Faculties yet I say Making of Faith an Act of the whole Soul of the Understanding VVill and Affections There 's no Necessity will follow thereupon of planting it in diverse and distinct Faculties Why may it not bee Planted and Subjected in the Heart which is the proper seat of Faith as well as of other Graces As others who have made The Formall Act of Faith a willing Assent which is both An Act of the VVill and Understanding to avoid the seating of the Habit in diverse Faculties have placed it in the Mind which say they comprehends the Understanding and the VVill So wee here To avoid the like do seat it more properly in the Heart And therefore that absurdity of seating Faith in diverse Faculties will not follow on us Though wee say That this Act of Faith whereby wee are justified Bee such an Act wherin many other Acts are folded up The Understanding assenting The VVill trusting c. Object 4 But to believe is to bee assured And therefore it is not to trust Ans I say That to beleeve is not to bee assured And to bee assured is not to beleeve Faith is not Assurance Nor is Assurance Faith as many have held I will not trouble you with the Controversie only I will infer these things 1 If Assurance were the Act of Faith whereby wee are justified Then where there 's no Assurance there 's no Faith This were an hard Consequent Nay then VVhoever lives and dyes without Assurance cannot bee saved They who live and dye without Faith cannot bee saved And if Faith were Assurance Then Whoever lived and dyed without Assurance could not bee saved Which far bee it from mee to hold 2 That which is a Consequent of justifying Faith is not Justifying Faith This is plain But Assurance is a Consequent of Justifying Faith It is that which follows it 1 Sometimes in order of Time 2 Alwayes in order of Nature 1 Sometimes in order of Time 1 John 5.13 These things have I written unto you that beleeve on the Name of the Son of God that you might know that you have Eternal life where you see Beleeving goes before and Knowing or Assurance follows after It is not contemporary with Faith but follows it 2 Alwayes in order of Nature As wee say The Truth of a Proposition is ever in order of Nature before the Knowledge of the Truth of it Things must bee in Esse before they can bee in Cognosci Things must Bee before they can bee known to Bee So there must bee pardon of sins before there can bee Assurance of pardon A man must bee Justified before hee can bee assured hee is Justified Justification must needs go before the Apprehension of Justification Now that which apprehends Justification is not Justifying Faith but follows it For Apprehension follows Justification No man can truly apprehend himself to bee Justified till hee bee Justified But Justifying Faith is in nature before Justification And therefore unless wee should say that That which follows is That which goes before wee cannot say that that which apprehends Justification is Justification And by Consequence Assurance is not that Faith which Justifies 3 Again If to beleeve were to bee assured that wee are Justified and our sins pardoned Then it will follow God commands us to beleeve an untruth Why How will that follow Thus Because God commands every one to beleeve 1 Joh. 3.23 This is his Commandement that wee beleeve on the name of his Son JESUS CHRIST Now If to beleeve were to bee assured wee are Justified and our sins pardoned Then God commands to beleeve an untruth That our sins are pardoned before they are pardoned That wee are Justified before wee are Justified Nay Such as are Reprobates and shall never bee pardoned If to beleeve were to bee assured of pardon Then I say God commands them to bee assured of pardon And so commands to beleeve a lye an untruth There is 1 The Act of Faith and 2 The Fruit of Faith The Act of Faith is To cast our selves on CHRIST to rest to trust on him The Fruit of Faith is Justification pardon of sin Reconciliation Now God commands no man to beleeve the Fruit of Faith untill hee hath done the Act of Faith Hee commands no man to beleeve hee hath an interest in the Promise till hee hath performed the condition of the Promise The Promise runs upon this condition Hee that beleeves shall receive remission of sins Act. 10.43 Act. 16.31 To the first Act of Faith All men indeed are tyed under pain of damnation Mar. 16.16 Joh. 3.18 The World shall bee condemned for unbelief And there 's no condemnation but upon breach of some Commandement And therefore all men are tyed to do the first Act. But now to the latter none are tyed but such as have done the former The first is the condition of the Promise or The Duty The second is the Benefit or Fruit of the Promise So that wee conclude this That Assurance is not the Act of Faith whereby wee are justified before God But yet That whereby wee are justified in our selves in the Court of Conscience Wee are said to bee Justified in three Courts 1 In foro Dei In Gods Court. 2 In foro Conscientiae in Court of Conscience 3 In foro Communi In the Court of men 1 In the Court of God It is not Assurance But Faith Affiance trust that doth Justifie 2 In the Court of Conscience It is not Faith but Assurance which Justifies Where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first Proposition is the undoubted Word of God hee that beeleves shall bee saved The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Assumption is the Testimony of our own spirit with that word The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the verdict and Testimony of the SPIRIT of God testifying with our spirit according to the word whereby wee have Assurance In the Court of men It is nor Faith nor Assurance that Justifies but works Object 5 But you will say If Assurance bee not the Act whereby wee are justified Because it is a Fruit of Justifying Faith Much less can Trust bee the Act of it because it is the Fruit of Assurance That which is the Fruit of Assurance cannot bee the Act of Justifying Faith But this Trust and Affiance is a fruit of Assurance Assurance is the cause and works Affiance as the Effect Therefore Trust or Affiance cannot bee the Act of Justifying Faith Answ Assurance is twofold 1 Principiorum of Principles 2 Conclusionum of Conclusions The first The Assurance of Principles is no more but such a grounded undoubted Assurance as Beleeves the main Proposition of the Gospel as Hee that beleeves shall bee saved The second The Assurance of Conclusions is such an Assurance as is necessarily deduced from the word by Application in a practical Syllogism after this manner Hee that beleeveth shall bee saved But I beleeve Therefore I shall bee saved The first is The Assurance of the Object
should have them which you see in Psal 2.8 Ask of mee and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance that is saith one merit of mee lay down thy life and bloud and thou shalt have a people as you see in Isa 53.11 12. Hee shall see of the travel of his soul That if hee would dye wee should live if hee would bear the curse wee should have the blessing If hee would bear that wrath our sins deserved and interpose himself between the Justice of God and us the quarrel should bee taken up God would bee at peace If hee would purchase us hee should injoy us And Christ hee undertook this Hee loved us and seeing hee could not have us except hee did buy us and could not buy us except hee gave his bloud for us and as it were sell himself to the justice of God that hee might buy us out Hee was content to do it Hee redeemed us not with silver or gold c. And now being purchased by him his by Purchase and so dear a Purchase his heart must needs bee taken with us Indeed hee bought us because hee loved us and now hee loves us because hee hath bought us If wee did lay down our bloud our life for the purchase of a thing and could after live to injoy it how exceedingly would our hearts delight in it Christ hath given his bloud and laid down his life for the purchase of his Church and People and hee lives to injoy his purchase and therefore the Heart of Christ must needs bee taken with it Shall I tell you You are all the delight which Christ hath in the World Hee delights to see you hee delights to bee with you hee delights to converse with you and all the delights of Christ are taken up with you hee hath nothing worth beholding but you in the World 3. Wee are his By Donation God hath given us to him Joh. 6.37 All that the Father hath given mee shall come unto mee Joh. 17.9 11 12. I pray not for the World but for them whom thou hast given mee Holy Father keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given mee Wee were so bought as yet wee were given else where is Gods Mercy and so given as yet wee were bought else where is his Justice Gods armes are equal in the length of the one you have the measure of the other and therefore hee did so express his Mercy to man as withall hee did preserve his Justice They were so given as yet bought and so bought as yet given And being his by Donation God having made them over to Christ by Deed of Gift being the full desire of Christ hence the Heart of Christ is taken with them 4. Wee are his By Covenant Ezek. 16.8 Then I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine Christ became ours wee his Hee is our King and wee his People hee is our Husband and wee his Spouse hee hath given himself to us and wee have re-given our selves to him wee his delight hee ours And being his in Covenant in mutual stipulation and bargain the Heart of Christ is taken with us 2. Because shee is adorned with his beauties Shee is beautifull Cant. 4.1 Cant. 6.4 10. There is a twofold beauty which Christ doth communicate to his Church which makes the Church lovely in his eyes 1. The beauties of his Righteousness 2. The beauties of his Holiness and Graces But these are not communicated the same way The one is communicated to us By Imputation The other By Emanation or Infusion The one a Beauty Imparted The other Imputed 1. Christ doth communicate to his Church his Imputed Beauty then 2. His Righteousness wherewith hee cloaths our souls Hence Hee is called Jehovah-our-Righteousness And is said to bee made Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption And wee to put on Christ Now this Righteousnesse Christ doth communicate to us by Imputation making it ours as if we in our own persons had wrought it And it is as truly ours to save us to justifie us as it is his to glorifie him And God looking upon us through Christ and Christ looking upon us in himself as cloathed with his Righteousness hee beholds us beautifull Hee sees no iniquity in Jacob nor transgression in Israel Not but that there was iniquity in Jacob but God did not see it God looked on him as cloathed with the Righteousnesse of Christ and so is said not to see it As the Sun shining through a red glasse upon a wall the wall looks red not that this colour is inherent in it but relucent upon it So God looking on us through Christ doth behold us Righteous in his Righteousness not that this is inherent in us or beheld in us as the Papists charge us but quoad gratiosum Dei conspectum wee are rather beheld in it I am not ignorant there are some besides Papists that deny the imputation of Christs Righteousnesse and say too much with them Iustitiam putatativam Justitiam Christi imputari commentum est and call this imputative Righteousnesse an imaginary and fancied Righteousnesse I wish they would consider that wee say Wee say there is a twofold Righteousnesse in Christ 1. His essential and personal Righteousness as God 2. His Mediatory Righteousness wrought as Mediator The first of these cannot bee imputed to us it is essential but the latter of these Justitia Mediatoria his Mediatory Righteousness or that Righteousnesse hee wrought for us as Mediator whereby hee did subject himself to the Precepts to the Penalties Commands and Curses answering both Gods vindictive and rewarding Justice This is communicated to us and made ours by vertue of which wee stand recti in curia justified in Gods sight which is the first beauty Christ adorns his Church withall 2. A second beauty wherewith Christ adorns his Church and makes her lovely is The Beauties of his Graces which may bee called the Beauties of Holiness and set forth to us by those Bracelets and chains Ezek. 16.9 and here by one Chain c. which is communicated to us by way of Infusion or Emanation whereby Christ by his Spirit doth derive from himself as the universal Principle and common stock of Grace Grace for Grace according to that Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness wee have all received Grace for Grace I know there are many interpretations of this Chrysostome The Gospel for the Law because it follows The Law came by Moses Others Gratiam super Gratiam or Gratiam gratiae accumulatam one grace to another or abundance of Grace But this I conceive the meaning For every Grace that is in Christ there is some Grace communicated to us answerable to it in some proportion As the Child in Generation receives from the Parents member for member or as the Paper from the Presse letter for letter or the Glasse from the face image for image or the Wax from the Seal stamp for stamp so wee from Christ Grace for Grace There
his heart on us but though hee saw what wee would bee yet hee loved us How then shall it bee able to over-turn the thoughts of his heart when once they are fixed on us Men indeed are not able to see to the utmost of things they are not able to discover and fore-see all the inconveniences and evils that may arise and therefore that being discovered after which was not fore seen before may bee a ground to alter their affections and change their thoughts when fixed The less Judgement and fore-sight in men the more fickleness and changeableness in men But now God hee fore-saw all Hee fore-saw all that which thou now thinkest is a ground for him to alter his mind to thee And if all that fore-seen could not hinder him from fixing his love on thee neither shall it bee able to move him to take off his heart when once his heart is taken with thee Hence hee is said to make an everlasting Covenant with us and hee will never depart from us Nay Hee will put his fear into our hearts that wee shall never depart from him Jer. 32.40 And Isa 54.9 10. saith the Lord speaking of the Covenant of Grace which hee will make with his people It shall bee as the Waters of Noah unto mee for as I have sworn that the Waters of Noah should no more go over the Earth so have I sworn that I will not bee wroth with thee nor rebuke thee As if hee had said this is as sure as the other the one as firm as the other You have experience of the one beleeve the other I give you the same pawn the same seal of Heaven to confirm it If Men were as bad as Devils they should never bring a second flood upon the World because God hath sworn never to destroy it And as hee hath sworn to that and is therefore stedfast and immutable So hee hath sworn to the other that hee will never leave you nor forsake you and therefore God will not Object But alas Do wee not see that God doth sometimes forsake his Church and People Answ Now for the answer of this wee will premise these three Distinctions 1. There is a seeming and there is a real forsaking 2. There is a Temporary and an eternal forsaking 3. There is a partial and a total forsaking From these wee will lay down three Conclusions in answer to the Objection 1. Conclusion God doth sometimes Seemingly Deus bonos non negligit cum negligit when hee doth not really forsake his people God doth not really neglect his People when hee seems to neglect them Hee seemed to neglect and forsake Job Heman David Christ himself when hee cryes My God! My God! why hast thou forsaken mee It was Dissimulatio non indignatio as one speaks Hee feigned himself to bee gone but was not gone The Cloud may take the Sun from our sight but not rent it from the Skie God may seemingly bee gone when hee is really there Hee seemed to bee gone from Job but hee was really there Otherwise Job could not have trusted in him in that great difficulty The same I may say of Heman of David Though God seemed to bee gone yet hee was really there Otherwise they could not have prayed exercised their Faith and sought after God as they did So also was it with the Church in the Canticles cap. 3.1 cap. 5. beg And that is the first Conclusion God may seemingly when not really forsake his People 2. Conclusion God may partially forsake his People but hee doth never totally forsake them I say God may in part forsake his People which may bee occasioned on their part by some fresh and new-acted sin As you see it was with David Psal 51.1 David had sinned God had withdrawn himself God was gone comfort was gone light was gone for a time Works of Darkness and walking in Darkness went together Hee did not follow the Direction and therefore wanted the Consolation of the Spirit But though hee doth partially sometimes yet hee doth never totally forsake his people For the clearer understanding of this Conclusion you must know there is a threefold Presence of God 1. Quickening 1. Comforting 3. Supporting 1. God may forsake a man in part in respect of his Quickening presence and leave a man to the barrenness flatness deadness of his own spirit for a time that the soul cannot pray hear meditate do any thing as formerly it hath done As it was with Sampson when his locks were cut his strength was gone and therefore though hee thought to go out and do as hee did in former times yet hee found there was no such matter hee was become even as another man so it is here our strength lyes not in our hair but in our head When God is gone our Locks are cut our strength is gone And though wee may think to go upon duties as at other times and meet with those lively and vigorous workings of spirit in duty yet wee shall finde no such matter wee are even become as other men Indeed so much of his Quickening Spirit God leaves in the worst of times as usually to keep up the heart to duty The soul will pray will read c. but hee gives not so much as to carry the soul through the duty with that life and vigour of affection which formerly it had Time was that the soul never came to prayer without an inflamed heart never upon the duty without a quick and inlarged soul But now the spirit is dead in duty cold in duty heartless in the performance of those things wherein the heart was so much taken 2. God may forsake a man in respect of his Comforting presence Though man is not able to rob us of our comforts and take away our joyes they are such as the armes of men are not long enough to reach yet God hee can Hee may eclipse our joyes and damp our comforts and withdraw the beams of his Countenance from us and leave us in darkness and trouble I say hee may turn our Day into Night our Light into Darkness our Comforts into Discomforts Thus you see it was with Job with David with Heman Psal 88. who although they had the Quickening-presence of God yet they wanted his Comforting-presence And indeed of the two it is better to want the Comforting than the Quickening-presence Better to want Comfort than Life Joies than Graces or the lively exercise of them The one is the Esse the other but the Bene Esse of a Christian A man may live and serve God and obey him and yet want his Comforting-presence as you see Isa 50.10 But hee cannot live without his Quickenning-presence 3. God may forsake a man in part in respect of his Quickening-presence and hee may more forsake a man in respect of his Comforting-presence But God doth never forsake us in respect of his Supporting-presence In the saddest condition in the darkest night in the stormiest day the soul
of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and stay or lean upon his God and Isa 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is staid on thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because hee trusteth in thee which word in the matter of Justification designeth that Act whereby finding and feeling our own weakness as unable to support our selves wee do lean and rest on Christ as David Psal 28.7 The Lord is my strength and my shield my heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trusted in him and I am helped c. And to these words in the Old Testament wee may adde those forms of words in the New and so wee shall finde that what in the Old is expressed by some one of these words is in the New expressed by beleeving in and upon To instance in a few We trust in the name of his Holiness saith the Old Testament Psal 33.21 and He that believeth in his name saith the New John 1.12 13. Trust in the Lord with thy whole heart saith the Old Prov. 3.5 If thou believest with thy whole heart saith the New Acts 8.34 37. In thee O Lord have I trusted let me not be confounded saith the Old Psal 31.1 25.2 and He that believeth on him shall not be ashamed saith the New Rom. 10.11 So that you see that to Trust and to Believe are Synonima import the same things though they differ in name yet not in nature He that Trusteth Believeth and he that Believeth Trusteth In which sense we have the phrases of believing in or upon 1 Pet. 2.6 Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded Where by believing on him cannot be meant any thing but a laying and building our selves upon Christ as the foundation that we may be made a spiritual house as you have it in Verse 4 5. the like we have Rom. 10.10.11 He that believeth on him and so 2 Tim. 1.12 For I know in whom I have believed c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence it is apparent that to believe in God is as much as to commit our selves to his trust for so it there followeth I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him or deposited with him or delivered up unto his keeping to that day that is his soul to everlasting life So that we see that to believe in Christ is with confidence and trust to rely upon him And thus much for the formal act of faith 2. For the formal object of faith and that not of faith at large for so the word of God is the objectum adaequatum of it but as it is particularly justifying faith quatenus justificat as it properly justifieth which is not the believing of every truth of God but that onely which by way of eminency is called The Truth that is Christ himself with all his merits John 14.6 and so here in the Text He that believeth in him Hence justifying faith is often called the Faith of Christ because he is the proper object of it Rom. 3 22 26. Gal. 2.16.20 And faith in Christ Acts 20.21 and Faith in the blood of Christ Whence I thus argue That Object to the Belief of which justification and salvation is promised that is the Object of justifying faith But to believe in Christ is Justification and Salvation promised Therefore Christ is the object of justifying faith Thus as briefly as I could having shewed what is the formal both act and object of justifying faith I shall now lay down this one Conclusion Doct. That the great thing which is required at our hands for Justification and Salvation is beleeving in Christ Hee that beleeves shall bee saved In the prosecution of this wee will shew 1 What Faith is 2 That Faith is the great requisite 3 Why God hath made choice of this to bee the instrument of Justification 4 How Faith doth justifie whether formally or instrumentally 5 What bee the Royalties of Faith 1 What Faith is For the first What Faith is Wee will not define the habit of Faith but the Act of Faith nor every Act but that only which justifieth Now according to the diversity of opinions herein such is the diversity of Definitions They who hold the Assent to bee the Act of Justifying Faith define it to bee a firm and willing Assent to the truth of God in generall and to this truth in particular that Christ is the Messiah and Saviour of the World They who hold it to bee a receiving of Christ define it to bee such an Act as whereby wee receive Christ in all his offices But not to trouble you with these That which I will give you is this Definition Faith is an Act of a regenerate person whereby knowing and assenting unto the Promises of God and to this Truth in particular that Christ is the Messiah or Saviour of the World doth rest upon him for Justification Sanctification and consequently for Salvation Now to explain this Definition 1 I say that Faith is an Act for wee speak not of Faith in actu primo as an habit infused and implanted in us but in actu secundo as an Act whereby wee are justified for wee are not justified by Faith as an habit or as a grace inherent in us but as I said by Faith as an Act as it goeth over to Christ as wee see here the Promise is not made to the Habit but to the Act of Faith Hee that beleeveth c. That is the first I call it an Act 2 The subject person so it is said to bee an Act of a regenerate person a man universally sanctified regenerated and born again for take Faith which way you please for the Act or for the Habit neither of them are before Regeneration 1 The Act of Faith that is not before the Habit of Faith a thing must bee in esse before it can bee in operari there must bee a Habit of Faith within before there can bee the exercise of Faith without 2 And this Habit of Faith is not infused before other graces it being part of our inherent Sanctification as infidelity is a part of our corruption nor is it again infused alone but together with the rest of the graces of Gods Spirit by which wee are regenerated So that Faith is an Act of a regenerated soul A man cannot beleeve till his understanding bee enlightened and his will changed and this is not before Grace Again to beleeve is an Act of a living man not of a soul dead in sin and therefore the soul must first bee indued with the life of Grace before it can perform this living action Indeed we are said to be sanctified by Faith and so it might seem that our Sanctification were a fruit of Faith an effect of Faith but wee are not to understand this as meant of the first work of Sanctification which is not acquired or put forth
by us but infused by God together with Faith as being a part of it But it is meant of the second or further work of Sanctification and so Faith sanctifieth us as it lends a hand to help forward and to perfect our Sanctification for so Faith doth strengthen and increase Grace in us by drawing down strength and life from Christ daily and in this sense as to their bene or melius esse all our graces have a kind of dependance upon Faith as a Mediatory grace as I may say as our Mediatour to our Mediatour in fetching down influence and strength for the strengthening and increasing of grace in us And therefore by the way it may bee a good Admonition to you when you finde any weakness in your love patience or in any other grace still to strengthen and increase Faith whereby you may draw down from Christ strength to all the rest 3 The third thing in the definition expresseth what this formall act is and here wee have 1 The essentiale Antecedens 2 The essentiale constituens 1 The essentiale Antecedens essentially pre-requisite to the justifying Act and this is knowing and assenting which two I might separate for the better discovery of our adversaries error in their implicit Faith who hold that it is sufficient for some only to beleeve as the Church beleeveth although they know not themselves any thing that they beleeve to maintain which blind Faith they say that Justifying Faith may bee without knowledge nay that it were better to bee defined by ignorance than by knowledge But wee must not stand to answer every thing that commeth in the way for so wee should stay long enough at the threshold I will therefore joyn these two both together as essentially pre-requisite whereby wee know and assent to our own miserable estate the freeness of God promise and grace which hee hath tendred to the soul in Christ both essentiall Antecedents to justification of which some expound that John 6.40 every one that seeth the Son and beleeveth on him shal have everlasting life Where by seeing they say is meant Christum praedicatum videre agnoscere pro filio Dei to see and acknowledge Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the World and indeed this must go before It is gradus ad rem though not gradus in re it is a pre-requisite or preparatory to justifying Faith but it is not justifying Faith as in the Generation of a man the sensitive soul goeth before and prepareth a fit organ for the infusion of the reasonable soul and yet not the sensitive but the reasonable soul doth inform so in the reparation of man hystorical faith doth precede and make way for the inducement of justifyâ—ng Faith and yet not the former but this doth justifie as Calvin saith a Vulgar knowledge and assent to truth doth joyn a man no more to God than the sight of the Sun doth lift a man to Heaven Otherwise did this hystoricall assent justyfie then it as well as Justification should be proper only to the Elect so Justification is Rom. 8.30 but so is not an hystorical assent for that Simon Magus had and other Reprobates may have 2 Essentiale constituens or that formal Act whereby wee are justified and that is rowling or resting our selves upon Christ or trusting on him for they are Synonimaes expressing the same thing in diverse words And that this is the formal Act of justifying Faith I refer my self and you to what in this kinde was said before I here only say that that which is imputed for Righteousness and by which wee are justified that is the true and formall Act of justifying Faith But such a kind of beleeving is imputed for Righteousness and is that by which wee are justified so saith the Apostle Rom. 4.5 to him who beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is imputed to him for Righteousness and Rom. 10.10 11. with the heart man beleeveth unto Righteousness and in the next verse hee Interpreteth that beleeving by beleeving on him for the Scripture saith whosoever beleeveth on him c. And therefore wee conclude so to beleeve is the justifying Act of Faith 4 The fourth thing in the Definition is the fruit which cometh in or the end of this Act and that is 1 Next and immediate Justification and pardon of sin 2 Mediate Sanctification and growth in grace 3 Ultimate The Perfection of all in Glorification But here some may object Object 1. First there are many who do trust and yet are not justified many who profess that they do this act but yet live in their sins as Balaam c. Therefore this is not the justifying Act. Ans I answer That although every one say hee trusteth yet every one doth not truly trust for there is a double affiance or trust The one is a slight and superficial affiance grounded upon no other foundation than a great apprehension that it is good to bee saved by Christ but yet so as neither to leave their old course or imbrace a new The other is a setled and grounded affiance and so qualified as that it is not to bee found in any not truly justified if it bee I shall yield the cause 1. It is a holy Trust Jude v. 20. Build up one another in your holy faith not as though holiness were required as an ingredient into faith in the act of Justification or giving us our first interest in Christ but this I mean by a holy trust that it is such a trust as is accompanied with holiness in the root and brings forth works of holiness in the fruit such a faith as is accompanied with holiness in the heart and declared in the holiness of our lives For although it be fides sola faith alone which justifieth and gives us the first interest in Christ yet it is not fides quae sola solitaria it is not a faith which is alone but such a faith as is accompanied with holiness in the root the graces of Gods Spirit and holiness in the life The faith which doth justifie us is not in formis but formata not a dead faith but animated and quickned with grace and holiness the whole man being sanctified 2. It must be an unfeigned Trust 1 Tim. 1.5 2 Tim. 1.5 There is a counterfeit and hypocritical Trust such as never comes to God from love but for shelter in a storm Psal 78.34 35 36. When he slew them then they sought him and yet did but flatter c. Or such a faith it is that closeth not fully with Christ in all his Offices They are content to have him as a Saviour but not for a Lord the priviledges and dignities that come in by Christ they are willing to own but not the duties and services which he requires They will commit themselves to Christ to save when in trouble then Lord help but to the Devil to serve Who is Lord over us Whereas now a true faith
The second is The Assurance of the Subject The first Of the thing beleeved The second Of the Beleever The first is The Assurance of the general Proposition whoever beleeves shall bee saved which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Col. 2. The full Assurance of Understanding or Knowledge which is the Plerophory of Assent to the Truth of the Gospel touching CHRIST a Saviour The second is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Assurance of Faith Heb. 10.22 And that is when wee are assured CHRIST is OUR SAVIOUR The first goes before the Act of Trust The second follows the Act of Trust And this Act of trusting and resting upon CHRIST is the ground of such Assurance Object But you will say How shall wee rest upon CHRIST for Salvation unless wee bee first assured of Salvation by him Answ Indeed unless wee know CHRIST to bee the only Saviour wee cannot rest upon him for Salvation But to say A man cannot rest upon him for Justification and Salvation except hee know hee is already Justified and shall bee saved I see little sense for that May not a man trust upon his friend who hath ingaged himself and promised to do such a thing for him untill hee knows it were already done for him So here May not the Soul rest upon CHRIST who hath promised pardon and forgiveness to them that trust on him except it first knew that CHRIST had already pardoned and forgiven him The ground of this mistake I conceive to arise from one of these two grounds 1 That they take TRUST for ASSURANCE or 2 That they take TRUST for a FRUIT of ASSURANCE And so all one with HOPE Now for the clearing of the first you must know that TRUST doth signifie these two things 1 Ipsum Actum Innitendi the very act of leaning c. 2 Consequens effectum Fidei the consequent Effect of Faith 1 It signifies that very act of Leaning Resting Rowling on CHRIST which is properly the act that Justifies 2 Sometimes it signifies the consequent Effect of Faith as full assurance and perswasion the lively sense of pardon and remission of sins But when wee speak of that act of Trust which Justifies wee mean not Trust in this second Acception For this is not Justifying Faith but Fidei Justificantis Filia the Daughter of Justifying Faith which comes after much sweat and pains in the work of God trial and experience of our selves and truth of our Graces But wee speak of Trust in the first Acception the resting and rowling of the soul upon CHRIST The former wee say is the act of justifying Faith and propriissimus actus Fidei justificantis the most proper act of justifying Faith The latter wee grant is the fruit of the former Trust and Assurance both set down by the Apostle 1 Tim. 1.12 I Know saith the Apostle whom I have beleeved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom I have trusted or committed my soul unto There is the first act of Faith And I am perswaded that hee is able to keep that which I have committed to his trust to eternal life There 's the second act of Trust Hee will bee all this to mee which I have Trusted to him for 1. I know There was Hystorical Faith Assent 2. Whom I have trusted or committed my soul to There was justifying Faith 3. I am perswaded There was the fruit of it To the first Act there concurs 1. A discovery of our own emptiness 2. A Discovery of CHRISTS fulness for Justification 3. A casting of the Soul upon him for Justification and Salvation Going out of our selves and casting our souls upon Christ To the second Act there is required 1. Not only a Knowledge that hee is a Saviour 2. But also a Knowledge that hee is My Saviour upon whom I trust or I am perswaded of Salvation by The second mistake is That they take Trust for a fruit of Assurance And so no ore but Hope Propter Spem Roboratam for strengthened Hope Answ That this act of Trust which wee make justifying Faith is not an act of Hope but doth differ from Hope or that affiance which they make Hope strengthened In this 1. That Hope looks to the end which is Salvation But this act of Trust looks to the Means which brings to the end and that is Christ 2. The act of Hope is to expect But the act of Trust is to lean and rest 3. The Object of Hope is Bonum Futurum a Future Good But the object of Trust is Bonum Presens a Present Good This act of Trust doth rest upon Christ Non per modum expectantis sed per modum possidentis not by way of Expectation but by way of Possession As Hee that beleeves in the Son hath life It is not said Hee shall have life but Hee hath life not in Spe but in Re not in Hope only but in Hand The life of Righteousness and Justification in Hand The life of Glory and Salvation in Hope And thus much shall serve for the first thing what Faith is In which I hope most of the controversie is over 2. Wee now come to the second That Faith is the only requisite whereby wee should bee justified and saved I shall not need to stand long on it 1. Union and Communion with Christ is requisite to Justification and Salvation There was no way whereby wee should bee Justified whereby wee should bee saved But only by vertue of our Union and Communion with Christ 1. No other way but by vertue of our Union with Christ In our selves wee were dead Branches and grew upon a dead stock and there was no help nor hope for us till wee were cut off from our own stocks the stock of Nature And were ingrafted into Christ who is the Stock of Life Hence the Apostle Hee that hath the Son hath Life and hee that hath not the Son hath not Life Hee that is united and ingrafted into Christ hath Life the Life of Justification here and shall have the Life of Glorification hereafter But hee that hath not the Son Hee who is not united to Christ hath not Life Nor the Life of Justification here Nor the Life of Glorification hereafter So that you see there is no Hope of Life or Justification except wee bee united to Christ who hath all Life in him There 's nothing but death in the World out of him And there 's no way to have Union with Christ but by Faith which is one bond of our Union with Christ It is Faith that unites us to Christ as Members to the Head And being Members of Christ God pardons us If a Malefactor had committed treason against a King and were adjudged to lose his hand or his eye If hee could now make his Hand or his eye which hee were to lose to become the Hand or the eye of the Kings Son Hee should bee spared hee should not lose them They were the hands and the eyes of the Kings Son And the King would spare
Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also through Faith wee have access into this Grace wherein wee stand rejoycing under the hope of the Glory of God Rom. 15.13 The God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace in Beleeving Where there 's Faith there 's Joy If Faith of Evidence Ubi Fiducia ibi Laetitia there Joy doth naturally result and arise from it If but Faith of Adherence there Joy is hid and secret though it doth not appear The seed of Joy is hid as yet under the Clods of Faith but in time it will break forth and appear Joy is there though it bee not seen There may bee a divorce between Faith and actual rejoycing for a time but there can bee no divorce between Faith and the Matter and Ground of Rejoycing not between Faith and the Affection of Joy My Joy shall none take from you Thus you see Faith is an Heart-chearing-Grace It fills the soul with such a Joy as nothing is able to bereave the soul thereof It is not Losses Crosses Poverty Sickness Prisons Persecutions which are able to take away this Joy of Faith 1. Faith will inable a man to rejoyce in Bonds to rejoyce in Tribulations and Sufferings for Christ as the Apostle saith As Sufferings abound the Consolations shall superabound As if all the floods of Consolation did issue from the spring of Sufferings 2. It will inable a man to rejoyce in sicknesse Faith will bee our best Cordial and let in such a beam of Gods love into the Soul as will chear and comfort the heart in this condition warm and inlighten it not only inlighten but warm the heart in this condition 3. It will inable a man to Rejoyce in Poverty in Calamity in Famine You see Habakkuks confidence Hab. 3.17 18. Although the Figtree do not blossome nor shall there bee fruit in the Vines though the labour of the Olive shall fail and the field shall yeeld no meat though the sheep bee cut off from the Fold and there bee no Bullock in the stall yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Though the waters of Calamity should rise so high as to drown up all his comforts yet hee could rejoyce in God In the absence of all worldly comforts Faith can let in springs of Consolation from God to rejoyce the Soul If God if Christ if Glory can rejoyce the heart Faith will not want matter of Joy in the saddest condition It is an Heart-chearing Grace Faith will present to man Soul-rejoycing-grounds There are these five grounds of Rejoycing 1. Our Election Hence Christ saith Rejoyce that your Names are written in the Book of Life 2. Our Redemption 3. Our Justification 4. Our Sanctification 5. The Promises and Hopes of Glorification And Faith presents all these grounds of rejoycing It makes a discovery to the soul that wee are Gods chosen such as hee hath elected that wee are his Redeemed ones such as hee hath purchased that wee are his Justified ones such as hee hath pardoned that wee are his holy ones such as hee hath sanctified and shall bee hereafther glorified And when such a report is made to the soul from Heaven when Faith hath been in Heaven and brings this news down to the soul how can it bee but the Soul must rejoyce and bee filled with all Consolations Object But alas you will say Who are more sad who are more disconsolate than Beleevers are And therefore how is Faith an Heart-chearing-Grace Ans 1. Beleevers may rejoyce and thou not discern it It is a Joy which is not known but by experience Hence the Apostle saith It is a Joy that passeth all understanding None know it but they who feel it A stranger doth not intermeddle with this Joy As they cannot feel it so they cannot see it and therefore are no Competent Judges whether Gods people are joyfull or whether they bee sorrowfull 2. But to answer further You say Beleevers are sad and disconsolate people 1. All Beleevers are not so They are such as are 1. Under some present cross and affliction Gods hand is gone out against them though for good For all things work together for good to them that love God and are chosen according to his purpose But I say some present evil is upon them and this may sadden the spirits of the best for a time though this may bee their infirmity Paul had learned in all estates therein to bee content and if to bee content then to rejoyce unless it were Contentation by force sure not well pleasing to God If indeed their comfort did lye in the presence and injoyment of these outward things then no marvel if in the absence of them they were cast down I say If the floods of their comfort were maintained by such springs as these then no marvel if these being taken away they bee bereave of their Joy But seeing these things are too short either to breed or feed either to beget or fuel a Christians Joy why should the deprival of them so much affect the heart as to take away their Joy Have you not still the ground of Joy you have lost your goods but not your God You are deprived of your Comforts not of your Christ And therefore except you do make Gods of the Creature prize them too highly in your Judgement ingage your hearts and affections too much to them why should your Joy bee taken away You see Paul had learned in all estates to bee content and the Prophet Habakkuk before mentioned and why not you 2. Such they are as for the present are under some sad and sore Temptation combate with Satan and for the present their spirits are sadned and cast down 3. Such as are in deserted conditions God having withdrawn himself and hid his face from the Soul Than which there is no sadder condition in the World when not a Star but the Sun it self is rent from the Sky when not a single Comfort but the universal Comfort seems to bee gone This may sadden the spirit of Gods people for a time All Jobs crosses did not so much affect him as this The loss of his Goods of his Possession of his Children came not so neer him as the apprehension of the loss of his God Hee could lift up his head under all the other but here hee was ready to sink Such a Condition Gods people may bee in which may cause sadness of spirit as was David Heman Hezekiah and others 2. So secondly for those of Gods people that are thus sad and disconsolate it is not as they are Beleevers but as they are Doubters Their Trouble ariseth from Doubting not from Beleeving It is not Faith but the want of Faith which is the cause of their uncomfortable walking If Gods people would live more out of themselves and more in Christ if they would live more the Life of Faith and less the Life of Sense if they would
as well as in broad waies in rugged waies as well as in plain smooth waies In difficult as well as in easie waies You see this in Abraham concerning the sacrificing of his son In which act hee might seem to disobey in his Obedience And the dutiful yeelding to it might seem to contradict duty There seemed not only Nature and reason to cry down this act of Obedience but even the word too The yeelding of Obedience did seem to justle against the Precept of Obedience Yet you see hee obeyed God It is said By Faith Abraham obeyed God By Faith indeed It was a strong Faith That strong Faith that beleeved hee should have a Son did now obey God in offering of his Son Strong Obedience proceeded from his strong Faith Strong Faith produceth strong Obedience 1. Strong for Active 2. Strong for Passive Obedience The same Faith doth supply the soul with Active strength for doing duties and with Passive strength for suffering duties 1. A strong Faith is strong to bear Reproaches for Christ As Moses Hee esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.26 And Paul Therefore wee labour and suffer Reproach because wee trust in the living God 1 Tim. 4.10 2. A strong Faith is strong to bear losses for Christ As they Heb. 10.34 Who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods as if the enemy had done them a great courtesie A strong Faith is strong to bear Persecutions Scourges Death it self for Christ You see what the Apostles indured what Stephen indured Why saith the Text Hee was a man full of Faith Act. 5.8 Strong Faith did inable them to suffer and bear and to go through difficulties prisons persecutions scourgings c. for Christ A strong Beleever doth rejoyce if hee can hold up God as it were though himself bee down if hee can raise up Gods Glory though it bee by the ruine of himself save his honour by losse of himself What Epaminondas said who having resolved concerning his Buckler either to defend it or to dye for it being wounded to death brake forth into these words Num salvus est Clypeus meus Is my Buckler safe If that bee safe I am well So the Beleever in the midst of all his sufferings if hee can keep his Buckler safe hold up God and his Glory All is well 3. A strong Faith will beleeve nothing contrary to his belief All the temptations of Satan all the arguments of men shall never bee able to reason him out of his Faith A weak Faith is quickly brought to deny his conclusion to yeeld up the cause Satan may make a man unsay what formerly hee hath said But a strong Faith will hold the conclusion against all Satans sophistry His Faith hath been gotten up by many invincible experiences from Gods behaviour to him as a Father from the souls behaviour to him as a Child And all that Satan can do shall not out-reason his Faith What a man saith by feeling a temptation may make him unsay but what a man saith by Faith nothing can make him unsay If Satan do assault such a man and tell him God doth not love him God is not his Father yet will the soul binde it self to this Mast and hold his conclusion against all with the Church Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father thou Lord art our Father our Redeemer Say Satan takes up arguments from Gods 1. Inward Or 2. Outward dealings with us 1. From his Inward dealings May bee a man is in some present Desertion and wants the clear Evidences which formerly hee had and Satan from thence doth argue That God is not our God hee is not our Father yet will not a strong Faith bee reasoned out of his Faith The soul will yet conclude it though it cannot clear it and beleeve it when it cannot see it The strong Christian lives by Faith not by feeling and knows God may bee His God though by sense it bee not discerned but that God is not his God You see this in Psal 22.1 My God! My God! There 's Faith Why hast thou forsaken mee There 's sense Faith held the conclusion against sense That God was his God though sense could not apprehend but that hee was forsaken of God And therefore when the eye of Sense and Evidence is put out yet hee hath the eyes of Faith to see and beleeve And Blessed is the man saith our Saviour to Thomas who beleeves and sees not Joh. 20.29 A strong Faith will trust God further than hee sees him Faith is the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 Faith will trust upon the Promise of Mercy in the want of Sense of Mercy Our Faith is not begotten by sense and feelings but by the Promise and therefore in the want of sense and feelings the soul may beleeve Isa 50.10 Though a man walk in darkness and sees no light yet may hee trust in the Lord and lean upon his God A weak Faith if it want feeling it is gone but the strong Faith will Hope against Hope Beleeve against Sense Reason and present Evidence and can say God is mine though it want the present Sense and Evidence of it It will trust in God a Father when his dealings seem to argue him an Enemy Faith will read Love in his angry looks and look through the mist of Desertion and see the affections of a Father under the expressions of an Enemy Thus did Job by Faith Though thou kill mee yet will I trust in thee Full well it knows Though God hide his face yet hee cannot deny himself 2. Say hee takes an argument from Gods outward dealings in chastising and afflicting of us and say If God loved thee hee would not so afflict thee If God were thy Father hee would not so chastise thee However the weak Faith may bee born down with such a temptation as this yet the strong Faith is not moved with such a temptation it is able to retort on Satan because God loves mee therefore hee scourgeth mee that I might not bee condemned with the World That I might not love the World therefore hee suffers the World to frown on mee That I might bee crucified to the World therefore hee suffers mee to bee crucified in the World Because I am a Child therefore hee afflicts mee Hee scourgeth every Son whom hee receiveth Rom. 12.6 7 8.9 c. God takes liberty to chastise our bodies to save our souls And God loves tenderly when hee corrects severely Job 5.17 Pro. 3.11 Thus doth a strong Faith hold up the conclusion of Faith against all the Reasonings of Satan against it Let him produce never so many Evidences to the contrary yet will hee not bee born down in it It 's a maxime of Faith hee will hold to against all opposition whatsoever You see it was thus in Job When God had taken away his goods when his hand was upon his body and upon his spirit too not only withdrawing himself from
to perswade 1. Consider God commands thee to beleeve 2. Consider thou can do God no greater pleasure than to come in and beleeve 1. Consider God commands thee to beleeve 1 Joh. 3.23 This is his Commandement that wee should beleeve on the name of his Son Jesus Christ And what can thy heart now reason against this will not this bee enough to answer all thy fears and scruples to beat down all that thy unbeleeving heart can say against the Promise Why God doth not only invite thee but hee commands thee to beleeve Gods command is a sufficient warrant to beleeve and will bee sufficient security to all them that do beleeve 1. I say it is a sufficient warrant to beleeve Men may command things and tell us that our obedience to them shall bee sufficient warrant to us and yet they may want power enough to secure us in our obedience to them but it is not so with God his command will be a warrant sufficient to carry out any soul in his obedience to him Doth Satan say wherefore dost thou beleeve thou art a Reprobate thou art a cast away thou hast no right to the Promise but thou must say then thou art a Creature and God commands thee to beleeve and in obedience to Gods command though thou sees nothing but death for the present yet thou wilt beleeve Doth bee say thou hast no right to a Promise not any title to Mercy yet mayest thou say thou art bound to the Precept though I cannot clear my right to the Promise yet I am sure I am to obey the Precept I am bound to the obedience of the command and God commands mee to beleeve Yea and thou may say thus much if I am bound to beleeve as I am then I may bee able by my beleeving to clear my interest in the Promise Thou mayest tell him here is a command for thee none then for him hee is out of hope It is an infinite mercy to stand under the command of beleeving the Devils do not the damned do not thou doest which is infinite mercy 2. As Gods command is a sufficient warrant to beleeve so it is sufficient security if wee do beleeve there was never a soul that perished in a way of obedience in a way of beleeving Doth Satan say thou mayest venture thy soul if thou wilt but thou dost but cast away thy soul for thou shalt never bee saved God will never own thee Thou mayest say again Gods command is a sufficient warrant for thee to beleeve men may fail us and bee men but God cannot fail us and bee God But put it to the worst though thou do not know whether thou shalt bee saved yet this thou knowest that God commands thee to beleeve Well then bee peremptory and resolve in beleeving say if I dye I will dye in a way of beleeving in a way of obedience to the command not in a way of disobedience to it This I know if I beleeve not I must perish hee that beleeveth not is condemned but if I do beleeve if I do go on in a way of obedience who knows whether God will bee mercifull nay who knows not but that hee will I must tell you this resolution will put the Devil to it hee knows not what to say to such a man nay and it puts God to it too for God cannot reject him who will yet go on to serve him though hee should never own him 2. Consider you can do God no greater pleasure than to come in and beleeve Thou honourest all-God as I shall shew thee in the second Doctrin It is a great deal of ease and pleasure for a full and pained breast to bee sucked the breast of Mercy and Promise is full yea and in pain too and thou shalt do God let mee speak after the manner of men the greatest pleasure thou canst do to come and suck Joh. 6.28 when the people asked what shall wee do that wee may work the works of God Mark then how Christ answers why this is the work of God that you beleeve in him As if hee had said would you do that which would content God would you do that which pleaseth him why this is that which doth wonderfully content God this is that doth admirably please God to beleeve I tell thee by this thou makest God amends for all the wrong thou hast done him all thy life Nothing else will if thou shouldest go about to redeem every oath with an age of precizeness and exactness every idle word and action with an eternity of praises and tears all thy exactions and injustice with a treasury of alms all this were nothing to the making of God amends But here do but come over to the Promise do but close with Christ and thou makest God amends for all God will bee fully satisfied not with thy Faith but with Christ not with thy beleeving but with Christ whom thy Faith holds up Nay not only satisfied but ipse tibi velim debitor I would not only bee satisfied but I would bee thy debtor to give thee eternal life Oh then that you who are slow of heart to beleeve that you would now come in Close with Christ and then thou mayest set Christ against all that the Law Justice Sin Hell Satan can say against thee You see the Apostle did so who is hee that condemneth it is Christ that dyed Hee makes a challenge of all sets the death of Christ against whatever can bee brought so mayest thou Let us weild this weapon c. 1. Doth Satan say thou hast sinned Why but may the soul say I have closed with him who hath suffered for sin what can my debt of sin bee that the payment of his sufferings hath not fully answered 2. Doth hee say thou hast sinned against the great God of Heaven yea but thou mayest say I have an interest in him whose Righteousness is the Righteousness of the great God of Heaven Jehovah our Righteousness and that is able to suffice for that 3. Doth hee say the glory of the great God is debased by thy sinning Why but thou mayest say will not the emptying of his glory who is the brightness of his Fathers glory answer for that 4. Doth hee say thou hast sinned against knowledge Why but thou mayest say all that Christ did and all hee suffered hee did with knowledge Joh. 18.4 Jesus knowing all things c. 5. Doth hee say thou hast sinned with delight Why but thou mayest say Christ hath suffered with greater delight than I have sinned Hee delighted to do the will of God and this was the will of his Father that hee should give his life for mee Joh. 6. Luk. 12.50 And it was said of him that hee was straitned till the hour came as men that delight in a work which they long to bee upon 6. Doth hee say thy sins lye in thy spirit Yea but thou mayest say the chiefest part of his suffering did lye in
Secondly By Purchase p. 54 Thirdly By Donation p. 55 Fourthly By Covenant p. 55 46. Second Reason Because they are adorned with his Beauties 1. Of his Righteousness p. 56 2. Of his Graces p. 57 2 They are persons singled out to advance the great design of glorifying the riches and freenesses of his grace p. 58 59 Uses 1 To strengthen our faith in expectation that Christ should do more for his Church p. 60 The Church Christs 1 Fould 2 Field 3 House 4. Flore p. 60 Note to Explication joyn Supplication p. 61 Second Consectary Then hee will never take his heart off from them Object God doth sometimes forsake his Church and People p. 63 In answer to the Objections several conclusions laid down 1 God doth sometimes seemingly when hee doth not really forsake them p. 63 2 God may partially forsake his People but hee doth never totally forsake them p. 64 3 God may forsake them for a time not for ever p. 65 Third Consectary Then all the passages of Gods Providence 1 Towards the Church in general 2 To any particular member are all for good p. 66 67 4 Consectary VVhat a fearful sin it is that causes God to deal hardly with that which his soul loves so dearly p. 68 69 70 5 Consectary It discovers into what you may resolve all the passages of God to his Church even into his own love p. 70 71 Two streams in which the Love of God doth run 1 Higher in four Particulers 2 Lower in four Particulars more p. 72 6 Consectary VVith what confidence wee may pray for the good of the Church p. 73 7 Consectary What will become of those who are enemies to his Church and People p. 74 8 Consectary See here the ground of acceptation of the services of his People p. 75 Use of Examination whether wee have interest in this love Four Rules to bee observed in our Examination p. 76 Inquiry it self hee whose heart is taken with Christ Christs heart is taken with him Signes Nine signes of a heart taken with Christ p. 77 to 88 Use of Exhortation To them of his Church 1 Walk sutable to this Love in five Particulars p. 88 2 Beware of abusing his Love Four particulars wherein Christs Love may bee abused p. 88 89 3 Bee much in contemplation of his Love p. 90 The thoughts of Christs Love will work seven Effects p. 90 to 93 4 Labour for a reciprocal affection towards Christ p. 94 95 The Contents of The Nature and Royalties of Faith JOHN 3.15 Whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish but have eternal life 1 THe occasion of this discourse p. 41 2 The discourse it self p. 42 Parts of the Text. Ibid. Inquiries First What Act of Faith that is whereby a sinner stands justified before God p. 42 43 44 2 Upon what Object this Act is to bee terminated p. 45 Doct. The great thing which is required at our hands for Justification and Salvation is beleeving in Christ p. 46 1 What Faith is the Definition with the Explanation of it which answers to six Objections that are made against the Definition p. 46. to 61 2 Faith the only requisite whereby wee should bee justified and saved 1 No way of union with Christ but by Faith p. 61 62 2 Faith necessary for our communion with Christ p. 62 to 64 3 Why God should make choice of this Grace for our Justification 1 That it might bee by Grace Ibid. 2 That the promise might bee sure in two respects p. 64 65 3 That the promise might bee to all the seed Ibid. 4 That no man might have cause to beast or glory in himself p. 65 66. 4 How Faith justifieth p. 67 68 What are the Royalties of Faith Faith is a heart-chearing Grace 1 By procuring a sufficient paymaster Christ p. 68 65 2 By making us one with Christ by which his payment is ours p. 66 2 Faith is a heart-cleansing grace and that two wayes 1 Argumentatively from God four Arguments p. 69 2 From our selves two Arguments p. 70 2 Operatively Faith makes thee First Of the Merit of Christ Secondly Prayer Thirdly Promise of Christ p. 71 3 Royalty Faith is a heart-commanding grace and it inables the soul to do what it commands p. 71 72 4 Faith is a heart-quieting grace 72. 71. Again false figured Two manner of wayes Faith calms the heart 1 Imperiously and that 1 By commanding or 2 By checking the soul p. 72 73 2 In a perswasive mild way presenting three grounds for patience p. 73 74 5 Royalty Faith is a soul-securing grace nothing else will secure but beleeving p. 75 1 It sets the soul upon a soul-securing bottome p. 75 76 2 Instates the soul into soul-securing promises p. 77 3 Into soul-securing priviledges 1 Sons of God 2 Spouse of Christ 3 The inheritance of Christ. p. 77 6 Royalty Faith is a heart-humbling Grace it makes real all humbling considerations from God the justice of God threatnings of God against sin p. 78 79 7 Royalty Faith is a heart-softening grace and that p. 80 1 By looking upon heart-melting Promises Ibid. 2 Taking up heart-softening Considerations Ibid. 3 Looks upon soul-melting Objects a wounded and broken Christ the considerations of his sufferings p. 81 1 Either in themselves 2 Or in their cause 3 Or as the effect of sin p. 81 82 8 Royalty Faith is a heart-transforming grace heart head will transformed p. 82 to 84 9 Royalty Faith is a heart-pacifying grace an unbeleeving-heart a stormy heart above us within us below us all against us whilst unbeleevers p. 84 2 Faith makes us servants to the God of Peace p. 65 2 Subjects to the King of Peace p. 66 3 Christ our Peace interests us in the Covenant of Peace 4 Instates us into the conditions of Peace p. 66 Quest Many have peace and yet are not beleevers and many are Beleevers and yet want Peace Answered p. 87 to 90 10 Royalty Faith is a heart-inabling grace First To do Secondly To suffer p. 90 91 1 Faith begets inabling-promises p. 92 2 Supplies with soul-inabling strength Ibid. 3 Furnisheth a Christian with soul-inabling considerations in three Particulars p. 93. 2 Faith inables the soul to suffer p. 93 1 Puts the soul into a suffering frame 1 By putting the Judgement into a right frame Ibid. 2 Prevails with the will p. 94 3 Works upon the affections Ibid. 2 Faith furnisheth the soul with suffering resolutions Ibid. 3 Begets suffering graces p. 95 4 Layes in suffering strength Ibid. 5 Propounds to the soul suffering rewards Ibid. 11 Royalty Faith is a heart-innobling grace Ibid. 1 It sets our persons above others Ibid. 2 Our performances above others p. 96 1 It begets in us soul-innobling Principles Ibid. 2 Implants us into soul-innobling relations It first makes us servants of the great God 2 Friends of God 3 Sons and Daughters of God 4 Spouse of Christ 5 Makes us members of Christ who is such a head as doth
delivered up to Your selves to the lusts of your own hearts Nay you had better to be Given up to Satan than to be Given up to your selves your sins The Incestuous person was Delivered up to Satan as you read 1 Cor. 5.5 And was restored again and the better for it But we never read of any who were Delivered up to themselves who ever returned never any who were Given up to the lusts of their own heart that ever recovered Better then To be delivered up to Satan than to sin inasmuch as All Penal Evils fall short of Sinful Evils It is Judicial in respect of God who may punish one sin with another and curse sin with hardness of heart But this is a sinful evil in respect of us we bring the writing and the wax and God puts to the seal and then we are shut up for ever And you are in the High-way to this who Go on in sin and will not be reformed when God hath laboured by Sickness Afflictions to recover you you are in the way to this Final Doom You that are filthy be filthy still c. 3. Consectary 3. Consectary 3. If sin be the Greatest Evil in the world Then see what fools they are who seek to rid themselves of other Evils by the Admission of sin He who labors to prevent other evils or remove other evils by the admission of sin runs into the greatest evil of all He kills himself to save himself he destroys himself to preserve himself He that thus saves his life doth lose his life There were never any times so bad but Gods people might have been safe in them if they would have admitted of sin But they have seen their safety to lie in Suffering when they could have no safety but in the Admission of sin You see it in the practice of the Three Children It was the speech of the Primitive Christians when they were threatned with Prisons and Deaths if they would not renounce Christ Parce precor Imperator Tu Carcerem Ille Gehennam S are good Emperor thou threatnest a Prison but Christ Hell When Cyprian was sentenced to dye upon the same ground the Governor perswaded with him that he should pity himself and rather Renounce his error than lose his life and consult a little on it He answers him Fac quod tibi praeceptum est In re tà m justâ nulla est consultatio Sir you are my Judge you are none of my Counsellor In so clear and just a cause there needs no Counsel I will not dishonor the justness of my cause to enter into Parlee and Consultation whether to suffer or sin The like of that Virgin whereof Basil speaks who bade adieu to estate and life rather than abandon her Profession Oh! it were a sad thing to secure our selves by that which is our ruine to purchase our liberty by bondage our safety by sin You see what it cost F. Spira and Cranmer in Queen Maries days who knevv not hovv to be avenged on himself for his act but by Burning that hand first that had subscribed to sin It is better to be still in Prison than for sin to set open the Prison door Inasmuch as its better to be Gods Prisoner than the Devils Freeman Better to lose all than to preserve our estates by the admission of sin And therefore whatever your troubles are whatever your fears whatever your dangers bevvare of preserving your selves or purchasing liberty or life it self at so dear a rate as by the admission of sin by Dishonoring God and wounding your own conscience Beware of getting Man your Friend by purchasing God to be your Enemy We know not yet what our times may come unto but it is out of the reach of the power or malice of men To make you miserable if they do not first make you sinful 4 Consectary 4. If sin separately considered be so great an Evil 4. Consectary What then is sin circumstantiated sin against knowledge against means If there be so much evil in sin in the least sin what then in the greatest If Atomes be so great How great then are Mountains If impertinent thoughts be so sinful as having more sin in them than all the treasures of heaven besides God and Christ can expiate what then are rebellious thoughts contrived Murders speculative Adulteries contemplative wickedness covetous Aims and Ends contempts of God slightings and undervaluing of his ways If there be so much sin and hell in a vain idle word what a hell of sin what mountains of wrath in your Carrion-communications your stinking-discourses your bloody and horrid oathes and blaspemies Nay if there be so much evil in one sin and one sin simply considered what shall we think of sin compounded sin circumstantiated sin made exceeding sinful sins against knowledge against means against mercies Oh! sit down and consider one sin and see much in it Such a sin I committed against knowledge such a one against checks of conscience such a one against the motions of the Spirit c. and tell me if the least sin be not exceeding sinful 5. Consectary 5. Consectary If sin be so great an evil then see what fools they are who make a mock at sin Prov. 14.9 Fools make a mock at sin they sport at sin It is a sport to swear to be drunk c. they will sin for sport and recreation It is their recreation to do evil to drink to swear to lye to profane Gods-day These are Fools What Natural Fools No he that goes about with a Whistle and a Bable and a Coat is in far better case than he He is a Spiritual Fool the greatest Fool. Will you sport with poyson will you sport your selves with Hell nay worse Will you recreate your selves with destroying your selves will you sport your selves with that which was so bitter to Christ and will be so to thee if ever thou be pardoned Who would sport at that which is the misery of lost men and Devils both here and in Hell to eternity One would think this poor sport and recreation to tear in pieces the flesh and wound and shed the blood of A Stranger of An Enemy but how much more of Our Dearest Friend Thou who sportest at sin dost so with Christ sportest thy self in killing Christ crucifying Christ tearing the flesh of â—hrist again Every oath is a dagger to his heart as the spear to his side again It is the highest piece of a Devilish nature in the world To sport at sin None but Devils do it It is the Burden of God he complains of it and he accounts it an ease when he is rid of you Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries Isa 1.24 It is the Wounding of Christ the Grief of the Spirit the Trouble of Angels the destruction of the Creatures Will you sport at that which hath brought all evil on man all on Christ which hath made Hell fuelled Hell and the Torment of souls
there is no Acceptation of any service Till our persons be accepted and reconcil'd our performances are abominable But now sin being pardoned here is acceptance for all our services He drinks the milk as well as the wine Cant. 5.1 And eats the honey-comb with the Honey c. 5. Sanctification of every condition to us When sin is removed which was the curse in all 6. Supportation under Crosses Upon removal of sin which was in all the heaviest burden 7. Participation of all the priviledges of the Covenant These are the inseparable fruits of pardon There are other as Peace Joy Comfort Rom. 5.1 which indeed are not so much Fruits of pardon as Fruits of Assurance of pardon not the next but the remoter fruits of pardon USE Lastly Is sin the Greatest Evil in the world Oh then let us Above all things in the world labour to get our selves rid of sin Get a pardon of sin Say with David Oh! Take away the iniquity of thy servant What will the enjoyment of all other goods profit thee if thy sins be not pardoned what profit had Dives of his wealth Saul of his Kingdom c. It is a thing greatly to be lamented to see How active and serious men are about removing of other evils on them and the purchasing and procuring of other goods but yet how slight how superficial they are about getting Pardon of sin Thy Person is under the Guilt of Sin Thou standest a Condemned man and woman Damnatus antequam Natus And God hath given thee time and that time is not a time of Reprival onely but is a time that God hath afforded thee to get a pardon in And it cost no less than the Blood of Christ to procure thee this time it was that that made a stop of the present proceedings of Gods justice against thee else thou hadst been in Hell long ago And wilt thou Squander away This Time wilt thou Neglect This Business wilt thou eat away sleep away nay drink away sin away a Pardon If there were a man condemned to dye and yet were out of Mercy Reprived That hee might procure his Pardon and the King were willing to grant him a pardon would you not think that man deserves to dy who shall now spend this time in drinking in revelling c why this is your case But yet there is another sort that will seek for a pardon but they seek it coldly they seek it formally they seek it sleightly and superficially they seek it as if they had no need of it as if they could do well enough though they wanted a Pardon There is a great deal of dallying with God about this Great business Most men in the World do but Trifle with God about it I will name you five or six sorts of men who are Tristers with GOD in this main and concerning matter and these none of the meanest neither I shall not now deal with your Debaucht People but such as will seem to do somewhat for a pardon 1 Such who will seek and perhaps cry earnestly but yet still continue in the practice of those sins which they beg a pardon of I speak not now of Sins of Course Peccata quotidianae incursionis Sins of daily incursion Sins of Infirmitie weakness and Imperfections in Duty These the best notwithstanding their daily praying for pardon of do yet too often fall into But I speak of grosser-sins Peccata Vastantia Conscientiam Sins wounding and gashing the Conscience And this is a fearfull thing fearfull dallying with GOD. What would you think of such a man who should come to beg a Pardon and yet before the Pardon were given out should run to commit new acts of Treason This is thy case I see many of you living in a Course of sin Potting swilling swearing I am ashamed to name them Do you pray for a Pardon Or do you not pray If you do not pray you are no better than Atheists And do you pray for a Pardon and yet live in the practice of those sins you beg pardon of Oh! what fearfull dallying with GOD is here Oh! you little think what a strong tye this is against sin To pray for the pardon of sin What Have you been confessing sin humbling your souls for sin begging of Pardon of Sin And no sooner turn your backs upon God but return to Sin Ah! This is fearfull dallying indeed And this is a Fearfull aggravation of Sin you think to have something come in for your dayes of Humiliation for your prayers for pardon of Sin you think there is some good in it Why you have begged a Pardon though you have Sin'd yet you have prayed and therefore hope that notwithstanding your sins God will hear your prayers But dost thou live in sin and confess sin Dost thou practice sin and yet pray for pardon of sin Dost thou commit sin and yet humble thy self for sin Oh! These are Great Aggravations of sin these do adde more weight to sin Do you think it would be an Extenuation or an Aggravation for a Malefactor to beg a pardon and yet run to the same Rebellion again would he think this To lessen his sin because he hath formerly beg'd a Pardon No certainly he would look upon this as a Greater Aggravation Why this is thy case And this you shall see was Israels spirit which was so much displeasing to God Jer. 3.4 Thou art my Father and the Guide of my youth They gave God good words compast him about with good expressions But saith the Lord This hast thou done and yet done as much evil as thou couldst v. 5. 2. A second sort who dally with God are such who seek the pardon of some sins but yet keep up the love and liking of others Thou art it may be Pinched and Troubled for some gross sins and thou beg'st a pardon for them when it may be there is some Running-Issue of corruption within which thou Overlook'st some secret Haunt of Villany that thy heart runs out after which thou canst not leave which thou hast no minde to part withal Oh! Thou vain man Thou maist cry all thy life and shalt never get good Thou maist pray as long as thou wilt That One sin kept with love and liking will Turn all thy prayers into sin God will never regard the Prayers of a sin-regarding-sinner Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me though I should never act it in my life Didst thou know the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace and Mercy the Strictness of the Gospel and Severity of Mercy it self against sin thou wouldst see There were an impossibility of having one sin forgiven as long as one sin is unforsaken Justification and Sanctification Gods forgiving and our forgoing are equally as large one as the other As God justifies from the guilt of all sin so he sanctifies from the Corruption of all Sin Grace in God forgives all Sin And Grace in us makes us
hee shewed what care hee expressed to us what earnest prayers hee put up to God for us read Joh. 17.9 to the end of the chapter Yea and what provision hee made for us hee would not leave us comfortless but send his Spirit to comfort us to guide us And now hee is in Heaven are not his thoughts on us did hee not tell us hee went to prepare a place for us hee went to do our work to intercede for us to plead for us The Church of Christ is never a moment off from the thoughts of Christ Isa 49.15 16. And therefore his Heart is exceedingly taken with his Church That which a man doth affectionately and indearedly love that the heart is much taken withall bee it Husband bee it Wife Child the World whatever Now Christ doth exceedingly love his Church wee are said to bee the dearly beloved of his soul Jer. 12.7 and read here hee loves us beyond all expressions so God loved the World Joh. 3.16 so Christ hee loves us beyond all conceptions Ephes 3.19 it is a love which passeth knowledge In the former verse the Apostle went about to measure this love height depth breadth length But hee found his line too short his measure would not reach therefore hee concludes it a love beyond all knowledge A man may express much love but hee may conceive of more than hee can express Why this love of Christ is above all wee can conceive above knowledge It is an infinite love It is I say an infinite love which is more than if I should lay all the bowels in the Creature together c. A greater love than all Witness what is done suffered and yet love above all And therefore Christs Heart is exceedingly taken with his Church and People That which a man doth glad his heart with and which hee rejoyces over hee must needs bee taken with A man will not rejoyce over the injoyment of that hee loves not The rich Fool rejoyced over his full Barns but it was because his heart was taken with his possessions Joy is a fruit of the hearts being taken with any thing you rejoyce in your riches Husbands c. in the possession of what ever your heart loves Now the Heart of Jesus Christ doth exceedingly rejoyce over his Church and People they are his by donation God gave them to him they are his by purchase hee laid down his life for them if wee lay down our life to compass a thing sure wee rejoyce in it Wee are his Riches wee his Treasure his Ammies Ruhama's and Hephzibah's his precious ones his People his Spouse and therefore hee must needs rejoyce over us Isa 62.4 5. Thou shalt bee called Heph-zibah for the Lord delighteth in thee yea as the Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride so shall thy God rejoyce over thee Zeph. 3.17 The Lord will rejoyce over thee with Joy hee will rest in his love hee will joy over thee with singing And therefore seeing Christ doth rejoyce Ergo is the Heart of Jesus Christ exceedingly taken c. That which a man doth delight to converse withall that his heart is taken withall Now Christ doth delight exceedingly to converse with his Saints hee loves to speak to them and hee loves to hear them speak to him Cant. 2.14 Oh my Dove let mee see thy countenance let mee hear thy voice for thy countenance is comely and thy voice is sweet When the Disciples are talking of him Christ joyns himself to them Ergo is the Heart of Christ much taken When the two were going to Emmaus Luk. 24.15 Christ comes and joynes with them delights in their talk Mal. 3.16 when Gods people were gathered together the Lord hearkened and heard 5. That which a man thinks nothing to dear for nothing too much to give for to do for or suffer for that the heart must needs bee taken withall But thus it was with Christ to his Church 1. Hee suffered in his Body those spittings buffetings scourgings c. that was dear to him which hee gave his heart bloud for 2. Hee suffered in his soul even the wrath of God for her 3. Hee emptied himself of his own glory took upon him the form of a servant with all our infirmities penal not culpable as it is said of Jacob hee counted all his labours but little for Rachel because hee loved her Gen. 29.20 6. That which a mans soul is satisfied and contented withall in the injoyment of it that a mans heart is taken withall If a mans heart were not taken with the love of a thing hee would never think himself happy never bee contented and satisfied with the injoyment of it Whereas on the contrary where the soul is filled with satisfaction in the injoyment of it what ever it bee the heart is taken with it Now you shall see that the Heart of Jesus Christ is fully satisfied and contented with the injoyment of his Church though it have cost him so much pains so much sweat and bloud yet the injoyment of it is reward enough to him It is the reward which God promised him for his work Psal 2.8 Ask of mee and I will give thee the Heathen c. here merit of mee lay down thy life and I will then give thee a Church a People And that which doth satisfie Isa 53 11. Hee shall see of the travel of his soul and bee satisfied hee shall see the fruit of his sufferings in the saving of souls and shall bee satisfied with it It shall bee reward enough to him for all pains that souls are saved Isa 62.11 his reward is with him and his work before him hee is the salvation of his people And this is that which some think is meant by the joy set before him in Heb. 12.2 Who for the joy that was set before him indured the Cross despised the shame Which Joy saith an holy and learned Interpreter is nothing else but the fruit of his sufferings the redemption and salvation of his Church and People according to that in Isa 53.12 Therefore will the Lord divide him a portion with the great and hee shall divide the spoil with the strong because hee hath poured out his soul unto death And it is an Interpretation may bee backed Well then seeing whatever the heart of man rests satisfied in the injoyment of the heart is taken withal And that Christ doth rest satisfied in the injoyment of his Church and People though it cost so much to obtain it Ergo needs must it follow that the Heart of Jesus Christ is exceedingly taken That which a man is exceeding chary of dear of his heart must needs bee taken with those things which take our hearts wee are exceeding dear and chary of them If it bee the World Husband Wife Child a man is exceeding chary of them Deal gently with the young man Absolom 2 Sam. 18.5 his heart was taken with him and hee was chary of him Now Christ is exceeding chary over his Church
A loss in love better than an injoyment in displeasure More dye in the Flood than in the Ebbe Though prosperity bee more cordial yet afflictions are more physical Wee often surfeit of Cordials when Physick doth us good And a sanctified cross is better than an unsanctified comfort c. 4. Consectary If the Heart of Christ bee taken with his Church and People 1. Then see what a fearful thing sin is which doth cause God oftentimes to deal hardly with that which his soul loves so dearly God doth oftentimes afflict and punish his Church sharply and severely which yet his heart is much taken withall And sin is the cause And therefore what a fearful thing is sin How grievous would it bee to you to bee forced to take hard courses with a Child your heart is taken withall though it bee to do him good Why God is taken with his Church and do you not think it moves God to afflict and chastise it Wee would fain do all the good wee can to the persons wee love Oh! wee can never do enough for them Why so it is with God to his Church Hee loves his Church and willingly would hee do any thing for it And it is the grief of his soul that hee must take contrary courses with us to do us good that hee must bee forced to afflict and chastise them hee loves so dearly to bring them to Life by Death to Good by Evil to a Crown by Crosses When God parted with the ten Tribes you see what a conflict there was in him how his bowels stirred and were moved towards them notwithstanding all their sins Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My heart is turned within mee my repentings are kindled together How loath was God to seal to a Bill of Divorce His heart loved her though shee was an Adultress to him And when Judah did justifie the sin of her Sister Israel exceeding her in Idols what trouble was it to God to cast her off How willing was hee to receive her after all her adulteries Jer. 3.1 Thou hast plaid the Harlot c. And when shee would go on in her adulteries yet how unwilling still was hee to give her up till at last it grew so high that there was no Remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 hee must needs do it And when hee had done it how exceedingly was Gods heart moved that hee must bee forced to deal so hardly with them hee loved so dearly read Jer. 12.7 8.9 c. See how God laments over the loss of that which their sins would not give him leave to keep I have forsaken mine house I have left mine heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies And what was it that forced God to deal so hardly with them hee loved so dearly Why it was sin 2 Chron. 36.15 16. Hee sent Messengers because hee had compassion on them They mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and mis-used his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his People till there was no Remedy And which of these hath remained to bee done among us How hath our Sun been darkened the Stars lost their light How many burning and shining lights have been taken out of our Candlesticks and planted in others How many blown out by the rage of wicked men Did wee not justly fear by reason of that Idolatry Superstition Prophanation of Sabbaths Persecution of the Saints and Messengers of God that our day was gone our night approaching Did wee not fear that wee were come up to this that there was no remedy That God should have opened the Sluces of his wrath and let in a Sea of his displeasure upon us made us an Aceldema a field of Blood long before this Ah my Brethren Never Nation never Church from whom God hath shewed himself more unwilling to depart and leave than England Look upon the passages of us to God and his wayes towards us and see how unwilling hee declared himself God hath upheld us as if hee himself should fall if wee did not stand as if his Glory could not stand if wee fall as if his Glory had depended upon our preservation And how can wee better answer Gods dealings towards us than to abandon that cast out that which was our fear and gave God just occasion to destroy us Let us now do by our sins as the Israelites did by their Leaven There was 1. Inquisitio fermenti There was search made for it So let us search out that Leaven of sin Superstition Idolatry which have sowred our Kingdome and laid us open to the stroak of Gods wrath Search your houses search the land search your hearts 2. Ejectio fermenti 3. Execratio fermenti And let all bee found in us if ever wee would have a Passover Otherwise our Preservations from former will bee but Reservations to future and worser evils sin will cause God to punish those hee loves 5. Consectary If the Heart of Christ bee so much taken with his Church Then let this discover to you into what you way resolve all the passages of Gods love to his Church and People even into his own Love His Grace is the rise and his Glory is the end There are two main streams in which the goodness of God doth run to his Church 1. The higher and 2. The lower But both these streams have the same Head the same spring from whence they come even his own Love 1. For the higher or upper streams and these are four 1. Election 2. Justification 3. Sanctification 4. Glorification And all these arise from the great Abyss and Sea of his mercy toward his Church His heart is taken with us and therefore 1. Hee chose us Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord loved you not nor chose you because yee were more in number than any people but because the Lord loved you So God did not set his heart on us because wee were better than others for there are others in the World who might have been made more lovely His heart is taken with us therefore Operamur ex Justificatione non in Justificationem 2. Hee justifies us Wee could do nothing to strike off any former score for all wee did set us further in debt it was but an adding of sin to sin guilt to guilt the sin of our righteousness to the sin of our unrighteousness Covering a blot with a blot as Isa 30.1 No it did arise from this His heart was taken with us therefore did hee justifie us Tit. 3.7 Wee are justified freely by his Grace The like Rom. 3.24 Rom. 4.5 All which shew that into this all the expressions of his love are resolved His heart is taken with us therefore 3. Hee did sanctifie us Our holiness is not wrought out of our own Principles spun out of own bowels
the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. This should make us live more humbly more actively more studious to please more diligent to obey more carefull to serve him This should make us live at higher rates for Heaven more spiritual more heavenly minded It is a Cord let down from Heaven to fetch our souls up thither And doth this cause us to bee more remiss more careless Doth this which should quicken slacken our hand to duty Oh base ungrateful neglect of Love 3. when wee take heart to sin thereby Grow more loose careless This is an high abuse of this Love Because God is Good wilt thou bee Evil because hee is Merciful wilt thou bee sinful because hee is Gracious wilt thou bee impious What fearful abuse of Love is this This is to wound Christ in the house of his friends To return good for good is but Humane To return evil for good is Wicked To return good for evil is Christian-like But To return evil for good and the greatest evil for the greatest good Sin for Love this is devilish Were you his enemies hee knew how to deal with you hee could revenge himself and the abuses of his love upon you but you are his friends and those bowels which you wrong are stirred in him when hee goes about to punish you Oh Ephraim How shall I give thee up how shall I deliver thee Israel my bowels are turned within mee My repentings are kindled together Hos 11.8 The greatness of God prevails with wicked men that awes them often that they dare not sin against him But the goodness of God this should prevail with us There is mercy with thee therefore thou art to bee feared It is set down as the Principle in such with whom the heart of Christ is taken Hos 3. ult They shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter dayes None but venimous spirits will suck poison from such a sweet as thence to draw incouragements to sin from that which is the great incouragement to service The Love of Christ had so prevailed with Chrysostome that hee used to say Ego sic censeo sic assidue praedicabo And Anselme That if on the one hand hee should see sin and on the other the torments of Hell hee had rather chuse to fall into Hell than fall into sin 4. When wee stagger and doubt give way to misgiving thoughts of Christs Love and unbeleevings of our own hearts wee abuse this Love What is it possible that Christ should do or suffer more than hee hath done and suffered to perswade your hearts of his Love If Christ should ask the question of you who doubt most of his Love What shall I do to answer your scruples to satisfie your souls for ever in this that I love you could you rationally desire more than what hee hath expressed in his words and to your heart and if notwithstanding all bee in vain 1 Sam. 25.21 may hee not justly say as David of Nabal Surely in vain have I done all this when this all commeth to nothing 3. Direction to them of the Church 3. Bee much in the contemplation of this Love of Christ Dwell upon this This Love of Christ will bee matter of eternal perusal in Heaven Wee shall do nothing but read over this Love Oh! let us not bee strangers to it now View it in the 1. Fulness 2. Freeness 3. Bounty 4. Perpetuity thereof 1. Measure it in the Fulness of it It is a Love which reacheth to every necessity A love able to make you holy and able to make you happy Thou art under guilt and sin thou art terrified by the one and ashamed and confounded because so loathsomely defiled by the other Why It is a pardoning a purging a sanctifying Love it is a Love as large as himself though the persons beloved bee finite 2. Read it over in the Freeness of it 1. It was an undeserved 2. It was an unsought-for Love 1. It was an undeserved Love Wee may provoke him to anger but wee cannot tempt him to love Amat Deus non aliundè hoc habet The former doth arise from our sins the latter from himself His chusing justifying adopting saving love all are free 2. It was an unsought-for Love Never a prayer put up for it I am found of them that sought mee not Isa 65.1 3. Read it over in the Bounty and Expressions of it 1. What hee did 2. What hee suffered 3. What hee hath given to his Church 4. Look upon it in the Perpetuity Permanency and continuance thereof A Love which reaches from Eternity to Eternity From Eternal chusing to Eternal glorifying An unchangeable Love Let us then peruse this Love Read it over in all the Dimensions Dwell upon the thoughts of it till your hearts bee Humbled melted inabled in-nobled winned quickened comforted c. The Thoughts of this Love are 1. Soul-humbling Thoughts Nothing layes the soul lower than Love The consideration of this will vile a man to Hell Ezek. 36.25 to 33. where you may read some expressions of love how it affects These would bee 2. Soul-melting Thoughts They will not only humble but melt not only break but dissolve the heart Nothing doth melt the soul more than Love The Law may break us but it is as the breaking of a flint every dust retains hardness but it is the Gospel that melteth us The thoughts of Gods Justice do stone the heart make it more hard but the thoughts of Gods Mercy do melt the heart You know you never mourn indeed till Love till Mercy do melt you Every drop of tears sticks like an hailstone and congeals in the eyes but when Love comes in then all the springs are opened and a man is dissolved into waters So much apprehensions of this Love of Christ so much godly sorrow They are like the Fountain and the Stream whereof the one doth rise no higher than the other The thoughts of this Love have 3. A Soul-inabling Power It will not only ingage us to service as the Apostle The Love of Christ constrains mee But it will inable us to service make us pray and pray with affections pray with life make us hear and hear with strength This puts us upon work and puts life vertue and vigor into our actions No actions stronger than those that come from Love Things incredible and impossible to others are yet easy to them who love See what the Saints have gone through what they have done what they have suffered Let but the thoughts of this love lye on your spirits a little and you will finde that Love is strong as death Cant. 8.6 and will mightily carry us through that which otherwise may seem impossible They will bee 4. Soul-innobling thoughts They will make you like themselves Whatever the soul feeds on the soul is digested into the nature of it So here feed on the thoughts of this love and your spirit will bee digested into it Whiles wee behold as in
a glass the glory of the Lord wee are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 In nature the meat is digested into the nature of the eater Here the eater is turned into the nature of the meat The contemplation of his Glory makes you glorious They will bee 5. Soul-winning Thoughts Love you know is of an attractive nature Amor amoris Magnes Nothing wins more than Love Love is the Loadstone to draw Love again As the Sun shining upon a Glasse begets a reflection of the beams back again so the love of God shed abroad in our hearts begets a reflection of love back again toward God You see Mary Much was forgiven her shee had tasted of much love from God and shee returned much love again to him Shee loved much The Power of God doth shake the heart The Majesty of God doth dread the heart The Justice of God doth awe the heart But it is the Mercy of God the Love of God which doth perswade win and draw the heart Nothing wins a mans heart to God but his Love The fear of God dread of God may bring a mans feet into his wayes but it is the Love of God which brings his Heart into his wayes They are 6. Soul-quickening 7. Soul-comforting thoughts Oh then that wee were but wise to improve this Doctrin this truth to the good of our souls I tell thee Christian if thou wouldest give this truth but scope in thy heart it would help thee and relieve thee of all the burdens under which thou groanest 1. Dost thou labour under a proud heart this would humble thee 2. Dost thou labour under a dejected heart this would raise thee 3. Under a dark heart this would comfort revive thee 4. Under a dead heart this would quicken thee and put the Spirit of Heaven into thee whiles thou art on earth 5. Under an hard heart this would break thee Nay this would melt thee dissolve thee into waters I say the more thou gets up with Elijah into this Chariot of love the more would the mantle of sin and corruption depart from thee 6. Under a worldly heart This would dead thy heart for ever to the World and set thee all on flame with the fire of heavenly affections I am confident of it whatever a Christian desires to injoy whatever a Christian desires to bee rid of if hee can but dwell upon this truth and bee able to manage it Hee shall have it more fully hee shall have it more quickly than any other way Wouldest thou bee rid of a proud heart wouldest thou have an humble heart wouldest bee rid of a dead heart and desirest a quick heart wouldest bee rid of an hard heart and have a broken heart wouldest bee rid of an unbeleeving of a doubting of a dejected heart and wouldest bee mighty in Faith full of comfort Why do but let thy soul bee carried captive with this Truth bee but content this Truth should master thee bee but willing to entertain it beleeve it imbrace it I am confident on it all this will bee done I may set down a probatum est to it Oh! That wee were wise to manage this Truth There are many look upon this but as a pleasant dream a Chimera a fiction And some beleeve it but slightly there wants depth of earth And some there are poor souls to whom the comfort of this truth belongs who think this is too good news for them They think if they should own it it would bee but too great a sale for too small a Boat rather overturn them than do them good rather ruine them than help them And therefore they must feed upon black thoughts upon Hell upon justice upon sin upon their corruptions Ah! Poor souls Satan deludes you you take a way to undo your selves Either to discourage you to say there is no hope or else to break you that you shall never bee able to do God service Look as long as you will into Hell pry as long as you will into the dark vaults of your souls rake as long as you will into the kennel of your hearts You shall finde nothing in Hell but Hell in your hearts but sin and having found it run from him That man looks too much on sin who shutteth his eyes from a mutual interview of love between God and his soul And hither you must come at last Free-Grace must bee owned Free-Mercy must bee acknowledged and advanced by you if ever you would bee saved if ever you would bee comforted You mâ—y think what you will but sure I am 1. There are no Christians more chearfull 2. None are more thankfull 3. None are more humble 4. None are more beleeving 5. None are more active 6. None are more couragious 7. None more serviceable and usefull toward God and men than they who lye continually at the breast of the promise than they who set up Gods Free-Grace and own that good which God makes out to them Thou mayest bee a Christian but thou wilt bee a sad Christian an uncomfortable Christian a dark Christian a deserted Christian a dead Christian an unserviceable Christian if thou dost go on to feed upon black thoughts and wilt not own that comfort which Christ tenders imbrace that good which Christ speaks and beleeve the Riches of his Grace and Mercy to poor sinners Do but sit down and from the sight and sense of thine own unworthiness take but occasion to advance Free-Grace and Mercy Let there bee place for that to come in Let those thoughts finde entertainment And thou shalt quickly finde a strange change in thy spirit 1. Thou who couldest not mourn before shall now bee able to poure our tears as if thou wert all turned to water 2. Thou who before couldest not beleeve couldest not bee comforted wilt even think it a wonder that ever thy heart should bee so dark so doubtful 3. Thou who before wast dead shalt now finde a spirit of life come into thee and make thee active in the work of the Lord. Make but the Experiment and thou wilt converse more with the promise with the Love of Christ with the Free-Grace of God whiles thou livest if you would but remove your unbelief But who shall remove this stone God alone must do it But if this were done this truth would let in a flood of mercy upon you and even sink and over-whelm you in a Sea of mercy and glory where now you go drooping and hang down your heads because you will not own that portion which Christ hath left you nor that comfort which Christ doth tender and speak to you 4. Direction to them of the Church 4. Direction to them of the Church 4. Labour for a reciprocall affection a mutual taking between Christ and us Is Christs heart taken with you Oh! let your hearts bee taken with him Doth Christ love you Oh! do you love Christ Are you
dear are you precious to him let him bee dear and precious to you Whatever God doth to the soul it makes an impression in the soul of the same to God Hee loves us and thereupon wee love him so his heart is taken with us thereupon our hearts are taken with him You see here the mutual Indeerments betwixt Christ and his Church Cant. 5.16 Pauls heart was so much taken with Christ that hee was ever in his thoughts ever upon his tongue Hee names him sixteen or seventeen several times in one chapter 1 Cor. 1.1 as Chrysostome notes Peter did but let a word of Christ fall and it is a door to open to further discourse of him Hee takes occasion upon the naming of him to enter into discourse concerning him As you see 1 Pet. 1.7 8. So greatly were their hearts taken with Christ that they could think nothing but Christ speak nothing but Christ No sentence compleat wherein Christ was not part of it Hee was the one of their esteems the one of their affections the one of their desires the one of their delights And so ought hee to bee of ours Get your hearts taken with Christ this will make you Christians indeed this will make you humble active chearful Christians An heart taken with Christ is Heaven on this side Heaven An Heaven on Earth Glory in Clay It is the Paradise where Christ delights to walk It is the House where Christ delights to dwell It is the Throne where Christ sits in his glory It is the Habitation of the blessed Spirit It is the Delight of all the blessed Trinity An heart taken with Christ is the humble soul indeed is the active soul the living soul which breathes forth nothing but love and desire after Christ It is an heart dead to the world for the World can never take that heart which once is taken with Christ All is empty to him whom fulness fills All is blackness where Beauty shines Oh! then get but an heart taken with him and thou livest a Life of Glory and a Life of Grace This is the Porch of Glory the suburbs of Heaven I told you before there were four speciall times in which the heart was taken with Christ I might adde a fifth which I hope is our times When Christ goes forth in his glory for the redemption and deliverance of his Church and punishment of his enemies Then is the heart taken with him 1. Taken with his Wisdome 2. With his Justice 3. With his Power 4. With his Mercy and goodness Which are the visible attributes Christ doth manifest in the deliverance of his Church You see this Isa 25.9 when God went forth in his Glory to deliver his Church the Saints were taken with him even to admiration and speak glorying Loe This is our God wee have waited for him and hee will save us This is the Lord wee have waited and will bee glad in his salvation Here was a Triumphant song of the Church This is our God This who appears so glorious so full of Majesty This This is our God not yours And good reason 1. Christ never appears in his Glory to his Church but hee makes his Church glorious You see when God delivered his Church from Babylon hee did appear in his Glory Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Zion hee shall appear in his glory And you see as hee appeared in his Glory so hee made the Church glorious Isa 54.11 12 13. speaking of the same time Behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with Saphires I will make thy windows of Agates and thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones 2. Christ now comes in with the Performance of Promises and needs then must he be glorious and the Church be taken with him If Christ were so glorious when hee made those promises what is hee when hee comes in to make good those Promises Christ hath reserved abundance of his visible Glory to bee seen by his Church now at the end of the World Our Fore-Fathers have seen him but an obscured Christ a persecuted and kept-down Christ Though glorious yet humble-glory But it will not bee long before the Church see him in his Glory when hee comes to destroy that man of sin with the brightness of his comming Blessed bee God for what our eyes see Let us follow him with admiration with the Church This is our God follow with spiritual triumph This is our God And let our hearts bee taken with his goings forth who is set forth in his glory now to redeem and to deliver his Church and People A TREATISE OF THE NATURE AND ROYALTIES OF FAITH BY SAMVEL BOLTON D. D. And MASTER of C.C.C. LONDON Printed by Robert Ibbitson for Thomas Parkhurst and are to be sold at his Shop over against the Great Conduit in Cheapside 1656. A TREATISE OF THE NATVRE ROYALTIES OF FAITH JOHN 3.15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life I Have intended with Gods assistance to enter upon a Discourse of Faith which might last till we come to the place where faith shall be no more And although my preaching of faith may end before yet your practising of it must not The just shall live by faith and the just must dye in faith This Text I have chosen for the foundation of this Discourse Which before I come to handle in particular I shall shew what coherence and dependance it hath with the former words For which purpose you must know that this Chapter from the beginning to Verse 22. contains a discourse between Christ and Nicodemus In which you may observe 1. The Occasion of the Discourse 2. The Discourse it self 1. The occasion of this Discourse most likely was a Question put by Nicodemus which is not here expressed but is probably implyed in Verse 3. in that it is said That Jesus Answered and by the Answer you may guess what the Question was It may be such an one as this What he must do that he might be saved 2. We have the Discourse it self Which was partly continued and partly interrupted Continued by Christ and partly interrupted by Nichodemus in divers places by his Objections Cavils and fleshly Reasonings This Text is a part of Christs continued discourse and hath special relation to the foregoing verse As Moses lift up c. so must the Son of man be lifted up Verse 14. That whosoever believeth in him be he who he will Jew or Gentile bond or free Barbarian Scythian c. Or be his sins what they will for nature never so hainous for number never so many for continuance never so long practised Yet whosoever believeth c. if they believe they shall be as readily and certainly pardoned and saved as other less offendors Whosoever believeth In which words we have 1. The Promise 2. The Condition of the Promise Or here is 1. An act Believe 2. The object Christ
the act of faith at the heels Thou must stay the Lords leisure and wait till all clouds and storms be blown over till all doubts and fears shall vanish Psal 57.1 Light is sowen for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart but with the Husbandman we must wait in patience till the corn come up and the crop come in The storm doth not cease as soon as the ship-man hath cast anchor the winds then may yet blow and the tempest may be as strong nay it may be stronger than before but the rock to which thou art fastned is sure or if thy anchor hold all is sure Nothing shall hinder safety though something may interrupt thy security to thine own apprehension To trust is the act of faith but apprehended security is the fruit of believing and therefore cometh not till afterward it may be some moneths may be some years after long experience Nay it is not an inseparable fruit of believing I mean thy apprehended security is not thou maist possibly never in this life reach the apprehensions of thy security and yet thy condition may be secure It is secure as I said in the promise though not to sense if thou dyest whilst thou ridest at Anchor having thrown it out and fastned it on Christ yet thou dyest in the ship and not in the sea thou dyest in the Covenant of Peace and there is safety though the storm in this world may never cease That which I would commend to thee is to be much in self-purging self-humbling self-examination trust much and stedfastly to the end Do as they did in that great storm when neither Sun nor Stars were seen for many days cast out anchor and wish for day nay cast out two anchors that is safest in a tempestuous night trust and pray that God would break into thy soul with a calm morning light and mean while wait and say When will the day break and these shadows this darkness this tempest fly away My soul wait thou onely upon God for my expectation is from him Psal 62.5 Object 3. But say some To believe is an act of the understanding and is nothing else but an Assent to the truth of Divine Revelations which is expressed in Scripture By receiving of Christ John 1.12 To as many as received him to them he gave power to become the sons of God even to as many as believe in his name Where receiving of Christ which say they is An act of the understanding assenting to this truth That Christ is the Messias and Saviour of the world is made all one with Believing And so Isa 53.11 By his knowledge Notitiâ sui not suâ By the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justifie many which knowing is an act of the understanding also The like John 17.3 This is life Eternal To know thee c. All which places do report thus much That Faith is an act of the understanding not of the will And to this they alledge the testimony of the Greek Fathers which make Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An undoubted Assent to the Doctrine of Salvation and to this Proposition in particular That Christ is the Messiah So that by all this it is clear to them that Faith is an act of the understanding not of the will But now Trust is an act of the will and therefore cannot be the formal act of justifying Faith Answ Now for Answer of this we must know that 1. To Believe In the general is no more than to assent to the truth of a Proposition for the Authority of the Speaker It is no more than An act of the understanding whereby we Assent to the truth of Divine Revelations But we speak not of Faith in general but of justifying Faith of that formal act of Faith whereby we stand justified before God And here we say that Faith is not an act of the understanding onely but of the will also The first It is Too Low Non pertingit ad justificationem as one saith It reacheth not so high as Justification The second Brings the Soul over to Christ by an act of Trust whereby a man is justified By the first we do but Discover the Justifying-Cause the Founain of Life Christ himself By the latter we Throw our selves into this Fountain In ipsum quasi totos nos immergimus and draw water of life from him Hence one None can be justified but by union with Christ Nullus potest justificari nisi per unionem ad Christum Durand and the first union is by Faith By what Faith The Speculative act of Faith No sure This doth no more unite the soul to Christ than the sight of the Sun doth draw a man up to heaven By what Faith then But by this act of Trusting Resting Leaning c. Hence Augustine To believe in Christ Credere in Deum est credendo in Deum ire is by believing to go into Christ and to be incorporate into his body which the Papists themselves will not say is done By a bare act of the understanding And therefore to pass this and come to the places alledged Where the first is 1 John 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave power c. where say they by Receiving is meant no more but An act of the understanding whereby they assented to this That he was the Messias For answer to this place we say That this word Receiving doth not onely denote the understanding but implies the will also Which will appear by this one Reason among many That Receiving is to be understood which is opposed to the Jews not receiving of him For having said in Verse 11 He came to his own and his own received him not Immediately is added But as many as did receive him to them he gave power to become the sons of God So that the matter of Inquiry will be How the Jews did not receive him Was it then onely in this Their not assenting that he was the Messias or Rejecting him and Refusing him for a Saviour It could not be the former Their non-assenting to the truth of this That he was the Messias Though it was the ground why Sundry did not receive him yet it was not the ground why all did not receive him For we read There were divers of the Scribes and Pharisees and Priests who knew right well that he was The Christ For so much do the Husbandmen themselves confess in the Parable as Christ brings them in Mat. 21.38 saying This is the Heir come let us kill him and seize upon his inheritance And how could our Saviour justly charge them with the Sin against the Holy Ghost unless they had known him to be the Messias Mat. 12.32 and wilfully rejected him against knowledge and conscience And how can any be said To make shipwrack of Faith which yet the Scripture saith some have done 1 Tim. 1.19 unless you will say A man made shipwrack of that he never
had except he do historically believe as Simon Magus and others did who did not feign a Faith in words as Calvin saith but being overcome with the Majestie of the Gospel did in a sort sc historically believe and acknowledge Christ the Author of Life and Salvation Nay and if man did not Historically believe then all the sins committed against the Gospel were only sins of Ignorance and not against Knowledge So that there were no sins in the Gospel against Knowledge Nor Now neither if this bee granted And therefore as their Non-Receiving of him was not so much an Act of the Understanding whereby they Assented not to this That CHRIST was the Messiah But rather an Act of the VVill whereby they refused him to bee their Saviour As you see plainly exprest by CHRIST Luk. 19.14 wee will not have this man to reign over us So Mat. 23.37 So that their Receiving of him was not a bare Act of the Understanding whereby they Assented to this That CHRIST was the Saviour But an act of the VVill whereby they chose him embraced him rested and trusted upon him as a Saviour And therefore seeing this Act of Receiving of CHRIST is not an act of the Understanding but an act of the VVill imbracing him trusting on him And that this Receiving is Beleeving as the Evangelist saith Therefore To beleeve is to trust To the other places Isa 53.11 John 17.3 where Faith seems to bee an act of the Understanding As By his Knowledge shall hee justifie many And This is eternal life To know thee c. Wee are to understand them Senechdochically where part is set down for the whole The whole nature of Faith being implied in those Phrases These Phrases are Hebraismes In which language words of Knowledge and Sense do imply the Will and Affections They do not only signifie the Act of the mind and Sense but imply the Will and affections too As you see Psal 1.6 The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous That is The Lord loveth The Lord approveth of the way of the Righteous So where it is said Depart from mee I know you not That is I love you not I allow not of you I approve you not And so may that place in Isa 53.11 bee interpreted Non solum agnitionem Personae beneficiorum Christi significat sed etiam Fiduciam quiescentem in Christi It doth not only signifie the knowledge of the person and benefits of Christ but resting and trusting upon them Such a Knowledge of Christ as is mingled with Faith and works our Wills to accept of CHRIST to trust in him CHRIST being So known as to bee Embraced Rested upon Trusted upon shall justifie many Hee speaks of such a Knowledge of CHRIST as is joyned with Faith And to the Testimony of the Fathers alledged As wee will not Resolve our Faith into the Authority of any though never so eminent in the Church So No Authority shall bear us down in this matter if it bee not Consentaneous and Agreeable to the Word of Truth It is no matter what others have taught before us Nil refert quid hic aut ille ante nos docuerit sed quid is qui ante omnes est CHRISTUS Ciprian but what CHRIST himself who was before all hath taught who is Truth himself So that seeing this is not manifested I might refel them with the same ease as they are alledged But seeing Authority is stood upon And I reverence Authority when it is with God And that Authority doth make Faith nothing but An Act of the Understanding whereby wee assent Wee will in the same way overthrow that by setting Authority against Authority Weight against Weight That if nothing will bee said for us so nothing may bee said against us One may balance the other if not weigh it down Now that it is An Act of the Will also let us hear Augustine Fides sine Voluntate non potest esse Et Fides in Credentium Voluntate consistit Faith lyes in the Will Again Voluntate utique credimus Verily wee beleeve with the Will Credere non potest nisi Volens August upon John 6.44 God makes a man willing before hee can beleeve A man may receive the Sacrament against his Will pray against his Will But hee cannot beleeve against his Will said Augustine Another It were not Vertuous to beleeve if it were not voluntary Ipsum velle credere est essentiale Fidei To beleeve willingly is essential to Faith Another upon Rom. 10. With the heart man beleeves upon which hee saith Signantèr dicit Corde creditur id est Voluntate Hee saith remarkably man beleeves with the heart that is with the Will To these I might alledge many more But these shall suffice By which you see That Authority is more for us than against us But leaving the Contestation wee will come to the Issue and conclude this And To speak what I think I conceive that to beleeve is not an Act of the Will only Nor an Act of the Understanding only But An Act of the whole Soul It is so an Act of the Will as the Understanding is folded up in it and so an Act of the Understanding as that the Will and Affections are joyned with it Hence by some it 's call'd Actus Complicatus An Act wherein many Acts are folded up An Act of the Understanding An Act of the Will And ' its not Absurd to mee but very fit to say That That Act whereby the whole Soul is justified pardoned purified is an Act of the whole Soul As the Apostle saith With the Heart man beleeveth to Righteousness So that In Intellectu habet Initium In Voluntate Complementum It begins in the Understanding It is compleat in the Will and Affections All that I know of moment against this will bee this That wee shall seat Faith in diverse faculties which is improper Now for the Answer or removing this wee say 1 That Distinction of Faculties is a Philosophical Opinion and not received by all So that the Will and the Understanding are two distinct Faculties is an Opinion not received by all Many there are that make them more Notional than Real As the East West North and South in the Heavens Not that there are such things but that such things are feigned for our clearer Understanding It is thought by many of good worth that Anima intelligit in intellectu Eligit in Voluntate c. That there 's no such distinction of Faculties But that the same Soul doth Understand in the Understanding VVill in the VVill Doth Understand VVill Love and do all And there 's Scripture for it where wee read all these Acts attributed to the Soul it self As namely an Understanding Heart A willing mind c. And therefore seeing it is a bare Philosophical Opinion and not received by All This will not overthrow nor strengthen any Divine Truths 2 Though this were true That there were distinction of
them for his Sons sake So here Wee were guilty of Treason were condemned to death Now this is the dexterity of Faith to make our selves to bee Members of Christ It is Faith that doth ingraft us into Christ whereas before wee grew upon dead stocks now being ingrafted into the stock of Christ the stock of Life wee have Life derived to us It is Faith that marries us to Christ and being married to him hee answers all our debts It is by Faith wee put on Christ by Faith wee are built on Christ as the House on its Foundation And therefore seeing there is no way to bee saved but by our Union with Christ And there is no Union but by Faith Therefore it follows Faith is the great requisite whereby wee must be saved That for Union 2. For our Communion with Christ Faith is necessary There is no way to bee saved but by vertue of communion with the Righteousness of Christ 1 Not by our own any done by us or wrought out of our selves This is too short A menstruous ragge A ragge and not able to cover us as a Garment too narrow for us Wee cannot weave a web of Righteousness of our own able to cover us wee shall but adde sin to sin 2. Not by Righteousness of Saints or Angels 1. Theirs is incommunicable There 's no way whereby wee should have communion with it They are not of our Natures to wit the Angels There must bee an union of Nature before there can bee communion Nay But were it communicable yet it were insufficient It is but a finite Righteousness and therefore not able to answer an infinite debt If the least sin did lye upon the back of the tallest Angel in Heaven it were not enough All the Righteousness hee hath would not bee enough to save him from Hell And therefore theirs can do us no good To make short of it There 's no way to bee justified and saved but by Communion with the Righteousness of Christ the Righteousness of his active and passive obedience Obedientia Legis Obedientia Crucis 1. The one In Precium 2. The other In Praemium By the one answering Gods condemning Justice By the other answering God commanding Justice By the one satisfying his vindictive Justice whereby he did bear our scourges By the other answering Gods remunerative Justice whereby hee did perform our services Now there was no way to have Communion with this Righteousness of Christ but by Faith Faith gives us Union with Christ And by vertue of our Union wee have Communion with him As by vertue of our Oneness with the first Adam His sin was made ours So by vertue of our Oneness with the second Adam His Righteousness is made ours Faith makes us Members of Christ. Faith unites us to Christ And by vertue of our Vnion with him as the Members with the Head wee have derived from him Life and Spirit Sense and Motion Wee have communion with him In his Wisdome to direct us In his Righteousness to justifie us In his Holiness to sanctifie us In his Redemption to glorifie us Christ is made to us Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Faith ingrafts us into Christ as the Branch into the Vine And by vertue of our ingrafture into him wee draw forth life strength and nourishment from him who is our root By Faith wee put on Christ and so have communion with the Robes of his Righteousness whereby wee stand justified in Gods sight As Jacob got the blessing by his elder Brothers apparel So wee by the Robes of Christ which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteousness of Saints By Faith wee are married to Christ and by vertue of this marriage wee have communion with all his Riches as the Wife hath with her Husbands Estate And Christ hath communion with all our debts So that you see Faith is that Grace which gives us union with Christ And by vertue of that union with him we have communion with all of Christ It gives us communion with the Righteousness of Christ Hee is The Lord our Righteousness And by Faith it is as truly ours to save us as his to glorifie him It gives us communion with the Life and Spirit of Christ with the death and sufferings of Christ with the merits and victories of Christ with the priviledges and immunities of Christ as Adoption Son-ship c. It gives us communion with his Wisdome to direct us with his Power to protect us with his Mercy to save us So that As David said God hath sworn in his Holiness He had made a Promise to him And therefore hee saith I will rejoyce I will divide Shechem and mete out the Valley of Succoth Gilead is mine so the soul may say God hath said This Son of mine I have given you Isa 9.6 And therefore Christ is mine 3. Why God should make choice of this Grace for our Justification Not to say any thing of this which might bee one Reason That the Remedy might answer the Fall The Fall was by unbeleeving As you see Hee gave credit to the Serpent and not to God So God would make our Recovery by Faith But this wee pass Wee read in Scripture of four grounds wherefore God made choice of this Grace for the Justification of a sinner 1. That Justification might bee of Grace 2. That the Promise might bee sure 3. That it might bee to all the seed 4. That no man might boast The three former you shall read Rom. 4.16 The last Ephes 2.9 1. For the first God made choice of this that wee should have Justification by way of beleeving That it might bee by Grace If it had been by any other way by reason of any thing wrought in us or by us If it had been by Desert not of Grace of Wages not of Mercy of Debt not of Favour If God had promised Justification upon any work of ours had told us wee must bring so much Humiliation so much Repentance so much brokenness of Spirit so much Grace so many Prayers Alms-deeds and then wee should bee justified It had not then been of Grace not of Free-Mercy And therefore God For the advancement of his Free-Grace and Mercy that wee might cry out with them in Zach. 4.7 Grace Grace That wee might see admire adore the Riches of his Grace The height and depth and breadth and length of his Free-Mercy Therefore hath God chose this way for the Justification of a sinner 2. That the Promise might bee sure If it had been any other way the Promise could not have been sure That which makes the Promise sure is this 1. That it is not founded upon any thing in us If it were it could never bee sure If there were any thing besides the breast of God to bee a bottom and foundation for the Promise It could never bee sure 2. That it is not performed nor contrived for any thing done by us but out of his Free-Mercy and Love If
Being justified by Faith wee have Peace with God Rom. 15.13 Now the God of all hope fill you with joy and peace in beleeving An unbeleeving-heart is a stormy heart an unpeaceable-heart All things Above us Within us Quae supra nos Intra nos Infra nos Contra nos Below us are all against us whilst wee are Unbeleevers 1. Above us wee have an angry and displeased God 2. Within us wee have a stormy and troublesome Conscience threatning nothing but death like the troubled Sea casting up mire and dirt as Isaiah speaks Isa 57.20 There is no Peace saith my God to the wicked 3 Below us we have there all the Creatures our enemies ready upon Gods commission to execute his displeasure upon us But now being Beleevers all is at Peace 1. All above us is at Peace The Controversy betwixt God and us is ended Faith takes up the quarrel betwixt God and us Wee have Peace with God Rom. 5.1 2. All within us is at Peace A peaceable God makes all at Peace Tranquillus Deus Tranquillat omnia when once our Peace is made in the Court of Heaven which is upon the first act of beleeving Then follows Peace in the Court of Conscience Peace which passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 Our rest is to behold God at rest our Peace is to see him at Peace Eum quierem aspicere Quâ—â— esceâ—e est 3. All below us are at Peace with us Wee have Peace with all the Creatures All are now our Friends Job 5.23 The stones of the Field shall bee at league with thee the Beasts of the Field shall bee at peace with thee c. Thou shalt know that Peace shall bee in thy Tabernacle Prov. 16.7 When a mans wayes please the Lord hee will make his enemies to bee at peace with him When before upon our Rebellion with God all the Creatures were our enemies now being reconciled all are made friends 1. Faith makes us the Servants to the God of Peace in whose service there is Peace Prov. 3.17 All his Paths are Peace Every step of Godliness hath Peace with it And the reward of whose service shall bee Peace Psal 29.11 The Lord will bless his people with Peace Psal 85.8 The Lord will speak Peace to his people at the last though they meet with much trouble for the present war within and war without war with lusts war with Satan yet the God of Peace shall tread down Satan under our feet at last and put an end to this war Rom. 16.20 They shall have a Peace in the Conclusion And a Peace after war is the surest and most setledst Peace Psal 37.37 Mark the upright man The end of that man is Peace Though there bee stormes and troubles in the way yet the end of the journey that shall bee Peace A calm after stormes and never shall there arise storme more to all Eternity 2. Faith makes us subjects to the Prince of Peace unto Christ who is called our Peace Ephes 2.14 And our Peace hee is 1. Not only meritoriously by shedding his Blood for the purchase of our Peace Col. 1.20 Christ is our Peace having made Peace through the Blood of his Cross So Isa 53. The chastisement of our Peace was upon him Or that chastisement which did meritoriously procure our Peace was upon him God directed all the war against him that wee might have Peace As Jonah was thrown into the Sea that the storm might cease so Christ upon the Cross into the Grave that God and wee might bee at peace together But Christ is not only our Peace thus meritoriously by procuring Peace for us But also â— Efficiently by working of Peace in us Christ hath not only wrought Peace for us but hee works Peace in us Pacifying our Consciences calming our stormy spirits setling and establishing his Peace in us Christ is called the Prince of Peace as the King is the Fountain of Honours and bestows them where hee will so Christ is of Peace and bestows it when and where hee pleaseth Wee read that Moses was a man of Peace but hee was not a Prince of Peace Hee could not bestow Peace hee could not instill peaceable and calm affections into the mutinous Israelites But Christ hee is not a man of Peace but King of Salem Prince of Peace who is able to bestow Peace who can calm the most stormy and troublesome spirits with as much ease as hee did the Winds and Waters which was but with a word Peace and bee still Now Faith makes us one with Christ who is the Prince of Peace Christ joyned God and us together and Faith joynes Christ and us together in whom wee have Peace John 16 33. â— In mee yee shall have Peace Faith makes us subjects to this Prince of Peace whose Kingdome and reign over his people doth not consist in meat and drink but in Righteousnesse and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost 3. Faith doth interest us into the Covenant of Peace and therefore being Beleevers wee must needs have Peace I say Faith doth interest us into the Covenant of Peace the Gospel of Peace the alone condition whereof is beleeving Whosoever beleeveth shall bee saved Time was that Hoc age do this was the condition of life do this and live So ran the old Covenant But now Crede Beleeve and bee saved The Law required works It 's called a Covenant of Works but the Gospel Faith It s a Covenant of Grace Made out of meer Grace and performed of meer Grace wherein God promiseth pardon of sins upon meer Mercy and Grace 4. Faith doth instate us into the conditions of Peace Faith gives us the grounds of Peace Justification Reconciliation with God pardon of sin and Sanctification of the whole man As there is no Peace where God is not propitious so there 's no Peace where the sinner is not sanctified A Beleeving heart is an holy heart and an holy heart is a peaceable heart Grace and Peace and Righteousnesse and Peace are still coupled together To shew that where there is no Grace there is no Peace and where there is Grace there is Peace though not ever in the Possession Gratia est bonum initiale Pax est bonum finale and sensible injoyment yet ever in the hope and assurance of the promise of Peace Grace is the root and Peace is the fruit A good Conscience is a continual Feast They who do the work of God shall have the Peace of God Gal. 6. They who walk according to this Rule Peace shall bee on them c. Hence the Psalmist Psal 119 165. Great Peace have they that love thy Law They which love the Law of God shall have the Peace of God Object But you will say Many have Peace who yet are not Beleevers Object And many are Beleevers and yet want Peace Therefore Peace is not a Fruit of Faith Ans Now to meet and to resist this Objection Answ which like a two-edged-sword
fellow-Graces When Faith hath had a good meal here all the Graces of Gods Spirit are bettered by it our Love Humility c. All are strengthened by it Now Faith feeds upon Christ 1. In the Word 2. In the Sacrament Christ is Bread 1. Spiritual Panis Spiritualis 2. Sacramental Panis Sacramentalis Christ is Spiritual Bread in the Word to beget and increase life Christ is Sacramental Bread in Eucharist to nourish and augment our Spiritual life in us The one is Christ in Ordinary Christ in the Word is the Dayly-Bread for Faith to feed upon The other is Christ Extraordinary for Festival Gaudy-dayes And in this order Faith feeds on Christ First Faith feeds upon Christ in the Word and then Secondly Faith feeds upon Christ in the Sacrament None feed on Christ in the Sacrament but they who have fed on Christ in the Word By the one wee have Union by the other Communion with Christ By the one ingraftment into Christ by the other we have nourishment from Christ Christus grandescit in Sanctis By the one Christ is formed in us by the other Christ grows up in us to a perfect man Faith thus feeds upon Christ who is the summe of all nourishing things who is the heart the staff of nourishment Hence hee is called Bread which is the staff of nourishment Christ is the heart of nourishment in the Word in the Sacraments in every Ordinance All which are but empty things convey no spiritual strength to us if wee feed not upon Christ in them If Christ do withdraw himself from the Ordinances If wee feed not upon Christ in them they will do us no good If wee feed not upon Christ in the Word the Word will not profit If wee feed not upon Christ in the Sacraments the Sacraments will not nourish Men may live out their dayes under the Ordinances come to the Word and to the Sacraments and yet when all is done bee like Pharaohs lean Kine never the fatter for all this food if they feed not upon Christ in them And it is suspitious when men live under such precious Ordinances and yet grow no more that surely they feed not on Christ Alas Could wee bee so barren in our Graces so lean in our lives seeing wee go in such rich Pastures and are fed with such precious dainties the Word and Sacraments if wee fed upon Christ in these No my Brethren this is the great reason why wee have such pined and starved souls This is the reason of all our weaknesses our spiritual faintings our declinings our consumptions under the Ordinances wee feed not upon the Spirits of nourishment wee feed not upon Christ in them Panem Domini non Panem Dominum Purum Elementum non est Alimentum wee let not Faith feed on Christ and so are not nourished Wee eat the Bread of the Lord but not the Bread which is the Lord wee feed upon the Elements not upon Christ It is true here The pure Elements are no nourishment If Christ run not through the Bread and Wine they nourish not Well then would you have your Soul nourished take your fill of these Soul-refreshing-Dainties whereby you may get strength Here drink your fill The best measure is no measure Bibite Inebriamini Feed upon the Promises feed upon Christ whereby you may bee nourished Feed on Christ daily Sometimes wee have such a Feast on Christ as in the strength of which with Elijah wee go many dayes God sometimes gives such abundance of Refreshments that the Soul goes cheerfully a long time But this is not Ordinary And therefore there is need of our Daily feeding upon Christ Christ must bee Daily-Bread for Faith to feed on And it must bee our Prayer for the Soul as well as for the Body Give us our Daily-Bread Bread for the Soul as well as Bread for the Body That Day wherein Christ hath not been fed on is a Declining-day Thirteenth Royalty 13. Faith is an Heart-Emptying-Grace 13. Royalty of Faith It s an Heart emptying-Grace There are two things which are the most natural acts of Faith 1. It empties a man of himself 2. It fills the Soul with Christ The Soul cannot bee fill'd with Christ whilest it is full of it self And therefore Faith doth first empty a man of himself cast a man out of himself and then fills the Soul with Christ Faith doth cut a man off his own stock the stock of Nature the stock of Death before it doth ingraft us into Christ the Stock of Life Faith doth strip a man of his own cloaths his own Garments which are too short to cover him before it puts on the Robes of Christ It throws us off from our own bottom whereon wee stand before it set a man upon another Foundation It makes a man poor in himself before it inrich him with Christ It empties a man of himself before it fill the Soul with Christ Now there are two things in general which Faith doth empty the Soul of 1. Of all Opinion of Righteousness in our selves 2. Of all Opinion of strength to help our selves 1. It doth empty the Soul of that windy conceit that Pharisaical Opinion of Righteousness in our selves Faith doth not empty a man of any Righteousness but of the false Opinion of Righteousness It doth not empty us of any worth in our selves there is none but of that fond conceit of worth in our selves Faith makes us see wee are worthless Creatures Rev. 3.17.18 Thou saiest I am rich and increased with goods I have need of nothing And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked I counsel thee to buy of mee Cold that thou maiest bee rich c. My Brethren wee are all of us naturally full of our selves full of our selves full of the self of Pride full of the self of Love Self-love full of Self-conceits full of Self-sufficiency wee are apt to think highly to our selves Wee all hold of Adam in Capite wee are all full of Pride As Pride was the Fall of Adam so it would bee the ruine of us Wee think wee are Rich full need nothing As the Church did in the place afore quoted Rev. 3.17 18. Thus where Faith comes it empties a man of himself his Self-conceits it doth discover our selves to our selves makes us see our selves as wee lye weltring in blood in our own blood Ezek. 16.2 3 4 5 6. even in the Blood of Guilt and the Blood of Filth It puts down those Towering thoughts those Ayery imaginations those Mountainous conceits which men had of themselves It casts us out of our selves makes us Nothing in our selves makes us poor in our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is Mat. 5.3 Beggars in Spirit Poor Beggars It makes us miserable in our selves empty in our selves blind naked lost in our selves Faith makes us to see all this in our selves Faith makes us see in stead of Righteousness
light into the world saith Christ that whosoever beleeveth in mee should not abide in darknesse The least touch of Christ by Faith doth raise up and revive the Soul in this sad Condition As the dead man was raised to life and revived but by touching the dead bones of Elisha 2 King 13.21 so the Dead Soul if it do but touch the Dead and crucified body of Christ by Faith is raised up and revived Such a vertue and influence comes from Christ as doth raise up and comfort the Soul Thus Faith doth raise the heart by laying hold of Christ He who raised up himself will raise up all his members If our head had been still under water wee had then perished but he being risen will raise us up also being his members 4 Faith inables a man to put up Soul-raising-prayers indites Soul-raising-prayers strong Prayers and cries to God As Prayer helps Faith So Faith helps Prayer It inables a man to wrestle with God now in the Dark of desertion as it did Jacob in the Dark of the Night Yea and to wrestle with him by his own strength the strength of his Covenant of his promise of his Christ In which Encounter Faith will take up arguments 1 From it self 2 From God 1 From it self By presenting its miserable Condition in the absence of God That all his own work is ready to sink and dy to come to nothing if hee help not Oh! will Faith say Lord my flesh fails my heart fails my strength fails my spirit fails Oh! Come down before I dye come strengthen the things that are ready to dye in me This argument David took up Psal 143.7 Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit fails Oh! Hide not thy face from mee lest I bee like unto them that go down into the Pit So Psal 39.10 12 13. Take thy plague from mee I am consumed by the stroke of thy hand c. Hear my prayer O Lord hearken to my cry Keep not silence at my tears for I am a stranger with thee a sojourner as all my Fathers were Oh! spare a little that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more 2 Faith will take up arguments from God 1 From the justice and truth of God He hath promised never to leave nor forsake his people 2 From the immutability of God Thou art JEHOVAH thou changest not therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 Thou never repentest of thine own work Thou never hast wooed my heart to lose it again Thou never tookest my heart to leave it again and take thy heart clean away Thou never didst set thy heart on mee to take it off again 3 From the power of God Abraham at a plunge was supported with this strong staff of Comfort when though by Gods command hee was to sacrifice his Sonne Isaac yet hee accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead Heb. 11.19 Lord if thou wilt thou canst Mat. 8.2 4 From the mercy of God Lord thou art gracious and merciful ready to relieve It 's true I am a sinner but thou art a Saviour I am sinful but thou art mercifull I am impious but thou art gracious I have done that Ego admisi undè me damnare potes Tu non amisisti undè me salvare soles for which thou mightest damn mee but thou hast not lost that by which thou mayest save mee True I am not worthy of a smile from Heaven I have deserved to bee sent from darkness here to everlasting darkness hereafter from this partial to total and universal darkness But Lord proportion not thy dealings to mee according to my deservings from thee Let not the strong God take a pattern from my weakness good God do not ever remember my evil least thou forget thine own goodness thine own mercy O bone Do-â—â— mine noli recordare malum moum ne obliviscaris bonum tuum But thou who art found of them who seek thee not Oh! Be mercifully found of a soul who seeketh thee Thus will Faith work it self out of trouble and gather arguments to prevail with God for deliverance It will take up arguments From Soul-raising-Attributes From Soul-raising-Promises From Soul-raising-Relations From Soul-raising-Experiences It will incompass God with Gods own strength And God cannot because hee will not deny God will not reject his own strength not strive against his own mercy not resist his own Spirit not falsifie his own Truth but will raise up and revive the Soul Thus you see Faith is a Soul-raising-Grace Where Unbeleef holds the soul under water buries the soul in these sad conditions Faith raiseth up and reviveth it A beleeving soul cannot long lye under trouble If all the Power Truth and Mercy of God will fetch him out hee shall bee sure to bee delivered Faith ingages and sets a work all these to help Oh! The Reason my Brethren why you lye so long in spiritual Agonies buried up in spiritual troubles is because you let not Faith come in to work for you let Faith have her perfect work and it will raise you Sixteenth Royalty 16. Faith is an Heart-chearing-Grace 16. Royalty Faith is an Heart-chearing Grace Faith is such a Grace as doth chear and comfort the soul with unexpressible Consolations It is such a Grace as makes an inlet of all the Consolations of God into the Soul Faith brings a report to the Soul that God is his God Christ is his Christ that his Name is written in the Book of Life his sins are pardoned his soul shall bee saved And such news as this must needs fill the soul with unexpressible Consolations with joyes unspeakable and full of glory All other joyes are but mad and disorderly joyes They are carnal not spiritual outward not inward joyes they are but painted not true Joyes imaginary not real Joyes unsatisfying not tull Joyes inconstant not stable Joyes The best false Raptures Anabaptistical Illusions not true Joyes But this Joy The Joy of Faith it is grounded joy it is 1. A spiritual Joy for the Nature of it 2. A Hearty Joy for the Nature of it 3. A Satisfying Joy for the fulness of it 4. A Constant Permanent Joy for the duration of it My Joy shall no man take from you Alas what are all other joyes to the Joy of Faith The least morsel of this Joy is worth all the full meals of worldly delights The least gleaning of this Joy is worth the whole Harvest of carnal mirth The least drop of this is worth an Ocean of any other There is more moisture in one drop of this than in a flood of temporal and carnal delights True Joy grows upon the stock of Faith Where there is no Faith there is no true Joy Faith is the Root and Joy is the Fruit. It is call'd The Joy of Beleevers Beleevers are the Subjects of it and a Joy in Beleeving Beleeving is the Root of it Rom. 5.1.2 Being justified by Faith wee have
live more in the Heaven of Promise they would not bee so much cast down The more trust the less Trouble Faith would bring Christ into the Soul and there is chear enough with Christ Faith would bring Heaven into the soul and there is Comfort enough in Heaven Faith would open a way for the Love of God to enter and that would thrust out all other grievances But I will not go about to excuse uncomfortable walking with God Why should I give indulgence to mens Passions Gods people are to bee exceedingly blamed for their unchearful walking with God They are the shame of a good God and give occasion to men to think hee is an hard and rigid Master They wrong a good Cause and discourage the hearts of others from entring into the wayes of God Sure I am There is no Condition that Gods people can bee in but they have alwayes ground and cause of Rejoycing Either A Rebus exhibitis from things bestowed Or A Rebus promissis from things promised Either From things in hand and possession Or From things in hope and promise And therefore how blame-worthy are they who disquiet themselves with needless perplexities and lay the burden of sorrow on themselves which God doth not Let us examine the grounds of these sorrows and arraign them before the Bar of right Reason What is it that troubles thee 1. Is it thy former sins why should these trouble thee God hath pardoned them And wilt thou bring the old guilt upon thy conscience again which God hath cleared and pardoned wilt thou binde when God hath loosed condemn when hee hath absolved 2. Is it thy present Corruption God hath promised to subdue it Sin shall have no more dominion over you Hee hath promised to purge to purifie Hee came with Refiners fire and Fullers sope Mal. 3.3 3. Is it thy Imperfections That there is so much formality so little power so much coldness so little heat c why God hath promised to pass by infirmities to hide and cover imperfections 4. Is it because thou art in some present Afflictions why hee hath promised that All things shall work together for good to them that love God and are chosen according to his purpose 5. Is it because thou art under some present Temptations why St. James saith Count it exceeding joy great joy when yee fall into diverse temptations There is matter of Joy as well as of Sorrow if by Faith thou wouldest but see what God aims at 1. It may bee for trial of Grace as in Abrahams and Jobs case whose temptation was of purpose to try and justifie his Graces 2. It may bee For exercise of Grace of Faith of Patience c. 3. It may bee for discovery of sin nay for destruction of sin 4. It may bee to make us more humble as Paul more prayerful c. 6. Is it because thou art under some present Desertion Yet if by Faith thou look upon the firmness of the Promise the stability of the Covenant in the absence of sense thou shalt finde matter of Comfort Thus you see David did Psal 77.10 Hee was in a great Desertion hee cryes and prayes Hee prayes and cryes Hee renews his former evidences and experiences yet gets hee no comfort At last By Faith hee looks upon the truth of Gods Promise and the stability of the Covenant And then his soul revived I remembred the dayes of old the years of ancient times I called to minde my songs in the night I communed with my own heart my soul made diligent search Will the Lord absent himself for ever c And I said this is my infirmity Yet I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High c. Do but in this sad condition behold these dealings of God as the waies of a Father to thee which are alwaies of Love of Mercy and Truth to them that keep his Covenant and his Testament Whether Gods end bee for Chastisement as it was in David Or for Tryal as it was in Job Or whether it bee for Prevention as it was in Paul lest hee should bee puffed up yet all is in love and therefore cause of rejoycing So that there is no condition so sad but Gods people have still cause of rejoycing in it Thou canst think of nothing if thou bee a Beleever that can minister just cause of trouble to thee And therefore why art thou so cast down If there were more Trust there would bee less Trouble I dare bee bold to say that all the troubles all the disquiets of Gods people do arise from want of Faith Were there more Faith there would bee more Comfort And therefore as David physicked his soul when it was cast down and discouraged Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou disquieted within mee Trust in God So let us exercise our Trust and all our Troubles will vanish all our disquiets will dis-appear and bee gone Let Faith come in and discover the Promises of God made to thee in this thy sad condition Hee hath promised it shall not bee too great 1 Cor. 10.18 There hath no temptation taken you but what is humane and God is faithful and will not suffer you to bee tempted above what yee are able but will with the temptation give an issue that you may bee able to bear it Hee hath promised it shall not bee too long Rom. 16.20 The God of Peace shall tread Satan under you feet shortly Hee will not contend for ever Hee hath promised to deliver us when in the day of trouble wee call upon him Psal 50. Seventeenth Royalty 17. Royalty of Faith It s an Heart guiding-Grace 17. Faith is an Heart-guiding-Grace Faith is the eye of the soul to direct and guide us Faith is to the soul as the Pole-star to the Mariner to direct the Mariner which way to steer his course And the soul is like the Needle in the Compass which ever looks towards God for direction It is as it were the Pillar of fire to us in the Wilderness of this World to direct our steps to our Heavenly Canaan Our life is called a Way And not only a strait Way but a difficult Way Wee shall meet with many turnings in this Way And if Faith doth not guide us wee shall either stand still and not go forward or wee shall go into wrong wayes the way to Death My Brethren wee shall meet with many exigents in our way to Heaven And if Faith do not guide wee are sure to go amiss You see what an Exigent Esther was put unto Either to neglect duty or to endanger her life Shee put her life in her hand for the good of the Church of God If shee had now consulted with flesh and blood if shee had followed the guidance of Reason shee had been mis-led No doubt but sense and Reason would have told her that it had been best not to hazzard her self and put her life in jeopardy but
consulting with Faith and following the guidance thereof she was resolved to do the duty though see perished in the doing thereof And it was her safety The like in Abraham You see what an Exigent hee was put unto Hee was to part with his Son his only Son the Son of his Love the Son of his old age a Son of so many Prayers and so many Promises No doubt if hee had consulted with flesh and bloud and carnal reason they would have bid him to spare his Son but following the guidance of Faith hee was willing to sacrifice his Son Heb. 11.17 By Faith Abraham when hee was tryed offered up his Son Isaac of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed bee called Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead c. So it was Faith whic guided Moses to leave the pomp and glory of Pharaohs Court and to chuse rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to injoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.24 If hee had followed the guidance of Reason or sense hee had miscarryed That would have told him that hee was to regard himself and his present happiness and not throw himself out of all But then hee had been mis-led But following the guidance of Faith hee forsakes all This Guidance of Faith they wanted Joh. 12.42 Who durst not confesse Christi for fear of being thrown out of the Synagogue If they had had Faith it would have guided them to Jesus Christ bee the Issue what it will The like of the Young-man Hee went far but when it was put to him to leave all to follow Christ to sell all it is said Hee went away sorrowful Hee consulted with Sense and Reason hee wanted the Guidance of Faith which would have directed him to part with all to cast away all rather than to leave Christ The like of Balaam Either hee must forsake the wages of Unrighteousness or curse the People but hee had more desire of mans reward than hee had Faith to expect God and so hee miscarryed And my Brethren such like straits wee may meet withall in our way to Heaven And if wee follow not the Guidance of Faith wee are sure to bee mis-led It hath been the ordinary choice that the Saints have been put to Either forsake thy God or forsake thy Goods Either leave Christ or leave thy Comforts Either renounce Christ or lose thy Friends thy Father thy Mother nay thy liberty thy life To these exigencies and straits Gods people have been driven And had they not had Faith they had surely been mis-led but having Faith it guided them to suffer losse of friends loss of goods loss of liberty loss of life it self for Christ as you see up and down in Abraham in Moses in Jeremy in Paul and the rest of the Apostles who accounted not their lives dear to them for Christ And it was the usual speech of the Primitive Martyrs when they were perswaded to leave Christ rather than to suffer Parce precot Imperator tu Carcerem ille Gehennam Spare good Emperour thou canst but cast into prison God into Hell The like of Cyprian of Policarp The like of Frederick the Elector of Saxony who was prisoner to Charles the fifth and was promised inlargement and restitution to his former dignity If hee would come to Mass It was Faith guided him to return this answer In earthly things I am ready to yeeld to Caesar In heavenly only to Christ And Christ is more welcome to mee in Bonds than Caesars Court without Christ Thus I might run down in particular examples in all ages and shew you how Faith hath guided men in these straits which had they followed the direction of Reason and Sense they had been lost for ever It is Faith which guides the heart in these difficult cases It is an Heart-guiding-Grace And this is the way Faith doth reject the wisdome of the flesh and goes by Gods light It shuts our eyes and walks by Gods light It follows God as the blinde man follows his Guide all his dayes Hee who makes Gods Word all his Reason shall have God a Counsellor Faith will not own the wisdome of the flesh the carnal minde is enmity to God It will not bee subject It is full of contumacy and stoutness against God and his wayes Faith will neither own the Flesh as a King nor as a Counsellor As it will not obey the commands of the flesh so it will not follow the counsels of the flesh Peter would not consult with flesh and blood but was obedient to the heavenly vision where is implied if hee had hearkened to flesh and bloud hee had been disobedient to the heavenly vision But Faith makes God its guide Psal 48.14 This God is our God for ever hee shall bee our guide unto death Faith seeks direction from God who is the Counsellor the God of all wisdome And the Soul that leans upon God for wisdome shall not want it He who trusts in the God of wisdome shall not want direction I say hee who shuts his own eyes and sincerely falls down at the feet of God for counsel shall have direction from him If indeed wee seek as Balaam with a double heart or as the Children of Israel did Jer. 42. who asked counsel but were resolved of their way wee then may miscarry But hee who seeks with an humble and upright heart that asks the way to Sion with his face thitherward resolved to go as God directs Such will God direct in his way such hee will guide in all the wayes of Judgement As the Moon by darting her beams and influence into the Sea doth move that great body backward and forward which they say is the cause of the ebbings and flowings of the Sea so God doth in difficult cases dart such a beam of light into the Soul such strong influences into the Spirit as doth carry the soul the way it should go A man may follow his own wisdome and miscarry but hee that shuts his eyes and follows God is sure not to bee mis-led Hee who rejects the counsel of the flesh and is resolved to walk by the direction of the Spirit though never so unlikely to flesh and bloud is sure to go right You see an example of this in Balaam in Saul sparing of Agag and the best of the flock in sacrificing before Samuel came to him But I 'le name but one Jer. 41.10 to the end of the Chapter Johanan who was the Captain of the Residue of the Jews left in Jerusalem desired Jeremy though with a double and deceitful heart to enquire of the Lord whether hee should go down to Egypt or abide at Jerusalem And bound himself with a vow that Whatever the Lord said hee would do it Jeremy comes and tells him hee must abide at Jerusalem and God would preserve him
Light of it Men will not seek after the Physitian before they feel themselves to bee sick for ease till they bee prest with burdens for a Plaister before they bee wounded for heavenly Riches before sense of their spiritual beggery for inlargement and pardon before they bee in Prison for Mercy before they smart under the sense of Misery Nor for a Christ till the soul do finde a necessity in the want of Christ Hence the Law is said to bee our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ And it is upon this ground among others because it doth discover sin to us and lash us and humble us for it And then wee are ready to go from Sinai to Sion from the Law of Moses accusing to the Gospel of Christ excusing from the Law condemning to the Gospel absolving 2. God doth discover to the soul the fulness and al-sufficiency of Christ Who is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him and Heb. 7.25 That there 's enough in him to justifie and save so vile a sinner as thou hast been Christ his Righteousness is an everlasting Righteousness such as an eternity of sinning is never able to expend and draw dry As our Faith can never out-grow the Righteousness of Christ so neither can our sins Rom. 1.17 It is said to bee A Righteousness revealed from Faith to Faith The more Faith not the less but the more Righteousness is revealed The broader the Eye of Faith the wider the Righteousness beheld As all the Faith in the World could never over-clasp the Righteousness of Christ So all the sins in the World are not able to non-plus or pose it As it cannot bee over-lookt or comprehended by any Faith So it cannot bee exhausted by any sins Both of these wee have set down Joh. 16.8 9 10. I will send the Spirit and hee shall convince the World of sin There is Humiliation Of Righteousness That is that there is A compleat and Al-sufficient Righteousness in mee That I am able to save to the utmost to pardon sin This God discovers Faith must have a bottom to rest on An Al-sufficient Saviour No man will throw his soul away 3. With the fulness God discovers the freeness of this Righteousness to all commers How willing God is to bestow Christ on you and how willing Christ is to bestow himself upon you Hence wee have such invitations Ho! Every one that thirsteth come yee to the Waters Isa 55.1 And Let him that is a thirst come Rev. 22.17 And Come to mee all yee that are weary and heavy laden Matth. 11.28 And Him that comes to mee I will by no means cast out Joh. 6.37 4. God stirs up the soul to pursue Christ with inlarged desires and earnest prayers kindles desires in the soul after him Oh! That God would bestow Christ on mee I see I am in misery I see I am a sinner Oh! That thou wouldest bestow Jesus Christ upon my poor soul As the poor pursued Hart doth pant after the Brooks of water So panteth such a soul after the Lord Jesus Now Christ upon any termes is desireable 5. Now God works the Grace of Faith in the soul whereby the soul doth draw nigh to Christ and throws it self into the arms of Christ embraceth him with all his might casts it self wholly on him for Life and Salvation Have you not seen how a tender Infant in the apprehension of danger runs into the arms of the Parent for succour so doth the soul pursued by the Law and affrighted by the apprehensions of Gods wrath flye into the bosome and armes of Christ for succour bespeaking him with all the termes of Love and Confidence My Lord My God My Hope My Fortress My Strength My Redeemer save mee else I perish Hide mee in the clefts of this Rock Pitty mee Succour mee Thou who art a Saviour Lord save mee Thou that art Mercy shew mee Mercy And here now begins the Life of a Christian though as yet hee feel little motion Strong is hee now in desiring though feeble in performing Resolved hee is by any means to stick to Christ yet not sensible of any union with him Hee admires the brightness of the Beams of his Mercy shining in the Gospel but feels little warmth of joy and comfort in his heart Hee hungers after the Word but feels little nourishment Here is the beginning of true Faith Now then would you know whether you have Faith try your selves Have you found that God hath thus wrought in you what hast thou been thus humbled in the sight and sense of sin deeply affected with the fulness and freeness of the Grace of God in Christ so as to raise up in thee those earnest longings and pantings after him so as thus to cast and venture thy soul upon him this useth to bee the manner and way of Gods working Faith in us by which wee may come to know whether this Faith bee wrought in us or no. 2. Some Evidences are taken from the Grace it self In which because Faith doth admit of degrees some having stronger Faith some weaker Though all of us have as it is in 2 Pet. 1.1 The like precious Faith the same Faith for kind yet all have not the same Faith for degrees In some it is strong in some it is weak Sincere in all All men are not of like age all Trees not of the like growth Wee read of a little Faith Oh yee of little Faith Faith though little Wee read of a great Faith Oh Woman great is thy Faith All Beleevers are not of the like stature in Christ Some are but Babes and some are grown men there 's a little Faith comparatively and there 's a great Faith Therefore lest I should unsure the weak in satisfying the strong I will here give you 1. Some Evidences of a weak Faith 2. Some Evidences of a strong Faith 1. The Evidences of true Faith though weak 1. The weakest Faith hath strong desires to close with Christ in the Termes of the Gospel Is willing to take Christ in the whole latitude and extent of Christ not only totum Christum but totum Christi Christ in all his Offices not only as a Priest but as a King to whom the soul is as willing to yeeld Subjection as to have Salvation from him as desirous to submit to his services as to injoy his Priviledges to do duty as to partake of his bounty to throw it self at the feet of Christ with strong desires though it may bee for the present but with weak assurance of Mercy from him Quest But who doth not thus desire Christ who is not willing to accept of Christ Answ It is impossible that any Unbeleeving man should desire Christ in the latitude and extent of Christ Hee may desire him for Salvation but not for Sanctification as a Priest but not as a King to rule and govern him to bring every thought into subjection to himself for happiness but not for holiness
which doth commend Christ the worth and preciousness of Christ to the soul it is this our Knowledge of the Worth of Christ By others who know him not hee is a disallowed stone not worth the owning 1 Pet. 2.8 2. The second thing which doth commend Christ to a soul is The Apprehension of the souls Interest in him When the soul can look upon Christ as his own then hee esteems him when hee knows hee hath a Propriety in Christ a part in Christ Now a strong Beleeâ—â—r hee 1. Knows the Want of Châ—ist Hee sees hee cannot live without Christ The more Faith the more apprehension and sense of our wants 2. Knows and sees the worth of Christ Hee sees those excellencies and beauties in him which to others lye hid and are not discovered To others hee is an Orient Pearl in an heap of Sand a Mine of Gold covered over with rubbish and earth They are not able to behold his beauties 2. Hee sees and apprehends his own interest in him And this makes the soul to prize him Hee can say Christ is mine His Righteousness mine to justifie mee His Holiness mine to Sanctifie mee His Sufferings mine to save mee And upon this there ariseth an high prizing of Christ. Quest But you will say Doth not every man prize Christ who doth not value and esteem of Christ Ans You may say you do so But there 's no such matter If Christ were precious in thy eyes then 1. Thou wouldst not care what pains thou tookest for the compassing of Christ You see a worldly man to whom the World is precious what pains hee takes for the attaining of the things of the World Eccles 4.8 the like and greater pains wouldest thou take for the things of Christ if hee were to thee alike precious 2. Thou wouldest not care what thou partest withall for the compassing of Christ Thou wouldest count Christ thy greatest gain and all loss in comparison of him Phil. 3.7 8. Hee is not valued at all it hee bee not valued above all 3. Were Christ precious to thee thou wouldest never think thy self to have enough of Christ Drink yea drink abundantly O Beloved Cant. 5. the more the soul tastes and drinks the more it thirsts till it drink it new in the Kingdome of Heaven Thus where Christ is precious there would bee actions sutable to that rate and esteem the soul sets on him Now when you will take no pains for the getting of Christ when you will part with nothing for the keeping of Christ when you will not heap up in most abundance whatever Christ is to others write upon it to you it is not precious 4. Where Christ is precious indeed all of Christ is precious Hee is not only precious in his Person in his Natures in his Benefits but all of Christ is precious Christ in his Holiness Christ in his Lawes Christ in his Government Christ in his Truth The soul looks upon all these as prizes of Christ Hee who prizeth of Christ doth prize of all these As wee say of Faith It doth not eligere Objectum it doth not chuse its Object single out what it will beleeve and what it will not beleeve but beleeves all that God saith So I may say of this prizing of Christ True prizing of Christ doth not single out its Object Thus much of Christ I will prize and thus much not But there is a full prizing of all Christ Christ in his Holiness Lawes Government Truth All. All which are parts of Christ and are all to bee prized if ever you would clear this that you prize of Christ truly And without question Gods people have seen so much Beauty in the Laws Government and Holiness of Christ that they have lost all rather than they would lose their Obedience And it was said of Christ Vitam perdidit ne Obedientiam perderet Hee lost his Life rather than hee would lose his Obedience so may it bee said of them They have taken up naked Obedience with the losse of all They have seen so much beauty in a Truth that they have hazarded and lost all rather than they would lose a Truth They have made this brave adventure to lose themselves to save a Truth as you see in Queen Maries dayes in point of Transubstantiation In these particulars a weak Faith shareth stakes with a strong But for what is more peculiar to a strong Faith 1. Strong in Faith and strong in Grace According to the proportion of Faith such is the measure of all Gods Graces in us As weak in Faith weak in Grace So strong in Faith strong in Grace So much Faith so much Love so much Hope so much Patience so much Humility Wee will single out some 1. Strong in Faith and strong in Affection and Love to Christ There are two things which make the soul to love Christ 1. The discovery of the Beauties and excellencies of Christ. 2. The Apprehension the soul hath in the interest it hath in this Christ Now both these are in a strong Faith 1. There is a full discovery of the Beauties and Excellencies of Christ The Beauties of his Person the Beauties of his Nature c. And that in a larger measure than is made known to a weak Beleever A weak Faith sees the Excellencies of Christ in puncto in a narrow room as wee see the World in a Map But a strong Faith it sees all the Excellencies of Christ in circumferentiâ Hee sees a larger and fuller draught hath a fuller discovery of it to his soul And who can see it but hee must needs love him who is all lovely who hath all Beauties That Eye of Faith which beholds the Beauties and Excellencies of Christ will bee a Burning-Glass to the heart to set the heart on fire and kindle strong affections there 2. There is in a strong Faith a strong apprehension of the souls interest in Christ That Christ is his and hee is Christs His Blood and Merits his for Pardon for Justification His Grace and Holinesse his for Sanctification His Wisdome his for Direction And therefore the soul must needs love him Propriety wee see in things makes us love them Wee love our own Husbands our own Wives our own Children The ground is this the propriety wee have in them So when the soul once sees Christ made over to him that hee hath a propriety in him an interest in him needs must the soul love him So you see then where there is a strong Faith there is a strong Affection to Christ strong Love to Christ Such a love as no duty is too hard to undertake for Christ no task too great to pose his love to Christ. It was said of Jacob that hee indured many years servitude for Rachel yet hee thought the time short all was nothing because hee loved her So all wee can do for Christ all will bee nothing if wee once love him Nay not only all wee can do but all wee can suffer
as it was said of the sending of Christ that universal Mercy that summum genus of Mercy when the fulness of time was come God sent his Son So when the fulness of time is come God will send us our desires bestow the Mercy And therefore hee can wait A weak Faith is quickly worn out it cannot wait if God come not presently it is cast down and can wait no longer You see this in the Two Disciples going to Emmaus Wee hoped that this should have been hee that should have delivered Israel but hee is dead and this is the third day They might have waited a little longer they were too quick and hasty what though the third was come it was not yet expired great things might have been done yet before night But weak Faith is impatient of delayes This evil proceedeth from the Lord shall I wait on him any longer was the voice of that wicked King 2 King 6.33 Every vision faileth Ezek. 12.22 so they and too often many better than they But now a strong Faith will hold out in delaies yea and pray more earnestly As you see David did who though his Eyes failed his Flesh failed though his Heart failed yet hee renewed his supplication from day to day The like in Daniel in the Woman of Canaan in Hannah and in the Blind man hee was blamed for his importunity and was yet the more importunate Such a man knows that hee who hath any thing from God must continue in Prayer Jacob all night David day and night Jonah three dayes and nights Daniel one and twenty dayes and nights Moses forty dayes and forty nights God often defers his people to inhance and raise up the price of mercy to make them more fit for mercy more thankfull for mercy And therefore hee can wait 2. Strong Faith cannot only take long delaies But denyals well It can submit to denials as well as to grants You see it in David Hee had strong desires for the continuance of the life of his Child God denyed it See how calm how submissive hee was in the denyal insomuch that hee was a wonder to all his servants A weak Faith doth faint and is discouraged at the denyals of requests It cannot tell how to take a denyal of God but a strong Faith can take denyals as well as grants A strong Faith is clear in this that God is a Father and therefore his denyals are in mercy all is for good hee knows if God hear him not according to his will Etsi non ad voluntatem tamen ad sanitatem yet according to his good A strong Faith submits to Gods wisdome and Gods will who is the only VVise Wee may desire a thing at Gods hand and in our wisdome may judge it to bee good But God in his Wisdome who knows the issue of things sees it will bee for our hurt and therefore denies it And Faith submits to his wisdome and follows him as a blinde man his guide Wee may ask some things too earnestly which are more profitably denyed then granted As Solomon said of Adonijahs request so I may say of many of ours Wee ask our lives wee desire our Bane such things as would hurt us and undo us And are not those things mercifully denyed which without hurt cannot bee granted This is to cross us with a Mercy A child desires a knife of the Father The Child sees no hurt in it but the Father doth And shall wee not then submit to the Wisdome of our Father A man may desire this evil to bee taken away this cross this affliction to bee removed this temptation this corruption to bee taken away God denies it seeing it best for a man to bee exercised with them And Faith will submit Again a man desires this outward mercy it may bee Riches may bee Honours the great things of the World And thinks it may bee if God did raise him hee would raise God if God would make him great hee would make God great But now God denies this God sees it is better that thou want them than injoy them And Faith submits to Gods Wisdome Voluntas Dei optima si optima optima vult and to Gods Will in it Gods Will is his will and saith Not my will but thy will bee done Gods will is the best and being best wills what is the Best both for his own glory and our good Again thou desirest some spiritual mercy from God Perhaps thou desirest Perfection of Grace in this life and God sees it is better that corruptions should dwell in thee as the Lees among the Wine to keep the Wine sweet to humble thee or that they might bee as pricks in thy eyes and goads in thy sides to make thee more forward and fervent in holy performances Perhaps thou desirest a great deal of Knowledge with Saul to bee higher by the head and shoulders than thy fellow Christians Or with David to bee wiser than thy Teachers God denies it and Faith takes the denyal knowing all is for the best It may bee it might beget pride this would puff up it would bee too great a sail for so smal a Boat and rather over-turn thee than set thee forward Perhaps thou desirest to injoy the continual light of Gods countenance to bee like the Island of Rhodes in perpetuo Sole in continual Sun-shine But God denies it thou art sometimes in the valley of tears as well as sometimes in the Mountain of Joy Thou hast cloudy and clear dayes calmy and stormy seasons And Faith submits to this denyal It sees all is for the best That wee should not have our Heaven upon Earth This might occâ—sion spiritual Pride as you see in Paul It might occasion a common esteem of so great a mercy And therefore submits Thus you see how a strong Faith is strong in Prayers can take long delaies and submit to denyals too from God My Brethren this is the strength of Faith that can bee so strong in Desires so patient in Delayes so submissive in Denyals Here is strong Faith 10. Strong Faith hath strong desires to go to Christ by death and that Christ should come to him by Judgement 1. To go to Christ by death A Beleever hath Vitam in Patientiâ Mortem in Desiderio Hee hath Life in Patience Death in Desire Life is his Sea where hee meets with nothing but storms Death is his Harbour Life is his way his Inne at the best But Heaven is his Home There his best Friends are there his chief businesse lies there is his abiding-place and thither hee desires to go A weak Faith is loath to dye is afraid of death hee hath not yet gotten his Evidence sealed his hope in his hand But when this is done then with Paul I desire to bee dissolved Or with Simeon when hee had once gotten Christ into his armes Lord Now lettest thou thy servant depart in Peace for my eyes have seen thy salvation You hear how
humbled which hee doth these wayes 1. Either by perswading them they are no sins they live in and here hee tells the Prodigall hee is but liberal the drunkard hee is but sociable the covetous person hee is but frugal the proud person hee is but comely and handsome c. wee say nullam vitium sine patrocinio Sauls Covetousness in sparing the best of the flock t was his devotion 't was his zeal to Sacrifice the Pharisees Covetousness had an act of devotion to patronize or set it off with So Jezabel paints her face to make it seem comely 2. Or else if hee cannot perswade them to that that they are no sins but conscience is inlightened and quickned and checks him for them hee cannot stand against his own light nor under his own reproofs Then hee perswades them they are but veniall and small sins or if great yet pardonable nay and that at any time as the Theef upon the Cross what sayes hee God is mercifull and if but at the last thou canst say God bee mercifull to mee Lord have mercy upon mee why then all is well there is no doubt of mercy And because men are better versed in the Service-book than in the Scripture perhaps hee will cite a Text out there At what time soever a sinner c. This is the first stratagem to keep presumptuous sinners from being humbled And if hee prevail not then but that notwithstanding all these good words a soul is convinced of sin and humbled for it then hee hath a second 2. A second Stratagem and that is to keep humbled sinners from beleeving and that hee doth these wayes 1. Hee labours to have them despair of a pardon and that upon one of these two grounds 1. Hee will now tell you either that your sins are greater than can bee pardoned As Cain Gen. 4.13 So it is in the Original my sins are greater than can bee pardoned Hee will so aggravate mens sins and heighten mens trespasses and so lessen and streighten Gods mercy that hee will indeavour to perswade their sins are above a pardon they are greater than Gods mercie to pardon and that is the first way which hee deals with ignorant consciences in trouble 2. Or if hee cannot perswade in that then hee hath another way to bring men to despair and that is from the will of God Why will hee say though thy sins are not greater than God can pardon yet they are greater than God will pardon hee will never bee mercifull to such a wretch as thou hast been dost thou think God will ever shew mercy to such a vile sinner as thou hast been what one who hath sinned against such a light such means such mercies and committed so horrible sins and continued in them And thus hee aggravates sin As before hee lessened sin all hee could to keep men from being humbled so now hee aggravates sin all hee can to keep men from beleeving As before hee inlarged Gods mercy above the bounds of the Law now hee inlargeth Gods Justice above the bounds of the Gospel Before hee presented to you Gods mercy in a false glass to make you presume And now hee presents Gods Justice to you in a false glass to make you despair And indeed of the two hee is better able to set out Gods Justice than his Mercy because hee feels the one and knows what it is but hee shall never taste of the other hee can therefore better present Gods Justice as it is than Gods Mercy as it is 2. Or if hee cannot bring men to despair upon these grounds yet another stratagem hee hath to keep men from beleeving 3. And that is thirdly by telling them they are not disposed and fitted for mercy you are not broken for sin you do not love God c. And in this stratagem hee labours to hinder us by telling us wee want such dispositions as follow beleeving more than such as go before Faith yet hee oftentimes useth the other and tells men they are not humbled enough not broken enough before they were humbled then any thing would serve the turn to dispose and fit them for Mercy and now they are humbled hee tells them they are never humbled enough Before a sigh in a good mood was enough to qualifie them for Mercy and the Promise Now sighs groans tears daily breakings under the burthen of sin is all nothing all is too little Indeed hee fain would have thee to lye in Hell and stay there or if hee doth not object against thy soul the want of humiliation Why then hee will tell thee thou wants Faith if thou had'st Faith then thou might go over to the promise but thou wants Faith and what doth hee mean by that why that is thou wants assurance hee would put men to assurance before they do beleeve hee would put them to the evidence Christ is their Saviour before hee suffer them to rest upon Christ as a Saviour Or if not this yet hee will tell thee thou want'st such and such dispositions before thou can beleeve hee would fain have men either to bring something of their own to the Promise or hee would have men to expect these things before they go to the Promise when indeed these things follow upon the souls closing with the Promise Thus doth Satan keep many poor souls in a hoodwinkt condition and hinders them from going over to Christ and the Promise And that is the first 2. The second ground why men are so slow to beleeve and that is taken from themselves 1. It doth arise from their ignorance they know not the tenor of the Covenant the tearms of Mercy Men brought out of a sinfull condition once awakened to see their sins can think of nothing but working themselves to life licking themselves whole therefore they fall upon prayers duties as I have sometimes told you as so many bribes for a pardon as so many pennies laid out for the purchase of Mercy Wee run naturally to the Covenant of works but wee must bee drawn before wee can go to the Covenant of Grace No man can come except c. Joh. 6.44 A convinced man runs to the Covenant of works but hee must bee a converted man that goes truly to the Covenant of Grace 2. It doth arise from our pride often that wee will not take Mercy gratis wee will not deny our selves and close with Mercy as God tenders it You have a strange phrase in Rom 10.3 they would not submit to the Righteousness of Faith here are proud hearts indeed that it should bee matter of submission for a condemned man to take a pardon a wounded man to take a plaister a sick man a cordiall a naked man cloathing a lost sinner a Saviour One would think this is strange that it should bee a matter of submission to accept of the Righteousness of Christ to bee saved But wee like well of the Spiders motto mihi solo debeo I owe all to my self and would
was all this glorious fabrick of Gods mercy and councel which was the greatest thing that ever came upon his heart Gods master-peece which went to the height of his skill and wisdome to the height of his mercy and love Beyond which there is a non ultra in Gods thoughts there was no further or more God could go no higher than himself all was infinite but thou in standing off dost annul and make void all the thoughts of his mercy and his love if others should do the like to what purpose then were all it would make all this void and to no purpose thou dost it as much as in thee lyest If a man should make a curious peece that should publish his skill his greatness wisdome and a man come and break it all in peeces would hee not bee greatly offended And what a fearfull thing is it to make void that wherein God set himself to make himself glorious to obscure that in which God set himself to make himself visible in but thou who art slow of heart to beleeve as far as it lyes in thee dost this and therefore what a provocation of God must this bee 3. Thou dost as much as in thee lyes make void all the purposes of Gods mercy to thee The great end which God aimed at in this great work of sending Christ into the World was that thou mightest beleeve in him and live Now if thou stand out and will not come in will not close with him thou dost what lyes in thee to make void all the purposes of God to thee for good I say what lyes in thee for thou shalt never do it the election shall bring thee in Gods purpose shall bring thee to his Promise Our sins may alter Gods conditional purposes of temporal mercies as hee tells them 1 Sam. 2.30 I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy Fathers should walk before mee for ever but now saith the Lord bee it far from mee for they that honour mee I will honour c. But thou shalt never bee able to make void Gods eternal purposes of good to thee but yet take heed of tempting God provoking God God may make thy body smart for it though he save thy soul at last make thee know better not try conclusions But I say what lyes in thee thou dost disanul all the purposes of God to thee for good which is a fearful thing 4. Thou dost what lyes in thee frustrate the expectation of God You know it is a great affliction to a man to have his expectation frustrated and the greater the good which was expected the greater the cut and wound to be disappointed and frustrated Why I say may I speak after the manner of men thou dost what lyes in thee to frustrate all the expectations of God Why what were Gods expectations but that thou shouldest receive his Son if hee sent him that thou shouldest imbrace Christ beleeve in him And this seems to be sweetly insinuated in the parable Mat. 21.37 Mark 12.6 Surely they will reverence my Son though they had abused the Prophets c. yet surely they will reverence my Son they owe so much homage to mee or they will look upon him so great a person the Son of God Surely they will reverence my Son But however his Person and Parentage should not procure reverence yet the service he came about will be a grateful service hee comes to be Saviour hee comes to redeem them from Hell Certainly hee will bee a welcome guest to them Oh how willing will they be to receive him how glad to entertain him with what open armes will they imbrace him how ready to obey him Surely they will reverence my Son And in reason who would not have thought so what welcome might not the King of glory expect the Prince expect who came upon such a business What might not a Prince expect who came to loosen the captives to redeem vassals to relieve distressed break chains Sure in all reason hee should have been received with all joy with all acclamations and willing imbraces This God expected But now when in stead of receiving we reject Christ sleight Christ undervalue Christ when we will not close with him c. how doth this cross the expectation and frustrate it 5. We do what lyes in us to make void Gods end in sending Christ What was the end which God aimed at in this plot in contriving such a way in sending Christ into the World this was his end that we might beleeve and live his glory in our salvation Surely the end must needs be glorious when the means and work was so glorious if the foundation of this work were so glorious what will the whole structure bee Now this was one part of Gods end in sending of Christ that thou shouldest receive Christ beleeve in him And so long as thou standest out thou crossest Gods end frustrates the end of God And this must needs be a great provocation of God If a man did take a great deal of pains in a work spent all his time and indeavours for some end and at last be crossed in the end the work is nothing to him This provokes c. Why thou dost frustrate Gods end 6. Thou dost as much as in thee lyes make void the death of Christ thou makest all his sufferings and all his blood shed to be to no purpose What was the end that Christ shed his blood what was the end Christ dyed why it was no other but this that we might beleeve in him and have a pardon c. But now so long as thou standest out thou frustratest all this if all were like thee I pray thee to what purpose were the death of Christ the expence and shedding of his blood And therefore this provokes much if one of us should suffer much for the obtaining of such an end if after hee had indured to bee disappointed of it this much provokes us 7. Thou dost as much as in thee lyes make void all the Promises of God to Christ God promised and entred into Covenant with Christ that if hee would lay down his life and blood hee would make him King over Saints hee would give the Heathen for his inheritance c. Isa 53. Hee shall see of the travel of his soul and bee satisfied God promised Christ that if hee would lay down his life for a people hee should have them hee would give a people to him And thy standing out doth what lyes in thee to make this Promise void to make God a lyar to his Son c. Thou shalt not bee able Christ shall have a people God will yet set his King c. yet if all were like thee where were Christs people Nay and thou robbest Christ of the reward and fruit of all his death and sufferings this was the reward Christ was to have for his death c. If a man had sweat or shed his bloud for such a thing
Mover of all the affections Mat. 7.28 When the people heard him they were astonished at his Doctrin The like wee read Mat. 13.54 Mar. 1.22 Mark 11.18 Luk. 4.22 All bare him witness and wondred at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth All wondred but All were not savingly wrought upon That is the first 2. They may hear it with affections of fear and trembling Thus you know Foelix heard Paul Act. 24.25 When Paul preached of Temperance and Righteousness and Judgement to come Foel x trembled It struck dread and fear into his heart It set him on trembling 3. They may hear the word with affections of delight and some kinde of love You see in the Text They did delight to know Gods waies and did delight in approaching to God And Ezek. 33.31 32. They come and sit before thee as my people They hear thy words and thou art to them as a very lovely song They hear thy words but they do them not With their mouth they shew much love but their heart goes after their Covetousness 4. They may hear the word with affection of Joy It is said of Herod Mark 6.20 That Herod feared and observed John and when hee heard him hee did many things and heard him gladly The like you have Matth. 13.20 The stony ground heard the word and anon with joy received it yet wanting root in the time of Persecution they fell away So you see the first particular cleared A man may hear the word hee may hear it often abound in hearing Hee may hear it with affections and yet his heart may bee unsound 2. A man may not only hear but pray too nay and make many prayers abound in praying Hee may pray in publick pray in private pray in the Church pray in his family pray in his closet which last commeth nearer to sincerity And may make strong cries Hee may pray with affections i. e. such affections as sense stirs up but not such affections as Faith stirs up such affections as are raised up by some present sting and smart some trouble and pressure of conscience though not with such affections as are raised up by Faith quickned by Gods sanctifying Spirit Affections of love and desire Nay and they may joyn fasting to Prayer nay further adde mourning to fasting And yet their hearts may bee unsound I cannot stand to clear all the Particulars The main I shall make to appear to you in two or three places Read Isa 1.15 When you stretch forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers when you multiply prayer adde prayer to prayer as the word imports Yet I will not hear your hands are full of blood i. e. you are unregenerate you are unsound in your spirits So that you see a great deal cleared in this A man may pray abound in praying multiply prayers c. And yet bee unsound And you may joyn fasting to prayer as you see in the next verse to my Text and in the example of the Scribes and Pharisees who prayed often and fasted often And you may joyn mourning to fasting Zach. 7.5 When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month even these seventy years did you at all fast to mee even to mee They served themselves not God in that action all those seventy years together Hos 7.14 and they have not cryed to mee with their hearts when they howled upon their beds they assemble themselves for Corn and Wine that 's the ground of their fasting and howling For they rebel against mee That 's the second Particular 3. A man may seem to bee humbled to mourn and weep for sin and yet bee unsound A man cannot mourn for sin as sin but his heart is sincere but a man may seem to mourn for sin and yet his heart not bee sincere Hee may mourn for sin clad with wrath for sin cloathed with Judgement and Displeasure for sin as it smels of Hell Fire and Brimstone for sin as it appears in its dooms-day attire So did Ahab so Judas There are Crocodile-tears There are false tears as well as false prayers As a broken heart doth not ever expresse it self in tears So tears are not ever the expression of a broken heart There are 1. Lachrymae Indignationis tears of Anger as was Esaus 2. Lachrymae Desperationis tears of Desperation such as of the damned in Hell 3. Lachrymae Compunctionis tears of Compassion such as were Christs for Jerusalem 4. Lachrymae Compunctionis tears of godly sorrow and Compunction Such tears they may expresse as sense and smart stirs up but not such as Faith and Love do raise up in the soul 4. A man may seem to do much walk in many wayes of duty go far in the outward shew of obedience the letter of command and yet his spirit bee unsound A man may do so much spin a thread so finely as they who have the most discerning spirit are not able to detect and discover him Hee may deceive the men of the world hee may deceive the Saints deceive the Devil hee may deceive himself Wee read of Zeuxes the Painter Hee drew Grapes so to the life that hee deceived the Birds they would come flying to them as though they had been real Grapes Dedalus hee made an Image by art that moved of it self insomuch that men beleeved it had been alive But Pigmalion made an Image so lively that hee deceived himself and taking the Picture for a Person fell in love with his own Picture So there are some who can spin so fine a thread limb out the picture of godliness so to the life that not only the men of the World but even the Saints who are of most discerning spirits nay and themselves may bee deceived and deluded 5. A man may cast up his vomit disgorge himself of all his former wayes his old lusts and sins hee may bee washed that is outwardly reformed in every thing hee may leave many sins and yet bee unsound You see this plain in 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. And there is nothing more plain than that a man may leave sin and yet not hate sin Hee may leave sin either 1. Ex timore mali alicujus 1. Out of fear of evil 2. Ex taedio 2. Out of weariness of it 3. Ex amore mali alicujus oppositi 3. Out of love of some contrary sin 4. Ex deficientia organotum 4. Out of want of fit instrument and means to compass his sin 6. A man may accompanie himself with the People of God Saul may bee among the Prophets Judas Demas Simon-Magus among the Disciples and Apostles A man may get on Sheeps-cloathing accompany go in and out with the Sheep bee folded with the Sheep and yet bee no better than a Ravenous Wolf There are Tares as well as Wheat in Gods Field there is Chaff as well as Corn in Gods Floar bad Fishes as well as good in Gods net And unsound
bee blinded They who will bee hardned shall have hardening enough If the Word do not teach you works do blinde you If the Word do not soften you works do harden you If you stumble at the Word you will fall at works Indeed Men first stumble at the Word before they stumble at Works They first take offence at duties the Word commands and then strengthen that offence by the failings of those who walk in those wayes Works do but strengthen your dislike of things in the Word The failings of persons that walk in this way do but further strengthen your dislike of the things commanded in the Word This the Apostle shews 1 Pet. 2.8 Christ was a stone of stumbling But to whom why to those who stumbled at the Word first After they have stumbled at the Word then they stumble at Christ So when you have stumbled and taken offence against these duties which the Word commands no marvel if you stumble here and by the failings of those who walk in the way of life gather arguments to strengthen your dislike of the way it self This is thy spirit though thou see it not Thy heart is opposite to the wayes of God praying hearing fasting and thou furnishest thy self with instances of some who have proved unsound in the way that so thou mayest strengthen thy heart more with dislike against it And thus it proves an occasion of further blinding of further hardening to thee Thus you see the first How it may stand with Gods ends that corrupt hearts should abound in duty 2 It may stand also with Satans ends 1. It may stand with Satans ends towards the good 2. It may stand with Satans ends towards the World 3. It may stand with Satans ends towards themselves 1. It may stand with Satans ends towards the good and therefore hee will not disturb these men in their way but lets them go on 1. Hereby Satan doth labour to cause Gods People to throw off the work to desist in their way Why will Satan say what do you macerate and afflict your selves in a way wherein is no more good What can you do more than others have done They have prayed and they have prayed often and made many Prayers They have heard and heard often yea and heard with affection with fear with joy and delight c. They have fasted and have joyned mourning with fasting They have forsaken their evil wayes wherein they have formerly walked and have entred upon Gods wayes joyned themselves to the Ordinances to the People of God And yet for all this these people have come to nought For all this their hearts were unsound here and they have perished after all And therefore will Satan say If a man may pray and perish do duties and bee damned hear and get to Hell at last why dost thou then thus trouble thy self and afflict thy self in this way Thou seest there is no hope of doing good in it And therefore why wilt thou abridge thy self of those pleasures those comforts which others have in the World why wilt thou go on to macerate and afflict thy self in these wayes were it not better for thee to throw off all and betake thy self to the World to profits to pleasures and injoy thy hearts content as well as others Thus you see Satan is furnisht with a dangerous argument against Gods People which hee could not have had if unsound hearts did not abound in duty c. 2. If hee cannot prevail with Gods people hereby to throw off the work but that notwithstanding all this they are resolved to pray though they perish to beleeve to obey though God should never reward their obedience yet hee hath a second End Hee labours to discourage Gods People hereby in the work and to make them drive heavily in their way to Heaven Satan knows full well that if their heart bee discouraged in the work their hands will bee weakened for the work And therefore hee labours by such presidents as these are who have done so much in the wayes of God and yet are unsound to make men sit down discouraged and despair of ever doing good in these wayes Why will Satan say How canst thou do more than such and such have done Canst thou pray more Prayers hear more Sermons do more Duties keep more Dayes ingage thy self more deeply in the Cause of God than others have done who have yet come to nought It may bee hee 'l tell thee Thou art weak thou wantest those parts those abilities that strength that power to do God that service which others have done And therefore e'ne cast off all or else despair of ever doing good in this way wherein others have outstript thee and yet were unsound Thus doth Satan make use of this argument if not to prevail with men to cast off the work yet to discourage them in the work And therefore it may stand with his ends that unsound hearts may thus abound in performance of duties 3. A third end which Satan hath towards the godly is that if hee cannot prevail to make Gods people throw off the work nor yet discourage them in the work yet hee labours by these men to scandalize the godly to bring evil reports upon all that walk in the way of life It is Satans desire to make the Persons that walk in the way of life and the way of life it self as odious as hee can in the eyes of the World And this is one way whereby hee labours to bring it about and findes successful in the hearts of many even the failings of such as have made profession of the Truth Indeed the Cause of God and the People of God have suffered much thereby You know how wicked men argue 1. Either from Particulars to Generals from the failings of some they fall to censuring of all There is one say they who hath made profession and hath proved naught Therefore all are so all alike none better than other Which yet is an uncharitable and false reasoning If the Saints should argue so of you There was one unregenerate man a Murderer a Traitor a Theef Therefore all that are unregenerate are Traitors Murderers Theeves you would think this to bee uncharitable and false reasoning Yet yours is the same 2. Or secondly By the failing of the Person they take up arguments to charge and condemn the Cause not only Professors but Profession it self casting filth and dirt upon the pure face of Religion and the wayes of God hereby And Satan knows well enough that the Cause of God looseth more by one mans unsoundness than it can gain and recover again by the sincerity of many It looseth more in the hearts of wicked men by the falls of some than it can gain again by the standing of thousands Davids fall though hee rose again caused Religion and the Wayes of God to bee blasphemed by wicked men It opened the mouths of wicked men to blaspheme the wayes of God as the Prophet told
the world Thou wouldest think it no mercy if God should grant thee what thou prayest for Thou prayest for Faith but wouldest thou have it no such matter why faith purifies the heart faith sanctifies the soul it will not suffer one corruption one lust to bee in thy heart and now dost thou desire faith no such matter Assure your selves if at any time you desire grace it is not grace under a right notion of grace It is not grace in the extent of grace nor grace in the power of grace It is again not a spiritual but a naturall desire of grace thou desires it but in some present distresse it may be when thou lyest on thy death bed and seest there is no comming to heaven without it Thou cannot desire it for it self 2 Thou prayest for the subduing of thy lusts 2 In desire â—â— Power against lust and corruptions but dost thou desire what thou praiest for wouldst thou think it if God should answer thee to be a mercy I am confident that till thy heart bee changed thou wouldst think the answer of such a request no mercy Would the Drunkard think it a mercy to bee rid of his cups The Covetous man would hee think it a mercy to be rid of his Mammon of unrighteousnesse No there is no such matter I dare be bold to say there is not that lust which a wicked man would think it a mercy to be rid of Alas Thou dost not desire to be rid of thy lusts thou canst not live without them thou canst not subsist without them when thou dost pray against them thou dost but dissemble with God there is no such matter thou dost not desire it If at any time thou dost desire it it is when thou hast done with it or it is in a storm only and then not because thou hatest it Non sub inâ—uitu mali sed minoris boni but because thou darest not keep it as you know the Merchant casts away his goods not because hee judgeth them evil in themselves but because if hee keeps them he cannot preserve a greater good his life Hee doth not part with them out of hatred to them for he even throws over his heart with them but because hee sees the keeping of them cannot stand with his present safety for after the storm and danger is over hee would bee glad to get them again if he could There are many who thus part with their sinnes as the Merchant with his wares only in a storm when they lye on their sick beds or under some wrack of Conscience for fear of hell or as Jacob parted with Benjamin because otherwise hee should starve necessity drove him to it or as Phaltiel parted with Michal because otherwise hee should loose his head hee did not part with her out of hatred but out of fear the King sent for her and if hee had detained her it might have cost him his head therefore out of fear hee parted with her though hee wept after her 3 In desire of heaven Extrema Christianorum desiderantur quamvis non Exordia 3 You Pray for heaven and one would think you did desire this wee say the end of a Christian is desirable though not the beginning the rest though not the labour you see Balaam hee wished hee might dye the death of the righteous though he had no heart to live their lives So that one would think they did desire heaven But indeed as long as thy heart is corrupt and unregenerate thou dost not desire heaven if thou knowest what heaven is If a man should ask thee thou who sayest thou desirest heaven what dost thou think heaven is it would I think pose thee But it may bee thou wilt say thou conceives heaven to bee a place of pleasure and delight a place free from all miseries and troubles and the like For this is the utmost heaven thou canst desire Thou lookest on it and desires it A place free from paenal not from sinful evils as a place of peace and rest not of grace and holiness If I should now tell thee that heaven is to be rid of all thy lusts and corruptions I beleive heaven would not be so desirable to thee Thou desirest heaven but t is under a false notion a heaven suitable to thy self and that 's the least of heaven I have told you not long agoe abstract and take from heaven what a corrupt heart doth see and think to bee heaven and that 's heaven indeed to a godly man To what I have said of another subject I will now adde this That didst thou know the company of heaven Heaven not desirable to corrupt hearts for its 1 Company the imployments of heaven the injoyments of heaven thou canst never desire heaven thy heart being corrupt 1 The company of heaven shall I tell you there 's none of your mind there And it is no great happiness to bee in such a place where they are all of different minds from you Two cannot walk together saith the Prophet they cannot-live together take delight together unless they bee agreed Now there is no agreement between the company of Heaven and thy spirit as it is corrupt See what the company of Heaven is enquire what they are First There is God and do you think there is any agreement betwixt God and you why hee is holy and thou art unholy hee is pure thou art impure c. and without holiness no man can see God Secondly There is Christ there are the glorious Angels all these are thine enemies as thou art in a natural condition Thirdly There are the blessed Saints and those are such as thou hast despised such as thou hast persecuted here in the World such as thou couldest never indure upon Earth but flye from and avoid is this company desireable in Heaven no such matter If they bee now hatefull to thee while they have something of thy self in them they have corruptions in them as well as thou though not under the power of them as thou Oh how hateful would they be when these corruptions are removed when they are better and thou worse But what 's this to torment thee in comparison of the presence of God in them is but the spark of holiness in God those eternal fires of holiness and if the spark bee a torment what is the fire As the Prophet speaks Who shall dwell with everlasting fires 2. Look upon the imployments of Heaven 2 Imployment and see if those bee desireable to thee in thy natural estate There is keeping of an eternal Sabbath there is praising and glorifying God to all eternity and would not this bee a tedious thing to thee canst thou indure to praise God for ever when now a staff of a Psalm is burdensome to keep an eternal Sabbath when a duty is tedious to thee 3. Adde to this the injoyments of Heaven 3. For its injoyments and here I can name nothing
when the soul is compassed with thick darkness sincerity will open a Casement and thereby let light into the soul Psal 112.4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness in the darkest whereas Hypocrisy is like painted windows keeps out light Sincerity will be like windows of Glass transparent let in light 6 Motive 6 Sincerity doth fence the heart against apostacy Partial and Total Wee will now come to the means to get a sincere heart Cure Hypocrisy Which is in which I shall indeavour to apply my self to the cure of an hypocrite But before I come to lay down the means of cure I must tell you this 1 It is a difficult cure 2 A painful cure 1 A difficult cure 1 Hard to cure It is one of the hardest cures are wrought upon the souls of men A cure seldome wrought Wee have heard of a bloody and Idolatrous Manasses an unclean Mary an oppressing Publican a persecuting Paul and many other fearful and great open and notorious sinners wrought upon brought to life But where have we read of the return of a Judas of a Simon Magus where do wee read of one example of such as have been grosse hypocrites who have afterward been savingly wrought upon I confesse it is all one with God to do the one as the other it is as easy with him to change the heart of an hypocrite as any other for infinite power and grace knows no difference but it is a thing not so usually done And though as easy in respect of God yet more difficult quoad nos And so I would have you understand me that the difficulty is in respect of us 1 It is hard to convince such a man that hee needs a cure 1 Hard to Convince you see it in Rev. 3. vers 16 17. God tells them they were luke-warm neither hot nor cold there was their distemper and yet you see what thoughts they had of themselves in the 17. vers Thou sayest thou art rich and increased in goods and hast need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked So you see it is hard to convince such a man Another man is easily convinced the very lives of them who are holy are convictions to his Conscience and if the word be held out he is ready to fall down as not able to stand up under the light and evidence of it In such men wee have a friend within them even their own natural consciences are on our side and ready to take part with us against themselves and fly in their own faces telling them such and such things ought not to bee done But now in the other neither the examples of holy men nor precepts of the word do so farre convince them for in outward appearance they walk as blamelesly as the best Nay and natural Conscience is also for them and being satisfied with some general performances of duty is ready to take part with them and to withstand any conviction that can bee alledged You see this in the Scribes and Pharisees they walked blamelesly in the general to the eyes of the world as you hearby his confession in opposition to the Publican and they fasted and prayed and did much and by that the mouth of conscience was stopped the quarrels of conscience were answered and you finde how hard it was for Christ himself to convince them They were so far from being convinced by his example that they thought themselves more strict than hee he did but they would not accompany themselves with sinners and therefore they gave ouâ—the was a wine bibber a glutton a friend of Publicans and for his doctrin this was so farre from convincing them that they thought their lives more strict than his precepts they were followers of the Law exact and rigid in legal observances and thought his doctrin too licentious too full of liberty for them So that is the first it is hard to convince them Hard to humble them 2 It is hard to humble them Humiliation follows conviction if hard to convince hard to humble Do wee denounce threatnings against sinners alas they are none of them these threatnings do not concern them but others for their parts they walk unblameably in the world It is not the mercyes nor the judgements the promises nor the threatnings the word nor the works of God which humble them In others there may be some natural tenderness some remorse of spirit when they hear of Gods judgements against sin But for this man it is not all the terrors of the Lord not all the humbling breaking discoverys of sin or judgement which fasten upon him to humble him No mans heart so hard as the Hypocrites hee hath not only a natural hardnesse but a contracted hardnesse nay a fortified and strengthened hardnesse his heart is fortified against all reproof against all the denunciations of wrath and judgement You have a taste of it in the Scribes and Pharisees You know they were Hypocrites hee who knew their hearts better than they knew their own tells them so And it was not all the miracles hee did in his life nor all the wonders which hee shewed at his death which could break and humble their hard hearts you see the Sun was darkned the earth quakes and trembles the vail of the Temple was rent the graves open the rocks cleave asunder yet all this doth not move their hard hearts Hard to reclaim them 3 It is hard to reclaim them for 1 The Devil hath got greater power in them than in others 2 The Forts of Sinne and Satan are more strengthned in them 3 The means of reclaiming lesse efficacious Hee is able to sit out Sermons and duties without any manner of working upon his spirit at all That which moves others moves not him which works upon the hearts of others doth leave his heart unwrought upon He is a man as I told you prayer-proof Sermon-proof and Ordinance-proof no Mercy no judgement no promise no threatning no word no works no prayer no Sacraments no physick no salve no counsell no advice no light of nature no light of example no private help no publick exhortation prevails with his heart hee 's a man in the fore-lorn hope his condition neer desperate Custome in the use of things doth take away the power of working You see in your bodies a little thing works upon the humors when you are not used to it whereas if accustomed to it a much greater will not stir the humors I have read that Mithridates by accustoming himself to eat Poyson at last durst venture upon poyson as meat nothing did hurt him The customable use of things takes away the power of working So it is here the custome of Ordinances in a formal way doth take away the power of working by them You see it in the Sacrament may bee when you came first to the Sacrament then Conscience had some natural tendernesse in
it and you came trembling to this Ordinance fearing lest you should prophane it and by that eat and drink your own Condemnation But now the custome of prophanation hath taken away the terror of prophaning this Ordinance now you come and tremble not So for the word time was when Conscience was green and tender that the word came with more majesty more authority on your spirits Every command came with power every threat came with trembling but now you can sit under the most powerful quickening convincing awaking dispensations of it and your souls never moved And hence is it that your custome with the Ordinances in a customary way takes off the life and power and workings of Ordinances As custome in sin doth harden the heart and makes the heart more difficult to bee wrought upon so custome in duty if it bee done in a formal customable way I would rather deal and should have more hopes of doing good to him who is openly prophane notoriously wicked than such a man who lyes soaking under Ordinances and goes on in a formal and customable performance of these dutys without any spirit or life in the doing of them Thus you see the first 't is a difficult cure 2 It is a painful cure It is a painful cure It will cost thee much pain many gripes and greifs many Prayers and tears much humiliation and sorrow before it can be wrought Nay t is a cure wrought by undoing all that thou hast done thou must unravel all unpray thy prayers undo thy services Thou must not go forward in the way wherein thou art but must come back all the way thou hast gone and go another way if ever thou come to heaven And this will cost a man some pain Suppose a man were going to some place and had gone much of his journey were now come as hee thought near his journeys end and one should come to him and tell him Sir you are clean out of the way you must go back again unride all this way you have come c. O! how irksome how hardly would this down with a man at the end of his journey especially the way being pleasant wherein hee was and full of delight but the other rough and foul in which hee was to go Alas would hee say is there no way but turning back is it not possible to strike over this is irksome Why so is it with a man here it may be thou hast set out for heaven and thou hast gone all thy life in a fair smooth way and art now come as thou thinkest even to the end of thy journey And will it not bee a hard thing for a man to turn back to begin in another way and that a straiter a rougher and a deeper way Why I tell thee this must bee done before ever thou come to heaven It is with a sound Christian and an Hypocrite as it is with two men at the top of two houses in a narrow street one would think that they could easily come to one another easily reach but the truth is hee must come down the height where hee is before hee can go up to him A grosse and open sinner is nearer to him than a formal hypocrite As Christ saith Easier for Publicans and Harlots c. And now judge is it not a very hard thing and difficult for a man to undoe all hee hath done to give up all for lost to come down from the height to which hee hath attained not without much pains To turn back that way wherein hee hath ridden with much difficulty This is a hard thing c. what flesh and blood can bear this So that it is not only a difficult but a painful cure 1 In respect of the medicines that are to bee applyed hard physick humbling lancing cutting dismembring cutting off right hands c. 2 In respect of the distemper wherewith these medicines are to encounter 3 In respect of the pains gripes griefs you must endure in the cure But this I cannot insist upon The truth is the cure is so painfull that your spirits would rather continue the disease than submit to the plaister But now though the cure be difficult 't is possible 't is easy with God though hard to us And if God have given thee a heart to desire a cure and a spirit willing to submit to any means may bee used it is a fair way towards the cure Well then to come to the cure it self Having searched thy spirit and upon diligent search discovered Hypocrisy Means of cure 1. Labour to convince thy heart of the evil and mischief of an unsound spirit It is a thing which makes thy person thy performance odious unto God hee hates thy person hee hates thy prayers as you see Isa 1.14 Your new Moons and your Sabbaths and your appointed feasts my soul hateth them which yet were high extraordinary services And now judge what a fearful thing it is to stand under the hatred of the great God of Heaven and Earth What dost thou think will bee the end of thee why you shall see Matth. 24. and the last Thou shalt bee cast into the lake which burnes with fire and brimstone and not only cast in but into the hottest place where there shall not bee a drop of water to a lake of fire For it is said of all other sinners that they shall have their portion with Hypocrites The Hypocrite shall have the largest portion hee is the top of that black crew of damned souls For the present thou losest all the good in Earth which others do injoy and for the future thou losest all the good in Heaven which others shall injoy Nay and thou gainest sorer sharper more unsupportable damnation than others shall have Thy duties thy prayers thy hearings which would have ministred comfort to thee if they had been right do now aggravate and increase thy torment being unsound Every Sermon Prayer Duty is but as another stick carried to that structure of fire to make it hotter and greater for thee because done with an unsound spirit 2. Consider there is a God 2. Means Atheisme is a great ground of Hypocrisy and there is no man more an Atheist than an Hypocrite Well then think there is a God I tell thee the very beleef of this would strike down many base ends which thou hast in thy service of him And think him to bee such a God as hee is That this God is an all-seeing God one who searcheth the heart who tryeth the reins One who knows the secret turnings and windings of thy deceitful soul Though thou mayest dissemble it with men bee one thing upon the stage another thing in the tyring house one thing in action another thing in heart and affection Yet thou canst not dissemble with God before whom thou liest open cut up to the back bone anatomized all thy internals are seen as the Word signifies in Heb. 4.13 This thought brought home and
a nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis promittendâ— Aug. because he hath ingaged himself to us by many great and precious Promises Gods Promises are ingagements upon him God hath made himself our Debter Not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us God hath made many precious promises to us 1 Promises of Preservation Isa 33.16 Hee shall dwell on high his place of defence shall bee the munition of rocks bread shall bee given to him his waters shall bee sure A Promise than which I know none more full in the Book of God wherein all Objections that a fearful heart might raise are answered and taken away Let us view it over 1 Hee shall dwell on high If hee were among his enemies hee might bee in danger But hee shall dwel on high nay on heights as the Word is many Ascents many Heights above the reach of danger out of Gun-shot 2 But suppose they could raise up Mounts and come as high as hee yet they shall not hurt him Hee is in a place of defence 3 But what then His defence is not so strong but it may bee broken thorough No saith the Text that is impossible for his place of defence shall bee the Munitions of Rocks many Rocks and many Munitions of Rocks and therefore impregnable to guard him 4 Why but hee may bee starved out his supply will not alway last There is no plowing and sowing upon Rocks hee may bee famisht out No saith the Text. Bread shall bee given him Hee shall bee provided for 5 But what shall wee do for Water There is no Water to be had out of Rocks You see it was that which posed the Faith of Moses to fetch Water out of a Rock But saith the Text hee shall have Water too 6 Yea but his Water may be spent It will not alway last No saith the Text His Waters shall be sure never failing Waters sure Waters Again in the same Chapter vers 21. The Lord will bee to us a place of broad Rivers and streams wherein shall go no Gallie with Oares nor shall gallant ship pass thereby Shewing the defence God would bee to his People Hee will bee a Stream nay a River between us and our enemies And a broad River a River that cannot bee passed over Why but they may use Oares No saith the Lord Hee will bee a River wherein no Gally with Oares shall pass But a Ship may No nor gallant ship shall pass thereby for the Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King hee will save us But what if any ship should attempt You shall see vers 23. God will untackle them Thy tacklings are loosed they could not well strengthen their Mast they could not spread the saile 2. And as hee hath made promises of Preservation from So hee hath made promises of Deliverance out of trouble Psal 34.19 Many are the troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all So Psal 50.15 Call upon mee in the time of trouble I will deliver thee So Psal 91.15 I will bee with him in trouble and will deliver him So Isa 54.17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper And an excellent promise wee have Isa 43.3 4. I gave Egypt for thy ransome Ethiopia and Seba for thee God speaks here as the Lord and Possessor of the whole Earth Egypt was his and Ethiopia was his and both these hee gave for to redeem his Church The Church was in bondage and captivity you know in Egypt And God gave Egypt for her ransome And how because shee could not bee ransomed and delivered without the loss of Egypt Therefore God gave Egypt for her That is hee would rather lose all the Land of Egypt than his people should not bee ransomed hee would sink the whole Kingdome of Egypt if it stood betwixt his People and Deliverance And so it follows in the 4. vers I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life As if hee had said I love thee thou art more dear to mee than all the World and I do not stick to give the lives of thousands to uphold thine Multitudes shall bee destroyed rather than thou shalt not bee preserved I love thee and therefore I will give men for thee Thus you see God is ingaged to do wonderful things for his Church because of his Promise That love which hath moved him to make these precious promises to us will never give him rest till it hath caused him to make good those promises which hee hath made 3. A third loving Ingagement which causes God to do wonders for his People is because they trust in him Trust is a kinde of Ingagement upon a man although hee had made no promise A man will not deceive another who reposeth his whole trust in him though hee were not ingaged by Promise There is a kinde of Ingagement in Trust it self And shall wee then think that God will when hee hath made so many precious promises to us This were the greatest deceit in the World a Soul-deceit If God should call us off from all other succours from other shelters and tell us that if wee will trust in him hee will bee our succour our security And should God fail the soul this were an undoing-deceit the greatest deceit in the World No my Brethren there was never man who laid up his confidence in God but hee found God to bee that to him which hee expected Faith ingageth all the Power all the Wisdome all the Mercy and Truth of God to help us And if the Power Wisdome c. of God can do wonders for thee God will then do wonders for thee if thou beleeve in him Beleeve saith Christ and thou shalt see the wondrous works of God 4. A fourth Ingagement which causeth God to do wonders for his People is because they seeke him Hee doth not say to the seed of Jacob seek yee mee in vain Hee hath stiled himself The God hearing prayers and bids us call upon him in the day of trouble and hee will hear The Prayers of Gods People they are as so many Ingagements upon God to move him to do for them Faith and Prayer will set All-God awork It will set the Power Wisdome Mercy of God a work for you Faith and Prayer will remove Mountains Nothing shall bee too hard for that people to do whose hearts and spirits God holds up to beleeve and to pray Bee it to thee even as thou wilt Luther having been in his study and earnest with the Lord about the business of the Church receiving a gracious answer hee comes down and cryes Wee have overcome the day is ours And so it fell out saith the story For the Church prevailed There is a kinde of Omnipotency in Faith and Prayer because these two set the Omnipotent God and the Omnipotency of the Power of the Omnipotent God to work for us And I beleeve
The great work of Reformation hath gone so slowly forward because Gods People are not so strongly carried on in seeking 3 The third thing wee have to do is to shew you 3. Quere What are those wonders which God doth for his Church and People 1 God doth wonders for the souls of his People 2 God doth wonders for the body and outward man 1 Gods Wonder◠to the soul 1 For the soul And wee will give you a glance of these The first Wonder and indeed the Wonder of Wonders which God hath done for his Church and People is 1 Wonder for the soul 1 The giving of Christ for us and to us All wonders are swallowed up in this wonder Nothing is wonderful if compared to this God manifested in the flesh Hence the Apostle 1 Tim. 3.16 Great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh That such greatness and such meanness such finiteness and such infiniteness such riches and such poverty such strength and such weakness Tantus Deus tantillus Homo So great a God and so mean a Man all in one Here is a Wonder There is four great Wonders conspicuous in this 1 Here is a Wonder of Humility which will appear if you consider 1 Of Humility 1 Who hee was 2 What hee became 1 Who hee was Hee was the Son of God The express Image of his Fathers person One equal with God and thought it no robbery to bee equal with God hee was God blessed for ever As the Apostle stiles him 2 VVhat hee became Hee took not upon him the Nature of Angels which yet had been a greater discent than if all the Angels in Heaven had been turned into Worms But hee took not the Nature of Angels but hee took upon him the Nature of Man and that not at the best but of Man fallen subject to infirmities Penal not Culpable General not particular And what a wonder of Humility was this There is not the meanest Angel in heaven but would have thought it a wrong above amends to have been so low abased Here was a wonder of Humility Factor terrae factus in terrâ The maker of the earth to bee made of earth 2 Here was a wonder of wisdome That God should find out such a way to recover us when we were lost If all the united Consultations of men and Angells had been laid together they could never have found out a way to Reconcile Gods mercy in the salvation of man and yet his Justice in the damnation of sin If God should have helped us thus farre You are miserable Creatures But I am a merciful God The demands of my justice I must not deny neither will I deny the intreaties of my mercy Find mee then but one that can satisfy my justice and I will shew my mercy to you Ah! where should wee have found one who was strong enough to bear sinne and to satisfy the wrath of God for us No it was his own wisdome that found out the way Here was a wonder of wisdome which wee adore and admire 3. Here was a wonder of Love An Heighth a depth a length a bredth a Love beyond all dimensions Hence said to bee a Love passing knowledge a Love that may bee apprehended by faith not comprehended by reason it was an infinite love And this is more than if wee could gather all the bowels of the Creation together Hence saith Christ who knew the greatnesse of it John 3.16 i. e. So God loved the world so infinitely so incomprehensibly that hee gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life 4. Here was a wonder of mercy which will bee more conspicuous if we consider 1. The Person 2. The Time 1. The Person who undertook this It was the second Person in the glorious Trinity the Person against whom the first Sinne was in some special respect committed Hee is the wisdome of the father and called wisdome Prov. 8. And this sinne was an affectation of wisdome to bee like to God As the falling-sin is now the sinne against the Third Person Sinne against the Holy Ghost so the sin which did occasion the fall was in some special respects against the second Person And therefore the greater is the wonder of mercy That he against whom the first sinne was so committed should undertake the expiation of it 2 Consider the time when hee took our nature And that was when wee were brought to a desperate losse when it was made evident that nothing else could help us Heb. 10.6 7. Sacrifice and burnt-offerings thou wouldst not have Then said I Loe I come When Legal washings were declared unable to pacify God or to work our peace Then Christ comes into the world Christ came not into the world till it was made Evident That without him God could not be satisfied nor man bee saved And this is the first Wonder The sending of Christ in whom all is wonderfull His Incarnation the Hypostatical union of two natures in one Person His Passion Resurrection Ascention Session Intercession They are a chain of holy wonders Hence Isa 9.6 Christ is called wonderful because all in Christ is wonderfull 1 He is wonderful in his person and natures God-man and mortall-immortall finite and infinite so great and yet so mean so rich and yet so poor Here is a wonder 2 Hee is wonderfull in his Offices A King Priest and Prophet 3 Hee is wonderfull in his government That hee should bring us to life by death to glory by misery to honor by shame All wonders This is the first wonder and the root of all the rest 2 Another wonder God doth for the souls of his People is The second wonder to the soul 1 In Conversion 1 The work of Conversion and regeneration that a man should partake of another begetting of another birth of another nature than others have in the world Nay than hee himself had This is a wonder That a man should bee the same and not the same The same man for body yet as different in qualities as if another soul did dwell in the same body That hee should live by another life bee fed by other food refreshed by other comforts than others are Here is a wonder that of a Lyon should become a Lamb of a Wolf a sheep of a Saul a Paul a Persecutor become a Preacher Here is a wonder And the greater is the wonder if you look upon the weaknesse and contemptiblenesse of the means God works this by The ministery of a weak man It had been no great wonder if the Walls of Jericho had fallen down by the battery of a Canon But this made it the wonder that the blast of Rams-horns should bring down the walls of Jericho And this is that which makes this work more wonderful that by such weak and Contemptible means and men in the eyes of carnal men this great work should be effected When a man
shall come to the Church with full tide and stream of lust lifting up his head puffing at God glorying in his sin and shame Nay perhaps Come with purpose to contemn to scorn the Dispenser And to see this man return home by the Ministery of a weak man wounded slain laid upon his back crying out with the Publican God bee merciful to mee a sinner or with Paul Lord what wilt thou have mee to do I am willing to do any thing to suffer any thing c. Here is a wonder well may wee say in the voice of the Prophet What ails thee thou Jordan that thou art driven back Thou sea that thou fleddest And as the birth of a Christian so 2 In the life 2. The life of a Christian in grace is wonderful It is a mysterious life A life hid from the world for 1. The seat of this life is hid and secret 2. The principle and spring of this life is secret and mysterious 3. The Nourishment mysterious 4. The conveyance of nourishment 5. The comforts of this life All wonders Nothing in Grace but wonders 3 In Perseverance 3 When God shall hold up a mans heart to fear him to seek him to beleeve in him in times of darknesse and temptations Here is a wonder All the workings of Faith are wonders but especially in temptations and Desertions 1 That a man by Faith should conquer a troop of fears silence an Army of doubts answer a throng of disputes and carnal-reasonings overcome all the powers of darknesse to chase ten thousands Devils before him which all the power of earth cannot do Here is a wonder 2 That a man by Faith should hold up his head under the burden and guilt of many thousand sins the lest of which would sink the soul if Faith did not cast all this upon the Lord. 3 That a man by faith should bee a rock in the midst of a storm and stand immoveable when the winds blow and the billows rage when heaven and earth seem to come together as you see David did Psal 27.1 2 3. and Psal 46.1 2 3. I will not fear though the earth be removed though the mountains bee hurled into the midst of the Sea 4 When God shall keep alive a little spark of grace in the midst of a sea of corruptions hold up his own work in the mids of all Counter-workings and oppositions of sinne and Satan Here is a wonder 5. When God shall make a man willing to sacrifice his goods liberty life rather than to wound his Conscience and offend his God This is a wonder which without the power of God could not bee wrought 6. VVhen God shall bear up the spirits of the Saints with joy and comfort in the absence of all created comforts as you see Hab. 3.17 Although the fig-tree shall not blossome nor shall fruit bee in the vine c yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Nay in the presence of all created discomforts to stand up and rejoyce under the frowns menaces scorns scourges prisons persecutions of men imbrace the stake kiss the chains smile on the terrors of death rejoyce with Stephen under a shower of stones Here are Wonders 7 When God doth turn all the afflictions nay all the sins of his Church and People to the good of his People to humble them more cast them out of themselves cast them upon the hold of Faith the exercise of Prayer make them more watchful more careful more exact Here 's a wonder Secondly God works wonders for the body for the outward condition of the Church for the good of his people 2 Gods Wonders for the Body in regard of the outward man 1 God doth often restrain the wickedness and malice of men against his Church that though they bee never so full of Hell and fury yet they shall not bee able to vent it against the Church and People of God Thus you see it was with Rabshakeh when hee came with purpose to destroy Jerusalem yet God put his hook into his nose and his bridle into his lips Hee restrained him as you see in 2 King 19.28 32 33. And this made David to say when the Princes took counsel together to take away his life My times are in thy hands Psal 31.15 Though they bee never so full of malice their designs bee never so bloody yet my times are in thy hands they shall not bee able to hurt mee though they consulted yet hee knew they could not act God could restrain them God hath the Devil much more wicked men in a chain and they cannot go a jot further than hee gives them chain and that shall bee no further than for his own Glory and the good of his Church as hee tells us Psal 76.10 Surely the wrath of man shall turn to thy Praise and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain Though wicked men bee never so full of wrath and fury against the Church yet they shall vent no more than what shall turn to the Glory of God nay the Praise of God so much as his People shall have cause to praise him for The remainder of wrath though never so full hee shall restrain They shall burst before they shall vent any of it to the hurt of his People And this is a great wonder His setting bounds to the fury of men as hee doth to the raging of the Sea Hitherto shalt thou go and no further restraining the malice of men against the Church is as great a wonder as to see a Milstone hang in the Air and not fall down 2 God doth often calm and still the raging fury of wicked men against his Church and People Hee doth not only bound them but still them And thus you see it was with Esau Hee came forth with rage and bloody-purposes against Jacob to bee revenged on him for all But you see how God calmed him In stead of killing him hee falls upon his neck and kisses him It was God that did it And therefore it is said Gen. 33.10 That Jacob saw the face of Esau as the face of God It was not Esau but God that hee saw in Esaus face Hee saw God appearing in the wonderful changing and calming of his spirit who came with such fury against him And this was the fruit of his wrestling and praying the night before 3. VVhen God doth carry on great purposes with weak and contemptible Power makes weak means successful to do great purposes and effects This is a wonder and a wonder God often doth as you see in Asa 2 Chron. 14.11 It is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no Power As the Mariner can turn about the greatest ship with the smallest Rudder So God who ever sits at the Helm and steeres and governs all can bring about his own purposes by weakest means As hee brought Jeremy out of the dungeon with old rotten rags good
left himself without witness As the Apostle saith Nor hath God left any word without witness There is never a truth never a promise in the Word but it hath been made good by a thousand experiences wee have a Book of Experiences to annex to the book of Promises of the many wonders which God hath in all ages wrought for his people all which doth discover the faithfulnesse and truth of God and the Promise to us 2. Information 2 Information This may inform us of the blessed and happy Condition of the Saints who have interest in such a God as can do wonders for them Propriety in all-sufficiency doth make the injoyer happy And what a blessed Condition is this to have interest in such a God who can do wonders for the relieving of us Though your troubles may bee too big for man yet not for God your miseries and extremities may bee above the supply of creatures but they cannot bee above the Power of God Hee can do wonders hee can do that which man cannot do Though you have no ordinary means of help yet you have interest in a God who can do extraordinary things yea and Extraordinary things in an ordinary way nay by Ordinary means if hee undertake the work I may say concerning such as the Psalmist Blessed are the people that are in such a case Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord Psal 144.15 3. Information This may inform us 3 Information How precious the Saints are in the esteem of God what love hee bears to his Church that hee will do wonders for them Wonders for their preservation from trouble and wonders for their deliverance out of trouble Men may do smaller curtesies for ordinary and common friends and they may give their dole to them they do not care for But if they will lay out the utmost of their power of their strength and estates to hold up or to do good to or to relieve one we must needs conclude they love such intirely Gods Dole his common blessings of this life Rex honores dignis congiarium et indignis Senec. will not bee enough to evidence his love Hee causeth his Sunne to shine and his rain to fall upon the good and bad promiscuously But when God doth exercise the greatness of his Power Wisdome Truth Mercy as he doth in the wonders hee doth for his Church this is an evident sign of that love he bears thereto Wicked men may bee subjects on whom he doth exercise the Wonders of his Justice and of his Power As Pharaoh But the Saints are they for whom hee doth exercise the wonders of his mercy in mercy Gods wonders are for the good or for them in a good way 4. Information This may inform us 4 Information that the Condition of the Church is oftentimes very sad very dark very evil because a wonder must bee expressed for relieving of them Ordinary reliefs may help ordinary distempers But when extraordinary must bee used it declares the conditions are exceeding sad The very doing of a wonder for relief implyes a condition to bee such as is beyond the helps and succours of humane and created Power If men could help if means could relieve it were no wonder to help Therefore this implies that the Condition of the Church in respect of things below may be oftentimes very sad very miserable yet 5 Information 5. This informs us again that the Conditions of Gods People Come never to bee so sad and uncomfortable as thereby to despair of help and relief seeing wee have a God who doth wonders for us Our Condition is not so low but a Wonder may raise us up again Wee may bee hopeless and helpless in respect of Creature supplyes and reliefs but wee can never be Hopeless never helpless in respect of Gods when Creature-helps fail God doth but turn us from sense to Faith from reasoning to beleeving from Creatures to himself Hee bids us shut our eyes to the things below and look altogether above as Jehoshaphat did Lord wee know not what to do but our eyes are up unto thee And David too when hee incouraged himself in the Lord his God In the most hopelesse condition there is a door of hope because deliverance is neerest when help seemes furthest off And Oh! that wee could learn at such a time as this to live by Faith and not by sense to shut our eyes to works and look upon the word of God we should then bee strong in God and find incouragement from him when we see nothing but discouragements from below Wee are too apt to live by sense and not by faith and therefore accordingly as God doth let out or restrain himself in the wayes of his providence so our faith doth wane or increase We are too like Hagar when the Bottle is dry sit down and Cry Whereas on the Contrary wee should trust in God 1. In the weakness of means Though there bee weakness below there 's strength above weakness and strength are all one with God Nay 2. In the want of means Though means bee wanting yet God can create means nay do his work without means Nay 3. In the Opposition of means When the Word saith Yea though works say Nay when the Promise saith It shall be Though all Secondary means whereby this Promise should bee effected saith It shall not bee yet are wee to rest upon God and the Promise God doth often speak one thing to sense and another thing to Faith Hee is not ever that in Appearance which hee is in Truth Hee may speak death to sense as you see hee did to the Children of Israel at the Red sea Had they consulted with sense and Reason they could see nothings but death when yet hee speaks life and deliverance to faith As you see Moses saith Fear ye not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. God may in outward appearance speak evill when yet in the purposes of his heart he speaks good As God may seem to heal when he means to destroy to speak Peace in his Providence when hee speaks terror in his word so God may seem to kill when he intends to cure to destroy when hee intends to save Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts I have thought toward you saith the Lord the thoughts of Peace and not of trouble even to give you a desired end Though my proceedings sem to bee evil yet my thoughts are good though my wayes are war yet my purposes are peace to give you at the last an expected end 6. Information This may inform us 6 Information That there is no ground for wicked men to insult and glory in any probable advantages which they may have against the Church and People of God God can work wonders for his Church and People You see in the verse before the Text the Egyptians had many advantages against the People of God and they promised to themselves certain and infallible
is a marriage duty c. As Ahasuerus had two houses for his Spouses And therefore seeing Christ thinks nothing too dear to bestow upon his Church hence must needs follow That the Heart of Jesus Christ is exceedingly taken with his Church 1. Those which Christ hath made all things for to serve for the good of them 2. Those whom hee hath prepared Glory for Heaven for 3. Those which hee hath shed his bloud for must needs bee dear to him his Heart much taken with them If a King should build a stately house for one with whom hee would solace himself all his life and should at last give life too you would think sure hee loved him 1. God made all for thee the Sun Moon Stars Creatures all this frame of the World sure you are dear to him 2. God prepared Heaven for thee a place of Glory Happiness where thou shouldest for ever injoy him and solace thy self with his love 3. Christ shed his bloud for thee which was more dear to him than ten thousand Worlds What is all the World and ten thousand Worlds in comparison of one drop of his bloud and therefore they whom hee shed his bloud for must needs bee more dear to him than all the World his Heart is taken with them Thus far now wee have gone in the breaking up the rich Cabinet of Christs Love the sent whereof hath cheared and revived us Wee will now proceed to the further discoveries of it and that is to the third thing wee propounded Why the Heart of Christ is so much taken with his Church and People Wee will but give you these three grounds all which are taken not from us but from himself his own mercy In brief Either From his own Grace to us Amat Deus non aliundè hoc habet sed ipse est undè amat et ideô vehementius amat quia non amorem tam habet quam hoc est ipse Bern. Or From his own Grace in us The first Ground or Reason why the Heart of Christ is so taken is 1. Because wee are his Propriety you know is the great ground of love Wee love our own our own Husbands Wives Children They are ours wee have propriety in them So here wee are His Hee hath propriety in us and therefore loves us Cant. 7.10 Cant. 7.10 The Spouse makes the same argument I am my Beloveds and hee is mine therefore his desire is towards mee therefore his heart is taken with mee therefore his soul loves mee And wee are his in the dearest and sweetest relations 1. Wee are his People his subjects Christ is the King of Saints whose throne is in our hearts and will brook no Rival whose Scepter is his Word and whose Word is our Law Nay least this bee too little 2. Wee are his Friends Henceforth I call you not Servants but Friends Wee are his Friends and Favourites Nay 3. Wee are his Children begotten again and born again to everlasting life 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Being born again c. 4. Wee are his Spouse such as hee hath married to himself in faithfulness and truth and such as hee delights in 5. Wee are his Members The Church is his Body his fulness and every one Members in particular as the Apostle speaks 6. Wee are his Jewels his Treasure Mal. 3.7 In the day that I make up my Jewels they shall bee mine And therefore his heart must needs bee taken with us Christ hath the same argument Where the Treasure is there will the heart bee also The Heart and a mans Treasure lye together Now wee are his Jewels his Treasure Ubi thesaurus tuus ibi cor tuum Bern. his Portion his Inheritance that which his Father left him and hee must dearly earn it too And therefore the Heart of Christ is exceedingly taken with his Church and People So you see this is the first ground why because wee are his and his in the dearest nearest choicest of Relations To bee brief wee are his these four wayes Wee are his 1. By Choice 2. By Purchase 3. By Donation 4. By Covenant 1. First Wee are his By Choice Hee set his heart on us from everlasting which was his first love and that which hath carried God through all the expressions of his mercy towards us to this day even to admiration of Angels and astonishment of men These were his primitive his bosome-thoughts to us his first love which is most dear and precious As the first love of the Creature to the Creator is most precious in Gods esteem the Virgin-love of the soul to God those affections the soul hath when first enamoured with God Therefore hee tells the Children of Israel Hee remembred the time of her Espousals the kindness of her youth That will not out of his mind Jer. 2.2 So the first love of the Creator to the Creature his bosom-thoughts Amor Dei non invenit sed facit amore dignos Bern. they are most precious Oh! these take the heart these are the fullest these are his freest thoughts towards us 2 Tim. 1.9 All the World stood before him from the first man to the last And why hee should chuse us Non quia nos delexerimus Deum sed quia ipse prior dilexit nos denique dilexit etiam non existentes sed resistentes juxta Pauli testimonium quoniam cum adhuc inimici essemus reconciliati sumus 〈◊〉 Deo per mortem Christi filii ejus Bern. in Cant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and pass by others others finer peeces of Clay than wee are others of greater parts greater abilities which if it had pleased God to have conquered to himself might have brought him far more glory done him more service Here was only his free mercy There was no ground to make him chuse us before hee loved us but there is some ground to cause him to love us now hee hath chosen us Wee are his and his by free choice chosen and singled out of a world of men And therefore will hee love us 2. Wee are his By Purchase Hee hath bought us and that at a dear rate with the price of his own blood Gal. 4.5 Christ was made under the Law that hee might buy out those who were under the Law Hence 1 Cor. 6.20 You are bought with a price And what was the price It could not bee too little for the meanness of the commodity not worth owning when hee had it But it cost him his dearest Hearts-blood as 1 Pet. 1.18 Wee were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish without spot So then wee are his by Purchase wee are the fruits of all his pains of all his doings and sufferings wee are the commings in which Christ had for his Bloud wee are his Purchase God did covenant and bargain with Christ that if hee would lay down his life and bloud for a people hee
3. The Fruit and Benefit that comes in thereby 1. Negatively Should not perish 2. Positively But have Eternal life Now about the Act and the Object we shall make these two enquiries before we come to lay down the Conclusion 1. What act of faith that is whereby a sinner stands justified before God 2. Upon what Object this Act is to be terminated 1. For the first What Act that is You must know that faith in the general consideration hath divers acts and objects and that the acts are diversified according to the diversity of the objects so many particulars as are recorded in Scripture so many particular objects and accordingly so many particular acts there are of faith in general But our enquiry is what is the formal Act and Object of justifying faith Now for the first viz. What is the formal Act of Faith You must know that there is much difference amongst Divines about it 1. Some would have it to be a bare and naked assent to every truth revealed by God Thus the Papists 2. Some say it is a firm and radical assent to this great Proposition That Christ is Messiah and Saviour of the world 3. Others place it in a receiving of Christ in all his Offices as a King Priest and Prophet 4. Some in Assurance and Particular Knowledge or Perswasion that we are in the state of Grace and have an interest in Christ c. 5. Others do place it in rowling our selves upon Christ and resting in him when the soul assenting to that great Proposition that Christ is the Saviour the Mediator doth rowl and rest it self upon him and trusteth in him In most of which different opinions we finde this agreement 1 That it is an Act of Faith whereby wee are justified not Faith as an Habit of Grace inherent in us but Faith as an Act not Faith in actu primo as an Habit infused but in actu secundo 2 That it is such an Act as is not wrought out of our selves or our own Principles but such as is wrought by the Spirit of Christ and the mighty Power of God 3 That it is such an Act as bringeth over the soul to the true object to Christ by whom wee are justified 4 Such an one as all the benefits of Christ do belong unto accompany Christ in blood Christ in water Christ for Justification Christ for Sanctification Christ for Salvation in all these there is an exact agreement among them And therefore although there bee some difference in respect of that formall Act which justifieth yet seeing they preach and cry down themselves and advance and set up free grace and mercy both in the work and fruit of it The Papists have no cause to cry us down for dis-agreement which for their parts they are like the four winds blowing in the faces of one another in many points as might easily bee shewed if here it were pertinent Wee know that while wee are here differences there will bee for wee know in part and prophesy but in part It were an happy â—hing if wee could bee all of one heart and all of one mind but seeing it will not bee I could wish that although wee bee not all of one mind yet wee might bee all of one heart and that difference in judgement might not breed alienation in affection especially seeing wee all aime at one thing one mark one end All agree in hoc uno in this one to set up Christ the mercy of God free grace and by crying down our selves and why then should wee not agree amongst our selves And therefore in all these diversities of Judgements concerning the formal Act of Faith whereby wee stand justified before God I shall not deal so much in the throwing down of other mens opinions as in the establishing of mine own 1 Because I conceive there is little wisdome in it to uncover the nakedness of our Brethren by bringing them in contending with one another 2 Because I think there is little profit in it especially in promiscuous Congregations Such debates being fitter for the Schools than for the Pulpit Polemical and Controversal points may beget Notion little Motion fill our heads with Notions but not our hearts with sanctifyed affections And therefore I will break my self in as plain and modest a manner as I can amongst all these differences to declare what I adhear to and to establish it by some Scriptures and so passe it Now then I conceive that that formal act of Faith whereby wee are justifyed and instated into Christ is an Act of Affiance and recumbency rowling resting trusting or Christ for Justification and consequently for salvation For the proof whereof wee are to observe that the words both in the Old and New Testament by which the Act of Faith is expressed do import such an act as this In the Old Testament wee meet with three words especially which import this act of Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being referred to Christ do express that Act whereby wee are justified 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first of them as Rabbi Kimchi observeth doth primitively and properly signifie to retire into some safe place for harbour or shelter So Judg. 9.15 come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Bramble shelter or cover you under my shadow and the Prophet useth the same word Psal 57.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my soul trusteth in thee I will retire my self under the shadow of thy wings and so it being referred to Christ betokeneth that Act whereby wee do betake our selves to him as to our Sanctuary where wee may bee preserved in safety from the tempest of Gods displeasure and so Psal 2.12 when his wrath is kindled yea but a little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed are all they that put their trust in him or that retire themselves to him upon which place Junius noteth that that retyring unto God which is affirmed to bee the cause of our blessedness is no other than sincere Faith and what act of it but this of affiance 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second word in the Old Testament signifieth to rowle and being joyned with the Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to devolve and rowle something on another as Psal 37.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rowle thy way upon the Lord and trust in him c. and Prov. 16.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rowle thy works upon the Lord and thy thoughts shall bee established agreeable to which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast thy burden upon the Lord c. And this word applyed to Christ imports that Act whereby being laden with sin and seeking ease wee at last discharge our load and cast it upon Christ 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third word signifieth to put confidence trust and affiance in any thing or person so as securely to lean and rest upon it So Isa 50.10 hee that walks in darkness and seeth no light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him trust in the name