the Old though not as named Apostolical Constitutions the manner was first one Presbyter preached then another and last of all the Bishop At this time there was good store of Preaching Damasus the First Bishop of Rome in his Epistle de Chorepiscopis shews how unlike Christ they are who preach not Ipse enim docuit ipse ovem perditam quaesivit ipse propriis humeris reportavit Christ did all himself St. Austin and St. Chrysostom preached every day ye heard yesterday ye shall hear to morrow is common in their Homilies Many of the Writings of Ambrose Nazianzen Basil and Cyril were only their Sermons to the People and therefore in Concilio Vasensi held about the Year of our Lord 440 it was ordered That if the Presbyter were sick and unable to Preach Sanctorum Patrum Homiliae à Diaconis recitentur The Deacons should read the Homilies of the holy Fathers Gregory the Great in his Pastoral saith Qui verbum praedicationis subtrabunt animabus morientibus vitae remedia abscondunt The unpreaching Minister hides the Bread of Life from dying souls The fourth Toletan Council which was a little after Gregory saith Omne opus Sacerdotum in praedicatione consistit Preaching is a Ministers All. In the Council of Mentz under Charles the Great It was Ordered Can. 25. Nunquam desit diebus Dominicis qui Verbum Dei Praedicet On Sabbath days a Preacher must not be wanting No though the Bisliop be sick it must not as that Can. saith In the Oxford Constitutions made by Archbishop Stephen Preaching is enjoined ne canes muti merito judicentur Nay the very Council of Trent saith that Preaching is praecipuum munus Episcopi the chief work of a Bishop Such an Ordinance is this and so highly esteemed in all Ages no wonder if Bishop Morton said The custom of not-Preaching is but a Babe in Christianity and the defence thereof a new point of Learning in Christs School But to return to the Point in hand after this long digression the Believer may experience this Ordinance to be of God That it is so is in part expermented before Conversion Whilest St. Paul but a Prisoner preached of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix though a Judg trembled feeling moral bonds cast on his Conscience by the Power of that Word which is never bound It is yet more fully experimented in Conversion in which there is a wonderful change wrought the dead being raised new Creatures formed Lyons turned into Lambs and hearts of Stone into Flesh all proclaiming that the Finger of God is in it of a Truth Johannes Speicerus as Scultetus relates Preached so powerfully That the very Strumpets leaving their lewdness returned home unto God After Conversion the Experiment is yet more compleat the Word works effectually in them that believe 1 Thess 2.13 The glory of the Divine Attributes break forth in this Ordinance out of the seeming weakness a Majesty appears in some sort much as Christs Deity sparkled out of his Humane Flesh It is not the meer Voice of Man but of God coming with an Authority more than Humane and setting the heart made like Josiah's tender by Faith into an holy trembling at it as a signal proof that the Lord is the Speaker One who hath the Keys of Heaven and Hell in his own hand and upon Obedience or Rebellion is able to save or destroy The Believer by the command and reverential awe put upon his Conscience finds That there is a Divine Presence and Grandeur in it which to oppose is to strive and make War with God himself Again out of the seeming foolishness wisdom discovers it self Whilest but a man is teaching outwardly to the ear there is an inward Teacher in the heart The Spirit of Revelation uncovers the holy things and brings forth this or that sacred Mystery to the View Intus datur intus coruscat intus revelatur as St. Austin expresses it The Father of Lights shews himself there in sacred Revelations Christ seals up the Ordinance by the dropping of the holy Unction A Believer meets with such illuminations as are far more precious than all the Lights in Nature Hence St. Chrysostom's Auditors when he was like to be silenced cried out Satius est ut Sol non luceat quam ut Chrysostomus non doceat It were better to lose the Sun than such a burning shining light as he was The entrance or opening of thy words giveth Light saith the Psalmist Psal 119.130 When the Word preached is admitted into the heart by Faith and there opened by the Holy Spirit a celestial Light rises up and bears Witness to the Ordinance Again in the midst of plainness Divine Omniscience shews forth it self the Minister stands without but the Word enters in and anatomizes the heart Elisha proved himself a Prophet in telling what the King of Syria spake in his Bed-chamber Our Saviour manifested his Deity in answering to the thoughts of Men. When the Word preached penetrates into the retiring-rooms and inmost chambers of the heart and there rifles the very thoughts and unriddles the purposes and inclinations It is an infallible Sign that the Great Searcher of hearts hath sent a Beam of Omniscience along with it The Believer who above all other men studies himself most desires much to know two things viz. What of secret sin there is in him and what of truth of Grace And under this searching Ordinance he comes to see many a mote or black spot in his heart such as he never dream't of and withal some marks and characters which to his comfort shew him his uprightness and in such Discoveries he sees the Great Revealer of Secrets co-operating with the Word Moreover whilest the Minister is unfolding the Gospel such are the ravishing savours of Christ and Grace as if a box of Heavenly Spikenard were broken in the Believers Heart Pardon and Peace smell out of the odours of Christs Merits and Heaven it self out of his pure Righteousness Through this lattice how contemptible soever it be to carnal Men Christ shews his all-desirable self and full treasures Free-Grace communicates pardons and love-tokens the Divine Spirit breaths life and power into Believers quickning and awakening to answer the pure Commands with Obedience and this and that Promise le ts out its sweetness and flows as a Conduit of Coelestial Wine with admirable Suavities and Consolations In such things as these Faith hath sweet Communion with God and a sure seal set to this Ordinance In the Preaching of the Gospel the Kingdom of Heaven comes nigh even to rejecters Luk. 10.11 Much more doth it do so unto Believers who take the holy Mysteries and Promises into the bosom and complex of Faith and thereby inflame their Hearts with the Love of Christ and Grace as a sure witness that this Ordinance which carries so much of Heaven in it is from thence Next to the Preaching of the Word I shall set the Ordinance of Prayer This is the ascent of
because God is love and grace free and partly by the Attribute of Almighty power sin is strong but not infinitely the Almighty who subdues all things to himself can easily subdue it The heart is a dead womb and not able to teem out the least particle of grace but the Almighty can quicken the dead and raise up a divine seed therein The fingers which made an Heaven and an Earth can make a new heart and a new spirit Faith takes hold on the power of God for the working sanctification in the heart Thirdly This resignation is made to the word and that upon a double account It is made to the word as the warrant of both the former resignations and made to the word as the engine in Gods hand for the working of sanctification it is made to the word as the warrant of both the former resignations The word is full of promises of mortifying and quickning grace and these promises stream out to us from the pure fountain of free-grace through the bleeding wounds of the Mediator and are all Yea and Amen Hence faith resigns to God and Christ for all sanctifying grace It is also made to the word as the engine in Gods hand for the working of sanctification The word is a mighty weapon able through Gods power to cast down the heights and strong holds of sin and an immortal seed able through Gods grace to quicken the heart and spring up into the new-creature Faith therefore resigns to it that the heart may be sanctified through the truth Thus far of the third thing resignation for sanctification Fourthly Faith resigns up the soul to be ruled as to its actings I say as to its actings That I may clearly distinguish it from the but now mentioned sanctification which consists in inward principles of grace And still to press in my old steps First This resignation is made to Jesus Christ the Mediator Faith translates the soul into the kingdom of Christ and loves to live no where else the world in its eyes is but a house of bondage but it loves to live in Christs dominions Where holiness is there 's the King of Saints where meekness and patience there 's the throne of the Lamb where righteousness there 's his Scepter where Gods will prevaileth there he sits in Power and Majesty at the last day sense will discover this great King Jesus coming in the clouds in power and glory But faith sees him here coming in state in every holy command and riding as it were on the wings of the wind in every motion of the holy spirit The posture of faith herein is like that of the Israelies when the pillar of cloud and fire went before them then they journied otherwise they staid in their place when the spirit and word of Christ goes before the believer faith follows after else it will not stir a foot out of its place it is really in the believers heart to be ruled by Christ in all things Take him in holy ordinances these saith faith are the throne of Christ here below in these he fits at the right hand of power here the believer waits to see the power and the glory as the man with the withered hand in stretching it forth waited for a power to restore it and as the blind man in his going and washing in Siloam waited for a power to recover his sight so the believer in every ordinance waits for the power of Christ if he break the rocky heart melt it into the divine will the believer cries out the Lord reigneth here is the day of power indeed Take him in the works of his calling and there he is ruled by Christ one would think the servant were only toiling and drudging in his servile employments but if he be a believer he is serving the Lord Christ Col. 3.24 and by a divine praerogative above other mens his deeds are wrought in God such was the posture of pious Musculus in the town-ditch as well as in the Pulpit Faith is such an engine as brings down the kingdom of Christ though not of this world into the meanest trades the believer acting therein as Peter let down his net at the command of Christ and therein as in his calling abiding with God which is more then the unbeliever doth under divine ordinances nay take him even in natural actions the believer when himself cats and drinks and sees and hears and speaks and sleeps and wakes and walks after another rate then other men doing all under the Law of Christ that 's a knife at his throat a covering to his eyes a stopper to his cars a bridle on his lips when he sleepeth that keeps him when he waketh that talks with him when he walketh that leads him the kingdom of heaven which is not meat or drink or any such thing is by faith brought down into all these The genius of faith is to be ruled by Christ in all things Secondly This resignation in and through the Mediator is made to God I say in and through the Mediator because without him we can expect to be ruled by God in no other way then by the iron rod of his power and justice dashing us in pieces to all eternity but in and through him the believer may and doth yield up himself to God to be ruled And here he makes use of two Attributes Gods soveraignty and Gods holiness God is the supream Lord and must be obeyed he is the holy one and must be sanctified in each command the beams of his majesty and holiness sparkle out and these faith takes in to melt the heart into a compliance with the divine will Plato being asked by one of his Scholars how long his precepts were to be obeyed answered Donec in terris apparuerit sacratior aliquis qui sontem veritatis aperiat the believer desires to be ruled by God because an higher and holier cannot come Thirdly This resignation is made to the word Ask a believer how he knows himself to be where he would be in the dominions of God and Christ his answer will be I know it by the command in the word and in the command his faith eyes two things the truth of the command and the soveraignty his faith eyes the truth of it the command is true as coming from God himself and being the very counterpane of the holiness in his heart This is the will of God even your sanctification saith St. Paul 1 Thess 4.3 Gods will is in himself but the command is the counterpane of it thy word is true from the beginning saith the Psalmist Psal 109.160 or as the Original is the head of thy word is truth the body of the command in Scripture answers to the head of it in the holy will of God Faith looks on the command as issuing out of the very heart of God and exactly agreeing thereunto and upon this account resign to it as to the good and acceptable will of God Again
pardon one way for the pardon of infirmities and another way for the pardon of gross sins but there is one undivided way of faith and repentance appointed for both Which being so it follows that if the believers gross sins be not forgiven till after actual faith and repentance then neither are his infirmities forgiven till then and by consequence the believer cannot continue justified no not for a minute the multitudes of infirmities which are ever swarming in him would put him into a state of death every moment Nay as worthy Mr. Wall hath well observed in ictu mortis None but Christ pag. 322. in the very last stroak of death he may perish unless the last operation of his spirit be actual faith and repentance These things perswade me that the gross sins of believers are at least in some sense pardoned before their fresh acts of faith and repentance touching which Divines speak variously Mr. Baxter saith That Believers as soon as they sin have an imperfect pardon though not plenary Lect. 113. on the 51. Psalm Mr. Hildersham saith They have a pardon upon record in heaven but not the comfort of it till by faith and repentance they sue it out and be able to shew and plead it in the Court of their own Conscience Mr. Burroughs saith When any Soul is taken into Christ Expos en Hos p. 611. it hath not only all the sins it hath committed pardoned but there is a pardon laid in for all sins to come there is no instant of time wherein it can be said that the Believer is under condemnation What is the aptest expression I shall not contend but I conceive such sins in believers are in some sort pardoned before their fresh acts of faith and repentance Neither doth this open a gap to licentiousness for it concerns only Believers whom the stings of Conscience celipses of Gods face languors of inward graces and foul blots upon their Evidences to heaven will under the influences of the Spirit press to fresh acts of saith and repentance as to duties very necessary and incumbent upon them Thus much of the continuance of this holy fruit Fourthly The fourth thing considerable is the perfection of it This holy fruit is never fully ripe till the day of Judgment Repent that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord saith St. Peter Acts 3.19 The day of Judgment is to a believer a time of refreshing then there will be no more scorches from the fiery Law no more stings from the old Serpent no more guilt inflaming the Conscience no more frowns from the holy God but a pure sweet refrigeration breathed out from his gracious presence Caspar Olevian in his last sickness Mâ—â—ch Aâ—um in vita ejus was in ineffable joyes so that he seemed to be in prato elegantissimo rore perfusus coelesti in a most sweet meadow with an heavenly dew distilling down upon him Such reviving refrigerations believers have sometimes here much more transcendent will their divine refreshments be at the last day The top-stone of Justification shall be then laid on to make it compleat as may appear by the ensuing Considerations First Here the Believer is justified privately by the Gospel but then he shall be justified openly by the solemn sentence of God before all the World here he hath the white-stone of Absolution given in secret but then it shall be brought forth to view glittering in all the orient colours of Free-grace It was a great honour done to Mordecai to be arraied in Royal apparel and to have it proclaimed before him Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour But oh what glory will be upon the Believer at that day when he shall stand in the glorious rightcousness of Christ and hear it proclaimed before Men and Angels This is a righteous man when Christ shall confess him before his Father and the holy Angels to be a piece of himself of his flesh and of his bones As it was with the Sons of Jesse passing before Samuel Eliab came and was refused Abinadab came and was resused and so others at last David came and the Lord said Arise anoint him for this is he 1 Sam. 16th Chapter So it will be with the Sons of men at the great day of Judgment The great Potentate may come and be rejected as a vile person the rich Dives may come and be put away as dross the Learned Rabbi may come and be turned off as a fool only when the Believer comes God will say This is he this must reign in glory for ever This is a Justification before God after a most signal manner Secondly Here the Believer stands justified but in the midst of briers and thorns remaining Corruptions vex and tear his righteous soul from day to day He is in the Land of Promise but the Canaanite is not quite driven out the reliques of Sin inmates in the same heart with grace like the Liers in wait for Samson are ready to make an assault upon him Hence the Jewish Doctors say That God calls no man Saint or Holy till he be dead and in the grave because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the concupiscential frame is not quite out of him before death but at that day there shall be nihil damnabile remaining in him Sin shall be no more no more tumors of Pride no more boilings up of Concupiscence no more spots or wrinckles or dark shades of Infirmity nothing but pure spotless Holiness Insomuch that Divines say that from henceforth our Justification shall be in another way than by imputed Righteousness because having perfect inherent Righteousness in our selves we shall need no covering If the Apostle say of a Believer that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is justified from his sins in respect of Sanctification begun Rom. 6.7 how much more will it be true when Sin shall be no more Thirdly Here the Believer is Justified but the dust of mortality hangs about him It may be there is a Stone ready to drop into the Bladder or an Imposthume ready to break in the Head Mors latet in mediis abdita viseeribus in one part of the body or other Death is preparing his arrow upon the string to shoot man down from the perch of this life into the grave But at that day there shall be nihil corruptibile Death shall be no more Diseases which use to sound an alarum to it shall be utterly removed Tears which are Natures pay to Sorrows shall be all wiped off the corruptible shall put on incorruption Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life This is a day of redemption indeed Fourthly Here the Believer is Justified but his comfort is not alwaies the same Now the light of Gods Countenance breaks out like a clear Sun upon him and anon there is a sad eclipse leaving him in darkness one day a banquet of heavenly Comforts is
cry out Sero te amavi Domine Lord 't was late e're I loved thee True Faith would have none but Christ loving him as St. Bernard used to say Plus quam mea meos me More than all my goods my friends my self And as another holy Man did weeping that it can love Christ no more As touching our Love to our Neighbour it is also actuated by Faith Reason and Humanity raise up a Love towards Man the Barbarians kindly received St. Paul and his Shipwracked Company Act. 28.2 Titus Vespasian was called Amor deliciae humani generis the Love and delight of Mankind Suffering none to go away sad from his Presence Nay Herod himself in a Famine turned all his Plate and rich Houshold-stuff into Money therewith to fetch Corn out of Egypt for the necessities of the People Only this Love for want of Supernatural rectitude squints at Vain-glory or moves upon some other selfish Principles or at best rises up out of a simpathy of the common nature True Love towards our Neighbour such as issues out of Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 is propter Deum for Gods sake And as the School-men say There is but one root or habit of Love whereby we love God and our Neighbour because God as he is supream Goodness is the formal reason of Love to our Neighbour He only being to be loved for himself and others but the material Objects of Love to be loved for him hence also damned or irrational Creatures are not properly the Objects of Love because not capable of Union with God in bliss Unto this true Love Faith presses by some such Divine motives as these is not Love a Command nay the sum of the second Table and must it not be obeyed Can we wait for Promises and not observe Commands Or may we have the Love of the first Table without that of the second Hath not God loved us in an incomparable unparalleld way and shall we not love our Brother Shall infinite bowels open and finite ones be shut If any shut them how dwelleth the love of God in him saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.17 A touch a sense of his Love let in by Faith will make ours flow out towards our Neighbour Such a sweet pressure of it was on Mr. Fox That he never denied any that asked for Jesus sake A Believer acting as a Believer cannot be hard to his Neighbour or say Go and come again as long as the Mercy-seat is open And what is thy Neighbour is he not thine own flesh Nay doth he not in a sense bear Gods Image and is he not capable of eternal Blessedness And who that hath a hope of singing Hosanna's in Heaven would not love such an one And will not God be glorified thereby Graces shew forth more of God than Creatures and Love more than all the rest because he is Love it self The Primitive Christians told the World whose they were by their one heart and one soul Terrull Apol. Act. 4.32 And afterward their Love was pointed at by the very Pagans saying Vide ut invicem se diligant See how they love one another And do we know what and how great a thing may be in acts of Love Some entertaining strangers have entertained Angels Heb. 13.2 But possibly we may do more we may feed or cloth or visit Christ in his poor members and in the other World be repaid all again with usury From such Divine Motives as these Faith actuates Love to our Neighbour but this is not all Faith actuates it in a regular and congruous way according to relations and propinquities giving out a Love of delight to the Saints as having most of God in them a Love of mercy to the poor as being Christs Treasurers a love of reverence to Parents by whom we received our being a Love of provision to Children who are our selves multiplied and a Love of benevolence to all not excluding enemies to love enemies is as one saith inter mirabilia legis one of the wonders of the Law and yet Faith in the Gospel-grace will reach it Hence it is observable that when our Saviour bids his Disciples to forgive even such as trespass against them seven times in a day They reply in a Prayer Lord encrease our faith Luk. 17.5 because Faith will move Love into act even in the difficult duty of forgiving others Another Grace actuated by Faith is holy Fear of God the very light of Nature revealing some glimmerings of his Greatness and Justice raises up a Fear of him The Barbarians seeing the Viper on St. Pauls hand cried out of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a revenging justice as if he had been a murderer Act. 28.4 Pythagoras begins his Golden Verses with Veneration of the Gods Among all Nations there hath been a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fearing of God The ancient Gauls out of reverence to their gods would not touch the consecrated Gold lying in their Temples Upon the same account there were among many Ethnicks Nudipedalia sacra barefooted devotions Only this Fear was in it self but servile and further corrupted by false opinions of the Deity and hence sprung all that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worship or superstition which was among the Heathens The progeny of their ancient Daemons their Charms and Exorcisms their Festivals and Purifications their Lustrations and human inhuman Sacrifices and all their strange Rites and Ceremonies of Adoration whereby they endeavoured to flatter and compound with their gods and guilty Consciences This servile Fear is further advanced when to the light of Nature is superadded that of the pure Law which flashes in upon the Conscience and sets it on sire with reslections upon guilt and expectations of wrath thereupon but it is servile still and chiefly looks at punishment A man in such a state may forbear an act of Sin but he is corrupt within adbue vivit in eo peecandi voluntas the love of Sin is in him still as an Ancient hath it His heart saith to his Sin as the Emperour Bassimus did to his beautiful Mother in Law Quà m vellem si liceret Oh that there were no Law against it or punishment to follow after it He may do good but not well Intus reus est in animo non facit he is guilty within and in mind doth it not as St. Austin saith there wants that love of righteousness out of which true Obedience issues but where Faith is there is castus timor a pure filial fear of God such as reverences his Majesty as supream and sears Sin as the greatest evil and withal punishment in its due place though not principally or in a servile way and among punishments chiefly that of loss and separation from God as a greater evil than the rest And as Faith sees the invisible one more or less so this holy Fear is more or less moved into act Of old the appearances of God in outward Symbols of glory struck an a we
and power which he receives from thence The virtue of Baptism follows the Believer as the water of the Rock did the Israelites in all the travels of this World even to his dying hour at which the oldest highest Saint may refresh himself by running back to his Baptism When temptations come and assault the Believer when Satan casts in his fiery darts to inflame the Corruption of the Heart the Believer is the stronger to repulse them because of Baptism A pious Virgin as Luther relates used to oppose this to every Temptation Baptizata sum mhil facis Satan I am Baptized O Satan thou canst do nothing In the African Persecution under Hunericus one Majoricus a fine young Man being brought forth to suffer for the Truth was thus confirmed therein by his Mother Dionysia Memento mi sili nos in nomine Sacro-sanciae Triadis in Ecclesia esse Baptizatos ah ne perdamus illud preciosissimum indumentum ne veniens qui ad nuptias nos vocavit non reperiat vestem nuptialem in tenebras exteriores ejiciamur Remember O my Son that we were Baptized in the Name of the Sacred Trinity let us not lose this precious Garment lest when he comes who called us to the Wedding he find no Wedding garment and we be cast into utter darkness This so strengthened the Young Man that he suffered as a glorious Martyr for the Truth In Baptism we are listed land enrolled into Christs Militia and so go not to war at our own charge but the great Captain of Salvation is with us and strengthens us against Temptation About the year of our Lord 433 the Burgundiuns were grievously afflicted by the Huns and finding no relief among Mortals they applied themselves to the gods and there being a great crond of Numens at last they pitched on the God of the Christians as most potent and present in Perils and were Baptized giving up themselves to Christ after their Baptism they went to fight with the Huns and with a few overcome many thousands of them And I suppose they fought as well and were as good Soldiers against inward Temptations as against outward Enemies for the Story saith Ab eo tempore ardenti amore flagrabant in conservando Christianismo From that time they burned with ardent love to Christianity Thus they had a double signal proof of their Baptism in the strength and Divine assistance afforded them against outward and in ward Enemies Moreover the Believer may find in himself those Divine Blessings which are sealed up in Baptism and so prove it to be of God Baptism seals up Regeneration and is therefore called by the Apostle the Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 And the Believer may find the New-birth in himself We know that we are of God saith St. John 1 Joh. 5.19 Baptism seals our Vnion with Christ and hence we are said therein To put on Christ Gal. 3 27. and To be buried with Christ and risen with Christ Col. 2.12 Which two are notably adumbrated in the Baptismal Immersion into the water and Eduction out of it And the Believer may know his Union with Christ he may not only believe That Christ is come in carne Mariae but shew that he is come in carne sua as Origen speaks he may not only believe That Christ died and rose again in the flesh which he took of Mary but shew that he is dead and risen in the Believer that is Christs Death and Resurrection are selt in his Mortification and Vivification Baptism seals Remission and divine Favour hence we read of Baptising for the remission of sins Act. 2.38 and the Believer may be able to read his Pardon and see Heaven as it were open to him in the gracious favour of God Thus by experiencing the Divine Blessings sealed in Baptism he may satisfactorily prove to himself That Baptism is an Ordinance of God In the next place I shall instance in the Preaching of the Word This however slighted of late some Papists calling the Protestant Ministers in a scoff Praedicantici and some Protestants such as they are calling Preaching Prating is yet a great Ordinance of God such as hath had a standing in the Church in all Ages God himself was the first Preacher first promulgating to Man his solemn Command touching the forbidden fruit and after the Fall that Protevangelium in the Promise of the seed of the woman that is the Messias Adam as Franzius probably conjectures was wont at his Sacrifices for nine hundred years to preach of the Messias promised Enoch as early as he was in the World preached of the last day Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints Jude v. 14. Noah was a preacher of righteousness 2 Pet. 2.5 and without doubt told them of the approaching Deluge Abraham had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Incipients or initiated Ones whom he taught in the Divine Law as well as in arms Afterwards in Moses's time there were Priests and Levites to expound the Law to the people In Samuel's time there were Colledges of Prophets and there the Word was preached to the people In these Colledges was the first rise of Synagogues and that of Naioth in Ramah 1 Sam. 19.18 20. is translated by the Chaldee Paraphrast Domus Doctrinae the House of Learning because there the Word of God was taught The Great Solomon was a Coheleth or Preacher his Ecclesiastes is a Penitential Sermon of the Vanity of all things The Prophets were Preachers of the Word and so were the Scribes who were therefore called Text-Men or Masters of the Text and said to sit in Moses's Chair because they expounded the Law Also in the Jewish Church they did by the Imposition of hands called Semiea ordain Presbyters some of whom were for Judicature and others for Teaching the Law Thus Preaching came down successively to the Times of the Gospel in which we have a solemn Command To Preach to every Creature To be instant in season out of season To labour in the Word and Doctrine nay To travail in birth till Christ be formed in men The Apostles after their Master Jesus Christ who was the greatest of all Preachers dispersed themselves up and down the world to propagate the Gospel Paul went Preaching from Jerusalem to Illyricum Mark was in Egypt Matthew in Ethiopia Thomas in India Simon Zelotes in Britam and others in other places all labouring in the same Work After the Death of the Apostles this Ordinance was much esteemed in succeeding ages Anciently the very Bishops of Rome were wont to Preach and in the supposed Epistle of Clement to James the Brother of the Lord mention is made of quotidiana Praedicatio Tertullian speaks of feeding the peoples Faith Sanctis Vocibus with holy Words And Origen saith Omnes Episcapi erudiunt all the Bishops Preach In the Old though not as they are called Apostolical Canons we have this Episcopus non docens deponatur Let the not-preaching Bishop be deposed and in
then in thy heart and then tell me what is fittest to be the rule that which is perfect or that which is imperfect that greater measure of the spirit in the Scripture or that lesser far lesser measure of the spirit in thy heart common sence will tell thee it belongs to the Scripture Moreover the spirit is in thy heart and the spirit is in the Scripture but where is it plainest and most obvious where can it be most easily discerned to be the very spirit of God indeed all that is in the Scripture is indubitably of the holy spirit but all that is in thy heart is not so it may be it is from thy own spirit what thou didst suppose to have been from Gods nay it may be it is from Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light The Disciples would have called for fire from heaven as Elias but Christ tells them ye know not of what spirit ye are Luk. 9.55 as if he had said you think this motion came from an extraordinary spirit such as was in Elias but alass it is but from your own spirit nay from the gall and bitterness of it that which you take for zeal is indeed but revenge When upon our Saviours discourse of his sufferings Peter said be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee no doubt he thought himself right in the thing but our Saviour calls him Satan for it Mat. 16.23 his meaning was pious and as he might think from the same holy spirit which a little before inspired him to make a glorious confession of Christ but alass the devil acted secretly therein Of what I find in Scripture I can immediately and without any more ado pronounce that it is the very voice of the holy spirit but of what I find in my own heart I cannot do so First the light must be divided from the darkness Gods spirit must be distinguished from mans and Satans And how such a piece of spiritual Chymistry should be done without the Scripture I cannot imagine There may be three different spirits in my heart and unless I reduce them in a way of trial to the one pure spirit in the Scripture I may be easily cheated by my heart wherefore the Scripture in which the characters of the spirit are more plain and legible then in my own heart must needs be the rule Once more let me ask thee O Enthusiast who criest up the spirit the spirit above Scripture dost thou seek the spirit aright or follow him faithfully I fear thou doest neither Thou doest not seek the spirit aright because not in his own way which now is not in visions and immediate revelations but in the Scripture Thou wouldest have the spirit but wilt not stay upon the mountains of the Prophets and Apostles for him Thou doest like Joseph and Mary they sought Christ among their kindred and acquaintance when he was in the Temple Thou seekest the spirit among thy own fancies and imaginations when he is in the Scripture My spirit and my words shall not depart out of thy mouth saith God Isa 59.21 Observe the spirit and the word are by Gods own ordinance in a sweet conjunction together he that sunders them loses both of them For a man to wave the Scripture and seek the spirit is as if he should forsake the beams and search after the Sun in some place where it shines not The French Kings use to be crowned at Reims because there is the sacred oil which as they say came down from heaven If thou wouldest be crowned with heavenly wisdom be in the Scriptures there and there only is the holy Unction which will teach thee all things Neither dost thou follow the spirit as thou oughtest the spirit if followed in his own way will lead thee into all truth but if thou wilt follow the spirit in an extra-scriptural way thou doest not follow it indeed but thy own fancy and whilest thou seemest to soar above Scripture thou art like to fall far below it into the ditch of error and wickedness In no better place have thy predecessors been after all their high-flying imaginations Montanus that early Enthusiast called himself the Paraclete and magnified the writings of his two Prophetesses above the sacred Gospel The Messaliani thought they could corporeally see the sacred Trinity and dance upon devils and receive the holy spirit in a visible way Oh Satanical illusion John of Leydens visions teemed out Poligamy and a bloody Rebellion Into what wild assertions did Swenckfield and Henry Nicholas come by their Enthusiastical spirit the first saying that the Gospel is the Essence of God nay faith in the heart is so The other blasphemously alledging That the believer is Godded with God and the spirit of love is God incarnate How did Valdesso run into Familism and Antinomianism And what else did Saltmarsh in his book called Sparkles of Glory making as if Christ were but a mystical sigurative man and God in the flesh were only God in his Saints Oh mystery of iniquity whither will not this extra-scriptural spirit go what errors will it not broach what sacred foundations of truth will it not demolish how little Gospel or divine rule will it leave to Christians Leave it then O Enthusiast or else thou canst not follow the spirit of truth Thus much by way of question to the Enthusiasts Secondly I shall in a word say somewhat to their Allegations they say That the Scriptures are but the Christians Alphabet and for beginners only But let us remember the spirit which is in believers in an ordinary way was in the Pen-men of Scripture in an extraordinary I was in the spirit saith St. John Rev. 1.10 he saith not the spirit was in me but I was in the spirit as a vessel in the sea every way surrounded and overruled by it And who can believe that the spirit in its ordinary way should exceed it self in its extraordinary that in believers it should utter high mysteries which in Prophets and Apostles gave out only an Alphabet If it be no more I dare say no man no not the most perfect Disciple of God on earth ever throughly understood his Alphabet no mans knowledge ever dived into the bottom of Scripture no mans holiness was ever parallel to its precepts nor no mans faith ever traced the unsearchable riches of grace there unto the uttermost and shall we say it is only an Alphabet for beginners Is it not the wisdom of God in a mystery is it not able to make the man of God perfect hath St. Paul milk only and not strong meat was St. Peter to seed the lambs only and not to feed them into sheep and when they were such doth St. John write only to the little children and not to the young men and fathers also He writes to them all plainly shewing that no man of what stature soever in grace did ever outgrow the Scripture Again they say the Scriptures are but a
God come out of Egypt out of the straits of sin and pass through a wilderness of wants and extremities towards the Land of promise the valley of Achor trouble and perplexity for the accursed thing is a door of hope husks and hunger make the Prodigal come to himself and his father Thirdly Upon this humiliation and strait of soul there ensues a deliberation a standing as the King of Babylon did Ezek. 21.21 at the parting of the way to make a true enquiry Lo saith the afflicted soul in a self-parley here is the way of life and there of death this is the way everlasting and that 's the way of time If you live after the flesh you must dye but if you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live if you sow unto the flesh you must reap corruption if unto the spirit life everlasting O my soul be not deceived God and sin Christ and Belial heaven and hell cannot mix together Say then O my soul what wilt thou have the mess of pottage or the birth-right the pleasures of sin or those at Gods right hand the worlds trinity of lusts or communion with the blessed Trinity in heaven Thus the soul sits down and casts up the cost sin on and burn in hell for ever turn to God and shine in eternal glory spare thy lusts and damn thy soul slay thy lusts and save it Oh! what a fearful cheat is sin it proffers a profit or a pleasure and asks a soul it holds out a moment or two and would have eternity in pawn for it it tickles the sense and stabs the conscience it courts and flatters like the strange woman and leads down to hell and death Such deliberations as these make way for resignation an indeliberate resignation is but a flash and away but a deliberate one is fit to endure Fourthly After all this the holy spirit doth so far press in the holy light as to work a denial of a mans self and his lusts in some measure I say in some measure for without some measure of self-denial a man will never resign up himself to God and Christ Thus our Saviour If any man will come after me let him deny himself Mat. 16.24 first deny himself and then go to Christ and again Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Mat. 11.28 first be weary of sin and then go to Christ no man can serve two Masters he that will follow Christ must do as Peter and Andrew did leave his nets all the entangling lusts of his heart and so follow him Whilest a man sits at the receit of custome driving on a trade of sin he cannot follow him First he must with Mathew rise up from thence and then he may follow him Also I say in some measure for the self-denial before precious faith must be distinguished from the self-denial after it self-denial before faith is wrought in us by the holy spirit making impressions and darting in light into the heart in a transient way self-denial after faith is wrought in us by the holy spirit dwelling in the heart by faith and acting therein as an abiding principle of all grace Before faith it is in a far lesser measure and degree after faith it grows up to a full stature before faith it doth in some sort cast off the soveraignty of sin the soul no longer chuses to live under its dominion but looking upon it as cruel bondage casts off its allegiance after faith it strikes at the very life of sin in the work of mortification What is said of the beasts in Daniel their dominion was taken away and yet their lives were prolonged Dan. 7.12 the same may be said of sin first it loses its crown and then its life The holy spirit in the first measure of self-denial doth as it were dethrone sin in order to resignation and in the after-measure thereof it mortifies and nails it to the cross there to dye and expire Now this measure of self-denial which precedes resignation stands in divers things First There is a denial of a mans reason Reason as the candle of the Lord is not to be denied but reason as it is a false light as it pleads for Baal the lording lust of the soul as it plays the serpent seducing from holy truths as it sows pillows under presumptuous sinning as it laughs at holiness and divine mysteries above its comprehension is surely to be denied We must become fools that we may be wise put out our lamp that it may be lighted by the spirit and crucifie our why's and wherefores that we may believe the Gospel Abraham having Gods promise for a seed considered not Rom. 4.19 and staggered not or as in the original discerned not v. 20. he did not play the critick upon the dead body and dead womb he laid by his discretion that he might give glory to God by believing Secondly There is a denial of a mans will This is the forbidden fruit and womb of concupiscence unless this be renounced there is no hope of resignation our own will is a thing of Belial and unless subdued by grace will not take Christ's yoke it is an inward Antichrist and unless consumed by the divine spirit and brightness will exalt it self above the will of God Saul must have a light from heaven and a fall to the earth a fit of trembling or else he will not resign and say Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9.6 the will must be un-selved and the man become as a little child without any will of his own or else there can be no resignation Thirdly There is a denial of a mans carnal affections These are the camels which cannot go thorough the needles eye the weights and plummets which press down the soul from God unless these be cast off there can be no resignation our Saviour is positive in it how can ye believe which receive honour one of another Joh. 5.44 A soul breathed into vain-glorious air or drowned in sensual pleasures or laden with the thick clay of the world cannot resign he that will offer up himself to God must leave the world behind his back his affections must be gathered in from earth and Angel-like ascend in the flame of faith the vail of time must be put by and an entry made upon eternity Fourthly There is a denial of a mans own power Proud persons puft up in their fleshly mind vainly dream that their Reason can span all mysteries and their Will teem out all graces no temptations are too strong for them nor duties too weighty Alass these are so far from resignation that they are not come to illumination through prodigious blindness they are strong in their impotency rich in their poverty free in their chains and something in their nothingness And what should they go to God for as yet they are not so much as in the way thither but let the man put off his false ornaments and
of grace and breaths beams of light and utters sparkles of glory nothing but mysteries and rectitudes and words of eternal life ever came from him and to make these come home to thee he is an inward Ecclesiastes one who can unlock thy secrets and come into the midst of thee and there express himself in words of life and power and all the while his Majesty shall not swallow thee up He speaks through an humane nature and vail of flesh in rare condescension and compassion towards thy weakness Whilest faith is in the high praises of this great Prophet the heart cannot chuse but be upon the wheels ready to run to him and say speak Lord for thy servant heareth Secondly It doth it by humbling and softning the heart Before faith a man is in the ruff of pride and there 's no speaking to him his heart is as a stone or Adamant and beats off holy truths but after it the man becomes as a little child and Christ may say any thing to him his stony heart is turned into flesh and so made ready for God to be manifested in it Faith doth so meeken the heart that it will sit down at Christs feet and hear him even in his hardest Lectures Let Christ talk of racks and bloody persecutions for the Gospel and the believer will be ready to get up the cross on his back Let Christ preach of high and transcendent mysteries such as reason cannot fathom and the believer will subscribe in silence what ever reason mutter against it Secondly Faith having discipled the soul yields it up to Christ to be taught And because now he doth not teach in person as once in the days of his flesh faith yields up the soul to him to be taught by his spirit The discipled believer loves to stand as Adam in the wind of the day in the gales of the holy spirit And this will appear in two-things First Faith waits upon the Spirit in the Means and when the spirit comes in holy motions it welcomes him into the soul Faith waits upon the Spirit in the Means there it cries out as Elisha at Jordan where is the God of Elijah here 's the mantle but where 's the God here are the Scriptures but where 's the Spirit that endited them to make holy impressions and seal divine truths upon the heart here are the ordinances but oh for the moving of the waters awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon the garden that the spices may flow out And when the spirit comes in holy motions faith opens the everlasting doors and welcoms him in as Laban did Abrahams servant come in thou blessed of the Lord stand not only without in the Scripture-letter come in thou that comest in the name of the Lord. Take the throne of my heart and bid the world go down and sit at thy footstool Take the keys of the soul and unlock every faculty set up thy lamps in every dark corner and discover the accursed things there Speak O heavenly Rabbi speak in words of life and power and shew me the path of life and righteousness Secondly Faith is very chary and loth to lose the teaching spirit Like the Spouse in the Canticles it holds him and and will not let him go Cant. 3.4 This is to the believer as the apple of his eye he would not have a dust of earth fall into to lest it grieve and weep out some of the holy light and as the fire in the Temple it must not go out if there be but a live coal or single spark it must be brown up into a flame Holy motions are very precious to the believer as it were beams of heaven better in Faiths account then the great Sun which quickens the animal world and like so many good Angels sent from God to give the soul a visit rather then these should be violated and abused faith will offer all its worldly comforts as Lot his daughters to be defloured If the holy spirit depart faith writes scabbed upon all other things and the believer becomes as a dead man unable to breath in prayer or walk in holiness or live or have a being in the spiritual world The Sun is down and it is night with him the dew is off and his fleece dry the gales are wanting and he is at a stand in his voyage to heaven Thus faith yields up the soul to be taught by the spirit Secondly In and through Christ the Mediator faith yields up the soul to God to be taught by the spirit I say in and through Christ the Mediator Without a Mediator God will not speak to a sinful creature unless out of the fire in words of wrath like those at the last day Go thou cursed one If he speak and commune with us in words of peace and salvation it must be from the mercy-seat that is through Christ who is called Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or propitiatory Rom. 3.25 Hence Christ is called the wisdom of God because through him that wisdom doth manifest it self and as God speaks so faith hears and resigns both are in and through the Mediator I say in and through the Mediator faith yields up the soul to God to be taught by the spirit the very same teaching spirit as it was procured by the Mediator so it is given out by God Therefore faith for the teaching thereof resigns up the soul as to the Mediator the procurer so to God the donor of it And in this resignation faith climbs up to him by that noble Attribute of his infinite wisdom Are there transcendent mysteries in Scripture Faith will resign and cry out with Zophar Oh! that God would speak and shew me the secrets of wisdom Whilest the Scripture is in its hands it sighs and looks up for the key to unlock and shew forth this and that truth in its spiritual glory or at least in some such beams of it as it is capable of the Original Languages will not serve its turn without the Original Author nor the Learned Commentators without the great Interpreter that only wise God who endited the Scripture can illustrate the heart and whilest the believer reads the one he waits for the other Is there a practical case dubious and perplexed like an intricate Labyrinth or way-less wilderness and when the believer goes about to put all circumstances into the ballance doth he tremble and demurr like Origen at the Idol-incense and cannot be satisfied In such a case Faith runs and Esra-like hangs upon God for a right way the All-wise can make a way in the wilderness and guide thee with his eye saith Faith one cast or glance from his wisdom will disintricate thy doubts and make thy way plain before thee Doth the outward world grow stormy and tempestuous is the sky of the times overclouded with troubles and dangers faith stands in the posture of Jehoshaphat we know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2
instinct knows this is good for such a condition and that for another and when he comes to that promise I will be thy God he saith this is the universal Medicine and good for all things as infinite a sea as Gods grace is as vast a treasure as Christs merits the believer cannot tell how to climb up to these unless he have somewhat of a promise to set his faith upon if there be but an half-promise faith will ascend up by it when God saith seek righteousness seek meekness it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger Zeph. 2.3 faith will hang upon a may be but where there is nothing at all of a promise faith does not cannot tell how to approach for the unpromised thing The Perfectionists fay that sinless perfection is attainable in this life Joseph is yet alive perfection of life figured by Joseph may be found so thinks a Learned Doctor My yoke is easie said Christ and from thence Bellarmine concludes Legem Dei possibilem esse renatis imo facilem observatu but alass these are but dreams and not acts of faith It s true the believer groaning under the burden of sin wishes nothing more then sinless perfection he works he walks he prays he weeps he runs he strives but after all he may not believe sinless perfection attainable here not but that the grace of God in Christ is sufficient to effect it but there is no channel for such a grace to run in no promise in all the word to bottom such a persuasion upon there is a promise for the subduing of iniquity but not for the annihilating it a promise that sin shall not reign in us but none that it shall not be therefore the believer would not seek for that in himself which is only found in Christ nor for that on earth which is reserved for heaven that mercy or comfort which is not let down in the promise faith doth not expect or look for Trubern a German Divine on his deathbed seeking comfort spake thus textum textum volo let me have the text the text well knowing that comfort streams out in the promises the believer is ever for one promise or other to give advantage to his faith in its ascension to God for mercy and comfort Fourthly This resignation is a voluntary act It hath been disputed between Romanists and Protestants where the seat of faith is whether in the Vnderstanding only or in the Will also the Apostle clearly determines it with the heart man believeth Rom. 10.10 the heart includeth both faculties ad esse fidei virtutis concurrit actus rationis simul voluntatis quod benè innuit Apostolus in ipsâ notifieatione fidei cum dicit fidem esse substantiam rerum sperandarum argumentum non apparentium tangens quod est in eâ cognitionis quod est assectionis saith Bonaventure the assent of faith is in the Understanding but the resignation is in the Will credere est consentire consensio autem volentis est saith St. Austin We read in Scripture of faith unfeigned and sincerity is in the Will of the obedience of faith and obedience is in the Will of leaning rolling resting casting our selves upon God and all these are in the Will all the resignations which the believer makes are acts of his Will if he resign to the Promises and through them to the meriting Mediator and through him to the free-grace of God this recumbency or fiducialness is in his Will if he resign to the commands and through them to the kingdom of the Mediator and through him to the holiness of God this obediential frame is in his Will if he resign for instruction to the Word and through it to the great Prophet and through him to the wisdom of God this docibleness this tender holy flesh is in his Will he would have salvation coming in a way of grace and grace flowing through the Mediator Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ for a teacher and ruler as well as for a Saviour and all this is his choice 'T is not a meer velleity or effluvium of a light desire like that of Balaam let me dye the death of the righteous but an act of his Will 't is not a mood or hot sit of devotion such as falls on men under warming and awakening ordinances but a deliberate act 't is not a constraint or piece of servility such as men usually have in sick and dying hours when they are rolling off from this world and upon the brink of eternity with a prospect of heaven and hell before them but it is a true and a free-will cordially and freely offering up the soul to the terms and methods of salvation in the Gospel Fifthly This resignation is made in Humility The believer like his father Abraham is called to Gods foot there to lye in the lowest posture of a sinful creature in an humble docibleness he lyes at the foot of Gods wisdom waiting as they that watch for the morning till the holy irradiations make the day dawn and the day-star arise in the heart in an obediential frame he lyes at the foot of Gods holiness crying out like Paul struck down to the earth Lord what wilt thou have me to do and in a fiducial recumbency he lies at the foot of Gods grace as a forlorn beggar full of fores and extremities waiting if free-grace will take him in and like the good Samaritane bind up his wounds pouring in the oyl and wine of mercy into his heart The men among the Israelites could not enter into the Land of promise but the little ones did so the mystery is the Christians though the history be theirs the men among us such as can few sig-leaves together and cloath themselves such as can feed themselves at home and keep house upon their own reason such as are Lords of their own actions coming and going ad placitum these do not believe nor enter into the promises of the Gospel but the little ones who cannot dress themselves but as free-grace swadles and wraps them up in Christs righteousness nor feed themselves unless free-grace pluck out the breast and milk out instruction nor rule themselves or go alone but as free-grace takes them by the hand and leads them in holy ways these are they that believe and enter into rest hence our Saviour saith Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Mat. 18.3 The proud man will not suffer grace to reign in or over him but the believer is as a little child ruleable by all the will of God humbly submitting to all the methods of salvation in the Gospel To shut up this discourse about the Adjuncts of faith I shall only add a caution or two When I say that all true believers do thus resign I mean not that all have the same formal notions or expressions but the same faith and resignation for the substance of
weigh it the natural man may put in the breach of the Law into the scale but he puts in all the bloody aggravations the suffocated light and abused love the quenchings of the spirit and the rejections of Christ the broken vows and lying promises of obedience the stabs of conscience and warning pieces of wrath the measures of delight and obstinacy in sin and the heaps of guilt in reiterated sinning no man makes sin so sinful as he the pure light of faith being up in the heart every scarlet thread in the contexture thereof becomes visible and yet after all this the believer sees more of the holy God about it then others do and that whether he look on the sins of others or his own As to other mens we have many examples in Scripture the messengers that came to Job spake of the Sabeans and Chaldeans oppression but the Lord hath taken away saith holy Job Job 1.21 when Shimei cursed David Abishai looks no further then Shimei why should this dead dog curse my Lord the King saith he but what saith heavenly David the Lord hath said unto him curse David 2 Sam. 16.9 10. In the crucifying of Christ carnal men looked only at the instruments such as Pilate and the Jews were but the Saints saw Gods hand and Gods counsel in it Acts 4.28 As to his own sins there is a famous instance in the Churches complaint O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy wayes and hardned our heart from thy fear Isa 63.17 What were they not sensible that the error and hardness were their own yes doubtless they were more sensible then others as appears by their mourning and longing for the Lords return yet they cry out why hast thou made us to err and why hast thou hardned us the believer when he looks upon providence and sin hath a spiritual sagacity to determine the matter God is holy while man is unclean God wise while man foolish God merciful while man cruel the light is Gods and the darkness mans the order Gods and the ataxy mans the justice Gods and the unrighteousness mans As to Satan the believer knows him by the word more truly then all the Magitians in the world when Satan shews himself in Magical apparitions he doth but mock the sense and delude the mind but when God shews him forth in the word he appears in his proper colours and true likeness the believer knows him to be of very great power a ruler of darkness a Prince nay a God of this world one that can do great things without in the elements and within in the passions a mighty Leviathan who can make the heart boil as a pot and foam out its own shame and withall he knows that this roaring Lyon is in a chain and cannot go beyond his commission Again the believer knows him to be an old serpent full of methods and devises turning every stone waiting upon every occasion complying with every temper and putting on every shape in his temptations now in the dress and pomp of earthly things and then in Samuels Mantle transforming himself into an Angel of light sometimes carrying men up into the mountain of the world and glorifying vanity before them and sometimes setting them on a pinacle of the Temple to cast them down by the pride of their own duties now speaking in the Language of Nature Master spare thy self and anon in the Language of Scripture it is written thus and thus and all that he may devour or as it is in the Original drink up 1 Pet. 5.8 souls as if he lived upon spirits and no blood would serve him but that of souls And withall the believer knows that the All-wise God can wrap up Satan in his own nets and countermine him in every plot he can awaken us out of the snare and make us see the methods and subtile postures of the devil how he would charm us into presumption or roar us into despair how he stands at our right hand in holy duties and at our left in earthly employments what a murderer he is in stifling holy motions and what a lyar in his false joyes and promises Thus the believer knows more of Satan and his hellish depths then others do As to things past the believer hath a holy sagacity to make a good improvement of them which is most evident in his appropriating Scripture-histories to himself in such or such a state saith he God dealt so or so in a way of mercy or justice and if I come into that state I shall have the same measure because God is ever the same and his mercy and justice have the same aspects towards men as heretofore the believer appropriates good states and good consequents see in what way the goodness of God followed such a man in the very same way will it be with me saith faith if I can strive and wrestle with God in prayer I am in Jacobs state and shall be a prince with God the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much James 5.16 if I am in Joshuaes state fighting against lusts the true Canaanites God will never never leave me nor forsake me that was a particular promise made to Joshua yet is by the Apostle accommodated to believers as being in his state Heb. 13.5 If a man suffer for the true God and his worship he is in the fiery furnace and the son of God is with him to comfort and support him if he have a good conscience made so by the blood and spirit of Christ he is in the Ark and shall never drown in the common perdition 1 Pet. 3.20 21. there is a cloud of witnesses in which faith observes righteousness going before and mercy following after Again the believer appropriates bad states and bad consequents see in what way Gods wrath brake out against such a man in the same way will it break out against me saith faith if I am murmuring and unbelieving I am in the Israelites state and without repentance I shall dye in the wilderness and never enter into rest if I wallow in the mire of gross and sensual sins I am in Sodome and Egypt and may expect their line of plagues and eternal fire if I love the wages of righteousness I am in Balaams way and may look for his end if I sleep in my indulged lust I am in Delilahs lap and like to lose my own strength and Gods presence these are our types or figures as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 10.6 in which we have a lively image and pourtraiture of punishments for sin and from thence may by faith divine that if such sins goes before such wrath will follow after As to the present world which is checkered with good and evil things and hath in it as the Ark had of old a rod and a pot of Manna the believer hath a greater sagacity then others As to the good things of the world no man sees so much of their
upon God in the 119 Psal thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts but O that my wayes were directed to do so ver 4 5. I will keep thy statutes but O forsake me not utterly ver 8. with my whole heart have I sought thee but O let me not wander from thy commandements ver 10. I will run the way of thy commandements but do thou enlarge my heart ver 32. I love thy precepts but quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness ver 159. I have chosen thy precepts O let thine hand help me ver 173. how working is David and how depending how sweetly do mans obedience and Gods influence accord together this a believer practically understands and none but he whilest others labour to fathome it by speculation the mystery is too deep for them but the believer hath it practically and in experience every day As to spiritual extractions the believer is very sagacious Chymists by racking and torturing of nature have forced her to a confession of many secrets and choice mysteries which made Paracelsus so triumph over Galen vaunting proudly that the least hair of his head had more learning then all the Vniversities besides The believer is the best of Chymists no extractions are like those of faith he extracts heaven out of earth could a man extract gold out of base metals it would be but earth out of earth purer out of grosser but the believer extracts heaven out of earth As Jacob saw more then meer Esau he saw Gods face in Esaus so the believer sees more then the meer creature-comfort he sees the goodness of God in it which is the sweetness of all Carnal men are content with the bulk and gross matter of an earthly blessing but the believer draws out the spirits and quintescence thereof that is the love of God without which oil and wine and corn and all other earthly things are but a caput mortuum a piece of dross and dead mattor in his eyes earthly things are transient and perishing in themselves but he hath an art to melt them down by charity into a fixed condition though he cannot say his house yet he can his charity shall continue for ever Silver and gold will not go in speeie in the upper world but he knows how by the poor which are Christs bankers to return them thither for everlasting habitations given in exchange by free-grace Again he extracts good out of evil Carnal men see nothing in affliction but a lump of sorrow but the believer knows that there is a blessing in it the sharpness of it may let out his corruption the suddenness of it may alarum his spiritual watch the bitterness of it may wean him from the breast of the creature the weight of it may try the back of his faith and patience it is no longer meer trouble but made out into fans to unchaff him of his vanity into furnaces to resine his golden graces into moulds to cast him into the image of a meek suffering Christ into spiritual wings to elevate the soul in devotions and heavenly affections towards the everlasting rest which is above much of the love and faithfulness of God is to be seen in it which made Munster sick of the pestilence to shew the ulcers and plague-tokens on his arm ut armillas preciosas Christi gemmas as the bracelets and rich jewels of Christ such noble extractions can faith make out of sore afflictions as if they were the only love-tokens to feal up a son of God according to that old saying Qui excipitur à numero flagellatorum excipitur à numero siliorum Again he extracts strength out of weakness Satans shocks and the fluxes of inward corruption may make him weak and ready to perish but his faith tells him that the power of God which can do all things is perfected in weakness and the weakness of man under which he groans is a capacity for that power to shew forth it self in when our power is gone there is room for Gods when there is no might he increaseth strength as it was in Christ the weakness the humane flesh was anointed with the divinity so it is in the believer the weakness the humane frailty is anointed with the power of grace when he is weak in himself then he is strong in God when weak in the flesh then strong in the spirit The Psalmist hath some Psalms upon Machalath that is upon instruments Musical say some but upon infirmity say others the believer is able to glory and make Musick over his weaknesses because his faith can fetch down the power of God upon him wait on the Lord and he shall strengthen thine heart Psal 27.14 as faith goes up so power comes down hence the believer out of weakness is made strong as the Apostle expresses it Heb. 11.34 Again he extracts grace out of unworthiness well knowing that the way of grace is to move it self into act from our unworthiness a notable instance whereof we have Hos 2.13 14. she went after her lovers and forgate me saith the Lord therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her as if he had said she is idolatrous therefore behold I will be gracious Oh what a stupendious therefore is here deservedly is it followed with a behold a note of admiration So wonderful it is that some Learned men among the Papists not understanding how such a connection could possibly be have thought that it referrs not to that which immediately went before but to some precedent words about the beginning of the Chapter a parallel place to this we have Isa 57.17 18. he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his wayes and will heal him Oh! what strange grace is here one would have thought he would have said he went on frowardly I have seen his wayes and will damn him but it is I have seen his wayes and will heal him Some Jewish Commentators gloss it thus I have seen his repenting wayes and will heal him I suppose not understanding how grace should immediately follow upon perversness but the believer knows that this is the method of grace and therefore by an holy art presses for it even from his own unworthiness Our Saviour Christ calls the Canaanitish woman crying out for mercy no better then dog Math. 15.26 a word of reproach such as the proud Jews put on all the Gentiles such as made the Saracens revolt from the Emperour Heraclius his army and set up for themselves under their Captain Mahomet but see how admirably her faith gathers upon him and even from that word presses for mercy truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their Masters table ver 27. ipsum Dominum in verbis capit she takes the Lord in his own words saith Ferus proving her title to the crumbs from her being a dog Holy David prayes O Lord pardon mine iniquity for
it is great Psal 25.11 a strange argument for pardon for it is great such as no malefactor would use to an earthly Prince but the holy man knows that it will pass with God who loves to make grace superabound there where sin hath abounded Again he extracts hope out of despair When he is ready to faint and swoon away in cold fits of spiritual deadness faith revives and points him to the fountain of life which runs over in quickning graces upon the whole Church and if he scruple his access to that fountain faith tells him that the Well is open to all comers whosoever will may take of the water of life freely whosoever hath the bucket of faith may draw out of it and if he yet reply true whosoever will may do so but oh I want a will I want an heart for God and Christ and heavenly things faith is able if awakened both to tell him that these are living groans and withall to drop some Scripture cordial into his heart such as that is Prov. 9. where Christ the wisdom of God builds his house the Church kills his beasts mingles his wine furnishes his table that is provides all heavenly blessings sends out his virgins his holy ministers and after all invites the simple and him that wanteth understanding to eat of his bread and drink of his wine in the Original it is him that wanteth heart Oh! if thou sensibly wantest an heart for spiritual things here thou art particularly called to the Gospel seast where Christs flesh is meat indeed and his blood wine indeed able to make thee live for ever Again he extracts joy out of sorrow The Apostle Paul rejoyced over the godly sorrow of the Corinthians because they received no damage in it 2 Cor. 7.9 when faith looks over all the tears and groans of the believer it saith there is no damage in these these tears are bottled in heaven the holy spirit breaths in those groans he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psal 126.6 Oh! saith faith observe the word doubtless tears and sorrows in a godly sort are a sure sign that the harvest of joy and comfort is nigh at hand one may see the crop in the seed sown When the Emperor Julian banished Athanasius he said Nubecula est citò transibit it is but a little cloud and will soon be over when the night of darkness and discomfort is upon the soul faith is able to say 't is but a short night of sorrow joyes come in the morning Psal 30.5 and for that morning I will trust the sun of righteousness O how soon can he make it day in the soul Moreover he extracts wisdome out of folly There is not there cannot be any thing in all the world so foolish as sin and yet out of this he picks up wisdom hereby he comes to know more of his own heart There is a Mahometan fable that the heart of Mahomet being a child was cut open and a black grain called the devils portion taken out of the midst thereof A believers sins make rents and holes in his heart and through these the inward core and blackness thereof becomes visible Good Hezekiah by his fall comes to know what was in his heart Peter denying his Master comes to understand the desperate deceitfulness of his own heart which cheated him against his own resolutions into so horrible an iniquity every actual sin is to the believer a sad Commentary on his inward corruption Again hereby he comes to understand free-grace better then before that God should melt as man hardens heal as man falls and bruises himself afiesh drop pardons as man doth sins return the holy spirit as man grieves it away lengthen out patience as man abuses it use lavers as fast as man runs into pollutions evidently argues riches of immense superabounding grace towards sinners Moreover hereby he comes to know the necessity of a continual dependance on God considering the heats and colds of his heart the ups and downs of his life and the interchangeable actings of Hetis and spirit he plainly perceives that he falls of himself and stands from God dies of his own spirit and lives from Gods sins of his own and repents believes obeyes of meer grace and so understands the necessity of depending on God praying continually with the devout Psalmist Hold up my gomgs in thy paths that my footsteps slip not Psal 17.5 Lastly to name no more he extracts all out of nothing Thus the Apostle as having nothing and yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 6.10 all things in God who is all in all Zuichemus gave Erasmus a ring which when it was unfolded represented a mundane sphear with Astrological notes engraven upon it telling him withall that now he might wear the whole world on his finger the conjugal ring whereby the soul is married to God in Christ by faith hath this posie I will be thy God which if it be unfolded is a sphear of all things the believer need not ask with Peter what shall we have Math. 19.27 for he hath all in God It is storied of the Laudanum of Paracelsus that it was almost good in all cases but however that might fail faith well understands that all things may be made out of an interest in God the universal good hence it can rationally part with all for him because it knows that there be fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and children and houses and lands and infinitely more in God CHAP. VII Of the second holy fruit of Faith in Justification its growth upon Faith as a fruit thereof with the manner continuance perfection and various excellencies of the same THUS much for the first fruit of faith being the spiritual sagacities thereof whereby it appears that the believer is the only wise man who hath eyes in his head whilest all the rest of the world be they what they will in notional knowledge walk on in darkness The second holy fruit of faith is Justification which is a very great blessing so great that in Luthers phrase it is articulus stantis cadentis Ecclesiae and in Chemnitius arx propugnaculum religionis Christianae a blessing that is pregnant with many more which occasioned a good Divine to say sin committed is every judgment radically and pardon of sin is every mercy radically you may cut out any blessing or comfort out of it particular mercies are but pardon of sin specificated and individuated brought into this or that mercy of all blessings you may say this is pardon of sin and that is pardon of sin Touching this precious fruit of faith I shall endeavour to shew these things First That it grows upon faith as a fruit Secondly The manner how it grows there Thirdly The continuance of it Fourthly The perfection of it Fifthly The various excellencies of it First This holy fruit grows upon faith in the
of Gods Countenance towards me and lye down in the dismal borders of Hell and Death How can I do it Such a restraint as this is a degree of Mortification Sin begins to die when such chains and manacles as these are cast upon it Secondly Faith doth not only restrain the outward acts of Sin but strikes at the life of it that is the love thereof and to this end Faith clearly demonstrates that Sin is not eligible or an object fit for an Humane Will Sin shews it self as eligible many ways but Faith destroys all those eligibilities Take Sin as meer Sin in the abstract and so it is evil and only evil and as the Schools generally determine Sub ratione mali it is not it cannot be eligible at all and yet even in the notion of meer Sin it becomes eligible Sub ratione convenientiae as it is congruous to the corrupt Heart of Man The Socinian and Pelagian Errors are welcome meerly as Parasites to the pride of Reason and Will In Sins of Omission the very neglect gratifies Mans aversness from good in Sins of Commission the very violation of the Law complies with his enmity thereunto Saint Austin in his Confessions Lib. 2 cap. 4. says That he stole Apples that he might Frui non re ipsa sed furto that he was Gratis malus amavit defectum suum casting away the Apples he feasted on the iniquity or if he took any of them into his mouth Condimentum facinus erat Sin was the only fawce thereof Man drinketh in iniquity like water the very sinfulness is connatural This eligibility before Faith must needs be very strong for to Man in the pride and self-flattery of Nature nothing is sweeter or dearer than to walk in the way of his Heart as absolute unaccountable Lord of all his Actions but when Faith comes then it clearly appears that the corrupt Heart into which Sin insinuates by congruity is too vile a thing to be gratified it steals away from holy Duties plays false after fair promises hatches treason and rebellion against God and like a common Strumpet prostitutes it self to every temptation that passes by to gratifie it is to feed a disease or vicious humour satisfie a grave or gulf of inordinate desires put the darling Soul into the mouth of Satan and desperately leap into the bottomless pit that corruption to which Sin is so grateful is an accursed thing destinated by the Gospel to be crucified and slain without mercy and those reliques of it which after the greatest mortifications remain are to be mourned and groaned under as the heaviest burden in the world What the Jewish fringes did typifie that the Christians Faith operates in keeping men from seeking after their own heart but to go on take sin not as meer sin but in the dress of some apparent good let it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a well-circumstanced Sin as a learned man takes that place Heb. 12.1 flowing in riches or rowling in sensual pleasures or holding forth Crowns and Scepters and all Mundane glory nay if it were possible let it invest it self with a Creation all the lower World cannot make it eligible to Faith Set down a World if Faith substract but a God or a Soul what will remain but infinite damage those treasures which glitter so much to dark sense are to Faith but poor rusty moth-eaten things that which is substance to the World is to Faith but a shadow an apparition a thing that is not a mark too low for an Immortal Soul to fly at These things at present and in the Now-World seem something but if Faith look through the World unto the universal conflagration and beyond it to the World to come what will they signifie Are they able to survive those last flames or purchase any thing in the World to come Surely just nothing except only so much thereof as is exchanged thither in Charity and good Works to Faith the whole inventory of them is but a great cheat the Riches are not the true ones the Gold is not that tried in the fire the Land doth not lie in the Country which Faith seeks after there is nothing in them to feed or cloth or enrich the inward man and to hazard a God or a Soul for them must needs be an infinite loss And what are the pleasures of this World to Faith In carnal Sins they are but the titillations of sense in which the Rational faculties were they not Spiritually incarnate and become flesh would have no touch of delight In Spiritual Sins they are but the false gusts of a vitiated Reason and Will which if made right by Faith find no congruity but in what is true and good neither of which can be in a Sin In both momentany as they are they perish in the using and die in the embraces like the dead Son of the Emperour Basilius Macedo who being Magically presented to his Father as alive after a few touches and doting glances disappeared so they go off only they leave a sting and a worm behind them in Conscience and the poor Voluptary without repentance must lie down in eternal sorrow a thought whereof is enough to imbitter all their sweetness And are Mundane glories any better in Faiths account Honour is but a blast a little popular air Monarchies have their periods History gives us a prospect of their vanity and much more Faith which translates the Soul into the everlasting Kingdom and from thence looks on the Empires of the World as the chaff of the Summer-floor rolling away with the wind of time To a man up among the Stars the whole Earth would be but as a small thing and such are Crowns and Scepters to one conversing in Heaven in the midst of them a man may want true greatness the World 's Epiphanes may be but a vile person a slave to his lusts which is the greatest servitude at death he may like Adrian moan over his little Soul and at Judgment cry out to the rocks and mountains to fall upon him and cover him from the presence of the Lord. But to proceed and take Sin in another dress let it come as a worldly Saviour entertain it and you shall be delivered from losses reproaches racks persecuting flames and cruel deaths it will not yet be eligible Faith in the love of its espousals and upon the first contract received a whole Christ Cross and all and so virtually and in purpose hath already swallowed down all persecutions which go along with the Gospel and when the actual trial comes Faith will not escape by iniquity which is an evil transcendently greater than all the rest and whilest it outwardly temporally saves inwardly eternally destroys To Faith there is no loss like that of a Soul no reproach like Sins turpitude no racks like those in Conscience no flames or deaths like those in Hell Which made those tormented Worthies not accept deliverance Heb. 11.35 Sin is meer Sin
is express in it The righteousness of God is upon them that believe Rom. 3.22 All that believe are justified Act. 13.39 And we have believed that we might be justified Gal. 2.16 And Justification is in order before Sanctification I suppose the Holy Spirit with its Graces will not dwell in an unreconciled Soul Under the Law in cleansing the Leper first the Priest put the blood on him and then the holy oyl upon the place where the blood was Levit. 14.14 17. The Believer first in order hath the atoning Blood put on him and then the holy Unction of the Spirit According to this order Faith is first of all But if Faith and all other Graces are infused at once and together then either they are infused before Justification and so Sanctification is before Justification or else after it and so Justification is before Faith Fifthly This way there will be a congruity between the old Creatiowand the new In the old Light was the first-born of the Creation and then the other parts of the World were made in the new the first thing is the light of Faith and then follow those Graces which make up the New Creature Beholding as in a glass the glory of God we are changed into his image 2 Cor. 3.16 First the eye of Faith is opened and then the Image of God drawn on the Soul this congruity is the rather to be minded because the Apostle speaking of the Creation of Faith doth it with an allusion to the Creation of Light God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 As if he had said Light in the old Creation and Faith in the new answer one to another Sixthly This way there will be a congruity between Christ formed in the womb and Christ formed in the bea rt The blessed Virgin first believed and then Christ was formed in her Womb Concetio Christi facta fuit simul ac Maria in verba Angeli consentiens dixit Ecce ancilla Domini De Incarnat lib. 2. Quest 7. siat mihi secundum verbum tuum Luk. 1.38 saith Zanchy No sooner did she say an Amen of Faith to the Promise but Christ was conceived in her therefore after her Faith the Angel immediately departed from her as having his errand already dispatched answerably the Christian first believes and then Christ is formed in him in all those sanctifying Graces which make up the holy Image of Christ The Apostles expressing those Graces under the notion of forming Christ in us Gal. 4.19 seems to hint out this Congruity Seventhly This way there will be a Congruity between the being of these Graces and the acting of them whilest both proceed from Faith depending upon Christ the head of Grace The Believers life is in Scripture called a life of Faith not as if there were not Love Meekness Obedience Patience with all the other Graces in him but because Faith is the grand principle which moves every one of them Faith worketh by love saith the Apostle Gal. 5.6 and so it worketh by Meekness Obedience Patience and all other Graces being as it were blood and spirits running in every part of the New Creature All Graces are set a working by Faith and if they also receive their being through it there is a Congruity between their being and working Upon these Congruities I take it that Faith is first in order and then other Graces As to the actual exercise of Graces It is Faith which sets them all a working To this purpose it is observable That all the worthy acts of Grace mentioned in the 11th Chapter to the Hebrews are there ascribed to Faith so is Abels excellent Sacrifice Enochs walking with God Noahs holy fear of the deluge Abrahams obedience in leaving his Country Moses 's self-denial as to the Egyptian Court The valour of some Worthies in subduing Kingdoms and the patience of others in suffering torments for the truth The reason of which is because Faith is the first mover which sets all other Graces a-moving the General under whose conduct all Graces come forth in their courses therfore the honour of all is devolved upon it Now how Faith sets other Graces a-working I shall first shew in a general way common to all of them and then more particularly with respect to some special Graces In general Faith sets other Graces in motion by such ways as these First It looks on the Command which in Scripture calls for these Graces as the very Will of God And so presses for Obedience many ways as first from the Divine Authority of it In the word of a King there is power much more in the word of a God when known to be such In the Council of Triburia a fancy touching an Episile come from Heaven made impression in some of them Had it been really known to be so indeed the impression would have been deeper At the sound of the Command Faith knows that it is the Lord that the voice is from the excellent glory and in that Authority presses to Obedience But this is not all besides Gods Authority it urges from his Love It is saith Faith the voice of thy beloved thy dear Father in Heaven who hath cast his cords and bands of Love round about thee to draw thee to himself and then the Heart must needs feel constraints and holy inflammations to Obedience and be like St. Peter who when he knew it was the Lord girt himself and made towards him Gods Love hath dropt sweetness into the Command and made all easie Moreover to make the stronger impulse on the Believer Faith demonstrates That the Command is just and right and good that holy Love and Patience and other Graces of the first Table are pure rectitudes wherein Man stands in his true posture towards God his Goodness or Providence or some other thing in him And also that Justice and Temperance and Charity are rectitudes wherein he stands in a true posture towards others or himself for Gods sake And a Command so known moves so strongly towards Obedience that a man who would pay his debts to God or his Neighbour or himself cannot must not repugn Secondly Faith looks not only upon the letter of the Command but upon the life of Christ Where all Graces are set forth in lively and orient colours really and practically exemplified to our view Precepts possibly may have more of notion in them but Examples have more of vivacity to attract the heart to imitation above all the Example of Christ must be cogent to Believers he went up and down doing of good every step one odour of Grace or other brake from him Subjection to Parents or Magistrates or Zeal towards God in purging the Temple or Humility in washing his Disciples feet or Meekness under malicious accusations and blasphemies or melting bowels upon all occasions dropping
Cures on the bodies and Heavenly Truths on the Souls of Men or admirable patience under great sorrows and at last upon a tormenting Cross where he drunk the bitter cup of wrath up to the bottom and over and above all the rest sweet Love and Obedience run through them all with a pure intention to his Fathers Will and Glory And Oh! what a Samplar of Grace is here and how strongly can Faith press for an imitation what shall I not tread in such pure steps my Saviour being before Of whom shall I learn if not of my Redeemer Did he sweat and bleed and die on a Cross for me and shall I not follow him Can I rest on his Merits and precious Obedience and wave his holy Pattern Was he to fulfill all Righteousness and I none at all If I abide in him must I not walk as he walked If I know the truth as it is in Jesus must not those very Graces which were true in him be true in me also Why doth the Spirit come and work those Graces in my Heart but that they should be actuated Unto what was I created in Christ if not to good works I find nothing but vanity in my self and my own ways and shall I not walk in Christ and his holy Graces If I follow him fully shall I not see the Heavenly Canaan at last and there receive a Crown of Life Such a Pattern so pressed on a Believer must needs be a strong motive to the exercise of Grace The Apostle would have us run our race looking unto Jesus Heb. 12.1 2. Fancy as Naturalists tell us hath done strange things a Woman much looking on a beautiful Picture brought forth her Child very like it as Galen relates to be sure Faith looking unto Jesus brings forth his Image in the Heart and Life Thirdly Faith holds out the Promises as incentives to the work The Believer is an Isaac a Child of Promise the new Creature with its Graces is born of the Covenant and ever after lives upon it Every Grace hath some Promise or other to feed on Love hath God dwelling with it Fear hath his secret Meekness his Salvation Patience a crop of Comforts and all of them have an entail of Eternal Life And when Graces are acted there is a Promise of encrease To him that hath that is useth Grace more shall be given more of the same Grace his Talent shall be doubled his Path shineth more and more to the perfect day in Heaven and withal more of the Divine Indwelling Secret Salvation and Comfort promised and at last more of Glory Thus St. Peter speaking of divers Graces saith That if they be and abound in us we shall have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Christ 2 Pet. 1.8 11. Every Grace hath an entrance into it and abounding Grace an abundant entrance and all these Promises are sure in themselves sealed by Gods Veracity and Christs Blood and sure to the Believer being realized by Faith and therefore must needs be very attractive to Obedience Faith in a meer Command will make a Man follow God though like Abraham he know not whither he go Much more impulsive is Faith in a Promise when he knows in so following he is going into an abundance of Grace and Glory The lying Promises of Sin received into a carnal fancy will draw out Corruption into act as we see in Men who are drawn into Sins carnal and spiritual much as their Father Adam was by some Apple of Sensual happiness or appearance of Self-excellency how much more attractive must the precious true Promises of God be when entertained by Faith at the sight of these the Believer as old Jacob at the sight of the Chariots revives and puts himself forth in the exercise of Grace that he may inherit the Promises and the vast treasures of good in them Fourthly Faith observes Seasons and Providences and stirs up Graces suitable thereunto Insidels smother the greatest Works of God some have said That Sodom happened to sire as standing on a Sulphureous soil Others that Moses did but take the advantage of a low-tide to carry the Israelites over the Washes Nay in the Jewish Church the Pharisees and Sadducees though great Rabbies could not because without Faith discern the Signs of that glorious time wherein the Messiah shewed himself on Earth in such excellent Doctrines and Miracles But Faith where it is understands the language of Providence and calls for suitable Graces under a storm of Judgments it calls for the mourning Graces of Repentance and Humiliation lamenting after the Lord under a Sun of Prosperity it awakens the Psaltery and Harp Praise and holy joy in God the Fountain of all When Iniquity abounds it is for Davids rivers of tears to weep over it When Gods Name or Worship or Truth are at the Stake it blows up the fire of Zeal as we see in Paul's Paroxism at Athens Epiphanius his renting the Veil and Athanasius's ardent adherence to the Truth against an Arrian World As the Poor appear Charity must come forth and scatter Alms. As Injuries and Reproaches fly abroad Meekness must shew it self and rather than revenge turn the other cheek In Asslictions Patience must have her perfect work And in Desertions there must be an humble waiting on him that hides his face As God comes forth in this or that Providence so Faith meets him in this or that Grace Every Grace is one time or other called out by a Providence and every Providence hath some Grace to answer it Fifthly Faith actuates Graces in a way of dependence on the Spirit of Christ This is instar omnium Commands Patterns Promises Providences are ineffectual without it The New Creature moves not but by influence from the Head the holy Spirit must first stir up the nest of gracious Principles and then Love and Joy and all other Graces shew forth themselves As the Humane Nature of Christ never acted in a separate way but did all in Union with the Divine So the Believers Graces do nothing apart but all in Union with Christ Those who think that gracious Powers or Principles may go alone and act themselves know not the life of Faith in which all Graces hang upon Christ as beams upon the Sun The Milevitan Council pronounces an Auathema on those that deny the Adjutorium gratiae which worketh to will and to do And the Arausican speaking of that Adjutorium saith Quoties bona agimus Deus in nobis atque nobiscum ut operemur operatur When we do good God works our works in us and with us What the life of Faith is St. Paul excellently describes I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith he Gal. 2.20 And again I labour yet not I but the grace of God with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Faith is ever in dependence leaning on its Beloved and breathing after the holy Spirit that the gales thereof may make the spicy Graces flow out and upon this
upon men the high Thrones with its train made Isaiah cry out as an undone man Isa 6. the voice out of the whirl-wind caused Job to abhor himself in dust and ashes Job 42.6 The bright thining man turned Daniel's comeliness into corruption Dan. 10.8 And what those outward appearances did in a sensible way that Faith which is an inward Vision of God doth in a Spiritual looking on him by Faith a dread falls on us from every Attribute or Work of his His glorious Majesty makes us go and hide our selves in the dust of our own vileness and nothingness His pure Holiness comparatively turns us and all our comely Graces into rottenness His dreadful Justice sounds so loud in the threatning that we cannot but tremble at every word of it Nay his very goodness and tender bowels lying all about us make us afraid to trample thereon by finning even those in Nature do so much more those richer ones in Grace His very rain calls for out fear Jer. 5.24 And what do those dews of the Spirit which are not common as the other His bounding the Sea doth so Jer. 5.22 and what doth his bounding corruption which else would drown Soul and all in perdition Oh how tremendous is our life our Bodies living on the Blood of Creatures and our Souls on the Blood of God our natural being lying in the arms of that Power which bears up the World and our Spiritual in the arms of that Grace which saves it Earth flowing round about us with Blessings and Heaven it self coming down in Promises and carrying back our Hopes thither Who in such Visions of Faith would not fear the Lord and his goodness Who would not tremble at Sins indignity and ingratitude After such mercies as these should we again transgress against him If we wax wanton under Goodness how soon may Soveraignty come down and recover all from us as forfeited Heaven may shut up it self and the dews of the Spirit cease our Graces may all droop and wither and our Hearts grow hard and stony one lust or other may carry us into captivity and our little remnant of Grace and Life may cry out as the Church doth O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy ways and hardned our hearts from thy fear return for thy servants sake Isa 63.17 After all our wantonness we shall be glad to come to holy Fear again Soveraignty will make us fear him in every thing such a fight of him by Faith as this makes him practically to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fear as he is called Psal 76.11 Moreover Faith moves this Fear into act by shewing the great evil of Sin Sense looks on penal evils which press on the outward man but Faith on Sin as the greatest of evils it being an opposite to God a blot to the Soul a blast to the World a forfeiture of Heaven and fuel for the flames of Hell a thing not to be done Pro quantiscunque bonis lucrandis aut pro quantiscunque malis pracavendis for the gaining never so great a good or for the avoiding never so great an evil as Bradwardine speaks Hence St. Austin said That a man must not tell a lie to save a world And Henry Flander being a Prisoner for the Protestant Religion would not say That his Wife was his Whore no not to save his life offered to him on those terms Now Fear being a kind of flight from evil the greater the evil is the greater is the flight and when an evil is the greatest of evils such as Sin appears to Faith the flight from it is as from Hell it self and more if possible according to the saying of Anselm That if Sin were set before him on the one band and Hell on the other he would rather leap into Hell than fall into Sin Another Grace actuated by Faith is Zeal which is an intense Love or a mixture of Love and Anger or rather the heat and boyling up of all the affections in the concerns of God and his Glory This is a coal from the Altar which warms Hearts and Lives and sparkles out in every Grace and Duty without it all is in spirituali gelicidio cold and frozen as in a Sunless World Indeed without Faith Zeal is blind as in the Jew who in his heat for the Law opposes the Gospel and true Righteousness Or it runs out upon Humane things as in the Papist who crys up Traditions as a second Oracle or it moves upon selfish Principles as in the Pharisees who did all theatrically to be seen of men But when Faith comes Zeal is according to the Word as its Rule and for Divine things as the worthiest Object and out of a pure intention to Gods Glory as the supream end Faith brings us into Communion with God and makes us one spirit with him and hence it comes to pass that those things which are dear to him are so to us and those injuries which move his jealousie above stir up our Zeal here below To Faith Gods name is nomen Majestativum holy reverend fearful glorious precious a name above every name and therefore cannot be profaned but Zeal will break forth the reproaches cast on it fall more heavily on the Believer than those on himself or his near relations Nay they press harder on him than if he should hear one railing at Princes or Angels Maris the blind Bishop of Chalcedon being brought into the presence of the blasphemous Emperour Julian fell severely on him as upon an enemy of God and when Julian told him That he was blind and his Galilean God would not cure him Maris gave thanks to God who had taken away his eyes that he might not look on so wicked a wretch as Julian Such a Zeal doth Faith put forth for Gods name In like manner the Worship of God is to Faith his Homage honour on Earth Crown of glory Sanctuary of Presence a thing too precious and pure to be allayed with Humane mixtures if this be corrupted our Zeal must needs kindle at it and so much the more because his facred jealousie hangs more over his Worship than over any thing else in all the World To the other Commandments we find this annexed I am the Lord Lev. 19 but to the second I am a jealeus God Exod. 20.5 Hence Moses at the light of the Calf forgets his Meekness and in a holy Passion brake the holy Tables In the Constantinopolitan Council held about the year of our Lord 754 how hot were the Bishops against Images as a meer Pagan custom and when they were cast down how triumphant was the Peoples Zeal crying out Hodiè salus mundo now is salvation come to the world In the fifth Council of Carthage they would have the very reliques of Idolatry totally blotted out Nay Leo Bishop of Rome when the Manichees Worshipped the Sun forbade the Christians to worship towards the East that they might have nothing common with them Such
in judgment Psal 25.9 And for a pure Comfort They shall have joy in the Lord and be every day increasing it Isa 29.19 Their meek and quiet spirit makes them beautiful in the eyes of God and Man so rich a jewel proves them to be the elect of God Col. 3.12 Such Promises as these are able to meeken us under any Injuries Cicero saying Justitiae primum munus est ut ne cui noceat and adding as a salvo nisi lacessitus Lactantius cried out O quam simplicem sententiam duorum verborum adjectione corrupit What a dainty sentence did he spoil with those two words A Believer fixing his eyes on the Promises will not let go his Meekness no not for all the provocations in the World the loss of such a Jewel would be more to him than all other sufferings Another Grace actuated by Faith is Obedience Two things in the Spouse did ravish the heart of Christ her single eye of Faith and the neck-chain of Obedience Cant. 4.9 Obedience as Samuel said is better than Sacrisice And as Luther More eligible than doing Miracles Faith receiving Christ the Lord is in it self Virtual Obedience to the Commands of God and as an effect it produces actual To this end it believes the Commands to be as they are looking on the stamps of Majesty Purity Equity Righteousness therein it falls down and confesses that God is there of a truth this and that is the very Will of God and must be done primo intuitu without dispute and by all persons even the greatest on Earth Princes here are Subjects Constantine and Theodosius though Emperors stiled themselves Vassals of Christ Zedekiab the King should have humbled himself before Jeremy the Prophet 2 Chron. 36.12 Nay the Kingdom of God which is in every Command must be humbly received though coming in the hand of a child or a servant as a good Divine noteth Here all men and all in men even the Princely powers of Reason and Will with all the progeny of Thoughts and Affections must bow down before God A famous instance of which we have in the Noble Andelot in France who being questioned for a Protestant by his Soveraign Henry the second bravely professed That his Body Estate and Dignity was in his Majesty's power but his Soul was only subject to God From such a Supream Authority in the Command Faith presses strongly to Obedience and for a sweet Principle thereunto it draws a free Spirit from Christ Faith translates us into the Kingdom of Christ and there by a singular Priviledg above other Kingdom all the Subjects are ready to do the Commands of their Lord. Faith converses much about the Wounds and precious Sacrifice of Christ and there the free Spirit dwells as the free bird in the Altar Ps 84.3 And being received by Faith brings forth a numerous off-spring in acts of Obedience Faith makes us parts and pieces of Christ and so we are anointed with the Holy Ghost in some measure as his Humane Nature was in a transcendent way Faith dwells in the holy Truth and that makes us free indeed Whilest Precepts give the Rule Promises afford the Power such a Promise as that I will cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36.27 being mixed with Faith will impower us to all Obedience Hence the Service of God becomes a freedom and Obedience easie and natural moving upon the wheels of Love and wings of the Spirit which must needs be a very strong incentive to Obedience and the rather because Faith ensures the acceptance thereof Were we to obey under the Covenant of Works which will bate nothing of pure sinless Perfection our Obedience might be bootless and heartless because every act of it would vanish and come to nothing by the adherent Corruption which made Calvin say That if a man did cull out the most excellent work of all his life he would find some corrupt flesh or other in it And St. Austin Vae vite landabili Wo to a laudable life without mercy But we are to obey under the Covenant of Grace whence Sincerity is accepted and frailty covered God gives a Tostimonial of Righteousness to Noah not withstanding his Infirmities and of Perfectness to Asa notwithstanding the high Places Uprightness passes for absolute Perfection and the main of the Heart for all of it insomuch that it is said of Josiah That he turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses 2 King 23.25 his Sincerity was taken as if all had been fulfilled Retract lib. 1. c. 19. according to that of St. Austin Omnia mandata facta deputantur quando quicquid non sit ignoscitur There are Pardons ready sealed in Heaven for Believers Insirmities God forgives what is ours in a duty and accepts what is his own Our Duties are taken into the hand of Christ the Mediator and there perfumed with his sweet Merits and though as they are in our hands they have dross and soil in them yet as they are in his they are glorified Duties and as sweet Odours to God And upon such terms as these who would not obey Every act of Obedience shall be accepted and the light of Gods Countenance will irradiate our Duties And to give a further advance to this Grace Faith looks within the Veil to the great recompence in Heaven there are Crowns of Life rivers of Pleasures and plenitudes of Joy for ever there holy Souls see all Truths in their Original drink all Good out of the Fountain and have God for their All in All and all this is the reward of our poor imperfect Obedience And as such is outwardly secured in the Promises and inwardly realized by Faith and therefore must needs move the Believer strongly to Obedience no wonder if he burn in Devotions or melt in Charity or labour in other acts of Obedience all these being but a sowing to the Spirit will come up in a crop of Eternal Life his Prayers will be turned into Hallelujahs his Alms repaid in Everlasting Love and all his good Works which follow him into another World shall be woven into a Crown of Immortality And upon such an account who would not obey and live in perpetual resignation as he did who as the story goes always concluded his Prayers thus Domine quid me vis facere Lord what wilt thou have me to do And lived in such holy joys as if he had been in Heaven already Another Grace actuated by Faith is Patience This is Meekness towards God as Meekness is Patience towards Man and respecteth Gods Disposing Will as Obedience doth his Commanding This is a Subjection to God a Possession of our Selves and an Admiration to Others Hence the Constancy of Annas Burgus a Senator of Paris suffering for the Protestant Cause made many curious to know what Religion that was for which he so patiently endured death To promote this Grace Faith in
Canon it forbids Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to return to their Military Employment and in the Ninteenth it commands Rebaptization of such as were Baptized by Hereticks The Emperour Zeno being expulsed the Tyrant Basiliscus by the perswasion of Timotheus Aelurus wrote Letter in condemnation of the General Council of Chalcedon unto which as impious as they were no less than five hundred Bishops subscribed at the Tyrants Command And touching the Canon if the Council of Laodicea be right in it that of Carthage is not so and consequently that of Constantinople which takes in both must needs be in an Error These things premised Can the unvariable and infallible Scripture hang upon a variable and errable Authority such as Mans is May all the precious Promises of Life and Salvation be precarious and pendent on an Humane Arbitrium Tertullian in his Apology speaking of that old Decree among the Romans that no God should be consecrated without the approbation of the Senate saith Apud nos de humano arbitratu divinitas pensitatur nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit If the Authority of Scripture depend on the Church then we may say Nisi homini Scriptura placuerit Scriptura non erit and by consequence all the Faith of the Saints must be pendulous and hanging on uncertainties If the Churches desinition be so momentous to Scripture let us see what the Church hath done in it Hath it collected the Canonical Books into a body 'T is probable Ezra collected the Books of the Old Testament into a body and so think many of the ancient Fathers And I suppose St. John collected the Books of the New Testament together for he lived after all the other Apostles even unto the time of Trajan that by his vigilancy the Canon of the New Testament might be kept pure and unadulterate When after St. Pauls death there was a Book called Periodus Pauls Teclae spread abroad under the Name and Title of Paul St. John discovered it to be spurious insomuch that the Author of it confessed that he did it amore Pauli And I believe what was done in this collection of the Canon was not done by an ordinary Spirit but by a Prophetical Spirit in Ezra and an Apostolical one in St. John In the mean time it appears not to have been done by an act of the Church but leaving this particular When and how did the Church define the Canon Such a momentous thing should have been done by the Primo-primitive Church in the first Century whilest the Church of Christ was a pure Virgin as Egesippus said Lib. 3. Dist 21. Quest 1. Thus the School-man Durandus lays it down Hoc quod dictum est de approbatione Scripturae per Ecclesiam intelligitur solum de Ecclesiâ que fuit tempore Apostolorum qui suerunt repleti Spiritu sancto No Church so fit to do it as that which had so much of the holy Spirit but nothing was done in it in that Age. The so called Canons of the Apostles which in the 85th Canon take in three Books of Macchabees into the old Canon and the Constitutions and Epistles of Clement into the new are clearly adulterate these condemn second Marriages deprive not a Clergy-man of communion for Fornication or Perjury or Thest and speak of Altars Oblations Vessels of Gold and Silver sanctified Cantors and Lectors and many other such-like altogether unknown in those Apostolical times About these Canons Mirè inter se digladiantur Pontisicii saith one Gelasius in a Roman Synod of seventy Bishops declares them Apocryphal in toto Bellarmine rejects all but the first fifty and I think all the Romanists cast away the 85th Canon touching the Scripture as Supposititious The first Virgin-Century doing nothing in this grand matter one might have lookt for it in the second or third but there is no foot-step of it In the fourth Century about the year 320 came the famous Council of Nice and then it might have been expected as the aptest foundation for their Orthodox Conclusions against Arrius and withal for a stated Rule against all future Heresies but there is a failure also nothing was done in it And into what Heart can it enter that in all those 320 years there was no Canon no Authority of Scripture no foundation for the Primitive Christians to fix their Faith upon In those days Paganism was strong and Persecutions hot and Divine Cordials necessary and yet the Scripture for want of the Churches Definition was not of Authority as to the Christians then living I say according to the Popish Thesis it was not But to go on Afterwards about the year of our Lord 368 came the Council of Laodicea which in the 59th Canon orders That no Books should be read in the Church but the Canonical ones of the Old and New Testament and enumerates as Canonical such as are received in the Reformed Church only omitting the Apocalypse And now had not that Omission been and had this Council been a General one the work had been done But afterwards in this very Century about the year 398 the third Council of Carthage in its 47th Canon reckons up as Canonical Tobit Judith two Books of Macchabees and five Books of Solomon accounting Wisdom and Ecclesiastious to be two of them In this Council St. Austin was present who yet in his Book de Civitate Dei Lib. 17. cap. 20 saith That Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus in the judgment of the more learned were not Solomens and were chiefly received in the Western Church it seems the Eastern received them not In the end of the next Century about the year 494. Gelasius Bishop of Rome with seventy Bishops enumerates the same Books as Canonical which are reckoned so in the Council of Carthage save only that he omits the Book of Nehemiah and names but one of the Macchabees These particular Provincial Councils being of incompetent Authority to desine the Canon for the Universal Church and withal variant nay repugnant among themselves Whither must we go but to a General Council but Oh how late very late doth that come How long will the Authority of Scripture and Faith of Christians be suspended and to how little satisfaction will this desinition be About the year 682 was the sixth General Council of Constantinople in Trullo and as to this Point what did it It consirmed the Canons of the Apostles the Council of Laodicea and the Council of Carthage which three in this Point being totally inconsistent each with other every one by the leave of these Fathers who confirmed them all may chuse what Canonical Books he will have whether those in the Canons of the Apostles or those in the Council of Laodicea or those in that of Carthage and what pitiful incertainties are here And now it is to little purpose to fly over many Centuries more till we come to the Councils of Florence and Trent these are late ones and as our Learned Whitaker
saith Non legitima Christianorum Concilia sed Tyrannica Antichristi Conventicula ad oppugnandam Evangehi veritatem instituta and thus it appears even Historically that the Authority of Scripture depends not on the Church But waving this Popish Thesis in which I have by the way made this long Digression I proceed to the matter in hand True Faith being a beam or irradiation from the holy Spirit discovers That the Scriptures in general are the Word of God and which is to the Point in hand in its holy progress it arrives at an experimental knowledg thereof Peter Martyr wishes men to read the Bible seriously and adds Male sit mihi ita enim in tantâ causâ jurare ausim nisi tandem capiantur sentient denique quantum divina haec ab humanis distent Erasmus saith Expertus sum in meipso That there is little good in cursory reading it do it duly and you shall find the Divine efficacy That a Progressive Faith may attain an Experimental knowledg that the Scriptures are of God will appear by the ensuing Considerations One noble piece of Scripture is the Moral Law upon every apex of it hangs a mountain of Sence say the Rabbins every jot or tittle of it stands faster than Heaven and Earth saith our Saviour Mat. 5.18 This is the Summary of all Duties all the Moral Precepts in Scripture are but as so many Commentaries on it That this is of God Faith experiments several ways First Faith experiments it by the impresses and holy inclinations in the Believers heart answering truly though not persectly to the Law A Progressive Believer finds by reflection That the Law is written in his heart That his Heart is the very Epistle of Christ written by the holy Spirit And withal he knows that it was not always so Time was when there were no such characters or holy inclinations there his Heart was worse than a meer empty Table And hence he surely gathers that those characters or imprinted propensities are the writing of God himself and so comes experimentally to know the Epistle of God in Scripture by that in his Heart and the outward literal Edition of the Law by the inward Spiritual one which is a counterpane thereof and answers thereunto as the stamp to the Seal or one Tally to another The mutual agreement between them once discerned is a practical proof that both are of God and written by one and the same holy hand But you will say there needs no Faith to make this experiment the very Gentiles have the Law written in their Heart their natural implanted Principles comprize both Tables the first in that they tell us that there is a God to be worshipped and reverenced The second in that they tell us That we must do as we would be done to which Alexander Severus much delighted in Unto which I answer That there is a vast disserence between the natural Writing the Law in the Heart and the gracious The first is a relique or broken fragment of the Divine Image its only or at least chief seat is in the Understanding and there it stands in the dark in an abyss of black Ignorance and in the mean while there is an hellish enmity in the carnal will against the Law of God But the other is a pure perfect thing which stands in both faculties being as an holy lamp in the Understanding and as a Divine inclination in the will to do the Commends of God Hence it appears That there is not that soundation for this experiment in the Natural Inscription of the Law as in the Gracious the Natural being to the Gracious but as a little glimmering is to splendor or as the broken pieces of a Picture are to the intire Image It is with a Believer in this case as it was with Bezalceel the Word of God came forth for making the Tabernacle but Bezaleel had a fractical proof of it in the spirit of Wisdom given him for the work Or as it was with Saul the Word came forth touching the Kingdom but Saul had a Practical proof of it in the spirit of Government vouchsafed unto him And so it is with the Believer The Divine Law is experimented in the spirit of obedience and each particular Command is proved by some inward aptness answering thereunto A notable instance of this Inscription we have in Maius the German Divine who in his extream sickness having Consolatory Scriptures recited to him bravely answered Tace tace omnia cordi meo insixa tenco hold your peace I have all in my heart Promises I suppose he meant and without dispute the Precepts were there also Secondly Faith experiments it by the Divine Presence helping and comforting the Believer in acts of Obedience The Rabbins say That if two sit together conserring of the Law the Shechimah is among them And without doubt if but one single Believer be not a talking meerly of the Law but a doing of it the Divine Presence is with him Thus the Prophet to Asa The Lord is with you whilest you be with him 2 Chron. 15.2 Thus our Saviour If a man love him and keep his words the Father and the Son will come and make their abode with such a one Joh. 14.23 Such an one hath a Temple and Shechinah in his Heart God will be there helping and comforting of him in his well-doing The Church prays for help from the Sanctuary Psal 20.2 because that was a Symbol of Gods Presence And the obeying Believer cannot want help because he hath a Sanctuary within him The way of the Lord is strength to him and waiting in it he renews strength and mounts up by Auxiliary Grace as upon Eagles-wings Whilest he is a doing the will of God strength comes in as it did to the Levites that bare the Ark 1 Chron. 15.26 and with strength holy comfort also in keeping the Commands he hath great reward inward peace and joy unspeakable some of the oyl of Joy which is upon Christ the great Doer of Gods Will drops down on the Believer in his sincere Obedience As all upright ones do he dwels in Gods Presence as if he were in the borders of Heaven already the light of Gods Countenance irradiates his Duties When therefore the Believer reflects on himself and considers what a dry Land rebellion dwells in and what rivers of Peace and Joy water Obedience how weak and foolish his heart was in doing his own will and how help and strength came upon him in doing Gods he comes experimentally to know the Command to be of God whose Presence gave him such comforts and assistances therein The good hand of God upon him is a proof that the way is right the Peace growing on his work shews the righteousness of it When in Elijahs time the question was whether God or Baal should be God the fire coming down from Heaven on the Sacrifice made the People fall down and confess The Lord he is the God the Lord he is the
for his good and hence God doth not fulfil Promises of Temporals as he doth those of Spirituals Promises of Spirituals he fulfils in specie because they cannot otherwise be made good a drop of Grace being more worth than a World but those of Temporals he fulfils disjunctively either in the Blessing it self or in that which is equivalent by inward contentation and supportation compensating the absence of the thing it self These things being so the Believer in what he hath may experience the Promise in the true proportion and meaning of it and not withstanding his wants may know That in Christ he is so far heir of all things that if he could want a world he should have it As touching Spiritual Promises these are either Promises of Grace or Promises to Grace As touching Promises of Grace Faith may know these experimentally The Believer reads in his Bible That God hath promised to give an heart of flesh to make a new heart and a new spirit to write his Law in the heart to give an heart to know him to circumcise the heart that it may love him and many more such-like and afterwards reading over his own Heart he may find these precious Graces all there and be able experimentally to say of these Promises as Joshua did of those made to Israel Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord hath spoken all are come to pass Josh 23.14 In every holy melting he finds the heart of flesh in every holy frame the new heart and spirit in every holy inclination the inward engraven Law in every holy beam the Divine Teaching in every holy affection the Spiritual Circumcision all the Promises are scaled and really exemplified in his Heart and what an admirable experiment is this To see a Work within answering to the Promise in the Word is a greater sight than if a Man could have stood by and seen the light start forth into Being upon the Almighty fiat spoken by God in the Creation unto which the Apostle alludeth in setting forth the Divine light shining into the Heart in the face of Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 The Magnalia of Grace are more wonderful than those of nature Hence St. Chrysostom upon those words of the Apostle We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.10 saith of Regeneration That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really a Creation and more noble than the old one as adding a benè vivere to that life which came from the old one The experienced Believer hath cause to say what hath God wrought how fearfully is the New Creature made all its Graces were written in the Promise and now are fashioned in the Heart where before there were none of them How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the sum of them This Experiment was notably typed out in Isaac he was by Promise and as soon as he was born the Promise was experimented notwithstanding the dead body and dead womb The Believer the child of Promise is as Isaac was saith the Apostle Gal. 4.28 All the regenerating Graces are by Promise and when these are brought forth the Promise is made good maugre all the deadness of nature By the Promises we are made partakers of the Divine Nature saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.4 that is we have those Divine Graces which as the Creature-module will admit resemble the Holy One and so we have the Promises sealed up to us in Graces As touching Promises made to Grace such as are fulfilled in this life Faith also experiments them to be Divine In the Scripture the Believer meets with Promises of Pardon to such as repent and believe of comfort to the mourner of filling to the hungry and thirsty of the Divine secret to them that fear God of encrease of Grace to the improver and many more of the same nature To experiment these the Believer by perusing the Scripture and his own Heart doth two things first He clears it up to himself that the Graces in his Heart to which such Promises are made are true through the irradiating Spirit vouchsafed to him He may discover them to be such by Scriptural Marks he may find that his Faith purifies and works by Love That his Repentance and Mourning are chiefly for Sin That his Hunger and Thirst are humble and industrious in the use of means That his Fear is of God and his Goodness in a filial way That his improving of Talents is in a way of dependence and holy diligence and so certainly knows that these Graces in his Heart are real things This foundation being first laid then he proceeds to a second review of his Heart and there he may find how Pardons have sensibly broke in upon him in a way of Repenting and Believing or how the Sheaves of Joy and Comfort have followed his Tears or how Satisfactions Manna-like have dropped down on his hungry Soul or how Divine illuminations have come in and Crowned his Holy Fear or how Talents have multiplied in the faithful using and actuating of them And the Experiment thereupon will be compleat every Grace sooner or later being in some good measure answered by the Promises which let out their sweetness to it as God hath ordained them to do Thus the Believer sensibly enters the Land of Promise and eats of the Fruit thereof lifting up his Soul in The high Praises of him who gave the Promises in the Scripture and fulfils them in the Heart As touching Promises of eternal good things in Heaven where there are Plenitudes of Joy and Rivers of Pleasure in the Presence of Him who is All in All the completion of these is in another World nevertheless the Believer hath an experimental taste thereof here Whilest his Hope hangs upon them he finds strength and comfort come into his Heart whilst the weary World is tossing with troubles O what a refreshing is it to look into Eternity Hope Eatring within the vail is an Anchor to the Soul and so stablishes it that it doth not rowl about with the wheelings of this changeable World nor center its happiness in any or all the Creatures Let the World come in all its Fancies and glittering appearances of Good it cannot call off the Believers Heart from Heaven but it will be ready to point that way or let it come with storms of terror and troubles it cannot loosen the Anchor-hold the Believer will rather part with all the World and his Life too then let go his hold of Heaven Ye took with joy the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance saith the Apostle Hebr. 10.34 Or as the Words are in the Original Knowing that ye have in your selves a better and abiding substance in Heaven He speaks as if they had carried Heaven in and about them and in part they did so for as Beza hath it on this place Fide possidemus quod est in
Coelis By Faith we possess that which is in Heaven All our Graces are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.9 Things having or containing Salvation No parts or pieces of this World but such as Heaven dawns and begins here below The holy Spirit is as the First Fruits to assure us of the whole Crop in Heaven and as the earnest of the total Sum of Glory which shall be paid above The Believer here hath so much of Heaven as to make him strive wrestle run work watch and wait with his Loyns girt and Lamps burning and as the twelve Tribes to serve God instantly Acts 26.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 running with full speed and stretching out himself in the Race that he may come to the Crown of Life and surely his Hope if fastned about a nullity would not put forth such strong and vigorous operations Heaven must be a real thing indeed which so carries away the Heart from all the World and engages it unto it self Another considerable part of Scripture stands in threatnings against Sinners Touching experimenting these I need say very little our Good God doth not give out Threatnings in the same manner as he doth give out Promises he gives out Promises that they may be fulfilled and experimented but he gives out Threatnings that they may not be fulfilled and experimented but rather that by them Men may be warned in a way of Faith and Repentance To fly from the wrath to come The applying of a Promise in a right manner makes it to belong to us but the applying of a Threatning makes it not to belong to us judging our selves we prevent the Judgment of God The Believer even before Conversion more or less felt the Threatnings taking hold of him and shutting of him up under Wrath till Jesus Christ opened the Prison-dores and made him Free indeed And if afte Conversion he forget the old Chains and run into wilful Rebellion again he will feel them a second time The bones will be broken and Comforts lost the Conscience will be wounded and the Wounds will Stink and be corrupt because of his foolishness God may depart away and leave the Graces withering and the poor Soul all in the dark with Terrors round about it This is a very sad Experiment and yet undeniably proves that the Threatnings are from God his Justice appearing on the top of them like devouring Fire Passing over those three great Pillars of Scripture Precepts Promises and Threatnings I now proceed to the Sacred Truths which lie therein as Rich Veins of Gold and Silver do in a Mine And to avoid Prolixity I shall pick out of them some supernatural Ones such as cannot be known by the mere Light of Nature but drop down from Heaven in a way of pure Revelation concluding with my self That if Faith can make an Experiment in these it may much more do so in others I shall first instance in that Sacred Truth of The blessed Trinity of Persons in Vnity of the God-head This is as one hath it Fundamentum Fundamentorum The Foundation of Foundations unless this stand fast all Evangelical Truths fall to the Ground we are no longer Christians then we acknowledg it So sublime is this Mystery that as Saint Bernard saith Scrutari haec temeritas est credere pietas est nosse vero vita aeterna est And when Gregory Nazianzen was pressed to assign a disserence between those words Begotten and Proceeding he made this answer Dic mihi quid sit generatio ego dicam quid sit processio ut ambo insaniamus distinguere inter processionem generationem nescio non valeo non sufficio This Truth is totally supernatural it could never without a Revelation enter into our Heart humane reason no not that of Adam could not reach it Indeed there are strange passages touching it in Trismegistus and Plato Trismegistus saith God who is Mind begat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Speech or Word which is another Mind and with that Speech another which is the Fiery God and Spirit of the God-head Plato speaks of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A most Divine Word and of the begotten Son of the Good and the learned Grotius saith Apud Platonicos reperias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three Persons in one But sure these men knew nothing of this Mystery if they spake somewhat like they spake not the same or if the same they borrowed it from Moses Plato is called the Atticizing Moses and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and many is an old Tradition derived from the Jews and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken from Jehovah or I am Or which is most probable the notions of the Trinity in Plato and Trismegistus were foisted into their Works How many Books have been put out under the names of the Apostles and ancient Fathers which have not been truly such Such imposture in the Primitive times was very ordinary And if Men would be thus bold with Apostles and Fathers what might they not do in Heathens Besides some think there are clearer notions of a Trinity in some of the Heathens than in Moses's Books and so by consequence the Heathens should know more of it than Israel which is contrary to the Scriptures which tell us In Judah is God known Ps 76.1 and He hath not dealt so with any Nation Ps 147.20 It is therfore likely that such passages in Heathens were inserted into their Books by Christians in a way of Pious Fraud such as was anciently used This Sacred Mystery was intimated in the Old-Testament Elohim in the plural Created Gen. 1.1 Let us make Man saith God Gen. 1.26 By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Spirit of his Mouth Ps 33.6 Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts I say 6.3 The ancient Jewish Rabbins as Petrus Galatinus hath shewed embraced this Doctrine Rabbi Simeon on that in the Prophet saith Sanctus hic est Pater Sanctus hic est Filius Sanctus hic est Spiritus Sanctus the three Middoth or Properties in Rabbinical Writers are the three Persons in the Godhead And the Cabbalists have these words Pater Deus Filius Deus Spiritus Sanctus Deus Tres in Vno Vnus in Tribus In the New-Testament we have this Truth clearly laid down in the Baptisin of Christ we have all the three Persons appearing The Father in a Voice the Son in the Flesh the Holy Ghost in the Dove Mat. 3.16 17. The Primitive Christians used to say to any that doubted of the Trinity Abi ad Jordanem videbis Go to Jordan and you will see it Christ Commands That Baptism should be In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Math. 28.19 Or as the Greek Article imports In the Name of that Father that Son and that Holy Ghost which discovered themselvs at Christs Baptism There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the
Holy Ghost and these Three are One 1 Joh. 5.7 This Truth hath had many Opposites as the Arrians Samosatenians Sabellians Photinians and of late the Socinians who have strained their subtile Wits to undermine it if possible tell them That Baptism is in the Name of the Trinity They will reply That The Israelites were Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 Tell them That There are Three that bear Record in Heaven 1 Joh. 5.7 They will say These Words are not to be found in the Ancient Greek Copies nor in the Syriac nor in the Ancient Latin Version but these are but Evasions As for the first They were Baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto Moses there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Acts 7.53 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as appears by comparing that place with Gal. 3.19 where Saint Paul of the same thing saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so To be Baptized unto Moses is only to be Baptized by the Ministry of Moses who led them through the Red Sea Hence in the Syriack it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the hand of Moses Again it is one thing to be Baptized unto Moses another to be Baptized in the name of Moses Paul Baptized but none in his own name 1 Cor. 1.13 And again the Israelites were improperly Baptized into Moses they were not aspersed or immerged in water neither was Baptism then an Ordinance of God as now it is As for the second in St. John that place undeniably proves the Trinity The learned Stephens saith That place is wanting in seven Greek Copies but it is found in nine more ancient St. Cyprian de Vnitate Ecclesie alledges this place for the Trinity Athanasius urged this place against Arrius in the Council of Nice and then no exception was made against it Had it not then been in St. John Arrius would have easily rejected it I believe in the times of Constantius and Valens the Arrians blotted out these words as most pregnant against them out of divers Copies St. Jerom asserted the truth of our reading from the Greek Copies which he had publickly contesting That in those Copies where it was wanting it was razed out by the fraud of Hereticks And St. Ambrose saith That the Hereticks did erade that place This Truth stands fast in Scripture for ever and ever and Faith embraces it And which is more and to the Point in hand Faith in its holy progress may as I conceive experience it My reason is the Church in all Ages down from the Apostles have worshipped the Sacred Trinity Their Baptism hath been in its Name their Doxology and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proclaim it their Creeds all publish it their Catechumeni were trained up in the knowledg of it they ever worshipped as Athanasius hath it in his Creed one God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity and that uno indiviso cultu as Divines speak This in all Ages hath been the Christian Worship and upon this Worship answers and returns have come down from Heaven in abundance of Glorious Spiritual Blessings such as are comprized in that Apostolical Prayer The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen 2 Cor. 13.14 The whole Trinity is adored and the whole Trinity vouchsafes Gracious returns Gratia quae datur in Trinitate datur saith Athanasius Every Believer so worshipping hath returns from Heaven and the Progressive Believer may know that he hath them and in the experience thereof may experience That there is a Sacred Trinity of a truth If the Trinity be a nullity or as Servetus blasphemously said An Idol or three-headed Cerberus Or as Socinus belched out his impiety A ridiculous invention of humane curiosity Then the Christian Worship is no other than strange fire vain ' Will-worship and Idol-worship nay it is no Worship at all none because the Trinity its supposed Object is a nullity none because God looks on it as none As when the Samaritans feared the Lord and served their Idols 2 King 17.33 The Text saith in the very next ver That they feared not the Lord their fear was as none because of the mixture of Idol-worship So when Christians worship one God and a Trinity which is not their Worship is as none at all Upon such a Worship God will not open his eyes unless to punish it nor make any returns but those of Wrath. When the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf Gods Wrath waxed hot and was ready to consume them much more may it do so if Christians worship a Trinity which is not In that of the Calf as they meant it there was only error in modo for they intended not to terminate their Worship in the Calf but in God as appears by their own words To marrow is a feast to Jehovah Exod. 32.5 But in this of a Supposititious Trinity there is error in objectio ultimo which is more provoking to God If the Trinity be but the Idol of the brain God will no more be enquired of by its Worshippers than he would by those who set up their Idols in their heart Ezek. 14.3 no gracious returns are found in such a salfe way A Believer therefore who in Worshipping one God in Trinity finds returns srequently and successively after Duties from the Mercy-scat carries an inward seal and proof in his bosom that there is a Trinity This experimental proof of a Trinity seems to me evident in many places of Scripture St. John saith Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 He saith not barely Our fellowship is with God but with the Father and the Son neither doth he say it at peradventures but as a sure known thing such as hath the joy of the holy Spirit with it St. Paul would have the Colossians to be knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2.2 Here is a Plerophory of understanding nay riches and all riches of it Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as one saith Illustrior notitia rei prius cognitae A further knowledg orpractical acknowledgment of a thing before known and these must needs import somewhat of experience Our Saviour saith If a man love me and keep my words my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him Joh. 14.23 In the 21. ver he told them That he would manifest himself to the obedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he conspicuum meipsum exhibebo I will exhibit my self though Spiritually yet clearly as it were to eye palam in media luce as Beza hath it Hereupon Judas asks him Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self to us unto which our Saviour answers That the
Father and himself would come and make their abode in such an one ver 23. The Abode of the Father and the Son in such an one is in a glorious manifestative way such as gives an experience of their being there and where the Father and the Son are there also is the holy Spirit Thus our Saviour in the 16. and 17. verses of that Chapter saith That the Spirit should abide in them and abide in them in a manifestative way Ye know him for he dwelleth with you saith he And in the 20th verse he saith At that day that is the day of the Spirits in-dwelling Ye shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you Oh what rich glorious Experiences of the Sacred Trinity are here and how happy the Faith and Obedience which arrives at them Godly Men should labour to perfect Holiness to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to get to the top of Godliness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks Tit. 3.14 to be Masters and eminent Presidents in good Works that they may arrive at this great Experiment Thus far touching that center of Divinity the Sacred Trinity In the next place I proceed to the rare Supernatural Truths touching Jesus Christ all which Faith may experiment And here I shall begin with his Incarnation Venit universitatis Creator venit ad homines venit propter homines venit homo saith St. Bernard He was Immanuel God with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Man in one Person The Eternal Word was made flesh 1 Joh. 1.14 God was manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 And what say the Socinian Rebels to this Truth Rationi sanae repugnat duae substantiae proprietatibus adversae coire in unam personam nequeunt ut sunt mortalem immortalem esse principium habere principie carere mutabilem immutabilem existere saith the Racovian Catechism One and the same Person cannot be Mortal and Immortal have a Beginning and no Beginning or be Mutable Immutable But reason it self though too low a bar for this Truth to appear at will absolve this truth from repugnancy Body and Soul meet in one Person adverse in Properties the one being Corporal the other Spiritual the one Visible the other Invisible the one Rational the other Irrational the one Mortal the other Immortal This is done naturally how much more may it be done Supernaturally It would be against reason to say That Christ were Secundum idem Mortal and Immortal having a Beginning and none Mutable and Immutable But it is not repugnant to say That he is so in respect of the two Natures Humane and Divine Had not Christ been Man he could not have suffered had he not been God he could not have satisfied The Blood was from the Humane Nature and the excellent Merit from the Divine He that disbelieves either must cast away Scripture which asserts both This Truth stands firm in Scripture as might be shewed at large but for the Point in hand Faith may experiment it The Believer may find in himself such fruits of Christs Incarnation as carry a resemblance thereunto and are a kind of inward Seal thereof The humane Nature of Christ was not brought forth of the blessed Virgin generatione sed jussione not in an ordinary way by knowing a man but in an extraordinary by the power of the highest and overshadowing of the Holy Ghost Answerably in the Believer the new Creature is not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God John 1.13 He that is such hath not known man nor his power in this great Work but hath had the holy Spirit and its gracious overshadowings on the heart They that dwell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his shadow shall return saith the Prophet Hos 14.7 Unless the mighty Power of God come upon us we shall have no hearts to return to him This resemblance is excellently set forth by Fulgentius Forma praecessit in carne Christi quam in nostrá side spiritualiter agnoseamus De Incarnat Christi cap. 20. ex eodem spiritu renati sumus ex quo natus est Christas eodem Spiritu Christus formatur secundum fidem in corde uniuscujusque credentis quo Spiritu secundum carnem formatus est in utero Virginis The very same Spirit which formed Christ in the womb forms him in the heart The Humane nature in Christ was united to the Divine in an Hypostatical Union God and Man met in one Person that they might meet in the Covenant of Grace Answerably the Believer is united unto God in a spiritual Mystical Union He is made one Spirit with the Lord 1 Cor. 6.17 Christ was one flesh with us and we are one Spirit with him God is at one with us in Christ and we may approach to God with holy boldness The Humane Nature of Christ had no natural Subsistence but subsisted in the eternal Word sutably the new Creature hath no spiritual Subsistence in it self but subsists in God and his Grace By the grace of God I am what I am 1 Cor. 15.10 St. Paul looked on his spiritual Being to be only by Grace In Christ God was manifested in the flesh and tabernacled in it nay the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in it Col. 2.10 As low abject a thing as Humane nature is the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in it and will dwell in it for ever sutably in Believers the Tabernacle of God is with men he dwells and walks in them and they may be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3.19 that is have abundance of his gracious Presence with them A Believer may find that he hath these resembling fruits in himself and withal that unless the Son of God had been incarnate none of them would have been no new Creature but all men lying in the old rubbish of the Fall no Union but an unpassable gulf such as is between Heaven and Hell no spiritual Subsistence but a corrupt one upon the dregs of Free-will no heavenly Fulness but a vacuity of all Grace And from hence he may have an experimental proof of Christs Incarnation the Mystical Union being a proof of the Hypostatical and God manifest in the Spirit of God manifest in the Flesh St. John lays down this as a glorious Truth That Jesus Christ is the Son of God 1 John 5.5 and for proof of it he produces six Witnesses Three in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost ver 7. and Three on earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood ver 8. By the Spirit we may understand the holy Spirit breathing in the Scripture and witnessing in the heart by the Water the sanctifying Graces and those sealed in Baptism and by the Blood the precious Sufferings of Christ which pacifie the Conscience A Believer may experience all these three Witnesses on Earth
cloud upon it and Guilt as a wound in it Make it as lightsome as thou canst from Scripture that as a pure glass it may be fit to reflect the Gospel-Comforts on thy Soul Get a through cure of thy old Wounds or else sooner or later it will cry out against thee Joseph started up in his Brethrens mind a good while after their unnatural sale of him John the Baptist rose again in Herods Conscience upon the fame of Christs Miracles Theodorick having cruelly murdred Boethius and Symmachus was affrighted at the great head of a Fish at his own Table as if it had been one of theirs whom he unjustly put to death Apply therefore Christs Blood by Faith that thy Wounds may be healed David after his great fall prays first to be purged with hysop and then for the joy of Gods salvation Psal 51. The Hysop which was used to sprinkle the Blood under the Law figured out the office of Faith in sprinkling Christs Blood on the Conscience that 's a soveraign Balm to heal thy Wounds and able to make Conscience give thee an answer of Peace I have read a notable story of a sick Man who when Satan appeared and shewed him a long scrole of his Sins in writing saying Behold thy Virtues replied True Satan but thou hast not set down all set down also The Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all Sin Such a purifier is this that a Man may be able as is said of St. Austin to think of his former Evils without fear as having no spot of unpardoned Sin in him Thy Conscience being made pure walk after it A reciá Conscientia ne latum quidem unguem discedendum said the Orator Leave it not lest thou fall and wound thy self afresh When Conscience summons thee to this or that Duty up be doing God calls thee to it by thine own Heart when it tells thee of such a snare in thy way avoid it pass by it as thou wouldst by Hell God warns thee against it by thy self Conscience will measure out Comforts or Terrors to thee according as thou behavest thy self well or ill towards it If like Saul thou force thy self and rebel against light and give stabs to Conscience what hast thou to do with Peace Thy Heart will reproach thee Conscience will strike again and give thee wound for wound thou shalt doom thy self and like the Devils carry thy Chains and Hell about with thee Tiberius professed to the Senate That he suffered death daily he meant in the torments of his accusing Conscience On the other hand if thou turn thine eyes inward and observe Conscience and walk by the line and level of it thy Heart shall be at rest Conscience shall be a thousand witnesses for thee thou shalt be thine own Comforter and like the Angels carry an Heaven and Paradise aboat with thee Pauls joy shall be thine the testimony of Conscience that thy conversation hath been in godly sincerity and what is this but Assurance That Conscience which faith That thou art sincere tells thee also That thy Sins are pardoned These two are inseparable companions and never part the one from the other Again If thou wouldst have Assurance thou must be much in self-examination Commune with thy own Heart dive into the abyss of it reckon with thy self summon thy self to the Tribunal in thy own bosom The Philosophers espied out this Rule Pythagoras would not have us sleep till we had reviewed the day asking our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What have I transgressed what done and what omitted This though done by the candle-light of Nature much promoted Virtue and the comfort of it Qualâ—s ille somnus post recognitionem sui sequitur quam tranquillus altus liber saith Sencea After a review of ones self Oh what manner of sleep is there how still deep and free is it Much more must such a search into ones own Heart conduce to the Christians Graces and Comforts if done by the pure Sun-light of Scripture Self-examination is a root which bears Self-knowledg and at the top of it grows Assurance which is the knowledg of gracious self Awake therefore O Believer down into thy own Heart rifle the labyrinths and break open the false bottoms there see what of Sin is in thee Is there any darling Sin such as cogs with thy complexion or falls in with thy calling or any way steals away thy Heart and Affections from God Be sure that this is an accursed thing a Deliah as the word imports an exhauster of thy peace and joy However fair it may look to sense it is virtually sorrow and wrath See again what of Grace is there in thee do thou repent of Sin and believe on the Lord Jesus and love God and his holy Ways Are thy Graces genuine such as act thee in the power of the Spirit and square thee to the holy Canon of the Word and level thy Thoughts and Intentions at the Glory of God If thou thus search into thy Heart and do it in truth and faithfulness to the holy Light I dare say thou art ready for the sealing of the Spirit and the very frame of thy Heart is a real prayer for it O how soon may the Spirit come and by a Divine irradiation on thy Soul tell thee That thy Repentance is a Repentance unto Life and thy Faith precious Faith and thy Love Love in Sincerity How soon may it apply and seal the Promises to thy Heart as if it should say to thee Thou repentest indeed and the Mercy in the Promise is thine Thou believest indeed and the Salvation in the Promise is thine Thou lovest indeed and thine are the supersensual superintellectual good things prepared for the lovers of God And now thou maist say much better than Seneca Qualis somnus O how sweet is the rest and repose which the self-searching Soul finds in the bosom of Christ and Grace He that comes to that sealing Ordinance of the Lords Supper must prepare himself for the Sâ—ul by Self-examination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a man examine himself faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.28 Examine as a man would do Gold or Silver by the fire or by the Touchstone in like manner must he do so that he may fit himself for the Seal of Assurance of which the Sacramental Elements are Symbols Again If thou wouldst be assured exercise thy Graces and grow therein It much conduces to Assurance to render thy Graces as visible as thou canst Grace however it always carry a Divine lustre in it is not so visible when dormant in an habit or principle as when it is put forth into act and exercise neither is it so visible in its Initials in the smoking flax or bruised reed as in its Progresses and statures in Christ In point of Comfort talents not used are as none Comforts lie dead in Believers as their Graces do the holy sire raked up affords no light to them Awake therefore O Believer to
that it were no sin spare it not but cause it to dye as a sure Pledg that all other sins shall do so Believe it This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the path of life or of those two lines of Holiness and Comfort If ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live saith the Apostle Rom. 8.13 an eternal life in Heaven and a comfortable one in the way thither Who knows but that whilst thou art mortifying thy sin God may come and speak to thee much as he did to Abraham when he was offering up his Isaac Now I know that thou repentest indeed and believest indeed seeing thou hast not withheld thy Sin thy Darling Sin from the work of Mortification Surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee Thy Comforts shall be as the Stars and as the Sand. When thou hast been a-slaying thy Lusts Jesus Christ will meet thee as Melchizedek did Abraham when he came from the slaughter of the Kings Bringing forth Bread and Wine Supportations and Divine Consolations to thy Soul Melchizedek's Bread and Wine were to Abraham Pawns of Canaan the Land of Promise and Christs Supports and Comforts shall be to thee Earnests of Heaven See what pure strains of Grace flow in the precious Promises made to the Overcomer To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he which receiveth it Rev. 2.17 O what things are here Comforts fall about the Overcomer and are preserved in his heart as the Manna fell about the Camp and was preserved in the Golden Pot. Pardon is the white stone and Adoption the new name and all these though secret to others are well known to himself But you 'l say These are promised to the Overcomer and who can say that he is such Is not the Canaanite still in the land Are there not reliques of Corruption in the best Doth not the flesh still lust against the spirit and the body of Death send out its stench and rottenness And who may call himself an Overcomer I answer The Canaanite is in the land but subdued Reliques of Sin are in thee but they do gravitare press and lye heavy as a thing out of its proper place and force thee to groan and cry out O wretched man The flesh lusts against the spirit but thou opposest might and main and if it be ready to prevail thou criest out as the forced Damosel under the Law for help against it as being too strong for thee If there be in thee a nolle peccatum a bent of heart against Sin and thou doest in purpose and endeavour fight against it and thou wouldst pursue it to death and if possible here to utter extirpation then assure thy self not withstanding the indwelling sin That thou art an Overcomer in Gods account who accepts the Will for the Deed and in the Gospels all whose Promises are made not to sinless perfection but sincerity To this purpose the Original in that famous place is remarkable It is not to him that overcometh but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that is overcoming to him that is praying striving wrestling fighting against Sin to him that is in an overcoming posture though the enemy be not quite out of the field to him shall those great Comforts in the Promise be given This made St. Paul maugre all the reliques of Corruption sound a Triumph to Free-Grace I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.25 as being sure of compleat Victory at last Again If thou wouldst have Assurance Be much in the holy use of Ordinances These are vehicula Spiritus the Chariots in which the Holy Spirit rides Circuit to do good to Souls These are canales Gratie the Conduit-pipes whereby Graces and Comforts are derived to us There God records his Name and commands the Blessing even Life for ever-more There he meets those that work righteousness and remember him in his ways David was so sensible of this that it was his one only desire to dwell in Gods house and behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beauties or sweet Amenities of the Lord Psal 27.4 If ever thou meetest with the Suavities and ravishing Beauties of Free-Grace it must be in the Sanctuary of Ordinances Christ when here on Earth was very ready to give a comfortable Testimony to those that came to him and brought their Graces with them Seeing upright Nathanael he said Behold an Israelite indeed Joh. 1.47 Seing their Faith he said to the poor Paralytick Son thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 Neither now though in Heaven is he wanting therein he hath a secret way of testifying by his Spirit unto those who in an holy manner approach to him in Ordinances Seeing thy holy fear at an Ordinance he can tell thee That thy Soul thall dwell at ease in the bosom of Mercy Seeing thy Faith there he can tell thee That as a true Believer thou hast everlasting life Whatever Grace thou bringest into his presence he can make one Promise or other drop sweetness upon it Wait on him in his own ways that he may speak Peace to thee more particularly Converse much with the sacred Word In the Gospel great things are set before us there 's a Glass of Gods Glory The more thou lookest into it the more thou wilt be transformed into the Divine Likeness there 's a Mass a Treasury of rich Grace the more thou searchest into it the more thou wilt taste how gracious the Lord is till thou come to the highest gust of it in Assurance there are the Breasts of Consolation suck on and thou shalt be satisfied as with marrow and fatness there thou hast the demonstration and ministration of the Spirit get as much as thou canst of it that thou mayst be sealed by it There the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith from a Faith of Adherence to a Faith of Assurance There is the savour of Life unto Life of a gracious Life unto a comfortable and glorious One. Be much in reading and hearing the Word but do it in an holy manner do it attentively take heed to it till the day dawn and the day-star arise in thy heart do it desiring the Word as the Babe doth the Breast that thou mayst grow into all the measures and statures of Christ do it in faith that the Word may profit and effectually work unto all Graces and Comforts do it in love to Truth and Righteousness that the oyl of gladness which is upon Christ thy Head may run down upon thee do it obedientially hearken to the Commands that thy Peace may be as a River flowing in the joys of Faith If thus thou wilt hear and open to Christ who stands and knocks at the door of thy heart He will come in to thee and sup with thee and thou with him Revel 3.20 He will come in to
God 1 King 18.39 answerably when the Believer in the doing of Gods Commands feels the illapses of the holy Spirit inflaming and comforting his Heart he sweetly experiences that God is in the Command of a truth Thirdly Faith experiments it in that the hope of Heaven is enlarged and heightned in the doing of Gods will The more a Believer doth it the livelier is his Faith the warmer his love the stronger his other Graces the meeter his Soul for Heaven and the richer his entrance thereunto 2 Pet. 1.11 He shall not go to Heaven poorly or with a seant wind but with full gales and rich Plerophories by successive acts of Obedience his Hope rises higher and higher and so gives an experimental proof That the Command is the very will of God and way to Glory otherwise Hope would not grow and flourish in it but flag and wither as it uses to do in us when we pursue our own ways The Apostle would have men diligent in good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the full assurance of hope Heb. 6.11 Vt plenissimè in animis vestris spes confirmetur faith Beza Immediately after the giving the Law God adds these words Where ever I record my name there will I come and bless you Exod. 20.24 a blessing attends his Service If God bless Obedience with an assurance of Hope which is a fore-taste of Heaven and presage of Glory it is a full proof that his name is recorded in the Command When a Believer walking therein comes to assurance and so to be within ken of Heaven he is sure that the way is right Another excellent part of Scripture stands in the Promises These are the Pearls of the Gospel breasts of Consolation and wells of Salvation flowing out to Believers in temporal spiritual and eternal good things each of these Faith more or less experiments to be Divine As touching Temporal Promises Faith experiments them in every blessing which the Believer hath Indeed outward things are but the nether-springs and blessings of the left hand dispensed promiscuously as if they were ludibria fortunae the sports of chance Providence is still ringing the changes here an Ishmael may have his portion and full cup even Crowns and Kingdoms which lie at the upper end of the World may come to the basest of men Dan. 4.17 All things come alike to all the Sun of Prosperity shines on the Bramble as well as on the Flower the tempest of Adversity falls on the Garden as well as on the Wilderness Love or Hatred cannot be known by these things not by them as they are in themselves or meerly issuing out of Providence But the Believer hath them by a singular Priviledg and in a way of Promise and by reflection may know that he hath them so When he doth not arrogate ought to himself or like churlish Nabal all in his Possessives say My bread my water and my flesh but really confess God to be supream Lord of all and himself but an accountable Steward of them When he can cast his goods on the waters and as it were send them to Sea in a voyage of Charity expecting no return but in the other World where these Corruptibles so used will rise in the incorruption of eternal glory When he can charge all outward things to stand without in their own station and not approach that heart which is a facred Temple or holy place for God to dwell in When he looks on all the World as forfeited by Sin and new founded by Christ the Mediator and so tasts his precious blood in every good thing and gathers all his comforts from his reconciling Cross When upon a just call to Suffering he is willing to venture all his part in this life upon the meer Promise of a better and had rather cast all his Mundane pearls over board than hazard a wrack of Faith or Conscience When the purest sweetest Comforts here below do not satisfic his Soul as smelling of the cask and chanel of Creature-vanity but in the fullest affluence of them he crys out Dulâ—ius ex ipso fonte a single God is insinitely sweeter than all and none but he can sill up the gaping chinks and chasmes of my Hear Deus meus omnia My God and my all Then undoubtedly he hath outward blessings not upon the common title of Providence only but in a way of Promise and by reflection on such things as these he may know that he hath them so and arrive at a sweet experience of Temporal Promises Such an experience multiplies the Loaves and wonderfully doubles and trebles the sweetness and comfort of every Blessing Some learned Men have observed a difference between Jacobs Blessing and Esaus Jacobs runs thus God give thee of the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth Gen. 27.28 Esaus thus Thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the Earth and of the dew of Heaven from above ver 39. In Jacobs the name of God is mentioned not in Esaus it s true all Blessings are from God but his name is mentioned in the one not in the other The experienced Believer hath more of God and his federal Love in every Blessing than other Men. The Jews by a pious custom used to say over their Bread Blessed be God who brought Bread out of the Earth over their Wine Blessed be God who created the fruit of the Wine over their Fruits Blessed be God who created the Fruit of the Tree nay and over their Flowers Blessed be God who made the sweet smelling Herbs and in general they added this Whosoever takes ought out of this World without a benediction is as it were a robber of God But the experienced Believer as he hath a sweeter title to these things so he may raise up his Praises for them to an higher strain than other Men not only saying Blessed be God and his Providence for such and such things but blessed be God and his Promise also All good things as well those of this life as those of the other issue out of the Covenant of Grace You will say the Believer cannot yet make this experiment for though he have some of the Temporal Blessings mentioned in the Promises yet often and ordinarily he wants other of them To which I answer The Promises of Temporal Blessings are not absolute but carry a tacit limitation of expediency The main design of the Promises is Mans Salvation and to this Temporals are not as Spirituals are simply necessary but only have a remote tendency thereunto and that not of themselves but as they are over-ruled by God who makes omnia cooperari in bonum all things work together for good to them that love him And hence the Believer expects from the Promises no other measure or proportion of outward things than what may conduce to his Salvation and because he knows not what that measure or proportion is he refers himself to the Wisdom and Faithfulness of God to order all