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
not of God condemns the Marâ—ionites as much as if they had been named That 1 Tim. 4.3 forbidding to marry condemns the Eustathians as much as if they had been named That Threatning Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things being general speaks Wrath to every Transgressor as soon as he is such And so that Promise Whosoever believeth shall not perish but have eternal life being general speaks Pardon and Salvation to every Believer as soon as he is such All that believe are justified Act. 13.39 No sooner doth this or that man believe but the Promise speaks to him Thy sins are forgiven thee God saith to him I am thy salvation It may be he doth not understand it at first However here is a sure ground-work for him to believe that it is so and so accordingly he doth as soon as Assurance comes in to him Moreover the Romanists urge That the Doctrine of Assurance puffs up Pride and opens a gap to Licentiousness Unto which my answer is a flat Denial If our Saviour had thought that Assurance would make men like Devils in Pride or Beasts in Licentiousness he would never have said as he did to the Paralytick Thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 Had they told us That such a Worm as Pride would breed out of the Doctrines of Merit and Supererogatory Works it might easily have been believed but that it should drop from such an Honeycomb of Free-Grace as the Doctrine of Assurance is is not reasonably to be imagined Here 's nothing of Merit nothing of our own all is pure meer Grace the Believers Faith and Repentance is of Grace and the Assurance of Pardon and Salvation is Grace upon Grace Sealing-Grace upon Sanctifying And whatever perverse abuse may be made of these the natural tendency thereof is not to Pride for a man after such Graces to forget the great Fountain and set up an Idol of Self-excellency is extreamly unreasonable Just as if he should say Now I am in the bosom of Grace but I would be cast out and be held afar off Now I have the warm Beams of Gods Favour but I would fain be in the Dark again Who would argue thus Will it not be much more proper in an humble admiration to say as David did Who am I and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto 2 Sam. 7.18 Thy Love O God first made me a Vessel of Faith and then filled me with the Oyl of Holy Joy What am I to be such a Receiver All that I am is too small a return nothing of self may remain for an Idol Had they said That Licentiousness might have been fathered on the Sale of Pardons and Indulgences it had been veryright These made Germany and other parts groan with all manner of wickedness But to lay it at the door of Assurance is abominable Machiavel was out in his Politicks when he would have Princes Rule by Fear but he advised so because he knew well enough That following his Rules they could not be Loved and therefore he would perswade them that it was better to be feared The true Obedience for I look not on that which a man is haled unto as such springs out of Love for that fulfils the Law and our Love springs out of Gods for We love him because he first loved us 1 Job 4.19 And the more his Love is revealed the more ours is inflamed towards Obedience In Heaven the blessed Angels who see Gods Face in Glory are most intent upon the doing of his Will on Earth holy men who taste of his favour walk the more accurately for it The joyful sound of Pardon being in the Conscience makes the holy Walk easie and a fair prospect of Heaven sweetens every step Obedience stands no-where so sure as in the Circle of Love which from Gods Love as the first Point is drawn through ours round about into it self Gods Love coming down in Assurance and ours returning in Obedience his being inflammative to ours and ours resignative to him in such circulations of Love their is no room for Licentiousness It 's true Saints after such Pleonasmes of Love may fall foully but do they fall because assured Do they turn Enemies to God because they know themselves Friends Can the Light of Gods Countenance dispose them to Works of Darkness May the choice Influences of Heaven make them earthly and sensual Will the Prodigal once returned run away the sooner from his Fathers House because of the Kiss and Robe and Ring and Fatted Calf freely bestowed upon him Such things as these do involve many Paradoxes and Repugnancies in them and withal cast dirt upon Heaven and blaspheme the Witnessing Spirit and therefore are justly abominable to the Saints who experience the contrary in their own Hearts Having thus far gone through the Enemies Camp I come now to lay down my Thesis to be proved viz. That a Believer may be certainly and infallibly assured of his Pardon and Salvation I say a Believer may be assured an Unbeliever while such is not a subject capable of Assurance he hath Plague-Sores and Tokens of Wrath upon him but as yet never a Beam of Grace or Love the Justice and Holiness of God cannot suffer him to be shined on none of the Promises can speak kindly or comfortably to him his stony Heart cannot receive the Seal and Impress of the Holy Spirit Hence the Apostle saith After ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 after and not before First there must be a new Creature and then a new Name First Gods Image is printed on the Heart and then his Love I say a Believer may be assured but not that all Believers are so A man may be a Babe in Christ and not know it a Child of Light and yet walking in darkness A Believer may live in crepusculo in the twilight or mixt condition of Hope and Fear and so though sure of Heaven not in his own sense assured of it I mean not that he may be assured by an Angel or Voice from Heaven or extraordinary Revelation This the Adversaries will admit but in an ordinary way in the diligent use of such Helps and Means as are common to all Believers Thus the Apostle speaks in common to them all These things have I written to you that believe that ye may know that ye have eternal Life 1 John 5.13 He doth not say some may know it in an extraordinary way but speaks of it as knowable by Believers in common I mean not that he hath this Assurance always or in every point of time perpetual Serenity is not here below Earth is not as Heaven the Sun may be eclipsed the Seal of the Spirit may be clouded Evidences may be blurred and hardly legible It may be God in Sovereignty withdraws or Satan in envy buffets or the Believer lets down his Spiritual Watch or a due estimate is not set on Heavenly Comforts or there
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
darkness and see little or no light their light may be like that in the Prophet Zach. 14.6 neither clear nor dark they may live in crepusculo in a kind of twilight in a mixture of light and darkness Secondly Faith goeth before justification but assurance followeth after it Faith goeth before justification Scripture is express in it by him all that believe are justified Acts 13.39 with the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10.10 the righteousness of God is upon all them that believe Rom. 3.22 we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified Galat. 2.16 might justification go before faith it were possible that a man might be saved in his sins a child of wrath might be in the arms of divine love a captive of Satan might be a son of God a man out of Christ might be justified in him all which are impossible but assurance follows after justification justification is necessarily presupposed to assurance for to believe my sins forgiven that they may be forgiven is absurd to believe my sins forgiven before they be forgiven is false to believe my sins forgiven because I believe so is vain and foolish Remission must first he before it can be manifested to be it must first be granted out of the Court of heaven before there can be any true Copy of it in conscience unless we allow a distinction between a faith of resignation before and a faith of assurance after justification we cannot possibly deal with the Romanists Bellarmine speaking of that special faith whereby a man believes himself just before God in and through Christ puts this Quaere De notis Ecclesiae l. 4. c. 11. Cum incipio credere me esse justum vel sum justus vel injustus si justus non justificor per fidem banc quia ista fides posterior meâ justitiâ si injustus ista fides est falsa when I begin to believe my self just am I just or unjust if just I am not justified by this faith which is after my righteousness if unjust this faith is false neither is there any imaginable way to dissolve this knot regularly without such a distinction between faith as antecedent to justification and faith as consequent Thirdly Faith justifieth us in foro Dei before God assurance justifieth us in foro conscientiae in our feeling and declaratively only Faith justifies us before God all those expressions in St. Paul touching justification by faith are meant of a justification before God I shall name but one or two that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith Gal. 3.11 the justification before God here denied to the Law is attributed to faith And again a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ Gal. 2.16 He doth not say faith declares a man justified for that even the excluded works may do but saith justifies Faith uts on Christ and his righteousness assurance only bears witness that the wedding garment is on Faith waits at the footstool of free-grace to have a pardon sealed in heaven assurance copies it out and proclaims it in conscience unless we admit this distinction we open the flood-gates to Antinomianism Fourthly Faith is a permanent thing an immortal seed which never dies it is built upon the rock of ages and cannot be moved it hangs upon an infallible word the least jot or tittle thereof cannot fall to the ground it is fed with an everlasting spring the holy spirit being in the believer as a well of water springing up to eternal life but assurance is transient now the believer hath nothing but wine and honycombs of grace and a little after he hath a cup of gall and wormwood now a sheet full of celestial joys and comforts is let down to him and then all is taken up into heaven again he is much like Joseph sometimes in the coat of many colours in the visible badges of his fathers love and anon stript and cast into the pit like poor Heman free among the dead and laid in darkness he is a spiritual Heliotrope who is all day in heavenly amours wheeling and turning about to the light of Gods countenance and anon when night approaches contracts his leaves and hangs down his head till there be another Sun it the effence of faith be in assurance the believer stands as it were upon a sea of glass in a very lubricous condition 't is well with him whilest he hath the light of Gods countenance whilest Gods spirit bears witness to his that he is a child of God but what if God withdraw and retire as it were into his unapproachable light what if the crannies of the heart be all shut up so that neither the sunny beams of Gods favour nor yet the starry graces in the heart can appear what if the arch-enemy Satan come with those instruments of death the threatnings and rake in the old wounds of sin and join the darkness of temptation to the darkness of corruption in the believer to cause if it were possible utter darkness must he be an Apostate a cast-away a man fallen from grace God forbid St. Bernard speaking of the manifestation of Gods love cries out Rara hora brovis mora O si durâsset it is a rare hour but a short stay Oh that it would continue with me the believers standing is not in it but in his union with Christ this was notably exemplified to us in Christ when he cried out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me Math. 27.46 the hypostatical union was not dissolved but the present vision substracted in like manner the believer the man in Christ when in desertions and temptations hath a sure conjunction with Christ even whilest there is a suspension of comforts unless we own this distinction we cannot maintain the doctrine of perseverance against the Remonstrants Fifthly Faith is the first-born of all graces and leads the van to all the rest it is the mother-grace and as it were teems out all other graces and no wonder for it unites us to Christ out of whose fulness we receive grace for grace and into whose image we are changed from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord but assurance follows after faith and all other graces This will be evident if we consider the manner how assurance is produced it is not an Enthusiasm a voice an internal locution speaking to the heart some such words as these thou art in Gods favour or thy sins are forgiven or thou art a son of God no it is in another way the holy spirit doth so irradiate the heart in its reflections and all the pretious graces lodging there that it plainly appears that the grace of God is there of a truth as it was with the blind man in the Gospel when his eyes were opened he could look abroad in the world and say here 's the earth
and there 's the sea and yonder 's the Sun Moon and Stars sensibly pointing from one creature to another so it is with the believer when he is irradiated by the holy spirit he can look into his own heart and experimentally say this is the pretious faith and that is the love in incorruption and the other is the meekness of wisdom and so go over all the parts of the new creature formed within him or at least over such or so many of them as may assure him that he is in a state of grace This is the way of assurance first there is a constellation of faith and other graces in the heart then these graces irradiated by the holy spirit send forth a kind of splendor which the soul reflecting on it self taking up it comes to attain assurance well knowing that such and such things accompany salvation and import no less then a Divine favour notable is that of St. Paul in whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 Mark after ye believed first there must be faith and the train of graces attend thereon and then comes the seal of the spirit of promise the same spirit which endited the promises in the word comes and seals them on the heart whereas in the word there are such promises made to faith and love and holiness the irradiating spirit plainly discovers that faith and that love and that holiness to be indeed in the heart and so seals up the promises to the believer in particular as if it had expresly said this or that promise belongs to thee Hence the believer so sealed may say of the promises as Origen did of those Scriptures which did much affect him haec est Scriptura mea this promise is mine and that promise is mine nay all the Land of promise as much as I can set my foot on is mine own There are three seals to the promises first God seals them for true in the blood of his own Son in whom all of them are Yea and Amen then man seals them for true by faith he that believeth sets to his seal that God is true and then again God seals them for true to the believer in particular by his irradiating spirit Faith then goes before all other graces but assurance comes after them as being no other then the clear evidence of their true existence in the soul Unless we allow this distinction we gratifie the Enthusiasts who declaim against all marks of grace as legal things and sandy foundations Sixthly Faith stands upon the word of God purely totally and entirely In point of expectation it will not look without a word of promise in point of obedience it will not stir a foot without a word of command in point of doctrine it will not lend an ear without a word of instruction Hence Reverend Calvin saith Inst l. 3. c. 2. Perpetuam esse fidei revelationem cum verbo nec magis ab eo posse divelli quà m radios à Sole unde oriuntur Faith hath a perpetual relation to the word and can no more be sundred from it then the beams from the Sun from whom they arise should it be sundred from it it would lose its nature and cease to be faith but assurance doth not stand so purely totally and entirely upon the word this is also manifest by the manner of attaining assurance that is not made axiomatically in an Enthusiastical way as if there were an inward voice saying thou art justified but discoursively and after some such manner as in this practical Syllogism Whosoever believeth his sins are forgiven but I believe Ergo my sins are forgiven Here the conclusion which imports assurance in it stands upon two propositions the Major is meerly grounded upon the word but the Minor stands upon spiritual sense and experience caused by the holy spirit irradiating the soul in its reflections upon its own estate therefore assurance which is comprized in the conclusion doth not stand so meerly upon the word as faith doth Thus the Learned Pemble speaking of that Syllogism saith the major is of faith the minor of sense and experience And the conclusion of both but chiefly of faith as it follows on the premises by infallible argumentation and partly of sense as it is founded on the inward experience of Gods grace working upon our souls What the doctrine of Faith is is to be sought in Bibles but whether there be a particular act of faith or not such as is comprized in the minor Com. R m. 8. cap. must be looked for in the heart Fides non creditur sed habetur sentitur in corde saith Learned Pareus Faith is not believed but had and felt in the heart Actus reflexivus in ipsam fidem quo credo me credere non est ipsa fides sed potiùs sensus fidei Loc. Com. 689. saith Maccovius The reflexive act whereby I know that I believe is not properly faith but the sense of it But you will say if the minor stands upon sense and experience how can the conclusion which imports assurance be de fide And Bellarmine argues thus D. justificat l. 3. c. 8. Nothing can be certain with a certainty of faith unless it be conteined in the word of God upon which if it lean not it is not faith but that such or such a man is justified in particular is not conteined in the word neither can it be deduced from thence for then I must argue thus the word saith All that truly turn to God shall find mercy but I do truly turn to him therefore I am sure of mercy in which the minor is not in the word By the way we may observe what an excellent foundation the Jesuite layes for his disputation Fides non est nisi verbi divini auctoritate nitatur that is not faith which is not bottomed on the authority of the divine word Oh rare if this were believed what would become of Popery What of all the hay and stubble of their vain Traditions Why do they play the wily Gibeonites with their old bottles and clowted shoes obtruding their unwritten verities and mouldy customs upon the Church of God I can be assured of no Religion which is not founded on Scripture But for answer The certainty of the Doctrine of Faith which respects the whole Church is to be found in the Scripture but the certainty of an act of Faith which is in a particular man is to be found in the heart by spiritual sense and experience and so in Bellarmines minor the certainty of my turning to God stands not upon the word but upon spiritual sense and experience yet nevertheless the conclusion which imports assurance is de fide for every conclusion is so which stands upon one proposition contained in Scripture and upon another gathered from sense or experience as the case is in all such practical Syllogisms yet withall as I said at first the
whose origine is light such ignorant ones cannot resign sin to them because unknown is no burden holiness to them because unknown is no beauty Christ and grace to them because unknown are no attractives and how can they resign resign recumbentially they cannot for they know not the promises resign obedientially they cannot for they know not the precepts resign in an humble docibleness they cannot for they know not so much as their want of knowledge Again some sins though unknown carry in the matter of them a direct repugnancy to resignation and so to faith For instance every man hath some natural Popery in his heart he would be justified by a righteousness of his own The Jews being asked whether they believed to be saved by Christs righteousness made this answer every fox must pay his own skin to the flayer every man must stand upon his own righteousness he that doth thus need not cannot resign to Christs righteousness he need not for why should he go out of doors for a righteousness which he hath within in his own heart and he cannot for justification by our own righteousness and justification by Christs are contraries and so are a dependance on our own righteousness for justification and a dependance on Christs for it Hence the Jews when they went about though ignorantly to establish their own righteousness could not believe they submitted not themselves to the righteousness of God saith the Apostle Rom. 10.3 their own unresigned righteousness kept them from believing as being in the very matter of it contrary thereunto Moreover some sins which may not be known for fins in the matter of them may yet be darlings Delilahs and as the Hebrew word imports exhausters such as drain out the very marrow of the heart I mean the prime love choice desire and supream delight thereof These in respect of their intimate conjunction with the soul are barrs to resignation and so to faith How can ye believe which receive honour one of another saith our Saviour Job 5.44 their darling vain-glory made their believing impossible After the same manner all lawful things when once they are set up as Idols in the heart and the love and the joy dance before them are obstacles to faith thus we find They would not come to the marriage-supper of the Gospel and why their darling farms and merchandise kept them away Math. 22.5 Haec vincula hae catenae quae carnales constringunt these are the bonds and the chains which keep men from resignation and the more dangerously because they lie invisible and hid among the stust of our lawful things Christ and earthly things saith a Great Divine come often in competition in every unjust gain Christ and a bribe in every oath Christ and a blasphemy in every sinful fashion Christ and a rag or excrement in every piece of vain-glory Christ and a blast in every intemperance Christ and a vomit whatever the thing be in it self lawful or sinful as soon as it becomes the Idol of the heart it proves an obstacle to faith Thirdly All known actual sins are not absolute barrs to resignation and so not to faith there are peccata quotidianae incursionis sins of meer infirmity such as are not the proper formal issues of deliberation but the inevitable effluviums of humane frailty these may be in a man and may be known to be in him and yet through grace he may resign notwithstanding these black moats slying round about him his faith may look up to the mercy-seat on the other side known actual sin issuing out of deliberation if it be but in one single act doth whilest it is acting put a barr to resignation and so to faith for that single act is rebellion and how can a man whilest he is knowingly in arms against God resign it is as the sin of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.25 and how can a man who is virtually in covenant with the devil enter into terms with God that faith is not truly recumbential which is not also obediential neither doth it can it indeed lean upon Gods grace whilest his holiness is rejected And if such known deliberate sin in one single act put a bar to faith much more will it do so when it is in a course and series of successive rebellions Thus St. John saith whosoever sinneth that is makes a trade and runs a course of known sin hath not seen him that is Jesus Christ who was manifested to take away sin 1 Joh. 3.6 such an one though never so full of Scriptural notions never yet saw a crucified Christ by faith never yet looked upon the right mercy-seat never yet set foot on the precious promises of the Gospel Christ and Belial cannot be in concord for Christ is a holy Christ a Christ upon his throne and the trader in sin is a man of Belial a man as the Hebrew word imports absque jugo who casts off the holy yoke from his heart and life Fifthly That faith stands in resignation may appear from the act of resignation made by faith Faith in Enoch resigned up his life and in a spiritual sense every believer is by faith translated Enoch-like he is not in the lower world but so far as he believes taken up by God and conversing in heaven Faith in Abraham resigned up his only one his Isaac and every believer every child of Abraham treads in the same steps of faith going up into Moriah into the vision of God and there offering up the only one of the heart the darling love and joy there Faith in Moses resigned up Egypt and in that resigned up all the world for in doing thereof his eye was not on some other part of the visible world but on the invisible God and in every believer faith takes the world and casts it behind his back as dung and dross for the excellency of Christ regard not your stuff saith faith all the Land of promise a heaven of glory is before you wonderful are the surrenders which faith makes in the believer it surrenders up his understanding to super-rational mysteries Meer reason goes no farther then its own sphear of natural notions but the line of faith runs as far as supernatural mysteries such as the lingua lutea the clay tongue of man cannot utter such as lippus oculus the weak eye of reason cannot see Again it surrenders up his will to super-moral self-denials The Moralists self-denial is but the artifice of his reason but the believers is a very great mystery The Moralist denies only the beast the brutish lusts in his sensitive affections but the believer denies the more fine and spiritual fins in the Will it self The Moralists design is only to advance the Empire of Reason over the lower faculties but the believers is to advance God and his holy Will over himself and all that is in him Moreover it surrenders up his affections to super-sensual joyes and pleasures The Sensualist is for the Paradise of sense
very instant of believing a man is justified before God The Antinomians indeed makes as if it came forth much sooner even as early as eternity it self as if it were an immanent eternal act in God But the error of this opinion may be easily made appear For First An immanent act abides in God and doth not as the transient make any change at all in the creature but in justification there is a great change made in man though not a Physical one such as is made in sanctification yet as moral and a relative one the sins which before cried at heaven gates for vengeance are now cast into the depths of the sea the soul which was at the brink of hell is now in the suburbs of heaven the pure beams of grace breaking forth upon it the prison garments of guilt are changed and the righteousness of God is upon the believer the blood of the Lamb is upon his conscience and the damning destroying Law passes over him Again an immanent act in God is the same with Gods essence and not as the transient the same with the effect produced Gods willing is but the divine essence with an habitude to such an object his decrees are himself decreeing otherwise the simplicity of his nature would be overthrown such an immanent act is the decree of justification but justification it self is an effect in time else Gods judicial act may be exercised about a non-existing creature a non ens may be justified a man that is not may be made righteous fin may be remitted before it is committed absolution may anticipate guilt and righteousness Law all which are things hard to be swallowed If any thing in justification look like an immanent act it is either Gods complacential love or the imputation of righteousness but that neither of these are such is clear in Scripture which expresses the same as things future he that loveth me shall be loved of my father saith our Saviour Joh. 14.21 righteousness shall be imputed to us if we believe Rom. 4.24 a shall be cannot be put upon an immanent act futurity cannot be found in eternity Secondly If justification were an immanent eternal act what means a Mediator God and man were at one before would the Lord of all be made under his own Law to bring in righteousness into an already righteous world would he shed his precious blood on a cross to purge away sins eternally forgiven was his sweet-smelling sacrifice to atone a reconciled God did he pay down so great a sum of merits to purchase a freedom for such as were free-born long before doth he still intercede with God to save those from wrath who before were secure from it by an eternal justification this opinion seems to make void the whole satisfaction of Jesus Christ what the Apostle said of the Law if righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 the same may be said here if righteousness come any other way then by the death of Christ if it come by an immanent eternal act then Christ is dead in vain Thirdly No man can be at once in two contrary states in a state of wrath and in a state of love too every man whilest an unbeliever is in a state of wrath the wrath of God abides on him Joh. 3.36 God is angry with him every day Psal 7.11 and whilest he is in a state of wrath he cannot be in a state of love Joseph whilest he was in prison in his old cloaths was not in change of raiment in Pharaohs Court St. Paul reckoning up a black Catalogue of sins barring men from inheriting the kingdom of God saith of the unconverted Corinthians such were some of you 1 Cor. 6.11 as yet they were in the chains of sin and wrath and immediately after speaking of them as converted he saith but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God then the prisoners were become favourites in the Court of heaven and stood in their robes of grace and righteousness then and not before as evidently appears by the words were and are relating to two distinct states in two distinct times they were not could not be in both states at once but if justification be eternal a man may be at once in contrary states as an unbeliever he may be under wrath and yet as a justified one under love I know a man under wrath may be under a love of benevolence which is the purpose of God to bestow grace and glory but he cannot at the same time be under a love of complacence which is directly contrary to a state of wrath nevertheless eternal justification makes a man capable of both at once Fourthly Justification and sanctification are inseparable companions no more to be sundred then the merits and spirit of Christ which are the respective causes thereof where grace pardons there it heals where Christ is made righteousness there he is made sanctification for he cannot be divided and taken by piece-meal but if justification be an eternal act then these twins of grace may be parted an unconverted man may be justified because that is from eternity and withall unsanctified because unconverted in which case he must needs be in a strange posture at once under two contrary reigns of grace and sin partly in Christ as justified by his blood and partly out of Christ as void of his spirit the light of Gods countenance shines upon him and yet within he wears the image of Satan a blessed one he must needs be because his iniquity is forgiven and an anathema too because no lover of Jesus Christ he is a justified and accepted man and yet a man in his sins all which absurd consequences are unavoidable if justification be an eternal act Thus much may suffice to discover the error of this opinion only there are two Quaeres which must be answered First The first Quaere is this If justification be not an eternal immanent act is not there a change in God God displicentially hates all the workers of iniquity and such are all men before conversion if therefore before conversion he hate and after it he love them is there not a change in him I answer no there is none God such is his infinite sanctity cannot but complacentially love righteousness and displicentially hate iniquity love and hatred are not in God as sin and righteousness are in man in man sin and righteousness succeed one the other but in God love and hatred are eternal and simultaneous the change therefore which is where the succession is and not where the eternal sameness is is in man only and not in God the man who was in a state of sin and so the object of Gods displicential hatred is now in a state of righteousness and so the object of Gods complacential love thus the Apostle you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works
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
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
other of Hope which afforded her great Comfort in her Torments Caspar Olevian a German Divine being asked by one Whether he were certain of his Salvation answered just at the brink of death Certissimus I am most sure of it Mr. Bolton being near death expressed himself thus My whole heart is filled with joy I feel nothing within but Christ Mr. Hieron said His Soul was full of joy as if be had seen Heaven open to receive him Such Paradises of Joy Sabbatisines of Spirit and Prepossessions of Glory have the Saints found in their way to Heaven Again there being an infallible Connexion between truth of Grace and Pardon and also between Perseverance in Grace and Salvation a Believer may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon and again he may be assured of his Perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation These two demonstrated will make good the Point First I say A Believer may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon which cannot but be where those are And for the truth of Grace a double Testimony may be vouched one from Conscience the other from the holy Spirit the Apostle mentions both The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it co-witnesseth with ours and in the mouth of two such Witnesses there must needs be establishment Hence St. Chrysostome on these words breaks out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What scruple can remain after such a Testimony I shall begin with the testimony of Conscience Conscience is a spy in our bosom which marks every thing a spiritual Eccho which returns our actions and makes them sound again after they are past and gone from us By it the Soul turns its eyes in ward and becomes a Speculum or Looking-glass to it self representing to it self its own acts By it it bends back the beams of general Truths and applys them to Particulars That Righteousness and Virtue should be followed is an universal Truth but Conscience can reflect it back upon us and bids us do so in particular and if we indeed do it Conscience will say Euge this or that is well done by us The Testimony of Conscience was of great repute among Pagans Plato calls it his Daemon and Menander a God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he Conscience is a God to Mortals And Seneca Deus in humano corpore hospitans God dwelling in an humane body Hence came Pythagoras's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-reverence And Sextius his parly with himself every night what Vice he had in the day resisted and Virtue promoted And the Satyrists complaint touching the neglect of the reflexive faculty Vt nemo in sese tentat descendere nemo few or none would descend into themselves Among Christians the Testimony of Conseience must needs be sacred their Consciences not lying as the Pagans in their blood or natural pollution but being purified by the precious Blood and Spirit of Christ their lamps of Reason not lying as the others in the damp and darkness of the fall but brought forth and new-lighted at the Scripture and Sun of Righteousness shining therein as in its orb Conscience in a Believer is as St. Bernard hath it Purum Religionis speculum a pure glass of Religion And as another Major pars clavium the greatest key in the Church such an excellent Witness may well speak in this Point In David it speaks thus O Lord I have walked in my integrity Psal 26.1 that is in the exercise of Faith Love Obedience and other Graces which as so many Pearls make up Sincerity In Hezekiah it speaks much after the same manner Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Isa 38.3 And it is the more to be noted because Conscience saith so in a way of appeal even to God himself and by a right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holds up the truth of its Graces to so pure a Sun This is such a Testimony as St. Paul joys and glories in 2 Cor. 1.12 Est quidam modus in Conscientia gloriandi ut noveris fidem tuam esse sinceram spem tuam certam caritatem tuam sine simulatione saith St Austin There is a kind of glorying in conscience when thou knowest thy Faith sound Hope certain and Love undissembled A Man that repents believes and loves may by the pulse of Conscience know that he doth so True saith Bellarmine he may know that he doth them but not that he doth them sicut oportet as he ought to do them Unto which I answer Conscience according to its Light and Line of Principles can bear Witness to Integrity natural Conscience to natural Integrity and renewed Conscience to gracious Integrity An instance of the former we have in Abimelech whose Conscience told him That he meant not to take away another mans Wise Gen. 20.5 and of the latter in St. Paul whose Conscience told him That his Conversation was in simplicity and godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Conscience which Witnesses Integrity must look beyond the meer matter of Acts into the modus for therein Integrity especially such as is gracious consists more than in the Acts themselves Unless a man know that he repents believes and loves sicut oportet he cannot know his own Sincerity and if he know his Sincerity he knows that he repents believes and loves aright A Believer converses much between Scripture and Conscience fetching his Notions from the one and his Evidences from the other In the Word he sees the Characters of Grace and in the Conscience the state of his Soul True Repentance mourns over sin as sin hates it as the greatest evil and casts it away as an accursed thing saith the Word and such is thy Repentance saith Conscience True Faith prizes Christ overcomes the World and works by Love saith the Word and such a Faith is thine saith Conscience True Love is inflamed from Gods sweetly acquiesces in him and obedientially resignes to him saith the Word and such a Love is thine saith Conscience Interroga cortuum Ask thy heart If Love be there saith St. Austin Ask again If Faith and Repentance be there thou hast an Oracle within that can tell thee what thou lovest most trustest in most and grievest for most that can shew thee thy Uprightness witness the Truth of thy Graces and feast thee with Divine Comforts such as pass understanding It was a great Comfort to the Nobleman when his Servants met him and told him Thy Son liveth John 4.51 But oh What is it to the Believer when such an one as Conscience comes and saith Thy Faith liveth or thy Love burneth towards God or thy Repentance is pure godly forrow Then the Oyl of Joy is upon every Grace and the Cup of Consolations runneth over Conscience becomes a banquetting-house and Assurance as Latimer calls it is the Sweet-meats We have heard one Witness but the Supream who drops all
the Suavities and dictates all the comfortable words in conscience is the Holy Spirit The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God saith the Apostle Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the Gifts or Graces but the very Spirit it self beareth witness that not only out wardly in the Word but in wardly in and with our spirit and its Testimony is That we are the children of God And the import of that Testimony over and above the title of Sonship is That our Faith which makes us his children Gal. 3.26 is true and our Love and other Graces which manifest us such are so also And what a Testimony is this To call it dubious or opinionative or conjectural is blasphemy Cornelius a Lapide as one under a necessity confesses this Testimony certain in it self but as a Salvo to the Doctrine of doubting adds That it is not certain to us But this is to forget the Apostles words That the Spirit witnesseth it in and with our spirit and withal absurdly to say That the Spirit indeed witnesseth but would not be believed or rather That it witnesseth and witnesseth not because an unheard Testimony is as none Bellarmine saith The Spirit witnesseth not by an express word but by an Experiment of internal peace and suavity which begets but a conjectural certainty I answer It 's true that it is not by an express word but as Learned Dr. Ward well observes The Question is not de modo Testandi but de Re. It is certain there is such a Testimony and that proceeding from the Spirit of Truth must be infallible and being made to our spirit must be known to us and so beget a true certainty in our hearts Nevertheless to illustrate this Point I shall a little consider the Modus of it The Spirit bears witness to ours partly by an application of the Promises to the heart partly by an irradiation of the Graces there These two make up the sealing of the Spirit of Promise given after believing Ephes 1.13 The Spirit applies the Promises to the Heart that is one part of the Seal As the spirit of bondage applies threatnings and thereby makes a kind of Hell in Conscience so the Spirit of Adoption applies Promises and by it makes a kind of Heaven there The same Spirit which endited the Promises of Pardon and put them into Scripture Seals and in a way of appropropriation puts them upon the Heart as if it should say This and that Promise is thine like that in the Prophet Speak to her heart that her iniquity is pardoned Isa 40.2 Now when the Promises come so close and pour out their sweetness into the heart the Believer may not guess only but know that true Faith and Repentance are there God and his Promise speak peace only to Saints and not a comfortable Word to impenitent sinners I have read of one who apostatized from his profession and on his sick-bed began to apply the Promises to himself but alas after a little seeming ease he cried out in despair That the Plaister would not stick God only can make it do so and he makes it do so only to penitent Believers and they may conclude the Truth of their Graces when the Gospel and its Promises come to them in the Holy Ghost and in much Assurance as the Expression is 1 Thessal 1.5 Again as another part of he Seal The Holy Spirit irradiates the Graces in the Heart The same Spirit which formed them there at first comes and owns them as its own off-spring bringing in such a Divine light and making such an efficacious representation thereof that the Believers Conscience may as the Apostle speaketh in another case Rom. 9.1 Bear witness in the Holy Ghost and say This is sound Repentance indeed and that is Love undissembled and the other is Faith unfeigned and so of other Graces in the new Creature These Graces carry in themselves a kind of heavenly light rendring them visible But when the Spirit comes it puts such a gloss and oriency on them that the Believer may know them to be freely given to him of God that this and that Grace are so given and such and such are the sure marks of the truth thereof Such a Testimony as this made learned Rivet at his dying hour break forth into these words Expecto credo persevero dimoveri nequeo Dei Spiritus meo spiritui testatur me esse ex filiis suis O amorem ineffabilem I expect believe persevere and cannot be moved Gods Spirit witnesseth to mine That I am one of his Children Oh ineffable Love This anointing is truth and no lye as St. John tells us 1 Joh. 2.27 It manifests its testimony and it self together The Believer cannot doubt who the Witness is or what he speaketh both are plain and satisfactory Our Saviour Christ speaking of the Spirit of Truth tells his Disciples Ye know him for he dwelleth with you Joh. 14.17 If the Spirit do but pass by and drop in an holy motion into the heart he may be known in it much more when he dwells and witnesses there Cul. White-stone The eloquent Culverwell compares him to the Sun The Sun saith he by its glorious Beams does Paraphrase and Comment upon its own glittering Essence and the Spirit Displays himself to the Soul and gives a full Manifestation of his Presence And a man may sooner take a Glow-worm for the Sun than an experienced Christian can take a false Delusion for the Light of the Spirit We have heard the two Witnesses the Holy Spirit by an application of Promises and irradiation of Graces witnessing to the Conscience and the Conscience ecchoing and resounding that Testimony to the Believer And hence it appears That he may be assured of the truth of his Graces and so of his Pardon It remains to treat of the second thing that is That he may be assured of his perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation He knows That his Graces are true and withal That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things having or containing Salvation Heaven buds and Eternal Life begins in them He that believeth hath everlasting life Joh. 5.24 He hath it in the first-fruits and irrevocable earnest of it The Seed of God in him will grow up into Immortality the Well of living Water will spring up into everlasting Life Only it may be alledged That these Graces may be lost Unto which I answer Abstractively in their meer creature-essence they may but in their dependance they cannot Their Standing if on mans Will only might fail but their Foundation on the Covenant of Grace cannot The Believer may not only see his own Graces but beyond them that Eternal Election which is the great Fountain thereof Reflecting on the true Graces in his heart he may say Here is the Faith of Gods Elect and Here is the Love and Patience of Gods Elect. Spiritual Blessings are given according to Election
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
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
yet now hath he reconciled Col. 1.21 All the change was in the Colossians none in God the Lord loveth the righteous saith the Psalmist Psal 146.8 as soon as a man becomes righteous the divine complacence doth embrace him which it did not could not before because there was no sutable object Secondly The second Quaere is this If justification be not an immanent eternal act what is the transient act by which God justifieth a believer in this life Unto this much is not spoken among Divines some speak of a sentence before the Angels as if God did declare before them who is righteous but this I think is altogether unscriptural others speak of a sentence in conscience but this is but the manifestation of justification Let us first distinguish of justification and then answer There is a double justification constitutive justification whereby God maketh us just in this life sentential justification whereby God pronounces us just at death and judgment Constitutive justification is the foundation of sentential for the true God will not pronounce us just unless we are such and sentential justification is the compleature of constitutive For here there is sententia judicis crowning us as righteous the Quaere then being touching constitutive justification in this life I conceive with worthy Mr. Baxter that God justifies a believer by the moral agency of the Gospel by which as by his Grand Charter and Law of grace he doth make over Christ and his righteousness to the believer neither need this seem strange every humane instrument doth moraliter agere A Princes pardon conveys an impunity a Charter an estate a Law a title or right a Testament a Legacy and shall not the Gospel do as much to believers God doth constitutivè justifie the believer by making him righteous and makes him righteous by making over to him the righteousness of Christ and that he makes over by the Gospel which is his Pardon Charter Law and Testament of grace conveying the same upon believing no sooner doth a man believe but the conditional promise becomes absolute As the old Covenant running do this and live would have justified upon perfect obedience so the New running believe and be saved doth justifie upon believing as man sinning is condemned by the Law of works so man believing is justified by the Law of grace Hence the Gospel is called the ministration of righteousness as the Law is of condemnation 2 Cor. 3.9 the power of God to salvation to the believer Rom. 1.16 quia nos per Evangelium justisicat Deus because God justifies us by the Gospel as Reverend Calvin hath it on the 17th verse Virga virtutis A rod of strength Psal 110.2 that is in the Justification of men saith the excellent Dr. Reynolds and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus making us free from the law of sin and death as many Divines interpret that place Rom. 8.2 Upon which Pareus doth observe Liberatio à condemnatione legis Deo Christo Evangelio tribuitur Deo ut Authori Christo ut Mediatori Evangelio ut Organo Freedom from the coudemnation of the Law is attributed to God as the Author to Christ as the Mediatour to the Gospel as the Instrument God makes over Christ and his righteousness unto the Believer by the Gospel as by his Charter and Law of grace This is the transient act by which God doth justifie us in this life Having thus removed the Antinomian Error out of the way I shall resume my first Proposition That Justification is an holy fruit growing upon Faith in the very instant of believing a man is justified this doth appear several waies First In Justification there must be a matter or foundation a Righteousness and a perfect one such as answers the law which man is under The Law demands of us two things perfect Obedience due from us as rational Creatures and penal Suffering due from us as sinful Creatures The first Gods holiness presses for in the Command and the last Gods Justice calls for in the Threatning The Believer who hath nothing in himself hath enough in Christ to answer both Christ fulfilled all the righteousness of the Command and so satisfied Gods Holiness Christ bore the curse of the Threatning and so satisfied Gods Justice Hence he is the end of the Law to the Believer Rom. 10.4 as if the Apostle had said Whatever the Law can ask the total sum of it is in Christ and from him redounding upon the Believer as a member of his body It was a lamentable moan which Joannes Seneca made upon his Death-bed Mel. Adam in vitis Jureconsul Germanorum In vitâ nostrâ habuimus said he qui pro nobis chorum frequentarent qui pro nobis agros colerent qui pro nobis Missas celebrarent horas canonicas orarent sed ubi nunc unum reperiemus qui pro nobis in Gehennam descendat In this life we have those that will go to the Quire for us and plow for us and say Mass and pray canonically for us but where is there one that will go to Hell for us But the Believer blessed man that he is need not say who will go to Hell for me Christ was made a Curse for him neither need he ask Who will fulfil perfect obedience for me Christ hath done every jot and tittle thereof The Believer is a man in Christ and so stands in the pure robes woven all of Love and Holiness by his Saviour unless the Law can find a spot or a false thread in these he will be must be recius in Curiâ if the Law offer to hale him down to hell he will do as Tamar when brought forth to be burnt shew forth the Bracelets and the Signet the precious blood and merits of Christ which God cannot but own as the price of Redemption and Salvation Secondly In justification there must be a Justifier It is God that justifieth and whom doth he justifie but the Believer in Jesus unto him he makes over Christ and his righteousness unto him he seals an actual pardon and remission his sins are covered never to appear more in their ugly hue blotted out never to be read more in their bloody characters cast into the depths of the Sea and who can fetch them up again sought for and not found and who can charge them afresh upon the Believer St. Paul would have the debts of Onesimus put upon his account Philem. v. 18. The Believers sins do not stand as they did at first upon his score but upon Christs who came to make an end of them When the swarms of Flies were upon the Egyptians and not upon the Israelites the Text saith God made a division or as it is in the original A redemption between them Exod. 8.23 That swarms of Guilt slie about Unbelievers and none about Believers it is because the redemption is between them on the one hand neglected and on the other applied We are justified freely by