let me begin to plead it with your consciences Are you Believers Do you live the life of Faith or not Do you live upon things that are unseen or upon the present visible baits of sensuality That you may not turn away your ears or hear me with a sluggish sensless mind let me tell you first how nearly it concerneth you to get this Question soundly answered and then that you may not be deceived let me help you toward the true resolution 1. And for the first you may perceive by what is said that saving Faith is not so common as those that know not the nature of it do imagine All men have not faith 2 Thes 3.2 O what abundance do deceive themselves with Names and shews and a dead Opinion and customary Religion and take these for the life of faith 2. Till you have this faith you have no special interest in Christ It is only Believers that are united to him and are his living Members and it is by faith that he dwelleth in our hearts and that we live in him Ephes 3.17 Gal. 2.20 In vain do you boast of Christ if you are not true Believers You have no part or portion in him None of his special Benefits are yours till you have this living working Faith 3. You are still in the state of enmity to God and unreconciled to him while you are unbelievers For you can have no peace with God nor aâ—â—ess unto his favour but by Christ Rom. 5.1 2 3 4. Ephes 2.14 15 17. And therefore you must come by faith to Christ before you can come by Christ unto the Father as those that have a special interest in his love 4. Till you have this Faith you are under the guilt and load of all your sins and under the curse and condemnation of the Law For there is no Justification or forgiveness but by Faith Act. 26.18 Rom. 4 5 c. 5. Till you have this sound Belief of things unseen you will be carnal minded and have a carnal end to all your actions which will make those to be evil that materially are good and those to be fleshly that materially are holy Without Faith it is impossible to please God Rom. 8.5 8 9. Prov. 28.9 Heb. 11.6 6. Lastly Till you have this living Faith you have no right to Heaven nor could be saved if you die this hour Whoever believeth shall not perish but have everlasting life He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not iâ— condemned already He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that bâ—lieveth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abidâ—th on him Joh. 3.16 18 36. You see if you love your selves it concerneth you to try whether you are true Believers Unless you take it for an indifferent thing whether you live for ever in Heaven or Hell it 's best for you to put the question close to your consciences betimes Have you that Faith that serves instead of sight Do you carry within you the evidence of things unseen and the substance of the things which you say you hope for Did you know in what manner this question must be put and determined at judgement and how all your comfort will then depend upon the answer and how near that day is when you must all be sentenced to Heaven or Hell as you are found to be Believers or Vnbelievers it would make you hearken to my counsel and presently try whether you have a saving Faith 2. But lest you be deceived in your trial and lest you mistake me as if I tryed the weak by the measure of the strong and laid all your comfort upon such strong affections and high degrees as fight it self would work within you I shall briefly tell you how you may know whether you have any faith that 's true and saving though in the least degree Though none of us are affected to that height as we should be if we had the sight of all that we do believe yet all that have any saving belief of invisible things will have these four signs of faith within them 1. A sound belief of things unseen will cause a practical estimation of them and that above all earthly things A glimpse of the heavenly glory as in a glass will cause the soul deliberately to say This is the chief desirable felicity this is the Crown the Pearl the Treasure nothing but this can serve my turn It will debase the greatest pleasures or riches or honours of the world in your esteem How contemptible will they seem while you see God stand by and Heaven as it were set open to your view you 'l see there 's little cause to envy the prosperous servants of the world you will pitty them as miserable in their mirth and bound in the fetters of their folly and concupiscence and as strangers to all solid joy and honour You will be moved with some compassion to them in their misery when they are braving it among men and domineering for a little while and you will think alas poor man Is this all thy glory Hast thou no better wealth no higher honour no sweeter pleasures than these husks With such a practical judgement as you value gold above dirt and jewels above common stones you will value Heaven above all the riches and pleasures of this world if you have indeed a living saving faith Phil. 3.7 8 9. 2. A sound belief of the things unseen will habitually incline your wills to embrace them with consent and complacence and resolution above and against those worldly things that would be set above them and preferred before them If you are true believers you have made your choice you have fixâ— your hopes you have taken up your resolutions that God must be your portion or you can have none that 's worth the having that Christ must be your Saviour or you cannot be saved and therefore you are at a point with all things else they may be your Helps but not your Happiness you are resolved on what Rock to build and where to cast anchor and at what port and prize your life shall aim You are resolved what to seek and trust to God or none Heaven or nothing Christ or none is the voice of your rooted stable resolutions Though you are full of fears sometimes whether you shall be accepted and have a part in Christ or no and whether ever you shall attain the Glory which you aim at yet you are off all other hopes having seen an end of all perfections and read vanity and vexation written upon all creatures even on the most flattering state on earth and are unchangeably resolved not to change your Master and your hopes and your holy course for any other life or hopes Whatever come of it you are resolved that here you will venture all Knowing that you have no other game to play at which you are not sure to lose and that you
both to the Father and to us and so of our NEARNESS to God in and by him Our distance is the lamentable fruit of our Apostacy which inferreth our fears and estrangedness and backwardness to draw near to God It causeth our ignorance of him and our false conceits of his will and works it greatly hindereth both love and confidence whereas the apprehension of our nearness to God will do much to cure all these evils As it is the misery of the proud that God looketh on them as afar off that is with strangeness and abhorrence and disdain Psal 138.6 And accordingly they shall be far off from the blessed ones hereafter Luke 16.23 So it is the happiness of Believers to be nigh to God in Jesus Christ who condescended to be nigh to us which is our preparation to be yet nearer to him for ever Psal 148.14 34.18 145.18 Ephes 2.13 It giveth the soul more familiar thoughts of God who seemed before to be at an inaccessible distance which is part of the boldness of access and confidence mentioned Ephes 3.12 2.18 Rom. 5.2 Heb. 10.19 We may come boldly to the Throne of grace Heb. 4.16 And it greatly helpeth us in the work of Love to think how near God is come to us in Christ and how near he hath taken the humane nature unto him When a sinner looketh at God only as in himself and as he is estranged from the guilty he is amazed and confounded as if God were quite out of the reach of our love but when he thinketh how he hath voluntarily come down into our flesh that he might be man and be familiar with man and what a wonderful marriage the Divine Nature hath made with the humane this wonderfully reconcileth the heart to God and maketh the thoughts of him more sweet and acceptable If the life of faith be a dwelling in God and God in us and a walking with God 1 Joh. 3.24 4.12 15 16. Ephes 3.17 Gen. 17.1 24.40 5.22 6.9 Heb. 11.5 Then must we perceive our nearness to God The just apprehension of this nearness in Christs Incarnation and Relation to us is the chief means to bring us to the nearness of love and heavenly conversation Col. 3.1 3 4. Direct 8. Make Christ therefore the Mediation for all your practical thoughts of God The thoughts of God will be strange to us through our distance and terrible through our guilt if we look not upon him through the prospective of Christs humanity and cross God out of Christ is a consuming fire to guilty souls As our acceptance must be through the Beloved in whom he is well pleased so our thoughts must be encouraged with the sense of that acceptance and every thought must be led up to God and emboldened by the Mediatour Mat. 3.17 17.5 12.18 Ephes 1.6 Heb. 2.9 10 12 13 17. Direct 9. Never come to God in prayer or any other act of worship but by the Mediation of the Son and put all your prayers as into his hand that he may present them to the Father There is no hoping for any thing from God to sinners but by Christ and therefore there is no speaking to God but by him not only in his Name but also by his Mediation And this is the exercise of his Priesthood for us by his heavenly intercession so much spoken of by the Holy Ghost in the Epistle to the Hebrews Seeing we have a great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession Let us therefore come boldly to the Throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.14 16. Direct 10. Hear every word of Scripture Precept and Ministerial Exhortation consonant to the Scripture as sent to us by Christ and from the Father by him as the appointed Teacher of the Church Hear Christ in his Gospel and his Ministers and hear God the Father in the Son Take heed of giving only a slight and verbal acknowledgement of the voice of Christ whilest you really are more taken with the Preachers voice as if he had a greater share in the Sermon than Christ hath The voice in the holy Mount which Peter witnesseth that he heard 2 Pet. 1.17 was This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Mat. 17.5 And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people Acts 3.23 When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the Word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which worketh effectually in you that believe 1 Thes 2.13 The Sheep will follow him for they know his voice a stranger they will not follow John 10.4 5. Direct 11. Take every mercy from God as from the hand of Christ both as procured by his Cross and as delivered by his Mediatory Administration It is still supposed that the giving of the Son himself by the Father to this office is excepted as presupposed But all subsequent particular mercies are both procured for us and given to us by the Mediator Yet is it nevertheless from God the Father nor doth it evertheless but the more fully signifie his love But the state of sinners alloweth them no other way of communication from God for their benefit and happiness but by one who is more near and capable to God who from him may convey all blessings unto them Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in things heavenly in Christ Ephes 1.3 He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 Through the knowledge of him the Divine Power giveth us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son 1 John 5.10 11. All things are delivered into his hand Joh. 13.3 17.2 Therefore receive every particular mercy for soul and body as from the blood and from the present mediation of Christ that you may rightly understand it and have it as sanctified and sweetned by Christ Direct 12. Let Faith take occasion by every sin to renew your sense of the want of Christ and to bring you to him to meditate and grant you a renewed pardon Therefore entertain not their mistake who tell men that all sin past present and to come is fully pardoned at once whether it be before you were born in Gods decree or Christs satisfaction or at the time of your conversion nor theirs who teach that Christ pardoneth only sins before conversion but as for all that are committed afterward he doth prevent the need of pardon by preventing all guilt and obligation to punishment except meer temporal chastisement The preparation
those things that are not seen Or you may take the sense in this Proposition which I am next to open further and apply viz. That the nature and use of faith is to be as it were instead of presence possession and sight or to make the things that will be as if they were already in existence and the things unseen which God revealeth as if our bodily eyes beheld them 1. Not that faith doth really change its object 2. Nor doth it give the same degree of apprehensions and affections as the sight of present things would do But 1. Things invisible are the objects of our faith 2. And Faith is effectual instead of sight to all these uses 1. The apprehension is as infallible because of the objective certainty though not so satisfactory to our imperfect souls as if the things themselves were seen 2. The will is determined by it in its necessary consent and choice 3. The affections are moved in the necessary dâ—gree 4. It ruleth in our lives and bringeth us through duty and suffering for the sake of the happiness which we believe 3. This Faith is a grounded wise and justifiable act an infallible knowlâ—dge and often called so in Scripture John 6.69 1 Cor. 15.58 Rom. 8.28 c. And the constitutive and efficient causes will justifie the Name We know and are infallibly sure of the truth of God which we believe As it 's said John 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God 2 Cor. 5.1 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 Hâ—avens Rom. 8.28 We know that all things work together for good to them that love God 1 Cor. 15.58 You know that your labour is nâ—t in vain in the Lord Joh. 9.29 We knâ—w God spake to Moses c. 31. We know God heareth not sinners John 3.2 We know thou art a Teacher come from God So 1 John 3.5 15. 1 Pet. 3.17 and many other Scriptures tell you that Believing God is a certain infallible sort of knowledge I shall in justification of the work of Faith acquaint you briefly with 1. That in the Nature of it 2. And that in the causing of it which advanceth it to be an infallible knowledge 1. The Believer knows as sure as he knows there is a God that God is true and his Word is true it being impossible for God to lie Hâ—b 6.18 God that cannot lie hath promised Titus 1.2 2. He knows that the holy Scripture is the Word of God by his Image which it beareth and the many evidences of Divinity which it containeth and the many Miracles certainly proved which Christ and his Spirit in his servants wrought to confirm the truth 3. And therefore he knoweth assuredly the conclusion that all this Word of God is true And for the surer effecting of this knowledge God doth not only set before us the ascertaining Evidence of his own veracity and the Scriptures Divinity but moreover 1. He giveth us to believe Phil. 1.29 2 Pet. 1.3 For it is not of our selves but is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 Faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 By the drawing of the Father we come to the Son And he that hath knowledge given from Heaven will certainly know and he that hath Faith given him from Heaven will certainly believe The heavenly Light will dissipate our darkness and infallibly illuminate Whilest God sets before us the glass of the Gospel in which the things invisible are revealed and also gives us eye sight to behold them Believers must needs be a heavenly people as walking in that light which proceedeth from and leadeth to the celestial everlasting Light 2. And that Faith may be so powerful as to serve instead of sight and presence Believers have the Spirit of Christ within them to excite and actuate it and help them against all temptations to unbelief and to work in them all other graces that concur to promote the works of Faith and to mortifie those sins that hinder our believing and are contrary to a heavenly life So that as the exercise of our sight and taste and hearing and feeling is caused by our natural life so the exercise of Faith and Hope and Love upon things unseen is caused by the holy Spirit which is the principle of our new life 1 Cor. 2.12 We have received the Spirit that we might know the things that are given us of God This Spirit of God acquainteth us with God with his veracity and his Word Heb. 10.30 We know him that hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee This Spirit of Christ acquainteth us with Christ and with his grace and will 1 Cor. 2.10 11 12. This heavenly Spirit acquainteth us with Heaven so that We know that when Christ appeareth we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 And we know that he was manifested to take away sin 1 Joh. 3.5 And will perfect his work and present us spotless to his Father Eph. 5.26 27. This heavenly Spirit possesseth the Saints with such heavenly dispositions and desires as much facilitate the work of Faith It bringeth us to a heavenly conversation and maketh us live as fellow-citizens of the Saints and in the houshold of God Phil. 3.20 Eph. 2.19 It is within us a Spirit of supplication breathing heaven-ward with sighs and groans which cannot be expressed and as God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit so the Spirit knows the mind of God Rom. 8.37 1 Cor. 2.11 3. And the work of Faith is much promoted by the spiritual experiences of Believers When they find a considerable part of the holy Scriptures verified on themselves it much confirmeth their Faith as to the whole They are really possessed of that heavenly disposition called The Divine Nature and have felt the power of the Word upon their hearts renewing them to the Image of God mortifying their most dear and strong corruptions shewing them a greater beauty and desirableness in the Objects of Faith than is to be found in sensible things They have found many of the Promises made good upon themselves in the answers of prayers and in great deliverances which strongly perswadeth them to believe the rest that are yet to be accomplished And experience is a very powerful and satisfying way of conviction He that feeleth as it were the first fruits the earnest and the beginnings of Heaven already in his soul will more easily and assuredly believe that there is a Heaven hereafter We know that the Son of God iâ— come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life 1 Joh. 5.20 He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself Vers 10. There is so
me How long O scorner wilt thou delight in scorning How long wilt thou go on impenitently in thy folly And now I must cry out How long How long must I feel the wrath of the Almighty the unquenchable fire the immortal worm Alas for ever When shall I receive one moments ease when shall I see one glimpse of hope O never never never Now I perceive what Satan meant in his temptations what â—in intended what God meant in the threatnings of his Law what grace was good for what Christ was sent for and what was the design and meaning of the Gospel and how I should have valued the offers and promises of life Now I understand what Ministers meant to be so importunate with me for my conversion and what was the cause that they would even have kneeled to me to have procured my return to God in time Now I understand that holiness was not a needless thing that Christ and Grace deserved better entertainment than contempt that precious time was worth more than to be wasted idly that an immortal soul and life eternal should have been more regarded and not cast away for so short so base a fleshly pleasure Now all these things are plain and open to my understanding But alas it 's now too late I know that now to my woe and torment which I might have known in time to my recovery and joy For the Lords sake and for your souls sake open your eyes and foresee the things that are even at hand and prevent these fruitless lamentations Judge but as you will all shortly judge and live but as you will wish that you had lived and I desire no more Be serious as if you saw the things that you say you do believe I know this serious discourse of another life is usually ungrateful to men that are conscious of their strangeness to it and taking up their portion here are loth to be tormented before the time This is not the smoothing pleasing way But remember that we have flesh as well as you which longs not to be accounted troublesome or precise which loves not to displease or be displeased And had we no higher light and life we should â—aâ—k as men that saw and felt no more than fight and flesh can reach But when we are preaching and dying and you are hearing and dying and we believe and know that you are nâ—w going to see the things we speak of and death will straightway draw aside the veil and shew you the great amazing sight it 's time for us to speak and you to hear with all our hearts It 's time for us to be serious when we are so near the place where all are serious There are none that are in jest in Heaven or Hell pardon us therefore if we jest not at the door and in the way to such a serious state All that see and feel are serious and therefore all that truly believe must be so too Were your eyes all opened this hour to see what we believe we appeal to your own consciences whether it would not make you more serious than we Marvel not if you see Believers make another matter of their salvation than those that have hired their understandings in service to their sense and think the world is no bigger or better than their globe or map and reacheth no further than they can kennâ— As long as we see you serious about Lands and Lordships and titles and honours the rattles and tarrying Irons of the cheating world you must give us leave whether you will or no to be serious about the life eternal They that scramble so eagerly for the bonds of worldly riches and devour so greedily the drâ—ffe of sensual delights methinks should blush if such animals had the blushing property to blame or deride us for being a little alas too little earnest in the matters of God and our salvation Can you not pardon us if we love God a little more than you love your lusts and if we run as fast for the Crown of Life as you run after a feather or a fly or if we breath as hard after Christ in holy desires as you do in blowing the bubble of vain-glory If a thousand pound a year in passage to a grave and the chains of darkness be worth your labour give us leave to belieâ—â— that mercy in order to everlasting mercy grace in order to glory and glory as the end of grace is worth our labour and infinitely more Your end is narrow though your way be broad and our end is broad though our way be narrow You build as Miners in Cole-pits do by digging downwards into the dark and yet you are laborious Though we begin on earth we build towards Heaven where an attractive loadstone draws up the workmen and the work and shall we loiter under so great encouragements Have you considered that Faith is the beholding grace the evidence of things not seen and yet have you the hearts to blame Believers for doing all that they can do in a case of such unspeakable everlasting consequence If we are Believers Heaven and Hell are as iâ— were open to our sight And would you wish us to trifle in the sight of Heaven or to leap into Hell when we see it as before us what name can express the inhumane cruelty of such a wish oâ— motion or the unchristian folly of those that will obey you O give us leave to be serious for a Kingdom which by Faith we see Blame us for this and blame us that we are not beside our selves Pardon us that we are awake when the thunder of Jehovah's voice doth call to us denouncing everlasting wrath to all that are sensual and ungodly Were we asleep as you are we would lie still and take no heed what God or man said to us Pardon us that we are Christians and believe these things seeing you profess the same your selves Disclaim not the practice till you dare disclaim the profession If we were Infidels we would do as the ungodly world we would pursue our present pleasures and commodity and say that things above us are nothing to us and would take Religion to be the Troubler of the world But till we are Infidels or Atheists at the heart we cannot do so Forgive us that we are men if you take it to be pardonable Were we bruits we would eat and drink and play and never trouble our selves or others with the care of our salvation or the fears of any death but one or with resisting sensual inclinations and meditating on the life to come but would take our ease and pleasure while we may At least forgive us that we are not blocks or stones that we have life and feeling Were we insensate clods we would not see the light of Heaven nor hear the roaring of the Lion nor fear the threats of God himself we would not complain or sigh or groan because we feel not If therefore we may
It foreseeth also the day of Judgment and teacheth us to use our prosperity and wealth as we desire to hear of it in the day of our accounts Faith is a provident and a vigilant grace and useth to ask when we have any thing in may possession which way I make the best advantage of it for my soul which way will be most comfortable to me in my last review how shall I wish that I had used my time my wealth my power when time is at an end and all these transitory things are vanished 6. And Faith doth so absolutely devote and subject the soul to God that it will suffer us to do nothing so far as it prevaileth but what is for him and by his consent It telleth us that we are not our own but his and that we have nothing but what we have received and that we must be just in giving God his own and therefore it first asketh which way may I best serve and honour God with all that he hath given me Not only with my substance and the first fruits of mine increase but with all 1 Cor. 10.31 When Love and devotion hath delivered up our selves entirely to God it keeps nothing back but delivereth him all things with our selves even as Christ with himself doth give us all things Rom. 8.32 And Faith doth so much subject the soul to God that it maketh us like servants and children that use not their Masters or Parents goods at their own pleasure but ask him first how he would have us use them Lord what wouldst thou have me to do is one of the first words of a converted soul Acts 9.6 In a word Faith writeth out that charge upon the heart 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things that are in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life For if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Ye cannot serve God and Mammon But on this subject Mr. Alleine hath said so much in his excellent Book of the Victory of Faith over the world that I shall at this time say no more The Directions which I would give you in general for preservation from the danger of prosperity by Faith are these that follow Direct 1. Remember still that the common cause of mens damnation is their Love of this world more than God and Heaven and that the world cannot undo you any other way but by tempting you to over-love it and to undervalue higher things And therefore that is the most dangerous condition which maketh the world seem most pleasing and most lovely to us And can you believe this and yet be so eager to be humoured and to have all things fitted to your pleasure and desires Mark here what a task Faith hath and mark what the work of self-denyal is The worldling must be pleased the Believer must be saved The worldling must have his flesh and fancy gratified the Believer must have Heaven secured and God obeyed Men sell not their souls for sorrow but for mirth They forsake not Heaven for poverty but for riches they turn not away from God for the love of sufferings and dishonour but for the love of pleasure preferments dignities and estimation in the world And is that state better and more desirable for which all that perish turn from God and fell their souls and are befooled and undone for ever Or that which no man ever sinned for nor forsook God for or was undone for Read over this question once and again and mark what answer your hearts give to it if you would know whether you live by sense or faith And mark what contrary answers the flesh and faith will give to it when it comes to practice I say though many sin in poverty and in sufferings and in disgrace yea and by occasion of them and by their temptations yet no man ever sinned for them They are none of the bait that straled away the heart from God Set deep upon your heart the sense of the danger of a prosperous state and sear and vigilancy will help to save you Direct 2. Imprint upon your memory the characters of this deadly sin of worldliness that so you may not perish by it whilst you dream that you are free from it but may alwâ—ies see how far it doth prevail Here therefore to help you I will set before you the characters of this sin and I will but briefly name them lest I be tedious because they are many 1. The great mark of damning worldliness is when God and Heaven are not loved and preferred before the pleasures and profits and honours of the world 2. Another is when the world is esteemed and used more for the service and pleasure of the flesh than to honour God and to do good with and to further our salvation When men desire great places and riches more to please their appetites and carnal minds with than to benefit others or to serve the Lord with when they are not rich to God but to themselves Luke 12.20 21. 3. It is a mark of some degree of worldliness to desire a greater measure of riches or honour than our spiritual work and ends and benefit do require For when we are convinced that less is as good or better to our highest ends and yet we would have more it is a sign that the rest is desired for the flesh Rom. 13.14 8.8 9 10 13. 4. When our desires after worldly things are too eager and violent when we must needs have them and cannot be without them 1 Tim. 6.9 5. When our contrivances for the world are too solâ—icitous and our cares for it take up an undue proportion of our time Mat. 6.24 25. to the end 6. When we are impatient under want dishonour or disappointments and live in trouble and discontent if we want much or have not our wills 7. When the thoughts of the world are proportionably so many more than our thoughts of Heaven and our salvation that they keep us in the neglect of the duty of Meditation and keep empty our minds of holy things Mat. 6.21 8. When it turneth our talk all towards the world or taketh up our freest and our sweetest and most serious words and leaveth us to the use of seldom dull or formal or affected words about the things which should profit the soul and glorifie our great Creator 9. When the world incroacheth upon Gods part in our families and thrusts out prayer or the reading of the Scriptures or the due instruction of children or servants when it cometh in upon the Lords day when it is intruding in Gods Worship and at Sermon or Prayer our thoughts are more pleasingly running out after some worldly thing than kept in attendance upon God Ezek. 33 31. 10. When worldly prosperity is so sweet to you that it can keep you quiet under the guilt of wilful sin and in the midst of all the
fully shew so also shall the Saints And it is not likely that this is wholly deferred till the resurrection but as they have a Glory before that with Christ and his Angels so they have now their part in this Superintendency before though both will be greater at the Resurrection If any say what use will there be of our superiority after the world is destroyed I answer 1. The Apostle Peter plainly telleth us though some would force his words into the dark that we according to his promise expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in which dwelleth righteousness And the Creation groaneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 And the Heavens must contain Christ till the times of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began Acts 3.21 2. And he that said the Saints shall judge the Angels seemeth so intimate that the Devils with the wicked will be in a state of subjection or servitude to them hereafter Certain it is that Michael and his Angels shall be the conquerours of the Dragon and his Angels Rev. 12.7 9. And that the Serpents head shall be bruised by all the womans seed though chiefly by the Captain of our salvation But this shall now suffice concerning their employment 3. Behold also by Faith what the departed Saints are now enjoying And what is said of their place and work will tell you that They enjoy the fight of their glorified Head Joh. 17.24 They are with him in Paradise and therefore also enjoy the sight of the Glory of God Being absent from the body they are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 They see not as in a glass as here they did but with open face They enjoy the pleasures of a more perfect knowledge of God and all his wondrous works than this world affords They are happy in their works in the perfect Love and Praises of God and they are filled with the pleasures of his Love to them This is their fruition 4. Let Faith also behold what evils they are delivered from 1. From a heavy drossy body which since the fall hath been an enemy a prison and fetters to the soul and therefore they here groaned to be better cloathed 2 Cor. 5.4 5. Rom. 8.21 2. From the worlds temptations 3. From wicked mens malice and persecutions 4. From sickness pain necessities labours weariness and all the troublesome effects of sin 5. From all troublesome passions desires anger discontent disappointments griefs and cares and fears of evil 6. Specially from the fears of Hell and the doubts of their own sincerity and salvation and from the desertions of God and the terrible sense of his displeasure 7. From the troubles and errours of ignorance and all our natural imperfection 8. From the fears of death which now is more painful than death it self 9. From the suggestions of Satan and his malicious vexing disquieting temptations and from his flattering allurements which are much worse 10. From the company and the tempting or grieving examples of ungodly men 11. From all sin it self and all our moral imperfections and defects 12. And finally from all danger and fear of ever losing the felicity they possess These are the immunities of the blessed 2. When Faith hath seen the Saints in Glory look back and think next what they were lately here on earth that it may help you to compare your state and theirs And here you will see 1. That they were lately in flesh as we now are They had bodies as drossie as vile as frail as burdensome as ours are It cost them as dear not as it doth the sensual but as it doth the temperate person now to keep them up a while for the service to which they were appointed 2. They had pains and sicknesses as we have The souls in Heaven have escaped thither from bodies which have lain as long tormented with the Stone with Stranguries Collicks Gripes Convulsions Consumptions Feavers and other the most tedious painful and lothsome diseases as sober men on earth now feel 3. Satan was as malicious to them as he is to us and to many of them as troublesome he haunted them with as ugly temptations to the greatest sins to unbelief and pride and despair and self-murder and horrid blasphemy as he doth any of us Yea he did so by Christ himself Matth. 4. 4. They met with as many allurements to worldliness sensuality pride and lust in the worlds deceiving baits and flatteries as now we do and were fain to proceed every step towards Heaven by conflict and conquest as we must do 5. They were in as many wants and straits in as poor and low and despised a state as we are now They were tempted to cares and murmurings and discontents through their wants and crosses as well as we 6. They have been in dangers and in fears and many a time at the brink of death before it came and put to cry to God for deliverance in the terrours and anguish of their hearts Their flesh and heart and friends have failed them and all the creatures cast them off 7. They have gone through far greater persecutions for the sake of Christ and righteousness than ever we did So persecuted they the Prophets before you Mat. 5.11 12. Which of the Prophets did not your Fathers kill and persecute even of them for whom their posterity erected Monuments Matth. 23.36 37 38. We have not resisted unto blood as many of them did Heb. 11. The same and greater afflictions which we have undergone were accomplished on our brethren in this world 1 Pet. 5.9 We go through the same conflict as they did Phil. 1.30 We are no more falsly nor odiously slandered in any of our sufferings than they were Mat. 5.11 12. 8. They were men of like passions as we are for so James saith even of Elias that was carryed to Heaven without our kind of death They had their ignorances uncertainties doubts mistakes their dark thoughts of God and that world where they now are Many of them knew as little of it till they saw it as we do now Many a fearful trembling hour many a thought that God had forsaken them and that the day of grace was past have many of them had as well as we 9. Yea they were imperfect in all their graces they had an imperfect faith an imperfect hope an imperfect Love to God and man and many an hour in such groans as ours now are O when shall we be saved from our darkness and unbelief when shall we better love the Lord 10. They had their actual sins also Though none that were regnant after conversion their obedience was imperfect as ours now is Many of their faults and falls are left on record for our warning There is not one humane soul in Heaven besides our Saviours that was not once a sinner They all came thither
sins and miseries in the presence of their Lord. Direct 5. When you have made these comparisons think next what an excellent benefit it will be to you to look thus believingly and frequently to the Saints that are gone before you into glory All these unspeakable benefits will follow it 1. It will much quicken and confirm our faith As we do the more easily trust the boat and boat-man when we see many thousand passengers safely landed by him And we easily trust the Physician when we see many thousands cured by him who were once in our case so it will greatly satisfie the soul against the suspicions and fears of unbelief when faith seeth all the glorified Saints that are actually saved by Christ already and have obtained all that we believe and seek Methinks I hear Henoch Joshua Abraham Peter Paul John Cyprian Macarius Augustine Melancthon Calvin Zanchius Rogers Bradford Hooper Jewel Grindal Vsher Hildersham Ames Dod Baines Bolton Gataker with thousands such as men standing on the further side of the river and calling to us that must come after them Fear not the depths or storms or streams trust boldly that vessel and that faithful Pilot we trusted him and none of us have miscarried but all of us are here landed safe We were once in storms and doubts and fears as you now are but it is our diffidence and not our confidence which proved our infirmity and shame Who would not boldly follow such a multitude of excellent persons who have sped so well 2. It will also much confirm our hope that is our glad expectation of the Crown when our apprehensions of it grow dull and slack and our feare do grow upon us and we are ready to question whether ever such a happiness will be our lot the sight of these that are now triumphing in the actual possession will banish despair and much revive us We cannot but think they were once as low and bad as I and had as many difficulties to overcome and why may not I then be as holy and as happy as they 3. Such a sight will greatly quicken our desires to attain their happiness and to go their way As when worldlings see the grandeur and honours and power of Great men as they are yet called it maketh them think how brave a life is this And as the sensual when they see their companions in the Tavern or Gaming-house or Play-house or the merry fool-house as Solomon accounteth it Eccles 7.4 do long to be with them and to partake of their beloved pleasure so when by faith we see the departed Saints in glory and think where our old acquaintance are and the multitudes of wise and holy souls that are gone before it will greatly stir up our sluggish desires and make us long for the same felicity and to be as near to God as they are 4. And it will do much to direct us in the way For we must follow them as they followed Christ As the history of the Wars of Alexander Caesar Tamerlane c. will teach men how to fight for temporal tyrannical domination so the history of the Saints do teach us how to fight against spiritual wickednesses and powers and how to take the prospering way It is easie there to find whether laziness or labour whether sensuality or spirituality hath alwaies been the way to Heaven Whether Saints were gluttons drunkards whoremongers riotous licentious and proud or temporate chaste mortified and humble whether the Saints were the scorners or the scorned the oppressors or the oppressed the persecutors or the persecuted the burdens or the blessings of the times they lived in When the world is divided about matters of Religion and every Party hath a several way for the Unity and the Reformation and the Communion of the Churches and the right Government Discipline and Worshiping of God how easie and safe is it in the main and in all things of necessity to look back and see which way it was that Peter and Paul did go to Heaven by and what terms they were on which their Union Communion Government Discipline and Worship were performed 5. The sight of blessed souls by faith will also increase the Resolution and Fortitude of the mind Faintness and pusilanimity seize upon us when we look only on the difficulties and dangers But when we see the thousands that have overcome them all by the same means which we are called to use it steeleth our courage and maketh us resolve to break through all When we think only how mortal our diseases are our hearts do fail us But when all that were cured of the very same do call to us and say Never fear there is no disease too hard for your Physician he hath cured us of the very same and cureth all that ever trust him and use his remedies This will embolden a fainting mind Therefore in the fore-cited text Heb. 6.12 It is said Be not slothful which there meaneth such as faint with despondency despair or fears but followers of them who by faith and patience inherit the promises When we look on the Saints tribulations for the faith we are apt to faint as some do that stand by another that is under the Surgeons hands Ephes 3.13 But when we see them in triumph it cureth our cowardize and it is they only that labour and faint not that are crowned and that reap in due season c. Rev. 2.3 Gal. 6.9 that is who faint not into cessation or so as to be overcome Do you think when the Israelites passed through the Red Sea that the Leaders had not the greatest tryal and that it was not an exceeding increase of their courage who came after in the rear when they saw most of their brethren safely passed through Look believingly upon the souls in Heaven and you will do or suffer any thing to follow them 6. And it will greatly provoke us to diligence in well doing Look up to your Brethren and you will mend your pace If a horse be going towards his Pasture he will go chearfully especially when he seeth his companions there It will make us pray hard and meditate studiously and work laboriously and watch diligently that we may be with Christ where our Brethren are and receive the end of our faith and labour 7. And to see our Brethren in Heaven before us will greatly help us to suffer for Christ and to be patient in any tribulation which befalleth us When we see them in glory we shall source stay to complain of the soulness or narrowness of the way but look before us and go on through all Or if the flesh do repine and our hearts begin to fail us it will make us lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make strait paths for our feet Heb. 12.12 13. and to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober and hope to the end 1 Pet. 1.13 When we look forward to the end of former
busie sawcy fellow and you bid him meddle with his own matters and let you speed as you can and keep his compassion and charity for himself you give him no thanks for his undesired help The most laborious faithful servant you like best that will do you the most work with greatest skill and care and diligence But the most laborious faithful instructer and watchman for your souls you most ungratefully vilifie as if he were more busie and precise than needs and were upon some unprofitable work and you love a superficial hypocritical Ministry that teacheth you but to complement with Heaven and leads you such a dance of comical outside hypocritical worship as is agreeable to your own hypocrisie And thus when you are mocking God you think you worship him and merit Heaven by the abuse Should a Mâ—nister or other friend be but half as earnest with you for the life of your immortal souls as you are your selves for your estates or friends or lives in any danger you would take them for Fanaticks and perhaps do by them as his carnal friends did once by Christ Mark 3.21 that went out to lay hold on him and said He is beside himself For trifles you account it wisdom to be serious but for everlasting things you account it folly or to be more busie and soliciâ—ous than needs You can believe an act of pardon and indempnity from man when as you are little solicitous about a pardon from God to whose Justice you have forfeited your souls and if a man be but earnest in begging his pardon and praying to be saved from everlasting misery you scorn him because he does it without book and say he whines or speaks through the nose forgetting that we shall have you one of these daies as earnest in vain as they are that shall prevail for their salvation and that the terrible approach of death and judgement shall teach you also to pray without book and cry Lord Lord open to us when the door is shut and it 's all too late Mat. 25.11 O Sirs had you but a lively serious foreseeing faith that openeth Heaven and Hell as to your sight what a cure would it work of this Hypocrisie 1. Such a sight would quicken you from your sloth and put more life into your thoughts and words and all that you attempt for God 2. Such a sight would soon abate your pride and humble you before the Lord and make you see how short you are of what you should be 3. Such a sight would dull the edge of your covetous desires and shew you that you have greater things to mind and another kind of world than this to seek 4. Such a sight would make you esteem the temptations of mens reports but as the shaking of a leaf and their allurements and threats as impertinent speeches that would cast a feather or a fly into the ballance against a mountain or against the world 5. Such a sight would allay the itch of lust and quench the drunkards insatiable thirst and turn your gulosity into moderation and abstinence and acquaint you with a higher sort of pleasures that are durable and worthy of a man 6. Such a sight would cure your desire of pastime and shew you that you have no time to spare when all is done that necessity and everlasting things require 7. Such a sight would change your relish of Gods Ordinances and esteem of Ministers and teach you to love and savour that which is spiritual and serious rather than hypocritical strains and shews It would teach you better how to judge of Sermons and of Prayers than unexperienced minds will ever do 8. Such a sight would cure your malignity against the waies and diligent servants of the Lord and instead of opposing them it would make you glad to be among them and fast and pray and watch and rejoyce with them and better to understand what it is to believe the communion of Saints In a word did you but see what God reveals and Saints believe and must be seen I would scarce thank you to be all as serious and solicitous for your souls as the holiest man alive and presently to repent and lament the folly of your negligence and delaies and to live as men that know no other work to mind in comparison of that which extendeth to eternity I would scarce thank the proudest of you all to lie down in the dust and in sackcloth and ashes with tears and cryes to beg the pardon of those sins which before you felt no weight in Nor the most sensual wretch that now sticks so close to his ambition covetousness and lust that he saith he cannot leave them to spit them out as loathsome bitterness and be ashamed of them as fruitless things You would then say to the most godly that now seem too precise O why do you not make more haste and lay hold on Heaven with greater violence why do you pray with no more fervency and bear witness against the sins of the world with no more undaunted courage and resolution and why do you not more freely lay out your time and strength and wealth and all that you have on the work of God Is Heaven worth no more ado than this Can you do no more for an endless life and the escaping of the wrath to come Shall worldlings over-do you These would be your thoughts on such a sight CHAP. II. Vse of Exhortation WHat now remains but that you come into the light and beg of God as the Prophet for his servant 2 King 6.17 to open your eyes that you may see the things that would do so much That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give you the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Ephes 1.17 18. O set those things continually before your eyes that must forever be before them Look seriously into the infallible word and whatsoever that fore-tells believe it as if it were come to pass The unbelief of Gods threatnings and penal Laws is the perdition of souls as well as the unbelief of Promises God giveth not false fire when he dischargeth the Canons of his terrible comminations If you fall not down you shall find that the lightening is attended with the thunder and execution will be done before you are aware If there were any doubt of the things unseen yet you know it is past all doubt that there 's nothing else that 's durable and worthy of your estimation and regard You must be Knights and Gentlemen but a little while speak but a few words more and you 'l have spoke your last When you have slept a few nights more you must sleep till the Resurrection awake you as to the flesh Then where are your pleasant habitations and contents
world passeth away 1 Cor. 7.29 30. 3. Imploy your time as becomes Believers Faith only can acquaint you what an unconceivable weight doth lye upon this inch of hasty time As you behave your selves for a few daies it must go with you in joy or misery for ever You have your appointed time for your appointed work God hath turned the glass upon you much of it is run out already No price can call back one hour that you have lost No power or policy can retard its course Sic fugiunt fraeno non remorante dies When it comes to the last sand and time is gone you 'l know the worth of it You 'l then confess it should have seemed more precious in your eyes than to have been cast away upon things of nought O precious time more worth than all the riches of the world How highly is it valued by all at last And how basely is it esteemed new by the most Now it is no more worth with them than to be sold for unnecessary sports and ease and wasted in idleness and vain delights But then when it 's gone and all 's too late how loud would they cry if cryes could call back Time again O then what a mercy would it seem if God would try them once again and trust them but with another life or with Hezekiah's fifteen years or but with fifteen daies or hours upon such terms of grace as they held that life which they abused It amazeth me to observe the lamentable stupidity of the world how hard they beg for time when they think it is near an end and how carelesly they let it slide away when they have strength and faculties to improve it They are grievously afraid lest death deprive them of it and yet they are not afraid to deprive themselves of the use and fruit of it and to cast it away as contemptuously as if it were an useless thing I seldom come near a dying man but I hear him complain of the loss of Time and wish it were to spend again that it might be better valued and used And yet the living will not be warned O value Time as wise men while you have it and not as miserable fools when it is gone If our Lord said I must do the work of him that sent me while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work Joh. 9.4 What need then have such as we to be doing and make much of time O let not company mirth or business make you forget the work of Time Can you play or loiter away your hours with Eternity in your eye Get the Sun to stand still and Time to make a truce with you and to waste no more of the oyl of life before you lose another hour O what heads what hearts have all those men that standing against the verge of an endless world can think they have any time to spare Hath God given you too much If not why do you lose it If he hath why are you loth that he should shorten it You would not throw away your gold as contemptuously as you do your time when an hours time is more valuable than gold Frown on that company that would rob you of half an hours time Tell them you have something else to do than to feast or play or talk away your time unnecessarily O tell them you were not made for nothing You are in a race and must not stand still You are in a fight and must not cease Your work is great much of it is undone Your enemies are not idle Death will not stop the Judge is coming and still beholds you and Heaven or Hell are ready to receive our ending life and tell us how we spent our time And can you find time to spare You are not made as Weather-cocks to stand up on high for men to look at and by turning about with every wind to shew them which way it standeth Turn not your lives into that curse Levit. 26.20 You shall spend your strength in vain Believe it Time must be reviewed The day is near when every man of you had rather find it in your accounts so many hours spent in self-examination and holy meditation so many in reading the Word of God so many spent in fervent prayer and so many in doing good to others than so many spent in needless sports and pleasures so many in idleness and vain discourses and so many in the less necessary matters of the world Ask those that tempt you to mis-spend your time whether at death and Judgement they had rather themselves have a life of holy diligence to review or a life consumed in vanity and transitory delights You will not suffer impertinencies to interrupt your counsels and serious business in the world You 'l tell intruders that you are busie and cannot have while to attend them And are you going into Heaven or Hell and have but a few daies time of preparation God knows 〈…〉 and yet can you have while to pass this precious 〈…〉 vain O what would you not give ere long for one of the hours that you now mis-spend When the oath is performed Rev. 10.6 That Time shall be no longer Wonderful that men can find Time for any thing save that for which they had their time Non tam bene vivant sed quamdiu confiderant inquit Seneca cum omnibus pâ—ssit contingere ut bene vivant ut diu nulli To live well is both possible and necessary and yet is disregarded To live long is neither possible nor necessary and yet is sought by almost all Incipiunt vivere cum definendum est immo quidam ante desierunt vivere quam inciperent Sen. It 's unseasonable we should begin to live when we should make an end but it 's most unhappy to have made an end before they do begin Pulchrum est inquit idem consummare vitam ante mortem expectare secure reliquam temporis partem Do the great work and then you may comfortably spend the rest in waiting for the conclusion Yet you have time and leave and helps you may read and meditate and pray if you will but shortly Time will be no more O let not Satan insult over your carkasses and tormented souls and say Now it is too late Now murmure and repent as long as you will Now pray and cry and spare noâ— O use that Faith which beholdeth the invisible world and maketh future things as present and then delay and loiter if you can Then waste your hours in idleness or vanity if you dare either light or fire shall awake you 4. Suffer as Believers Fear not the wrath of man but indure as seeing him that is invisible Heb. 11.27 shew plainly that you seek a better Country vers 14 16. Read often Heb. 11 and 12 chapters Behold the Kingdom prepared and secured for you by Christ and then you will be indifferent which way the wind of humane favour or applause
shall fit or what weather Lunatick influences and aspects shall produce Such a Faith will make you with Abraham to turn your back on all and engage in Pilgrimage for an inheritance after to be received though he knew not whither he went with a distinct particular knowledge Heb. 11.8 As strangers and travellers you will not be troubled to leave towns and fields buildings and â—â—alth and walks behind you as knowing that you were 〈◊〉 â—ass by them desiring and seeking a better that is an heavenly And you shall lose nothing by this passing by all in the world For God will not be ashamed to be called your God and he hath prepared for you a City Heb. 11.13 16. Seriously respect the recompence of reward and it will make you chuse rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the world v. 25 26. Stephen's sight would cause Stephen's patience Hold on as Christians the end is near Let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds Heb. 12.2 3. You may well endure the buffeting and scorn if you foresee the honour You may well endure the Crown of Thorns if you foresee the Crown of Glory You may endure to be forsaken of all if you see him that will never fail you nor forsake you This foretaste of the Rivers of pleasure with the Lord will drown the taste of the Vinegar and Gall. Whine not like worldlings that have lost their portion when you are stript as bare as Job If you are true Believers you have All still for God is All You have lost Nothing for Faith hath made the world as Nothing to you And will you whine and vex your self for Nothing Can you call it Nothing so frequently and easily in your prayers and ordinary speech and do you now recall this or tell us by your serious grief that you speak but in hypocrisie and jeast Frangitur nemo molestiâ adversorum qui non capitur delectatione prosperorum August Had there been less Idolatrous Love there would have been less tormenting grief and care Our life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that we possess He is not happy that hath them but he that neither needeth nor desireth them Cum in his quae homines eripiunt optant custodiunt nihil inveneris non dico quod malis sed quod velis Sen. Superfluity doth but burden and break down The Corn that 's too rank lodgeth and the branches break that are overladen with fruit Omnia quae superfluunt nocent segetem nimia sternit ubâ—â—tas rami onere franguntur ad maturitatem non pervenit faecunditas Idem quoque animis evenit quos immoderata prosperitas rumpit quia non tantum in aliorum injuriam sed etiam in suam utuntur Sen. It 's pleasure and not pain that is the worlds most deadly sting It hath never so much hurt us as when it hath flattered us into delights or hopes Et fera piscis spe aliqua oblectante decipitur Sen. Hope is the bait prosperity and pleasure the net that souls are ordinarily ensnared by Men lose not their souls for poverty but for riches nor for dishonour but for honour nor for sorrow but for delight Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis The luxuriances of prosperity bring us so frequently under the pruning hook The surfeits and summer fruits of fulness and carnal contentments and delights do put us to the trouble of our sicknesses and our Physick How hardly shall rich men enter into Heaven saith he that well knew who should enter Saith Aâ—gustine Difficile immo impossibile est ut praesentibus futuris quis fruatur bonis ut hic ventrem ibi mentem impleaâ— ut à deliciu ad delicias transeat in utroque seculo primus sâ—t ut in terrâ in coelo appareat gloriosus The hope is that with God such humane impossibilities are possible But it 's more terrible than desirable to be put upon so great a difficulty Sweet dishes will have waspâ— and flies but most of them are drowned in their delights Saith Boetius of Prosperity and Adversity Iâ—â—a fallit haec instruit illa mendacium specie bonorum mentes fruentium ligat haec cogitatione fragilis faelicitatis absolvit Itaque illam videas ventrosam fluentem suique semper ignaram hanc sobriam succinctamque ac ipsius adversitatis exercitatione prudentem A full meal seems best in the eating but a light meal is better the next day More thank God in Heaven for adversity than for prosperity And more in Hell cry out of the fruit of prosperity than of adversity Many did never look towards Heaven till affliction cast them on their backs so that they could look no other way It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes saith David Psal 119.71 Before I was afflicted I went astray v. 67. In very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me v. 75. One sight of Heaven by faith will force you to reckon that the sufferings of this present time are unworthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 To suffer for Christ and righteousness sake is but to turn an unavoidable fruitless pain into that which being voluntary is the more easie and hath a great reward in Heaven Matth. 5.11 12. And to part with that for a Crown of Life which else we must part with for nothing Worldly friends and wealth and honour are summer fruit that will quickly fall Hungry fowl know where it's harvest At simul intonuit fugiunt Those that must dwell with you in Heaven are your sure and stedfast friends Caetera fortunae c. Those that are now highest and least acquainted with the tongue of malice the unfaithfulness of friends or rage of enemies shall shortly say Atque haec exempliâ— quondam collecta priorum Nunc mihi sunt propriis cognita vera malis There is but the difference of an Est and an Erit between their mirth and endless sorrows Their honour and their endless shame nor between our sorrow and our endless joy Their final honour is to be embalmed and their dust to be covered with a sumptuous monument and their names extolled by the mouths of men that little know how poor a comfort all this is to the miserable soul In the height of their honour you may foresee the Chyrurgion opening their bowels and shewing the receptacles of the treasure of the Epicure and what remains of the price that he received for his betrayed
increase the flame And Satan hath still the bellows in his hand He knoweth that if he can corrupt or win the Commander he can rout the Army and ruine them with the greatest ease It hath been Satans grand design since the Christian name was known on earth to advance the selfish interest of men against the interest of Christ and to entangle the Rulers of the world in some cause that Christ and his Word and Servants cannot favour and so to make them believe that there is a necessity on them to watch against and subdue the interest of Christ As if it were necessary that the shore be brought to the boat and not the boat to the shore And that the Physician be brought to the Patients mind or else destroyed or used as his enemy I am afraid to speak out the terrible words of God in Scripture that are against such persons lest you should misunderstand me and think I misapply them But Christ feareth no man and hath not spoken his Word in vain and his Messengers must be faithful for he will bear them out and preventive cautions are easier and safer than reprehensive corrasives I will but refer you to the texts that you may peruse them Matth. 21.44 Matth. 18.3.6 Matth. 25.40 45. Luke 18.7 Psal 2. Luke 19.27 Acts 9.4 5. 1 Thess 2.15 16. Read them with fear as the Words of God Blessed are those Rulers and Nations of the Earth that perceive and escape this pernicious snare of the grand deceiver that with all his subtilty and industry endeavoureth to breed quarrels and sow dissentions between them and the universal King The more God giveth to the carnal and unwise the more they think themselves engaged against him because by his commands he seems to take it from them again by crossing the flesh which would use it only to fulfil its lusts Like a Dog that fawneth on you till he have his bone and then snarleth at you lest you take it from him and will fly in your face if you offer to meddle with it Men readily confess that they have their wealth from God because it cannot be denyed and because they would use the name of God as a cover to hide their covetousness and unlawful waies of getting But if you judge by their usage of it and their returns to God you would think that they believed that they had nothing at all from God but some injuries and that all their benefits and good were from themselves The Turkish and Tartarian Emperour will say that all his grandeur and power is from God that by making it most Divine he may procure the more reverence and obedience to himself But when he hath said so for his own interest he useth the same power against God and his interest to the banishing of his Word and holy Worship and the forbidding the preaching of the Gospel of salvation and to the cherishing of tyranny pride and lust As if God had armed them against himself and made his Officers to be his enemies and gave them power that they might powerfully hinder mens salvation and made great to be great oppressors As a believing Pastor is a Priest that standeth between God and the people to mediate under the great Mediatour to receive from God his Word and Ordinances and deliver them to the flocks and to offer up supplications in their names to God So believing Governours of civil Societies or Families receive from God a power to rule the subjects for their good and they use it to make the subjects good that God may be pleased and honoured by all And the obedience which they require is such as may be given to God in them They take power from God to use it for God and are so much more excellent than the greatest of ambitious carnal Princes as the pleasing and honouring of God is a more excellent design and work than the gratifying of fleshly lust and the advancement of a lump of clay The Kingdoms of the world would all be used as the Kingdoms of the Lord if the everlasting Kingdom were well believed The families of men would be sanctified as Churches unto God if the eternal house not made with hands were truly taken for their home and their trade were to lay up a treasure in Heaven In Cities and Countries Brethren would dwell in holy peace and all concur in honouring God if once they were made fellow Citizens with the Saints and their Burgeship and conversation were in Heaven Ephes 2.19 Phil. 3.20 21. 6. Resist Temptations as Believers If you live by Faith then fight against the world and flesh by Faith Faith must be your helmet and the Word of Faith must be your shield Eph. 6.16 And your victory it self must be by Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 If Satan tell the flesh of the preferment riches or the pleasures of lust answer him with a believing foresight of Gods Judgement and the life to come Never look on the baits of sin alone but still look at once on God and on Eternity As a just Judge will hear both parties speak or see their evidences before he will determine So tell the Tempter that as you have heard what fleshly allurements can say you will see also what the Word of God saith and take a view of Heaven and Hell and then you will answer him 7. Rejoyce as Believers Can Faith set open the windows of the soul and no light of heavenly pleasures enter Can it peruse the Map of the Land of Promise or see and taste the bunch of Grapes without any sweetness to the soul That is the truest Belief of Heaven which maketh men likest those that are in Heaven And what is their character work and portion but the Joyes of Heavenly Light and Love Can we believe that we shall live in Heaven for ever Can we believe that very shortly we shall be there and not rejoyce in such believing I know we commonly say that the uncertainty of our proper title is the cause of all our want of joy But if that were all if that were the first and greatest cause and our belief of the promise it self were lively we should at least set our hearts on Heaven as the most delightful and desirable state and Love would work by more eager desires and diligent seekings till it had reacht assurance and cast out the hinderances of our joy How much would a meer Philosopher rejoyce if he could find out natural evidence of so much as we know by Faith You may perceive what their content in finding it would be by their excâ—eding pains in seeking The unwearied studies by day and night which many of them used with the contempt of the riches and greatness of the world do tell us how glad they would have been to have seen but half so far as we may If they could but discover more clearly and certainly the principles and elements and forms of Beings the nature of spirits the causes of motion
sinful world and flesh linger not now as unwilling to depart repent not of thy choice when all that the world can do for thee is past repent not of thy warfare when thou hast got the victory nor of thy voyage when thou art past the storms and waves and ready to land at the haven of felicity Thus Faith may sing our Nunc dimittis when the flesh is lothest to be dissolved But we must live by faith if we would thus die by faith Such a death doth not use to be the period of a fleshly worldly life nor of a careless dull and negligent life Nature which brought us into the world without our forecast or care will turn us out of the world without it But it will not give us a joyful passage nor bring us to a better world without it It costeth worldlings no small care to die in an honourable or plentiful estate that they may fall from an higher place than others and may have something to make death more grievous and unwelcome to them and may have a greater account to make at Judgement and that their passage to Heaven may be as a Camels through a Needle And may a believing joyful death be expected without the preparations of exercise and experience in a believing life Nature is so much afraid of dying and an incorporated soul is so incarcerated in sense and so hardly riseth to serious and satisfying apprehensions of the unseen world that even true Believers do find it a work of no small difficulty to desire to depart and be with Christ and to die in the joyful hopes of faith A little abatement of the terrours of death a little supporting hope and peace is all that the greater part of them attain instead of the fervent desires and triumphant joyes which the lively belief of endless glory should produce O therefore make it the work of your lives of all your lives your greatest work your constant work to live by faith that the faith which hath first conquered all the rest of your enemies may be able also to overcome the last and may do your last work well when it hath done the rest CHAP. I. Directions how to live by Faith And first how to strengthen Faith And secondly the natural Truths presupposed to be considered THe Directions which I shall give you as helps to live by Faith are of two ranks 1. Such as tend to the strengthening of your Faith 2. Such as tell you how to use it The first is the greatest part of our task for no man can use that faith which he hath not nor can use more of it than he hath And the commonest reason why we use but little is because we have but little to use But on this subject supposing it most weighty I have written many Treatises already The second part of the Saints Rest The Unreasonableness of Infidelity And last of all The Reasons of the Christian Religion Besides others which handle it on the by And somewhat is said in the beginning of this discourse But yet because in so great a matter I am more afraid of doing too little than too much I will here give you an Index of some of the chief Helps to be close together before you for your memories to be the constant fuel of your Faith In the work of Faith it is first needful that you get all the prerequisite Helps of Natural Light and be well acquainted with their Order and Evidence and their Vsefulness to befriend the supernatural revelations For it is supposed that we are men before we are Christians We were created before we were redeemed And we must know that there is a God before we can know that we have offended him or that we need a Saviour to reconcile us to him And we must know that we have reasonable souls before we can know that sin hath corrupted them or that grace must sanctifie them And we must know that whatsoâ—ver God saith is true before we can believe that the Scripture is true as being his revelation Faith is an act of Reason and Believing is a kind of knowing even a knowing by the testimâ—ny of him whom we believe because we have sufficient reason to believe him 2. And next we must be well acquainted with the evidence of supernatural Truth which presupposeth the foresaid Natural Verities I shall set both bâ—fore you briefly in their order 1. Think well â—f the nature of your souls of their faculties or pâ—wers their excellency and their proper use And then you will find that you are not meer brutes who know not their Creatâ—ur nor live noâ— by a Law nor think not of another world nor â—â—ar any â—â—fferings after death But that you have reasâ—n free-will and executive power to knâ—w your Maker and to live by â—ule aâ—d to hope for a Reward in another life and to fear a pâ—nâ—shmeâ—t hereafter And that as no wise Artificer maketh any thing in vain so God is mâ—ch less to be thought to havâ— given you such souls and faculties in vain 2. Coâ—sidâ—r next how all the world declareth to you that there is a Gâ—d whâ— is infiniteâ—y pâ—werful wise and good And thaâ— it is not possible that all things which we see should have no cause or that the derived Power and Wisdom and Goodnesâ— of the creature should not proceed from that which is more excellent in the first and total cause Or that God should give more than he had to give 3. Consider nexâ— in whâ—t Relation such a creature must needs stand to such a Creatour If he made us of Nâ—â—hing 〈◊〉 is not pâ—ssible but that he must be 〈◊〉 Owner and wâ— aâ—d all things absolutely his Own And if he be our Maker and Owner and be infinitely powerful wise and good and we be Reasonable-free-agents made to be guided by Laws or Moral Means unto our end it is not possible but that we should stand related to him as subjects to their rightful Governour And if he be our Creatour Owner and Ruler and also infinitely Good and the grand Benefactor of the world and if the nature of our souls be to Love Good as Good it cannot be possible that he should not be our End who is our Creatour and that we should not be related to him as to the Chiefest Good both originally as our Benefactor and finally as our End 4. And then it is easie for you next to see what duty you owe to that God to whom you are thus related That if you are absolutely his Own you should willingly be at his absolute dispose And iâ— he bâ— your Soveraign Ruler you should labour most diligently to know his Laws and absolutely to obey them And if he be infinitely Good and your Benefactor and your End you are absolutely bound to Love him most devotedly and to place your own felicity in his Love All this is so evidently the duty of man to God by nature that nothing but madness can deny
cast in the light of Faith extraordinarily which is indeed the life of Faith Nor is it seeming to stir up Faith in a Prayer or Sermon and looking no more after it all the day This is but to give God a salutation and not to dwell and walk with him And to give Heaven a complemental visit sometimes but not to have your conversation there 2 Cor. 5.7 8. Direct 3. Be not too seldom in solitary meditation Though it be a duty which melancholy persons are disabled to perform in any set and long and orderly manner yet it is so needful to those who are able that the greatest works of Faith are to be managed by it How should things unseen be apprehended so as to affect our hearts without any serious exercise of our thoughts How should we search into mysteries of the Gospel or converse with God or walk in Heaven or fetch either joyes or motives thence without any retired studious contemplation If you cannot meditate or think you cannot believe Meditation abstracteth the mind from vanity and lifteth it up above the world and setteth it about the work of Faith which by a mindless thoughtless or worldly soul can never be performed 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. Phil. 3.20 Mat. 6.21 Col. 3.1 3. Direct 4. Let the Image of the Life of Christ and his Martyrs and holiest servants be deeply printed on your minds That you may know what the way is which you have to go and what patterns they be which you have to imitate think how much they were above things sensitive and how light they set by all the pleasures wealth and glory of this world Therefore the Holy Ghost doth set before us that cloud of witnesses and catalogue of Martyrs in Heb. 11. that example may help us and we may see with how good company we go in the life of Faith Paul had well studied the example of Christ when he took pleasure in infirmities and gloryed only in the Cross to be base and afflicted in this world for the hopes of endless glory 2 Cor. 11.30 12.5 9 10. And when he could say I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.8 9 10. No man will well militate in the life of Faith but he that followeth the Captain of his salvation Heb. 2.10 who for the bringing of many Sons to glory even those whom he is not ashamed to call his Brethren was made perfect as to perfection of action or performance by suffering thereby to shew us how little the best of these visible and sensible corporeal things are to be valued in comparison of the things invisible and therefore as the General and the souldiers make up one army and militate in one militia so he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2.10 11 12. Though that which is called the life of Faith in us deserved a higher title in Christ and his faith in his Father and ours do much differ and he had not many of the objects acts and uses of Faith as we have who are sinners yet in this we must follow him as our great example in valuing things invisible and vilifying things visible in comparison of them And therefore Paul saith I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Direct 5. Remember therefore that God and Heaven the unseen things are the final object of true Faith and that the final object is the noblest and that the principal use of Faith is to carry up the whole heart and life from things visible and temporal to things invisible and eternal and not only to comfort us in the assurance of our own forgiveness and salvation It is an exceeding common and dangerous deceit to overlook both this principal object and principal use of the Christian Faith 1. Many think of no other object of it but the death and righteousness of Christ and the pardon of sin and the promise of that pardon And God and Heaven they look at as the objects of some other common kind of Faith 2. And they think of little other use of it than to comfort them against the guilt of sin with the assurance of their Justification But the great and principal work of Faith is that which is about its final object to carry up the soul to God and Heaven where the world and things sensible are the terminus à quo and God and things invisible the terminus ad quem And thus it is put in contradistinction to living by fight in 2 Cor. 5.6 7. And thus mortification is made one part of this great effect in Rom. 6. throughout and many other places and thus it is that Heb. 11. doth set before us those numerous examples of a life of Faith as it was expressed in valuing things unseen upon the belief of the Word of God and the vilifying of things seen which stand against them And thus Christ tryed the Rich man Luke 18.22 whether he would be his Disciple by calling him to sell all and give to the poâ—r for the hopes of a treasure in Heaven And thus Christ maketh bearing the Cross and denying our selves and forsaking all for him to be necessary in all that are his Disciples And thus Paul describeth the life of Faith 2 Cor. 4.17 18. by the contempt of the world and suffering afflictions for the hopes of Heaven For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Our Faith is our victory over the world even in the very nature of it and not only in the remote effect for its aspect and believing approaches to God and the things unseen and a proportionable recess from the things which are seen is one and the same motion of the soul denominated variously from its various respects to the terminus ad quem and à quo Direct 6. Remember that as God to be believed in is the principal and final object of Faith so the kindling of love to God in the soul is the principal use and effect of Faith And to live by Faith is but to love obey and suffer by Faith Faith working by Love is the description of our Christianity Gal. 5.6 As Christ is the Way to the Father Joh. 14.6 and came into the world to recover Apostate
all the same thing equally to duty and sin without it Direct 15. Consider well how much all humane converse is maintained by the necessary belief of one another and what the world would be without it and how much you expect your selves to be believed And then think how much more belief is due to God Though sin hath made the world so bad that we may say that all men are lyars that is deceitful vanity and little to be trusted yet the honesty of those that are more vertuous doth help so far to keep up the honour of veracity and the shamefulness of lying that throughout the world a lye is in disgrace and truth in speech and dealing is well spoken of And the remnants of natural honesty in the worst do so far second the true honesty of the best that no man is so well spoken of commonly in the world as a man of truth and trustiness whose Word is his Law and Master and never speaketh deceitfully to any Nor no man is so commonly ill spoken of as a knave as he that will lye and is not to be trusted In so much that even those debauched Ruffians who live as if they said in their hearts There is no God will yet venture their lives in revenge against him that shall give them the lye Perhaps you will say that this is not from any vertue or natural Law or honesty but from common interest there being nothing more the interest of mankind than that men be trusty to each other To which I answer that you oppose things which are conjunct It is both For all Gods natural Laws are for the interest of mankind and that which is truly most for our good is made most our duty and that which is most our duty is most for our good And that which is so much for the interest of mankind must needs be good If it were not for credibility and trustiness in men there were no living in families but Masters and Servants Parents and Children Husbands and Wives would live together as enemies And neigbours would be as so many thieves to one another There could be no Society or Common-wealth when Prince and people could put no trust in one another Nay thieves themselves that are not to be trusted by any others do yet strengthen themselves by confederacies and oaths of secrecy and gather into troops and armies and there put trust in one another And can we think that GOD is not much more to be trusted and is not a greater hater of a lye and is not the fountain of all fidelity and hath not a greater care of the interest of his creatures Surely he that thinketh that God is a lyar and not to be trusted will think no better of any mortal man or Angel and therefore trusteth no one and is very censorious and would be thought no better of himself and therefore would have none believe or trust him For who would be better than his God Direct 16. Consider also that Veracity in God is his nature or essence and cannot be denyed without denying him to be God For it is nothing but his three Essentialities or Principles Power Wisdom and Goodness as they are expressed in his Word or Revelations as congruous to his mind and to the matter expressed He that neither wanteth knowledge to know what to say and do nor Goodness to love truth and hate all evil nor Power to do what he please and to make good his word cannot possibly lye because every lye is for want of one or more of these Heb. 6.18 Titus 1.12 And there as it is said that he cannot lye and that it is impossible so it is called a denying of himself if he could be unfaithfull 2 Tim. 2.13 If we believe not yet be abideth faithful and cannot deny himself Direct 17. Exercise Faith much in those proper works in which self and sense are most denyed and overcome Bodily motions and labours which we are not used to are done both unskilfully and with pain If Faith be not much exercised in its warfare and victorious acts you will neither know its strength nor find it to be strong when you come to use it It is not the easie and common acts of Faith which will serve turn to try and strengthen it As the life of sense is the adversary which Faith must conquer so use it much in such conflicts and conquests if you would find it strong and usefull Use it in such acts of mortification and self-denyal as will plainly shew that it over ruleth sense Use it in patience and rejoycing in such sufferings and in contentment in so low and cross a state where you are sure that sight and sense do not contribute to your peace and joy Use it not only in giving some little of your superfluities but in giving your whole two mites even all your substance and selling all and giving to the poor when indeed God maketh it your duty At least in forsaking all for his sake in a day of tryal Faith never doth work so like it self so clearly so powerfully and so comfortably as in these self-denying and overcoming acts when it doth not work alone without the help of sense to comfort us but also against sense which would discourage us Luke 18.22 23. 14.26 33. 2 Cor. 5.7 Direct 18. Keep a constant observation of Gods converse with your hearts and workings on them For as I said before there are within us such demonstrations of a Kingdom of God in precepts mercies rewards and punishments that he which well worketh them will have much help in the maintaining and exercising his belief of the everlasting Kingdom Especially the godly who have that Spirit there working which is indeed the very seal and pledge and earnest of life eternal 2 Cor. 1.22 5.5 Ephes 1.13 14. Gal. 4.5 6. Rom. 8.16 17. There is so much of God and Heaven in a true Believers heart that as we see the Moon and Stars when we look down into the water so we may see much of God and Heaven within us if the heart it self be throughly studied And I must add that Experiences here must be carefully recorded and when God fulfilleth promises to us it must not be forgotten Direct 19. Converse much with them that live by Faith and fetch their motives and comforts from the things unseen Converse hath a transforming power To converse with them that live all by sense and shew no other desires or joyes or sorrows but what are fetched from fleshly sensible things is a great means to draw us downwards with them And to converse with them who converse in Heaven and speak of nothing else so comfortably or so seriously who shew us that Heaven is the place they travel to and the state that all their life doth aim and who make little of all the wants or plenty pains or pleasures of the flesh this much conduceth to make us heavenly As men are apt to learn
For it is no unbelief to doubt of that will which never was revealed But if they had doubted of his revealed will concerning the event they had then charged him with falshood and had sinned against him as ill as those who deny his power And the large experience of this our age confuteth this foresaid errour of a particular belief For we have abundance of instances of good people who were thus mistaken and have ventured thereupon to conclude with confidence that such a sick person shall be healed and such a thing shall come to pass when over and over the event hath proved contrary and brought such confidence into contempt upon the failing of it Direct 11. Think not that because some strong imagination bringeth some promisâ— to your minds that therefore it belongeth unto you unless upon tryal the true meaning of it do extend to you Many and many an honest ignorant melancholy woman hath told me what abundance of sudden comfort they have had because such a text was brought to their minds and such a promise was suddenly set upon their hearts when as they mistook the very sense of the promise and upon true enquiry â—t was nothing to their purpose Yet it is best not rather to contradict those mistaken and ungrounded comforts of such persons Because when they are godly and have true right to â—ounder comforts but cannot see it it is better that they support themselves a while with such mistakes than that they sink into despair For though we may not offer them such mistakes nor comfort them by a lie yet we may permit that which we may not do as God himself doth It is not at all times that we are bound to rectifie other mens mistakes viz. not when it will do them more harm than good Many an occasion may bring a text to our remembrance which concerneth us not without the Spirit of God Our own imaginations may do much that way of themselves Try therefore what is the true sense of the text before you build your conclusions on it But yet if indeed God bring to your minds any pertinent promise I would not have you to neglect the comfort of it Dâ—rect 12. Think not that God hath promised to all Christians the same degrees of grace and therefore that you may expect as much as any others have Object But shall not all at last be perfect and what can there be added to perfection Answ The perfection of a creature is to be advanced to the highest degree which his own specifical and individual nature are capable of A beast may be perfect and yet not be a man and a man may be perfect and yet not be an Angel And Lazarus may be perfect and yet not reach the degree of Abraham For there is no doubt a gradual difference between the capacities of several individual souls of the same species As there is of several vessels of the same metal though not by such difference of corporal extension And there is no great probability that all the difference in the degrees of wit from the Ideot to Achitophel is founded only in the bodily organs and not at all in the souls And it is certain that there are various degrees of glory in Heaven and yet that every one there is perfect But if this were not so yet it is in this life only that we are now telling you that all Christians have not a promise of the same degrees Object But is not additional grace given by way of reward And then have not all a promise of the same degree which the best attain conditionally if they do as much as they for it Answ O yes objective but not subjective bâ—cause all have not the same natural capacity nor are bound to the same degree of duty as to the condition it self As perfection in Hâ—â—ven is given by way of reward and yet all shall not have the same degree of perfection so is it as to the degrees of grace on earth 2. All have not the same degrees of the first preventing grace given them and therefore it is most certain that all will not use the same degree of industry for more Some have but one talent and some two when some have five and therefore gain ten talents in the improvement Mat. 25. All must strive for the highest measure and all the sincere may at last expect their own perfection But God breaketh no promise if he give them not all as much as some have Direct 13. Much less hath God promised the same degree of common gifts to all If you never attain to the same measure of acuteness learning memory utterance do not think that God breaketh promise with you Nor do not call your presumption by the name of Faith if you have such expectations See 1 Cor. 12. throughout Direct 14. God often promiseth the thing it self when he promiseth the time of giving it Therefore do not take it to be an act of Faith to believe a set time where God hath set no time at all Many are the troubles of the righteous but God will deliver them out of all Psal 37. But he hath not set them just the time Christ hath promised to come again and take us to himself Joh. 14.1 2.3 But of that day and hour knoweth no man God will give necessary comfort to his servants but he best knoweth when it is necessary and therefore they must not set him a time and say Let it be now or thou breakest thy word Patient waâ—ting Gods own time is as needful as believing Yea he that believeth will not make haste Isa 28.16 Rom. 2 7. 2 Thes 3.5 James 5.7 8. Heb. 6.12 10.36 12.1 James 5.7 Revel 13.10 14.12 1 Thes 1.3 11. Direct 15. God often promiseth the thing when he promiseth not either in what manner or by what instrument he will do it He may deliver his Church and may deliver particular persons out of trouble and yet do it in a way and by such means as they never dreamed of Sometimes he foretelleth us his means when it is we that in duty are to use them And sometimes he keepeth them unknown to us when they are only to be used by himself In the Mount will the Lord be seen but yet Abraham thought not of the Ram in the Thickeâ— The Israelites knew not that God would deliver them by the hand of Moses Acts 7.25 Direct 16. Take not the promises proper to one time or age of the Church as if they were common to all or unto us There were many promises to the Israelites which belong not to us as well as many precepts The increase of their seed and the notable prosperity in the world which was promised them was partly because that the motive should be suited to the ceremonial duties and partly because the eternal things being not then so fully brought to light as now they were the more to be moved with the present outward tokens of
Jesus Acts 21.13 3. In so strong a fortitude of soul as to venture and give up our selves our lives and all our comforts and hopes into the hand of Christ without any trouble or sinful fears and to pass through all difficulties and tryals in the way without any distrust or anxiety of mind These be the characters of a strong and great degree of faith And you may note how Heb. 11. describeth Faith commonly by this venturing and forsaking all upon the belief of God As in Noah's case verse 7. And in Abraham's leaving his Countrey v. 8. And in his sacrificing Isaac v. 17. And in Moses forsaking Pharaoh's Court and chusing the reproach of Christ rather than the pleasures of sin for a season v. 24 25 26. And in the Israelites venturing into the Red Sea v. 29. And in Rebab's hiding the spies which must needs be her danger in her own Countrey And in all those who by faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises stopped the mouths of Lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong O hers were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection and others had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in Sheep skins and Goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy They wandered in Desarts and Mountains and in Deus and Caves of the earth And in Heb. 10.32 33 c. They endured a great fight of affliction partly whilst they were made a gazing flock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly whilst they became companions of them that were so used And took joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance And thus the just do live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him saith the Lord. See also Rom. 8.33 36 37 c. These are the Spirits descriptions of faith but if you will rather take a whimsical ignorant mans description who can only toss in his mouth the name of FREE GRACE and knoweth not of what he speaketh or what he affirmeth or what that name signifieth which he cheateth his own soul with instead of true Free Grace it self you must suffer the bitter fruits of your own delusion For my part I shall say thus much more to tell you why I say so much to help you to a right understanding of the nature of true Christian Faith 1. If you understand not truly what Faith is you understand not what Religion it is that you profess And so you call your selves Christians and know not what it is It seems those that said Lord we have eaten and drunken in thy presence and prophesied in thy Name did think they had been true Believers Matth. 7.21 22. 2. To erre about the nature of true Faith will engage you in abundance of other errours which will necessarily arise from that as it did them against whom James disputeth James 2.14 15 c. about Justification by Faith and by Works 3. It will damnably delude your souls about your own state and draw you to think that you have saving Faith because you have that fancy which you thought was it One comes boldly to Christ Mat. 8.19 Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest But when he heard The Foxes have holes and the Birds have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head we hear no more of him And another came with a Good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life Luke 18.18 as if he would have been one of Christs Disciples and have done any thing for Heaven And it 's like that he would have been a Christian if Free Grace had been as large and as little grace as some now imagine But when he heard Yet lackest thou one thing sell all that thou hast and distribute to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven Come follow me he was then very sorrowful for he was very rich Luke 18.21 22 23. Thousands cheat their souls with a conceit that they are Believers because they believe that they shall be saved by Free Grace without the faith and grace which Christ hath made necessary to salvation 4. And this will take off all those needful thoughts and means which should help you to the faith which yet you have not 5. And it will engage you in perverse disputes against that true faith which you understand not And you will think that you are contending for Free Grace and for the Faith when you are proud knowing nothing but sick or doting about questions which engender no better birth than strifes railings evil surmisings perverse disputings c. 1 Tim. 6.4 5. 6. Lastly You can scarce more dishonour the Christian Religion nor injure God and our Mediatour or harden men in Infidelity than by fathering your ill-shapen fictions on Christ and calling them the Christian or Justifying Faith Direct 29. Take not all doubts and fears of your salvation to be the proper effects and signs of unbelief Seeing that in many they arise from the misunderstanding of the meaning of Gods Promise and in more from the doubtfulness of their own qualifications rather than from any unbelief of the Promise or distrust of Christ It is ordinary with ignorant Christians to say that they cannot believe because they doubt of their own sincerity and salvation as thinking that it is the nature of true faith to believe that they themselves are justified and shall be saved and that to doubt of this is to doubt of the Promises because they doubtingly apply it Such distresses have false principles bought many to But there are two other things besides the weakness of faith which are usually the causes of all this 1. Many mistake the meaning of Christs Covenant and think that it hath no universality in it and that he died only for the Elect and promiseth pardon to none but the Elect no not on the condition of believing And therefore thinking that they can have no assurance that they are Elect they doubt of the conclusion And many of them think that the Promise extendeth not to such as they because of some sin or great unworthiness which they are guilty of And others think that they have not that Faith and Repentance which are the condition of the promise of pardon and salvation And in some of these the thing it self may be so obscure as to be indeed the matter of rational doubtfulness And in others of them the cause may be either a mistake about the true nature and signs of Faith and Repentance or else a timerous melancholy causeless suspition of themselves But which of all these soever be the cause it is something different from proper unbelief or distrust of God
him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 26.18 To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Heb. 8.12 I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Luke 24.47 That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name to all Nations 2. Promises of Salvation from Hell and possession of Heaven John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life v. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned v. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life 1 John 5.11 12. And this is the record that God hath given us eternal life and this is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life Acts 26.18 before cited 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Heb. 7.25 He is able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him Heb. 5.9 And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved John 10.9 By me if any man enter in he shall be saved John 10.27 28. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I will give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish Rom. 5.9 10. Being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life See Luke 18 30. John 4.14 6.27 40 47. 12.50 Rom. 6.22 Gal. 6.8 1 Tim. 1.16 3. Promises of Reconciliation Adoption and acceptance with God through Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses to them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Rom. 5.1 2 10. Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son 2 Cor. 6.16 17 18. I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people I will receive you and be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit John 1.12 As many as received him to them give he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flâ—sh nor of the will of man but of God Acts 10.35 In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Ephes 1 6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved Ephes 2.14 16. Col. 1.20 John 16.27 The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed that I came out from God 4. Promises of renewed Pardon of sins after conversion 1 John 2.12 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world Matth. 6.14 Forgive us our trespasses For if we forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will forgive you James 5.15 If he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him Matth. 12.31 I say unto you All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the Spirit Psal 103.3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 5. Promises of the Spirit of Sanctification to Believers and of divine assistances of grace Luke 11.13 How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him John 7.37 38 39. If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him shall receive John 4.10 14. If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living waters Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 11.19 And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you Acts 2.38 39 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Gal. 4.6 And because you are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Prov. 1.23 Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intecerssion for us with groanings which cannot be uttered 6. Promises of Gods giving his grace to all that truly desire and seek it Matth. 5 6. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no mony come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without mony and without price Hearken diligently to me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Encline
of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised James 4.6 He giveth grace to the humble Matth. 18.4 Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 23.12 He that shall humble himself shall be exalted James 4.10 Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Prov. 3.34 He giveth grace to the lowly 12. Promises to the peaceable and peace-makers Matth. 5.9 Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God James 3.17 18. The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace 2 Cor. 13.11 Be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you Prov. 12.20 To the councellours of peace is joy Rom. 15.33 16.20 Phil. 4.9 The God of peace shall be with you c. shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Grace and Peace are the blessing of Saints 13. Promises to the diligent and laborious Christian Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Prov. 13.4 The soul of the diligent shall be made fat 1 Cor. 15.58 Be stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fail 2 Pet. 1.5 8. Giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge c. For if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 5.9 Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you 1 Cor. 3.8 Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour Matth. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force See Prov. 3.13 c. 4. to 14. 6.20 c. 7.1 c. 8 9. throughout 14. Promises to the patient waiting Christian Heb. 6.11 12. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises James 1.3 4. Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have its perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. Psal 37.7 9 34. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him Those that wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exaâ—â— thee to inherit the Land Prov. 20 22. Wait on the Lord and he shall save thee Isa 30.18 Blessed are all they that wait for him Isa 40.31 They that wait on the 〈…〉 renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint Isa 49.23 They shall not be ashamed that wait for me Lam. 3.25 The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Rom. 8.25 But if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith 2 Thes 3.5 The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God and the patient waiting for Christ Rom. 2.7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternal life Heb. 10.36 Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may inherit the promise 15. Promises to sincere Obedience Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in by the gate into the City John 3.22 Whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight v. 24. He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him John 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him John 15.10 If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the Commandments of God See Psal 112.1 119.6 Prov. 1.20 21 22 c. Isa 48.18 Psal 19.8 9 c. Heb. 5.9 He became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Rev. 14.12 Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the 〈◊〉 of Jesus 1 John 5.3 For this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments Eccles 12.13 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God shall bring every work unto judgement c. Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God James 2.24 You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only Rom. 2.6 7 10. Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Acts 10.35 In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Rom. 6.16 Of obedience unto righteousness 1 John 3.7 He that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous James 3.18 The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit â—â—ap life everlasting Rom. 8.13 If by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 16. Promises to them that love God Rom. 8.28 All things work together for good to them that love God 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him James 1.12 He shall receive the Crown of life which God hath promised to them that love him James 2.5 Rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him John 14.21 He that loveth me shall
be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me John 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever John 16.27 The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed 17. Promises to them that love the godly and that are merciful and do the works of love John 13.35 By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another Gal. 5.6 13 22. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love By love serve one another for all the Law is fulfilled in one word in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness Against such there is no Law Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love 1 John 3.14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren 18. My little children lâ—t us not love in word nor tongue but in deed and in truth And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him 1 John 4.7 Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God v. 16. God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him v. 12. If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us 2 Cor. 9.7 God loveth a chearful giver v. 6. He that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Mat. 5.7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Matth. 10.41 42. He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Matth. 25.34 40 46. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom Verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me The righteous shall go into life eternal Heb. 13.16 But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Phil. 4.17 I desire fruit which may abound to your account 2 Cor. 9.9 As it is written He hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the poor his righteousness remaineth for ever 18. Promises to the poor and needy Christians Matth. 6.30 32 33. If God so clothe the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the Oven 〈◊〉 he not much more clothe 〈◊〉 O ye of little faith Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you Heb. 13.5 Let your conversations be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee James 2.5 Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom Psal 34.10 They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Psal 23.1 The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want Psal 4.19 My God shall supply all your need Phil. 4.11 12 13 I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Psal 9.18 The needy shall not alway be forgotten the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever 19. Promises to the oppressed and wronged Christian Psal 12.5 6 7. For the oppression of the poor and for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Thou shalt keep them O Lord thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever Psal 35.10 All my bones shall say Lord who is like unto thee which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him yea the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him Psal 40.17 But I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinketh on me thou art my helper and deliverer Psal 42.2 4 12 13. He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgement He shall judge the poor of the people he shall save the children of the needy and shall break in pieces the oppressor For he shall deliver the needy when he cryeth the poor also and him that hath no helper He shall spare the poor and needy and shall save the souls of the needy He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence and precious â—â—all their blood be in his sight Psal 113.7 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill See Isa 25.3 4 5. 14.30 Zech. 9.8 Isa 51.13 Eccles 5.8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgement and justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they 20. Promises to the persecuted who suffer for righteousness Matth. 5.10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Matth. 10.28 29 30 31 32. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbered Fear you not therefore ye are of more value than many Sparrows Whosoever shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven v. 39. He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it Matth. 19.29 And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my Names sake shall receive an hundred-fold and shall inherit everlasting life 2 Thes 1.4 5 6. Your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which ye suffer is a manifest token of the righteous judgement of God that ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which ye
28.19 20. Go and Disciple all Nations baptizing them c. Rom. 4.16 That the promise might be sure to all the seed And 9.8 The children of the Promise are counted for the seed Matth. 19.13 14. Jesus said suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven 27. Promises to the Church of its increase and preservation and perfection Rev. 11.15 The Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Luke 1.33 He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end Matth. 13.31 33. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of Mustard-seed which a man took and sowed in his field which is indeed the least of all seeds but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree so that the birds of the air lodge in the branches of it The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was levened John 12.32 And I if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me Dan. 2.44 In the daies of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdoms and it shall stand for ever Matth. 16.18 Upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Ephes 4.12 16. For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that henceforth we may be no more children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things who is the head Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in Love Ephes 5.25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Read Rev. 21 22. Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you to the end of the world Matth. 24.14 And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all Nations and then shall the end come Matth. 21.44 Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder The obscure Prophetick passages I pass by So much for living by Faith on the Promises of God CHAP. VI. How Faith must be exercised on Gods Threatnings and Judgments THE exercise of Faith upon Gods Threatnings and Judgments must be guided by such rules and helps as these Direct 1. Think not either that Christ hath no Threatning penal Laws or that there are none which are made for the use of Believers If there were no penalties or penal Laws there were no distinguishing Government of the world This Antinomian fancy destroyeth Religion And if there be threats or penal Laws none can be expected to make so much use of them as true Believers 1. Because he that most believeth them must needs be most affected with them 2. Because all things are for them and for their benefit and it is they that must be moved by them to the fear of God and an escaping of the punishment And therefore they that object that Believers are passed already from death to life and there is no condemnation to them and they are already justified and therefore have no use of threats or fears do contradâ—ct themselves For it wâ—ll rather follow Therefore they and they only do and will faithfully use the threatnings in godly fears For 1. Though they are justified and passed from death to life they have ever faith in order of nature before their Justification and he that believeth not Gods threatnings with fear hath no true Faith And 2. They have ever inherent Righteousness or Sanctification with their Justification And this Faith is part of that holiness and of the life of grace which they are passed into For this is life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ John 17.3 And he knoweth not God who knoweth him not to be true And this is part of our knowledge of Christ also to know him as the infallible Author of our Faith that is of the Gospel which saith not only He that believeth and is baptiz'd shall be saved but also He that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 And this is the record which God gave of his Son which he that believeth not maketh him a lyar that God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5.12 Yea as he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life so he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him John 3.36 And therefore 3. The reason why there is no condemnation to us is because believing not part only but all this Word of Christ we fly from sin and wrath and are in Christ Jesus as giving up our selves to him and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit being moved so to do both by the promises and threats of God This is plain English and plain and necessary truth the greater is the pitty that many honest well-meaning Antinomians should fight against it on an ignorant conceit of vindicating Free Grace If the plain Word of God were not through partiality over-lookt by them they might see enough to end the controversie in many and full expressions of Scripture I will cite but three more Matth. 10.28 and Luke 12.5 But fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell or when he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Doth Christ thus iterate that it is he that saith it and saith it to his Disciples and yet shall a Christian say it must not be preached to Disciples as the Word of Christ to them Hâ—b 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it Heb. 11.7 By Faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet that is of the deluge
after pardon that your faith may be firm and powerful and quieting especially consider the following grounds 1. Gods gracious Nature proclaimed even to Moses as abundant in mercy and forgiving iniquitys transgressions and sins to these and upon those terms that he promiseth forgiveness though he will by no means clear the guilty that is will neither take the unrighteous to be righteous nor forgive them or acquire them in judgment whom his Covenant did not first forgive 2. The merciful Nature and of our Redeemer Heb. 2.17 3. How deeply Christ harh engaged himself to shew mercy when he assumed our nature and did so much towards our salvation as he hath done Heb. 8 9. 4. That it is his very office and undertaking which therefore he cannot possibly neglect Luke 19.10 2.11 John 4.42 Acts 5.31 13.23 5. That God the Father himself did give him to us and appoint him to this saving office John 3.16 18. Acts 5.31 13.23 Yea God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing to them their trespasses 2 Cor. 5.18 19. And God made him sin that is a sacrifice for sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him that is might be the publick instances of Gods merciful Justice as Christ was of his penal Justice and this by a righteousness given us by God himself and purchased or merited for us by Christ 2 Cor. 5.21 yea and be renewed in holiness and righteousness according to his Image 6. That now it is become the very interest of God and of Jesus Christ himself to justifie us as ever he would not lose either the glory of his grace or the obedience and suffering which he hath performed Isa 53.19 Rom. 5.12 13 18 19 c. Rom. 4. throughout 7. Consider the nearness of the Person of Christ both to the Father and to us Heb. 1 2 3. 8. Think of the perfection of his sacrifice and merit set out throughout the Epistle to the Hebrews 9. Think of the word of Promise or Covenant which he hath made and sealed and sworn Heb. 6.17 18. Titus 1.2 10. Think of the great seal of the Spirit which is more than a Promise even an earnest which is a certain degree of possession and is an executive pardon as after shall be declared Rom. 8.15 16. Gal. 4.6 11. Remember that Gods own Justice is now engaged for our Justification in these two respects conjunct 1. Because of the fulness of the merits and satisfaction of Christ 2. And because of his Veracity which must fulfil his promise and his governing or destributive Justice which must judge men according to his own Law of Grace and must give men that which he himself hath made their right 2 Tim. 4.7 8. 1 John 5.9 10 11 12. 12. Lastly Think of the many millions now in Heaven of whom many were greater sinners than you and no one of them save Christ came thither by the way of innocency and legal Justification There are no Saints in Heaven that were not redeemed from the captivity of the Devil and justified by the way of pardoning grace and were not once the heirs of death John 3.3 5. Rom. 3 4. Upon these considerations trust your selves confidently on the grace of Christ and take all your sins but as the advantages of his grace Direct 9. Remember that there is somewhat on your own parts to be done for the continuing as well as for the beginning of your Justification yea somewhat more than for the beginning even the faithful keeping of your baptismal Covenant in the essentials of it and also that you have continual need of Christ to continue your Justification Many take Justification to be one instantanious act of God which is never afterwards to be done And so it is if we mean only the first making of him righteous who was unrighteous As the first making of the world and not the continuance of it is called Creation but this is but about the name For the thing it self no doubt but that Covenant which first justified us doth continue to justifie us and if the cause should cease the effect would cease And he that requireth no actual obedience as the condition of our begun Justification doth require both the continuance of faith and actual sincere obedience as the condition of continuing or not losing our Justification as Davenant Bergius Blank c. have well opened and I have elsewhere proved at large As Matrimony giveth title to conjugal priviledges to the wife but conjugal fidelity and performance of the essentials of the contract is necessary to continue them Therefore labour to keep up your faith and to abide in Christ and he in you and to bring forth fruit lest ye be branches withered and for the fire John 15.2 3 7 8 9 c. And upon the former misapprehension the same persons do look upon all the faith which they exercise through their lives after the first instantanious act as no justifying faith at all but only a faith of the same kind but to what use they hardly know Yea they look upon Christ himself as if they had no more use for him either as to continue their Justification or to forgive their after-sins when as our continued faith must be exercised all our lives on the same Christ and trust on the same Covenant for the continuation and perfection of that which was begun at the time of our Regeneration Col. 1.23 1 John 2.24 Heb. 3.6.12 13. Heb. 6.11 12. 10.22 23. Direct 10. Vnderstand that every sin which you commit hath need of a renewed pardon in Christ and that he doth me prevent your necessity of such pardon And therefore you will have constant need of Christ and must daily come to God for pardon by him not only for the pardon of temporal chastisements but of everlasting punishments Of the sense of this I shall say more anon the proof of it is in the fore recited Promises and in all those texts of Scripture which tell us that death is the wages of sin and call us to ask pardon and tell us on what terms it may be had Direct 11. Yet do not think that every sin doth put you into a state of condemnation again or nullifie your former Justification For though the Law of nature is so far still in force as to make punishment by it your natural due yet the Covenant of Grace is a continually pardoning act and according to its proper terms doth dissolve the foresaid obligation and presently remit the punishment and as its moral action is not interrupted no more is our justified state There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus c. Rom. 8.1 John 3.16 18. 1 John 5.11 12. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins 1 John 2.1 2. If we confess our sins be
he that readeth Law-books or Philosophy or Medicine it is to learn Law Philosophy or Physick so whenever you read the Gospel meditate on Christ or hear his Word if you are askt why you do it be able to say I do it to learn the Love of God which is no where else in the world to be learnt so well No wonder if Hypocrites have learned to mortifie Scripture Sermons Prayers and all other means of grace yea all the world which should teach them God and to learn the letters and not the sense But it is most pittiful that they should thus mortifie Christ himself to them and should gaze on the glass and never take much notice of the face even of the Love of God which he is set up to declare Direct 4. Therefore congest all the great discoveries of this Love and set them all together in order and make them your daily study and abhor all doctrines or suggestions from men or devils which tend to disgrace diminish or hide this revealed Love of God in Christ Think of the grand design it self the reconciling and saving of lost mankind Think of the gracious nature of Christ of his wonderful condescention in his incarnation in his life and doctrine in his sufferings and death in his miracles and gifts Think of his merciful Covenant and Promises of all his benefits given to his Church and all the priviledges of his Saints of pardon and peace of his Spirit of Holiness of preservation and provision of resurrection and justification and of the life of glory which we shall live for ever And if the Faith which looketh on all these cannot yet warm your hearts with love nor engage them in thankful obedience to your Redeemer certainly it is no true and lively Faith But you must not think narrowly and seldom of these mercies not hearken to the Devil or the doctrine of any mistaken Teachers that would represent Gods Love as vailed or ecclipsed or shew you nothing but wrath and flames That which Christ principally came to reveal the Devil principally striveth to conceal even the Love of God to sinners that so that which Christ principally came to work in us the Devil might principally labour to destroy and that is our love to him that hath so loved us Direct 5. Take heed of all the Antinomian Doctrines before recited which to extol the empty Name and Image of Free Grace do destroy the true principles and motives of holiness and obedience Direct 6. Exercise your Faith upon all the holy Scriptures Precepts Promises and Threatnings and not on one of them alone For when God hath appointed all conjunctly for this work you are unlike to have his blessing or the effect if you will lay by most of his remedies Direct 7. Take not that for Holiness and Good Works which is no such thing but either mans inventions or some common gifts of God It greatly deludeth the world to take up a wrong description or character of Holiness in their minds As 1. The Papists take it for Holiness to be very observant in their adoration of the supposed transubstantiated Host to use their reliques pilgrimages crossings prayers to Saints and Angels anointings Candles Images observation of meats and daies penance auricular confession praying by numbers and hours on their beads c. They think their idle ceremonies are holiness and that their hurtful austerities and self-afflictings by rising in the night when they might pray as long before they go to bed and by whipping themselves to be very meritorious parts of Religion And their vows of renouncing marriage and propriety and of absolute obedience to be a state of perfection 2. Others think that Holiness consisteth much in being rebaptized and in censuring the Parish-Churches and Ministers as Null and in withdrawing from their communion and in avoiding forms of prayer c. 3. And others or the same think that more of it consisteth in the gifts of utterance in praying and preaching than indeed it doth and that those only are godly that can pray without book in their families or at other times and that are most in private meetings and none but they 4. And some think that the greatest parts of Godliness are the spirit of bondage to fear and the shedding of tears for sin or finding that they were under terrour before they had any spiritual peace and comfort or being able to tell at what Sermon or time or in what order and by what means they were converted It is of exceeding great consequence to have a right apprehension of the Nature of Holiness and to escape all false conceits thereof But I shall not now stand further to describe it because I have done it in many Books especially in my Reasons of the Christian Religion and in my A Saint or a Bruit and in a Treatise only of the subject called The character of a sound Christian Direct 8. Let all Gods Attributes be orderly and deeply printed in your minds as I have directed in my book called The Divine Life For it is that which must most immediately form his Image on you To know God in Christ is life eternal John 17.3 Direct 9. Never separate reward from duty but in every religious or obedient action still see it as connext with Heaven The means is no means but for the end and must never be used but with special respect unto the end Remember in reading hearing praying meditating in the duties of your callings and relations and in all acts of charity and obedience that All this is for Heaven It will make you mend your pace if you think believingly whither you are going Heb. 11. Direct 10. Yet watch most carefully against all proud self-esteeming thoughts of proper merit as obliging God or as if you were better than indeed you are For Pride is the most pernicious vermine that can breed in gifts or in good works And the better you are indeed the more humble you will be and apt to think others better than your self Direct 11. So also in every temptation to sin let Faith see Heaven open and take the temptation in its proper sense q. d. Take this pleasure instead of God sell thy part in Heaven for this preferment or commodity cast away thy soul for this sensual delight This is the true meaning of every temptation to sin and only Faith can understand it The Devil easily prevaileth when Heaven is forgotten and out of sight and pleasure commodity credit and preferment seem a great matter and can do much till Heaven be set in the ballance against them and there they are nothing and can do nothing Phil. 3.7 8 9. Heb. 12.1 2 3. 2 Cor. 4.16 17. Direct 12. Let Faith also see God alwaies present Men dare do any thing when they think they are behind his back even truants and eye-servants will do well under the Masters eye Faith seeing him that is invisible Heb. 11. is it that sanctifieth heart and life As
this Trinity also of Relations towards Man 1. Their Owner 2. Their Ruler 3. Their Benefactor The Father also as the first principle of Redemption acquiring a second title besides the first by Creation to all these and towards God Christ continueth the Relation of a heavenly Priest 30. In order to the works of these Relations for the future we must consider of Christs exaltation 1. Of his Justification and Resurrection 2. Of his Ascension and Glorification And 3. Of the delivering of All Power and All Things into his hands 31. The work of Redemption thus fundamentally wrought doth not of it self renew mans nature and therefore putteth no Law of Nature into us of it self as the Creation did And therefore we must next proceed to Christs Administration of this office according to these Relations which is 1. By Legislation or Donation enacting the New Covenant where this last and perfect edition of it is to be explained the Preceptive the Promisory and the Penal parts with its effects and its differences from the former Edition and from the Law of Nature and of Works 32. And 2. By the promulgation or publication of this Covenant or Gospel to the world by calling special Officers for that work and giving them their commission and promising them his Spirit his Protection and their Reward 33. And here we come to the special work of the Holy Ghost who is 1. To be known in his Essence and Person as the third in Trinity and the eternal Love of God 2. And as he is the grand Advocate or Agent of Christ in the world where his works are to be considered 1. Preparatory on and by Christ himself 2. Administratory 1. Extraordinary on the Apostles and their helpers 1. Being in them a spirit of extraordinary Power by gifts and miracles 2. Of extraordinary Wisdom and Infallibility as far as their commission-work required 3. And of extraordinary Love and Holiness 2. By the Apostles 1. Extraordinarily convincing and bringing in the world 2. Settling all Church-Doctrines Officers and Orders which Christ had left unsettled bringing all things to their remembrance which Christ had taught and commanded them and guiding them in the rest 3. Recording all this for posterity in the holy Scriptures 2. His Ordinary Agency 1. On Ministers 2. By sanctification on all true Believers is after to be opened 34. And here is to be considered the Nature of Christianity in fieri Faith and Repentance in our three great Relations to our Redeemer as we are his Own his Disciples and Subjects and his Beneficiaries with all the special benefits of these Relations as antecedent to our duty and then all our duty in them as commanded And then the benefits after to be expected as in promise only 35. Next must distinctly be considered the preaching and converting and baptizing part of the ministerial Office 1. As in the Apostles 2. And in their successors to the end with the nature of Baptism and the part of Christ and of the Minister and of the baptized in that Covenant 36. And then the description of the universal Church which the baptized constitute 37. Next is to be described the state of Christians after Baptism 1. Relative 1. In Pardon Reconciliation Justification 2. Adoption 2. Physical in the Spirit of Sanctification 38. Where is to be opened 1. The first sanctifying work of the Spirit 2. It s after-helps and their conditions 3. All the duties of Holiness primitive and medicinal towards God our selves and others 39. Our special duties in secret reading meditation prayer c. 40. Our duties in Family Relations and Callings 41. Our duties in Church Relations where is to be described the nature of particular Churches their work and worship their ministry and their members with the duties of each 42. Our duties in our Civil Relations 43. What temptations are against us as be to be overcome 44. Next is to be considered the state of Christians and Societies in the world How far all these duties are performed and what are their weaknesses and sins 45. And what are the punishments which God useth in this life 46. And what Christians must do for pardon and reparation after falls and to be delivered from those punishments 47. Of Death and the change which it maketh and of our special preparation for it 48. Of the coming of Christ and the Judgement of the great day 49. Of the punishment of the wicked impenitent in Hell 50. And of the blessedness of the Saints in Heaven and the everlasting Kingdom These are the Heads and this is the Method of true Divinity and the order in which it should lye in the understanding of him that will be compleat in knowledge II. And as this is the Intellectual Order of knowledge so the order which all things must lye in at our hearts and wills is much more necessary to be observed 1. That nothing but GOD be loved as the infinite simple good totally with all the heart and finally for himself And that nothing at all be loved with any Love which is not purely subordinate to the Love of God or which causeth us to love him ever the less 2. That the blessed person of our Mediatour as in the Humane Nature glorified be loved above all creatures next to God Because there is most of the Divines Perfections appearing in him 3. That the heavenly Church or Society of Angels and Saints be loved next to Jesus Christ as being next in excellence 4. That the Vniversal Church on earth be loved next to the perfect Church in Heaven 5. That particular Churches and Kingdoms be next loved and where ever there is more of Gods Interest and Image than in our selves that our Love be more there than on our selves 6. That we next love our selves with that peculiar kind of love which God hath made necessary to our duty and our happiness and end with a self-preserving watchful diligent love preferring our souls before our bodies and spiritual mercies before temporal and greater before less 7. That we love our Christian Relations with that double Love which is due to them as Christians and Relations and love all Relations according to their places with that kind of Love which is proper for them as fitting us to all the duties which we must perform to them 8. That we love all good Christians as the sanctified members of Christ with a special Love according to the measure of Gods Image appearing on them 9. That we love every visible Christian that we cannot prove hath unchristened himself by apostacy or ungodliness with the special Love also belonging to true Christians because he appeareth such to us But yet according to the measure of that appearance as being more confident of some and more doubtful of others 10. That we love our intimate suitable friends that are godly with a double Love as godly and as friends 11. That we love Neighbours and civil Relations with a Love which is suitable to
they are the sins of those faculties over which the will hath not a despotical power As a man may be truly willing to have no sluggishness heaviness sleepiness at prayer no forgetfulness no wandering thoughts no inordinate appetite or lust at all stirring in him no sudden passions of anger grief or fear he may be willing to love God perfectly to fear him and obey him perfectly but cannot These latter are the ordinary infirmities of the godly The former sort are if at all his extraordinary falls Rom. 7.14 to the end 6. Lastly The true Christian riseth by unfeigned Repentance when his conscience hath but leisure and helps to deliberate and to bethink him what he hath done And his Repentance much better resolveth and strengtheneth him against his sin for the time to come To summ up all 1. Sin more loved than hated 2. Sin wilfully lived in which might be avoided by the sincerely willing 3. Sin made light of and not truly repented of when it is committed 4. And any sin inconsistent with habitual Love to God in predominancy is mortal or a sign of spiritual death and none of the sins of sanctified Believers CHAP. XIV How to live by Faith in Prosperity THE work of Faith in respect of Prosperity is twofold 1. To save us from the danger of it 2. To help us to a sanctified improvement of it 1. And for the first that which Faith doth is especially 1. To see deeper and further into the nature of all things in the world than sense can do 2 Cor. 4.17 18. 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. To see that they were never intended for our Rest or portion but to be our wilderness provision in our way To foresee just how the world will use us and leave us at the last and to have the very same thoughts of it now as we foresee that we shall have when the end is come and when we have had all that ever the world will do for us It is the work of Faith to cause a man to judge of the world and all its glory as we shall do when death and judgment come and have taken off the mask of splendid names and shews and flatteries that we may use the world as if we used it not and possess it as if we possest it not because its fashion doth pass away It is the work of Faith to crucifie the world to us and us to the world by the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.14 that we may look on it as disdainfully as the world looked upon Christ when he hanged as forsaken on the Cross That when it is dead it may have no power on us and when we are dead to it we may have no inordinate love or care or thoughts or fears or grief or labour to lay out upon it It is the work of Faithâ—o â—o make all worldly pomp and glory to be to us but loss and dross and dung in comparison of Christ and the righteousness of Faith Phil. 3.7 8 9. And then no man will part with Heaven for dung nor set his God below his dung nor further from his heart nor will he feel any great power in temptations to honour wealth or pleasure if really he count them all but dung nor will he wound his conscience or betray his peace or cast away his innocency for them 2. Faith sheweth the soul those sure and great and glorious things which are infinitely more worthy of our love and labour And this is its highest and most proper work Heb. 11. it conquereth Earth by opening Heaven and shewing it us as sure and clear and near And no man will dote on this deceitful world till he have turned away his eyes from God and till Heaven be out of his sight and heart Faith saith I must shortly be with Christ and what then are these dying things to me I have better things which God that cannot lye hath promised me with Christ Titus 1.2 Heb. 6.18 I look every day when I am called in The Judge standeth before the door James 5.9 The Lord is at hand Phil. 4.5 And the end of all these things is at hand 1 Pet. 4.7 And shall I set my heart on that which is not Therefore when the world doth smile and flatter faith setteth Heaven against all that it can say or offer And what is the world when Heaven stands by Faith seeth what the blessed souls above possess at the same time while the world is alluring us to forsake it Luke 16. Heb. 11. 12.1 2. c. Faith setteth the heart upon the things above as our concernment oâ—r only hope and happiness It kindleth that Love of God in the soul and that delight in higher things which powerfully quencheth worldly love and mortifieth all our carnal pleasures Matth. 6.20.21 Col. 3.1 2 3 4. Rom. 8.5 6 7. Phil. 30.20 21. 3. Faith sheweth the soul those wants and miseries in it self which nothing in the world is able to supply and cure Nay such as the world is apter to increase It is not gold that will quench his thirst who longs for pardon grace and glory A guilâ—y conscience a sinful and condemned soul will never be cured by riches or high places by pride or flâ—shly sports and pleasures James 5.1 2 3. This humbling work is not in vain 4. Faith looketh to Christ who hath overcome the world and carefully treadeth in his stâ—ps John 16.33 Heb. 12.2 3 4 5. It looketh to his person his birth his life his cross his grave and his resurrection to all that strange example of contempt of worldly things which he gave us from his manger to his shameful kind of death And he that studieth the Life of Christ will either despise the world or him He will either vilifie the world in imitation of his Lord or vilifie Christ for the pleasures of the world Faith hath in this warfare the surest and most onourable guide the ablest Captain and the most powerful example in all the world And it hath with Christian unerring Rule which furnisheth him with armour for every use Yea it hath through him a promise of Victory before it be aâ—tained so that in the beginning of the fight it knows the end Rom. 16.20 John 16.33 It goeth to Christ for that Spirit which is our strengâ—h Ephes 6.10 Câ—l 2.7 And by that it mortifieth the desires of the flesh and when â—he flesh is mortified the world is conquered for it is loved only as it is the provision of the flâ—sh 5. Moreover Faith doth observe Gods particular Providence who distributeth his talents to every man as he pleaseth and disposeth of their estates and comforts so that the Race is not to the swift nor the Victory to the strong nor Riches to men of understanding Eccles 9.11 Therefore it convinceth us that our lives and all being in his hand it is our wisdom to make it our chiefest care to use all so as is most pleasing unto him 2 Cor. 5.8
and sellers from Christs Temple their merchandize is exposed without shame and their signs set forth and the trade of getting preferments openly professed and it is enough to wipe off all the shame to put some venerable titles upon this Den of thieves But the Lord whom we wait for will once more come and cleanse his Temple But who may abide the day of his coming for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sâ—pe and will throughly purge the Sons of Levi Mal. 3.1 2 3 4. If talking against worldliness would prove that the world is overcome and that God is dearest to the soul then Preachers will be the happiest men on earth But it 's easier to commend God than to love him above all and easier to cry out against the world than to have a heart that is truly weaned from it and set upon a better world Object 10. But all this belongeth only to them that are in prosperity but I am poor and therefore it is nothing to me Answ Many a one loveth prosperity that hath it not And such are doubly sinful that will love a world which loveth not them Even a world of poverty misery and distress Something you would have done if you had had a full estate and honour and fleshly delights to love Nay many poor men think better of riches and honour than those that have them because they never tryed how vain and vexatious they are and if they had tryed them perhaps would love them less The world is but a painted Strumpet admired afar off but the neerer you come to it and the more it 's known the worse you will like it Is it by your own desire that you are poor or is it against your wills Had you not rather be as great and rich as others Had you not rather live at ease and fulness And do you think God will love you ever the better for that which is against your wills Will he count that man to be no worldling that would fain have more of the world and cannot and that loveth God and Heaven no better than the rich Nay that will sin for a shilling when great ones do it for greater summs who can be more unfit for Heaven than he that loveth a life of labour and want and misery better Alas it is but little that the greatest worldlings have for their salvation But poor worldlings sell it for less than they and therefore do despise it more Direct 4. Let the true nature and aggravations of the sin of worldliness be still in your eye to make it odious to you As for instance 1. It is true and odious Idolatry Ephes 5.5 Col. 3.5 To have God for our God indeed is to love him as our God and to delight in him and be ruled by him Who then is an Idolater if he be not one who loveth the world and delighteth in it more than in God or esteemeth it fitter to be the matter of his delight and is ruled by it and seeketh it more Isa 55.1 2 3. 2. It is a blasphemous contempt of God and Heaven to prefer a dung hill world before him To set more by the provisions and pleasures of the flesh than by all the blessedness of Heaven It is called prophaneness in Esau to sell his birth-right for one morsel Heb. 12.16 What prophaneness is it then to say as worldlings hearts and lives do The satisfying of my flesh and fansie for a time is better than God and the Joyes of Heaven to all eternity 3. It is a sin of Interest and not only of Passion and therefore it possesseth the very Heart and Love which is the principal faculty of the soul and that which God most reserveth for himself No actual sin which is but little loved is so heinous and morâ—al as that which is most loved Because these do must exclude the Love of God Some other sins may do more hurt to others but this is worst to the sinner himself We justly pitty poor Heathenish Idolaters and pray for their conversion and I would we did it more But do not you not think that our hypocrite-worldlings do love their riches and their honours and pleasures better than the poor Heathens love their Idols They bow the knee to a creature and you entertain it in your heart 4. It is a sin of deliberation and contrivance which is much worse than a surprize by a sudden temptation You plot how you may compass your voluptuous covetous and ambitious ends Therefore it is a sin that standeth at the furthest distance from Repentance and is both voluntary and a settled habit 5. It is a continued sin Men be not alwaies lying though they be never so great lyars nor alwaies stealing if they be the most notorious thieves nor alwaies swearing if they be the profanest swearers But a worldly mind is alwaies worldly He is alwaies committing his Idolatry with the world and alwaies denying his Love to God 6. It is not only a sin about the means to a right end as mischosen waies of Religion may be but it is a sin against the End it self and a mischusing of a false pernicious End And so it is the perverting not only of one particular action but even of the bent and course of mens lives And consequently a mis-spending all their time 7. It is a perverting of Gods creatures to a use clean contrary to that which they are given us for and an unthankful turning of all his gifts against himself He gave us his creatures to lead us to him and by their loveliness to shew his greater loveliness and to taste in their sweetness the greater sweetness of his love And will you use them to turn your affections from him 8. It it a great debasing of the soul it self to fill that noble Spirit with nothing but dirt and smoak which was made to know and love its God 9. It is an irrational vice and signifieth not only much unbelief of the unseen things which should take up the soul but also a sottish inconsiderateness of the vanity and brevity of the things below It is an unmanning our selves and hiring out our reason to be a servant to our fleshly lusts 10. Lastly It is a pregnant multiplying sin which bringeth forth abundance more The love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6.9 10. Therefore Direct 5. Let the mischievous effects of this sin be still befâ—re your eyes As for instance 1. It keepeth the heart strange to God and Heaven The Love of God and of the world are contrary 1 John 2.15 3.17 James 4.4 So is an earthly and a heavenly conversation Phil. 3.18 19 20. And the laying up a treasure in Heaven and upon Earth Matth. 6.19 20 21. And the living after the flesh and after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 5 6 13. Ye cannot possibly serve God and Mammon nor travel two contrary waies at once nor have two contrary felicities till you have two hearts
service and business of their lives They will not be Prodigals of that which they may serve God by and they will not be over desirous of that which may be a bait to Pride and a snare to their souls though it gratifie the fleshly fancy They will seek it as if they sought it not and possess it as if they possest it not remembring how vain a thing man is and how little his thoughts or breath can do to make us happy God is so great in a Believers eye and man and worldly vanity is so small that a lowly mind can scarce have room and time to regard the honour which is the proud mans portion because he is taken up with honouring his God and esteeming the honour which consisteth in his approbation Therefore it is tolerable to him to be made of no reputation to be laden with reproaches to be spit upon and buffeted to be made as the scorn and offâ—scouring of the world and to have his name cast out as an evil doer so he be not an evil doer indeed 1 Cor. 4.13 Luke 6.22 Whatever you think of him or whatever you say of him he knoweth that it is little of his concernment your favour is not his felicity nor are you the Judge whose sentence must finally decide his cause He humbleth himself and therefore can endure to be humbled by others He chuseth the lowest place himself and therefore can endure to be low 1 Cor. 4.3 4 5. Luke 14.11 18.14 14.10 3. The high-minded are ashamed to be thought to come of a low descent or that their Parents or Ancestors were poor And if their Ancestors were rich and great that little honour doth help to elevate their minds because they want that personal worth which is honourable indeed they are fain to adorn themselves with these borrowed feathers But the lowly know that if Riches prove such a hinderance of salvation and so few of the rich proportionably are saved as Christ hath told us it can be no great honour to be the off-spring of the rich It is a sad kind of boast to say my Ancestors are liker to be in Hell than yours or if any of them be in Heaven they came thither as a Camel through a needles eye We know we are all of the common earth and there our flesh will all be levelled and our noblest blood will turn to the common putrefaction We are all the seed of sinful Adam our Father was an Amorite and our Mother an Hittite Ezek. 16.3 And good men have used humbly to lament their forefathers pride and wickedness instead of boasting of their worldly wealth as you may read Neh. 9.16 39. Dan. 9. 4. The high-minded are ashamed to be thought poor themselves Because wealth is the Idol which they most honour they think that it will most honour them Because they see that most men admire and honour it in the world therefore they being of the world do judge as the world and confirm themselves to its opinion Even the poor that is proud is ashamed of his poverty and would be fain accounted rich But the lowly are not ashamed to say with Peter Acts 3.6 Silver and gold have I none while they have better riches to rejoyce in They are glad when with Paul they can say We are poor but making many rich 2 Cor. 6.10 They will not deny or cast away any riches which God doth lend them because as his Stewards they must be accountable for them to their Lord. But they take it to be no shame to be liker Christ than Croesus or liker his Apostles than the Prelates and Cardinals of Rome or to be of those poor that are poor in spirit who are rich in faith and heirs of Heaven James 2.5 Matth. 5.3 Nor is it any desirable honour to have our salvation so much hindered and hazarded as the rich have God and Angels and wise men do think never the worse of a good man for being poor 5. The high-minded are therefore usually addicted to some excess in ornaments and apparel because they would be taken to be rich and comely unless when their Pride worketh some other way Yea if they be never so mean and poor they would seem by their clothing to be somewhat richer than they are or would be rich in hypocrisie or outward appearance except it hinder their relief They that wear soft clothing were wont to dwell in the houses of Kings Matth. 11.8 but now they dwell in the houses of most Citizens Tradesmen Husbandmen yea of Ministers themselves wives children and servants are commonly sick at once of this disease And though it be one of the lowest and foolishest games which Pride hath to play yet women and children and light-headed youths do make up the greater number for this vanity while the pride of the graver wiser sort doth turn it self to greater things But the lowly who are not ashamed to be poor are not ashamed of poor apparel Though they are not for uncleanliness nor for an affected singularity for ostentation of humility yet they had rather go below their rank than above it as taking Pride to be a greater shame and hurt than poverty If their clothing be convenient to their health and use and not offensive to others it sufficeth them and a patch or a rent or a garment that is old will not make them blush they have learnt 1 Pet. 3.3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward of plating the hair or of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel but the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price 6. The high-minded have high thoughts of worldly pomp and wealth and greatness and think of such as excel in these with great esteem and reverence They bow to the man that hath the gold Ring and the gay apparel while they slight the bâ—st and wisest that are poor They bless the Covetous whom the Lord abhorreth Psal 10.3 And they think if they be poor and low themselves how brave a thing is it to be high and rich And had far rather be rich than gracious and be higher in the world than to have a lowly mind But the humble have learnt of Christ to be meek and lowly Matth. 11.29 and are still learning it of him more and more They had rather have Pauls heart that counted all things as loss and dung for Christ and learned to abound and to suffer want and in every state to be content than to be lifted up with worldly vanity They know that it is better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoils with the proud Prov. 16.19 And as the brother of low degree being sanctified Believer that can use all for God must rejoyce when he is exalted so must the brother of high degree when he is made low Jam. 1.9 10. They pitty a
are duties which are also mans felicity And the exercise of these in Praises and Thanksgiving are the proper pleasure of the soul Give up thy self wholly to study the Goodness and Love of God in Jesus Christ till thou feel thy heart enflamed with his Love and spend half thy godly conference in Gods praises and half thy daily prayers in that and in thanksgiving and this will comfort thee not only by the reasoning way of evidence but as a feast pleaseth thy taste and as the fire warmeth thee or as the loving of thy friend delighteth thee or as health it self is the pleasure of thy flesh As the sins themselves of not knowing God not loving him nor delighting in him are the greatest part of the penalty or rather misery of the sinner which hath its peculiar way of remission so the knowledge and love and praise of God and delighting in him is instead of a reward unto it self and a beginning of Heaven to the heavenly Believer Direct 15. Dwell much in Heaven if you would dwell in comfort Comfort your selves and one another with these words that we shall for ever be with the Lord. Heaven is the place or state of our everlasting comfort and all that we have here must come from thence And Faith and Hope and Love must fetch it He that will have carnâ—l joy must go for it to pastime or lusts and pleasure to an Ale-house or a Whore or to a Gameing-house or a Play-house or to his wealâ—h and worldly honours But he that will have heavenly joy must go for it by Faith to Heaven and dwell there every day by Faith where he hopes to dwell for ever Heaven will nor comfort either them that believe it not or them that remember it not but them whose conversation and hearts are there Phil. 3.20 21. Direct 16. Set your selves wholly to do good Resolve that you will be faithful to Christ and do all the good that you can in the world and let him do with you what he will And in this way you shall quickly find that the soundest consolation will come in to your souls before you could expect it Though no works of our own can add any thing to God nor must be trusted to at all in a legal sense and though blind Libertines tell you that all comfort is legal and unsound which came by the thoughts of any thing in your selves or any of your own doings yet God is no such enemy to godliness but he that will hereafter judge you to Heaven or Hell according to your works will now judge you to joy or sorrow of heart usually according to your works Well doing shall afford you peace and ill doing shall disquiet you when all â—s said Direct 17. Lastly Be sure while you want the comforts of assurance to hold fast those comforts which rationally belong to common grace and to them that have the Gospel offers of salvation When the Gospel came to Samaria Acts 8. there was great joy in that City It is glad tidings in it self for guilty souls to have Christ and pardon freely offered to them Can you not say I am sure that I am regenerate justified and adopted For all that if you be not Infidels you can say I am sure that Christ and Pardon and Heaven are freely offered me and Ministers are commissioned to intreat me to accept it and nothing but my wilful and final refusal can deprive me of it and shut me out This is certain take but so much comfort as this much should rationally inferr To which I might add the comforts of your probability when you are in some degree of hope that your faith and repentance are sincere though you are not certain But this I have more largely spoken of and the rest which is needful to be spoken on this subject in the fore-named Treatise long ago The ordinary and long troubles and unsettledness of honest Christians are caused most 1. By unskilful Guides who are most confident where they are most ignorant and revile those Truths and Methods which God hath appointed for the settling of mens peace 2. And by their own lazy and unskilful course who take up most with examining and complaining instead of learning more understanding in Gods Methods and diligent â—â—â—nding what is amiss that the cause of their trouble might be taken away CHAP. XXI How to live by Faith in the Publick Worshipping of God I May not be so tedious nor do that which is done elsewhere as to direct you in the several parts of Worship distinctly but shall only give you some brief Directions about Publick Worship in the general Direct 1. Come not before God with Pharisaical conceits of the worthiness of your selves or Worship as if you offered him something which did oblige him But come as humble receivers that need him and his grace who needeth not you and as learners that hope to be wiser and better by drawing neer to God You know Christs instance of the prayers of the Pharisee and the Publican And remember that many a ones heart saith I thank thee Lord that I am not as other men or as this Publican whose tongue can spend an hour or more in sad confessions yea and that it is those very copious confessions of their badness that puff them up as if they were so good Yea many a one that in opinion is most vehement against all our works in our Justification or looking at any thing in our selves at all to make us acceptable with God as being against free grace in Christ do yet look so much at that which is or is conceited to be in themselves that feâ— Churches on earth are thought worthy of tâ—â—â—r communion Note also that it is sacrificing which is commonly the Hypocrites Worship in the Old Testament and hearing and obeying which he neglecteth and God calls him to As you may see at large in Isa 1. throughout and many other places Psal 40.6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst noâ— require Mine ears hast thou opened c. So Psal 50.8 9 c. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices and burnt offerings to have been continually before me I will take no bullock out of thy house For every beast of the Forest is mine c. If I were hungry I would not tell thee for â—he world is mine and the fulness thereof Offer to God thanksgiving and pay thy vows to the most High And call upon me in the day of trouble But to the wicked saith God What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee 1 Sam. 15.22 23. Hath the Lord delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams Psal 4.3 4 5. Know that the Lord hath chosen the man that is godly for himself
will understand Pauls charge Phil. 2.3 4. In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Look not every man on his own but every man also on the things of others Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus You will learn of Christ to take your neerest friend for a Satan that would perswade you to save or spare your self yea your life when you ought to lay it down for the Glory of God and the good of many Matth. 16.22 23. SELF and OWN are words which would then be better understood and be more suspected And the reason of the great Gospel duty of SELF-DENYAL would be better discerned Therefore set your selves to the study of God especially in his Goodness study him in his Works and in his Word and in his Son and in the Glory where you hope everlastingly to see him And if you once love God as God indeed it will teach you to love your Brethren and in what sort and in what degree to do it For many waies are we taught of God to love one another Even 1. By the great and heavenly teacher of Love Jesus Christ 2. And by Gods own example Matth. 5.44 45 3. And by the shedding abroad of his love in our hearts by the Spirit of Love Rom. 5.5 4. And by this actual loving God and so loving all of God in the world Object But by this doctrine you will prepare for the Levellers and Fryers to cast down or cry down Propriety Answ 1. There is a propriety of food rayment c. which individuation hath made necessary 2. There is a propriety of Stewardship which God causeth by the various disposal of his talents and which is the just reward of humane industry and the necessary encouragement of wit and labour in the world None of these would we cast down or preach down 3. But there is a common abuse of propriety to the maintenance of mens own lusts and to the hurt of others and of all Societies This we would preach down if we could But it is Love only which must be the Leveller In the Primitive Church Love shewed its power by such a voluntary community Acts 4. And all Politicians who have drawn the Idea of a perfect Common-wealth have been fumbling at other waies of accomplishing it But it is Christian Love alone that must do it Unfeignedly love God as God and love your neighbours really as your selves and then keep your proprieties as far as this will give you leave I will conclude with this considerable observation that though it is false which some affirm that individuation is a punishment for some former sin for how could a soul not individuate sin And though sensitive self-love which is the principle of self-preservation be no sin it self nor doth grace destroy it yet the inordinacy of it is the summ and root of all positive sin and an increaser of privative sin And this inseparable sensitive self-love was made to be more under the power of reason and to be ruled by it than now we find it in any the most sanctified person even as Abrahams love of the life of his only Son was to be subject to his Faith And holiness lyeth more in this subjection than most men well understand And the inordinacy of this personal self-love hath so strangely perverted the mind it self that it is not only very hard to convince men of the evil of any selfish principles or sins but it greatly blindeth them as to all duties of publick interest and social nature Yea and maketh them afraid of Heaven it self where the union of souls will be as much neerer than now it is as their Love will be greater and more perfect And though it will not be by any cessation of personal individuation and by falling into one universal soul yet perfect Love will make the union neerer than we who have no experience of it can possibly now comprehend And when we feel the strongest Love to a friend desiring the neerest union we have the best help to understand it But men that feel not the divine and holy love are by inordinate self-love and abuse of individuation afraid of the life to come lest the union should be so great as to lose their individuation or prejudice their personal divided interests Yea true believers so far as their holy Love is weak and their inordinate sensitive self-love is yet too strong are from hence afraid of another world when they scarce know why but indeed it is much from this disease which maketh men still desire their personal felicity too partially and in a divided way and to be afraid of losing their personality or propriety by too neâ—r a union and communion of souls CHAP. XXVI How by Faith to be followers of the Saints and to look with profit to their examples and to their end THE great work of living in Heaven by Faith I have said so much of as to the principal part in my Saints Rest that no more of that must be expected here Only this subject which is not so usually and fully treated of to the people as it it ought being one part of our heavenly conversation I think meet to speak to more distinctly at this time As we are commanded first to look to Jesus the Author and perfecter of our faith Heb. 12.2 3. so are we commanded to remember our guides and to follow their faith and consider the end of their conversation Heb. 13.7 And not to be slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Heb. 6.12 To which end we have a cloud of witnesses set before us in Heb. 11. that next to Jesus whom they followed we should look to them and follow them Jam. 5.10 My Brethren take the Prophets for an example The Reasons of this duty are these 1. God hath made them our examples two waies 1. By his graces making them holy and fit for our imitation He gave them their gifts not only for themselves nor only for that present generation but for us also and all that must survive to the end of the world As it is said of Abrahams Justification Rom. 4.23 24. It was said that Faith was imputed to him for righteousness not for his sake alone but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe So I may say in this case their faith their piety their patience was given them and is recorded not for their salvation or their honour only but also to further the salvation of their posterity by encouragement and imitation If all things are for our sakes 2 Cor. 4.15 then the graces of Gods Saints were for our sakes For the Churches edification it is that Christ giveth both offices gifts and graces to his Ministers Ephes 4.5 12 14 15 16. yea and sufferings too Phil. 1.12 20. 2 Cor. 1.4 6. 2 Tim. 2.10 I endure all things for the elects sake 2. By commanding us to follow
sufferers it will cause us to possess our souls in patience and to let it have its perfect work 8. It will much overcome the fears of death It is no small abatement of them that Cicero and such honest Heathens had to think of the thousands of their worthiest Ancestors and that they were to go the common way of all mankind But how much more may it encourage a Believer to think that he is not only to go the way of all the world through the gate of mortality but the way also which all Gods Saints have gone save Henoch and Elias who are now in Heaven Thus died all the Prophets and the holy men of God yea Jesus Christ himself before us that death might be conquered when it seemed to have conquered Heb. 2.14 9. It will do much to raise us from hypocritical reserves and temporizings and from lukewarmness and resting in low degrees When our conversation is with the holy ones above we shall have upon our minds an ambition to attain to their degrees and to do Gods will on Earth as it is done in Heaven It will much encline us to the highest and noblest sort of duty which the spirits of the just made perfect do perform He that converseth only with his own sad tempted sinful heart and with tempted faulty mourning Christians may learn to confess and mourn and weep and pray But he that also converseth with glorified spirits will be so rapt up with their heavenly melody that he will learn and long to love God more fervently to praise him more chearfully and to give him thanks more abundantly for his mercies Heaven-work is learnt by a heavenly mind in the use of a heavenly conversation 10. And to look much at our Brethren that are now in glory will also fill our lives with pleasures and make our Religion our continual joy and will help us to a foretaste of Heaven on Earth For we shall as it were take our selves to be almost with then and their melodies will be our delight and love to them will make their joyes to be our own And though it is the sight of God and our Mediatour by faith which must be our chiefest hope and joy yet while we are here men in flesh yea more when we have laid by flesh and blood the presence of all the blessed spirits and heavenly host will be a great though subordinate part of our heavenly felicity and delight Direct 6. When you have gone thus far consider what obligations lie upon you to converse by Faith with your Brethren in Heaven and to look up frequently to their state and work 1. Your necessary Love to God requireth it For as your Love to him must be shewed by your loving his Image in your Brethren so it requireth you to love them most that are likest God or else you love them not for his likeness And it requireth you to love them most whom God loveth most and that is those that are likest him and nearest him And he that loveth God in his creatures and loveth any one truly for God must love the Angels and perfected Spirits best because they love him best and are nearest him and likest to him and are also most beloved by him 2. The common nature of Love and Humanity requireth it For it requireth us to love that best which is best as is said But the blessed ones in Heaven are better than any here on Earth and therefore should be better loved 3. The nature of our Love to the Saints requireth it For if we love them as Saints and Godly we shall love those most that are most holy and that is the blessed ones above And if we love them most we shall certainly mind them and converse with them by Faith and not be voluntary strangers to them 4. It is part of that heavenly conversation which is commended to us Phil. 3.20 21. When it is said that our conversation is in Heaven it signifieth that our Burgeship is there and our interest and great concerns are there and our dwelling is there and our trading and thriving business is there and for it and our friends and fellow-citizens and those that we daily trade and converse with in love and familiarity are there even as our God and our Head and our Inheritance is there He never knew a heavenly conversation that pretending there to know God alone hath no converse with his holy ones that attend him and doth not live as a member of their society in the City of God that doth not with some delight behold their holiness unity and order c. 5. The honouring of God and our Redeemer doth require it that we daily converse with the Saints in Heaven Because it is in them that God is seen in the greatest glory of his Love and it is in them that the Power and Efficacy and Love of our dear Redeemer most appeareth You judge now of the Father by his Children and of the Physician by his Patients and of the Builder by the House and of the Captain by his Victories And if you see no better children of God than such childish crying feeble froward diseased burdensome ones as we are you will rob him of the chief of this his honour And if you look at none of the Patients of our Saviour but such lame and languid pained groaning diseased half-cured ones as we you will rob him of the glory of his skill and cures And if you look but to such an imperfect broken fabrick as the Church on Earth you will dishonour the Builder And if you look to no other Victories of Christ and his Spirit but what is made in this confused dark and bedlam world you will be tempted to dishonour his conduct and his conquests But if you will look to his Children in Heaven who are perfected in his Love and Likeness and to Christs Patients which are there perfectly cured and to his Building in the heavenly unity and glory and to all his Victories as there compleat then you will give him the glory which is his due Rev. 21. 22. 2 Thes 1.10 11 12. 6. So also you will dishonour Religion and the Church if you converse not with the Saints above For the reasons last given For you will judge of the Church and of Religion by such imperfect things as here you see where men turn Religion to the service of their worldly interests and ends and fight for ambition faction tyranny usurpation and worldly lusts under the sacred names of Religion and the Church and for the pretended Love of Christ and one another do tear the Church into shreds and worry and hunt and devour one another You will be tempted to be Infidels if you do not here converse with the sincere humble holy charitable Christians and look up to Heaven to perfect souls And then you will see a Church that is truly amiable holy unanimous and glorious in perfect Love 7. If you look not up to
very brief I. For the first Case before sickness cometh Direct 1. Be sure that you settle your Belief of the life to come that your Faith may not fail Direct 2. Expect Death as seriously all your life as wise Believers are obliged to do That is as men that are alwaies sure to die as men that are never sure to live a moment longer as men that are sure that life will be short and death is not far off and as foreseeing what it is to die of what eternal consequence and what will then appear to be necessary to your safe and to your comfortable change Direct 3. All your daies habituate your souls to believing sweet enlarged thoughts of the infinite Goodness and Love of God to whom you go and with whom you hope to live for ever Direct 4. Dwell in the studies of a crucified and glorified Christ who is the way the truth and life who must be your hope in life and death Ephes 3.17 18 19. Direct 5. Keep clear your evidences of your right to Christ and all his Promises by keeping grace or the heavenly nature in life activity and increase 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 John 15 1 c. 1 John 3. Direct 6. Consider often of the possession which your nature in Christ hath already of Heaven and how highly it is advanced and how near his relation is and how dear his love is to his weakest members upon earth And that as souls in Heaven have an inclination and desire to communicate their own felicity to their bodies so hath Christ as to his body the Church John 17.24 Ephes 5.25 27 c. Direct 7. Look to the Heavenly Host and those who have lived before you or with you in the flesh to make the thoughts of Heaven the more familiar to you as in the former chapter Direct 8. Improve all Afflictions yea the plague of sin it self to make you weary of this world and willing to be gone to Christ Rom. 7. Direct 9. Be much with God in Prayer Meditation and other heart-raising duties that you may not by strangeness to him be dismayed Direct 10. Live not in the guilt of any wilful sin nor in any slothful neglect of duty lest guilt breed terrour and make you fly from God your Judge But especially study to redeem your time and to do all the good you can iâ— the world and to live as totally devoted to God as conscious that you live to no carnal interest but desire to serve him with all you have and your consciences testimony of this will abundantly take off the terrours of death whatever any erroneous ones may say to the contrary for fear of being guilty of conceits of merit A fruitful life is a great preparative for death 2 Tim. 4.8 2 Cor. 1.12 c. Direct 11. Fetch from Heaven the comforts which you live upon through all your life And when you have truly learned to live more upon the comforts of believed glory than upon any pictures or hopes below then you will be able to die in and for those comforts Matth. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 4. Phil. 3.20 21. 1 Thes 4.18 Phil. 1.21 23. Direct 12. The Knowledge and Love of God in Christ is the beginning or foretaste of Heaven John 17.3 1 Cor. 13. c. and the foretastes are excellent preparations Therefore still remember that all that you do in the world for the getting and exercising the true Knowledge and Love of God in Christ so much you do for the foretastes and best preparations for Heaven 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him with approbation and love II. In the time of sickness and near to death Direct 1. Let your first work when God seemeth to call you away be to renew a diligent search of your hearts and lives and to see lest in either of them there should be any sin which is not truly hated and repented of Though this must be done through all your lives yet with an extraordinary care and diligence when you are like to come so speedily to your tryal For it is only to Repenting Believers that the Covenant of Grace doth pardon sin And the impenitent have no right to pardon Though for ordinary failings which are forgotten and for sins which you are willing to know and remember but cannot a general Repentance will be accepted as when you pray God to shew you the sins which you see not and to forgive those which you cannot remember or find out Yet those which you know must be particularly repented of And Repentance is a remembring duty and will hardly forget any great and heinous sins which are known to be sins indeed If your Repentance be then to begin alas it is high time to begin it And though if it be sound it will be saving that is If it be such as would settle you in a truly godly life if you should recover yet you will hardly have any assurance of salvation or such comfort in it as is desirable to dying man Because you will very hardly know whether it come from true conversion and contain a Love to God and Godliness or whether it be only the fruit of fear and would come to nothing if you were restored to health But he that hath truly repented heretofore and lived in uprightness towards God and man and hath nothing to do but to discern his sincerity and to exercise a special Repentance for some late or special sins or to do that again which he hath done unfeignedly before will much more easily get the assurance and comfort of his forgiveness and salvation Direct 2. Renew your sense of the Vanity of this world Which at such a time one would think should be very easie to do When you see that you are near an end of all your pleasures and have had all except a grave to rot in that ever this world willd o for you may you not easily then see whether the godly or the worldly be the wiser and the happier man And what it is that the life of man should be spent in seeeking after Matth. 6.33 Isa 55.1 2 3. Eccles 7.3 4 5 6. Direct 3. Remember what Flesh is and what it hath been to you that you may not be too loth to lay it down Of the dust it was made and to the dust it must return Corruption is your Father and the Worm is your Mother and your Sister Job 17.14 Drought and beat consume the Snow-waters so doth the grave those which have sinned The womb shall forget him the Worm shall feed sweetly on him Job 24.20 Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but this mortal must put on immortality by being made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15. And this flesh hath cost you so dear to carry it about so much care and labour to provide it food to repair that which daily vanisheth away and so many weary painful hours and so many fearful
thoughts of dying that methinks you should quietly resign it to the grave which hath been so long calling for it Especially considering what it hath done by the temptations of a vitiated appetite and sense against your souls into how many sins it hath drawn you and what grief and shame it hath procured you and what assurance and heavenly pleasures it hath hindered and how many repentings and purposes and promises it hath frustrated or undone Methinks we should conceive that we have long enough dwelt in such an habitation Direct 4. Foresee by Faith the resurrection of the body when it shall be raised a spiritual body unto Glory and shall be no more an enemy to the soul Direct 5. Renew your familiarity with the blessed ones above Remember that the great Army of God the souls of the just from Adam till now are all got safe through this Red Sea and are triumphing in Heaven already and that it is but a few straglers in the end of the world that are left behind And which part then should you desire to be with And remember how ready those Angels which rejoyced at your conversion are to be your Convoy unto Christ Luke 16.23 Direct 6. But especially think with greatest confidence and delight that Jesus your Head is entred into the Heavens before you and is making intercession for you and is preparing you a place and loveth your company and will not lose it You shall find him ready to receive your souls and present them spotless unto God as the fruit of his mediation He will have you be with him to behold his glory and none shall take you out of his hands Let his Love therefore draw up your desires and stablish your hearts in confidence and rest Direct 7. Remember that all that are living must come after you and how quickly their turn will come and would you wish to be exempt from death alone which the whole world below must needs submit to Direct 8. Think still of the Resurrection of Christ your Head that you may see that death is a conquered thing and what a pledge you have of a life to come Direct 9. Dwell still in the believing fore thoughts of the blessedness of the life to which you go as it is your personal perfection and the perfect Love and fruition of God with his perfect joyous praise Remember still what it is to see and know the Lord and all things else in him which are fit for us to know And labour to revive your Love to God and then you revive your desires and preparations Direct 10. Give up your selves wholly to the Will of God and think how much better it is for upright Souls to be in Gods hand than in your own The Will of God is the first and last the Original and End of all the creatures Besides the Will of Infinite Goodness there is no final Rest for humane souls But mans will is the Alpha and Omega the beginning or first efficient and the ultimate end of all obliquity and sin Be bold then and thankful in your approach to God remembring how much more safe and comfortable it is to be for life and death at Gods disposal than our own Bâ—sides these read the Directions against the fear of death in my Book of Self-denyal and what is said in my Saints Rest and other the Treatises before mentioned CHAP. XXVIII How by Faith to look aright to the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory BEcause I have said so much of this also in my Saints Rest and in many other Treatises I will now pass it over with these brief Directions Direct 1. Delude not your souls nor corrupt your faith and hope by placing Christs Kingdom in things too low or that are utterly uncertain Think not so carnally of the second coming of Christ as the Jews did of the first who looked for an earthly Kingdom and despised the spiritual and heavenly And make not the unknown time or other circumstances of his coming to be to you as the certain and necessary things lest you do as many of those called Millenaries or Fifth-Monarchy men among us who have turned the doctrine of Christian hope into an outragious fury to bring Christ down before his time and to make themselves Rulers in the world that they might presently reign under the name of the Reign of Christ and have by seditious rebellious railing at Christs Ministers and hating those that are not of their mind done much to promote the Kingdom of Satan while they cryed up nothing but the Kingdom of Christ Direct 2. Do all that you can in this day of grace to promote Christs present Kingdom in the world and that will prove your best preparation for his glorious coming To that end labour with all your might to set up Life and Light and Love abhorring Hypocrisie Ignorance and Vncharitableness turn not Religion into a ceremony carkass or dead Imagery or Form Nor yet into Darkness Errour or a humane wandering distracting maze Nor into selfish proud censorious faction Build not Christs Kingdom as the Devil would do by hypocritical dead shews or by putting out his Lights or by schism division hatred and strife Read James 3. Direct 3. Yet leave not out of your faith and hope any certain part of Christs glorious Kingdom We know that we shall for ever be with the Lord and in the presence of the Father in heavenly glory and withall that we shall be in the New Jerusalem and that there shall be a new Heaven and a new Earth in which shall dwell righteousness and that we shall judge the Angels and the world And if we know not the circumstances of all these parts let not therefore any of them be denyed 1 Thes 4.11 2 Cor. 5.1 3 8. Rev. 20. 22. 2 Pet. 3.13 Direct 4. Think what a day of Glory it will be to Jesus Christ Matth. 25.31 O how different from his state of humiliation He will not come again to be despised spit on buffeted blasphemed and crucified Pilate and Herod must be arraigned at his bar it is the marriage-day of the Lamb a day appointed for his glory Rev. 21 22. Direct 5. Think what a day of honour it will be to God the Father how his Truth will be vindicated his Love and Justice gloriously demonstrated Matth. 25. 2 Thes 1.8 9. Direct 6. Think what a day it will be to all the children of God to see their Lord when he purposely cometh to be admired and glorified in them 2 Thes 1.11 12. To see him in whom they have believed whom they loved and longed for 2 Pet. 3.11 12 13. 1 Pet. 1.8 To see him who is their dearest Head and Lord who will justifie them before all the world and sentence them to life eternal To see the day in which they must receive the end of all their faith and hope their prayers labours and patience to the full 1 Pet. 1.8 9. Rev. 2 3.