that Act of his patience no less than his power Now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken The Lord is long-suffering c. where you see he makes his patience his power And so it is indeed if you consider what sin is Shall I say no more of it than this which God saith Levit. 26.21 It is contrary to God 1 It is contrary to the works of God 1 Sin contrary to Gods works As soon as God set up and perfected the frame of the world sin gave a shrewd shake to all it unpin'd this frame and had like to have pull'd all in pieces again And had it not been for the promise of Christ all this frame had fallen in pieces again If a man should come into a curious Artificers shop and should with one blow dash in pieces a Piece of Art which cost him many years study and pains the contriving of it How could he bear with it Thus sin did and yet that God should forbear Oh! Omnipotent patience 2. But yet further It is Contrary to Gods nature 2 Sin contrary to Gods Nature God is holy sin unholy God is pure sin is filthy and therefore compar'd still to the most filthiest things in the world to the Poyson of Aspes to Ulcers Soars c. If all the Noysom Pollutions in the world met in one common Stuk it would never equal the Pollution of sin God is good perfect Good Sin is evil universally evil There is good in all other things Plague Sickness Hell it self in a kinde hath a good in it None in sin Sin is the Practical-blasphemy of all the name of God It is the Dare of his Justice the Rape of his Mercy the Jeer of his Patience the Slight of his Power the Contempt of his Love It is every way contrary to God 3. It is contrary to the will of God God bids us Do this 3 Sin contrary to the will of God Sin saith I will not do it Sanctifie my Sabbath I will not sanctifie it Here is Contradiction And who can endure Contradiction It is set down as a great piece of Christs sufferings Heb. 12.3 That he indured the contradiction of sinners against himself certainly it was a great suffering How can a Wiseman indure to be contradicted by a fool And here that Christ who was The Wisdom of the Father should bear with such contradiction from fools here vvas a great piece of Suffering Now sin is a contradiction of God Sets Will against Wisdom and the Hell of a wicked Will against an Heaven of Infinite Wisdom And that God should bear vvith such sinners here is a Wonder You knovv in all the Creatures Contrariety makes all the Combustion It makes all the War in nature it causeth one Element to fight against another Fire against Water Water against Fire It will make very Stones to sweat and burst asunder Travel through the vvhole Creation and you shall not see Any Creature that can bear vvith its Contrary And that God and Sin should be Contrary and yet the Sinner live in the World Here is a Wonder a VVonder of Patience 2 Admire Gods mercy in pardoning sin 2. Is sin so Great an Evil Let us then fall down and Admire the greatness of Gods mercy in pardoning sin You see how the Prophet cryes out and Admires Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee That pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the Transgressions of the remnant of his heritage It is one of the Greatest works that God doth in the world To pardon sin A work in which he declares All his glorious Attributes His Wisdom his Power his Justice his Mercy his Holiness c. in pardoning sin Men that have cheap and slight thoughts of Gods Pardoning-Mercy have thereby an evident sign They never had a pardon never knew what it was indeed To have a pardon If ever any work in the world did put God to it then this of the Pardon of sin And if ever God do intend thee any good he will instruct thee and rectifie thy judgement in this Touching the Pardon of sin Therefore doth God humble men at their Bringing-in To raise up their esteem of a pardon To advance the greatness of his own Mercy in Pardoning sin And indeed we should not need such great Preparations and Humiliations in coming to Christ if we had but Greater thoughts of the Pardon of sin Men make no more of a Pardon than to Cry God Mercy Swear an oath and then say God forgive me Or say Lord have mercy on me when I dye It was said of Lewis the 11. King of France that He wore a Crucifix in his hat and when he had sinned he would but kiss his Crucifix and then all was done And so the Papists make it no more but a Crucifix and a Confession Ah! my Brethren if ever God mean good to you he will make you Know what a Pardon is Isa 55.7 when God would draw men up to Shew them a Pardon he calls them Above all the World My thoughts are not as your thoughts nor your ways my ways saith the Lord. If they were then I could not multiply Pardons But as the Heavens are higher than earth so are my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways I am infinite If Gods creating-Creating-mercy were so great as David vvith doubled Admiration sets it out Psal 8.1 and the last verses O Lord our Lord how wonderful is thy Name in all the world who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens What is then his Pardoning Mercy 3. Lastly Is sin so Great an Evil Then see What cause we have to humble our souls before God this day That vve have had such slight thoughts of sin vvho hath thus judged sin to be the Greatest of all Evils What slight thoughts have vve of sin vve can svvallovv it vvithout fear vve can live in it vvithout sense vve can commit it vvithout remorse All vvhich shevvâ— vve have but slight thoughts of sin vve do not apprehend sin to be such an evil as indeed it is Nay Hovv faulty are Gods people themselves here What mean thoughts have they of sin They are not so watchful against it not so Burdened vvith it not so troubled for it as they ought to be All vvhich shevvs that though sin do appear to them to be A great Evil and The Greatest of all other Evils yet they do not apprehend it to be so Great an Evil as it is Now that you may be able to have some suitable conceptions of sin to the greatness of it that you may be able to see sin exceeding sinful I will briefly present it to you in these Six Glasses 1. Look upon it In the Glass of Nature which though it be but a Dim-Glass a Blown-Glass Sin hath dimmed it yet is this able to discover a great deal of the evil of sin The very Heathen themselves have seen and judged many
Parent The Master to the Servant The Servant to the Master c. Faith is the great Task-Master of the Soul But it is not like Pharaohs Task-Master to command burdens and afford no help To require the Tale of Brick and give no Straw This indeed the Law doth It is an hard Task-Master It commands but gives no ability Jubet fed non juvat Efficit quod imperat Jubet juvat But not so Faith It commands and laies in strength to do It gives what it commands by going over to Christ and fetching strength from him whereby the soul is inabled to obey what it is commanded It is said of Christ That His Government shall bee upon his shoulders Not only in his hand having a Scepter only to command but upon his shoulders wherein there is support to obey commands So it may bee said of Faith which governeth from Christ and by Christ Its Government is upon its shoulder inabling the soul to do what it commands 1. Faith begets Soul-inabling-Principles Principles in the soul suitable to the things commanded whereby a man is inabled to obey All strength for new Obedience ariseth from a new Nature And this new Nature is nothing else but that conformity to the Law of God whereby a man is not only able to obey but willing to obey when Principles are wrought in our hearts suitable to the Precepts when there is a Law within us answering to the Law without us It will be meat and drink it will be natural to obey it is not now hard to pray to clear The yoak is easy the burden is light These things are not tasks but delights not medicines but meat not physick but food Psal 40. I delight to do thy Will saith David and what was the ground Thy Law is in my heart There were Principles agreeable to the Precepts and that made him not only to obey but to obey with delight 2. Faith supplies a man with Soul-inabling-Strength from without Wee have need not only of preventing but assisting Grace not only of operative but cooperative strength not only of inherent but of assistant the continual succours aids and supplies of the Spirit of Christ And Faith doth supply the soul with strength from him without whom wee can do nothing and through whose might wee are inabled to do all things Faith laies in supplies of strength from Christ wherewith wee are inabled for any service It calls in for all the strength of Christ the aids of the Spirit whereby wee are strengthened 2. Faith doth furnish a man with Soul-inabling-considerations 1. From God the mercies of God the goodness and sweetness of God All which do incourage and inable the soul to obey A loving Master makes a diligent Servant A mercifull God a working Christian Nothing doth so prevail with the heart as love The Love of Christ constrains us When Faith shall discover to the heart what we were what we are what God might what God hath done with us it will break out with David with a Quid Retribuam c. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits I will take the cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows c. Psal 116.12 This overcomes the Soul with Love That heart that is overcome with the sweetness of mercy is prepared to overcome any difficulty of service My heart is prepared my heart is prepared 2. From the work Faith furnishes a man with soul-inabling-considerations from the excellency of the imployments hee sees a peece of Heaven in tem hee sees these services full of beauty sweetness desireableness No service to the service of the King Oh! what then is the service of the King of Kings 3. From the rewards which God hath promised to obedience And these rewards Faith makes use of to quicken and stir up the soul to Obedience to bee spurs and incentives to us as they were to Moses who had an eye to the recompence of the Reward as they were to Christ himself who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame Heb. 12.2 and Heb. 11.26 All which have a mighty influence into the soul to inable and quicken it to Obedience 2. Faith inables the Soul to suffer Yea and to suffer the sufferings of the greatest magnitude You see Heb. 11. Through Faith they were stoned they were sawn asunder were slain with the sword 1. It puts the soul into a suffering frame It deadens a mans heart to the world mortifies a man to to the world and makes a man alive to God A man dead to the world doth not much care either to leave the world or any thing in the world now Faith deadens a mans heart to the World 1. Faith puts the Judgement into a right frame It makes the Judgement lightly to esteem of earthly and highly to esteem of Heavenly things lightly to esteem the favours and frowns of men highly to value the favour and fear the frowns of God 2. Faith prevails with the Will to chuse God above all and to part with all the leave all if they come in competition with God This Faith doth habitually in habituall preparations in the work of Grace when first the Will chuseth with Christ Thus Faith inables the soul to do actually when ever it is brought to tryall 3. Faith works upon the Affections to love God above all to delight in God to fear him c. A man who loues any thing chuseth any thing prizeth any thing above God is a man unfit for sufferings hee is not in a sufering frame If God and these things come in competition they with Demas will forsake God and cleave to the present world Men whose hearts are too much ingaged to the World whose affections are too much set upon the Creature men whose wills chuse any thing more than God whose Judgements do prize and esteem of any thing more than God to whom God is little and the world is great these men are unfit for tryals And therefore this is the first way whereby Faith doth inable the Soul by putting it into a suffering frame 2. Faith doth furnish the soul with suffering Resolutions A beleeving heart is a resolved heart Nothing causeth a suspension in the Will more than Unbeleef Hee that doubteth is like a wave of the Sea sometimes going this way and sometimes carried back again Whereas Faith doth resolve the heart makes the soul resolve as Peter but in a better strength I will dye rather than deny thee Faith doth cloathe the soul with suffering resolutions to go through a Sea through a Wilderness through the hottest Skirmishes the hardest Tryals for Christ You see it every where in Scripture In Michaiah in Jeremiah in the three Children in Daniel in the Apostles And to these I might adde many more As that of old Polycarp when hee was perswaded to deny Christ rather than to dye for Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Righteousness satisfying both Gods Commanding and his Condemning Justice doing my services bearing my scourges Hence hee is called Jehovah Tsidkenu The Lord our Righteousness by Faith having communion with this Righteousness as if it were our own a Righteousness wrought by us Hence Job 33.26 God shall render to man his Righteousness that is the Righteousness of Christ which is called ours by Faith and is as much ours to justifie and save us as His to glorifie him Hence the Apostle Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ that is to such as are Beleevers for they are all one And why no condemnation They are sinners as well as others It 's true they are And therefore the Apostle doth not say There is nothing worthy of condemnation in them But There is no condemnation Because Christ hath taken away the guilt and condemning power of sin hee hath answered all our debts canceld all Books satisfied for all our sins which did binde us over to condemnation and wrath of God So that wee may say There is no condemnation to such As for the Law it cannot condemn us because wee appeal from the law to the Gospel from the Court of Justice to the Court of Mercy So that the Law hath nothing to do with us And as for the Gospel that cannot condemn us because wee are Beleevers The Gospel doth not require what sinners wee have been what sins wee are guilty of but whether the appealer do beleeve whether wee bee Beleevers or no which being once cleared wee are justified You see this in the poor Publican Hee was dragged forth into the Court of Justice and was there cast Yet the sentence took no hold of him because of his appeal to the Throne of Grace the Court of Mercy where by Faith pleading nothing but Gods Mercy and his own misery God bee merciful to mee a sinner hee went away justified saith the Text Luk. 18.14 And this is the first Royalty of Faith It is an Heart-clearing-Grace which it doth by producing one who hath cleared all and by making us one with him in all hee hath done giving us an interest in all Second Royalty Second Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-cleansing-Grace 2. Faith is an Heart-cleansing-Grace An Heart-purifying and purging-Grace Hence Act. 15.9 it is said Their hearts were purified by Faith Faith opens a way for a stream of blood to run through the soul whereby the soul is washed not from the guilt of sin only but from the filth of sin also The Blood of Christ doth cleanse us from all sin not only from the guilt but from the filth of sin Hence the Apostle If the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkled upon the unclean did purifie the Flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot purge and cleanse our Consciences from all dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.13 14. And Faith doth cleanse the Heart 1. Argumentatively 2. Operatively 1. Argumentatively By way of Argument where in Faith takes up Arguments 1. From God 2. From our selves From God and that 1. From his Nature Hee is an holy God and therefore hee will have an holy People A pure God and therefore hee will have a pure People Hence Lev. 11.44 Ye shall be Holy for I am Holy I the Lord your God am Holy The like Lev. 19.2 And Peter urges the same 1 Pet. 1.15 16. As he which hath called you is Holy so be ye Holy in all manner of Conversation For it is written Bee yee Holy for I am Holy 2. From his Mercies 1. In Redeeming us 2. In calling us 3. In Justifying us 4. In promising to glorifie us 1. In Redeeming us Hath Christ dyed for mee and shall not I live to him Hath hee shed his Blood for mee that I should bee Holy and clean And shall I delight in uncleanness Pro me filius Dei jugulatus and filthiness was hee slain for mee and shall I delight in sin Hath hee suffered so much to purifie mee and shall I bee unclean still hath hee done so much to wash mee and shall I bee filthy stil 2. In calling us 1 Pet. 1 15 16. As hee which hath called you is Holy so bee you Holy in all manner of Conversation it is an holy Calling 2 Tim. 1.9 that calleth us to Holiness and Faith a purged ear that hearkeneth to that call 3. In Justifying us Hath hee freed mee from the damning Nature of sin and shall I delight in the defiling nature of sin hath he freed mee from the guilt of sin and shall I love the filth of sin Hath hee done so much to wash mee and shall I bee filthy still Hath hee suffered so much to purifie mee and shall I delight in uncleanness still Hath hee made mee a Member of Christ and shall I bee a filthy Member of so holy a Body Hath hee made mee a Branch and shall I be a polluted-Branch of so holy a Stock Hath hee lifted up the light of his Countenance on mee and shall I ever countenance sin hath hee smiled on mee and shall I ever smile upon sin 4. In Promises to glorifie us 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore such precious promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God As if hee had said Seeing God hath been so mercifull and gracious to us to make us precious Promises let this put us on self-purging and self-purifying Thou look'st for an holy-Heaven and wilt thou not bee holy Thou hopest for Salvation and wilt thou not purifie thy self Hee that hath this Hope purifies himself as God is Pure 1 Joh. 3.3 Thus doth Faith take up Arguments from God his Nature his Mercies 2. It takes Arguments from our selves 1. From the necessity of being cleansed 2. From the conveniency thereof 1 From the Necessity Because otherwise wee can have no assurance of Justification They who are freed from the guilt of sin are freed from the filth of sin They who partake of the Blood of Christ for pardon partake of the water of Christ to purge Christ came by Water and Blood They who will have him a Redeemer must have him also a Refiner to take away their Swiniâ—h nature to wash them inwardly not outwardly for so may a Swine bee 2. Because otherwise wee can never have Assurance of Salvation They who look for new Heavens must have new hearts They who look for Glory must have Grace First Grace then Glory For without Holiness no man can see the Lord. No unclean thing shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven hee that hath this hope will fit himself for the Place hee will labour to bee a pure person as hee desires to injoy a pure place Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God A pure God a pure Heaven a pure Place requires a pure
as well as in broad waies in rugged waies as well as in plain smooth waies In difficult as well as in easie waies You see this in Abraham concerning the sacrificing of his son In which act hee might seem to disobey in his Obedience And the dutiful yeelding to it might seem to contradict duty There seemed not only Nature and reason to cry down this act of Obedience but even the word too The yeelding of Obedience did seem to justle against the Precept of Obedience Yet you see hee obeyed God It is said By Faith Abraham obeyed God By Faith indeed It was a strong Faith That strong Faith that beleeved hee should have a Son did now obey God in offering of his Son Strong Obedience proceeded from his strong Faith Strong Faith produceth strong Obedience 1. Strong for Active 2. Strong for Passive Obedience The same Faith doth supply the soul with Active strength for doing duties and with Passive strength for suffering duties 1. A strong Faith is strong to bear Reproaches for Christ As Moses Hee esteemed the Reproach of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt Heb. 11.26 And Paul Therefore wee labour and suffer Reproach because wee trust in the living God 1 Tim. 4.10 2. A strong Faith is strong to bear losses for Christ As they Heb. 10.34 Who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods as if the enemy had done them a great courtesie A strong Faith is strong to bear Persecutions Scourges Death it self for Christ You see what the Apostles indured what Stephen indured Why saith the Text Hee was a man full of Faith Act. 5.8 Strong Faith did inable them to suffer and bear and to go through difficulties prisons persecutions scourgings c. for Christ A strong Beleever doth rejoyce if hee can hold up God as it were though himself bee down if hee can raise up Gods Glory though it bee by the ruine of himself save his honour by losse of himself What Epaminondas said who having resolved concerning his Buckler either to defend it or to dye for it being wounded to death brake forth into these words Num salvus est Clypeus meus Is my Buckler safe If that bee safe I am well So the Beleever in the midst of all his sufferings if hee can keep his Buckler safe hold up God and his Glory All is well 3. A strong Faith will beleeve nothing contrary to his belief All the temptations of Satan all the arguments of men shall never bee able to reason him out of his Faith A weak Faith is quickly brought to deny his conclusion to yeeld up the cause Satan may make a man unsay what formerly hee hath said But a strong Faith will hold the conclusion against all Satans sophistry His Faith hath been gotten up by many invincible experiences from Gods behaviour to him as a Father from the souls behaviour to him as a Child And all that Satan can do shall not out-reason his Faith What a man saith by feeling a temptation may make him unsay but what a man saith by Faith nothing can make him unsay If Satan do assault such a man and tell him God doth not love him God is not his Father yet will the soul binde it self to this Mast and hold his conclusion against all with the Church Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father thou Lord art our Father our Redeemer Say Satan takes up arguments from Gods 1. Inward Or 2. Outward dealings with us 1. From his Inward dealings May bee a man is in some present Desertion and wants the clear Evidences which formerly hee had and Satan from thence doth argue That God is not our God hee is not our Father yet will not a strong Faith bee reasoned out of his Faith The soul will yet conclude it though it cannot clear it and beleeve it when it cannot see it The strong Christian lives by Faith not by feeling and knows God may bee His God though by sense it bee not discerned but that God is not his God You see this in Psal 22.1 My God! My God! There 's Faith Why hast thou forsaken mee There 's sense Faith held the conclusion against sense That God was his God though sense could not apprehend but that hee was forsaken of God And therefore when the eye of Sense and Evidence is put out yet hee hath the eyes of Faith to see and beleeve And Blessed is the man saith our Saviour to Thomas who beleeves and sees not Joh. 20.29 A strong Faith will trust God further than hee sees him Faith is the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 Faith will trust upon the Promise of Mercy in the want of Sense of Mercy Our Faith is not begotten by sense and feelings but by the Promise and therefore in the want of sense and feelings the soul may beleeve Isa 50.10 Though a man walk in darkness and sees no light yet may hee trust in the Lord and lean upon his God A weak Faith if it want feeling it is gone but the strong Faith will Hope against Hope Beleeve against Sense Reason and present Evidence and can say God is mine though it want the present Sense and Evidence of it It will trust in God a Father when his dealings seem to argue him an Enemy Faith will read Love in his angry looks and look through the mist of Desertion and see the affections of a Father under the expressions of an Enemy Thus did Job by Faith Though thou kill mee yet will I trust in thee Full well it knows Though God hide his face yet hee cannot deny himself 2. Say hee takes an argument from Gods outward dealings in chastising and afflicting of us and say If God loved thee hee would not so afflict thee If God were thy Father hee would not so chastise thee However the weak Faith may bee born down with such a temptation as this yet the strong Faith is not moved with such a temptation it is able to retort on Satan because God loves mee therefore hee scourgeth mee that I might not bee condemned with the World That I might not love the World therefore hee suffers the World to frown on mee That I might bee crucified to the World therefore hee suffers mee to bee crucified in the World Because I am a Child therefore hee afflicts mee Hee scourgeth every Son whom hee receiveth Rom. 12.6 7 8.9 c. God takes liberty to chastise our bodies to save our souls And God loves tenderly when hee corrects severely Job 5.17 Pro. 3.11 Thus doth a strong Faith hold up the conclusion of Faith against all the Reasonings of Satan against it Let him produce never so many Evidences to the contrary yet will hee not bee born down in it It 's a maxime of Faith hee will hold to against all opposition whatsoever You see it was thus in Job When God had taken away his goods when his hand was upon his body and upon his spirit too not only withdrawing himself from
as indeed hee hath let us hereby bee taught three lessons 1. Of Thankfulness 2. Of Obedience 3. Of Dependence 1. Here is a lesson of thankfulness to bee learned Wee 1. Thankfulness even wee stand before God this day the subjects of abundance of mercies Many mercies God hath bestowed on us and long continued to us Many evils hee hath kept from us and many evils hee hath freed us from Wee stand before God this day the brands of many glorious deliverances which God hath wrought for us Wee have received more mercy and have had experience of more goodnesse preventing delivering mercy within these three years than others have had in three Generations God hath discovered the wonders of his wisdome the wonders of his power the wonders of his mercy and love in many a glorious deliverance which hee hath wrought for us And how ought wee to bee carryed out with praises under the injoyments of so many mercies how should our souls being warmed with the sense and consideration of these mercies burst forth into a flame of praises to God But alas It is with us as with the Children of Israel Wee are very solicitous wanters but wee are forgetful injoyers And that which should bee a means of drawing us nearer to God is a means of further distance from him I must tell you that your unthankfulness under all these receits of mercy is a great and a provoking sin and might justly make a stop of mercy now 1. It is an inhumane sin against the very principles of Humanity A beastly sin nay worse for the Oxe knows his owner and the Asse his Masters crib It s a devilish sin 2. It is a sinning sin a productive sin a womb of sin it brings forth many more sins 3. It is the abuse of a good God Who can least of all indure to bee abused in his mercies 4. It is the grave of Mercy Where all Gods mercies are buryed and lost a very land of forgetfulnesse 5. It is the destruction of mercy Hos 2.8 9. Shee knew that I gave her Corne and Wine and Oil and that I multiplyed her silver and gold c. Therefore will I return and take away my Corn in the season thereof and my Wine in its season and I will recover my Wool and my Flax. That which gives birth to mercy is Prayer and tha which gives breath to mercy is Thankfulnesse Mercy is but short breathed short lived when men are unthankful Unthankfulnesse cuts the throat of Mercies Unthankful persons are never long injoyers of mercies 2. A lesson of Obedience 2. Learn a Lesson of Obedience Let the Mercy of God quicken you to duty Look upon every mercy as a further ingagement to you to walk more holily and more exactly with God As all the spiritual mercies of God Election Redemption Justification Sanctification promises of Glorification were all bestowed as ingagements to Obedience So all the temporal mercies also 1 Sam. 12.24 Therefore fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your hearts and consider what great things hee hath done for you When mercies are spurs to duties when mercies make the least addition to graces God is well pleased with the bestowing of mercy and where God sees such ground hee delights to sow the seed of mercy 3. A lesson of Dependence 3. Learn a lesson of Dependence upon God It is a shame that wee should bee afresh to seek in every new difficulty It was that which God blamed the Children of â—srael for That notwithstanding the great and wonderful works hee had done in their sight and eyes yet they did distrust him all was not enough to work up their hearts to beleeve God and trust in him And David blames them for the same Psal 78.19 20. They spake against God can God furnish a Table in the wilderness Indeed hee smote the Rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed But can hee give bread also Can hee provide flesh for his people One would think this a senselesse reasoning But Unbeleef is a senselesse sin One would think that they did sufficiently answer themselves That what went before had been answer sufficient to what followed after The same power was required for the doing of the one that was for the other and when they had seen the power of God to work the greater 't was strange they should doubt of the lesse but here is the basenesse of our spirit Though God have given us never so many experiences yet wee are still to seek in every new act of dependence on him And without further grace wee cannot do it Wee think when wee are in straits and difficulties if God would but help us through this strait if hee would but relieve us in this difficulty wee should never distrust God whilst vvee lived wee should depend on him in the saddest conditions whiles wee have a being But these are but our present thoughts and without future assistances and supplies wee are as far to seek in another as wee were in the first Well My Brethren God hath wrought many great things for us every one of them should bee a Life-mercy a standing-mercy a mercy to bee set up to incourage us to depend on him for ever Mercies that wee should live on in straits and feed upon in difficulties mercies that should bee for store to feed upon for a long time You have an expression Psal 74.14 Thou brakest the head of the Leviathan in peeces and gavest him to bee meat to thy people in the Wilderness By Leviathan is meant Pharaoh and God gave him to bee meat to his people in the wildernesse That is Hee wrought that deliverance for them before they entred into the wildernesse that this might bee meat for them to feed upon and strengthen their Faith in dependence upon God in the wildernesse where they were put to it by so many difficulties This mercy was to bee a standing-dish not for a meal only but for store meat laid in to feed on to strengthen their dependence Faith is called Feeding John 6. And the experience of Gods goodnesse is Pabulum Fidei the meat of Faith That mercy is never well digested that is not fed upon Hee that doth not feed upon a mercy gets no nourishment by a mercy no good You take the Name of God in vain that is his works his experiences which are part of his Name you take them in vain All this is but food cast away upon you if thereby you are not strengthned for the Fuller dependence upon God And now my brethren wee have had many Glorious experiences of Gods goodness to us and all these are meat to feed upon You are now in new straits and difficulties bring out your standing-dishes the former mercyes and experiences to feed upon to refresh your Faith to inable you to depend upon God afresh Hee that is not a good Treasurer a good Storer of mercys hee is never out of straits hee
appear Bigger than it is The sufferings of the Saints the sorrows of the Saints the sufferings of the Damned are too short The Glass ot the Law the Glass of Christs sufferings which is the greatest this doth not shew sin greater than it is It doth but discover sin in its Just Proportions and Dimensions It had not been justice in God to have required more blood and to put his own Son to more suffering than sin deserved Nor would this have stood with Gods Love his Pity and Mercy to his Son to have put him to more than sin deserved Though now there be mercy more than enough for the greatest sinners as the Apostle saith 1 Tim. 1.14 yet there was not Justice more than enough exercised upon Christ for the demerit and guilt of sin The Death of Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Adequate Ransome for our souls and sins And yet there is a Redundancy of merit an Overflowing of merit in the Satisfaction of Christ to Ransome a thousand worlds more to that if need were As sin is infinite in regard of the Object so Satisfaction is infinite in respect of the Merit Hence Christs death is not onely said to be A Satisfaction but A Purchase not onely A Payment but A Purchase A Satisfaction it was to the Justice of God for sin Full. And A Purchase of all good things from the Mercy of God to which his Justice in respect of the Validity and Worth of Christs Satisfaction is bound to us But this by way of Digression See then what need there is To Aggravate sin to the utmost because we cannot multiply sin to the greatness of it There will be many singular fruits of so doing 1. This will breed shame and confusion of spirit for sin 2. This will make you advance and relish mercy better When the debt seems little we are ready and apt to undervalue a pardon But when sin appears exceeding sinful this doth make us value mercy prize a pardon When sin is seen the greatest Evil Mercy and Pardon will be apprehended the greatest Good 3. This puts us into the neerest disposition To forsake sin As he who extenuates sin is resolved to continue in sin so he who truly aggravates sin desires to be rid of it 4. Besides It breeds a Displacency with our selves when we consider How ill we have dealt with God 5. It produceth self-judging and self-condemnation as we see in David Psal 51. 6. It will produce spiritual softness and tenderness of heart for sin But this I must pass over USE If sin be the Greatest Evil Then it is the Greatest Mercy in the world to be rid of sin The greater the evil is the greater is the mercy to be rid of it But now sin is the Greatest Evil. And therefore you shall see it set down as the only mercy that comes in by Christ Mat. 1.25 He shall be called JESUS because he shall save his people from their sins As if all other things coming in by Christ were included in this one He shall save his people from their sins He doth not say Hee shall save his people from Hell c but From sin From no other evil in the world And this is the Greatest Mercy When God would speak the utmost even the greatest thought of Mercy that ever came upon his heart when he would set down the greatest work of Mercy that ever the God of Mercy wrought he saith no more but He shall save his people from their sins Sin was the utmost Evil and therefore the saving from sin was the greatest good And hence David Psal 32.1 2. saith Blessed is he whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered Blessed is that man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin Indeed we have mean thoughts cheap thoughts of pardon of sin and the reason is because we have slight thoughts of sin But if God once open our understanding and make us see the vastness and wideness of the evil of sin and if that he should joyn a feeling sense to that sight and make us feel what sin is if he should let but the least sparkle of his wrath fall upon our spirits for sin it would make our faces gather blackness we should quickly change our note and say Oh! Blessed and for ever blessed are they whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered But lest I should seem to Beat the aire we will therefore Circumstantiate this Mercy a little and you shall see the Greatness of it Though indeed this were enough to tell you that sin is the Greatest Evil Thence would necessarily follow That it is the Greatest Mercy in the world To be rid of sin which will more fully appear if we consider the following particulars 1. First then The pardon of sin is the dearest-bought Mercy and that is something to shew the Greatness of the Mercy You know the Greater the sum is that is to be paid for the Purchase of a thing provided there be no want of wisdom in the Buyer nor want of Honesty in the Seller the Greater still and of more worth is the Thing bought or Purchased But now This Mercy Pardon of sin was a Mercy dear-bought It cost Blood Mat. 26.28 and that Not the blood of Bulls and Goats for that it was impossible it should take away sins as the Apostle hath it Heb. 10.4 What then was it Why it was The Precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. You were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and spot And this The Blood of God Acts 20.28 Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood Now sit down and think what a Mercy that must needs be which is the Price of blood and that of the Son of God There was no Want of Wisdom in the Buyer he could not be over-reacht he knew the worth of the Commodity Nor was there want of justice or goodness in the Seller He was just and would not take one drop of blood more than the thing was worth And he was A Father too and therefore would not put his Son to more sufferings and require more than the thing was worth 2. This is the purest Mercy of all other The Pardon of sin A mercy that comes from the Heart and Good-will of God to you God may give you all other things and hate you You may be Rich and yet Reprobates Great in the world here and be Damned hereafter Dives may have wealth Herod Eloquence Saul Command Agryppa Glorious Apparel a man may do wickedly and yet prosper These things are not Truly good nor Truly evil If good the wicked should not have them If evil the Saints should not have them These are such things as God reacheth from his Hand not from his Heart they are general favors not special Love But this is a Peculiar-Favor the Saints
is no Grace in Christ appertaining to our sanctification in general which is not in some weak degree fashioned in us And hence the work of Grace and Regeneration is called a forming of Christ in the soul And whiles wee behold him wee are said to bee changed into his likenesse 2 Cor. 3.18 And wee are said to have the same Spirit in us that is in Christ Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ hee is none of his And the same Mind is in us that is in Christ Phil. 2.6 There is a bastardly holiness a painted false beauty which is spun out of our selves wrought out of our own Principles with which wee shall lye down with sorrow at last Sparkles of our own kindling But the true holinesse flows from Christ and is imparted from Christ to his Church whereby shee is beautifull with his beauties adorned with his Graces And being thus the Heart of Jesus Christ must needs bee taken with her Thus you see the second Reason why the Heart of Christ is so much taken Because shee is adorned with his Beauties cloathed with his Righteousness adorned and beautified with his Graces which ingageth the Heart of Jesus Christ Hee that loved us in our own blood cannot chuse but love us as wee have his beauty put upon us hee cannot but love himself and delight in himself where-ever hee doth behold himself why these beauties are peeces of himself part of his beauty his rayes wherewith hee himself is adorned And hee cannot look upon any soul cloathed with his Righteousness and beautified with his Graces but his heart is exceedingly taken with them Cant. 6.4 5. Turn away thine eyes from mee for they have overcome mee Christ seems as not able to bear the view of such a beauty Turn away thine eyes c. 2. Because they are the persons upon whom God intended to advance the great design of glorifying the Riches and Freeness of his Grace and Mercy Now those whom God hath intended for so great purposes as these are which are the greatest Purposes that ever came upon his heart his heart must needs bee taken withall You know the more glorious and excellent the End to which any thing serves the more precious is that thing in our eyes Now wee serve for no other End but the expression of his Mercy the advancement of the Glory of his Free-Grace which are Ends as high as himself Purposes as great as himself And therefore God is not only taken with the expression of it but with the persons upon whom hee doth expresse it Therefore I say is the Heart of God so exceedingly taken with his Church Indeed God may single out some men for the purposes of expressing the glory of his Power and Justice the advancement of them and yet God hate the men as you see it plain in Pharaoh who for this cause was set up to advance his Power But God never singled out any to bee the subjects on whom hee doth intend to advance the Riches of his Grace and Mercy but his Heart is exceedingly taken with them Those who serve to such high purposes as these and are designed to such high ends as these The advancement of the Glory of his Grace and Free-Mercy which is the most precious attribute of God and which some think is called his Glory Exod. 33.18 Let mee see thy Glory and if the 19. verse may interpret it that Glory was his Mercy and his Mercy his Glory and therefore such must needs bee precious in his esteem Now his People are they whom God hath singled out for these great purposes for the Expression of more Mercy than wee can express nay than wee can conceive nay than wee can beleeve at all times but weakly at best And therefore the Heart of Jesus Christ must needs bee taken with them My Brethren If God had not singled out some to express himself thus upon God had not been known in the World for there is nothing so much reveals God to bee God as his Mercy and Grace And therefore God singled out a few upon whom hee would advance the riches of his Grace that his Mercy and in that himself might bee made known in the World As Paul saith of himself 1 Tim. 1.16 that hee obtained Mercy that hee might stand up a Pattern of all long-suffering As if hee had said Wee should not have known how patient God is wee should not have apprehended how long-suffering God is to sinners if hee had not had such an example of patience such a pattern of all long-suffering as I was So wee should not have known how Mercifull how Good God is if the choicest attribute of God had been lost to us like as if a great River had run under ground not discerned if God had not singled out some upon whom hee might have expressed the Riches of his Mercy And those whom God doth intend to bee the subjects upon whom hee may advance so high designs so great purposes must needs bee exceeding precious to him My Brethren you that are the People of God are such as hee hath intended to advance his Mercy and Glory of Free-Grace upon You are they hee sent Christ to dye for the greatest work that ever was wrought in the World You are they whom hee reared the fabrick of Heaven for You are they in whom hee intends to delight and with whom hee will solace himself for ever And God looks upon us now not as wee are but what he intends to make us Hee sees to the utmost of his design on you to eternity and loves you now with that love If God should look upon us as wee are hee might see enough in us to withdraw his heart from us or if not yet enough to cool and quench his affections towards us being there is so much blacknesse with our beauty so much deformity with our comlinesse so much corruption with our Graces Nay so much blacknesse and so little beauty and so much corruption and so little Grace But hee looks upon us not as wee are in our selves but as wee are in Christ and not what wee are for present but what hee intends to make us in Christ Hee looks to the end of his design even to that which hee hath designed us to When wee shall bee presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing holy and without blemish Ephes 5.27 When wee shall bee satisfied with his likeness Psal 17.15 When wee shall bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to the Angels nay like unto God Glorious with his Glory as now Gracious with his Grace And therefore God having intended us to such high purposes and looking upon us for present what hee purposes to make us and what hee hath designed us to needs must the Heart of Jesus Christ bee taken with us Thus having shewed you what it is to have the Heart of Christ taken with the Church and proved unto you that the Heart of Christ is
weary of the exercise of his Mercie and therefore hee goes on to adde Mercy to Mercy Wee say the Bee gives Hony naturally the sting only when shee is forced to it So God it is natural to him to shew Mercy but hee is provoked to exercise Judgement Hence hee is called the Father of Mercies begets Mercy Mercy is the Issue of God most natural to God and being so hence Mercy pleaseth him Actions of Nature are Actions of Delight God is never so well pleased with any carriage towards his Church as those which are in the wayes of mercy Nay if hee do afflict his Church it is to shew Mercy Mercy is the end of all his dealings towards his Church and therefore Mercy being so natural so pleasing and that the Mercy of God is the ground of his expressions of love to us as it is though our sins may draw out the expressions of his Justice yet his Mercy doth arise from himself Hence wee may have a ground to expect yet greater things than ever 6. Consectary If the heart of Christ bee so much taken with his Church Then see with what confidence wee may pray for the good of the Church of Christ Christs heart is taken with it A man may pray for himself and doubt of hearing because hee is not able to make out his particular interest in Gods Love But if a man pray for the good of the Church hee is sure to have hearing because the heart of Christ is taken with it Let us then make use of all our interest and acquaintance in Heaven in the behalf of the Church at this time 1. It is a thing which God commands 2. A thing which God expects 3. A thing which God rewards 4. A thing which God threatens the neglect of Much might bee said to move you Your good and your evil lies in the Churches As Jeremy used this as an argument why to pray for the civil estate of Babylon because in the peace thereof they should have peace if theirs in Babylons how much more ours in Sions 7. Consectary If the heart of Christ bee so much taken with his Church Then what will become of those who are enemies to his Church and People Is the heart of Christ so much taken with his Church and People Then woe bee to them that offend his Church If you touch them you touch the apple of his eye Gods People are dear to God They are his Spouse his Children his Members purchased with the price of his bloud his inheritance his Portion all his commings-in Those hee dyed for shed his bloud for one drop whereof is worth a thousand Worlds And therefore those whom hee was content to shed his bloud for certainly hee doth more esteem than all the World besides Wee say whiles the Iron is in its own nature you may handle it and meddle with it but if once the nature of fire bee added unto it if you touch it it will burn you So whiles the Children of God are but the Children of men you may deal with them as with other men but if once the nature of God bee stamped on them the Image of Christ bee drawn upon them it will bee dangerous for you to meddle with them least fire break out of their mouth to devoure you Wee read Zach. 12.3 God said hee would make his Church a burthensome stone c. St. Jerom on that place saith it was a Metaphor taken from the custome of the Jews who to try their strength had at the gates of the City great stones if they could lift them well and good but if not they crushed themselves with them So God will make his Church a burthensome stone Whoever lifteth at it shall crush himself whoever seeks to hurt it shall ruine himself You see it in Pharaoh Haman Achitophel Julian Haman lifted so long at this stone that it fell on him at last and crushed him Pharaoh followed the Children of Israel so long that hee could not return at last but was overwhelmed in the Waters Julian attempted it so long till at last himself was overthrown Hee that shoots in a Peece over-charged strikes down himself not that which hee aimed at Hee who intends evil against the Church shoots in a Peece over-charged and is sure to bee struck down with his own recoil Wee see it in our dayes They who have digged pits for us have fallen into them themselves They who laid snares for us in them is their own foot taken They have but made Rods for their own backs paved a way to their own destruction digged graves to bury themselves in seeking our ruine The Scepter of Christ hath been too strong for the Principality of Satan hee hath a Rod of Iron a Scepter of Power Eris sub pedibus an arm of strength to crush in peeces all his enemies And therefore as Pilates wife said of Christ Have nothing to do with that just man So I to thee seest thou a godly man beware of having any thing to do with him by way of offence For their Angels alway behold the face of their heavenly Father 8. Consectary If the heart of Christ bee so much taken with his Church Then see here the Ground of Acceptation of the services of his people God being taken with the Persons is taken with the performances of his People Hee had respect to Abel and then to his Offering Christ his heart was taken with the person and then with his performance Hence Christ saith to his Church Cant. 2.14 Let mee see thy Countenance let mee hear thy voice for thy Countenance is comely and thy voice is sweet Indeed if Acceptation should arise from the worthiness of our duties wee should never look to bee accepted There is so much sin in our services so much evil in our good so much coldness in our best heats so much formality in our chiefest power so much deadness in our best life so much of the World so much of our earth in our imployments for Heaven And if Acceptation should arise from any worth in them wee should bee sure to miss of it But arising from his good will and Mercy to us his heart being first taken with us is taken with our performances Hence the Assurance of Acceptation Nay and not only of our purest and perfectest services but even of our poor and imperfect duties such as wee throw away for dead and cast prayers Cant. 5.1 Hee drinks the Milk as well as the Wine Wee look upon a prayer accompanied with deadness distraction as a cast prayer Oh! say wee how can God accept of such impure imperfect services But hence it ariseth not from the excellency of your prayers but from the indulgency of his Grace It is the voice of his Spouse though never so weak It is the cry of a Member of his though never so faint And hee can put his odours his incense to them though never so impure and make them acceptable Rev. 8.4
Use of Examination But now my Brethren it will bee a great matter of inquiry whether wee have an interest in this love As one said when hee looked upon the Rainbow and in that read Gods Covenant never to drown the world again Ah! but saith hee what is this to mee If I bee drowned I may bee drowned though the World bee not drowned So may you say You tell us of the exceeding love of Christ to his Church But what if I bee not of his Church what if I have no interest in his Love what 's all this to mee But then I suppose you are desirous to know whether you have an interest in this love It concerns your everlasting good to have an interest and your present comfort to know you have an interest Now in this inquiry I would have you 1. To examin your hearts thoroughly Deceits lye low A false evidence is the fruit of a slight and superficial search 2. In your inquiry let not any thing which is compatible with any who have no interest in this love bee a bottom on which your soul resteth I have told you sometimes and tell you again Whatever another man may have and do and yet have no interest in this love of Christ cannot bee a sufficient evidence for thee that thou having or doing that hast an interest Acquaint thy self with the most clearing and proving evidences 3. Take thy evidences from the carriage of the Spirit neither at the best nor at the worst but the middle way which is most thy self If thou look upon thy self at the worst thou mayest bee discouraged If at the best thou mayest bee deceived Many have had such affections in an Heat which in cold blood have nothing of them 4. Judge not of thy self by particular actions and carriages but look upon the universal frame and bent of thy spirit No certain rule is to bee established upon a particular instance whether good or bad I might lay down other rules to observe in your inquiry But wee will come to the inquiry it self Wouldest thou know whether thou art one with whom Christs heart is taken See whether thou art of his Church Art thou one who art taken out of the World Art thou one whom God hath called one whom hee hath justified one whom hee hath regenerated sanctified Art thou one who art washed purged renewed These might bee in the general but are too obscure But I will name you but one and it is a plain one and none more demonstrative Wouldest thou know whether the heart of Christ bee taken with thee why then see Art thou one whose heart is taken with Christ If Christ bee taken with thee thou art taken with Christ. It is a mutual a reciprocal taking Whatever God doth to the soul it makes an impression in the soul of the like to God God delights in us and thereupon wee come to delight in him God knows us and thereupon wee know him Joh. 10.14 God apprehends us and thereupon wee apprehend him Hee chuseth us and thereupon wee chuse him Hee loves us and thereupon wee love him 1 Joh. 4.19 His heart is taken with us and thereupon our hearts come to bee taken with him Our love to him is nothing else but radius amoris Dei erga nos in Deum reflexus a beam of Gods love reflected back upon God So that this now is a true character of Christs heart being taken with thee if thy heart bee taken with Christ Quest But you will say How shall I know whether my heart bee taken with Christ Ans For the answer of this because upon this foundation I will lay the whole weight of this discourse in this Use 1. A heart taken with Christ is a heart which knows Christ and hath tasted of Christ Are you such as know Christ Invisa possumus amare incognita nequaquam For knowledge of Christ precedes the love of Christ Hee who doth not know cannot love Things unseen may but things unknown cannot bee loved 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen yee love but never not known All love to Christ doth arise from discoveries and manifestations of Christ to the soul Either from the discoveries of those beauties those attractive excellencies that are in him or with that from the discovery of his heart and good will towards us Now blind men cannot discern of beauties nor ignorant men of the beauties of Christ Christ is to them as a Mine of Gold covered over with earth and rubbish as a Bed of Pearl and Diamonds hid with an heap of sand as a glorious Messiah under a contemptible outside And wanting eyes to see through the Veil of his Flesh through the bark and outside of his Humanity they can behold no beauty in him As Isaiah speaks of carnal men Isa 53.2 When you behold him you see no beauty in him that shall make him desired Now then art thou one who knows Christ did ever God reveal him to thee in a promise what apparitions hath Christ made to thy soul what manifestations what discoveries that may evidence to thee that thou knowest him There are four manifestations or discoveries of Christ to the soul which do exceedingly take the soul Indeed every apparition of Christ doth take the heart but at these times the heart is not only wooed and won but overcome with his sweetness and glory 1. After the soul hath long lyen bedrid in sorrow been overwhelmed in the deeps of Legal Humiliation and have been broken and shattered in peeces with consternation and apprehensions of sin and Gods wrath for it Then a discovery of Christ and apparition of Christ to the soul is a resurrection from the dead When Christ comes by a promise into the soul and displaies his glory the Riches and Greatness and Freeness of his Grace as to Moses The Lord God gracious and mercifull long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Exod. 34.6 I I am hee who forgiveth thy iniquities c. Isa 43.25 Then is the soul beyond expression inamoured with him now it is overcome with his beauties and excellencies and even ravished with his love And this is the first eminent taking of the heart with Christ 2. When the soul hath been upon the stormy Sea of temptations and desertions hath long laboured under the sense of Gods withdrawings and absence from the soul And Christ returns again breaking the dark and thick cloud and shining into the soul Who can then expresse the warmth the comfort the revivings the holy heats and flames of love and affection to Christ You see how it was with Job I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear But now mine eyes see thee And certainly the sight of his beauties did take him those eyes which saw him were like a burning-glasse to the heart to kindle the flames and fervors of holy affections towards him again You see how it was with
them for his Sons sake So here Wee were guilty of Treason were condemned to death Now this is the dexterity of Faith to make our selves to bee Members of Christ It is Faith that doth ingraft us into Christ whereas before wee grew upon dead stocks now being ingrafted into the stock of Christ the stock of Life wee have Life derived to us It is Faith that marries us to Christ and being married to him hee answers all our debts It is by Faith wee put on Christ by Faith wee are built on Christ as the House on its Foundation And therefore seeing there is no way to bee saved but by our Union with Christ And there is no Union but by Faith Therefore it follows Faith is the great requisite whereby wee must be saved That for Union 2. For our Communion with Christ Faith is necessary There is no way to bee saved but by vertue of communion with the Righteousness of Christ 1 Not by our own any done by us or wrought out of our selves This is too short A menstruous ragge A ragge and not able to cover us as a Garment too narrow for us Wee cannot weave a web of Righteousness of our own able to cover us wee shall but adde sin to sin 2. Not by Righteousness of Saints or Angels 1. Theirs is incommunicable There 's no way whereby wee should have communion with it They are not of our Natures to wit the Angels There must bee an union of Nature before there can bee communion Nay But were it communicable yet it were insufficient It is but a finite Righteousness and therefore not able to answer an infinite debt If the least sin did lye upon the back of the tallest Angel in Heaven it were not enough All the Righteousness hee hath would not bee enough to save him from Hell And therefore theirs can do us no good To make short of it There 's no way to bee justified and saved but by Communion with the Righteousness of Christ the Righteousness of his active and passive obedience Obedientia Legis Obedientia Crucis 1. The one In Precium 2. The other In Praemium By the one answering Gods condemning Justice By the other answering God commanding Justice By the one satisfying his vindictive Justice whereby he did bear our scourges By the other answering Gods remunerative Justice whereby hee did perform our services Now there was no way to have Communion with this Righteousness of Christ but by Faith Faith gives us Union with Christ And by vertue of our Union wee have Communion with him As by vertue of our Oneness with the first Adam His sin was made ours So by vertue of our Oneness with the second Adam His Righteousness is made ours Faith makes us Members of Christ. Faith unites us to Christ And by vertue of our Vnion with him as the Members with the Head wee have derived from him Life and Spirit Sense and Motion Wee have communion with him In his Wisdome to direct us In his Righteousness to justifie us In his Holiness to sanctifie us In his Redemption to glorifie us Christ is made to us Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Faith ingrafts us into Christ as the Branch into the Vine And by vertue of our ingrafture into him wee draw forth life strength and nourishment from him who is our root By Faith wee put on Christ and so have communion with the Robes of his Righteousness whereby wee stand justified in Gods sight As Jacob got the blessing by his elder Brothers apparel So wee by the Robes of Christ which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteousness of Saints By Faith wee are married to Christ and by vertue of this marriage wee have communion with all his Riches as the Wife hath with her Husbands Estate And Christ hath communion with all our debts So that you see Faith is that Grace which gives us union with Christ And by vertue of that union with him we have communion with all of Christ It gives us communion with the Righteousness of Christ Hee is The Lord our Righteousness And by Faith it is as truly ours to save us as his to glorifie him It gives us communion with the Life and Spirit of Christ with the death and sufferings of Christ with the merits and victories of Christ with the priviledges and immunities of Christ as Adoption Son-ship c. It gives us communion with his Wisdome to direct us with his Power to protect us with his Mercy to save us So that As David said God hath sworn in his Holiness He had made a Promise to him And therefore hee saith I will rejoyce I will divide Shechem and mete out the Valley of Succoth Gilead is mine so the soul may say God hath said This Son of mine I have given you Isa 9.6 And therefore Christ is mine 3. Why God should make choice of this Grace for our Justification Not to say any thing of this which might bee one Reason That the Remedy might answer the Fall The Fall was by unbeleeving As you see Hee gave credit to the Serpent and not to God So God would make our Recovery by Faith But this wee pass Wee read in Scripture of four grounds wherefore God made choice of this Grace for the Justification of a sinner 1. That Justification might bee of Grace 2. That the Promise might bee sure 3. That it might bee to all the seed 4. That no man might boast The three former you shall read Rom. 4.16 The last Ephes 2.9 1. For the first God made choice of this that wee should have Justification by way of beleeving That it might bee by Grace If it had been by any other way by reason of any thing wrought in us or by us If it had been by Desert not of Grace of Wages not of Mercy of Debt not of Favour If God had promised Justification upon any work of ours had told us wee must bring so much Humiliation so much Repentance so much brokenness of Spirit so much Grace so many Prayers Alms-deeds and then wee should bee justified It had not then been of Grace not of Free-Mercy And therefore God For the advancement of his Free-Grace and Mercy that wee might cry out with them in Zach. 4.7 Grace Grace That wee might see admire adore the Riches of his Grace The height and depth and breadth and length of his Free-Mercy Therefore hath God chose this way for the Justification of a sinner 2. That the Promise might bee sure If it had been any other way the Promise could not have been sure That which makes the Promise sure is this 1. That it is not founded upon any thing in us If it were it could never bee sure If there were any thing besides the breast of God to bee a bottom and foundation for the Promise It could never bee sure 2. That it is not performed nor contrived for any thing done by us but out of his Free-Mercy and Love If
punishment of his sin it is his mercy that wee are not consumed Thus Faith brings to remembrance our sins Such a time such a place c. It laies the finger on the sore place discovers the cause which causes a man to make himself the subject of Gods anger and turns a mans anger against himself This was some ground of Davids patience when Shimei cursed Go up thou Bloody man It made him smel his own sin his Blood and so became patient 3. Sometimes from the end of Gods dealings 1. In general And that is for good though it be not bonum yet it is in bonum Though it bee not good yet it is for good It is a Chastising-mercy not in vindictive-Justice There is a Misericordia-puniens and there is a Justitia-parcens A punishing-Mercy and a sparing-Justice As God doth exercise his Sparing-Justice towards the wicked when hee suffers them to go on in sin and doth not punish them as wee read Hos 4 14. I will not punish your Daughters when they commit Whoredome nor your Spouses when they commit Adultery the like Ezek. 16.42 I will cause my fury towards thee to rest and I will bee quiet and will bee no more angry Upon which one saith Solo auditu tremisco I tremble at the very hearing For if God will correct no more then hee will destroy next This is a Sparing-Justice And as God doth exercise this towards the wicked so hee exerciseth a punishing-mercy toward the good Hence the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.32 Wee are chastised of the Lord that wee might not bee condemned with the World That wee may not bee condemned with the World Hee suffers the World to condemn us That wee may not love the World hee suffers the World to hate us That wee may bee crucified to the World hee suffers the World to crucifie us Therefore wee meet with Crcrosses with abuses in the World because hee will not have us perish with the World God takes liberty to chastise our carkasses to heal our consciences to afflict our bodies to save our souls And wee have oftentimes occasion to bless God more for crosses than for comforts As there is a curse hid in the best things to the wicked so there is a blessing hid in the worst things to the Godly There is a blessing in sickness a blessing in crosses in losses c. Hence All his wayes are wayes of mercy His correcting and comforting wayes His scourging and solacing wayes The wayes of health and the wayes of sickness wayes of prosperity and wayes of adversity All are in Mercy All things shall work together for good unto them that love God Thus in the general Faith doth clear to the soul whereby it doth possess the Soul with patience under any evil and laies the tumults and quarrels of the Soul 2. In particular Faith discovers at what end God aims 1. It may bee the trial and exercise of our Graces as in Job 2. It may bee for the Destruction of sin and ruine thereof Either Pride Worldly-mindedness Adherency to the Creature with many more To humble us to wean us to win us to make us more thankful with many such ends All which discovered and cleared by Faith to the Soul do exceedingly calm and still the heart in every condition Fifth Royalty 5. Faith is a Soul-Securing-Grace It is such a Grace that doth shelter and secure the Soul from all evil Hence 5. Faith is a Soul-securing Grace Prov. 29.25 They who trust in the Lord shall bee safe or shall bee lifted up on high as the word signifies above men above the World above all storms above all troubles shall bee set out of danger out of Gunshot As Noahs Ark was carried above all waters So Faith shall carry the Soul above all dangers Hee that trusts shall bee safe So that you see Faith is an Heart-securing-Grace Wee may sit down securely under the shadow of Faith It is a Soul-Securing-Grace Nothing else will secure you but beleeving Build as many Towers of succour as you can Raise up as many Castles of strength as your provisions will reach yet all these are but Castles in the Air there 's no foundation for them nor shelter in them Beat and cast out as many Anchors as you can yet you will but Anchor on the waves you shall never finde a bottom to rest on to secure your souls from trouble All the provisions in the Creature All that thy power thy Policy can do and finde out will not compass thee with safety if thou do not trust There is nothing doth secure the Soul and set the Soul out of danger but a Resolved-Trust And no Trust but a Trust in God 1. Not a Trust in Riches The Rich mans wealth is his strong City but it 's so in his conceit only it is weak 2. Not a Trust in Friends Deceitful Friends Job calls them Waters that fail as Jeremy calls them But broken Walls and tottering Fences as the Psalmist stiles them Psal 62.3 3. Not a Trust in Princes If any could secure the Soul one would think they might but these cannot Psal 62. throughout Psal 146.3 4. Prov. 10.15 Nahum 3.12 13. Wee read the Children of Israel would trust in the shadow of Egypt Egypt was a Wel-spread-Tree it promised security under her boughs and branches but it could not there was no security Jer. 2.37 God threatens hee would reject their confidences and they should not prosper thereby So that no Trust but a Trust in God will compass the Soul with safety and this will it is an Heart-Securing-Grace 1. It sets a man upon a Soul-Security-Bottom which is God himself Christ himself This is that Bottom David cryed to bee set upon Set mee upon the Rock that is higher than I. Why one would have thought David had been secure enough upon his own Bottom Hee had a good bottom to stand on if there bee one in the World Hee was a King and had provisions for safety If any man might be secure then he But hee sees hee could not be secure in himself His feet began to sink And therefore crys out for a better bottom Oh! Set me upon the Rock that is higher than I. Time was a Man was his own bottome A bottome to himself But it was but a Sandy-bottome Even in his Innocency there was no Security in it But now God hath appointed our Bottome to bee out of our selves and to bee in him And therefore our conditions are secure the Soul that stands on this bottome is safe is secure This Christ sets down in the Parable of the Hoâ—se built upon a Rock that is upon himself Though The winds blow the waves and billows beat yet there is no danger of our fall We stand upon a Rock Why but may not a Weak and Tottering house bee built upon a strong foundation And what is it then the surer for the Foundation It may bee blown down though the foundation bee never so strong Yea But no
Christ is such a Rock as doth derive vertue and strength unto the structure and building Indeed a man may build a weak house upon a strong foundation and the house fall for all that because the rock is a dead thing and cannot impart any of its strength unto the structure But it is not so here Bee the building never so weak yet this Rock can hold it up because it diffuseth its strength into the building Hence 1 Pet. 2.4 5. Christ is called a living not a dead Rock A living stone To whom comming as to a living Stone wee also as lively-stones are built up a spiritual house Which shews the transformation of the building into the nature and firmnesse of the Rock Thus you see Faith is a soul-securing-grace It sets a man upon a soul-securing-bottome It makes God our security who is called The strong-God The mighty-God The Rock of Refuge A defense A Shield A Tower A Fort. An High-place Mich. 4.8 The Tower of his Flock The strong hold of the daughter of Sion A Covert from the storm Isay 32.1 2. Faith makes All-God our security It ingages all-God to be our security His Power And is not this able to secure us His Wisdome And will not this secure us His Truth And will not this secure us His Mercy And cannot all this secure us Hee who trusts in the Lord Mercy shall compasse him on every side Hee is hemm'd in with Mercy Or mercy imbraceth him on every side to secure him As trust doth compasse mercy so mercy doth compass trust As trust imbraceth mercy so mercy imbraceth trust It is not Faith it self that doth secure us But Faith doth make God our security It sets a man upon a soul-securing-bottome on a soul-securing-God on a soul-securing-Power on a soul-securing-soul-securing-Mercy Therefore needs must a Beleeving a trusting-Trusting-soul be secure 2. It instates the soul in soul-securing-promises The promises of preservation from trouble Promises of Deliverance out of trouble All the promises which God hath made of Security Faith instates the soul into them all Hee hath promised When wee passe through the waters he will be with us and the waters shall not overflow us When we pass through the fire the flame shall not kindle upon us Isa 43.2 Hee hath promised Hee will stand at our right hand and wee shall not bee moved Psal 16. He will never leave us neither forsake us Heb. 13.6 The Gates of Hell shall never prevail against us Mat. 16.18 Hee hath promised to bee a Tower a Rock a Refuge a Covert from a storm an hiding place in time of Danger c. And it is faith that doth instate us into these Soul-securing-Promises As there is no promise to us till wee beleeve so if once wee beleeve all the Promises are ours Look into the word of God and what promises soever there are made for securing the soul All these are thine 3. Faith doth instate us into soul-securing-Priviledges 1 It makes us the Sons and Daughters of God John 1.12 13 As man as received him to them hee gave power or priviledge to become the Sons of God Even to as many as beleeved in his name Gal. 3.26 You are the children of God by faith in Christ And will not a father secure his child 2. Faith makes us the Spouse of Christ the members of Christ It ingrafts us and unites us into him And will he not secure his members 3. It make us the inheritance of Christ Hee hath promised to bee a Tower to his Flock A strong-hold to the Daughters of Sion These are all soul-securing-priviledges And therefore beleeving souls shall be secure Oh! Then Would you bee secured from the evil-day would you bee secured in the evil day Labour for Faith This alone secures the soul It sets a man upon a soul-securing-bottome Instates a man in soul-securing-promises Gives him right to soul-securing-priviledges Abrogate fears Surrogate Faith Down with fears which betray the succour of the soul and set up beleeving Sixth Royalty 6 Faith is an heart-humbling Grace 6 Royalty of Faith It s a soul-humbling Grace Whether it bee a Legal or whether it be an Evangelical Faith it works humiliation The one a Legal humiliation and casting down The other an Evangelical-humiliation we shall in this cheifly deal with the first It is said of Ahab that he humbled himself put on sackcloath and went softly And this was the fruit and effect of his Legal-Faith whereby hee beleeved the truth and certainty of Gods Judgements denounced against him and his house The men of Nineveh when Jonah preached that sad Sermon Jonah 3.4 Yet forty days and Nineveh shall bee destroyed It is said They beleeved God That is The truth of that message which Jonah brought from God And it follows as an effect of this Faith They humbled themselves and proclaimed a fast and put on Sack-cloath and sate in ashes from the King upon the Throne to the meanest of them And my Brethren Faith hath a great influence into the work of self-humbling 1 It takes up self-humbling Considerations From God the justice of God the threatnings the curses God hath denounced against sin 2. Faith doth Realize all this to the Soul which God hath said against sin Faith doth not make these things more reall then they are but doth Realize things to the Soul not imaginary but real things which being lookt upon as reall things do humble This is the Reason why one when he hears of Gods threatnings denounced against Sin goes home and lyes in the dust is humbled and cast down as Josiah when hee read the book of the Law And another stands up out-faceth Hell and the curse He is never humbled nor cast down It is because the one he looks upon these things are reall and true the other hee looks upon them as fancies Imaginary things If men beleeved that all that evil which God hath threatned against Sin were true they could not drink down sinne as water nor eat the bread of Sin with such delight as they do If the swearer did beleeve there were a flying Rol gone out against him as Zachary saith If the Drunkard did see death in the Pot c. If I say wicked men beleeved the Reality and Truth of these things they could not go on so quietly in their wicked courses but would be humbled Hence the Apostle sets this down for the ground why the Preaching of the word was not profitable to them Because it was not mixed with Faith in them that heard it They did not beleeve what they heard and so neither the word of Terror nor the word of Comfort did profit them As the promises of God are not quickning raising comforting except there bee Faith so the Threats are not Killing humbling working if Faith be not there Wee may preach till our spirits fail and spend our labour in vain our strength and pains for nought if the things which God speaks and we preach be not beleeved If you
by unbelief do slight all the threats of God denounced against sin if you make childs play of them as the word signifies 2 Pet. 3.3 If you look upon these but as Bug-bears things to keep men in awe and not real things No marvel if you bee not Humbled But if by Faith you would Realize these things to your selves and behold them not as Fancies and sad dreams but such things as are infallibly true real things not as painted Hell painted fire but as reall you would them finde them to work These mingled with Faith would lay a man in the dust Now this is a property of Faith to Realize the Object or thing beleeved and hence comes an influence on the soul to humble and abase it 3 Faith doth not only take up humbling Considerations and Realizeth all these to the Soul But Faith makes all this present Faith doth give a present being to all this Hence Heb. 11.13 Faith imbraceth the promise The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith kisseth the promise gives a present being to the promise And as it gives a present being to the promise or word of comfort so to the threatning and word of terror Faith discovers death and hell and all at hand for Sin Faith looks upon sinne in all it's Doomes-day apparrel and array smels fire and Brimstone in sin Whereas unbeleevers they look on these things at the wrong end of the Prospective and that makes things neer seem a far off and that afar off is not seen at all But Faith looks upon them through the right end of the prospective And there things a far off are seen at hand present Hence it is called The Evidence of things not seen As it was said of Abraham Hee saw the day of Christ and rejoyced and yet Abraham was dead many hundred of years before Christ yet by vertue of his prospective by vertue of his Faith hee saw it as if it had been present though it were never so far off So here though the second day of Christ the day of judgement bee a far off yet Faith sees it and is humbled Faith gives it a present Being 4. Faith applies and brings home all this to Soul As the word of Comfort the Promise is applyed and brought home to the Soul by Faith so the word of Terror the Threatning is brought home to the soul by the same Faith by which the Soul is cast down and humbled The manner of Faiths Application is by a practical Syllogisme where the Major or first Proposition is the Word of God The Assumption or second Proposition is the Testimony of Conscience and the conclusion is inferred from them both as hee that beleeveth not but continueth in sir is for the present guilty and obnoxious to wrath at the last Judgement But I beleeve not but continue in sin Therefore I am for the present guilty and obnoxious to wrath to bee inflicted at the last Judgement Seventh Royalty 7. Faith is an Heart-softening-Grace Such a Grace as doth not only humble us but soften us not only break us 7. Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-softening-Grace but melt us In the Law it humbles us it breaks us but the heart like a flint every dust still reteins its flinty stony Nature is a stone And therefore in the Gospel it melts us it dissolves us Thunders of Sinai terrifie but Dews of Sion mollifie So much Faith so much Sorrow they are like the Fountain and the Stream whereof the one ariseth no higher than the other So much Faith and apprehension of Mercy so much brokenness of spirit for sin Where Unbelief doth stony the Heart harden the Heart dries up the spring and issues of sorrow No Heart is so hard as an Unbeleeving-heart neither the Promises nor Threatnings neither Mercy nor Justice neither Word nor works will melt it Faith on the contrary turns the Soul into Water dissolves a man into tears opens all the deep springs of sorrow in the Soul 1. Faith looks upon Heart-melting-Promises Takes a survey of the Riches of Gods Love and Mercy in making such precious Promises which doth exceedingly melt 2. Faith takes up Heart-softening-Considerations from the Love and Mercy of God towards us which are Heart-melting-Mercies from the goodness and sweetness of God Faith makes us see God as hee is It makes God no otherwise than hee is not more gracious not more merciful than hee is But Faith discovers him as hee is a gracious and a mercifull God It doth but undraw the Curtain but take off the Mask which Satan and Infidelity have put on and makes us to behold God as hee is in all his glorious excellencies Soul saving attributes and Mercies which who can behold by Faith but must needs mourn and dissolve into tears that they have offended him Thus you see Ezek. 36.31 when God had discovered himself in his pardoning-Pardoning-Mercy his washing forgiving-Forgiving-Mercy to the beleeving soul then they shall mourn and bee humbled Oh! There is nothing breaks the heart more than Mercy nothing melts a man more than the smiles of God the Mercies of God which being discovered to the Soul the Soul is not able to stand stubborn under it 3. Faith looks upon a Soul-melting a Soul-softening Object upon Christ a wounded a broken Christ And who can behold him but with an Humbled and a broken-heart A bleeding Christ without a bleeding Heart Oh! Here is enough in this Object to open all the springs of sorrow in us wee need not to go to Bellarmines Twelve Considerations to open the Fountain of tears in us wee need not bring in the miseries of mankind for one nor the sad condition of the Souls in Purgatory for another Wee need not bee beholden to him for such considerations as these to help us to mourn Oh! Here is enough in Christ in a broken and wounded Christ to open all the springs in thee and if thou hadst a Fountain of tears to spend them all The Considerations of his sufferings 1. Either in themselves 2. Or in their cause 3. Or as the Effects of sin 1. The Considerations of his breakings and sufferings as they were in themselves 1. The sufferings of his Body What woundings breakin gs scourgings crownings peircings did hee endure upon his Body 2. The sufferings on his Soul What conflict and struglings with the wrath of God the powers of darkness what weights what burdens what wrath did hee undergo when his Soul was heavy unto death be set with terrors as the word implies When he drunk that bitter Cup that Cup of bitterness that Cup mingled with Curses which made him sweat drops of blood which if men or Angels had but sip's of 't would have made them reel stagger and tumble into Hell 2. The Consideration of his sufferings in the Cause as the meriting cause of all our good procurer of all our Peace Life Salvation Hee was wounded that wee might bee healed scourged that wee might bee solaced drank the
Being justified by Faith wee have Peace with God Rom. 15.13 Now the God of all hope fill you with joy and peace in beleeving An unbeleeving-heart is a stormy heart an unpeaceable-heart All things Above us Within us Quae supra nos Intra nos Infra nos Contra nos Below us are all against us whilst wee are Unbeleevers 1. Above us wee have an angry and displeased God 2. Within us wee have a stormy and troublesome Conscience threatning nothing but death like the troubled Sea casting up mire and dirt as Isaiah speaks Isa 57.20 There is no Peace saith my God to the wicked 3 Below us we have there all the Creatures our enemies ready upon Gods commission to execute his displeasure upon us But now being Beleevers all is at Peace 1. All above us is at Peace The Controversy betwixt God and us is ended Faith takes up the quarrel betwixt God and us Wee have Peace with God Rom. 5.1 2. All within us is at Peace A peaceable God makes all at Peace Tranquillus Deus Tranquillat omnia when once our Peace is made in the Court of Heaven which is upon the first act of beleeving Then follows Peace in the Court of Conscience Peace which passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 Our rest is to behold God at rest our Peace is to see him at Peace Eum quierem aspicere Quâ—â— esceâ—e est 3. All below us are at Peace with us Wee have Peace with all the Creatures All are now our Friends Job 5.23 The stones of the Field shall bee at league with thee the Beasts of the Field shall bee at peace with thee c. Thou shalt know that Peace shall bee in thy Tabernacle Prov. 16.7 When a mans wayes please the Lord hee will make his enemies to bee at peace with him When before upon our Rebellion with God all the Creatures were our enemies now being reconciled all are made friends 1. Faith makes us the Servants to the God of Peace in whose service there is Peace Prov. 3.17 All his Paths are Peace Every step of Godliness hath Peace with it And the reward of whose service shall bee Peace Psal 29.11 The Lord will bless his people with Peace Psal 85.8 The Lord will speak Peace to his people at the last though they meet with much trouble for the present war within and war without war with lusts war with Satan yet the God of Peace shall tread down Satan under our feet at last and put an end to this war Rom. 16.20 They shall have a Peace in the Conclusion And a Peace after war is the surest and most setledst Peace Psal 37.37 Mark the upright man The end of that man is Peace Though there bee stormes and troubles in the way yet the end of the journey that shall bee Peace A calm after stormes and never shall there arise storme more to all Eternity 2. Faith makes us subjects to the Prince of Peace unto Christ who is called our Peace Ephes 2.14 And our Peace hee is 1. Not only meritoriously by shedding his Blood for the purchase of our Peace Col. 1.20 Christ is our Peace having made Peace through the Blood of his Cross So Isa 53. The chastisement of our Peace was upon him Or that chastisement which did meritoriously procure our Peace was upon him God directed all the war against him that wee might have Peace As Jonah was thrown into the Sea that the storm might cease so Christ upon the Cross into the Grave that God and wee might bee at peace together But Christ is not only our Peace thus meritoriously by procuring Peace for us But also â— Efficiently by working of Peace in us Christ hath not only wrought Peace for us but hee works Peace in us Pacifying our Consciences calming our stormy spirits setling and establishing his Peace in us Christ is called the Prince of Peace as the King is the Fountain of Honours and bestows them where hee will so Christ is of Peace and bestows it when and where hee pleaseth Wee read that Moses was a man of Peace but hee was not a Prince of Peace Hee could not bestow Peace hee could not instill peaceable and calm affections into the mutinous Israelites But Christ hee is not a man of Peace but King of Salem Prince of Peace who is able to bestow Peace who can calm the most stormy and troublesome spirits with as much ease as hee did the Winds and Waters which was but with a word Peace and bee still Now Faith makes us one with Christ who is the Prince of Peace Christ joyned God and us together and Faith joynes Christ and us together in whom wee have Peace John 16 33. â— In mee yee shall have Peace Faith makes us subjects to this Prince of Peace whose Kingdome and reign over his people doth not consist in meat and drink but in Righteousnesse and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost 3. Faith doth interest us into the Covenant of Peace and therefore being Beleevers wee must needs have Peace I say Faith doth interest us into the Covenant of Peace the Gospel of Peace the alone condition whereof is beleeving Whosoever beleeveth shall bee saved Time was that Hoc age do this was the condition of life do this and live So ran the old Covenant But now Crede Beleeve and bee saved The Law required works It 's called a Covenant of Works but the Gospel Faith It s a Covenant of Grace Made out of meer Grace and performed of meer Grace wherein God promiseth pardon of sins upon meer Mercy and Grace 4. Faith doth instate us into the conditions of Peace Faith gives us the grounds of Peace Justification Reconciliation with God pardon of sin and Sanctification of the whole man As there is no Peace where God is not propitious so there 's no Peace where the sinner is not sanctified A Beleeving heart is an holy heart and an holy heart is a peaceable heart Grace and Peace and Righteousnesse and Peace are still coupled together To shew that where there is no Grace there is no Peace and where there is Grace there is Peace though not ever in the Possession Gratia est bonum initiale Pax est bonum finale and sensible injoyment yet ever in the hope and assurance of the promise of Peace Grace is the root and Peace is the fruit A good Conscience is a continual Feast They who do the work of God shall have the Peace of God Gal. 6. They who walk according to this Rule Peace shall bee on them c. Hence the Psalmist Psal 119 165. Great Peace have they that love thy Law They which love the Law of God shall have the Peace of God Object But you will say Many have Peace who yet are not Beleevers Object And many are Beleevers and yet want Peace Therefore Peace is not a Fruit of Faith Ans Now to meet and to resist this Objection Answ which like a two-edged-sword
give away to jealous mis-giving and mistrusting thoughts of God or of themselves Some there are who do nothing but make objections against themselves and Gods dealings with them And a quarrelsome heart is for the most part a troublesome heart You shall see some to whom God hath given evidences of their estate and condition and such as might content them such as they might have Peace in But they will quarrel against them Either their evidences are not so clear as others are not written in so fair and legible characters as others are Or else they want sealing And therefore they will take no comfort in them Thus do many forsake their own mercies breed their own disquiet and are injurious to their own peace When God hath spoken Peace and Peace to their Souls yet they return back again to folly to the folly of Unbeleeving Doubting Questioning of Gods love And no marvel if such do want Peace Men that will forgoe their evidences give up their claim and title to Christ Men whom Satan can make unsay what they know God hath said to their hearts may soon sit down in dumb silence and discouragement If when God hath manifested himself to you hath come and supped with you hath given you the white stone of absolution the Hidden Manna of comfort and consolation those manifest experiments of his love and yet you will joyn Issue with Satan give way to doubts No marvel if you disturb your peace bring insufferable fears and disquiets upon your selves And it were just with God to leave you to the doubts and mis-givings of your own hearts and never to give you a word of Peace more but suffer you to bring your gray hairs with sorrow to the Grave seeing nothing will satisfie you 6. The Reason why Beleevers have no more Peace is Because they seek Peace no more in a way of beleeving They seek it more in the Law than in the Gospel more in Sanctification than in Justification more in the Precept than in the Promise more in working than in beleeving more in their Obedience than in Christ. And therefore no marvel seeing all this is imperfect that they have no more perfection of peace So long as you make the grounds of your peace any thing within your selves or any thing wrought by your selves you will never have fulness of peace There may bee some peace for a time in these things but it is not a full and satisfying peace nor yet a permanent and constant peace It may be gotton to day lost or incumbred to morrow Every imperfection will disturb your peace Every failing will raise up a new and fresh storm breed a new quarrel in the soul Hee that would have peace must seek it in the God of Peace in the Prince of Peace in Christ himself in whom hee said Joh. 16.33 Wee should have Peace When there 's a storm in your selves there 's peace in him when there 's no peace in you in regard of your imperfections and failings there 's yet peace in Christ who is a perfect Saviour The Sacrifice is imperfect but the Priest is perfect Tenth Royalty 10 Faith is an Heart-inabling-Grace 10. Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-inabling-Grace It is such a Grace as inables a man 1. To do 2. To suffer A Beleeving Christian is a strong Christian He is strong for any service It is said By Faith Abraham obeyed God Faith did inable him to obey And it was a great act of Obedience as you may read scil The offering of his Son his only Son the Son of his love If it had been an adopted Son only and not his Natural or if his Natural and but one among many the trial had not been so great But hee was his own and only Son and the Son of his old age and therefore like to have no more the Son of the promise not an Ismael but an Isaac a Son long expected now exceedingly rejoyced in hee was the Son of his Love Now to part with such a Son was a great tryal But here was not all the tryal If hee had but parted with him in the way of Nature by a natural death this had not been so much but to part with him in way of Sacrifice wherein hee was to bee cut in peeces nay and hee himself must bee the Butcher of this Son of his Love must imbrue his own hands in the blood of this Son This was a great tryal yet here was seen the power of Faith tht it inabled him to obey Hee did not consult with Flesh and Blood did not dispute but obey By Faith hee obeyed Faith it is an Heart-inabling-Grace It will inable you to pray yea and to pray to purpose to wrestle with God Beleeving-prayers are wrestling prayers wherein the Soul wrestles with God by strength of his Promise his Covenant his Truth his Christ It inables you to hear and to hear with profit when Faith doth incorporate it self with the Word it will be profitable Faithful hearing is ever fruitful hearing It will inable you to receive the Sacrament and to receive with comfort Faith is the Organ whereby wee feed on Christ receive Christ Faith is the instrument that conveyes Christ the Conduit-pipe A beleeving Receiver is a blessed Receiver It will inable you to bring forth much fruit To bee fruitful in Obedience It plants us into a fruitfull stock and how can wee bee barren Plants It draws life and nourishment from Christ A faithfull Christian is a fruitfull Christian Men of a good Beleef are men of a good Life That soul that hath yeelded obedience to the Promise in a way of beleeving is ready to subject it self to every Precept in a way of Obedience Faith doth inable a man to contend with lusts with the strongest corruptions The sons of Zerviah which else would bee too hard for us It inables us to combate with Satan It is our shield whereby wee resist it is our weapon whereby wee conquer It sets Christ against Satan by whom wee over-overcome as the word is Wee are more than Conquerors It inables us to overcome the World This is our Victory whereby wee overcome the World even our Faith Whereas unbeleef doth slay and disable the heart both from doing and suffering An unbeleeving heart is an impotent heart The state of unbeleef is a state of impotency and disability to the performance of any thing that is good There is a total and universal impotency in an unbeleeving heart Hee cannot pray hear receive Faith on the contrary doth inable and strengthen the soul to all Obedience It inables a man to yeeld A willing Obedience cheerfull Obedience voluntary Obedience a constant a fruitful an universal Obedience It will inable a man to do his duty Towards God Towards others Towards himself It inables a man to walk through the duties of all relations faithfully The Husband to the Wife the Wife to the Husband The Parents to the Childe The Child to the
5. Not able to perfect it when it is begun to our hands Isa 26.12 Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us or for us So Rom. 7.18 To will is present with mee but how to perform that which is good I finde not There is a partial impotency in the hearts of the best and this is more or less according to the vigor and power of corruption in us As you see in Rom. 7.18 For I know that in mee that is in my flesh dwels no good thing for to will is present but not to perform But there is a total universal impotency in unregenerate men Every Imagination motion figment of his heart being evil only evil every day But admit wee could do any thing could make as many prayers as stars in Heaven weep as many tears as the Sea holds drops Nay could wee do as much as the tallest Angel in Heaven all this would be too short to winde us out of our misery that sin casts us into 2. Wee are not able to suffer and by our sufferings to help our selves out of this If wee should macerate and afflict our bodies suffer all the miseries in the world in way of satisfaction for the least sin Alas all would bee too little too short would not amount and come up to the least debt But what do I speak of this If wee could suffer as many thousand millions of years torments in hell as the World hath stood minutes from the Creation Nay and God should widen the capacities of the Soul make a man more strong and able to bear more wrath make a man a larger vessel to receive more torments that so in time the springs of his Justice may bee drawn dry the treasures of his wrath might bee expended and a full satisfaction bee made yet there would bee no time no eternity of torment wherin there would bee enough endured as a full satisfaction for the least sin for the least oath thou hast ever sworn for the least idle thought thou hast ever conceived c. The reason is all this is but finite and therefore cannot come up to satisfie for an offence of infinite demerit Thus Faith empties a man not only of opinion of Righteousness in himself but of opinion of helping himself by any strength of his own out of this Faith will tell thee There is an eternal Law violated and thou canst not make up that there is guilt of sin and thou art not able to satisfie for that God is an enemy and thou art unable to make him thy friend God is angry and thou art unable to appease him thou art liable to wrath and not able to avoid it thou art under the Curse and art unable to undergo it art cast into debt and art unable to make payment All which being discovered to the soul the soul falls down at Gods feet and saith not with him in the Gospel Have patience with mee and I will pay thee all But Have mercy upon mee for I am unable to pay God bee merciful to mee a sinner Oh! This will make a soul fall down at the feet of God and implore that mercy of God that hee would cancel all the obligations reverse all his Proceedings cross all Books pardon all debts between him and the soul Fourteenth Royalty 14. Royalty of Faith It s an Heart-inriching-Grace 14 Faith is an Heart-inriching and filling-Grace When Faith hath once emptied a man of himself makes him a fit receptacle then it fills his soul with Christ when it hath strip'd a man of his own rags then it puts on the Garments of Christ when it hath made a man poor in himself it inriches the soul with Christ when wee are nothing in our selves then Christ is made all to us Cor humile est vacuum spirituale Wisdome Justification Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 An humble empty heart is the vessel of all Grace So much Emptiness so much Grace Because humility doth empty the heart for God to fill it If the heart bee emptied once it must needs bee filled Non datur vacuum Nature abhors emptiness Grace much more Faith doth inrich the soul with all the merits of Christ with the Spirit of Christ Christ imputed Christ imparted Christ infused with the Righteousness of Christ for Justification with the Holiness of Christ for Sanctification Faith will not want it if Christ have it Faith will not bee poor if Christ bee rich will not bee empty if Christ bee full Ego non sum meriti inops quamdiu ille non est inops miserationum Bernard I cannot bee poor saith Bernard so long as God is rich his Riches are mine Of his fulness I receive Grace for Grace Christ indeed is a Fountain but hee is a Fountain sealed up Hee is a Treasure but hee is a Treasure lockt up to an unbeleeving heart Faith is the Key that unlocks this Treasure opening the Treasuries of Heaven making an inlet of all the Glory of Christ Faith gives the soul communion with all the Riches of Christ So far as it is possible for Christ to bee communicated hee is made ours by Faith by it there is a conveyance made of all the great revenues of Christ. The great stock which Christ did purchase by his Blood is passed over to the beleeving soul There is a Deed of Gift made to such wherein I say Not the whole Righteousness of the Mediator Non tota Justitia Mediatoris sed Justitia tota Mediatoria his essentiall and incommunicable Righteousness but his whole Mediatory Righteousness that Righteousness which Christ purchased for us as Mediator the Righteousness of his active and passive obedience by the one doing our services by the other bearing our scourges by the one as was said before answering Gods commanding Justice by the other answering Gods condemning Justice the one in Praemium to free us from wrath the other in Pretium to intitle us to Glory all this is made ours As Boaz said to his Kinsman Marry the Woman and the Field is thine So when once by Faith wee are married to Christ his Blood is ours his merits ours his Spirit ours all are ours Faith gives us a propriety in all Tu vita mea ego mors tua Tu coelum meum ego gehenna tua Tu Justitia mea ego pâ—ccatum tuum Tu divitiae meae ego paupertas tua So that Faith may break forth into this rapture with that Father Lord I am thy death thou art my life I am thy Hell thou art my Heaven I am thy sin thou art my Righteousness I am thy poverty thou art my Riches And all the Riches which Christ did purchase with his Blood and sit down and think what the Blood of Christ the Blood of God as the Apostle calls it by communication of Properties what this might buy out at the hands of a Father why all this is made thine by Faith So that you see Faith
light into the world saith Christ that whosoever beleeveth in mee should not abide in darknesse The least touch of Christ by Faith doth raise up and revive the Soul in this sad Condition As the dead man was raised to life and revived but by touching the dead bones of Elisha 2 King 13.21 so the Dead Soul if it do but touch the Dead and crucified body of Christ by Faith is raised up and revived Such a vertue and influence comes from Christ as doth raise up and comfort the Soul Thus Faith doth raise the heart by laying hold of Christ He who raised up himself will raise up all his members If our head had been still under water wee had then perished but he being risen will raise us up also being his members 4 Faith inables a man to put up Soul-raising-prayers indites Soul-raising-prayers strong Prayers and cries to God As Prayer helps Faith So Faith helps Prayer It inables a man to wrestle with God now in the Dark of desertion as it did Jacob in the Dark of the Night Yea and to wrestle with him by his own strength the strength of his Covenant of his promise of his Christ In which Encounter Faith will take up arguments 1 From it self 2 From God 1 From it self By presenting its miserable Condition in the absence of God That all his own work is ready to sink and dy to come to nothing if hee help not Oh! will Faith say Lord my flesh fails my heart fails my strength fails my spirit fails Oh! Come down before I dye come strengthen the things that are ready to dye in me This argument David took up Psal 143.7 Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit fails Oh! Hide not thy face from mee lest I bee like unto them that go down into the Pit So Psal 39.10 12 13. Take thy plague from mee I am consumed by the stroke of thy hand c. Hear my prayer O Lord hearken to my cry Keep not silence at my tears for I am a stranger with thee a sojourner as all my Fathers were Oh! spare a little that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more 2 Faith will take up arguments from God 1 From the justice and truth of God He hath promised never to leave nor forsake his people 2 From the immutability of God Thou art JEHOVAH thou changest not therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 Thou never repentest of thine own work Thou never hast wooed my heart to lose it again Thou never tookest my heart to leave it again and take thy heart clean away Thou never didst set thy heart on mee to take it off again 3 From the power of God Abraham at a plunge was supported with this strong staff of Comfort when though by Gods command hee was to sacrifice his Sonne Isaac yet hee accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead Heb. 11.19 Lord if thou wilt thou canst Mat. 8.2 4 From the mercy of God Lord thou art gracious and merciful ready to relieve It 's true I am a sinner but thou art a Saviour I am sinful but thou art mercifull I am impious but thou art gracious I have done that Ego admisi undè me damnare potes Tu non amisisti undè me salvare soles for which thou mightest damn mee but thou hast not lost that by which thou mayest save mee True I am not worthy of a smile from Heaven I have deserved to bee sent from darkness here to everlasting darkness hereafter from this partial to total and universal darkness But Lord proportion not thy dealings to mee according to my deservings from thee Let not the strong God take a pattern from my weakness good God do not ever remember my evil least thou forget thine own goodness thine own mercy O bone Do-â—â— mine noli recordare malum moum ne obliviscaris bonum tuum But thou who art found of them who seek thee not Oh! Be mercifully found of a soul who seeketh thee Thus will Faith work it self out of trouble and gather arguments to prevail with God for deliverance It will take up arguments From Soul-raising-Attributes From Soul-raising-Promises From Soul-raising-Relations From Soul-raising-Experiences It will incompass God with Gods own strength And God cannot because hee will not deny God will not reject his own strength not strive against his own mercy not resist his own Spirit not falsifie his own Truth but will raise up and revive the Soul Thus you see Faith is a Soul-raising-Grace Where Unbeleef holds the soul under water buries the soul in these sad conditions Faith raiseth up and reviveth it A beleeving soul cannot long lye under trouble If all the Power Truth and Mercy of God will fetch him out hee shall bee sure to bee delivered Faith ingages and sets a work all these to help Oh! The Reason my Brethren why you lye so long in spiritual Agonies buried up in spiritual troubles is because you let not Faith come in to work for you let Faith have her perfect work and it will raise you Sixteenth Royalty 16. Faith is an Heart-chearing-Grace 16. Royalty Faith is an Heart-chearing Grace Faith is such a Grace as doth chear and comfort the soul with unexpressible Consolations It is such a Grace as makes an inlet of all the Consolations of God into the Soul Faith brings a report to the Soul that God is his God Christ is his Christ that his Name is written in the Book of Life his sins are pardoned his soul shall bee saved And such news as this must needs fill the soul with unexpressible Consolations with joyes unspeakable and full of glory All other joyes are but mad and disorderly joyes They are carnal not spiritual outward not inward joyes they are but painted not true Joyes imaginary not real Joyes unsatisfying not tull Joyes inconstant not stable Joyes The best false Raptures Anabaptistical Illusions not true Joyes But this Joy The Joy of Faith it is grounded joy it is 1. A spiritual Joy for the Nature of it 2. A Hearty Joy for the Nature of it 3. A Satisfying Joy for the fulness of it 4. A Constant Permanent Joy for the duration of it My Joy shall no man take from you Alas what are all other joyes to the Joy of Faith The least morsel of this Joy is worth all the full meals of worldly delights The least gleaning of this Joy is worth the whole Harvest of carnal mirth The least drop of this is worth an Ocean of any other There is more moisture in one drop of this than in a flood of temporal and carnal delights True Joy grows upon the stock of Faith Where there is no Faith there is no true Joy Faith is the Root and Joy is the Fruit. It is call'd The Joy of Beleevers Beleevers are the Subjects of it and a Joy in Beleeving Beleeving is the Root of it Rom. 5.1.2 Being justified by Faith wee have
which afterward hee fell into The like of the Israelites Jer. 42. throughout So that you see it is a matter of some difficulty And therefore the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.5 Bids us not only examine but prove Not only to examine and take the first evidence the heart gives in but to prove whether the evidence given in bee true It may bee you have examined your selves by the rules of the Word Your heart hath given in an evidence for you Why but prove if this evidence bee true see an evidence of that evidence As in Solomons Temple there was Light set against Light so here you must set Light against Light As for example Inquiry is made whether I have Faith or no. Answer is given in upon the scrutiny That I have Faith It is well But now prove this Why how Set Light against Light See an evidence of that evidence The Word saith Faith purifies the heart Act. 15.9 Faith sanctifies the heart Faith works by Love Gal. 5.6 Now then Is thy heart cleansed from filthiness Art thou sanctified c. The like in another Inquiry is made whether a man love God yea or no. It may bee the heart gives up this answer that hee doth love God Why but now prove it Hee that loves God keeps his Commandements Joh. 14.15 Hee that loves God will obey him will not displease him Hee who loves God will not sin And so in any other Thus you see though it bee possible yet it 's a matter of difficulty in regard of the deceits of our hearts And therefore wee are to take the more pains 2. It is difficult in regard of the doubts and mis-givings of our hearts And this at all times if Gods Spirit come not to witness with our spirits our own spirits will bee born down with doubts and mis-givings of our unbeleeving hearts and wee shall never know what our condition is Hence wee have these phrases Rom. 8.16 The Spirit doth witness with our spirits that wee are the Children of God I'ts not the witness of our own spirit that will answer all the doubts and objections of our hearts If Gods Spirit strike not in too and bear witness with us The like wee have 1 Joh. 5 6 7 8. And other places especially that of 1 Cor. 2. from 9. to the 13. verse where you shall see that it is a work of Gods own Spirit to settle the soul in the assurance of his good condition And as at all times so especially at three times It is exceeding difficult 1. In times of Humiliation 2. In times of Temptation 3. In times of Desertion 1. In times of Humiliation As some call evil good so thou calls good evill Now As some take the shadow for the substance so thou the substance for the shadow As some depend on false grounds so thou denyest the true As some feed and cherish matter of false comfort so thou feedest on matter of discouragement Some heat themselves by a painted fire Isa 50.11 and thou quenchest the sparks of Gods own kindling if the Spirit of God break not in at that time 2. In times of Temptation when Satan assaults a man tells him that all his Graces are false and counterfeit that hee is an Hypocrite And presents an Army of confirmations at once in an instant and so manages them that whatever evidences a man can think of to the contrary they are either taken away or seemingly confuted as fast as they are thought on In this case a man may bee ignorant of his Faith and Graces At such a time if a man inquire either the spirit of a man will bee silent and return no answer Or if it do return any it is a disturbed one If a man reflect back at such a time as this hee shall finde nothing but of Satans party to return him an answer 3. In time of Desertion when it may bee our Evidences bee hid in the dark the soul is in a mist and cannot read its own Faith The Glass can give no reflex except the Sun give light Nor a mans Graces appear to comfort him except God shine upon them As the Moon and Stars so our Graces do shine with a borrowed Light And unlesse God do shine secretly into our hearts irradiate and give light unto our Graces though they bee in esse in being in the heart yet not in cognosci in the apprehension they will not appear at all to comfort us In these cases the work is Difficult But what then Things must not bee left for Difficulties because they bee beset with Difficulties Difficulties must not put us off from Tryal but put us on to try more throughly Hee who saith there is a Lion in the way is not fit for Heaven They that feared the Giants were not fit for Canaan It is a sign of a base and degenerate spirit to desist in the pursuit of a good way because of Difficulties Though it bee difficult yet it is possible A thing it is that hath been attained in all ages of the World Others of Gods people have known and so mayest thou 2. It is not ony possible but necessary that you should know whether you bee Beleevers or no. It is Necessary 1. In respect of your Comforts 2. In respect of your more lively Obedience 1. It s necessary in respect of your Comforts What comfort can a soul have in this That Christ is a Saviour if hee know not hee is his Saviour And how shall hee know this except hee know that hee doth beleeve hee is the Saviour of them that beleeve only What comfort is it to know there 's pardon of sins if wee do not know that our sins bee pardoned And how shall wee know this except wee do know that wee beleeve They only that beleeve have their sins pardoned What comfort can wee have in the Merits Death and Blood of Christ what comfort in the Promises of the Gospel till wee know wee are Beleevers such to whom Christ and the Promises belong If a man did but once clear this How might hee run down all the Promises and fetch in comfort from them all why might the soul say Christ is mine his Blood is mine his Spirit is mine his Merits are mine his Righteousness is mine to justifie mee His Holiness is mine to sanctifie mee His Mercy is mine to save mee All is mine if I bee a Beleever Oh! Thou dost not know what wrong thou dost to thy soul in neglecting to clear and evidence this to thy self Why you will live without Comfort you will dye without Comfort My Brethren If you would not live without Comfort if you would not dye without Comfort labour to evidence this to your souls that you are Beleevers Oh! It would adde much to your Joy and Comfort to know this Many there are who live without comfort who lye upon the rack of fears and discouragements are in unsufferable troubles all their dayes Many who for want of clearing this to their
Light of it Men will not seek after the Physitian before they feel themselves to bee sick for ease till they bee prest with burdens for a Plaister before they bee wounded for heavenly Riches before sense of their spiritual beggery for inlargement and pardon before they bee in Prison for Mercy before they smart under the sense of Misery Nor for a Christ till the soul do finde a necessity in the want of Christ Hence the Law is said to bee our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ And it is upon this ground among others because it doth discover sin to us and lash us and humble us for it And then wee are ready to go from Sinai to Sion from the Law of Moses accusing to the Gospel of Christ excusing from the Law condemning to the Gospel absolving 2. God doth discover to the soul the fulness and al-sufficiency of Christ Who is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him and Heb. 7.25 That there 's enough in him to justifie and save so vile a sinner as thou hast been Christ his Righteousness is an everlasting Righteousness such as an eternity of sinning is never able to expend and draw dry As our Faith can never out-grow the Righteousness of Christ so neither can our sins Rom. 1.17 It is said to bee A Righteousness revealed from Faith to Faith The more Faith not the less but the more Righteousness is revealed The broader the Eye of Faith the wider the Righteousness beheld As all the Faith in the World could never over-clasp the Righteousness of Christ So all the sins in the World are not able to non-plus or pose it As it cannot bee over-lookt or comprehended by any Faith So it cannot bee exhausted by any sins Both of these wee have set down Joh. 16.8 9 10. I will send the Spirit and hee shall convince the World of sin There is Humiliation Of Righteousness That is that there is A compleat and Al-sufficient Righteousness in mee That I am able to save to the utmost to pardon sin This God discovers Faith must have a bottom to rest on An Al-sufficient Saviour No man will throw his soul away 3. With the fulness God discovers the freeness of this Righteousness to all commers How willing God is to bestow Christ on you and how willing Christ is to bestow himself upon you Hence wee have such invitations Ho! Every one that thirsteth come yee to the Waters Isa 55.1 And Let him that is a thirst come Rev. 22.17 And Come to mee all yee that are weary and heavy laden Matth. 11.28 And Him that comes to mee I will by no means cast out Joh. 6.37 4. God stirs up the soul to pursue Christ with inlarged desires and earnest prayers kindles desires in the soul after him Oh! That God would bestow Christ on mee I see I am in misery I see I am a sinner Oh! That thou wouldest bestow Jesus Christ upon my poor soul As the poor pursued Hart doth pant after the Brooks of water So panteth such a soul after the Lord Jesus Now Christ upon any termes is desireable 5. Now God works the Grace of Faith in the soul whereby the soul doth draw nigh to Christ and throws it self into the arms of Christ embraceth him with all his might casts it self wholly on him for Life and Salvation Have you not seen how a tender Infant in the apprehension of danger runs into the arms of the Parent for succour so doth the soul pursued by the Law and affrighted by the apprehensions of Gods wrath flye into the bosome and armes of Christ for succour bespeaking him with all the termes of Love and Confidence My Lord My God My Hope My Fortress My Strength My Redeemer save mee else I perish Hide mee in the clefts of this Rock Pitty mee Succour mee Thou who art a Saviour Lord save mee Thou that art Mercy shew mee Mercy And here now begins the Life of a Christian though as yet hee feel little motion Strong is hee now in desiring though feeble in performing Resolved hee is by any means to stick to Christ yet not sensible of any union with him Hee admires the brightness of the Beams of his Mercy shining in the Gospel but feels little warmth of joy and comfort in his heart Hee hungers after the Word but feels little nourishment Here is the beginning of true Faith Now then would you know whether you have Faith try your selves Have you found that God hath thus wrought in you what hast thou been thus humbled in the sight and sense of sin deeply affected with the fulness and freeness of the Grace of God in Christ so as to raise up in thee those earnest longings and pantings after him so as thus to cast and venture thy soul upon him this useth to bee the manner and way of Gods working Faith in us by which wee may come to know whether this Faith bee wrought in us or no. 2. Some Evidences are taken from the Grace it self In which because Faith doth admit of degrees some having stronger Faith some weaker Though all of us have as it is in 2 Pet. 1.1 The like precious Faith the same Faith for kind yet all have not the same Faith for degrees In some it is strong in some it is weak Sincere in all All men are not of like age all Trees not of the like growth Wee read of a little Faith Oh yee of little Faith Faith though little Wee read of a great Faith Oh Woman great is thy Faith All Beleevers are not of the like stature in Christ Some are but Babes and some are grown men there 's a little Faith comparatively and there 's a great Faith Therefore lest I should unsure the weak in satisfying the strong I will here give you 1. Some Evidences of a weak Faith 2. Some Evidences of a strong Faith 1. The Evidences of true Faith though weak 1. The weakest Faith hath strong desires to close with Christ in the Termes of the Gospel Is willing to take Christ in the whole latitude and extent of Christ not only totum Christum but totum Christi Christ in all his Offices not only as a Priest but as a King to whom the soul is as willing to yeeld Subjection as to have Salvation from him as desirous to submit to his services as to injoy his Priviledges to do duty as to partake of his bounty to throw it self at the feet of Christ with strong desires though it may bee for the present but with weak assurance of Mercy from him Quest But who doth not thus desire Christ who is not willing to accept of Christ Answ It is impossible that any Unbeleeving man should desire Christ in the latitude and extent of Christ Hee may desire him for Salvation but not for Sanctification as a Priest but not as a King to rule and govern him to bring every thought into subjection to himself for happiness but not for holiness
seems to hide himself or withdraw himself from our souls withholding either his quickening or his comforting Spirit yet trust still You that walk in darknesse and see no light Trust in the Name of the Lord and rest upon your God Isa 50.10 Trust in God in the darkest night of Desertion cast anchor there as the Apostle did What though the soul were as dark as Hell yet God can make it as light as Heaven That God that caused light to shine out of darkness can also shine into our dark hearts What though there bee nothing within thee nothing without thee nothing round about thee to comfort thee yet there is something above thee Cast anchor in Heaven there 's an Almighty God to stay thy soul upon The Name of the Lord is a sufficient prop and rock to rest upon in any condition The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the Righteous flye to it and is exalted Prov. 18.10 or is in safety There 's safety in the Tower when all other sorts and Bulwarks are gone when Out-works are taken and Walls are scaled there is yet safety in the Tower So here when all Out-works are gone when all our Evidences seem to bee gone when nothing appears to comfort us yet the Name of the Lord is a strong Tower to flye to a rock to rest on whereupon being exalted wee are delivered from danger and set out of gun-shot Hence wee read the Name of the Lord opposed to all staies and props which Faith had to rest on Isa 50.10 Hee that walks in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God Here is such a bottom for Faith to rest upon that if Faith should fail All God would fail with it His Mercy His Truth His Wisdome His Power c. Let us then cast anchor here and wait till the time of refreshment come wait till all storms and clouds bee blown over Light is sown for the Righteous and joy for the upright in heart But wee must wait with the Husbandman with patience till the crop bee throughly ripe Thou must not look for clear day so soon as thou hast taken shelter nor a calm so soon as thou hast cast anchor but there thou must abide ride at anchor wait till the time of Refreshment shall come from the Lord. Godly security and apprehension of safety do not ever attend the act of Faith at the heels To trust is the act of Faith and apprehended security is the fruit of beleeving and therefore comes not till afterwards Here is thy comfort as was said before if thou diest whilst thou lyest at anchor having anchored on this rock thou dyest in the ship not in the Sea thou dyest in the Covenant and there is safety though the storm never cease Thy condition is safe and secure though thou do not yet apprehend the safety and security of it Never soul miscarried in a trusting way There is not one example in the Word no not one in the World where ever man trusted in God and was ashamed Psal 22.4 5. Our Fathers trusted in thee They trusted and were delivered God hath ingaged himself hee hath not only set the Sun and the Moon and Stars to pawn not only Heaven and Earth but even himself too Hee hath ingaged his Truth his Mercy his Promise his Wisdome and Power to save and keep them who trust in him All Heaven would sink if that soul that truly leans and trusts in God should miscarry 6. In case of outward Calamity not only Personal but National Other Nations God hath dealt withal as with Jerusalem Hee turned them upside down as a Dish and wiped them 2 King 21.13 Indeed wee have injoyed Peace and Plenty Peace with Plenty and Plenty with Peace How many ships deep laden with Mercy hath the stream of the Gospel brought to our shore But yet our sins may give us occasion to suspect the water heating for us Rods are preparing for us except wee return Would you then bee safe in the evil day Trust in the Lord. Hee that trusts in the Lord Mercy shall compass him about Psal 32.10 Hee shall bee begirt with Mercy Mercy shall imbrace him on every side As Faith doth compass Mercy so Mercy compasseth Faith As the Beleever imbraces Mercy so Mercy imbraces him Hee shall bee begirt with Mercy And not Mercy only but all Gods attributes are for him As whilst a man is an Unbeleever all God is against him All the Power of God the Wisdome of God the Justice of God is against him so if one bee a Beleever all is for him Faith makes all God ours his Mercy ours his Power his Justice c. As Jehoshaphat said to Ahab I am as thou art and my people as thy people 2 Chron. 18.3 So God to a beleeving soul all hee is or hath is for its use Faith doth initiate us into Covenant with God And there being a Covenant All God is for us Well then Let this exhort us all to bee resolute and peremptory in beleeving as Esther If I perish I perish in a beleeving way 3. Let this exhort us to grow up in Trust to grow to Perfection There is a Perfection 1. Of Nature 2. Of Degrees All Beleevers have the same Perfection of Faith for kind but all have not the same Perfection of degrees Well then You have that Perfection in the kind labour for this Perfection of degrees also Grow up from trust of Affiance to the trust of Assurance Let us not ever bee staggering and doubting but come to some grounded perswasion of Gods Love labour to bee rooted and grounded in love labour to work out all doubts and fears whereby wee dishonour God wrong our selves 1. Weakening our Faith 2. Hindring our growth 3. Disabling our selves to work 4. Discouraging our selves in our Christian way 5. Gratifying Satan And let us labour to grow up to higher measures in Beleeving Many incouragements might bee named 1. The more thou growest in Faith the more thou growest in the love and favour of God the more thou win'st his Love There is nothing in the World doth so much win Gods favour as a great degree of Faith Abraham was therefore called the friend of God And therefore though thou mayest bee saved with a less degree yet if thou wouldest grow more in Gods favour grow more in Faith 2. The more Faith the more Grace the more love of God the more Hope the more Patience the more Courage Obedience Repentance Humility Thou weak Christian if thou desirest more brokenness of heart for sin more love to God c. Why the way is to strengthen thy Faith 3. The more Faith the more spiritual Comfort the more Peace Joy and consolation These are the fruits of Faith 4. The more Faith the more strength to prevail with God in Prayer And therefore let this put you on to labour for the increase of Faith Grow from Faith to Faith In Temporals
will come whoever hath a mind let him come Bee his sins what they will bee for nature for number for continuance yet come and finde acceptance Who is a God like unto thee That pardonest iniquity and passest by the transgressions of the Remnant of thy heritage Thou reteinest not anger for ever for thou delightest to shew mercy Mic. 7.18 There are two things when men are humbled which keep them off from beleeving either 1. A doubt of Gods Power Lord if thou canst 2. A doubt of his Will Lord if thou wilt 1. Some doubt of his Power Oh! Is God able to pardon such a sinner as I have been Can hee pardon so great so bloudy so crimson sins If they were but such or such I should not doubt But being so great how can God pardon 2. Others doubt of his Will They will bee ready to say They know there is a fulness of Power in God hee is able to forgive my sins let them bee what they will bee hee hath a Sea of Mercy able to drown Mountains as well as Mole-hills But alas I doubt of his Will whether hee will shew mercy to such a sinner And therefore if ever you would beleeve you must get an heart convinced of the 1. Fulness and al-sufficiency of Christ to pardon 2. And of the freeness and willingness of Christ to shew mercy to such as do beleeve Dwell upon such considerations as these are being means to beget Faith When men are once convinced of the fulness of God they will come over to him if withall they bee fully convinced of their own need It is possible for a man to beleeve this fulness in Christ and yet not bee able to clear his acceptance Wee read of the Lepers who seeing nothing but death in their condition 2 King 7.3 4 resolved not to stay there but to go over to the Camp of the Assyrians If they save us alive say they wee shall live and if they kill us wee can but dye And there were many reasons which might cause them to expect no better but death from them 1. They were Jews and so their enemies 2. They might bee suspected for Spies 3. If not yet they were Lepers good for no service such as might infect the whole Camp Yet seeing their Misery in want of bread and knowing that there was bread to bee had they resolved to adventure So if there were but a through discovery 1. Of our own Misery a conviction of that 2. Of the fulness and all-sufficiency of Christ it were possible so far to prevail with a man as to throw himself on Christ though hee bee not yet able to clear whether God will ever accept him But when wee take that other consideration in and do think of the sweetness and freeness of Gods love and mercy to accept of poor returning sinners what should then hinder but the soul should come over and beleeve in him And therefore if ever thou wouldest have Faith cherish these thoughts dwell much upon such considerations as these Men say they would beleeve but in the mean time they never cherish such thoughts and considerations as may beget Faith If there bee any thing in the Word which makes against them this they will harbor and cherish they will feed upon the Wormwood and the Gall but if there bee any thing to nourish and cherish Faith this they will suppress They have an ear open to hear what the Law what sin what Satan saith but none to hear what God saith in the Promise They will promote the Devils cause his arguments sharpen his weapons against themselves But they will silence the pleadings of Gods Spirit in them They will look upon the dark side of the Cloud not the light side The threatnings of the Law they will apply and set on with all their might But if Promises come they finde no acceptance with them They will nourish considerations of their sins their guilt their misery by reason of sin and aggravate it to the utmost but the thoughts of Gods Love of the freeness of his Mercy of the promises of pardoning sins these they reject My Brethren This is not the way to get Faith If ever you would beleeve you must study the freeness of Gods Mercy in Christ his willingness to pardon and forgive poor sinners if they come over to him 2. The second means for the strengthening of Faith are these 1. Make use of the Ordinances 1. The Word 2. The Sacraments 3. Prayer 1. The Word Wee say The same way things are begotten the same way they are nourished Corpora naturalia eodem modo quo generantur nutriuntur Faith is begotten by the Word and Faith is nourished by the Word It is both the Begetter and the Nourisher both the Breeder and the Feeder of Faith Rom. 15.4 1 Joh. 4. 2. The Sacraments which were instituted and set up for this end to increase your Faith God knew hee had to deal with unbeleeving persons and therefore hee doth not only give the Promise his Covenant and Oath for the confirmation of us but to all these hee annexed his Seal the Sacraments Mountains upon Mountains to confirm us A man would not desire so much of any honest man as God hath here condiscended to for the confirmation of our Faith One would have thought his bare word had been enough considering the Truth and sufficiency of the Person that spake it But hee hath given his Oath Nay but hee rested not there but his Seal too The Sacraments And therefore make use of them 3. Bee much in Prayer that God would strengthen and increase thy Faith Prayer is the fuel of Faith the food of Faith A man may as well live without meat as Faith without Prayer As the soul lives by Faith so Faith lives by Prayer Faith helps Prayer and Prayer helps Faith again As there is a Communion among the Ordinances every Ordinance doth help another The Word helps Prayer and Prayer helps the Word So there 's a Communion between Ordinances and Graces Faith helps Prayer and Prayer helps Faith Prayer cannot say of Faith I have no need of thee nor Faith of Prayer What need have I of thee As there is a mutual dependence of one Christian on another a means to nourish Communion as Christians help one another One may say Help my Zeal and I will increase thy knowledge strengthen my Faith and I will inflame or kindle thy affections so here There is a mutual dependence between Faith and Prayer Faith saith to Prayer Help mee to beleeve and I will help thee to pray And Prayer to Faith Help mee to pray and I will help thee to beleeve Such a Communion there is And therefore bee much in prayer for strength 4. Live much in the Heaven of the Promise Feed upon the freeness and sweetness and fatness of the Promise Delight your selves in fatness Let your way lye much above live much out of your selves This is your way A man
shall never bee able to strengthen Faith that lives in himself 5. Walk in the Earth of the Law As Faith strengthens Obedience so Obedience strengthens Faith As Faith multiplies so let duty multiply The way to nourish the one is the way to increase the other 6. Make it your chief riches to bee rich in Faith And then all your designs and indeavours will bee for the increase of it The wordly man labours toils sweats here for the World And what is the reason but because hee makes this his riches so it is here 7. Exercise Faith much And this is the way to increase it Men that can imploy a greater measure of Faith shall have it Bee careful that the exercises of Faith may bee proportionable to the measure of Faith received It is the way to get it increased God will not have the stock lye dead in our hands Hee will not give more than wee can imploy The Talents were according to their several abilities Some had two some one some five When God sees a man of great layings out hee laies in moâ—e still Exercise Grace For within the compass of the exercise of Grace lies that which will nourish and increase Grace 8. Treasure up sound Evidences of Faith The stronger our Evidences the stronger our Faith And therefore store up sound Evidences One falshood among thy Evidences staggers thy Faith 9. Bee thankful for the measure thou already hast Thankfulness is a Grace big with Mercy Men are often injurious to the increase of Faith by unthankfulness for that measure they have Wee are too much like covetous men looking after further degrees so much as to overlook that which God hath already bestowed Our complaints would bee others contents others would bee glad of them Therefore let us get an heart inlarged for the measure wee have It is the way for God to inlarge his hand to bestow more upon us 10. Maintain Humility an humble spirit God gives Grace and hee gives increase of Grace to the humble Humility is the Nurse of Grace The empty heart shall bee filled Nature abhors emptiness Grace much more 11. Bee much in acquaintance with God Know more of his mind more of his heart Read him as hee hath discovered himself in the Word in his Christ 12. Gather and lay up Faith-strengthening-Experiences Keep a Catalogue of holy Experiences of Gods Love and goodness to thee All these are fuel to nourish and strengthen Faith And now having done with the Doctrin of Faith I must conclude with a Doctrin of works Wherein I shall desire your practice of it This upon occasion of a collection for the Poor as soon as I have done the preaching of it It is very orderly that works should follow Faith Your works of Charity our Doctrin of Faith The Papists do charge us that wee cry down works and preach nothing but Faith Faith making it Titulum sine Re. I hope it will bee seen at this time that preaching Faith Formalitèr I preach works Eminentèr And I could not possibly have taken up a better ground for works than to preach the Doctrin of Faith first Indeed wee preach Faith without works in Justificationem as touching Justification But wee say Faith and works must go together in our conversation As Faith doth Justifie our Persons so works do justifie our Faith And thus Abraham was justified by works his works declared him to bee just Good works are the breath of Faith as the word in James signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as the body without breath is dead so Faith without works is dead also Good works are the fruit of Faith the Children and Issue of Faith As Rachel said Give mee Children else I dye so Faith Give mee Children give mee works else I dye otherwise I have not a living but a dead Faith So you see wee set up works too though wee cry them down in the matter of Justification Are good works good for nothing because not good to justifie The Sun is not good to give light to blind men Is it therefore good for nothing Gold is not good to asswage hunger Is it therefore of no use Wee say works are necessary 1. In respect of God 2. In respect of our selves 3. In respect of others 1. In respect of God 1. To shew our Obedience 2. To glorifie his Name 3. To testifie our Thankfulness 4. To beautifie his Gospel 2. In respect of our selves 1. To make our Calling and Election sure 2. To declare our Sincerity 3. To procure Mercy 3. In respect of others 1. To refresh the Bowels of the Saints 2. For example of Vertue 3. To stop the mouthes of wicked men who would else take occasion to blaspheme the Gospel and speak evil of Profession 4. To winne others to gain enemies to the embracing of the Truth And therefore seeing good works are thus necessary bee you stirred up to so concerning a duty The Apostle saith Whiles you have opportunity to do good do good to all men Here is now an opportunity Take it God honours thee if hee give thee an heart to do such a good work Your Bounty is your Honour A TREATISE OF THE Slownesse of Heart TO BELEEVE BY SAMVEL BOLTON D. D. And MASTER of C.C.C. LONDON Printed by Robert Ibbitson for Thomas Parkhurst and are to be sold at his Shop over against the Great Conduit in Cheapside 1656. A TREATISE OF THE SLOWNESSE OF HEART TO BELEEVE JOHN 1.50 Jesus answered and said unto him because I said unto thee I saw thee under the Fig-tree beleevest thou thou shalt see greater things than these IN the latter part of this Chapter wee see that goodness is of a diffusive and spreading nature If thou bee good thou wilt desire and indeavour to make others good when Christ hath once revealed himself to any soul it will bee very studious to make him known to others So vers 35 36. you read that God having revealed Christ to John hee makes him known to his Disciples one of whom was Andrew vers 40. hee could not conâ—eal the good news but makes it known to his Brother Peter vers 41. Afterward Christ reveals himself to Philip vers 43. and upon it Philip makes him known to Nathaniel vers 45. so communicative and diffusive is goodness like the liquid Elements of Air and Water which cannot bee kept in their own bounds and limits From the forty fifth verse to the end of this Chapter there is contained a discourse 1. Between Philip and Nathaniel And then 2. Between Christ and Nathaniel The first between Philip and Nathaniel is from the 45. to the 47. verse where you have 1. Philips discovery of Christ to him vers 45. wee have found him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write 2. Nathaniels harsh entertainment of it vers 46. can any good thing come out c. 3. Philips care to resolve him and to take away this prejudice in the latter part of the 46. verse come
earth fainteth not neither is weary hee giveth power to the faint c. Do you doubt of his power why hee is the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth and hee can pardon c. What though thy sins bee great yet hee tells thee hee will abundantly pardon Isa 55.7 8 9. Let the wicked man forsake his wayes and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and hee will have mercy upon him and to our God for hee will abundantly pardon the word is multiply to pardon as thou hast to sin But you will say how can this bee this is far above the thoughts of a Creature Why but saith hee in the next verse My thoughts are not as your thoughts neither are your waies my wayes saith the Lord for as the Heavens are higher than the earth so are my wayes higher than your wayes and my thoughts than your thoughts But alas there are such and such conditions required Why but saith hee Ho! every one that thirsteth come Revel 22.17 Do you doubt of his will Why hee tells you It is not the will of your heavenly Father that any of these little ones should perish Matth. 18.14 You think it is but Christ saith it is not hee knows the thoughts hee thinks to thee they are thoughts of peace and not of evill c. Jer. 29.11 And how doth hee say As I live I do not delight in the death of him that dyes turn you turn you and live Oh why will yee dye Ezek. 18.31 32. And God would have all men saved by comming to the Knowledge c. 1 Tim. 2.4 Yea but this Covenant is not firm I may sin away mine own mercy See what God saith Isa 54.10 the Mountains shall depart and the hills shall bee removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my Peace bee removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee It is more firm than the Covenant of the day and night Jer. 33.20 21. can a Woman forget her sucking child that shee should not have compassion on the Son of her womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Isa 49.15 This with abundance such like Rhetorick God useth to draw a poor humbled doubting sinner to beleeve and why should God use such Rhetorick to perswade with men if it were so easy a matter as men make it to beleeve This shews the difficulty of Faith 4. If you consider the way that God takes to confirm the Covenant of mercy and pardon to Beleevers Hee gives you his Promise his Oath his Seal heaps Mountains upon Mountains and all to confirm it hee layes Heaven and Earth at stake nay hee pawns his Truth his very being and all to perswade with unbeleeving men to beleeve God needed not to do this in respect of himself his purpose was as good as his promise his Promise as good as his oath his oath as firm as his seal hee needed not to do this in respect of himself as if that his oath would binde him more than his promise But God hath done this in respect of us to strengthen our Faith that wee might bee stedfast in God when wee stagger in our selves that wee might bee strong in God when weak in our selves As the Apostle in Heb. 6.16 17 18. That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye c. God hath thus condescended to all this to beget Faith in unbeleevers that if his promise would not perswade with you then his oath if not that yet his seal The great Seal of Heaven You could not desire more of the most faithless and dishonest man in the World than God hath condescended to who is yet the faithfull and unchangeable God You have a Promise will not that do Vae nobis si nec juranti Deo tredimus you would have an Oath will not that do you have a Seal witness all And what doth all this but plainly demonstrate the greatness of the difficulty to beleeve Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciâ—ra Wee say it is in vain to do that by more which may bee as well done by lesse If Promise would have done it the Oath added had been in vain but shall wee think that any thing of this was in vain that wee cannot Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate And was all this then required would no lesse serve the turn Tell mee then whether this do not fully enough demonstrate the difficulty of Faith Thou that thinkest Faith so easy thou that never found the difficulty of it mayest well think thou hast no Faith In this God shews the difficulty of beleeving that his Promise his Oath c. are all ingaged to work and confirm it 5. If you consider the complaint of the Preacher You hear Isaiah complaining Isa 53.1 Who hath beleeved our report or our Doctrin as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may import And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And Christ complains of the same Joh. 12.37 38. Though hee had done so many miracles before them yet they beleeved not on him that the saying of the Prophet might bee fulfilled viz. who hath beleeved our report And Paul hee takes up the same complaint as you see at large Rom. 10.16 17 18 c. And wee our selves may take up the same complaint Wee have spent our strength in vain and our labour for nought Though wee have declared the wonderfull things of the Gospel the freeness vastness greatness of the love of Christ the preciousness of Promises yet men beleeve not Oh that I could not complain of those c how many offers of Christ have you had how many tenders of mercy How often hath Christ unbowel'd himself to your souls in the Promise how often hath God invited intreated beseeched called Hoe every one that thirsteth come But yet senselesse people do not thirst and thirsty people do not come c. Oh! here is enough to demonstrate that wee are slow of heart to beleeve 2. Wee come to the second What are the grounds c. And wee will reduce them to these three general heads 1. There are some grounds from Satan 2. Some from our selves 3. Some which are taken from others which do foreslow the heart from beleeving in the Promise You must know I speak of men awakened and convinced of their miserable condition not such as go on with a high hand in their sins I speak of men humbled 1. Then the reasons or grounds why wee are so slow c. From Satan are the delusions and false suggestions of Satan You must know there are two main stratagems which hold up Satans Kingdome in the World 1. Is to keep presumptuous sinners from being humbled 2. The other is to keep humbled sinners from beleeving The first of these is by keeping of presumptuous sinners from being
humbled which hee doth these wayes 1. Either by perswading them they are no sins they live in and here hee tells the Prodigall hee is but liberal the drunkard hee is but sociable the covetous person hee is but frugal the proud person hee is but comely and handsome c. wee say nullam vitium sine patrocinio Sauls Covetousness in sparing the best of the flock t was his devotion 't was his zeal to Sacrifice the Pharisees Covetousness had an act of devotion to patronize or set it off with So Jezabel paints her face to make it seem comely 2. Or else if hee cannot perswade them to that that they are no sins but conscience is inlightened and quickned and checks him for them hee cannot stand against his own light nor under his own reproofs Then hee perswades them they are but veniall and small sins or if great yet pardonable nay and that at any time as the Theef upon the Cross what sayes hee God is mercifull and if but at the last thou canst say God bee mercifull to mee Lord have mercy upon mee why then all is well there is no doubt of mercy And because men are better versed in the Service-book than in the Scripture perhaps hee will cite a Text out there At what time soever a sinner c. This is the first stratagem to keep presumptuous sinners from being humbled And if hee prevail not then but that notwithstanding all these good words a soul is convinced of sin and humbled for it then hee hath a second 2. A second Stratagem and that is to keep humbled sinners from beleeving and that hee doth these wayes 1. Hee labours to have them despair of a pardon and that upon one of these two grounds 1. Hee will now tell you either that your sins are greater than can bee pardoned As Cain Gen. 4.13 So it is in the Original my sins are greater than can bee pardoned Hee will so aggravate mens sins and heighten mens trespasses and so lessen and streighten Gods mercy that hee will indeavour to perswade their sins are above a pardon they are greater than Gods mercie to pardon and that is the first way which hee deals with ignorant consciences in trouble 2. Or if hee cannot perswade in that then hee hath another way to bring men to despair and that is from the will of God Why will hee say though thy sins are not greater than God can pardon yet they are greater than God will pardon hee will never bee mercifull to such a wretch as thou hast been dost thou think God will ever shew mercy to such a vile sinner as thou hast been what one who hath sinned against such a light such means such mercies and committed so horrible sins and continued in them And thus hee aggravates sin As before hee lessened sin all hee could to keep men from being humbled so now hee aggravates sin all hee can to keep men from beleeving As before hee inlarged Gods mercy above the bounds of the Law now hee inlargeth Gods Justice above the bounds of the Gospel Before hee presented to you Gods mercy in a false glass to make you presume And now hee presents Gods Justice to you in a false glass to make you despair And indeed of the two hee is better able to set out Gods Justice than his Mercy because hee feels the one and knows what it is but hee shall never taste of the other hee can therefore better present Gods Justice as it is than Gods Mercy as it is 2. Or if hee cannot bring men to despair upon these grounds yet another stratagem hee hath to keep men from beleeving 3. And that is thirdly by telling them they are not disposed and fitted for mercy you are not broken for sin you do not love God c. And in this stratagem hee labours to hinder us by telling us wee want such dispositions as follow beleeving more than such as go before Faith yet hee oftentimes useth the other and tells men they are not humbled enough not broken enough before they were humbled then any thing would serve the turn to dispose and fit them for Mercy and now they are humbled hee tells them they are never humbled enough Before a sigh in a good mood was enough to qualifie them for Mercy and the Promise Now sighs groans tears daily breakings under the burthen of sin is all nothing all is too little Indeed hee fain would have thee to lye in Hell and stay there or if hee doth not object against thy soul the want of humiliation Why then hee will tell thee thou wants Faith if thou had'st Faith then thou might go over to the promise but thou wants Faith and what doth hee mean by that why that is thou wants assurance hee would put men to assurance before they do beleeve hee would put them to the evidence Christ is their Saviour before hee suffer them to rest upon Christ as a Saviour Or if not this yet hee will tell thee thou want'st such and such dispositions before thou can beleeve hee would fain have men either to bring something of their own to the Promise or hee would have men to expect these things before they go to the Promise when indeed these things follow upon the souls closing with the Promise Thus doth Satan keep many poor souls in a hoodwinkt condition and hinders them from going over to Christ and the Promise And that is the first 2. The second ground why men are so slow to beleeve and that is taken from themselves 1. It doth arise from their ignorance they know not the tenor of the Covenant the tearms of Mercy Men brought out of a sinfull condition once awakened to see their sins can think of nothing but working themselves to life licking themselves whole therefore they fall upon prayers duties as I have sometimes told you as so many bribes for a pardon as so many pennies laid out for the purchase of Mercy Wee run naturally to the Covenant of works but wee must bee drawn before wee can go to the Covenant of Grace No man can come except c. Joh. 6.44 A convinced man runs to the Covenant of works but hee must bee a converted man that goes truly to the Covenant of Grace 2. It doth arise from our pride often that wee will not take Mercy gratis wee will not deny our selves and close with Mercy as God tenders it You have a strange phrase in Rom 10.3 they would not submit to the Righteousness of Faith here are proud hearts indeed that it should bee matter of submission for a condemned man to take a pardon a wounded man to take a plaister a sick man a cordiall a naked man cloathing a lost sinner a Saviour One would think this is strange that it should bee a matter of submission to accept of the Righteousness of Christ to bee saved But wee like well of the Spiders motto mihi solo debeo I owe all to my self and would
matter of conscience not to beleeve they ought not to beleeve should such sinful creatures such vile wretches so polluted c. Should they beleeve this were to presume to sin against Gods Justice in the closes with his Mercy this were to give holy things to dogs c. Satan presents sin And some there are so witty as to object against all that can be brought as if they took a pride to argue themselves into a condition of misery setting the pride of their own carnal reasonings against the riches and freeness of the mercy of God if you bring a promise to them when cast down for sin and indeavour to fasten a promise on them they can tell you that this is not the meaning of the Promise or certainly this Promise doth not belong to mee Alas will they say all this is but lost labour you might as well caâ—â—y a cordial to a dead man as bring a Promise to them it is a â—â—uâ—tless thing if upon examination wee shall discover some spots oâ— a Child in them some undoubted evidences of one whom God â—peaks mercy unto Yet they will tell you all these are false all â—â—â—se are in Hypocrisy It s true if these things were in truth 〈◊〉 I could then conceive some hopes of mercy but I know â—â—ey are all in Hypocrisie they are all unsound and counterfeit c. Ergo no Mercy Thus doth many a poor soul take pains to reason himself into misery and side with Satan and take part with the corruptions and unbeleevings of his own heart against himself And what will bee the end of it sure it will breed bitterness in the latter end for the present it is thy sin and for the future it will bee thy misery either it will cause God to withdraw himself from thee as hee tells them Deut. 32.20 Or cause thee to withdraw thy self from God As the Apostle speaketh Heb. 3.12 Take heed least there bee in you an evil heart of Unbeleef in departing from the living God Hee that withdraws himself from the Promise cannot long keep close to the Precept hee that keeps at a distance from Mercy will not long walk in the wayes of duty When the workings of natural conscience are done when fears are allayed when troubles are blown over then will all service bee done too if not yet the continuance of troubles and fears will make you cast of all and say there is no hope or will discourage your hearts in your walking that your life will bee little better than a martyrdome with continual racks and troubles It was before thy sin not to beleeve but now it will bee thy misery before thou wouldest not now thou canst not Thou soughtest arguments before to keep thee off from the Promise and thou wilt now seek as many arguments against such arguments which might bring thee over to the Promise And this miserable unbeleef is the fruit of sinful unbeleef This disability to come to the Promise is the punishment of thy former slowness to come to the Promise And this temper you shall see in many who have reasoned themselves down do finde it now a harder work to reason themselves up again Who have put themselves into a greater incapacity to close with the Promise by those wayes which they have thought to bee helpful to them It is easier to give entertainment to carnal reasonings to the suggestions of Satan and the objections of our own fleshy hearts than to get rid of them again Many have given willing entertainment to these at first who would more gladly bee rid of them afterward if they could But the continuance of them is a fruit of your entertainment of them If you will entertain doubts and fears and set up your own carnâ—l reasonings against the Promise then you shall have doubts and feaâ—s and caâ—nâ—l reasonings when you would not to keep you from the Promise As God said in another case Hos 8.11 Because you have made many Altars to sin thâ—râ—fore Altars shall bee unto you to sin So here because you have set up your carnal reasonings and your unbeleeving thoughts against the Promise to hinder you from closing with the Promise therefore carnal reasonings c. shall bee a hinderance c. Thus is miserable Unbeleef a fruit of sinful Unbeleef which the more miserable the lesse sinful the more seen the more sorrowed for the more lamented and mourned for the lesse sinful while it was your sin it was not seen it was not sorrowed for and now it is c. and the more misery the lesse your sin in Gods account Carnal reasonings were before your pride now your grief you sought them before you would bee rid of them now they were your delight before now they are your trouble your misery which is something But they had not now continued to bee your misery if they had not before been entertained as your sin c. This is the fruit of slowness of heart to beleeve Use 2. Is of Exhortation If so then three things 1. Bee convinced of the greatness of the sin 2. Bee humbled for it 3. Bee quickened to beleeve 1. Bee yee convinced of the greatnesse of the sin it is a sin whereby you wrong God gratifie Satan wrong your own souls 1. You wrong God in it you obscure his glory you limit his power you contemn his wisdome you give a lye to his truth you abuse his love you sleight and reject all the precious and peerlesse thoughts of his Mercy and Grace I told you not long since that God was more severe against Unbeleef than any sin because Unbeleef was most severe to God No sin was more cruel to God God hath no greater enemy in the World than Unbeleef It is an enemy to whatever is most dear and precious unto God Therefore is hee such an enemy to Unbeleef if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 2. You gratifie Satan I beleeve thou wouldst not willingly if thou knew it gratifie Satan for a World I tell thee in thy standing off thou dost not only gratifie him but thou canst do Satan no greater a pleasure no greater a courtesy in the World In this Satan hath all his desire of thee that which hee desires is to make void all the great things of God that which hee desires is to make the death of Christ in vain to make the bloud of Christ to bee shed in vain to make the great counsel of God the great things of his wisdome and mercy to no purpose in the World And by this standing off thou dost what lyes in thee to answer his desire and therefore this must needs glad him Besides Satan knows full well if hee do not wound thy Faith thy Faith will wound him break the head of the Serpent and therefore it is that which hee laboureth after in all his temptations if hee cannot keep thee from beleeving yet to wound and weaken thy Faith that thou
mayest not wound him If hee cannot make thee his friend yet if hee can weaken his adversary If hee cannot take away thy weapon yet if hee can weaken thy arm or blunt thy weapon hee is content If hee cannot destroy thy Faith yet if hee can weaken thy Faith if not hurt thy Faith yet if hee can keep thy Faith from hurting him by weakening of it for every act of Faith wounds Satan bindes him in chains c. And therefore if hee can prevail to keep thee from beleeving or if hee can weaken and wound thy Faith hee is well contented this gratifieth him What can gratifie him more than to make a Pageant of all the great things of God than to make all these great things like a dream What can gratifie him more than to keep thy soul at a distance from Christ and the Promise what can pleasure him more than to make a soul look upon God as a God of terror and wrath What more than to keep the soul upon racks upon fears discouragements and disquiets this is some of his own spirit of darkness Nay what can gratifie him more than to keep a soul in a dead unserviceable condition make a man unfit to live unfit to dye unfit for any service to God and man Why all this doth Satan do if hee can but prevail to keep thy soul from Christ at distance from the Promise as I could shew you at large c. The way Satan doth it is by setting out sin Though I would bee willing to see sin yet I am not willing to see sin in the Devils glass I am not willing to see sin when Satan discovers sin Satan hath two glasses wherein hee discovers sin 1. Hee hath a lessening or extenuating glass wherein hee discovers sin to wicked men which makes them appear less than they are great sins small sins infirmities and lesser sins to bee no sins 2. And Satan hath a multiplying or magnifying glass wherein hee discovers sin to them when cast down and extends it not only above the greatness of sin but of mercy also As I would have my eyes broad and open to see sin when God discovers it So I would shut mine eyes when Satan discovers sin Quest But how shall I know when God and when Satan discovers sin 1. When God discovers sin hee keeps up the apprehensions of mercy above the greatness of sin But when Satan discovers sin hee heightens sin above the riches of mercy As you see in Cain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my sin is greater than can bee pardoned 2. When God discovers sin he doth not bleere but rather clear the eye of Faith to the beholding of Christ hee makes the soul fitter to see Christ doth not hinder but helpeth the soul in sight of Christ But when Satan discovers sin hee doth ever bleer and blinde the eye of Faith from the beholding of Mercy either hee discovers the malady and conceals the remedy or hee holds the eye of Faith that it cannot look upon Christ for mercy Hee puts the soul into a present incapacity to look up to God for mercy hee stings but holds not up the brazen Serpent 3. When God discovers sin it is to drive us out of our selves and to draw us unto Christ and the Promise makes the Law a Schoolmaster c. Gal. 3.24 but Satans discoveries of sin sets us further off from Christ 4. When God discovers sin it is to make the soul more in love with Christ to prize Christ more to advance him more to love him and desire him more It is such a discovery that makes the soul to run to the remedy But when Satan discovers sin it is to make us more affraid of Christ to flye from Christ as Adam never the more to desire him 5. When God discovers sin hee humbles the soul under the sight of it hee makes a man to abhor himself makes sin hatefull to him But when Satan discovers sin it is to discourage us not to humble us hee may make sin fearful but never makes it hateful Besides as you may know by the manner and the end of the discovery whether Gods or no. So by the time and temper wee are in Satan discovers sin when hee hath gotten the soul at an advantage he comes upon us as Simeon upon the Shechemites when they were sore Gen. 34. when hee hath gotten the hill and the wind on us when wee are in some sad condition when in temptation when in darkness when in some distresses when wee are drawn from our succours It is a passage of one that Satan when hee discovers sin and so hee openeth our wound hee gets us into the wilderness into the cold from our friends succours c. But when the Spirit of God openeth our wounds it is by the fire friends about us cordials near us c. But I think the difference is rather to bee taken from the manner of the discovery than from the end and effects of it Well then that is a sinfull looking on sin 1. Which heightened sin above the riches of mercy 2. Which bleereth and blindeth the eye of Faith from beholding Christ and the Promise 3. Which sets the soul at a farther distance from Christ 4. Which makes the soul affraid of Christ 5. Which discourageth the soul under sight of it And hee that thus looks upon sin in Satans glass no marvel if hee bee slow to beleeve and to come over to the Promise 7. When Satan discovers sin hee rather makes a malady than discovers a malady never discovereth one wound but makes another never discovereth a sin but takes a course that that discovery shall bee sinfull 3. Thirdly as you wrong God and gratifie Satan so you injure your own souls 1. You rob your selves of comfort and keep your selves in unnecessary racks and troubles and bondage And this is a great evil Nature cannot subsist without comfort comfort is to the soul what the soul is to the body a man cannot live without it and it puts grace to it too though for a time Grace may live and act strongly in the want of comfort yet when troubles continue and a man walks long without comfort it will put Grace to it to the utmost to subsist Oh what abundance of comfort what floods of consolation what peace what joy dost thou rob thy self of in thy standing off 2. You hinder your souls of Grace Quantum credimus tantum amamus Grace keeps a proportion with Faith So much Faith so much Grace c. keep down Faith and all Grace is kept down and where Faith stirs all the wheels move it s the spring of motion the Master-wheel Faith is the stomack which receives all for the nourishment of the whole As all the members depend upon the stomack so all the Graces upon Faith It is a Mediatour to our Mediatour it fetcheth in provision to the soul all depends upon it If Grace be weak Faith goes over to Christ
to perswade 1. Consider God commands thee to beleeve 2. Consider thou can do God no greater pleasure than to come in and beleeve 1. Consider God commands thee to beleeve 1 Joh. 3.23 This is his Commandement that wee should beleeve on the name of his Son Jesus Christ And what can thy heart now reason against this will not this bee enough to answer all thy fears and scruples to beat down all that thy unbeleeving heart can say against the Promise Why God doth not only invite thee but hee commands thee to beleeve Gods command is a sufficient warrant to beleeve and will bee sufficient security to all them that do beleeve 1. I say it is a sufficient warrant to beleeve Men may command things and tell us that our obedience to them shall bee sufficient warrant to us and yet they may want power enough to secure us in our obedience to them but it is not so with God his command will be a warrant sufficient to carry out any soul in his obedience to him Doth Satan say wherefore dost thou beleeve thou art a Reprobate thou art a cast away thou hast no right to the Promise but thou must say then thou art a Creature and God commands thee to beleeve and in obedience to Gods command though thou sees nothing but death for the present yet thou wilt beleeve Doth bee say thou hast no right to a Promise not any title to Mercy yet mayest thou say thou art bound to the Precept though I cannot clear my right to the Promise yet I am sure I am to obey the Precept I am bound to the obedience of the command and God commands mee to beleeve Yea and thou may say thus much if I am bound to beleeve as I am then I may bee able by my beleeving to clear my interest in the Promise Thou mayest tell him here is a command for thee none then for him hee is out of hope It is an infinite mercy to stand under the command of beleeving the Devils do not the damned do not thou doest which is infinite mercy 2. As Gods command is a sufficient warrant to beleeve so it is sufficient security if wee do beleeve there was never a soul that perished in a way of obedience in a way of beleeving Doth Satan say thou mayest venture thy soul if thou wilt but thou dost but cast away thy soul for thou shalt never bee saved God will never own thee Thou mayest say again Gods command is a sufficient warrant for thee to beleeve men may fail us and bee men but God cannot fail us and bee God But put it to the worst though thou do not know whether thou shalt bee saved yet this thou knowest that God commands thee to beleeve Well then bee peremptory and resolve in beleeving say if I dye I will dye in a way of beleeving in a way of obedience to the command not in a way of disobedience to it This I know if I beleeve not I must perish hee that beleeveth not is condemned but if I do beleeve if I do go on in a way of obedience who knows whether God will bee mercifull nay who knows not but that hee will I must tell you this resolution will put the Devil to it hee knows not what to say to such a man nay and it puts God to it too for God cannot reject him who will yet go on to serve him though hee should never own him 2. Consider you can do God no greater pleasure than to come in and beleeve Thou honourest all-God as I shall shew thee in the second Doctrin It is a great deal of ease and pleasure for a full and pained breast to bee sucked the breast of Mercy and Promise is full yea and in pain too and thou shalt do God let mee speak after the manner of men the greatest pleasure thou canst do to come and suck Joh. 6.28 when the people asked what shall wee do that wee may work the works of God Mark then how Christ answers why this is the work of God that you beleeve in him As if hee had said would you do that which would content God would you do that which pleaseth him why this is that which doth wonderfully content God this is that doth admirably please God to beleeve I tell thee by this thou makest God amends for all the wrong thou hast done him all thy life Nothing else will if thou shouldest go about to redeem every oath with an age of precizeness and exactness every idle word and action with an eternity of praises and tears all thy exactions and injustice with a treasury of alms all this were nothing to the making of God amends But here do but come over to the Promise do but close with Christ and thou makest God amends for all God will bee fully satisfied not with thy Faith but with Christ not with thy beleeving but with Christ whom thy Faith holds up Nay not only satisfied but ipse tibi velim debitor I would not only bee satisfied but I would bee thy debtor to give thee eternal life Oh then that you who are slow of heart to beleeve that you would now come in Close with Christ and then thou mayest set Christ against all that the Law Justice Sin Hell Satan can say against thee You see the Apostle did so who is hee that condemneth it is Christ that dyed Hee makes a challenge of all sets the death of Christ against whatever can bee brought so mayest thou Let us weild this weapon c. 1. Doth Satan say thou hast sinned Why but may the soul say I have closed with him who hath suffered for sin what can my debt of sin bee that the payment of his sufferings hath not fully answered 2. Doth hee say thou hast sinned against the great God of Heaven yea but thou mayest say I have an interest in him whose Righteousness is the Righteousness of the great God of Heaven Jehovah our Righteousness and that is able to suffice for that 3. Doth hee say the glory of the great God is debased by thy sinning Why but thou mayest say will not the emptying of his glory who is the brightness of his Fathers glory answer for that 4. Doth hee say thou hast sinned against knowledge Why but thou mayest say all that Christ did and all hee suffered hee did with knowledge Joh. 18.4 Jesus knowing all things c. 5. Doth hee say thou hast sinned with delight Why but thou mayest say Christ hath suffered with greater delight than I have sinned Hee delighted to do the will of God and this was the will of his Father that hee should give his life for mee Joh. 6. Luk. 12.50 And it was said of him that hee was straitned till the hour came as men that delight in a work which they long to bee upon 6. Doth hee say thy sins lye in thy spirit Yea but thou mayest say the chiefest part of his suffering did lye in
it is sufficient to evidence a mans sincerity Indeed if a man had a Male in his flock and should offer to the Lord a female If â—â—ee had a better and should give God a worse If hee had strength and yet served the Lord with weakness this would declare the heart to bee unsound But when a mans strength is in the work though that strength bee but weakness yet it will evidence the sincerity of the heart And there is no reason that you should look upon those Prayers as cast as lost Prayers where your strength is in them When thou hast been with God and performed a duty although but weakly many imperfections in it much unbeleef much hardness much deadness and coldness yet if your strength have been in the duty you may rise up without confusion and shame upon this ground your strength hath been in it your heart doth not condemn you you are able to clear this to your spirit your strength hath been in the work But now such are here condemned and cast who have a Male in their flock and offer to the Lord a Female God curseth such Cursed c. Mal. 1.14 When you have strength and serve God with weakness when you will turn off God with your cold your lazy sleepy and formal devotions and will not take any pains with your own hearts in these holy works This discovers your spirits to bee unsound and false to God 2. Character Where the heart is sincere in Prayer there is no rest or content to the soul till the heart bee wrought into the work A sincere heart in Prayer is an heart-sincerity in Prayer not a tongue in Prayer not an head in Prayer but an heart in Prayer Prayer is not lip-work or head work but heart work And where the heart is sincere hee is not content till the heart bee in the work Hee is not content to bee down on his knees if his heart bee not up To have an hand in the work if his heart bee not also in it A sincere heart labours to get his heart into the work Hee prayes in prayer Jam. 5.17 There is an affective collation with the duty If hee confesseth sins hee desireth to get affections sutable to the confession of sin An heart wounded and broken under the sight and sense of sin If hee prayes for pardon hee labours to get an heart apprehensive of the want and also of the worth of mercy and seeks a mercy as a condemned man a pardon If hee pray for Grace or the subduing of lusts still hee labours to get an heart sutable to the things hee wants and that which hee doth desire It was the speech of Bradford that hee would never leave a duty till hee had brought his heart into the frame of the duty Hee would not leave confession of sin till his heart was broken for sin Hee would not leave petitioning for Grace till his heart was quickened in desire He would not leave gratulation till his heart was inlarged with the sense of the mercies he enjoyed and quickned in the return of praise But now an unsound heart if hee can but post over a duty If but say his prayers though hee have never laboured to get his heart into them yet he is well enough This is to draw neer with our lips when yet our hearts are far from God This is to offer God a bulk and carkass of duty without the life and spirit of duty and so it is abominable to God A body without a soul stinks so here your Confessions of sins are Commissions of sins Iterations of sins when your hearts are not sensible and affected with sinnes you confesse Hee that remembers sinne with delight doth commit the sinne again He that remembers sin without sorrow doth but revive his former guilt hee removes it not A man may displease a man as much with the Confession of a fault as in the Commission of the fault If a man had offended you and should come in a sleight way to confess his fault you would be more offended at him for his confession than for his fault So when you shall come before God and confess your sins without any compunction for your sinnes without any sense of sin or sorrow for it you do aggravate your sins and increase guilt instead of removing guilt from your souls An hard heart and a dry eye in the confession of sin is an aggravation of your sins 3. Character An heart sincere in Prayer doth thirst after Communion with God in Prayer If a duty leaves the soul on this side God unlesse it have carried the soul over to God and brought a man to some further Communion with him with his mercy his love his grace his Spirit the soul is not content with duty Others they make duty the end of duty prayer the end of prayer And therefore if they can but rid their hands of a duty though they had no communion with God in it yet they are well enough But now a sincere heart hee looks above a duty hee looks upon duty but as a bridge to convey him over to God as a means to bring God and his soul into neerer communion and if yee have not seen God and found God in a duty if his spirit hath not conversed with God as a Father as a friend as a child with his father as a man with his friend he hath no content in duty Obj. But you will say how shall a man know when he hath Communion with God in duty Answ For the answer of this I must first tell you that there is a great mistake among men and women of a tender spirit about this point that they think they have no communion with God unles they have met with God in an heart-chearing and an heart-comforting way when God comes in with joy with comfort with chearings and inlargements Then they are willing to grant you they have had communion with God But if God have come in in an heart breaking humbling and casting down their souls in the sight and sence of their sinnes and imperfections They do not think they have Communion with God And therefore I must tell you first in the general That you may have Communion with God as well in an heart humbling as an heart reviving an heart Comforting way In the life to come in heaven all our Communion with God is with Comfort with fulness of joy At his right hand is fulnesse c. Psal 16.11 with thee there is a fountain of joy Then all tears shall bee wiped away from our eyes But in this life on earth we have mixed communion and have communion with God as well in humblings as in comfortings You go upon a duty and you think to meet God one way and hee comes in another way Sometimes you expect God in a comforting and God comes in in a quickning way Sometimes thou expects God in an heart breaking way and God comes in in a comforting
way As the wind sometimes it blows up rain sometimes it blows away rain So the Spirit of God which bloweth where and when and how it listeth sometimes blows up rain comes into the soul in an heart humbling and breaking way And sometimes it blows away rain and comes into the soul in a cheering and heart comforting way In both these the soul hath communion with God in joys and tears in mournings as well as comfortings And that in the general to answer the mistake of weaker Christians Quest And now to the answer of the question How a man shall know when he hath had communion with God in a duty 1 I Answer 1 In general then thou meetest with God and hast communion with God in duty when God hath inabled thee to act grace in a duty An unregenerate man may act parts and gifts in a duty but he cannot act grace hee hath none to act If then God do inable thee to act grace in a duty to act thy faith to close with promises to act thy repentance for sinne to act love to God All or any of these graces thy soul hath then communion with God in duty 2 Again When the performance of a duty doth lead the soul in better frame a more humble frame or in a more watchful frame when the heart is more quickned or more broken When the heart is farther set against sin more resolved to walk with God and obey him when the frame of a mans spirit is changed or bettered in any of these ways it is a sign that thou hast had communion with God in duty though God hath not come in with fulness of comfort with chearings or joys In this life most of our communion lyes in quickning grace In the life to come our communion is risen up to full comfort our life then is all joy And so much shall serve for the third Character and the answer to the Objection 4. Character A heart sincere in Prayer doth rise up praying from Prayer hee goes away with the affections of and affections to prayer after the Prayer is done The Duties of an unsound heart they come but from a cistern his devotion is a stinted devotion When the Prayer is done his affections are done also the water is all run out his affections are then done also perhaps before But the Duties of a godly man they arise from a spring a fountain and his heart is not runne out with his Prayer hee hath affections of Prayer when the Prayer is done hee riseth up praying from Prayer The much hee hath done is but a little of that which his soul desires to do An unsound mans actions are as big as his heart perhaps larger but for a sincere spirit the heart is still bigger then the action all he doth is but a little of that hee desires to do I say where there is sincerity there is a desire of more all is but a little of that abundance that is in his heart When hee hath mourned for sinne hee wisheth still he could mourn more Hee hath an affection of sorrow within him larger than any expression of sorrow hee can shew So you see David Rivers of tears runne down mine eyes because men keep not thy law Not that David had so much moisture within him as to swell a river poor man hee had not so much moisture in him but he had such an affection of sorrow that if hee had had as many tears as would have swelled a River made a Sea they should all have been laid out for sin And indeed if a man had wept a sea of tears and his affections of mourning did end with his expressions of sorrow hee had not yet wept at all nor shed one true tear of godly sorrow for sin So again when hee hath prayed still his heart is above his action and hee riseth up praying from prayer with a praying spirit affections when the Prayer is done This was that which made Christ commend the poor Widdows charity shee gave but two mites and yet hee saith shee had given more than all the rest Her heart was bigger than her action her affections than her expressions of charity Others they gave but their purses were larger than their hearts they emptied their hearts but not their purses Shee her heart was bigger than her purse shee emptied her purse but not her heart thus shee gave more So this is the fourth a sincere heart is larger than his duty hee riseth up praying from Prayer all hee doth is but a little of that hee desires to do but a little of that abundance that is in his heart Others their actions are as large nay larger than their hearts they have little heart to the duty and their heart is gone hath done before the duty bee done A wicked man doth sin out of the abundance of his heart as Christ saith out of the abundance of the heart come c. Mat. 12.34 Hee is never weary of sinning hee hath a fountain for that but though hee sin out of the abundance of his heart yet hee doth not pray out of the abundance of his heart his heart â—s done before his Prayer is done if not they end together Well think of it hee who yet hath not this Principle which I speak of hath not yet a Gospel Principle though hee do neveâ— so much hee is not yet under the conditions of Grace and Mercy These are the lowest terms of the Gospel 5. Character A heart sincere in Prayer doth eye it self in Prayer it is a heart that diligently observes it self in the duty views all the workings of the soul and takes notice of all the imperfections of the spirit in duty As to gather comfort and praise God if right so to bee humbled and afflicted if amiss And indeed our sincerity is as much discovered in lamenting the imperfections of a work as in the most perfect performance of it Where then the heart is sincere the soul takes notice of the imperfections that do accompany it and when the duty is done falls a lamenting the imperfections of its Faith of its sorrows the deadness of its desires Ah! it now laments that hee hath beheld so much sin with no more sorrow looked upon so many abominations with no more mourning That hee hath had no more Faith to close with the Promises of pardon of Grace of purging That hee hath had so barren so shallow so sleight thoughts of Gods love That hee hath been so cold in his affections again towards God That he hath had so sleight conceptions of sin and no more sorrow for it That his heart hath been no more affected with the miseries of others nor no more inlarged to seek God for them That there hath been so much earth in Heaven so many carnal thoughts so much distractions in his spiritual imploiment Ah! my Brethren a good heart sits down when duty is done and goes and mourns over all his Prayers weeps over all
the world Thou wouldest think it no mercy if God should grant thee what thou prayest for Thou prayest for Faith but wouldest thou have it no such matter why faith purifies the heart faith sanctifies the soul it will not suffer one corruption one lust to bee in thy heart and now dost thou desire faith no such matter Assure your selves if at any time you desire grace it is not grace under a right notion of grace It is not grace in the extent of grace nor grace in the power of grace It is again not a spiritual but a naturall desire of grace thou desires it but in some present distresse it may be when thou lyest on thy death bed and seest there is no comming to heaven without it Thou cannot desire it for it self 2 Thou prayest for the subduing of thy lusts 2 In desire â—â— Power against lust and corruptions but dost thou desire what thou praiest for wouldst thou think it if God should answer thee to be a mercy I am confident that till thy heart bee changed thou wouldst think the answer of such a request no mercy Would the Drunkard think it a mercy to bee rid of his cups The Covetous man would hee think it a mercy to be rid of his Mammon of unrighteousnesse No there is no such matter I dare be bold to say there is not that lust which a wicked man would think it a mercy to be rid of Alas Thou dost not desire to be rid of thy lusts thou canst not live without them thou canst not subsist without them when thou dost pray against them thou dost but dissemble with God there is no such matter thou dost not desire it If at any time thou dost desire it it is when thou hast done with it or it is in a storm only and then not because thou hatest it Non sub inâ—uitu mali sed minoris boni but because thou darest not keep it as you know the Merchant casts away his goods not because hee judgeth them evil in themselves but because if hee keeps them he cannot preserve a greater good his life Hee doth not part with them out of hatred to them for he even throws over his heart with them but because hee sees the keeping of them cannot stand with his present safety for after the storm and danger is over hee would bee glad to get them again if he could There are many who thus part with their sinnes as the Merchant with his wares only in a storm when they lye on their sick beds or under some wrack of Conscience for fear of hell or as Jacob parted with Benjamin because otherwise hee should starve necessity drove him to it or as Phaltiel parted with Michal because otherwise hee should loose his head hee did not part with her out of hatred but out of fear the King sent for her and if hee had detained her it might have cost him his head therefore out of fear hee parted with her though hee wept after her 3 In desire of heaven Extrema Christianorum desiderantur quamvis non Exordia 3 You Pray for heaven and one would think you did desire this wee say the end of a Christian is desirable though not the beginning the rest though not the labour you see Balaam hee wished hee might dye the death of the righteous though he had no heart to live their lives So that one would think they did desire heaven But indeed as long as thy heart is corrupt and unregenerate thou dost not desire heaven if thou knowest what heaven is If a man should ask thee thou who sayest thou desirest heaven what dost thou think heaven is it would I think pose thee But it may bee thou wilt say thou conceives heaven to bee a place of pleasure and delight a place free from all miseries and troubles and the like For this is the utmost heaven thou canst desire Thou lookest on it and desires it A place free from paenal not from sinful evils as a place of peace and rest not of grace and holiness If I should now tell thee that heaven is to be rid of all thy lusts and corruptions I beleive heaven would not be so desirable to thee Thou desirest heaven but t is under a false notion a heaven suitable to thy self and that 's the least of heaven I have told you not long agoe abstract and take from heaven what a corrupt heart doth see and think to bee heaven and that 's heaven indeed to a godly man To what I have said of another subject I will now adde this That didst thou know the company of heaven Heaven not desirable to corrupt hearts for its 1 Company the imployments of heaven the injoyments of heaven thou canst never desire heaven thy heart being corrupt 1 The company of heaven shall I tell you there 's none of your mind there And it is no great happiness to bee in such a place where they are all of different minds from you Two cannot walk together saith the Prophet they cannot-live together take delight together unless they bee agreed Now there is no agreement between the company of Heaven and thy spirit as it is corrupt See what the company of Heaven is enquire what they are First There is God and do you think there is any agreement betwixt God and you why hee is holy and thou art unholy hee is pure thou art impure c. and without holiness no man can see God Secondly There is Christ there are the glorious Angels all these are thine enemies as thou art in a natural condition Thirdly There are the blessed Saints and those are such as thou hast despised such as thou hast persecuted here in the World such as thou couldest never indure upon Earth but flye from and avoid is this company desireable in Heaven no such matter If they bee now hatefull to thee while they have something of thy self in them they have corruptions in them as well as thou though not under the power of them as thou Oh how hateful would they be when these corruptions are removed when they are better and thou worse But what 's this to torment thee in comparison of the presence of God in them is but the spark of holiness in God those eternal fires of holiness and if the spark bee a torment what is the fire As the Prophet speaks Who shall dwell with everlasting fires 2. Look upon the imployments of Heaven 2 Imployment and see if those bee desireable to thee in thy natural estate There is keeping of an eternal Sabbath there is praising and glorifying God to all eternity and would not this bee a tedious thing to thee canst thou indure to praise God for ever when now a staff of a Psalm is burdensome to keep an eternal Sabbath when a duty is tedious to thee 3. Adde to this the injoyments of Heaven 3. For its injoyments and here I can name nothing
what sweat what blood hee hath laid out to save us and how easily hee might have damned us Oh! this melts and dissolves the soul the soul even crumbles into dust and dissolves into water under the thoughts of it You see this set down in Ezek. 36.31 Then shall you remember your doings Then when when God shall expresse love as you see vers 25 26. why thâ—n will the soul say to it self as Absolom to Hushi is this thy kindness to thy friend art thou so cruel to him who hath been so kinde to thee so evil to him who hath been so good to thee Oh these thoughts do lay a man in the dust God hath taken such a way to justifie and save men that if wee bee but men it will break our hearts that wee have offended him Who is it that can read over that place without tears Isa 43.24 25. Thou hast bought mee no sweet Cane with money neither hast thou filled mee with the fat of thy sacrifices but thou hast wearied mee with thine iniquities and hast made mee serve with thy sins thou hast made my mercy to serve my patience to serve with thy sinnes even to look on while thou abusedst mee And what would a man imagine now would follow after this Therefore I will plague thee I will punish thee But read and wonder and read withhold from tears if thou canst if any spark of ingenuity bee in thee I even I am he who blotteth out thine iniquities for my own names sake and will not remember thy sins Here was the wonder of mercy 2. It ariseth from the love of thy soul to God The love of the person offended doth cause a godly man to mourn that hee hath offended him You see David Psal 51. Against thee against thee have I sinned godly sorrow sincere mourning is an ingenuous mourning scarce a thought of Hell and damnation comes into the mind if they do alas these do not trouble him so much as his sin that hee hath grieved and offended so good a God by Sin Hence Zachary hath this expression Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn c. In which there is nothing but pure love the expression is observable the Prophet doth not say they shall mourn as a son for a Father there may bee self-love in that a child may see himself undone in the loss of a father but hee saith they shall mourn as a father for a son in which there is pure love But now with Hypocrites it is neither the consideration of Gods love to them nor any love or good will which they bear to God that makes them mourn but indeed love to themselves they have Sinned and are afraid God will damn them for Sin therefore it is terror no principle of love to God which draws them to mourn for Sin As they hate Sin only in reference to hell so they mourn for Sin only in reference to hell What St. Augustine saith of fear of sin I may say of sorrow for Sin Hee that fears sin for Hell fears not to Sinne but to burn but hee hates sinne indeed who so hates sin as hell it self Qui gehennam metuit non peccare metuit sed ardere So he who sorrows for Sin for fear of hell and wrath hee is not sorry for sin but howles for fear of hell but he sorrows truly who is more grieved for sinning than he is afraid of burning 7. Character Sincere mourning is a friutfull mourning There are paenal tears and fruitful tears Worldly sorrow that is paenal sorrow it is a weeping to weeping but godly sorrow is a fruitful sorrow a weeping to repentance and amendment as the Apostle Godly sorrow works repentance not to bee repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 There is a great deal of difference between the pains of the gout and of a woman in travel the one is pain to pain no fruit of the pain meer torture the other is pain to ease travel to rest a travel to birth Other sorrow is a sorrow to sorrow this is a sorrow to joy as Christ expresseth it under the parable of a woman in travell Sincere mourning is a fruitfull mourning for repentance is like the waters of jealousy which either rot or make fruitful And first It is a heart humbling sorrow 2 It is a soul fattening sorrow by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better 3 It is a grace strengthning a grace increasing sorrow And therefore doth God preserve such springs as these in the hearts of his people on purpose to water the seed of holinesse the garden of graces in the hearts of his people Every grace within us doth look fresh every disposition within us buds shoots forth after a showre of repentant tears that man who hath such springs as these within him his graces must needs flourish they cannot wither nor decay Observe it A mourning Christian is evermore a thriving a growing Christian 4 It is a divorcing sorrow it breaks the league and union between heart and Sin There is a league between the heart and sin they are as neer together as the skin to the flesh as the flesh to the bones the bark to the tree Godly sorrow doth divorce between a mans heart and sinne separates between them it sets the soul at a distance with sin Unsound hearts may mourn may lament sin but leave not Sin they Sin and Repent and Repent and Sin as if their Sinning did but make matter for repenting c. This is like the Drunken mans round his drink goes out in tears and then to drink again Pharaoh could say hee had sinned but hee left not his Sinne Saul could say hee had Sinned too yet hee retained his sinne Judas said the like yet if he had lived he had been the same if God had not changed his heart No if a man should have lain as long in flames as Cain hath and should come out of hell red hot out of flames hee would bee the same man still All the terrors of God all the horrors in the World all the flames of hell cannot change the heart These may dare a man make a man afraid to sin but not hate Sin this must come from a principle of Grace a Gospel work The justice of God may terrify the heart the power of God may awe the heart but it must be the love and mercy of God which must thaw the heart must change the heart Now godly sorrow doth work a change in the soul Job 34.32 such a man saith with Job If I have done iniquity I will do it no more hee lamenteth sin and leaveth Sin he confesseth and forsaketh Sin God forgives and he also foregoes sin Beside these fruits I might name many more which are the fruits of sincere mourning It worketh peace our tears end in joy it worketh spiritual tranquillity of Conscience as it worketh a change And besides these you have seven
a nobis accipiendo sed omnia nobis promittendâ— Aug. because he hath ingaged himself to us by many great and precious Promises Gods Promises are ingagements upon him God hath made himself our Debter Not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us God hath made many precious promises to us 1 Promises of Preservation Isa 33.16 Hee shall dwell on high his place of defence shall bee the munition of rocks bread shall bee given to him his waters shall bee sure A Promise than which I know none more full in the Book of God wherein all Objections that a fearful heart might raise are answered and taken away Let us view it over 1 Hee shall dwell on high If hee were among his enemies hee might bee in danger But hee shall dwel on high nay on heights as the Word is many Ascents many Heights above the reach of danger out of Gun-shot 2 But suppose they could raise up Mounts and come as high as hee yet they shall not hurt him Hee is in a place of defence 3 But what then His defence is not so strong but it may bee broken thorough No saith the Text that is impossible for his place of defence shall bee the Munitions of Rocks many Rocks and many Munitions of Rocks and therefore impregnable to guard him 4 Why but hee may bee starved out his supply will not alway last There is no plowing and sowing upon Rocks hee may bee famisht out No saith the Text. Bread shall bee given him Hee shall bee provided for 5 But what shall wee do for Water There is no Water to be had out of Rocks You see it was that which posed the Faith of Moses to fetch Water out of a Rock But saith the Text hee shall have Water too 6 Yea but his Water may be spent It will not alway last No saith the Text His Waters shall be sure never failing Waters sure Waters Again in the same Chapter vers 21. The Lord will bee to us a place of broad Rivers and streams wherein shall go no Gallie with Oares nor shall gallant ship pass thereby Shewing the defence God would bee to his People Hee will bee a Stream nay a River between us and our enemies And a broad River a River that cannot bee passed over Why but they may use Oares No saith the Lord Hee will bee a River wherein no Gally with Oares shall pass But a Ship may No nor gallant ship shall pass thereby for the Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King hee will save us But what if any ship should attempt You shall see vers 23. God will untackle them Thy tacklings are loosed they could not well strengthen their Mast they could not spread the saile 2. And as hee hath made promises of Preservation from So hee hath made promises of Deliverance out of trouble Psal 34.19 Many are the troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all So Psal 50.15 Call upon mee in the time of trouble I will deliver thee So Psal 91.15 I will bee with him in trouble and will deliver him So Isa 54.17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper And an excellent promise wee have Isa 43.3 4. I gave Egypt for thy ransome Ethiopia and Seba for thee God speaks here as the Lord and Possessor of the whole Earth Egypt was his and Ethiopia was his and both these hee gave for to redeem his Church The Church was in bondage and captivity you know in Egypt And God gave Egypt for her ransome And how because shee could not bee ransomed and delivered without the loss of Egypt Therefore God gave Egypt for her That is hee would rather lose all the Land of Egypt than his people should not bee ransomed hee would sink the whole Kingdome of Egypt if it stood betwixt his People and Deliverance And so it follows in the 4. vers I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life As if hee had said I love thee thou art more dear to mee than all the World and I do not stick to give the lives of thousands to uphold thine Multitudes shall bee destroyed rather than thou shalt not bee preserved I love thee and therefore I will give men for thee Thus you see God is ingaged to do wonderful things for his Church because of his Promise That love which hath moved him to make these precious promises to us will never give him rest till it hath caused him to make good those promises which hee hath made 3. A third loving Ingagement which causes God to do wonders for his People is because they trust in him Trust is a kinde of Ingagement upon a man although hee had made no promise A man will not deceive another who reposeth his whole trust in him though hee were not ingaged by Promise There is a kinde of Ingagement in Trust it self And shall wee then think that God will when hee hath made so many precious promises to us This were the greatest deceit in the World a Soul-deceit If God should call us off from all other succours from other shelters and tell us that if wee will trust in him hee will bee our succour our security And should God fail the soul this were an undoing-deceit the greatest deceit in the World No my Brethren there was never man who laid up his confidence in God but hee found God to bee that to him which hee expected Faith ingageth all the Power all the Wisdome all the Mercy and Truth of God to help us And if the Power Wisdome c. of God can do wonders for thee God will then do wonders for thee if thou beleeve in him Beleeve saith Christ and thou shalt see the wondrous works of God 4. A fourth Ingagement which causeth God to do wonders for his People is because they seeke him Hee doth not say to the seed of Jacob seek yee mee in vain Hee hath stiled himself The God hearing prayers and bids us call upon him in the day of trouble and hee will hear The Prayers of Gods People they are as so many Ingagements upon God to move him to do for them Faith and Prayer will set All-God awork It will set the Power Wisdome Mercy of God a work for you Faith and Prayer will remove Mountains Nothing shall bee too hard for that people to do whose hearts and spirits God holds up to beleeve and to pray Bee it to thee even as thou wilt Luther having been in his study and earnest with the Lord about the business of the Church receiving a gracious answer hee comes down and cryes Wee have overcome the day is ours And so it fell out saith the story For the Church prevailed There is a kinde of Omnipotency in Faith and Prayer because these two set the Omnipotent God and the Omnipotency of the Power of the Omnipotent God to work for us And I beleeve
that for the compleater deliverance of the Church So it follows They know not the thoughts of the Lord for he shall gather them They gather themselves together and yet saith the Text God gathers them They gathered themselves to ruine the Church and God gathers them to ruine themselves Hee shall gather them as sheaves into the floor and the fuller the load the more welcome to the Husbandman And then Arise and thresh 4. A fourth time wherein God doth wonderful things for his Church is When the enemyes of the Church are carried on with most rage and promise themselves most success against the Church and people of God You see that in the verses before the Text 9 10. when the enemy said in his heart I will pursue I wil overtake I will divide the spoil my lust shall bee satisfied on them I will draw my sword my hand shall destroy them Here they exprest their fury and rage and promist themselves good successe in all And this was the time for God to do Wonders you see in the next vers Thou didst blow with thy wind the Sea covered them they sank as lead in the mighty waters It was so in the Powder-Plot A Plot never to bee forgotten When they had intended to have blown up King People Nobles Commons Senators Senate Laws and Law-makers nay three kingdomes at a blast They could have buried all in one grave and consumed all in one Bonefire Here was their rage their fury And did they not also promise to themselves as good successe in their way Had they not then in their purposes disposed of Crown and kingdom and all the Chief Offices and Revenues in the Land And now was the time for God to shew a wonder for the deliverance of his Church which you know he did A wonder of wisdome in the discovery of the Plot and a wonder of mercy in disappointing of it 5. When Gods People are brought low when all humane helps fail when the Arme of flesh is weak when the stream of second Causes is dry Then is Gods time to shew a wonder for their releif when wee cannot be releeved without a wonder then God works wonders for our relief You see this Deut. 32.35 36. The Lord shall judge his People and repent himself concerning his servants when hee seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up nor left When Israel was brought to those straits the Red-sea before them the Egyptians behind them and mountains on each side them then saith Moses fear not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord Exod. 14.13 As if he had said you are now in straits your extremities are great and now is the time for God to help now is Gods time to do wonders for you There are two times 1. Mans Time 2. Gods Time Mans time is when ever wee are in need when ever we are in trouble but Gods time is only when all helps fail when no releif is in the arm of flesh then all is in God God is ever ready to put forth himself in desperate cases because then his mercy and power will bee most conspicuous his People most thankfull and deliverance most glorious It is an old experienced Truth Mans extremity is Gods opportunity The depth of Mans misery calls in for the depth of Gods mercy It may bee observed in all Ecclesiastical Histories that when deliverance approached then was persecution the hot rest The Scribes and Pharisees blasphemed most when their Kingdome was neerest to ruine In this like the Devil who roars most when his time is shortest The greatest darknesse is before the morning watch when the morning is darkest then comes the day when trouble is greatest then comes deliverance You know when the task of bricks was doubled then was Moses sent to deliver The Ancient Tragedians when things were brought to that strait that there could bee no possibility of humane help imagined they used to bring down some of their Gods out of the Clouds and thence was the phraise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was not much differing from that among the Jews In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen Gods promises are never neerer fulfilling than when to sense and reason they seem furthest off from fulfilling This was Abrahams case when at Gods command hee was about to sacrifice his Isaca 6. The time when God doth wonders for his Church is When God doth give and hold up a mighty spirit of Prayer in his People to seek You see this in the deliverance of the Church out of the Babylonish captivity In which deliverance God expressed many wonders of mercy to his Church At which time God raised up A mighty Spirit of Prayer in them to seek As you see in Dan. 9.2 3. And this was prophesyed in Psal 102.13 14 15 16 17. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favour her the set time is come Why how shall wee know that Now is the time hee shews in the 14th verse For thy Servants take pleasure in the stones and favour the dust thereof that is they mourn and they Pray And therefore it is time for thee to help and deliver as you see in the 17th vers Thou shalt regard the Prayer of the desolate and not despise their Prayer As when the Lord hath an intent to destroy a People he doth either expresly charge them not to pray for them as hee did Jeremy chap. 14.11 Pray thou not for this people and chap. 7.16 Pray not thou for this people neither lift up cry nor Prayer for them neither make intercession to mee For I will not hear thee Or hee doth secretly dead and straiten their spirits that they cannot Pray So when hee doth stirre up the hearts of his People to seek him It is an evident demonstration that God will do great things for that People Hee hath told us that Hee will not forsake them that seek him when the eyes and hearts of Gods People are big with sorrow then is Gods mercy big with deliverance ready to be delivered Wicked men have a measure of sin to fill as God said of the Amorites The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full And Christ to the Scribes and Pharisees Fill you up the measure of your Fathers Mat. 23.22 When the Harvest is ripe then will God put in his Sickle Joel 3.13 put in the Sickle for the Harvest is ripe for the wickedness is great In a word God hath a bag for the sins of the wicked Job 14.17 And God hath a bottle for the tears of his servants Psal 56.8 Hee bags up sins and hee bottles up tears And when once his bag is full of the transgressions of the wicked and his bottle is full of the tears of the Saints Then shall salvation come to Zion then will God stir up himself for the relieving and succouring of his Church When wicked men are ripe for Destruction the Church ripe for
way of reforming Indeed that which comes neerest to it and that which is the saddest peece in all the Scriptures is in that example of Josiah Hee set upon the work of Reformation yet God held up his purpose of destroying that people You shall read it 2 King 23.26 27. Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fiercenesse of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah c. Notwithstanding all that Reformation as you may see in that Chapter Yet the anger of the Lord was not turned back but his hand was stretched out still First to cut off that godly King and afterwards to cut down that ungodly people 1. But first I must tell you That Gods decree was then past against them And God had pronounced it long before as you see in his message to Hezekiah 2 King 20.17 and I hope there is yet no Decree gone out against England 2 And secondly Though he would not revoke what he had Decreed yet this good act of Josiah procured the Deferring of Gods Judgements all his days 2 King 22.18 19 20. But to the King of Judah thus shall yee say to him Behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evill that I will bring upon this place So that this is yet strong God did never destroy a Nation at any time when his People were about the Reforming of that Nation And it hath pleased God at this time to set us up a choice Assembly An Assembly chosen by Prayer brought together by Prayer and held together and preserved to this day by the might of Prayer And their spirits have been held up amidst many difficulties and strong oppositions to Hazard themselves their lives and estates for the good of our souls our bodyes nad estates And I say it was never heard of nor read of It is an untracted case that God should destroy a Nation whilest they are such whom hee hath himself singled out and set up for the Reforming of a Nation If hee would have destroyed us hee would never have been at the pains to Reform us One cannot stand with the other 3 A third Argument from our selves And that is taken from the beginnings of mercy You know what our Condition hath been before the remembrance of it is fresh God at that time did hear the cry of our souls and pittyed us in our low estate and did go forth in the beginnings of mercy to us And may wee not Reason if God would have destroyed us he would never have done thus much for us That which God hath done is an earnest unto us and an ingagement upon God To go on in the finishing of what he hath begun to do for us already Shall wee think hee hath brought us out of Egypt to destroy us in the Wildernesse Shall wee think the Sun of Mercy hath shined on us but only to warm our heads against a storm shall wee think hee hath exalted us thus high that hee might lay us the lower in the end Indeed thus God hath done with the wicked But wee never read that hee hath so done with his own people Shall wee think hee hath delivered us from lesser to reserve us to greater Judgements Freed us from Rods to whip us with Scorpions delivered us from lesser evils to ruine us at once this cannot bee I think though the appearances were greater against us than they are Thus God may do with wicked men but thus God did never do with his own A fourth Argument taken from our selves to induce us to Hope that God will do a wonder for us is There is a stock of Prayers going out and laid up for the good of this Church and Nation Many Prayers have been made And I tell you all the praying spirits in the World are now at work for England Who hath a tongue and doth not speak who hath a hand and doth not stretch it out and I tell you this is something considerable If the Prayer of one Moses could do so much what will the prayers of so many thousands What hath God heard England for Scotland and England for Ireland and will hee not hear England for it self that were strange Shall they save all others but their own souls Indeed wee sometimes read that praying spirits could not prevail to save others but yet they saved their own souls As God said Though Noah Daniel and Job were in Jerusalem they should not deliver Son nor Daughter they should only bee delivered themselves Ezek. 14.20 But wee never read that they should prevail to save others and yet not bee able to save their own souls Will God then hear us for others not for our selves would a friend grant you a request for another and deny the same to your self No certainly Nor will God A fifth Argument is This hath been a time wherein God hath drawn out the Graces of his People which perhaps had they been supprest and not discovered wee had been in no hazard And do you think that God will draw out the graces of his People for the destruction of his people Indeed nothing is more ordinary than to draw out the sins and corruptions of wicked men for their own ruine to bee Cart-ropes to binde themselves But wee never heard God did draw out the graces of his people for their ruine Wee read hee hath hardened wicked men to destruction but never made the heart tender sensible to destruction Men have perished by their fear deserting the cause of God but never any who perished by their courage and standing to it Did Esther lose any thing by her Obedience did Daniel did the three Children It brought them into the fire but preserved them in the fire nothing was consumed but their bands not one hair was singed Though God do draw out the sins of wicked men to their destruction as Pharaoh Haman c. yet hee never draws out the graces of his People to their destruction I say no more but this If God should not preserve us if hee should not do a wonder for us at this time it is an untracted peece of Providence wee have not a president of the like since God had a Church Hee doth with us so as hee never did with any of his people since the beginning of the World 4. Arguments from our enemies 4 From our enemies 4 The fourth head of Arguments is taken from our enemies which may induce us to Hope that God will do a wonder for us Consider then 1 Their former wickedness which shall hunt them and finde them out 2 Their present sinfulness such as these 1. Their Pride 2. Their Prophaneness 3. Their scorn and contempt of God and his wayes 4. Their Cruelty 5. Their Blasphemies and Bloody-hell-born-Oathes All which induce mee to hope That God will never give a blessing to the means nor yet to the men They have but escaped the
God do wonders for his Church Then let us fall down and adore this God who can do wonders for us Who would not fear thee O King of Nations saith the Prophet Jer. 10.7 It was the speech of an Heathen King when hee had seen the Wonders that God had done Let all men fear and tremble before the God of Daniel Dan. 6.26 When Christ had done that great wonder in calming the rage of the sea the Text tels us They all fell down at the feet of Jesus and worshipped him Gods wonders for us call out for our Worship of him Fall down then at the feet of this God and Worship him Fall down at the feet of his Power and dread it Fall down at the feet of his Mercy and adore it Fall down at the feet of his Wisdome and admire it Admiration is sutable to Wonders It is said Hee shall bee admired in his Saints When wicked men tremble do you fall down and admire and blesse that God adore that God who alone doth wonders 7. Use Doth God do wonders for his Church 7 Use and are wee now in a sad condition A people that shall bee made a wonder unlesse God do a wonder for us Oh! then let us carry our selves in such a deportment and demeanour as is sutable to such who are expectants that God should do wonders for us Oh! that wee could put our selves in a posture fit for mercy and deliverance Seeing you look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness saith the Apostle what manner of persons ought you to bee So seeing you look you expect that God should do wonders for you Oh! What manner of persons ought you to bee in Holiness of Life how holy how humble how spiritual ought you to bee in all manner of conversation Oh! take heed of sinning in the face of mercy in the face of deliverance Lye not swear not c. It was a sad aggravation of Israels sin They provoked God at the Red-Sea even at the Red-Sea it is doubled to put a greater Emphasis on it Psal 106.7 It is nothing but our sins which hinders the current and stream of Mercy if these were removed mercy would come amain Whereas on the contrary sin will not only make our but even the good purposes of God to become abortive to us You see it in Jer. 18.9 10. At what time I shall speak concerning a Nation or a Kingdome to build and to plant it If it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice Then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them Many buds and many blossoms of future deliverance have appeared Oh! it were a sad thing if our sins should blast all these and rob us of the fruit of our hopes of our prayers and tears Our sins put obstructions to all Gods proceedings of Mercy And therefore you see when the Temple was to bee built and great things were to bee done for them The Prophet by way of necessary preparation exhorts the people to repentance to cast away their sins Hag. 1.6 knowing this that though God had begun yet if they continued their sins they would quickly make a stop of Gods mercy God would soon repent of his mercy to them God had brought Israel out of Egypt and brought them near Canaan yet their sins comming betwixt them and Canaan turned them back again into the Wildernesse and there they walk in a Round forty years before they could finde admission into Canaan God is gone out before us triumphing in the greatnesse of his strength preparing a way hewing down difficulties levelling mountains turning all our oppositions into good But if you do not leave your sins you will make God quickly to leave you so to work your own confusion Well then You are all expectants of Mercy let every one of you labour to put himself into a posture fit to receive mercy Let every one walk and demean himself as such as looks for great things from God And then that God that hath begun will assuredly make an end Hee that hath laid the foundation and is laying stone after stone upon it every day will not desist till the building bee perfected 8 Use 8 Use Is it so that God doth wonders for his Church then learn 1. To trust in God You see Hee is a God doing wonders And as Christ said Learn 1 To trust in God Mark 9.23 If thou canst but beleeve All things are possible to him that beleeveth Wonders are possible There is nothing too hard for God to do if there bee nothing too hard for you to beleeve There is nothing difficult but to beleeve Hee that hath conquered and overcome his own unbeleef hath done all All things are possible to the Beleever Do not you stick at beleeving and God will not stick at doing wonders for you Heb. 11.33 34. By Faith they subdued Kingdomes stopped the mouthes of Lions quenched the violence of fire c. As Unbeleef doth imprison Gods power mercy and goodnesse It is said Hee could not do much because of their unbeleef And they limited the holy One of Israel So Faith sets God at liberty sets the power of God at liberty Nay it puts on the power and mercy of God Therefore exercise Faith The time of our trouble should bee the time of our trust As Mordecai said to Esther God set her up for such a time as that So I may say of Faith God set up Faith for such a time as this When means fail when there is nothing but weaknesse below when sense and reason are put to it then is it Faiths work to come in And therefore exercise Faith Let not any difficulty undermine Faith Let not any seeming discouragement come between your souls and the promise Zach. â— 6 Things marvelous to you are familiar with God things wonderful to you are easy to God You have Bibles Oh! that you had Faith to make use of them you would there finde all things are possible with God and therefore nothing impossible to Faith 2. Bee incouraged to Prayer This is the great work of our times 2 To pray to God Faith and Prayer will do wonders Faith and Prayer have had an hand in most of the wonders that ever were done in the Earth These will set the great God on doing wonders for us A Prayer made up of promises and put up by Faith will shew wonders in Heaven and in Earth You read what wonders Gods people have wrought by Prayer They have dryed up the Sea Exod. 14.21 brought fire from Heaven 2 King 1.10 Caused the Sun to stand still Josh 10.13 Vanquisht the enemy Exod. 17.12 Praying-Moses did more than fighting-Joshua The day would fail to tell you of all See what wonders followed upon Davids Prayer Psal 18.6 In my distress I called upon the Lord I cryed to my God hee heard my voice out of his Temple my cry came unto his
him wee have had many praying days They began for Ireland but may bee continued for England And oh That this day might be more successful than former days You that carry Irelands miseries Englands breaches and distractions in your bosomes send out armies of Prayers let your closets and the Churches bear witnesse of your sense of and sighs for the miseries And resolve to give God no rest till hee hath established Zion the joy and praise of the whole earth Ask and desire largely of God for his Church God hath a larger heart to give than you to begge Hee will suffer no creature to equall him in his love to his Church You shall not ask more than hee is willing to bestow Eph. 3.20 Hee is able to do exceeding-abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think and Jer. 33.3 Call unto mee and I will answer thee and shew thee mighty things which thou knowest not Well then let no Difficulty undermine your Faith no nor Discouragement put you off from seeking Jacob held up to pray notwithstanding all his discouragements Though hee wrestled in the night though hee was all alone though God told him hee would leave him though hee staid to his losse and God smote him in his thigh yet he held out to wrestle with God Hee that would prevail with God must not onely Pray but continue in Praying Jacob prayed all night David day and night Jonah three dayes and three nights Daniel 21 days and 21 nights Moses forty days and forty nights Though God delay though God defer though God deny yet hold out Break in upon Gods retireings urge God with his own Promises with his glory with his name with his truth with his worship c. All which are more pretious to him than a world I have told you that there shall be nothing Too hard for that People to do whose hearts and spirits God doth mightily hold up to seek him You know what wonders Prayer hath done It dryed up the Sea c. And wee have had experience of the fruit of Prayer more than any God did never honor Prayer more in any age than in our Generation It hath been the great Engine that hath carried all Gods purposes about Nothing hath been done without and nothing hath been done against prayer You may revolve in your thoughts the wonders God hath wrought within these three or four years for this Church and our neighbouring Nations Wee have prayed dead and prayed alive breathed life and death by prayer we have prayed into bonds and prayed out of bonds as Peter was When sin had drawn the sword prayer sheathed it again when sin had overspread us and covered us with a cloud of bloud Prayer dispelled and scattered this To God give the glory And you who have had experience of this before bee you quickned and incouraged to it again Be mighty with God Faith and Prayer will work wonders 3 Would you ingage God to do wonders for you adde a third ingagement and that is Reformation Supplication is nothing without Reformation The Arm of the Lord is not shortned that hee cannot save 3 Reformation nor is his ear heavy that hee cannot hear but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that hee will not hear As if the Prophet had said God is as powerful and as merciful as ever hee was hee is as able to do wonders and as willing as ever he was And the reason why hee doth them not is Because your sinnes do separate betwixt you and your God your sins rob you of all the good You look upward to see whether God will help You look downward to see whether man can help But what is all this if you do not look inward to find out your sins and cast them away which hinder help you have that the reasâ—â— Judg. 10.10 11 12. God had oftentimes delivered them as hee tells them there and they were now again in new distresses and therefore cry to God But God tells them they had walked unworthy of former deliverances and therefore he would deliver them no more whereupon they go and confess their sinnes before God they humble themselves and reform their evil wayes and then saith the Text His soul was grieved for the misery they were in God did then deliver them Well this is our case wee have been a people who have injoyed many great mercies and deliverances but now we are in new straits Let us go and humble our selves but reform too else Gods soul may not be grieved for our miseries if wee still grieve him with our sins but When God sees us to be cruel to our sins hee will then bee merciful to our souls when he sees us to be grieved for our sins he will then be grieved for our miseries Reform your Families your Parishes your persons good and bad set ye upon the work of Reformation and God will not stick to do a wonder for us God is driving on the great design of his own glory It is our wisdome to take notice of it and in this way to further it and not to hinder it Oh then Reform T were a fearful thing that the Nation should perish because thou wilt not reform God will never bee merciful to that man who is merciful to his sins You read what the Prophet said to Ahab Because thou hast spared the man that was reserved to destruction therefore thy life shall go for his life Well then Hear the Nation Hear Religion hear all calling out upon you reform 1 Let the wicked reform 2 Let the Saints reform 1 You wicked ones do you reform Your profainness Oathes blasphemies uncleanness your contempt and hatred of Gods Truth Ordinances ways servants c. for else one sinner as Achan may make an halt in Israels march into Canaan and how much rather if the whole Camp be full of such 2 You Saints Bee reformed 1 Of your Pride 2 Of your Lukewarmnesse 3 Of your Formality 4 Of your Covetousnesse 5 Of your Vanity in your Speeches 6 Of your Unthankfulnesse for Gods mercies 7 Of your Unfruitfulness under means of Grace 8 Of your Censoriousnesse of your Brethren And this Land-Reformation would prevent a Land-Desolation when God sees us a repenting-People hee will be a â—â—â—enting-God when hee sees us in a Posture of Reformation he will be in the way of Preservation FINIS Books Printed and are to be sold by Thomas Parkhurst who Prints and sells this Book of Dr. Samuel Bolton at the Sign of the Three Crowns over against the Great Conduit at the lower end of Cheapside A Learned Commentary or Exposition upon the first Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians by Dr. Richard Sibbs Published for publick good by Thomas Manton Folio Mr. John Cotton his Exposition on the first Epistle of John with Doctrines Reasons Uses Fol. There is newly come forth Mr. William Fenner his
compast by our own strength and industry but freely imparted and given of God As our Righteousness is freely imputed so our Holiness is freely imparted That thou art not a killing Cain a self murdering Saul a despairing Judas a prophane Esau a drunken Baltazar a filthy Sodomite it ariseth from this meer Mercy But that God hath not only restrained thee but renewed thee not only chained up thy spirit but changed thy spirit This is Free-Mercy And so the Scripture tells us 1. Pet. 1.3 Blessed bee the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who of his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again Not only Mercy but abundance of Mercy So James 1.18 Of his own free-will begot hee us And that in John 1.13 Wee were born again not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man But of God Not of blood Nor great men nor good men can do it Regeneration comes not by Generation Nor of the will of the flesh Our will is but a fleshly will and cannot beget a spiritual nature Nor of the will of man It is not all the indeavours of holy men who labour to do us good can do it But the Will of God It is a mercy wee give least concurrence to of all other When wee have Grace then wee are helpers for the growth and increase of Grace but who shall give Grace When the Candle is lighted it will burn but none but God can light up the Candle In after Sanctification wee concurre There is no concurrence in Regeneration This is the freest Mercy of all other When God hath wrought Grace there is some ingagement for God to go on but there is nothing to move him to bestow Grace Here is the ground His heart is taken therefore hee sanctifies us His heart is taken with us therefore 4. Hee glorifies us As our Justification so our Sanctification and Glorification arise from the same ground His heart is taken with us The Papists indeed would have us to merit Heaven And the Councel of Trent denounce a curse upon those who say Quid sunt omnia opera ad tantam gloriam Bern. Si homo mille annis serviet A Justified person cannot merit Heaven But alas What are all our deserts to this Glory If a man should serve God and suffer a thousand years what were this to merit eternity in Glory No here is the ground of all His heart is taken with us and therefore hee glorifies us And so the Scripture speaks plain Eph. 2.5 By Grace yee are saved And lest hee should never make it firm enough hee adds in the 8 and 9. verses By Grace yee are saved not of works So that you see into what to resolve the higher streams of his Love his chusing us his justifying his sanctifying and his glorifying us His heart is taken with us therefore hee chose us therefore hee justifies us c. 2. As you may see into what to resolve all the higher So the lower streams of his love to his Church All into this His heart is taken with his Church His heart is taken with us therefore hee doth protect us His heart is taken with us therefore hee will preserve us His heart is taken with us therefore hee will support us His heart is taken with us therefore hee will deliver us All the good wee have in Hand and all the good wee have in Hope All the Mercies bestowed and all those which God is bestowing on us Look upon all as a continued threed spun out of the bowels of Free-Grace and Mercy God hath done great things for us and from this they have arisen His Heart is taken with us his Love towards us Jer. 31.3 4. I loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee Alas If God had looked upon us and taken either ground or motive from any thing in us to do this for us wee should never have injoyed it 1. There was no ground no foundation of desert in us Wee abhorre the thoughts of it for God to raise such a fabrick of mercy upon as hee hath done If any thing in his Church were the foundation of the structure of mercy which wee expect God to raise wee might look for a mean building Such weak foundations must have as weak a structure A building must bee proportionable to the foundation But seeing Gods own heart is the foundation his own mercy and good will towards us which is so strong so firm so full a foundation Hence it is that wee may expect a structure of mercy suitable to the foundation And as this is the foundation of all those great and stupendious things which God hath done for us So it is a ground for us to expect that God will yet do greater things for us than ever hee hath done Indeed when wee look upon our selves wee are at an end in our thoughts and think God is at an end in his Mercy but when wee look up toward God and see there the ground of what wee have this keeps up our hearts from sinking and causes us to look upon all wee have as an earnest of more Men that are at the top of an high place if they look downwards their eyes dazle and their heads grow dizzy but if they look up towards Heaven they recover themselves again God hath raised us up to some height of mercy and if wee look downwards if wee look upon our selves wee are driven past the utmost of our thoughts but let us look up to Heaven whence this mercy wee have hath its spring and foundation and wee shall quickly recover Though there bee nothing in us yet there is something in God and that which is in God is the ground of this mercy and therefore will hee go on in the wayes of his own mercy I have often thought within my self how far God at this time hath out-gone his people in Mercy Hee hath not only out-gone the deservings of his People but out-gone the desires of his people the prayers of his People And consulting below I am ready to think God is at an end of his Mercy But when I recover my self and look upon the ground of Gods doing good to his Church and People Not to bee any goodness in the Church but meerly his own goodness This doth revive mee again put heart into mee that God will yet do greater things for his Church than yet hee hath done As I said before when God doth execute Judgements upon his Church hee adds Judgement to Judgement so much more when hee comes in a way of Mercy to his Church hee adds Mercy to Mercy God is oftentimes weary in going on in a way of Judgement because the exercise of his Judgements are drawn out by us our sins Hee is said not to afflict willingly and his Judgements hee calls his strange work It is not so natural to God and therefore he is quickly weary of it But God is never