having this Seal the Lord knoweth them that are his that the purpose according to Election might stand Even so at this present also there is a remnant according to the election of grace All that the Father giveth me shall come to me I know my Sheep and I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish Ye are come to the Church of the first born which are inrolled in Heaven rejoyce that your Names are written in Heaven Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire Insomuch if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. So that howsoever Salvation in the execution of it depends upon the conditional use of the means yet the will of God is not conditional incompleat or mutable because God hath absolutely purposed to give his Elect both will and power to perform those very conditions required namely Repentance Faith and Perseverance For the Decree of God predestinating must not be considered after this form I will choose Peter to Eternal Life if it shall so happen that he doth believe but rather thus I do choose Peter to Eternal Life which that he may infallibly obtain I will give him faith As many as were ordained to eternal life believed according to the faith of God's Elect. Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation All gifts of grace leading into the habitation of holiness and whom to salvation are the fruits and effects of Eternal Election Neither is it true that we are Elected for faith and holiness for we are Elected unto both according as he hath chosen us in him that we should be holy Election therefore is before the spiritual blessings both in order and time Ye have not chosen me but I haven chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God As for this only General Election of all and every Man to salvation upon condition of faith it is indeed alone no Election because it predestinates no Man actually severs no one from another writes no Name in the Book of Life ordains no individual to have his habitation in God but only prescribes the manner of coming to salvation promiscuously to all neither by it is it decreed who shall be saved but what manner of Men. Moreover who holds this Universal Election alone must also grant an Universal reprobation For if God will only have all to be saved indefinitely if they will believe he willeth likewise that all shall be damned that do not believe and so God neither chooseth or refuseth any antecedently Finally this opinion makes Man's will to over-rule God's counsel Nor can you believe God's equal love to all Men when you hear him professing that he did not equally love two who were equal by Nature nor that he desires the salvation of all alike because all are not converted and saved it being as easie for him to effect as desire and by his effectual Grace to make Men of unwilling willing without destroying their voluntary liberty 3. Touching the efficacy of God the Holy Ghost working Conversion that it is not to be restrained to moral perswasion only which Man 's will may embrace or reject and finally resist is abundantly evinced by that one Text where the Apostle heaps up so many emphatical and significant words on purpose to declare the power of the spirit of God put forth in the conversion of a sinner That they may know what is the hyberbolical greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead To which many more may be added and that it depends not upon Man's free-will which can neither convert it self nor overcome divine grace to put forth for his conversion The Scripture every where plainly and expresly teacheth I mean that grace which is given with an absolute purpose to convert See 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. Col. 2. 12. 2 Thes 1. 11. Luk. 11. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 3. Next to the principal efficient causes of their happiness the instrumental are to be owned and thanked Those from whom you had your natural beeing without which you had not been capable of this or any other good Honour is due to natural Parents how poor how bad soever nor must they be despised for any default of body or mind and it is a point of piety to relieve them if they be in want Nor can you ever sufficiently requite them though it must be your study so to do Let them learn first to shew piety at home and requite their Parents for this is acceptable before God Your spiritual Parents are much more to be honoured and much less to be contemned for as much as they have been instruments of your better beeing your being in Christ in God without which you had better to have been Dogs or Toads Yea good had it been for you if you had never been born In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel Think nothing too dear for these I bear you record that if it had been possible ye would have pluckt out your own Eyes and have given them unto me Time was when you held your selves happy in me and blessed the time that ever you saw and heard me Howbeit I do not say unto thee how thou owest me even thine own self Bless also all those who have been fellow-helpers with these by informing convincing reproving instructing advising comforting you against despair All these call for thankfull acknowledgment Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this Day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me from avenging my self Let the Righteous smite me reprove and chide me It shall be a kindness I will thank him for it and God for him for it and God for him The next sort of Persons to whom you owe duty to the performance whereof I shall earnestly exhort you are they who as yet are without God in the World to whom it may be said They have neither part nor lot in this matter but are in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity And that not only without the Pale of the Church Twenty-Six parts of the World divided into Thirty-One having not so much as the Name of Christians and of those Five that are Christians in Name What a World of Papists are there besides Hereticks that cut off themselves from the true Church But even in the reformed Churches and even in this Land of light and Valley of Vision there are six sorts and a great number of them who dwell not
pardon I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I see not teach thou me If I have done iniquity I will do no more Confess thy sins with such an honest as well as broken heart and thou needest not fear but God will open the Door to thee and let thee see himself again He that keepeth his sins upon his conscience disguiseth and dissembleth them and doth not confess them to God and to Men also if need require it shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercy Let your sins be of what sort they will of ignorance infirmity presumption those three Parables of the lost Sheep and the lost Goat and of the Prodigal may give you ground of assured hope after such confession and supplication for a pardon that thou shalt not fail to receive it and the sense of it Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wool If convinced in your own Consciences you give glory to God by a free confession and fly to his mercy by faith and a lively conversion He will quickly cause you to feel by effect the forgiveness of your sins let them be never so grievous This is the Voice of the second of those general Laws I mentioned called the Law of Faith the Doctrine which offereth and promiseth remission of sins and salvation requiring only in order hereunto repentance and faith Repent ye and believe the Gospel The two great Gospel commands which you with whom I am dealing have been inabled by grace to yield obedience unto whereby you have made the Lord your Habitation Nevertheless they are duties which all the Days of your life you are bound to be doing To act both these graces every Day as there is occasion and there will be occasion for acting both while you have a Day to live to renew your repentance and to live by your faith as it is written The just shall live by his Faith The meaning is he shall live healthfully happily blessedly in which sence living is taken John 4. 51. 1 Sam. 10. 24. psal 38. 19. 1 Thes 3. 8. And that this is the Prophets meaning appeares from the scope and occasion of the words in the 1st Chap. he complains and expostulates in the beginning of the second the Lord answers the just shall have deliverance but it shall not be yet The Vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lye though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry The Prophet might have objected and asked but how shall the afflicted Jewes be able to live in the mean season for Seventy Years together The Lord answers by a distinction the unjust puffes up himself with vain confidence But the just shall live by his Faith Whence it is evident that true Faith if well mannaged is able to keep a life yea to make him live healthfully and happily even in the worst and sadest times and to this conclusion these Scriptures give suffrage 2 Chr. 20. 20. Psal 27. 13. Dan. 6. 23. Esa 50 10. 26. 3. Heb. 10. 39. 2 Cor. 1. 24. And reasons grounded upon Scripture come in as Auxiliaries 1. From the Object of Faith namely the promises which are meet matter to maintain life Phil. 2. 16. John 6. 63. Jer. 15. 16. 1 Pet. 2. 2. Esay 55. 1. 12. 3. 66. 11. Cant. 2. 5. Job 15. 11. 2. From the Nature and Office of Faith which is to rest upon God's faithfulness for the performance of these promises it certifies and assures the Soul that all shall certainly be made good Psal 89. 34. Numb 23. 19. By this means saith gives a Christian actual present possession of all good things even in their absence Faith is the substance hoped for that is it gives substance to things that have no Beeing The evidence of things not seen that is that it both convinceth the judgment that such things must come to pass and it makes the mind conceive them really present Joh. 8. 56. 1 Cor. 10. 3. 3. From the fruits or if you will the Children and Daughters of Faith which are attendant on her and helpful to her in maintaining life namely hope which keeps the heart alive by expecting better when things are at the worst banisheth despair is compared to an Helmet and Anchor 2. Joy this is the juice of Faith the Souls strength banisheth sorrow eats up all Earthly griefs 3. Courage and boldness which expells fear 4. Love this makes bitter things sweet causing a cheerful willingness to suffer the hardest things for the sake of the party beloved 5. From a singular property and power that is in Faith to break through all difficulties leap over all carnal objections and remove all impediments Rom. 4. 18 22. Qu. How may we mannage our Faith so as to maintain this life of joy and comforts Ans Your care must be to make this sure not only that you are within the compass of God's special Covenant to them that are out of this belong no promises nothing but threatnings and curses but also that these special qualifications are in you which are annexed to particular promises the fruition whereof depends upon the practice of some choice part of obedience which if you neglect you do but presume and tempt God in making title and laying claim to them Compare Psal 91. 11 12. with Mat. 4. 6 7. 2. This done learn Four things concerning the promises 1. The matter which is supply of all good and deliverance from all evil 2. The kind or quality of them the principle promise indeed is absolute but all the rest are conditional these shall all be literally fulfilled for you so far forth as they may be subservient to that 3. The manner of propounding them some promises are expresly declared both general and special ones others are by consequence implyed in the examples or prayers of the faithful 4. The several wayes of God's performing his promises Sometimes he gives his People the very thing he promiseth Sometimes he denyeth that and gives them some thing equipollent proportionable instead of it or else that which he knows is far better for them 5. You must in every state of life when you finde need set your Faith on work both to fetch in provision out of the Word and to prepare it and to apply it 1. The way to bring in provision for the maintenance of life is by the memory whatsoever faith doth in the Soul it doth it by the help of this faculty Heb. 12 5 6. Forgetfulness is the cause of fainting in all time therefore of need when-ever you are brought to any streight that you can see no way of escape or means of relief but begin to faint and sink under
Jesus Christ apprehending and applying the promises of pardon made in his blood Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved 2. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit By spirit are meant the gifts or workings of the Holy Ghost which are twofold one inferiour once slightly enlightning Mens mindes this is common to the Elect with many reprobates who are said to be made partakers of the Holy Ghost All that before God are rightfully baptized receive the Holy Ghost according to the promise No Man being able to say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The other is a supream gift peculiar to the Elect only a new quality of Holiness infused into the Soul transforming the whole Man effecting a real change and alteration of the whole Man from evil to good enabling him to make a good confession and to walk in Love which are the two next Characters 3. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God This confession includes and comprehends in it four things 1. A distinct and cordial knowledge of this and all other fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith which are inseparable in their own Nature For if Jesus Christ be the Son of God all his Doctrine must be a Divine and everlasting truth Especially of that which the Gospel reveals concerning Christ namely that he is an alsufficient Saviour and offered indefinitely to every reasonable Creature that will receive him in a Matrimonial Covenant as a Wife receives her Husband to be governed by him and to cleave unto him in every condition 2. A lively assent of the mind to all this is an undoubted truth with a free and full consent of the will to this blessed offer for the incomparable goodness of it rolling and relying upon his Person and merits for the obtaining of remission of sins and everlasting life after Death According to that of the Apostle This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners 3. A Verbal acknowledgment of these and all other known and believed Gospel Verities with an open profession of them before the face of the World That this is necessary to be found in every one that would approve himself to have Interest in God and possession of him as his Habitation appeares belike in God's grace by Christ is by faith in the heart as in a lively Spring and in confession as a continual respiration both which are promised in the Gospel For what saith Moses The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the Word of Faith which we Preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart Man believeth unto Righteousness and with the Mouth confession is made unto Salvation Nor can the one be without the other For when God hath once said unto any Mans heart I have called thee by thy Name thou art mine That Mans heart cannot but answer and say Lord I am thine O Lord truly I am thy Servant I am thy Servant And what he hath heard in the Ear he cannot but declare in the hearing of others One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the Name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand and surname himself by the Name of Israel All manner of Persons that shall joyn themselves to me with my Church shall make open profession of my faith and service and therefore he that is ashamed of Christ and his Words in an adulterous and sinful Generation that would hate and reproach and persecute him for a strict profession thereof or is affrighted hereby from making such a profession God will never own nor Christ acknowledge such a one Their hidden faith shall not hide them from the wrath of God who will take Eternal Vengeance on them for their Cowardize They who through carnal fear shall not dare to make profession of my truth saith Christ shall have their part fixed in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone These lead the Van in the rout of Reprobates marching thitherward Among the Chief Rulers many believed on Christ but did not make publick profession of believing in him for fear of excommunication this faith of theirs was properly no faith For a true and lively faith confesseth that with the Mouth which is believed in the Heart This duty of confessing God was figured under the Law by the shaking of things offered waving them to and fro before the Lord which signified the shaking of our Lips as in uttering and speaking forth his praise By him let us offer the Sacrifice to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name So the telling forth frankly and boldly what we hold in matter of Religion 4. A Vital confession joyned to a Verbal There are some whose lives give their Mouths the lye They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable disobedient and unto every good work Reprobate Unto the wicked God saith what hast thou to do to declare my statutes seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee God is love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him This is a sure note and character of our dwelling in God when we finde that we love God for himself and our Neighbour for his sake In obedience to his Command Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And because of his Image which is more or less visible in every Man by this we may try the truth of the first note for the love of God is the root of all true obedience to his Commandments Nothing we do is good in his sight unless we do it out of love to him When our Saviour gives the sum of the precepts of the first Table he does it in these words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Giving us thereby to understand what makes all the service there required to be acceptable unto God The same makes the duties of the second Table so Let all your things be done in love Follow the truth in love Above all these things put on Love This makes them all lovely Love is the fulfilling of the Law Qu. How may we know we have this love to God and Men Answ Where there is true love to God the heart is softned The sight and sence of sin will fill it with sorrow for offending God thereby Zech. 12. 10. Psal 51. 3. Luk. 7. 38 47. and there will be a Daily increase of hatred of sin a greater desire after and delight in the
hypocrites have been conversant in them even afflicting their souls and fasting frequently and praying on such Days very servently And this is that which God's Ministers are bound to press upon Men that are in a natural condition to do matter of duty to set themselves as objects of the spirit of God attending upon Divine Ordinances As a neglected Courtier sets himself in the Kings sight standing and waiting where he usually passeth and there humbly faces him It is observed that the Spirits out-goings are only upon such as face him He goes right on and turns not as he goes They must do as Esther did who esteemed her self as lovely as she could in the Kings sight set her self in the best dress she had as an object of the Kings call and see what good success she had by so doing Qu. How far doth nature qualifie her self for grace when she reacheth forth her abilities as far as she can Answ 1. Morally God took occasion from Ahab's humiliation to spare his life when upon hearing of Elijah's words he rent his cloaths put Sack-cloath upon his flesh and fasted and lay in Sack-cloth and went softly seest thou saith God unto the Prophet how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his Days So he took occasion from what those noble Bereans did in bringing their Bodies to publick Assembly takeing the heads of Paul's Sermons and examining the Notes they had taken by the Scriptures to work effectual faith in them 2. Passively a Man makes himself an object of the grace Life a handle for the Spirit to lay hold upon when he harps upon the string of his misery Cries out of his sin implores mercy and waits for grace in the use of means And it is not only possible that he may be translated out of the state of nature into the state of grace but probable he shall be so The Gospel being the market of grace he that goes to buy there without Money it 's probably he may be furnished to his mind As they that lay at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the moving of the Water were in fair probability to be healed of their Diseases The Scribe that answered discreetly was not far from the Kingdom of God If there be no certainty of obtaining saving grace yet this should not discourage any natural Man from doing their utmost for the obtaining of it no more than the Husband-man is discouraged from Plowing Sowing because he is not certain he shall have his seed again No more is the Merchant sure he shall have his Ship come home laden with goods yet he ventures and so do all that trade for earthly commodities The Argument or motive to pains-taking from a peradventure or may be hath a force in it 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. Dan. 4. 27. Joel 2. 14. Zeph. 2. 3. They that neglect to use the means are sure to perish and such are most Men in these last Days who embezzel Nature's abilities make her poorer than she is strip her naked even of common Principles Sensual livers that drown all in Belial manners and having stifled Conscience give themselves over to work all uncleanness with greediness live as if they had no God to serve no soul to save or as if their souls served only as the souls of Swine to keep their Bodies from putrifying They that are less licentious and lead a civil life are generally prodigiously sloathful work not at all or not with half their might as if grace and glory were not worth the while to labour for Now them that are such we command and exhort to be impatient of a natural condition to look upon grace as lovely and the Mother of delights Herb. Ch. the Foil If we could see below The Spheer of Virtue and each shining grace As plainly as that above doth show This were the better Skie the brighter place God hath made Stars the foyle To set off Virtues Griefs to set off sinning Yet in this wretched World we toyle As if Grief were not foul nor Virtue winning Thus saith the Lord God O ye House of Israel let it suffice you of all your abominations It is now even time to turn over a new leaf Let possibility and probability put you upon straining your selves with all your strength for the improving of Nature in her abilities and prove me now herewith saith the Lord. If so the common grace I have given you to actuate nature I will not also add sanctifying saving Grace Yea let me assure you that if you finde in your selves a valuing of an estate of Grace in your selves above all earthly things and a vehement and constant desire to have admission into God's Grace and savour and that not only for the benefit and comfort it brings with it but for the beauty and excellency it brings with it also at least you would and wish heartily that it were the ground of your desire and if withall your purpose and resolution be to persevere in the use of all the means appointed to bring you to this estate God hath begun a work of Grace in your Souls which he will perfect and you are in the number of those thrice happy People whose habitation the Lord Jehovah is With whom we are next to deal And first with those whose habitation God is sure enough but they have no comfortable assurance that he is so Cannot say as David here in my Text He is my refuge I say they are not comfortably assured for there are none whose habitation the Lord is are utterly without all assurance Certainly the Lord is theirs that he dwells in them and they in him but many of them know not that they have this knowledge and some of them deny it yea conceive and conclude that they are out of God and as far from him as Hell from Heaven That it 's possible for Men to know a thing and not to know they know it yea to deny that they know it appears by these words of Thomas in the name of all his fellow Disciples to our Saviour who had assured him that Whither he went they knew and knew the way Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way They knew both but they knew not that they knew either And that Men in the state of Grace and abiding in God may be so far from any sensible and comfortable assurance of their interest in God of his love and favour towards them that they may seem to be assured of the contrary apprehend him as their mortal Enemy appeares by those words of Job He teareth me in his wrath who hateth me Mine Enemy sharpeneth his Eyes upon me Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine Enemy Now the Grounds and Reasons why many precious Souls have such doubts and feares and are apt to pass such a sad conclusion
quite cut off from the spiritual communion with Christ the true foundation of life and grace Or if they have brought forth any fruit at any time materially good the root and manner and end have been all naught stark naught worse than naught They never did any thing for God in obedience and out of love to him or with an intent to honour and please him thereby Take them at the best and it may be said of them what was said of Israel Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit unto himself They have been self-seekers and selfdependers and self-ascribers in all that ever they have seemed to do for God Answ To this Objection I have these two things to say 1. That it is possible for a Man to be in God and yet to see no goodness at all in himself nothing but evil nothing at all to commend him to God nothing but what may make him odious in his sight The Centurion saw nothing of worth in himself why Christ should come to him or he to Christ Though others thought him to be a worthy Man and so reported him to be to Christ And Christ himself gives testimony not only he had true faith but a great measure of it I have not found so great faith no not in Israel No more did the Woman of Canaan see any goodness in her self she confesseth her self to be an unclean Person but Christ both graceth and gratifieth her gives a very high commendation of her Heroical Faith And what goodness saw Paul in himself when he said I am a carnal Man sold under sin Hear the Confession of our Holy Mother and all her Genuine Children We are all an unclean thing all our righteousness is as filthy rags We acknowledge that our Persons and all our actions even the most praise worthy of them namely those wherewith we did thy service are all contaminated with abominable filth 2. That it is an Argument of true goodness to see little goodness much evil in thy self If thou canst and dost bewail the absence of that the presence of this findest a disallowance and deep detestation of it in thy heart and makest continual resistance against it Mourning for the want and absence of a friend argues truth of affection and love to him Thou wouldst not couldst not grieve because thou art not good if there were not in thee a love of goodness And the sight of so much sin in thy Soul proves thee to have light in it For whatsoever doth make manifest is Light And thy sensibleness of the burden of thy sins tells thee that thou livest much more thy stirring and strugling to be rid of them and the War thou makest against them A dead man can neither feel nor stir nor strive there is therefore spirit in thee as well as flesh For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Every new Man is two Men. The two Armies in the Shulamite maintain civil broyles within her as the two Babes did in Rebecca's Womb. This Combate with Corruption may comfort thee Though still I must grant that as there is natural life and conscience in the wicked so common Grace may strive uneffectually in them And the Spirit in the Godly does conquer their reigning sin as well as strive but not all their infirmities Saint Paul doth comfort himself with this raising up his Soul even to an holy insultation and triumphing For after he had described the two contrary principles the Combatants within him the unregenerate and regenerate part and the combate or conflict it self between them That hindering from the evil which he would do and putting him upon the evil he would not do This disapproving and hating the evil which he did and approving the good which he did not he comforts himself in this that he consented to the Law of God delighted in it that to will to keep it perfectly was present with him and although he found a foyl given to the new man captivated which makes him make a miserable out-cry Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death that is tyed to me and which I am compelled to carry about with me tired with the luggage and poysoned with the stench Yet through the Grace of God in Jesus Christ I am filled with comfort rejoyce and triumph as more than a Conqueror I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of Sin I bless God for his Grace in Christ who doth not impute this corruption unto me to condemnation But still that it is only sins of infirmity and not such as are inconsistent with spiritual life which were in Paul and are in all the Godly So though thou seest nothing but Flesh in thy self if a Man may believe thee yet thou walkest not after it for though thou walkest in the Flesh yet thou dost not fulfill the lusts of the flesh followest not with consent the motions of thy own natural corruption Thou sowest not to the Flesh taking no other care but to please thy carnal appetite but on the contrary thou sowest to thy Spirit imploying thy care and labour in obedience to the motions of the Holy Spirit that thy will is to do so thou canst say in sincerity and this may be thy rejoycing as it was Paul's Obj. But I am full of hypocrisie which Paul was free from all the signes of hypocrisie that I finde in the Bible I finde in my self not one sign of sincerity Answ What the Apostle saith of Sin in general If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves may be said of this sin of hypocrisie if we say we have no hypocrisie the truth of Grace is not in us Obj. But it 's said of Israelites indeed that there is no guile in them And they only are blessed in whose Spirit there is no guile therefore I have cause to conclude my self cursed Answ These places must be understood as those where it is said Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin and his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God They also do no iniquity The meaning is they give not themselves over to sin they sin not with full consent they fall not into the purpose though sometimes into the act of Sin Sin reigns not in their mortal Bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof It hath not Dominion over them Obj. But this Sin of Hypocrisie Reignes in me Answ But that it doth not is evident by this because thou discernest it and art so troubled with it complainest to God and Men of it and judgest thy self for it and hatest it
distress and vexation of mind call to mind such promises as are fitted to your condition For there can be no condition imagined but there are promises suited to it and a Christian wisdome must be to accommodate the remedy to the sore and malady of his heart Enquire what word there is in God's Book to still the tempests and distempers of your spirits and then make application of it Promises faithfully remembered and well digested will arm and fortifie your Souls that they shall be able to put any case of trouble inward or outward and come off victoriously and triumphantly Put case you be as poor as Job Lazarus the Prophets Widdow Call to mind the promises of temporal blessings in abundance Put case you be persecuted by the tongues or hands of wicked Men call to mind the promises that you shall be delivered your enemies confounded Put case your hearts be heavy for some great losses of Goods or Friends Call to mind the promises that you shall be gainers by your losses Put case your spirits be wounded with the sense of Divine wrath Call to mind the promises of pardon peace and rest Put case your Graces be weak and corruptions strong Call to mind the promises of sanctification and quickening Put case some great eminent danger threaten you Call to mind the promises that nothing shall hurt you that every thing that befalls you shall work together for your spiritual and eternal good 2. Provision thus brought in by the Memory the next work of Faith is to prepare and make it fit nourishment This is done by searching for and finding out that Grace or part of obedience upon which the fruition of the promise depends to which sufficient hath been spoken already nor will it be disheartned for weakness if there be truth yea if no more than a true desire Mat. 5. 3 6. Neh. 1. 11. The third and last chief work of Faith is application of the promises to your selves in particular this is feeding upon the provisions brought in and dressed Faith first does its utmost to assure the soul that what God hath promised is already done Mark 11. 24. 15. 28. Job 13. 15. Yea and it makes it good thus 1. It hath Christ and he is all 2. It hath if not the thing promised as good or better 3. When it findes much ado It goes to God and seeks help of him Mark 9. 24. 2 Chr. 20. 12. Psal 73. 23. 24. 27. and concludes with the Psalmist 60. 12. 73. 1. You will be sure to finde while you live here on Earth the Devil ever anon throwing his Fiery darts into your Souls You must take the Apostles advice to stand alwayes Armed with the whole Armour of God Above all taking the Shield of Faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all his Fiery Darts THE EIGHTH SERMON YOu have heard what the Daily Duty is of all who live and dwell in God viz. To live by Faith How faith maintains the Soul in life and the Apostle bidding you to take the Shield of Faith and to use and move and mannage it according to the place Satan casting his Darts at you aimes at and according to the kindes of his temptations I shall give you a truth and tast how faith may be mannaged and what the several acts of Faith are by which the fierceness of these Darts of Satan may be quenched There are six Fiery Darts besides many others which Sathan throwes at the Souls of those that dwell in God whereby he works them much disquiet and trouble The first and worst is concerning the forgiveness of sins He would and often doth perswade them that their sins are unpardoned and that God will damn them for their manifold transgressions and mighty sins The apprehension of this fills their Souls with horror nor can the greatness and grievousness of this affliction be expressed A second is Concerning their spiritual Estate he would make them believe they are yet in a state of Unregeneracy and that the Root of the matter is not in them but that they are but painted Hypocrites A third is Concerning Mortification of Lusts and Sanctification of Life neither of which they have attained and they are afraid they never shall A fourth is Fear of Poverty and temporal Misery what will become of them in sickness and old Age they cannot tell want coming on them like an Armed Man this Dart sets on Fire many Lusts A fifth is Concerning the right use of prosperity and adversity Satan perswades them they neither do nor ever shall use either rightly A sixth is Fear of falling away Faith rightly mannaged will blunt the piercing points of all these Darts and take away all the burning Poyson in them and so repell them that the Soul shall not be hurt at all by them though until Faith have done it suffer much affliction by each of them I shall not now undertake to shew what be the several acts of Faith that have force to overcome these several temptations but will declare very briefly what those acts are whereby Faith supports and settles the Soul and makes it victorious in any trouble or affliction whatsoever inward or outward which may be applyed to any of the cases fore-mentioned Qu. What use will this Doctrine be to those that are not under any trouble that have no manner of affliction upon them Ans There is no Christian that is at any time of his life free from all affections no Day comes so fair over any godly Man's head wherein he meets not with some matter of grief yea so much that he findes enough ado to sustain and master it Luk. 9. 23. 2. Those that are now free from affliction may they know not how soon be hem'd in compassed about and overwhelmed with variety of afflictions as Job was and therefore ought to live in continual expectation of crosses and distresses publick domestical personal and although there are great hopes of peaceable times yet hopes may be frustrate our sins are many and mighty which gives us just cause to fear God's judgments we have also Enemies many and politick and malicious and the Devil and his Instruments are busie but howsoever how calm soever the publick state may be yet afflictions and miseries may and will sure enough befall those that fear God If not outward yet inward Many are the afflictions of the righteous And manifold are their infirmities in their afflictions and therefore they are called by that name Evils will not come the sooner because expected but they will fall the lighter And faith is necessary that they may so do it cannot therefore but be necessary and profitable to acquaint you with the acts of Faith in general at least whereby a Christian Soul may be upheld in evil times against all afflictions and miseries whatsoever This grace well acted will bring
be Governours of Families set before you the example of the virtuous Woman Pro. 31. 13 28. If Servants Eleazar and Jacob Gen. 24. 31. 6 40. Col. 3. 22. to the end Remember the promise of protection of Angels while you are diligent in your Callings Psal 91. 11 12. and how God hath graciously and gloriously appeared unto them he found therein Exod. 31. 2. Judg. 6. 11. 2 Sam. 7 8. Amos 7. 14 15. And how he will welcome you with a well done good and faithful Servant Mat. 25. Only be sure to follow these Rules in your particular Callings 1. Labour principally for spiritual and heavenly things Mat. 6. 33. Esay 55. 2. Joh. 6. 27. 2. Let your end be right 1 Cor. 10. 31. Acts 20. 35. Eph. 4. 28. And 3. For the manner do your work without all carking care And without discontent of any providences and with a heavenly mind Phil. 3. 20. 3. Be alway rejoycing God hath declared abundantly his will and pleasure that you who dwell in him should be continually cheerful and comfortable in your Spirits and he hath in his Word as oft charged you to be so and he hath charged you to fear him and live a godly life Psal 119. Psal 2. 117. 32. 11. 33. 1. 48. 11. 5. 11. 68. 4. Mat. 5. 12. Phil. 3. 1. 1 Thes 5. 16. And he is delighted to see you cheerful and offended much when you are disconsolate and uncheerful Deut. 28. 47 48. You are the only People that have right and title to joy and comfort Psal 116. 15. 47. 11. 64. 10. 106. 4 5. Rom. 5. 1. 14. 17. 15. 13. The objects of your joy are such as have in every one of them force and power if seriously pondered to keep up your hearts in frame of comfort and so fill them with joy at all times Quest. What are these objects Answ 1. The Lord himself he is the prime main ultimate adequate object of your joy Phil. 4. 4. Psal 4. 6 7. Hab. 3. 17 18. Jesus Christ John 16. 33. Phil. 3. 3. 4. 13. The word of God Psal 119. 92. 94. 19. Rom. 15. 4. All the Ordinances of God especially Prayer Phil. 4. 6 7. The works of God these are also a great object of his Peoples joy both the internal eminent ones that werewrought within himself especially Election Luk. 10. 20. And the outward viz. Creation and providence Psal 107. 22. Especially the work of Redemption Psal 53. 6. 71. 23. 126. 1 2. All the gifts of God Faith Hab. 2. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Hope Rom. 5. 2. The testimony of your sanctified Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. Experiences of the love of God Psal 63. 3. Remission of sins Mat. 9. â— Co-operation of all things for their good Rom. 8. 28. The Attendants of the holy Angels the immensity of their wages for their works which is from free grace 2 Tim. 4. 8. Heb. 11. 26. Rom. 8. 18. Afflictions themselves of all sorts both natural being prepared for them corrected with Lenitives one whereof is commonness 1 Cor. 10. 13. Another that they are love-tokens like the Rain-bow And another the effects they produce whereof you have heard much and much more accidental for Religion and Christianity sake Mat. 5. 11 12. Col. 1. 24. 1 Pet. 4. 13. 2 Cor. 12. 15. Acts. 5. 41. Jam. 1. 2. 4. Be alway praying opening your desires to God with reverence and confidence in the name of Christ for things agreeable to his will viz. That he will glorifie his own great name immediatly by himself and by all his providential Dispensations That his paternal Kingdom may be brought to perfection both by means and gifts of grace That his will may be done by your selves and others as the Angels in Heaven do it chearfully without murmuring speedily without delaying totally without mincing or reservation sincerely without self-seeking constantly without fainting That you your fellowes may enjoy all necessary temporal blessings personal domestical Political National have title to them leave to use them and comfort in the use of them That he will free you from the guilt of sin grant you remission free and full And that he will sanctifie you and them throughout giving you conquest over all temptations and perseverance to the end Neglect not to keep a constant course of praying twice a Day at least Morning and Evening and occasionally Day and Night sending up servent short Ejaculations Continue in Prayer and watch in the same with thanks-giving which is the next duty to be performed and the next which every Day must be payed duly 5. Be alway giving thanks 1 Thes 5. 18. In thanksgiving there is both the Memory Meditation and serious acknowledgement of God's blessings And in token of the truth thereof and dedication and consecration of our Bodies and Souls with all we have to divine use that is to the honour and service of God This was figured in the Sacrifices of the old Law which were first set before the Altar and so presented to God and then afterward were offered unto him This dedication is made when the intention of our mindes and purpose of our hearts and in all our affections we give up and set our selves apart This was first done in our Baptisme and is continually renewed in the Lord's Supper Thankfulness is all the Rent God requires of us for the House we dwell in and all the accommodations thereunto annexed Psal 5â— 15. We would not forfeit any thing we hold for non-payment of rent Take we heed lest for want of thankfulness we give God occasion to dispossess us of himself and of all the good things we enjoy in him 6. Be alway willing to remove from these lowest into higher Rooms in this House By Death we do no more but change our Lodging from lower to higher Rooms in the same House Be willing to dye at any time So Simeon was Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace So was Paul Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Be alway prepared to dye by dying to sin and to the World continually And by making every Day your dying Day by breaking off sins and avoiding all occasions of sinning and embracing all occasions of doing good and doing all in such a manner as you would if you knew you should dye presently Making also to your selves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness and setting your House in Order and praying to God continually To teach you to number your Dayes that you may apply your hearts unto Wisdom FINIS IMPRIMATUR Rob. Grove R. P. D. Humph. Episc Lond. a Sac. Dom. Mart. 9. 1668 9. Mat. 8. 20. P. 14. Psal 91. 1. 1 Joh. 3. 24. 4. 13. 15 16. Gen. 11. 4. Psal 144. 2. Esa 33. 15 16. Psal 61. 3. 71. 7. Prov. 15. 10. Esa 25. 4. Jer. 22. 14. Prov. 21. 9. Esa 28. 20 Job 11. 7 8 9. Psal 119. 69. Gen. 13. 17. Exod. 3.