Law but I was made a curse for thee I did bear that burden my self upon the crosse and upon my shoulders were all thy griefs and sorrows borne I was wounded for thy transgressions and I was bruised for thy iniquities And therefore we are said to have redemption and remission of sins in his blood Eph. 1. 7. Now what a comfort is this to a Beleever that Christ hath eased him of his great debts that he hath laid down the price for him he is his surety and hath diâ—charged and hath cancelled the Law of Ordinances and hath blotted out the hand writing God was in Christ saith the Apostle reconciling the world to himself not imputing their sinne unto them mark it not imputing 2 Cor. 5. 19. their treâ—passes unto them what is the not imputing of sinne but the not charging of it the not reckoning for it And what is it which he saith unto them trespasses were not imputed unto them as if God should say let them go I have nothing to say unto them my Sonne hath satisfied my justice fully for them Now saith Paul out of David Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sinne Yea he is blessed Rom. 4. 8. indeed for if the Lord should single out the most able transgressour for the least moity and scruple of guilt and arreigne his conscience with a judicial and straight severity O how the sinews of the soul would flie assunder and eternal despaire of ever satisfying so great and pure and infinite a justice would swallow up the thought and imaginations Till a man knows where to lay down his sinful burden his soul will be miserably afflicted but now if a man beleeves in Jesus Christ Christ will take off his burdens I will answer for thee saith Christ I will satisfie for thee As David spake in another case when Goliah presented himself against the Host of Israel Let no mans heart faile because of him thy servant will go and fight with this Phylestian So saith Christ to the beleeving soul be not dejected do not despaire though thy sins 1 Sam. 17. 32. be many and great yet I have overcome them I have discharged them my Sacrifice was presented it was sufficient it was effectual it was accepted for thee Secondly Christ doth bestow his righteousnesse upon us This is a great comfort to a sensible and understanding soul that there is a righteousnesse for it which it may safely and confidently present unto Gods justice These things are most true First that we are by nature all of us wretched sinners the whole Rom. 3. 19. world is guilty before God Secondly Divine justice hath a quarrel against every guilty soul and will have compleat and full and perfect satisfaction Thirdly no not our best graces performances are commensurate and square payment in the eyes of pure justice all of them as inherent in us and acted by us are but imperfect excellencies No man hath so much holinesse as is required nor doth he so much as he is obliged Every particular grace though it be of an heavenly and divine original yet it
is none upon earth that I desire besides thee said Asaph Psalme 73. 25. I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord saith Paul again Phil. 3. 8. Lord let thy servant now depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation said Simeon Luke 2. 29 30. As when we come to heaven we shall be so heavenly that heaven alone will be enough to us and this shews perfection so whiles we live on earth if Christ alone be heaven and earth to us if he can fill our hearts and satisfie them O Lord Jesus thou art righteousnesse enough satisfaction enough wisdome enough peace and comfort and pleasure enough to my soul O this comes from great strength 8. The more that the body of sinne decayes in strength the lesser prevalency of it this shewes that faith is strong When sinne becomes more dead in its actions or more ineffectual in its temptations When a man can walk and not stumble and reele and fall he is now out-grown his former weaknesse It shews weaknesse when every stone makes thee apt to fall It is a signe the army is strong when the enemy many of them are slaine and the rest are easily discomfited Sinne is our enemy and Christ is our general and faith is our champion and the more that sinnes fall it is an argument that faith is become stronger The victorious faith is much more then the combating faith Sinnes go down by believing the more that any grace is in victory the more it is in strength Indeed it argues truth of faith to resist but to conquer sinnes this shewes strength to wrestle is something but to overthrow is more to oppose sin is not so much as to vanquish it 10. The more fruitful a Christian is in his graces and exercises of them the stronger is his faith You know that the extension of the branches ariseth from the intension of the sap if the branches grow big and yeild more fruit it is because the root is more full and filled Faith is well stiled the radical grace though the habits of other graces grow not out of it yet the measures and exercises do exceedingly depend upon it And according to the latitude of faith is the latitude of other graces as the dayes receive shortnesse or length from the Sunne A weak faith is attended but with a weak love and a weak patience and a weak hope and a weak joy But if the faith becomes strong now it is spring with our graces they revive and shoot out themselves there will be much love and much labour of love and strong hope and the better heart and life 11. The more able a person is to live upon Christ or Gods promises in the times of desertions and contrarieties the faith is certainly the greater The more use any can make of God or Christ at all his faith is greater for the more that any soule beleeves the more is his faith enabled thereby But then this is yet more strength even against hope to believe in hope to look up for that God that hides himself to venture on an angry God one who seemes to shut out our prayers one that speaks bitter things unto us like Levi not to observe our own children but to keep the Word and Covenant of God Deut. 33 9. 12. The more able the soul is to wait on God to pray and wait the stronger is the Faith A waiting faith meets with more difficulties and contrarieties and is upheld by the strength of a meer promise That man not only hath faith but lives by faith if he can wait Gods time c. 13. When you can glorifie many promises at once by beleeving yea when every promise can be trusted on upon gracious termes the more fully you can glorifie them by trusting for pardon of great sinnes subduing of strong corruptions deliverance out of great distresses the stronger is your faith The lesse difficulty you conceive in God to perform his Word when you can come for great matters with great confidence lesse doubts exceptions feare the lesse power discouragements have If you can beleeve against sense reason Though he kill me yet will I trust in him These are discoveries of faith in strength SECT IV. THe second part of the second general point at the instances of weak faith in truth Here are two things which I will touch One is some demonstrations that faith is weak Another is some directions of truth with that weaknesse Concerning the first observe these things Signes of a weak faith 1. The more that doubtings stagger the heart its is a sign that the faith is weak As the more smoak goes up with the fire it is an argument that the fire is little or as the more a person halts and reels in his motion it discovers the impotency of his strength and joynts You reade in Rom. 4. 20. That staggering at the promise by unbelief is opposed to a strong faith observe that word staggering It is such a temper of the soul wherein it doth suddenly and easily change its thoughts and acts As a man who is staggering his foot checks as it were it self and alters its pace and place so when a mans heart is giving on and then falling off may I take may I not I will lay hold I will not God will be good to me he will not I shall have mercy yet I shall not this is staggering The soul le ts go its hold doubtings prevaile against actual beleeving the beleeving soul sees strong arguments to draw it to fasten on Christ and on mercy and then it is putting forth the hand but then unbelief thrusts forth contrary arguments of suspition and feares so that the soul is in doubts may I indeed lay hold but will the Lord be merciful to me Why diddest thou doubt O thou of little faith said Christ to Peter and this stands with reason for the stronger that quality is which is contrary to faith the weaker is that faith which is contrary to that quality as the stronger sickness is the weaker health is c. 2. The more easily a man can suspect Gods favour and Christs love this is a sign that faith is weak See Psalme 77. 7 8 9. and then v. 10. They say of love that the more pure love hath least feare 1 John 4. 18 and multitude of jealousies is an argument of mixture in the affections So it is of faith the more stedfastly it can hold up the immutability of Gods love and kindnesse and his ancient grants of favour the stronger is the faith But the more apt it is to question the loving kindnesse which hath been ever of old now it is the weaker Luke 24. 21. We had trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel and besides all this to day is the third day There be two things which a weak faith is very apt to challenge One in God for kindnesse Another in
its own estate for soundnesse As Gideon said in another case If the Lord be with us why is all this evil befallen us so where the faith is weak the soul is often in suit with God yea but if God were my God had I an interest in Christ were my estate good could it be with me thus could it be thus within me thus without me thus upon me c. 3. The more quick and hastening that the soul is for answer and satisfactions the more impatient of Gods delayings this is a signe that it is now weak in faith For did it throughly beleeve it would not make haste were it perswaded fully of Gods goodnesse which makes the promise of his wisdom which will take the fittest time for the grant it would now quietly wait and expect But an over-hastening when the soul will scarce allow any time 'twixt the petition and the speeding of it but I must presently have it or else God is not my God or else my state is bad I say hasty eagernesse to be answered and quick conclusions from Gods silence do shew much weaknesse of faith in the soul There is an importunity which may come from faith and this is a holy pressing of a promise yet with submission and patience And there is an hastinesse which comes from feare As if God would not alwayes be in a good mind towards us as if the present testimonies must be the only arguments of his love and intentions These two things will usually meet in a man whose faith is weak One is he will be hasty to be answered Another is he will be faint if delayed 4. The more inclining the heart is to the life of sense the weaker is the faith like Thomas unlesse he seeth the print of the nails c. he will not beleeve John 20. 25. So unlesse Christians have promises budding they will hardly beleeve that there is fruit growing on them unlesse I feele the sensible favour of God I will not beleeve that he loves me unlesse I reade my pardon I will not beleeve mercy unlesse I discerne sensible meanes I will not beleeve helps unlesse I feele sin slaine in me I will not beleeve that God will subdue it All these in promises affect not and support not the heart It is a signe of a weak childe that must still be carried in the armes When a mans perswasions cannot be wrought by the naked word of promise without some sensible pledges and pawne he is very weak When he is puzling his heart in an endlesse maze of disorder viz. he would have the things of the promise and then beleeve the fidelity of the promise this argues weakness The abstractions of things from sense when God gathers up all a mans estate or any particular good only into his promise into his own hand and saith now canst thou beleeve that I will be good unto thee I promise thee to be thus and thus wilt thou now trust me wilt thou adventure thy soule now upon my word of pardon and mercy upon my word of graâ—e and help so to do would evidence much strength Now you may observe a manifest difference 'twixt strong and weak faith If strong faith seeth its estate in the promise it hath enough it goes away rejoycing if weak faith hath not some of the estate in its own hand as well as in Gods hand it is troubled and afraid 5. The more hardly a beleever comes to be perswaded and assured of Gods undertakings in Covenant his faith is weak When one word of God is not enough but God must say it once and twice and yet againe more clearly As Gideon would have one signe the fleece must be wet and the earth dry and then another signe the fleece must be dry and dew lie upon all the earth Judges 6. 37 39. This shewed weaknesse in his faith so doth it in a Christian when not one or two promises and scarce all of them with all the arguments in God and in Christ can perswade him that God will be merciful to him or that Christ belongs to him 6. The more easie the soule is to let go that assurance the weaker is faith in it when a soul is like a weak hand clasping a staff and the staffe is easily wristed out so the soul le ts go that promise which did revive it and that Christ which seemed to embrace it this argues weaknesse as in Peter when he beleeved that it was Christ on the sea upon Christs Word he ventures out but when the waves met him he begins to sink his faith was weak Why didst thou doubt O thou of little faith said Christ to him Though Christs Word drew him out of the ship yet it did not hold him up all alone And the Disciples We trusted it had been he who should have redeemed Israel So when a temptation comes upon a soul and the soul is ready to be led by it to credit it against Gods promise and Gods testimony in the conscience this aptnesse to let go our hold argues much feare and much feare argues weak faith 7. The more apt the soul is to insist on personal and inherent qualities and abilities as media fiduciae meanes of perswasion this shews that the faith is weak when something in us makes us the more confident as when it is unapt to beleeve unlesse it can discerne such an inherent strength of graces to mourne and to pray or to keep down sinne or keep off temptation Object It is true these abilities are testimonies but yet they are not Media Sol. They are evidences of a solid faith but they are not meanes or causes of beleeving The means or causes are Gods promises which ought alone to be our foundations and encouragements Now when a person is unapt to beleeve that God will do these things for him unlesse these things be done this is weaknesse Good things when they are done they are matters of thankfulnesse and when they are promised they are matters of faith They say in Logick that demonstratio à posteriori is the weaker demonstration that à priori is much stronger for this depends on the cause and that on the effect So is it in beleeving A beleeving à priori from the perswasion of what God saith from his goodnesse and truth is more strong then a beleeving à posteriori that is from a fruition or apprehension of what God doth 8. The more dull and uncheerful the heart is this shews the faith to be weak A sad Spirit and a weak faith usually are companions for a strong faith breeds much peace in the conscience Rom. 5. 1 2. and rejoycing 1 Pet. 1. 8. In whom though now ye see him not yet beleeving ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory such a faith as this hath got to much assurance but uncheerfulnesse of heart argues either as yet the want of all assurance or assurance very weak 9. The more anxious and careful the soule is
it is a signe of a weak faith What shall we eate and what shall we drink and what shall we put on This our Saviour saith in Matthew 6. shewes little faith For the lesser the things are for which we are to trust the more weaknesse is there if we do distrust especially where the helper is sufficient and willing and hath past his promise Now God is willing to do for Beleevers more then all the earth is worth and hath done greater matters for them And therfore a suspition of him for small matters shews but a small perswasion 10. The more apt the heart is to be offended at the estate of Christ it is a signe that faith is weak This is evident in the Disciples who being weak in faith Christ was forced to keep many things in because they were not able to bear them and when he spake of his sufferings and departing from them they were much amazed and troubled SECT V. THus for the discoveries of faith in weaknesse Now follow the demonstrations of the truth in faith though weak The truth of faith hath a great latitude it is not confined to such an height to such a point of eminency as some conceive Look as heat hath severall degrees and as health hath many species and as life hath many steps within which the true nature of them may be seated so is it with faith the true nature of it may be in a great measure and yet in a lesser measure and though weak faith be not strong yet it is faith weaknesse is not like death which is opposed to life but like infirmity which is opposed to strength Strong faith is weak faith more perfected and weak faith is strong faith in disposition in tendancy it is within the compasse Negation is one thing imperfection is another thing no faith is quite opposite to faith but weak faith if it be opposed to strength yet it is not opposed to truth Now the truth of weak faith may appeare in these 5. Demonstrations of the truth of weak faith things First though weak faith be not sure that Christ is its Saviour yet weak faith will honour Christ as its Lord though it cannot see Christ bestowing it self on the soul yet it will make the soul to resigne up it self to Christ Though it cannot finde comfort yet it will oppose sin though it cannot comprehend Christ yet it would not willingly offend Christ Faith in strength can put out it selfe in perswasion I know that my redeemer liveth Job 19. Yet faith in weaknesse as was that of Thomas can put forth it self in subjection My Lord and My God I will have no Lord but Christ Io. 20. The vitall act of faith is not reflexive but direct It is not this Christ is mine but this I receive and embrace Christ now the weak faith cannot setle its title to Christ so as strong faith can do yet it can vindicate the title that Christ hath to the soul though it cannot see its own propriety in Christ yet it can maintaine Christs propriety to it it doth acknowledge it doth yield unto no Law or power or right over the soul but Christs it looks on sinne as an enemy though it cannot see Christ as a friend 2. What weak faith doth want in the breadth of perswasion that it makes up in the depth of humility A weak believer though he cannot see himself great in Gods eyes yet he doth appeare low in his own eyes it will not quarrell with God because he opens himself no more but abaseth it-self because it is most unworthy of the least of truth and goodnesse There be two things which all true faith will work One is to value Christ Another is to under value our selves It can put glory on Christ and take shame to it selfe He is the sweetest Saviour and I am the greatest sinner Faith usually acts in one of these either in receiving or in abasing For either it makes the soul to see its happinesse in Christ which breeds joyfulnesse or to see its own unworthy vilenesse because of sin and so it causeth lowlinesse of spirit Strong faith like John can be in Christs bosome but weak faith like Peter will fall down at Christs feet strong faith may be seen by the eye and weak faith by the knee that stands up and blessed God for Christ this falls down and begs of God for Christ And this not for my sake O Lord for to me belongs nothing but shame and confusion but for thy goodnesse sake O Lord for to thee belong mercies and forgivenesses 3. Weak faith though it hath but tender confidences of its interest in Christ yet it hath strong dislikes and combates with that unbelief which hinders his perswasion Though weak faith cannot see Christ as its ease c. yet it can feel unbelief as its burden and trouble There are two things if I mistake not which accompanie all true faith and the weakest One is to magnifie the state in Christ Another is to dislike the state out of Christ O happy is that man who can comprehend as he is comprehended saith weak faith and what shall I do with this unbelieving heart this doubting suspecting fearful heart shall I alwaies question shall I alwaies find these disputings carnal reasonings reelings staggerings Lord help this unbelief Lord perswade this heart of mine cause it to trust in thy salvation in Christ say unto my soul that thou art my salvation The weak beleever hath many prayers in his heart many tears in his eyes and many conflicts in his minde he believes and doubts he prayes and doubteth he mornes and doubteth yet though he doubts he will believe and though he doubts he will pray and because he still doubts he will therefore still morne He looks often towards Christ O that I could believe he looks often on his own heart why wilt thou not yet believe he looks up to God O make me to believe sometimes he spends his time in prayer for more faith somtimes in dispute with his weak faith one maine difference 'twixt him and the strong believer is this that the strong believer hath got into Christs armes and this weak beleever is fighting for the way unto him Weakfaith will not rest in weaknesse if truth be in it In a weak child well and living there are two qualifications of life one is this that it is Active another is this that it is Progressive it will be doing and it will be encreasing So it is with al true faith though weak it is a drawing of the soul unto Christ yea it is a drawing of something more from Christ unto the soul what hinders it that grieves it and what it wants after that it longs and craves No grace is right which is idle or labours not to exceed it self Lord help my unbelief said that weak believer O Luke 9. Lord encrease our faith said they of little faith The weak criple he would be lying
satisfaction or else concluding no interest in his favour and gracious intentions besides forgetting usually the mediation and intercession of Christ in whom alone the soule and petitions are worthy 4. The weak believer hath not that succesfulnesse in communion with God as the strong believer hath For all doubtings do prejudice our suits There is not a more sure and compendious way to non-suit our suits then by delivering them out of an unbelieving heart No faith may be sure of denial and he who delivers up his requests to God with an hand and an hand with an hand of faith and a hand of doubting either he hath a longer or else a shorteranswer According to thy faith be it unto thee said Christ strong faith brings God much glory and doth fetch in much good to the soul but the lesser faith the lesser good as according to the largenesse of the vessel or strength of the hand c. The higher the Sun is the more light is in the Horizon so the greater the faith is in our requests the sooner and the larger shall be our promised answers You remember what Elisha said unto Joash King of Israel take the arrowes and he took them and he said smite upon the ground and he smote thrice and stayed And the man of God was wrath with him and said thou shouldst have smitten five or six times then hadst 1 King 13. 18 19. thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice Prayer is the arrow of the soul it is the swift messenger sent up to heaven and faith is the hand which dispatcheth it now according to the strength of faith is the greatnesse of prayer in successe Thou didst pray though with much weaknesse of faith and hast got a little comfort why didst thou not smite the ground six times why didst thou not double thy strength in believing thou shouldst then have had comfort like a river whereas now thou hast only the smaller drops Thou hast prayed though with much weaknesse of faith and hast got a little power over thy sinful and rebellious heart why didst not thou smite the ground six times why didst thou not abound in more believing for then thou shouldst have had a fuller victory over thy corrupt lusts and inclinations Herein hath strong faith the preeminence of weak that the one hath not that full speed at heaven as the other not that God will not answer the faith that is weak but that its answers are not so full because it is accompanied with doubtings This we finde experimentally that our helpes much of them yet stick behinde in heaven and our corruptions much of them yet insult below in our hearts not that we do not hate them not that we do not pray against them but because our faith is new or weak we rather think that God will not help then that he will indeed answer or do us good 5. The weak believer is more under the power of the creature then the strong My meaning is this that his heart is more apt to sink and faile and perplex and disquiet him in the changes of outward things a crosse cannot come but he startles and if the affliction be close he can hardly hold up if he hath not some friends to smooth and cherish him some calme estate to maintaine and uphold him If the tyde comes not in if the winde doth not blow if the fig-tree doth not blossome if God puts him upon an unusual way if he toucheth him in his Name ease advantage any neer outward support if the crosse be long now I am cast off I shall perish what shall I eate what shall I drink what shall I put on we and ours are undone there 's none cares for my body as David spake for his soule The heart gathers into many agonies many prognostications many challenges of God many impatient vexations perhaps murmurings repinings and discontents and distempers yea and hath sometimes vile and inglorious thoughts of the fruitlesseness of serving God c. I think there is scarce any one of these which the weak believer doth not sensibly feel in the times of his straits and exigences which may exceedingly humble and abase his soul therefore But the strong beleever is a better Sea-man his soul is more quiet in the absence because more loosened by faith in the presence of the creature In a faire day God was much better though others break with joy in the fruition of wine and oyle yet Lord saith David lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me As if he should say I prize and joy in that more then in any thing else In a Fast day God is enough Psal 23. 1. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want Verse 4. Though I walk through the valley of the shaddow of death I will feare none evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Verse 6. Surely goodnesse and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life So Psalm 93. 3. The floods have lifted up O Lord the floods have lifted up their voice the floods lift up their waves Psalm 93. 4. The Lord on high is mightier then the noise of many waters yea then the mighty waves of the Sea So Psalme 118. 6. The Lord is on my side I will not fear what man can do unto me Ver. 10. Aâ—l Nations compassed me about but in the Name of the Lord will I destroy them Ver. 11. They compassed me about yea they compassed me about but c. Ver. 12. They compassed me about like Bees they are quenched as the fire of thornes for in the Name of the Lord c. So Psal 48. 14. This God is our God for ever and e-ever he will be our guide even unto death Sin is a greater trouble and the world is a greater burden to the weak then to the strong believer 6. The weak beleever cannot bring God so much glory as the strong beleever God hath Glory from us many wayes Glory to God three wayes By acquitting his fidelity and truth and power and other attributes Rom. 4. 20. By a bearing and fruitful heart and life John 15. 8. By thankful praises and acknowledgements Psal 50. 23. Now the weak believer he doth not acquit God so in his Attributes It is often with him Will the Lord cast off for ever will he be gracious or will he be favourable no more or if thou wilt thou canst do this for me It doth not so clearly justifie God in the greatnesse of his power in the readinesse of his mercy in the immutability of his truth He is not so fruitful for where the root is weak there the branches are not so strong or full the fruitfulnesse of the heart consists in the rich increase of all graces and in the enlarged heavenlinesse of the affections and the fruitfulnesse of the life depends upon the inward inriching of the heart as the
a right answer of great means To whom much is given of them much is required Pharaohs leane kine are called ill-favoured because in a great and large pasture All is not right when the breasts are full and the child is still weak The Gospel should be revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1. 3. The greater faith is the greater perfection every degree of farther grace is like a star of greater magnitude which differ in glory from another an addition of faith to faith is an adding to the treasury an enriching of the soul a farther clarifying of it The lesse of grace the more of corruption and the more of corruption the more of imperfection 4. The greater faith the greater comfort the Minde will have fewer doubts Will hath fewer fears Conscience more settledness the soul more sights of God and tastes of Christ Experiences in life and confidence in death 5. The greater faith will be the greater help in times of desertion in times of tryal in times of temptation in times of affliction and greater help to all active duty and passive changes Thou knowest not what may befall thee in evil times then thou wouldest be able to commit to submit to conquer to suffer to do much better if thy faith were much greater CHAP. XVI Exhortations to labour for saving faith IF to beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ be the way to be saved Then be exhorted to labour Vse 4 for and to get this saving faith Let not the consolations of God seeme small unto thee said he to Job so say I let not the salvation of thy soul seem a light thing unto thee If a man were wounded deeply and there were but one plaister which could cure and this were presented unto him would he not put out his hand to receive and apply it the love of life would easily incline him Why brethren not a man of us but hath a deadly wound by sinne and there is no remedy for the sinful soul but in the blood of Christ O if the love of life will constraine us much let the love of eternal life the love of our souls of our salvation perswade us much more to get faith which gets Christ who gets salvation for our souls There are divers things which I will touch upon in the finishing 4. Branches of this Use viz 1. The Motives to perswade and draw the heart to put out for this saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ 2. The impediments and hindrances which stop the soul from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ which we must assay to answer and remove as he did the body of Asabel which stayed the people in their pursuit 3. The means or adjuments and furtherances to breed this believing quality in the souf 4. The resolutions or answerings of several doubtful grounds and arguments which intangle the heart of a sensible sinner and which he holds out as strong pretences why he should not by faith close with Jesus Christ Now that great and holy God who is the Author of faith and finisher thereof whose word is the word of faith and by whose Almighty working the hearts of men are perswaded to believe let him so direct me in speaking and all of us in hearing that after all his gracious and manifold revelations and offers of our Lord Jesus Christ our unbeleeving hearts may be subdued and true faith may be wrought in us all to receive the Lord Jesus Christ to our eternal salvation SECT I. First the Motives I speak this day to an understanding and sensible people to whom the doctrinal parts of our natural misery and of our purchased felicity are not hidden mysteries and therefore I trust that the succeeding arguments and motives shall finde little stop in your understandings but shall the more easily and powerfully passe down into your hearts and affections to perswade and excite you to lay out all your strength and that speedily to get this faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Thus then First sadly and seriously consider the state of Positive infidelity A twofold indelity Divines observe a twofold infidelity One is Negative which is amongst the Heathens to whom Christ is not revealed and therefore they do not believe it consists both in the absence of the quality of faith as also in the object and doctrine of faith This Sunne of the Gospel hath not risen unto them and therefore they sit still in the regions of darknesse and for ought we know in the valley of death Another is Positive which is incident unto us Christians to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed Christ is manifested as the body of the Sun by the beams of light so he by the brightnesse and evidence of the Gospel and yet the soule knows him not receives him not doth not take him both as Lord and Saviour Of this there are several degrees and all of them fearfully dangerous to speak the truth plainly damnable 1. A carelesse neglecting of the Lord of life a not minding of that singular mercy and goodnesse which God hath treasured in Christ and reveales and offers to sinful men 2. A slighting of him and his excellencies which is a preferring as it were Barrabas before him a bestowing of our hearts and studies and labours and delights and services not on him but either on our sinnes or upon the world in the rivers of its pleasures and in the mountaines of its profits 3. A refusing of his Articles and Covenants which is a breaking off and vile disliking of those tearms upon which he offers himself to be ours we would bring him to termes of competition with sinne or the creature we would abridge his holy and Lordly Scepter like what we please do what we list have him to be our Saviour and sinne to be our Ruler we would bestow our safeties on him and our services upon the world we will not freely and fully consent to all that he is nor submit to all that he proposeth or may befall us with him and for him And so like the vaine Merchant we misse the pearle because we will not go to the price We enjoy our selves still and our sinnes and our world too but we forsake our mercies for lying vanities the soul is Christlesse still because thus sordidly unbeleeving 1. But then know of all estates in the world none so fearful so damnable as the unbeleeving estate A man may lose every farthing of his inheritance and yet faith will bring him to heaven he may lose every friend that he hath and yet faith may bring him to heaven He may lose every spirit in his members and every drop of blood in his body and yet faith may bring him to heaven He may be as poor as Job as distressed as David as sick as Lazarus as forsaken as Paul as derided as Christ and yet faith may bring his soul to heaven But if a man had as much wisdome as Solomon greatnesse as Nebuchadnezzar strength as
thou not heard of that accursed and despitfull death which I was put to numbred with transgressors cast out of the City nailed to the crosse pierced through the heart and yet my love to thy soul made me to poure out my soul an offering for thy sins Why and shall I veile my glory under the condition of a servant in vaine shall I combate and conquer Satan in vaine shall I beare the scorne of men the wrath of God the terrors of death the curse of the Law in vaine was not all this for thee shouldst not thou have susteined all this if I had not and must thou not if thou refusest him who hath done it and yet wilt thou prefer thy sins before me yet wilt thou not accept of me yet wilt thou not get faith to receive me have I sought thee freely bought thee so dearly and thou neglect and refuse me so easily Thirdly consider thou hast extreame need of a Lord Jesus 3. Motives Christ Excellency prevailes much with an ingenious nature and necessity with the worst when the Lepers saw that they must either venture their lives or die they would out into the Camp when the Prodigal saw he must famish abroad or repaire home he would then back to his fathers house Why Brethren the Captive doth not more need a Redeemer and the sick doth not more need a Physician then the sinner doth need a Christ and a Saviour Were we in Adams created innocency then we need not to look after a Saviour but we are fallen but we are broken but we are sold under sin but we are transgressors from the womb but we are by nature the children of disobedience and wrath Had we any stock left in our hands to set up our broken souls againe had we any strength to repaire our losse to recover our good to purchase our own peace and salvation but we are dead in trespasses Eph. 2. 1. we all fall short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 23. we are all without strength Rom. 5. 6. Could any thing be a Plank to the Shipwrack but Christ or an hand to lay hold on the rock but faith then we needed not to give such diligence for faith to believe but there is no salvation in any other name and there is no quality but faith to get us into Christ It is not the confidence which thou mayest put upon the faith of another which will do it as every mans soul is for his own body so every mans faith is for his own soul the wise virgins had no more oile then would serve their own Lamps and no mans faith is more then enough for himself Though Christ can save many yet faith saves him only who hath it It is not the confidence of a naked decree which will do it if God hath decreed to save me I shall be saved O no his decrees are his own secret wayes and the way which he hath opened to us is to get faith and to believe in his Son It is not an empty profession nor the worthlesse accesse of all the creatures that can ensure or save thy soul Only Christ none but Christ thou art wounded and Christ is thy plaister thou art dead and Christ is thy life thou art sold and Christ is thy ransome thou art an enemy and Christ is thy peace The debts are infinite the curse great the justice of God pure thy strength nothing and nothing satisfies and delivers but Christ and none hath Christ but the believer why then wilt thou not labor for faith Fourthly consider Christ is every way fitted to thy need 4. Motive Why Brethren gold will ransome a debtor to man it will not ransome a sinner from the Law an offender against God Why look upon your need aright and then judge who but Christ for a sinner There is guilt much guilt lying upon thy soul and who is the Priest to suffer to offer to satisfie to take away transgressions but Christ None can blot out the guilt of sin for us but he who had not a spot of sin in himself There is filth much filth defiling our natures poysoning our actions and who is the Prophet to enlighten to teach to change to cleanse from sinfulnesse but Christ None can teach us holinesse and obedience but he who was Holy undefiled separated from sinners and was obedient to the death There is dominion much dominion of sin prescribing a Law to our members sending out all insolent inclinations holding us in a willing subjection to every base lust and who is the King to conquer the heart to subdue iniquities to lead captivity captive to spoile principalities and powers to bid the captive go free to erect a thorne of righteousnesse and peace in the soul but Christ So that the wise love of God hath prepared and fitted Christ in all respects sutable to the exigencies and straits of a sinful soul and hath appointed faith to be that which shall put on this Christ upon the needy soul why then will we not labour for faith Fifthly God hath not only fitted a Saviour for thee but he 5. 〈◊〉 comes neer unto thee with him he deales mightily with thy soul â—o beleeve on him Thou hast the word of revelation to this very day wherein the mystery of thy salvation is made known and cleare unto thâ—e Thou needest not to say in thine heart Who shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deeps to bring up Christ againe from the dead But the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach That if thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 6. 7 8 9. Thou hast the word of gracious proposition God hath offered Christ with all his plentiful redemption with his strong salvation unto thee yea he hath assured thee by his Word of John 3. truth which cannot lie nor deceive that if thou believest on him thou shalt be saved by him Thou hast the word of injunction which layes a bond of duty upon thee This is his Commandment that we beleeve on the Name John 3. 23. of his Son Jesus Christ Nay thou hast the word of penalty and correction God hath said that he will judge thee for not believing and that in the sharpest method of expression He that believes not shall be damned Nay thou hast the word of obsecration and gentle intreaty God stoops infinitely below himself he doth streine curtesie with thee God doth beseech you by us and we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God Nay thou hast the word of expostulation why will you not beleeve why will ye die in your sins why will ye not come to me that you may be saved How often would I have gathered thee All the day long
resting upon thy selfe and are thy works such absolute bottomes and foundations when the Heathens can match them and exceed them or cannot God espy a flaw in thy Ship and much false conveyance in thy title and much defect in thy deeds who can charge folly upon the Angels And are thy meanings and works so good while thy heart is yet so ignorant thy life yet so prophane Can what thou doest finde acceptance or merit when yet thou trustest not on him who only is the merit for a sinner Thinkest thou thy meanings can be good which dishonour the Redemption by Christ and the freenesse of mercy O no my brethren the soul is the passenger graces are the sailes the Spirit is the wind but Christ only Christ is the bottom which carries all safe and sure to heaven Nay if thou canst see a Saviour in thy own good meanings if a Saviour in thy own good works a Saviour in any part or degree of inherent righteousnesse either inward for the change of nature or outward for the emprovement of life this this will keep thee and Christ asunder No man will labour for faith in Christ who hath a faith in himselfe already as his own Saviour Therefore as they in the Acts of the Apostles burned their books when they came to believe in Chhist so must we unbottom our selves of our selves Renounce our menstrous rags abhor our selves in dust and ashes lay flat before the mercy-seat cry out with the Leper I am uncleane unclean with Daniel To us belongs nothing but confusion for we have sinned with David enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no flesh righteous be justified with the Publican stand afar off and say Lord be merciful to me a sinner with Paul I count all things but as dung and drosse in comparison of Christ and I desire to be foundin him not having my own righteousnesse but that which is of faith with those Elders cast if we had them our very crowns to the earth before the Lamb and say he only is worthy If ever thou wouldest get to believe in Christ labour to get Do not stand in thy own light the mountaines to be levelled the high imaginations to be cast down to cast thy self out of thy self There is nothing that I have been or have done or do or can do which I can trust to I seek for the living among the dead whiles I look for a Saviour in my self He is farre enough from safety who rests on the arme of his flesh and we shall never close with or magnifie Christs righteousnesse until we can in matter of merit or justification deny our own 4. A fourth impediment to beleeving is the league of the heart with sinne Light is come into the world but men love darknesse rather then light John 3. 19. Sinne absolutely doth not prejudice the contract of the soule with Christ for Christ doth not negotiate for any soul but the sinful soul He doth not come to a person and say if thou hast no sinne I will bestow my self on thee or if thou hast not committed sinne I will be a redeemer a Saviour unto thee O no the offer of Christ is only to the sinner and it is none but the sinner who is to beleeve in Christ But that which hinders the contract ' twixtt men and Christ it is the love of sin Christ comes in the Ministry of the Gospel unto us and reports unto us our own exceeding sinfulnesse and then his exceeding graciousnesse and invites the soul by many sweet and tender arguments to accept of him to be Lord and Christ and assures it of pardon and righteousnesse and salvation Now saith Christ that which I require of you is this leave but your sinnes your sinnes which will damne you and I will be yours Why saith the soul this is but reason and I will hearken to it well then saith Christ go and quit such a lust thy uncleannesse or thy Sabbath breaking or thy drunkennesse or thy lewd society c. Why now the base and foolish heart falls off I cannot live without my nature I must and will be allowed in such a course The heart riseth up O Benjamine shall not go nay any thing but this lust I will never be divorced from it if I may have Christ and this sinne too well and good Thus the love of sinne steâ—les awâ—â— the heart it bestows the heart else where nay it infâ—ames an opposition against the Lordly power of Christ the soul will never yeild to the dominion of Christ which delights in tâ—e 〈◊〉 to sin Brâ—thren if we could bâ—â— rip up the secrets of mens hearts unto you you should 〈◊〉 discâ—â—â—â—e that it is the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 or 〈…〉 all 〈◊〉 oft-times can mâ—ke no exception aâ—ainst Christ they 〈…〉 to come in 〈…〉 know they 〈…〉 be saved without him but 〈…〉 will not 〈…〉 sinnes it â—uâ—s their soules to think of such a divorce come on it what will thâ—y will take their pleasure and hold faâ—t their wickednesse 5. A fifth impediment is the world The honours of it how can you believe who receive honour 〈…〉 â—nother and 〈◊〉 not the honour that 〈…〉 â—od only John 5. â—â— The profâ—â— of it He went away sorrowâ—ul for he had great possessioâ—s Mâ—t. 19. 22. The Examples of it Have any of the 〈◊〉 or of the Pharisâ—es beleeved on him John 7 48. The teâ—rors of it the feâ—â—e of the Jews kept off many from coming to Christ The losses of it and crosses He that will be my Disciple muâ—â— deny himself and take up his crosse and follow me The cares and thoughts of it when a man mindes earthly things and will be rich and devours all his prerious thoughts to compasse that which will be but a fether a thorne vanity or vexation Presse men to lâ—bour for Christ why we have no leasure presse to frequent the wayes of getting faith why lwe must not neglect our callings Urge them to embrace Christ as Lord to shape and fashion their hearts and ways according to his rules after his righteous Laws and to deny themselves in some sinful compliances O then we shall not be esteemed of we shall be derided and scoffed at as vaine and singular O these sensible things which we can see with our eyes and grasp with our hands they put us off from the great moments of our best and eternal good And what are the honours of this world but as the shade of the Sunne which every discontented cloud and frown removes and what are the profits of it but heapes of chaff which any windeâ— from heaven may scatter and what are the friends of it but a gourd which any worme may gnaw out and shrivel And why doest thou fear man whose utmost power exceeds not thy body and fearest not that God whose vengeance can seaze on thy soul and why wilt thou bestow the strength of thy time to get no more
then nothing and in the mean time to lose eternity a soul a Christ a heaven yet thus it is the poor creatures at the best but our servants have goâ— our hearts whiles Christ complaines against us we withhold our souls from him our just Lord and best Master But if there were not more glory in Christ then honour in the world if there were not more gaine in Christ then profit in the world if there were not more love in Christ then friendship in the world if there were not more comfort in Christ then discouragements in the world if there were not more safeâ—ies in Christ then dangers in the world nay if the real and â—rue exceedings of infinite betternesse were not on Christs part iâ— durst not so to encline your hearts for saith in him c. Sixthly the cunnings of naâ—ural unbâ—l of are a great impedimâ—nt I will not speak of al of them only I wil discover a few all which are hindrances Imaginations of impossibiâ—iâ—y it cannot be that if I should labor for faith that ever I should get it the intentions of mercy lie not that way nor do the streames of graâ—iousness â—un towards such a deeply sinful and guilty soul my sins are grown to such a vastnesse of provocation as if all the Angels in heaven should be senâ— unto me I could never credit their relation of hope or peâ—câ— unto me Now when the heart is thus forestalled with a strength of conceit that God never did nor wilâ— bend the â—uâ—ement of the blood of Christ towards the soul Why the bands sink no man will be perswaded to compasse impossibilities Apprehensions of difficulty Vnbelief sets upâ—â— Lyon in every paâ—â— and so keeps off from all endeavour First I shall never be able to pare time I shall never be able to pray I shall never be able to keep on in such a course I shall never be able to leave such society I shall never be able to deny the world I cannot take such paines I cannot waite I cannot tell how to get off these sinnes to change this heart to bring it to yield to Christ Discourse of carnall reasonings which try all the promises of God at a humane bar disputings against just precepts by unjust practices and the undertakings of a great and faithful God by the shallownesse of a blind and proud and weak understanding throwing up infinite exceptions Instances of sense and feeling Why if a man will judge of God by what he alwaies hears and feels within himself he shall never believe Yea if I were now sure I should have mercy that Christ were mine that my sins were pardoned if I could see my heart changed and sins dispersed and subdued then I would put out for faith and then I would look up to Christ And wouldst thou have thy cure before thy plaister thy health before the Physick thy life before thy soul the portion before the person thy nonefast before thy meal the benefits of Christ the vertues of Christ before Christ himself SECT III. Thirdly the Meanes NOW I come to direct you unto the use of such meanes by which God workes this saving faith in the hearts of men Where premise with me some particulars 1. There is no natural power in man to produce a cause within himself This great grace of faith is no fruit of the wisdome of the flesh nor is it the birth of a corrupt will if it were possible for a natural heart to see all the excellencies of Christ if it were possible for him to draw out and behold all the arguments of Scripture yet could he not by his own strength make his own heart to believe 2. The immediate and sole cause of faith is the Spirit of God He it is who is greater then the heart and who can perswade and draw the heart and who can change and renew the spirit which till it be renewed by him will never be moved to beleeve in Christ 3. There are meanes appointed by God and which God doth ordinarily blesse for the production of faith as he hath ordained meanes for the revelation of Christ so he hath likewise consecrated meanes to lead the soul unto him to implant faith 4. Now the great and ordinary meanes by which God workes faith in the hearts of men I speak of such as are come to ripenesse of years is the preaching of the Word So Acts 13. 48. When the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord and as many as were ordeined to eternal life believed Rom. 10. 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Eph. 1. 13. In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the Word of truth the Gospel of your salvation That the Word is the Ministerial instrument which God useth to beget faith in Christ may thus appeare 1. It is that which discovers unto the soul its extreame misery and great need of Christ nothing quickens the conscience to that reflexive evidence to the cleare and true sight of the natural state which pricks the soul which in a sort compels the soul to look after the Redeemer of the world as the Word doth You see it hath been thus formerly that when men have heard it it hath unfolded their state unto them it hath broken all their proud imaginations it hath driven them to their feet it hath made them to cry out men and brethren what shall we do to be saved Yea and we find it in experience to be so that the preaching of the Word it opens the eyes of sinners it frames in them the sense of sinfulnesse and accursednesse it makes them indeed to feel the need of a Physician of such an one as Christ 2. It is that which discovers a share for a broken ship which doth reveale and proclaime to poor sinners Articles of peace in Christ it makes known the great love of God and Christ and how that Christ is the Sonne of God and was sent by God and satisfied for sinners and this was accepted 3. It makes the soul to confesse those things as most true and good in themselves It convinceth a man that of a truth God meanes graciously to men that his Sonne was a Sacrifice was a propitiation that he did purchase pardon and salvation for sinners 4. It is that which casteth down all the reasonings arguments and dâ—sputes of the minde against the conditions of Christ and râ—nders all the termâ—s of Christ upon which he will be taken as most equal and faire and reasonable 5. It is that which clears the way for the soul against all its feares and unbeleeving doubts from the freenesse of Gods mercy from the fulnesse of Christs redemption from the willingnesse on Christs part and requests unto us to accept of him 6. It is that which doth powerfully renew the disposition of the understanding and will and so incline them to esteeme of Christ as the highest truth and to bend after him as
the very behaviour of the father of the Prodigal brake the heart of him with more thawings and kindly mournings then ever did his former misery and hardship O this that though he was an ungracious spend-thrift a stubborne childe a lewd companion Luke 15. yet his father should run to meet him that he should fall upon his neck and kisse him the kindnesse of those lips wounded his heart with the deeper sense and judging of his own unkindnesse So when a sinner shall by faith see Christ steping forward in the Gospel puting forth the hand to him calling him come thou hast done evil as thou canst hast wronged my father me my spirit my servants thy selfe I will get thee pardon for all feare not nor be dismayed I will will take upon me the discharge I will be thine my blood thine my righteousnesse thine O this melts the heart thou canst not take Christ but thy heart will break nor read thy pardon but thine eyes will melt what for me Lord yea for thee what after such deep rebellions yea after all and that most freely and willingly Good Lord how the soul weeps now c. Secondly faith sees sin in the greatest vilenesse It is one thing to see sin Hell-gates and another thing to see sin if I may so allude at Heaven-gates there I see it in its reward which causeth feare here I see it in its proper nature which causeth hatred when I can see sin as the wrong of a righteous and holy will as a rebellion against a holy and just Law as a provocation of a great and holy God as the speare thrusting through the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ as the basest quality and vilest abuse and indignity to love and mercy and blood now now I begin to melt to grieve a God is wronged a Father is wronged a Saviour is wronged 3. Faith melts the promises and the promises melt the heart Why brethren our soft and mourning hearts are not first in us and then in the promises but first in them and from them they come down into us The heart of flesh is first in that promise Ezek. 36. I will take away the heart of stone and give you an heart of flesh and thence it comes to the person for to fashion and mollifie his heart But what draws the promises Is it not faith It is the only hand which reacheth out unto them and receives them whence it doth fully follow that beleeving will be no prejudice but a great furtherance to thy mournful humblings and softnings Obj. I grant it when a man can indeed beleeve this beleeving will much abate and perhaps remove the actuals of an horrible stumbling that is a man shall not now feel such a desperate terrifying bitter hopelesse anguish as before but yet it doth open a full veine within the soul which drops with vitall sorrows with gracious lamentings with hearty displeasures with hopeful tears and though under them the soul is not so hurried yet it weeps bitterly as the wife which holds the lately reconciled husband by the hand or as the child which is newly pardoned and embraced This is a truth that faith can heale the teares of a slave and breed the tears of a childe It can rebuke the ragings of the sea and yet continue its flowing courses It can still a raging conscience and yet beget a streame of godly sorrow it can both quiet a troubled spirit and raise within us a soft and mourning heart Yea to speak plainly a man never till then begins to mourn as a childe till he hath faith to see God as a father and the gracious looks of Christ which only faith espies they upbraid our sinnings more and no such springs of grief as they 6. Obj. But I have stood out my day and have refused many invitations and offers as now I may not beleeve I am sure that Christ will never regard me because of my former proud refusals of him in his gracious offers and invitations Now the day is gone It is too late Sol To this I answer 1. That not only the positive refusals but also the slighting pretermissions of the voice of the Gospel are undoubted sinful for if disobedience to the Law then much more unto the Gospel is very bad no man can refuse his remedy but he makes his wound the greater 2. Again it is granted the greater kinde of refusal adde a greater measure of guilt the refusals of light against light is a more dark condition that is when a man knows the Gospel to be the voice of Christ and to propound heaven and mercy upon the only termes and yet he is not gathered this is sinne in more degrees then the passing over it then ignorance and inobservation againe the more wilfully a man refuseth his opportunity and invitations this also makes the refusal more hainous and calls upon the soule for greater humblings But then know 5 s Things 1. That Christ is not alwayes so quick to break off for ever for some refusals It is not an uncapable condition a sealed state if a man hath stood out against many particular invitations This simply is not the sinne against the holy Ghost and therefore it is pardonable and if the sinne be pardonable then the sinner is capable of Christ in whom alone sin is to be pardoned 2. Scarce any beleever who is called after the ripenesse of yeares but hath often refused before his conversion many invitations by grace and mercy It were an horrid harshnesse for any Minister to send all them to hell who once refuse the news and tender of heaven Nay we see that Christ hath several seasons of conversion some he brings home to himself at the night at the later end of the day who questionlesse refused him in the former part of the day nay that grace which doth gather a man to Christ conquers our refusing hearts Ergo meer refusing is not an eternal prejudice It is true that whiles I do refuse I cannot beleeve yet though I have formerly refused I may yet beleeve There is a double refusal of Christ and the invitations of the Gospel one is malitious this is fearful another is temerarious and this is pardonable That is accompanied with a despitefulnesse of spirit this depends much upon rashnesse temptations inadvertency Againe there is a double refusal one is total but temporary A man doth not hearken though Christ doth call he will not subscribe though Christ propounds but goes in his own way and course yet at length with Paul he may be struck to the ground and yeild up himself to Christ Another is total and final which is an impenitent rebellion A man holds out against the voice of Christ for ever there is no hope for such a person 2. No broken and grieved heart for former refusals can justly say that it hath stood out its day and it is too late to beleeve This is a thing of some concernment and many
paine but when a patient is recovering he is full of sense and complains his head is weak his stomack sick his bones lame all is amisse There is more hope of one sensible sinner then of a thousand presumptuous and hardned wretches And God seldom or never gives a man a sense of Christ who hath not had first a sense of his sinfulnesse There is a double sense of sinne 1. One is meerly judicial which is the feeling of the guilt of sinne when God awakens the conscience to apprehend its former sinnings and imprints some degrees of wrath upon it as the fruits of guilt and now the sinner is broken and crushed for he feeles a kinde of hell in himself for his former sinnings 2. Another is more then judicial It is something more grievous and that is when a man doth not only feele the guilt of sinne as pressing but the nature of sinne as an oppressing burden He sees and feels the inclinations and motions of his heart as most repungnant to the will and glory of God and therefore is exceedingly afflicted and disquieted This now is an admirably hopeful Symptome Secondly Vnbelief is no oure to the strength of sinne whether thou conjecture the strength of sinne to consist in hardnesse of heart Why unbelief will never soften thee or whether thou conjecture the strength of it to consist in the approbation of sinne Why unbelief will never condemn and disapprove it or whether thou conjecture though not rightly its strength to consist in meere inclinations why why unbelief will never alter them or whether thou thinkest its strength consists in frequency of actions or motions why unbelief will never remove or lessen them or whether thou thinkest its strength consists in commands and power why unbelief will never conquer them Vnbelief is a sin it self and therefore can be no cure of sinne for nothing cures the sinner but that which is contrary unto sin Nay unbelief keeps off the soul from its cures from its helps the help of a sinful soul is in heaven but unbeliefe knows not the way upward the heart of unbelief will depart from the living God Thirdly Christ is a Physician for a sick sinner and he hath said that the whole need not the Physician but the sick Why The sick person is no unsutable object or present for a Physician his calling is to heale distempers and sicknesses and thou mayest confidently go to Christ to have thy sick soul healed We cannot brethren we cannot and Christ knows it well enough we cannot come to Christ but we must be beholding to him for two things One his merit to get our sins pardoned Another is his Spirit to get our sinful natures changed And therefore Christ is appointed of God not only to be Redemption but also to be Sanctification as he is the Author of salvation to us so he is the Authour of Sanctification in us We cannot come to him and bring good natures O no the grace which we want is in Christ in our Head as water in the Spring and from his fulnesse must we receive grace for grace None can change that vile heart of thine but Christ His wings are healing and to him art thou appointed to come as the sick person to the Priest in the Levitical Law The Covenant of grace you know is an undertaking not only for pardon but for changing and all the Covenant is made good in Christ As if God should say unto a sinner I know thou art a guilty person ful-well and besides that thou hast a filthy and abominable nature but go to my Son accept of him there is thy pardon in him and there is thy change in him he shall justifie thee from thy guilt and he shall sanctifie thy nature from its vile corruption Fourthly Jesus will not loath thee because of thy sinful nature but will help thee because thou art a sick person Remember it for ever the more vile thou art in thine own eyes the more precious thou art in Christs opinion I never read of any person who came to Christ thou Lord heale me but he was sent away cured Fifthly What doest thou think of beleeving what is thy opinion of faith what as if faith were an enemy or hinderance to holinesse That it will either increase or suffer lewdnesse in the heart far be it from thee so to think O no Faith is the singular way of encreasing and getting all grace to thy soul it deals altogether with holy principles God Christ the Spirit and with holy wayes the Word the Sacraments Faith engageth all the goodnesse and strength of heaven for thy change and for the renuing and subduing of thy sinful heart Rom. 6. 14. Sinne shall not have dominion over you saith the Apostle and why for ye are under grace Mark it under grace that is under a gracious Covenant wherein God and Christ have engaged themselves to their ayd and strength yea but what makes us to be under this grace Verily it is faith in Christ in whom all grace is ensured to the soul Nay if thou couldest by faith accept of Christ to be thy Lord and Saviour now mightest thou confidently go unto him to expresse the vertues of his Sovereignty and goodnesse to thee Now mightest thou plead with him for the excellencies of his Spirit Lord Jesus I have bestowed my self on thee and thou didst invite and assure me that thou wouldest be not only righteousnesse but sanctification also unto me I beseech thee send forth the rod of thy Scepter the vertues of thy grace and change by thy holy Spirit this unholy heart of mine subdue mine iniquities cast down every imagination exalting it self against thee bring into captivity O my soul desires to be captivated to thee yea by the every thought c. There is a pregnant difference 'twixt presumption and faith presumption is but the birth of an idle fancy like a dreame of great matters which yet hath no real bottome but only flies out of a multiplying imagination which is full of deluding acts But faith conjoynes the soul with a lively principle with a true fountaine of grace with a root of holinesse even with Jesus Christ himselfe without whom we can never be made holy and by whom being ingraffed into him by faith we shall be sanctified throughout Look as the defiling qualities of our nature are first in Adam and then in us his posterity so changing and sanctifying qualities are first in Christ the second Adam and from him derived to us his members And then know that there is not such a Ligament to tie us in Vnion with Christ as Faith nor is there any such instrument to draw out the vertues of Christ into the soul as faith You read of those in the Gospel who brought diseased bodie to Christ and yet when they believed they went away with cured and healed tempers what doth this intimate unto us but that the sensible sinner weary of his sinful nature should
make his addresse unto the Lord Jesus for cure and health and that he should by faith accept of him and trust upon him for the healing of his soul and the subduing of his sins and then verily you shall finde vertue to come from Christ raising a greater hatred of sin war with it in the very fountaine watching and praying against it and the power of the ordinance successively weakening and crucifying the power of sin Lastly know this that the time of contrariety is the time for faith to work When a man sees death then is it the time for faith to believe life When he sees the grave then is it the time for faith to believe a resurrection when he sees guilt then is it the time for faith to believe pardoning mercy when he sees himself a sinner then is it the time for faith to believe a Saâ—iour when he sees strong corruptions then is it the time for faith to believe great grace when he sees great discomforts then is it the time for faith to believe strong consolations the exigences of sense and the reliefes of the promises are quite contrary what I feel is one thing what God doth promise is another thing That which the patient observes in himself is sicknesse and that which he hopes for in the medicine is health Hath God made thee sensible of thy sins dost thou finde thus much that al that thou canst do wil not become a rebuke of corruption thou art able now to see the strength of thy sinfull nature but to remove it thou art utterly unable Why what is now to be done truly as in the sense of the guilt of sin we must then flye by faith to God and put our soules upon his free mercy for pardon so in the sense of the filthy strength of sin we must to heaven by faith and put our soules on Gods faithful promises in Christ for the healing and subduing of it This is the way and therefore strive to walk in it you may try other waters but they shall not help you and perplex your own thoughts but they shall not availe you the cure of the sinful soul is only in heaven and it is faith only which can lift up a soul to God and Christ which puts it into the Pool When sin is felt then let faith work If thou canst finde any one promise which God hath made of sanctifying and healing and subduing Why here 's ground for faith yea for thy saith for in these promises are the cures of thy sinful nature and faith it is which will apply the healing medicines to thee 8. Obj. Yet I am not satisfied saith the sensible sinner and fearfull soul Why Because First I cannot finde an heart to duty to pray and seek of God and surely if God did purpose and mean any good to me he would in some measure frame and encline and excite my heart towards him Secondly yea and againe though I do sometimes seek and entreat yet I observe that what I was that I am nothing comes of it how then can I may I should I be enduced to believe Sol. Here are two sore and real scruples which do indeed vehemently beat upon a sensible sinner I shall endeavour to assoyle them successively 1. I cannot finde an heart to any duty to pray for faith c. I Answer 1. As the inability to holy duties depends on natural corruption so the indisposition towards them depends exceedingly upon unbelief There is nothing disheartens a man more towards God then it For bâ—sides this that unbelief in its own nature is a departure from God it is a bias drawing the soul downwards This also is true of it that it represents God to the soul in all the appearances and methods of discouragements It makes the soul to see nothing in God or from God which might encline it to him O saith unbelief there is such holinesse and purity in him that he will never endure thee there is such truth and justice in him that he will surely be avenged of thee There is such strength and power in him that he will certainly meet with thee and lay load on thee There is I confesse a mercifulnesse in him but alas his tender bowels of compassion his ready forgivenesse extends not to thee there are many sweet intimations in his promises but they concern not thee there is a mighty salvation in Christ and powerful intercession to ingratiate some persons and their services but what of this to thee He is a God hearing prayer yea but he will not regard the cryes nor tears of some but their Sacrifices are an abomination unto him And thus doth unbelief set up God utterly against the soule so that the poor soul conceiving of God as an enemy dares not come neer it flies off it is even afraid to speak to him It is perswaded by unbeliefe that God will frowne upon all that is done whereupon the spirit sinks the affectionâ— are flatted I have no minde nor heart am like a lump a stock a stone Secondly it is faith which will fetch up the soul Psal 27. 13. I had fainted unlesse I had beleeved to see the goodnesse of the Lord c. As if he should say my spirits were even breathing themselves out I was even sinking down giving up all unlesse I had beleeved but that confidence of Gods goodnesse towards me that did put life into me that did fetch me again that did put heart into me You see now the spring is coming on that those seemingly dead branches of the trees they begin to thrust out some hopeful sproutings and put on another colour of freshnesse why because the root is now more fed and warmed It is faith which will put colour into our faces and spirit into our hearts and life into our duties For 1. Faith sets open the mercy-seat It represents God to the Two reasons of it soul in all his attributes of graciousnesse not as an hard tyrant but as a good God willing to give audience to the humble requests and suit of a poore sinner Nay willing to dispatch and grant his requests What is thy request said Ahashuerus to Queen Ester it shall be granted thee c So saith the Lord What wouldest thou have of me Is it mercy I do promise it unto thee Is it grace I promise that unto thee Is it strength is it comfort is it deliverance whatsoever it be if thou beleeve on me I will not fail to give to thee Nay I will do it freely nay cheerfully with all my heart and with all my soul Jer. 32. Yea this makes the soul to come unto God as the ship into the haven with full speed and stretched sailes O the soul bends the knee with cheerfulnesse when it sees it shall be raised up with kindnesse a man may have some heart to pray when he knows My God will hear me that God hath a readiness to answer 2. Faith sets the soul in
repose the victories of our corruptions upon his mighty arme nor the reforming and beautifying of our spirits upon his singular wisdom and holinesse Why what didst thou think or mean when thou didst accept of him to be thy Mediator didst thou conjecture that if once thou gavest thy consent to take him that never after thou shouldst need him or if so wouldest never make use of him Well no more what the Apostle said in another case that I say in this if we will not live by faith upon Christ we do what in us lies make void the Redemption of Christ the intercession of Christ the holinesse of Christ the glory and power of all the offices of Christ. 9. If all this will not move us to live by faith in Christ that is to trust upon him for the help and supply of our spiritual estate then take one thing more there is an impossibility of supplies for thy soul any other way go and think and act any other course to do thy soul good besides this and it shall be fruitlesse after many years industry as thou art so still shalt thou be Obj. Thou wilt say I will never leave complaining of this nature till it be bettered Sol. Thy nature is not bettered by complaint but by grace and that is in Christ and never had till we can trust Object Thou wilt say I will never leave grieving nor praying nor hearing nor reading nor fasting nor conferring till c. Sol. 'T is true these are meanes but where is the cause What if a man should say I will stay here all my life at these conduit pipes but I will have water whiles in the meane time the fountaine yields not forth I confesse the Christian must apply himself to the Ordinances but then it is Christ who sends forth the help and then do the Ordinances deliver us our helps from Christ not presently when one hears but when effectually they have enabled us to beleeve If thou canst heare and beleeve pray and beleeve mourne and beleeve fast and beleeve c. Then good shall come unto thy soul Draw a thousand bonds yet if they be none of them sealed nothing is yet legally and forcibly made over and conveyed many prayers availe little or nothing till they are sealed with faith and now God will acknowledge our demands as authentick and Christ will deliver unto us our hearts desire I had thought to have handled the opposites of the life of faith with the evidence of a true living by faith and also the meanes which might assist us to the life of faith But I recal my self I may not expatiate so farre sufficient hath been touched for this Use perhaps the subject may be more amply treatised if ever I should come to set down before that theame directly and intentionally I therefore proceed to another Use CHAP. XVIII The improvement of faith to a full assurance I Will yet advance on to one Use more Since faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved therefore not only to labour for that faith but to exalt that faith my meaning is to improve this faith also yet further â—o strength and comfort Divines observe a double act of faith One of adherence by which it cleaves unto Christ and relies upon him alone for righteousnesse pardon of sin grace and salvation Another is of evidence by which it cleares unto the soule its interest in Christ and his righteousnesse and merits In the former the soul renounceth all other corner stones all other rocks of salvation and trusts only upon the Name of Jesus Christ accepts of him as the only Lord and relies on him as the only Saviour casting or rolling its heavenly and eternal safeties into his blessed armes In the latter the soul feels it self reciprocally embraced by Christ I have accepted of him to be my Lord and he saith I am thy King I have relyed on him to be my Saviour and he saith I am thy salvation For pardon of sinnes and he saith unto me Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee Now to this part of faith do I desire to mount the soul of a true beleever viz. not only to apprehend Christ but to know himself to be apprehended by him not only to beleeve but to know him whom he hath beleeved To rise thus far by faith to an assurance that Christ is my Christ my Redeemer liveth who gave himself for me My Lord and my God that he is my righteousnesse my redemption my propitiation For the better settling and exciting of you in this particular I will briefly touch at these things 1. What the assurance of faith is 2. It may be had 3. It should be had 4. The Arguments to stir us up to labour for it that is to know our riches and to know our possessions 5. The means to get it SECT I. Quest 1. WHat the assurance of faith is Sol. It is a victorious conclusion against the strength of doubts whereby the minde of a beleeving person is ascertained and perswaded and upon good ground settled concerning his personal interest in Christ and his benefits For the better opening of this description be pleased to observe these subsequent propositions 1. That the assurance of faith it is the conclusion of an evangelical syllogisme The syllogisme is this Whosoever repents and beleeves in Christ Christ with his benefits are his and he is Christs but I do truly repent and beleeve in Christ therefore Christ and his benefits are mine and I am his In this Syllogisme there are three propositions The first is a Proposition of most infallible certainty it being expresly the voice of Jesus Christ himself and of it the minde hath no doubt but fully assents unto it as a principle of Divine truth viz. That he who repents and beleeves in Christ is his and he is Christs And of this the minde of a beleever may be abundantly perswaded without questâ—onings and doubts for as much as it is a part of the Word of God to whose absolute truth it doth plentifully subscribe The second is a proposition carrying with it the direct act of faith in which the beleeving soul doth accept of Christ or receive him and trust upon him by vertue of which there ariseth a most real and true union 'twixt Christ and the beleever The third and the last which is the conclusion or inference drawn from both the former comprehends in it the formal assurance of a beleeving heart that therefore Christ is mine and I am his That he who beleeves in Christ hath Christ and shall be saved this is not yet that subjective assurance of justifying faith for as much as many an hypocrite may beleeve that truth and yet have no personal interest in Christ Againe that I do beleeve in Christ neither is this essentially assurance for as much as to beleeve is one thing and to be assured is another thing many a good heart may accept of Christ
upon all his termes and articles of peace and life and may cast and repose it self on him as the only rock and hope of the soul and yet it may be so farre from assurance even at that time when it doth so earnestly cleave unto Christ that instead of assurance it may be both tossed and prevailed upon by doubtings suspitions and feares concerning its particular and personal propriety in Christ and in his merits But the last of the propositions I am Christs and Christ is mine this is formal assurance for this concludes the dispute of the heart and hath in it particular and personal evidence 2. It is a victorious conclusion against the strength of doubting you know that in the minde of man there are three kinds of working about an object comprehending goodnesse and truth One they call peremptory assenting and peremptory dissentings in which the minde doth yeild plainly or else refuseth to subscribe and grant the matter proposed to be true and good Another they call doubtings which are the wavering acts of of the minde wherein it doth not absolutely grant or deny it doth not absolutely conclude that so it is nor absolutely that so it is not yet rather enclines for want of further evidence in the soul that it is not so then that it is so The third they call evidence or assurance which is such a work of the minde wherein against all doubtings and suspitions the minde sees clearly the thing to be so or not to be so And thus is it here in the assurance of faith it hath such a light the minde hath that it is able to rise beyond and against doubtings and to convince the soul against all suspitions that Christ indeed is mine and I am his Where by the way observe thus much that assurance doth presuppose some doubtings for if the mind of a believer had not doubtings about its personall interest it could not well be said to be now assured Doubtings did verily and do and may work in a believing soul yea but am I sure that Christ is mine is it certain that my sins are pardoned I trust they are but I fear they are not Now assurance comes and conquers these workings and clears all the doubting arguments and convinceth the minde that of a truth Christ is mine and my sins are pardoned There are two degrees of doubtings One consists in the questioning of our beleeving proprieties is Christ mine is his righteousnesse mine c Another exceeds this and consists in dominion when the soul is supprest by the strength of these doubtings to side with it and still to hang in suspense Now this latter degree especially is assurance opposite unto namely it conquers our doubtings answers our arguments cleares it unto the soul against the many suspitions which did arise that Christ doth indeed owne it that he is the Saviour thereof and therefore I call it a victorious conclusion 3. Assurance of faith it is an ascertaining or perswading act and that is proper and inseparable from assurance therefore is it so expressed in Rom. 8. 38. I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come ver 39. Nor Height nor Depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Yea and it is expressed by a word of personal certainty 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed In knowledge there is alwayes a certainty for that is one of the maine differences 'twixt it and opinion that the one leaves the minde uncertain and wavering and the other determinates the minde with certainty and infallibility Whiles the minde remaines like a paire of indifferent scales which bend this way and that way or like a boat in the river now floating up and then sinking down now reeling to this side by and by to that side it cannot be said to be assured perhaps Christ is mine perhaps I am his this is a plaine uncertainty for the minde is not perswaded But in the assurance of faith the minde is like a scale that weighs down it is perswaded and ascertained there is a prevalent evidence of the thing Not only in absolute tearmes that Christ belongs to a believer but in reflexive tearmes that Christ belongs to me he gave himself for me and he is my redeemer and this particular or personal perswasion is assurance 4. Assurance is not all kinds of perswasion or ascertaining there are two kindes of assurance or perswasion of the minde touching a mans personall interest in Christ One is Imaginary and deluding for as the heart of a man may deceive it self about the habit of faith or any other grace so it may delude him about the acts and degrees of the same doth the true believer believe in Christ so thinks the Hypocrite that he doth too Hath the true believer a perswasion of his personall propriety in Christ which cleares the minde of doubting so hath the Hypocrite too a most exalted confidence an iron faith that would never bend nor bow by doubtings It may be with him as with a poore man in a dreame what the rich man hath by propriety and in possession even that same thing may the poorest man have in a dreaming fancy and imagination But then ask the Hypocrite by what grounds art thou thus confidently perswaded what did encline thy mind hereto what promise hast thou found that Christ is and will be his whose heart was never humbled for sin whose heart still retains the love of sin Now as the man who being demanded how he came without his wedding garment he is speechlesse The fool saith Solomon Prov. 14. 16. rageth and is confident and so the presumptuous person He sinneth and yet is perswaded he walketh in his sinnes and yet is assured I pray you remember that the assurance of faith is no such absolute and boystrous setling of the minde that Christ is mine however though I be never so ignorant and wicked and though I live never so wretchedly and profanely yet Christ is mine and God is my mercifull Father and my sinnes are pardoned O no this is a Diabolical assurance it is no Evangelical assurance Another is grounded and divinely rational and it alwayes followes sound repentance and faith That assurance which goes before these is false absolutely I am bound to repent and to believe but I cannot be assured but in a conditionall order If I should be assured that Christ were mine before before I did believe this were a lie forasmuch as Christ is not mine untill I do by faith accept of him and if I should be assured that my sins were pardoned before I did repent I did in this delude mine own heart forasmuch as sin is not pardoned unlesse it be repented of No but I must repent of my sins I must accept of Jesus Christ offered unto me in the Gospel to be my Lord and Saviour
error and mistake about beleeving p. 84 Chap. 12. The sure and dangerous misery of unbelief p. 87 Chap. 13. Rules for the discovery of faith p. 90 § 1. Four things premised for the manner of evidencing of faith p. 90 § 2. A true love of Christ an infallible and essential evidence of true faith in Christ p. 96 § 3. Inward change and sanctity of the heart an infallible testimony of a living faith p. 98 § 4. True faith takes Christ and him only to be its Lord p. 101 § 5. Faith makes the heart humble and lowly p. 103 § 6. True faith is fruitful p. 104 § 7. True faith desires and endeavours after encrease p. 107 § 8. Faith in Christ and a mournful heart for sin go together p. 108 Chap. 14. Singular comfort for all true heleevers p. 109 § 1. They are in the way to heaven p. 110 § 2. There is a real and blessed exchange betwixt them and Christ p. 111 § 3. They are in singular Covenant with God p. 114 § 4. They may now with boldnesse approach the throne of grace p. 116 Chap. 15. The Agreement and difference of a strong and weak faith p. 117 § 1. The habitual unity of true faith and wherein expressed in four particulars p. 119 § 2. The intensive diversities of faith wherein there is a difference p. 120 § 3. Signes of a great and strong faith p. 125 § 4. Signes of a weak faith p. 131 § 5. Demonstrations of the truth of faith though weak p. 136 § 6. The concordance of all faith which is true whether strong or weak in fundamental comforts p. 139 § 7. The inequality of strong and weak faith in respect of circumstantial comforts and some other consequences p. 146 § 8. Motives to greaten our faith p. 156 Chap. 16. Exhortations to labour for saving faith p. 157 § 1. Motives to get saving faith p. 158 § 2. Impediments hindrances to the geting of saving faith p. 168 § 3. Meanes by which God works saving faith p. 176 § 4. Objections that hinder from beleeving p. 184 Chap. 17. Of living by faith p. 216 § 1 What it is in the general to live by faith p. 218 § 2. To what states of life faith may extend p. 220 § 3. What it is to live by faith on Christ p. 221 § 4. Arguments to move us to live by faith p. 229 Chap. 18. The improvement of faith to a full assurance p. 259 § 1. What the Assurance of faith is p. 260 § 2. Whether such an assurance may be had p. 265 § 3. Whether every beleever should strive to the assurance of faith p. 267 § 4. Arguments to move beleevers to labour for assurance of faith p. 269 § 5. By what means the soul may get up to this assurance p. 280 Imprimatur EDM. CALAMY Febr. 27. 1655. BOOKS Printed and are to be sold by Adoniram Byfield at the Bible in Popes-head Alley neer Lumbard-street A Comentary upon the three first Chapers of Genesis by that Reverend Divine Mr. John White late Preacher of Gods Word at Dorchester in the County of Dorset in sol All the Works of Mr. Stephen Marshal collected into one Volume in 4o. The Reasons presented by the dissenting Brethren against certain propositions concerning Presbyterial Government together with the answer of the Assembly of Divines to those reasâ—ns of Dissent As also the Papers and Answers of the Dissenting Brethren and the Committee of the Assembly put into the Committee of Lords and Commons and Assembly of Divines for accomodation in 4o. The humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines concerning a larger and the lesser Catechisme presented by them to both Houses of Parliament with the proofs thereof out of the Scriptures in the Margin in 4o. The tenth Muse several Poems compiled with great variety of wit and learning full of delight wherein especially is contained a compleat Discourse and description of the four Elements Constitutions Ages of man Seasons of the year together with an exact Epitomie of the four Monarchies Also a Dialogue between Old England and New concerning the late troubles with divers other pleasant and serious Poems by Mrs Anne Bradstreet in 8o. Hidden Manna or the mystery of saving Grace wherein the peculiarity of Gods especial grace to the Elect is asserted and proved and divers Objections of Pelagians and Arminians about the power of the will of man to supernatural good are fully answered and confuted by the Reverend Mr. William Fenner in 12o. A short Chatechisme being a brief Instruction of the most ignorant before the receiving of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper by Mr. Obadiah Sedgwick Safe Conduct or the Saints Guidance to Glory opened in a Sermon preached at Dunstans in the East at the Funeral of the vertuous and Religious Gentle-woman Mrs Thomasin Barnard-Iston late wife of Mr. Samuel Barnard-Iston Marchant by Ralph Robinson Pastor of Mary Wolnoth Lumbardstreet The Saints longings after their Heavenly Country A Sermon preached at St. Pauls Church at a Solemn Aniversary meeting of the Cheshire Gentlemen by that faithful Servant of Jesus Christ Mr Ralph Robinson late Minister of Mary Wolnoth Lond. A Sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at their late monethly Fast by Nathaniel Ward Minister of Gods Word Short Writing Shortned or the Art of short Writing reduced to a method more speedy plain exact and easie then hath been heretofore published in which the principal difficulties and discouragements that have been found in Short-writing particularly the burthening of memory with and inconvenient joyning of many Characters are removed and the whole art so disposed that all usual words may be written with aptnesse and brevity by John Farthing Authour and Teacher thereof who wrote Mr. Love's Tryal and hath practised Short-writing this twenty six years attested by the hands of divers eminent Ministers in and about London in 8o. FINIS
the heart and conquer Satan But if we trouble the Devil the Devil will not cease to trouble us It hath been the lot of the best Ministers to do most good and find most affliction Look but in the 19. ver and there you shall see Paul and Silas caught and drawn before the Rulers Good God! That Paul should be questioned because he did cast out a Devil But this is not the matter objected nor the immediate ground of the trouble Her Master saw that the hope of their gaines was gone How far will the love of the world thrust a man against Gods servants even Paul himself is brought to the Bar when he cuts off the gaines which the Devil brought Covetous hearts and good Ministers can never agree They will rather sell â—he Truth than lose their Gaine But being now before the Magistrate what is their accusation What! That Paul and Silas did cast out the Devil No That they who were the Masters of the Damosel were impaired and disadvantaged by their Preaching No though this was the ground yet something else was the Pretence This would seeme somewhat too base and therefore they urge against them another allegation which they knew would easily take vers 20. These being Iews exceedingly trouble our City and ver 21. Teach Customes which are not lawful for us to receive nor to observe being Romans As if he said they are a couple of factious and schymatical fellows men of a singular spirit given to innovation speak strange things of one Christ and of Believing and of Repenting and we know not what They need say no more presently there is an uprore and without any more ado right or wrong they have Justice The Magistrates rent their clothes and command to beare them ver 22. And this is not enough besides the whip they must to the Prison and be kept safe and close verse 23. Hatred of goodnesse doth many times precipitate evil men to the acts of injustice and he who hates a good man will many times become a bad Judge But in the prison and stocks they are and the layler is as strict to execute as they unjust to command verse 24. He did thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks A strange Providence is that of God Paul and Silas are sent to prison to convert a Jayler to unloose him who bound them to heale him who scourged them God hath some special ends in the times and places of his servants sufferings Well at Midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang prayses to God verse 25. No prison can bolt out our Communion with God Prayer will get up to heaven in dispite of all opposition and even a suffering Christian may be very cheerful But now see the consequents of this their prayers shooke the Heaven and the Heaven shooke the Earth so that the foundations of the Prison were shaken and immediately all the doores were opened and every ones bands were loosed ver 26. I do not marvel that Prayer can breake the bonds of Iron when I know it is able to break asunder the bonds of death it self The Iayler awakes sees the prison doores open and for ought he knew an escape of all his prisoners for whose lives probable it is that he must pay his own and therefore in a passionate desperatenesse drawes out his sword to kill himself Paul espies him and cryes out with a loud voice hold hold Do thy self no harme for we are all here not a man of us that hath stirred Which when he had searched and found O what a strange alteration is in this Jayler verse 29. He came in trembling What! he who before made them to bleed doth he now tremble he that before cast them into the stocks doth he come trembling to them What were they or what could they do shackled and scourged and imprisoned persons that he trembled before them But so he did Scorners will become Tremblers when God hath once touched their hearts yet this is not all He also falls down before them He is upon his knees to ask them forgivenesse for his cruel usage And then he brings them forth But what of all this All this may arise from sparks of pitty and Object humanity Nay but there is a greater matter then all this Sirs said he Sol. what shall I do to be saved As if he said I am in a miserable condition I have lived wickedly and done wrong to many of the people of God and in particular to you Good Lord what shall become of me you are the Ministers of Christ I beseech you have pity on me and shew unto me what I may do to save this poore soul of mine What does Paul and Silas Answer him they said Beleeve in the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And I beseech you marke it how immediate their answer is to his question they do not say as the High Priests to afflicted Iudas look thou to that they do not upbraid him with his hard and cruell usage They take not that advantage and say nay now doth thy conscience trouble thee for being so wicked and scourging us so sharply yea and so let it doest thou come for direction and comfort to us whom thou hast so shamefully abused No they forget the injuries and presently pour in the Oyl They instantly direct him into the true way of life Believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved But more of this anon I have chosen this text on purpose that I may proceed to the next article of the Creed I believe in Iesus Christ our Lord you see it is exprest in the next But before I handle it give me leave to Analyse the words and to touch upon some singular conclusions and then I will set down upon the Article it self more fully CHAP. II. The opening of the words with the severall Doctrines in the text THe words of the text do containe two parts A case of Conscience to be propounded by a troubled and trembling sinner The case is not for another but for himself what shall I do And not about his Riches or wealth or his body but about his soul And that not for meer speculation but for practicals it is a case about his salvation and about the meanes which he should take to attaine Sirs what shall I do to be saved Secondly The case fully resolved Beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved As if he said Christ is the onely way to Heaven and faith is the onely way to Christ God hath given Jesus Chrâ—st to sinners and salvation in him And whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternall life Now then believe in him and you shall be saved There are many conclusions emergent from these words I will omit most of them and onely insist on the latter Change of heart breeds change of estimation toward the Ministers of the Gospel The Jayler a little
word of application If salvation be the maine enquiry of a truly troubled soul Vse then verily many people have not yet been truly troubled for their sinnes why Because they strive not how to save their soules The Psalmist speaks of some that God was not in their thoughts and we may say of some that Salvation is not in their mindes He who hath abundance hath this question who will shew us any good and he who is in want hath this question what shall I do But what shall I do to be saved few think of this it is a marvelous thing that so noble a creature as man who carries in him the singular stamp of heaven a spiritual and immortal soul should so infinitely forget both himself and his errand into this world I am a miserable sinner said Saint Hicrome and born only to repent We are born transgressors from the wombe and with hell at our heeles God is pleased to draw out the threed of our life and to vouchsafe to give us this hint that we are sinners and must dye and if we change not our condition we perish forever And besides that he hath addressed the wayes of Salvation to our hands so plainely that he who runnes may read Yea and there is something implanted in men which secretly inclines them to be affected with a generall desire of Salvation nevertheless to observe men how variously they flye off how little they minde that which most of all concerns them how infinitely one drudgeth for riches how illimitedly another pursues pleasures so that when we come to dye we have hardly thought wherefore we were borne There is a Salvation and a way tending thereunto but we forget that all our dayes We have other employments but let us soberly recall our selves Is there any thing better then Salvation Is there a nearer thing then the soul Is there not a necessity to be working in the way if ever we would attain unto the end O then let this take us up let heaven take us up let our souls take us up but let not our sins let not the world take us up Vbi pompa said Saint Augustine ubi exquisita convivia ubi gentiorum ambitio ubi argenti auri pondus immensum Transient omnia ab oculis ejus putatur requiesere corpus ejus habitat in inferno anima ejus multiplâ—cavit agros plantavit vineas implevit horrea yet saith he Sâ—ulâ—e hac nocte He enlargeth his Fields plants his vines fills his Barnes loseth his soul The like saith Saint Bernard Dic mihi ubi sunt amatores seculi qui jam diu fuerint Dic quid eis profuit inanis gloria Brevis laetitia mundipotentia Quid carnis voluptas quid falsae divitiae ubirisus ubi jocus ubi jactantia Hic caro eorum vermibus illic anima ignibus deputatur infernalibus I say no more but labour to save that which if it be lost the world cannot procure it and believe it that the soul can never be saved by that which is not worth a soul Another conclusion from the words of the text may be this That persons rightly sensible are as throughly resolved for the meanes and wayes as for the end and scope The Jayler doth not say I desire Salvation barely but what must I do to be saved as if he said I desire Salvation and I do conjecture that it is an end and therefore means there are leading to it now whatsoever they are point them out unto me that I may apply my self for the prosecution of the end There are two things which deceive a mans heart One is presumption which is a skipping over the lesson and taking forth before we have learned our part my meaning is this that it is an opinion of our happinesse without any use of meanes As if a man went to heaven as the Ship moves in the Tyde whether the Master wakes or sleeps Another is hypocrisie which is an inquality of the heart to all the wayes of Salvation No hypocrite will apply himself to every thing which may indeed save him But where the heart is rightly understanding and truly sensible there is not only a consideration of meanes but an illimited resolution for all the wayes of Salvation whatsoever course God doth by his Word reveale and prescribe for that it is resolved and purpâ—sed though they may be contrary to my proud reasoning and capacity though they may be contrary to the bent of my affections though they may require much time and employment c. What the Princes speak with a disembling heart that the sinner rightly sensible of his condition affirms with a plaine spirit of true intention The Lord be a true and faithful witnesse between us if we do not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us Whether it be good or whether it be evil we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send thee that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God He who will be saved must come to this to deny his own will to crucifie his own affections to captivate his own imaginations to resigne up his own desires and pleasures to afflict his heart for his sins to give up himself to the rule and command of Gods Word to draw off his heart from the world to settle all his confidence upon Jesus Christ to watch over his own spirit To love the Lord God with all his soul and with all his might These and other things are required as the way to life and unto them all doth a sinner rightly sensible yield up himself with all readiness and gladnesse For as much as though there may be some difficulty in these yet there is Salvation by them yea and there is a singular help for them as well as a special reward but the present and former condition and way of sinne is engraven with much paines and sore horror and death and hell But I pass on Another conclusion from the words is this When God doth throughly work upon mens consciences personall injuriousnesses must be forgotten by them who are to deale with them You see here that Paul and Silas speakes not a word of this cruel usage towards them but instantly addresse themselves to the direction of his safety and comfort Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ c. We read of the Father of the Prodigall that when his son came humbling and bewailing his fore-past miscarriages of Prodigality and Luxury He saw him a far off and ran to meet him and kissed him and put the raiment on him and a gold Ring He did not rate and upbraid him Nay I will not look on thee I will not accept of thee go now to thy Harlots amongst whom thou hast riotously wasted all that goodly portion which I put into thy hands O no he accuseth not him whom he heares to accuse himself and reviles
true as truth it self and as good as goodnesse it self we cannot make men to understand it nor to believe it nor to yield unto it but Christ is that Prophet whose Chair is in heaven and whose speaking can yet pierce into the hearts of men He can make us to know wisdome he can teach our reines and truth in the inward parts there can he write his Law in our hearts though the minde be as dark as darknesse it self yet he can make the light of knowledge to arise in the thickest darknesse of the minde though the judgment be corrupt and full of errors yet Christ can erect a throne of truth and direct us into the pathes of righteousnesse though the heart be dull yet his words are as fire to quicken that heart though it be as hard as the rock yet his word can be as the hammer to break that stony heart His teaching can soften the most unflexible adamant he is able to convince and bend and alter and bow it the very dead shall heare his voice and live So that if any person doth need any directions any enablement for heaven or the way thither he must know that Christ is the Prophet anointed whatsoever belongs to an heavenly instructing and to an heavenly drawing and obeying that is to be found in Christ and had from him who is anointed a Prophet that is designed to teach the Church and furnisheth with all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge and ability c. SECT V. LAstly Christ was anointed to be a King therefore Psal 2. 2. he is called Gods anointed and ver 6. the King whom he Psal 2. 2. did set upon his holy hill of Sion The King of Kings Rev. 19. 16. He shall reigne over the house of Jacob Luk. 1. 33. so Mat. 28. 18. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth He hath the Scepter of Royalty and the Rod of authority and the sword of power and the throne of judgement and the Laws of his lips and the keys of life and death Now this regal office of his to which he was anointed imports many things First that he is to beare rule over all the Nations and indeed his natural kingdome reacheth over all the world from the highest Angel to the lowest Devil Secondly that he is to Governe and rule the Church which he hath purchased with his blood The Government is upon his shoulders Isai 9. 6. And therefore he is called the Law-giver Jam. 4. 12. and all judgment is committed to his hand Joh. 5. 22 27. to this end you have the rod of his Scepter his holy and righteous Laws and his mighty and blessed Spirit to give force unto them even into our hearts and there to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ Thirdly that he is to maintaine and uphold his Church therefore he is said to Gird his sword upon his thâ—gh Psal 45. 3. and to ride upon a horse with his garment dipped in blood and armed as if he were ready to fight He is the mighty redeemer of his servants against all who intrench upon their peace and safety and he strikes downe Paul to the earth for persecuting him It belongs to the King to be the defence of his subjects so here God hath appointed all the Protections and safeties and deliverances of the Church to be in Christ Fourthly he is to conquer all his and our enemies God hath given Christ a Kingdome but it is such as he must fight for Not a Subject which he hath which comes in unto him but by conquest If we be in our own hands peccatum Hostisest quamdiu est said Saint Augustine and if we be in Satans hands we are in that enemies hands More plainely there are these enemies of Christ and his Church which he is to conquer for himselfe and them First hell and we read that he hath spoiled principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly and triumphed over them Col. 2. 15. Secondly death 1 Cor. 15. 54. Death is swallowed up in victory 55. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory c. 56 57. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Thirdly sin and this is Christ also to conquer he is to cast down all the strong holds of lusts and all imaginations and to captivate the whole man He is to subdue our iniquities for us and not to suffer sin to have dominion over us Fourthly Wicked men he will stick his arrowes in the brests of Princes and in the hearts of the mighty and terrible he is to bruise the Nations with a rod of Iron and to dash them in pieces like a potters vessell He will execute judgment upon all of them and cast them all to the dust who rose up against his person or Government or people He will set his people at rest from them that rise against them and will make his enemies his foot-stool CHAP. IV. What Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ doth import Q. 2 WHat doth the believing in the Lord Jesus Christ import Jesus Christ is like a ring and faith is like the finger which wears it He is like a treasury and faith like the hand which draws out thence As David spake in another kinde come and I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soul or as Philip to Nathanael can there any good thing come out of Nazareth Philip saith come and see The same is to be said of faith God hath done great matters for sinful man saith faith Why but can any good be brought by any to us who are so bad yes sayes faith come and see Christ is very good he is a Saviour for a poor sinner but it is faith which finds him so Marke the answer of the Apostles here in the text what shall I do to be saved saith the Jayler They do not answer there is a Jesus Christ take thou no more care he did dye for sinners and thou shalt do well enough Nay this they answer thou maiest be saved by Christ but thou must believe in Christ Not a medicine is the remedy but a medicine applyed Not the man but the man taken becomes the husband So the taking of Christ the believing in him is the way to heaven Because this is an excellent point for our life lies in it give me leave to speak somewhat of faith First in the general and there I will be brief Secondly in special as justifying of faith or faith believing in Jesus Christ our Lord. First Generally For the generall nature of believing observe these propositions First that believing is an assent to such matters as are known only by revelation from another there are in the soul of man three qualities by which we came to finde out or perceive things First one quality is Scientia or knowledge which is a firme assent unto a thing which may be evidenced to
obedience in none but him I rest on none but him on him do I believe he hath satisfied to the utmost and I trust on him that he hath done it for me Brethren the case stands thus a man is borne in sin and he goes on in much sin a long time at length God awakens his conscience makes him to possesse the iniquities of his heels of his birth of his youth of his age of his life and perhaps besets the soul round about with some sensible dread of his infinite displeasure Now the man knowes not what to do good Lord saith he what a miserable creature am I here 's sin committed over and over the Law broken God provoked conscience raging hell gaping I am violated saith the Law wronged saith Justice thou hast sinned saith Conscience I will be satisfied saith the Lord saith the poor soul what shall become of me what have I to quiet God I can finde nothing what shall I do to pacifie him I cannot imagine it If I say that I have not sinned my conscience tells me I lye if I say I will not sin hereafter Why yet how will this satisfie for former gilt I tell you brethren that a heart brought to this sensible experience is marvelously oppressed the very heart cracks and the sins of that soul snap a sunder under the sense of manifold gilt and Gods displeasure But then God comes in the Gospel and calls out to the poor and distressed sinner come hither saith God I will shew thee a way of salvation O how the soul listens to such a message but how Lord can this be what am I or what can I do Nothing saith God for thou art an enemy and thou art without strength But I have laid Salvation upon one that is Mighty Who is that Lord It is my own Son whom I have out of my love sent into the world to be made man and to dye and satisfie for sinners to beare their iniquities to answer for all their transgressions and he is become a surety and a Priest and hath sacrificed his own soul to be an offering for sin and I offer him unto thee to be thy surety to be thy Priest to take away thy sinnes Now take him saith God to the soul and with him the discharge of thy sins Hereupon the soul being perswaded of the truth of this good testimony and with many teares admiring at the riches of divine love and mercy it doth now by faith close in with Christ put it self on him embraceth him with all the heart as a sufficient and perfect Saviour As if the soul now fastning it self by faith on Christ in this respect should thus be speake the Lord. O Lord thou art pleased justly to charge my sins upon my conscience I confesse and am ashamed that I have thus sinned against thee yea and I acknowledg that I am never able to answer thee for those sins But thou hast appointed thine own Son to be my Saviour and Priest whose office it was to beare the sins of the people these sins therefore which conscience now chargeth upon me I do by faith charge upon thine own Sonne for he was made sin for us thou didst ordaine him to be a surety and therefore I beseech thee Lord look for satisfaction of my debts in his precious blood and take away thy curse from my soul for he was made a curse for us he did susteine thy wrath in our steed to deliver from wrath Now therefore O Lord I put my soul only upon thy only Son whom I take to be my sacrifice him I offer up unto thee as my propitiation I have sinned but thy Son hath dyed for my sins I have provoked thee but thy Son hath pacified thee I have wronged thee but thy Son hath satisfied thee he did not die for his own sins but for my sins he was not made a curse for himself but for me I lay hold on his blood to be my peace and satisfaction and salvation As if a man were like to be carried to prison for debt and hunting up and down for a friend to stand for him at length he findes one only man and him he brings to the creditor and saith here 's a man will pay you and ransome me so faith for a troubled and obliged sinner to God it findes out Christ and saith Lo Lord here is thy Son who is my surety he will discharge he is my ransome SECT IV. FOr Christ as a Saviour and King and Prophet and Lord what is the exercise of faith there I tell you what I think of it It is a work of a believing heart whereby it doth accept of Christ to be the sole teacher and ruler of heart and life and resigne up himself wholly to him to be fashioned as it were and guided by him A man never comes to the truth of beleeving but he shall finde this that faith will change his Master For faith changeth the heart and the heart being once changed will quickly change its Lord So that to believe on Christ as a King as a Lord as a Prophet it is to admit him to give him up the whole man into his hands to his holy and spiritual Government as if the heart should say thus much thou art a Holy Christ and thou art he who art to reigne now I take thee to be my Holy Lord and I resigne up my selfe I passeover my selfe unto thee I will have no Lord but thee and I do with all my heart accept of thee to make me Holy as thou art Holy and to subdue this vile heart of mine and to rule in me by thy blessed and mighty Spirit SECT V. THus briefly of the immediate object of faith on which faith immediately looks viz the person of Jesus Christ to take and receive Christ as Lord and Saviour This is true faith yet by the way note a few things First that this taking is with all the heart it is not a pretended taking a dissembled work there is a taking of Christ with the tongue and a taking of him with the heart O no when true faith takes Christ it brings in the very strength of the soul O Lord Jesus I do embrace thee accept of thee with all my soul with all my might and with all my affections Secondly this taking of Christ is of all Christ of Lord as well as Jesus when the heart is made sensible of sin and Satan and world and Christ and now falls off from them I will have no more to do with you I will serve you no longer Christ only shall be my Saviour and he only shall be my Lord I will put my soul under his Scepter and Government Thirdly this taking of Christ is onely of Christ For it is a conjugall taking which consists of unity one they say in the Metaphysicks is divided in it self and divided from all besides it self so is it in faiths taking of Christ One Faith One Lord said the Apostle
is like the starres twinkling though placed in the heavens and every duty though it be a motion yet it is like that of Jacobs thigh which was touched and halted to his dying day So that if God should enter into judgment with the righteous person even the righteousnesse that is in him would not be safety and defence unto him As a man that hath a precious â—â—ding dares not to adventure it in any crackt and broken vessel so no Christian may or can dare to adventure the safety of his soul upon the leaking vessels and bottoms of his own holinesse or services This very smoak of doubtings which still mount up with our flames of faith and the grosse affections which cling to the root of our most heavenly love and part of that rock of hardnesse is seated and complanted with the freshest spring of softnesse and mournings and those infinite and frequent intermissions both of our prayers and hearings and readings and any kinde of dutiful doings that we are so shufled away from our devotions by the invasions and entertainment of strange thoughts in the times of our devotion I say those and infinite emaculations or spots do so adhere and cling about and defile our selves and that which comes from us that in proceeding of pure justice we may cast down our selves on the ground and beg for mercy much rather then to stand at the barre and plead for reward But now here is the great stay of a beleeving soul which hath truly received Christ that Christ will finde a full exact compleat most acepâ—able righteousnesse for it in which the soul shall stand boldly before the judgement seat Rom. 3. 19. By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous 2 Cor. 5. 21. We are made the righteousnesse of God in him 1 Cor. 1. 30. Ye are of him in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousnesse c. Jer. 23. 6. In his dayes Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is the name whereby they shall call him The Lord our righteousnesse The righteousnesse of Christ is therefore called the righteousnesse of God Rom. 8. 17 because it is it which God hath designed and which God doth accept for us in our justification and for and in which he doth acquit and pronounce us righteous Now in this lies our comfort thus viz. 1. That though our inherent holinesse be imperfect yet Christs righteousnesse is absolute 2. That as it is a full righteousnesse and every way answerable so it was designed by God to be that which should justifie the beleeving sinner 3. That God accepts of that righteousnesse and will clear any who hath it 4. That if by faith we have taken Christ Christ doth assuredly bestow his righteousnesse on us not by putting it into our persons but by improving it to our good It is though not infused into us yet imputed unto us and God will through it pronounce us clear SECT III. THirdly a third comfort to a beleever in Jesus Christ is this That he is in singular Covenant with God for the Covenant is with faith in Jesus Christ it was to Abraham and to his seed that is to all the faithful Observe a few things here 1. The Covenant of grace in the offer and revelation of it is the treaty of eternal happinesse 'twixt God and sinners whatsoever good a soul can desire to exempt it from misery and to make it truly happy there it is 2. The Covenant of Grace in respect of our entrance and admission into it is a most gracious and spiritual and firme engagement of God to be our God and to performe all the good which he hath there undertaken I will be a God unto you I will shew mercy unto you you shall have loving kindnesse I will give you grace in all kindes I will not faile to assist and guide and lead and uphold you I will be a father to you a rock to you a Sanctuary an alsufficiency an exceeding great reward So that if you need any thing come to me I have it for you and do not fear to come for I will assuredly do you good I am willing to do it for I have promised it and be you confident to possesse for I have obliged my self by Covenant to performe 3. He that beleeves in Jesus Christ is assuredly in the Covenant for Christ on whom he beleeves is the Messenger of the Covenant and his blood is the blood of the Covenant and in him all the promises of the Covenant are Yea and Amen If thou hast given thy consent to Christ if thou hast bestowed thy heart on him if thou hast truly received him to be thy Lord and Saviour undoubtedly God is become thy God and all those ample and rich and congruous and blessed undertakings in his Covenant they are all for thee thou art the man to whom God saith I will surely have mercy on him and to whom he saith Sin shall not have dominion over him for he is under grace and to whom he saith I will hear him and heale him and guide him and keep him Thou mayest go to all those treasures of divine promises as to thy own garden and take of any flower lay hold on any promise respecting thy particular exigence and say this is mine When thou lookest down into thy self thou mayest reade many wants with wet and sad eyes but then if thou look up to the Covenant thou mayest by faith espy all thy supplies with a glad heart Why God did put thy good into the Covenant and there thou shalt assuredly finde it Doest thou read of any altering grace of any pardoning grace of any enlarging grace of any preventing grace of any assisting grace of any preserving and upholding grace of any recovering and raising grace of any pacifying and comforting grace why all this is for thee and all that God hath there undertaken is thine SECT IV. FOurthly if you do beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ you may then with boldnesse approach the throne of grace Ephes 2. 18. For through him we both have accesse by one Spirit to the Father Heb 10. 21. Having an high Priest over the house of God Ver. 2â— Let us draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of faith 1 John 5. 13. These things I write unto you that beleeve in the Name of the Sonne of God Ver. 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Obj. You shall finde in your heart many sinful modesties you are afraid to be so bold with God and whether God will do such great matters for you yea and there are many unbeleeving fears our broken services shall never be accepted and who are we that the Lord should regard our prayers Sol. But if a man doth truly beleeve in Jesus Christ 1. His way is open to Heaven 2. He hath a friend and not an
streames on the Spring or the beames on the Sun and the fruitfulnesse of both depends upon the richnesse of faith Though the habits of grace depends immediately on Gods Spirit and not on faith yet the measures of grace depend instrumentally very much on faith it being the Conduit pipe that which draws grace for grace from Christ A weak believer cannot have such a strength of affection nor vigor of actions as the strong He is not so thankful you shall for ever finde this to be true that what is a weakening to faith that is a lessening to thanks No mans tongue is more in praise then he whose heart is filled with perswasion God hath but cold thanks from him who is yet disputing and questioning his receipts where the mercy is fully cleared there the heart is exceedingly enlarged But till the soul sees it self indeed a debter it will prove but an ill and slow pay-master How can I fully thank God that he hath expressed that Mirandum of love to give Christ to me when yet I do in my soul suspect and question whether this be so or no How can I fully blesse and praise God for his rich mercy in the pardon of my sinnes whiles my soul doth yet suspect that the book is uncrossed and the controversie of guilt is not yet taken up 'twixt God and me But where faith is strong there praise is great when the Moon is fullest of light then the tydes are higher in their returnes so the more clear apprehensions of Gods love to us in Christ even raiseth affections to a greater flow of thankful retributions Psal 103. 1. Blesse the Lord O my soul and all that is within me blesse his holy Name Ver. 2. Blesse the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits See how he chargeth and rechargeth his soul to praise but why Ver. 3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities Ver. 4. Who crowneth thee with loving kindnesse and mercies 7. The weak Beleever will be more puzled to die then the strong believer It is with the strong believer as with Simeon who held Christ in his armes Now said he lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation He may easily desire death to let him out of a miserable world who hath assuredly got and hath Christ the Authour of a better life Or as with Paul having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better 2 Cor. 5. 1. We know if our earthly house c. we have a building of God For the strong believer knows that Christ is to him in life and death advantage By him we shall go to the God of all mercies and to the Father of all consolations He shall go to that mansion which his Saviour hath provided and there have a glorious union with God and society with Saints for ever But the weak beleever will perhaps stagger and his heart will divide it self I would not yet die if I must what shall I do Christ is he whom I have loved and served but I am not sure that he is mine Heavenly glory is the wages for our service but I am not sure that I shall go into it matters are yet doubtful and my heart is yet fearful I know not whether such sinnes are yet taken off and how will God look upon me if I die of whose loving favour I have not been assured whiles I have lived I hope the best and yet I see cause to fear death may do me good yet I had rather live to clear accounts 'twixt God and my soul that so then I might give up c. 8. The weak beleever hath not such cheerful expectations nor quiet submissions as the strong believer The strong believer is at it as the Church in Micah My God will hear me and if he denies a particular good yet he can sit down and sing when he is going to prayer he chears up his heart with a confidence on God and when he findes God determining and revealing his will there he blesseth God and follows his calling But the weak believer is apt to forestal a mercy he cannot see a plain way for his grant nor an easily quiet heart after his denial 9. The efficacy of temptations doth more intangle the weak beleever then the strong like the weaker vessel at sea amidst the greater waves Satan doth cousen his soul with ease and ever and anon disrobes him of his comforts like a lewd subtile enemy he forceth the weak believer often to try and clear his title and increaseth mistakes in all passages 'twixt God and the soul 1. If he doth cast himself on mercy then it is presumption If he holds off then it is infidelity and rejecting of Christ 2. If he doubts then it is despaire and a forsaking of God 3. If he sinnes then it is unpardonable because since knowledge and mercy 4. If he findes distractions in dutie then this is hypocrisie in the heart 5. If he meets with hellish suggestions of which Satan is only the Author O then who could be in Christ and have such abominable thoughts 6. If the Ordinances do not presently comfort O then they are sealed up and there is no faith else the Word would profit 7. If every corruption be not subdued in every degree and motion and act O then vertue is not gone from Christ the heart is still nought and the faith unsound 8. If not the same constant tenor of smart affections why then there was never any true love of God no reverence of him now nor fear nor duties but the soul is dead utterly hardened and God hath no pleasure in it 9. If God doth answer the soul yea but that is but an imagination If he doth not answer why then it is cleare that God neither doth nor will ever regard you 10. If I do not go to the Sacrament why then thou slightest Christ and his blood If I go and come away with tears O then thou wast unbeleeving or else thou hadst been sent away with joy and increase 11. If I do not put on for grace then thou art wicked If I do put on for grace then thou art so wicked that God will not bestow it on thee Thus doth Satan involve and distresse and set the soul of a weak Believer like a man at chesse forward and backward he makes him to suspect every mercy and every grace and every affection and every duty and every promise and every Ordinance so violently doth he tosse though he cannot totally sink the heart of a weak believer SECT VIII Motives to strive to greaten thy faith 1. THis is a signe of truth True grace is rising dead things do moulder and artificial things remaine the same but the living childe is growing to a full stature Phil. 3. Not as though we had already attained the graine of mustard-seed grows and the smoaking flax will flame Presumption hath all its perfections at first 2. This is
have I stretched forth my hands Nay thy unbelief grieves the very heart of Christ he grieved at their unbelief â—he complaines of that slownesse in thy heart to believe O slow of heart to believe c. nay and he sheds tears because thou dost not believe and receive him When he came near the City he wept over it O Hierusalem thou that c. How often would I c Sixthly consider how unreasonable and unequal and sottish 6. Motive a thing it is not to receive Christ being thus revealed and offered 1. There is none who have right to thy soul but God and Christ our souls are Gods workmanship and Christs purchase Why then should we not give to God that which belongs to God and to Christ that which is his own Ye are not your own saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. for ye are bought with a price God put forth his own power to make thy soul and Christ shed his heart blood to redeem thy soul and yet wilt thou through infidelity with-hold it from him and passe it over into the possession of a stranger an enemy 2. Christ out-bids all Merchants for thy soul he out-bids sin and he out-bids all the world and he out-bids Satan Can the Sonne of Jesse give you vineyards said Saul can sinne give thee that which Christ can can the world let them now appear and declare their strength and treasury Is there any one of them that presents redemption unto thee Is there any one of them that can procure remission and pardoning mercy for thee Is there any one of them which can satisfie the wrath of God for thee which can make thy peace which can present thee righteous before the judgement seat which can settle eternal life upon thee All this can Christ do none of this can they do 3. Thou canst not possibly be a loser by receiving or believing on the Lord Jesus Christ Suppose it cost thee many tears and many prayers and many searchings and many waitings yet Christ will recompence all these in a moment one word I am thy salvation It is I be not afraid I am thine as thou art mine thy sins are forgiven thee will be a day for all former nights Suppose that the world doth cast thee off as they cast him out of the Synagogue who beleeved and professed Christ yet Christ will come unto thee as unto him And as Elkanah said to Hanna 1 Sam. 1. 8. Am not I better then ten sons or as the Prophet answered the King for the hundred talents God will be better unto thee 2 Sam. 20. 9. So will Christ he will supply all thy losses he will be better unto thee then houses and lands then father and mother an hundred fold better in this life and a thousand fold better in the life to come 4. What just extremity of shame and blacknesse of confusion will befal thee if thou be so wickedly unreasonable to keep off thy soul from Christ When thou art cited before God and Christ and the holy Angels and just men And God shall demand of thee why whom hast thou served upon whom hast thou bestowed thy soul who was it that made thy soul Thou Lord who was it that purchased and redeemed thy soul Thou Christ and who beseeched thee to bring back thy soul Thou by thy servants in thy Word And what did they say unto thee which should have prevailed upon thee They did assure me in thy Name that if I would come in and accept of Christ I should have favour and pardon and eternal life and what did keep back thy soul from accepting of this O it was such a lust that I loved and it was the world which I preferr'd And wouldest thou prefer earth before heaven thy profit before thy soul nay wouldest thou prefer a base sinne before a merciful God and a blessed Redeemer Thy own mouth doth testifie against thee was not my mercy better then a sinne was not my Sonne better then a sinne take him all ye children of darknesse sease on him my wrath to the utmost close him up in the lowest pit of hell conscience gnaw on him and sting him for ever fire and brimstone consume and torment him eternally he shall never have part in my mercy he shall never have portion in my Sonne He shall never see my face nor heaven who preferred his sinne his delights his profits before my love my mercy my Christ and his own soul Lastly faith would do great things for thee and Christ would do wonders for thy soul if once thy heart could be perswaded to consent unto him and to accept of him as Lord and Saviour SECT II. Secondly the impediments and hindrances Obj. But now as the Eunuch said There is water what hinders Obj. me that I may not be baptized so you may say why her is Christ set out to the life here are arguments faire enough to draw on my soul what hinders that we do not believe and receive Christ Sol. After all these discoveries yet the heart stands off and why because there are yet many cords with which the soul is held there are yet several impediments which do intangle and seduce the heart which keeps it down from mounting and rising up to the Lord of life against which we must earnestly labour if ever we would beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ I will touch some of the choisest of them 1. One impediment to faith is that natural Atheisme in the sons of men You know that as in the concoction or digestion of meats that which is a prejudice to the first concoction or digestion of meats is a hindrance to the two other and as in points of demonstration that scruple which weakens the apprehension of the truth of the principle it ever disable the strength of â—ssent to the deduced conclusion So is it in divinity whatsoever vile quality in the soul prejudiceth the reverent respects oâ— the most common and first truths it doth hinder it 〈◊〉 in the embracing of the depending truths which receive 〈◊〉 authority and strength from the grants of the 〈…〉 Now Atheisme it is a slighting quarrel with the first truths Atheistical spirit it hath most sordid and loose conceptions of God and of his Word it doth not set up God in the greatnesse of his nature and Majesty of his Attributes and Authority of his Word God looks not like a God unto him nor doth the Word of God work upon him like the Word of God God is not in all his thoughts he doth not really conceive of him as one who indeed is omnipotent and so holy and so just and so merciful as he reveales himself Those sweet truths of favour and kindnesse and mercy and the blood of Christ they are either nothing to him or as empty notions Those sharp threatnings against an unbelieving person with condemnation and wrath and hell they are as terrible fables and scar-crowes to him He doth not believe
any such displeasures nor torments that thus it shall be indeed Now how can the soul be inclined to believe in Christ to part with its deare lusts with its worldly advantages and pleasures and to submit it selfe to the Lawes and Scepter of Christ when as it doth expressely or vertually deny the nature of God and the power of his truths Didst thou indeed beleeve that there was a God didst thou indeed believe that his revelations of mans sinful misery and of his singular mercy in Christ were true and real Didst thou believe that God hath wrath and blacknesse of darkness and vials of vengeance for ever to be poured on the unbeliever and that the lake which burnes with fire and brimstone must be thy assured portion as God hath spoken how couldst thou sit still content thy heart neglect thy salvation by Christ stand off from the wayes and endeavours for faith Therefore to remove this impediment beg of God to forgive and cure the Atheisme of thy Spirit Strive to set up the true God in thy understanding and to believe that he is the Lord who will not lye Whatsoever he hath revealed himself to be and to do Why that he is and that he will performe that it is thy duty to return from sinne to him in Christ and if thou dost returne he will in mercy spare and deliver thy soul from the pit because he hath found a ransome but if thou wilt not return he wil bathe the sword of his flaming justice for ever in the blood of thy soul 2. A second impediment to the getting of faith is grosse ignorance Whatsoever is contrary to knowledge that same is contrary to faith for though faith sees not its ground in natural reason yet it must have divine evidence to shew it its object and way and causes or else it cannot be wrought in the soul The soul must have light for all its apprehensive operations for the eye to see and the understanding to perceive and for the heart to embrace Now this is it which keeps men off from beleeving they are extreamly ignorant First of their own sinful condition they do not know their nativity and conception what sin is nor what belongs to sinners â—â—w abominable and vile their natures are without all good and like a fountaine full of all wickednesse how dead in trespâ—sses and sins how totally defiled from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot How perpetually rebellious against every precept of heaven and how slâ—ghting of the tenders of salvation and mercy Secondly of Gods just disposition towards the sinful person They see him not armed and setting out against them in all the threatnings and curses of his Law as Balaam in his passage he adventured on for he saw not the Angel of the Lord with a sword in his hand ready to cleave him asunder So men rest securely in their natural state talk what you will of Christ and of God and of sinne and of faith they are not moved they know not the fearful issues of a natural and unbeleeving condition they know not that God will judge them and condemn them for ever Thirdly of the excellencies of Christ what he is whither God or man or both even as it pleaseth him but favourly what he is in respect of his Natures in respect of his Offices in respect of his Actions in respect of his Passion in respect of his Benefits in respect of his Vertues they understand not these things How God hath manifested love in Christ how Christ manifested love to them to what end he was made man why Ministers preach him so much what is more in him then in any other Alas they think not of these things they know them not Now brethren how is it possible for the soul to believe or to be perswaded to believe in Christ or to labour for this precious faith which is a stranger to it self to God to Christ Didst thou indeed know thy condition to be the condition of death wouldest thou not make out for the Lord of life didst thou indeed know thy condition to be the condition of enmity wouldest thou not strive to get unto the Prince of peace So againe as Christ spake to the woman If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water John 4. 10. O if men did know what a gift Christ was If heaven and earth men and Angels had studyed the helps of a poore sinner they could never have imagined such a remedy as God found in giving his own Sonne Now if men did know him aright what a Redeemer what a Lord he is what living water is in him That in him only there is life for the dead recovery for the sinner satisfaction for guilt sanctification for the soul atonement for trespasses comfort for distresses balme for wounds salvation for their persons Why how could it be but that they should ask of him for a drop at least of water for some faith to receive him who is the fountain of grace and life 3. A third impediment to the endeavours for faith is a vain confidence of natural righteousnesse This was it which kept off many of the Pharisees the Text saith That they trusted to their own righteousnesse Yea this is called the stumbling of the Jewes it cast them flat that they doted so on legal abilities When a base heart hath proud imaginations of Christ and peace and safety from something within it self why It will never look after Christ A proud person who hath mony in his house he scornes to be beholding to his neighbour the proud sinner who conceives that all is well 'twixt him and God and that he hath done no man wrong and none can say black is his eye he is neither whore not thief and his heart is as good as the best and his meanings are alwayes honest and none can tax him for injustice and he hath kept all Gods Commandments as well as ever he could and he hath had a good belief he thanks God ever since he was borne I tell you such a person will not be beholding to God for Christ for he in his opinion being so whole needs not the Physician neither shall you perswade him to mourn for his sinnes or to repent and to part with all for Christ to deny himself and all his own vaine confidences and to put himself only upon Jesus Christ he trusts to be saved by his good deeds and by his good meanings Ah foolish and seduced soul Who hath bewitched thee to forsake thine own mercies Thinkest thou that God would have sent his onely Sonne and to poure out his own soule for sinners if that yet there had been ability in sinful man to have purchased his own safety and happinesse And doest thou see no sinne in thy self which may therefore for ever thrust thee off from
Thou shalt see there all thy good set freely open that God stands not for this nor for that and it matters not what thou hast been there is mercy enough for what is past and there is grace to renew thy heart for the present and strength for the future and thou mayest sue out the Lord for this faith of which we now speak and he will surely give it unto thee 3. Study the main hinderances of distance twixt Christ and the Covenant and thy soul There is one thing above all the rest which keeps thee off and that is unbelief For God doth not require any other thing of thee in the entrance of Christ but only to accept of him He doth not say if thou hadst never offended me then I would have bestowed my Sonne on thee or if thou hadst not offended me so much or if thou canst bring any singular nature and excellent qualities of thine own then I will give my Sonne unto thee or then I will give thee leave No but all that he requires is this Beleeve and accept of my Sonne to be thy Lord and Saviour and I will in him give thee pardon Why now brethren this is the last and sore check of the match our hearts are unbelieving we will not condescend to this condition but fly hovering after some unknown and devised method of our own 4. Study much the sinfulnesse of unbelief that it is a sinne and a great sinne and that in thee What! after all sense of misery to hold off from remedy not to close with Gods great love as if God were not wise enough to shew thee the way of salvation or as if he were not true that thou darest not to venture and fasten thy soule and state upon his Word 5. Study well wherein the nature of faith doth consist Many Obj. persons seeme to complaine that they have no faith and Sol. cannot believe Why they are not right in the doctrinal part of faith they mistake faith exceedingly thinking it to consist in a full assurance and in a sensible taste of Gods love in Christ and in a sensible and clear perswasion that their sins are pardoned which because as yet they never had they therefore perplex themselves much about faith Therefore inform thy self what faith in Christ is It is the hearty accepting of Christ upon his own conditions if thy heart and soul are willing to accept of Christ as the only Lord to rule thee and as the only Redeemer to save thee and to cleave unto him for better for worse through all the changes which may befal thee for Christs sake why this is faith viz. An accepting of his person and a reposing of the soul upon him for its safety and a cleaving to him upon all states If thou canst finde thus much that there is no one sinne which shall rule thee to the love and obedience of which thou wilt resigne thy selfe but Christ is he whom thou choosest for to be thy Lord And there is no Name in heaven and earth upon which thou wilt put confidence for thy righteousnesse and discharge and salvation but only in Christ. And upon him thy soul entirely and unfainedly desires to rest it self thou hast true faith 6. Know this and convince thy self of it that thou shalt never hurt thy self nor offend God if thou couldest believe wherefore hath God given Christ and wherefore hath Christ given himselfe and wherefore is he now offered to sinners and wherefore are we commanded to beleeve if yet to beleeve that is to accept of Christ to consent to the acceptance of his person upon his own condition were a sinne 7. Withal this beg fervently of God that he would perswade thy heart to beleeve that is to accept of Christ to be thy Lord and Saviour and to rest thy soul upon him No man comes to me saith Christ except the Father draw him Now then O Lord draw me and I shall runne after thee O subdue this unbeleeving heart and give unto me the Spirit of faith and love and obedience Lastly look for this gift of faith to be wrought in thee by the Spirit of Christ in the Ordinances and wait upon God there continually Thou shalt in time perhaps sooner perhaps later finde thy soule touched and thy feares answered and thy soule made exceedingly willing to accept of Christ as thy Lord and to put it self upon him as thy Saviour Yea hold on in waiting and seeking and thou shalt not only have Christ formed in thee and faith formed in thee but thou shalt come to know him whom thou hast accepted and trusted This is a sweet and safe course for a sensible sinner viz. 1. To present up his request unto God in the Name of Christ earnestly beseeching him to declare this Almighty working of his Spirit in causing the heart to beleeve 2. Then to stand in the wayes of grant and come to the Ordinances wherein God doth reveale his arme and give faith and so enclines and unites the soul with Christ What thou doest earnestly seek in a private way that God doth ordinarily answer and bestow in a publick 3. Then wait and expect not to limit God just to this time nor to this preacher nor to cast off all confidence of answer upon present denials but to look up from day to day from week to week if at length God will give thee faith I never reade or heard of any whose hearts were thus set but God hath found a time to give unto them the desires of their souls He hath repâ—enished their souls with his salvation and loving kindnesse Therefore go on cheerfully in the use of these meanes whatsoever befals thee yet it shall be well with thee He that hath found Christ cannot but say that this way is good and he who is thus seeking of him shall say it was not in vaine to follow it SECT IV. Fourthly The Objections NOw I proceed to the resolution of those Scruples which do entangle the soul of a sinful sinner and hinder him from beleeving which beget extream fears and doubts that he may not lay hold on Christ and that God will never bestow Christ on him neither would he take it well of the soul to be so busie and forward Obj. 1. Why saith the sensible sinner my sinnings have been so great and transgressions so mighty that I may never look up with any confidence upon the rock of salvation nay it is not Satan onely but my own conscience which doth testifie against me the manifold numbers and the high exceedings of my rebellions I tell you you would tremble to think of such lewdnesse whereof I have been and now do stand guilty and the sensible consideration of them makes my heart to sink and checks me with shame and blushing when I think of laying hold on Christ Sol. For the assoyling of this Objection consider these particulars First the greatnesse of sinning should be a strong reason to compel in the soul
So c. Secondly consider his many personal invitations he hath from his own mouth both counselled and envited the poore sinner unto him I counsel thee to buy gold and raiment and eye salve Rev. 3. 18. The Spirit and the bride say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Rev. 22. 17. Ho! every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and be that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Encline your eare and come unto me and your soul shall live And I will make with you an everlasting Covenant even the sure mercies of David Isa 55. 1 2. 3. Behold I have given him for a witnesse to the people Ver. 4. Jesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink John 7. 37. Thirdly consider he hath assured thee of acceptance Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out John 6. 37. He will not shut the door against thee when he hath envited thee but thou shalt be a welcome guest nay he will surely do thee good Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Fourthly there was never any one who did come unto him but sped well Thou canst not finde any one Iota of unwillingnesse nor of his disregard but all have found him to be a merciful High Priest and a compassionate Saviour who have accepted of him Fifthly consider that he doth still negotiate with thee Though he be returned to the highest heavens yet he hath dispatched Embassadors in his Name to publish and to call upon thee and to beseech thee 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation Ver. 20. Now then we are Ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God V. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Object If there were any hope of reconciliation may a man reply then I should believe Sol. Why saith the Apostle God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself Object But if God had commanded any in his Name to publish this Sol. He hath committed to us the word of Reconciliation Object But you may do it out of your compassion not from a commission Sol. We are Embassadours for Christ and pray you in Christs stead Object But our sins will prejudice the Reconciliation Sol. He hath made him to be sin for us Sixthly consider his marvellous patience If he were not willing he would never have re-inforced his suit but would have taken the first denial But he hath followed them who have fled from him He hath gone after the sinner who hath many times turned his back Rom. 10. 21. All the day long have I stretched out my hand unto a disobedient and gainsaying people In this sense we may apply that of the Prophet He doth wait that he may be gracious and yet continues his Embassadors to bring thee home unto him Seventhly consider His sad complaints for thy holding off and not beleeving when he came neer to Hierusalem he wept over it and said How often would I have gathered thee Matth. 23. 37. And O if thou hadst known even thou at the least in this thy day the things which concern thy peace Luke 19. 41 42. And why will you not come unto me John 5. 40. As if you did see a tender father pursuing a rebellious childe and working upon him by counsel and entreaties and by hands of bounty and he will not yet hearken the father steps to a friend and powers out tears O I cannot win him I cannot turn him doth not this shew a willingnesse So c. Lastly consider his Will is exhibited to us in all the kindes of willingnesse I observe that his will may be manifested three wayes First in commands and there is a preceptive will and Christ commands thee to beleeve Secondly in promises and there is a gracious and encouraging will and Christ hath promised himself and all that he hath done and suffered if thou wilt beleeve in him Thirdly in threatnings and there is a just and vindictive will and Christ hath pronounced an abiding wrath and an everlasting death against him that will not beleeve So that this is most clear that Christ is most willing that a poor sinner should come in and embrace him and be saved by him Secondly The order of assurance But then for the order of assurance that Christ is willing Observe that there is a double assurance 1. One which is precedent and grounds the soul to beleeve 2. Another is subsequent and attends the soul after its beleeving That precedent assurance consists in a clear and convincing demonstration that Christ is willing to be taken by the sinner This subsequent assurance consists in a reflexive perswasion that he is my Christ and Saviour being by faith taken and accepted Now if a sinner expects this latter assurance before he will beleeve he doth preposterously and vainly perplex his soule nay it is an impossibility to lead on the soul this way nay it were a falshood and a delusion to the soul if it had a reflexive assurance that Christ and his benefits are mine before the heart did by faith beleeve in him and accept of him I did cousen my soul with a lie for Christ is not that mans who doth not yet beleeve on him the ways of this kinde of assurance is as it were the eccho of the original wayes of faith a consequent of it but never an antecedent For a man to solace himself that the estate is his before the person is his or that the person is his before he hath accepted of the person Why this is but the fruit of a vain and idle fancy But the former assurance that is a sweet inducement unto the soul to beleeve viz. when the soul ban get three things cleared and resolved 1. The certainty of a Saviour 2. The alsufficiency of him 3. His willingnesse to embrace and accept of a beleeving sinner Now this assurance is to be drawn from the very nature and offices and dispositions of Christ and from the command and invitations and promises of the Gospel which when the soul hath throughly perused and scanned it shall clearly see and freely acknowledge if it wil not blasphemously suspect Gods own truths for lies that Christ is both an able and also a willing Saviour not only willing to lay down his life but most willing that sinners should come to him and believe in him and so
live by faith Take a place for either Ier. 17. 5. Thus saith the Lord cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. As the Lord of Samaria ver 6. For he shall be like the heath in the desart and shall not see when good cometh but shall inhabit the parched places in the wildernesse in a salt land and not inhabited Psal 37. 39. The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord he is their strength in the time of trouble ver 40. And the Lord shall keep them and deliver them c. and save them because they trust in him The soul oft-times bitterly complaines that as yet it hath not that good thing it sticks yet in the hands of God Christ can do it if he will Why but if ever thou wouldest speed thou must trust I dare not trust though saith the soul how then canst thou speed Why then doest thou complaine God and Christ undertakes thy good but then he requires this of thee do but trust me for it and thou shalt speed I will not fail thee I have sworne by my self that I will not alter nor repent The poor man comes to Christ and cries out for help Mark 9. O Lord saith he if thou canst do any thing c. Why saith Christ I can do any thing I am able enough and willing enough that 's not the thing this is it which will make thee to speed canst thou believe darest thou to trust upon me he answered Lord I believe I do trust and you know that his son was presently healed The childe comes to the father father supply me I will saith the father but I will have it instantly if he had asked and trusted his father he might have sped but because he doth ask and murmur with his father he is therefore justly denyed There are two things which mightily oblige a person to the doing of a kindnesse one is his own promise another is his friends confidence who hath upon the security of his word adventured so here besides the very inclination of the divine goodnesse to make good its own undertakings this also adds not a little to our speed and furtherance that we rely onely on God It is a common complaint that we cannot be answered I reply it is a common fault that God nor Christ can be trusted It is not how many wants thou feelest nor how many promises thou readest nor how many prayers thou makest If with all this thou doest not ask in faith think not O man to receive any thing from the Lord. I will give you three reasons why the life of faith is the only way to thrive First because it puts a man upon the only way of blessings As none can blesse but God and he can blesse so the blessings of God are to be expected only in the wayes of God and nothing so skilful in Gods wayes as faith Secondly it makes all the promises to yield It is true as God is infinitely above all and his power is greaâ— so faith in a qualified sense is above God himself he is not able to stand against it Be it to thee as thou wilt said Christ to the believing woman Thou shalt have the desires of thine heart said David Psal 37. 3. 4. Thirdly God himselfe and Christ and all become ours If we dare to trust and live by faith Thou wants outward supplies I require no more of thee saith God but to walk uprightly and diligently and to trust on me and thou shalt have it Thou wants spiritual supplies for thy soul I require no more of thee but to come to me to trust to me and go to my Ordinances stand in my wayes and thou shalt have them Fourthly it is the only stedfast and abiding life when other lives are broken and crushed they are gone down yet this life by faith like the Starres which shine in the night remaines firme I will clear it by Argument The stability of all sorts of lives is according to their principles and motives The life which depends upon a failing cause it is a fadeing life and the life which depends upon a constant cause is a constant life Now the life of faith is bred by a living principle and is fed by constant and abiding motives you know that the grounds of this life of faith are in God and Christ and the promise now all changes reach not to them our changes are below in other things but they are not in the promises nor in God above as changes are not in the heavens but in the aire Look upon things at hand and so they appeare with variety and with much unlikenesse but eye them in the Covenant in the Promises there you have the same faithful God still tender father still all sufficient Saviour still the Promises are yea and Amen Christ is the everlasting father the Covenant of God an everlasting Covenant Gods love and immutable love he is as able still as willing still his how abides in strength and underneath are his everlasting armes Though Davids father and mother forsake him yet the Lord will take him up and though all forsook Paul yet God stood by him so true is it that faith can cast a sure Anchor in all states and in all changes it can look upon the same God and the same Christ and the same promises Though the Marriners when they put to sea quickly lose sight of Land yet they never loose sight of heaven how far soever they saile and in what tempest soever yet still they may look upon the heaven the same heaven Faith never loseth sight of its rock of its salvation of its helpes that which it eyes it may eye for ever and that upon which it trusts it may trust upon for ever thou hast friends and this springs up thy spirit thy friends dye and now thy spirits sink thou hast parents and children in these thou rejoycest and settlest thy confidence both the one and the other embrace the dust and thy heart is utterly broken for help and comfort O Lord what have I more E contra thou hast a God and he is the same for ever a Christ and he yesterday to day and the same for ever Promises and they are a word setled forever in heaven But when all sensibles flie off yet if we live by faith we are at no degree of losse what can he lack who hath him who is all in all and what can he lose who hath him that knows no change at all Fourthly let us consider Jesus Christ himself There are diverse things which should perswade us to live by faith upon him There are nine things in him which may move us 1. The exceeding plentifulnesse of our supplies in him Thou art not approaching to a dry Cisterne but to a full fountain what may do thee good he hath and he hath that in a most eminent fulnesse Is it the good and vertue of
p. 142 Every Beleever partakes of Christs crucifying vertue p. 143 Every beleever partakes of preserving vertue from Christ p. 144 Every beleever partakes of Christs assisting vertue p. 143 Uncheerfulnesse Uncheerfulnesse of heart shews faith to be weak p. 135 Unbelief Dangerous misery of unbelief p. 87 Unbelief leaves all our sins upon record p. 87 The unbeliever must alone answer for his sins p. 87 The unbeleever judged as an unrighteous person p. 88 The greatnesse of the sinne of unbelief proved p. 88 A sinne against greatest love Ibid Against the only remedy p. 89 Makes void all the Covenant of grace p. 89 Directly murders the soul p. 89 Unbelieving state dangerous p. 160 Unbelief binds all our sins upon the soul p. 160 Unbelief grieves the heart of Christ p. 166 The cunnings of natural unbelief hindrances to faith p. 175. What those cunnings are p. 175 176 Unbelief is the worst of sinnes p. 185. Unbelief is no cure to the strength of sin p. 206 207 Unbelief breeds an indisposition towards holy duties p. 210 A threefold difference betwixt an unbeleever and a beleever p. 210 Unholy An unholy beleever is as proper a phrase as a holy Devil p. 100 Upright An upright care to please God a meanes of assurance p. 28◠Unworthinesse Unworthinesse should not keep us off from Christ p. 188 Personal unworthinesse is no prejudice but a furtherance p. 188 A twofold unworthinesse p. 192 Unity Habitual unity of all true faith in four particulars p. 119. 120 W Waiting A waiting faith is a strong faith p. 130 Way Way of beleevers is not a By way nor an uncertain way p. 110 Weak An anxious and careful soul is weak in faith p. 135 A weak faith though not sure that Christ is its Saviour yet will honour Christ as its Lord. p. 136 A weak faith what it wants in breadth of perswasion makes up in depth of humility p. 137 A weak faith though it have but tender confidences of its interest in Christ yet it hath strong dislikes and combates with unbeliefe pag. 137 A weak faith will not rest in weaknesse if truth be in it p. 138 A weak faith ventures its soul on Christ though it cannot clear its title nor answer its fears p. 139 A weak beleever falls short in joy p. 146 A weak Beleever hath not that sweet peace a strong beleever hath p. 147 A weak Beleever hath not that sweetnesse in communion with God pag. 149 A weak Beleever hath not that successefulnesse in communion with God pag. 150 A weak beleever is more under the power of the creature then the strong pag. 151 A weak beleever cannot bring God so much glory as a strong p. 153 A weak beleever will be more puzzled to die p. 154 A weak beleever hath not such cheerful expectations nor quiet submissions p. 155 A weak beleever is more entangled with efficacy of temptations p. 155 Will. The Will cannot of it self enliven it selfe to that great part of life believing p. 33 34 Christ is willing to accept sinners proved p. 193 Christs Will to save sinners manifested three wayes p. 195 196 Vid. Assurance Word The Word and Prayer the great power of God to change the heart and conquer Satan p. 1 What word a sinner hath to induce the soul to believe p. 165 The word is the Ministerial instrument to beget saith p. 177 The word a meanes to make us know our interest in Christ p. 280 World The world an impediment to beleeving p. 174 Works In what the perfection of good works doth consist p. 58 59 No proportion betwixt our works and our pardon p. 59 60 What relation there is betwixt good works and salvation p. 60 Works justifie our faith p. 105 How works can evidence faith since evil men may performe them and some beleevers have not wherewithal to do them p. 106 Worthinesse There is a double worthinesse p. 192 Vid. Unworthinesse The Contents of the Chapters and Sections CHap. 1. The dependance of the words p. 1 Chap. 2. The words opened with the several doctrines p. 4. § 1. Change of heart breeds change of estimation towards the Ministers of the Gospel p. 5 § 2. Sensible sinners are ever inquisitive p. 5 § 3. The main and choise thing the troubled soul looks after is how to save it self p. 6 § 4. Persons rightly sensible are as throughly resolved for the means and wayes as for the end and scope p. 9 § 5. When God doth throughly work upon mens consciences personal injuriousness must be forgotten by them who are to deal with them p. 10 § 6. Troubled souls must be directed to Christ p. 12 Chap. 3. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the only way to salvation p. 13 § 1. What Jesus signifies and what kinde of Saviour Christ is p. 14 § 2. What Christ signifieth and of his anointing p. 18 § 3. Vnto what Christ was anointed and of his office of a Priest p. 20 § 4. Christ anointed to be a Prophet p. 26 § 5. Christ anointed to be a King p. 27 Chap. 4. What believing in the Lord Jesus Christ doth import p. 29 Chap. 5. Faith in Christ described p. 32 § 1. The spring or fountaine of faith p. 32 § 2. The Subject of faith p. 34 § 3. The seat or habitation of faith p. 35 § 4. The proper and genuine act of faith p. 37 Chap. 6. The object of justifying faith p. 40 § 1. The immediate object of faith p. 41 § 2. The adequate and proper object of faith p. 41 § 3. How faith doth exercise it self about whole Christ p. 43 § 4. What is the exercise of faith in Christ as a Saviour King Prophet Lord. p. 45 § 5. Five particulars about taking and receiving Christ as a Lord and Saviour p. 46 § 6. The consequent object of faith remission of sins and righteousnesse and how faith is conversant about remission of sins p. 48 § 7. How faith looks on Christ for righteousnesse p. 50 Chap. 7. How it may appear that to beleeve in Christ is the only way to be saved Where are some particulars premised p. 52 § 1. The Argument for the confirmation of the Doctrine p. 55 § 2. The second Argument p. 62 § 3. The third Argument p. 63 § 4. The fourth Argument p. 63 § 5. The fifth Argument p. 64 Chap. 8. Consectaries from this doctrine setting out the singular use of preaching and hearing of the Gospel p. 65 Chap. 9. Our Justification to be found only in Jesus Christ p. 68 § 1. The word Justification explained p. 69 § 2. Justification defined and opened p. 70 § 3. The person justified is a believing sinner p. 73 § 4. The Remission of sinnes belong to Justification p. 74 § 5. The righteousnesse of Christ is that by which we are Justified p. 76 § 6. The Justification of a sinner is a gracious and just action p. 78 Chap. 10. The difficulty of beleeving p. 79 Chap. 11. The facility of
an unbelieving heart But faith makes the soul well pleased because it presents the soul with such a good as cannot only satisfie but also exceed it God is an infinite goodnesse he who can satisfie more then a world may well content one mans heart and Gods favour is a satisfying good I shall be satisfied with thy favour said David and to this doth faith entitle yea this it doth reveale to the soul And I will tell you one thing that he who cannot be contented with a God and his favour with a Christ and his blood with a Covenant and its fulnesse he will never be content with any thing if alsufficiency be not enough to thee when can emptinesse and vanity please and satisfie thee What if a man hath but a little Garden yet if he hath a large Parke and ten thousand Acres of Arables and the Kings royal favour to grace all this I tell you this would sparkle his spirit it would breath a well-pleasednesse in him Thou complainest that thou hast but little of earthly things I grant it and a little may be enough enough depends more on quality then quantity but then though the Garden be but small yet the Park is large though thy portion in externals be not so great yet this with a great and all sufficient God and a blessed Saviour and a heaven to boot is enough and enough If the wife saith she hath but a small joynture yet if she hath a rich and tender husband she is to be blamed if she saith she hath not enough Faith viewes the Christians estate not as it is in its hand but as in her husbands hand in Christs and then all is well enough 4. It assures of universal and reasonable supplies The Lord is my Shepheard I shall not want so David Psal 23. 1. follow him a little in that Psalme and you shall see what God hath done Time past for him he made his pastures green and his waters still vers 2. O what a freshnesse and what a calmnesse doth faith make in the state His soul is taken care for and at the worst when he was in the valley of the shadow of death yet he was quieted from fear because his faith saw God there yea and found him there to uphold and comfort That for what was past Then for his present condition See ver 5. His table is prepared for him as if he took no care no anxious care he needed not to trouble himself Present thou preparest a table for me and not a mean table neither my cup runneth over nor yet a dull and uncheerful table thou anointest my head with oyle so that faith for the present findes food and cheer enough too But then for the future condition will this hold out See what faith findes in reversion ver 6. Surely goodnesse and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of Future my life Goodnesse perhaps that respected his temporal estate Mercy perhaps that respected his spiritual 1. One his body 2. Another his soul and both these shall follow him as the shadow that followes the body they should be still at hand but how long not for a day only but all his dayes not all the dayes of his dignities abilities health but all the dayes of his life Nay yet againe surely they shall follow me It was not a speech of fancy but of certainty it was out of all doubt and peradventure surely mercy and goodnesse shall c. So Psal 84. 11. The Lord God is a Sun and a shield the sun is the parent of light so is God of all good The Sun is the cause of all fruitfulnesse and cheerfulnesse so is God of all blessings and he is a shield to a Sunne for the doing of good and a shield to secure and protect from evil The Lord will give grace and glory Grace is the best thing which a man can nave on earth and Glory is the highest thing which a man can have in heaven But these he will give they shall not be bought but freely bestowed No good thing will he withhold c. As it he should say if grace be not enough for earth if glory be nâ—t enough for heaven think then of any other good thing there is not any other good thing which shall be withheld that is which shall not like the rain which ceaseth to be withheld poure down upon you Will you heare the Prophet say a word to this to this future supplies for them who live by faith then read Jer. 17. 7. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord whose hope the Lord is Here we finde the beleever at his work of trusting or living by faith and at his wages too Blessed is the man that trusteth c. Indeed the Prophet speaks a great word he is blessed more cannot be said but let 's see how he proves that ver 8. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh but his lease shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yielding fruit If faith plants the tree in a springing soyl if it beholds the tree to spread and grow and bear in all weathers though heat cometh in al times though drought cometh yet the leafe is green and fruitful and ceaseth not to yield doth it not then assure us of supply for the fuâ—ure hath it not a good Store-house an ample treasury for the beleever What should I say more may not faith say that to the soul which God hath said to faith if so then we may well rejoyce for the present and be void of care for the future for God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Hâ—b 13. 5. Thou hast mercy and shalt still have mercy Thou hast grace and shalt still have grace Thy part in Christ and still shalt have it supplies of all good and still shalt have them 3. The life of faith is the only getting and thriving life What the Apostle spâ—ke of godlinesse that we may say of Faith It is great gaine for it hath the promises of this life and of the life which is to come Profit is that which most men look upon it is the cry of most who will shew us any good and faith hath a singular art of getting I observe that the gâ—od of a Christian in some respect hangs in the promises as water doth in the clouds and look as the boysterous windes rather drive away the clouds and rain though a few drops may slâ—p down but it is the sweet heat of the Sunne which makes the cloudes to open themselves and give out their store So the only way to drive away the promises as it were to remove them with their blessings is not to believe not to trust and the only way to make them to yield out their precious treasures is to believe to