Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	faith_n	spirit_n	work_n	5,929	5	5.6776	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33971	Par nobile two treatises, the one concerning the excellent woman, evincing a person fearing the Lord to be the most excellent person, discoursed more privately upon occasion of the death of the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Hobart late of Norwich, from Pro. 31, 29, 30, 31 : the other discovering a fountain of comfort and satisfaction to persons walking with God, yet living and dying without sensible consolations , discovered from Psal. 17, 15 at the funerals of the Right Honourable the Lady Katherine Courten, preached at Blicklin in the county of Norfolk, March 27, 1652 : with the narratives of the holy lives and deaths of those two noble sisters / by J.C.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Excellent woman.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Light in darkness.	1669 (1669)	Wing C5329; ESTC R26441	164,919	320

mortal who with you could glory Of all those things which serve to fill your story Birth Breeding Beauty Riches Honours she Knew what there was of true felicity In these The strains of courtesie and wit What Courtship several qualities would fit She knew how to receive a Complement And to return it with a Grace when lent And one thing more she knew which was to call These Trifling Vanities and slight them all To her to live was to Read Hear and Pray Her life was but one constant Sabbath day She sometime went abroad 't is true but trode Act. 10. 38. Her Saviour's path she went but doing good Had she been Catholick in the Romish sense What stock their thrifty Church had raised hence For poorer Madams Oh! how many pair Would she alone have watch'd for unto prayer How many might have sate at Cards and sent Their Beads to her to drop for them or spent Their time at Playes and charg'd her with their share Of close Devotions she had had to spare She of Moguntia whom the Priest espied V. Gaz●● pia bilaria Lond. 1657. p. 67. Ex Coesar● l. 5. cap. 5. With troops of Devils riding all astride On her long train to Church they from her glass Came with her something tardy unto Mass Mean while where were the Exorcists to indure Upon the holy ground fiends so impure Had notwithstanding scap'd the purging fire If this rare Lady had been of their Quire Her early presence and her Zeal no doubt Had clear'd the hallowed soil scar'd spirits out The Holy-water had been spar'd her eyes Had dropt the lazy Ladies Sacrifice Fond Catholicks charge us no more that we Advancing Faith teach good works needless be This Protestant out-did you every one And yet lookt to be sav'd by Faith alone Love to your selves is what makes you so free And by your works you think to satisfie Her good deeds were no peuance yet their store Was every whit as great if not much more Than yours which are design'd in Commutation For Purgatorial pa●ns or expiatio● Of some fla●gtious crimes Her purer love To Christ constrain'd her noble soul above Your Lott'ry deeds you 'd nere your pence throw down Did not you vainly hope to draw a Crown You put your Alms to interest for gain She lent she gave and lookt for naught again You in Devotions who were wont to go To Walsingham hence forward learn to know The way to Chapplefield there you may see The place where once this Saint abode where she So long wrought Miracles of Love Far more Than your dull Colledge that was there before Thence weeping pass to Blicklin vault and there Pay your Devotions to her Sepulchre When this is done go you and do likewise Acknowledge Christ the only Sacrifi●e For Sin Take Heaven upon the gift of Grace Then work as she Thus you may see the place Where she abides and a Saint Frances find Can you believe 't that was not of your mind ERRATA PAge 3. line 10. read feeble Dove p. 5. l. penult r. Dinah p. 6. l. 9. r. she p. 19. l. 12. dele ordinarily p. 24. l. 1. r. from spending p. 43. l. 13. r. Jedid●ah p. 46. l. 20. r. their p. 54. l. 3. r. account of p. 58. l. 30. r. Jael p. 59. l. ult r. lazy p. 64. l. 16. r. excell p. 76. l. 28. r. because p. 77. l. 1. r. these are p. 80. l. penult r. on p. 86. l. 13. r. peruse Justinians c. p. 101. l. 8. r. the loss p. 103. l. ult r. all the p. 110. l. 22. r. Paul p. 121. l. 17. r. in the Land p. 122. l. 3. r. demission p. 153. l. 12. r. custos In the second Part. In the Epist Ded. p. 3. l. 13. r. Navis p. 6. r. approve himself p. 178. l. 22. r. a p. 183. l. 8. r. Root p. 187. l. 3. the verse misquoted 30 for 39. p. 195. l. 16. r. in p. 199. l. 22. r. the p. 201. l. 32. r. eternal p. 208. l. 17. r. An hungring after p. 210. l. 2. a comma at doubting p. 212. marg r. Cant. 8. 5. p. 217. l. penult r. hath done p. 222. l. 18. r. in p. 232. l. 4. blot out do p. 240. l. 9. r. to p. 240. l. 21. r. face TO THE Honourable Memory OF THE Lady FRANCES HOBART late of Chapplefield in Norwich NAtures Endymion whose Lyntean eye Did's Mistress secret Cabinet descry Who plants describ'd from Leb'nons Cedar tall Unto the creeping Hysop on the wall Who seeing Knowledge puffeth up might vaunt His held in cap●te by special grant From the Lord Paramount who virtue vice Nature and Art what not did enterprise Remits the search t' a more sagacious mind Saying A vertuous woman who can find One of a thousand men no female mate Sure God d●d Male and Female good create And though the strong man armed first attaque● The weaker Sex and her his Engine makes Yet God to countermine makes her also The Magazine of Arms and Champion too An Achillean Spear to wound and heal Right Weapon-Salve cause both of woe and weal And now through grace goodness in man and woman Without exception doth enter common Vertue is not monopoliz'd but mean Nor 's Phoenix masculine but Epicene Here was a Vertuous Woman Solomon Might here have had for his Deucalion A Pyrrha one where each becoming grace Ambitious of an advantageous place To shew it self agreed in one Tense To make themselves a noble residence Here you might see greatness and cou●tesie In-laid and counterpointed equally There 's Modesty like to the Morning Rose Which Phoebus tyring doth but half disclose 'Bove them with eyes lift up and bended knee Is Closet-piety This you may not see That 's Charity on her attendant stands With chearful aspect free and open hands She in th' old dress which there you standing see Waiting on her is Madam Constancy And that below which hangeth down the crest Humility which graceth all the rest If Vertue need an adventitious praise Beauty and Honour here did lend its bayes Heroick Vertue from prolifick womb Of Noble blood by th' holy Spirit doth come If Rarity Encomiums may indite O' th' better side she was an Heteroclite Not many Noble called chosen ones All goods are rare Pearls are call'd Unions Goodness impal'd with greatness is indeed A Noble Vine and wholly a right seed How O Vinedressers for the Vine laid waste Whose shadow was so sweet whose fruit did taste So gratefully 'T is cut up branch and root Nor slip nor cion left again to sprout The comfort 's this she is no withered gourd A Tree of Righteousness Plant of the Lord By him transplanted she more fruit shall yield In the Elysian than in Chapplefield To the Illustrious Memory OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lady FRANCES HOBART late of Capplefield in Norwich OH for a Sea of tears for tears of blood Oh! for an hundred eyes to weep a flood Of waters

and a Candlestick for the Servants of God who passed that way but like Lydia she would adjure them if they judged her faithfull to come to her house To this purpose she had set apart one Chamber in her own house to which she had given the name of The Ministers Chamber She highly prized any laborious Godly Minister and that for his works sake and she had as little kindness for any who attended not their Work or whose lives defamed their Doctrine and Function having nothing but the colour and form of their Coat to make them known she had indeed a peculiar kindness for some but a great love for all whom by any thing she could discern deriving from Christ and dedicating their time and hearts to his service So far as I could estimate it she every year spent the fourth part of her Revenues upon good Ministers and poor Christians Her charitable acts were like that pious act of Araunah of whom the Scripture saith As a King he gave unto the King What she did of this nature she did nobly and a very large heart and hand God had given her How often hath she lodged strangers relieved the afflicted washed their wounds instead of their feet washing of which being not our guise How diligently did she follow every good work Her Coach was ordinarily seen waiting for her at the doors of poor and mean persons whiles others like Michal looked out at their wanton Windows saw it and mockt It pleased her Ladyship when she came home to fancy what the wanton Gallants of the Town said How glorious was the Lady Frances to day spending her time in Visits to poor Knitters She had an answer ready with a small alteration from the man according to Gods own heart It was before the Lord with such as he hath chosen to Eternal life leaving Vain persons to perish in the recompence of their iniquity While others were measuring the ground with their idle feet she upon her bended knees was taking her turns with God and taking the heighth of the third Heavens While they were discoursing of the Mode in this or the other habit she was discoursing with poor Christians upon sick and Death-beds about the long white Robe of Christs righteousness the New Name the white Stone the Chains about the Saints necks while they were laughing and pleasantly busied at their Feasts Balls and Playes she was in her Closet mourning and offering up to God the spiritual sacrifice of Prayers and Tears both for her self and them She was of our Divine Poets mind that Kneeling never spoiled Silk-stocking nor Gown neither and that Christian Cottages never dishonoured a more stately Coach I have known some very mean Christians but indeed of great grace and great experience in the wayes of God from whom lying on their beds of afflictions she would hardly be two dayes absent nor did she judge any time too long to spend with them She would often say to me that she believed Love constrained equally if not more in spiritual Relations than in those that were natural and when in her dark hours she sometimes ran the fate of other Christians wanting such evidences of Grace as she desired to have found she would from this relieve her self that if St. Johns Argument were infallible 1 Joh. 3. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren she yet had a ground of hope for if her heart did not strangely deceive her she loved them and that because of their holiness c. nor was she any of those that said she had Faith or Love and had no Works None of those whom St. James reflects upon Who if a Brother or Sister were naked and destitute of daily food would say to them James 2. 15 16. Depart in peace be you warmed and be you filled notwithstanding gave them not those things which were needfull to the Body Her love did not evaporate and spend it self in an empty-handed Visit or meer pitying of such as were in affliction she many wayes refreshed their bowels if she found their bodily distempers difficult she would ordinarily send her own learned Physician to them who himself was a Luke too towards such as feared God if she found them under spiritual trouble she would direct me to them She would put her own hands to their wounds send them dishes from her own Table when she had been with them at any time like the good Samaritane in the Gospel when she came away she would take out money from her purse and give to Nurses saying to them Take care of this person and whatsoever you spend more when I come again I will repay you Her self denyal in all acts of piety and charity to the souls and bodies of others was the just admiration of all sober persons in the place where God had fixed her for which she was universally honoured even by those who were of far different complexions from her Nor was she at all morose in her converse Her piety taught her civility and affability and a readiness to do good to all though her delight according to that of David was in those Psal 16. 3. whom she apprehended dear unto God and she was according to the Apostles direction most abundant in doing good to those of the Gal. 6. 10. houshold of Faith Though her Expences were great and noble yet those upon her self were mean and inconsiderable She cared not to be known by so pitifull a badge of Honour as Costly Apparel but was far more ambitious of purchasing to her self an honourable report from good works which yet she did not to be seen of men and was carefull as to the most of them that they should neither be taken notice of in the doing nor that any record should be left of them her desire was to have praise not from Men but from God Landes quia merebatur contempsit quia contempsit magis merebatur So little did she affect applause that drawing her last will at least the Preface to it with her own hand whiles I had the liberty of my publick Ministry she willing me to preach at her Funerals added as I remember these very words And I desire him to forbear all commendations of me a vile sinfull Creature Thus did this Noble Lady go in and out before us commending the holy wayes of God not only to all in the house with her but to all that dwelt round about her Thus did she shine in her Horizon she was not a reed shaken with the winde not one carried about with every winde of Doctrine she was not a person known by her cloathing in soft and costly rayment yet she had been no stranger to Kings houses she was a burning and a shining light and for many years the people of God in the City of Norwich rejoyced in her light to say nothing of more extraordinary advantages they injoyed at least three opportunities each week

he who said If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal 102. 3. never thought that himself should 2. Secondly Therefore this Righteousness of Sanctification is taken in an Evangelical sense and so it signifies 1. That universal habit of holiness of which the child of God is possessed teaching him to hate and strive against every sin to love and to press after every good work and to endeavour to do the whole will of God though it may be in many things he doth offend and this is that Righteousness which the most solid Interpreters judge here to be chiefly intended that which the holy Psalmist elsewhere calleth a respect to all Gods Commandments Psal 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed when I shall have respect to all thy Commandments I will not restrain the text to this but this doubtless is a great part of Davids meaning I will live an holy and righteous conversation having a due regard to all thy Commandments and keeping up in my soul a true hatred of every sin and of every false way Though I want the fulness which sinful men have though I be in a sad and afflicted condition though I be in the dark and cannot behold the light of thy countenance though my oppressors and my enemies be many and cruel and bloody yet will I not live like wicked and ungodly men who live more at case and have a greater degree of fulness but I will keep on the course of an holy life and conversation and then I shall behold thy face either here or hereafter either before I fall asleep in death or when I shall awake in the resurrection This righteousness then is the righteousness of a good conscience that which Saint Paul calls a living in a good conscience before God And again he tells us herein he did exercise Acts 23. 1. himself to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men The Chaldee Paraphrast reads it Truth In truth will I behold thy face Truth is opposed to Hypocrisie and to all falshood of conversation And indeed none can without presumption hope to see God but he who looks to behold his face in the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to him 2. In the righteousness of an holy life and conversation Without holiness saith the Apostle none shall see God 3. But there is yet a third thing which some understand by righteousness in this place Alii per justitiam intelligunt innocentiam versus hostes Lor. and in other texts is most certainly understood by it It is the particular habit of Justice and Innocency i. e. having an innocent heart and a righteous cause against unrighteous men I will come to thee O God who art a God of Justice and a Protector of innocent persons Holy David at this time was afflicted either by the persecution of Saul as some think or the rebellion of Absolom as others judge both of them rose up against him without a cause on their part not for my wickedness nor for my sin as he elsewhere saith Now saith David though my enemies be many and great and cruel yet I have done them no harm I have as to them a righteous heart and against them a righteous cause I will bring this righteous cause before thee This is the righteousness of which he speaketh v. 3. Let thine eyes behold the thing that is equal thou hast proved mine heart thou hast visited me in the night thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing So probably v. 1. he prayes Hear the right O Lord where the same word is used This sense will afford us this note Those who make their appeal to God in any cause and seck his face hoping to behold his face directing countenancing or assiting them must be sure their cause be a righteous cause One of the Hebrew Writers reads I will behold thy face for Alms the Rabbies so interpret the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they say to give Alms is both a piece of righteousness and a fign of it Indeed whosoever goes to God goes for Alms. But I shall discourse no more as to this term In Righteousness 1. In the Righteousness of my Lord the Mediatour 2. In the Righteousness of an holy conversation 3. In the Justice Innocency and Righteousness of my cause This is all comprehended in the term Righteousness I now proceed Will I or shall I behold thy face The word indifferently signifies the act of the body and of the mind Psal 58. 10. The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance that is when he shall with his bodily eyes see the righteous God revenging him upon sinful men Exod. 18. 21. Thou shalt provide there it doubtless implieth an act of Moses his mind weighing and considering what persons were fittest for Magistrates 2. But it sometimes signifies not a bare intuition but a most curious careful scrutiny or beholding It signifieth to contemplate Now when a man contemplates he doth not barely look upon a thing but he sixeth his eyes and thoughts and studies upon it from this word Prophets we are called Seers and it is a word often applied to their vision in which their minds were wholly taken up and their souls as it were wrapt up in exrasies Star-gazers from this word had their name in Hebrew And Criticks tell us our English word Gaze hath its original from it Now you know we use that word Gaze to express the action of them who are a long time looking upon a thing fully steadily and busily Further yet the word sometimes signifies to behold with delight and Pleasure To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple Psal 27. 4. That was a pleasant sight Psal 84. 1. I will behold thy face in righteousness that is with the eye of my body or mind or both I will diligently constantly earnestly behold I will take pleasure in beholding Thy face The word used here signifies any outward superficies or exterior countenance of a thing being applied to God it signifies the manifestations of divine love whether in the gracious issues of providence or in the more inward influences of divine love God hath neither essential nor integral parts as we have he hath no head no hands no face these things only agree to God by analogy The face is the more noble outward part of as man most conspicuous and by which he is most known in which more than by any part else a mans temper and particular inclination and disposition to us is known So the face of God signifies 1. The favour of God in the sensible manifestations of it When we are angry we turn away our faces from our neighbours and being reconciled again to them we again look upon them So is the Lord in Scripture set out to us Psal 13. How long wilt thou hide Psal 13. thy face So when God is expressed as in favour with and reconciled to

and think that the asserting of it derogateth from Christs plenary satisfaction which indeed would have something of truth in it had not God in that Covenant reserved himself this liberty If Psa 89. 31 32 33 34. they break my Statutes and keep not all my Commandments then will I visit their iniquity with a rod and their transgressions with stripes Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips By vertue of Gods Covenant with Christ for us their earnest salvation and the welfare of their souls for ever is secured Nay more afflictions as they are tokens of divine wrath and legal demands of satisfaction to Gods Justice cannot fall upon Gods people but he hath reserved to himself the liberty of a Father in love and kindness to chastise his people with rods The people of God therefore should not think it strange if they meet with these dark issues of divine providence nor should any entring into the waies of God promise himself a freedom from afflictions and trials of this nature Christ hath secured us eternal salvation and all necessary means and influences of grace in order to it but he hath not totally exempted us from the rod of affliction But this is not all The second Proposition speaketh yet more The Child of God may not only live but may 2 Prop. also die and fall asleep unsatisfied as to the likeness of God This is true both as to the likeness of God in them and the manifestations of God unto them 1. As to Gods Image in them this lies in the perfection of holiness and is so far true that it is hard to find a child of God whoever as to this died satisfied what Christian on his death-bed ever said he had faith enough or love enough or holiness enough David cryes out Although my house be not so with God And where is the soul that departing to eternity sees not reason to complain that his heart hath not been so with God as it ought to have been The best of men sinneth seven times in a day 2. But it is true also as to the apprehensions of divine love not being able when they die to say assuredly My Beloved is mine and I am his What shall we say to the great example of our Lord and Saviour It is true he knew he was the eternal Son of God that after his resurrection he should be glorified with that glory which he had with his Father from all eternity and in this respect might differ from some of his children who dying may want that certainty and only die with a good hope through grace yet in this dying hour he cryes out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Nor can we well understand how he should for us die under the curse and sensible feelings of divine wrath unless we grant that he died under the withdrawings of the sensible manifestations of divine love and certainly the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. Our own experience also proves it have not we known some persons of whom while they went in and out with us could say These are the anointed of the Lord we saw them walking closely with God fearing every sin making conscience of every duty serving the Lord so far as we could judge in spirit and truth and this not in a fit but constantly yet when they came to die their Candles went out in obscurity We have not seen them in that triumph of faith that fulness of joy and peace which it may be we did expect Not able to say with Job In Job 19. 26. Rom. 8 38. my flesh I shall see God nor with Paul I am perswaded that neither life nor death shall separate me from the love of God in Christ Nor is there any thing in spiritual reason to hinder it Sensible manifestations are none of our necessaries God hath no where promised that they shall not fail the soul in death Mr. Rutherford I remember propounds this to be observed Whether usually when in the time of their life the Saints of God have felt many reflexions of divine love many sensible consolations God hath not left them to die in the dark And on the contrary when any of his children have in the time of their life been full of fear and dejections c. God hath not usually in their sick and dying hours shined upon them with visions of peace It is not to be fixed as a standing Rule for the Almighty is neither to be limited nor tracked in his goings but it may be worthy of our observation Now this seemeth a very hard dispensation Gods people oft-times know not how to live without sensible manifestations of his love but they are much more at loss how to satisfie themselves to die without it May we therefore in any degree of humility guess at some reasons of so sad a divine dispensation 1. In the first place it is enough to a modest soul inquisitive in this particular to say Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee God will have us to know that the wind bloweth both where it listeth and when it listeth and that his Spirit is not less free We shall not know the hour when he will visit his peoples souls nor will he constantly come in at the same hour that he might assert his own liberty to us this may be one and indeed it is the great reason to be assigned of this dispensation 2. The Lord may have a design by it to make a trial of his servants faith It is a good faith that will long maintain a living Saint without sight but it must be a strong faith which will maintain a Christian in his dying hour without it This was the faith of Job Though he kills me yet I will trust in him This is a faith which holds out to the end and shall have the Crown of life which God hath promised It is the last act of faith to serve a departing soul Love goes with the soul into another world Faith parts with it at the gates of death the vision of faith is then changed for the beatifical vision What a man seeth how doth he hope for That faith that seeth Christ through a glass darkly hath its eyes in death quite out The soul comes with open face to behold the glory of God It argues a great spirit in a souldier to fight to his last breath And it speaks a couragious strong faith for a Christian to die believing dying hope is a good hope therefore it is given as the character of a righteous man that he hath hope in death And of the Hypocrite it is said Where is the hope of an Hypocrite when God takes away his soul Job saith that his hope shall be like the giving up of the Ghost Look as dying

men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhere●●e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives ●s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of

truth in the Scripture but I mean that faith which the Apostle calls The faith of Gods Elect Justifying faith It was indeed an unwary description which some ancient Divines gave of justifying faith calling it a full perswasion of the Love of God and it may be much occasioned by the heat of their opposition to the jejune faith of Papists who would make justifying faith to be assent to the Proposition of the Word it is likely their so describing justifying faith gave too much advantage to the Antinomian notion who to this day will understand nothing of faith under plerophory or full perswasion but undoubtedly the act of justifying faith lyes lower in receiving Christ believing in him relying upon him committing our selves unto him c. Nor can the other be the act of faith that justifieth being not to be found but in souls that are justified For how can any soul whom God doth not love in Jesus Christ be fully and justly perswaded of his love Now the Lord loveth the righteous until the soul be made righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ it can be no object of divine love That soul who hath opened his Will through divine grace to receive and embrace Christ as tendered in the Gospel that is perswaded to rest hang trust rely commit its self to him and him alone for salvation that soul truly believeth Now this the soul doth that watcheth for Gods likeness though it want sensible comforts Nay this faith is strong faith It is the note of a late eminent servant of God that faith is so much the stronger by how much the fewer externals it needs to support it It was said of Abraham that he was strong in the Rom. 4. 18 19 20 21. faith giving glory to God Wherein did the strength of Abrahams faith appear v. 18. He staggered not at the promise he against hope believed in hope he had nothing of sense to help his faith his faith stood meerly upon the strength of the word he had a word of promise and he staggered not at the promise he was so far from having any help to his faith from sense that he had all the discouragement and hinderance imaginable the matter to be believed was that God would give him a Son for this he had the word of God Thou shalt have a Son saith God his wife was past child-bearing her womb was dead insomuch that she laughed when she Gen. 18. 12. heard the promise and said Shall I of a surety bear a child who am old Abraham himself was beyond the age in which ordinarily children are begot he was an hundred years old But though he had no incouragement but all imaginable discouragement from sense both on his own and on his wives part yet saith the Apostle he distrusted not he staggered not at the promise through unbelief Thus he was strong in faith and thus he gave glory to God saith the Apostle giving him the honour of his power of his truth and faithfulness c. and this faith was imputed to him for righteousness v. 21 22. Now if the weakest faith being true be sufficient to carry the soul to Heaven much more shall a strong faith such a faith as that of Abraham the Father of the faithful do it 6. Lastly Will it not satisfie thee Christian to tell thee thou art blessed I have a good warrant to do that Joh. 20. 19. They are the words of our Saviour to Thomas Thou hast seen saith our Lord therefore thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed You are even out of Christs mouth more blessed believing when you do not see than those are who see and therefore believe But I shall enlarge no more upon this first ground of satisfaction for Christians walking in the dark and seeing no light I proceed to the second from the word considered as it signifies to awake 2. It ought to satisfie Christians walking in the dark as to sensible consolations to consider that when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied with the likeness of God There is nothing more needful for the explication of the Proposition than I have already said in the opening of some or other of the Propositions In short the substance of what I intend is this that if it so pleaseth God that any child of his should not only spend a great part of his life without any sensible comforts any witnessings of the Spirit to his spirit Nay if the Lord should call him to die without such sensible evidences yet he ought not to repine or murmure against God but to be silent before him and trust in him chearfully considering that though he dieth he shall rise again from the dead and in the resurrection he shall be fully and abundantly satisfied with Gods full and glorious manifestations of himself unto him when he shall be blessed in the full and glorious enjoyment of God to all eternity 1. This is that which God hath agreed with us for this is the penny for which he hath contracted But of this I spake before 2. This is infinitely more than any child of God hath merited or can merit at Gods hand It will be a great piece of the work of the Saints in Heaven to admire that rich and infinite grace which hath brought them thither Yea though we should never see Gods face till we come in Heaven yet we shall see free grace magnified in bringing us thither at last 3. Lastly The satisfaction which the soul shall meet with when it comes in Heaven will be infinitely more than will make us amends for all the dissatisfactions all the hours of sadness and darkness we have met with in this life and infinitely more than will recompence us for all our faith and hope all our watchings and waitings for and upon God For our duties we value them above the Scripture rate if we count them better than menstrous cloths and filthy raggs or reckon that they deserve any thing at the hand of God other than wrath and shame and confusion of faith And saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Every one of you would easily determine this were I able to shew you but a little of those things which eye hath not seen nor hath ear heard nor can 2 Cor. 13. 12. 1 Thes 1. 17. 1 Joh. 3. 2. it enter into the heart of man to conceive To open to you what it is to be ever with the Lord to see him face to face to see him as be is to be like the Angels in Heaven to have our bodies made like unto his glorious body and our corruptible to put on incorruption I say were I able to open these and other expressions by which it hath pleased the Holy Ghost in Scripture to express

the state of the children of God in glory you would easily agree this with me that the joyes and satisfaction in the likeness of God which shall in Heaven be manifested to the souls of Gods people shall abundantly recompence them for all their hours of darkness I have now done with the Explication of the Doctrine I come to the Application in which I shall be the shorter because it hath been wholly practical almost Vse 1. In the first place what we have heard may inform us much concerning the Lot and Duty of Gods dearest servants As to their Lot 1. They may in this life be tempted persecuted by men deserted by God very much unsatisfied as to the Lords likeness both in respect of holiness and comfort we are not by an interest in Christ priviledged from trials we may have troubles without and fears from within By our turning into the waies of God we make the world our enemy by deserting it we inrage the Devil to a further enmity indeed we engage God to be our Father but he is a wise Father who though he alwaies loves yet sometimes in prudence he frowns upon a child But here we must distinguish betwixt a seeming desertion and a real desertion betwixt a total and a partial desertion betwixt a desertion as to the necessary influences of grace and as to the less necessary influences of it betwixt a desertion for a time and for ever God cannot cast on his people for ever he cannot totally desert them he cannot withdraw the necessary influences of grace the union betwixt Christ and the soul cannot be dissolved there can be no intercession of the state of Justification no total separation of the Spirit from the soul when once it hath taken up an habitation in it but as to some influences of grace not so necessary to salvation as to consolatory manifestations as to degrees of quickening and strengthening influences God may forsake his Saints and to such a degree that the soul may to it self seem utterly forsaken 2. Secondly You have heard that it is not repugnant to the justice and goodness of God to suffer his child to fall asleep in death without a satisfaction with Gods likeness without such sensible comforts as others may have Light is sown for the righteous joy for the upright in 〈…〉 1. heart But it is like seed sown into the earth which comes up sometimes sooner sometimes later sometimes not till they come in Heaven sometimes soon after conversion sometimes they walk all their life time much in the light of the Lords countenance sometimes they have an April day with vicissitudes of light and darkness gleams and showers sometimes God appears to their souls in the very hour of death they have been in darkness before and then they cry out as the Martyr to his Brother Austin He is come he is come Sometimes again the light of this life goes out in obscurity to them and they go out of this world weeping yet carrying with them the precious seed of Faith and Love they shall return in the resurrection rejoycing and bring their sheaves with them This may serve to regulate our expectations that they rise not too high for dispensations not absolutely necessary to salvation and to direct our charity that we may not entertain uncharitable thoughts nor pass uncharitable censures upon those whom we have seen in this life strictly walking with God yet not dying with sensible comforts 3. Thirdly The Children of God as well as others shall fall asleep Indeed their death is but a sleep and it shall not be a perpetual sleep Death shall taste of them but it shall not feed upon them Lazarus sleepeth saith our Saviour but I go to awake them The children of God shall all sleep but the Lord will come to awake them the last trump shall sound and those who are dead in the graves shall awake and shall arise they shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live their flesh shall rest but it shall rest in hope The wicked also shall sleep and their bodies shall rest but in no hope of a better state in the resurrection it were well for them if they might indeed sleep a perpetual sleep and wake no more Thus far you have been informed of the Lot of Gods people and further of their great priviledge when they awake in the resurrection to be fully and abundantly satisfied with the Lords likeness But in order to their priviledge you have also been informed of their duty 1 Branch At all times to keep on beholding the Lords face in righteousness in the righteousness of Jesus Christ in the righteousness of an holy and innocent life and conversation to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards man to be continually labouring to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord to be much in prayer much in the exercise of faith hope patience 2. Especially are they to take care that in their hours of darkness they be not wanting to this duty And further doing this they ought so far to be satisfied as not to murmure not to repine not to think God deals hardly with them but to be thankful rejoycing themselves in this confidence that when they shall awake in the resurrection they shall have what their heart could wish they shall be abundantly satisfied with the Lords likeness Thus far what you have heard serveth you for Instruction Vse 2. Secondly What you have heard may reflect with some check and reproof to many poor souls who truly fear God yet are not come up in this thing to their duty How many do we meet with in the course of our Ministry who though Christ be in them the hopes of glory though they cannot deny what God hath done for their souls their souls tell them they have put their trust in God and committed themselves to the arm of everlasting righteousness they dare not knowingly offend God but make it their business and herein exercise themselves to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and man yet because possibly at present they have not those sensible reflections which others have and they desire they cannot be satisfied but are ready to complain and murmure and like a teachy child to throw away and despise all they have because they cannot obtain this which they so passionately desire they can see no ground of hope they are perswaded that at last they shall go to Hell and one day perish with all their profession they can find no witnessings no sealings of Gods Spirit How often do we hear these and such like sad expressions from them But Christians I beseech you consider 1. What God said to Jonah Do you well to be angry do you well to repine and murmure David Psal 25. 3. prayes they might be ashamed who are transgressours without a cause Are you not transgressours without a cause hath not God given you more than you have