Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	call_v	prophet_n	2,783	5	6.3476	4	false

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

have judged thus What Roman did not prefer Cato before Clodius or Catiline In the mean time what account is made amongst us of men and women fearing the Lord they are counted as the filth and off scouring of the earth Fanaticks Precisians Puritans the vilest persons on the earth the only persons fit for all manner of filth to be thrown upon all manner of injuries to be done unto the only persons fit to be thrown into Gaols c. Yea and this fear of Jehovah is become their crime if they dared to sin against God they might avoid these dangers Nor is it any wonder at all The Disciple is not above his Master nor is the Servant above his Lord. They that said of our Saviour He hath a Devil may be allowed to say so of his Disciples I hope The Apostle calls wicked men and such as have 2 Thes 3. 2. not faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unreasonable men The Scripture ordinarily calleth them fools Want of reason and understanding in men and women appears in nothing so much as in their judgement about persons and things that differ Would not you account that man a fool that should chuse an Apple before a piece of Gold and prefer a serving-man because dressed up in gay clothes before a Prince or noble man or before some other person of known intrin●ecal worth and excellency and are not those persons fools and unreasonable men who when reason thus many waies evinceth the fear of the Lord to be the most excellent thing and persons fearing the Lord to be the most excellent persons yet dote upon other things and persons as more excellent than it or them desire chuse delight in any persons rather than these yet this is the ordinary course and practice of the world What more despicable than the fear of the Lord Who makes himself so much a prey so odious and despicable as he who dares not to sin against God and is afraid of disobeying his sacred precepts Is not their judgement an evidence of their folly Do they not still make it good that wanting faith they are unreasonable men But leaving the ignorant world which Use 2 knoweth not the excellency of Grace and is no fitter to judge between things earthly and spiritual than the blind man is to judge of colours that differ Will not this Doctrine convince Gods people of many errours in practice There are a people in the Lord who own the Lord and seriously profess unto his fear yet neither live as if they judged the fear of God the most excellent thing or those who fear the Lord the most excellent persons Give me leave to speak freely to you who I know do own what you have heard to be truth and will profess a cordial assent unto it Do you indeed judge the fear of the Lord Grace the best and most excellent thing Do you judge persons fearing the Lord the most excellent persons I had rather you should judge your selves than my self to pronounce sentence against you Let me therefore only offer you two or three Questions to propound to your selves 1. Whether do you not value your selves more for other things than for the fear of the Lord with which you are blessed It is true through a demissiori and humbleness of mind Some naturally have lower opinions of themselves than others have but there is none lives but hath some value for him or her self Men will speak vilely and meanly of themselves and a child of God from a principle of Grace is vile and mean in his own eyes but yet there is none who hath not some good thoughts for himself Now I would have you inquire of your own souls what that is which raiseth your thoughts of your selves Whether it be the fear of the Lord or no The Prophet calleth out to us Jer. 9. 24. Let Jer. 9. 24. not the strong man glory in his strength nor the wise man in his wisdom nor the rich man in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth the Lord. I am afraid that if we ask our own hearts wherein they chiefly glory we shall find them sincerely making us some other answer than this that we glory chiefly in this that we understand and know the Lord. Take a man or woman fearing God if they have but the advantage of a little parentage a little birth or breeding or some great relations are they not apt to glory in these more than in this That God is their Father the Lord Jesus Christ their Saviour c. If they have but a little honour or estate are not their hearts more apt to glory in this than in the riches of grace they have in possession or the riches of glory which they have in reversion than in this great honour which the Lord hath dignified them with that they should be called the Sons of God It is reported of Theodosius a Christian Emperour that he gloried more in this that he was the servant of Christ than that he was the Emperour of a great part of the world I am sure we should glory more in our interest in Christ than in all the world besides But alas how few are to be found that are truly of that good Emperours mind that make their boast of God and what he hath done for their souls and look upon this as their great glory yet if they do not they do not in practice attend to what they profess to believe concerning the excellency of the fear of the Lord. 2. Whether do you value others according to the fear of the Lord which you see in them The Psalmist gives this as the character of one who shall come to Heaven Psal 15. 4. He in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. Who is a vile person there is a vile person in mans account thus those are vile who are poor and servile whose condition in the world is mean and abject are accounted vile There is also a vile person in Gods account so the only vile person is the lewd debaucht impenitent sinners such as God hath in judgement given up to vile affections Rom. 1. 26. One that speaketh villany Isa 32. 6. Thus 1 Sam. 3. 13. The Sons of Samuel that lay with the women who came to the Tabernacle and were prophane in abusing holy things are called vile persons So the prophane swearer curser blasphemer the bruitish drunkard the beastly unclean person these are all vile persons God counts them so the Scripture calls them so let their circumstances in the world be what they will God overlooks them as signifying nothing in his eyes they are all base vile persons in his eyes Now this is made the character of one that shall dwell in Gods holy hill he must be one in whose eyes a vile person is contemned Not that he shakes off his natural duty or his moral subjection and duty to

he foreknew such a day he believed it he hoped for it and rejoyced So Hearing in Scripture often indeed most ordinarily signifieth much more than bare hearing viz. hearkening attentive hearing believing obeying So for words signifying Passion Thus the wrath and anger of God in Scripture when it is threatned doth not only signifie Gods just will to punish but also his acts of vindicative justice I will bear the indignation of the Lord saith the Prophet because I have sinned against him That is I will bear those punishments which the wrath of the Lord hath brought upon me So here The fear of the Lord doth not only signifie an inward awe and dread of God caused by the Spirit of God in the hearts of creatures upon the apprehension of Gods Majesty Greatness Power Glory Goodness or other Attributes but it also importeth all those external acts all that outward deportment and behaviour which naturally flow or which according to the divine rule should flow from that principle So that the woman fearing Jehovah is not only she who in the contemplation of the Majesty Power Greatness Glory Justice and Goodness of God reverenceth and dreadeth him carrying in her heart a continual awe of the great God of Heaven and Earth which makes her heart and thoughts stoop and bow at the meditation or hearing of him in consideration of that infinite Majesty Glory Greatness and Power which naturally require that homage from every reasonable nature but also in the whole of her conversation in all her actions both before and towards God and men in obedience to that principle of Religion Fear exerciseth her self in all things to keep a good conscience void of offence not daring to do any thing which may provoke this God to displeasure whom she thus dreadeth and being exactly careful to do all things which and as he commandeth This is the woman fearing Jehovah so far as we have yet discovered her But this is not all which this term importeth Once more 3. It is very ordinary as in other Writings so in holy Writ by a figure called Synechdoche to express a part of a thing for the whole Look as the Philosopher saith of moral virtues Virtutes sunt concatenatae the Virtue like beads are all strung in a chain and none can properly be denominated virtuous who in some degree or other hath not all habits of virtue So I may say in matters of grace The graces of Gods Spirit are in a chain too Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of the chains about thy neck Cant. 4. 9. A man cannot have one but he must have all of them nor from a single habit can any be denominated a gracious person in regard of this concatenation of grace It is ordinary in Scripture to find a gracious person expressed Synechdochically under the notion of one singular special habit of grace especially some one more principal operative habit Now of all habits there are none more operative than those of Fear and Love None that take more hold on the souls or whose influence upon it is more evident Hence in Scripture it is very ordinary to find an holy gracious person expressed under the notion of one fearing God or one that loveth God Divines have observed that the former is more common to the Old Testament which gives account to the Church of God under its Paedagogical estate when the dispensation of the Covenant of Grace was more terrible and the latter to the New Testament where it is more sweet Thus the grace and godly conversation of Obadiah 1 King 18. 5. of Job Job 1. 8. of the whole body of severer professors Mal. 3. 16. is expressed and so very frequently and in the New Testament where the dispensation is more sweet and gentle it is more ordinary to express the same things under the notion of believing and loving 1 John 4. 21. He that loveth God John 21. 15. Simon Son of Jonas James 2. 5. lovest thou me Jam. 1. 12. To them that love him 2 Tim. 4. 8. Those that love his appearance So Rom. 8. 28. and in many other places But yet though as the Apostle speaketh we be come now to Mount Sion and we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but the spirit of Adoption teaching us to cry Abba Father And as the Apostle saith Perfect love casteth out fear Yet those texts must not be understood of an awfull reverential fear and dread of God such as even the holy Angels have Nor yet of that filial fear of God which every child of God hath and must carry with him even to the gates of Heaven but only of servile slavish fear for even under the New Testament we shall find the servants of God expressed under this Notion A godly man in Thesi is thus described One that feareth God and worketh Act. 10. 35. Act. 10. 22. Righteousness So also Act. 13. 26. Cornelius in particular is thus described A man that feareth God and we shall find that the fear of God is so eminently necessary to the constitution of a godly man that any wickedness by warrant of Scripture may be presumed of those that want it Abraham thus excused himself to Abimelech for his not trusting his people with his life and the honour of Sarah I said the fear of God was not in this Gen. 20. ●1 place And on the other side Joseph gives this as a sufficient security to his brethren that whatever they feared he would do them no wrong This do and live For I fear God Gen. 42. 18 So that you see it is but a reasonable figurative way to express the whole of inherent grace under the notion of The fear of the Lord and to express the whole course practice and exercise of godliness under this single habit or act as a common head and this I think enough to have spoken for the explication of the subject in the Proposition and to give you the true notion of a woman or a person fearing the Lord or as the Hebrew phrase in the Text is The fear of the Lord. It is in short An eminently gracious godly woman Or if you will you may take it more largely thus A woman or a person who being possessed of all the graces of the holy Spirit of God communicated in regeneration and being grown up to some degree of perfection in those spiritual habits eminently lives in a diligent caution and taking heed of whatsoever is contrary to the holy will of God and a diligent and exact performance of all those duties of an holy life and conversation which those sacred principles command and produce in obedience to the whole revealed will of God This is the woman of whom this text speaketh The Woman the fear of Jehovah Let me now come to the second thing to inquire what is said of this person That which in short is said of

We translate it when I shall awake there 's no material difference I will begin with the first which is something different from our English I shall be satisfied in watching or while I watch for thy likeness Thus this very word is translated Ezek. 7. 6. An end is come it watcheth for thee I confess I am loth to exclude this sense of the words I' shall be satisfied in watching for thy likeness Watching is but an empty hungry action and gives the soul no satisfaction but here 's the difference betwixt watching for the world and watching for God As to worldly things Hope deferred makes the heart sick as to God it is not so A watching and waiting for God brings a proportionable satisfaction It ought in a great measure to satisfie a gracious soul in his hours of darkness if he doth but find God inabling him to watch for his likeness 2. But the word is otherwise translated and properly enough in waking or when I shall awake or be made to awake Thus the word is often translated in Scripture Psal 3. 6. and in many other texts Psal 3. 6. 1. Some apply this to God as if it should be when thou awakest Indeed the Hebrew is no more than in awaking or in being made to awake When thy faithfulness shall awake V. Vicars ad locum say they I shall be satisfied with thy likeness Indeed when God seemeth to us not to take care and regard his people he is said to sleep by a figure for he neither slumbereth nor sleepeth and the holy Psalmist calleth to him as to one asleep Awake why Psa 44. 23. sleepest thou O Lord God is said to sleep when according to humane sense and apprehension he carrieth himself toward his people like a man that is asleep and in a conformity of phrase when he turns his hand and appears for his people then he is said to awake and when God thus awakes his people use to be satisfied with his appearances for them But though there be a truth in this yet I do not think it the sense of the text 2. Others as I noted before making the words to be the words of Christ understand them of his Resurrection Our Saviour knew that when he by death had satisfied Divine Justice by the accursed death and born the brunt of his Fathers wrath he should awake the third day by a glorious Resurrection and having conquered death and satisfied justice he should again behold his Fathers face clear from all clouds and frowns ascending up on high and sitting on the right hand of God This is Hierom's notion of the text but doubtless the text is not to be so restrained 3. I agree therefore with those who make these words the words of holy David promising himself satisfaction with the image or likeness of God when he should awake 1. By his awaking I find some understanding his recovery and deliverance from that afflicted state in which at present he was Indeed the time of affliction is a time of night and often in Scripture is expressed under the notion of darkness which gives advantage to this interpretation which both Calvin and Mollerus favour thinking it by others applied to the Resurrection argutè magis quàm propriè more subtilly than properly According to them the sense is this At present it is night with me and I am as it were asleep and in a bed of trial and affliction but I know that this shall not be to me a dead sleep Though I am fallen yet I shall rise again though I be asleep I shall awake again and when Gods time cometh I shall be satisfied with the manifestations of his love and the evidences of his favour to me But with all due respect to those Interpreters whom this sense pleaseth I rather incline to those who interpret this awaking of the Resurrection To make it clear 1. It is plain it is a figurative expression Waking you know hath a reserence to sleeping Now sleep in Scripture is taken literally so it signifieth the locking or binding up of the exteriour senses and waking is the freeing of the senses in which sense it cannot be taken here though I meet with some who think that David here speaketh as a Prophet expecting the visions of the morning 2. Or else it is taken figuratively so it is very often used to express death Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Joh. 11. 11. The Maid saith our Saviour is not dead but sleepeth And when Stephen died it is said he fell asleep I find this very word used to express an awaking from the sleep of death 2 King 4. 31. The child is not awaked meaning that it was dead Isa 26. 19. Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust But further yet the awaking here spoken of relates to David Now hearken what the Scripture saith of Davids sleeping Acts 13. 36. After that he had Act. 13. 36. according to the will of God served he fell V. Piscal Ames Engl. Annot. Diodate Ainsworth ad loc asleep What 's the meaning of that is it not that he died Now what is the awaking related to this sleep but the Resurrection and in this sense I find many eminent Expositors agreed The Learned de Mui● hath another interpretation in which I find none going along with him When I awake that is saith he when I shall dye while the soul is in the body it sleeps when it leaves the body it awakes Quum expergefactia fuerit anima mea De Muis ad locum de corpore in quo velut sepulta jacet evolaverit anima mea ad imaginem tuam creata To justifie this his notion he quoteth Jer. 51. 30. where the souls of the wicked are said to sleep a perpetual sleep In opposition to this he saith the souls of the Saints when they die are said to awake Indeed if we con●●der sleep as it is the binding up of the exteriour senses and an hinderance to them in their operations and then reflect upon the soul while tied to the body how much it is hindered in the freedom of its communion with God There is some analogy betwixt the case of a soul in a state of conjunction with the body and sleep And it is true that in death the soul is restored to a greater freedom for communion with God But I do not think this the sense nor is this the usage of the metaphor I think to be justified by parallel Scriptures One thing I must further observe as to the form of the Hebrew word Grammarians observe that the conjugation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hiphil in which the word is found adds facio to the original signisication of a verb which if it hath place here it properly sigfies in being made to watch or being made to awake denoting to us the necessity of a divine influence both to uphold our souls in watching and waiting for God when we do not

in Eccles 7. 2. Death is the end of all Eccles 7. 2. and the living shall lay it to heart The wise man dieth as the fool Eccles 2. 16. This ceasing of godly men and failing of the faithful put David to his Help Lord Psal 12. 1. and made the Prophet of old complain that no man would consid●r it The Apostle asserts it and also gives the reason of it Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin I take the words to have an Analogy in them and the sense to be The body shall die because of sin But although the great curse so far falls upon the best of men who are made alive by the second Adam although the decree of Heaven touching them as well as others and their house of clay be such as must be dissolved as well as others and they must undergo the common fate of flesh and blood and having been wearied with the labours of this life it is but reasonable they should a while rest in their beds in the grave yet they shall not be like those mentioned by the Prophet who shall sleep a perpetual sleep Though they Jer. 51. 39. sleep they shall awake though they fall they shall arise therefore their enemy death hath no cause to triumph over them Our friend Lazarus sleeps but I go saith Christ Joh. 11. 11. 23 24. that I may awake him out of sleep Thy Brother shall rise again saith Christ to Martha she assents to it I know that he shall rise again at the resurrection in the last day As death is called a sleep so the resurrection from the dead is called an awaking out of sleep Thus in Daniel Many that sleep in the dust shall awake Dan. 12. 2. Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust saith the Apostle That there shall be a resurrection is an article of our faith and so momentous aone that it is one of the pillars upon which Religion stands If the dead rise not then is not Christ risen saith the Apostle and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching in vain and your faith is also in vain and the Apostles are found false 1 Cor. 15. 13 14 15 16 17. witnesses for God because they have testified of God that he hath raised up Christ whom he raised not up if the dead rise not And if Christ be not risen your faith is yet in vain you are dead in your sins and they also who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished By this and a far greater plenty of arguments the Apostle confirms a necessity of a Resurrection It is true the Resurrection belongs to wicked men as well as to the children of God they also shall rise they shall come to judgement but the resurrection shall be so much to the damage and detriment of sinners that we shall find in Scripture the Resurrection mentioned as if it were the special priviledge of Gods people Phil. 3. 11. If by any means I Phil. 3. 11. might attain to the resurrection of the dead they are called the children of the resurrection Luke 20. 36. But I shall forbear any further Luk. 20. 36. discourse upon this Proposition remembring that I am in a Congregation of Christians of whose Religion this is one of the fundamental Doctrines Heb. 6. 2. I come to the last of Heb. 6. 2. these Propositions I told you were implied viz That in the Resurrection Believers shall be Prop. 5. satisfied with the Lords likeness By the likeness of God here I mean the beatifical vision the manifestation of God to his Saints in Heaven when they shall be satisfied with seeing him as he is and beholding him face to face I observed before to you the emphasis of the term satisfied I told you that it implieth two things 1. They shall be filled 2. They shall be so filled that themselves shall judge they have enough A man may be filled and not satisfied the glutton may be filled with meat the drunkard with wine and strong drink yet neither of them satisfied the voluptuous man may have a fulness of pleasure and yet not be satisfied the covetous man is filled with silver yet not satisfied The wise man saith There are four things that say not it is enough and there are three things that are never satisfied Many more might be added the ambitious man is never satisfied with honour the covetous man is never satisfied with gold and silver the voluptuous man is never satisfied with pleasure and the objects of his lust No sinner saies he hath of sin enough No Saint saith he hath enough of grace but especially as to all creature comforts this is a vanity which ordinarily doth attend them they fill but do not satisfie but are like the grass upon the house top which is got with a great d●●l of danger and difficulty and with which the mower filleth not his arm nor be that gathereth sheaves his bosom The child of God while he lives here is ordinarily not satisfied with grace he knows in part and he prophecieth in part he is not holy enough he cannot so perfect holiness as he desireth nor ordinarily hath he those clear and constant incomes of divine love and visions of peace as he wisheth for But in the Resurrection he shall be filled he shall be satisfied 1. He shall be plenteously filled 2. He shall be perfectly filled 1. He shall be plenteo●sly filled Here we are fed with morsels as we are able to digest and accordingly as our wise Father seeth best for us as the Israelites were fed with Manna when we shall come in the heavenly Canaan● we shall be fed with milk and hony and with a flow of it 2. Secondly He shall be perfectly filled When our corruptible shall have put on incorruption and our mortal shall have put on immortality we shall yet be but finite Beings and shall not be capacious enough to receive the fulness of divine light and glory The Schoolmen though they agree the immediate passage of the soul to God when it departeth from the body yet will not allow it to be perfectly blessed before the Resurrection because they say there will remain in the soul in its state of separation a desire to a second union and while one desire of the soul remaineth unsatisfied there cannot be a perfection of blessedness but in that day that which is in part shall be done away that which is perfect being come 1. The whole man shall then be satisfied with the likeness of God Here the soul sometimes beholdeth God by spiritual contemplation by the vision of faith by spiritual reflection when God is pleased so far to indulge his child but here the eye of the body sees nothing of him in the resurrection we shall see him with these eyes in our flesh saith Job After the dissolution of our bodies the soul indeed shall with open face behold the glory

I shall shew thee more by and by Further yet when thou acceptedst of the Covenant of Grace offered to thee did not God agree with thee for a penny Is not this the Lords Covenant Believe and be saved This indeed the Lord hath said That whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast away But hath he any where said That whosoever by faith cometh unto him shall walk in the uninterrupted light of his countenance If thou couldest not challenge these comfortable manifestations as thy earnings yet if thou couldest challenge them as debts from God upon compact thou mightest indeed complain of wrong done unto thee in the want of them but there is no such thing promises indeed there are of such kind of mercies as there is of outward prosperity health riches c. to be understood with a reservation to Gods wisdom so far as he sees good for thy salvation and for his own glory But thou wilt say to me this is a poor ground of satisfaction if I were now going down into the bottomless pit God did me no wrong 2. Secondly Therefore I say God under such dark d●spensations is yet exceeding good and gracious to thee if thou findest him but inabling thee to behold his face in righteousness and to watch for his likeness to believe and to live an holy life and conversation David in Psal 73. relates under what a great temptation Psal 73. 1. he was by reason of his own afflicted state and the prosperity of wicked men he begins the Psalm Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart Thou art under a great temptation possibly by reason of that darkness in which it pleaseth God to keep thee as to sensible evidences yet I will shew thee thou hast reason to say Truly God is good to me I will open this in a few particulars 1. Thou hast the hope of glory All thy exercises of grace thy looking up to God thy waiting for him thy fear of offending God thy trouble when thou hast offended him thy love jealousies thy waiting for God all thy exercises of grace are branches springing from that root and indeed the child of God cannot be without hope These all speak thy union with Christ without whom thou couldest do none of these things Now where Christ is there must be the hopes of glory Christ in you the hope of glory saith Col. 1. 27. the Apostle It was a portion of Scripture which often refreshed the soul of this excellent Lady whose funerals we are celebrating if I remember right I have heard her say it was the first piece of Scripture which God sealed to her soul I am sure it was what often refreshed her in her latter daies and to her very last hour it was as the sword of Goliah None to it both for the repelling of temptations and the refreshing of her fainting soul 2. Secondly By hope saith the Apostle we Rom. 8. 24. are saved Now saith the same Apostle Hope that is seen is no hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for The hope of a child of God hath this character it maketh not ashamed David saith no more but that his Rom. 5. 5. flesh should rest in hope Psal 16. 9. And the wise man saith no more but The Righteous Pro. 14. 32. hath hope in his death It is not alwaies true that the righteous man hath assurance in his death but he hath hope in his death an hope that maketh not ashamed in his death and so standeth distinguished from the Hypocrite of whom Job saith Where is the hope of the Hypocrite when God takes away his soul 3. This hope Thirdly is enough to give the soul joy Hence you read of the rejoycing of hope which may be kept firm to the end Heb. 3. 6. it is not so with ordinary hope Solomon saith Hope deferred makes the heart sick But it is so with this good hope through grace because of the certainty that attends it the certainty of the word of promise upon which it leaneth 4. Fourthly Observe what the Apostle saith of this hope Heb. 6. 18 19 20. That by two Heb. 6. 18 19 20. immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope before us which hope we have as an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail whither the forerunner is for us entred even Jesus who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck The two immutable things are Gods Word and his Oath His word of promise that is immutable Heaven and Earth shall pass away before a tittle shall pass from it His Oath in that God hath condescended to our infirmity that we might hope stedfastly O nos foelices saith Tertullian quorum gratiâ Deus jurat O infideles si juranti non credamus These two are the grounds of our hope and the Apostle judgeth them sufficient for an anchor for our souls both sure and stedfast yea not only so but to raise a strong consolation to those who fly to it for refuge and why because it is entred within the vail it is fastened in Heaven it is not like an anchor fallen in a sandy soil it is entred within the vail and if you would know how Heaven comes to be so sure a soil for a poor Christians hope the Apostle tells you that our forerunner Christ Jesus is entred there and that in the quality of a Priest an eternal Priest not after the order of Aaron who was daily to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin but after the order of Melchisedeck Christ hath died for our sins and risen again for our justification he hath said that whosoever believeth in him shall not be condemned he hath made this Covenant with every Believer and is now entred into Heaven in the quality of a Priest an eternal Priest who stands alwaies before his Fathers Throne presenting his own mediatory performances and merits unto his Father the soul believeth in him then raiseth an hope of salvation though it wants sensible evidences and this hope is sufficient to give unto the soul a strong consolation having fled to Christ for refuge however to be an anchor to the soul and that both sure and stedfast which therefore should stay it 5. Fifthly Faith and strong Faith is surely enough to carry a soul to Heaven though it wants sensible evidences if it be not what becomes of the Covenant of Grace what became of all the promises repetitions and branches of that Covenant but a child of God may have faith and strong faith and yet want sensible consolation I say a Christian may have faith I do not mean only a faith of assent which the Devils may have Saint James saith they believe and tremble they doubtless do agree to the Propositions of