Coelis By Faith we possess that which is in Heaven All our Graces are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.9 Things having or containing Salvation No parts or pieces of this World but such as Heaven dawns and begins here below The holy Spirit is as the First Fruits to assure us of the whole Crop in Heaven and as the earnest of the total Sum of Glory which shall be paid above The Believer here hath so much of Heaven as to make him strive wrestle run work watch and wait with his Loyns girt and Lamps burning and as the twelve Tribes to serve God instantly Acts 26.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 running with full speed and stretching out himself in the Race that he may come to the Crown of Life and surely his Hope if fastned about a nullity would not put forth such strong and vigorous operations Heaven must be a real thing indeed which so carries away the Heart from all the World and engages it unto it self Another considerable part of Scripture stands in threatnings against Sinners Touching experimenting these I need say very little our Good God doth not give out Threatnings in the same manner as he doth give out Promises he gives out Promises that they may be fulfilled and experimented but he gives out Threatnings that they may not be fulfilled and experimented but rather that by them Men may be warned in a way of Faith and Repentance To fly from the wrath to come The applying of a Promise in a right manner makes it to belong to us but the applying of a Threatning makes it not to belong to us judging our selves we prevent the Judgment of God The Believer even before Conversion more or less felt the Threatnings taking hold of him and shutting of him up under Wrath till Jesus Christ opened the Prison-dores and made him Free indeed And if afte Conversion he forget the old Chains and run into wilful Rebellion again he will feel them a second time The bones will be broken and Comforts lost the Conscience will be wounded and the Wounds will Stink and be corrupt because of his foolishness God may depart away and leave the Graces withering and the poor Soul all in the dark with Terrors round about it This is a very sad Experiment and yet undeniably proves that the Threatnings are from God his Justice appearing on the top of them like devouring Fire Passing over those three great Pillars of Scripture Precepts Promises and Threatnings I now proceed to the Sacred Truths which lie therein as Rich Veins of Gold and Silver do in a Mine And to avoid Prolixity I shall pick out of them some supernatural Ones such as cannot be known by the mere Light of Nature but drop down from Heaven in a way of pure Revelation concluding with my self That if Faith can make an Experiment in these it may much more do so in others I shall first instance in that Sacred Truth of The blessed Trinity of Persons in Vnity of the God-head This is as one hath it Fundamentum Fundamentorum The Foundation of Foundations unless this stand fast all Evangelical Truths fall to the Ground we are no longer Christians then we acknowledg it So sublime is this Mystery that as Saint Bernard saith Scrutari haec temeritas est credere pietas est nosse vero vita aeterna est And when Gregory Nazianzen was pressed to assign a disserence between those words Begotten and Proceeding he made this answer Dic mihi quid sit generatio ego dicam quid sit processio ut ambo insaniamus distinguere inter processionem generationem nescio non valeo non sufficio This Truth is totally supernatural it could never without a Revelation enter into our Heart humane reason no not that of Adam could not reach it Indeed there are strange passages touching it in Trismegistus and Plato Trismegistus saith God who is Mind begat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Speech or Word which is another Mind and with that Speech another which is the Fiery God and Spirit of the God-head Plato speaks of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A most Divine Word and of the begotten Son of the Good and the learned Grotius saith Apud Platonicos reperias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three Persons in one But sure these men knew nothing of this Mystery if they spake somewhat like they spake not the same or if the same they borrowed it from Moses Plato is called the Atticizing Moses and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and many is an old Tradition derived from the Jews and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken from Jehovah or I am Or which is most probable the notions of the Trinity in Plato and Trismegistus were foisted into their Works How many Books have been put out under the names of the Apostles and ancient Fathers which have not been truly such Such imposture in the Primitive times was very ordinary And if Men would be thus bold with Apostles and Fathers what might they not do in Heathens Besides some think there are clearer notions of a Trinity in some of the Heathens than in Moses's Books and so by consequence the Heathens should know more of it than Israel which is contrary to the Scriptures which tell us In Judah is God known Ps 76.1 and He hath not dealt so with any Nation Ps 147.20 It is therfore likely that such passages in Heathens were inserted into their Books by Christians in a way of Pious Fraud such as was anciently used This Sacred Mystery was intimated in the Old-Testament Elohim in the plural Created Gen. 1.1 Let us make Man saith God Gen. 1.26 By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Spirit of his Mouth Ps 33.6 Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts I say 6.3 The ancient Jewish Rabbins as Petrus Galatinus hath shewed embraced this Doctrine Rabbi Simeon on that in the Prophet saith Sanctus hic est Pater Sanctus hic est Filius Sanctus hic est Spiritus Sanctus the three Middoth or Properties in Rabbinical Writers are the three Persons in the Godhead And the Cabbalists have these words Pater Deus Filius Deus Spiritus Sanctus Deus Tres in Vno Vnus in Tribus In the New-Testament we have this Truth clearly laid down in the Baptisin of Christ we have all the three Persons appearing The Father in a Voice the Son in the Flesh the Holy Ghost in the Dove Mat. 3.16 17. The Primitive Christians used to say to any that doubted of the Trinity Abi ad Jordanem videbis Go to Jordan and you will see it Christ Commands That Baptism should be In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Math. 28.19 Or as the Greek Article imports In the Name of that Father that Son and that Holy Ghost which discovered themselvs at Christs Baptism There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the
the Old though not as named Apostolical Constitutions the manner was first one Presbyter preached then another and last of all the Bishop At this time there was good store of Preaching Damasus the First Bishop of Rome in his Epistle de Chorepiscopis shews how unlike Christ they are who preach not Ipse enim docuit ipse ovem perditam quaesivit ipse propriis humeris reportavit Christ did all himself St. Austin and St. Chrysostom preached every day ye heard yesterday ye shall hear to morrow is common in their Homilies Many of the Writings of Ambrose Nazianzen Basil and Cyril were only their Sermons to the People and therefore in Concilio Vasensi held about the Year of our Lord 440 it was ordered That if the Presbyter were sick and unable to Preach Sanctorum Patrum Homiliae à Diaconis recitentur The Deacons should read the Homilies of the holy Fathers Gregory the Great in his Pastoral saith Qui verbum praedicationis subtrabunt animabus morientibus vitae remedia abscondunt The unpreaching Minister hides the Bread of Life from dying souls The fourth Toletan Council which was a little after Gregory saith Omne opus Sacerdotum in praedicatione consistit Preaching is a Ministers All. In the Council of Mentz under Charles the Great It was Ordered Can. 25. Nunquam desit diebus Dominicis qui Verbum Dei Praedicet On Sabbath days a Preacher must not be wanting No though the Bisliop be sick it must not as that Can. saith In the Oxford Constitutions made by Archbishop Stephen Preaching is enjoined ne canes muti merito judicentur Nay the very Council of Trent saith that Preaching is praecipuum munus Episcopi the chief work of a Bishop Such an Ordinance is this and so highly esteemed in all Ages no wonder if Bishop Morton said The custom of not-Preaching is but a Babe in Christianity and the defence thereof a new point of Learning in Christs School But to return to the Point in hand after this long digression the Believer may experience this Ordinance to be of God That it is so is in part expermented before Conversion Whilest St. Paul but a Prisoner preached of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix though a Judg trembled feeling moral bonds cast on his Conscience by the Power of that Word which is never bound It is yet more fully experimented in Conversion in which there is a wonderful change wrought the dead being raised new Creatures formed Lyons turned into Lambs and hearts of Stone into Flesh all proclaiming that the Finger of God is in it of a Truth Johannes Speicerus as Scultetus relates Preached so powerfully That the very Strumpets leaving their lewdness returned home unto God After Conversion the Experiment is yet more compleat the Word works effectually in them that believe 1 Thess 2.13 The glory of the Divine Attributes break forth in this Ordinance out of the seeming weakness a Majesty appears in some sort much as Christs Deity sparkled out of his Humane Flesh It is not the meer Voice of Man but of God coming with an Authority more than Humane and setting the heart made like Josiah's tender by Faith into an holy trembling at it as a signal proof that the Lord is the Speaker One who hath the Keys of Heaven and Hell in his own hand and upon Obedience or Rebellion is able to save or destroy The Believer by the command and reverential awe put upon his Conscience finds That there is a Divine Presence and Grandeur in it which to oppose is to strive and make War with God himself Again out of the seeming foolishness wisdom discovers it self Whilest but a man is teaching outwardly to the ear there is an inward Teacher in the heart The Spirit of Revelation uncovers the holy things and brings forth this or that sacred Mystery to the View Intus datur intus coruscat intus revelatur as St. Austin expresses it The Father of Lights shews himself there in sacred Revelations Christ seals up the Ordinance by the dropping of the holy Unction A Believer meets with such illuminations as are far more precious than all the Lights in Nature Hence St. Chrysostom's Auditors when he was like to be silenced cried out Satius est ut Sol non luceat quam ut Chrysostomus non doceat It were better to lose the Sun than such a burning shining light as he was The entrance or opening of thy words giveth Light saith the Psalmist Psal 119.130 When the Word preached is admitted into the heart by Faith and there opened by the Holy Spirit a celestial Light rises up and bears Witness to the Ordinance Again in the midst of plainness Divine Omniscience shews forth it self the Minister stands without but the Word enters in and anatomizes the heart Elisha proved himself a Prophet in telling what the King of Syria spake in his Bed-chamber Our Saviour manifested his Deity in answering to the thoughts of Men. When the Word preached penetrates into the retiring-rooms and inmost chambers of the heart and there rifles the very thoughts and unriddles the purposes and inclinations It is an infallible Sign that the Great Searcher of hearts hath sent a Beam of Omniscience along with it The Believer who above all other men studies himself most desires much to know two things viz. What of secret sin there is in him and what of truth of Grace And under this searching Ordinance he comes to see many a mote or black spot in his heart such as he never dream't of and withal some marks and characters which to his comfort shew him his uprightness and in such Discoveries he sees the Great Revealer of Secrets co-operating with the Word Moreover whilest the Minister is unfolding the Gospel such are the ravishing savours of Christ and Grace as if a box of Heavenly Spikenard were broken in the Believers Heart Pardon and Peace smell out of the odours of Christs Merits and Heaven it self out of his pure Righteousness Through this lattice how contemptible soever it be to carnal Men Christ shews his all-desirable self and full treasures Free-Grace communicates pardons and love-tokens the Divine Spirit breaths life and power into Believers quickning and awakening to answer the pure Commands with Obedience and this and that Promise le ts out its sweetness and flows as a Conduit of Coelestial Wine with admirable Suavities and Consolations In such things as these Faith hath sweet Communion with God and a sure seal set to this Ordinance In the Preaching of the Gospel the Kingdom of Heaven comes nigh even to rejecters Luk. 10.11 Much more doth it do so unto Believers who take the holy Mysteries and Promises into the bosom and complex of Faith and thereby inflame their Hearts with the Love of Christ and Grace as a sure witness that this Ordinance which carries so much of Heaven in it is from thence Next to the Preaching of the Word I shall set the Ordinance of Prayer This is the ascent of
the Soul unto God as the fountain of all Good As in every lust there is a depression of the Heart to one Creature or other so in every right Prayer there is an holy elevation of it to God This gives great Glory to God as it is humble it reveres his Majesty as upright it owns his Omniscience as believing it glorifies his condescending Grace and as importunate it overcomes the Almighty and takes the Kingdom of Heaven by violence opening a door to that infinite mass or treasure of Grace which is laid up for those that strive and wrestle with him for supplies out of it This is a Catholick Duty good in all places The Jews prayed in or towards the Temple but now the whole World is consecrated for it every where holy hands are to be lifted up fit for all times praying always saith the Apostle Ephes 6.18 Not that we are to do nothing else as the Euchitae or Messaliani of old dreamed but that there is no time wherein the Mercy-seat is shut or Christ not interceding above or the holy Spirit not ready in some measure to assist Believers Neither is there any time in which we should not carry about with us a virtual confession in our sense of Sin or a virtual Prayer in our sense of Wants or a virtual Praise in our sense of Mercies Continuum desiderium est continua oratio as St. Austin hath it Vita hominis saith Luther nibil aliud est nisi oratio gemitus desiderium suspirium ad misericordiam Dei Mans life should be a perpetual breathing after God And withal it is incumbent on all Men the first Adam in Innocency probably addressed himself to God in Prayer and Jesus Christ the second Adam was much in it the Ethnicks by the light of Nature used it It was an old Gentile-Law Ad divos adeunto go to the gods Socrates prayed that he might be Intus pulcher inwardly fair with virtue Plato saith Every one who is compos mentis will in the beginning of any work invoke the gods How much more must Christians pray who have before their eyes a Gospel a Mercy-Seat and an open way into the Holy of Holies through the Veil of Christs flesh Unregencrate persons are bound to this Duty as we see in the Command to Simon Magus being in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Act. 8.22 Much more Believers Prayer is the breath of the new-creature and badg of Christians who are thus deciphered by the Apostle All that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 1.2 Such and so great is this Ordinance that the Jews who prayed standing and therefore called Prayer Gnammuda or Standing used to say Sine stationibus non staret mundus The world would not stand without Standing or Prayer That this is an Ordinance of God the Believer experiments many ways First He experiments it in the Assistances of the Holy Spirit which is as Gales to the Sails of Prayer in its Voyage to Heaven and as holy Fire to the Incense of it causing it to ascend to the Throne of Grace The Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It lifts over against us or helps us to lift up a Prayer which else would be too heavy for us Whilst the Believer is a-praying O what heavenly meltings are there The Believer is like Ephraim bemoaning himself or as the Children of Israel at Mizpeh lamenting after the Lord and pouring out water as if their eyes were turned into Fountains of penitential tears or as the man in the Gospel crying out with tears Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Catching at Mercy with an hand trembling at his own Infirmity Such meltings and spiritual mournings over Sin plainly shew That the Spirit of Grace and Supplication is poured out upon the Prayer making it like the bruised Incense sull of fragrancy breathing out from a broken heart dissolved into tears by the beams of Gods Love And in this Evangelical thaw What Divine enlargements are there The heart is no longer in the Straits of Sin and Earth but opened and expanded towards Heaven E're the praying Believer is a ware his Soul sets him on the wheels and his lips drop as the honey-comb if not in the very entrance of the Duty yet in the progress of it The Psalmist in the beginning of the 38th Psalm seems cold and frozen in Unbelief Gods arrows stick fast in him his hand presseth him sore the iniquities are too heavy the wounds stink and are corrupt There are nothing but bowings breaches and miserable roarings But before he hath done praying his heart recovers again In thee O Lord do I hope thou wilt hear O Lord my God ver 15. Sometimes at first there is a Cloud and dark Eclipse upon the Prayer and yet a little after Grace breaks forth with its Sunny beams and draws out the heart towards God They looked unto him and were lightned as David speaks Psal 34.5 or as the words may be read they looked unto him and flowed their hearts were as a River running out with spiritual fluency and enlargments such as are a real proof that the free Spirit is in the Prayer and withal What an heavenly ardor is there While I was musing the fire burned saith David Psal 39.3 While the Believer is a-praying the Holy Spirit is as fire upon the heart inflaming it into religious ascents towards God The Believer stirs up himself and takes hold on God by some Promise or other and Jacob-like wrestles with him for Mercy and will not let him go till there be a dawn or day-break of Grace He prays in his Prayer and urges the Attributes of God upon him and presses hard upon him with an holy immodesty or impudence as the expression is Luk. 11.8 and will not be said Nay Much like Gorgonia the pious Sister of Nazianzen who lay at the Altar with Tears and Prayers and said That she would not depart till she had her request and accordingly obtained it of God This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 the inwrought Prayer or Prayer wrought by Gods Spirit in ours and from thence poured out in an agony or vehemence of holy Assections panting and breaking with longings after God and his Grace Luther having prayed with great fervency said Vtinam eodem ardore orare possem Would to God I could always pray with the like ardor then should I always have this answer Fiat quod velis Be it unto thee as thou wilt After this manuer doth the Holy Spirit come down on the Believers Prayer and bear witness to this Ordinance Secondly He experiments it in his Access to God The Devils who are in Chains of Darkness can make no approaches to God there is an unpassable gulf between them and him It is storied of a German Nobleman that there was acted before him a Play of the five Wise and five Foolish Virgins the Wise were St. Mary St. Catbarine St.
he had a true Virtue in him or no but seeming afraid of the Judgment-Seat unto some who begged his Prayers when in Heaven he made this Answer The way thither is not so easie I should esteem it a great Blessing from God if I might obtain Purgatory for many years Into such labyrinths do their Principles lead them The Reason whereof is They espouse Hagar the Covenant of Works and that gendreth to bondage and servile fear They corrupt the great Fountain of Peace and Joy I mean free Justification by Christ and Grace and their Comforts cannot run pure They would compound those two incompatibles of Grace and Merit and patch together Christs Righteousness and their own which in the Apostle is to fall from Grace and make Christ of none effect Gal. 5.4 And what Peace can follow Whilst they look at the Law Conscience will be still murmuring Non recte sacrificasti non recte orasti as Luther hath it This and that was omitted or not well done The Levite and the Priest pass by their Wounds the good Samaritan will not come but alone and without a co-partner to make a Cure If therefore thou wouldst have Assurance thou must build on the right Foundation and lie at the true Fountain of Comfort Thy Love and thy Obedience are but Evidences Christ and Grace are the only Foundation Thy Faith is but a receiver an empty vessel Christ and Grace are the Fountain of Comfort Expect no rest but in his bleeding Wounds look for no comfortable words but from the Mercy-Seat Think not that thy Conscience shall be appeased unless by that Blood of Atonement which appeased God himself or that thy heart may be satisfied in a Righteousness less than that perfect one which satisfied Gods Conscience is his Deputy and cannot go off at lower terms than he himself doth Fix thy heart on Christ and Grace lay the whole stress of thy Soul and Salvation there Lean on thy Beloved appropriate his Merits and Righteousness to thy self Thus Luther tells the menacing Law O Lex Immergo Conscientiam meam in Vulnera Sanguinem Mortem Resurrectionem Victoriam Christi praeter hunc nibil plane videre audire volo O Law I drown my Conscience in the Wounds Blood Death Resurrection and Victory of Christ besides him will I see and hear nothing This is the true way of Peace Jahannes a Berg a zealous Papist in his life found it so at last by his own experience When a Protestant-Friend admonished him then lying on his sick-bed That now he would by Faith apprehend the Merit of his Saviour and acquiesce in the full Expiation by him made for sin he immediately swallowed it as the richest Comfort in the World looking on those in Popery but as so many vain Fig-leaves When Assurance which is the top-stone of Faith is laid in our hearts we have reason to cry out Grace Grace Christ Christ These whatever our Duties and Works have been are the Fundamental Reason of all Peace and Comfort Again He who would have Assurance must not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit but cherish and follow it It cannot but be a great and marvelous thing in his eyes that the holy Spirit should make his heart a Temple or Sanctuary for himself To grieve it is unnatural and to grieve it expecting comfort a contradiction If thou wouldst be assured grieve it in nothing indulg not any lust This is filthiness and to be carried out of the Sanctuary this is an Idol and must not stand in the Temple Bury thy excrements thy superfluity of naughtiness that the holy one may walk in the midst of thee Take away the accursed thing lest his Presence depart Away with thy vomits thy sensual sins lest he complain that there is no place for him left in thy heart Pride not thy self in gifts or graces this is as a smoak in his nose to force him away from thee grieve not him whereby thou mayst be sealed to the day of Redemption He comes to seal Pardon and Peace and Heaven it self to thy Soul why shouldst thou grieve him If thou dost so How canst thou expect to be sealed by him Instead of Sealing he will turn to be thine Enemy as he did to those Rebels Isa 63.10 He will meet thee in some straits of Providence and by one threatning or other as by a drawn Sword stop thee in thy perverse way Oh! do not grieve him gather out of thy heart and life every thing that offends and his Kingdom of Righteousness and Peace and Joy shall be in thee When an holy Truth appears to thee smother it not for a World it comes from the pure Spirit to light thee to Heaven Walk in the Light of it Who knows but that whilst thou art in the way the Spirit may drop some heavenly Cordials upon thy Heart Obedience is the true Road to Comfort Excellent is that in the Prophet Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going is prepared as the morning and he shall come to us as the rain Hos 6.3 Follow him in his Truths and thou shalt know him in his Comforts Gods Face shall be as an aurora or morning lighter and lighter on thy Soul and his Spirit as the dew or rain distilling Divine Consolations on it Believe it every ray of Truth if followed leads to the Joy unspeakable When an holy Motion comes remember who is the Speaker That Spirit who can seal the Promises and print Gods Love on the Heart now calls thee to one Duty or other Hear and thy Soul shall live open thy Sails and the Gales will blow thee to the fair Haven of rest I may say of the Spirits Motion as he in the Prophet doth of the Wine in the Cluster Destroy it not for a Blessing nay the greatest of Blessings a Paraclete a Divine Comforter is in it Follow on and thou shalt come to the Vintage and Wine-cellar of pure Consolations such as Earth assords not The Holy Spirit can witness to thy Graces and seal up Gods favour to thee and be to thee an earnest of Heaven and eternal Life As thou wouldst be assured welcome every motion close with every dictate cherish every illapse of this blessed Monitor let every inspiration find thee as the Seal doth the Wax and the spark the Tinder let thy Soul follow hard after him pursuing him E vestigio step by step as near and close as thou canst possibly This is the true way to rest Again if thou wouldest have Assurance first make Conscience pure and then walk after it That Pardon and Salvation which is founded in Christs Blood and sealed by his Spirit must be recorded and reported in Conscience or else there can be no Assurance If our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.21 He allows what his Deputy doth in us I say make thy Conscience pure Two things chiesly impure it Ignorance is as a
PRECIOUS FAITH CONSIDERED In its Nature Working and Growth By Edward Polhill of Burwash in Sussex Esq LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Atlas in Cornhil near the Royal-Exchange 1675. To the CHRISTIAN Reader HE that with serious eyes looks on that dreadful spectacle lapsed Angels lying in Chains of Darkness for ever and that for one Sin may very well stand and wonder at the Salvation of Men in which worms are as it were Angelized and little lumps of corrupted dust are first refined by Grace and then transfigured into Glory The pure Origine of this great Work is no other than the Divine Grace and Love which have so fairly pourtraied and limmed out themselves upon every piece of it that all the Saints above and below may read the Characters thereof and have reason to cry out Grace Grace Indeed Heaven and Earth too should ring with the Praises of it and Eternity it self will be short enough to behold and admire it in To compass this Glorious design the Son of God left his Fathers Bosom and appeared in our Flesh to make a Robe for us of his own Righteousness and a Laver for us in his own Blood Our Nature in him is now in Heaven and his Spirit is descended to impress his Image on us thereby to make us meet for that Blessed Region to secure all to us Heaven hath let down a great Charter in the precious Gospel in which we have a Map of Glory and Eternal Life set before us to elevate our Souls which are sparks of Immortality out of the dust and rubbish of the Fall and to set them aspiring after the true Pleasures and Beatitudes which are above That we may not mistake our way or faint in it the holy Spirit hath in the Gospel drawn many lines of Holiness and Comfort There are pure Precepts to chalk out the Way to Heaven and sweet Promises to cordial us therein and to give us some Tastes of Heaven before we come there The great condition of this Salvation which streams down out of the fountain of Grace through the Blood of Christ into the Evangelical Promises is no other than Faith This is the Aurora of Glory Heaven and Eternal Life dawn in it This is the Hypostasis of Things hoped for It presentiates the Celestial Paradise and in some sort sets the Believer by the rivers of Pleasures which are there This receives all from Grace and ascribes all to it prompting the Believer to confess touching his Spiritual Being and Working By the Grace of God I am what I am and by the Grace of God I do what I do This unites to Christ wraps up it self in his Righteousness feasts on his precious Body and Blood unto Life Eternal and surrenders up Heart and Life to the blessed duct of his Spirit and Word Walking on in holy Precepts it drinks Comfort out of Promises following hard after Holiness it meets with Peace such as passes understanding overcoming earth with all its Troops of vanity it ascends and takes Heaven by violence and renting off the dark veil of Time it looks into Eternity and aspires after that Bliss-making Vision which is the true Center of it Where this Grace is there the Gospel is not in word only but in power The Truth stands not meerly without in the letter but is entertained within and springs up in the Heart as a seed of Immortal Happiness The Divine Excellencies of this noble Grace have drawn out my Thoughts in the ensuing Discourse now offered to publick view The Errata's and Infirmities in it beg the Readers kind Indulgence And the holy Truths therein call for a Practical Improvement If but any Mite may get into the Treasury if any thing thereby may redound to the Glory of God or profit of Men it is enough and a sufficient recompence for him who is A Lover of Truth Edw. Polhill PRECIOUS FAITH CHAP. I. Some general acceptions of the word Faith in Scripture premised Precious Faith described and considered in the general nature of it as it is a grace of the Holy Spirit THE word Faith hath many acceptions in Scripture among which I shall touch upon some Sometimes it imports the Gospel or object of Faith thus St. Paul preached the faith Gal. 1.23 that is the Gospel which is worthy to be so called because it is the great Engine which lets down Gods faith to men and catches up mens faith to God Sometimes it imports a dogmatical or historical Faith which is an assent to the word of God as true and infallible thus the very devils believe a God and which is more then many sinful worms do they tremble Jam. 2.19 Sometimes it imports a temporary Faith which is but a dogmatical faith budding and blossoming with some tasts and joys in the things of God thus the stony ground received the word with joy Mat. 13.20 Sometimes it imports a miraculous Faith which by a special instinct gives such a touch upon the power of God as to produce wonderful effects in nature a grain of this is enough to remove mountains Mat. 17.20 Sometimes it imports saving Faith called by the Apostle precious Faith 2 Pet. 1.1 Omitting the rest I shall fix my Discourse upon this and that upon a double account First This precious faith virtually includes the rest In Faith in the first notion there is only the Gospel or object standing alone by it self but in this faith the act and the object are in sweet conjunction the soul is Gospellized and the Gospel which outwardly runs in the letter is inwardly glorified in the believers heart In dogmatical faith there is an assent to the truths of God and so there is in precious faith but in a more eminent manner the first embracing the Gospel only in its naked truth and history is but a dead and a cold notion but the second embracing the same in its goodness and spiritual mystery carries life and warmth in it temporary faith hath some joys in the things of God but precious faith hath the same in a more excellent way the former is but a flash and away a flower without a root the Gospel is not radicated in him but lies as it were upon the surface of his heart Jesus Christ is not entirely received by him but by parcels only hence a little storm of persecution blows off all the blossoms of his joy but the latter is a thing of a higher excellency and permanency In the true believer the Gospel is intimately rooted and Christ impartially received even cross and all Hence such an one can joy in tribultions and under afflictions wait for consolations Miraculous faith can work wonders and so can precious too the first works wonders in the body of nature by a touch upon Almighty power and the second works wonders in the souls of men by a touch upon Almighty grace A grain of this can remove spiritual mountains mountains of guiltiness off from the Conscience mountains of hardness
reason with the Gospel before him arrive at so great a notion of Divinity as is before admitted I answer the key to open this is in the Text the natural man cannot know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned A man by reason and its furniture of learning may in the perusal of the holy Scriptures gather up a world of notions and so know the things of God notionally but he knows them not spiritually and by consequence not congruously to their spiritual nature For the opening of this we must consider that there is in the holy Scriptures something humane or which may be inventoried among the things of man as the letters and words made up of them and sentences made up of words not as if these were not dictated exactly by God himself but that they are common to humane and profane Authors I mean not for the divineness of the matter but for the phrases and forms of speech And there is in them something Divine or which must be computed among the things of God as the mysteries and spiritual things themselves which are represented by those words and phrases I may illustrate this distinction farther by that of our Saviour If I have told you earthly things and you believe them not how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things Joh. 3.12 I pray what earthly things did our Saviour tell them was not he there preaching on that divine Theme of Regeneration Very true but Christ spake to them of Regeneration under the shadow of a birth and a wind and not according to the heavenly and spiritual nature thereof in it self Thus the words and phrases in Scripture being of common use are as it were humane types and shadows but the mysteries and spiritual things themselves are altogether divine Now to apply this distinction reason improved reaching to the things of man as its proper line may know the words and sentences in Scripture and so gather up a great notion of Divinity But unless inlightned by the holy Spirit which searcheth the things of God it goeth not beyond its own line it knows not spiritual things spiritually Reason without the light of faith Take it in a Jew at a Sacrifice and it saw the type only and not Christ in it Take it in a Christian at the holy Supper and it sees only the outward elements and discerns not the Lords body Take it in the greatest Rabbi sitting with the Scriptures before him and it sees them only in the shell or letter and not in the mystery And no wonder for even in common Sciences it may be so a man may construe and know the Grammar of a principle in Euclide and yet be ignorant of the Mathematical sense of it much more in divine truths may a man be spiritually ignorant who knows a great deal literally Therefore all Scholars may do well in their studies to do as Zuinglius did who having arrived at Arts and Tongues yet in the reading of the holy Scriptures looked up to heaven As for the great Doctor the holy Spirit when he comes in supernatural illumination then we know the things of God not by our own spirit but Gods the very same spirit which breaths in the Scriptures shines in the heart Hence spiritual things are discerned spiritually by a light congruous to their nature the spirit glorifies and shews forth Christ as the expression is John 16.14 Holy truths are as it were transfigured and shewn forth in glory which before were seen but in the flesh or weakness of the Letter the Deity sparkles out in the beauty and spiritual lustre of Scripture-mysteries which before only appeared in the humanity of words and phrases Now heaven opens and free-grace passes before us the secret of the Lord is with us and we are of his Privy Councel This is the first and fundadamental difference Reason with all it s acquired notions is not a light congruous to spiritual things but the light of Faith is Out of this all the other are derived Secondly Meer Reason digging in the Letter of Scripture arrives but at notions and shadows of knowledg and though these be as the sands on the sea shore they are but a form of knowledg Rom. 2.20 but when the light of faith comes there is sound wisdom Prov. 3.21 or as the original word is essence a thing which can no more be made up of meer notions then a body can of shadows Faith is the substance or subsistence of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 Without it notions and literal knowledge have no hypostasis in the heart the spiritual world is as it were lost God and Christ and Heaven are but notions But as soon as faith comes and makes the day-break in the heart the spiritual world subsists afresh God is God and Christ is Christ and Heaven is Heaven to the soul all of them are reallized by faith there is a good treasure in the heart far more substantial then Arts and Tongues and School-notions can make Thirdly Reason with its notions arrives but at a knowledge falsly so called for it knows not the things of God as they are proposed to be known those things are proposed to be known not as meer notions but as practical things to be in the first place chosen loved embraced and practised but it knows them only notionally and not practically That knowledge whilest materially true hath a secret lye in it thus the Apostle He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 Joh. 2.4 'T is not in him in a practical way so as to ballance the will and affections with the excellency of the things known but as soon as faith comes those things are known as they are proposed to be known as practical things to be improved in heart and life The supernatural light digests truths into blood and spirits and turns mysteries into godliness It knows Law and Gospel in their true tendency which is holiness not to be holy is to blast and prophane the meaning of both Fourthly The meer notional knowledge acquired by reason hath no spiritual life or sense in it it hath no life in it meer notions are but a dead faith but faith is a living notion In an unbeliever the notions are all dead affording no pulse of holy affections or motion of true obedience they are all buried in a grave of corruption and covered in the dust of earthly things But as soon as faith comes there is a resurrection in the soul the notions before dead now wake out of the dust and rise in life and power every truth lives in the heart and springs up into the new-creature This supernatural knowledge is a well-spring of life Prov. 16.22 and all the vital acts of grace stream from thence Nay as our Saviour tells us it is life eternal John 17.3 heaven doth dawn and appear in it Meer notional knowledg hath no spiritual sense in it
of grace and breaths beams of light and utters sparkles of glory nothing but mysteries and rectitudes and words of eternal life ever came from him and to make these come home to thee he is an inward Ecclesiastes one who can unlock thy secrets and come into the midst of thee and there express himself in words of life and power and all the while his Majesty shall not swallow thee up He speaks through an humane nature and vail of flesh in rare condescension and compassion towards thy weakness Whilest faith is in the high praises of this great Prophet the heart cannot chuse but be upon the wheels ready to run to him and say speak Lord for thy servant heareth Secondly It doth it by humbling and softning the heart Before faith a man is in the ruff of pride and there 's no speaking to him his heart is as a stone or Adamant and beats off holy truths but after it the man becomes as a little child and Christ may say any thing to him his stony heart is turned into flesh and so made ready for God to be manifested in it Faith doth so meeken the heart that it will sit down at Christs feet and hear him even in his hardest Lectures Let Christ talk of racks and bloody persecutions for the Gospel and the believer will be ready to get up the cross on his back Let Christ preach of high and transcendent mysteries such as reason cannot fathom and the believer will subscribe in silence what ever reason mutter against it Secondly Faith having discipled the soul yields it up to Christ to be taught And because now he doth not teach in person as once in the days of his flesh faith yields up the soul to him to be taught by his spirit The discipled believer loves to stand as Adam in the wind of the day in the gales of the holy spirit And this will appear in two-things First Faith waits upon the Spirit in the Means and when the spirit comes in holy motions it welcomes him into the soul Faith waits upon the Spirit in the Means there it cries out as Elisha at Jordan where is the God of Elijah here 's the mantle but where 's the God here are the Scriptures but where 's the Spirit that endited them to make holy impressions and seal divine truths upon the heart here are the ordinances but oh for the moving of the waters awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon the garden that the spices may flow out And when the spirit comes in holy motions faith opens the everlasting doors and welcoms him in as Laban did Abrahams servant come in thou blessed of the Lord stand not only without in the Scripture-letter come in thou that comest in the name of the Lord. Take the throne of my heart and bid the world go down and sit at thy footstool Take the keys of the soul and unlock every faculty set up thy lamps in every dark corner and discover the accursed things there Speak O heavenly Rabbi speak in words of life and power and shew me the path of life and righteousness Secondly Faith is very chary and loth to lose the teaching spirit Like the Spouse in the Canticles it holds him and and will not let him go Cant. 3.4 This is to the believer as the apple of his eye he would not have a dust of earth fall into to lest it grieve and weep out some of the holy light and as the fire in the Temple it must not go out if there be but a live coal or single spark it must be brown up into a flame Holy motions are very precious to the believer as it were beams of heaven better in Faiths account then the great Sun which quickens the animal world and like so many good Angels sent from God to give the soul a visit rather then these should be violated and abused faith will offer all its worldly comforts as Lot his daughters to be defloured If the holy spirit depart faith writes scabbed upon all other things and the believer becomes as a dead man unable to breath in prayer or walk in holiness or live or have a being in the spiritual world The Sun is down and it is night with him the dew is off and his fleece dry the gales are wanting and he is at a stand in his voyage to heaven Thus faith yields up the soul to be taught by the spirit Secondly In and through Christ the Mediator faith yields up the soul to God to be taught by the spirit I say in and through Christ the Mediator Without a Mediator God will not speak to a sinful creature unless out of the fire in words of wrath like those at the last day Go thou cursed one If he speak and commune with us in words of peace and salvation it must be from the mercy-seat that is through Christ who is called Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or propitiatory Rom. 3.25 Hence Christ is called the wisdom of God because through him that wisdom doth manifest it self and as God speaks so faith hears and resigns both are in and through the Mediator I say in and through the Mediator faith yields up the soul to God to be taught by the spirit the very same teaching spirit as it was procured by the Mediator so it is given out by God Therefore faith for the teaching thereof resigns up the soul as to the Mediator the procurer so to God the donor of it And in this resignation faith climbs up to him by that noble Attribute of his infinite wisdom Are there transcendent mysteries in Scripture Faith will resign and cry out with Zophar Oh! that God would speak and shew me the secrets of wisdom Whilest the Scripture is in its hands it sighs and looks up for the key to unlock and shew forth this and that truth in its spiritual glory or at least in some such beams of it as it is capable of the Original Languages will not serve its turn without the Original Author nor the Learned Commentators without the great Interpreter that only wise God who endited the Scripture can illustrate the heart and whilest the believer reads the one he waits for the other Is there a practical case dubious and perplexed like an intricate Labyrinth or way-less wilderness and when the believer goes about to put all circumstances into the ballance doth he tremble and demurr like Origen at the Idol-incense and cannot be satisfied In such a case Faith runs and Esra-like hangs upon God for a right way the All-wise can make a way in the wilderness and guide thee with his eye saith Faith one cast or glance from his wisdom will disintricate thy doubts and make thy way plain before thee Doth the outward world grow stormy and tempestuous is the sky of the times overclouded with troubles and dangers faith stands in the posture of Jehoshaphat we know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2
if thou sow unto the flesh thou must reap corruption He that hath but a notion of Gods power can despise Gods hand in small crosses just as the proud Greeks who when Callipolis was lost said the Turks had taken but a bottle of wine but he that hath the mystery of it dares not do so well knowing that the lightest afflictions come from Shaddai the Almighty and if need be he can strike harder he that hath but a notion of Gods All-sufficiency hath his affections scattered up and down the earth as the poor Israelites were over Egypt for straw to gather if it were possible a happiness from the flowers of the creature but he that hath the mystery of it knows how by a compendious wisdom to have all in God roll over all worlds the world of thoughts wishes and desires in the heart the world of riches honours and pleasures in nature the world of pardons graces and comforts in Saints the world of joy glory and beatitudes in heaven and after all this the believer can tell you all these are to be found in God habet omnia quihabet habentem omnid after this manner the secret of the Lord is with the believer As to Jesus Christ the believer hath the mystery of him in his heart A man may have a notion of God manifest in the flesh but unless he have an heart of flesh an yielding resigning heart for God to manifest his spirit and graces in that the heart may in some measure be made answerable to the spirit and graces in Christ he wants the mystery of it St. John speaking of love saith which thing is true in him and in you 1 John 2.8 Why so because saith he the darkness is past and the true light now shineth a man may tell the story of the meekness humility holiness obedience charity patience it Christ but if the true light do not shine in him by faith if these graces be not true in Christ and in him he hath not the mystery thereof the spyes coming back from Canaan brought not only a bare report of the good Land but clusters of grapes also he that hath the mystery of Christ hath not only a meer notion of the full treasures of grace in him but clusters of graces from thence as so many real proofs thereof the Apostle Paul doth notably decipher this sagacity that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil 3.10 If a man hath only a notion of Christ crucified and Christ risen we may character him as Erasmus did the Monastery he was in there is nihil Christi nothing of Christ crucisied where lusts are living and reigning nothing of Christ risen where the soul is dead in trespasses and sins he only knows the fellowship of Christs sufferings who hangs up his earthly members on the cross to dye and expire the only knows the power of Christs resurrection who hath felt the same Almighty power which raised up Christ quickning his soul to a heavenly life this is the mystery the so learning of Christ as the expression is Eph. 4.20 learning him so as to put off the old man with his corrupt lusts and to put on the new man in true holiness and so as to be found in him and count all dross and dung for him It deeply concerns all Christians nay the greatest Clerks to understand this so which without faith no man doth as being void of Christ and his spirit As to inherent grace the believer knows it to be an excellent thing an accident more worth then the substance of the soul it self and yet withall he knows it to be a creature and in it self defectible he knows it to be an excellent thing excellent in its supernatural parentage a thing not born of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God an holy thing formed by the overshadowing of the blessed spirit a beam of grace from the eternal grace in the heart of God excellent again as it is the souls lostre knowledge its glass humility its vail obedience its golden ear-ring love the chain of its neck righteousness its fine linnen every grace its inward glory and beauty elevating natural faculties above their own pitch into a state congruous for communion with God above all excellent as it represents God himself in every creature there is a print or footstep of God but in grace there is his very image and resemblance a believer can see more of God in an holy beam then in the great Sun in a little of heaven then in all the earth intal poor meek spirit then in all the Nimrods and mighty Potentates of the world and yet after all this the believer sees grace to be but a creature and in it self defectible without a spiritual concourse from heaven should God bid him stand alone he would be in an agony and pray as Annas Burgus did at his Martyrdome Deus mi ne me derelinquas ne ego te derelinquam my God forsake me not lest I forsake thee Should God offer him all the Angels in heaven to guard his little spark of grace in being he would tremble and say not so Lord let me be kept by thine Almighty power unto salvation that is the only keeper I desire he dares not say my mountain is strong now I am full now I am rich now I reign as a King by my self were he full of grace it would be but as a room is of light no sooner could he shut the windows and possess it in a self-subsistence but he would be in the dark and experiment every beam to hang upon the Sun of righteousness were he rich in grace it would be but as a Merchant is in his trade if the rich returns from heaven should fail he would soon spend all his stock and like a son of Adam turn bankrupt were he a spiritual King ruling over his lusts he would and must confess himself under the kingdom of Christ and to hold all his power from thence or else Mene Mene his kingdom is numbred and divided among lusts and devils St. Paul saith I live but immediately he calls it back again yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 well knowing that all his grace had its being from the true Immanuel Jesus Christ and its continuance from the continual influxes of his spirit which are in a sober sense a kind of Immanuel God with us strengthening graces where they are weak quickning where they are dead upholding where they are falling and by an incessant spiration influencing Being into them that they may not vanish into nothing As to the opposite sin the believer sees more of the sinfulness of sin and yet more of the holy God about it then others do He sees more of the sinfulness of sin then others Next to Christ who weighed sin upon the cross he of all men knows best how to
let down into his heart and another all is drawn up into heaven again His Evidences may be blurred Satan may hold up his pardoned Sins as it were in their old guilt the Arrows of God may stick fast in him and bring qualms and sick-fits upon his Conscience But at that day his Comforts shall be unvariable a nightless Day and a cloudless Horizon an eternal feast upon God and all things in him his Evidences all clear and after but this once shewing forth an everlasting possession of the expected Happiness The Accuser Satan shall be struck dumb at the blessed sentence of pardon and acceptance pronounced by God before Men and Angels God shall never frown or wound him any more but wrap him up in the arms of endless love and joy This will be a day of refreshing indeed Thus much of the perfection of this holy fruit Fifthly The last thing is the excellency of it God himself writes upon the Justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Blessed one Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Pal. 32.1 or as the original Blessednesses is he there is not one single Happiness but a cluster of Beatitudes in this estate Some of these I shall gather off from this Vine First The Justified person hath God for his God these two I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and I will be their God stand in conjunction in the Covenant of Grace Hebr. 8.10 and 12 verses God say the Jewish Rabbins hath the key of the Womb the key of the Grave the key of the Rain and the key of the Heart all that is in the Creation is at his dispose The Justified man hath as I may say a key into God himself He may unlock infinite Treasures and say These everlasting Arms which bear up the World are mine for protection These All-seeing Eyes which guide every wheel in Nature are mine for direction Those immense Bowels which cover all the Creation embrace and sold me up in special Love Those two all-comprizing words My God are in truth utterable by none but such as he is God is called the God of Abraham Isaack and Jacob. Cujus omnes gentes sunt quasi trium hominum Deus esset saith St. Austine as if the Great Lord of all things were appropriated to those three Men. Such honour have all Justified ones God is their own and to make this sure they have bonds and bills under Gods own hand they can in one Promise shew a title to his Power and in another to his Mercy and in a third to his Wisdom and in that I will be their God They can lay a just claim to all that is in him which what it amounts unto is more than the tongue of Men and Angels can express Secondly The Justified person hath Christ for his own When the covetous King of Egypt built an house for his great Treasures the cunning Architect left a loose Stone in the building that so he might have free access thereinto What entrance he had by craft into the Egyptian Treasures that Justified persons have by a fair grant into all the unsearchable riches of Christ Merit Spirit Life Death Righteousness Redemption Fulness Glory all that is in Christ is their own If his Righteousness can stand before God so will they If his Blood can wash away sin they shall be without spot or wrinckle at the Great day If his glorious over-measure of the Spirit cannot fail no more will their supplies of Grace If he ascended up into Heaven it was to prepare a place for them If he make Intercession above they must have access to the Throne of Grace If he sit at the Right-hand of Power and Majesty all their enemies must be made their foot-stool Oh! infinite enjoyment Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither can it enter into mans heart what the total sum of this is Thirdly The Justified man hath a rare priviledge in his Holy duties He hath assistance from access unto and acceptance with the great God in these He hath assistance from him Whilest he stands offering up holy Services fire comes down from heaven upon the Sacrifice The Holy Spirit inflames his heart towards God opening it in Hearing melting it in Alms and pouring it out in Prayer So that in some sence he offers up his Duties as Christ did himself through the eternal Spirit enlivening and impowering him thereunto His voyage to Heaven lies through a tract of various Duties but it never fares with him in these as it did with Sir Hugh Willoughby in his Voyage to Moscovy in which he was by extream Frosts frozen to death The warm influences of Grace keep him from freezing in this divine enterprize His heart which seeks the Lord in his waies shall live and to make it sure our Saviour saies expresly because I live ye shall live also Joh. 14.19 His life is hid with Christ As long as Christ the Head is alive above the Members below shall never fail of quickening grace in their addresses to God Again he hath access unto God in them A man under guilt cannot approach unto God no more than fallen Origen casting his eye upon that of the Psalmist What but thou to do to declare my Word could tell how to Preach but the Justified man may draw near unto him because his heart is sprinckled from an evil Conscience The guilt which would have made him shie of God is done away in Christs blood Whilst others are but in the outward Court in the opus operatum the work done he may enter into the Holy of Holies into communion with God the Holy Spirit conducts him thither through the vail of Christs flesh Moreover which is the crown of all he hath acceptance with God God had respect to Abel and to his offering Gen. 4.4 such a respect as to bear witness to his righteousness by some visible sign as fire from heaven consuming the Sacrifice The justified man is in his measure as Daniel a man of Desires and as the Blessed Virgin graced or highly favoured His Prayers make melody in heaven his Alms are the savour of a sweet-smell he doth not lose so much as a cup of cold water nor shut a door of sense against an approaching Temptation in vain There is a well-pleasingness in all his Services as being ushered forth from the heart into the hand of the Mediatour and there richly perfuned for the Father though as they lie in our hearts there be much smoak and mixture of weakness in them yet as they are in the hand of Christ they are glorified duties acceptable to God through Jesus Christ Fourthly The Justified man hath more of the sweetness of life and its outward Comforts than others He hath more of the sweetness of life than others The Jewish Doctours treating about the estimation of Persons mentioned Levit. 27. say That if a man be adjudged to death for his transgression he is not to be valued
Here am I Isa 58.9 as if he were always at hand to answer the request Thirdly Adoption ushers in an Heavenly freedom whilest the Law is only without in the letter and the terrors of Sinai flash in the Conscience the man with his old heart of enmity drudges in the ways of God and brings forth all his Duties as the Bond-woman did her Son in the power of nature in a dead carnal servile manner Moses with the cords of Hell and Death drags the outward man to this and that Duty but old Adam with his lusts reigning within holds back the love and the joy and the delight from the work all renders to bondage till Adoption come and spirit him for holy things Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts Gal. 4.6 The same Spirit which led the Humane Nature of Christ into all Sinless Obedience leads the Adopted into a true willingness to all the Ways of God that Spirit engraves a Law within answering the outward one and inspires such a Divine Love as casts out the Bond woman and her Son I mean the servile fears and services the Will is set upon the wheels of Faith and Love and the Duties are brought forth in the power of Grace and of the Promise that Promise I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36.27 is sweetly experimented in every act of Obedience this glorious and almost Angelical freedom grows upon Adoption and no where else no will of man ever seemed out such a thing should any man go about to strike it out of his own power it would fare with him as it did with the person reported of by one of the Jewish Rabbies who in the night lighted his Candle and it went out lighted it again and again and still it went out at last weary of such vain labours he resolved with himself to wait for the Sun Such an one may strike and strike again to fetch such a liberty out of his own will but at last the Conclusion must be If the Son make us free we shall be free indeed Joh. 8.36 and Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Fourthly Adoption brings us into sweet Communion with God thus the Apostle I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 2 Cor. 6.16 I will dwell in them and walk in them who can express it In the Sons of God there is an Ark with the Tables of the Law in it and a Sanctuary with the Shechinah or Divine Majestly in it Gods gracious presence is Spiritual shew-bread and his Love burns upon the heart as the fire that came down from Heaven upon the Altar when they are sacrificing in holy Duties God doth wonderfully by his quickening and elevating influences and when they are suffering in the briers and flames of affliction God is in the Bush supporting and preserving them if Conscience breaths sweetness and peace God is in the still voice if their Graces be set forth God is a supping with them nay if there be but a poor spirit and weak desires God will sup with these the holy light and integrity in their heart is a kind of Vrim and Thummim to direct them and the Heavenly motions and inspirations are as it were a Bath Kol a voice from Heaven for their instruction in a word all the appearances of God in the worldly Sanctuary and outward Symbols of Glory under the Old Testament are spiritually accomplished under the New in the Adopted who are an habitation of God through the Spirit Fifthly Adoption assures protection and provision Israel Gods own People had a Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of Fire to defend them and these Pillars are still in the Church though not always visible God hath said it That he will create upon her a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night upon all the glory shall be a defence Isa 4.5 Rather than his Adopted ones who carry his Glory about them shall want a defence he will put forth an act of Creation Israel when in the Wilderness had Bread from Heaven and Water out of the Rock and to the upright God saith Their Bread shall be given them and their Waters shall be sure Isa 33.16 Rather than fail He will make rivers in the desert to give drink to his People Isa 43.20 When there 's a pinch in the Kingdom of Nature his own Family and Houshold shall be provided for The young Linons may lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Psal 34.10 That Distich Est Deus in coelo qui providus omnia curat Credentes nusquam deseruisse potest Was a Cordial to Musculus in his streights Faith fears no Famine neither shall the Adopted feel any Sixthly Adoption carries with it Perseverance Once a Son of God by Adoption and ever so One of the Jewish Doctors Commenting on that excellent passage With thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light Psal 36. saith That the Israelites were made free by Moses and then brought into bondage again and made free by Barak and divers others and yet brought into bondage again at last they shall be saved by the Lord their God with an eternal Salvation that is by the Messiah If meer notions make us free we shall be in bondage again if Church-priviledges make us free we shall be in bondage again but if Adopting Grace make us free we shall ever be so God hath said nay sworn to Jesus Christ His seed and such are all the Adopted shall endure for ever and his throne part whereof is in their hearts as the Sun before me Psal 89.36 and to make them endure the holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life Joh. 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 Nay though they break his statutes and thereby bring the rod upon their backs yet God hath promised Not to take away his loving kindness nor suffer his faithfulness to fail Psal 89.33 Upon such unshaken foundations do the Sons of God stand Seventhly Adoption makes them heirs of Heaven Though they may lye among the pots and in the eyes of the World be the refuse and off-scouring of all things yet are they heirs of Glory thus the Apostle If children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 That Glory which Christ hath purchased shall they be brought into that Heavenly Inheritance which is sealed without in the Promise is inwardly assured to them by the Seal of the Spirit which by holy impresses marks them out for Heaven and is a sure earnest in their hearts that the whole sum of glory shall be paid to them above each of them
upon men the high Thrones with its train made Isaiah cry out as an undone man Isa 6. the voice out of the whirl-wind caused Job to abhor himself in dust and ashes Job 42.6 The bright thining man turned Daniel's comeliness into corruption Dan. 10.8 And what those outward appearances did in a sensible way that Faith which is an inward Vision of God doth in a Spiritual looking on him by Faith a dread falls on us from every Attribute or Work of his His glorious Majesty makes us go and hide our selves in the dust of our own vileness and nothingness His pure Holiness comparatively turns us and all our comely Graces into rottenness His dreadful Justice sounds so loud in the threatning that we cannot but tremble at every word of it Nay his very goodness and tender bowels lying all about us make us afraid to trample thereon by finning even those in Nature do so much more those richer ones in Grace His very rain calls for out fear Jer. 5.24 And what do those dews of the Spirit which are not common as the other His bounding the Sea doth so Jer. 5.22 and what doth his bounding corruption which else would drown Soul and all in perdition Oh how tremendous is our life our Bodies living on the Blood of Creatures and our Souls on the Blood of God our natural being lying in the arms of that Power which bears up the World and our Spiritual in the arms of that Grace which saves it Earth flowing round about us with Blessings and Heaven it self coming down in Promises and carrying back our Hopes thither Who in such Visions of Faith would not fear the Lord and his goodness Who would not tremble at Sins indignity and ingratitude After such mercies as these should we again transgress against him If we wax wanton under Goodness how soon may Soveraignty come down and recover all from us as forfeited Heaven may shut up it self and the dews of the Spirit cease our Graces may all droop and wither and our Hearts grow hard and stony one lust or other may carry us into captivity and our little remnant of Grace and Life may cry out as the Church doth O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy ways and hardned our hearts from thy fear return for thy servants sake Isa 63.17 After all our wantonness we shall be glad to come to holy Fear again Soveraignty will make us fear him in every thing such a fight of him by Faith as this makes him practically to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fear as he is called Psal 76.11 Moreover Faith moves this Fear into act by shewing the great evil of Sin Sense looks on penal evils which press on the outward man but Faith on Sin as the greatest of evils it being an opposite to God a blot to the Soul a blast to the World a forfeiture of Heaven and fuel for the flames of Hell a thing not to be done Pro quantiscunque bonis lucrandis aut pro quantiscunque malis pracavendis for the gaining never so great a good or for the avoiding never so great an evil as Bradwardine speaks Hence St. Austin said That a man must not tell a lie to save a world And Henry Flander being a Prisoner for the Protestant Religion would not say That his Wife was his Whore no not to save his life offered to him on those terms Now Fear being a kind of flight from evil the greater the evil is the greater is the flight and when an evil is the greatest of evils such as Sin appears to Faith the flight from it is as from Hell it self and more if possible according to the saying of Anselm That if Sin were set before him on the one band and Hell on the other he would rather leap into Hell than fall into Sin Another Grace actuated by Faith is Zeal which is an intense Love or a mixture of Love and Anger or rather the heat and boyling up of all the affections in the concerns of God and his Glory This is a coal from the Altar which warms Hearts and Lives and sparkles out in every Grace and Duty without it all is in spirituali gelicidio cold and frozen as in a Sunless World Indeed without Faith Zeal is blind as in the Jew who in his heat for the Law opposes the Gospel and true Righteousness Or it runs out upon Humane things as in the Papist who crys up Traditions as a second Oracle or it moves upon selfish Principles as in the Pharisees who did all theatrically to be seen of men But when Faith comes Zeal is according to the Word as its Rule and for Divine things as the worthiest Object and out of a pure intention to Gods Glory as the supream end Faith brings us into Communion with God and makes us one spirit with him and hence it comes to pass that those things which are dear to him are so to us and those injuries which move his jealousie above stir up our Zeal here below To Faith Gods name is nomen Majestativum holy reverend fearful glorious precious a name above every name and therefore cannot be profaned but Zeal will break forth the reproaches cast on it fall more heavily on the Believer than those on himself or his near relations Nay they press harder on him than if he should hear one railing at Princes or Angels Maris the blind Bishop of Chalcedon being brought into the presence of the blasphemous Emperour Julian fell severely on him as upon an enemy of God and when Julian told him That he was blind and his Galilean God would not cure him Maris gave thanks to God who had taken away his eyes that he might not look on so wicked a wretch as Julian Such a Zeal doth Faith put forth for Gods name In like manner the Worship of God is to Faith his Homage honour on Earth Crown of glory Sanctuary of Presence a thing too precious and pure to be allayed with Humane mixtures if this be corrupted our Zeal must needs kindle at it and so much the more because his facred jealousie hangs more over his Worship than over any thing else in all the World To the other Commandments we find this annexed I am the Lord Lev. 19 but to the second I am a jealeus God Exod. 20.5 Hence Moses at the light of the Calf forgets his Meekness and in a holy Passion brake the holy Tables In the Constantinopolitan Council held about the year of our Lord 754 how hot were the Bishops against Images as a meer Pagan custom and when they were cast down how triumphant was the Peoples Zeal crying out Hodiè salus mundo now is salvation come to the world In the fifth Council of Carthage they would have the very reliques of Idolatry totally blotted out Nay Leo Bishop of Rome when the Manichees Worshipped the Sun forbade the Christians to worship towards the East that they might have nothing common with them Such
in judgment Psal 25.9 And for a pure Comfort They shall have joy in the Lord and be every day increasing it Isa 29.19 Their meek and quiet spirit makes them beautiful in the eyes of God and Man so rich a jewel proves them to be the elect of God Col. 3.12 Such Promises as these are able to meeken us under any Injuries Cicero saying Justitiae primum munus est ut ne cui noceat and adding as a salvo nisi lacessitus Lactantius cried out O quam simplicem sententiam duorum verborum adjectione corrupit What a dainty sentence did he spoil with those two words A Believer fixing his eyes on the Promises will not let go his Meekness no not for all the provocations in the World the loss of such a Jewel would be more to him than all other sufferings Another Grace actuated by Faith is Obedience Two things in the Spouse did ravish the heart of Christ her single eye of Faith and the neck-chain of Obedience Cant. 4.9 Obedience as Samuel said is better than Sacrisice And as Luther More eligible than doing Miracles Faith receiving Christ the Lord is in it self Virtual Obedience to the Commands of God and as an effect it produces actual To this end it believes the Commands to be as they are looking on the stamps of Majesty Purity Equity Righteousness therein it falls down and confesses that God is there of a truth this and that is the very Will of God and must be done primo intuitu without dispute and by all persons even the greatest on Earth Princes here are Subjects Constantine and Theodosius though Emperors stiled themselves Vassals of Christ Zedekiab the King should have humbled himself before Jeremy the Prophet 2 Chron. 36.12 Nay the Kingdom of God which is in every Command must be humbly received though coming in the hand of a child or a servant as a good Divine noteth Here all men and all in men even the Princely powers of Reason and Will with all the progeny of Thoughts and Affections must bow down before God A famous instance of which we have in the Noble Andelot in France who being questioned for a Protestant by his Soveraign Henry the second bravely professed That his Body Estate and Dignity was in his Majesty's power but his Soul was only subject to God From such a Supream Authority in the Command Faith presses strongly to Obedience and for a sweet Principle thereunto it draws a free Spirit from Christ Faith translates us into the Kingdom of Christ and there by a singular Priviledg above other Kingdom all the Subjects are ready to do the Commands of their Lord. Faith converses much about the Wounds and precious Sacrifice of Christ and there the free Spirit dwells as the free bird in the Altar Ps 84.3 And being received by Faith brings forth a numerous off-spring in acts of Obedience Faith makes us parts and pieces of Christ and so we are anointed with the Holy Ghost in some measure as his Humane Nature was in a transcendent way Faith dwells in the holy Truth and that makes us free indeed Whilest Precepts give the Rule Promises afford the Power such a Promise as that I will cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36.27 being mixed with Faith will impower us to all Obedience Hence the Service of God becomes a freedom and Obedience easie and natural moving upon the wheels of Love and wings of the Spirit which must needs be a very strong incentive to Obedience and the rather because Faith ensures the acceptance thereof Were we to obey under the Covenant of Works which will bate nothing of pure sinless Perfection our Obedience might be bootless and heartless because every act of it would vanish and come to nothing by the adherent Corruption which made Calvin say That if a man did cull out the most excellent work of all his life he would find some corrupt flesh or other in it And St. Austin Vae vite landabili Wo to a laudable life without mercy But we are to obey under the Covenant of Grace whence Sincerity is accepted and frailty covered God gives a Tostimonial of Righteousness to Noah not withstanding his Infirmities and of Perfectness to Asa notwithstanding the high Places Uprightness passes for absolute Perfection and the main of the Heart for all of it insomuch that it is said of Josiah That he turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses 2 King 23.25 his Sincerity was taken as if all had been fulfilled Retract lib. 1. c. 19. according to that of St. Austin Omnia mandata facta deputantur quando quicquid non sit ignoscitur There are Pardons ready sealed in Heaven for Believers Insirmities God forgives what is ours in a duty and accepts what is his own Our Duties are taken into the hand of Christ the Mediator and there perfumed with his sweet Merits and though as they are in our hands they have dross and soil in them yet as they are in his they are glorified Duties and as sweet Odours to God And upon such terms as these who would not obey Every act of Obedience shall be accepted and the light of Gods Countenance will irradiate our Duties And to give a further advance to this Grace Faith looks within the Veil to the great recompence in Heaven there are Crowns of Life rivers of Pleasures and plenitudes of Joy for ever there holy Souls see all Truths in their Original drink all Good out of the Fountain and have God for their All in All and all this is the reward of our poor imperfect Obedience And as such is outwardly secured in the Promises and inwardly realized by Faith and therefore must needs move the Believer strongly to Obedience no wonder if he burn in Devotions or melt in Charity or labour in other acts of Obedience all these being but a sowing to the Spirit will come up in a crop of Eternal Life his Prayers will be turned into Hallelujahs his Alms repaid in Everlasting Love and all his good Works which follow him into another World shall be woven into a Crown of Immortality And upon such an account who would not obey and live in perpetual resignation as he did who as the story goes always concluded his Prayers thus Domine quid me vis facere Lord what wilt thou have me to do And lived in such holy joys as if he had been in Heaven already Another Grace actuated by Faith is Patience This is Meekness towards God as Meekness is Patience towards Man and respecteth Gods Disposing Will as Obedience doth his Commanding This is a Subjection to God a Possession of our Selves and an Admiration to Others Hence the Constancy of Annas Burgus a Senator of Paris suffering for the Protestant Cause made many curious to know what Religion that was for which he so patiently endured death To promote this Grace Faith in
the first place looks up to God as sitting at the stern and ruling all every Affliction is a piece of his Government to murmur against it is rebellion in such a case nothing becomes us so much as with Aaron to hold our peace or if we open our lips to do it with Job Blessing the name of the great Giver and Taker Is he not the Lord and may he not do as he will in his own World and among his own Creatures Should not all flesh be silent before him None but himself may or can be Rector of the World and yet in every act of Impatience we aspire and virtutually would be such our selves and is he not Insinitely wise and just in all that he doth Every Wheel hath an eye in it and every Cross its just proportion and to think that it might have been better is to blaspheme Providence This made that holy Man Mr. Dod in his Sickness after extream sits of pain say to his Servant O think well of God for it for it is most justly and wisely done whatsoever he doth And is he not gracious and mercisul and doth not Mercy rejoyce against Judgment The measire of Grace as the Jewish Rabbins say is ever larger than the measure of Judgment for one Cross we have many Blessings And shall we receive good much good at his hand and not a little evil If we have his Heavenly Graces how much may we bate of Earth and its Comforts If Sin the greatest burden of all be taken off in a Pardon may we not easily bear the lesser ones Thus Mr. Greenham told his Son in Law complaining of his Crosses When Affliction lyeth heavy Sin lyeth light If guilt press not any thing may be born nay is not he gracious and merciful in the very Affliction Doth he not support with one hand whilest he smites with another St. Paul glories in his Infirmites That the power of Christ may rest upon him 2 Cor. 12.9 And the Noble Potamenia being threatned to be cast into a Vessel of burning Pitch begged Spond Annal. Ann. 310. That she might not be cast in all at once but piece-meal that they might see how much Patience the unknown Christ had given unto her and doth he not make all work together for good What are the issues of Affliction to Believers but the purgation of Sins trials of Grace peaceable fruits of Righteousness and inward joys and experiences of Gods Goodness Let Faith but cast up the reckoning and it will appear That he afflict us in Love and Faithfulness and therefore it must needs be well taken the wounds of such a Friend being better than the kisses of the enemy-World Again to advance this Grace Faith makes a right judgment of Afflictions to Sense these are grievous but to Faith fit and congruous The World in which the Believer lives is a stage of Sin and therefore fit to be a place of sorrow how calm soever it was before Sin entred it is now a troubled Sea an Ocean of Evils as Antoninus calls an Empire Storms and tossing waves are proper in it and to be expected by every Passenger as much a Paradise as it was before it is now a Wilderness thorns and thistles of trouble grow naturally in it and give many a scratch and sting to the poor Pilgrim in his way to Heaven The Believer himself as a Man is born to trouble and altogether vanity all-Adam is all-Abel or vanity as it is Psal 39.5 He comes into the World weeping and very fitly because by his Sin he hath set the whole Creation a groaning until now and as a Believer he lives as a lilly among thorns so is his person in the World among wicked ones which are as pricking briars on every side and so is the Grace in his heart among the reliques of Corruption which are as thorns in the flesh And whilest Sin is within it is congrnous that trouble should be without nay more than congrnous it is necessary upon many accounts Affliction is purgative of Sin it may be the Believers Heart may wax proud and the tumor must be lanced or light and the vanity must be fanned away it may be hard and the furnace must melt it or drowsie and the rod must awaken it One ill humour or other is ready to grow upon us and O felices tribulos tribulationum Oh happy thorns of Affliction which let them out It Medicine be necessary so is Affliction which is Spiritual Physick for our peceant Humours Affliction is the way which Christ hath sanctified by going in it himself to the Throne of Glory and Believers must follow him whithersoever he goes Innocency it self suffering lumps of dust and sin cannot but do so He drinking up the full cup of Wrath well may we take a few drops of it especially seeing our sufferings are sweetned by his and his Heaven will be ours at last where the light momentany sufferings shall be remunerated with an eternal weight of hyperbolical Glory Luther saith of himself That looking on the Susserings of Christ he counted his own as nothing And St. Bernard makes Christ Et speculum Patiendi pretium Patientis both a glass of Patience and a reward of the Patient Now we are tossing and toyling at Sea but the port of Bliss is within ken and anon we shall be there In the interim we may tasie Heaven in the Joys of the holy Spirit which sheds abroad the Love of God in our Hearts and so gives us Praemium ante praemium a lesser Heaven before a greater Saint Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I superabound or overflow in joy in all our tribulations 2 Cor. 7.4 Philip Lantgrave of Hesse being asked How he could endure his long tedious Imprisonment under the Emperor Charles the fifth professed Se Divinas Martyrum Consolationes sensisse That be felt the Divine Consolations of Martyrs The gracious Presence of God is able to sweeten Prisons Eghten Chains and make fire and water paffable to Believers Such things as these well digelled by Faith will make us keep a holy silence under all the Will of God Not to name any more Particulars I shall conclude this Point touching the actuating of Graces with one Observation more Faith connects all Graces together as links in a Chain and so by actuating one advances all in some measure The School-men do many of them allow a Connexion of all Moral Virtues in Prudence and yet commonly affirm That Faith may be without Charity As if Spiritual Graces were not so well united as Moral Virtues But the truth is true Faith is never without Charity true Faith makes us sons of God Joh. 1.12 but without Charity we are spurious and Children of the Devil By true Faith Christ dwells in the heart Ephes 3.17 and where he dwells Charity cannot be absent true Faith purisies the heart Act. 15.9 and without Charity there can be no Purity True Faith rests on the meer Grace of
God in Christ and that must needs in flame the Heart towards him Tamum amamus quantum credimus Hence Aquinas himself confesses That though Faith and Hope may be without Charity yet without Charity they are not properly Virtues And Durandus saith Credere in Deum non est praecise actus fidei sid actus fidei charitatis simul To believe in God is not precisely an act of Faith but of Faith and Charity together So Inseparable are these two Graces But leaving the Schoolmen I shall proceed Faith connects all Graces together in a triple way it connects them in the fontal cause the boly Spirit which it receives all Graces are from the Spirit and the Spirit is received by Faith hence rivers of living water flow in the Believers heart Joh. 7.38 that is All Graces flow there as waters from a fountain it connects them in the Rule the Command of God which it universally respects It is observed by Divines That the five last Commands in Deut. 5. run thus Thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not commit Adultery and thou shalt not Steal and thou shalt not bear false Witness and thou shalt not Govet The word And points out to us that all the Commands are coupled together by God like the Curtains of the Tabernacle all are as it were one body and Faith hath a respect to every one of them and in every one owns the same stamp of Divine Authority He that said Love thy God said also Love thy Neighbour He that said Be Zealous said also Be Meek and Patient and Obedient and abundant in all Grace It connects them also in the end the Glory of God which it looks at in all things all Graces tend to that Glory and Faith is the single eye which guides them all thither Bonum opus intentio facit Enarr in Psal 31. in Pras intentionem sides dirigis saith St. Austin Faith knows what that is wherein God would be glorisied All Graces being thus connected in Faith which is a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or firmament as the word is Col. 2.5 to them all it comes to pass that Faith in actuating any one Grace gives a strength and further growth to every other Grace Thus it is in Graces respecting distinct Tables the more we act our Love to God the more will be our Love to our Neighbour this though belonging to the second Table flows ex fonte pietatis out of that fountain of Piety which respects the first Thus it is in those Graces which are seemingly contrary as in Zeal and Meekness the more we act our Zeal for God the more will be our Meekness towards Men. Hence in the Primitive Christians who were so hot for Christianity was found a very meek Spirit and the reason is because a Man cannot truly actuate one Grace but he will have more of that Spirit which is fontally all Grace and graciously multiplies Talents in the use of them Neither can he truly obey one Command but it will render his Heart more Obediential and ready to obey others also as being enjoined by the same Authority nor can he in one thing look at Gods Glory but it will in some measure encline him to seek it in other things also and so the New Creature grows in every part and his Path shines more and more to the perfect day in Heaven CHAP. XI Precious Faith considered in the Crowns and Statures thereof The Divine Experiences of Faith as it Experiments the Divinity of Scripture in the Precepts Promises Threatnings and Supernatural Truths thereof Concerning the Blessed Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence Jesus Christ the Mcdiator and the Efficacy of Grace HAVing treated of Justification Adoption and Sanctification which are Fruits of Faith and are more or less in all Believers I now proceed to some other which are The Crowns and Statures of Faith and to be found not in all Believers at least not at first but in such as have made a good progress in Grace Faith have made a good progress in Grace Faith having obtained the Holy Spirit with all its Graces doth now go on like The Baptized Eunuch rejoycing in the ways of God glorying in Free Grace triumphing in Jesus Christ warring against Corruptions actuating Holy Graces bowing down under the Commands of Heaven sucking the Sweet-Breasts of the Promises and waiting for the Heavenly Dews and Distillations of the Spirit and in this holy Progress gathers up many choice Experiments more worth than a World All learned Men are for Experiments and every one would cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it the Sages of the Law are for tried Cases which have been sub judice the Physitian sets a probatum est on approved Medicines the Anatomists hunts after the arcana of Nature by Dissection of Bodies and the Chymist by Dissolution thereof Experience is procreatrix Artium the very Parent of Arts whose universal Precepts are collected by an induction of particulars but there are no Experiments like those of Faith Dr. Dees Spirits made as if they would reveal great Mysteries to him such as they called the Cabbala of Nature the Numbers of the World the linea Spiritus Sancti the Mirabilia Dei and the Nova terra bringing forth without Tillage but all these were but Dreams and Impostures and so I suppose are many things in Chymistry like Helmonts Alkahest wonderful if true But the Experiments of Faith are great Realities and withal Divine as much above those in the Sphear of Nature as Souls are above Bodies and Heaven is above Earth God in the Prophet calls on his People to baing in the Tythes for his House and so by their Obedience to prove him If he would not open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it Mal. 3.10 When Faith goes on in a Tract of Obedience proving of God Heaven opens in wonderful Experiences of him the Manna of holy Truth is then tasted the Hony-combs of Free-Grace drop upon the Heart Promises are realized exemplified in Providences Divine Helps and Salvations come down and call for Eben-Ezers to be set up for them and Discoveries of heavenly things in their certainty and excellency are in a manner made as if a Man could look into the Holy of Holies and see God Face to Face Some such Experiences I suppose the learned Rivet had in his last Sickness in which he said of himself In these ten days I have made a greater progress in Divinity than in all my Life but leaving Generals I shall come to Particulars One great Experiment of Faith is touching the Truths of God a Believer in his holy Progress comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding as the Apostle speaks Cal. 2.2 At the first he hath a Stock of Divine Knowledg but after Experience Riches and all Riches of it at the first
God 1 King 18.39 answerably when the Believer in the doing of Gods Commands feels the illapses of the holy Spirit inflaming and comforting his Heart he sweetly experiences that God is in the Command of a truth Thirdly Faith experiments it in that the hope of Heaven is enlarged and heightned in the doing of Gods will The more a Believer doth it the livelier is his Faith the warmer his love the stronger his other Graces the meeter his Soul for Heaven and the richer his entrance thereunto 2 Pet. 1.11 He shall not go to Heaven poorly or with a seant wind but with full gales and rich Plerophories by successive acts of Obedience his Hope rises higher and higher and so gives an experimental proof That the Command is the very will of God and way to Glory otherwise Hope would not grow and flourish in it but flag and wither as it uses to do in us when we pursue our own ways The Apostle would have men diligent in good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the full assurance of hope Heb. 6.11 Vt plenissimè in animis vestris spes confirmetur faith Beza Immediately after the giving the Law God adds these words Where ever I record my name there will I come and bless you Exod. 20.24 a blessing attends his Service If God bless Obedience with an assurance of Hope which is a fore-taste of Heaven and presage of Glory it is a full proof that his name is recorded in the Command When a Believer walking therein comes to assurance and so to be within ken of Heaven he is sure that the way is right Another excellent part of Scripture stands in the Promises These are the Pearls of the Gospel breasts of Consolation and wells of Salvation flowing out to Believers in temporal spiritual and eternal good things each of these Faith more or less experiments to be Divine As touching Temporal Promises Faith experiments them in every blessing which the Believer hath Indeed outward things are but the nether-springs and blessings of the left hand dispensed promiscuously as if they were ludibria fortunae the sports of chance Providence is still ringing the changes here an Ishmael may have his portion and full cup even Crowns and Kingdoms which lie at the upper end of the World may come to the basest of men Dan. 4.17 All things come alike to all the Sun of Prosperity shines on the Bramble as well as on the Flower the tempest of Adversity falls on the Garden as well as on the Wilderness Love or Hatred cannot be known by these things not by them as they are in themselves or meerly issuing out of Providence But the Believer hath them by a singular Priviledg and in a way of Promise and by reflection may know that he hath them so When he doth not arrogate ought to himself or like churlish Nabal all in his Possessives say My bread my water and my flesh but really confess God to be supream Lord of all and himself but an accountable Steward of them When he can cast his goods on the waters and as it were send them to Sea in a voyage of Charity expecting no return but in the other World where these Corruptibles so used will rise in the incorruption of eternal glory When he can charge all outward things to stand without in their own station and not approach that heart which is a facred Temple or holy place for God to dwell in When he looks on all the World as forfeited by Sin and new founded by Christ the Mediator and so tasts his precious blood in every good thing and gathers all his comforts from his reconciling Cross When upon a just call to Suffering he is willing to venture all his part in this life upon the meer Promise of a better and had rather cast all his Mundane pearls over board than hazard a wrack of Faith or Conscience When the purest sweetest Comforts here below do not satisfic his Soul as smelling of the cask and chanel of Creature-vanity but in the fullest affluence of them he crys out Dulâ—ius ex ipso fonte a single God is insinitely sweeter than all and none but he can sill up the gaping chinks and chasmes of my Hear Deus meus omnia My God and my all Then undoubtedly he hath outward blessings not upon the common title of Providence only but in a way of Promise and by reflection on such things as these he may know that he hath them so and arrive at a sweet experience of Temporal Promises Such an experience multiplies the Loaves and wonderfully doubles and trebles the sweetness and comfort of every Blessing Some learned Men have observed a difference between Jacobs Blessing and Esaus Jacobs runs thus God give thee of the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth Gen. 27.28 Esaus thus Thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the Earth and of the dew of Heaven from above ver 39. In Jacobs the name of God is mentioned not in Esaus it s true all Blessings are from God but his name is mentioned in the one not in the other The experienced Believer hath more of God and his federal Love in every Blessing than other Men. The Jews by a pious custom used to say over their Bread Blessed be God who brought Bread out of the Earth over their Wine Blessed be God who created the fruit of the Wine over their Fruits Blessed be God who created the Fruit of the Tree nay and over their Flowers Blessed be God who made the sweet smelling Herbs and in general they added this Whosoever takes ought out of this World without a benediction is as it were a robber of God But the experienced Believer as he hath a sweeter title to these things so he may raise up his Praises for them to an higher strain than other Men not only saying Blessed be God and his Providence for such and such things but blessed be God and his Promise also All good things as well those of this life as those of the other issue out of the Covenant of Grace You will say the Believer cannot yet make this experiment for though he have some of the Temporal Blessings mentioned in the Promises yet often and ordinarily he wants other of them To which I answer The Promises of Temporal Blessings are not absolute but carry a tacit limitation of expediency The main design of the Promises is Mans Salvation and to this Temporals are not as Spirituals are simply necessary but only have a remote tendency thereunto and that not of themselves but as they are over-ruled by God who makes omnia cooperari in bonum all things work together for good to them that love him And hence the Believer expects from the Promises no other measure or proportion of outward things than what may conduce to his Salvation and because he knows not what that measure or proportion is he refers himself to the Wisdom and Faithfulness of God to order all
not of God condemns the Marâ—ionites as much as if they had been named That 1 Tim. 4.3 forbidding to marry condemns the Eustathians as much as if they had been named That Threatning Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things being general speaks Wrath to every Transgressor as soon as he is such And so that Promise Whosoever believeth shall not perish but have eternal life being general speaks Pardon and Salvation to every Believer as soon as he is such All that believe are justified Act. 13.39 No sooner doth this or that man believe but the Promise speaks to him Thy sins are forgiven thee God saith to him I am thy salvation It may be he doth not understand it at first However here is a sure ground-work for him to believe that it is so and so accordingly he doth as soon as Assurance comes in to him Moreover the Romanists urge That the Doctrine of Assurance puffs up Pride and opens a gap to Licentiousness Unto which my answer is a flat Denial If our Saviour had thought that Assurance would make men like Devils in Pride or Beasts in Licentiousness he would never have said as he did to the Paralytick Thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 Had they told us That such a Worm as Pride would breed out of the Doctrines of Merit and Supererogatory Works it might easily have been believed but that it should drop from such an Honeycomb of Free-Grace as the Doctrine of Assurance is is not reasonably to be imagined Here 's nothing of Merit nothing of our own all is pure meer Grace the Believers Faith and Repentance is of Grace and the Assurance of Pardon and Salvation is Grace upon Grace Sealing-Grace upon Sanctifying And whatever perverse abuse may be made of these the natural tendency thereof is not to Pride for a man after such Graces to forget the great Fountain and set up an Idol of Self-excellency is extreamly unreasonable Just as if he should say Now I am in the bosom of Grace but I would be cast out and be held afar off Now I have the warm Beams of Gods Favour but I would fain be in the Dark again Who would argue thus Will it not be much more proper in an humble admiration to say as David did Who am I and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto 2 Sam. 7.18 Thy Love O God first made me a Vessel of Faith and then filled me with the Oyl of Holy Joy What am I to be such a Receiver All that I am is too small a return nothing of self may remain for an Idol Had they said That Licentiousness might have been fathered on the Sale of Pardons and Indulgences it had been veryright These made Germany and other parts groan with all manner of wickedness But to lay it at the door of Assurance is abominable Machiavel was out in his Politicks when he would have Princes Rule by Fear but he advised so because he knew well enough That following his Rules they could not be Loved and therefore he would perswade them that it was better to be feared The true Obedience for I look not on that which a man is haled unto as such springs out of Love for that fulfils the Law and our Love springs out of Gods for We love him because he first loved us 1 Job 4.19 And the more his Love is revealed the more ours is inflamed towards Obedience In Heaven the blessed Angels who see Gods Face in Glory are most intent upon the doing of his Will on Earth holy men who taste of his favour walk the more accurately for it The joyful sound of Pardon being in the Conscience makes the holy Walk easie and a fair prospect of Heaven sweetens every step Obedience stands no-where so sure as in the Circle of Love which from Gods Love as the first Point is drawn through ours round about into it self Gods Love coming down in Assurance and ours returning in Obedience his being inflammative to ours and ours resignative to him in such circulations of Love their is no room for Licentiousness It 's true Saints after such Pleonasmes of Love may fall foully but do they fall because assured Do they turn Enemies to God because they know themselves Friends Can the Light of Gods Countenance dispose them to Works of Darkness May the choice Influences of Heaven make them earthly and sensual Will the Prodigal once returned run away the sooner from his Fathers House because of the Kiss and Robe and Ring and Fatted Calf freely bestowed upon him Such things as these do involve many Paradoxes and Repugnancies in them and withal cast dirt upon Heaven and blaspheme the Witnessing Spirit and therefore are justly abominable to the Saints who experience the contrary in their own Hearts Having thus far gone through the Enemies Camp I come now to lay down my Thesis to be proved viz. That a Believer may be certainly and infallibly assured of his Pardon and Salvation I say a Believer may be assured an Unbeliever while such is not a subject capable of Assurance he hath Plague-Sores and Tokens of Wrath upon him but as yet never a Beam of Grace or Love the Justice and Holiness of God cannot suffer him to be shined on none of the Promises can speak kindly or comfortably to him his stony Heart cannot receive the Seal and Impress of the Holy Spirit Hence the Apostle saith After ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 after and not before First there must be a new Creature and then a new Name First Gods Image is printed on the Heart and then his Love I say a Believer may be assured but not that all Believers are so A man may be a Babe in Christ and not know it a Child of Light and yet walking in darkness A Believer may live in crepusculo in the twilight or mixt condition of Hope and Fear and so though sure of Heaven not in his own sense assured of it I mean not that he may be assured by an Angel or Voice from Heaven or extraordinary Revelation This the Adversaries will admit but in an ordinary way in the diligent use of such Helps and Means as are common to all Believers Thus the Apostle speaks in common to them all These things have I written to you that believe that ye may know that ye have eternal Life 1 John 5.13 He doth not say some may know it in an extraordinary way but speaks of it as knowable by Believers in common I mean not that he hath this Assurance always or in every point of time perpetual Serenity is not here below Earth is not as Heaven the Sun may be eclipsed the Seal of the Spirit may be clouded Evidences may be blurred and hardly legible It may be God in Sovereignty withdraws or Satan in envy buffets or the Believer lets down his Spiritual Watch or a due estimate is not set on Heavenly Comforts or there
Eph. 1.3.4 and I have those Blessings in me Effectual Vocation hangs on Predestination as the highest Link in the Chain of Grace Rom. 8.30 and I am so called This made St. Bernard Epst 10.7 speaking of effectual Vocation say Ad ortum solis justitiae Sacramentum absconditum à seculis de praedestinatis beatificandis emergere quodammodo incipit ex abysso aeternitatis When the Sun of Righteousness rises upon the Heart in an effectual Call the secret mystery of Praedestination hid from Ages breaks forth out of the abysse of Eternity Here the Great Counsel of Eternal Love which lay in Gods Bosom shews forth it self to the Believer through the Lattice of his Graces Hence he may conclude on good grounds That his Graces shall never fail so long as the Foundation of God standeth sure in Election Continual supplies of Grace from the Fountain will keep his Lamp from going out It s observable that when God expresses his fresh Mercies to his People he doth it thus I will yet chuse Israel Isa 14.1 Election is from all Eternity but it buds and blossoms in time in fresh supplies of Grace as if he chose them again When the Saints are drooâ—â—â— and as it were dying away Election will give another visit and make them live a second time So unspeakable are the comforts of this Point that as I have read one under the sweet sense of Electing Love was for some days taken off from all the joys of Nature and in an holy extasie cried out Laudetur Dominus Laudetur Dominus as if he had been in Heaven already bearing a part in the Church Triumphant Again The Believer looks not to his Graces only but to the indwelling Spirit Faith and Love and Obedience cannot fail in his Heart whilst the Spirit of Grace is there and there it will always be because it is an abiding Vnction perpetually chearing every grace and a well of water springing up into everlasting life Continua irrigatio coelestem in illis aeternitatem fovet saith a judicious Divine on the place a continual irrigation cherishes an heavenly eternity in them Upon this account the Spirit is called the earnest of our Inheritance not for a time but until the redemption of the Church be compleated Eph. 1.14 that is till the whole Sum be paid in Glory The Earnest going along with the Believer to Heaven his Graces cannot possibly fail by the way Our Saviour told his Disciples and in them all Believers That the Spirit should abide with them for ever Joh. 14.16 And two things will make it good to them I mean their Union with him and his Intercession for them Their Union with him will do it they being mystical parts and pieces of him the Holy Fourt will enliven them and their Graces Because I live ye shall live also saith our Saviour Joh. 14.19 The Members cannot dye as long as there is life in the Head But may not the Union cease No by no means God himself hath established it thus the Apostle Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Believers are established in Christ and to assure them of it the holy Spirit is an Unction a Seal and an Earnest in their Hearts This establishment of Believers seems to me exemplified in Christs Humane Nature that once assumed into the Word by an Hypostatical Vnion was never separated from it those once taken into Christ by a Mystical Vnion are never parted from him the Apostle hints both to us The God of Peace who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus make you perfect Heb. 13.20 21. That God who would lose nothing of Christs Humane Nature no not in the grave will perfect Believers as Mystical parts of him never suffering their Graces to see corruption in an utter decay nor leaving their Souls in the hell of final Apostacy Besides Christs Intercession ratifies it he in his solemn Prayer on Earth which as Arminius himself grants was the Canon and Pattern of his Intercession in Heaven prays to his Father for all Believers That they may be kept from evil Joh. 17.15 If they are not kept Christs Intercession ceases or becomes powerless Neither of which can be Cease it cannot because be ever lives to make Intercession Become powerless it cannot because he is a Priest after the power of an endless life what he interceeds for shall be done I will pray the Father saith our Saviour and what follows The Comforter shall come and abide with you for ever Joh. 14.16 As long as Christ pleads at the right hand of Power it must be so This made St. Paul break out into that gallant Triumph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature No not our own Wills unless more than Creatures shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Rom. 8.38 39. from Gods Love to us or ours to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we over-overcome all things in our way to Heaven our Graces cannot fail below as long as Christ is pleading above on our behalf Moreover the Believer looks not only to his Graces but to the Promises in which God is pleased to bind himself that they shall be kept alive to the end St. Paul praying for the Thessalonians That their whole spirit and soul and body might be perserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds a sweet Promise Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24. Believers and their Graces are taken into Gods own hand And where can they be safer But may they not be plucked from thence No None shall pluck them out of mine or my Fathers hand saith our Saviour Joh. 10.28 29. But may they not of themselves fall out of it No though they fall out yet they shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth them with his hand Psal 37.24 But will he always do so Yes He will confirm them unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 And how will he do it He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 He will put his Spirit into them and cause them to walk in his statutes Ezek. 36.27 And what though their Fear and other Graces be defective and want filling up yet He which did begin the good work in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will perform it until the day of Christ Phil. 1.6 And what if temptations and fiery darts fly about on all sides they are in garrison in the power of God 1 Pet. 1.5 and there shall be a way to escape 1 Cor. 10.13 In such Promises as these every way securing the Believers state of Grace the Covenant of Grace lifts up
it self in a transcendent excellency above that of Works which had no Promise of Perseverance annexed to it Shall we now say That all these Promises are Conditional if we will persevere and not otherwise Is not this to turn the Covenant of Grace into that of Works and a sure state in Christ into a lubricous Adamical one Is it not to evacuate all those glorious and magnificent Promises touching Perseverance as if God in them spoke only in such cold Language as this I will preserve you from all evils and dangers only for that greatest of all which is in your own hearts and wills I will not undertake or in such contradictory terms as these if you persevere I will make you persevere as if Perseverance could be the condition of it self After these Promises so interpreted Believers are but where they were before before these Promises it would have been true that if Believers persevere and continue in Grace they do so and after them so interpreted What have they more What do they contribute to Believers when the main stress of Perseverance is laid on Mans Will and not on Gods Grace But this obiter The experienced Believer knows better how to use Promises and from them communes with his own Heart Hath God promised Perseverance and will he not do it is not his Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Everlasting Covenant and are not his Mercies sure Mercies Can his Faithfulness fail or his words of Grace fall to the ground Shall I trust him for Pardon and Salvation and not for Perseverance Will he give me Heaven and shall I faint by the way It cannot be He will guide me with his counsel and then receive me to glory Till I come there I shall be supported by his hand and supplied with his Spirit Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life In such sort may the Believer be assured of his Perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation Again the Believer may gather his Pardon and Salvation from that peace and joy which he finds in his own heart There is a kind of Peace and Joy springing out of Moral Virtues which because of their Congruity to Reason leave a serenity on the Soul where they are lodged Mens sibi conscia recti is a great matter a good Conscience is murus aheneus a wall of brass to the owner Seneca saith Res severa est verum gaudium True joy is in the severe prosecution of Virtue Hierocles tells us That the pleasure of the Virtuous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imitates the joy of the gods And it was a Point of ancient Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virtue is sufficient to Happiness But the Peace and Joy in believing is of an higher nature Those in the Moralist come but from the face of Reason smiling on the Congruity which is in Moral Virtues to it self there is nothing of Grace or Christ in them But these in the Believer come from the reconciled face of God shining upon the Heart in a Mediator Those in the Moralist exceed not their own sphere of Reason but these in the Believer pass all understanding Phil. 4.7 and are full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Heaven comes down in them and puts a pure serenity on the Heart The Believer now dwells in Paradise the light of Gods Countenance shining as a clear Sun Christ as a Tree of Life dropping down Pardons and Graces the holy Spirit being as a perpetual spring of Virtues and Comforts the fragrant Promises breathing out the odors of Love and Mercy the sweet voice of Peace and Joy uttered from Heaven ecchoing and making melody in Conscience Nothing here but green pastures and still waters and placid Heavens not a cloud from the Law to darken the light not an ach in Conscience to break the rest not a spot of unremitted sin to stain the serenity Oh what manner of Peace and Joy is here A Stranger a Pagan Philosopher intermeddles not with them These are to be found in the Raptures of a Cyprian or in the Consolations of an Austin or Bernard In such a state as this what should the Believer do May he not break out in the proper Idiom of Faith My Lord and my God May he not sinely conclude My sins are forgiven me Nay Ought he not to do so and with David call upon all that is within him to bless the Lord for it After such hansels of Heaven and Glory should he yet doubt and say I cannot enter when he is there already in the beginnings and first-fruits thereof Nothing is more unreasonable He knows in himself by the Graces and Comforts in his own heart That he hath a part in Heaven and Salvation In the last place The Nature of the Sacraments which are Seals of the Covenant evinces this Truth In the Gospel we have Gods Hand but in the Sacraments his Seal also In the Gospel Pardon and Salvation are set forth in general Promises but in the Sacraments they are Sealed up to this and that man in particular Circumcision is called The Seal of Righteousness Rom. 4.11 and by the Hebrew Doctors The Seal of the holy God And Baptism which succeeds and as Evangelical transcends it must be as much and more So Sealing Pardon and Salvation to Believers that there follows the answer of a good Conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 or such a Conscience as can with an holy considence interrogate God himself in some such terms as these Did not Christ purchase Pardon and Salvation for me Have I not a share and interest in them Yes assuredly there is no doubt of it The Passover figured out Christ the true Lamb who was reasted in the Fire of his Fathers Wrath to take away Sin and the sprinkling of the Blood on the Door-posts pointed out the Application of Christs Blood to the Consciences of Believers in particular The Lords Supper which rose out of the Ashes of the Paschal Supper and took its very Materials from thence doth eminently Seal Christ with all his Benefits unto the Believer Our Saviour delivering it to his Disciples said This is my body which is given for you this is my blood which is shed for you Luk. 22.19 20. Why for you but to signifie the particular Application of his Passion to them By the Elements of Bread and Wine as by turf and twig God gives the Believer livery and seisin of Christ as if he said to him expresly Christ is thing Pardon and Salvation are thine thou hast my Seal for it and mayst be as sure of it as of the Bread and Wine in thine Hand and Mouth Bellarmine himself confesses De effect Sacram. l. 1. c. 8. That Sacraments were instituted Vt nos certos reddant remissionis gratie To make us certain of Pardon and Grace Only he adds 'T is only a moral certainty not an infallible one But how frivolous is this What can make an Infallible certainty if Gods Seal
must consider what reason so far as it is pure and right doth dictate to us in this point and what is that but that God as the first unerrable truth must be believed in his words for himself and above all other things even above reason it self Ronand l. 3. dist 23. Justum est saith the Schoolman ut intellecius noster ita captivetur subjacoat summae veritati sicut affectus noster debet subjacere summae bonitati nec potest esse anima recta nisi intellectus summe veritati propter se super omnia assentiat affectus summae bonitati adhaereat It's just and purely rational as to love the supream goodness so to assent to the supream truth for it self and above all that is without any salvocs or exceptions at all the authority being infallible the belief should in all reason be absolute Reason says that God should be believed as a God one that cannot lye no more then cease to be and if as a God then for himself and above all That in the Socinian which adds a salvo to his belief of the holy Scriptures is not his reason but the rust and proud flesh and spiritual corruption of it and to believe such stuff before the truth of God and make it the allay and supream ruler of our faith is desperately and monstrously irrational How this rust grew upon our reason at first is evident in the fall of man the Serpent creeps in upon the woman with an yea hath God said Gen. 3.1 his plot was to weaken the authority of Gods word and when she began to waver about it and diminish the peremptory threatning of death with a least ye dye v. 3. her reason began to corrupt and become dreggy which while pure could not but assert the truth and veracity of God Hence the Apostle speaking to the Corinthian Church as a chast virgin espoused to Christ adds this caution least as the Serpent beguiled Eve so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 3. ver That is take heed of falling off from the pure doctrine of the Gospel the head of every man is Christ so much adherence and subjection as reason hath unto him and his holy truth so much chastity and virginity it hath Virginitae mentis est integrasides Aust in Joh. but as soon as it elapes it becomes an adulteress and should not be suffered to speak in holy things Morcover the irrationality of it will further appear if we consider that the sphear of reason and the sphear of revelation are two distinct things The sphear of reason is filled with natural notions the elements of mans spirit but the sphear of revelation is filled with supernatural truths the dictates of God Reason so far as it is reason is a divine spark a petty Prince in its own dominions but when it leaves these and passes over into the supernatural region and there instead of sitting down at Gods se et to be taught and inlightned assumes the magisterial chair and falls a judging divine mysteries it is no longer reason but a fool and a brute and speaks as simply in matters of Religion as a beast if it could speak would do in matters of reason Thus when our Saviour discoursed Nicodemus about regeneration reason prattled after a strange rate How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born So soolishly and absurdly doth carnal reason carry it self in supernatural things To make this more plain let us compare the weakness of reason with the sublimity of holy mysteries and then the fallibility of reason with the certainty of them First Let us compare the weakness of reason with the sublimity of holy Mysteries Reason having a bruise in the fall is weak even in its own sphear With how much toil doth it creep from letters to words and from words to Arts and Sciences And when it is there how little doth it know Can it span the heavens or measure the vast back-side thereof or number those golden letters the stars therein or understand the Sun which to have done Eudoxus would willingly have been burnt up by it or in one of its beams tell what light is touching which there are no less then seven opinions in one of the Schoolmen which verifies the old saying Non constat ex lumine naturae quid sit natura luminis To come lower can it enter into the treasures of the snow or ride a circuit with the winds or take a rational turn with the flux and reflux of the sea or tell how the massie earth hangs upon nothing or unkennel an occult quality and draw it out to an open view or unriddle a loadstone in which a late Philosopher would have the atomes of both Poles to meet and incorporate Nay in a common stone can it dive into the form or nature thereof dic mihi quid est lapiditas said a Learned man can it strip the meanest creature of the investing accidents and look upon the pure naked essence thereof can it comprehend a drop or a dust in which saith the profound Bradwardine there are infinite figures and numbers De Causâ Dei l. 1. c. 1. pars 32. and consequently infinite Geometrical and Arithmetical conclusions following one another in order and having a mutual dependance between themselves such as no Philosophers can ever reach unto because being capable only of finite conclusions they leave behind them infinite unknown Or if it look about its own mansion-house the brain can it tell where the cells of memory or the play-house of fancy or the shop of the animal spirits are scituate or whether all these live together in a family thousands of such things there are which may make every one cry out with Socrates Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio And shall such a weakling as this dunced and posed in every atome within its own sphear usurp the crown and rule over sacred mysteries and pure revelations which come out of the bosom of God to be the wonder of Angels and faith of men and are in a transcendent excess infinitely above and beyond the capacity of both of them shall it take up the ocean in a little shell measure the sacred Trinity in its shallow understanding And if it will not lye in so narrow a room cast it away as no article of Faith as a thing inter impossibilia mentis not consistent with reason shall it s dim eyes pry into the Ark I mean into that great mystery God in the flesh and there because it cannot see how two such natures as mortal and immortal temporal and eternal mutable and immutable can come together into one person throw it away as Smalcius doth with this rationi sanae repugnat it is repugnant to right reason When reason thus exalts it self in the things of God it sinks below it self into brutish
saith the Prophet Isa 8.20 the Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple saith the Psalmist Psal 19.7 The Scripture is able to make us wise to salvation and perfect throughly furnished unto all good works saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.15 17. Nay such a rule it is that nothing must be added to it nor diminished from it Dent. 4.2 no not by an Angel If an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel to you let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 And can the spirit in the heart contradict the spirit in the Scripture can it be contrary to it self and depart from its own oracles no surely defectible creatures may be off and on yea and nay in their words but the holy spirit cannot be so The war between Constantius and Magnentius was looked upon as very portentous because therein first cross was carried against cross and Christians engaged against fellow-Christians but that the holy spirit should make war upon it self is a portentous contradiction which if allowed would leave no being to Gods veracity nor standing unto mans faith But as portentous as it is the Enthusiast must maintain it unless he will confess that the spirit in him which denies the Scripture to be the rule is not of God Again thou saiest thou hast the revelation of the holy spirit but how or in what manner doth it reveal it self in thee I suppose thou dost not pretend to a Revelation made by visions or dreams or audible voices as it was wont to be of old but to a revelation intellectual and that is double the one extraordinary in Prophets and Apostles the other ordinary in all true believers In the first revelation made to Prophets and Apostles the holy spirit did immediately infuse the species intelligibiles into their minds and thereby did internally speak and in a proper sense reveal things unto them What we translate the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea Hos 1.2 is in the original the beginning of the speech of Jehovah in Hosea pointing out an internal locution to the Prophet In the second revelation made to believers there is no such thing as in the first no immediate infusion of species no internal voice or locution saying this or that is so and therefore no revelation properly so called but the holy spirit doth enlighten their minds to make them capable and then they hear what the holy spirit in the Scriptures speaks unto them thus S. Paul on the behalf of the Ephesians prays for the spirit of wisdom and revelation not that they might have extraordinary inspirations but that the eyes of their understanding might be inlightned Eph. 1.17 18. To know the witness of God in the Gospel the holy spirit doth not speak to their inlightned understandings immediately but in and by the Scripture-medium which is as it were Epistola Dei Gods letter unto man In the first revelation to the Prophets and Apostles the holy spirit did so totally and in such an extraordinary way govern them in their speaking and writing that therein there was nibil suum nothing of their own not only the matter but quaevis vocula every little word was of God hence S. Peter saith that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moved or carried upon the wings of the spirit above humane frailty 2 Pet. 1.21 In the second revelation to believers the holy spirit is as an holy anointing to their minds and thereby puts them into a capacity to hear what God speaks in the Scripture but it doth not so totally carry and rule them as to make their words purely divine and free from all mixture of their own The first revelation to the Prophets and Apostles being purely immediate and extraordinary makes authentical Scripture The second revelation to believers being but ordinary doth not make Scripture but only capacitate their minds to take in the manifestations of the spirit therein These things premised I must renew my question Say O Enthusiast what is thy revelation is it a pure immediate internal locution is it extraordinary and carried by the spirit above all humane frailty may it be added to the Canon and become Scripture I suppose thou canst not darest not say so but if thou dost read and tremble at the sealing up of the Canon Rev. 22.18 If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book and if any man shall take away from them God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city These words are as a flaming sword at the end of the Bible to keep thee from presuming to put any thing thereunto Say then modestly is not thy revelation ordinary did not the holy spirit come to thee in the chariot of the Scripture and why then doest thou slight and undervalue it why doest thou call it a dead letter a fleshly elementith thing and the like God hath spoken once yea twice if I may so allude once in the Old Testament and again in the New expect not to hear his voice or spirit any where else but there if thou doest thou puttest a cheat upon thy self and instead of a revelation embracest a meer fancy Again the spirit is in thy heart and the spirit is in the Scripture but where is the greatest measure of it say in good earnest is there a greater measure of the spirit in thy heart then in the Scripture then thou canst unriddle all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the difficult knots in Scripture thou canst dive down into that divine abyss and fetch up all the holy mysteries there thy holiness can hold measure with the length and breadth of the pure spiritual Law thy faith runs parallel with all the promises and can tell over all that infinite Mass of free-grace which is couched therein the hellish root of bitterness once in thy nature is quite eradicated and not a string of concupiscence left behind thou canst say I have no sin and which is the wonder thy heart doth not deceive thee in saying so there are no shades or dark spots in thy mind no cracks or flaws at all in thy obedience no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing lacking in thy faith or other graces All in thy heart and life is as right as the rule and as pure as the Christal streams in the Gospel If there be a greater measure of the spirit in thy heart then in the Scripture thus it is with thee but I hope thou art not so utterly void of the spirit and conscience as to fall into so proud a dream of thy estate If thou saiest thou art clean that very word pollutes thee quisquis se inculpatum dixerit aut superbus aut stultus est whosoever saith so is either a fool or a proud man Say then as the truth is there is a greater incomparably greater measure of the spirit in the Scripture
then in thy heart and then tell me what is fittest to be the rule that which is perfect or that which is imperfect that greater measure of the spirit in the Scripture or that lesser far lesser measure of the spirit in thy heart common sence will tell thee it belongs to the Scripture Moreover the spirit is in thy heart and the spirit is in the Scripture but where is it plainest and most obvious where can it be most easily discerned to be the very spirit of God indeed all that is in the Scripture is indubitably of the holy spirit but all that is in thy heart is not so it may be it is from thy own spirit what thou didst suppose to have been from Gods nay it may be it is from Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light The Disciples would have called for fire from heaven as Elias but Christ tells them ye know not of what spirit ye are Luk. 9.55 as if he had said you think this motion came from an extraordinary spirit such as was in Elias but alass it is but from your own spirit nay from the gall and bitterness of it that which you take for zeal is indeed but revenge When upon our Saviours discourse of his sufferings Peter said be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee no doubt he thought himself right in the thing but our Saviour calls him Satan for it Mat. 16.23 his meaning was pious and as he might think from the same holy spirit which a little before inspired him to make a glorious confession of Christ but alass the devil acted secretly therein Of what I find in Scripture I can immediately and without any more ado pronounce that it is the very voice of the holy spirit but of what I find in my own heart I cannot do so First the light must be divided from the darkness Gods spirit must be distinguished from mans and Satans And how such a piece of spiritual Chymistry should be done without the Scripture I cannot imagine There may be three different spirits in my heart and unless I reduce them in a way of trial to the one pure spirit in the Scripture I may be easily cheated by my heart wherefore the Scripture in which the characters of the spirit are more plain and legible then in my own heart must needs be the rule Once more let me ask thee O Enthusiast who criest up the spirit the spirit above Scripture dost thou seek the spirit aright or follow him faithfully I fear thou doest neither Thou doest not seek the spirit aright because not in his own way which now is not in visions and immediate revelations but in the Scripture Thou wouldest have the spirit but wilt not stay upon the mountains of the Prophets and Apostles for him Thou doest like Joseph and Mary they sought Christ among their kindred and acquaintance when he was in the Temple Thou seekest the spirit among thy own fancies and imaginations when he is in the Scripture My spirit and my words shall not depart out of thy mouth saith God Isa 59.21 Observe the spirit and the word are by Gods own ordinance in a sweet conjunction together he that sunders them loses both of them For a man to wave the Scripture and seek the spirit is as if he should forsake the beams and search after the Sun in some place where it shines not The French Kings use to be crowned at Reims because there is the sacred oil which as they say came down from heaven If thou wouldest be crowned with heavenly wisdom be in the Scriptures there and there only is the holy Unction which will teach thee all things Neither dost thou follow the spirit as thou oughtest the spirit if followed in his own way will lead thee into all truth but if thou wilt follow the spirit in an extra-scriptural way thou doest not follow it indeed but thy own fancy and whilest thou seemest to soar above Scripture thou art like to fall far below it into the ditch of error and wickedness In no better place have thy predecessors been after all their high-flying imaginations Montanus that early Enthusiast called himself the Paraclete and magnified the writings of his two Prophetesses above the sacred Gospel The Messaliani thought they could corporeally see the sacred Trinity and dance upon devils and receive the holy spirit in a visible way Oh Satanical illusion John of Leydens visions teemed out Poligamy and a bloody Rebellion Into what wild assertions did Swenckfield and Henry Nicholas come by their Enthusiastical spirit the first saying that the Gospel is the Essence of God nay faith in the heart is so The other blasphemously alledging That the believer is Godded with God and the spirit of love is God incarnate How did Valdesso run into Familism and Antinomianism And what else did Saltmarsh in his book called Sparkles of Glory making as if Christ were but a mystical sigurative man and God in the flesh were only God in his Saints Oh mystery of iniquity whither will not this extra-scriptural spirit go what errors will it not broach what sacred foundations of truth will it not demolish how little Gospel or divine rule will it leave to Christians Leave it then O Enthusiast or else thou canst not follow the spirit of truth Thus much by way of question to the Enthusiasts Secondly I shall in a word say somewhat to their Allegations they say That the Scriptures are but the Christians Alphabet and for beginners only But let us remember the spirit which is in believers in an ordinary way was in the Pen-men of Scripture in an extraordinary I was in the spirit saith St. John Rev. 1.10 he saith not the spirit was in me but I was in the spirit as a vessel in the sea every way surrounded and overruled by it And who can believe that the spirit in its ordinary way should exceed it self in its extraordinary that in believers it should utter high mysteries which in Prophets and Apostles gave out only an Alphabet If it be no more I dare say no man no not the most perfect Disciple of God on earth ever throughly understood his Alphabet no mans knowledge ever dived into the bottom of Scripture no mans holiness was ever parallel to its precepts nor no mans faith ever traced the unsearchable riches of grace there unto the uttermost and shall we say it is only an Alphabet for beginners Is it not the wisdom of God in a mystery is it not able to make the man of God perfect hath St. Paul milk only and not strong meat was St. Peter to seed the lambs only and not to feed them into sheep and when they were such doth St. John write only to the little children and not to the young men and fathers also He writes to them all plainly shewing that no man of what stature soever in grace did ever outgrow the Scripture Again they say the Scriptures are but a
dead letter and we must not try the living by the dead The holy Martyr Stephen long since stiled them lively oracles Act. 7.38 and if they are now but a dead letter who hath murdered them who so much as the Enthusiast who goes about to separate the spirit from them If the Law come to a man in the convincing spirit and slay him with his own guilt and set his conscience on fire with some tasts of hell he may with the Apostle call it a killing letter but he will hardly call it a dead one If the Gospel come to him in the converting spirit and open the glories of free-grace and bring in a new creation into his heart he must confess that it is the very savour of life unto life and the power and arm of God to salvation and as the first life of grace is breathed through it into the dead sinner so all the after-gales of the spirit come from it upon the new creature Wherefore whilest the spirit is in the word it cannot be a dead letter and where the spirit is in the heart it will not be called so The Enthusiast for all his swelling words of vanity by calling the Scripture a dead letter proves only the deadness of his own heart and the true believer who owns the Scripture for his rule doth not try the living by the dead but the lesser measure of the spirit in his heart by the greater measure of it in the word Again they say there is a seculum spiritus sancti an administration of all-spirit which is much above all Scriptures and Ordinances but that there should be such a Church-state on earth is a vain dream There are two manifestations of God unto men the one dark and through the glass of ordinances the other by pure and immediate vision as it were face to face There are two states of believers the one a state of weak and imperfect graces the other a state of perfect holiness and purity There are also two places the one is earth a vale of tears and death the other is heaven a region of all blessedness and life eternal The manifestation by ordinances is congruous to weak graces and such a place as earth The manifestation by pure vision is congruous to perfect holiness and such a place as heaven Thus hath the wisdom of God ordered things Methinks the Enthusiast should blush to say that he is above Scriptures and Ordinances here What above the glass and yet below the bliss-making vision above the channels and methods of grace and yet below a state of perfection above the heavenly mediums and yet on earth Oh strange imagination What saith our Saviour Go teach and baptize loe I am with you always to the end of the world Mat. 28.19 20. Ordinances run parallel with this world and the state which is above them is only in the next What saith St. Paul Apostles Prophets Teachers Pastors are all for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ Eph. 4.11 12. Ordinances must continue as long as weaknesses and imperfections and cannot be spared till the top-stone of holiness and perfection be laid in heaven What saith St. John speaking of the heavenly City And I saw no Temple therein Rev. 21.22 No Temple no Ordinances is only for heaven earth must alwaies want and have them O my soul enter not into their secret which cry up the spirit and despise prophesyings be thou where Gods honour dwelleth in the Temple of Ordinances thou mayest see his power and glory Lastly the Quakers talk altogether of the light within which being as they say common to all men can be no other then natural conscience this is the candle of the Lord and much magnified by Heathen Philosophers this is every mans Daemon saith one nay it is the God in us saith another And it is so in such a sense as Moses was a God to Pharaoh preaching the will of God to him and for non-obedience urging him with dreadful plagues For it magisterially dictates the will of God even in the Monarchs of the world and in case they rebel it hath inward stings and scorpions for them Quid aliud voces animam quà m Deum in humano corpore hospitantem saith Seneca Were a Quaker to English it he would go near to do it thus The light within is God manifest in the flesh for in plain terms he will call it Christ as if the candle could becom a Sun of Righteousness In the mean time the devil hath a fetch under the praises of inward light to explode the Scriptures But we must remember that Conscience which is above man is yet below God and though it be a light and a rule yet it must truckle under the greater light and rule in the Scriptures Take conscience before conversion it is clouded and overshadowed with the Fall dark and blind in spiritual things and shall the blind lead the blind till both fall into the ditch must it not go be new-lighted at the Scripture Take heed unto the word as unto a light shining in a dark place saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 The heart of man is but a dark place till the divine word shine into it it is intoxicated with the love of sin and by it as the devils Opium it sleeps at the top of the mast in the ocean of lowdangers and must it not be rouzed up ought not the silver trumpet of the word to be sounded in its ears to prevent an eternal sleep and awaken it unto righteousness should it not go and wash in the pure streams of free-grace and redeeming blood in the Gospel it may be it is infected with errors and by these Satan hath taken sanctuary in the intellectual tower and utters his own dictates as from God and must it be left in such a case should not Satan and all his lying wares be cast out by the word and spirit but because conscience is now at the worst take it after conversion are there then no reliques of darkness which call for more light are there no fits of spiritual drowsiness which need fresh alarums are there no dregs of corruption which want a new purgation are there no spots of error which ought to be wiped out he that presumes a freedom from these hath great reason to doubt whether there be any such thing as conversion found in him and he that confesses them hath as great reason to run to the Scripture to have them rectified But because the Quaker dreams of perfection I will go higher Suppose a man absolutely perfect every wheel in his soul in right motion and his conscience a pure Chrystal without any flaw in it yet must the man be under God and his conscience under the word for his very perfection stands in that subjection and is forfeited as soon as it departs from it Conscience is a rule but a subordinate one it binds and looses but in the power and
willing and cries out Father thy wâ—ll be done even in the death of my darling lusts Christ died a violent death and sin must not dyâ— a natural one If it dye alone or of it self it is no sacrifice it must be cropt in the flower and stabbed at the heart and dye of its wounds the violence done to God and Christ and the Spirit must be upon it till it give up the ghost Christ died a tormenting death in pains and agonies and we must dye so to sin we must suffer in the flesh 1 Pet. 4.1 bleeding under sin and being sorrowful to the death of it Christ died a lingring death and so doth sin it doth not dye all at once but languishes by little and little the believer dies daily to sin The Colossians were dead Câ—l 3.3 and yet saith the Apostle mortisie your members v. 8. Mortification must be upon mortification because sin is long a dying the genius of faith is to have sin crucified as Christ was following his steps as much as may be Secondly He yields up his soul to Christ as the meritorious cause of mortification Christs death merited sins hence faith glories in the cross of Christ as in that whereby the world is crucified to the believer and he to the world Gal. 6.14 there it would hang up every lust as an accursed thing Faith lies at the bleeding wounds of Christ watching for the breathings of that spirit which can mortisie the deeds of the body waiting for that mind of Christ which can make us suffer in the fiesh that we may cease from sin Christ was crucified and the believer would have the old man crucified together he would dye with him as the graft doth with the stock There is a Popish fable that the angry Adriatick Sea was becalmed by one of the nails of Christs cross cast into it the moral is true the troubled sea of lust in our heart cannot be subdued but by the application of Christ death the winds and waves there obey no other voice but that of Christ crucified he yields up his soul to Christ as the royal worker of mortification When he sees his lusts as so many rebels rising up in arrns he flies to his soveraign Christ for a power to subdue them the high things and strong holds appearing in his understanding make him cry out Treason Treason the Jebusite is in the tower of David the fleshly wisdom hath got into the understanding O thou wisdom of God captivate and cast it down The Pagan lusts and Gentile-wills shewing themselves in the heart force him to break forth like the Psalmist O God the heathen are come into thine inheritance thy temple they have desiled cast them out O thou mighty Saviour that my soul may be a sanctuary for thy self When the battel is set before and behind corruptions surrounding and encompassing him his eyes are upon his Lord sitting above at the right hand of power till his enemies be made his footstool And as the believer yields up his foul to Christ for mortification of sin so also for vivisication of the soul And this in the very same respects First He yields up his soul to Christ as the grand pattern of vivisication the parallel is the Apostles own Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6.4 Look what was done in the flesh of Christ in his corporeal resurrection that is done in the spirits of Christians in the spiritual resurrection there the stone was rolled away from the sepulchre here from the heart there the flesh of Christ was raised up by an Almighty power called by the Apostle the glory of the Father here the soul of the believer is raised up by the same power as appears Eph. 1.19 20. there after the corporceal resurrection Christ appeared in humane lineaments here after the spiritual resurrection the Christian appears in divine graces the genius of faith is to assimilate the Christian to Christ risen Secondly He yields up his soul to Christ as the meritorious cause of vivisication Christ merited all graces for us saith doth not dare to go immediately to God no not for holiness it self but it goes and sucks at the breasts of Christs humanity well knowing that all graces are from the spirit and the way of the spirit is by the blood as Tagmon Archbishop of Magdenburg took the last breath of his dying Master Wolfgang by applying mouth to mouth so faith applies its mouth as it were to the wounds of a dying Christ from thence to receive the spirit of all grace that love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness meekness temperance as so many rivers of living water may flow in the heart to make glad the habitation of God therein that the holy spirit may be as it were the soul of the soul breathing in the believers prayers and shining on his Bible and melting in his charity and impowering in his infirmity and honey-dropping in his converses and being a Shechinah a presence and a glory in all his ways Thirdly He yields up his soul to Christ as the Royal Donor of all quickning graces Christ as a Priest merited all graces but as a King he gives them out unto us him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance Act. 5.31 and so to give all other graces A melting heart is but a word of power from him at Gods right hand an heavenly heart but a touch from him sitting in heaven every piece of holiness is a beam of glory from him meekness and mercy and obedience and patience are as so many pearls dropping from his crown all the sheddings of the holy spirit slow from him who is exalted above he ascended up that he might fill all things Eph. 4.10 that is all the spiritual world of believers with grace Faith therefore looks up for the sweet illapses of the spirit and waits for graces as so many golden apples dropping down from that tree of life which stands in the upper Paradise of God Secondly In and through the Mediator this resignation is made unto God it is God that sanctisieth God as the supream fountain of grace and in this resignation faith climbs up to him partly by the Attribute of free-grace cast thy burden upon the Lord saith the Psalmist Psal 55. 22. or as the Original imports omnia donabilia tua all that thou wouldest have given thee whatever thy want be mortifying grace or quickning grace faith hath an art to cast and unload all upon free-grace there being a famine of grace in lapsed nature faith brings out the empty vessel the soul void of self-worthiness and sets it under one ordinance or other waiting upon God till he rain down righteousness upon the soul This is the rain of liberalities as the Original is Psal 68.9 this faith waits for without money or price of its own
because God is love and grace free and partly by the Attribute of Almighty power sin is strong but not infinitely the Almighty who subdues all things to himself can easily subdue it The heart is a dead womb and not able to teem out the least particle of grace but the Almighty can quicken the dead and raise up a divine seed therein The fingers which made an Heaven and an Earth can make a new heart and a new spirit Faith takes hold on the power of God for the working sanctification in the heart Thirdly This resignation is made to the word and that upon a double account It is made to the word as the warrant of both the former resignations and made to the word as the engine in Gods hand for the working of sanctification it is made to the word as the warrant of both the former resignations The word is full of promises of mortifying and quickning grace and these promises stream out to us from the pure fountain of free-grace through the bleeding wounds of the Mediator and are all Yea and Amen Hence faith resigns to God and Christ for all sanctifying grace It is also made to the word as the engine in Gods hand for the working of sanctification The word is a mighty weapon able through Gods power to cast down the heights and strong holds of sin and an immortal seed able through Gods grace to quicken the heart and spring up into the new-creature Faith therefore resigns to it that the heart may be sanctified through the truth Thus far of the third thing resignation for sanctification Fourthly Faith resigns up the soul to be ruled as to its actings I say as to its actings That I may clearly distinguish it from the but now mentioned sanctification which consists in inward principles of grace And still to press in my old steps First This resignation is made to Jesus Christ the Mediator Faith translates the soul into the kingdom of Christ and loves to live no where else the world in its eyes is but a house of bondage but it loves to live in Christs dominions Where holiness is there 's the King of Saints where meekness and patience there 's the throne of the Lamb where righteousness there 's his Scepter where Gods will prevaileth there he sits in Power and Majesty at the last day sense will discover this great King Jesus coming in the clouds in power and glory But faith sees him here coming in state in every holy command and riding as it were on the wings of the wind in every motion of the holy spirit The posture of faith herein is like that of the Israelies when the pillar of cloud and fire went before them then they journied otherwise they staid in their place when the spirit and word of Christ goes before the believer faith follows after else it will not stir a foot out of its place it is really in the believers heart to be ruled by Christ in all things Take him in holy ordinances these saith faith are the throne of Christ here below in these he fits at the right hand of power here the believer waits to see the power and the glory as the man with the withered hand in stretching it forth waited for a power to restore it and as the blind man in his going and washing in Siloam waited for a power to recover his sight so the believer in every ordinance waits for the power of Christ if he break the rocky heart melt it into the divine will the believer cries out the Lord reigneth here is the day of power indeed Take him in the works of his calling and there he is ruled by Christ one would think the servant were only toiling and drudging in his servile employments but if he be a believer he is serving the Lord Christ Col. 3.24 and by a divine praerogative above other mens his deeds are wrought in God such was the posture of pious Musculus in the town-ditch as well as in the Pulpit Faith is such an engine as brings down the kingdom of Christ though not of this world into the meanest trades the believer acting therein as Peter let down his net at the command of Christ and therein as in his calling abiding with God which is more then the unbeliever doth under divine ordinances nay take him even in natural actions the believer when himself cats and drinks and sees and hears and speaks and sleeps and wakes and walks after another rate then other men doing all under the Law of Christ that 's a knife at his throat a covering to his eyes a stopper to his cars a bridle on his lips when he sleepeth that keeps him when he waketh that talks with him when he walketh that leads him the kingdom of heaven which is not meat or drink or any such thing is by faith brought down into all these The genius of faith is to be ruled by Christ in all things Secondly This resignation in and through the Mediator is made to God I say in and through the Mediator because without him we can expect to be ruled by God in no other way then by the iron rod of his power and justice dashing us in pieces to all eternity but in and through him the believer may and doth yield up himself to God to be ruled And here he makes use of two Attributes Gods soveraignty and Gods holiness God is the supream Lord and must be obeyed he is the holy one and must be sanctified in each command the beams of his majesty and holiness sparkle out and these faith takes in to melt the heart into a compliance with the divine will Plato being asked by one of his Scholars how long his precepts were to be obeyed answered Donec in terris apparuerit sacratior aliquis qui sontem veritatis aperiat the believer desires to be ruled by God because an higher and holier cannot come Thirdly This resignation is made to the word Ask a believer how he knows himself to be where he would be in the dominions of God and Christ his answer will be I know it by the command in the word and in the command his faith eyes two things the truth of the command and the soveraignty his faith eyes the truth of it the command is true as coming from God himself and being the very counterpane of the holiness in his heart This is the will of God even your sanctification saith St. Paul 1 Thess 4.3 Gods will is in himself but the command is the counterpane of it thy word is true from the beginning saith the Psalmist Psal 109.160 or as the Original is the head of thy word is truth the body of the command in Scripture answers to the head of it in the holy will of God Faith looks on the command as issuing out of the very heart of God and exactly agreeing thereunto and upon this account resign to it as to the good and acceptable will of God Again
is through Jesus Christ who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the East Luk. 1.78 towards which the true believer bows down himself for all grace The Socinians grace such as is supposed to issue forth without the satisfaction of Christ is not indeed the grace of God but a fancy an Idol of their own heart He that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God saith S. John 2 Joh. v. 9. therefore such an one must not be received or saluted with God speed v. 10. Let the Socinian who abides not in the doctrine of a redeeming and satisfying Christ cry up free-grace and that as he thinks in the purest and highest strains without all money and price even without that of the Mediator After all this he hath not God or free-grace in the right notion of it the true believer dares not entertain such a grace or say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to it lest he should bless an Idol and rejoyce in a thing of nought such a grace is a meer stranger to Scripture and therefore faith whose skill is only in that Dialect cannot own it though humane reason speak never so fair for it Again would a believer have mortification he would have it in Gods way he seeks it not Macedonius-like by standing in a ditch all the day nor as the Palestine-monks by lying as dead unburied men on the earth nor with the Papists by Pilgrimages and outward pennances nor with the Flageliantes in their scourging and bloody whipping their own bodies No this is not Gods way in all this Pageantry of mortification they are at hostility with nature rather then with sin and in shooting all their arrows at the body they miss the mark the chief seat of sin in the heart Nesciunt superstitiosi saith a Learned man Deum amare immutationem cordium non dilaniationem corporum superstitious men know not that God loves changing of hearts rather then renting of bodies the true believer seeks mortification in and by Jesus Christ our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6.6 As long as we are in the old Adam sin will be lively but as soon as we are in Christ the wisdom and power of God sin which is the weakness and folly of man dies in us The believer seeks after the spirit of Christ as after that which can lay our lusts a steep in godly sorrow and nail them to the cross of Christ and let out their vital blood even the inward love thereof Moreover a believer would have instruction and teaching but he would have it in Gods way The Papists say that Images are Lay-mens books and whilest the Bible is to the unlearned a sealed letter these are Letters Patents open to all men he that runs may read God as it were in great Capital letters Gregory the Great though he condemned their adoration yet he allowed their presence in Churches tanquam essent memoracula rudium literae but alas can the dumb Idol speak or if it could can a teacher of lies instruct may that be our memorial which hath made many forget God Did God ever licence the printing of such Lay-mens books and if it have not his Imprimatur by an institution how can we expect his benediction surely this is none of Gods way faith saith the image of God is in the word and the only crucifix in the Gospel The Enthusiasts would be taught in an immediate and extraordinary way but the believer goes to the word there is the School where he would be taught of God there are the gates and door-posts where he would hear wisdom speak Secondly This resignation is made to its entice object and not by piece-meal As to God the ultimate object the believer would not pick and chuse among his Attributes but is for them all he would not have a God all of grace but such as he is an holy one and a just who will be sanctified even in our approaches to touch his golden Scepter The believer whilest he casts himself upon Gods grace would be assimulated to his holiness when he catches hold on mercy withall he trembles at divine justice as he waits for the smilings of Gods face so he walks as in his presence all places to the believer are Bethels and Peniels full of God and too dreadful to sin in If any man go about by his faith to single out grace from among the other Attributes and suck that honicomb of infinite sweetness by it self alone he doth not believe but presume like those in the Prophet The heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for money yet will they lean upon the Lord Mic. 3.11 O vain presumption for them standing upon such unholy ground to lean upon the Lord is an utter impossibility A traitor who strikes off his Soveraigns Crown or with Hacket stabs at his image doth not cannot at that time cast himself on his Grace or Royal favour A sinner whilest by his sinful rebellions he strikes at the Soveraignty or stabs at the holiness of God doth not cannot lean upon his free-grace St. John hath determined the case If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.6 Let such an one cry up free-grace free-grace never so much he doth but trust in a lye there is no such grace as he dreams of none but what comes from the holy one as the giver of it none but what teaches the receiver a lesson of holiness Again as to Jesus Christ the Mediator the believer is for All Christ not only for him as a meriting and atoning Priest but for him as a teaching Prophet and ruling Lord also Whilest he wraps up himself in the pure robes of Christs righteousness at the same instant his ear is open to discipline and his heart unfolds the everlasting doors to let in the King of glory he puts the Crown upon his head and sets him upon the throne of the heart singing blessing honour power glory to the Lamb for ever That Christ who is in glory in heaven at the right hand of Majesty comes to be in glory in the heart by the resignations of faith Thus he himself faith the spirit shall glorifie me Joh. 16.14 that is by working faith in the heart as the Father glorifies him above so the spirit and under that faith glorifie him below If any man go about by his faith to pick out the merits and righteousness of Christ for salvation without a respect to his teaching and ruling offices he mangles and tears in pieces Christ as much as in him lieth renting of Jesus from Christ nay and Jesus in twain whom he admits only to save him from the guilt of sin and not from the power and love of it separating the blood of his Saviour from the water and his merits from the spirit which are and ever must be in conjunction such an half and
instinct knows this is good for such a condition and that for another and when he comes to that promise I will be thy God he saith this is the universal Medicine and good for all things as infinite a sea as Gods grace is as vast a treasure as Christs merits the believer cannot tell how to climb up to these unless he have somewhat of a promise to set his faith upon if there be but an half-promise faith will ascend up by it when God saith seek righteousness seek meekness it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger Zeph. 2.3 faith will hang upon a may be but where there is nothing at all of a promise faith does not cannot tell how to approach for the unpromised thing The Perfectionists fay that sinless perfection is attainable in this life Joseph is yet alive perfection of life figured by Joseph may be found so thinks a Learned Doctor My yoke is easie said Christ and from thence Bellarmine concludes Legem Dei possibilem esse renatis imo facilem observatu but alass these are but dreams and not acts of faith It s true the believer groaning under the burden of sin wishes nothing more then sinless perfection he works he walks he prays he weeps he runs he strives but after all he may not believe sinless perfection attainable here not but that the grace of God in Christ is sufficient to effect it but there is no channel for such a grace to run in no promise in all the word to bottom such a persuasion upon there is a promise for the subduing of iniquity but not for the annihilating it a promise that sin shall not reign in us but none that it shall not be therefore the believer would not seek for that in himself which is only found in Christ nor for that on earth which is reserved for heaven that mercy or comfort which is not let down in the promise faith doth not expect or look for Trubern a German Divine on his deathbed seeking comfort spake thus textum textum volo let me have the text the text well knowing that comfort streams out in the promises the believer is ever for one promise or other to give advantage to his faith in its ascension to God for mercy and comfort Fourthly This resignation is a voluntary act It hath been disputed between Romanists and Protestants where the seat of faith is whether in the Vnderstanding only or in the Will also the Apostle clearly determines it with the heart man believeth Rom. 10.10 the heart includeth both faculties ad esse fidei virtutis concurrit actus rationis simul voluntatis quod benè innuit Apostolus in ipsâ notifieatione fidei cum dicit fidem esse substantiam rerum sperandarum argumentum non apparentium tangens quod est in eâ cognitionis quod est assectionis saith Bonaventure the assent of faith is in the Understanding but the resignation is in the Will credere est consentire consensio autem volentis est saith St. Austin We read in Scripture of faith unfeigned and sincerity is in the Will of the obedience of faith and obedience is in the Will of leaning rolling resting casting our selves upon God and all these are in the Will all the resignations which the believer makes are acts of his Will if he resign to the Promises and through them to the meriting Mediator and through him to the free-grace of God this recumbency or fiducialness is in his Will if he resign to the commands and through them to the kingdom of the Mediator and through him to the holiness of God this obediential frame is in his Will if he resign for instruction to the Word and through it to the great Prophet and through him to the wisdom of God this docibleness this tender holy flesh is in his Will he would have salvation coming in a way of grace and grace flowing through the Mediator Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ for a teacher and ruler as well as for a Saviour and all this is his choice 'T is not a meer velleity or effluvium of a light desire like that of Balaam let me dye the death of the righteous but an act of his Will 't is not a mood or hot sit of devotion such as falls on men under warming and awakening ordinances but a deliberate act 't is not a constraint or piece of servility such as men usually have in sick and dying hours when they are rolling off from this world and upon the brink of eternity with a prospect of heaven and hell before them but it is a true and a free-will cordially and freely offering up the soul to the terms and methods of salvation in the Gospel Fifthly This resignation is made in Humility The believer like his father Abraham is called to Gods foot there to lye in the lowest posture of a sinful creature in an humble docibleness he lyes at the foot of Gods wisdom waiting as they that watch for the morning till the holy irradiations make the day dawn and the day-star arise in the heart in an obediential frame he lyes at the foot of Gods holiness crying out like Paul struck down to the earth Lord what wilt thou have me to do and in a fiducial recumbency he lies at the foot of Gods grace as a forlorn beggar full of fores and extremities waiting if free-grace will take him in and like the good Samaritane bind up his wounds pouring in the oyl and wine of mercy into his heart The men among the Israelites could not enter into the Land of promise but the little ones did so the mystery is the Christians though the history be theirs the men among us such as can few sig-leaves together and cloath themselves such as can feed themselves at home and keep house upon their own reason such as are Lords of their own actions coming and going ad placitum these do not believe nor enter into the promises of the Gospel but the little ones who cannot dress themselves but as free-grace swadles and wraps them up in Christs righteousness nor feed themselves unless free-grace pluck out the breast and milk out instruction nor rule themselves or go alone but as free-grace takes them by the hand and leads them in holy ways these are they that believe and enter into rest hence our Saviour saith Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Mat. 18.3 The proud man will not suffer grace to reign in or over him but the believer is as a little child ruleable by all the will of God humbly submitting to all the methods of salvation in the Gospel To shut up this discourse about the Adjuncts of faith I shall only add a caution or two When I say that all true believers do thus resign I mean not that all have the same formal notions or expressions but the same faith and resignation for the substance of
instant of faith is no longer in himself or the old Adam but a man in Christ hence the same royal robe of righteousness which Christ hath upon himself covers him also which renders faith exceeding precious George Prince of Anhalt was upon this account much delighted with this similitude As the ring is highly prized for the diamond in it so faith justifies us for the pearl of price the Son of God whom it apprehends the believer is found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ Phil. 3.9 Hence also the very same spirit of holiness which is upon Christ in heaven above measure falls down upon the believer according to measure a piece of bread is a poor imnimate thing in it salt but when by digestion it comes into the body and is transubstantiated into flesh there is an humane spirit in it a man before faith is an earthly carnal thing but as soon as by faith he becomes a member of Christ a piece as it were of his flesh and of his bones he hath another spirit in him even the same with Christ Christ above and he below and the same spirit in both a great mystery such as a naked assent cannot reach unto he that hath no more is but a glass eye or wooden leg in the body of Christ or rather he is not at all in it but outwardly tied to it by a name and form of knowledge without any part in the righteousness or spirit of Christ Fourthly By virtue of its union with Christ Precious faith bears many excellent fruits it ushers in a spiritual life into the soul that of the Prophet the just shall live by his faith thrice quoted by St. Paul in the New Testament is exemplisied in every believer but he that hath but a naked assent though with a goodly structure of Evangclical truths standing upon it is but a dead man and his notions like the Egyptian Pyramides are but monuments for the dead Again it brings down pardon of sin into the soul whosoever believeth in him that is in Christ shall receive remission of sins Acts 10.43 but a naked assent leaves a man as fast in the 〈◊〉 of guilt as ever before Moreover it purifies the heart and quenches the fiery darts of Satan it carries out the dust and rubbish out of the heart and makes it a sanctuary or holy place for God and if Satan come and let fly his temptations it beats them off from the soul Thus Bucer when in his sickness he was admonished to arm himself against Satan answered in Christo sum nihil habeo cum diabolo commune I am in Christ and have nothing in common with Satan but where there is only a naked assent the holy truths going no further then the Understanding the Will is left in the mire and pollution of its lusts and is ready as soon as the tempter comes to join with his seducing proffers Thus far of the first proposition that faith is more then a naked assent Secondly The second proposition is That faith is less then an assurance of love and pardon from God only we must first distinguish between faith in the root and faith in the flower between faith in the lowest stature and faith in its full-grown perfections That assurance which the infant faith cannot reach the full-grown faith may arrive at which I suppose was the reason that those prime Reformers Luther and Calvin and after them Beza and Zanchy with many others did define faith by a plerophory or full perswasion of Gods love they being themselves in the joys of faith drew its picture not according to the infant model but the perfect lineaments thereof as they found them in themselves so they held them out to the world Again we must distinguish between seminal assurance and actual an infant faith hath seminal assurance light is sown for the righteous Psal 97.11 but the crop of comfort doth not immediately spring up the weakest believer is heir to all the joys of heaven only he doth not presently know his title he hath not ordinarily actual assurance at the very first I say not ordinarily for we must not limit the holy one who by his royal prerogative may let in the sweet sense of his love in the first instant of believing These distinctions premised the meaning of the proposition is That faith in its lowest measure which is the condition of the Gospel doth not essentially include assurance And this I shall manifest by the ensuing considerations First All true believers have not assurance Scripture and experience manifest it there are Lambs which are gathered into the arms and laid in the bosome of free-grace yet know not where they are There are little ones babes in Christ which can only hang upon the breast and are not grown up into the reflections and joys of faith the poor in spirit the mourners the hungry and thirsty after righteousness mentioned in the fifth chapter of Matthew are all of them true believers blessed ones and heirs of the promises and yet all of them are without any glimpse of assurance the poor in spirit all in rags of unworthiness and self-nothingness as if he had no title to the kingdom the mourners weeping and desolate like Hagar in the wilderness with her bottle spent as if there were no Well of comfort near them the hungry and thirsty like men in a famine drooping and fainting away in fits of soul-emptiness as if there were no such thing as hidden Manna for them It is very observable in the Canticles that Christ takes notice of the tender grape just at its first appearing the very first opening or budding forth of faith is welcom to him if the wine be but in the cluster if there be but faith in desire Christ saith destroy it not the blessing of Abraham is in it out of this little grain of mustard-seed heaven will grow in this smoking slax there 's a divine spark though the smoak of doubts and temptations muffle it up in obscurity it will break out at last into slames of love and joy in the infant-believers assurance is not to be expected because of their primordial weakness and in well-grown believers it may be suspended because of Gods infinite soveraignty in the dispensing thereof as he pleaseth Cruciger on his death-bed prayed thus Invoco te Domine languidâ imbecillâ side sed side tamen Lord I call upon thee with a weak and languishing faith but yet with a faith Pious Justus Jonas who was present with Luther at his death and took as it were his last breath into his bosome was in his own sickness sainting and cold-hearted till a servant of his rubbed him up with some comforts out of the Gospel Holy Bayn saith of himself I thank God sustentation in Christ I have and some little strength suavities spiritual I tast not any even the choice servants of God may walk in
it is great Psal 25.11 a strange argument for pardon for it is great such as no malefactor would use to an earthly Prince but the holy man knows that it will pass with God who loves to make grace superabound there where sin hath abounded Again he extracts hope out of despair When he is ready to faint and swoon away in cold fits of spiritual deadness faith revives and points him to the fountain of life which runs over in quickning graces upon the whole Church and if he scruple his access to that fountain faith tells him that the Well is open to all comers whosoever will may take of the water of life freely whosoever hath the bucket of faith may draw out of it and if he yet reply true whosoever will may do so but oh I want a will I want an heart for God and Christ and heavenly things faith is able if awakened both to tell him that these are living groans and withall to drop some Scripture cordial into his heart such as that is Prov. 9. where Christ the wisdom of God builds his house the Church kills his beasts mingles his wine furnishes his table that is provides all heavenly blessings sends out his virgins his holy ministers and after all invites the simple and him that wanteth understanding to eat of his bread and drink of his wine in the Original it is him that wanteth heart Oh! if thou sensibly wantest an heart for spiritual things here thou art particularly called to the Gospel seast where Christs flesh is meat indeed and his blood wine indeed able to make thee live for ever Again he extracts joy out of sorrow The Apostle Paul rejoyced over the godly sorrow of the Corinthians because they received no damage in it 2 Cor. 7.9 when faith looks over all the tears and groans of the believer it saith there is no damage in these these tears are bottled in heaven the holy spirit breaths in those groans he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psal 126.6 Oh! saith faith observe the word doubtless tears and sorrows in a godly sort are a sure sign that the harvest of joy and comfort is nigh at hand one may see the crop in the seed sown When the Emperor Julian banished Athanasius he said Nubecula est citò transibit it is but a little cloud and will soon be over when the night of darkness and discomfort is upon the soul faith is able to say 't is but a short night of sorrow joyes come in the morning Psal 30.5 and for that morning I will trust the sun of righteousness O how soon can he make it day in the soul Moreover he extracts wisdome out of folly There is not there cannot be any thing in all the world so foolish as sin and yet out of this he picks up wisdom hereby he comes to know more of his own heart There is a Mahometan fable that the heart of Mahomet being a child was cut open and a black grain called the devils portion taken out of the midst thereof A believers sins make rents and holes in his heart and through these the inward core and blackness thereof becomes visible Good Hezekiah by his fall comes to know what was in his heart Peter denying his Master comes to understand the desperate deceitfulness of his own heart which cheated him against his own resolutions into so horrible an iniquity every actual sin is to the believer a sad Commentary on his inward corruption Again hereby he comes to understand free-grace better then before that God should melt as man hardens heal as man falls and bruises himself afiesh drop pardons as man doth sins return the holy spirit as man grieves it away lengthen out patience as man abuses it use lavers as fast as man runs into pollutions evidently argues riches of immense superabounding grace towards sinners Moreover hereby he comes to know the necessity of a continual dependance on God considering the heats and colds of his heart the ups and downs of his life and the interchangeable actings of Hetis and spirit he plainly perceives that he falls of himself and stands from God dies of his own spirit and lives from Gods sins of his own and repents believes obeyes of meer grace and so understands the necessity of depending on God praying continually with the devout Psalmist Hold up my gomgs in thy paths that my footsteps slip not Psal 17.5 Lastly to name no more he extracts all out of nothing Thus the Apostle as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 all things in God who is all in all Zuichemus gave Erasmus a ring which when it was unfolded represented a mundane sphear with Astrological notes engraven upon it telling him withall that now he might wear the whole world on his finger the conjugal ring whereby the soul is married to God in Christ by faith hath this posie I will be thy God which if it be unfolded is a sphear of all things the believer need not ask with Peter what shall we have Math. 19.27 for he hath all in God It is storied of the Laudanum of Paracelsus that it was almost good in all cases but however that might fail faith well understands that all things may be made out of an interest in God the universal good hence it can rationally part with all for him because it knows that there be fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and children and houses and lands and infinitely more in God CHAP. VII Of the second holy fruit of Faith in Justification its growth upon Faith as a fruit thereof with the manner continuance perfection and various excellencies of the same THUS much for the first fruit of faith being the spiritual sagacities thereof whereby it appears that the believer is the only wise man who hath eyes in his head whilest all the rest of the world be they what they will in notional knowledge walk on in darkness The second holy fruit of faith is Justification which is a very great blessing so great that in Luthers phrase it is articulus stantis cadentis Ecclesiae and in Chemnitius arx propugnaculum religionis Christianae a blessing that is pregnant with many more which occasioned a good Divine to say sin committed is every judgment radically and pardon of sin is every mercy radically you may cut out any blessing or comfort out of it particular mercies are but pardon of sin specificated and individuated brought into this or that mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin and that is pardon of sin Touching this precious fruit of faith I shall endeavour to shew these things First That it grows upon faith as a fruit Secondly The manner how it grows there Thirdly The continuance of it Fourthly The perfection of it Fifthly The various excellencies of it First This holy fruit grows upon faith in the
justificemur causa efficiens est misericordia Dei Christus materia verbum cum side instrumentum In Justification the efficient cause is Gods mercy Christ the matter the Word with Faith the instrument Thus the generality of Divines conclude that we are justified by faith as an instrument nevertheless some others express themselves thus That we are justified by faith as 〈◊〉 condition of the Gospel Thus the profestors of Saumiar in France Fide justificamu non tanquam parte aliquâ justitiae Thes Salm. de Justif sed tanquam conditione foederis gratiae We are justified by faith not as it is a part of righteousness but as it is the condition of the Covenant of Grace Thus Learned Mr. Woodbridge Method of Grace 101. To believe is a formal vital act of the Soul in genere physico but the use of it in justification is to qualifie us passively that we may be morally and orderly capable of being justified by God Or though physically it be an act yet morally it is but a passive condition by which we are made capable of being justified according to the order and constitution of God Thus worthy Mr. Baxter Right to Christ and life being a moral effect Confess of faith 295. and conveyed by a moral cause and way that is by a law of Grace or conditional promise or gift therefore the formal reason of faiths interest in our justification is as it is the condition of that promise by us performed and its essence or physical act the acceptance of Christ and Life commonly called its instrumentality though it be the reason why it was chosen and preferred to this office of being the condition of the promise yet is it but its aptitude to the office and so the remote and as it were material reason of its interest in our justification and not the formal Reason Touching this matter I shall offer my thoughts in these Propositions First Faith is not strictly and properly the instrument of Justification were it so a man might justifie and forgive himself For as Dr. Ames well observes as Sacraments are properly Gods instruments Bellarm. Enter Tom. 4. lib. 5. so Faith is properly mans Deus nos baptizat pascit non nosmetipsi nos credimus in Christum non Deus God baptizes and feeds us not we our selves we believe in Christ not God If then Faith which is properly mans instrument be properly the instrument of Justification a Believer doth no less than justifie himself which is harsh doctrine to me Again When we are said to be justified by Faith I suppose the Scripture doth not intend the transient act but the permanent habit and if so I cannot conceive how that can be properly strictly an Instrument Instrumenti causalitas est in usu applicatione when it is not in use and act it ceases to be an instrument The habit of faith is an habit still even when its act ceases but when its act ceases what hath it of instrumentality Secondly Faith though not properly may yet in some sense be called an Instrument because it hath a peculiar aptitude and receptivity to accept of the free-gift made in the Gospel Hence we are said by it to receive Jesus Christ Col. 2.6 to receive the atonement Rom. 5.11 to receive the gift of righteousness Rom. 5.17 to receive forgiveness of sins Acts 26.18 It hath a choice capacity to take in Christ with all his benefits Thirdly The proper formal reason why we are justified by Faith is because it is the condition of the Gospel on which God the Great Donor gives out Christ with all his blessings We are not justified by faith as for any reason intrinsecal or in the nature of it but as it doth inright and instate us into Christ and his righteousness and how is that done the old Law-rule must be remembred Voluntas donatoris observetur the Donors Will is the best guide and what is that in this case Clearly in the Gospel Christ and his righteousness are given upon the condition of faith Bellarmine asserting that it did not please God to give justification upon the condition of faith alone Dr. Ames answers him Bell. Everum Tom. 4. lib. 5. Vel maximè placuit boc Deo It pleased him altogether We must take as God gives God in the great charter gives out Christ and his righteousness upon the condition of faith Faith therefore instates and inrights us into these as it is the condition of that grant And by consequence we are justified by it as such as when a Prince grants a pardon upon condition the Traitor take it from him with his own hands his taking it gives impunity not because of the organical apprehensiveness in the hand but because it is the modus donationis the pardon runs upon those terms So when God grants justification upon condition of believing we are justified by faith not because of its intrinsecal receptivity or apprehensiveness but because that faith which stands in the Gospel as the condition of justification is found in the heart Thus much touching the manner how this holy fruit grows upon Faith Thirdly The next thing considerable is the continuance of this holy fruit Justification is a flower of Paradice which never dies once justified and ever justified The righteousness of God which is put upon the Believer is never taken off again The pardon which is sealed in the Court of heaven is never reversed The cloud of Guiltiness once scattered never gathers together The sins cast into the depth of Sea never come up more Camb. Eliz p. 384. When the Jesuite Chreicion taken at Sea tore and threw over-board certain papers of dangerous consequence the torn pieces were by the wind blown back again into the Ship and afterwards artificially put together discovered the Popish design then on foot but when God casts our sins into the depth of the Sea all the breath of the infernal Spirits can never blow them up again they shall be remembred no more All things in Justification concur to make this good Free-grace which is the first mover in it is a fountain ever flowing and a Sun which knows no going down The Righteousness of Christ which is the matter of it is a robe which can never wear out The Gospel which is the Charter of it is a grant never out of date Faith which is the Medium to it will under the divine influences stirring up the nest of gracious principles bud and blossom forth in fresh acts and when the acts cease it abides in the root kept alive by the eternal Spirit breathed from the endless life of Merit in Christ All which make the righteous man an everlasting foundation only here is a Quaere to be resolved Do not Believers fall into sin and doth not sin make a breach upon Justification and if so how doth it continue I Answer The sins of Believers are either sins of meer infirmity and daily incursion or sins
pardon one way for the pardon of infirmities and another way for the pardon of gross sins but there is one undivided way of faith and repentance appointed for both Which being so it follows that if the believers gross sins be not forgiven till after actual faith and repentance then neither are his infirmities forgiven till then and by consequence the believer cannot continue justified no not for a minute the multitudes of infirmities which are ever swarming in him would put him into a state of death every moment Nay as worthy Mr. Wall hath well observed in ictu mortis None but Christ pag. 322. in the very last stroak of death he may perish unless the last operation of his spirit be actual faith and repentance These things perswade me that the gross sins of believers are at least in some sense pardoned before their fresh acts of faith and repentance touching which Divines speak variously Mr. Baxter saith That Believers as soon as they sin have an imperfect pardon though not plenary Lect. 113. on the 51. Psalm Mr. Hildersham saith They have a pardon upon record in heaven but not the comfort of it till by faith and repentance they sue it out and be able to shew and plead it in the Court of their own Conscience Mr. Burroughs saith When any Soul is taken into Christ Expos en Hos p. 611. it hath not only all the sins it hath committed pardoned but there is a pardon laid in for all sins to come there is no instant of time wherein it can be said that the Believer is under condemnation What is the aptest expression I shall not contend but I conceive such sins in believers are in some sort pardoned before their fresh acts of faith and repentance Neither doth this open a gap to licentiousness for it concerns only Believers whom the stings of Conscience celipses of Gods face languors of inward graces and foul blots upon their Evidences to heaven will under the influences of the Spirit press to fresh acts of saith and repentance as to duties very necessary and incumbent upon them Thus much of the continuance of this holy fruit Fourthly The fourth thing considerable is the perfection of it This holy fruit is never fully ripe till the day of Judgment Repent that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord saith St. Peter Acts 3.19 The day of Judgment is to a believer a time of refreshing then there will be no more scorches from the fiery Law no more stings from the old Serpent no more guilt inflaming the Conscience no more frowns from the holy God but a pure sweet refrigeration breathed out from his gracious presence Caspar Olevian in his last sickness Mâ—â—ch Aâ—um in vita ejus was in ineffable joyes so that he seemed to be in prato elegantissimo rore perfusus coelesti in a most sweet meadow with an heavenly dew distilling down upon him Such reviving refrigerations believers have sometimes here much more transcendent will their divine refreshments be at the last day The top-stone of Justification shall be then laid on to make it compleat as may appear by the ensuing Considerations First Here the Believer is justified privately by the Gospel but then he shall be justified openly by the solemn sentence of God before all the World here he hath the white-stone of Absolution given in secret but then it shall be brought forth to view glittering in all the orient colours of Free-grace It was a great honour done to Mordecai to be arraied in Royal apparel and to have it proclaimed before him Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour But oh what glory will be upon the Believer at that day when he shall stand in the glorious rightcousness of Christ and hear it proclaimed before Men and Angels This is a righteous man when Christ shall confess him before his Father and the holy Angels to be a piece of himself of his flesh and of his bones As it was with the Sons of Jesse passing before Samuel Eliab came and was refused Abinadab came and was resused and so others at last David came and the Lord said Arise anoint him for this is he 1 Sam. 16th Chapter So it will be with the Sons of men at the great day of Judgment The great Potentate may come and be rejected as a vile person the rich Dives may come and be put away as dross the Learned Rabbi may come and be turned off as a fool only when the Believer comes God will say This is he this must reign in glory for ever This is a Justification before God after a most signal manner Secondly Here the Believer stands justified but in the midst of briers and thorns remaining Corruptions vex and tear his righteous soul from day to day He is in the Land of Promise but the Canaanite is not quite driven out the reliques of Sin inmates in the same heart with grace like the Liers in wait for Samson are ready to make an assault upon him Hence the Jewish Doctors say That God calls no man Saint or Holy till he be dead and in the grave because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the concupiscential frame is not quite out of him before death but at that day there shall be nihil damnabile remaining in him Sin shall be no more no more tumors of Pride no more boilings up of Concupiscence no more spots or wrinckles or dark shades of Infirmity nothing but pure spotless Holiness Insomuch that Divines say that from henceforth our Justification shall be in another way than by imputed Righteousness because having perfect inherent Righteousness in our selves we shall need no covering If the Apostle say of a Believer that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is justified from his sins in respect of Sanctification begun Rom. 6.7 how much more will it be true when Sin shall be no more Thirdly Here the Believer is Justified but the dust of mortality hangs about him It may be there is a Stone ready to drop into the Bladder or an Imposthume ready to break in the Head Mors latet in mediis abdita viseeribus in one part of the body or other Death is preparing his arrow upon the string to shoot man down from the perch of this life into the grave But at that day there shall be nihil corruptibile Death shall be no more Diseases which use to sound an alarum to it shall be utterly removed Tears which are Natures pay to Sorrows shall be all wiped off the corruptible shall put on incorruption Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life This is a day of redemption indeed Fourthly Here the Believer is Justified but his comfort is not alwaies the same Now the light of Gods Countenance breaks out like a clear Sun upon him and anon there is a sad eclipse leaving him in darkness one day a banquet of heavenly Comforts is
Head and Advocate and will not cannot condemn the Believer being a piece of himself standing in his image and righteousness Sin and Satan have nothing at all to say against him The Law cannot object the breach of the least jot or tittle he comes to the Judgment only to be absolved before Men and Angels and after an Enge of praise to enter into the joy of his Lord which is an happiness beyond all expression CHAP. VIII Of Adoption the third fruit of Faith the peculiar Priviledg of sound Believers The Excellency thereof demonstrated under several Considerations THus far of the second fruit of Faith being Justification The next fruit thereof is Adoption Justification and Adoption are twin-Graces brought forth by Faith at once only in order of nature Justification goes first and then follows Adoption as presupposing the other hence the new name is said to be written in the white stone Rev. 2.17 Alexander the Great Conqueror of the World was by the flattering Oracle saluted as a Son of Jupiter but the Believer who overcomes the World in a more noble Spiritual way is by the true Oracle stiled a Son of God As many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 The Believer in the instant of believing is no longer a meer Son of Adam but a Son of God he is in unity with the natural Son of God and so becomes an Adopted one The Human nature is in the natural Son by Hypostatical union and so is taken into the natural Sonship and the Believer is in him by a Mystical union and so becomes a Son by Adoption Neither is this a meer empty title He is born not of blood in a way of carnal Generation not of the will of the flesh in a way of Concupiscence not of the will of man in the way of Moral Virtues and Excellencies but he is born of God he is one of the seed-Royal of Heaven the blood of God runs in his Conscience a Divine Spirit breaths in him Christ is formed in his heart and that in the very same manner as he was in the Womb that is by the overshadowing power of the Holy Ghost Nay further as Aquinas observes Tertia pars Quest 23. Art 2. Filiatio Adoptiva est quaedam similitudo filiationis aeternae Adoptive Sonship is a shadow of the eternal one The natural Son is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or brightness of his Father and in the Adopted there is a splendor of Grace resembling God in a measure The natural Son was begotten from Eternity and is still a begetting and in the Adopted the holy thing is begotten And yet in respect of the successive supplies of Grace afforded for its preservation it is as it were still a begetting hence the Adopted Son as well as the Natural abides for ever Joh. 8.35 The Natural Son is the image of Gods Nature and the Adopted the image of his Will Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 The Excellencies of this Priviledg are unutterable I shall express them only in some Considerations First Adoption is a very glorious thing it redounds to the glory of Free-grace and puts a lustre upon the Believer it redounds to the glory of Free-grace Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 That the indefectible God who hath a Son of his own lying in his bosom as an eternal joy should Adopt that the great Creator who as such hath all possible right to his Creature should Adopt that the Immortal One to whom by reason of his Immortality there can be no succession should yet Adopt that such a Majesty as he is should Adopt such as we are worms and sinful dust and Adopt us to such an Inheritance as Heaven is and by putting a new nature into us make us meet for the same is stupendious and wonderful beyond expression Such Considerations as these made the great School-man Durandus as Medina relates affirm That God did not Adopt properly but Secundum Translationem in a Metaphorical way But to pass that these things signally demonstrate that Divine Adoption is full of rich Grace and in a transcendent manner above Humane Moreover Adoption puts a lustre upon the Believer such as is not to be found upon the Princes and Potentates of the Earth Par. Medulla hist The proud Sultan Achmet used in his Letters to arrogate these high Titles to himself I Achmet head of Prophets Emperour of Emperours Lord of Europe Asia and Africa Lord of the White Black and Red Seas subjoining a long Enumeration of all the Provinces under him But to be a Son of God is incomparably more than all these All that train of Titles whereby Potentates spread out their Glory is fumus seculi the smoke of this lower World and glitters only in the eyes of flesh and blood but Adoption is radius Caeli a ray of Heavenly Glory and makes the Believer shine to the eyes of Angels who as they rejoice over a repenting Sinner cannot but wonder to see such an one transfigured into a Son of God Nay Adoption puts such a glory upon the Believer as was not upon Adam in Paradise Adam was a Son of God only by Creation but the Believer is one by Mystical Union and Communion with Christ the Natural Son hence Christ calls him Brother Heb. 2.11 a Compellation not used to Angels and he is one of the first-born Heb. 12.23 a title in an eminent way given to Christ Secondly Adoption carries with it an excellent spirit of Prayer Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father Gal. 4.6 This praying Spirit is the breath of the New-creature and as much excels all meer modes and gifts of Prayer as a pair of natural Lungs doth artificial ones others may pray artificially and as it were mechanically but the Adopted man prays naturally without this Spirit all words and expressions in Prayer are but poor low things like the Vrim and Thummim made under the second Temple by which the Jews could not tell how to ask counsel of God because the holy Spirit was not present with it In the Adopted that Spirit makes the Prayer issue forth with life and power when the Blood and Merits of Christ plead above and the holy Spirit makes intercession in the heart for the same blessings there is such a Harmony that the Almighty sloops and bows down his car to it Thus the sweet Singer In waiting I waited for the Lord and he enclined unto me and beard my cry Psal 40.1 God himself enclines and stoops down at the Prayer of Faith Vacula Pater that little word Father spoken in the heart is more than all the Eloquence of Cicero and Demosthenes Com. in Gal. cap. 4. saith Luther No sooner doth the Child of Grace cry but God says
may say as Quirinus Reuterus did on his Death-bed Ego sum vitae filius I am a child of life Thus much for the third fruit of Faith being Adoption CHAP. IX Of Sanctification the fourth fruit of Faith and here of Mortification the first part thereof the influence of Precious Faith therein THe next fruit of Faith is Sanctification which makes the Soul meet for Heaven Justification and Adoption give a title to that blessed Inheritance but Sanctification makes ready for it No sooner doth a man believe but the rivers of living water the sanctifying Spirit with its Graces slow in the heart and the reason is evident Faith is the Souls Union with Christ who hath the Spirit above measure in trust to pour it out upon every part of his Mystical Body in this day of Espousals the water is turned into wine Nature elevated into Grace There are as I have before noted two parts of Sanctification Mortification and Vivification I shall speak to both as fruits of Faith First Mortification is a fruit of Faith indeed none but a Believer is in a posture to reach it Could a man which yet never falls out improve his Reason and Will to the utmost he could not truly mortifie Sin Reason and Will improved might in some measure triumph over the gross inordinations in the lower faculties but they would ever spare the corruptions in themselves as their own flesh like politick Princes who keep down mutinies among the common People but lay the reins down to their own personal vices It would fare with such an one as it doth with frozen waters which though broken in one place will freez in another should he break and dissolve his sensual Sins he would freez in spiritual and if his eyes were open he would see that it is desperate pride and presumption to attempt Mortification in any other way than that of Faith which brings a general thaw upon the heart melting it into a compliance with the Divine Pleasure and tracing the method of the Gospel derives a power and spirit from Christ for the work Mortification must be done through the Spirit Rom. 8.13 and none hath that but the Believer it slows from an implantation into the death of Christ and none is so but he Faith purifies the heart and without it there can be no such thing as Mortification God doth not command Mortification immediately but in its own place first Faith and then Mortification Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth saith the Apostle Col. 3.5 Therefore wherefore Because you are risen with Christ because your life is hid with Christ therefore mortifie None but Believers who are in Union with Christ are capable to do it When in Popery all sorts are driven to this work as the poor Indians are to Baptism they do but set up a Faithless Christless Image of Mortification in Penances and Satisfactions void of the true spirit and principle requisite thereunto In the pursuit of this Point I shall first speak to the Mortification of Original Sin this is to lay the axe to the root and cast salt into the fountain without which to go about to mortisie this or that particular lust is as great a vanity as for a man by outward applications to heal up a fore or ulcer in the body without correcting the inward somes of peccant and corrupt humours which bore those holes in the flesh and fill them with putrefaction This is one choice work of Faith Others may spend all upon Physicians and Humane remedies but the Believer gives such a touch upon a Crucified Christ as in a good measure to stanch the bloody issue running down his nature In this excellent work Faith proceeds on this wise First Faith gives a man a just sense of Original Sin Which if the World be searched with Candles can be found no-where but among the Believers To search for it in the Pagan World is to no purpose indeed Plato saith That the Soul hath broken her wings and creeps basely upon these lower things The Pythagoreans taught That Souls having offended God were turned into Bodies as into so many Prisons there to look out of the grates of Sense Trismegistus asserts That man fell from Heavenly Contemplations into the sphear of Elements and so became a bondslave to his Body Hierocles confesses That man is carried downward and fallen from the happy Region of his own motion inclined to evil and averse from good In such passages as these there seem to be some glimmerings and dark resemblances of Original Sin But alas poor Souls they were sar from a just sense thereof they did not understand the depth and venom of this wound but thought there was Medicamentum in latere enough in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the self-power of the Soul which Justin Martyr at his Conversion brought out of Plato's School into Christianity to heal it self Aristotle makes Mans Happiness to be the Operation of the Rational Soul according to Virtue and that Virtue he ranks among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things in our own power Seneca tells us 'T is a foolish thing to wish for a good Soul which without lifting thy hands to Heaven thou maist have of thy self whatsoever may make thee good tecum est intus est it is with thee and in thee Hierocles saith The Will is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mistress of it self and can make it self better or worse Or as he speaks in another place it can make the man a beast or a God In a word all the remedy they prescribe is but that which Epictetus saith made Socrates to be so virtuous as he was Obedience to Reason They never so much as dreamed of any such thing as Regeneration but thought they could do their own work themselves neither did they understand the bredth and length of this natural wound they thought it was only in the lower saculties of the Soul Reason and Will being free and pure hence they generally cry out against the Body as a Prison and the Senses as fetters and manacles to the Immortal Spirit Theophrast was wont to say That the Soul paid a dear rent for her dwelling in the Body considering how much it suffered at the Bodies hand The Stoicks declaim against the Passions as the sicknesses and languors of the Soul all the load is laid upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the common people of the Soul as some call the Passions as if the Princes Reason and Will were free never considering the Spiritual wickednesses which are among them Neither could it be expected that they should know the latitude of Sin seeing they had not the pure Law but only some fragments of it in their hearts by which they could no more discern the proportions of Sin than a man can understand features by the broken pieces of a Picture Leaving the Pagans let us search among the Jews a People to whom the Divine Oracles were committed there the Believers had
Soul by Faith doth by little and little work out and extirpate Sin as the day breaks upon the Heart darkness goes off as Holiness flows in Corruption departs the more of Heaven is there the less of Earth Thirdly Faith discovers the great evil of Original Sin and so raises up an hatred against it and hatred is a murderer and would if it could annihilate its opposite Faith shews it to be an All-evil a Mother of abominations Some particular Sins are such monsters in Morality that when viewed only in the light of Nature they appear very odious such was the cruelty of Nero Effeminacy of Sardanapalus and the like much more odious when inspected by the light of Faith must that appear which is All-sin in one a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or universal Seminary of iniquity Anthony holding Caesars bloody Coat up to the People moved them against the Conspirators Faith holding up the Murders Adulteries Blasphemies Villanies in the World unto the Believers eyes stirs his Heart against the venemous root of all these Faith shews it to be an universal evil all over the Soul breaking forth like the boyls of Egypt upon man and upon beast upon the intellective and sensitive faculties and all over the Believers duties lying as the locusts there upon every herb and green thing upon the verdure and glory of every good work it is a blemish in the Believers eye a plague in his Heart an ataxy in his Affections a damp on his Prayers a cooler to his Charity and Zeal and a dead fly in all the precious Oyntment of his duties and good works Faith shews it to be an utter enemy to God Antichrist-like opposing every appearance of him in the Heart quenching every good motion trampling on every holy beam slighting at the two great periods of Mankind Heaven and Hell and jeering at that holiness and iniquity which lead thither Faith shews it to be an evil always present the Believer shakes himself and it adhers flys and it encompasses mortifies and it lives prays weeps sweats and fights and yet the Canaanite is in the land like a living man chained to a dead he carries about his own loathsomness a body of death all his days this cleaves to him as the blackness to the Ethiopian and as the fretting spreading Leprofie to the house after all his washing and scraping of himself it will yet be in him till death dissolve him into dust Such representations as these made by Faith fill the Believer with shame and self-abhorrency and raise up in him an irreconcileable hatred against it Fourthly Faith so far as it is acted though it make not a total riddance of it doth yet imprison it that it cannot go at large and riot in scandalous Sins No nor steal out in an evil thought but it will be arrested in its passage to the Will for a consent as it was Gods caution beware that there be not a thought in thy Belial-heart against Charity Deut. 15.9 So it is Faiths endeavour to stop corruption even in a thought the flesh is still a lusting and would have one piece of forbidden fruit or other in its mouth but Faith opposes and would if it could leave nothing of it to breath in the Believer This is that the Scripture calls The crucifying of the old man Faith arraigns the old man as the Arch-malefactor in the World condemns him as worthy to die strips him of his veils and false coverings and by holy restraints nails him to the Cross that unless in a slumber of Faith he cannot move or stir himself but dies away by little and little As the light of Nature being imprisoned in unrighteousness as the Apostle speaks Rom. 1.18 is every day exhausted and weakned so the corruption of Nature being thus restrained by Faith gradually loses its life and vigor Martinus Polonus tels of a terrible Dragon at Rome who killed many daily with his poysonous breath but was at last shut up with Brasen gates through the Prayers of Sylvester Bishop there Were this Fable true Faith doth a nobler work in restraining the inward Serpent of corruption whose deadly poyson hath spread it self over all Men and is eternally fatal to all but Believers To conclude In all this Faith applies it self to a Crucified Christ from thence it fetches its pattern As the pure flesh of Christ upon which as an expiatory Sacrifice the Sin of the World was laid suffered on the Cross so the corrupt flesh of Man unto which as the universal Seminary the Sin of the World may be justly imputed must suffer also Hence Saint Peter 1 Pet. 4.1 From the suffering of Christ in the flesh exhorts Believers to suffer in their corrupt flesh ceasing from Sin and from thence it derives a spirit for the work Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit on the Cross and the Believer through the Spirit of Christ offers up his corrupt self to be crucified Hence St. Paul Rom. 6.6 saith Our old man is crucified with him that is by a secret virtue drawn from his Cross Thus far of this Fundamental Mortification I now come to particular Sins which are but the foul issues of Original breaking forth in this or that as temper education place custom or other accidents give vent thereunto these also doth Faith mortifie and that in some such way as this First Faith doth restrain the outward acts of Sin there may be many restraints in which yet there is nothing of Mortification one Sin may restrain another Vitia inter se contraria pugnant in which case Satan casts out Satan a predominant lust its opposite The fiery Law with its threats may meet a man in his perverse way as the Angel with his drawn Sword did Balaam and turn him back from committing the act nevertheless the unchanged Heart hankers and inwardly mourns after it as Phaltiel did after Michal when she was forced away from him and which is a better restraint because meerly from an in ward principle Moral Virtue may hold him back from it as it did Abimelech from Sarah yet this restraint is but partial only from outward Sins of shame and withal selfish aiming at no higher thing than repute and self-excellency But Faith restrains upon higher and nobler Motives speaking to the temptation as Joseph to his Mistress How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God May I break his Law which is more than the Interdicts of all the Princes and Potentates of the World or stain his glory which is more precious than the light of the Sun Moon and Stars or trample on that precious Blood which paid my ransom from Hell and Death or grieve away that Spirit which is the life of all my Graces and Comforts or pollute this Heart which may be a Temple or Tabernacle for the Holy One to dwell in or run my self again into the pangs of the New Birth and forget the wormwood and gall of my old Sins and eclypse the light
totally perfectly evil but suffering for the Gospel is not meer suffering In temporal losses there may be eternal gain in reproaches a spirit of glory in outward racks inward joys In the Burning-bush God may dwell and death may open a door to life everlasting Hence come the famous Triumphs of Martyrs the Apostle rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ Act. 5.41 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they were honoured to be dishonoured for Christ Others have stiled their Prisons a Paradise and their Iron-Chains a goodly Neck-kercher and at last have kissed the Stake and thanked the Executioner accounting Suffering the only eligible thing in the World Thus Faith destroys all Sins eligibilities and in so doing as the Apostle speaks overcomes the World which is the purest of Victories The great ones who captivated the World outwardly and martially were themselves captivated by it in one lust or other Not unlike Amaziah who subdued the Edomites and was himself taken with their gods But Faith which overcomes inwardly and Spiritually subdues the lusts themselves Further yet Faith doth not only strike at the love of Sin by destroying its eligibilities but by surrendring the Heart to a better Object whilest the love and joy and delight is in Sin it lives as a body with a spirit in it but when these are surrendred up to God and Christ and Heavenly things it becomes inanimate as a dead Carcase This was notably deciphered in Christ crucified the grand pattern of our Mortification he was not only stript and nailed but commending his Spirit to God be gave up the Ghost Answerably in Mortification Sin is not only stript of its eligibilities and nailed by restraints but it dies away in the surrenders of Faith by which the Soul Enoch-like is translated into Heaven and its affections are not here below to animate Sin Were this surrender in perfection Sin could not so much as be as is evident in Christs Humane Nature upon which no spot could fall because it ever was in perfect surrender to his Father And proportionably where it is but in truth only Sin is a-dying because the love and joy whilest in the raptures and triumphs of Faith afford no quickning thereunto hence the Apostle exhorts Walk in the spirit in the elevations of Faith and other Graces and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall grow heartless and be able to do little or nothing Here we see how the dear intimate lusts come to die they cease to be dear as Faith turns the stream of the Heart and give up the Ghost as the love and the joy go out to God It was Luthers method in Reformation that first the Images were to be removed out of the minds of Men and then all would suceed and it is Faiths method in Mortification by holy surrenders to sever the Heart from its lusts and so do the work Moreover Faith casts out the love of Sin by conversing in the holy Word after which the Soul becomes pure and shining like Moses face after he had been with God conversing with the Law it sees a rectitude and pure splendor and then to love Sin is to embrace crookedness and hellish darkness and withal it sees wrath and vengeance threatned against transgressors and then to love Sin is to take death and hell into our bosom Conversing with the Gospel it hath such a fair prospect of Grace and Christ as renders Sin the most ungrateful and unnatural thing in the World Shall God give up his Son his eternal joy to die upon a cross and a man a worm spare a lust a brat of his corrupt Heart Shall Christ pour out his Blood and very Soul to expiate Sin and a Believer a redeemed one fall in love with the Crucifier Shall the holy Spirit come down and dwell in Man as his Temple and he who is so honoured embrace that which is the only offence and grievance to such a guest Or shall the Kingdom of Heaven come down and offer it self and that which is the only bar and obstacle be received Surely a Believer with his eyes open will not do so the more of converse he hath with the Word the less of the love of Sin As Sense when it lies brooding on the Creature inflames the love of Sin So Faith when it dwells on the Word abates it that Concupiscence which at first crept in upon Eve in a slumber of Faith while Sense was doting on the fruit must be driven out again by Faith fixing on the Word and soating above sensible things Thus far how Faith strikes at the love of Sin Thirdly Faith mortifies Sin by watching against all the occasions and inducements thereof The Jews were not to name the Idol-gods the Nazarite was to abstain from the very husk of the grape Valentinian could not bear a little drop of Julians holy-water accidentally sprinkled on his garment without detestation The Children of Samosatane would not play with their Ball after the Ass of the Heretical Bishop Lucius had trod on it but burnt it in the Market-place as unclean Faith is nice and curious it will not go in with such a dissembler nor come nigh the door of such an Harlot as Sin is knowing that the Soul may soon be cheated and adulterated thereby Apprehensions of danger make men watch and to Faith there is no danger like that of Sin If the good man of the house had known when the thief would come he would have watched saith our Saviour Mat. 24.43 Faith knows Sin to be a thief and a murderer to the Soul and therefore sets guards within and without that it may not creep in by the ports of Sense nor rise up out of the deep of the Heart Within there is a watch over the Thoughts and without over the sensible Objects And if a snare appear Faith cries out as the suffering Martyr did when a Box with a Pardon in it was set before him Away with it as you love my Soul During this watch Sin pines and famishes away as in a Spiritual siege the common commerce between the Thoughts and the Objects fails and with it those provisions which use to be made for the flesh Hence our Saviour would have his Disciples To watch and pray that they might not enter into temptation Temptations will offer themselves but the watching Believer will not enter into them by a consent Fourthly Faith mortifies Sin by those actings of Grace which it puts forth in the Believer As Sin the more it is acted makes the fuller blot on the Soul so Grace the more it is acted leaves the purer tincture there You have purified your Souls in obeying the truth saith St. Peter 1 Epist 1.22 Every act of Grace or Obedience doth in its measure purifie from Sin The righteous holds on his way and so grows stronger and stronger Job 17.9 The exercise of Grace renders the inner man more strong and
able to drive out Corruption especially when that Grace is acted which besides its purifying strengthening nature in common with other Graces is contrary to the Sin which is to be mortified and so proper and apt to expel it as one contrary doth another Hence Daniel counsels Nebuchadnezzar to break off his sins by righteousness and mercy Dan. 4.27 his Sins being Oppression and Cruelty nothing was apter than Righteousness Mercy to break them off And our Saviour when his Disciples were fainting in the storm calls for their Faith And when aspiring after the Primacy sets a little child before them as an emblem of Humility Dying Sardis he puts upon strengthening the things which remain and Nentral Laodicea upon Zeal to give her a fresh warmth in Religion Still the advice runs upon the contrary Grace the more that is actuated the more it roots and spreads in the Soul and the less room and place is left there for the contrary Sin Which I suppose was the reason why the Presbyter Sulpitius Severus being guilty of too much Loquacity ever after kept silence Spondan Annal. Vt peccatum quod loquendo contraxerat tacendo emendaret as the Historian expresses it 'T is a Precept of the Philosophers Arist Eth. lib. 2. c. 9. To observe what Vice we are most propense to and then to bend our selves to the contrary extream that we might come to the Virtue in the middle Faith though it dares not touch upon one contrary Sin to cure another would cast them both out by acting the contrary Grace Lastly Faith mortifies Sin in a way of dependence upon the Power and Spirit of God in and through Jesus Christ In the Covenant of Works in which there was no Mediator Man stood on his own bottom and had all his stock in his own hands But in the Covenant of Grace the Believer stands in the Power of God and though he have a little Grace in himself the main stock is above in a surer hand his life is hid with Christ in God there 's the great treasure out of which Faith fetches supplies of the Spirit for every good work hence in Scripture he is said To love live pray walk mortifie in the spirit If ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 He saith through the Spirit because there is no other way of mortifying Sin he that goes about this work in his own Power is but in a dream he knows nothing of the life of Faith as appears by that Antithesis which the Prophet makes between the Soul lifted up and the life of Faith Hab. 2.4 Such an one holds not the head Jesus Christ no more than the worshippers of Angels spoken of Col. 2.18 19. Whatever he may do theoretically he doth it not practically whilest his fleshly mind presumes that he can move about such a work though the Head in Heaven stir not his Mortification must needs be weak and powerless because without Christ the wisdom and power of God he goes out against his lusts as Samson did against the Philistines with his hair off or as the Israelites did against the Canaanites when the Lord was not among them Numb 14.32 instead of success he meets with that curse and blast which lights upon all Christlless persons and actions The most charitable Prayer that can be made for him is that of the Psalmist Fill their faces with shame that they may seek thy name O Lord Psal 83.16 St. Austin long struggled in his own strength against his Corruptions and all in vain at last a voice told him In te stas non stas Thou fallest O Austin by standing in thy self True Faith goes about this work in the Power and Spirit of Christ as under the Old Testament when Faith subdued outward Kingdoms as the Apostle speaks Heb. 11.33 it was by the Spirit the Spirit clothed upon Gideon and he smote a mighty Host of Midianites The Spirit came upon Samson and he slew heaps upon heaps of the Philistines So under the New when Faith subdues the inward Kingdom of Sin it is by the Spirit strengthening the Believer to overcome it the reign of Sin is broken because he is under Grace Here we see how old strong customary Sins such as are a second nature in Men come to be subdued it would be an hard nay almost impossible thing for a Moralist to unravel such a Sin meerly by contrary acts and those acts done by his own power and that power emasculated by a long tract of Sin But Faith draws down an Almighty Power and Spirit to the work that hyperbole of Power which raised up Christ from the dead is towards the Believer Ephes 1.19 That Spirit of life which is in Christ makes him free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 The bands of Sin can no more hold him than those of Death could Christ when the glory of the Father came to raise him up In doing this great work Faith goes by these steps first Faith lays down this as a foundation That there is Power enough in God to subdue Sin or else he should not be an Infinite God and that Sin is capable of being subdued or else it would be an Infinite Monster That Power which can dry up the Sea or shake the Earth out of her place or raise up the Dead out of the dust or annihilate the World in a moment must be able to subdue Sin In the Prophet it is but the turn of his hand I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away they dross saith God Isa 1.25 And which comes nearer to us Faith is sure that this Power doth not stand off at a distance in the unapproachable Deity but is made over to Christ coming in the flesh He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and Power The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily And going up to Heaven he sate down at the right hand of Power all things being put under his feet And which yet is nearer this Power is made over to Christ as trustee and treaurer for his Church his Unction is to run down upon all Believers The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him that they might be filled with it He sits at the right hand of Power that his enemies among which Sin is a chief one may be made his footstool All things are put under him that he might be Head over all to the Church letting down his vital influences and motions to it his great design is to make an end of Sin and to dissolve the works of the Devil And now nothing remains to draw down this Power to the Believer but the acting of Faith as Faith goes up Power comes down all things are possible to the Believer he can do all through Christ strengthening him It is but to look and be saved believe and be established wait and renew strength hand upon Jesus Christ and he who was Immanuel God
with us in his Incarnation will be Immanuel God with us in such sufficient Grace as shall give us the victory over Sin the success is as sure as the Spirit and Power of God can make it When Christ was on Earth never any one came to him for bodily Cure with a Faith that he was able to do it but it was done for him Now that he is in Heaven at the right hand of Power such as go in Faith for Spiritual Cures cannot miscarry What though the bloody issue of Sin have been long a-running a touch upon Christ will heal What if thou hast lay'n rotting in thy Corruptions many years believe and thou shalt see the glory of God raising thee up a dependence on the Power and Spirit of Christ cannot fail of a victory over Sin So vast is the difference between the state of Adam in Innocency and the state of Believers in Christ in him one Sin drove out a great stock of pure immaculate Grace in a moment in them a little spark of Grace drives out a world of Sin because their Grace which Adams did not depends on the Power and Spirit of Christ for the victory This is a most noble and purely Evangelical act of Faith in which Man is abased in a continual dependence and God exalted in a continual supply of Grace However some Divines falsly so called have laughed at the dependence of Faith as an idle lolling upon Christ it is yet the only way in which the Spirit and Power of God communicates to our necessities and does far more in the Christians life than any thing else Only we must remember that this dependence is in the use of means the Believer hears reads meditates prays works and in all depends upon the Spirit to render them effectual CHAP. X. Of Spiritual Vivification the second Part. Of Sanctification the influence of Faith therein THus far of Mortification as a fruit of Faith I now proceed to Vivification being the other part of Sanctification In which the holy Spirit comes down with its Divine Graces into the Soul and quickens it to a Spiritual Life These Graces may be considered eitheir in their production into being or in their actual exercise and both ways they are fruits of Faith As to their production into being Divines differ about the order some Divines as Mr. Pemble conceive That all Graces are infused at once coming into us as light doth into the air or as the Soul did into the body of Lazarus not piece-meal or by degrees but all at once and together Other set down this order Vocation which worketh Faith and Repentance is in order of nature before Justification and Justification before Sanctification Bishop Downham distinguishes between our Spiritual conception of the incorruptible seed and our new-birth in which Christ is formed in us in all his Graces the former is done in our Vocation and the latter in our Sanctification I conceive that Faith at least in order of Nature is first and then all other Graces follow upon it The Ancient Fathers as Bishop Downham hath observed speak to the same purpose In Clemens Alexandrinus Faith is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first inclination to Salvation In the so-called Ignatius Epistles it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of life as it were the Punctum Saliens in the New Creature in which the first motion and course of Spiritual life begins Vita sancta à fide sumit initium saith Fulgentius And Fides prima datur ex quá extera impotrantur saith St. Augustine All other Graces are the fruits of Faith not as if Faith did produce them radically or fontally out of it self or its own virtue but that it unites to Christ and so derives the Spirit with its Graces unto the Believer That Faith is at least in nature before other Graces will appear very probable upon divers Congruities First It is congruous to the Majesty of God He acts like himself dispences Grace to the Creature in its lowest posture of resignation Heaven is my throne Earth my footstool saith he but as over-looking all this World To this man will I look that is poor and of a contrite spirit Isa 66.1 2 To this man there he sets a nobler creation than this outward one When Faith makes a man poor and contrite sensibly lying in his own Nothingness and Unworthiness then creating Grace comes upon him We may see this as in a glass in the Homane Nature of Christ That which had no natural Subsistence of its own but subsisted in the Eternal Word that had the Spirit poured out upon it above measure When a man hath no Moral subsistence of his own his very Hypostasis being a resignation when his subsistence is in the Word of God according to that of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have thy being in these things 1 Tim. 4.15 Then the holy Spirit comes down and dwells in him Secondly It is congruous to Christ the Head Union goes before Communion first Faith unites us to Christ and then all Graces flow from him hence Faith is called the Churches neck Cant. 4.4 knitting to Christ the Head and from thence deriving all Spiritual life into the body of Believers This also is set before us in Christs Humane Nature which had first at least in nature the Grace of Union and then that of Unction He that is in Christ is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 made so by his being in Christ He that hath the Son hath life 1 Joh. 5.12 Hath it by having the Son Indeed Faith and Repentance go before our Union with Christ as being of necessity thereunto but all other Graces follow after it as most naturally flowing from Christ the Head of whose fulness all Believers receive Grace for Grace Thirdly It is congruous to the way of the Spirit set forth in the Gospel The Spirit moves on the Soul to bring forth Faith and Repentance but it dwells no-where but in the Believer Christ dwells in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 There he hath perpetuum domicilium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Bez. Zanch. as the Greek word imports He that believeth on me saith our Saviour out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Joh. 7.38 And what these rivers are the next verse tells us This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive Faith brings in the very fountain of Grace with all its streams into the Heart The Holy Ghost is given to them that obey him Act. 5.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them that hear him in the Gospel-command that is to them that believe so Beza and Calvin expound it and so the Syriack hath it The Holy Ghost works before to produce Faith and Repentance but it is not given to dwell in men until they believe Fourthly It is congruous to the order which is between Faith Justification and Sanctification Faith is in order before Justification the Scripture
dependence the Spirit comes down in auxiliary Grace and there is an effectual working in every part of the New Creature Love in the Spirit as it is called Col. 1.8 and Joy in Spirit and every other Grace in the Spirit badding and blossoming and filling the face of the life with holy fruits Only it must be remembred that this Dependence is in Gods way where Christ is experimentally Immanuel God with us to stir up all holy Graces into act Thus Faith actuates Graces in a general way common to them all I now proceed to shew how Faith actuates this or that Grace in particular And that I may not be too prolix in running over all Graces I shall single some choice ones out instead of all First I shall begin with the Grace of Love This is the great Command the sum of the Law a Divine Union with God a bond of perfection among Men a holy fire kindled by the Holy Ghost in the Heart and the sweetness and easiness of every good Duty This Grace whether it respect God or Christ or our Neighbour is actuated by Faith As touching our Love to God it is so actuated The very light of Nature reveals a God an excellent perfect Being or the Being of Beings whose Love as the Philosopher said is the principle and knot of the World and so cannot but raise up a kind of Love toward him the Will being necessarily in some sort affected with such an Excellency though seen but by a glimmering light Not that this Love is a Grace or a Love in sincerity or a Love sicut oportet as an ancient Council speaks or indeed in Scripture sense any love at all because it loves not God above all it must needs be inordinate there being the same ataxy in loving God below the Creature as in loving the Creature above God But that there is a kind of Love such as that dark light can raise up in faln man But when the light of Faith comes it raises up the Grace of Love towards God and ever after moves it into act by the pure discoveries of him which it lets into the Heart from Scripture He is saith Faith an immense infinite Goodness Creatures are but drops of Being lying in the shell of Time but he is the Ocean of all Perfections They may be good for this or that in particular according to their finite kinds and spheres but he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the All-things as the Aposile calls him 1 Cor. 15.28 And withal he is Love it self as another Apostle hath it 1 Joh. 4.16 Not shutting up his Allness in unapproachable Glory but letting it out to Believers His Love though he ever had perfect Blessedness in himself would yet pour out it self in making a world of good Creatures and after Mans fall in giving his only Son to take hold of our nature and in it to bring us back again to himself that he might be our God and make over his Allness to us and all this in pure Grace without any Money or Merit on our part and in rich Mercy towards worms and forlorn Sinners and to assure it to us a Gospel is let down from Heaven full of great and precious Promises such as are the very counterpanes of that Grace and Mercy which flow in his Heart towards Sinners Vnder such musings of Faith Oh how the holy fire of Love kindles What high rates and estimates are set upon him How is the Heart inflamed towards Union to be one spirit with him What Complacencies and Sabbaths of rest doth it find in him What little things are Worlds and Creatures What an All is He and an Heaven his Love What tastes are there of his Goodness and surrenders to his Will and Glory Our Love goes after him as his is by Faith let in upon the Heart Moreover Faith excites the Love of him by every act which it sets about in its recumbencies it enamours the Heart that he should give us leave to lean on his Grace and in so doing bear up our weakness with Promises and sweetly answer us in Pardons and suitable Graces in its Obedience it is very ravishing that he should chalk out such pure ways for us and take us by the hand and teach us to go and at last crown our faultring Obedience with Eternal Life Ordinances which to Unbelief are but dry things are to Faith the lovely Chariots of the Spirit Creatures which are Idols to carnal sense are to Faith fair mirrors of the infinite Goodness and Beauty in the Creator Which way soever Faith turns it self it meets with something or other inflammative of our Love towards him who is every-where and all in all As touching our Love to Christ it is actuated in the same manner A meer notion of Christ raises up some Love towards him as we see in those Temporaries who receive the word with joy Mat. 13.20 which though it be but fructus horarius hints out a kind of Love Such a story as that of Codrus the Athenian King 's dying for his Country could not but affect his Subjects much more must the History of Christ dying for a World do so Only this Love to Christ raised up by meer Evangelical notion as the Love to God raised up by natural is not right nor elevated to a Divine pitch till Faith come and shew him forth by a light more congruous than all literal knowledg and then there is as the Church after an elegant description concludes Totus desideria all loves or desires Cant. 5.16 Every thing in him is attractive What a person is the Eternal Word the brightness of the Fathers glory What an Union Immanuel God and Man in one Heaven and Earth admirably blended together as a pledg that God would be at one with us What a robe is his Righteousness made as broad as the Law and woven all of Love from the top to the bottom What a Laver his Blood able to expiate a world of Sins and save a world of Sinners What a treasure is his Fulness where the Spirit is in over-measure and all its Graces in redundance running over into the vessels of Faith and filling all its capacities Who that hath eyes of Faith would not love him To ask why we should love him is as the Philosopher told him who demanded Why Beauty was so taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blind mans question nothing but blind unbelief can hold us from his Embraces Whatever posture Faith be in whether contemplating him in the Mount or leaning on the bosom of his Grace or hiding in his Wounds or sitting at his feet for Wisdom or lying under his Scepter for power against Sin still it stirs up an holy Love to him It finds his Blood in every Pardon his Spirit in every Grace his Wine-cellar in every Ordinance his Seal in every Promise and his Purchase in every Creature No wonder if St. Paul count all things dung and dross for him And St. Austin
saith Non legitima Christianorum Concilia sed Tyrannica Antichristi Conventicula ad oppugnandam Evangehi veritatem instituta and thus it appears even Historically that the Authority of Scripture depends not on the Church But waving this Popish Thesis in which I have by the way made this long Digression I proceed to the matter in hand True Faith being a beam or irradiation from the holy Spirit discovers That the Scriptures in general are the Word of God and which is to the Point in hand in its holy progress it arrives at an experimental knowledg thereof Peter Martyr wishes men to read the Bible seriously and adds Male sit mihi ita enim in tantâ causâ jurare ausim nisi tandem capiantur sentient denique quantum divina haec ab humanis distent Erasmus saith Expertus sum in meipso That there is little good in cursory reading it do it duly and you shall find the Divine efficacy That a Progressive Faith may attain an Experimental knowledg that the Scriptures are of God will appear by the ensuing Considerations One noble piece of Scripture is the Moral Law upon every apex of it hangs a mountain of Sence say the Rabbins every jot or tittle of it stands faster than Heaven and Earth saith our Saviour Mat. 5.18 This is the Summary of all Duties all the Moral Precepts in Scripture are but as so many Commentaries on it That this is of God Faith experiments several ways First Faith experiments it by the impresses and holy inclinations in the Believers heart answering truly though not persectly to the Law A Progressive Believer finds by reflection That the Law is written in his heart That his Heart is the very Epistle of Christ written by the holy Spirit And withal he knows that it was not always so Time was when there were no such characters or holy inclinations there his Heart was worse than a meer empty Table And hence he surely gathers that those characters or imprinted propensities are the writing of God himself and so comes experimentally to know the Epistle of God in Scripture by that in his Heart and the outward literal Edition of the Law by the inward Spiritual one which is a counterpane thereof and answers thereunto as the stamp to the Seal or one Tally to another The mutual agreement between them once discerned is a practical proof that both are of God and written by one and the same holy hand But you will say there needs no Faith to make this experiment the very Gentiles have the Law written in their Heart their natural implanted Principles comprize both Tables the first in that they tell us that there is a God to be worshipped and reverenced The second in that they tell us That we must do as we would be done to which Alexander Severus much delighted in Unto which I answer That there is a vast disserence between the natural Writing the Law in the Heart and the gracious The first is a relique or broken fragment of the Divine Image its only or at least chief seat is in the Understanding and there it stands in the dark in an abyss of black Ignorance and in the mean while there is an hellish enmity in the carnal will against the Law of God But the other is a pure perfect thing which stands in both faculties being as an holy lamp in the Understanding and as a Divine inclination in the will to do the Commends of God Hence it appears That there is not that soundation for this experiment in the Natural Inscription of the Law as in the Gracious the Natural being to the Gracious but as a little glimmering is to splendor or as the broken pieces of a Picture are to the intire Image It is with a Believer in this case as it was with Bezalceel the Word of God came forth for making the Tabernacle but Bezaleel had a fractical proof of it in the spirit of Wisdom given him for the work Or as it was with Saul the Word came forth touching the Kingdom but Saul had a Practical proof of it in the spirit of Government vouchsafed unto him And so it is with the Believer The Divine Law is experimented in the spirit of obedience and each particular Command is proved by some inward aptness answering thereunto A notable instance of this Inscription we have in Maius the German Divine who in his extream sickness having Consolatory Scriptures recited to him bravely answered Tace tace omnia cordi meo insixa tenco hold your peace I have all in my heart Promises I suppose he meant and without dispute the Precepts were there also Secondly Faith experiments it by the Divine Presence helping and comforting the Believer in acts of Obedience The Rabbins say That if two sit together conserring of the Law the Shechimah is among them And without doubt if but one single Believer be not a talking meerly of the Law but a doing of it the Divine Presence is with him Thus the Prophet to Asa The Lord is with you whilest you be with him 2 Chron. 15.2 Thus our Saviour If a man love him and keep his words the Father and the Son will come and make their abode with such a one Joh. 14.23 Such an one hath a Temple and Shechinah in his Heart God will be there helping and comforting of him in his well-doing The Church prays for help from the Sanctuary Psal 20.2 because that was a Symbol of Gods Presence And the obeying Believer cannot want help because he hath a Sanctuary within him The way of the Lord is strength to him and waiting in it he renews strength and mounts up by Auxiliary Grace as upon Eagles-wings Whilest he is a doing the will of God strength comes in as it did to the Levites that bare the Ark 1 Chron. 15.26 and with strength holy comfort also in keeping the Commands he hath great reward inward peace and joy unspeakable some of the oyl of Joy which is upon Christ the great Doer of Gods Will drops down on the Believer in his sincere Obedience As all upright ones do he dwels in Gods Presence as if he were in the borders of Heaven already the light of Gods Countenance irradiates his Duties When therefore the Believer reflects on himself and considers what a dry Land rebellion dwells in and what rivers of Peace and Joy water Obedience how weak and foolish his heart was in doing his own will and how help and strength came upon him in doing Gods he comes experimentally to know the Command to be of God whose Presence gave him such comforts and assistances therein The good hand of God upon him is a proof that the way is right the Peace growing on his work shews the righteousness of it When in Elijahs time the question was whether God or Baal should be God the fire coming down from Heaven on the Sacrifice made the People fall down and confess The Lord he is the God the Lord he is the
Holy Ghost and these Three are One 1 Joh. 5.7 This Truth hath had many Opposites as the Arrians Samosatenians Sabellians Photinians and of late the Socinians who have strained their subtile Wits to undermine it if possible tell them That Baptism is in the Name of the Trinity They will reply That The Israelites were Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 Tell them That There are Three that bear Record in Heaven 1 Joh. 5.7 They will say These Words are not to be found in the Ancient Greek Copies nor in the Syriac nor in the Ancient Latin Version but these are but Evasions As for the first They were Baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto Moses there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Acts 7.53 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as appears by comparing that place with Gal. 3.19 where Saint Paul of the same thing saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so To be Baptized unto Moses is only to be Baptized by the Ministry of Moses who led them through the Red Sea Hence in the Syriack it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the hand of Moses Again it is one thing to be Baptized unto Moses another to be Baptized in the name of Moses Paul Baptized but none in his own name 1 Cor. 1.13 And again the Israelites were improperly Baptized into Moses they were not aspersed or immerged in water neither was Baptism then an Ordinance of God as now it is As for the second in St. John that place undeniably proves the Trinity The learned Stephens saith That place is wanting in seven Greek Copies but it is found in nine more ancient St. Cyprian de Vnitate Ecclesie alledges this place for the Trinity Athanasius urged this place against Arrius in the Council of Nice and then no exception was made against it Had it not then been in St. John Arrius would have easily rejected it I believe in the times of Constantius and Valens the Arrians blotted out these words as most pregnant against them out of divers Copies St. Jerom asserted the truth of our reading from the Greek Copies which he had publickly contesting That in those Copies where it was wanting it was razed out by the fraud of Hereticks And St. Ambrose saith That the Hereticks did erade that place This Truth stands fast in Scripture for ever and ever and Faith embraces it And which is more and to the Point in hand Faith in its holy progress may as I conceive experience it My reason is the Church in all Ages down from the Apostles have worshipped the Sacred Trinity Their Baptism hath been in its Name their Doxology and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proclaim it their Creeds all publish it their Catechumeni were trained up in the knowledg of it they ever worshipped as Athanasius hath it in his Creed one God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity and that uno indiviso cultu as Divines speak This in all Ages hath been the Christian Worship and upon this Worship answers and returns have come down from Heaven in abundance of Glorious Spiritual Blessings such as are comprized in that Apostolical Prayer The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen 2 Cor. 13.14 The whole Trinity is adored and the whole Trinity vouchsafes Gracious returns Gratia quae datur in Trinitate datur saith Athanasius Every Believer so worshipping hath returns from Heaven and the Progressive Believer may know that he hath them and in the experience thereof may experience That there is a Sacred Trinity of a truth If the Trinity be a nullity or as Servetus blasphemously said An Idol or three-headed Cerberus Or as Socinus belched out his impiety A ridiculous invention of humane curiosity Then the Christian Worship is no other than strange fire vain ' Will-worship and Idol-worship nay it is no Worship at all none because the Trinity its supposed Object is a nullity none because God looks on it as none As when the Samaritans feared the Lord and served their Idols 2 King 17.33 The Text saith in the very next ver That they feared not the Lord their fear was as none because of the mixture of Idol-worship So when Christians worship one God and a Trinity which is not their Worship is as none at all Upon such a Worship God will not open his eyes unless to punish it nor make any returns but those of Wrath. When the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf Gods Wrath waxed hot and was ready to consume them much more may it do so if Christians worship a Trinity which is not In that of the Calf as they meant it there was only error in modo for they intended not to terminate their Worship in the Calf but in God as appears by their own words To marrow is a feast to Jehovah Exod. 32.5 But in this of a Supposititious Trinity there is error in objectio ultimo which is more provoking to God If the Trinity be but the Idol of the brain God will no more be enquired of by its Worshippers than he would by those who set up their Idols in their heart Ezek. 14.3 no gracious returns are found in such a salfe way A Believer therefore who in Worshipping one God in Trinity finds returns srequently and successively after Duties from the Mercy-scat carries an inward seal and proof in his bosom that there is a Trinity This experimental proof of a Trinity seems to me evident in many places of Scripture St. John saith Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 He saith not barely Our fellowship is with God but with the Father and the Son neither doth he say it at peradventures but as a sure known thing such as hath the joy of the holy Spirit with it St. Paul would have the Colossians to be knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2.2 Here is a Plerophory of understanding nay riches and all riches of it Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as one saith Illustrior notitia rei prius cognitae A further knowledg orpractical acknowledgment of a thing before known and these must needs import somewhat of experience Our Saviour saith If a man love me and keep my words my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him Joh. 14.23 In the 21. ver he told them That he would manifest himself to the obedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he conspicuum meipsum exhibebo I will exhibit my self though Spiritually yet clearly as it were to eye palam in media luce as Beza hath it Hereupon Judas asks him Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us unto which our Saviour answers That the
Father and himself would come and make their abode in such an one ver 23. The Abode of the Father and the Son in such an one is in a glorious manifestative way such as gives an experience of their being there and where the Father and the Son are there also is the holy Spirit Thus our Saviour in the 16. and 17. verses of that Chapter saith That the Spirit should abide in them and abide in them in a manifestative way Ye know him for he dwelleth with you saith he And in the 20th verse he saith At that day that is the day of the Spirits in-dwelling Ye shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you Oh what rich glorious Experiences of the Sacred Trinity are here and how happy the Faith and Obedience which arrives at them Godly Men should labour to perfect Holiness to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to get to the top of Godliness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks Tit. 3.14 to be Masters and eminent Presidents in good Works that they may arrive at this great Experiment Thus far touching that center of Divinity the Sacred Trinity In the next place I proceed to the rare Supernatural Truths touching Jesus Christ all which Faith may experiment And here I shall begin with his Incarnation Venit universitatis Creator venit ad homines venit propter homines venit homo saith St. Bernard He was Immanuel God with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Man in one Person The Eternal Word was made flesh 1 Joh. 1.14 God was manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 And what say the Socinian Rebels to this Truth Rationi sanae repugnat duae substantiae proprietatibus adversae coire in unam personam nequeunt ut sunt mortalem immortalem esse principium habere principie carere mutabilem immutabilem existere saith the Racovian Catechism One and the same Person cannot be Mortal and Immortal have a Beginning and no Beginning or be Mutable Immutable But reason it self though too low a bar for this Truth to appear at will absolve this truth from repugnancy Body and Soul meet in one Person adverse in Properties the one being Corporal the other Spiritual the one Visible the other Invisible the one Rational the other Irrational the one Mortal the other Immortal This is done naturally how much more may it be done Supernaturally It would be against reason to say That Christ were Secundum idem Mortal and Immortal having a Beginning and none Mutable and Immutable But it is not repugnant to say That he is so in respect of the two Natures Humane and Divine Had not Christ been Man he could not have suffered had he not been God he could not have satisfied The Blood was from the Humane Nature and the excellent Merit from the Divine He that disbelieves either must cast away Scripture which asserts both This Truth stands firm in Scripture as might be shewed at large but for the Point in hand Faith may experiment it The Believer may find in himself such fruits of Christs Incarnation as carry a resemblance thereunto and are a kind of inward Seal thereof The humane Nature of Christ was not brought forth of the blessed Virgin generatione sed jussione not in an ordinary way by knowing a man but in an extraordinary by the power of the highest and overshadowing of the Holy Ghost Answerably in the Believer the new Creature is not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God John 1.13 He that is such hath not known man nor his power in this great Work but hath had the holy Spirit and its gracious overshadowings on the heart They that dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his shadow shall return saith the Prophet Hos 14.7 Unless the mighty Power of God come upon us we shall have no hearts to return to him This resemblance is excellently set forth by Fulgentius Forma praecessit in carne Christi quam in nostrá side spiritualiter agnoseamus De Incarnat Christi cap. 20. ex eodem spiritu renati sumus ex quo natus est Christas eodem Spiritu Christus formatur secundum fidem in corde uniuscujusque credentis quo Spiritu secundum carnem formatus est in utero Virginis The very same Spirit which formed Christ in the womb forms him in the heart The Humane nature in Christ was united to the Divine in an Hypostatical Union God and Man met in one Person that they might meet in the Covenant of Grace Answerably the Believer is united unto God in a spiritual Mystical Union He is made one Spirit with the Lord 1 Cor. 6.17 Christ was one flesh with us and we are one Spirit with him God is at one with us in Christ and we may approach to God with holy boldness The Humane Nature of Christ had no natural Subsistence but subsisted in the eternal Word sutably the new Creature hath no spiritual Subsistence in it self but subsists in God and his Grace By the grace of God I am what I am 1 Cor. 15.10 St. Paul looked on his spiritual Being to be only by Grace In Christ God was manifested in the flesh and tabernacled in it nay the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in it Col. 2.10 As low abject a thing as Humane nature is the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in it and will dwell in it for ever sutably in Believers the Tabernacle of God is with men he dwells and walks in them and they may be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3.19 that is have abundance of his gracious Presence with them A Believer may find that he hath these resembling fruits in himself and withal that unless the Son of God had been incarnate none of them would have been no new Creature but all men lying in the old rubbish of the Fall no Union but an unpassable gulf such as is between Heaven and Hell no spiritual Subsistence but a corrupt one upon the dregs of Free-will no heavenly Fulness but a vacuity of all Grace And from hence he may have an experimental proof of Christs Incarnation the Mystical Union being a proof of the Hypostatical and God manifest in the Spirit of God manifest in the Flesh St. John lays down this as a glorious Truth That Jesus Christ is the Son of God 1 John 5.5 and for proof of it he produces six Witnesses Three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost ver 7. and Three on earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood ver 8. By the Spirit we may understand the holy Spirit breathing in the Scripture and witnessing in the heart by the Water the sanctifying Graces and those sealed in Baptism and by the Blood the precious Sufferings of Christ which pacifie the Conscience A Believer may experience all these three Witnesses on Earth
Jews at the Passeover at the end of the Celebration whereof the Father of the Family was wont to take a Cake of Bread and after the blessing thereof to break and distribute it to the Communicants and also after that a Cup of Wine in like sort unto which some refer that Cup of Salvation Psal 116.13 The Bread and Wine among the Jews were but a Customary Rite but Christ consecrated them into a Sacrament saying of the Bread This is my Body and of the Wine This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood which could not before be said of them In the Paschal Rite it was only said of the Bread This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of affliction and of the Cup This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Cup of the Hymn But now This is my Body and this is my Blood In this great Ordinance the Body and Blood of Christ are evidently figured out and set forth before our eyes as if he were Crucified among us The seventh General Council at Constantinople who knocked down all other Images saith of this Sacrament That it is Vera Christi Imago the only true Crucifix or Image of Christ And which is much more than an Image the very Body and Blood of Christ are here truly and really though Spiritually present to our Faith being exhibited ut epulum faederale as a Covenant-feast or Love-banquet chearing the heart of God and Man The same Body and Blood which in the Sacrifice on the Cross were a sweet savour unto God and satisfied his Justice are set forth in the Sacrament as meat and drink for our Faith feeding us to Life Eternal Here is Epitome Evangelti a compend of the Gospel the whole Covenant and Contrivance of Salvation is sealed in a bit of Bread and drop of Wine Here the Believer meets with many rich Experiments he feeds and lives upon a Crucified Christ eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood and what a Feast is this 't is much that our Bodies may live upon the Body and Blood of Creatures but Oh incomparable Grace Our Souls may live on the Body and Blood of God One drop whereof saith Luther is more worth than Heaven and Earth Cruci haeremus sanguinem sugimus intra ipsa Redemptoris nostri vulnera figimus linguam saith St. Cyprian Haustu interiori in a Spiritual Mystical way we do in this Ordinance cleave to Christs Cross suck his precious Blood and as it were fasten our Tongues within his healing Wounds Whilest the Bread and Wine are Physically and Carnally united to us we are Mystically and Hyperphysically united to Christ becoming Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Spiritually dwelling in him and he in us The same holy Spirit which is upon him in Heaven falling down upon us on Earth and the Faith which is in us here below ascending up to clasp and embrace him In sinu Christi recumbimus in cor Christi introspicimus saith Luther We lie in his bosom and look into his heart In our Pardon sealed we taste the sweetness of his atoning Blood and in the effusion of the holy Spirit we drink at the sountainhead of Grace sprung up in his Humane Nature We have here the whole Covenant or Charter of Grace sealed to us and may believe not only ex promisso but ex pignore Over and above the Promise we have a pawn or pledg of the Truth thereof We saw not the inspired Prophets and Apostles penning down the Promises but Ecce Signum lo here is a visible sign and seal set thereunto and sense leads in Faith to claim and possess them for its own Hence our Saviour calls the Cup the New Testament in his Blood Luk. 22.20 The Cup saith Luther contains the Wine the Wine exhibits the Blood of Christ the Blood of Christ natifies the New Govenant and the New Covenant promises remission of Sins and with it a vast treasure of Blessings Again we have here the rich anointings of the holy Spirit Among the Oriental Nations and in particular among the Jews there was Vnctio convivalis a Feastival Vnction which they used as a token of welcome to pour on the head of their Guests Thus there came unto Christ a Woman having an Atabaster box of very precious Ointment and poured it on his head as he sate at meat Mat. 26.7 Whilest we are at the Lords-Table we are anointed with fresh Oyl the holy Spirit is poured out in richer measures of Grace and Comfort than it was at first As a Spirit of Grace and Supplication it melts the Heart into godly sorrows at the sight of a Crucisied Christ Sin being indeed the Jew and Judas the betrayer and murderer of the Son of God the Nails in his Cross and Spear in his Side the Gall and Wormwood in the Cup of Wrath which made him sweat drops of Blood and under an horrid Eclipse of Gods favour to cry out of forsaking To look upon a groaning World travelling under an universal vanity would stir up sorrow in any that had a sense of it much more to look upon a Christ a Creator bleeding and dying upon a Cross to the least drop of whose Passion the dashing down of a World is a poor inconsiderable nothing To look upon the broken Tables of a Law dearer to God than Heaven and Earth is very grievous but to stand and see God for our Sin bruising and breaking his own Son and Effential Image in our assumed Nature is matter of amazing sorrow Never was Sin set forth in such bloody Colours as in his Passion never do repentant tears flow more purely than at such a spectacle Here the Heart breaks in its closing with a broken Christ and bleeds afresh over his Wounds and turns the Sacrament of the Supper into a Baptism of Tears and out of an holy hatred and revenge would have the violence done to Christ be put upon Sin the great Crucifier of him in the true Mortification thereof As a Spirit of Faith it causes us to live upon Christ Having no Righteousness of our own to answer the Law with we feast and satisfie our selves in the Righteousness of Christ as in that which satisfied the heart of God and is here made over to satisfie ours We may surely say The Righteousness of God is upon us and as it hath no spot or wrinkle in it self so it leaves no ground of scruple or jealousie in our Hearts in the midst of our Sins which have Death and Hell virtually in them We yet live upon the atoning Sacrifice of Christ His Blood which was offered up to God through the Eternal Spirit and by him accepted as a plenary Satisfaction for Sin is now put into Promises and Sacraments as into so many Basins and from thence sprinkled on our Conscience to purge away all our guilt our Sins are pardoned and our Pardon passed under the Seal of Heaven In the midst of our Wants Faith can triumph in the
is some great Trausgression which as an accursed thing causes the Lord to depart In such cases though there be no intercision of Justification yet there is an interruption of Consolation These Things premised I proceed to prove the Point viz. That a Believer may attain Assurance of Pardon and Salvation In the first Place the Names and Titles given unto Faith in Scripture are remarkable 'T is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The subsistence of things hoped for Glory and Salvation are hoped for by us but Faith maks them as certain as if they were present to us The Hebrews have a Van conversivum which turns the Future into the Preter-tense such a thing is Faith which presentiates future Things to the Believer That ye may know that ye have eternal life saith John It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye shall have it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye have it in praesenti it already subsists in your Faith 'T is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence of things not seen Eternal Life cannot be seen by corruptible Eyes but Faith doth so point out and demonstrate it as if it were visible or sensible We know that we have passed from Death to Life 1 John 3.14 As if the Apostle had said We are indeed in the very Borders of Heaven and we know it as it were sensibly as we do our passage from one Place to another 'T is set out by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strong perswasion or considence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a liberty or holy boldness with God The Apostle mentions both In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the Faith of him Ephes 3.12 Access to God imports that we are reconciled to him but access with boldness and confidence imports that we know it also Otherwise it would not be Faith as the Apostle stiles it but meer rashness and presumption if we should do so upon Peradventures Esther-like not knowing whether the golden Scepter would be held out to us or not Nay 't is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full Assurance carrying out the Soul with full Sails to the good things in the Promise It is well observed by the acute Dr. Arrowsmith That in Scripture mention is made of a triple Plerophory a Plerophory of Knowledg Col. 2.2 a Plerophory of Faith Heb. 10.22 and a Plerophory of Hope Heb. 6.11 The Genius of each shews forth it self in the Believers Practical Syllogism Whosoever believeth shall be saved But I believe Ergo I shall be saved In the Major we have a Plerophory of Knowledg In the Minor a Plerophory of Faith And in the Conclusion flowing from the Premises a Plerophory of Hope In the next place some Commands in the Gospel clearly import that Assurance is attainable there God would have us To work out our Salvation Phil. 2.12 To make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 To add to our Faith virtue one Grace upon another and one degree of Grace upon another That we may have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.5 11. To walk by the Rule of the New Creature that peace may be upon us Galat. 6.16 To prove our own state whether we be in the Faith whether Christ be in us or not 2 Corinth 13.5 To prove our own work that we may have rejoycing in our selves and not in another Gal. 6.4 If these things may be done Assurance is attainable if they cannot to what purpose are these Precepts how vain and impossible are they In that question Whether we may perfectly fulfil the Moral Law the Pontificians urge thus for the Affirmative If we cannot fulfil it the Law is impossible and void De Justif lib. 4. cap. 13. Si praecepta essent impossibilia neminem obligarent ac per hoc praecepta non essent praecepta saith Bellarmine If the Commands were impossible they would oblige none and so would become no Commands But in the Point of Assurance we may with much better reason say if we cannot fulfill the Commands concerning it they are then impossible and vain the Law is an exact Rule of Righteousness a Copy of the pure Law engraven on Mans Heart at first in the state of Innecency unto which it was attemperated It was not at all impossible and that it is so now is only from Mans Apostacy And withal the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the impossibility of the Law is admirably useful to drive us in a deep sence of our Impotence to Christ the Complement of it that through his holy Spirit we may in a way of sincere though imperfect Obedience at last arrive at perfect Sanctity in Heaven But if such Commands as are purely Evangelical be impossible what can be said to it what tolerable answer made Were these at all accommodated to a state of Innocency Was not their Original scope to raise up fallen Man to Salvation If the Commands of believing and repenting were impossible what room would there be for Salvation And if the Commands of proving and ensuring our state of Grace be impossible what room is left for the Joys of Faith or the Sealings of the holy Spirit or the Suavities of a good Conscience And there being no second Christ or Gospel to fly to whither doth this Impossibility drive but into the black gulf of Despair Wherefore as we would avoid such doleful consequences we must conclude those Precepts practicable and so Assurance possible And as a sure seal thereof we have the sweet experience of Saints in all Ages Holy Job though God multiplied his Wounds and his Friends raked in them by a very sharp charge of Hypocrisie knew his own Integrity and would not let it go Job 27.5 And which reacheth beyond his present state of Grace as sure of future Glory he breaks out I know that my Redeemer liveth and maugre all the destructive worms In my flesh and with these very eyes I shall see God Job 19.25 26. O how certain was his Faith I know How appropriative My Redeemer liveth and how sharp-sighted he could look through the dust to Immortality David knew the truth of his Grace and proved it to himself by infallible Marks I have kept the ways of the Lord I have not wickedly departed from my God I did not put away his statutes from me I kept my self from mine iniquity Psal 18.21 22 23. ver And for future Happiness he saith without scruple That at his waking in the Resurrection he should be satisfied with Gods likeness Psal 17.15 St. Paul speaks as one full sure of his present state and future hope I have fought a good sight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. The Martyr Agatha having her Breasts cruelly cut off for Religion told the Persecutor That yet she had two Breasts remaining such as he could not touch the one of Faith and the
other of Hope which afforded her great Comfort in her Torments Caspar Olevian a German Divine being asked by one Whether he were certain of his Salvation answered just at the brink of death Certissimus I am most sure of it Mr. Bolton being near death expressed himself thus My whole heart is filled with joy I feel nothing within but Christ Mr. Hieron said His Soul was full of joy as if be had seen Heaven open to receive him Such Paradises of Joy Sabbatisines of Spirit and Prepossessions of Glory have the Saints found in their way to Heaven Again there being an infallible Connexion between truth of Grace and Pardon and also between Perseverance in Grace and Salvation a Believer may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon and again he may be assured of his Perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation These two demonstrated will make good the Point First I say A Believer may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon which cannot but be where those are And for the truth of Grace a double Testimony may be vouched one from Conscience the other from the holy Spirit the Apostle mentions both The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it co-witnesseth with ours and in the mouth of two such Witnesses there must needs be establishment Hence St. Chrysostome on these words breaks out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What scruple can remain after such a Testimony I shall begin with the testimony of Conscience Conscience is a spy in our bosom which marks every thing a spiritual Eccho which returns our actions and makes them sound again after they are past and gone from us By it the Soul turns its eyes in ward and becomes a Speculum or Looking-glass to it self representing to it self its own acts By it it bends back the beams of general Truths and applys them to Particulars That Righteousness and Virtue should be followed is an universal Truth but Conscience can reflect it back upon us and bids us do so in particular and if we indeed do it Conscience will say Euge this or that is well done by us The Testimony of Conscience was of great repute among Pagans Plato calls it his Daemon and Menander a God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he Conscience is a God to Mortals And Seneca Deus in humano corpore hospitans God dwelling in an humane body Hence came Pythagoras's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-reverence And Sextius his parly with himself every night what Vice he had in the day resisted and Virtue promoted And the Satyrists complaint touching the neglect of the reflexive faculty Vt nemo in sese tentat descendere nemo few or none would descend into themselves Among Christians the Testimony of Conseience must needs be sacred their Consciences not lying as the Pagans in their blood or natural pollution but being purified by the precious Blood and Spirit of Christ their lamps of Reason not lying as the others in the damp and darkness of the fall but brought forth and new-lighted at the Scripture and Sun of Righteousness shining therein as in its orb Conscience in a Believer is as St. Bernard hath it Purum Religionis speculum a pure glass of Religion And as another Major pars clavium the greatest key in the Church such an excellent Witness may well speak in this Point In David it speaks thus O Lord I have walked in my integrity Psal 26.1 that is in the exercise of Faith Love Obedience and other Graces which as so many Pearls make up Sincerity In Hezekiah it speaks much after the same manner Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Isa 38.3 And it is the more to be noted because Conscience saith so in a way of appeal even to God himself and by a right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holds up the truth of its Graces to so pure a Sun This is such a Testimony as St. Paul joys and glories in 2 Cor. 1.12 Est quidam modus in Conscientia gloriandi ut noveris fidem tuam esse sinceram spem tuam certam caritatem tuam sine simulatione saith St Austin There is a kind of glorying in conscience when thou knowest thy Faith sound Hope certain and Love undissembled A Man that repents believes and loves may by the pulse of Conscience know that he doth so True saith Bellarmine he may know that he doth them but not that he doth them sicut oportet as he ought to do them Unto which I answer Conscience according to its Light and Line of Principles can bear Witness to Integrity natural Conscience to natural Integrity and renewed Conscience to gracious Integrity An instance of the former we have in Abimelech whose Conscience told him That he meant not to take away another mans Wise Gen. 20.5 and of the latter in St. Paul whose Conscience told him That his Conversation was in simplicity and godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Conscience which Witnesses Integrity must look beyond the meer matter of Acts into the modus for therein Integrity especially such as is gracious consists more than in the Acts themselves Unless a man know that he repents believes and loves sicut oportet he cannot know his own Sincerity and if he know his Sincerity he knows that he repents believes and loves aright A Believer converses much between Scripture and Conscience fetching his Notions from the one and his Evidences from the other In the Word he sees the Characters of Grace and in the Conscience the state of his Soul True Repentance mourns over sin as sin hates it as the greatest evil and casts it away as an accursed thing saith the Word and such is thy Repentance saith Conscience True Faith prizes Christ overcomes the World and works by Love saith the Word and such a Faith is thine saith Conscience True Love is inflamed from Gods sweetly acquiesces in him and obedientially resignes to him saith the Word and such a Love is thine saith Conscience Interroga cortuum Ask thy heart If Love be there saith St. Austin Ask again If Faith and Repentance be there thou hast an Oracle within that can tell thee what thou lovest most trustest in most and grievest for most that can shew thee thy Uprightness witness the Truth of thy Graces and feast thee with Divine Comforts such as pass understanding It was a great Comfort to the Nobleman when his Servants met him and told him Thy Son liveth John 4.51 But oh What is it to the Believer when such an one as Conscience comes and saith Thy Faith liveth or thy Love burneth towards God or thy Repentance is pure godly forrow Then the Oyl of Joy is upon every Grace and the Cup of Consolations runneth over Conscience becomes a banquetting-house and Assurance as Latimer calls it is the Sweet-meats We have heard one Witness but the Supream who drops all
the Suavities and dictates all the comfortable words in conscience is the Holy Spirit The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God saith the Apostle Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the Gifts or Graces but the very Spirit it self beareth witness that not only out wardly in the Word but in wardly in and with our spirit and its Testimony is That we are the children of God And the import of that Testimony over and above the title of Sonship is That our Faith which makes us his children Gal. 3.26 is true and our Love and other Graces which manifest us such are so also And what a Testimony is this To call it dubious or opinionative or conjectural is blasphemy Cornelius a Lapide as one under a necessity confesses this Testimony certain in it self but as a Salvo to the Doctrine of doubting adds That it is not certain to us But this is to forget the Apostles words That the Spirit witnesseth it in and with our spirit and withal absurdly to say That the Spirit indeed witnesseth but would not be believed or rather That it witnesseth and witnesseth not because an unheard Testimony is as none Bellarmine saith The Spirit witnesseth not by an express word but by an Experiment of internal peace and suavity which begets but a conjectural certainty I answer It 's true that it is not by an express word but as Learned Dr. Ward well observes The Question is not de modo Testandi but de Re. It is certain there is such a Testimony and that proceeding from the Spirit of Truth must be infallible and being made to our spirit must be known to us and so beget a true certainty in our hearts Nevertheless to illustrate this Point I shall a little consider the Modus of it The Spirit bears witness to ours partly by an application of the Promises to the heart partly by an irradiation of the Graces there These two make up the sealing of the Spirit of Promise given after believing Ephes 1.13 The Spirit applies the Promises to the Heart that is one part of the Seal As the spirit of bondage applies threatnings and thereby makes a kind of Hell in Conscience so the Spirit of Adoption applies Promises and by it makes a kind of Heaven there The same Spirit which endited the Promises of Pardon and put them into Scripture Seals and in a way of appropropriation puts them upon the Heart as if it should say This and that Promise is thine like that in the Prophet Speak to her heart that her iniquity is pardoned Isa 40.2 Now when the Promises come so close and pour out their sweetness into the heart the Believer may not guess only but know that true Faith and Repentance are there God and his Promise speak peace only to Saints and not a comfortable Word to impenitent sinners I have read of one who apostatized from his profession and on his sick-bed began to apply the Promises to himself but alas after a little seeming ease he cried out in despair That the Plaister would not stick God only can make it do so and he makes it do so only to penitent Believers and they may conclude the Truth of their Graces when the Gospel and its Promises come to them in the Holy Ghost and in much Assurance as the Expression is 1 Thessal 1.5 Again as another part of he Seal The Holy Spirit irradiates the Graces in the Heart The same Spirit which formed them there at first comes and owns them as its own off-spring bringing in such a Divine light and making such an efficacious representation thereof that the Believers Conscience may as the Apostle speaketh in another case Rom. 9.1 Bear witness in the Holy Ghost and say This is sound Repentance indeed and that is Love undissembled and the other is Faith unfeigned and so of other Graces in the new Creature These Graces carry in themselves a kind of heavenly light rendring them visible But when the Spirit comes it puts such a gloss and oriency on them that the Believer may know them to be freely given to him of God that this and that Grace are so given and such and such are the sure marks of the truth thereof Such a Testimony as this made learned Rivet at his dying hour break forth into these words Expecto credo persevero dimoveri nequeo Dei Spiritus meo spiritui testatur me esse ex filiis suis O amorem ineffabilem I expect believe persevere and cannot be moved Gods Spirit witnesseth to mine That I am one of his Children Oh ineffable Love This anointing is truth and no lye as St. John tells us 1 Joh. 2.27 It manifests its testimony and it self together The Believer cannot doubt who the Witness is or what he speaketh both are plain and satisfactory Our Saviour Christ speaking of the Spirit of Truth tells his Disciples Ye know him for he dwelleth with you Joh. 14.17 If the Spirit do but pass by and drop in an holy motion into the heart he may be known in it much more when he dwells and witnesses there Cul. White-stone The eloquent Culverwell compares him to the Sun The Sun saith he by its glorious Beams does Paraphrase and Comment upon its own glittering Essence and the Spirit Displays himself to the Soul and gives a full Manifestation of his Presence And a man may sooner take a Glow-worm for the Sun than an experienced Christian can take a false Delusion for the Light of the Spirit We have heard the two Witnesses the Holy Spirit by an application of Promises and irradiation of Graces witnessing to the Conscience and the Conscience ecchoing and resounding that Testimony to the Believer And hence it appears That he may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon It remains to treat of the second thing that is That he may be assured of his perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation He knows That his Graces are true and withal That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things having or containing Salvation Heaven buds and Eternal Life begins in them He that believeth hath everlasting life Joh. 5.24 He hath it in the first-fruits and irrevocable earnest of it The Seed of God in him will grow up into Immortality the Well of living Water will spring up into everlasting Life Only it may be alledged That these Graces may be lost Unto which I answer Abstractively in their meer creature-essence they may but in their dependance they cannot Their Standing if on mans Will only might fail but their Foundation on the Covenant of Grace cannot The Believer may not only see his own Graces but beyond them that Eternal Election which is the great Fountain thereof Reflecting on the true Graces in his heart he may say Here is the Faith of Gods Elect and Here is the Love and Patience of Gods Elect. Spiritual Blessings are given according to Election
that it were no sin spare it not but cause it to dye as a sure Pledg that all other sins shall do so Believe it This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the path of life or of those two lines of Holiness and Comfort If ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live saith the Apostle Rom. 8.13 an eternal life in Heaven and a comfortable one in the way thither Who knows but that whilst thou art mortifying thy sin God may come and speak to thee much as he did to Abraham when he was offering up his Isaac Now I know that thou repentest indeed and believest indeed seeing thou hast not withheld thy Sin thy Darling Sin from the work of Mortification Surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee Thy Comforts shall be as the Stars and as the Sand. When thou hast been a-slaying thy Lusts Jesus Christ will meet thee as Melchizedek did Abraham when he came from the slaughter of the Kings Bringing forth Bread and Wine Supportations and Divine Consolations to thy Soul Melchizedek's Bread and Wine were to Abraham Pawns of Canaan the Land of Promise and Christs Supports and Comforts shall be to thee Earnests of Heaven See what pure strains of Grace flow in the precious Promises made to the Overcomer To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he which receiveth it Rev. 2.17 O what things are here Comforts fall about the Overcomer and are preserved in his heart as the Manna fell about the Camp and was preserved in the Golden Pot. Pardon is the white stone and Adoption the new name and all these though secret to others are well known to himself But you 'l say These are promised to the Overcomer and who can say that he is such Is not the Canaanite still in the land Are there not reliques of Corruption in the best Doth not the flesh still lust against the spirit and the body of Death send out its stench and rottenness And who may call himself an Overcomer I answer The Canaanite is in the land but subdued Reliques of Sin are in thee but they do gravitare press and lye heavy as a thing out of its proper place and force thee to groan and cry out O wretched man The flesh lusts against the spirit but thou opposest might and main and if it be ready to prevail thou criest out as the forced Damosel under the Law for help against it as being too strong for thee If there be in thee a nolle peccatum a bent of heart against Sin and thou doest in purpose and endeavour fight against it and thou wouldst pursue it to death and if possible here to utter extirpation then assure thy self not withstanding the indwelling sin That thou art an Overcomer in Gods account who accepts the Will for the Deed and in the Gospels all whose Promises are made not to sinless perfection but sincerity To this purpose the Original in that famous place is remarkable It is not to him that overcometh but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that is overcoming to him that is praying striving wrestling fighting against Sin to him that is in an overcoming posture though the enemy be not quite out of the field to him shall those great Comforts in the Promise be given This made St. Paul maugre all the reliques of Corruption sound a Triumph to Free-Grace I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.25 as being sure of compleat Victory at last Again If thou wouldst have Assurance Be much in the holy use of Ordinances These are vehicula Spiritus the Chariots in which the Holy Spirit rides Circuit to do good to Souls These are canales Gratie the Conduit-pipes whereby Graces and Comforts are derived to us There God records his Name and commands the Blessing even Life for ever-more There he meets those that work righteousness and remember him in his ways David was so sensible of this that it was his one only desire to dwell in Gods house and behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beauties or sweet Amenities of the Lord Psal 27.4 If ever thou meetest with the Suavities and ravishing Beauties of Free-Grace it must be in the Sanctuary of Ordinances Christ when here on Earth was very ready to give a comfortable Testimony to those that came to him and brought their Graces with them Seeing upright Nathanael he said Behold an Israelite indeed Joh. 1.47 Seing their Faith he said to the poor Paralytick Son thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 Neither now though in Heaven is he wanting therein he hath a secret way of testifying by his Spirit unto those who in an holy manner approach to him in Ordinances Seeing thy holy fear at an Ordinance he can tell thee That thy Soul thall dwell at ease in the bosom of Mercy Seeing thy Faith there he can tell thee That as a true Believer thou hast everlasting life Whatever Grace thou bringest into his presence he can make one Promise or other drop sweetness upon it Wait on him in his own ways that he may speak Peace to thee more particularly Converse much with the sacred Word In the Gospel great things are set before us there 's a Glass of Gods Glory The more thou lookest into it the more thou wilt be transformed into the Divine Likeness there 's a Mass a Treasury of rich Grace the more thou searchest into it the more thou wilt taste how gracious the Lord is till thou come to the highest gust of it in Assurance there are the Breasts of Consolation suck on and thou shalt be satisfied as with marrow and fatness there thou hast the demonstration and ministration of the Spirit get as much as thou canst of it that thou mayst be sealed by it There the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith from a Faith of Adherence to a Faith of Assurance There is the savour of Life unto Life of a gracious Life unto a comfortable and glorious One. Be much in reading and hearing the Word but do it in an holy manner do it attentively take heed to it till the day dawn and the day-star arise in thy heart do it desiring the Word as the Babe doth the Breast that thou mayst grow into all the measures and statures of Christ do it in faith that the Word may profit and effectually work unto all Graces and Comforts do it in love to Truth and Righteousness that the oyl of gladness which is upon Christ thy Head may run down upon thee do it obedientially hearken to the Commands that thy Peace may be as a River flowing in the joys of Faith If thus thou wilt hear and open to Christ who stands and knocks at the door of thy heart He will come in to thee and sup with thee and thou with him Revel 3.20 He will come in to
here I recommend three things to thee To walk as in Gods presence To have an universal respect to his Commands and To carry a pure intention towards his Glory All these have a great tendency to Assurance Walk as in Gods Presence Remember that he is every-where Thou needest not a Vision or Jacobs Ladder where-ever thou art thy Faith can tell thee that God is in the place and it is too dreadful to sin in His Presence besets thee behind and before and thou canst not break away from it thy ways are all before him nay thy very heart He knows the make of it and stands by the inward Frame and secret Springs thereof seeing what is a forming there upon the Wheel and what thoughts are taking their flight from thence All is naked and open as in an Anatomy before his Face He is intimior intimo tuo nearer to thee than thou art to thy self Walk as in his Presence Live as under his all-seeing Eye Seneca would have us set a Cato or a Laelius before our eyes and to compose our Lives as in their Presence Magna pars peccatorum tollitur si peccaturis testis assistat saith he A present witness would prevent a great deal of sin Think thus with thy self Cave Spectat Deus Take heed God seeth Keep fresh apprehensions of him in thy thoughts Think purpose speak act do every thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of and in an holy congruity to his Presence Walk with him that thou mayst be translated though not as Enoch corporally into Heaven yet as a sincere Believer mentally into the Suburbs of it in the Manifestations of Gods Favour Look stedfastly constantly unto him that thou mayst have sweet Aspects and Love-glances from him Thou mayst have his Favourable Presence whilst thou livest under his Awful one The upright shall dwell in thy presence Psal 140 that is in thy gracious Presence They set him before them and he causes his Grace and Love to pass before them In the next place Have an universal respect to his Commands It is a vulgar Rule among the Jewish Doctors That men should single out some one Command out of the Law and exercise themselves therein that God may be their Frsend and bear with them other things But this is to Indent and Article with God upon our own Terms The Hypocrite as one elegantly expresses it like a globous body touches the Law in some one point in some particular Command but the Upright at least in desire and endeavour lies close and level to all the Will of God The Pharisees seemed to be very much for the First Table but after all their Fasting and Prayer they could swallow down Widows Houses and so give the lye to all their Devotions The Moralist seems to be as much for the Second Table but as fair as his Life is towards Man he is very unjust to God stealing away that heart which is infinitely more due to him than the justest of Debts can be to our Neighbour If thou wouldst be assured thou must have an universal respect to his Command do not pick and chuse among them but as David be for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Wills of God as Zachary and Elizabeth walk in all his Commandments Wherever the Divine stamp is there let thy Obedience be that thou mayst have a great Reward Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal 97.11 Upon sincere Obedience a crop of Comfort comes up and because by Promise much surer than that of the Husbandman which is under Providence only The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Psal 11.7 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their faces behold the upright the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Three Persons in the Sacred Trinity do all look with a loving Aspect upon such an one Our Saviour hath told us as much If a man sincerely keep the holy Words The Father and the Son will come to him and make their abode with him John 14.23 And a little after follows a Promise of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter verse 26. Walk uprightly and thou art in a posture to receive sweet manifestations of Love from the whole Sacred Trinity In the last place carry a pure Intention towards Gods Glory This is the single eye in the Body of Duties all our good Works lie in the dark without it the want of this was as a black line drawn over Amaziah's vertue He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. 25.2 Jehu was anointed and appointed by God to destroy Ahabs House and yet for want of a pure Intention was reckoned as a Murderer for doing so Hos 1.4 That which is true Prayer when it comes from Zeal may be but howling when it comes from Lust Hos 7.14 Those Moral Vertues which are very glossie in the Matter may in the End be no better than splendid sins The End is the purest off-spring of a rational Spirit and a cardinal circumstance in every Action The Soul conceives all its Thoughts before the End as Labans Ewes did their young before the Rods. As the End is earthly or heavenly so is the Man and his Acting Remember O Believer that thou wast not made a Man or a Saint Thy Lamp of Reason was not set up at first or new-lighted afterwards by Grace that thou shouldst center on any thing less than God himself or take thy aim lower than his Glory Set thy heart on that great End look right on it with a single eye whether thou eatest or drinkest or prayest or hearest or whatever good work thou art about carry on the great Design That God in all may be glorified How taking this is with Christ He himself hath told us Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck faith he to his Church Cant. 4.9 A pure Intention is that single eye and Obedience that chain of the neck which in Believers doth excordiate and ravish the heart of Christ himself And what sweet returns will he make upon such taking Graces Their Graces ravish his Heart and his Comforts will ravish theirs Their thoughts are upon Gods Glory and Gods are upon their Peace With the upright he will shew himself upright with the pure he will shew himself pure They are upright in Duties and he will be upright in Promises They give him pure Intention and he will give them pure Mercy such as is the sealing of his Love upon their Hearts The pure in heart shall see him not in the bliss-making Vision only but before in those Love-glances which are the First-fruits of Heaven here below Again If thou wouldst be assured be much in charity and doing good As the Elect of God put on bowels of Mercy Open thy heart to the poor in Pity and thy hand
in Charity draw out thy Alms and with them thy Soul give outward Things and which is more thy Self in real compassion Cast thy Bread upon the Waters upon the Tears of the Poor that it may be carried into the Ocean of Eternity and there found again in a glorious Reward When an Object of Charity meets thee Say not Go and come again pass not by as the Priest and Levite did but as the good Samaritan immediately pour in thy Wine and Oyl into the Wounds of thy Brother omit no Season of Charity Now is thy Seed-time scatter thy good Works Sow upon Blessings as the Phrase is 2 Cor. 9.6 Now Christs Bank is open put in thy Money upon holy Usury and God himself will be thy Pay-Master Be still a-doing of good that in thy little sphere thou mayst resemble him who doth good in the great sphere of Nature His Sun shines and Rain falls every-where Be as like him as thou canst shining in good Works and dropping in Charities upon all occasions Give a Portion to seven and also to eight saith the Preacher Eccles 11.2 From this Text the Jews ground a Custom to give an Alms to seven or eight poor people every day However that be we should be much in Charity Look on the Poor as Gods Altars erected on purpose That upon their Backs and Bellies thou mayst offer up thy Charity as an Odour of a sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God Be rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up a good Foundation against the time to come This is the way to Assurance Works of Mercy and Charity make Faith visible and withal put the Believer into a nearer capacity to have the Love of God manifested to him They make Faith visible no Assurance can be had unless that Query Whether we be in the Faith be resolved in the Affirmative That cannot be done unless Faith become visible and more visible it cannot be than in such good Works which as the holy Blossoms of it prove that there is Life at the root The Mercy and Charity which hang upon it may tell thee That thou hast indeed closed by Faith with the infinite Love and Grace above and from thence brought down all those drops and models of Goodness which thou sheddest forth in thy Conversation The Fruit may prove thy standing in Christ the true Root of fatness and sweetness The Image of Goodness limmed and drawn out upon thy Life shews it self to be from the pure Spirit St. John exhorting the little children to a real practical Love adds this as a singular Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this Love we know that we are of the Truth and shall assure our hearts before him 1 John 3.18 19. It thou love thy Brother in Deed and in Truth assure thy self that thou art of the Truth That the holy truth of the Gospel is mixed with faith in thy Heart and there grows up into the Divine life and likeness Say not That thy Faith is dead or idle as long as it can shew forth the Coats and Garments the Alms and good Works which it hath done these shew the life and labour of it Nay further these put thee into a nearer capacity to have the Love of God manifested to thee God in the Prophet commands them to deal their bread to the hungry to cover the naked not to hide themselves from their own flesh and immediately after lets out himself in sweet Promises to them Thy righteousness shall then go before thee Isa 58.8 that is thy Graces shall visibly appear to thee And again Thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say here am I ver 9. that is He will be very near and ready at hand to reveal himself to thee And which is more as St. John tells us he will dwell in thee He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 He dwells in the Divine Life and the Divine Presence dwells in him He hath a Shechinah nay and an Oracle in his own bosom God will speak peace to his Saints Psal 85.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his merciful ones with them he will shew himself merciful to them he will speak from the Mercy-seat they give but ordinary Bread but receive from him hidden Manna they draw out their Souls to their Brethren and he draws out his Soul to them In the last place if thou wouldst be assured set thy heart on God and Christ and Heaven stay no longer in the straits of this lower World take thy flight by Faith and Love into the sphere of Infinity where thy Soul may open and dilate it self for ever Hang no longer about the drops and little particles of Being put forth thy Soul might and main into the great ocean of Sweetness and Perfection which is able to fill up thy two vast Capacities of Mind and Will with its unmeasurable Truth and Goodness Warm thy Heart no more among the little sparks of Good here below soar up upon the wings of Desire and ardent Affection to that pure immutable Sun of Love and Goodness one of whose golden rays of favour will be more to thee than a World Thou hast O Believer a Soul twice Heaven-born once as it is in its own nature an immortal spark from above and again as it bears the impress of Heaven in its Graces And answerably thou hast a double impetus after Happiness one in the instinct of nature thirsting after it and another in the more Divine impulses of Grace pressing towards it as its Center Think not that such a Soul shall ever find rest till it come back to the first point from whence it issued and resign up it self to its Original in the bosom of God Inflame thy Heart with Love to Jesus Christ who is altogether lovely and wholly desirable In his Righteousness thou maist stand and look up to the sweet reconciled face of God In his bleeding wounds thou hast a passage into the infinite bowels of Mercy through the veil of his flesh the way is open to the Holy of Holies The oyl upon his head can fill thee with joy unspeakable and glorious Lift up thine eyes O Believer to that wonder of wonders God manifested in the flesh from whence come all the admirable indwellings of God in the spirits of Men. Set thy Heart upon that Infinite Mass and Treasure of Merit which paid off all the scores to Divine Justice and over and above bought all the Glory of Heaven for poor worms Ravish thy Soul in the rich redundancies and over-measures of the Spirit upon him which overflow and fill so many thousand precious Souls with Grace Look stedfastly upon that pure mirrour of Love Holiness Meekness Goodness Obedience Patience which is in his flesh look till thou shine with the same image or spiritual Idea of Grace look till thou art captivated in raptures and flames of Love towards