in Iesus Christ and favour with God when you die and As ever you hope to be set at Christs Right hand among his Sheep and to be Sentenced by Christ with them to his Everlasting Kingdom at that great and glorious day of his Appearing That you use all possible Care diligence and endeavours by the Grace and assistance of the Holy Spirit of God against all these fore-mentioned impediments unto Salvation and all such like that they may be removed out of your way to happiness and not be any hindrances at all to your Eternal Glory and Salvation And that this may be the more effectually enterprized and performed by you Let these Ensuing Instructions sink deep into your hearts and be most studiously seriously and sincerely pursued and practiced in your Lives viz. 1. Be deeply and thoroughly Convinced of the extream Sinfulness and wretchedness of your Natural State and Condition in the first Adam How you were shapen in iniquity and conceived in Sin Yea dead in Sins and trespasses and by Nature Children of Wrath even as others And How from this Original and Vniversal Corruption of your Natures your whole course of life is answerably corrupted also Every imagination of the thoughts of your hearts and consequently every word of your mouths and every Action throughout your lives being Evil onely evil continually evil so long as you continue in your Natural state and condition So then while you remain in the flesh you cannot please God nor can have anâ— actual Hope of Salvation upon any solid ground 2. Hence you may evidently See and must needs conclude That there is so great a necessity of a Supernatural Remedy against this your Natural State of Sin and Misery and against all the Sinfulness of your Natural Conversation by the Application of Jesus Christ unto your Souls and the Effectual operation of his Spirit to that End upon your hearts That without such applying of Christ by Faith unto you and the operation of his Spirit in and upon you by Effectual Calling Conversion Regeneration Renovation and Sanctification you can never Enter into the kingdom of God and be Eternally Saved 3. Therefore See that ye come unto Jesus Christ by Faith without delay and Receive him as your onely All-sufficient Saviour that is able to save you to the uttermost Accepting him upon his own terms of denying your selves taking up your Cross daily and following him So Iesus Christ will be unto you Wisdom to guide you in the way to Heaven Righteousness to wash away all your Sins by his bloud and justifie you freely by his spotless Righteousness imputed unto you Sanctification to furnish you sufficiently with all treasures of Grace out of his fullness of Grace and Redemption to deliver you from all your bondage under Sin Satan the curse of the Law the Wrath to come and all your Spiritual Enemies O thrice happy Everlastingly happy shall you be if once Iesus Christ become yours and you his Then you shall be espoused to the best Husband in the world The God and Father of Iesus Christ will be your God and Father The Spirit of Christ will be your Comâ—orter the Kingdom of Heaven shall be your Everlasting Joynture yea All things The World and Life and Death and things present and things to come All shall be yours Then All things shall work-together for good unto you Sickness as well as health Adversity as well as prosperity Death it self as well as life Then nothing in the world shall ever be able to separate you from the Love of Christ or from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Then no Condemnation shall ever befall you in this or in the world to come O happy Souls that ever you were born if you be born again and Christ be formed in you Christ is the Desire of all Nations Let him be the Desire of your Souls Christ is the chief among ten thousand Lâ—t him be the Chief of your choice Christs mouth is Sweetnesses yea all of him is Desires O let your hearts be even ravished with him at all times Say with that faithful Minister and Martyr of Iesus Christ Mr. John Lambert as he was now dying in the flames None but Christ none but Christ In a word I say to every one of you as sometimes Bernard said unto one sweetly Let IESVS be alwaies in thine heart Let Him be unto thee thy meat and drink thy sweetness and Consolation thy Hony and thy Desire thy Reading and thy Meditation thy Prayer and thy Contemplation thy Life and Death and thy Resurrection For Christ is All in All 4. Now Forasmuch as true saving Faith in Iesus Christ is not of our selves but the free gift of God and ordinarily God is pleased to work it in the hearts of his Elect Instrumentally by the Hearing of his Word faithfully preached Efficaciously by the Co-operation of his holy Spirit by which Means also it is nourished and increased Therefore be ye all of you Diligent and Constant Hearers of the Word of Christ faithfully preached Applying things spoken particularly to your selves treasuring them up in good and honest hearts and bringing forth the suitable fruit thereof by an Vpright practice in your lives and take singular heed that you never gâ—ieve quench or resist the operations stirrings or motions of the Spirit of God in the use of his Word and Ordinances or at any other times For Iesus Christ by his Word and Spirit especially stands at the door of your hearts and knocks and if any will open unto him he will come in unto him and Sup with him and he with Christ 5. For the increasing also of your Inward Peace Spiritual Ioy and Comfort Give all diâ—igence to make your Calling and Election sure Examining your selves frequently and seriously whether Jesus Christ be in you yea or no But how shalâ— this be done By comparing your Hearts Lives and Experiences with the written Word of God through the assistance and guidance of Gods Holy Spirit For to this End the Word of God was written to us and the Spirit of God is given to us that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God and that we may know that we have eternal life And for your more ready help in this weighty business you may make use of many Characters marks or Notes of Tryal which I have at large laid down in sundry of my Printed Books which you have by you Take heed you be not strangers to your own hearts and Spiritual States 6. As you have received Jesus Christ the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the Faith Be not Christians only in Name and outward Shew but inwardly sincerely and in good earnest So live and walk as Christ
The True way TO THE Tree of Life OR The Natural MAN DIRECTED UNTO CHRIST By Fran. Roberts D. D. Pastor of the Church of Christ at Wrington in the County of Somerset JOHN 14. 6. IESVS saith unto him I am the Way The Truth and the Life No man cometh unto the Father but by me ACT. 16. 30 31. Sirs What must I do to be saved And they said Believe on the LORD IESVS CHRIST and thou shalt be saved and thine House BERNARD in Iubilo c. p. 1659. Antverp 1616. JESU Decus Angelicum In auro dâ—sce Canticum In ore meâ— mirificum In Corde Nâ—ctar Coelicum Desidero te millies Mi JESU quando venies Me loetum quando facies Me de te quando suties LONDON Printed by T. R. for Geo. Calâ—ert at the Golden Ball in â—uck Lane 1673. THE Author 's Epistolary Exhortation AND Paternal Charge UNTO HIS CHILDREN My Dear and beloved Children WHat the Apostle Paul sometimes said with great affection touching Israel his Brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh that with like affection say I now touching You My Hearts desire and Prayer to God for you all is That you may be saved O that you might be so happy as to hear that sweetest Sentence of Iesus Christ at the last day directed unto you among the rest of his Elect Sheep at his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world And that you may be where Christ is which is far the best of all to behold his glory and to be made conform to him in Celestial glory for evermore But you had need deeply to consider That there are very many great and dangerous impediments unto Sinners eternal Salvation without removal whereof the Salvation of poor Souls will be rendered not only difficult but utterly impossible A few of these principal Hindrances I shall briefly mention unto you for your information and instruction That you may praise God for your deliverance from some of them and pray to him for his effectual removal of all the rest in his due time Some grand Hindrances of poor Sinners Salvation are these viz. 1. The State of Sin and misery in which all Mankind is involved by Nature through the Fall of Adam the Common root of all Mankind whence All are by Nature dead in Sins and trespasses and Children of wrath so that they who are in the flesh cannot possibly please God 2. Man's general Senslessness and â—in apprehensiveness by Nature of the Sinfulness and wretchedness of his Natural condition All Natural men being Children of the night and of darkness Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart And from this senslesness of their Natural malady it comes to pass that they are till God open their eyes and awaken their Consciences altogether regardless of the Supernatural Remedy 3. A Sinful course of life and wicked Conversation resulting from Mens Sinful state and condition So that they walk according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience fulfilling the wills of the flesh and of the mind and running to all excess of riot Now these and like ungodly waies will without true and timely Repentance undoubtedly shut all that walk therein out of the kingdom of God for evermore 4. Habitual Hardness of heart and Impenitency which are most dangerous fore-runners of Eternal Death and Destruction whereby all hardned and impenitent Sinners do treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and Reveâ—â—tion of the righteous Judgment of God 5. That grand Soul-damning Sin of Vnbelief in Iesus Christ. Of this the Holy Ghost peculiarly and principally convincingly reproves the world of Sin because they believe not in me saith our Saviour This Sin he puts before others saith Augustine as if it were the alone Sin because this Sin remaining the rest are detained and this departing the rest are remitted Vnbelief rejects Iesus Christ the onely Saviour How then is it possible the Vnbelievers should be saved Our Blessed Saviour himself hath declared most plainly That he that believes not shall be damned Math. 16. 6. yea That he is condemned already because he hath not believed on the name of the onely begotten Son of God That he who believeth not the Son should not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Iohn 3. 18. 36. 8. And he placeth the Unbelieving in that black Catalogue which shall have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second Death Rev. 21. 8. 6. The Embracing of any False counterfeit and irreligious Religions whether through Corrupt Education and evil Example of Parents or through Seducement of heretical Impostors and false Teachers or through the just judgment of God upon them that receive not the Love of the Truth that they may be saved sending them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all may be damned who believe not the Truth And chiefly such false Counterfeit Religions which are most predominant and bear greatest sway in the world are these Four viz. Heathenism Mahumeâ—ism Judaism and Antichristianism By the poyson of which it is much to be feared far the greatest number of people in the whole world are deprived of Salvation and perish As divers of our Learned Orthodox and Religious Authors have demonstrated 7. The False Hypocritical and Conterfeit Entertaining of the onely true Religion viz. The Christian Religion leaves men still in a state of Damnation though thereupon multitudes vainly presume and promise to themselves eternal Salvation As when men make a Profession of Christianity without a sincere suitable Practice having Lamps without Oyle When they have onely a form of Godliness but deny the power thereof Having a Name to live but are dead When they attain to a Temporary Faith believing for a time but in time of Persecution falling away Become partakers of many Common gifts and en dowments of the Holy Ghost but of no true saving Graces of the Spirit So that though they may have some flashes of joy in the use of Gods Ordinances and may do many things yet walk not as the sincere Saints in all the Commandements and Ordinances of God blameless Now such Persons being meer Formal not real Christians indeed remaining â—as most in the visible Church do without effectual Calling Conversion Regeneration and true Sanctification cannot inherit the kingdom of God as the Holy Scriptures do abundantly testifie Now therefore my beloved Children I earnestly exhort charge and beseech you by the mercies of God As you tender the eternal welfare of your precious and immortal Souls As you desire to be found
the Houshold of Faith Restrain not Prayer but pray continually with groans that cannot be uttered by the assistance of the Spirit Have no fellowship at all with Sin and Satan nor any needless fellowship with any workers of iniquity Eph. 5. 11. Psal. 1. 1. and 26. 4 5. Psal. 119. 115. Walk not disconsolately and dejectedly but in the fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost Acts 9. 31. Be abundantly contented in all conditions allotted thee by God Fully expect good by the worst of afflictions that may befall thee and be ever carefull to keep thy Hopes and Evidences for Heaven firm and clear that when thou comest to die thou maist lift up thine head and triumph that thy Redemption and celestial Coronation with Christ draweth nigh XXI Direction WRastle also most vlgorously O thou that wast Natural but art spiritualized wast dead but art alive again against all thy sins spiritual enemies and their temptations Heb. 12. 4. Col. 3. 5. to 12. Eph. 6. 11. to 19. for all time to come that they may none of them in the least measure eclipse any of these thy spiritual Priviledges or embitter any other thy sweet enjoyments Holy David by his lapses brought many deep wounds and scarrs upon his Conscience Psal. 51. 3 8. some of which he probably carried to his Grave Loving and confident Peter by his triple denial of his Lord and Master Christ purchased to himself a torrent of bitter tears Mat. 26. 75. The Ephesian Angel by leaving his first love and first works was so offensive thereby to Christ that he threatned the removal of his Candlestick Revel 2. 4 5. The Church her self by her carnal sluggishness and security lost her sweet Communion with Christ for a season and was involved in deep spiritual distress Cant. 5. 2. to 9. Be thou warned by their examples which are written for thine admonition lest through thy spiritual oscitancy and sluggishness thou bring upon thy self like spiritual calamities and so far wound thy Conscience as to go bleeding to thy Grave XXII Direction EXpress upon all good occasions all possible tenderness of heart and bowels of compassion towards those that yet remain in the first Adam in their sinful state of Nature unregeâ—erate especially towards thy kindred according to the flesh using all good endeavours to convince convert and gain them to Christ that they as well as thy self may be eternally saved Luke 22. 32. Rom. 10. 1. and 9. 1 2 3. Acts 9. 20 with 1 Cor. 9. 19. to 23. For 1. Even thou thy self wast sometimes foolish disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating others Tit. 3. 3. An enemy to God by wicked works Col. 1. 21. Yea dead in sins and trespasses c. and a child of wrath as well as they or any of them Eph. 2. 1 2 3. But God who is rich in mercy hath saved thee by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 4 5 6 7. Hast thou then experimentally felt the Wormwood and the Gall of thy Natural state of sin and misery And dost thou not commiserate such poor souls as are still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Acts 8. 23. Hast thou had the sweet experience of the riches of Gods free-Grace and Love in restoring thee from death to life from thy Natural state of sin and misery into a supernatural state of sanctity and felicity And do not thy bowels yearn within thee after other lost souls especially those of thy kindred that they also may be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Acts 26. 18. 2. Are not their souls as well as thine own very precious O Consider 1. Their immortal Constitution which no Creature can kill or destroy Matth. 10. 28. 2. The invaluable price paid for their Restitution even the most precious blood and death of Jesus Christ the only Son of God 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. 3. The incomparable and transcendent value which the wisdome of God himself puts upon the soul as being of far more worth then the whole world Matth. 16. 26. And then think with thy self Shall not I endeavour to hinder the eternal loss and to promote the eternal salvation of such precious souls 3. What advantage will redound in sundry respects if God bless thine endeavours to the convincing and converting of their souls to Christ For Hereby 1. Thou shalt save a soul from death Jam. 5. 19 20. And what a great what a glorious work is it to have an hand in saving a soul from deathâ— 2. Thou shalt hide a multitude of sins Jam. 5. 19 20. Even an heap a sink a dunghil of hundreds and thousands of sins thou shalt hide from the revenging eye of God by Christs righteousness 2 Cor. 5. 20 21. 3. Thou shalt occasion great joy in Heaven among the blessed Angels of God who exceedingly rejoyce at the Conversion of sinners Luke 15. 7 10 22 23. 4. Finally Thou shalt hereby not a little further thine own eternal felicity Deut. 12. 3. Thou therefore commiserate thy Brethren in their sinful and wretched state of Nature as thy God hath in thy like condition had compassion on thee Canst thou lend an hand to pluck a Beast out of the mire or a Sheep out of a pit and wilt thou not lend an hand to help poor lost souls out of the mire of sin snares of Satan and pit of eternal destruction O warn them convince them counsel them exhort them rebuke them lament them pray for them weep over them do any good for them that thou maist by any means gain and save their souls XXIII Direction YIeld with all enlarged thankfulness all possible Praise Love and Obedience unto God and unto the Lamb who hath loved thee of the riches of his free-Grace before the world began who in fulness of time hath ransomed thee by the invaluable price of his death and in due time hath washed thâ—e from thy sins in his own blood aâ—d in the Laver of Regeneration by the renewing of the Holy Ghost Eph. 1. 3 4 5 6. 1 Iohn 4. 19. Gal. 4. 4 5. 1 Tim. 1. 15. and 2. 5 6. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20 Rev. 1. 5. Tit. 3. 4 5 6 7. For 1. Thou oughtest to be thankful for all Gods blessings of all sorts the least of them being beyond yea contrary to thy deserts Eph. 5. 20. Col. 3. 17. 1 Thes. 5. 18. with Gen. 32. 10. but especially for those choicest spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Eph. 1. 3. Psal. 103 1 2 3. 2. The reality and sincerity of thy thankfulness will inwardly best approve it self in thy cordial affection and unâ—eigned love towards thy gracious God and Jesus Christ for all his love and all the fruits of his love in Christ. Kindness begets thankfulness and love breeds love as fire begets fire 1 Iob. 4. 19. Thus when
the Psalmist would signifie his great thankfulness to God for his great mercies he professeth his dearest love to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will love thee dearly Heb. I will love thee with inmost bowels O LORD my strength c. Psal. 18. 1 2 c. So Psal. 116. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have loved because the LORD hath heard my voice c. 3. The integrity of true love and thankfulness doth outwardly best discover it self in a chearful and sincere obedience to God and Christ Iob. 14. 15 21. 1 Ioh. 5. 3. Such obedience is a real retribution of thankfulness Psal. 116. 12. to the end Then we praise God aright when we extol him not only with our hearts and lips but with our lives XXIV Direction ZEalously endeavour to promote the Glory of God and of Iesus Christ in all things throughout the whole course of thy life and to be where Christ is to behold his Glory that so thine inchoate happiness may be compleatly consummate in the immediate vision and full fruition of God in Christ unto all eternity 1 Cor. 10. 31. and 6. 20. 1 Pet. 4. 11. 2 Thes. 1. 12. Ioh. 17. 24. Mat. 5. 8. 1 Thes. 4. 17. Rev. 22. 3 4 5. For 1. Gods Glory and the Souls felicity in the full enjoyment of God in Christ unto all eternity are the two principal Ends of all which thou and every man should chiefly intend and aim at in his whole life 1 Cor. 10. 31. Rom. 11 36. Psal. 73. 24. to the end Godâ— made all things for his glory Pro. 16. 4. And all things ought to be levelled to his Glory Man is made capable of God and therefore he is restless till he can fully center in God in whom alone in Christ all his happiness is treasured up Augustine said sweetly Thou hast made us for thee And our heart is unquiet till it rest in thee As the Needle once touched with the loadstone is unquiet till it come to the Magnetick Center and point towards the Pole 2. Thou that wast dead in sin and a child of wrath but art quickened by God and made a child of Grace of the riches of his Grace Eph. 2. 1. 5 6 7. Canst never do enough for this God and for his glory And therefore he hath provided heaven for his people wherein they may glorifie him eternally Yet while thou art on earth glorifie him to the uttermost in thy momentany life for thy Redemption Reconciliation Vocation Sanctification Justification and hopes of Salvation So shalt thou by this heavenly imployment begin Heaven on Earth and prâ—possesâ— thyself of Paradise 3. If a little taste a short glimpse of Gods favour in Christ breaking thorough the thick clonds of thy manifold frailties here on earth be so sweet as to transcend incomparably all sublâ—nary enjoyments Psal 4. 6 7. Cant. 2 3 4 5 6 7 Then how sweet how delicious how ravishing will be the full Sun-shine of his Love unto thy Soul in Heaven for ever when all imperfections and infirmities shall be totally and finally done away Eph. 5. 27. Act. 3. 19. Rev. 21. 4. and 22. 3. To haev Communion with Christ in this world by Grace is a blessed Priviledge Ioh. 1. 3. Eph. 1. 3. But to be with Christ in Paradise and to have Communion with him in glory is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by much more better How elegantly Here being as it were 3 Comparatives Phil. 1. 23. viz. To be with Christ is far the best of all Herein our Blessed Saviour himself placeth the height of his peoples eternal felicity That they may be where he is to behold his glory Ioh. 17. 24. That will be an immediate vision Not as now through a glass darkly but face to face clearly 1 Cor. 13. 12. That will be a perfect Vision For we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3. 2. and know even as also we are known 1 Cor. 13. 10 12. That will be a glorious Vision we shall behold Christs Glory which is infinitely beyond all Celestial Angelical or Created Glory Ioh. 17. 24. That will be a transforming Vision for we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3. 2. Phil. 3. 21. That will be a Beatifical Vision for the chief blessedness Christ placeth in seeing God Mat. 5. 8. That will be a Vision with fruition we shall so see Christ as fully to enjoy him as our Head as our Husband as our Redeemer as our Happiness as our Treasure as our Glory as our All. That will be an eternal Vision and fruition for so we shall be ever with the LORD 1 Thes. 4. 17. There we shall said Augustine rest and see we shall see and love we shall love and laud. Lo what shall be in the end without end This will be the very Heaven of Heaven and Glory of Glory Unto this eternal Bliss the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb bring him that writeth these things and him that readeth them with an honest heart in his due time Amen and Amen Sept. 18. 1669. FINIS a Rom. 11. 1. b Math. 25. 34. c Joh. 17. 24. Phil. 1. 23. 3. 21. d Rom. 5. 12 c. with Gen. 3. e Eph. 2. 1 2 3. f Rom. 8. 8. g 1 Thes. 5. 5. h Ephes. 4. 18. i Ephes. 2. 2 3. k 1 Pet. 4. 4. l 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Rev. 21. 8. 27. 22. 15. m Ezek. 18. 30 31 32. Luke 13. 3. 5. n Rom 2. 5 6 c. o Joh. 16. 8 9. p Hoc enim peccatum quasi solum â—it prae caeteris posuit quia hoc manente caetera detinentur hoc discedente caetera remittuntur Aug. in Ioan. 16. Tract 95. Tom. 9. q 1 Cor. 12. 2. r 1 John 2. 26. 2 Pet. 2. 1 2 3. 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. Math. 25. 24. s 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. t Bishop Andrews in his Preface before his Expos. of the X. Commandâ—ments p. 40 c. Bishop Hall in his Serious Disswasive from Popery in fol. p. 613. to 624. And in his No peace with Rome p. 633. to p. 664. Dr. Willet's Synopsis of Popâ—ry throughout See his First Table shewing how Popery militates against the Person and all the Offices of Christ. Dr. Whitaker's also is to the like effect In Praefat. ad Auditores ante Disput. de S. Seriptura p. 258 259. Mr. W. Perkins in his Demonstration of the Pâ—obleme throughout p. 486 c. Vol. 2. And in his Assertion That a Papist by his Religion cannot go beyond a Reprobate p. â—96 to p. 404. Vol. 1. Lond. 1626. And in his Reformed Catholick p. 556 c. Vol. 1. u Mat. 7. 21 c. 25. 3. Tit. 1. 16. x 2 Tim. 3. 5. y Rev. 3. 1. z Luk. 8. 13. Mat. 13. 19 to 23. Heb. 6. 4 5 6. 2 Pet. 2. 20 21 22. Mark 6. 2 0. Luke 1. 6. a Math. 13. 19 to 23.