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
the unregenerate man with all his notions lies as a man in a Lethargy never feeling the weight of sin and wrath though heavier then rocks and mountains nor indeed savouring the sweetness of Christ and grace though infinitely out-relishing all the things in nature But as soon as faith comes there are all the senses of the inward man a seeing the sun of righteousness an hearing the sweet charms of Gospel-grace a smelling the odours of Christ and the holy unction a tasting how good and gracious the Lord is and a touching and handling the word of life The Learned Anatomists curiously pry into the head to find out the commune Sensorium where all the species and images of sensible things meet together In the spiritual man faith is an universal sense taking in all the species and images of heavenly things into the heart The learned Junius with all his notions coming into a poor Country mans house and hearing him discourse warmly and feelingly of Christ immediately thought that Religion was more then a notion and thereupon reflecting on himself was turned unto God and no doubt sound by experience that faith was much fuller of life and sense then meer notion Fifthly The meer notional knowledge gathered in by reason puffeth up as if some of the Serpents poison were in it it blows up the heart into proud reflexes Bonaventure to keep his mind from swelling used to sweep rooms and wash vessels I suppose it was lest his School-notions should swell and make a tumor in his heart But the light of faith is an humbling thing If it enter in within the vail and see God on his Throne it cries out as the Prophet Isaiah Wo is me I am undone If it fly up to Sinai and sense the thunders and lightnings of the fiery Law it puts the soul into a trembling sit If it go a pilgrimage to Calvary and there take a view of Christ crucified it is greatly abasive bowing the heart down under the conscience of sin If it look inwardly into the heart and there see the silthy and nasty corruptions in every corner it will far more humble then Bonaventures sweeping and washing And the reason of this difference is meer notions are but the progeny and issue of our own reason and therefore we are apt to be fond and fall a cockling of them But supernatural light comes from above and is ushered in with a kind of majesty and therefore humbles and makes us fall down and say God is in it of a truth Sixthly The meerly notional knowledge is but superficial a flash and away a light tast such as was in those Apostates Heb. 6.5 a word sown but unrooted such as that in the stony ground Mat. 13.21 But the light of faith is another thing it is truth in the hidden parts Psal 51.6 wisdom entring into the heart Prov. 2.10 and a word ingrafted or innaturalized in the mind Jam. 1.21 As an appendix to this difference I may add another meer notions being but superficial things floating in the brain do not so establish the heart in Religion as that supernatural light which intimately mixes it self with the heart Hence many Princes and Grandees of the Letter have been sick with intellectual bottles and shamefully reeled up and down in Articles of Faith Some stumbling in the mire of gross Pelagianism and others rowling in the ditch of foul Socinianism with them Christs Deity is but somnium Athanasii and original sin but Augustini sigmentum such horrid spuing from learned mouths hath been made on the glory of Religion And no wonder for the notionalist wants that love of the truth which is an antidote against errors and that pure conscience which is the Cabinet of Divine mysteries On the other hand supernatural light is a more establishing thing the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the firmament of faith Col. 2.5 all the heavenly truths are there as so many fixed stars in their Orb. Gerson relates this story A man vexed with doubts in Articles of Faith at last came to such a certainty in them that he no more doubted of them then of his own life and this he had saith he Non ex ratione aut demonstratione sed ex humiliatione ac admirabili quâdam Dei illuminatione à montibus aeternis All grace because divine hath an establishing property and among the rest so hath the light of faith because it comes from the eternal mountains Seventhly Meer notions are very apt to fume up into niceties and vain curiosities A famous instance of this we have in the School-men whose books are the spiders house made of cobwebs and fine subtleties and those spun up into the Palace of the celestial King and there fastned upon the ineffables of God and the sacred Trinity as if these might be wrapped up in the quiddities of reason and Philosophy insomuch as a learned Divine startled at this audacious vanity saith he reads the School-men about such things as he hears men swear or take Gods name in vain even seldom unwillingly and with horror And the learned Capito who professed Scholastical Divinity was soon weary thereof because there is subtilitatis multum utilitatis parum found therein But supernatural light doth not vapor upwards into niceties and curious questions but influence downwards into the will and affections It brings the day of power into the heart and makes a willing people the holy unction drops from the head to the heart and sets all on a flame with love to God and Christ and heavenly things wisdom speaks excellent things Prov. 8.6 or as the original is it speaks princes or princely things holy things are such in themselves But when they are taken in by faith they have a mighty power in the soul Gods command to Abraham entring by faith wrought down into his will and he offered up his Isaack Gods warning to Noah entring by faith wrought down into his fear and he prepared an Ark. The word works effectually in them that believe filling the inward man with holy affections and the outward with holy fruits I shall conclude this difference with an excellent simily of a worthy Divine A child and a man come into a corn field together the child falls in love with the blue and red weeds but the man is for the solid corn a man of meer notions falls in love with curiosities and fine speculations but a man of supernatural light is for the spiritual and practical truths in Scripture these are the corn his soul must live upon whilest the other are but gaieties and for a shew Thus far I have spoken what this supernatural light is I shall now proceed to shew that it is requisite to faith and this will appear in the particulars following First Unless a man know that God is he cannot believe how can he rest on the testimony of him whom he knows not to have a being This proposition Deus est is according to Aquinas the
his passion in drinking of the brook in the way there 's his ascension in lifting up the head there 's his intercession in sitting at Gods right hand there 's his Church Catholick a willing people made so by the power of his grace This was Symbolum Davidicum Davids Creed as a learned man hath it reaching in a manner as far as ours Moreover the Saints of old by their faith kenned a resurrection and life eternal Jobs faith looked through worms and dust to the vision of God Job 19.26 Abrahams faith travelled beyond Canaan unto the heavenly city and country Heb. 11.10 David is in a rapture at the full joys and right-hand pleasures with God Psal 16.11 When Cain talked with Abel his brother Gen. 4.8 the Hebrew text sets not down what he said but it hath an extraordinary pawse implying further matter the Jerusalem Targum says Cain asserted that there was no judgment no judge no world to come no rewards of evil or good but believing Abel said there were all these and then his brother slew him It seems the first fall out was about the future world Wisdom causes her lovers to inherit substance Quid est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nisi futurum saeculum or essence as the original word imports Prov. 8.21 and this substance or essence is as some Jews affirm no other then eternal life in the world to come Now to make my inference from all this If faith were in a measure explicite in those early Saints who had but the twilight of the holy types and cock-crowing of the Prophets how much more should it be so in us who live in the noon-day of the Gospel and as it were directly under the Sun of righteousness in such a Church-state wherein the least is greater then John Baptist we should expand and spread abroad the fails of our faith to take in the larger gales and effusions of the holy spirit Secondly Faith unless explicite cannot arrive at those ends for which it is ordained viz. to raise up the heart to a reliance on the free grace of God in Christ to inslame the heart with the love of God and holy things to sanctifie the heart through the truth and to overcome the world with its lusts A meer implicite faith cannot reach these it cannot raise the heart up to a reliance on Gods grace in Christ to that reliance is prerequired not only a belief that God is true in the Scriptures in general but also a belief that God is true in the precious promises in special We are like Jacob not believing in the mercies of God till we see the chariots the gracious promises which he hath sent down from heaven to carry up our faith to himself They that know thy name will put their trust in thee Psal 9.10 they and they only Neither can it inflame the heart with the love of God and holy things light and heat ever go together Implicite faith is a dark and cold thing affording no spiritual warmth at all he that hath no more is but a Nabal a fool in religion and his heart as dead and cold as a stone within him till the love of God in the explicite notion of it shine into the soul it will not like the disciples at Emmaus burn within us with love to God and his ways neither can it sanctifie the heart through the truth the word did not profit them not being mixed or tempered with faith saith the Apostle Heb. 4.2 Where there is only an implicite faith the word lies upon the heart all in a lump whole and undigested affording no blood or spirits of sanctity to the soul it is explicite faith only which breaks the truth in the heart and mixes and tempers every holy particle therewith from whence the soul comes to be changed and assimulated into the truth receiving a divine likeness from it according to the measure of its faith more or less digesting the same truth in the heart neither can it lastly overcome the world and the lusts thereof this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 5.4 And this Faith doth by putting a right estimate of things into the heart whereby it manifestly appears that heavenly things do infinitely outweigh earthly in themselves and should do so in the minds of men A man of a meer implicite faith is a man without a ballance or judgment he knows not how to estimate or weigh the excellent things of God and therefore is ever poized down by the world and the lusts thereof It is the explicite faith only which is in the soul as the ballance of the Sanctuary rightly determining the true weight of things and thereby giving heavenly things the victory above earthly in the heart Oh! where this is what a feather a vanity a nothing is the world what in it can weigh against God or Christ or the exceeding eternal weight of glory surely nothing wherefore the followers of faith become conquerors of the world Fourthly This belief must be total and absolute without any salvoes or limitations The Gospel must captivate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the intellect or every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 The Reason must not go at large or random but be kept in safe custody under the Gospel and the divine mysteries thereof it is not to be trusted to never since the fall put an enmity into it against God The Socinians believe the Scriptures only so far forth as they are congruous to reason thus Socinus professes that if this proposition that Jesus Christ satisfied God for our sins were once and again extant in the sacred monuments yet non ideirco he would not therefore believe the thing to be so as we ordinarily conceive of it And another laies down this for a rule Nihil credi potest quod à ratione capi intelligi nequeat that cannot be believed by faith which cannot be comprehended by reason It seems they will trust God no further then they can see him and depend more on their blear-eyed reason then the divine oracle Touching this Socinian faith I shall endeavour to shew first the inrationality of it and then the nullity First The Irrationality of it will evidently appear if we distinguish between the two states of reason before the fall of man and since Reason before the fall was a pure and virgin light without any spot in it afterwards it was destoured and overshadowed with the fall and by that means all that is in the mind of man in his lapsed estate is not reason the blinds and dark shades there are not so but only that which is the relique of the pure primitive light and congruous thereunto the blemish in the eye is not the light the rust in the gold is not the pure metal neither is all that is in lapsed reason to be reckoned reason If then in this case we would know what is rational we
Barbara St. Dorothy St. Margaret to these came the Foolish for Oyl that is as the Actor interpreted it That they would intercede with God for their admission into Heaven They knocked and wept and instantly prayed but the Wise denied and bid them be gone At this sight the Nobleman was astonished crying out What is the Christian Religion if none of the Saints will hear and intercede for us And soon after he died of an Apoplexy 'T is sad being shut out from the presence of God The Believer is as they say of the Rhodians in sole positus He is nigh unto God and hath his Religion proved to him in that he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 access or manuduction unto God The way into the Holy of Holies is open through the veil of Christs flesh and the Holy Spirit doth conduct him in thither He may come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with boldness unto the throne of Grace and there utter all his mind as a Child doth to his Father David in the 13th Psalm begins as if God were totally absent How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me But a little after we have him in the joy and triumph of Faith I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation saith he ver 5. The door of Mercy which for a little time was shut up soon opened again and gave him a free access unto God Thirdly He experiments it in the returns of Prayer the Promises by which God binds his own bowels above are let down here below in the Gospel And as the Believer takes hold of them by Prayer so God is touched with a compassionate feeling thereof Whilst Ephraim was bemoaning himself in his Supplication Gods bowels are troubled and fall a-sounding at it Jer. 31.18 20. Coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus saith Tertullian We knock at Heaven and fetch down mercy from God Prayer hath done Wonders in the world At Abrahams Prayer God stoops to such low terms that he would have saved Sodom for ten righteous persons Jacob by Prayer wrestles and becomes a Prince with God which is more than to have all the Monarchies of the World Moses by it binds as it were the Almighty and will not let him alone to consume Israel Joshua stopt the Chariot of the Sun and so made a long day for the improvement of his Victory Elias locked up Heaven and till he turned the Key of Prayer the contrary way there was no rain upon the Earth In the time of Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher the Christian Legion by their Prayers procured Water for the Roman Army and a scattering Tempest against their Enemies and were therefore called Legio fulminatrix The thundring Legion Prayer hath a kind of Omnipotence in it and can do every thing Sometimes the Prayer is returned in Specie in the very thing desired as Hannah's was in a Son whom therefore she called Samuel that is Asked of God In this case the Believer hath a double Blessing in one over and above the common Providence he hath a pregnant proof of his Prayer in it A Blessing which is a meer Providence comes up as the Corn doth with the husk or chaff of one vanity or other as a Memento of that blast which Sin brought upon the World But that which is a Fruit of Prayer is as Manna from Heaven pure and unmixt a Blessing and no sorrow added to it as being the Birth of the Promise and Covenant The Blessings of the former sort are gathered up by Men as Acorns are by Swine without looking up to that Grace which as a Tree of Life bears all the good Fruit But the latter raises up the Heart in the admirations and high-praises of the great Donor as we see in Hannah who returned back her Son assoon as received unto God in Praise and Dedicacation Criticks have observed an elegant Paranomasia in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore I have lent him to the Lord 1 Sam. 1.28 Samuel was first Shaiil meel Asked of God and then Shaiil leel lent or returned to God Those Blessings which are drawn down by Prayer lie not dead here below but are sent back again in Praise Sometimes the Prayer returns another way though it be not heard ad voluntatem it is ad utilitatem The answer is in some thing that profits us though not to the express desire of our Hearts it may be it is in the sweet composure of the Heart Upon Prayer God comes in and rebukes the Winds and Seas of Passion and there is a calm and Divine serenity in the Soul Hannab before Prayer was a Woman of a sorrowful spirit but her Soul being poured out unto God returned with a Divine sweetness Her countenance was no more sad 1 Sam. 1.18 It may be there is an inward support which is tantamount to the Blessing desired Our Saviours Prayer against the Cup of Wrath was heard in that he was enabled to drink and overcome it And St. Paul's against the Thorn in the Flesh in that he had sufficient Grace to withstand it Preclarè nobiscum agitur dum adest Dei Gratia quae nobis subveniat saith Reverend Calvin In the Supports of Grace there is a signal answer of Prayer it may be over and above the Support the Beams of Gods Love break in upon the heart This is a little Heaven here below and richly transcends all this world Bellarmin tells us a Story of an old Man who used to rise from Duty with these words Claudimini Oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jam videbitis Be shut O my Eyes be shut for I shall never behold a fairer Object than Gods Face which I have now beheld The Love of God irradiating a Prayer is a ravishing sight far better than life and all its comforts It may be there is a transmutation of the Blessing into another such as God who improves the stock of Prayer to the best advantage knows to be better for us David prayed earnestly for his sick Child and the return of it was in a Solomon a Jedidiah beloved of God One way or other the Believers Prayer returns into his bosom being answered at least secundum cardinem according to the main hinge and scope of it which is Gods glory and Mans comfort or happiness Thus Moses's Prayer to go into Canaan was answered according to the ground of it Instead of the type God takes him up to Heaven the true Canaan which was most for Mases's comfort And instead of Moses a type of the Law Joshua a type of Christ leads the people into Canaan which was most for Gods Glory Which way soever the Prayer returns to the Believer it seals up the Ordinance for Divine In the last Place I come to the Ordinance of the Lord Supper The outward Elements of this Sacrament our Lord Christ took as Learned Men conceive from a custom observed among the
other of Hope which afforded her great Comfort in her Torments Caspar Olevian a German Divine being asked by one Whether he were certain of his Salvation answered just at the brink of death Certissimus I am most sure of it Mr. Bolton being near death expressed himself thus My whole heart is filled with joy I feel nothing within but Christ Mr. Hieron said His Soul was full of joy as if be had seen Heaven open to receive him Such Paradises of Joy Sabbatisines of Spirit and Prepossessions of Glory have the Saints found in their way to Heaven Again there being an infallible Connexion between truth of Grace and Pardon and also between Perseverance in Grace and Salvation a Believer may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon and again he may be assured of his Perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation These two demonstrated will make good the Point First I say A Believer may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon which cannot but be where those are And for the truth of Grace a double Testimony may be vouched one from Conscience the other from the holy Spirit the Apostle mentions both The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it co-witnesseth with ours and in the mouth of two such Witnesses there must needs be establishment Hence St. Chrysostome on these words breaks out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What scruple can remain after such a Testimony I shall begin with the testimony of Conscience Conscience is a spy in our bosom which marks every thing a spiritual Eccho which returns our actions and makes them sound again after they are past and gone from us By it the Soul turns its eyes in ward and becomes a Speculum or Looking-glass to it self representing to it self its own acts By it it bends back the beams of general Truths and applys them to Particulars That Righteousness and Virtue should be followed is an universal Truth but Conscience can reflect it back upon us and bids us do so in particular and if we indeed do it Conscience will say Euge this or that is well done by us The Testimony of Conscience was of great repute among Pagans Plato calls it his Daemon and Menander a God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he Conscience is a God to Mortals And Seneca Deus in humano corpore hospitans God dwelling in an humane body Hence came Pythagoras's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-reverence And Sextius his parly with himself every night what Vice he had in the day resisted and Virtue promoted And the Satyrists complaint touching the neglect of the reflexive faculty Vt nemo in sese tentat descendere nemo few or none would descend into themselves Among Christians the Testimony of Conseience must needs be sacred their Consciences not lying as the Pagans in their blood or natural pollution but being purified by the precious Blood and Spirit of Christ their lamps of Reason not lying as the others in the damp and darkness of the fall but brought forth and new-lighted at the Scripture and Sun of Righteousness shining therein as in its orb Conscience in a Believer is as St. Bernard hath it Purum Religionis speculum a pure glass of Religion And as another Major pars clavium the greatest key in the Church such an excellent Witness may well speak in this Point In David it speaks thus O Lord I have walked in my integrity Psal 26.1 that is in the exercise of Faith Love Obedience and other Graces which as so many Pearls make up Sincerity In Hezekiah it speaks much after the same manner Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Isa 38.3 And it is the more to be noted because Conscience saith so in a way of appeal even to God himself and by a right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holds up the truth of its Graces to so pure a Sun This is such a Testimony as St. Paul joys and glories in 2 Cor. 1.12 Est quidam modus in Conscientia gloriandi ut noveris fidem tuam esse sinceram spem tuam certam caritatem tuam sine simulatione saith St Austin There is a kind of glorying in conscience when thou knowest thy Faith sound Hope certain and Love undissembled A Man that repents believes and loves may by the pulse of Conscience know that he doth so True saith Bellarmine he may know that he doth them but not that he doth them sicut oportet as he ought to do them Unto which I answer Conscience according to its Light and Line of Principles can bear Witness to Integrity natural Conscience to natural Integrity and renewed Conscience to gracious Integrity An instance of the former we have in Abimelech whose Conscience told him That he meant not to take away another mans Wise Gen. 20.5 and of the latter in St. Paul whose Conscience told him That his Conversation was in simplicity and godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Conscience which Witnesses Integrity must look beyond the meer matter of Acts into the modus for therein Integrity especially such as is gracious consists more than in the Acts themselves Unless a man know that he repents believes and loves sicut oportet he cannot know his own Sincerity and if he know his Sincerity he knows that he repents believes and loves aright A Believer converses much between Scripture and Conscience fetching his Notions from the one and his Evidences from the other In the Word he sees the Characters of Grace and in the Conscience the state of his Soul True Repentance mourns over sin as sin hates it as the greatest evil and casts it away as an accursed thing saith the Word and such is thy Repentance saith Conscience True Faith prizes Christ overcomes the World and works by Love saith the Word and such a Faith is thine saith Conscience True Love is inflamed from Gods sweetly acquiesces in him and obedientially resignes to him saith the Word and such a Love is thine saith Conscience Interroga cortuum Ask thy heart If Love be there saith St. Austin Ask again If Faith and Repentance be there thou hast an Oracle within that can tell thee what thou lovest most trustest in most and grievest for most that can shew thee thy Uprightness witness the Truth of thy Graces and feast thee with Divine Comforts such as pass understanding It was a great Comfort to the Nobleman when his Servants met him and told him Thy Son liveth John 4.51 But oh What is it to the Believer when such an one as Conscience comes and saith Thy Faith liveth or thy Love burneth towards God or thy Repentance is pure godly forrow Then the Oyl of Joy is upon every Grace and the Cup of Consolations runneth over Conscience becomes a banquetting-house and Assurance as Latimer calls it is the Sweet-meats We have heard one Witness but the Supream who drops all
thee in intimate Communion and sup with thee in the acceptance of thy Graces and thou shalt sup with him at a Banquet of Love Thou mayst experimentally say That the Gospel is come to thee in power and in the holy Ghost and in much Assurance as the Apostle speaks 1 Thess 1.5 In Power in the first work of Conversion in the holy Ghost in the gracious indwelling of it after Faith and in much Assurance in the Sealins of Truth and Love upon the heart Next to that of the Word I recommend Prayer to thee This is an excellent Ordinance it wrestles with God and like a Prince prevails with him It unlocks the Treasury of Grace and fetches down all Blessings it hath a king of Omnipotency in it and if with reverence I may so allude As God brought forth all things by the breath of his mouth so the Believer produces all Blessings by the breath of Prayer Apollonius as Sozomen relates never asked any thing of God but he obtained it And of Luther it was said Iste vir potuit apud Deum quod voluit This man could do what he would with God Ask and thou shalt have Ask the sealing Spirit and thou shalt have it ask in the Name of Jesus Christ His Merits are as pure Incense able to perfume thy Prayers and as a powerful Orator to perswade the Comforter to come down to thee Ask in the holy Spirit in the Grace and sweet Gales of it That the Spirit may be an answer to it self the Spirit as sealing Gods Love an answer to it self as inspiring thy Prayers Ask in Faith Hath not God told thee of a witnessing Spirit Hath he not said That he will speak peace to his Saints Are not his Promises as so many Bonds upon his Truth to make the things promised good Prove him by Prayer if he will be as good as his Word see if he will not own his own hand in the Promise wrestle with him till the day break in the light of his Countenance lifted up upon thy heart Ask in fervency that whilst thy heart is burning with Love towards God his Love which is the Fountain of thine may reveal it self to thee The old Token of acceptance was firing the Sacrifice and it is still a pledg of success when there is warmth in Prayer Ask in sincerity in a pure intention not for self-ease not that thou mayst fare deliciously upon the Love of God but that thy Spirit may be the freer to his service that thy Zeal may be more inflamed towards his Glory The prayer of the upright is his delight in so praying thou shalt meet the favour of God It is very remarkable what posture Paul was in when Ananias was sent to comfort him Behold he prayeth saith God go let him be filled with the Holy Ghost In the beginning of Psal 13. Davids Faith run very low How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me ver 1. A while after it lifts up it self a little Consider and hear me O Lord my God lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death ver 3. but praying on it is in the altitudes I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoice in thy Salvation ver 5. Prayer is one of Gods sealing times in it thou approachest and drawest nigh to him who is the fountain of Life and Joy Whilest thou art opening and pouring out thy Heart to him Who knows but he may open his Heart and incomparable Love to thee the holy Spirit may come and tell thee as the Angel Gabriel did Daniel in the same posture That thou art greatly beloved a man of desires with God In the last place make use of the Lords Supper There God makes a Royal feast a feast of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well resined he sets forth Christ crucified whose flesh is meat indeed whose blood is drink indeed Come eat his flesh and drink his blood that you may live for ever Eat and let thy Soul delight it self in fatness drink yea drink abundantly O beloved Soul or as the Original Text may be read Be drunk or happily inebriated with the sweet Love of Christ the same crucified Christ which in the Sacrifice on the Cross satisfied Gods heart at this Sacrament can satisfie thine Never any Feast like this which chears the Heart of God and Man How will God manifest his Love here in Salutations Kisses and Unctions The Jews at their Feasts used many demonstrations of Love such as Salutations faying to their Guests Peace be unto thee Kisses from whence afterwards Christians derived their Kiss of Charity or as Tertullian calls it Oscuculum Pacis A Kifs of Peace and Oyl poured out upon the Head called therefore Oleum laetitiae The Oyl of gladness And cannot God do much more at his Table Cannot he salute thee and say Peace Peace to thee because thou trustest in him Cannot he kiss thee with the kisses of his mouth and cause one Promise or other to drop sweetness into thy heart Cannot he give thee the rich anointings of the holy Spirit and sill thee with all joy and peace in believing Let thy Spikenard thy Faith and Love and other Graces send forth their smell that he may break a Box of Spikenard in thy heart and fill and perfume it with the sweet odours of his Love Wait upon him in this Ordinance there he doth by outward and visible Elements seal Pardon and Salvation to thee and believe it he that puts one Seal to thy Sense can put another to thy Heart unto the Seal of Elements he can add the Seal of the Holy Spirit with the outward Bread and Wine thou mayst have the hidden Manna and heavenly refreshments from Christ Whilst thou art renewing thy Covenant and avouching the Lord to be thy God he can own thee and avouch thee to be one of his Children and this will be more to thee than a World Again If thou wouldst be assured walk in Vprightness this is Gospel-perfection the Believers Beauty the soundness of all his Graces the desire and delight of God himself as being a Beam from his own Truth and Simplicity In Scripture he seldom mentions an upright man without setting some mark of Honour upon him Enoch walked with God as one familiar with him Gen. 5.22 and as the Septuagint and after them the Apostle Heb. 11 hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pleased God and how great a Character is this Caleb followed God fully and he is stiled a man of another Spirit such as is above the rate of common Souls Job was a perfect and upright man and God calls him a none such in the Earth The Jews say That the Seventy Souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were worth as much as all the Seventy Nations in the World I am sure the upright the Israelites indeed are the Pearls and Excellent ones in the Earth Now
in Charity draw out thy Alms and with them thy Soul give outward Things and which is more thy Self in real compassion Cast thy Bread upon the Waters upon the Tears of the Poor that it may be carried into the Ocean of Eternity and there found again in a glorious Reward When an Object of Charity meets thee Say not Go and come again pass not by as the Priest and Levite did but as the good Samaritan immediately pour in thy Wine and Oyl into the Wounds of thy Brother omit no Season of Charity Now is thy Seed-time scatter thy good Works Sow upon Blessings as the Phrase is 2 Cor. 9.6 Now Christs Bank is open put in thy Money upon holy Usury and God himself will be thy Pay-Master Be still a-doing of good that in thy little sphere thou mayst resemble him who doth good in the great sphere of Nature His Sun shines and Rain falls every-where Be as like him as thou canst shining in good Works and dropping in Charities upon all occasions Give a Portion to seven and also to eight saith the Preacher Eccles 11.2 From this Text the Jews ground a Custom to give an Alms to seven or eight poor people every day However that be we should be much in Charity Look on the Poor as Gods Altars erected on purpose That upon their Backs and Bellies thou mayst offer up thy Charity as an Odour of a sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God Be rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up a good Foundation against the time to come This is the way to Assurance Works of Mercy and Charity make Faith visible and withal put the Believer into a nearer capacity to have the Love of God manifested to him They make Faith visible no Assurance can be had unless that Query Whether we be in the Faith be resolved in the Affirmative That cannot be done unless Faith become visible and more visible it cannot be than in such good Works which as the holy Blossoms of it prove that there is Life at the root The Mercy and Charity which hang upon it may tell thee That thou hast indeed closed by Faith with the infinite Love and Grace above and from thence brought down all those drops and models of Goodness which thou sheddest forth in thy Conversation The Fruit may prove thy standing in Christ the true Root of fatness and sweetness The Image of Goodness limmed and drawn out upon thy Life shews it self to be from the pure Spirit St. John exhorting the little children to a real practical Love adds this as a singular Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this Love we know that we are of the Truth and shall assure our hearts before him 1 John 3.18 19. It thou love thy Brother in Deed and in Truth assure thy self that thou art of the Truth That the holy truth of the Gospel is mixed with faith in thy Heart and there grows up into the Divine life and likeness Say not That thy Faith is dead or idle as long as it can shew forth the Coats and Garments the Alms and good Works which it hath done these shew the life and labour of it Nay further these put thee into a nearer capacity to have the Love of God manifested to thee God in the Prophet commands them to deal their bread to the hungry to cover the naked not to hide themselves from their own flesh and immediately after lets out himself in sweet Promises to them Thy righteousness shall then go before thee Isa 58.8 that is thy Graces shall visibly appear to thee And again Thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry and he shall say here am I ver 9. that is He will be very near and ready at hand to reveal himself to thee And which is more as St. John tells us he will dwell in thee He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 He dwells in the Divine Life and the Divine Presence dwells in him He hath a Shechinah nay and an Oracle in his own bosom God will speak peace to his Saints Psal 85.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his merciful ones with them he will shew himself merciful to them he will speak from the Mercy-seat they give but ordinary Bread but receive from him hidden Manna they draw out their Souls to their Brethren and he draws out his Soul to them In the last place if thou wouldst be assured set thy heart on God and Christ and Heaven stay no longer in the straits of this lower World take thy flight by Faith and Love into the sphere of Infinity where thy Soul may open and dilate it self for ever Hang no longer about the drops and little particles of Being put forth thy Soul might and main into the great ocean of Sweetness and Perfection which is able to fill up thy two vast Capacities of Mind and Will with its unmeasurable Truth and Goodness Warm thy Heart no more among the little sparks of Good here below soar up upon the wings of Desire and ardent Affection to that pure immutable Sun of Love and Goodness one of whose golden rays of favour will be more to thee than a World Thou hast O Believer a Soul twice Heaven-born once as it is in its own nature an immortal spark from above and again as it bears the impress of Heaven in its Graces And answerably thou hast a double impetus after Happiness one in the instinct of nature thirsting after it and another in the more Divine impulses of Grace pressing towards it as its Center Think not that such a Soul shall ever find rest till it come back to the first point from whence it issued and resign up it self to its Original in the bosom of God Inflame thy Heart with Love to Jesus Christ who is altogether lovely and wholly desirable In his Righteousness thou maist stand and look up to the sweet reconciled face of God In his bleeding wounds thou hast a passage into the infinite bowels of Mercy through the veil of his flesh the way is open to the Holy of Holies The oyl upon his head can fill thee with joy unspeakable and glorious Lift up thine eyes O Believer to that wonder of wonders God manifested in the flesh from whence come all the admirable indwellings of God in the spirits of Men. Set thy Heart upon that Infinite Mass and Treasure of Merit which paid off all the scores to Divine Justice and over and above bought all the Glory of Heaven for poor worms Ravish thy Soul in the rich redundancies and over-measures of the Spirit upon him which overflow and fill so many thousand precious Souls with Grace Look stedfastly upon that pure mirrour of Love Holiness Meekness Goodness Obedience Patience which is in his flesh look till thou shine with the same image or spiritual Idea of Grace look till thou art captivated in raptures and flames of Love towards
dead letter and we must not try the living by the dead The holy Martyr Stephen long since stiled them lively oracles Act. 7.38 and if they are now but a dead letter who hath murdered them who so much as the Enthusiast who goes about to separate the spirit from them If the Law come to a man in the convincing spirit and slay him with his own guilt and set his conscience on fire with some tasts of hell he may with the Apostle call it a killing letter but he will hardly call it a dead one If the Gospel come to him in the converting spirit and open the glories of free-grace and bring in a new creation into his heart he must confess that it is the very savour of life unto life and the power and arm of God to salvation and as the first life of grace is breathed through it into the dead sinner so all the after-gales of the spirit come from it upon the new creature Wherefore whilest the spirit is in the word it cannot be a dead letter and where the spirit is in the heart it will not be called so The Enthusiast for all his swelling words of vanity by calling the Scripture a dead letter proves only the deadness of his own heart and the true believer who owns the Scripture for his rule doth not try the living by the dead but the lesser measure of the spirit in his heart by the greater measure of it in the word Again they say there is a seculum spiritus sancti an administration of all-spirit which is much above all Scriptures and Ordinances but that there should be such a Church-state on earth is a vain dream There are two manifestations of God unto men the one dark and through the glass of ordinances the other by pure and immediate vision as it were face to face There are two states of believers the one a state of weak and imperfect graces the other a state of perfect holiness and purity There are also two places the one is earth a vale of tears and death the other is heaven a region of all blessedness and life eternal The manifestation by ordinances is congruous to weak graces and such a place as earth The manifestation by pure vision is congruous to perfect holiness and such a place as heaven Thus hath the wisdom of God ordered things Methinks the Enthusiast should blush to say that he is above Scriptures and Ordinances here What above the glass and yet below the bliss-making vision above the channels and methods of grace and yet below a state of perfection above the heavenly mediums and yet on earth Oh strange imagination What saith our Saviour Go teach and baptize loe I am with you always to the end of the world Mat. 28.19 20. Ordinances run parallel with this world and the state which is above them is only in the next What saith St. Paul Apostles Prophets Teachers Pastors are all for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ Eph. 4.11 12. Ordinances must continue as long as weaknesses and imperfections and cannot be spared till the top-stone of holiness and perfection be laid in heaven What saith St. John speaking of the heavenly City And I saw no Temple therein Rev. 21.22 No Temple no Ordinances is only for heaven earth must alwaies want and have them O my soul enter not into their secret which cry up the spirit and despise prophesyings be thou where Gods honour dwelleth in the Temple of Ordinances thou mayest see his power and glory Lastly the Quakers talk altogether of the light within which being as they say common to all men can be no other then natural conscience this is the candle of the Lord and much magnified by Heathen Philosophers this is every mans Daemon saith one nay it is the God in us saith another And it is so in such a sense as Moses was a God to Pharaoh preaching the will of God to him and for non-obedience urging him with dreadful plagues For it magisterially dictates the will of God even in the Monarchs of the world and in case they rebel it hath inward stings and scorpions for them Quid aliud voces animam quà m Deum in humano corpore hospitantem saith Seneca Were a Quaker to English it he would go near to do it thus The light within is God manifest in the flesh for in plain terms he will call it Christ as if the candle could becom a Sun of Righteousness In the mean time the devil hath a fetch under the praises of inward light to explode the Scriptures But we must remember that Conscience which is above man is yet below God and though it be a light and a rule yet it must truckle under the greater light and rule in the Scriptures Take conscience before conversion it is clouded and overshadowed with the Fall dark and blind in spiritual things and shall the blind lead the blind till both fall into the ditch must it not go be new-lighted at the Scripture Take heed unto the word as unto a light shining in a dark place saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 The heart of man is but a dark place till the divine word shine into it it is intoxicated with the love of sin and by it as the devils Opium it sleeps at the top of the mast in the ocean of lowdangers and must it not be rouzed up ought not the silver trumpet of the word to be sounded in its ears to prevent an eternal sleep and awaken it unto righteousness should it not go and wash in the pure streams of free-grace and redeeming blood in the Gospel it may be it is infected with errors and by these Satan hath taken sanctuary in the intellectual tower and utters his own dictates as from God and must it be left in such a case should not Satan and all his lying wares be cast out by the word and spirit but because conscience is now at the worst take it after conversion are there then no reliques of darkness which call for more light are there no fits of spiritual drowsiness which need fresh alarums are there no dregs of corruption which want a new purgation are there no spots of error which ought to be wiped out he that presumes a freedom from these hath great reason to doubt whether there be any such thing as conversion found in him and he that confesses them hath as great reason to run to the Scripture to have them rectified But because the Quaker dreams of perfection I will go higher Suppose a man absolutely perfect every wheel in his soul in right motion and his conscience a pure Chrystal without any flaw in it yet must the man be under God and his conscience under the word for his very perfection stands in that subjection and is forfeited as soon as it departs from it Conscience is a rule but a subordinate one it binds and looses but in the power and
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
let down into his heart and another all is drawn up into heaven again His Evidences may be blurred Satan may hold up his pardoned Sins as it were in their old guilt the Arrows of God may stick fast in him and bring qualms and sick-fits upon his Conscience But at that day his Comforts shall be unvariable a nightless Day and a cloudless Horizon an eternal feast upon God and all things in him his Evidences all clear and after but this once shewing forth an everlasting possession of the expected Happiness The Accuser Satan shall be struck dumb at the blessed sentence of pardon and acceptance pronounced by God before Men and Angels God shall never frown or wound him any more but wrap him up in the arms of endless love and joy This will be a day of refreshing indeed Thus much of the perfection of this holy fruit Fifthly The last thing is the excellency of it God himself writes upon the Justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Blessed one Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Pal. 32.1 or as the original Blessednesses is he there is not one single Happiness but a cluster of Beatitudes in this estate Some of these I shall gather off from this Vine First The Justified person hath God for his God these two I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and I will be their God stand in conjunction in the Covenant of Grace Hebr. 8.10 and 12 verses God say the Jewish Rabbins hath the key of the Womb the key of the Grave the key of the Rain and the key of the Heart all that is in the Creation is at his dispose The Justified man hath as I may say a key into God himself He may unlock infinite Treasures and say These everlasting Arms which bear up the World are mine for protection These All-seeing Eyes which guide every wheel in Nature are mine for direction Those immense Bowels which cover all the Creation embrace and sold me up in special Love Those two all-comprizing words My God are in truth utterable by none but such as he is God is called the God of Abraham Isaack and Jacob. Cujus omnes gentes sunt quasi trium hominum Deus esset saith St. Austine as if the Great Lord of all things were appropriated to those three Men. Such honour have all Justified ones God is their own and to make this sure they have bonds and bills under Gods own hand they can in one Promise shew a title to his Power and in another to his Mercy and in a third to his Wisdom and in that I will be their God They can lay a just claim to all that is in him which what it amounts unto is more than the tongue of Men and Angels can express Secondly The Justified person hath Christ for his own When the covetous King of Egypt built an house for his great Treasures the cunning Architect left a loose Stone in the building that so he might have free access thereinto What entrance he had by craft into the Egyptian Treasures that Justified persons have by a fair grant into all the unsearchable riches of Christ Merit Spirit Life Death Righteousness Redemption Fulness Glory all that is in Christ is their own If his Righteousness can stand before God so will they If his Blood can wash away sin they shall be without spot or wrinckle at the Great day If his glorious over-measure of the Spirit cannot fail no more will their supplies of Grace If he ascended up into Heaven it was to prepare a place for them If he make Intercession above they must have access to the Throne of Grace If he sit at the Right-hand of Power and Majesty all their enemies must be made their foot-stool Oh! infinite enjoyment Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither can it enter into mans heart what the total sum of this is Thirdly The Justified man hath a rare priviledge in his Holy duties He hath assistance from access unto and acceptance with the great God in these He hath assistance from him Whilest he stands offering up holy Services fire comes down from heaven upon the Sacrifice The Holy Spirit inflames his heart towards God opening it in Hearing melting it in Alms and pouring it out in Prayer So that in some sence he offers up his Duties as Christ did himself through the eternal Spirit enlivening and impowering him thereunto His voyage to Heaven lies through a tract of various Duties but it never fares with him in these as it did with Sir Hugh Willoughby in his Voyage to Moscovy in which he was by extream Frosts frozen to death The warm influences of Grace keep him from freezing in this divine enterprize His heart which seeks the Lord in his waies shall live and to make it sure our Saviour saies expresly because I live ye shall live also Joh. 14.19 His life is hid with Christ As long as Christ the Head is alive above the Members below shall never fail of quickening grace in their addresses to God Again he hath access unto God in them A man under guilt cannot approach unto God no more than fallen Origen casting his eye upon that of the Psalmist What but thou to do to declare my Word could tell how to Preach but the Justified man may draw near unto him because his heart is sprinckled from an evil Conscience The guilt which would have made him shie of God is done away in Christs blood Whilst others are but in the outward Court in the opus operatum the work done he may enter into the Holy of Holies into communion with God the Holy Spirit conducts him thither through the vail of Christs flesh Moreover which is the crown of all he hath acceptance with God God had respect to Abel and to his offering Gen. 4.4 such a respect as to bear witness to his righteousness by some visible sign as fire from heaven consuming the Sacrifice The justified man is in his measure as Daniel a man of Desires and as the Blessed Virgin graced or highly favoured His Prayers make melody in heaven his Alms are the savour of a sweet-smell he doth not lose so much as a cup of cold water nor shut a door of sense against an approaching Temptation in vain There is a well-pleasingness in all his Services as being ushered forth from the heart into the hand of the Mediatour and there richly perfuned for the Father though as they lie in our hearts there be much smoak and mixture of weakness in them yet as they are in the hand of Christ they are glorified duties acceptable to God through Jesus Christ Fourthly The Justified man hath more of the sweetness of life and its outward Comforts than others He hath more of the sweetness of life than others The Jewish Doctours treating about the estimation of Persons mentioned Levit. 27. say That if a man be adjudged to death for his transgression he is not to be valued
totally perfectly evil but suffering for the Gospel is not meer suffering In temporal losses there may be eternal gain in reproaches a spirit of glory in outward racks inward joys In the Burning-bush God may dwell and death may open a door to life everlasting Hence come the famous Triumphs of Martyrs the Apostle rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ Act. 5.41 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they were honoured to be dishonoured for Christ Others have stiled their Prisons a Paradise and their Iron-Chains a goodly Neck-kercher and at last have kissed the Stake and thanked the Executioner accounting Suffering the only eligible thing in the World Thus Faith destroys all Sins eligibilities and in so doing as the Apostle speaks overcomes the World which is the purest of Victories The great ones who captivated the World outwardly and martially were themselves captivated by it in one lust or other Not unlike Amaziah who subdued the Edomites and was himself taken with their gods But Faith which overcomes inwardly and Spiritually subdues the lusts themselves Further yet Faith doth not only strike at the love of Sin by destroying its eligibilities but by surrendring the Heart to a better Object whilest the love and joy and delight is in Sin it lives as a body with a spirit in it but when these are surrendred up to God and Christ and Heavenly things it becomes inanimate as a dead Carcase This was notably deciphered in Christ crucified the grand pattern of our Mortification he was not only stript and nailed but commending his Spirit to God be gave up the Ghost Answerably in Mortification Sin is not only stript of its eligibilities and nailed by restraints but it dies away in the surrenders of Faith by which the Soul Enoch-like is translated into Heaven and its affections are not here below to animate Sin Were this surrender in perfection Sin could not so much as be as is evident in Christs Humane Nature upon which no spot could fall because it ever was in perfect surrender to his Father And proportionably where it is but in truth only Sin is a-dying because the love and joy whilest in the raptures and triumphs of Faith afford no quickning thereunto hence the Apostle exhorts Walk in the spirit in the elevations of Faith and other Graces and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall grow heartless and be able to do little or nothing Here we see how the dear intimate lusts come to die they cease to be dear as Faith turns the stream of the Heart and give up the Ghost as the love and the joy go out to God It was Luthers method in Reformation that first the Images were to be removed out of the minds of Men and then all would suceed and it is Faiths method in Mortification by holy surrenders to sever the Heart from its lusts and so do the work Moreover Faith casts out the love of Sin by conversing in the holy Word after which the Soul becomes pure and shining like Moses face after he had been with God conversing with the Law it sees a rectitude and pure splendor and then to love Sin is to embrace crookedness and hellish darkness and withal it sees wrath and vengeance threatned against transgressors and then to love Sin is to take death and hell into our bosom Conversing with the Gospel it hath such a fair prospect of Grace and Christ as renders Sin the most ungrateful and unnatural thing in the World Shall God give up his Son his eternal joy to die upon a cross and a man a worm spare a lust a brat of his corrupt Heart Shall Christ pour out his Blood and very Soul to expiate Sin and a Believer a redeemed one fall in love with the Crucifier Shall the holy Spirit come down and dwell in Man as his Temple and he who is so honoured embrace that which is the only offence and grievance to such a guest Or shall the Kingdom of Heaven come down and offer it self and that which is the only bar and obstacle be received Surely a Believer with his eyes open will not do so the more of converse he hath with the Word the less of the love of Sin As Sense when it lies brooding on the Creature inflames the love of Sin So Faith when it dwells on the Word abates it that Concupiscence which at first crept in upon Eve in a slumber of Faith while Sense was doting on the fruit must be driven out again by Faith fixing on the Word and soating above sensible things Thus far how Faith strikes at the love of Sin Thirdly Faith mortifies Sin by watching against all the occasions and inducements thereof The Jews were not to name the Idol-gods the Nazarite was to abstain from the very husk of the grape Valentinian could not bear a little drop of Julians holy-water accidentally sprinkled on his garment without detestation The Children of Samosatane would not play with their Ball after the Ass of the Heretical Bishop Lucius had trod on it but burnt it in the Market-place as unclean Faith is nice and curious it will not go in with such a dissembler nor come nigh the door of such an Harlot as Sin is knowing that the Soul may soon be cheated and adulterated thereby Apprehensions of danger make men watch and to Faith there is no danger like that of Sin If the good man of the house had known when the thief would come he would have watched saith our Saviour Mat. 24.43 Faith knows Sin to be a thief and a murderer to the Soul and therefore sets guards within and without that it may not creep in by the ports of Sense nor rise up out of the deep of the Heart Within there is a watch over the Thoughts and without over the sensible Objects And if a snare appear Faith cries out as the suffering Martyr did when a Box with a Pardon in it was set before him Away with it as you love my Soul During this watch Sin pines and famishes away as in a Spiritual siege the common commerce between the Thoughts and the Objects fails and with it those provisions which use to be made for the flesh Hence our Saviour would have his Disciples To watch and pray that they might not enter into temptation Temptations will offer themselves but the watching Believer will not enter into them by a consent Fourthly Faith mortifies Sin by those actings of Grace which it puts forth in the Believer As Sin the more it is acted makes the fuller blot on the Soul so Grace the more it is acted leaves the purer tincture there You have purified your Souls in obeying the truth saith St. Peter 1 Epist 1.22 Every act of Grace or Obedience doth in its measure purifie from Sin The righteous holds on his way and so grows stronger and stronger Job 17.9 The exercise of Grace renders the inner man more strong and
dependence the Spirit comes down in auxiliary Grace and there is an effectual working in every part of the New Creature Love in the Spirit as it is called Col. 1.8 and Joy in Spirit and every other Grace in the Spirit badding and blossoming and filling the face of the life with holy fruits Only it must be remembred that this Dependence is in Gods way where Christ is experimentally Immanuel God with us to stir up all holy Graces into act Thus Faith actuates Graces in a general way common to them all I now proceed to shew how Faith actuates this or that Grace in particular And that I may not be too prolix in running over all Graces I shall single some choice ones out instead of all First I shall begin with the Grace of Love This is the great Command the sum of the Law a Divine Union with God a bond of perfection among Men a holy fire kindled by the Holy Ghost in the Heart and the sweetness and easiness of every good Duty This Grace whether it respect God or Christ or our Neighbour is actuated by Faith As touching our Love to God it is so actuated The very light of Nature reveals a God an excellent perfect Being or the Being of Beings whose Love as the Philosopher said is the principle and knot of the World and so cannot but raise up a kind of Love toward him the Will being necessarily in some sort affected with such an Excellency though seen but by a glimmering light Not that this Love is a Grace or a Love in sincerity or a Love sicut oportet as an ancient Council speaks or indeed in Scripture sense any love at all because it loves not God above all it must needs be inordinate there being the same ataxy in loving God below the Creature as in loving the Creature above God But that there is a kind of Love such as that dark light can raise up in faln man But when the light of Faith comes it raises up the Grace of Love towards God and ever after moves it into act by the pure discoveries of him which it lets into the Heart from Scripture He is saith Faith an immense infinite Goodness Creatures are but drops of Being lying in the shell of Time but he is the Ocean of all Perfections They may be good for this or that in particular according to their finite kinds and spheres but he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the All-things as the Aposile calls him 1 Cor. 15.28 And withal he is Love it self as another Apostle hath it 1 Joh. 4.16 Not shutting up his Allness in unapproachable Glory but letting it out to Believers His Love though he ever had perfect Blessedness in himself would yet pour out it self in making a world of good Creatures and after Mans fall in giving his only Son to take hold of our nature and in it to bring us back again to himself that he might be our God and make over his Allness to us and all this in pure Grace without any Money or Merit on our part and in rich Mercy towards worms and forlorn Sinners and to assure it to us a Gospel is let down from Heaven full of great and precious Promises such as are the very counterpanes of that Grace and Mercy which flow in his Heart towards Sinners Vnder such musings of Faith Oh how the holy fire of Love kindles What high rates and estimates are set upon him How is the Heart inflamed towards Union to be one spirit with him What Complacencies and Sabbaths of rest doth it find in him What little things are Worlds and Creatures What an All is He and an Heaven his Love What tastes are there of his Goodness and surrenders to his Will and Glory Our Love goes after him as his is by Faith let in upon the Heart Moreover Faith excites the Love of him by every act which it sets about in its recumbencies it enamours the Heart that he should give us leave to lean on his Grace and in so doing bear up our weakness with Promises and sweetly answer us in Pardons and suitable Graces in its Obedience it is very ravishing that he should chalk out such pure ways for us and take us by the hand and teach us to go and at last crown our faultring Obedience with Eternal Life Ordinances which to Unbelief are but dry things are to Faith the lovely Chariots of the Spirit Creatures which are Idols to carnal sense are to Faith fair mirrors of the infinite Goodness and Beauty in the Creator Which way soever Faith turns it self it meets with something or other inflammative of our Love towards him who is every-where and all in all As touching our Love to Christ it is actuated in the same manner A meer notion of Christ raises up some Love towards him as we see in those Temporaries who receive the word with joy Mat. 13.20 which though it be but fructus horarius hints out a kind of Love Such a story as that of Codrus the Athenian King 's dying for his Country could not but affect his Subjects much more must the History of Christ dying for a World do so Only this Love to Christ raised up by meer Evangelical notion as the Love to God raised up by natural is not right nor elevated to a Divine pitch till Faith come and shew him forth by a light more congruous than all literal knowledg and then there is as the Church after an elegant description concludes Totus desideria all loves or desires Cant. 5.16 Every thing in him is attractive What a person is the Eternal Word the brightness of the Fathers glory What an Union Immanuel God and Man in one Heaven and Earth admirably blended together as a pledg that God would be at one with us What a robe is his Righteousness made as broad as the Law and woven all of Love from the top to the bottom What a Laver his Blood able to expiate a world of Sins and save a world of Sinners What a treasure is his Fulness where the Spirit is in over-measure and all its Graces in redundance running over into the vessels of Faith and filling all its capacities Who that hath eyes of Faith would not love him To ask why we should love him is as the Philosopher told him who demanded Why Beauty was so taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blind mans question nothing but blind unbelief can hold us from his Embraces Whatever posture Faith be in whether contemplating him in the Mount or leaning on the bosom of his Grace or hiding in his Wounds or sitting at his feet for Wisdom or lying under his Scepter for power against Sin still it stirs up an holy Love to him It finds his Blood in every Pardon his Spirit in every Grace his Wine-cellar in every Ordinance his Seal in every Promise and his Purchase in every Creature No wonder if St. Paul count all things dung and dross for him And St. Austin
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
he had a true Virtue in him or no but seeming afraid of the Judgment-Seat unto some who begged his Prayers when in Heaven he made this Answer The way thither is not so easie I should esteem it a great Blessing from God if I might obtain Purgatory for many years Into such labyrinths do their Principles lead them The Reason whereof is They espouse Hagar the Covenant of Works and that gendreth to bondage and servile fear They corrupt the great Fountain of Peace and Joy I mean free Justification by Christ and Grace and their Comforts cannot run pure They would compound those two incompatibles of Grace and Merit and patch together Christs Righteousness and their own which in the Apostle is to fall from Grace and make Christ of none effect Gal. 5.4 And what Peace can follow Whilst they look at the Law Conscience will be still murmuring Non recte sacrificasti non recte orasti as Luther hath it This and that was omitted or not well done The Levite and the Priest pass by their Wounds the good Samaritan will not come but alone and without a co-partner to make a Cure If therefore thou wouldst have Assurance thou must build on the right Foundation and lie at the true Fountain of Comfort Thy Love and thy Obedience are but Evidences Christ and Grace are the only Foundation Thy Faith is but a receiver an empty vessel Christ and Grace are the Fountain of Comfort Expect no rest but in his bleeding Wounds look for no comfortable words but from the Mercy-Seat Think not that thy Conscience shall be appeased unless by that Blood of Atonement which appeased God himself or that thy heart may be satisfied in a Righteousness less than that perfect one which satisfied Gods Conscience is his Deputy and cannot go off at lower terms than he himself doth Fix thy heart on Christ and Grace lay the whole stress of thy Soul and Salvation there Lean on thy Beloved appropriate his Merits and Righteousness to thy self Thus Luther tells the menacing Law O Lex Immergo Conscientiam meam in Vulnera Sanguinem Mortem Resurrectionem Victoriam Christi praeter hunc nibil plane videre audire volo O Law I drown my Conscience in the Wounds Blood Death Resurrection and Victory of Christ besides him will I see and hear nothing This is the true way of Peace Jahannes a Berg a zealous Papist in his life found it so at last by his own experience When a Protestant-Friend admonished him then lying on his sick-bed That now he would by Faith apprehend the Merit of his Saviour and acquiesce in the full Expiation by him made for sin he immediately swallowed it as the richest Comfort in the World looking on those in Popery but as so many vain Fig-leaves When Assurance which is the top-stone of Faith is laid in our hearts we have reason to cry out Grace Grace Christ Christ These whatever our Duties and Works have been are the Fundamental Reason of all Peace and Comfort Again He who would have Assurance must not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit but cherish and follow it It cannot but be a great and marvelous thing in his eyes that the holy Spirit should make his heart a Temple or Sanctuary for himself To grieve it is unnatural and to grieve it expecting comfort a contradiction If thou wouldst be assured grieve it in nothing indulg not any lust This is filthiness and to be carried out of the Sanctuary this is an Idol and must not stand in the Temple Bury thy excrements thy superfluity of naughtiness that the holy one may walk in the midst of thee Take away the accursed thing lest his Presence depart Away with thy vomits thy sensual sins lest he complain that there is no place for him left in thy heart Pride not thy self in gifts or graces this is as a smoak in his nose to force him away from thee grieve not him whereby thou mayst be sealed to the day of Redemption He comes to seal Pardon and Peace and Heaven it self to thy Soul why shouldst thou grieve him If thou dost so How canst thou expect to be sealed by him Instead of Sealing he will turn to be thine Enemy as he did to those Rebels Isa 63.10 He will meet thee in some straits of Providence and by one threatning or other as by a drawn Sword stop thee in thy perverse way Oh! do not grieve him gather out of thy heart and life every thing that offends and his Kingdom of Righteousness and Peace and Joy shall be in thee When an holy Truth appears to thee smother it not for a World it comes from the pure Spirit to light thee to Heaven Walk in the Light of it Who knows but that whilst thou art in the way the Spirit may drop some heavenly Cordials upon thy Heart Obedience is the true Road to Comfort Excellent is that in the Prophet Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going is prepared as the morning and he shall come to us as the rain Hos 6.3 Follow him in his Truths and thou shalt know him in his Comforts Gods Face shall be as an aurora or morning lighter and lighter on thy Soul and his Spirit as the dew or rain distilling Divine Consolations on it Believe it every ray of Truth if followed leads to the Joy unspeakable When an holy Motion comes remember who is the Speaker That Spirit who can seal the Promises and print Gods Love on the Heart now calls thee to one Duty or other Hear and thy Soul shall live open thy Sails and the Gales will blow thee to the fair Haven of rest I may say of the Spirits Motion as he in the Prophet doth of the Wine in the Cluster Destroy it not for a Blessing nay the greatest of Blessings a Paraclete a Divine Comforter is in it Follow on and thou shalt come to the Vintage and Wine-cellar of pure Consolations such as Earth assords not The Holy Spirit can witness to thy Graces and seal up Gods favour to thee and be to thee an earnest of Heaven and eternal Life As thou wouldst be assured welcome every motion close with every dictate cherish every illapse of this blessed Monitor let every inspiration find thee as the Seal doth the Wax and the spark the Tinder let thy Soul follow hard after him pursuing him E vestigio step by step as near and close as thou canst possibly This is the true way to rest Again if thou wouldest have Assurance first make Conscience pure and then walk after it That Pardon and Salvation which is founded in Christs Blood and sealed by his Spirit must be recorded and reported in Conscience or else there can be no Assurance If our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.21 He allows what his Deputy doth in us I say make thy Conscience pure Two things chiesly impure it Ignorance is as a