it sufficient to raise you from the dust and banish those terrours and troubles from your hearts and help you to live like the Sons of God He commandeth me to tell you that he takes notice of your sorrows he stands by when you see him not and say He hath forsaken you he minds you with greatest tenderness when you say He hath forgotten you He numbreth your sighs he bottles up your tears the groans of your hearts do reach his own He takes it unkindly that you are so suspicious of him and that all that he hath done for you in the work of Redemption and all the gracious workings of his Spirit on your souls and all your own peculiar experiences of his Goodness can raise you to no higher apprehensions of his Love Shall not Love be acknowledged to be Love when it s grown to a Miracle when it surpasseth Comprehension Must the Lord set up Love and Mercy in the work of Redemption to be equally admired with his Omnipotency manifested in the Creation and call forth the World to this sweet imployment that in Secret and in Publick it might be the business of our lives and yet shall it be so overlookt or questioned as if you lived without Love and Mercy in the World Providence doth its part by heaping up Mountains of daily Mercies and these it sets before your eyes The Gospel hath eminently done its part by clear describing them and fully assuring them and this is proclaimed frequently in your ears And yet is there so little in your hearts and mouths Do you see and hear and feel and taste Mercy and Love do you Live wholly on it and yet do you still doubt of it and think so meanly of it and so hardly acknowledge it God takes not this well but yet he considereth your frailty and takes you not at the worst He knows that flesh will play its part and the Remnants of Corruption will not be idle and the Serpent will be suggesting false thoughts of God and will be still striving most to obscure that part of his Glory which is dearest to him and especially which is most conjoyned with the Happiness of Man He knows also that sin will breed sorrows and fears and that mans Understanding is shallow and all his Conceivings of God are exceeding low and that we are so far from God as Creatures and so much further as sinners and especially as Conscious of the abuse of his Grace that there must needs follow such a strangeness as will damp and dull our apprehensions of his Love and such an abatement of our Confidence as will make us draw back and look at God afar off Seeing therefore that at this distance no full apprehensions of Love can be expected It is the Pleasure of our Redeemer shortly to Return with ten thousands of his Saints with the noble Army of his Martyrs and the attendance of his Angels and to give you such a Convincing Demonstration of his Love as shall leave no room for one more Doubt Your Comforts are now but a Tast they shall be then a Feast They are now but Intermittent they shall be then Continual How soon now do your Conquered fears return and what an unconstancy and unevenness is there in our Peace But then our Peace must needs be Perfect and Permanent when we shall please God and Enjoy him in Perfection to Perpetuity Certainly Christians your Comforts should be now more abundant but that they are not ripe It is that and not this that is your harvest I have told you in another Book the mistake and danger of expecting too much here and the Necessity of Looking and Longing for that Rest if we will have Peace indeed But alas how hard is this lesson learned Unbelievers would have Happiness but how fain would they have it in the Creature rather then in God! Believers would rather have their Happiness in God then in the Creature But how fain would they have it without Dying And no wonder for when Sin brought in Death even Grace it self cannot Love it though it may submit to it But though Churlish Death do stand in our way why look we not at the Souls admittance into Rest and the Bodies Resurrection that must shortly follow Doubtless that Faith by which we are Justified and Saved as it sits down on the word of Truth as the present ground of its confident repose so doth it thence look with one eye backward on the Cross and with the other forward on the Crown And if we well observe the Scripture Descriptions of that Faith we shall find them as frequently magnifying it and describing it from the latter as from the former As it is the duty and glory of faith to look back with Thankful Acknowledgement to a Crucified Christ and his payment of our Ransome so is it the Duty and Glory of that same Justifying Saving Faith to Look forward with Desire and Hope to the Return of King Jesus and the Glorious Celebration of the Marriage of the Lamb and the Sentencial Justification and the Glorification of his Saints To Believe these things unfeignedly which we never saw nor ever spoke with man that did see and to Hope for them so Really as to let go all present forbidden pleasures and all worldly hopes and seeming happiness rather then to hazard the loss of them this is an eminent part of that Faith by which the Just do live and which the Scripture doth own as Justifying and Saving For it never distinguisheth between Justifying Faith and Saving Faith as to their nature It is therefore a great mistake of some to look onely at that one eye of Justifying Faith which looks back upon the Cross and a great mistake of them on the other hand that look onely at that eye of it which beholds the Crown Both Christ Crucified and Christ Interceding and Christ Returning to Justifie and Glorifie are the objects even of Justifying Saving Faith most strictly so called The Scripture oft expresseth the one onely but then it still implyeth the other The Socinians erroniously therefore from Heb. 11. where the Examples and Elogies of Faith are set forth do exclude Christ Crucified or the respect to his Satisfaction from Justifying Faith and place it in a meer Expectation of Glory and others do as ungroundedly affirm that it is not the Justifying Act of Faith which Heb. 11. describeth because they find not the Cross of Christ there mentioned For as Believing in Christs Blood Comprehendeth the End even the Expectation of Remission and Glory merited by that blood so the Believing of that Glory doth always imply that we Believe and Expect it as the fruit of Christs Ransome It is for health and life that we Accept and Trust upon our Physician And it is for Justification and Salvation that we Accept and Trust on Christ The Salvation of our Souls is the End of our Faith They that question whether we may Believe and Obey for our own
perfectly sanctified and rid of that body of sin though it were to the smart and displeasing of your flesh Are you not willing to wait on God in the use of his Ordinances in that poor weak measure as you are able to perform them Durst you or would you quit your part in God Heaven Christ and forsake the way of Holiness and do as the prophane world doth though it were to please your flesh or save your state or life Do not you daily strive against the flesh and keep it under and deny it its desires Do you not deny the world when it would hinder you from works of Mercy or publique Good according to your ability Is it not the grief of your soul when you fall and your greatest trouble that you cannot walk more obediently innocently and fruitfully and do you not after sinning Resolve to be more watchfull for the time to come Are you not resolved to stick to Christ and his holy Laws and Waies whatever changes or dangers come and rather to forsake friends and all that you have then to forsake him Yet in a godly jealousie and distrust of your own heart do renounce your own strength and resolve to do this only in the strength of Christ and therefore daily beg it of him Is it not your daily care and business to please God and do his will and avoid sinning in your weak measure I hope that all this is so and your own case which if it be you have Infallible Evidences and want but the sight and comfort of them You have the true grounds for Assurance though you want Assurance it self Your chief danger is over though your trouble remain Your soul is at the present in a safe condition though not in the sense of it You are in the state of salvation though not of consolation It must be your next work therefore to study Gods Mercies and take notice what he hath done for your soul Let not so blessed a guest as the holy Ghost dwell in you unobserved Shall he do such wonders in you and for you and you not know it or acknowledge it Shall he new beget you and new make you and produce a spiritual heavenly nature in you who of your self were so carnal and earthly and will you not observe it Had you any of these holy desires endeavors or resolutions of your self by nature Or have the ungodly about you any of them O that you knew what a Work of wonderfull Mercy Wisdom and Power the Spirit performeth in the renewing of a soul then sure you would more observe and admire his Love to you herein DIRECTION XII 12. The next Rule for your Direction for the right setling of your Peace is this You must know that Assurance of Justification Adoption and right to Salvation cannot be gathered from the smallest degree of Saving Grace HEre I must say something for explaining my meaning to you 2. And then give you my Reasons of this Assertion 1. Understand that I speak of Gods ordinary working by means not denying but God may by a voice from Heaven or an Angel or other supernatural Revelation bestow Assurance on whom he pleaseth But I hope all wise Christians will take heed of expecting this or of trusting too much to seeming Revelations unless they could prove that God useth to conferre Assurance in this way which I think they cannot 2. By the smallest degree of Grace I mean of Faith Love Obedience and those saving Graces whose acts are the condition of our Salvation and which in the fore-expressed Marks I laid down to you Do not therefore so farre mistake me as to think that I speak of a small measure of those common Gifts which are separable from true Sanctification such as are extensive Knowledge Memory Ability of Utterance in Preaching Repeating Exhorting or Praying An ornate plausible winning deportment before men such as is commonly called Good breeding or Manners An affected humble complementall familiarity and condescension to creep into mens estimation and affections and steal their hearts c. Many a one that is strong in saving Grace is weak in all these and other the like Now for my Reasons 1. I conceive that it is not possible for any Minister punctually to set down a discernable difference between the least measure of True saving Grace and the highest degree of common Grace and to say Just here it is that they part or by this you may discern them I do but say I think so because other men may know farre more then I do But I will say it as certain that I am not able to do it for my own part This much I can tell that the least degree of Grace that is saving doth determine the soul for God and Christ against the world and flesh that stand as Competitors and so where Christs interest prevaileth in the least measure there is the least measure of saving Grace As when you are weighing two things in the balance and at last make it so near evenweight that one end is turned and no more so when you are considering whether to be for Christ or for the flesh and the world and your Will is but even a very little Determined to Christ and preferreth him this is the least measure of saving Grace But then how a poor soul should discern this prevalent choice and determination of it self is all the Question For there is nothing more easie and common then for men to think verily that they preferre Christ above the creature as long as no temptation doth assault them nor sensual objects stand up in any cosiderable strength to entice them Nay wicked men do truly oft times purpose to obey Christ before the flesh and to take him for their Lord meerly in the general when they do not know or consider the quality of his Laws that they are so strict and spiritual and contrary to the flesh and hazardous to their worldly hopes and seeming-happiness But when it comes to particulars and God saith Now deny thy self and thy friend and thy goods and thy life for my sake alas it was never his Resolution to do it nor will he be perswaded to it But he that said to God who sends him to labour in his Vineyard I go Sir when he comes to finde the unpleasingness of the Work he goes not or never sets a hand to it So that it is evident that it is no true saving Resolution or Willingness which prevaileth not for actual Obedience Now here comes in the unresolvable Doubt What is the least Measure of Obedience that will prove a man truly Willing and Resolved or to have truly Accepted of Christ for his Lord This obedience lieth in Performing what is commanded and Avoiding what is forbidden Now it is too certain that every true Believer is guilty of a frequent neglect of Duty yea of known Duty We know we should Love God more abundantly and Delight in him and Meditate more on him and
this doctrine they must have none because they can be no surer that Christ dyed for them then they are that themselves are sincere Believers and truly sanctified And when Thankfulness for Christs Death and Redemption ceaseth Gospel obedience ceaseth and Legal slavish terrors do take place Though the same cannot be said of Thankfulness for special renewing pardoning Grace 4. The fourth part of the Christian Life is Chearful Obedience God loveth a chearful Giver and so he doth in every part of obedience Deut. 28.47 Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with Joyfulness with Gladness of heart for the abundance of all things thou shalt serve thy enemies in hunger thirst c. Will you now lay all this together and make it for the time to come your business and try whether whether it will not be the truest way to comfort and make your life a blessed life will you make it your end in hearing reading praying and meditation to raise your soul to Delight in God Will you strive as much to work it to this Delight as ever you did to work it to sorrow Certainly you have more reason and certainly there is more matter of Delight in the face and Love of God then in all the things in the world besides Consider but the Scripture Commands and then lay to heart your Duty Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alway and again I say Rejoyce Phil. 3.1 Zech. 10.7 Joel 2.23 Isa 41.16 Psal 33.1 Rejoyce in the Lord O ye Righteous for praise is comely for the upright Psal 97.12 1 Thess 5.16 Rejoyce evermore 1 Pet. 1. 6 8 Rom. 5.2 John 4.36 Psal 5.11 33.21 35.9 66.6 68.3 4. 71.23 89.16 105.3 149.2 49.4 27.6 John 16.24 Rom. 15 13. and 14.17 The Kingdom of God is in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Gal. 5.22 Psal 32.11 Be glad in the Lord and Rejoyce O ye Righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 132.9 16. 5.11 35.27 Hab. 3.18 with a hundred more the like Have you made conscience of this great duty according to its excellency and these pressing Commands of God Have you made Conscience of the Duties of Praise Thanksgiving and Cheerful Obedience as much as of Grieving for sin Perhaps you will say I cannot do it for want of Assurance If I knew that I were one of the Righteous and upright in Heart then I could be Glad and shout for Joy Ans 1. I have before shewed you how you may know that when you discover it in your self see that you make more Conscience of this duty 2. You have had Hopes and Probabilites of your sincerity Did you endeavor to answer those Probabilities in your Joys 3. If you would but labour to get this Delight in God it would help you to Assurance for it would be one of your clearest evidences O how the subtil enemy disadvantageth the Gospel by the misapprehensions and dejected spirits of Believers It is the very Design of the ever-blessed God to Glorifie Love and Mercy as highly in the Work of Redemption as ever he Glorified Omnipotency in the Work of Creation And he hath purposely unhindged the Sabboth which was appointed to Commemorate that work of Power in Creation to the first day of the week That it might be spent as a weekly day of Thanksgiving and Praise for the now more Glorious work of Redemption that Love might not only be equally admired with power but even go before it So that he hath laid the foundation of the Kingdom of Grace in Love and Mercy and in Love and Mercy hath he framed the whole Structure of the Edifice and Love and Mercy are written in legible indelible Characters upon every piece And the whole frame of his Work and Temple-service hath he so composed that all might be the resounding Eccho's of Love and the Praise and glorious Commerations of Love and Mercy might be the great business of our solemn Assemblies And the new Creation within us and without us is so ordered that Love Thankfulness and Delight might be both the way and the end And the Serpent who most opposeth God where he seeketh most Glory especially the Glory of his Grace doth labour so succesfully to obscure this Glory that he hath brought multitudes of poor Christians to have poor low thoughts of the Riches of this Grace and to set every sin of theirs against it which should but advance it and even to question the very foundation of the whole building whether Christ hath Redeemed the World by his Sacrifice yea he puts such a vail over the Glory of the Gospel that men can hardly be brought to Receive it as Glad tidings till they first have Assurance of their own Sanctification And the very nature of Gods Kingdom is so unknown that some men think it to be Unrighteousness and Libertinism and others to be Pensive Dejections and Tormenting Scruples and fears and but few know it to be Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Hoy Ghost And the very business of a Christians life and Gods service is rather taken to be Scrupling Quarrelling and Veâ—â—â— our selves and the Church of God then to be Love and Gratitude and a Delighting our souls in God and chearfully obeying him And thus when Christianity seems a Thrâ—â—dom and Torment and the service of the world the flesh and the Devil seems the onely freedom and quiet and delight no wonder if the Devil have more unfeigned servants then Christ and if men tremble at the name of Holiness and fly away from Religion as a Mischief What can be more contrary to its nature and to Gods design in forming it then for the Professors to live such dejected and dolorous lives God calls men from Vexation and Vanity to high Delights and Peace And men come to God as from Peace and Pleasure to Vexation All our preaching will do little to win souls from Sensuality to Holiness while they look upon the sad lives of the Professors of Holiness As it will more deter a sick man from medling with a Physician to see all that he hath had in hand to lie languishing in continual pains to their death then all his words and promises will encourage them O what blessed lives might Gods people live if they understood the love of God in the mysterie of mans Redemption and did addict themselves to the consideration and improvement of it and did believingly eye the promised Glory and hereupon did make it the business of their lives to Delight their souls in him that hath Loved them And what a wonderful success might we expect to our Preaching if the Holy Delights and Chearful Obedience of the Saints did preach as clearly to the eyes of the world as we preach loudly to their ears But flesh will be flesh yet a while and unbelief will be unbelief we are all too blame The Lord forgive our overlooking his
to him as long as you strip him of his Divine Nature Remember the holy Ghost's description of God 1 Joh 4.16 God is Love Write these words deep in your Understanding 2. Hereby you will have this Advantage also that your thoughts of God will be more sweet and delightfull to you For as Glorious and beautifull sights to your eyes and melodious sounds to your ears and sweet smels tastes c. are all delightfull when things deformed stinking c. are all loathsome and we turn away from one with abhorrency but for the other we would often see taste c. and enjoy them So is it with the objects of our minde God hath given no command for Duty but what most perfectly agreeth with the nature of the object He hath therefore bid us Love God and Delight in him above all because he is above all in Goodness even infinitely and unconceivably Good else we could not Love him above all nor would he ever command us so to do The object is ever as exactly fitted to its part as to draw out the Love and Delight of our hearts as the Precept is on its part to oblige us to it And indeed the Nature of things is a precept to Duty and it which we call The Law of Nature 3. Hereupon will follow this further Advantage that your Thoughts will be both easilyer drawn toward God and more frequent and constant on him For delightfull objects draw the heart to them as the Loadstone doth the Iron How gladly and freely and frequently do you think of your deerest friends And if you did firmly conceive of God as one that is ten thousand times more Gracious Loving and Amiable then any friend that you have in the world it would make you not only to Love him above all friends but also more freely delightfully and unweariedly to think of him 4. And then you would hence have this further Advantage that you would have lesse backwardness to any Duty and lesse weariness in Duty you would finde more delight in Prayer Meditation and speech of God when once God himself were more Lovely and delightfull in your eyes 5. All these Advantages would produce a further that is The growth of all your Graces For its impossible but this growth of Love and frequent delightfull thoughts of God and addresses to him should cause an increase of all the rest 6. Hereupon your Evidences would be more clear and discernable For Grace in strength and action would be easily found and would not this resolve all your doubts at once 7. Yea the very exercise of these severall Graces would be comfortable 8. And hereupon you would have more humble familiarity and communion with God For Love Delight and frequent addresses would overcome strangeness and disacquaintance which make us fly from God as a Fish or Bird or wild beast will from the face of a man and would give us access with boldness and confidence And this would banish sadness and terrour as the Sun dispelleth darkness and cold 9. At least you would hence have this advantage That the fixed apprehension of Gods Goodness and mercifull nature would cause a fixed apprehension of the Probability of your Happiness as long as you are willing to be Happy in Gods way For reason will tell you that he who is Love it self and whose Goodness is equal to his Almightiness and who hath sworn that he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner but rather that he repent and live will not destroy a poor soul that lyeth in submission at his feet and is so far from resolved rebellion against him that it grieveth that it is no better and can please him no more 10. However these right apprehensions of God would overcome those terrours which are raised only by false apprehensions of him And doubtless a very great part of mens causeless troubles are raised from such misapprehensions of God For Satan knows that if he can Bring you to think of God as a cruel Tyrant and bloudthirsty man-hater then he can drive you from him in terrour and turn all your Love and cheerfull obedience into hatred and slavish fear I say therefore again Do not only get but also fix deep in your understanding the highest thoughts of Gods natural Goodness and Graciousness that possibly you can raise for when they are at the highest they come short ten thousand fold Object But Gods Goodness lyeth not in Mercy to men as I have read in great Divines he may be perfectly Good though he should for ever torment the most innocent creatures Answ These are ignorant presumptuous intrusions into that which is unsearchable Where doth Scripture say as you say Judge of God as he revealeth himself or you will but delude your self and abuse him All his works represent him mercifull for his Mercy is over all his works and legible in them all His word saith He is Good and doth Good Psal 119.68 and 145.9 How himself doth proclaim his own Name Exod. 34.6 7. I told you before The most mercifull men are his liveliest Image and therefore he plants Mercy in them in their conversion as a principal part of their new nature and commands of mercifulness are a great part of his Law and he bids us Be mercifull as our heavenly Father is mercifull Luk. 6.36 Now if this were none of his Nature how could he be the pattern of our new nature herein and if he were not infinitely Mercifull himself how could we be required to be Mercifull as he is Who dare say I am more Mercifull then God Object But God is Just as well as Mercifull and for all his Mercifull nature he will damn most of the world for ever in hell Answ 1. But James saith Mercy rejoiceth against Judgement Jam. 2.13 2. God is necessarily the Governour of the world while there is a world and therefore must govern it in Justice and so must not suffer his Mercy to be perpetually abused by wicked wilfull contemptuous sinners But then consider two things 1. That he destroyeth not humble souls that lye at his feet and are willing to have Mercy on his easie termes but only the stubborn despisers of his Mercy He damneth none but those that will not be saved in his way that is that will not accept of Christ and salvation freely given them I speak of those that hear the Gospel for others their case is more unknown to us And is it any diminution to his infinite Mercy that he will not save those that will not be intreated to accept of salvation 2. And consider how long he useth to wait on sinners and even beseech them to be reconciled to him before he destroyeth them and that he heapeth multitudes of Mercies on them even in their rebellion to draw them to Repentance and so to Life and is it unmercifulness yet if such men perish Object But if God were so infinite in Mercy as you say Why doth he not make all these
God and the Cross of Christ in that kinde or in coordination with them so it is the office of every Grace and holy Work and Ordinance and Means to be subservient to Christ either for the attaining of Christ or applying his merits or they are the effects of his merits Now if we must Love and Rejoice in Christ principally then must we needs Love and Rejoice in all those things that stand in a necessary subordination to him in their places And therefore to say We must Rejoice in Christ only and therefore not in any Graces or Duties of our own is as wife as if a wife should cast her husbands cloathes and meat out of doors and say You charged me to admit none into my chamber but your self Or as if a Physitian having told his patients I will cure you if you will trust me only for the cure thereupon the Patients should cast away his Medicines and shut the doors against his servants and Apothecary and say We must trust none but the Physitian 9. All the failings of our Duties are pardoned and they Accepted in Christ and therefore we may Rejoice in them 10. Our Duties have a double tendency to our salvation 1. As the Condition to which God hath promised it as the Crown and Reward in a hundred texts of Scripture And may we not Comfort our selves in that which God promiseth Heaven to 2. As a Natural means to our obedience and further perfection as Watchfulness Meditation c. tend to destroy sin as Paul saith to Timothy Take heed to thy self and to thy Doctrine and in so doing thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear theâ— 1 Tim. 4.16 And may we not take Comfort in that which tends to save our own and our brethrens souls 11. We shall be Judged according to our Works therefore we must judge our selves according to our Works and so must judge our state good or bad according to our works for can man judge by a righter way then God will At least is it not lawfull for man to judge as God doth 12. We must judge of others in probability according to their external works even the tree by the fruits therefore we must judge of our selves in certainty according to our internal and external works together which we may certainly know 13. If we may not Rejoice in any of our Graces then we may not be Thankfull for them for Thanks is accompanied with Joy but we must be Thankfull 14. If we may not Rejoice in our Duties we may not Repent or sorrow for the neglect of them and if we may not Rejoice in our Graces we may not lament the want of them for these are as the two ends of the balance that one goes down when the other goes up or as day and night light and darkness But the consequent is intollerable 15. This would overthrow all Religion For what a man cannot Rejoice in he cannot Love he cannot esteem regard be carefull to obtain be fearfull of losing c. 16. God delighteth in our Graces and holy Duties and is well pleased with them and therefore it is lawfull and needfull that we do as God doth Jer. 9.24 Heb. 11.5 Abels sacrifice by faith obtained testimony that he pleased God Heb. 13.16 To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifice God is well pleased 17. The Saints of God have not only tried themselves by their Graces and Duties and commanded others to try by them but have Gloried and Rejoiced in their Duties and sufferings 2 Cor. 1.12 This is our Rejoicing the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation among you Acts 5.41 They gloried that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ Rom. 15.17 I have therefore whereof I may glory in Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God Rom. 5.3 We glory in tribulation c. 2 Cor. 12.6 9. Though I should desire to glory I should not be a fool I glory in mine infirmities Jer. 9.24 Let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me 1 Cor. 9.15 I had rather die then any should make my glorying void Gal. 6.4 Let every man prove his own work so shall he have Rejoicing in himself alone and not in another 18. Scripture nameth many of our own Graces and Duties as the certain Marks of our Justification and right to Glory Even Christ with his own mouth gives us many Matth. 6.21 Where your treasure is there will your heart be also Joh. 3.20 He that doth evil hateth the light c. but he that doth good cometh to the light that c. Mat. 5. is full of such Blessed are the poor in spirit the pure in heart c. 19. We may Rejoice in other mens good Works and Graces and do if we be true Christians therefore in our own 20. We may Rejoice in Gods outward Mercies therefore much more in inward and such as accompany salvation All these Arguments prove that we may take up our Comfort from our own Gracious Qualifications and Actions not in opposition to Christ but in subordination to him and most of them prove that we may fetch our Assurance of salvation from them as undoubted Evidences thereof I have said the more in Answer to these Objections 1. Because never any came with fairer pretences of exalting Christ and maintaining the honour of his Righteousness and free Grace and of denying our selves and our own Righteousness 2. And yet few Doctrines more dishonour Christ and destroy the very substance of all Religion Even as if a man should cry down him that would Praise and commend Obedience to the King and say You must Praise nothing but the King so do these cry down our looking at and Rejoicing in our Love to Christ and our Thankfulness to him and our Obedience and all under pretence of honouring him Nay they will not have us Rejoice in one part of Christs salvation his saving us from the power of sin and his sanctifying us under pretence that we dishonour the other part of his salvation his Justifying us If ever Satan transformed himself into an Angel of Light and his Ministers into Ministers of Light it is in the mistakes of the Antinomians and no people in the world except carnal Libertines whom this doctrine fits to a hair are in more danger of them then poor doubting Christians under trouble of Conscience specially if they be not judicious and skill'd in the Doctrine of Christ For the very pretence of extolling Christ and free Grace will take much with such and any New-way will sometime seem to give them Comfort upon the very novelty and sudden change Having thus proved that you may and must fetch your special Comfort and Assurance from Evidences and that your first Evidence is your Faith I shall open this fullier under the next Direction DIRECTION XI 11. In the Trial of your State Be sure that you make
your side it would keep you from drooping and discouragement And why should it not do so in the present case DIRECTION XVII 17. My next advice to you is this For the strengthening your apprehensions of the Probability of your Salvation Gather up and improve all your choicest Experiences of Gods good will and mercy to you And observe also the Experiments of others in the same kind WE do God and our selves a great deal of wrong by forgetting neglecting and not improving our Experiences How doth God charge it on the Israelites especially in the wilderness that they forgot the Works of God by which he had so often manifested his Power and Goodness Psal 78. 107. see 105 106. When God had by one Miracle silenced their unbelief they had forgotten it in the next distress It was a sign the disciples hearts were hardened when they forgot the Miracles of the loaves and presently after were distrustfull and afraid Mar. 6.52 God doth not give us his mercies only for the present use but for the future nor only for the body but for the soul I would this truth were well learned by Believers You are in sickness in troubles and dangers and pinching straits in fears and anguish of minde In this case you cry to God for help and he doth in such a manner deliver you as silenceth your distrust and convinceth you of his love at least of his readiness to do you good What a wrong is it now to God and your self to forget this presently and in the next temptation to receive no strengthening by the consideration of it Doth God so much regard this dirty flesh that he should do all this meerly for its ease and relief No he doth it to kill your unbelief and convince you of his special Providence his care of you and love to you and power to help you and to breed in you more loving honourable and thankfull thoughts of him Lose this benefit and you lose all You may thus use one and the same Mercy a hundred times Though it be gone as to the body it is still fresh in a believing thankfull carefull soul You may make as good use of it at your very death as the first hour But O the sad forgetfulness mutability and unbelief of these hearts of ours What a number of these choice experiences do we all receive When we forget one God giveth another and we forget that too When unbelief doth blasphemously suggest to us Such a thing may come once or twice by chance God addeth one experience to another till it even shame us out of our unbelief as Christ shamed Thomas and we cry out My Lord and My God Hath it not been thus oft with you Have not Mercies come so seasonably so unexpectedly either by small means or the means themselves unexpectedly raised up without your designing or effecting and plainly in answer to prayers that they have brought conviction along with them and you have seen the Name of God engraven on them Sure it is so with us when through our sinfull negligence we are hardly drawn to open our eyes and see what God is doing Much more might we have seen if we had but observed the workings of Providence for us Especially they that are in an afflicted state and have more sensible daily use for God and are awakened to seek him and regard his dealings I know a Mercy to the body is no certain evidence of Gods Love to the soul But yet from such experiences a Christian may have very strong Probabilities When we find God hearing Prayers it is a hopefull sign that we have some interest in him We may say as Manoahs wife said to him Judg. 13.23 If the Lord had meant to destroy us he would not have received a sacrifice at our hands nor have done all this for us To have God so near to us in all that we call upon him for and so ready to relieve us as if he could not deny an earnest prayer and could not endure to stop his ears against our cries and groans these are hopefull signes that he meaneth us good I know special Grace is the only Certain Evidence of special Love But yet these kind of experiences are many times more effectual to refresh a drooping doubting soul then the surest Evidences For Evidences may be unseen and require a great deal of holy skill and diligence to try them which few have But these experiences are near us even in our bodies and shew themselves They make all our bones say Lord who is like unto thee And it is a great advantage to have the help of sense it self for our Consolation I hope you yet remember the choice particular Providences by which God hath manifested to you 〈◊〉 Goodness even from your youth till now especially his frequent answering of your prayers Methinks these should do something to the dispelling of those black distrustfull thoughts of God I could wish you would write them down and oft review them And when Temptations next come remember with David who helpt you against the Lion and the Bear and therefore fear not the uncircumcised Philistine 2. And you may make great use also of the experiences of others Is it not a great satisfaction to hear twenty or fourty or a hundred Christians of the godliest lives to make the very same complaints as you do your sel◠The very same complaints have I heard from as many By this you may see your case is not singular but the ordinary case of the tenderest Consciences and of many that walk uprightly with God And also is it not a great help to you to hear other Christians tell how they have come into those troubles and how they have got out of them what hurt them and what helped them and how God dealt with them while they lay under them How desirous are diseased persons to talk with others that have had the same disease and to hea◠them tell how it took them and how it 〈◊〉 them and specially what cured them Besides it will give you much stronger hopes of cure and recovery to peace of conscience when you hear of so many that have been cured of the same disease Moreover is it not a reviving thing to hear Christians open the Goodness of the Lord and that in particulars as upon experience they have found him to their own souls To hear them tell you of such notable discoveries of Gods special providence and care of his people as may refell all Temptations to Atheism and unbelief To hear them give you their frequent and full experiences of Gods hearing and answering their Prayers and helping them in their distresses Though the carnal part of the Mercy were only theirs yet by improvement the spiritual part may be yours You may have your faith and love and joy confirmed by the experiences of David Job Paul which are past so long ago and by the experiences of all your Godly acquaintance as if they
expressions Because if a man be of able natural parts and have a tongue to express his own mind the promoting of holy Desires will help men to expressions For a full soul is hardly hindred from venting it self And experience teacheth us that the spirits enflaming the heart with holy Affections doth very much furnish both the Invention and Expression But this is but accidental and uncertain For those that are either men of unready tongues or that are so ill bred among the rude vulgar that they want fit expressions of their own minds or that are of over-bashful dispositions or especially that are of small knowledge and of little and short acquaintance with those that should teach them to pray by their examples or that have been but of short standing in the School of Christ such a man may have the spirit of Prayer many a year and never be able in full expressions of his own to make known his wants to God no nor in good and tolerable sense and language before others to speak to God from his own Invention A man may know all those Articles of the Faith that are of flat necessity to Salvation and yet not be able to find matter or words for the opening of his heart to God at length I would advise such to frequent the Company of those that can teach and help them in Prayer and neglect not to use the smallest parts they have especially in secret between God and their own souls where they need not so much as in publick to be regardful of expressions and in the mean time to learn a Prayer from some Book that may fitliest express their necessities or to use the Book it self in Prayer If they distrust their memories not resolâ—ing to stick heâ—â— and make it a means of indâ—lâ—iâ—â—â—â—eir laâ—iâ—ess and negligence much less to reproach and deride those that express their desires to God from the present sense of their own wants as some wickedly do deride such but to use this lawful help till they are able to do better without it then with it and then to lay it by and not before The Holy Ghost is said Rom. 8.16 to help our Infirmities in Prayer but how 1. By teaching us what to pray for not always what matter or words to enlarge our selves by but what necessary Graces to pray for 2. By giving us Sighs and Groans unexpressible which is far from giving Copious expressions For Groans and Sighs be not words and if they be Groans that we cannot express it would rather seem to intimate a want of expression then a constant abounding therein where the spirit doth assist Though indeed the meaning is that the Groans are so deep that they are past the expression of our words All our speech cannot express that deep sense that is in our hearts For the Understanding hath the advantage of the Affections herein All the thoughts of the mind may be expressed to others but the Feelings and fervent Passions of the soul can be but very defectively expressed Lastly All have not the spirit of Prayer in like measure nor all that have it in a great measure at one time can find it so at pleasure Desires rise and fall and these earnest Groans be not in every Prayer where the Holy Ghost doth assist I believe there is never a Prayer that ever a Believer did put up to God for things lawful and useful but it was put up by the help of the spirit For the weakest Prayer hath some degree of good Desire in it and addresses to God with an endeavour to express them and these can come from none but onely from the spirit Meer words without desires are no more Prayer then a suit of apparel hang'd on a stake is a man You may have the spirit of Prayer and yet have it in a very weak degree Yet still I would encourage you to bewail your defect herein as your sin and seek earnestly the supply of your wants But what 's that to the questioning or denying your sincerity or right to salvation DOUBT X. I Have no Gifts to make me useful to my self or others When I should profit by the Word I cannot Remember it When I should Reprove a Sinner or Instruct the Ignorant I have not words If I were called to give an account of my Faith I have not words to express that which as in my mind And what Grace can here be then ANSWER THis needs no long Answer Lament and amend those sins by which you have been disabled But know that these Gifts depend more on Nature Art Industry and Common Grace then upon special saving Grace Many a bad man is excellent in all these and many a one that is truly godly is defective Where hath God laid our salvation upon the strength of our Memories the Readiness of our Tongues or measure of the like Gifts That were almost as if he should have made a Law that all shall be saved that have found Complexions and healthful and youthful bodies and all be damned that are sickly aged weak children and most women DOUBT XI O But I have been a grievous sinner before I came home and have fallen foully since and I am utterly unworthy of Mercy Will the Lord ever save such an unworthy wretch as I Will he ever give his Mercy and the blood of his Son to one that hath so abused it ANSWER 1. THe Question is not with God what you have been but what you are God takes men as they then are and not as they were 2. It is a dangerous thing to object the greatness of your Guilt against Gods mercy and Christs Merits Do you think Christs satisfaction is not sufficient or that he dyed for small sins and not for great Do you not know that he hath made satisfaction for all and will pardon all and hath given out the pardon of all in his Covenant and that to all men on Condition they will Accept Christ to pardon and heal them in his own way Hath God made it his great design in the work of mans Redemption to make his Love and Mercy as Honorable and wonderful as he did his Power in the work of Creation and wil you after all this oppose the greatness of your sins against the greatness of this Mercy and Satisfaction why you may as wel think your self to be such a one that God could not or did not Make you as to think your sins so great that Christ could not or did not satisfie for them or will not pardon them if you Repent and Believe in him 3. And for Worthiness I pray you observe There is a twofold Worthiness Righteousness There is a Legal Worthiness and Righteousness which consisteth in a perfect obedience which is the performance of the Conditions of the Law of Pure Nature and Works This no man hath but Christ and if you look after this Righteousness or Worthiness in your self then do you depart from Christ and make
him to have dyed and satisfied in vain you are a Jew and not a Christian and are one of those that Paul so much disputeth against that would be Justified by the Law Nay you must not to much as once imagine that all your own Works can be any part of this Legal Righteousness or Worthiness to you Only Christs Satisfaction and Merit is in stead of this our Legal Righteousness and Worthiness God never gave Christ and Mercy to any but the unworthy in this sense If you know not your self to be unworthy and unrighteous in the sense of the Law of Works you cannot know what Christs Righteousness is Did Christ come to save any but sinners and such as were lost what need you a Saviour if you were not Condemned and how come you to be condemned if you were not unrighteous and unworthy But then 2. there is an Evangelical personal Worthiness and Righteousness which is the Condition on which God bestows Christs Righteousness upon us and this all have that will be saved by Christ But what is that Why it hath two parts 1. The Condition and Worthiness required to your Union with Christ and pardon of all your sins past and your Adoption and Justification it is no more but your hearty thankful Acceptance of the Gift that is freely Given you of God by his Covenant-grant that is Christ and Life in him 1 John 5.10 11 12. There is no worthiness required in you before Faith as a Condition on which God will give you Faith but onely certain means you are appointed to use for the obtaining it And Faith it self is but the Acceptance of a free Gift God requireth you not to bring any other Worthiness or Price in your hands but that you consent unfeignedly to have Christ as he is offered and to the ends and uses that he is offered that is as one that hath satisfied for you by his blood and merits to put away your sins and as one that must illuminate and Teach you Sanctifie and Guide and Govern you by his Word and Spirit and as King and Judge will fully and finally Justifie you at the day of Judgement and give you the Crown of Glory Christ on his part 1. Hath merited your pardon by his satisfaction and not properly by his sanctifying you 2. And sanctifieth you by his Spirit and Ruleth you by his Laws and not directly by his bloodshed 3. And he will justifie you at Judgement as King and Judge and not as Satisfier or Sanctifier But the Condition on your part of obtaining Interest in Christ and his benefits is that our Faith which accepteth him in all these respects both as King Priest and Teacher and to all these ends conjunctly But then 2. The Condition and Worthyness required to the Continuation and Consummat on of your Pardon Justification and right to Glory is both the Continuance of your faith and your sincere obedience even your keeping the Baptismal Covenant that you made with Christ by your Parents and the Covenant which you in your own person made with him in your first true Believing These indeed are called Worthiness and Righteousness frequently in the Gospel but it is no worthiness consisting in any such works which make the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace of which Paul speaks but onely in faith and such Gospel works as James speaks of which make the Reward to be wholly of Grace and not of Debt Now if you say you are unworthy in this Evangelical sense then you must mean if you know what you say that you are an Infidel or Unbeliever or an Impenitent obstinate Rebel that would not have Christ to reign over him For the Gospel calleth none Unworthy as non-performers of its Conditions but only these But I hope you dare not charge your self with such Infidelity and wilful Rebellion DOUBT XII THough God hath kept me from Gross sins yet I finde such a searedness of Conscience and so little aversness from sin in my minde iâ— that I fear that I should Commit it if I lay under Temptations and also that I should not hold out in Tryal if I were called to suffer Death or any grievous Calamity And that obedience which endureth meerly for want of a Temptation is no true Obedience ANSWER 1. I Have fully answered this before If you can overcome the temptations of Prosperity you have no cause to doubt distrustfully whether you shall overcome the temptations of Adversity And if God give you Grace to avoid Temptations to sin and fly occasions as much as you can and to overcome them where you cannot avoid them you have little reason to distrust his preservation of you and your stedfastness thereby if you should be cast upon greater Temptations Indeed if you feel not such a Belief of the evil and danger of sinning as to possess you with some sensible hatred of it you have need to look to your heart for the strengthening of that Belief and Hatred and fear your heart with a godly preserving Jealousie but not with tormenting disquieting doubts Whatever your Passionate Hatred be if you have a settled well-grounded Resolution to walk in obedience to the death you may confidently comfortably trust him for your preservation who gave you those resolutions 2. And the last sentence of this Doubt had need of great Caution before you conclude it a certain Truth It s true that the Obedience which by an ordinary Temptation such as men may expect would be overthrown is not well grounded and rooted before it is overthrown But it s a great Doubt whether there be not Degrees of Temptation Possible which would overcome the Resolution and Grace of the most Holy having such assistance as the Spirit usually giveth Believers in Temptation And whether some Temptations which overcome not a strong Christian would not overcome a weak one who yet hath true Grace I conclude nothing of these Doubts But I would not have you trouble your self upon confident conclusions on so doubtful Grounds This I am certain of 1. That the strongest Christian should take heed of Temptations and not trust to the strength of his Graces nor presume on Gods preservation while he wilfully casteth himself in the mouth of dangers nor to be encouraged hereunto upon any perswasion of an Impossibility of his falling away O the falls the fearful falls that I have known alas how often the eminentest men for Godliness that ever I knew to be Guilty of by casting themselves upon Temptations I confess I will never be confident of that mans perseverance were he the best that I know on earth who casteth himself upon violent Temptations espeâ—â—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—mptations of Sensuality Prosperity and Seducement 2. I know God hath taught us daily to watch and pray that we enter not into Temptation and to pray Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evil I never understood the necessity of that Petition feelingly till I saw the examples of these
still You cannot Delight in God I say again Do but acknowledge it the great work that God requireth of you and make it your daily aim and care and business and then you will more easily and certainly attain it But while you know not your work or so far mistake it as to think it consisteth more in sorrows and fears and never endeavour in your Duties or Meditations to raise your soul to a Delight in God but rather to cast down your self with still poaring on your miseries no wonder then if you be a stranger to this life of holy Delight By this time I find my self come up to the subject of my Book of the Saints Rest wherein having said so much to Direct and Excite you for the attainment of these Spiritual and Heavenly Delights I will referr you to it for your help in that work and adde no more here but to Desire you through the course of your life to remember That the true Love of God in Christ and Delight in him and Thankful Chearful Obedience to him is the great work of a Christian which God is best pleased with and which the blessed Angels and Saints shall be exercised in for ever And O thou the Blessed God of Love the Father of Mercy the Prince of Peace the Spirit of Consolation compose the Disquieted spirits of thy People and the tumultuous disjoynted state of thy Churches and pardon our Rashness Contentions and Blood-guiltiness and give us not up to the state of the wicked who are like the raging Sea and to whom there is no Peace Lay thy command on our winds and waves before thy shipwrackt vessel perish And Rebuke that evil spirit whose name is Legion which hath possessed so great a part of thine Inheritance Send forth the spirit of Judgement and Meekness into thy Churches and save us from our Pride and Ignorance with their effects And bring our feet into the way of Peace which hitherto we have not known O close all thy People speedily in loving consultations and earnest enquiries after Peace Let them Return from their Corruptions Contentions and Divisions and joyntly seek thee asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Blast all opposing Policies and Powers Say to these Dead and Dry bones Live And out of these Ruines do thou yet erect a City of Righteousness where thy People may dwell together in Peaceable habitations and in the midst thereof A Temple to thy Holiness Let the materials of it be Verity and Purity Let the Redeemer be its Foundation Let Love and Peace cement it into Vnity Let thy Laver and Covenant be the Dores and Holiness to the Lord be engraved thereon that buyers and sellers may be cast out and the common and unclean may know their Place and let no desolating Abomination be there set up But let thy People all in one name in one faith with one mind and one soul attend to thine Instructions and wait for thy Laws and submit unto thine Order and Rejoyce in thy Salvation that the troubled spirits may be there exhilerated the dark enlightned and all may offer thee the sacrifice of Praise without dis-affections discords or divisions that so thy People may be thy Delight and thou mayst be the chiefest Delight of thy People â—â—d they may Please thee through him that hath perfectly pleased thee Or if our expectations of this Happiness on earth be too high yet give us so much as may enlighten our eyes and heal those corruptions which estrange us from thee and may propagate thy Truth increase thy Church and honour thy Holiness and may quicken our desires and strengthen us in our way and be a fore-tast to us of the Everlasting Rest Luk. 2.14 Glory to God in the Highest on earth Peace Good will towards men Ecles 12.12 13 14. Of making many Books there is no end and much study is a weariness to the flesh Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole Duty of man c. FINIS