and there 's the sea and yonder 's the Sun Moon and Stars sensibly pointing from one creature to another so it is with the believer when he is irradiated by the holy spirit he can look into his own heart and experimentally say this is the pretious faith and that is the love in incorruption and the other is the meekness of wisdom and so go over all the parts of the new creature formed within him or at least over such or so many of them as may assure him that he is in a state of grace This is the way of assurance first there is a constellation of faith and other graces in the heart then these graces irradiated by the holy spirit send forth a kind of splendor which the soul reflecting on it self taking up it comes to attain assurance well knowing that such and such things accompany salvation and import no less then a Divine favour notable is that of St. Paul in whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 Mark after ye believed first there must be faith and the train of graces attend thereon and then comes the seal of the spirit of promise the same spirit which endited the promises in the word comes and seals them on the heart whereas in the word there are such promises made to faith and love and holiness the irradiating spirit plainly discovers that faith and that love and that holiness to be indeed in the heart and so seals up the promises to the believer in particular as if it had expresly said this or that promise belongs to thee Hence the believer so sealed may say of the promises as Origen did of those Scriptures which did much affect him haec est Scriptura mea this promise is mine and that promise is mine nay all the Land of promise as much as I can set my foot on is mine own There are three seals to the promises first God seals them for true in the blood of his own Son in whom all of them are Yea and Amen then man seals them for true by faith he that believeth sets to his seal that God is true and then again God seals them for true to the believer in particular by his irradiating spirit Faith then goes before all other graces but assurance comes after them as being no other then the clear evidence of their true existence in the soul Unless we allow this distinction we gratifie the Enthusiasts who declaim against all marks of grace as legal things and sandy foundations Sixthly Faith stands upon the word of God purely totally and entirely In point of expectation it will not look without a word of promise in point of obedience it will not stir a foot without a word of command in point of doctrine it will not lend an ear without a word of instruction Hence Reverend Calvin saith Inst l. 3. c. 2. Perpetuam esse fidei revelationem cum verbo nec magis ab eo posse divelli quà m radios à Sole unde oriuntur Faith hath a perpetual relation to the word and can no more be sundred from it then the beams from the Sun from whom they arise should it be sundred from it it would lose its nature and cease to be faith but assurance doth not stand so purely totally and entirely upon the word this is also manifest by the manner of attaining assurance that is not made axiomatically in an Enthusiastical way as if there were an inward voice saying thou art justified but discoursively and after some such manner as in this practical Syllogism Whosoever believeth his sins are forgiven but I believe Ergo my sins are forgiven Here the conclusion which imports assurance in it stands upon two propositions the Major is meerly grounded upon the word but the Minor stands upon spiritual sense and experience caused by the holy spirit irradiating the soul in its reflections upon its own estate therefore assurance which is comprized in the conclusion doth not stand so meerly upon the word as faith doth Thus the Learned Pemble speaking of that Syllogism saith the major is of faith the minor of sense and experience And the conclusion of both but chiefly of faith as it follows on the premises by infallible argumentation and partly of sense as it is founded on the inward experience of Gods grace working upon our souls What the doctrine of Faith is is to be sought in Bibles but whether there be a particular act of faith or not such as is comprized in the minor Com. R m. 8. cap. must be looked for in the heart Fides non creditur sed habetur sentitur in corde saith Learned Pareus Faith is not believed but had and felt in the heart Actus reflexivus in ipsam fidem quo credo me credere non est ipsa fides sed potiùs sensus fidei Loc. Com. 689. saith Maccovius The reflexive act whereby I know that I believe is not properly faith but the sense of it But you will say if the minor stands upon sense and experience how can the conclusion which imports assurance be de fide And Bellarmine argues thus D. justificat l. 3. c. 8. Nothing can be certain with a certainty of faith unless it be conteined in the word of God upon which if it lean not it is not faith but that such or such a man is justified in particular is not conteined in the word neither can it be deduced from thence for then I must argue thus the word saith All that truly turn to God shall find mercy but I do truly turn to him therefore I am sure of mercy in which the minor is not in the word By the way we may observe what an excellent foundation the Jesuite layes for his disputation Fides non est nisi verbi divini auctoritate nitatur that is not faith which is not bottomed on the authority of the divine word Oh rare if this were believed what would become of Popery What of all the hay and stubble of their vain Traditions Why do they play the wily Gibeonites with their old bottles and clowted shoes obtruding their unwritten verities and mouldy customs upon the Church of God I can be assured of no Religion which is not founded on Scripture But for answer The certainty of the Doctrine of Faith which respects the whole Church is to be found in the Scripture but the certainty of an act of Faith which is in a particular man is to be found in the heart by spiritual sense and experience and so in Bellarmines minor the certainty of my turning to God stands not upon the word but upon spiritual sense and experience yet nevertheless the conclusion which imports assurance is de fide for every conclusion is so which stands upon one proposition contained in Scripture and upon another gathered from sense or experience as the case is in all such practical Syllogisms yet withall as I said at first the
his faith eyes the soveraignty of it naturally we would be Gods to our selves and set up our wills as supream and therefore we make war upon God and his Law But when faith comes God is God and the Law a royal Law and all the commands in Power and Majesty by them saith David is thy sorvant warned or as it is in the Hebrew illustrated Psal 19.11 the command to the believer is as if a light shone from heaven and a voice came from the excellent glory saying Do this or that Gods will rides in triumph and mans falls to the earth as not able to stand before the Lord The voice of a superior if perceived puts an awe upon the inferior nature so doth the voice of man upon beasts so doth the voice of Angels upon men and which is the greatest awe because from the highest nature so doth the voice of God upon the believer After this manner doth faith yield up the soul to the command and in it to God and Christ Thus far of the fourth thing resignation for a holy government Fifthly Faith resigns up the soul for the gracious reward of eternal life And here to keep the old Method First This resignation is made to Jesus Christ the Mediator Faith cannot be satisfied with earth that 's but the Paradise of sense no nor with present graces these are but the pawns and earnest-pennies of eternal life faith aspires after heaven Oh! let me go over and see the good Land where the Mountains are all spices the Rivers pleasures the Mountains are all spices the Rivers pleasures the Air pure holiness the Eternal light God himself saith faith and for a title thereunto faith yields up the soul to Christ who as a Priest hath merited heaven for us and as a King is able to give it out to us The Plebeian saith Epictetus looks for his gain from things without the Philosopher looks for it from himself but which is a strain higher the Believer looks for his reward from Christ Evagrius the Philosopher gave as the story goes three hundred pounds to Synesius for the poor to be repaid him by Christ in another world the believer doth all at the same rate hears and reads and prays and gives alms and all to be paid in another world Worldly men wonder at his hot pursuits after grace and holiness but he knows what these will go for in another world that 's the reason he follows hard after them but in the pursuit still his eyes are upon Christ as the great purchasor and pay-master Secondly This resignation in and through the Mediator is made to God It is he that glorifieth eternal life is Gods gift our heavenly Fathers meer pleasure faith therefore yields up the soul to him for it and herein it climbs up to him by his free-grace the pure river of life flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22.1 out of the regnant grace of God and merit of Christ as out of a fountain the believer expects no eternal life but what issues out from thence Thus the Reverend Soknius on his death bed expressed himself Pendeo totus à Dei miserieordiâ I wholly depend on Gods mercy Thirdly This resignation is made to the Word There is the promise of eternal life extant and there the way to eternal life is chalked out there is the promise of eternal life mapped out a mercy above all the sphear of nature Hence the antient believers were as pilgrims here Heb. 11.13 as if the world were too little for them they were altogether for the heavenly country which faith sees at a distance in the promise There also the way to eternal life is chalked out the world passes away but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever 1 Joh. 2.17 Riches and pleasures are but the way of time but holiness and righteousness are the way everlasting Psal 139.24 the good acts may pass but their record is in heaven the good men must dye but the holiness shall never see corruption the repentant tears which fall to the earth are bottled with God the charity which seems lost as bread cast on the waters will come to hand again Polycrates when he cast his ring into the sea little thought to have met it again in his fish but the believer doing good works expects to meet them again in another world sowing to the spirit he looks for a crop in eternal life Dorcas may leave her coats and garments behind her but the charity will follow her into another world the commandement is eternal life saith our Saviour Joh. 12.50 the very way to it The believer obeying may in some sense say as dying Pollio jam ingredior in vitam aeternam now I am entring into eternal life into that which will survive the world and live in glory Faith resigns to the word not only as it is the charter of eternal life in the promise but as it is the director to it in the command Thus far of the second thing for what things and purposes this resignation is made But to proceed to the third thing Thirdly What are the Adjuncts and Properties of this resignation Vnto which I shall answer in the following particulars First This resignation is made in the way of God Believers wait upon God for very great things Since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides these what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him saith the Prophet Isa 64.4 But where do they wait for these great things where but in Gods own way Thus it follows those that remember thee in thy ways v. 5. Look in what way or method God gives out a mercy in the same way or method doth faith wait to receive it Would a man have a pardon faith waits for it in Gods way free-grace as immense a sea as it is in God doth not flow out every way upon sinners but through the bleeding wounds of Christ We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ saith the Apostle Rom. 3.24 Mark free-grace issues out through redemption and in that way faith waits for it Thus St. Peter We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved Act. 15.11 he calls the grace of God the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as being merited by him The believer waits for pardoning mercy but it must be the mercy of David coming through the Messiah the true David Whether God might not per potentiam suam absolutam remit sin without a satisfaction is a question may be spared Gods will is declared the Scripture is definitive there is no other name given among men but the name of Jesus no other remission but through his blood the glory of the Lord that is his free-grace comes into the Temple of the Church by the way of the East Ezek. 43.2 that
divided Christ as this is is not the Christ of God but a Christ of his own fancy one that will save him in his sins and justifie him in his ungodliness he that believes in such a Christ doth at once miserably cheat his own soul and as much as in him lieth profanely trample on the blood of Christ as if it were shed on purpose that sinful men might have the reins laid down on their necks to riot in their cursed lusts with all impunity Moreover as to the word of God the believer is for all of it he is not only for cordials and pots of Manna and distillations of grace in the promises but for precepts also his meat and his drink is to do the will of his Father in heaven whilest his eyes are on the Land of promise his feet are in the Land of uprightness Antinomians boast themselves to be above the Law and as free as if they were in heaven and that their sins are but seeming sins sins to sense and to the world outwardly but no sins to faith and before God who seeth no sin in them But alass these are but swelling words of vanity to be above the Law is Antichrist-like to be above God himself whose Majesty and holiness break forth in it and if sins be but seeming sins the Law is but a seeming Law and God whose authority and sanctity shine forth in it is but a seeming God Promises and Precepts run together in the Scripture and must be taken together into the heart by faith Promises are effluxes out of Gods grace and faith takes them in by recumbency Precepts are effluxes out of Gods holiness and faith takes them in by obediential subjection both must continue and be owned by faith as long as there are grace and holiness in God The true believer neither with the Antinomian picks out the promises from the precepts nor yet with the Hypocrite doth he pick out only such commands as do not cross his beloved lusts as the Papists have razed out the second Commandement in some of their Catechisms because of their outward images so the Hypocrite razes out the displeasing Commandements in his practice because of the Idol-lusts in his heart but the true believer as David is for all the wills of God without any salvoes because without any indulged lusts Thirdly This resignation is made purely upon a Scriptural warrant There may be hay and stubble in the believer but there is none in his faith which so far as it is faith stands only upon holy ground All faiths assents stand upon Scripture-propositions all its affiances upon Scripture-promises and all its obedience upon Scripture-precepts What Balaam said by an over-ruling providence that saith the believer by the instinct of faith I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord to do less or more Num. 22.18 he would not as to doctrinals be wise above what is written nor as to worship be religious above what is written nor as to mercies and comforts be an expectant above what is written He would not as to doctrinals be wise above what is written when the Lutherans and Papists met at Ratisbon the Papists would first dispute about the Canon of Faith the Lutherans replyed that the Scriptures were the only rule at which the Papists cried out that it was very unequal to tye them to one kind of weapon only but faith is content with Scriptural doctrines only There is one Mediator in Scripture and faith dares not multiply them there is one Scripture purgatory in Christs blood and faith will not invent another there is one propitiatory sacrifice offered up once for all upon the Cross and faith will not seek after any more All the points in Popery are but so many additions to the word and upon that account insignificant to faith The first error in the first sin was an addition to the word the woman saying ye shall not touch it Gen. 3.3 whereas Gods word only was ye shall not eat of it Gen. 2.17 and the first and primordial error which hath ushered in all the Romish doctrines into the Church hath been the very same thing and because they are additions faith cannot own them no not faith in a Papist opinion may own them but faith cannot for it is but the souls Eccho to the voice of God in Scripture and where there is no voice there can be no return humane doctrines found not at all to faith Scripture is all Bishop Fisher a little before his suffering lighting on that one sweet passage this is life eternal to know thee and Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 brake out into these words here 's learning enough for me the believer who hath the whole Scripture before him may well say here 's doctrine enough for me faith will not turn vagrant and lye about at humane doors for doctrines there is enough in the word Again the believer would not as to worship be religious above what is written that of the Schoolmen cultus est à naturâ modus à lege virtus à gratiâ worship is from nature the manner from the Law the power from grace is very excellent The very light of nature saith God is to be worshipped but faith goes to the word for the manner and to free-grace for the power God in the second Commandement forbids graven Images not as false objects of worship which are forbidden in the first Commadement but as false means and manner of worship and under graven Images as being the chiefest and groffest kind of false worship God doth forbid all other false worship humanely devised such as these were hence true faith looks on all humanely devised worships as so many graven Images a kind of Teraphim expressing though not as they did an humane shape yet an humane devise and invention things void of God without institution and without benediction That of the Prophet who hath required this at your hand Isa 1.12 falls like thunder on all the imagery of humane inventions dashing them to pieces in a moment Quintinus the Libertine being present at a solemn Mass with a Cardinal boasted that he saw the glory of God I suppose according to his loose principles of being under no outward Law he would have said as much if he had been among Pagans at their Idolatrous worship but the true believer looks for that glory only in the Sanctuary of Divine Institutions there and there only God records his Name and commands the blessing even life for evermore Moreover the believer as to mercies and comforts would not be an expectant above what is written 'T is said of Moses that he died according to the word of the Lord Deut. 38.5 or as the Original may be read he died upon the mouth of the Lord the believer loves to live and dye upon Gods mouth in the promises there watching for the sweet words of grace dropping from him he walks among the Promises as the Physitian among his herbs and by a divine
totally perfectly evil but suffering for the Gospel is not meer suffering In temporal losses there may be eternal gain in reproaches a spirit of glory in outward racks inward joys In the Burning-bush God may dwell and death may open a door to life everlasting Hence come the famous Triumphs of Martyrs the Apostle rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ Act. 5.41 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they were honoured to be dishonoured for Christ Others have stiled their Prisons a Paradise and their Iron-Chains a goodly Neck-kercher and at last have kissed the Stake and thanked the Executioner accounting Suffering the only eligible thing in the World Thus Faith destroys all Sins eligibilities and in so doing as the Apostle speaks overcomes the World which is the purest of Victories The great ones who captivated the World outwardly and martially were themselves captivated by it in one lust or other Not unlike Amaziah who subdued the Edomites and was himself taken with their gods But Faith which overcomes inwardly and Spiritually subdues the lusts themselves Further yet Faith doth not only strike at the love of Sin by destroying its eligibilities but by surrendring the Heart to a better Object whilest the love and joy and delight is in Sin it lives as a body with a spirit in it but when these are surrendred up to God and Christ and Heavenly things it becomes inanimate as a dead Carcase This was notably deciphered in Christ crucified the grand pattern of our Mortification he was not only stript and nailed but commending his Spirit to God be gave up the Ghost Answerably in Mortification Sin is not only stript of its eligibilities and nailed by restraints but it dies away in the surrenders of Faith by which the Soul Enoch-like is translated into Heaven and its affections are not here below to animate Sin Were this surrender in perfection Sin could not so much as be as is evident in Christs Humane Nature upon which no spot could fall because it ever was in perfect surrender to his Father And proportionably where it is but in truth only Sin is a-dying because the love and joy whilest in the raptures and triumphs of Faith afford no quickning thereunto hence the Apostle exhorts Walk in the spirit in the elevations of Faith and other Graces and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall grow heartless and be able to do little or nothing Here we see how the dear intimate lusts come to die they cease to be dear as Faith turns the stream of the Heart and give up the Ghost as the love and the joy go out to God It was Luthers method in Reformation that first the Images were to be removed out of the minds of Men and then all would suceed and it is Faiths method in Mortification by holy surrenders to sever the Heart from its lusts and so do the work Moreover Faith casts out the love of Sin by conversing in the holy Word after which the Soul becomes pure and shining like Moses face after he had been with God conversing with the Law it sees a rectitude and pure splendor and then to love Sin is to embrace crookedness and hellish darkness and withal it sees wrath and vengeance threatned against transgressors and then to love Sin is to take death and hell into our bosom Conversing with the Gospel it hath such a fair prospect of Grace and Christ as renders Sin the most ungrateful and unnatural thing in the World Shall God give up his Son his eternal joy to die upon a cross and a man a worm spare a lust a brat of his corrupt Heart Shall Christ pour out his Blood and very Soul to expiate Sin and a Believer a redeemed one fall in love with the Crucifier Shall the holy Spirit come down and dwell in Man as his Temple and he who is so honoured embrace that which is the only offence and grievance to such a guest Or shall the Kingdom of Heaven come down and offer it self and that which is the only bar and obstacle be received Surely a Believer with his eyes open will not do so the more of converse he hath with the Word the less of the love of Sin As Sense when it lies brooding on the Creature inflames the love of Sin So Faith when it dwells on the Word abates it that Concupiscence which at first crept in upon Eve in a slumber of Faith while Sense was doting on the fruit must be driven out again by Faith fixing on the Word and soating above sensible things Thus far how Faith strikes at the love of Sin Thirdly Faith mortifies Sin by watching against all the occasions and inducements thereof The Jews were not to name the Idol-gods the Nazarite was to abstain from the very husk of the grape Valentinian could not bear a little drop of Julians holy-water accidentally sprinkled on his garment without detestation The Children of Samosatane would not play with their Ball after the Ass of the Heretical Bishop Lucius had trod on it but burnt it in the Market-place as unclean Faith is nice and curious it will not go in with such a dissembler nor come nigh the door of such an Harlot as Sin is knowing that the Soul may soon be cheated and adulterated thereby Apprehensions of danger make men watch and to Faith there is no danger like that of Sin If the good man of the house had known when the thief would come he would have watched saith our Saviour Mat. 24.43 Faith knows Sin to be a thief and a murderer to the Soul and therefore sets guards within and without that it may not creep in by the ports of Sense nor rise up out of the deep of the Heart Within there is a watch over the Thoughts and without over the sensible Objects And if a snare appear Faith cries out as the suffering Martyr did when a Box with a Pardon in it was set before him Away with it as you love my Soul During this watch Sin pines and famishes away as in a Spiritual siege the common commerce between the Thoughts and the Objects fails and with it those provisions which use to be made for the flesh Hence our Saviour would have his Disciples To watch and pray that they might not enter into temptation Temptations will offer themselves but the watching Believer will not enter into them by a consent Fourthly Faith mortifies Sin by those actings of Grace which it puts forth in the Believer As Sin the more it is acted makes the fuller blot on the Soul so Grace the more it is acted leaves the purer tincture there You have purified your Souls in obeying the truth saith St. Peter 1 Epist 1.22 Every act of Grace or Obedience doth in its measure purifie from Sin The righteous holds on his way and so grows stronger and stronger Job 17.9 The exercise of Grace renders the inner man more strong and
the unregenerate man with all his notions lies as a man in a Lethargy never feeling the weight of sin and wrath though heavier then rocks and mountains nor indeed savouring the sweetness of Christ and grace though infinitely out-relishing all the things in nature But as soon as faith comes there are all the senses of the inward man a seeing the sun of righteousness an hearing the sweet charms of Gospel-grace a smelling the odours of Christ and the holy unction a tasting how good and gracious the Lord is and a touching and handling the word of life The Learned Anatomists curiously pry into the head to find out the commune Sensorium where all the species and images of sensible things meet together In the spiritual man faith is an universal sense taking in all the species and images of heavenly things into the heart The learned Junius with all his notions coming into a poor Country mans house and hearing him discourse warmly and feelingly of Christ immediately thought that Religion was more then a notion and thereupon reflecting on himself was turned unto God and no doubt sound by experience that faith was much fuller of life and sense then meer notion Fifthly The meer notional knowledge gathered in by reason puffeth up as if some of the Serpents poison were in it it blows up the heart into proud reflexes Bonaventure to keep his mind from swelling used to sweep rooms and wash vessels I suppose it was lest his School-notions should swell and make a tumor in his heart But the light of faith is an humbling thing If it enter in within the vail and see God on his Throne it cries out as the Prophet Isaiah Wo is me I am undone If it fly up to Sinai and sense the thunders and lightnings of the fiery Law it puts the soul into a trembling sit If it go a pilgrimage to Calvary and there take a view of Christ crucified it is greatly abasive bowing the heart down under the conscience of sin If it look inwardly into the heart and there see the silthy and nasty corruptions in every corner it will far more humble then Bonaventures sweeping and washing And the reason of this difference is meer notions are but the progeny and issue of our own reason and therefore we are apt to be fond and fall a cockling of them But supernatural light comes from above and is ushered in with a kind of majesty and therefore humbles and makes us fall down and say God is in it of a truth Sixthly The meerly notional knowledge is but superficial a flash and away a light tast such as was in those Apostates Heb. 6.5 a word sown but unrooted such as that in the stony ground Mat. 13.21 But the light of faith is another thing it is truth in the hidden parts Psal 51.6 wisdom entring into the heart Prov. 2.10 and a word ingrafted or innaturalized in the mind Jam. 1.21 As an appendix to this difference I may add another meer notions being but superficial things floating in the brain do not so establish the heart in Religion as that supernatural light which intimately mixes it self with the heart Hence many Princes and Grandees of the Letter have been sick with intellectual bottles and shamefully reeled up and down in Articles of Faith Some stumbling in the mire of gross Pelagianism and others rowling in the ditch of foul Socinianism with them Christs Deity is but somnium Athanasii and original sin but Augustini sigmentum such horrid spuing from learned mouths hath been made on the glory of Religion And no wonder for the notionalist wants that love of the truth which is an antidote against errors and that pure conscience which is the Cabinet of Divine mysteries On the other hand supernatural light is a more establishing thing the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the firmament of faith Col. 2.5 all the heavenly truths are there as so many fixed stars in their Orb. Gerson relates this story A man vexed with doubts in Articles of Faith at last came to such a certainty in them that he no more doubted of them then of his own life and this he had saith he Non ex ratione aut demonstratione sed ex humiliatione ac admirabili quâdam Dei illuminatione à montibus aeternis All grace because divine hath an establishing property and among the rest so hath the light of faith because it comes from the eternal mountains Seventhly Meer notions are very apt to fume up into niceties and vain curiosities A famous instance of this we have in the School-men whose books are the spiders house made of cobwebs and fine subtleties and those spun up into the Palace of the celestial King and there fastned upon the ineffables of God and the sacred Trinity as if these might be wrapped up in the quiddities of reason and Philosophy insomuch as a learned Divine startled at this audacious vanity saith he reads the School-men about such things as he hears men swear or take Gods name in vain even seldom unwillingly and with horror And the learned Capito who professed Scholastical Divinity was soon weary thereof because there is subtilitatis multum utilitatis parum found therein But supernatural light doth not vapor upwards into niceties and curious questions but influence downwards into the will and affections It brings the day of power into the heart and makes a willing people the holy unction drops from the head to the heart and sets all on a flame with love to God and Christ and heavenly things wisdom speaks excellent things Prov. 8.6 or as the original is it speaks princes or princely things holy things are such in themselves But when they are taken in by faith they have a mighty power in the soul Gods command to Abraham entring by faith wrought down into his will and he offered up his Isaack Gods warning to Noah entring by faith wrought down into his fear and he prepared an Ark. The word works effectually in them that believe filling the inward man with holy affections and the outward with holy fruits I shall conclude this difference with an excellent simily of a worthy Divine A child and a man come into a corn field together the child falls in love with the blue and red weeds but the man is for the solid corn a man of meer notions falls in love with curiosities and fine speculations but a man of supernatural light is for the spiritual and practical truths in Scripture these are the corn his soul must live upon whilest the other are but gaieties and for a shew Thus far I have spoken what this supernatural light is I shall now proceed to shew that it is requisite to faith and this will appear in the particulars following First Unless a man know that God is he cannot believe how can he rest on the testimony of him whom he knows not to have a being This proposition Deus est is according to Aquinas the
saith the Prophet Isa 8.20 the Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple saith the Psalmist Psal 19.7 The Scripture is able to make us wise to salvation and perfect throughly furnished unto all good works saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.15 17. Nay such a rule it is that nothing must be added to it nor diminished from it Dent. 4.2 no not by an Angel If an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel to you let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 And can the spirit in the heart contradict the spirit in the Scripture can it be contrary to it self and depart from its own oracles no surely defectible creatures may be off and on yea and nay in their words but the holy spirit cannot be so The war between Constantius and Magnentius was looked upon as very portentous because therein first cross was carried against cross and Christians engaged against fellow-Christians but that the holy spirit should make war upon it self is a portentous contradiction which if allowed would leave no being to Gods veracity nor standing unto mans faith But as portentous as it is the Enthusiast must maintain it unless he will confess that the spirit in him which denies the Scripture to be the rule is not of God Again thou saiest thou hast the revelation of the holy spirit but how or in what manner doth it reveal it self in thee I suppose thou dost not pretend to a Revelation made by visions or dreams or audible voices as it was wont to be of old but to a revelation intellectual and that is double the one extraordinary in Prophets and Apostles the other ordinary in all true believers In the first revelation made to Prophets and Apostles the holy spirit did immediately infuse the species intelligibiles into their minds and thereby did internally speak and in a proper sense reveal things unto them What we translate the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea Hos 1.2 is in the original the beginning of the speech of Jehovah in Hosea pointing out an internal locution to the Prophet In the second revelation made to believers there is no such thing as in the first no immediate infusion of species no internal voice or locution saying this or that is so and therefore no revelation properly so called but the holy spirit doth enlighten their minds to make them capable and then they hear what the holy spirit in the Scriptures speaks unto them thus S. Paul on the behalf of the Ephesians prays for the spirit of wisdom and revelation not that they might have extraordinary inspirations but that the eyes of their understanding might be inlightned Eph. 1.17 18. To know the witness of God in the Gospel the holy spirit doth not speak to their inlightned understandings immediately but in and by the Scripture-medium which is as it were Epistola Dei Gods letter unto man In the first revelation to the Prophets and Apostles the holy spirit did so totally and in such an extraordinary way govern them in their speaking and writing that therein there was nibil suum nothing of their own not only the matter but quaevis vocula every little word was of God hence S. Peter saith that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moved or carried upon the wings of the spirit above humane frailty 2 Pet. 1.21 In the second revelation to believers the holy spirit is as an holy anointing to their minds and thereby puts them into a capacity to hear what God speaks in the Scripture but it doth not so totally carry and rule them as to make their words purely divine and free from all mixture of their own The first revelation to the Prophets and Apostles being purely immediate and extraordinary makes authentical Scripture The second revelation to believers being but ordinary doth not make Scripture but only capacitate their minds to take in the manifestations of the spirit therein These things premised I must renew my question Say O Enthusiast what is thy revelation is it a pure immediate internal locution is it extraordinary and carried by the spirit above all humane frailty may it be added to the Canon and become Scripture I suppose thou canst not darest not say so but if thou dost read and tremble at the sealing up of the Canon Rev. 22.18 If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book and if any man shall take away from them God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city These words are as a flaming sword at the end of the Bible to keep thee from presuming to put any thing thereunto Say then modestly is not thy revelation ordinary did not the holy spirit come to thee in the chariot of the Scripture and why then doest thou slight and undervalue it why doest thou call it a dead letter a fleshly elementith thing and the like God hath spoken once yea twice if I may so allude once in the Old Testament and again in the New expect not to hear his voice or spirit any where else but there if thou doest thou puttest a cheat upon thy self and instead of a revelation embracest a meer fancy Again the spirit is in thy heart and the spirit is in the Scripture but where is the greatest measure of it say in good earnest is there a greater measure of the spirit in thy heart then in the Scripture then thou canst unriddle all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the difficult knots in Scripture thou canst dive down into that divine abyss and fetch up all the holy mysteries there thy holiness can hold measure with the length and breadth of the pure spiritual Law thy faith runs parallel with all the promises and can tell over all that infinite Mass of free-grace which is couched therein the hellish root of bitterness once in thy nature is quite eradicated and not a string of concupiscence left behind thou canst say I have no sin and which is the wonder thy heart doth not deceive thee in saying so there are no shades or dark spots in thy mind no cracks or flaws at all in thy obedience no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing lacking in thy faith or other graces All in thy heart and life is as right as the rule and as pure as the Christal streams in the Gospel If there be a greater measure of the spirit in thy heart then in the Scripture thus it is with thee but I hope thou art not so utterly void of the spirit and conscience as to fall into so proud a dream of thy estate If thou saiest thou art clean that very word pollutes thee quisquis se inculpatum dixerit aut superbus aut stultus est whosoever saith so is either a fool or a proud man Say then as the truth is there is a greater incomparably greater measure of the spirit in the Scripture
but the believer for the Paradise of God The Sensualist swills in brutish pleasures and sports himself with the volatile joyes of the flesh but the believer is upon the wing after the joyes of the spirit and the pure rivers of pleasure above In a word faith is virtually all the resignations which are in intellectual humiliations inward mortifications and outward martyrdomes In intellectual humiliations faith makes reason though a Queen in her own dominions come down and sit at the foot of revelation In inward mortifications faith makes the regnant lust come off from the throne of the heart and bids the believer as Joshua his Captains put his feet on the neck of his lust In outward martyrdomes faith hath empowred men to kiss the stake and embrace the flames and cry out as the blessed Martyr did welcome sweet cross of Christ and which is the crown of all the rest in all these resignations faith ventures all upon the bare word of God and desires no better security then that for all its expectations Sixthly That faith stands in resignation may appear from the scope of Religion It is the very center of all Divinity and grand axiom therein that the creature is to be abased and God exalted no flesh must glory in it self but in the Lord all pride must be stained and boasting cut off that God may be all in all and the creature nothing Now nothing is nor can be more accommodate to this Central Divinity then faith considered under the notion of resignation which I shall shew in the following particulars First This doth exceedingly abase the creature Resignation is the lowest posture of a creature and so the fittest to take in all those graces which the Gospel hath entailed on believers Would you have adoption from God leave thine own kindred and thy fathers house stand not upon thy birth-right or parentage which in a child of wrath such as thou art by nature is as base and low as hell it self go forth to Christ the natural son of God that thou mayest be an adopted one Would you have pardon and justification stay not at home in thine own righteousness and repentant tears these will not be habitable when God comes in the pure glory of his justice and holiness go out and put on the glorious righteousness of Christ go out and lye down at the door of the pardon-office I I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake saith God Isa 43.25 Would you have sanctifying graces thine own Will cannot teem them out thine own power cannot form them Albertus Magnus the Philosopher spent fifty years in making the Statue of a man so as that with Engines it could speak articulately but when all was done it was but a poor dead thing Shouldest thou live the age of Methuselah and all the while in the artifice of thy reason and power of thy will labour to forge out true holinss it would be at last but an umbra a dead shadow of grace though it might speak fairly in the way of notions and gifts yet it would be without the heavenly life and vitality thou must therefore yield up thy self to Jesus Christ that his spirit may come upon thee and form the new-creature in thee the sum of all is this put off thy ornaments that God may know what to do unto thee yield resign be in the lowest posture of a creature that all the Evangelical graces may be thine own Secondly This doth highly exalt God and that in several respects First It exalts the mercy of God Now it appears that mercy in its proposals of salvation comes down to the very lowest terms it will adopt justifie and sanctifie an yielding sinner and how can it possibly go lower should he adopt such as will not suffer him to draw his picture upon their hearts when Thomas Arundel was for his Martial merits made Earl of the Empire Queen Elizabeth said that her sheep should not be stamped alieno stigmate with another mans mark as long as men will keep the worlds and Satans mark upon them God cannot tell how to call them sons can he justifie the ungodly to justifie the ungodly repenting and resigning is his infinite grace but to justifie them hardning and rebelling is impossible to his holiness should be count them pure with the wicked balances Mic. 6.11 every unresigned sinner hath a wicked balance in his heart which makes as if a little sinful pleasure did outweigh God himself and can he justifie such wicked ones should the sanctifying spirit with all its train of graces come and dwell in the unclean stable of indulged lusts Christ the holy one of God was in his admirable humility in a stable of beasts but in a stable of indulged lusts he cannot be he dwells in the heart by faith that is in the resigning heart and it cannot be otherwise Mercy it self if it comport with the justice and holiness of God cannot make lower terms then to save the yielding sinner Secondly It exalts the wisdom of God He hath so admirably contrived the way of salvation that mercy shall stoop to the lowest terms and the creature take it in the lowest posture that so mercy might sit in majesty and save in state Princes use in their acts of mercy to give an allay of Majesty such as may stand with their honour Solomon will pardon Adonijah but he must be a worthy man or as the Original is a son of virtue 1 Kings 1.52 King Henry the fourth of France would have freely pardoned Birone but then he must make an ingenious confession of the treason which he neglecting to do in time lost his head The great God gives out mercy to poor sinners but they must take it upon the knee in a bending and resigning posture such as is congruous to so infinite a Majesty they must be put into self-emptying and self-annihilating thoughts as Moses into the clift of the rock while the glory of free-grace passes before them Thirdly It exalts the veracity of God The believer resigns up his soul himself his happiness his all upon the meer word of God giving him the glory of his truth in every tittle What Peter said to Christ when he bad him let down his net Master we have toiled all night and have taken nothing yet at thy word I will let down the net Luke 5.5 that saith the believer unto God Lord I am toiling in the dark under sin and wrath but at thy word I will cast my self upon free-grace I am labouring under spiritual wants and necessities but at thy word I will repair to the great treasures of grace in Christ still the hangs upon a word its true he resigns up himself to Christ and free-grace but his warrant for doing so is a meer word how doth he know that the infinite Ocean of mercy whose effluxes are free will flow out to sinful men how doth he know that the Son of God was incarnate and suffered
weigh it the natural man may put in the breach of the Law into the scale but he puts in all the bloody aggravations the suffocated light and abused love the quenchings of the spirit and the rejections of Christ the broken vows and lying promises of obedience the stabs of conscience and warning pieces of wrath the measures of delight and obstinacy in sin and the heaps of guilt in reiterated sinning no man makes sin so sinful as he the pure light of faith being up in the heart every scarlet thread in the contexture thereof becomes visible and yet after all this the believer sees more of the holy God about it then others do and that whether he look on the sins of others or his own As to other mens we have many examples in Scripture the messengers that came to Job spake of the Sabeans and Chaldeans oppression but the Lord hath taken away saith holy Job Job 1.21 when Shimei cursed David Abishai looks no further then Shimei why should this dead dog curse my Lord the King saith he but what saith heavenly David the Lord hath said unto him curse David 2 Sam. 16.9 10. In the crucifying of Christ carnal men looked only at the instruments such as Pilate and the Jews were but the Saints saw Gods hand and Gods counsel in it Acts 4.28 As to his own sins there is a famous instance in the Churches complaint O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy wayes and hardned our heart from thy fear Isa 63.17 What were they not sensible that the error and hardness were their own yes doubtless they were more sensible then others as appears by their mourning and longing for the Lords return yet they cry out why hast thou made us to err and why hast thou hardned us the believer when he looks upon providence and sin hath a spiritual sagacity to determine the matter God is holy while man is unclean God wise while man foolish God merciful while man cruel the light is Gods and the darkness mans the order Gods and the ataxy mans the justice Gods and the unrighteousness mans As to Satan the believer knows him by the word more truly then all the Magitians in the world when Satan shews himself in Magical apparitions he doth but mock the sense and delude the mind but when God shews him forth in the word he appears in his proper colours and true likeness the believer knows him to be of very great power a ruler of darkness a Prince nay a God of this world one that can do great things without in the elements and within in the passions a mighty Leviathan who can make the heart boil as a pot and foam out its own shame and withall he knows that this roaring Lyon is in a chain and cannot go beyond his commission Again the believer knows him to be an old serpent full of methods and devises turning every stone waiting upon every occasion complying with every temper and putting on every shape in his temptations now in the dress and pomp of earthly things and then in Samuels Mantle transforming himself into an Angel of light sometimes carrying men up into the mountain of the world and glorifying vanity before them and sometimes setting them on a pinacle of the Temple to cast them down by the pride of their own duties now speaking in the Language of Nature Master spare thy self and anon in the Language of Scripture it is written thus and thus and all that he may devour or as it is in the Original drink up 1 Pet. 5.8 souls as if he lived upon spirits and no blood would serve him but that of souls And withall the believer knows that the All-wise God can wrap up Satan in his own nets and countermine him in every plot he can awaken us out of the snare and make us see the methods and subtile postures of the devil how he would charm us into presumption or roar us into despair how he stands at our right hand in holy duties and at our left in earthly employments what a murderer he is in stifling holy motions and what a lyar in his false joyes and promises Thus the believer knows more of Satan and his hellish depths then others do As to things past the believer hath a holy sagacity to make a good improvement of them which is most evident in his appropriating Scripture-histories to himself in such or such a state saith he God dealt so or so in a way of mercy or justice and if I come into that state I shall have the same measure because God is ever the same and his mercy and justice have the same aspects towards men as heretofore the believer appropriates good states and good consequents see in what way the goodness of God followed such a man in the very same way will it be with me saith faith if I can strive and wrestle with God in prayer I am in Jacobs state and shall be a prince with God the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much James 5.16 if I am in Joshuaes state fighting against lusts the true Canaanites God will never never leave me nor forsake me that was a particular promise made to Joshua yet is by the Apostle accommodated to believers as being in his state Heb. 13.5 If a man suffer for the true God and his worship he is in the fiery furnace and the son of God is with him to comfort and support him if he have a good conscience made so by the blood and spirit of Christ he is in the Ark and shall never drown in the common perdition 1 Pet. 3.20 21. there is a cloud of witnesses in which faith observes righteousness going before and mercy following after Again the believer appropriates bad states and bad consequents see in what way Gods wrath brake out against such a man in the same way will it break out against me saith faith if I am murmuring and unbelieving I am in the Israelites state and without repentance I shall dye in the wilderness and never enter into rest if I wallow in the mire of gross and sensual sins I am in Sodome and Egypt and may expect their line of plagues and eternal fire if I love the wages of righteousness I am in Balaams way and may look for his end if I sleep in my indulged lust I am in Delilahs lap and like to lose my own strength and Gods presence these are our types or figures as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 10.6 in which we have a lively image and pourtraiture of punishments for sin and from thence may by faith divine that if such sins goes before such wrath will follow after As to the present world which is checkered with good and evil things and hath in it as the Ark had of old a rod and a pot of Manna the believer hath a greater sagacity then others As to the good things of the world no man sees so much of their
a true sense of Original Sin David senses it in primo ardore in the first warmth of Natural Conception Psal 51.5 But such among them as wanted Faith wanted a sense thereof Indeed they had the Law but the veil being on their hearts they understood it only as prohibiting manum non animum the outward act not the Will and Non concupisces Thou shalt not covet was rather taken tor a Moral sentence than a Divine precept among them This was the opinion of the Jewish Masters about our Saviours time when Rabbinical Learning was at the height in the Schools of Hillel and Shammai St. Paul a man brought up at the feet of Gamaliel whom the Jews accounted the honour of the Law while he was in his Pharifaism knew not concupiscence to be Sin Rom. 7.7 And they that understood the Law no better could understand but little of Original Sin Their Circumcision was a memento of it and so they understood it casting the Praeputium thereby cut off into the dust as a morsel to feed the old Serpent withal But alas they were uncircumcised in heart and upon that account reckoned up among Egyptians Edomites Ammonites and Moabites uncircumcised in flesh Jer. 9.29 The Jewish Rabbins speak of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evil figment in mans heart as an implacable enemy One man say they walks with another but one hour and they become friends but this evil figment is born with man and grows up with him all his days and yet if it find an opportunity will after 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 years precipitate and cast him down headlong But they make it a very small matter at first At first say they it is weak as a woman afterwards strong as a man at first it is as a small ahread afterwards as the cable of a Ship at first it is as a Viator at last as a Lord. And withal they made it subject to the power of mans free will Concupiscence say they would fain ruin thee but thou maist if thou wilt rule over it Gen. 4. And whosoever obeys the good figment that is his own reason shall be delivered from the evil one They cried up Reason and Will and understood little of Original Sin Hence Regeneration the necessity whereof may be naturally deduced from a right knowledg of that Sin was so unintelligible to them Nicodemus a Master in Israel and one of the Judges in the great Sanhedrin was startled at our Saviours Doctrine Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 That of being born of water possibly he might understand because the Jews did imitate their Proselytes by washing or Baptism and then counted them as new-born and regenerate as Learned men have observed But that of being born of the Spirit he was totally ignorant of which he could not have been had he had a true sense of Original Sin which where it is makes the Doctrine of Regeneration obvious but looking on that Sin as no great matter and corrigible by mans own Reason and Will he stood as it were at a maze at our Saviours words as if there had been no promise at all of a new heart and a new spirit made in the Old Testament Leaving the Jews let us enquire among Christians for a true sense of Original Sin here we must not expect it among Pelagians or Socinians who deny the thing as if the figment of the heart were but the figment of the brain peccatum originis nullum prorsus est saith the Racovian Catechism Sine vitio nascimur saith Pelagius placing Infants in the same state as Adam was before his Fall neither must we look for it among those Popish Doctors who mince and extenuate this Sin Intensivè majus est peccatum actuale quam originale saith Aquinas It is Omnium peccatorum minimum saith another Hence many of them assert That it is not properly Sin neither may I find it among those Protestant Doctors who though they use the word Grace yet attribute much to the Reason and Will of man That famous place Joh. 3 of being born of the Spirit is taken by a learned man for an undertaking the Law of Christ an entring on a new pure Spiritual life as if Regeneration were Mans act The fallen man saith another is not wholly destitute of power but as the man in the Parable half-dead Sin is not so unruly but that Cain if he will do well may master it the desire of Sin shall be subject to him saith God When a Man came to Delphos with a live-Bird under his Cloak and asked the Oracle Whether he should bring forth a dead thing or living intending to put a trick upon it Answer was made to him In te est stulte Fool 't is in thy power to do which thou wilt So say such Doctors The Gospel is proposed to Men and to embrace it is in their own power 't is Gods part to call but Mans to be elect or not that is to be sincere Believers or not These Men to me understand little of Original Sin Pretermitting them I come to those who have a right notion of Sin and Grace but are void of true Faith These with all the Balms and sweet Odours of Truth which lie about their Heads are yet Spiritually dead at Heart and feel not their Wounds they are as yet contented with their old Heart and with case carry a sink of Sin in their bosom Oh how much unfelt unbewailed blindness hardness enmity unbelief earthiness is there in them All which fetch never a groan from them It is somewhat strange that believing Abraham when God made him so fair a promise of an Isaac should yet let out his thoughts so much upon Ishmael Oh that Ishmael might live before thee But it is very natural for unregenerate men even when the Promise of a new heart lies fair before them in the Scripture to acquiesce in the old frame as much of Hell and Death as they carry about with them All 's well and in peace but when Faith comes Original Sin is selt to the quick God shines from Sinai the Law is up in the heart in its pure Spirituality and all the foul corners there which before lay in the dark discover themselves in their ugly hue the Spirit of Life enters into the Man and the Wounds and Ulcers which whilest he was Spiritually dead broke not his rest breath out anguish in every part and make him cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh wretched man that I am Rom. 7.24 Oh this blind rebellious unbelieving earthly Heart of mine who shall deliver me from it That corruption should be universal all over the Soul like the Plagues of Egypt all over the Land That the dead should be in every faculty the lusts every-where croaking even in the Kings Chamber in the noble faculties of Reason and Will and all the streams of the Heart the Thoughts
thee in intimate Communion and sup with thee in the acceptance of thy Graces and thou shalt sup with him at a Banquet of Love Thou mayst experimentally say That the Gospel is come to thee in power and in the holy Ghost and in much Assurance as the Apostle speaks 1 Thess 1.5 In Power in the first work of Conversion in the holy Ghost in the gracious indwelling of it after Faith and in much Assurance in the Sealins of Truth and Love upon the heart Next to that of the Word I recommend Prayer to thee This is an excellent Ordinance it wrestles with God and like a Prince prevails with him It unlocks the Treasury of Grace and fetches down all Blessings it hath a king of Omnipotency in it and if with reverence I may so allude As God brought forth all things by the breath of his mouth so the Believer produces all Blessings by the breath of Prayer Apollonius as Sozomen relates never asked any thing of God but he obtained it And of Luther it was said Iste vir potuit apud Deum quod voluit This man could do what he would with God Ask and thou shalt have Ask the sealing Spirit and thou shalt have it ask in the Name of Jesus Christ His Merits are as pure Incense able to perfume thy Prayers and as a powerful Orator to perswade the Comforter to come down to thee Ask in the holy Spirit in the Grace and sweet Gales of it That the Spirit may be an answer to it self the Spirit as sealing Gods Love an answer to it self as inspiring thy Prayers Ask in Faith Hath not God told thee of a witnessing Spirit Hath he not said That he will speak peace to his Saints Are not his Promises as so many Bonds upon his Truth to make the things promised good Prove him by Prayer if he will be as good as his Word see if he will not own his own hand in the Promise wrestle with him till the day break in the light of his Countenance lifted up upon thy heart Ask in fervency that whilst thy heart is burning with Love towards God his Love which is the Fountain of thine may reveal it self to thee The old Token of acceptance was firing the Sacrifice and it is still a pledg of success when there is warmth in Prayer Ask in sincerity in a pure intention not for self-ease not that thou mayst fare deliciously upon the Love of God but that thy Spirit may be the freer to his service that thy Zeal may be more inflamed towards his Glory The prayer of the upright is his delight in so praying thou shalt meet the favour of God It is very remarkable what posture Paul was in when Ananias was sent to comfort him Behold he prayeth saith God go let him be filled with the Holy Ghost In the beginning of Psal 13. Davids Faith run very low How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever how long wilt thou hide thy face from me ver 1. A while after it lifts up it self a little Consider and hear me O Lord my God lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death ver 3. but praying on it is in the altitudes I have trusted in thy mercy my heart shall rejoice in thy Salvation ver 5. Prayer is one of Gods sealing times in it thou approachest and drawest nigh to him who is the fountain of Life and Joy Whilest thou art opening and pouring out thy Heart to him Who knows but he may open his Heart and incomparable Love to thee the holy Spirit may come and tell thee as the Angel Gabriel did Daniel in the same posture That thou art greatly beloved a man of desires with God In the last place make use of the Lords Supper There God makes a Royal feast a feast of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well resined he sets forth Christ crucified whose flesh is meat indeed whose blood is drink indeed Come eat his flesh and drink his blood that you may live for ever Eat and let thy Soul delight it self in fatness drink yea drink abundantly O beloved Soul or as the Original Text may be read Be drunk or happily inebriated with the sweet Love of Christ the same crucified Christ which in the Sacrifice on the Cross satisfied Gods heart at this Sacrament can satisfie thine Never any Feast like this which chears the Heart of God and Man How will God manifest his Love here in Salutations Kisses and Unctions The Jews at their Feasts used many demonstrations of Love such as Salutations faying to their Guests Peace be unto thee Kisses from whence afterwards Christians derived their Kiss of Charity or as Tertullian calls it Oscuculum Pacis A Kifs of Peace and Oyl poured out upon the Head called therefore Oleum laetitiae The Oyl of gladness And cannot God do much more at his Table Cannot he salute thee and say Peace Peace to thee because thou trustest in him Cannot he kiss thee with the kisses of his mouth and cause one Promise or other to drop sweetness into thy heart Cannot he give thee the rich anointings of the holy Spirit and sill thee with all joy and peace in believing Let thy Spikenard thy Faith and Love and other Graces send forth their smell that he may break a Box of Spikenard in thy heart and fill and perfume it with the sweet odours of his Love Wait upon him in this Ordinance there he doth by outward and visible Elements seal Pardon and Salvation to thee and believe it he that puts one Seal to thy Sense can put another to thy Heart unto the Seal of Elements he can add the Seal of the Holy Spirit with the outward Bread and Wine thou mayst have the hidden Manna and heavenly refreshments from Christ Whilst thou art renewing thy Covenant and avouching the Lord to be thy God he can own thee and avouch thee to be one of his Children and this will be more to thee than a World Again If thou wouldst be assured walk in Vprightness this is Gospel-perfection the Believers Beauty the soundness of all his Graces the desire and delight of God himself as being a Beam from his own Truth and Simplicity In Scripture he seldom mentions an upright man without setting some mark of Honour upon him Enoch walked with God as one familiar with him Gen. 5.22 and as the Septuagint and after them the Apostle Heb. 11 hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pleased God and how great a Character is this Caleb followed God fully and he is stiled a man of another Spirit such as is above the rate of common Souls Job was a perfect and upright man and God calls him a none such in the Earth The Jews say That the Seventy Souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were worth as much as all the Seventy Nations in the World I am sure the upright the Israelites indeed are the Pearls and Excellent ones in the Earth Now
whose origine is light such ignorant ones cannot resign sin to them because unknown is no burden holiness to them because unknown is no beauty Christ and grace to them because unknown are no attractives and how can they resign resign recumbentially they cannot for they know not the promises resign obedientially they cannot for they know not the precepts resign in an humble docibleness they cannot for they know not so much as their want of knowledge Again some sins though unknown carry in the matter of them a direct repugnancy to resignation and so to faith For instance every man hath some natural Popery in his heart he would be justified by a righteousness of his own The Jews being asked whether they believed to be saved by Christs righteousness made this answer every fox must pay his own skin to the flayer every man must stand upon his own righteousness he that doth thus need not cannot resign to Christs righteousness he need not for why should he go out of doors for a righteousness which he hath within in his own heart and he cannot for justification by our own righteousness and justification by Christs are contraries and so are a dependance on our own righteousness for justification and a dependance on Christs for it Hence the Jews when they went about though ignorantly to establish their own righteousness could not believe they submitted not themselves to the righteousness of God saith the Apostle Rom. 10.3 their own unresigned righteousness kept them from believing as being in the very matter of it contrary thereunto Moreover some sins which may not be known for fins in the matter of them may yet be darlings Delilahs and as the Hebrew word imports exhausters such as drain out the very marrow of the heart I mean the prime love choice desire and supream delight thereof These in respect of their intimate conjunction with the soul are barrs to resignation and so to faith How can ye believe which receive honour one of another saith our Saviour Job 5.44 their darling vain-glory made their believing impossible After the same manner all lawful things when once they are set up as Idols in the heart and the love and the joy dance before them are obstacles to faith thus we find They would not come to the marriage-supper of the Gospel and why their darling farms and merchandise kept them away Math. 22.5 Haec vincula hae catenae quae carnales constringunt these are the bonds and the chains which keep men from resignation and the more dangerously because they lie invisible and hid among the stust of our lawful things Christ and earthly things saith a Great Divine come often in competition in every unjust gain Christ and a bribe in every oath Christ and a blasphemy in every sinful fashion Christ and a rag or excrement in every piece of vain-glory Christ and a blast in every intemperance Christ and a vomit whatever the thing be in it self lawful or sinful as soon as it becomes the Idol of the heart it proves an obstacle to faith Thirdly All known actual sins are not absolute barrs to resignation and so not to faith there are peccata quotidianae incursionis sins of meer infirmity such as are not the proper formal issues of deliberation but the inevitable effluviums of humane frailty these may be in a man and may be known to be in him and yet through grace he may resign notwithstanding these black moats slying round about him his faith may look up to the mercy-seat on the other side known actual sin issuing out of deliberation if it be but in one single act doth whilest it is acting put a barr to resignation and so to faith for that single act is rebellion and how can a man whilest he is knowingly in arms against God resign it is as the sin of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.25 and how can a man who is virtually in covenant with the devil enter into terms with God that faith is not truly recumbential which is not also obediential neither doth it can it indeed lean upon Gods grace whilest his holiness is rejected And if such known deliberate sin in one single act put a bar to faith much more will it do so when it is in a course and series of successive rebellions Thus St. John saith whosoever sinneth that is makes a trade and runs a course of known sin hath not seen him that is Jesus Christ who was manifested to take away sin 1 Joh. 3.6 such an one though never so full of Scriptural notions never yet saw a crucified Christ by faith never yet looked upon the right mercy-seat never yet set foot on the precious promises of the Gospel Christ and Belial cannot be in concord for Christ is a holy Christ a Christ upon his throne and the trader in sin is a man of Belial a man as the Hebrew word imports absque jugo who casts off the holy yoke from his heart and life Fifthly That faith stands in resignation may appear from the act of resignation made by faith Faith in Enoch resigned up his life and in a spiritual sense every believer is by faith translated Enoch-like he is not in the lower world but so far as he believes taken up by God and conversing in heaven Faith in Abraham resigned up his only one his Isaac and every believer every child of Abraham treads in the same steps of faith going up into Moriah into the vision of God and there offering up the only one of the heart the darling love and joy there Faith in Moses resigned up Egypt and in that resigned up all the world for in doing thereof his eye was not on some other part of the visible world but on the invisible God and in every believer faith takes the world and casts it behind his back as dung and dross for the excellency of Christ regard not your stuff saith faith all the Land of promise a heaven of glory is before you wonderful are the surrenders which faith makes in the believer it surrenders up his understanding to super-rational mysteries Meer reason goes no farther then its own sphear of natural notions but the line of faith runs as far as supernatural mysteries such as the lingua lutea the clay tongue of man cannot utter such as lippus oculus the weak eye of reason cannot see Again it surrenders up his will to super-moral self-denials The Moralists self-denial is but the artifice of his reason but the believers is a very great mystery The Moralist denies only the beast the brutish lusts in his sensitive affections but the believer denies the more fine and spiritual fins in the Will it self The Moralists design is only to advance the Empire of Reason over the lower faculties but the believers is to advance God and his holy Will over himself and all that is in him Moreover it surrenders up his affections to super-sensual joyes and pleasures The Sensualist is for the Paradise of sense