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
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
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
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
ocean of reigning corruptions and these keep the heart from taking fire with the love of those excellencies which are known by nature The Gentiles knew God but they did not like to have him in their knowledge Rom. 1.28 millions of unruly lusts like the sons of Belial about Lots house beset this natural light and keep it as it were in prison thus the Apostle they withheld it in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 and it is too weak to break out of this prison and shew it self practically I shall give some instances hereof All Nations in all climates and through all ages have conspired together to confess a Deity Conscience within bears witness to him and so do all the creatures without also one would wonder therefore that ever Idolatry should get footing in the world but what saith the Apostle they changed the truth of God into a lye and the glory of the incorruptible one into a corruptible image Rom. 1.23.25 there were store of abominable idols among them no doubt natural light gave its secret vote for God but it was but the vote of a poor prisoner altogether insignificant it was not strong enough to make them own God in his own world Again reason and nature say that God must be worshipped with the heart and that a pure heart purâ mente colendus was the old verse in suo cuique consecrandus est pectore said Seneca God hath not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more proper place upon earth then a pure heart saith Hierocles O divine saying next door to that of our Saviour blessed are the purâ— in heart for they shall see God But after all this can this natural light work a dram of true sanctity or holiness in the heart No the very Schoolmen themselves who ever give nature her due with an overplus will not say so only they say facienti quod in se est Deus revelabit Christum largietur gratiam Well if this hypothesis which I am not now to dispute were true can there be an instance given among all the Pagans from the morning of the world till this day of any one man who by the right use of â—â—turals arrived at true grace If so what will become of that in the Apostle Who hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 If not O what a poor weak light is this of nature and how long and universally a prisoner hath it been indeed true sanctity or holiness is never found without humility but touching that there is no footstep nor shadow of commendation in all the Pagan writers saith the learned Amyraldus it is not so much as a virtue among them on the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greatness of soul is reckoned among Aristotles virtues Well then might Erasmus his Sancte Socrates have been spared Notable is that of St. Bernard Epist 190. some saith he whilest they go about to make Plato a Christian prove themselves heathens Again because possibly the light of reason may be weakest in the concerns of Religion I shall instance in other things Doth not nature and reason plead for all things of common honesty and humanity and yet in the Laws of Lycurgus which were of high renown and commended even by the Oracle of Apollo and which as Plutarch relates Lycurgus took singular pleasure to see put in ure even as God rejoyced to see the world move and turn about I say in these there are such obscenities and inhumanities as would put any one to the blush to see them in story what else are the dancing of maids naked and throwing weak children into a pit of water spoken of by Plutarch well might the Lacedaemonians have spared the Temple and Sacrifices to their Law-giver unless he had been truer to the Law of Nature Again is not self-preservation an intimate and natural impress in the heart of man it is not scripta sed nata Lex said the Orator and yet this ingraven Law was not strong enough no not in a grave and noble Cato to keep him from murdering himself and tearing out his own bowels and over this unnatural act Seneca sounds a triumph as being a noble and heroical contempt of death it self that that sword of his which was yet pure from the blood of others might let out his own but hear the censure of St. Austin De Civit. Dei l. 19. c. 4. Vtrum obsecro Cato ille patientiâ an impatientiâ se peremit non enim haec fecisset nisi victoriam Caesaris impatienter tulisset and in another place non erat honestas turpia praecavens L 1. c. 23. sed infirmitas adversa non sustinens it was but a proud impatience and miserable trampling upon the Law of Nature Moreover the light of reason doth really produce many moral virtues and yet in these wherein its greatest strength lyeth it is too weak to elevate any one of them to the glory of the great Creator Contra Jul. Pelag. l. 4. c. 3. therefore as St. Austin hath observed the whole body of Pagan virtues for want of a single eye at that great end is full of darkness Thus much of the weakness of reason on the other side the light of faith hath a great deal of strength in it this will not cannot be commonly imprisoned it is an holy unction and at last will be uppermost it is a mighty Engine whereby the hâ—ly Spirit lifts the heart up into belief and resignation a thing of high birth and great activity being born of God and overcoming the world 1 Joh. 5.4 and because the light of reason was not able to bear up the interest of God among men this supernatural light came to do it In the primitive Church whilest this shined clear there were no such things as outward Idols or Images afterwards upon the declension thereof those things crept in by degrees first into banners and then into Churches and there first for instruction only and afterwards for adoration yet nevertheless this holy spark shewed it self in some as in Epiphanius his cutting the vail and Serenus his breaking the Images and divers others abhorrency of Idolatry and what this supernatural light doth in Churches against outward Idols that it doth in hearts against inward it will allow no Idol to stand in the secret place not an Ashteroth of riches not a Venus of pleasure not a Baal a ruling lording lust in the heart every indulged lust stands upon the unilluminated and unresigned will and after Faith hath purified the heart it must give way for God to set up his Throne there that pure heart which the Philosophers talk of at random as a Geographer of a terra incognita faith plainly discovers and practically operates Those dishonesties and inhumanities which reason could not keep out of Laws faith casts away from private Christians as the common mire and dirt of a wicked world those moral virtues
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
preamble of faith Nay in the Apostle it is the first fundamental faith He that cometh to God must believe that he is Heb. 11.6 But you will say What need supernatural light for this Nature and Reason make this known and indeed they do so but so weakly as not to raise up any one faculty in fallen man unto God his Creator Never did natural light so shew a God as to raise up his love out of this vain world nor as to raise up his faith out of creature-confidences unto God Wherefore this first principle must be seen by a supernatural light which is indeed a middle kind of light between the light of glory above and the light of nature below It sees the invisible one not as the blessed Saints see him in the heavenly vision nor as the meer Naturalists see him by the glimmerings of reason but in a middle way of gracious illumination This our Saviour calls eternal life Joh. 17.3 heaven dawns in it and nature is illustrated by it Secondly As the first step of knowledge in order to faith is Deus est so the second is Deus verax God is true yea truth it self and the first archetypal truth his testimony is infallible and all his words Yea and Amen Unless this be known a man cannot believe him as a God the believer sets to his seal that God is true And if he did not know it his seal would be to a blank and though natural light reveal the truth and veracity of God yet as I said before weakly and therefore supernatural is required Thirdly The third step of knowledge in orâ—â—r to faith is Deus dixit seu revelavit God hath spoken or revealed himself in the Scriptures These are the very words and testimony of God himself If a man do know that God is and is true yet unless he know that God hath spoken in the word that there is his very testimony he cannot believe Should we ask a man why do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world it would be no rational answer for him to say I believe it because God is true No though God be the first infinite truth yet unless he speak and testifie so much it cannot be believed upon his testimony or authority the only satisfactory answer is this I believe it because God who is true hath spoken and revealed it It is necessary to faith to know the holy Scriptures to be the word and testimony of God that God speaks and reveals himself in them and this cannot be known without supernatural light To explain which I shall lay down two things First There are in the holy Scriptures certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or internal marks whereby it may be known that the Scriptures are the word and testimony of God Secondly These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or internal marks cannot be known without supernatural light First There are in the holy Scriptures certain marks or characters whereby they reveal themselves to be the very word of God even as the Sun manifests it self by its own light There is a Majesty in the stile what book or writing ever run in such a strain as thus saith the Lord where before it was there ever any universal Law made unto all mankind Kings and beggars without distinction who ever before commanded obedience upon pain of eternal torments in another world or allured obedience with promises of everlasting glory there The fiery Law carries an awe with it as if the thunders and lightnings of Sinai were not yet over And in the Gospel the kingdom of heaven approaches and opens it self to believers as it were in sparkles of glory Again there is a treasure of Divine mysteries touching the sacred Trinity Nature is mute but Scripture speaks out Reason is but a little child and cannot pass this infinite Abyss unless Faith in the word take him upon his back and carry him over Touching that Incarnation of the Son of God never any natural man dreamed or so much as started a thought of it but in Scripture this and all the train of mysteries in our Redemption break forth in their glory That book which hath such and the like mysteries infinitely transcending all the thoughts and reasons of man doth by them shew that it came out of the bosom of God himself Again there is an unparallel'd purity in it such as is no where else to be found This Sun hath no spots in it this Diamond hath no flaws in it there is nothing terrene or carnal in this heavenly piece as long as it hath stood in the world not a dust or a dreg can be found therein neither ever did or will it licence the least of erratas in man In its pure spiritualness it casts a chain upon the very thoughts and first motions of sin and traces up sin to the black nest of corruption in lapsed nature it calls for a pure heart made from heaven in regeneration and new-creation and the noblest births of Reason and Morality will not serve the turn Such things as these are not so much as named in the writings of the worlds Sophies Plato and Aristotle never arrived at such notions Moreover it hath a wonderful efficacy on the hearts of men it looks into the inmost closet and retiring room of the heart and like Christ it comes and stands in the midst of it when all the doors are shut by obstinacy and unbelief it awakens and alarums the sleeping sinner and makes such impressions and deep wounds in the conscience that it plainly appears no less then the arm of God was in it It Evangelizes the heart and turns it into its own nature that it may be a Temple for that spirit which breaths in the Gospel It comforts the heart and fills it with joy unspeakable and full of glory That place Rom. 1.17 was to Luther porta Paradisi the door of Paradice and that 1 Tim. 1.15 was a sea of sweetness to holy Bilney such activities as these are above the sphear of nature and speak no less then the divine extraction thereof Lastly to name no more the very plot and design of the Scriptures is transcendently divine all the holy lines run into that central divinity that God is to be exalted and man debased Oh! what manner of self-denial doth it call for how doth it labour to un-selve and as it were un-man us that God may be all in all There Reason as fair a Jewel as it is must vail its beauty in an acknowledgment of its own folly and yield up it self to be new lighted from heaven The Will as free an Empress as it is must lay by its Crown in a confession of its spiritual slavery and yield up it self to be made free by grace The Man must be no longer a man in himself but a man in Christ clothed in a better righteousness and acted by a higher spirit then his own And how doth it open the glory and blazon
his passion in drinking of the brook in the way there 's his ascension in lifting up the head there 's his intercession in sitting at Gods right hand there 's his Church Catholick a willing people made so by the power of his grace This was Symbolum Davidicum Davids Creed as a learned man hath it reaching in a manner as far as ours Moreover the Saints of old by their faith kenned a resurrection and life eternal Jobs faith looked through worms and dust to the vision of God Job 19.26 Abrahams faith travelled beyond Canaan unto the heavenly city and country Heb. 11.10 David is in a rapture at the full joys and right-hand pleasures with God Psal 16.11 When Cain talked with Abel his brother Gen. 4.8 the Hebrew text sets not down what he said but it hath an extraordinary pawse implying further matter the Jerusalem Targum says Cain asserted that there was no judgment no judge no world to come no rewards of evil or good but believing Abel said there were all these and then his brother slew him It seems the first fall out was about the future world Wisdom causes her lovers to inherit substance Quid est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nisi futurum saeculum or essence as the original word imports Prov. 8.21 and this substance or essence is as some Jews affirm no other then eternal life in the world to come Now to make my inference from all this If faith were in a measure explicite in those early Saints who had but the twilight of the holy types and cock-crowing of the Prophets how much more should it be so in us who live in the noon-day of the Gospel and as it were directly under the Sun of righteousness in such a Church-state wherein the least is greater then John Baptist we should expand and spread abroad the fails of our faith to take in the larger gales and effusions of the holy spirit Secondly Faith unless explicite cannot arrive at those ends for which it is ordained viz. to raise up the heart to a reliance on the free grace of God in Christ to inslame the heart with the love of God and holy things to sanctifie the heart through the truth and to overcome the world with its lusts A meer implicite faith cannot reach these it cannot raise the heart up to a reliance on Gods grace in Christ to that reliance is prerequired not only a belief that God is true in the Scriptures in general but also a belief that God is true in the precious promises in special We are like Jacob not believing in the mercies of God till we see the chariots the gracious promises which he hath sent down from heaven to carry up our faith to himself They that know thy name will put their trust in thee Psal 9.10 they and they only Neither can it inflame the heart with the love of God and holy things light and heat ever go together Implicite faith is a dark and cold thing affording no spiritual warmth at all he that hath no more is but a Nabal a fool in religion and his heart as dead and cold as a stone within him till the love of God in the explicite notion of it shine into the soul it will not like the disciples at Emmaus burn within us with love to God and his ways neither can it sanctifie the heart through the truth the word did not profit them not being mixed or tempered with faith saith the Apostle Heb. 4.2 Where there is only an implicite faith the word lies upon the heart all in a lump whole and undigested affording no blood or spirits of sanctity to the soul it is explicite faith only which breaks the truth in the heart and mixes and tempers every holy particle therewith from whence the soul comes to be changed and assimulated into the truth receiving a divine likeness from it according to the measure of its faith more or less digesting the same truth in the heart neither can it lastly overcome the world and the lusts thereof this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 5.4 And this Faith doth by putting a right estimate of things into the heart whereby it manifestly appears that heavenly things do infinitely outweigh earthly in themselves and should do so in the minds of men A man of a meer implicite faith is a man without a ballance or judgment he knows not how to estimate or weigh the excellent things of God and therefore is ever poized down by the world and the lusts thereof It is the explicite faith only which is in the soul as the ballance of the Sanctuary rightly determining the true weight of things and thereby giving heavenly things the victory above earthly in the heart Oh! where this is what a feather a vanity a nothing is the world what in it can weigh against God or Christ or the exceeding eternal weight of glory surely nothing wherefore the followers of faith become conquerors of the world Fourthly This belief must be total and absolute without any salvoes or limitations The Gospel must captivate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the intellect or every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 The Reason must not go at large or random but be kept in safe custody under the Gospel and the divine mysteries thereof it is not to be trusted to never since the fall put an enmity into it against God The Socinians believe the Scriptures only so far forth as they are congruous to reason thus Socinus professes that if this proposition that Jesus Christ satisfied God for our sins were once and again extant in the sacred monuments yet non ideirco he would not therefore believe the thing to be so as we ordinarily conceive of it And another laies down this for a rule Nihil credi potest quod à ratione capi intelligi nequeat that cannot be believed by faith which cannot be comprehended by reason It seems they will trust God no further then they can see him and depend more on their blear-eyed reason then the divine oracle Touching this Socinian faith I shall endeavour to shew first the inrationality of it and then the nullity First The Irrationality of it will evidently appear if we distinguish between the two states of reason before the fall of man and since Reason before the fall was a pure and virgin light without any spot in it afterwards it was destoured and overshadowed with the fall and by that means all that is in the mind of man in his lapsed estate is not reason the blinds and dark shades there are not so but only that which is the relique of the pure primitive light and congruous thereunto the blemish in the eye is not the light the rust in the gold is not the pure metal neither is all that is in lapsed reason to be reckoned reason If then in this case we would know what is rational we
then in thy heart and then tell me what is fittest to be the rule that which is perfect or that which is imperfect that greater measure of the spirit in the Scripture or that lesser far lesser measure of the spirit in thy heart common sence will tell thee it belongs to the Scripture Moreover the spirit is in thy heart and the spirit is in the Scripture but where is it plainest and most obvious where can it be most easily discerned to be the very spirit of God indeed all that is in the Scripture is indubitably of the holy spirit but all that is in thy heart is not so it may be it is from thy own spirit what thou didst suppose to have been from Gods nay it may be it is from Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light The Disciples would have called for fire from heaven as Elias but Christ tells them ye know not of what spirit ye are Luk. 9.55 as if he had said you think this motion came from an extraordinary spirit such as was in Elias but alass it is but from your own spirit nay from the gall and bitterness of it that which you take for zeal is indeed but revenge When upon our Saviours discourse of his sufferings Peter said be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee no doubt he thought himself right in the thing but our Saviour calls him Satan for it Mat. 16.23 his meaning was pious and as he might think from the same holy spirit which a little before inspired him to make a glorious confession of Christ but alass the devil acted secretly therein Of what I find in Scripture I can immediately and without any more ado pronounce that it is the very voice of the holy spirit but of what I find in my own heart I cannot do so First the light must be divided from the darkness Gods spirit must be distinguished from mans and Satans And how such a piece of spiritual Chymistry should be done without the Scripture I cannot imagine There may be three different spirits in my heart and unless I reduce them in a way of trial to the one pure spirit in the Scripture I may be easily cheated by my heart wherefore the Scripture in which the characters of the spirit are more plain and legible then in my own heart must needs be the rule Once more let me ask thee O Enthusiast who criest up the spirit the spirit above Scripture dost thou seek the spirit aright or follow him faithfully I fear thou doest neither Thou doest not seek the spirit aright because not in his own way which now is not in visions and immediate revelations but in the Scripture Thou wouldest have the spirit but wilt not stay upon the mountains of the Prophets and Apostles for him Thou doest like Joseph and Mary they sought Christ among their kindred and acquaintance when he was in the Temple Thou seekest the spirit among thy own fancies and imaginations when he is in the Scripture My spirit and my words shall not depart out of thy mouth saith God Isa 59.21 Observe the spirit and the word are by Gods own ordinance in a sweet conjunction together he that sunders them loses both of them For a man to wave the Scripture and seek the spirit is as if he should forsake the beams and search after the Sun in some place where it shines not The French Kings use to be crowned at Reims because there is the sacred oil which as they say came down from heaven If thou wouldest be crowned with heavenly wisdom be in the Scriptures there and there only is the holy Unction which will teach thee all things Neither dost thou follow the spirit as thou oughtest the spirit if followed in his own way will lead thee into all truth but if thou wilt follow the spirit in an extra-scriptural way thou doest not follow it indeed but thy own fancy and whilest thou seemest to soar above Scripture thou art like to fall far below it into the ditch of error and wickedness In no better place have thy predecessors been after all their high-flying imaginations Montanus that early Enthusiast called himself the Paraclete and magnified the writings of his two Prophetesses above the sacred Gospel The Messaliani thought they could corporeally see the sacred Trinity and dance upon devils and receive the holy spirit in a visible way Oh Satanical illusion John of Leydens visions teemed out Poligamy and a bloody Rebellion Into what wild assertions did Swenckfield and Henry Nicholas come by their Enthusiastical spirit the first saying that the Gospel is the Essence of God nay faith in the heart is so The other blasphemously alledging That the believer is Godded with God and the spirit of love is God incarnate How did Valdesso run into Familism and Antinomianism And what else did Saltmarsh in his book called Sparkles of Glory making as if Christ were but a mystical sigurative man and God in the flesh were only God in his Saints Oh mystery of iniquity whither will not this extra-scriptural spirit go what errors will it not broach what sacred foundations of truth will it not demolish how little Gospel or divine rule will it leave to Christians Leave it then O Enthusiast or else thou canst not follow the spirit of truth Thus much by way of question to the Enthusiasts Secondly I shall in a word say somewhat to their Allegations they say That the Scriptures are but the Christians Alphabet and for beginners only But let us remember the spirit which is in believers in an ordinary way was in the Pen-men of Scripture in an extraordinary I was in the spirit saith St. John Rev. 1.10 he saith not the spirit was in me but I was in the spirit as a vessel in the sea every way surrounded and overruled by it And who can believe that the spirit in its ordinary way should exceed it self in its extraordinary that in believers it should utter high mysteries which in Prophets and Apostles gave out only an Alphabet If it be no more I dare say no man no not the most perfect Disciple of God on earth ever throughly understood his Alphabet no mans knowledge ever dived into the bottom of Scripture no mans holiness was ever parallel to its precepts nor no mans faith ever traced the unsearchable riches of grace there unto the uttermost and shall we say it is only an Alphabet for beginners Is it not the wisdom of God in a mystery is it not able to make the man of God perfect hath St. Paul milk only and not strong meat was St. Peter to seed the lambs only and not to feed them into sheep and when they were such doth St. John write only to the little children and not to the young men and fathers also He writes to them all plainly shewing that no man of what stature soever in grace did ever outgrow the Scripture Again they say the Scriptures are but a
dead letter and we must not try the living by the dead The holy Martyr Stephen long since stiled them lively oracles Act. 7.38 and if they are now but a dead letter who hath murdered them who so much as the Enthusiast who goes about to separate the spirit from them If the Law come to a man in the convincing spirit and slay him with his own guilt and set his conscience on fire with some tasts of hell he may with the Apostle call it a killing letter but he will hardly call it a dead one If the Gospel come to him in the converting spirit and open the glories of free-grace and bring in a new creation into his heart he must confess that it is the very savour of life unto life and the power and arm of God to salvation and as the first life of grace is breathed through it into the dead sinner so all the after-gales of the spirit come from it upon the new creature Wherefore whilest the spirit is in the word it cannot be a dead letter and where the spirit is in the heart it will not be called so The Enthusiast for all his swelling words of vanity by calling the Scripture a dead letter proves only the deadness of his own heart and the true believer who owns the Scripture for his rule doth not try the living by the dead but the lesser measure of the spirit in his heart by the greater measure of it in the word Again they say there is a seculum spiritus sancti an administration of all-spirit which is much above all Scriptures and Ordinances but that there should be such a Church-state on earth is a vain dream There are two manifestations of God unto men the one dark and through the glass of ordinances the other by pure and immediate vision as it were face to face There are two states of believers the one a state of weak and imperfect graces the other a state of perfect holiness and purity There are also two places the one is earth a vale of tears and death the other is heaven a region of all blessedness and life eternal The manifestation by ordinances is congruous to weak graces and such a place as earth The manifestation by pure vision is congruous to perfect holiness and such a place as heaven Thus hath the wisdom of God ordered things Methinks the Enthusiast should blush to say that he is above Scriptures and Ordinances here What above the glass and yet below the bliss-making vision above the channels and methods of grace and yet below a state of perfection above the heavenly mediums and yet on earth Oh strange imagination What saith our Saviour Go teach and baptize loe I am with you always to the end of the world Mat. 28.19 20. Ordinances run parallel with this world and the state which is above them is only in the next What saith St. Paul Apostles Prophets Teachers Pastors are all for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ Eph. 4.11 12. Ordinances must continue as long as weaknesses and imperfections and cannot be spared till the top-stone of holiness and perfection be laid in heaven What saith St. John speaking of the heavenly City And I saw no Temple therein Rev. 21.22 No Temple no Ordinances is only for heaven earth must alwaies want and have them O my soul enter not into their secret which cry up the spirit and despise prophesyings be thou where Gods honour dwelleth in the Temple of Ordinances thou mayest see his power and glory Lastly the Quakers talk altogether of the light within which being as they say common to all men can be no other then natural conscience this is the candle of the Lord and much magnified by Heathen Philosophers this is every mans Daemon saith one nay it is the God in us saith another And it is so in such a sense as Moses was a God to Pharaoh preaching the will of God to him and for non-obedience urging him with dreadful plagues For it magisterially dictates the will of God even in the Monarchs of the world and in case they rebel it hath inward stings and scorpions for them Quid aliud voces animam quà m Deum in humano corpore hospitantem saith Seneca Were a Quaker to English it he would go near to do it thus The light within is God manifest in the flesh for in plain terms he will call it Christ as if the candle could becom a Sun of Righteousness In the mean time the devil hath a fetch under the praises of inward light to explode the Scriptures But we must remember that Conscience which is above man is yet below God and though it be a light and a rule yet it must truckle under the greater light and rule in the Scriptures Take conscience before conversion it is clouded and overshadowed with the Fall dark and blind in spiritual things and shall the blind lead the blind till both fall into the ditch must it not go be new-lighted at the Scripture Take heed unto the word as unto a light shining in a dark place saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 The heart of man is but a dark place till the divine word shine into it it is intoxicated with the love of sin and by it as the devils Opium it sleeps at the top of the mast in the ocean of lowdangers and must it not be rouzed up ought not the silver trumpet of the word to be sounded in its ears to prevent an eternal sleep and awaken it unto righteousness should it not go and wash in the pure streams of free-grace and redeeming blood in the Gospel it may be it is infected with errors and by these Satan hath taken sanctuary in the intellectual tower and utters his own dictates as from God and must it be left in such a case should not Satan and all his lying wares be cast out by the word and spirit but because conscience is now at the worst take it after conversion are there then no reliques of darkness which call for more light are there no fits of spiritual drowsiness which need fresh alarums are there no dregs of corruption which want a new purgation are there no spots of error which ought to be wiped out he that presumes a freedom from these hath great reason to doubt whether there be any such thing as conversion found in him and he that confesses them hath as great reason to run to the Scripture to have them rectified But because the Quaker dreams of perfection I will go higher Suppose a man absolutely perfect every wheel in his soul in right motion and his conscience a pure Chrystal without any flaw in it yet must the man be under God and his conscience under the word for his very perfection stands in that subjection and is forfeited as soon as it departs from it Conscience is a rule but a subordinate one it binds and looses but in the power and
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
imprisoned in unrighteousness then there is precious faith indeed the heart which before was shut up now opens it self to the truth as we see in Lydia Acts 16.14 When the Genoese vanquished the Venetians in a sea-sight and took the Island of Chioggia the Venetian Senate sent them a blank Charter bidding them write down their own conditions and they would accept thereof when God by his word and spirit makes a conquest on the heart and it yields up it self as a blank for him to write all his wills and pleasures in then there is true faith wrought in the soul Thirdly That faith stands in resignation will appear from the titles given unto faith in Scripture 'T is a leaning or rolling upon God Cant. 8.5 Psal 37.5 which are postures of resignation the believer doth not stand upon his own bottom nor bear up his own weight but layes all upon God 'T is a committing ones self to God 2 Tim. 1.12 which is an act of resignation a believer pawns his soul to God and as a pawn he leaves it upon God as the expression is Psal 10.14 well knowing that it cannot be in a surer hand as it were going out of the possession of himself that he may be altogether in the custody of God 'T is a submitting to the righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 which is the resignation of a subject to his Prince a believer casts off his own righteousness as rags and will be under no other righteousness but Christs 'T is a casting our burden on the Lord Psal 55. a believer finds sins and wants too weighty for him to bear and he throws off all upon God who is able to pardon and supply him In the Old Testament we have it called a trusting in God and in the New a believing in Christ a believer is not as Adam his own trustee he hath not his estate in his own hands but all in a way of dependance upon God Moreover it is called a giving ones self unto the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 a resigning up the property a man hath in himself that Christ may be all in all A believer as to his being is not a man in himself but a man in Christ as to his living it is not he that liveth but Christ in him and as to his working it is not he that labours but the grace of God with him and to name but one more it is a resting on God 2 Chron. 14.11 a believer is not at rest in himself or the creature but under perpetual tossings and fluctuations till he come to lay himself stedfastly upon God as the Center of souls and Sabbath of eternal rest Fourthly That faith stands in resignation may appear from the obstacles of faith Look what of sin is an obstacle to resignation is also an obstacle to faith and what of sin may consist with resignation may also consist with faith For the clear understanding whereof I must first premise some distinctions there is original sin and actual there is actual sin known and unknown there is actual sin of meer infirmity and incursion and actual sin which hath will and deliberation in it there is actual sin in one single act and actual sin in a series and succession of acts These distinctions premised I shall lay down this point in divers propositions First The meer in-being of original sin doth not impede resignation and consequently it doth not impede faith whatever the actual outflowings of it may do while the orisice of lust is open the meer in-being of it doth not impede is is an inmate in the heart when the first work of faith is wrought there only God by his Almighty grace doth suspend and bridle it that it doth not put forth but lye hid in its own root Thus say our famous Divines in the Synod of Dort touching conversion Divina haec actio non laedit voluntatis libertatem neque tamen extirpat radicitùs vitiosam resistendi possibilitatem quamvis enim Deus in ipso regenerationis opere adeo potenter in voluntatem agat ut actualiter resistendi potentia proxima pro illo tempore suspendatur remotam tamen in actu prima positam resistendi potentiam ne tum funditus extirpat sed in suâ amarâ radice delitescere permittit God layes the precious foundation of faith and the new-creature as it were in mighty waters in the very same heart in which there is a fountain of sin only he doth as those that build upon great Rivers do put back the fountain to make room for the heavenly structure which is set up in the heart in a very wonderful way as the stones were in Jordan corruptions as the waters of that river standing on an heap on this side and as it were cut off on that whilest free-grace is a doing the great work On the other side the indulgence of original sin doth impede resignation and by consequence faith A man that foothes up the old man and earthly members and upon the view of his heart returns omnia benè all is well as it is the heart is good enough cannot whilest such believe and why to believe is to resign and why or how should he resign to Christ for grace who feels no want such an one really poor but opinionatively rich turns off all the rich offers of grace as Esau did Jacobs present I have enough and goes away empty from all the treasures of Christ Secondly All unknown actual sins are not obstacles to resignation and so are not obstacles to faith Who can understand his errors Psal 19.12 who so knowing as to know his intellectual errors It hath been observed by some Papists that there are above 200 errors in the Commentaries of Cardinal Cajetan Dr. Reynolds de libr. Apoc. in the Master of the sentences whom the Papists extol as more worth then one hundred Luthers two hundred Melanctons three hundred Bullingers four hundred Martyrs five hundred Calvins they have yet noted more then twenty erroneous Articles unto which they add this hic Magister non tenetur who so holy as to understand his practical errors no man ever searched the gulf of corruption in his own heart to the bottom no man ever fully measured the breadth of the pure Law there are in the best reliques of self-self-love which cover a multitude of sins blinds of custom which hinder the sight of sin what with carnal profits which blow dust into our eyes and what with carnal pleasures which because brutish and bestial hinder reflection there is a great deal of sin unseen to us which is plain to the pure eyes of God On the other side where unknown sins are obstacles to resignation they are also obstacles to faith of which I shall give some instances Some unknown sins are therefore unknown because they arise out of an Abyss of darkness out of a gross ignorance of fundamentals in the heart and so in respect of their origine are inconsistent with faith
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
on a cross for them why the word is nigh him manifesting these heavenly mysteries unto his heart still he hangs upon a word that if we make a true search lies at the very bottom of all his faith as the foundation thereof Fourthly It exalts the justice of God Many great Rabbies have been caught by the head in the Controversal thickets whilest they have disputed about Gods justice in the condemning impotent men Not to enter into the briers there seems to be much in this that God condemns none for bare impotency but for height and pride and contumacy in that estate Christs question to the impotent man is very remarkable wilt thou be made whole Joh. 5.6 O thou impoten man if thou art sensibly weak in thy impotency poor in thy poverty and low in thy low estate surely creating grace is passing upon thee but if thou art strong in thy impotency rich in thy poverty and high in thy low estate thy condemnation is just because in the pride of thy heart thou wilt not yield to be saved on the terms of the Gospel Spondand Annal. Eccles Anno 491. Zeno the Eastern Emperor being in a fit of the Falling-sickness taken for dead was buried alive and when he cried out lamentably to be taken up but into a Monastery his wife Ariadne would not suffer it If the poor sinner lying in his spiritual grave mourn and groan under his impotency CHAP. VI. Precious Faith confiuered in the fruits and glorious progresses of it and here first of the Divine Sagacities of Faith THUS far I have treated of Pretious Faith in its first and lowest measure as it is the condition of the Gospel consisting of supernatural illumination a belief of the Divine Testimony and a dependant resignation to the terms of the Gospel Now I come to consider the fruits and glorious progresses of faith Faith is like Rebecca the Mother of thousands That blessing of Abraham in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee falls down upon all the seed of believers their faith is blessed with a fair progeny of graces and comforts only these are not born all at once for though adoption and justification immediately ensue upon faith comforts and statures of graces do not do so but come forth into being gradually in some sooner in some later as grace is actuated and as God is pleased to dispense them wherefore what I shall lay down touching the fruits of faith I intend not as universally applicable to all believers at the very first and before a progress made in grace justification and adoption are found in every believer nay and some measures of sanctification but higher degrees of grace and manifestations of Divine Love are not so neither do I mean critically to time when each holy fruit buds forth but only to explain the things themselves And here I shall first begin with the sagacities of Faith There hath been a great stir in the world about wisdom Philosophers have hunted after it the Jews have vainly cried up themselves nos sapientes we are the wise men say they but in truth the only Sage under the Sun is the believer Upon Gods own survey it was found that there is none that understandeth Rom. 3.11 none but the believer only his knowledge is divine all Arts and Sciences are but toyes to it which occasioned the worthy Pitiscus to say that he played in Mathematicks with his rule and compass but he sweat in Divinity his design is the wisest he seeks a crown a kingdom of glory the Primitive Christians were wont to talk so much of the kingdom the kingdom that the Pagan Emperors grew jealous of them but alass their aims were much higher in comparison whereof earthly Monarchs do but play at push-pin about Crowns of dust and spend their time like Domitian in catching flies the believer leaving the world behind his back pitches upon heaven and God the heaven of heaven in him to enjoy mirrors of truths Sabbaths of love rivers of pleasures and plenitudes of joy and bliss for ever and what wiser design can enter into mans heart surely none as the last day will demonstrate when it shall put an eternal blush on all other designs And as his end is the wisest so his way to it is the surest he goes to it by Jesus Christ whose merit as a golden key unlocks the doors of bliss to the believer and whose spirit attires him with all graces to make him fit to enter in and all this is not a fancy a fools Paradise but a truth a real thing founded on that infallible word which stands faster then the pillars of heaven and earth But to unfold the sagacities of faith more fully I shall consider them with relation to several objects As to God the believer sees the invisible one and that after another rate then meer Naturalists and Notionalists do he hath more then a bare notion he hath the mystery of God in his heart as the phrase is Col. 2.2 he that hath but the meer notion sees him afar off and knows not how to sanctifie such a Majesty in his heart no more then Cardinal Perron did who first in an excellent Oration before the French King proved there there was a God and then being much applauded by the Auditory offered the next day to prove the contrary but he that hath the mystery sees him neer at hand and so prepares a room for him in his heart a fear for his Majesty a love for his goodness a faith for his truth and mercy a joy for his salvation putting each affection into a posture suteable to some one or other of his Divine Attributes he that hath but a notion of Gods Omnipresence can sport with his sins as if there were no God in the place but he that hath the mystery of it Abraham-like walks before God on to his faces as the Original is Gen 17.1 every where there is a face of God appearing to deter him from sin and excite him to holiness he that hath but a notion of Gods grace hath no favour no relish of the sweetness thereof which I suppose makes the converse of some great Scholars as dry and sapless as Cardinal Pools Sermon about the Pall but he that hath the mystery of it tasts how gratious the Lord is and is ravished as if heaven opened and some drops from the rivers of pleasure there were let down upon his heart he that hath but a notion of Gods justice can sit in his lusts before the sparks of his own kindling and be no more afraid at the threatnings in Scripture then Jehojakim was at the burning of the roll Jer. 36.24 one lust or other consumes all the roll of Divine threatnings but he that hath the mystery of it cannot do so to him hell flames out in every threatning he trembles at the word and saith O my soul be not deceived if thou live after the flesh thou wilt dye
if thou sow unto the flesh thou must reap corruption He that hath but a notion of Gods power can despise Gods hand in small crosses just as the proud Greeks who when Callipolis was lost said the Turks had taken but a bottle of wine but he that hath the mystery of it dares not do so well knowing that the lightest afflictions come from Shaddai the Almighty and if need be he can strike harder he that hath but a notion of Gods All-sufficiency hath his affections scattered up and down the earth as the poor Israelites were over Egypt for straw to gather if it were possible a happiness from the flowers of the creature but he that hath the mystery of it knows how by a compendious wisdom to have all in God roll over all worlds the world of thoughts wishes and desires in the heart the world of riches honours and pleasures in nature the world of pardons graces and comforts in Saints the world of joy glory and beatitudes in heaven and after all this the believer can tell you all these are to be found in God habet omnia quihabet habentem omnid after this manner the secret of the Lord is with the believer As to Jesus Christ the believer hath the mystery of him in his heart A man may have a notion of God manifest in the flesh but unless he have an heart of flesh an yielding resigning heart for God to manifest his spirit and graces in that the heart may in some measure be made answerable to the spirit and graces in Christ he wants the mystery of it St. John speaking of love saith which thing is true in him and in you 1 John 2.8 Why so because saith he the darkness is past and the true light now shineth a man may tell the story of the meekness humility holiness obedience charity patience it Christ but if the true light do not shine in him by faith if these graces be not true in Christ and in him he hath not the mystery thereof the spyes coming back from Canaan brought not only a bare report of the good Land but clusters of grapes also he that hath the mystery of Christ hath not only a meer notion of the full treasures of grace in him but clusters of graces from thence as so many real proofs thereof the Apostle Paul doth notably decipher this sagacity that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil 3.10 If a man hath only a notion of Christ crucified and Christ risen we may character him as Erasmus did the Monastery he was in there is nihil Christi nothing of Christ crucisied where lusts are living and reigning nothing of Christ risen where the soul is dead in trespasses and sins he only knows the fellowship of Christs sufferings who hangs up his earthly members on the cross to dye and expire the only knows the power of Christs resurrection who hath felt the same Almighty power which raised up Christ quickning his soul to a heavenly life this is the mystery the so learning of Christ as the expression is Eph. 4.20 learning him so as to put off the old man with his corrupt lusts and to put on the new man in true holiness and so as to be found in him and count all dross and dung for him It deeply concerns all Christians nay the greatest Clerks to understand this so which without faith no man doth as being void of Christ and his spirit As to inherent grace the believer knows it to be an excellent thing an accident more worth then the substance of the soul it self and yet withall he knows it to be a creature and in it self defectible he knows it to be an excellent thing excellent in its supernatural parentage a thing not born of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God an holy thing formed by the overshadowing of the blessed spirit a beam of grace from the eternal grace in the heart of God excellent again as it is the souls lostre knowledge its glass humility its vail obedience its golden ear-ring love the chain of its neck righteousness its fine linnen every grace its inward glory and beauty elevating natural faculties above their own pitch into a state congruous for communion with God above all excellent as it represents God himself in every creature there is a print or footstep of God but in grace there is his very image and resemblance a believer can see more of God in an holy beam then in the great Sun in a little of heaven then in all the earth intal poor meek spirit then in all the Nimrods and mighty Potentates of the world and yet after all this the believer sees grace to be but a creature and in it self defectible without a spiritual concourse from heaven should God bid him stand alone he would be in an agony and pray as Annas Burgus did at his Martyrdome Deus mi ne me derelinquas ne ego te derelinquam my God forsake me not lest I forsake thee Should God offer him all the Angels in heaven to guard his little spark of grace in being he would tremble and say not so Lord let me be kept by thine Almighty power unto salvation that is the only keeper I desire he dares not say my mountain is strong now I am full now I am rich now I reign as a King by my self were he full of grace it would be but as a room is of light no sooner could he shut the windows and possess it in a self-subsistence but he would be in the dark and experiment every beam to hang upon the Sun of righteousness were he rich in grace it would be but as a Merchant is in his trade if the rich returns from heaven should fail he would soon spend all his stock and like a son of Adam turn bankrupt were he a spiritual King ruling over his lusts he would and must confess himself under the kingdom of Christ and to hold all his power from thence or else Mene Mene his kingdom is numbred and divided among lusts and devils St. Paul saith I live but immediately he calls it back again yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 well knowing that all his grace had its being from the true Immanuel Jesus Christ and its continuance from the continual influxes of his spirit which are in a sober sense a kind of Immanuel God with us strengthening graces where they are weak quickning where they are dead upholding where they are falling and by an incessant spiration influencing Being into them that they may not vanish into nothing As to the opposite sin the believer sees more of the sinfulness of sin and yet more of the holy God about it then others do He sees more of the sinfulness of sin then others Next to Christ who weighed sin upon the cross he of all men knows best how to
excellency and withall no man sees so much of their vanity as the believer doth take the world in its own place and station and thus it is a rare monument of the eternal power and Godhead the invisible spirit renders himself visible and as it were palpable in it every being in nature shews forth the Being of Beings every beam of light points to the Father of lights every drop of goodness leads to the great Ocean every harmony among the creatures tells of an infinite Artificer this is the sense of the creation which faith understands better then learning Philosophers and great Naturalists may see more of the creature then the believer but the believer sees more of God in it then they they gaze most on the fine letters and characters in nature but he best knows the sense of all which is God On the other side take the world into the heart and there exalt it as the supream good of man and thus it is a lye a fancy a dream a shadow my a very nothing after all its goodly promises it is but a lye after all its spreading pomp and glory it is but much fancy it casts men into dreams and appearances of happiness in this and that creature but as soon as faith awakens them it is known to be but a dream the day breaking in the heart all the shadows flee away it looks like somewhat of substance but it is as all other Idols are a meer nothing nothing to make a God of nothing as separate from its Creator just as letters without sense and beams without a Sun perfect vanity which as a Learned man hath it is in its true Idea made up of nothing as the matter and a lye as the form thereof A carnal man gazes upon riches and forgets the thorn clothes himself with the creature and forgets the moth drinks of the cup of pleasures as if there were no poison in it and sits under the gourd of worldly things as if there were no worm at the root but the believer sees a vanity in the fairest prospects of the world before the rust appears visibly in the gold faith sees it there before the great Dooms-day dashes down the world actually faith doth it mentally making it as inconsiderable a nothing to mans happiness as it will sensibly appear at last when the whole shall be wrapt up in a winding-sheet of flames Again though the carnal man dote more on creature-comforts then the believer yet the believer pries more curiously about them then he the carnal man is all for the bulk but the believer not so much for that searches into the title he would very fain have what he hath in Jesus Christ and in the good will of God Since sin blasted and forfeited the world he dares not claim any thing upon meer creation but all in and through Christ and free-grace all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.22 there 's his title the carnal man looks on the world as a mountain of prey and scrambles for as much of it as he can but the believer would have every grain come through Josephs hands and all his bread and wine set forth by the true Melchisedeck the King of righteousness nay such is his holy curiosity that he is jealous of the least adherent guilt which others never mind the oppressing Merchant boasts and smooths up himself yet I am become rich I have found me out substance in all my labours there is no iniquity Hos 12.7 8. but let faith come in and then the stone cryes out of the wall and the rust of the gold and silver witnesses against him There were in Saxony as Thuanus relates two sordid inhumane wretches who for filthy lucre ingrossed a great quantity of corn and afterwards opening their barn-doors to transport it the corn flew up into their eyes driving them into horrid astonishment and desperation should the believer oppress it would flye in the face of conscience and the curse of God would seize upon him upon which account he is very curious about his estate to keep the moth of guilt from it As to the evil things of the world such as crosses and afflictions whilest others pore only on the outward evil lying before the senses the believer looks upward to God the supream Moderator being richly content with crosses as long as God governs the world A story there is of a godly but sickly woman who when an Angel came to her from God proffering her as from him health in one hand and sickness in the other fell a weeping that God should put her to her choice and not himself chuse for her such is the genius of faith which would not chuse for it self but refer all to God kissing every cross as a piece of his government who rules the world Again the believer looks inward to sin as the black fountain from whence all miseries issue forth in the world well knowing that all Physical evils are but the pay of Moral whilest others cry out of the plagues he complains of the sins Pharaoh cries out perii but David peccavi Against thee thee only have I sinned Psal 51.4 and there is great reason for it because sin is the fontal evil which powres out all other evils and puts a desperate sting and venom into them Moreover the believer looks forward to the issue of affliction 't is enough to others to come out of it but he would come out of it as the Israelites did out of Egypt with spinitual jewels and ear-rings whilest they tell over their outward losses he computes his inward gains Oh! saith he what hath God wrought by this cross did not faith roll out as pure gold out of a furnace hath not the fire dissolved some bands of corruption how much of the rusty world hath been filed off from the heart hath not the rod it self budded and blossomed with the peaceable fruits of righteousness what experiments have been made of the love and faithfulness of God in the affliction which of the Promises came in to me and milked out its comforts in my heart how warm were the heavenly affections within when the frost lay upon outward comforts such enquiries as these doth the believer make after the holy fruit of afflictions As to things future and distant the believer hath a notable sagacity the men of this world are wrapt up in the vail of time and see not so far as futurity and eternity but as soon as faith comes it rents off the vail and gives a fair prospect into another world if all the intermediate moments between this and the last day were cut off dooms-day were actually upon us faith can in a spiritual way put back all the middle time and makes us see things as they will be the heavens on fire the elements melting with fervent heat the last trumpet sounding the dead rising out of the dust and gathering to the grand Tribunal faith is
upon God in the 119 Psal thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts but O that my wayes were directed to do so ver 4 5. I will keep thy statutes but O forsake me not utterly ver 8. with my whole heart have I sought thee but O let me not wander from thy commandements ver 10. I will run the way of thy commandements but do thou enlarge my heart ver 32. I love thy precepts but quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness ver 159. I have chosen thy precepts O let thine hand help me ver 173. how working is David and how depending how sweetly do mans obedience and Gods influence accord together this a believer practically understands and none but he whilest others labour to fathome it by speculation the mystery is too deep for them but the believer hath it practically and in experience every day As to spiritual extractions the believer is very sagacious Chymists by racking and torturing of nature have forced her to a confession of many secrets and choice mysteries which made Paracelsus so triumph over Galen vaunting proudly that the least hair of his head had more learning then all the Vniversities besides The believer is the best of Chymists no extractions are like those of faith he extracts heaven out of earth could a man extract gold out of base metals it would be but earth out of earth purer out of grosser but the believer extracts heaven out of earth As Jacob saw more then meer Esau he saw Gods face in Esaus so the believer sees more then the meer creature-comfort he sees the goodness of God in it which is the sweetness of all Carnal men are content with the bulk and gross matter of an earthly blessing but the believer draws out the spirits and quintescence thereof that is the love of God without which oil and wine and corn and all other earthly things are but a caput mortuum a piece of dross and dead mattor in his eyes earthly things are transient and perishing in themselves but he hath an art to melt them down by charity into a fixed condition though he cannot say his house yet he can his charity shall continue for ever Silver and gold will not go in speeie in the upper world but he knows how by the poor which are Christs bankers to return them thither for everlasting habitations given in exchange by free-grace Again he extracts good out of evil Carnal men see nothing in affliction but a lump of sorrow but the believer knows that there is a blessing in it the sharpness of it may let out his corruption the suddenness of it may alarum his spiritual watch the bitterness of it may wean him from the breast of the creature the weight of it may try the back of his faith and patience it is no longer meer trouble but made out into fans to unchaff him of his vanity into furnaces to resine his golden graces into moulds to cast him into the image of a meek suffering Christ into spiritual wings to elevate the soul in devotions and heavenly affections towards the everlasting rest which is above much of the love and faithfulness of God is to be seen in it which made Munster sick of the pestilence to shew the ulcers and plague-tokens on his arm ut armillas preciosas Christi gemmas as the bracelets and rich jewels of Christ such noble extractions can faith make out of sore afflictions as if they were the only love-tokens to feal up a son of God according to that old saying Qui excipitur à numero flagellatorum excipitur à numero siliorum Again he extracts strength out of weakness Satans shocks and the fluxes of inward corruption may make him weak and ready to perish but his faith tells him that the power of God which can do all things is perfected in weakness and the weakness of man under which he groans is a capacity for that power to shew forth it self in when our power is gone there is room for Gods when there is no might he increaseth strength as it was in Christ the weakness the humane flesh was anointed with the divinity so it is in the believer the weakness the humane frailty is anointed with the power of grace when he is weak in himself then he is strong in God when weak in the flesh then strong in the spirit The Psalmist hath some Psalms upon Machalath that is upon instruments Musical say some but upon infirmity say others the believer is able to glory and make Musick over his weaknesses because his faith can fetch down the power of God upon him wait on the Lord and he shall strengthen thine heart Psal 27.14 as faith goes up so power comes down hence the believer out of weakness is made strong as the Apostle expresses it Heb. 11.34 Again he extracts grace out of unworthiness well knowing that the way of grace is to move it self into act from our unworthiness a notable instance whereof we have Hos 2.13 14. she went after her lovers and forgate me saith the Lord therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her as if he had said she is idolatrous therefore behold I will be gracious Oh what a stupendious therefore is here deservedly is it followed with a behold a note of admiration So wonderful it is that some Learned men among the Papists not understanding how such a connection could possibly be have thought that it referrs not to that which immediately went before but to some precedent words about the beginning of the Chapter a parallel place to this we have Isa 57.17 18. he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his wayes and will heal him Oh! what strange grace is here one would have thought he would have said he went on frowardly I have seen his wayes and will damn him but it is I have seen his wayes and will heal him Some Jewish Commentators gloss it thus I have seen his repenting wayes and will heal him I suppose not understanding how grace should immediately follow upon perversness but the believer knows that this is the method of grace and therefore by an holy art presses for it even from his own unworthiness Our Saviour Christ calls the Canaanitish woman crying out for mercy no better then dog Math. 15.26 a word of reproach such as the proud Jews put on all the Gentiles such as made the Saracens revolt from the Emperour Heraclius his army and set up for themselves under their Captain Mahomet but see how admirably her faith gathers upon him and even from that word presses for mercy truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their Masters table ver 27. ipsum Dominum in verbis capit she takes the Lord in his own words saith Ferus proving her title to the crumbs from her being a dog Holy David prayes O Lord pardon mine iniquity for
Here am I Isa 58.9 as if he were always at hand to answer the request Thirdly Adoption ushers in an Heavenly freedom whilest the Law is only without in the letter and the terrors of Sinai flash in the Conscience the man with his old heart of enmity drudges in the ways of God and brings forth all his Duties as the Bond-woman did her Son in the power of nature in a dead carnal servile manner Moses with the cords of Hell and Death drags the outward man to this and that Duty but old Adam with his lusts reigning within holds back the love and the joy and the delight from the work all renders to bondage till Adoption come and spirit him for holy things Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts Gal. 4.6 The same Spirit which led the Humane Nature of Christ into all Sinless Obedience leads the Adopted into a true willingness to all the Ways of God that Spirit engraves a Law within answering the outward one and inspires such a Divine Love as casts out the Bond woman and her Son I mean the servile fears and services the Will is set upon the wheels of Faith and Love and the Duties are brought forth in the power of Grace and of the Promise that Promise I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36.27 is sweetly experimented in every act of Obedience this glorious and almost Angelical freedom grows upon Adoption and no where else no will of man ever seemed out such a thing should any man go about to strike it out of his own power it would fare with him as it did with the person reported of by one of the Jewish Rabbies who in the night lighted his Candle and it went out lighted it again and again and still it went out at last weary of such vain labours he resolved with himself to wait for the Sun Such an one may strike and strike again to fetch such a liberty out of his own will but at last the Conclusion must be If the Son make us free we shall be free indeed Joh. 8.36 and Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Fourthly Adoption brings us into sweet Communion with God thus the Apostle I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 2 Cor. 6.16 I will dwell in them and walk in them who can express it In the Sons of God there is an Ark with the Tables of the Law in it and a Sanctuary with the Shechinah or Divine Majestly in it Gods gracious presence is Spiritual shew-bread and his Love burns upon the heart as the fire that came down from Heaven upon the Altar when they are sacrificing in holy Duties God doth wonderfully by his quickening and elevating influences and when they are suffering in the briers and flames of affliction God is in the Bush supporting and preserving them if Conscience breaths sweetness and peace God is in the still voice if their Graces be set forth God is a supping with them nay if there be but a poor spirit and weak desires God will sup with these the holy light and integrity in their heart is a kind of Vrim and Thummim to direct them and the Heavenly motions and inspirations are as it were a Bath Kol a voice from Heaven for their instruction in a word all the appearances of God in the worldly Sanctuary and outward Symbols of Glory under the Old Testament are spiritually accomplished under the New in the Adopted who are an habitation of God through the Spirit Fifthly Adoption assures protection and provision Israel Gods own People had a Pillar of Cloud and a Pillar of Fire to defend them and these Pillars are still in the Church though not always visible God hath said it That he will create upon her a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night upon all the glory shall be a defence Isa 4.5 Rather than his Adopted ones who carry his Glory about them shall want a defence he will put forth an act of Creation Israel when in the Wilderness had Bread from Heaven and Water out of the Rock and to the upright God saith Their Bread shall be given them and their Waters shall be sure Isa 33.16 Rather than fail He will make rivers in the desert to give drink to his People Isa 43.20 When there 's a pinch in the Kingdom of Nature his own Family and Houshold shall be provided for The young Linons may lack and suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Psal 34.10 That Distich Est Deus in coelo qui providus omnia curat Credentes nusquam deseruisse potest Was a Cordial to Musculus in his streights Faith fears no Famine neither shall the Adopted feel any Sixthly Adoption carries with it Perseverance Once a Son of God by Adoption and ever so One of the Jewish Doctors Commenting on that excellent passage With thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light Psal 36. saith That the Israelites were made free by Moses and then brought into bondage again and made free by Barak and divers others and yet brought into bondage again at last they shall be saved by the Lord their God with an eternal Salvation that is by the Messiah If meer notions make us free we shall be in bondage again if Church-priviledges make us free we shall be in bondage again but if Adopting Grace make us free we shall ever be so God hath said nay sworn to Jesus Christ His seed and such are all the Adopted shall endure for ever and his throne part whereof is in their hearts as the Sun before me Psal 89.36 and to make them endure the holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life Joh. 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 Nay though they break his statutes and thereby bring the rod upon their backs yet God hath promised Not to take away his loving kindness nor suffer his faithfulness to fail Psal 89.33 Upon such unshaken foundations do the Sons of God stand Seventhly Adoption makes them heirs of Heaven Though they may lye among the pots and in the eyes of the World be the refuse and off-scouring of all things yet are they heirs of Glory thus the Apostle If children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 That Glory which Christ hath purchased shall they be brought into that Heavenly Inheritance which is sealed without in the Promise is inwardly assured to them by the Seal of the Spirit which by holy impresses marks them out for Heaven and is a sure earnest in their hearts that the whole sum of glory shall be paid to them above each of them
is express in it The righteousness of God is upon them that believe Rom. 3.22 All that believe are justified Act. 13.39 And we have believed that we might be justified Gal. 2.16 And Justification is in order before Sanctification I suppose the Holy Spirit with its Graces will not dwell in an unreconciled Soul Under the Law in cleansing the Leper first the Priest put the blood on him and then the holy oyl upon the place where the blood was Levit. 14.14 17. The Believer first in order hath the atoning Blood put on him and then the holy Unction of the Spirit According to this order Faith is first of all But if Faith and all other Graces are infused at once and together then either they are infused before Justification and so Sanctification is before Justification or else after it and so Justification is before Faith Fifthly This way there will be a congruity between the old Creatiowand the new In the old Light was the first-born of the Creation and then the other parts of the World were made in the new the first thing is the light of Faith and then follow those Graces which make up the New Creature Beholding as in a glass the glory of God we are changed into his image 2 Cor. 3.16 First the eye of Faith is opened and then the Image of God drawn on the Soul this congruity is the rather to be minded because the Apostle speaking of the Creation of Faith doth it with an allusion to the Creation of Light God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 As if he had said Light in the old Creation and Faith in the new answer one to another Sixthly This way there will be a congruity between Christ formed in the womb and Christ formed in the bea rt The blessed Virgin first believed and then Christ was formed in her Womb Concetio Christi facta fuit simul ac Maria in verba Angeli consentiens dixit Ecce ancilla Domini De Incarnat lib. 2. Quest 7. siat mihi secundum verbum tuum Luk. 1.38 saith Zanchy No sooner did she say an Amen of Faith to the Promise but Christ was conceived in her therefore after her Faith the Angel immediately departed from her as having his errand already dispatched answerably the Christian first believes and then Christ is formed in him in all those sanctifying Graces which make up the holy Image of Christ The Apostles expressing those Graces under the notion of forming Christ in us Gal. 4.19 seems to hint out this Congruity Seventhly This way there will be a Congruity between the being of these Graces and the acting of them whilest both proceed from Faith depending upon Christ the head of Grace The Believers life is in Scripture called a life of Faith not as if there were not Love Meekness Obedience Patience with all the other Graces in him but because Faith is the grand principle which moves every one of them Faith worketh by love saith the Apostle Gal. 5.6 and so it worketh by Meekness Obedience Patience and all other Graces being as it were blood and spirits running in every part of the New Creature All Graces are set a working by Faith and if they also receive their being through it there is a Congruity between their being and working Upon these Congruities I take it that Faith is first in order and then other Graces As to the actual exercise of Graces It is Faith which sets them all a working To this purpose it is observable That all the worthy acts of Grace mentioned in the 11th Chapter to the Hebrews are there ascribed to Faith so is Abels excellent Sacrifice Enochs walking with God Noahs holy fear of the deluge Abrahams obedience in leaving his Country Moses 's self-denial as to the Egyptian Court The valour of some Worthies in subduing Kingdoms and the patience of others in suffering torments for the truth The reason of which is because Faith is the first mover which sets all other Graces a-moving the General under whose conduct all Graces come forth in their courses therfore the honour of all is devolved upon it Now how Faith sets other Graces a-working I shall first shew in a general way common to all of them and then more particularly with respect to some special Graces In general Faith sets other Graces in motion by such ways as these First It looks on the Command which in Scripture calls for these Graces as the very Will of God And so presses for Obedience many ways as first from the Divine Authority of it In the word of a King there is power much more in the word of a God when known to be such In the Council of Triburia a fancy touching an Episile come from Heaven made impression in some of them Had it been really known to be so indeed the impression would have been deeper At the sound of the Command Faith knows that it is the Lord that the voice is from the excellent glory and in that Authority presses to Obedience But this is not all besides Gods Authority it urges from his Love It is saith Faith the voice of thy beloved thy dear Father in Heaven who hath cast his cords and bands of Love round about thee to draw thee to himself and then the Heart must needs feel constraints and holy inflammations to Obedience and be like St. Peter who when he knew it was the Lord girt himself and made towards him Gods Love hath dropt sweetness into the Command and made all easie Moreover to make the stronger impulse on the Believer Faith demonstrates That the Command is just and right and good that holy Love and Patience and other Graces of the first Table are pure rectitudes wherein Man stands in his true posture towards God his Goodness or Providence or some other thing in him And also that Justice and Temperance and Charity are rectitudes wherein he stands in a true posture towards others or himself for Gods sake And a Command so known moves so strongly towards Obedience that a man who would pay his debts to God or his Neighbour or himself cannot must not repugn Secondly Faith looks not only upon the letter of the Command but upon the life of Christ Where all Graces are set forth in lively and orient colours really and practically exemplified to our view Precepts possibly may have more of notion in them but Examples have more of vivacity to attract the heart to imitation above all the Example of Christ must be cogent to Believers he went up and down doing of good every step one odour of Grace or other brake from him Subjection to Parents or Magistrates or Zeal towards God in purging the Temple or Humility in washing his Disciples feet or Meekness under malicious accusations and blasphemies or melting bowels upon all occasions dropping
Cures on the bodies and Heavenly Truths on the Souls of Men or admirable patience under great sorrows and at last upon a tormenting Cross where he drunk the bitter cup of wrath up to the bottom and over and above all the rest sweet Love and Obedience run through them all with a pure intention to his Fathers Will and Glory And Oh! what a Samplar of Grace is here and how strongly can Faith press for an imitation what shall I not tread in such pure steps my Saviour being before Of whom shall I learn if not of my Redeemer Did he sweat and bleed and die on a Cross for me and shall I not follow him Can I rest on his Merits and precious Obedience and wave his holy Pattern Was he to fulfill all Righteousness and I none at all If I abide in him must I not walk as he walked If I know the truth as it is in Jesus must not those very Graces which were true in him be true in me also Why doth the Spirit come and work those Graces in my Heart but that they should be actuated Unto what was I created in Christ if not to good works I find nothing but vanity in my self and my own ways and shall I not walk in Christ and his holy Graces If I follow him fully shall I not see the Heavenly Canaan at last and there receive a Crown of Life Such a Pattern so pressed on a Believer must needs be a strong motive to the exercise of Grace The Apostle would have us run our race looking unto Jesus Heb. 12.1 2. Fancy as Naturalists tell us hath done strange things a Woman much looking on a beautiful Picture brought forth her Child very like it as Galen relates to be sure Faith looking unto Jesus brings forth his Image in the Heart and Life Thirdly Faith holds out the Promises as incentives to the work The Believer is an Isaac a Child of Promise the new Creature with its Graces is born of the Covenant and ever after lives upon it Every Grace hath some Promise or other to feed on Love hath God dwelling with it Fear hath his secret Meekness his Salvation Patience a crop of Comforts and all of them have an entail of Eternal Life And when Graces are acted there is a Promise of encrease To him that hath that is useth Grace more shall be given more of the same Grace his Talent shall be doubled his Path shineth more and more to the perfect day in Heaven and withal more of the Divine Indwelling Secret Salvation and Comfort promised and at last more of Glory Thus St. Peter speaking of divers Graces saith That if they be and abound in us we shall have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Christ 2 Pet. 1.8 11. Every Grace hath an entrance into it and abounding Grace an abundant entrance and all these Promises are sure in themselves sealed by Gods Veracity and Christs Blood and sure to the Believer being realized by Faith and therefore must needs be very attractive to Obedience Faith in a meer Command will make a Man follow God though like Abraham he know not whither he go Much more impulsive is Faith in a Promise when he knows in so following he is going into an abundance of Grace and Glory The lying Promises of Sin received into a carnal fancy will draw out Corruption into act as we see in Men who are drawn into Sins carnal and spiritual much as their Father Adam was by some Apple of Sensual happiness or appearance of Self-excellency how much more attractive must the precious true Promises of God be when entertained by Faith at the sight of these the Believer as old Jacob at the sight of the Chariots revives and puts himself forth in the exercise of Grace that he may inherit the Promises and the vast treasures of good in them Fourthly Faith observes Seasons and Providences and stirs up Graces suitable thereunto Insidels smother the greatest Works of God some have said That Sodom happened to sire as standing on a Sulphureous soil Others that Moses did but take the advantage of a low-tide to carry the Israelites over the Washes Nay in the Jewish Church the Pharisees and Sadducees though great Rabbies could not because without Faith discern the Signs of that glorious time wherein the Messiah shewed himself on Earth in such excellent Doctrines and Miracles But Faith where it is understands the language of Providence and calls for suitable Graces under a storm of Judgments it calls for the mourning Graces of Repentance and Humiliation lamenting after the Lord under a Sun of Prosperity it awakens the Psaltery and Harp Praise and holy joy in God the Fountain of all When Iniquity abounds it is for Davids rivers of tears to weep over it When Gods Name or Worship or Truth are at the Stake it blows up the fire of Zeal as we see in Paul's Paroxism at Athens Epiphanius his renting the Veil and Athanasius's ardent adherence to the Truth against an Arrian World As the Poor appear Charity must come forth and scatter Alms. As Injuries and Reproaches fly abroad Meekness must shew it self and rather than revenge turn the other cheek In Asslictions Patience must have her perfect work And in Desertions there must be an humble waiting on him that hides his face As God comes forth in this or that Providence so Faith meets him in this or that Grace Every Grace is one time or other called out by a Providence and every Providence hath some Grace to answer it Fifthly Faith actuates Graces in a way of dependence on the Spirit of Christ This is instar omnium Commands Patterns Promises Providences are ineffectual without it The New Creature moves not but by influence from the Head the holy Spirit must first stir up the nest of gracious Principles and then Love and Joy and all other Graces shew forth themselves As the Humane Nature of Christ never acted in a separate way but did all in Union with the Divine So the Believers Graces do nothing apart but all in Union with Christ Those who think that gracious Powers or Principles may go alone and act themselves know not the life of Faith in which all Graces hang upon Christ as beams upon the Sun The Milevitan Council pronounces an Auathema on those that deny the Adjutorium gratiae which worketh to will and to do And the Arausican speaking of that Adjutorium saith Quoties bona agimus Deus in nobis atque nobiscum ut operemur operatur When we do good God works our works in us and with us What the life of Faith is St. Paul excellently describes I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith he Gal. 2.20 And again I labour yet not I but the grace of God with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Faith is ever in dependence leaning on its Beloved and breathing after the holy Spirit that the gales thereof may make the spicy Graces flow out and upon this
God 1 King 18.39 answerably when the Believer in the doing of Gods Commands feels the illapses of the holy Spirit inflaming and comforting his Heart he sweetly experiences that God is in the Command of a truth Thirdly Faith experiments it in that the hope of Heaven is enlarged and heightned in the doing of Gods will The more a Believer doth it the livelier is his Faith the warmer his love the stronger his other Graces the meeter his Soul for Heaven and the richer his entrance thereunto 2 Pet. 1.11 He shall not go to Heaven poorly or with a seant wind but with full gales and rich Plerophories by successive acts of Obedience his Hope rises higher and higher and so gives an experimental proof That the Command is the very will of God and way to Glory otherwise Hope would not grow and flourish in it but flag and wither as it uses to do in us when we pursue our own ways The Apostle would have men diligent in good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the full assurance of hope Heb. 6.11 Vt plenissimè in animis vestris spes confirmetur faith Beza Immediately after the giving the Law God adds these words Where ever I record my name there will I come and bless you Exod. 20.24 a blessing attends his Service If God bless Obedience with an assurance of Hope which is a fore-taste of Heaven and presage of Glory it is a full proof that his name is recorded in the Command When a Believer walking therein comes to assurance and so to be within ken of Heaven he is sure that the way is right Another excellent part of Scripture stands in the Promises These are the Pearls of the Gospel breasts of Consolation and wells of Salvation flowing out to Believers in temporal spiritual and eternal good things each of these Faith more or less experiments to be Divine As touching Temporal Promises Faith experiments them in every blessing which the Believer hath Indeed outward things are but the nether-springs and blessings of the left hand dispensed promiscuously as if they were ludibria fortunae the sports of chance Providence is still ringing the changes here an Ishmael may have his portion and full cup even Crowns and Kingdoms which lie at the upper end of the World may come to the basest of men Dan. 4.17 All things come alike to all the Sun of Prosperity shines on the Bramble as well as on the Flower the tempest of Adversity falls on the Garden as well as on the Wilderness Love or Hatred cannot be known by these things not by them as they are in themselves or meerly issuing out of Providence But the Believer hath them by a singular Priviledg and in a way of Promise and by reflection may know that he hath them so When he doth not arrogate ought to himself or like churlish Nabal all in his Possessives say My bread my water and my flesh but really confess God to be supream Lord of all and himself but an accountable Steward of them When he can cast his goods on the waters and as it were send them to Sea in a voyage of Charity expecting no return but in the other World where these Corruptibles so used will rise in the incorruption of eternal glory When he can charge all outward things to stand without in their own station and not approach that heart which is a facred Temple or holy place for God to dwell in When he looks on all the World as forfeited by Sin and new founded by Christ the Mediator and so tasts his precious blood in every good thing and gathers all his comforts from his reconciling Cross When upon a just call to Suffering he is willing to venture all his part in this life upon the meer Promise of a better and had rather cast all his Mundane pearls over board than hazard a wrack of Faith or Conscience When the purest sweetest Comforts here below do not satisfic his Soul as smelling of the cask and chanel of Creature-vanity but in the fullest affluence of them he crys out Dulâ—ius ex ipso fonte a single God is insinitely sweeter than all and none but he can sill up the gaping chinks and chasmes of my Hear Deus meus omnia My God and my all Then undoubtedly he hath outward blessings not upon the common title of Providence only but in a way of Promise and by reflection on such things as these he may know that he hath them so and arrive at a sweet experience of Temporal Promises Such an experience multiplies the Loaves and wonderfully doubles and trebles the sweetness and comfort of every Blessing Some learned Men have observed a difference between Jacobs Blessing and Esaus Jacobs runs thus God give thee of the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the Earth Gen. 27.28 Esaus thus Thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the Earth and of the dew of Heaven from above ver 39. In Jacobs the name of God is mentioned not in Esaus it s true all Blessings are from God but his name is mentioned in the one not in the other The experienced Believer hath more of God and his federal Love in every Blessing than other Men. The Jews by a pious custom used to say over their Bread Blessed be God who brought Bread out of the Earth over their Wine Blessed be God who created the fruit of the Wine over their Fruits Blessed be God who created the Fruit of the Tree nay and over their Flowers Blessed be God who made the sweet smelling Herbs and in general they added this Whosoever takes ought out of this World without a benediction is as it were a robber of God But the experienced Believer as he hath a sweeter title to these things so he may raise up his Praises for them to an higher strain than other Men not only saying Blessed be God and his Providence for such and such things but blessed be God and his Promise also All good things as well those of this life as those of the other issue out of the Covenant of Grace You will say the Believer cannot yet make this experiment for though he have some of the Temporal Blessings mentioned in the Promises yet often and ordinarily he wants other of them To which I answer The Promises of Temporal Blessings are not absolute but carry a tacit limitation of expediency The main design of the Promises is Mans Salvation and to this Temporals are not as Spirituals are simply necessary but only have a remote tendency thereunto and that not of themselves but as they are over-ruled by God who makes omnia cooperari in bonum all things work together for good to them that love him And hence the Believer expects from the Promises no other measure or proportion of outward things than what may conduce to his Salvation and because he knows not what that measure or proportion is he refers himself to the Wisdom and Faithfulness of God to order all
for his good and hence God doth not fulfil Promises of Temporals as he doth those of Spirituals Promises of Spirituals he fulfils in specie because they cannot otherwise be made good a drop of Grace being more worth than a World but those of Temporals he fulfils disjunctively either in the Blessing it self or in that which is equivalent by inward contentation and supportation compensating the absence of the thing it self These things being so the Believer in what he hath may experience the Promise in the true proportion and meaning of it and not withstanding his wants may know That in Christ he is so far heir of all things that if he could want a world he should have it As touching Spiritual Promises these are either Promises of Grace or Promises to Grace As touching Promises of Grace Faith may know these experimentally The Believer reads in his Bible That God hath promised to give an heart of flesh to make a new heart and a new spirit to write his Law in the heart to give an heart to know him to circumcise the heart that it may love him and many more such-like and afterwards reading over his own Heart he may find these precious Graces all there and be able experimentally to say of these Promises as Joshua did of those made to Israel Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord hath spoken all are come to pass Josh 23.14 In every holy melting he finds the heart of flesh in every holy frame the new heart and spirit in every holy inclination the inward engraven Law in every holy beam the Divine Teaching in every holy affection the Spiritual Circumcision all the Promises are scaled and really exemplified in his Heart and what an admirable experiment is this To see a Work within answering to the Promise in the Word is a greater sight than if a Man could have stood by and seen the light start forth into Being upon the Almighty fiat spoken by God in the Creation unto which the Apostle alludeth in setting forth the Divine light shining into the Heart in the face of Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 The Magnalia of Grace are more wonderful than those of nature Hence St. Chrysostom upon those words of the Apostle We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.10 saith of Regeneration That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really a Creation and more noble than the old one as adding a benè vivere to that life which came from the old one The experienced Believer hath cause to say what hath God wrought how fearfully is the New Creature made all its Graces were written in the Promise and now are fashioned in the Heart where before there were none of them How precious are thy thoughts to me O God how great is the sum of them This Experiment was notably typed out in Isaac he was by Promise and as soon as he was born the Promise was experimented notwithstanding the dead body and dead womb The Believer the child of Promise is as Isaac was saith the Apostle Gal. 4.28 All the regenerating Graces are by Promise and when these are brought forth the Promise is made good maugre all the deadness of nature By the Promises we are made partakers of the Divine Nature saith St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.4 that is we have those Divine Graces which as the Creature-module will admit resemble the Holy One and so we have the Promises sealed up to us in Graces As touching Promises made to Grace such as are fulfilled in this life Faith also experiments them to be Divine In the Scripture the Believer meets with Promises of Pardon to such as repent and believe of comfort to the mourner of filling to the hungry and thirsty of the Divine secret to them that fear God of encrease of Grace to the improver and many more of the same nature To experiment these the Believer by perusing the Scripture and his own Heart doth two things first He clears it up to himself that the Graces in his Heart to which such Promises are made are true through the irradiating Spirit vouchsafed to him He may discover them to be such by Scriptural Marks he may find that his Faith purifies and works by Love That his Repentance and Mourning are chiefly for Sin That his Hunger and Thirst are humble and industrious in the use of means That his Fear is of God and his Goodness in a filial way That his improving of Talents is in a way of dependence and holy diligence and so certainly knows that these Graces in his Heart are real things This foundation being first laid then he proceeds to a second review of his Heart and there he may find how Pardons have sensibly broke in upon him in a way of Repenting and Believing or how the Sheaves of Joy and Comfort have followed his Tears or how Satisfactions Manna-like have dropped down on his hungry Soul or how Divine illuminations have come in and Crowned his Holy Fear or how Talents have multiplied in the faithful using and actuating of them And the Experiment thereupon will be compleat every Grace sooner or later being in some good measure answered by the Promises which let out their sweetness to it as God hath ordained them to do Thus the Believer sensibly enters the Land of Promise and eats of the Fruit thereof lifting up his Soul in The high Praises of him who gave the Promises in the Scripture and fulfils them in the Heart As touching Promises of eternal good things in Heaven where there are Plenitudes of Joy and Rivers of Pleasure in the Presence of Him who is All in All the completion of these is in another World nevertheless the Believer hath an experimental taste thereof here Whilest his Hope hangs upon them he finds strength and comfort come into his Heart whilst the weary World is tossing with troubles O what a refreshing is it to look into Eternity Hope Eatring within the vail is an Anchor to the Soul and so stablishes it that it doth not rowl about with the wheelings of this changeable World nor center its happiness in any or all the Creatures Let the World come in all its Fancies and glittering appearances of Good it cannot call off the Believers Heart from Heaven but it will be ready to point that way or let it come with storms of terror and troubles it cannot loosen the Anchor-hold the Believer will rather part with all the World and his Life too then let go his hold of Heaven Ye took with joy the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance saith the Apostle Hebr. 10.34 Or as the Words are in the Original Knowing that ye have in your selves a better and abiding substance in Heaven He speaks as if they had carried Heaven in and about them and in part they did so for as Beza hath it on this place Fide possidemus quod est in
the Old though not as named Apostolical Constitutions the manner was first one Presbyter preached then another and last of all the Bishop At this time there was good store of Preaching Damasus the First Bishop of Rome in his Epistle de Chorepiscopis shews how unlike Christ they are who preach not Ipse enim docuit ipse ovem perditam quaesivit ipse propriis humeris reportavit Christ did all himself St. Austin and St. Chrysostom preached every day ye heard yesterday ye shall hear to morrow is common in their Homilies Many of the Writings of Ambrose Nazianzen Basil and Cyril were only their Sermons to the People and therefore in Concilio Vasensi held about the Year of our Lord 440 it was ordered That if the Presbyter were sick and unable to Preach Sanctorum Patrum Homiliae à Diaconis recitentur The Deacons should read the Homilies of the holy Fathers Gregory the Great in his Pastoral saith Qui verbum praedicationis subtrabunt animabus morientibus vitae remedia abscondunt The unpreaching Minister hides the Bread of Life from dying souls The fourth Toletan Council which was a little after Gregory saith Omne opus Sacerdotum in praedicatione consistit Preaching is a Ministers All. In the Council of Mentz under Charles the Great It was Ordered Can. 25. Nunquam desit diebus Dominicis qui Verbum Dei Praedicet On Sabbath days a Preacher must not be wanting No though the Bisliop be sick it must not as that Can. saith In the Oxford Constitutions made by Archbishop Stephen Preaching is enjoined ne canes muti merito judicentur Nay the very Council of Trent saith that Preaching is praecipuum munus Episcopi the chief work of a Bishop Such an Ordinance is this and so highly esteemed in all Ages no wonder if Bishop Morton said The custom of not-Preaching is but a Babe in Christianity and the defence thereof a new point of Learning in Christs School But to return to the Point in hand after this long digression the Believer may experience this Ordinance to be of God That it is so is in part expermented before Conversion Whilest St. Paul but a Prisoner preached of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix though a Judg trembled feeling moral bonds cast on his Conscience by the Power of that Word which is never bound It is yet more fully experimented in Conversion in which there is a wonderful change wrought the dead being raised new Creatures formed Lyons turned into Lambs and hearts of Stone into Flesh all proclaiming that the Finger of God is in it of a Truth Johannes Speicerus as Scultetus relates Preached so powerfully That the very Strumpets leaving their lewdness returned home unto God After Conversion the Experiment is yet more compleat the Word works effectually in them that believe 1 Thess 2.13 The glory of the Divine Attributes break forth in this Ordinance out of the seeming weakness a Majesty appears in some sort much as Christs Deity sparkled out of his Humane Flesh It is not the meer Voice of Man but of God coming with an Authority more than Humane and setting the heart made like Josiah's tender by Faith into an holy trembling at it as a signal proof that the Lord is the Speaker One who hath the Keys of Heaven and Hell in his own hand and upon Obedience or Rebellion is able to save or destroy The Believer by the command and reverential awe put upon his Conscience finds That there is a Divine Presence and Grandeur in it which to oppose is to strive and make War with God himself Again out of the seeming foolishness wisdom discovers it self Whilest but a man is teaching outwardly to the ear there is an inward Teacher in the heart The Spirit of Revelation uncovers the holy things and brings forth this or that sacred Mystery to the View Intus datur intus coruscat intus revelatur as St. Austin expresses it The Father of Lights shews himself there in sacred Revelations Christ seals up the Ordinance by the dropping of the holy Unction A Believer meets with such illuminations as are far more precious than all the Lights in Nature Hence St. Chrysostom's Auditors when he was like to be silenced cried out Satius est ut Sol non luceat quam ut Chrysostomus non doceat It were better to lose the Sun than such a burning shining light as he was The entrance or opening of thy words giveth Light saith the Psalmist Psal 119.130 When the Word preached is admitted into the heart by Faith and there opened by the Holy Spirit a celestial Light rises up and bears Witness to the Ordinance Again in the midst of plainness Divine Omniscience shews forth it self the Minister stands without but the Word enters in and anatomizes the heart Elisha proved himself a Prophet in telling what the King of Syria spake in his Bed-chamber Our Saviour manifested his Deity in answering to the thoughts of Men. When the Word preached penetrates into the retiring-rooms and inmost chambers of the heart and there rifles the very thoughts and unriddles the purposes and inclinations It is an infallible Sign that the Great Searcher of hearts hath sent a Beam of Omniscience along with it The Believer who above all other men studies himself most desires much to know two things viz. What of secret sin there is in him and what of truth of Grace And under this searching Ordinance he comes to see many a mote or black spot in his heart such as he never dream't of and withal some marks and characters which to his comfort shew him his uprightness and in such Discoveries he sees the Great Revealer of Secrets co-operating with the Word Moreover whilest the Minister is unfolding the Gospel such are the ravishing savours of Christ and Grace as if a box of Heavenly Spikenard were broken in the Believers Heart Pardon and Peace smell out of the odours of Christs Merits and Heaven it self out of his pure Righteousness Through this lattice how contemptible soever it be to carnal Men Christ shews his all-desirable self and full treasures Free-Grace communicates pardons and love-tokens the Divine Spirit breaths life and power into Believers quickning and awakening to answer the pure Commands with Obedience and this and that Promise le ts out its sweetness and flows as a Conduit of Coelestial Wine with admirable Suavities and Consolations In such things as these Faith hath sweet Communion with God and a sure seal set to this Ordinance In the Preaching of the Gospel the Kingdom of Heaven comes nigh even to rejecters Luk. 10.11 Much more doth it do so unto Believers who take the holy Mysteries and Promises into the bosom and complex of Faith and thereby inflame their Hearts with the Love of Christ and Grace as a sure witness that this Ordinance which carries so much of Heaven in it is from thence Next to the Preaching of the Word I shall set the Ordinance of Prayer This is the ascent of
the Soul unto God as the fountain of all Good As in every lust there is a depression of the Heart to one Creature or other so in every right Prayer there is an holy elevation of it to God This gives great Glory to God as it is humble it reveres his Majesty as upright it owns his Omniscience as believing it glorifies his condescending Grace and as importunate it overcomes the Almighty and takes the Kingdom of Heaven by violence opening a door to that infinite mass or treasure of Grace which is laid up for those that strive and wrestle with him for supplies out of it This is a Catholick Duty good in all places The Jews prayed in or towards the Temple but now the whole World is consecrated for it every where holy hands are to be lifted up fit for all times praying always saith the Apostle Ephes 6.18 Not that we are to do nothing else as the Euchitae or Messaliani of old dreamed but that there is no time wherein the Mercy-seat is shut or Christ not interceding above or the holy Spirit not ready in some measure to assist Believers Neither is there any time in which we should not carry about with us a virtual confession in our sense of Sin or a virtual Prayer in our sense of Wants or a virtual Praise in our sense of Mercies Continuum desiderium est continua oratio as St. Austin hath it Vita hominis saith Luther nibil aliud est nisi oratio gemitus desiderium suspirium ad misericordiam Dei Mans life should be a perpetual breathing after God And withal it is incumbent on all Men the first Adam in Innocency probably addressed himself to God in Prayer and Jesus Christ the second Adam was much in it the Ethnicks by the light of Nature used it It was an old Gentile-Law Ad divos adeunto go to the gods Socrates prayed that he might be Intus pulcher inwardly fair with virtue Plato saith Every one who is compos mentis will in the beginning of any work invoke the gods How much more must Christians pray who have before their eyes a Gospel a Mercy-Seat and an open way into the Holy of Holies through the Veil of Christs flesh Unregencrate persons are bound to this Duty as we see in the Command to Simon Magus being in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Act. 8.22 Much more Believers Prayer is the breath of the new-creature and badg of Christians who are thus deciphered by the Apostle All that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 1.2 Such and so great is this Ordinance that the Jews who prayed standing and therefore called Prayer Gnammuda or Standing used to say Sine stationibus non staret mundus The world would not stand without Standing or Prayer That this is an Ordinance of God the Believer experiments many ways First He experiments it in the Assistances of the Holy Spirit which is as Gales to the Sails of Prayer in its Voyage to Heaven and as holy Fire to the Incense of it causing it to ascend to the Throne of Grace The Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It lifts over against us or helps us to lift up a Prayer which else would be too heavy for us Whilst the Believer is a-praying O what heavenly meltings are there The Believer is like Ephraim bemoaning himself or as the Children of Israel at Mizpeh lamenting after the Lord and pouring out water as if their eyes were turned into Fountains of penitential tears or as the man in the Gospel crying out with tears Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Catching at Mercy with an hand trembling at his own Infirmity Such meltings and spiritual mournings over Sin plainly shew That the Spirit of Grace and Supplication is poured out upon the Prayer making it like the bruised Incense sull of fragrancy breathing out from a broken heart dissolved into tears by the beams of Gods Love And in this Evangelical thaw What Divine enlargements are there The heart is no longer in the Straits of Sin and Earth but opened and expanded towards Heaven E're the praying Believer is a ware his Soul sets him on the wheels and his lips drop as the honey-comb if not in the very entrance of the Duty yet in the progress of it The Psalmist in the beginning of the 38th Psalm seems cold and frozen in Unbelief Gods arrows stick fast in him his hand presseth him sore the iniquities are too heavy the wounds stink and are corrupt There are nothing but bowings breaches and miserable roarings But before he hath done praying his heart recovers again In thee O Lord do I hope thou wilt hear O Lord my God ver 15. Sometimes at first there is a Cloud and dark Eclipse upon the Prayer and yet a little after Grace breaks forth with its Sunny beams and draws out the heart towards God They looked unto him and were lightned as David speaks Psal 34.5 or as the words may be read they looked unto him and flowed their hearts were as a River running out with spiritual fluency and enlargments such as are a real proof that the free Spirit is in the Prayer and withal What an heavenly ardor is there While I was musing the fire burned saith David Psal 39.3 While the Believer is a-praying the Holy Spirit is as fire upon the heart inflaming it into religious ascents towards God The Believer stirs up himself and takes hold on God by some Promise or other and Jacob-like wrestles with him for Mercy and will not let him go till there be a dawn or day-break of Grace He prays in his Prayer and urges the Attributes of God upon him and presses hard upon him with an holy immodesty or impudence as the expression is Luk. 11.8 and will not be said Nay Much like Gorgonia the pious Sister of Nazianzen who lay at the Altar with Tears and Prayers and said That she would not depart till she had her request and accordingly obtained it of God This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 the inwrought Prayer or Prayer wrought by Gods Spirit in ours and from thence poured out in an agony or vehemence of holy Assections panting and breaking with longings after God and his Grace Luther having prayed with great fervency said Vtinam eodem ardore orare possem Would to God I could always pray with the like ardor then should I always have this answer Fiat quod velis Be it unto thee as thou wilt After this manuer doth the Holy Spirit come down on the Believers Prayer and bear witness to this Ordinance Secondly He experiments it in his Access to God The Devils who are in Chains of Darkness can make no approaches to God there is an unpassable gulf between them and him It is storied of a German Nobleman that there was acted before him a Play of the five Wise and five Foolish Virgins the Wise were St. Mary St. Catbarine St.
immense Treasures of Grace in Christ set open in this Ordinance to all comers Here 's Eye-salve for our Blindness Strength for our Weakness Melting for the hard Heart Cordials for Fainting-fits quenching Grace against the fiery darts of Satan and Healing for the bloody issues of Sin From this Table we go saith Chrysostome as Lions breathing fire terrible to the Devils themselves Ante faciem Vnctionis Christi nullus omnino stare potest morbus animae quamvis inveteratus saith Bernard Before the Vnction of Christ the most inveterate disease of the Soul will vanish away When once the Venetians were boasting of their great Treasures a Spanish Ambassador told them That his Masters Treasure had a root in the Mines of America However worldly Men may boast of outward things the Believers joy is That his Graces have a sure root in the Mines and rich Treasures of Christ in whom dwells all fulness of abundance and redundance running over in shares and measures upon all that are in him As a spirit of Love it inflames the Heart towards Christ Oh! what manner of Love is here set before us the Father 's own Son and Image passing by Angels assumed our frail Flesh and in it stood in our room Having though the Holy One the Sin of the World cast on him by a wonderful Imputation and though the beloved Son the Wrath of God bruising and pressing him into a bloody Agony and Passion on our behalf The Fathers Eternal Joy and Splendor lay for a time in a dark Eclipse of Sorrow and Desertion as one forsaken of God that we might not be cast out into utter darkness and bled and died on a Cross as one accursed of God to keep us from bleeding in eternal flames and to purchase a place in Glory for us And all this in outward Elements is not only limmed out and figured to our senses but sealed to our hearts as that which we have a real share and interest in And what attractives and inflammatives are here Now if ever our Heart will breath out it self in holy Raptures after Christ and faint and swoon away in Love-sick desires till it can catch hold and embrace him and so taste the rare Delights and Complacencies of an Union with Him And the greater those Complacencies are the higher are the Desires and reciprocally the higher the Desires the greater the Complacencies till at last the Believing Soul in rapes of Love breaks forth into Hosanna's and Hallelujahs touching its great Redeemer Such Experiments as these prove this Ordinance to be Divine Thus much touching the Ordinances in Scripture and the Experimenting their Divinity In the last Place I shall mention The great Works of Power Recorded in Scripture many of these are Types of the Magnalia or Spiritual Wonders wrought in or for the Souls of Men. Thus the Ark which saved from the Deluge was a Type of Salvation from Wrath in and through Christ Isaac born of a dead Body and Womb a Type of the New-creature brought forth by supernatural Grace and The bringing Israel out of Egypt a Type of the great Redemption wrought by Christ These a Believer may Experiment in their Spiritual Imports and Mysteries which are more great and glorious than the Things themselves Not to be prolix in this I shall only instance in two Things viz. The Creation of the World Historically set forth Gen. 1. and The Miracles wrought by Christ related in the Gospel As touching Creation as clear a Glass as it is of the Eternal Power and Godhead the Philosophers were much mistaken about it Aristotle asserting That the World was Eternal as if it were possible That there should be an infinite orderly Succession of Things or a third fourth fifth c. without a first or as if a World a Creature could be made as the Son of God was Begotten or joyn Eternities with its Creator The Stoicks dreaming at least of an Eternal Matter or Chaos as if that Axiome ex nihilo nihil fit which runs true in Nature did reach God himself or as if He like our Mechanicks on Earth could not work without Tools or Materials Or as if the Gulf between Nothing and Being were so great that Infinite Power could not fill it up and setch over a Creature from Nullity into Being The Epicureans fancying the World to be made by a fortuitous concourse of Atomes luckily meeting together in the framing of it as if the blind Particles of Matter could range themselves into a World full of delicate Order and Harmony or as if the various parts regular motions and orderly dispositions in the great Universe could be but a chance or as if the admirable consent and confederation of all the parts therein in which contraries conspire and agree together for the good of the whole were but a fortunate casualty Such were the dreams of the Sophi but the Believer by Faith understands That the Worlds were framed by the Word of God Hebr. 11.3 And over and above may experience a Creation a pretious New-creation in his own Heart We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus saith the Apostle Eph. 2.10 In this Creation Almighty Power is as much laid out as in the Old and the Products of it are much more excellent than the other Spiritual Light excels Natural and the Firmament of Faith the outward One. The Living Water within exceeds the great Ocean and Christ in the Heart the Sun in the Heavens Graces are transcendent Creatures and surpass even the Immortal Soul which yet outweighs a World The Believer may look upon his Holy Faith Fear Love Joy Hope and Patience which make up the New-Creature and say All these were created out of Nothing and called into Being when they were not Here is dextra excelsi The right hand of the most High the very same which made the World and Vestigia Spiritûs Sancti The footsteps of that Holy Spirit which of old moved on the Face of the Waters Now I know That God is a Creator indeed and have a practical proof of it in my own Heart every part of the New-creature bearing witness thereunto As to the Miracles of Christ related in the Gospel these were so famous That Josephus mentions them Celsus and Julian in their Writings against Christians durst not deny them Grot. de Ver. Relig. 44. Camero de Verbo 441. Petr. Gal. de Arranis 447. The Jews in their Talmudical Books nay and the Mahometans in their Alchoran confess them And the Heathens moved with envy at them caused the life of Apollonius Thyanaeus and his lying Miracles to be described in meer opposition to Christ and his true ones When John sent his Disciples on that errand Art thou he that should come that is the Messias Christ returns this answer Go and tell John the blind receive their sight the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear and the dead are raised up As much as to say In such Wonders as these is
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
Eph. 1.3.4 and I have those Blessings in me Effectual Vocation hangs on Predestination as the highest Link in the Chain of Grace Rom. 8.30 and I am so called This made St. Bernard Epst 10.7 speaking of effectual Vocation say Ad ortum solis justitiae Sacramentum absconditum à seculis de praedestinatis beatificandis emergere quodammodo incipit ex abysso aeternitatis When the Sun of Righteousness rises upon the Heart in an effectual Call the secret mystery of Praedestination hid from Ages breaks forth out of the abysse of Eternity Here the Great Counsel of Eternal Love which lay in Gods Bosom shews forth it self to the Believer through the Lattice of his Graces Hence he may conclude on good grounds That his Graces shall never fail so long as the Foundation of God standeth sure in Election Continual supplies of Grace from the Fountain will keep his Lamp from going out It s observable that when God expresses his fresh Mercies to his People he doth it thus I will yet chuse Israel Isa 14.1 Election is from all Eternity but it buds and blossoms in time in fresh supplies of Grace as if he chose them again When the Saints are drooâ—â—â— and as it were dying away Election will give another visit and make them live a second time So unspeakable are the comforts of this Point that as I have read one under the sweet sense of Electing Love was for some days taken off from all the joys of Nature and in an holy extasie cried out Laudetur Dominus Laudetur Dominus as if he had been in Heaven already bearing a part in the Church Triumphant Again The Believer looks not to his Graces only but to the indwelling Spirit Faith and Love and Obedience cannot fail in his Heart whilst the Spirit of Grace is there and there it will always be because it is an abiding Vnction perpetually chearing every grace and a well of water springing up into everlasting life Continua irrigatio coelestem in illis aeternitatem fovet saith a judicious Divine on the place a continual irrigation cherishes an heavenly eternity in them Upon this account the Spirit is called the earnest of our Inheritance not for a time but until the redemption of the Church be compleated Eph. 1.14 that is till the whole Sum be paid in Glory The Earnest going along with the Believer to Heaven his Graces cannot possibly fail by the way Our Saviour told his Disciples and in them all Believers That the Spirit should abide with them for ever Joh. 14.16 And two things will make it good to them I mean their Union with him and his Intercession for them Their Union with him will do it they being mystical parts and pieces of him the Holy Fourt will enliven them and their Graces Because I live ye shall live also saith our Saviour Joh. 14.19 The Members cannot dye as long as there is life in the Head But may not the Union cease No by no means God himself hath established it thus the Apostle Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Believers are established in Christ and to assure them of it the holy Spirit is an Unction a Seal and an Earnest in their Hearts This establishment of Believers seems to me exemplified in Christs Humane Nature that once assumed into the Word by an Hypostatical Vnion was never separated from it those once taken into Christ by a Mystical Vnion are never parted from him the Apostle hints both to us The God of Peace who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus make you perfect Heb. 13.20 21. That God who would lose nothing of Christs Humane Nature no not in the grave will perfect Believers as Mystical parts of him never suffering their Graces to see corruption in an utter decay nor leaving their Souls in the hell of final Apostacy Besides Christs Intercession ratifies it he in his solemn Prayer on Earth which as Arminius himself grants was the Canon and Pattern of his Intercession in Heaven prays to his Father for all Believers That they may be kept from evil Joh. 17.15 If they are not kept Christs Intercession ceases or becomes powerless Neither of which can be Cease it cannot because be ever lives to make Intercession Become powerless it cannot because he is a Priest after the power of an endless life what he interceeds for shall be done I will pray the Father saith our Saviour and what follows The Comforter shall come and abide with you for ever Joh. 14.16 As long as Christ pleads at the right hand of Power it must be so This made St. Paul break out into that gallant Triumph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature No not our own Wills unless more than Creatures shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Rom. 8.38 39. from Gods Love to us or ours to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we over-overcome all things in our way to Heaven our Graces cannot fail below as long as Christ is pleading above on our behalf Moreover the Believer looks not only to his Graces but to the Promises in which God is pleased to bind himself that they shall be kept alive to the end St. Paul praying for the Thessalonians That their whole spirit and soul and body might be perserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds a sweet Promise Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24. Believers and their Graces are taken into Gods own hand And where can they be safer But may they not be plucked from thence No None shall pluck them out of mine or my Fathers hand saith our Saviour Joh. 10.28 29. But may they not of themselves fall out of it No though they fall out yet they shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth them with his hand Psal 37.24 But will he always do so Yes He will confirm them unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 And how will he do it He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 He will put his Spirit into them and cause them to walk in his statutes Ezek. 36.27 And what though their Fear and other Graces be defective and want filling up yet He which did begin the good work in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will perform it until the day of Christ Phil. 1.6 And what if temptations and fiery darts fly about on all sides they are in garrison in the power of God 1 Pet. 1.5 and there shall be a way to escape 1 Cor. 10.13 In such Promises as these every way securing the Believers state of Grace the Covenant of Grace lifts up
it self in a transcendent excellency above that of Works which had no Promise of Perseverance annexed to it Shall we now say That all these Promises are Conditional if we will persevere and not otherwise Is not this to turn the Covenant of Grace into that of Works and a sure state in Christ into a lubricous Adamical one Is it not to evacuate all those glorious and magnificent Promises touching Perseverance as if God in them spoke only in such cold Language as this I will preserve you from all evils and dangers only for that greatest of all which is in your own hearts and wills I will not undertake or in such contradictory terms as these if you persevere I will make you persevere as if Perseverance could be the condition of it self After these Promises so interpreted Believers are but where they were before before these Promises it would have been true that if Believers persevere and continue in Grace they do so and after them so interpreted What have they more What do they contribute to Believers when the main stress of Perseverance is laid on Mans Will and not on Gods Grace But this obiter The experienced Believer knows better how to use Promises and from them communes with his own Heart Hath God promised Perseverance and will he not do it is not his Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Everlasting Covenant and are not his Mercies sure Mercies Can his Faithfulness fail or his words of Grace fall to the ground Shall I trust him for Pardon and Salvation and not for Perseverance Will he give me Heaven and shall I faint by the way It cannot be He will guide me with his counsel and then receive me to glory Till I come there I shall be supported by his hand and supplied with his Spirit Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life In such sort may the Believer be assured of his Perseverance in Grace and so of his Salvation Again the Believer may gather his Pardon and Salvation from that peace and joy which he finds in his own heart There is a kind of Peace and Joy springing out of Moral Virtues which because of their Congruity to Reason leave a serenity on the Soul where they are lodged Mens sibi conscia recti is a great matter a good Conscience is murus aheneus a wall of brass to the owner Seneca saith Res severa est verum gaudium True joy is in the severe prosecution of Virtue Hierocles tells us That the pleasure of the Virtuous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imitates the joy of the gods And it was a Point of ancient Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virtue is sufficient to Happiness But the Peace and Joy in believing is of an higher nature Those in the Moralist come but from the face of Reason smiling on the Congruity which is in Moral Virtues to it self there is nothing of Grace or Christ in them But these in the Believer come from the reconciled face of God shining upon the Heart in a Mediator Those in the Moralist exceed not their own sphere of Reason but these in the Believer pass all understanding Phil. 4.7 and are full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Heaven comes down in them and puts a pure serenity on the Heart The Believer now dwells in Paradise the light of Gods Countenance shining as a clear Sun Christ as a Tree of Life dropping down Pardons and Graces the holy Spirit being as a perpetual spring of Virtues and Comforts the fragrant Promises breathing out the odors of Love and Mercy the sweet voice of Peace and Joy uttered from Heaven ecchoing and making melody in Conscience Nothing here but green pastures and still waters and placid Heavens not a cloud from the Law to darken the light not an ach in Conscience to break the rest not a spot of unremitted sin to stain the serenity Oh what manner of Peace and Joy is here A Stranger a Pagan Philosopher intermeddles not with them These are to be found in the Raptures of a Cyprian or in the Consolations of an Austin or Bernard In such a state as this what should the Believer do May he not break out in the proper Idiom of Faith My Lord and my God May he not sinely conclude My sins are forgiven me Nay Ought he not to do so and with David call upon all that is within him to bless the Lord for it After such hansels of Heaven and Glory should he yet doubt and say I cannot enter when he is there already in the beginnings and first-fruits thereof Nothing is more unreasonable He knows in himself by the Graces and Comforts in his own heart That he hath a part in Heaven and Salvation In the last place The Nature of the Sacraments which are Seals of the Covenant evinces this Truth In the Gospel we have Gods Hand but in the Sacraments his Seal also In the Gospel Pardon and Salvation are set forth in general Promises but in the Sacraments they are Sealed up to this and that man in particular Circumcision is called The Seal of Righteousness Rom. 4.11 and by the Hebrew Doctors The Seal of the holy God And Baptism which succeeds and as Evangelical transcends it must be as much and more So Sealing Pardon and Salvation to Believers that there follows the answer of a good Conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 or such a Conscience as can with an holy considence interrogate God himself in some such terms as these Did not Christ purchase Pardon and Salvation for me Have I not a share and interest in them Yes assuredly there is no doubt of it The Passover figured out Christ the true Lamb who was reasted in the Fire of his Fathers Wrath to take away Sin and the sprinkling of the Blood on the Door-posts pointed out the Application of Christs Blood to the Consciences of Believers in particular The Lords Supper which rose out of the Ashes of the Paschal Supper and took its very Materials from thence doth eminently Seal Christ with all his Benefits unto the Believer Our Saviour delivering it to his Disciples said This is my body which is given for you this is my blood which is shed for you Luk. 22.19 20. Why for you but to signifie the particular Application of his Passion to them By the Elements of Bread and Wine as by turf and twig God gives the Believer livery and seisin of Christ as if he said to him expresly Christ is thing Pardon and Salvation are thine thou hast my Seal for it and mayst be as sure of it as of the Bread and Wine in thine Hand and Mouth Bellarmine himself confesses De effect Sacram. l. 1. c. 8. That Sacraments were instituted Vt nos certos reddant remissionis gratie To make us certain of Pardon and Grace Only he adds 'T is only a moral certainty not an infallible one But how frivolous is this What can make an Infallible certainty if Gods Seal
cannot do it Among all Nations Seals are great Confirmatives When Darius but a man Signed the Decree though of Iniquity it was unalterable by the Law of the Medes and Persians Dan. 6.12 And what the Great God Seals in the Sacrament in a way of Grace and Mercy must much more be so by the Law of his own Truth and Faithfulness The Jews looking on the Rainbow bless God who remembers his Covenant and is faithful in his Promises as being sure that the World shall not be drowned again Much more may the Believer looking on the Bread and Wine do so as sure of Pardon and Salvation in and through Christ But you will say Gods Seal indeed is sure but our Disposition is uncertain and how can we know that we are worthy Receivers I answer Very well The worthiness required is not that of condignity but that of congruity The least Grace if true though but a bruised reed and smoaking flax amounts to a capacity May we not know That we truly hunger and thirst after Christ when we inwardly feel a pinching and pressing necessity of him equal to or rather more than any want in Nature May we not find That our Faith in God is right when it assimilates us to his Holiness as well as rests in his Grace and puts forth Obedience to his Commands as well as Affiance towards his Promises May we not say That we love him indeed when the main stream of our hearts runs towards him when at least in endeavour we obey him in every Command seek him in every Ordinance glorifie him in every Condition and prize him in every Saint Hath he not bid us welcom to the Sacrament Hath he not anointed us with fresh Oyl of Grace and Joy whilst we have sat at his Table Have we not been clothed with Power against our Corruptions Have not our Hearts been enlarged and refreshed from the Presence of God there How many melting and ravishing Prospects of a Crucified Christ have we there enjoyed And what beams of Heaven and Eternity have broke in upon us in the very Duty These things to Believers who have the exercise of their spiritual Senses are so obvious that they may easily and surely conclude That God hath indeed welcomed them to his Table and there Sealed Pardon and Salvation to them In this rich estate a Believer may bid all Scruples be gone and in an holy manner say to his Soul Soul take thy ease thou hast much goods laid up for eternity Thou art now secure of Pardon and Salvation The Holy Spirit hath Sealed them to thy Heart and the Sacraments to thy very Sense and Conscience witnesses to both as True and Infallible and what can be more Nothing remains but to keep thy self in the Love of God till he take thee up to the pure bliss above CHAP. XIV Of the Ways in which the Assurance of Faith is attained With the Conclusion of the whole THus much touching the first thing That Assurance is attainable I now proceed to the other viz. The ways in which it is attained All which are as so many further Arguments to prove it attainable Were it not so the All-wise God would not set down ways for the attaining thereof Impossibles are not to be sought after Assurance however difficult is not impossible The Scripture hath chalked out a Method how to arrive at it which I shall endeavour to open in the ensuing Discourse In the first place He who would attain Assurance must give Grace and Christ their due All spiritual Blessings grow upon Grace as an eternal Root and hang upon Christ as the Tree of Life In particular Assurance is a Blessing proper to the Covenant of Grace In the Covenant of Works there was no Assurance or Perseverance because the whole managery was left to Mans Will But in the Covenant of Grace these are to be found in Believers because God undertakes the work This is the rather to be marked because man under the Covenant of Works was in a state of Innocency and perfect Holiness and under the Covenant of Grace is in a state of Weakness and Imperfection and yet there through Faith he arrives at Assurance and Perseverance which were never reached under the First Covenant Saint Paul in the 10th Chapter to the Romans notably distinguishes between the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of Faith The Righteousness of the Law is That the man which doth those things shall live in them No Life or Peace but upon perfect Obedience which is impossible and beyond the line of man lapsed nay of man regenerate in this life Hence the Conscience of those who would enter into Peace at this Door must needs be dubious and full of trembling anxieties But the Righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart Who shall ascend into Heaven Doubt not whether thou shalt have a part there this is to bring Christ down from above He is gone to Heaven and hath carried his Merits thither to prepare a place for thee there Such a doubt denies his Ascension and so as it were brings him down again Neither say in thine heart Who shall descend into the deep Doubt not as if thou shouldst be turned into Hell this is to bring up Christ again from the dead He is already risen and hath triumphed over Death and Hell Such a doubt denies his Death and Resurrection and doth as it were bring him again from the dead But what saith the Righteousness of Faith The Word the Promise of Pardon and Salvation is nigh thee O Believer in thy mouth and in thy heart confessing and believing on the Lord Jesus thou shalt be saved Thou in particular thy Soul shall dwell at ease thy Conscience shall enter into rest in the Covenant of Grace To doubt of it is to deny the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ He therefore who would have Assurance must give Grace and Christ their due One would think that the Papists who hold That they may by perfect Obedience reach the apex of the Law and go beyond it in works of Supererogaton and climb Heaven it self by their own Merits might arrive at Assurance much rather than Protestants who instead of exceeding the Law confess themselves much short of it and instead of meriting Heaven acknowledg all their Righteousnesses to be but a filthy rag But it is far otherwise the Papists generally do not so much as doctrinally hold it save here and there a man among them such as Antonius Marinarius who in the Council of Trent asserted it concluding his Speech thus Si Coelum ruat si Terra evanescat si orbis illabatur praeceps ego in Deum erectus ero Much-like the Prophet Habakkuk who in an universal languishment of nature would yet rejoice in the Lord the God of his Salvation much less do they practically arrive at it Bellarmine himself after his fair life died not like a Bolton or a Rivet not knowing whether
cloud upon it and Guilt as a wound in it Make it as lightsome as thou canst from Scripture that as a pure glass it may be fit to reflect the Gospel-Comforts on thy Soul Get a through cure of thy old Wounds or else sooner or later it will cry out against thee Joseph started up in his Brethrens mind a good while after their unnatural sale of him John the Baptist rose again in Herods Conscience upon the fame of Christs Miracles Theodorick having cruelly murdred Boethius and Symmachus was affrighted at the great head of a Fish at his own Table as if it had been one of theirs whom he unjustly put to death Apply therefore Christs Blood by Faith that thy Wounds may be healed David after his great fall prays first to be purged with hysop and then for the joy of Gods salvation Psal 51. The Hysop which was used to sprinkle the Blood under the Law figured out the office of Faith in sprinkling Christs Blood on the Conscience that 's a soveraign Balm to heal thy Wounds and able to make Conscience give thee an answer of Peace I have read a notable story of a sick Man who when Satan appeared and shewed him a long scrole of his Sins in writing saying Behold thy Virtues replied True Satan but thou hast not set down all set down also The Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all Sin Such a purifier is this that a Man may be able as is said of St. Austin to think of his former Evils without fear as having no spot of unpardoned Sin in him Thy Conscience being made pure walk after it A reciá Conscientia ne latum quidem unguem discedendum said the Orator Leave it not lest thou fall and wound thy self afresh When Conscience summons thee to this or that Duty up be doing God calls thee to it by thine own Heart when it tells thee of such a snare in thy way avoid it pass by it as thou wouldst by Hell God warns thee against it by thy self Conscience will measure out Comforts or Terrors to thee according as thou behavest thy self well or ill towards it If like Saul thou force thy self and rebel against light and give stabs to Conscience what hast thou to do with Peace Thy Heart will reproach thee Conscience will strike again and give thee wound for wound thou shalt doom thy self and like the Devils carry thy Chains and Hell about with thee Tiberius professed to the Senate That he suffered death daily he meant in the torments of his accusing Conscience On the other hand if thou turn thine eyes inward and observe Conscience and walk by the line and level of it thy Heart shall be at rest Conscience shall be a thousand witnesses for thee thou shalt be thine own Comforter and like the Angels carry an Heaven and Paradise aboat with thee Pauls joy shall be thine the testimony of Conscience that thy conversation hath been in godly sincerity and what is this but Assurance That Conscience which faith That thou art sincere tells thee also That thy Sins are pardoned These two are inseparable companions and never part the one from the other Again If thou wouldst have Assurance thou must be much in self-examination Commune with thy own Heart dive into the abyss of it reckon with thy self summon thy self to the Tribunal in thy own bosom The Philosophers espied out this Rule Pythagoras would not have us sleep till we had reviewed the day asking our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What have I transgressed what done and what omitted This though done by the candle-light of Nature much promoted Virtue and the comfort of it Qualâ—s ille somnus post recognitionem sui sequitur quam tranquillus altus liber saith Sencea After a review of ones self Oh what manner of sleep is there how still deep and free is it Much more must such a search into ones own Heart conduce to the Christians Graces and Comforts if done by the pure Sun-light of Scripture Self-examination is a root which bears Self-knowledg and at the top of it grows Assurance which is the knowledg of gracious self Awake therefore O Believer down into thy own Heart rifle the labyrinths and break open the false bottoms there see what of Sin is in thee Is there any darling Sin such as cogs with thy complexion or falls in with thy calling or any way steals away thy Heart and Affections from God Be sure that this is an accursed thing a Deliah as the word imports an exhauster of thy peace and joy However fair it may look to sense it is virtually sorrow and wrath See again what of Grace is there in thee do thou repent of Sin and believe on the Lord Jesus and love God and his holy Ways Are thy Graces genuine such as act thee in the power of the Spirit and square thee to the holy Canon of the Word and level thy Thoughts and Intentions at the Glory of God If thou thus search into thy Heart and do it in truth and faithfulness to the holy Light I dare say thou art ready for the sealing of the Spirit and the very frame of thy Heart is a real prayer for it O how soon may the Spirit come and by a Divine irradiation on thy Soul tell thee That thy Repentance is a Repentance unto Life and thy Faith precious Faith and thy Love Love in Sincerity How soon may it apply and seal the Promises to thy Heart as if it should say to thee Thou repentest indeed and the Mercy in the Promise is thine Thou believest indeed and the Salvation in the Promise is thine Thou lovest indeed and thine are the supersensual superintellectual good things prepared for the lovers of God And now thou maist say much better than Seneca Qualis somnus O how sweet is the rest and repose which the self-searching Soul finds in the bosom of Christ and Grace He that comes to that sealing Ordinance of the Lords Supper must prepare himself for the Sâ—ul by Self-examination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a man examine himself faith the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.28 Examine as a man would do Gold or Silver by the fire or by the Touchstone in like manner must he do so that he may fit himself for the Seal of Assurance of which the Sacramental Elements are Symbols Again If thou wouldst be assured exercise thy Graces and grow therein It much conduces to Assurance to render thy Graces as visible as thou canst Grace however it always carry a Divine lustre in it is not so visible when dormant in an habit or principle as when it is put forth into act and exercise neither is it so visible in its Initials in the smoking flax or bruised reed as in its Progresses and statures in Christ In point of Comfort talents not used are as none Comforts lie dead in Believers as their Graces do the holy sire raked up affords no light to them Awake therefore O Believer to
that it were no sin spare it not but cause it to dye as a sure Pledg that all other sins shall do so Believe it This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the path of life or of those two lines of Holiness and Comfort If ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live saith the Apostle Rom. 8.13 an eternal life in Heaven and a comfortable one in the way thither Who knows but that whilst thou art mortifying thy sin God may come and speak to thee much as he did to Abraham when he was offering up his Isaac Now I know that thou repentest indeed and believest indeed seeing thou hast not withheld thy Sin thy Darling Sin from the work of Mortification Surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee Thy Comforts shall be as the Stars and as the Sand. When thou hast been a-slaying thy Lusts Jesus Christ will meet thee as Melchizedek did Abraham when he came from the slaughter of the Kings Bringing forth Bread and Wine Supportations and Divine Consolations to thy Soul Melchizedek's Bread and Wine were to Abraham Pawns of Canaan the Land of Promise and Christs Supports and Comforts shall be to thee Earnests of Heaven See what pure strains of Grace flow in the precious Promises made to the Overcomer To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he which receiveth it Rev. 2.17 O what things are here Comforts fall about the Overcomer and are preserved in his heart as the Manna fell about the Camp and was preserved in the Golden Pot. Pardon is the white stone and Adoption the new name and all these though secret to others are well known to himself But you 'l say These are promised to the Overcomer and who can say that he is such Is not the Canaanite still in the land Are there not reliques of Corruption in the best Doth not the flesh still lust against the spirit and the body of Death send out its stench and rottenness And who may call himself an Overcomer I answer The Canaanite is in the land but subdued Reliques of Sin are in thee but they do gravitare press and lye heavy as a thing out of its proper place and force thee to groan and cry out O wretched man The flesh lusts against the spirit but thou opposest might and main and if it be ready to prevail thou criest out as the forced Damosel under the Law for help against it as being too strong for thee If there be in thee a nolle peccatum a bent of heart against Sin and thou doest in purpose and endeavour fight against it and thou wouldst pursue it to death and if possible here to utter extirpation then assure thy self not withstanding the indwelling sin That thou art an Overcomer in Gods account who accepts the Will for the Deed and in the Gospels all whose Promises are made not to sinless perfection but sincerity To this purpose the Original in that famous place is remarkable It is not to him that overcometh but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that is overcoming to him that is praying striving wrestling fighting against Sin to him that is in an overcoming posture though the enemy be not quite out of the field to him shall those great Comforts in the Promise be given This made St. Paul maugre all the reliques of Corruption sound a Triumph to Free-Grace I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.25 as being sure of compleat Victory at last Again If thou wouldst have Assurance Be much in the holy use of Ordinances These are vehicula Spiritus the Chariots in which the Holy Spirit rides Circuit to do good to Souls These are canales Gratie the Conduit-pipes whereby Graces and Comforts are derived to us There God records his Name and commands the Blessing even Life for ever-more There he meets those that work righteousness and remember him in his ways David was so sensible of this that it was his one only desire to dwell in Gods house and behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beauties or sweet Amenities of the Lord Psal 27.4 If ever thou meetest with the Suavities and ravishing Beauties of Free-Grace it must be in the Sanctuary of Ordinances Christ when here on Earth was very ready to give a comfortable Testimony to those that came to him and brought their Graces with them Seeing upright Nathanael he said Behold an Israelite indeed Joh. 1.47 Seing their Faith he said to the poor Paralytick Son thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. 9.2 Neither now though in Heaven is he wanting therein he hath a secret way of testifying by his Spirit unto those who in an holy manner approach to him in Ordinances Seeing thy holy fear at an Ordinance he can tell thee That thy Soul thall dwell at ease in the bosom of Mercy Seeing thy Faith there he can tell thee That as a true Believer thou hast everlasting life Whatever Grace thou bringest into his presence he can make one Promise or other drop sweetness upon it Wait on him in his own ways that he may speak Peace to thee more particularly Converse much with the sacred Word In the Gospel great things are set before us there 's a Glass of Gods Glory The more thou lookest into it the more thou wilt be transformed into the Divine Likeness there 's a Mass a Treasury of rich Grace the more thou searchest into it the more thou wilt taste how gracious the Lord is till thou come to the highest gust of it in Assurance there are the Breasts of Consolation suck on and thou shalt be satisfied as with marrow and fatness there thou hast the demonstration and ministration of the Spirit get as much as thou canst of it that thou mayst be sealed by it There the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith from a Faith of Adherence to a Faith of Assurance There is the savour of Life unto Life of a gracious Life unto a comfortable and glorious One. Be much in reading and hearing the Word but do it in an holy manner do it attentively take heed to it till the day dawn and the day-star arise in thy heart do it desiring the Word as the Babe doth the Breast that thou mayst grow into all the measures and statures of Christ do it in faith that the Word may profit and effectually work unto all Graces and Comforts do it in love to Truth and Righteousness that the oyl of gladness which is upon Christ thy Head may run down upon thee do it obedientially hearken to the Commands that thy Peace may be as a River flowing in the joys of Faith If thus thou wilt hear and open to Christ who stands and knocks at the door of thy heart He will come in to thee and sup with thee and thou with him Revel 3.20 He will come in to
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
here I recommend three things to thee To walk as in Gods presence To have an universal respect to his Commands and To carry a pure intention towards his Glory All these have a great tendency to Assurance Walk as in Gods Presence Remember that he is every-where Thou needest not a Vision or Jacobs Ladder where-ever thou art thy Faith can tell thee that God is in the place and it is too dreadful to sin in His Presence besets thee behind and before and thou canst not break away from it thy ways are all before him nay thy very heart He knows the make of it and stands by the inward Frame and secret Springs thereof seeing what is a forming there upon the Wheel and what thoughts are taking their flight from thence All is naked and open as in an Anatomy before his Face He is intimior intimo tuo nearer to thee than thou art to thy self Walk as in his Presence Live as under his all-seeing Eye Seneca would have us set a Cato or a Laelius before our eyes and to compose our Lives as in their Presence Magna pars peccatorum tollitur si peccaturis testis assistat saith he A present witness would prevent a great deal of sin Think thus with thy self Cave Spectat Deus Take heed God seeth Keep fresh apprehensions of him in thy thoughts Think purpose speak act do every thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of and in an holy congruity to his Presence Walk with him that thou mayst be translated though not as Enoch corporally into Heaven yet as a sincere Believer mentally into the Suburbs of it in the Manifestations of Gods Favour Look stedfastly constantly unto him that thou mayst have sweet Aspects and Love-glances from him Thou mayst have his Favourable Presence whilst thou livest under his Awful one The upright shall dwell in thy presence Psal 140 that is in thy gracious Presence They set him before them and he causes his Grace and Love to pass before them In the next place Have an universal respect to his Commands It is a vulgar Rule among the Jewish Doctors That men should single out some one Command out of the Law and exercise themselves therein that God may be their Frsend and bear with them other things But this is to Indent and Article with God upon our own Terms The Hypocrite as one elegantly expresses it like a globous body touches the Law in some one point in some particular Command but the Upright at least in desire and endeavour lies close and level to all the Will of God The Pharisees seemed to be very much for the First Table but after all their Fasting and Prayer they could swallow down Widows Houses and so give the lye to all their Devotions The Moralist seems to be as much for the Second Table but as fair as his Life is towards Man he is very unjust to God stealing away that heart which is infinitely more due to him than the justest of Debts can be to our Neighbour If thou wouldst be assured thou must have an universal respect to his Command do not pick and chuse among them but as David be for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Wills of God as Zachary and Elizabeth walk in all his Commandments Wherever the Divine stamp is there let thy Obedience be that thou mayst have a great Reward Light is sown for the Righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal 97.11 Upon sincere Obedience a crop of Comfort comes up and because by Promise much surer than that of the Husbandman which is under Providence only The righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Psal 11.7 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their faces behold the upright the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Three Persons in the Sacred Trinity do all look with a loving Aspect upon such an one Our Saviour hath told us as much If a man sincerely keep the holy Words The Father and the Son will come to him and make their abode with him John 14.23 And a little after follows a Promise of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter verse 26. Walk uprightly and thou art in a posture to receive sweet manifestations of Love from the whole Sacred Trinity In the last place carry a pure Intention towards Gods Glory This is the single eye in the Body of Duties all our good Works lie in the dark without it the want of this was as a black line drawn over Amaziah's vertue He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect heart 2 Chron. 25.2 Jehu was anointed and appointed by God to destroy Ahabs House and yet for want of a pure Intention was reckoned as a Murderer for doing so Hos 1.4 That which is true Prayer when it comes from Zeal may be but howling when it comes from Lust Hos 7.14 Those Moral Vertues which are very glossie in the Matter may in the End be no better than splendid sins The End is the purest off-spring of a rational Spirit and a cardinal circumstance in every Action The Soul conceives all its Thoughts before the End as Labans Ewes did their young before the Rods. As the End is earthly or heavenly so is the Man and his Acting Remember O Believer that thou wast not made a Man or a Saint Thy Lamp of Reason was not set up at first or new-lighted afterwards by Grace that thou shouldst center on any thing less than God himself or take thy aim lower than his Glory Set thy heart on that great End look right on it with a single eye whether thou eatest or drinkest or prayest or hearest or whatever good work thou art about carry on the great Design That God in all may be glorified How taking this is with Christ He himself hath told us Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck faith he to his Church Cant. 4.9 A pure Intention is that single eye and Obedience that chain of the neck which in Believers doth excordiate and ravish the heart of Christ himself And what sweet returns will he make upon such taking Graces Their Graces ravish his Heart and his Comforts will ravish theirs Their thoughts are upon Gods Glory and Gods are upon their Peace With the upright he will shew himself upright with the pure he will shew himself pure They are upright in Duties and he will be upright in Promises They give him pure Intention and he will give them pure Mercy such as is the sealing of his Love upon their Hearts The pure in heart shall see him not in the bliss-making Vision only but before in those Love-glances which are the First-fruits of Heaven here below Again If thou wouldst be assured be much in charity and doing good As the Elect of God put on bowels of Mercy Open thy heart to the poor in Pity and thy hand
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
391 Conflict the Natural Spiritual differenced Pag. 261 262 263. Conscience its testimony of great repute among Pagans 405. Witnesseth integrity 406. Believers converse with Scripture Conscience Pag. 407 Conviction of Sin manifold 70 71 72. Several things ensue thereupon to Pag. 75 Creation the Philosophers misguess about it 17 18. New Creation in the Heart Pag. 383 384. Credere Deo in Deum Pag. 131 132 Cruciger his Death-bed Prayer and Faith Pag. 138 Covenant of Grace and Works difference of Men under them Pag. 278 D Dr. Dees impostures by Spirits Pag. 326 Delilah the import of the word in Hebr. Pag. 150 Dragon poysonous shut up by Sylvester the Bishops Prayers Pag. 266 E Election though from eternity yet buds in time Pag. 413 Evagrius his gift to the poor to be paid in another world Pag. 113 Evidences confirm Assurance Pag. 394 Experiments all learned men are for them 326 Experiments of Faith of Scripture-truth 325 to 370. Where of Scripture Ordinances and great Works to Pag. 386 Examination of our selves espied by the Philosophers Pag. 433 434 Faith the several acceptions of the word in Scripture 1 2. Considered in its measures and in its lowest measure described ibid. Wherein it exceeds Moral Virtues 8 9. The difference between that and Reason alone 12 19. And Reason with Scripture 19 30. Faith explicite required in Fundamentals 41 46. It disciples the Soul to Christ 86 87. Yields to be ruled by Christ in all actings 109. Aspires after Heaven and looks for pay there 113. Where the seat of Faith is disputed between Protestants and Papists 126. Though seems dead yet may be alive 129 130. More than a waked assent 131 to 136. Less than Assurance to 149. Why former Divines desine it by a full perswasion 136. Difference between Assurance and Faith justifying us 140. Hangs on God in all its actings 191. Fruits of Faith and several Conceptions of these 270 271. It is before all other Graces 283 to 288. Sets them all on work 289. It s foundation and infusion 328. It wars against all enticement to Sin 276. Steps by which Faith goes in mortifying it Pag. 280 Fall of man total Pag. 7 Father its efficacy in Prayer Pag. 245 Fear of God to be in all actions 303. Servile and Filial shewed Pag. 304 Mr. Fox never denied any that asked for Jesus sake Pag. 301 Free-Grace its presumption in unholy persons to expect it 119 120. Free-Will hath no Harmony with it 190. Abused by Pelagians Pag. 366 G God most glorious in his Word 12. Confest by all Nations 13. Cardinal Perron one day proved a God the next would have proved the contrary 171. Discovery of God in Grace and in the Creatures how differs Pag. 175 Good 288. Sets about the chief good Pag. 4 Graces spiritual are Creations 8. All act in union with Christ 295. All rooted in Christs Mines Pag. 380 H Happiness all desire it few hit it 3 4. What Aristotle makes it to be Pag. 253 Heart it includes Vnderstanding and Will Pag. 126 127 Hungarians Tradition Pag. 92 I Jews though they reject the Sacrifice of the Messiah yet offer a real one and why 97. Their answer to the Question where believe to be saved by Christs Righteousness with their pious saying over Bread Wine Herbs 344. Their saying of the seventy Souls that went down into Egypt 449. A vulgar rule among them 450. A custom of others about Alms. Pag. 454 455 Illumination Supernatural described 11. Wherein it excels Natural Reason 12 19. It 's requisite to Faith Pag. 30 31 32. Images how at first crept in 16. When cast out the people triumphed 309. Their return again Pag. 331 332 Ingrossers of Corn sore Judgments on them Pag. 184 Instruction the true false way of finding it Pag. 118 Intercession of Christ powerful Pag. 415 Johannes Seneca his Death-bed moan Pag. 210 Israelites the Men go not into Canaan but the little ones its misery Pag. 128 129 Justification three acts required to it 94 98. Bellarmines Conclusion about it 102. How the ungodly may and may not be justified 165. It s great importance 201. It 's not from eternity 202 206. It is double 207. How by Faith 213 to 219. Not compleat till the day of Judgment Pag. 227 to 231 K Kingdom the Primitive Christians talk so much of it that the Pagan Emperours were jealous of them though without cause Pag. 176 Kohathites the derivation of the word Pag. 5 L Law of God demands of us two things 209. Enough in Christ to answer both 210. It s writing in the heart by Nature and Grace differ 338. Impossible to be fulfilled but by the fiu't of man Pag. 401 Legio fulminatrix Pag. 373 Our life how tremendous every way Pag. 305 Light natural improved to the utmost engaged not God to give Grace Pag. 14 Love to God and our Neighbour hath but one root Pag. 301 Luthers Method in Reformation 274. An example of Faith in Mortification his saying of Free-Will 368 369. His answer to the menacing Law Pag. 428 M Mahalath a title of some Psalms interpreted Pag. 194 Mahomets Heart una child cut open Pag. 193 Meris Bishop of Chalcedons Discourse with Julian Pag. 308 Martyrs refusing Pardon Pag. 276 Meekness Natural Moral Spiritual 311. Examples ib. Pag. 312 Mortification a Believer yields to Christ for it in a threefold respect 103. Resemblance between it and Christs death 104. False ways of seeking it and the true pointed at 117 118. The fruit of Faith 250. Degrees of Mortification of Original Sin 260 267. And of actual ibid. Motions holy precious to a Believer Pag. 88 Musculus's Distich in straits Pag. 248 N Nazianzens saying about the difference between begotten and proceeding Pag. 352 O Obedience actuated by Faith 314 315 316. Obedience of the Law fulfilled in Christ and of the Gospel by the Spirit in a Believer Pag. 212 Ordination used by the Jews Pag. 377 Origens saying of some Scriptures that did affect him Pag. 144 P Papists and Hypocrites how they agree 122. All points in Popery additions to the Word 123. It s sandy foundation drawn from Bellarmine himself 147. Natural Popery in every mans heart Pag. 158 Paracelsus his proud boast of himself Pag. 192 Patience its excellency acted by Faith Pag. 318 Pelagians put Free-Will for Grace 6. Place Infants in the same state as Adam Pag. 257 Perfection sinless not attainable in this life Pag. 125 126 Perseverance no condition of it self Pag. 417 Philip Lantgrave's comfort in Imprisonment Pag. 321 322 Plague-sores lookt upon by Munster as Love-tokens Pag. 193 Plerophory of three things in Scripture Pag. 400 Pollio's dying-saying Pag. 115 Polemenia her wish to be cast into a Vessel of burning-Pitch Pag. 319 Providence Reasons mistake about it Pag. 18 19 Popes blasphemous speech about the loss of a Peacock Pag. 310 Promises of Grace and to Grace Pag. 346 Prayer its continuance 383. Its returns 372. How heard and not heard Pag. 374
a thing above moral virtue There is a vâ—st difference between moral virtues and spiritual graces the seeds of moral virtues are found in lapsed nature but of spiritual graces there are none at all in it nothing but a naked capacity Moral virtues do from those natural seeds bud and spring forth into being under the common influence of the spirit but spiritual graces not being seeded in nature are meer infusions or creations the seed of God must drop down from heaven into the heart or else these cannot exist hence the Apostle in contradistinction to the virtues of men calls them the virtues of God 1 Pet. 2.9 such a thing is faith of a nobler extraction then all the moral virtues in the world Thirdly This precious Faith advances both our natural faculties and our moral virtues It advances our natural faculties and so shews it self what it is grace is nature elevated above it self a reason with an heavenly light in it a will with an holy law in it and affections as it were upon the wings of Angels soaring into the upper world After such sort doth faith elevate the humane faculties when faith comes God shines into the heart and then the Reason which before had a cloud on it sparkles out as a pearl in the Sun-beams the day-star is up in the heart and whilest others live by candlelight the believer hath the Sun then the will which lay in its lusts as a slave in its chains is set upon the wheel and made free indeed then the affections which conversed among the tombs of the creatures are no longer here but are risen with Christ to seek the things above Moreover it advances moral virtues also it grafts them upon a nobler stock they are no longer meer blossoms of reason but fruits of the spirit Josephus relating the patience of the Maccabees under the torments of the bloody Antiochus cryes up Reason Reason as if that were the rock upon which they stood but sure he speaks below them a greater then reason was there even faith as the Apostle asserts Heb. 11.35 a higher spirit then their own acted in their patience and elevated it above meer morality Again meer moral virtues issuing meerly out of our own reason are apt to breed a moth of pride and vain self-reflection here we find the Moralist crowing after a strange rate Beatae vitae causa firmamentum est sibi sidere turpe est Deos fatigare Sence Epist 31. quid votis apus est fac te felicem exurge te dignum singe Deo as if he would have no other happiness but what was of his own making but when Faith comes off go the plumes of pride and humility is as a vail over all the moral virtues I live in temperance and justice saith the believing Moralist yet not I but Christ liveth in me Add hereunto meer moral virtues in their intention rise no higher then their own level of humanity but when faith comes there is a pearl in the head a pure intention in each of them towards the glory of God he that before was temperate to himself just to others and patient to necessity is now all these to God Feci Deo is the Motto of every moral act To conclude what sweet and strong motives Faith adds unto moral virtues may appear in the famous instance of Justus Lipsius Melch. Adam Vit. Philosoph that great humanist and admirer of Morality who in his last sickness being told by one present that he might now fetch much comfort from the Stoical Philosophers made this answer Illa sunt vana Domine Jesu da mihi patientiam Christianam those are but vain things Lord Jesus give me a Christian patience Thus much touching Faith in general CHAP. II. Of the special nature of Faith and here of Spiritual Illumination the first ingredient therein What it is with the necessity thereof unto Faith demonstrated THE next thing is to consider Faith in its special nature and here the first thing in order is supernatural illumination touching which I shall first shew what that is and then demonstrate the necessity of it to Faith And first what it is it is God shining into the heart and lighting our candle to make us discern divine things in a spiritual way It is an illumination above nature subjectively and not objectively only it is a thing above reason and all its improvements made upon external objects reason may be taken in a double posture either sitting with the glass of the creatures before it and so it is meerly the light of nature or else sitting with the glass of the Scriptures before it and so it is a notional knowledge of Divinity but this supernatural light is above reason in both these postures First take reason with the creature-glass before it and this supernatural light is much above it And here I might shew how much the Scripture-glass excells that of the creature the divine words there out-shine the Sun out-weigh the earth out-vye all the treasures and out-relish all the sweetnesses in nature God is more glorious in the Scripture-robes then in all the visible world his chariot in the word is statelier then that in the clouds Evangelical light is a richer garment upon him then meer natural in the creature there is but a print or footstep of God but in the Scripture there is his very image and resemblance Also which is a consequent on the former this supernatural light having the purer glass is of a far greater latitude then meer reason it spreads it self into many mysteries which never entred into natural reason but were hid from ages in the divine mind it takes a view of those rare Evangelical pearls which were never digged out of reasons mine but dropt down from heaven unto the sons of men But because the comparison of these two lights as to their outward glasses and latitudes is not so pertinent I shall compare them as to their inward natures and only in such things as both of them extend unto and a vast difference will appear between them First Reason is a far lower light then that of Faith in natural light Reason is the very faculty but in supernatural it is but a capacity God must shine into the heart there must be light upon light supernatural upon natural or else there is no faith David prays open or as the original hath it reveal thou mine eyes Psal 119.18 There is in faith a revelation of eyes and not of objects only the Apostle speaks of being renewed in the very spirit of the mind Eph. 4.23 the rational spirit is the candle of the Lord but unless it be new lighted it is too dim since the fall to believe the things of God Secondly Reason is a far weaker light then that of Faith It is a light shining in darkness and after all its glimmerings it leaves but a foolish heart and vain imaginations Rom. 1.21 it is as a little spark 〈◊〉 an