but desire he should carry you away out of this vale of misery that mortality might be swallowed up of life If you would doe all this in earnest you would be so farre from feare of death that you would if you were put to your choice with the Apostle choose to hee dissolved and to bee with Christ which is best of all and so farre from fearing the day of Iudgement that you would love and long for Christs appearing waiting with patience and chearfulnesse when your change shall be Indevour to follow these directions then suppose that you cannot keepe downe these fears and conquer them as you would yet be not discouraged for fears and doubts in this kinde doe flow many times from strength of temptation rather than from weakenesse of Faith Moreover what if you cannot attaine to so high a pitch in your Faith as S. Paul had are you so ambitious that no other degrees of Faith shall satisfie you Orare you so foolish as thence to conclude that you have no Faith Thirdly Whereas you say you are without feeling therefore you feare you have no faith I acknowledge that want of feeling and want of sense of Gods favour is that which doth more trouble GODS tender-hearted Children and make them more doubt of Gods love and of their iustification than any thing else whereas I know nothing that giveth them losse cause For first What meane you by feeling If you meane the enioyment of the things promised and hoped for by inward sense This is to overthrow the nature and to put an end to the use of faith and hope For Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seene And the Apostle faith Hope that is seene is not hope Indeede faith giveth a present being of the thing promised to the beleever but it is a being not in sense but in hope and assured expectation of the thing promised Wherefore the Apostle speaking of our spirituall conversation on earth saith We walke by faith not by sight These two faith and feeling are opposite one to the other in this sense For when wee shall live by sight and feeling then we shall cease to live by faith Secondly If by feeling you meane a ioyous and comfortable assurance that you are in Gods savour and that you shall be saved and therefore because you want this joyous assurance you think you have no Faith you must know this conclusion will not follow For Faith whereby you are saved and set into state of grace and this comfortable assurance that you are in state of grace and shall be saved doe differ and are not the same It is true Assurance is an effect of faith in al that have this assurance yet it is not such a proper and necessary effect which is inseparable from the very being of faith in man at all times For you may have saving Faith yet at sometime be without the comfortable assurance of Salvation To beleeve in Christ to Salvation is one thing and to know assuredly that you shall be saved is another For Faith is a direct act of the reasonable soule receiving Christ and Salvation offered by God with him Assurance riseth from a reflect act of the soule namely when the soule by discourse returneth upon it selfe and can witnesse that it hath the afore-mentioned grace of faith whereby a man can say I know that I beleeve that Christ Iesus is mine and I know that I beleeve that the promises of the Gospell belong unto mee The holy Scriptures are written for both these ends that first Faith and then assurance of faith and hope should be wrought in men These things are written saith S. Iohn in his Gospell that you may beleeve that Iesus is the Christ the Sonne of God and that beleeving you might have life through his name Againe these things have I written saith the same Apostle in his Epistles to you that beleeve on the name of the Sonne of GOD that yee may know that you have eternall life and that you may beleeve that is continue to beleeve and increase in beleeving on the name of the Sonne of God A man is saved by faith but hath comfort in hope of Salvation by Assurance So that the being of spirituall life in respect of us doth subsist in Faith not in Assurance Feeling And that is the strongest and most approved faith which cleaveth to Christ and to his promises and which holdeth his owne without the helpe of feeling For albeit Assurance giveth unto us a more evident certainety of our good estate yet faith even without this will hold us certaine in this good estate whether we be assured or not Wherefore some Divines have well conceived of a double certaintie of things apprehended by mans judgment The first is Certaintie of Adherence and cleaving fast to the thing it beleeveth causing a man from the bare assent and consent to the truth and goodnesse of the promise and from the Commandement of God in his Word which bids him beleeve and rest on his promise for to cleave to the promise and to relie on it and to obey that Commandement which commādeth him to beleeve in Christ Iesus yea though this truth bee not otherwise so evident and cleare to the understanding as to satisfie mans natural reason For though Faith in its minority cannot alwayes comprehend to the full how and by what meanes or why in reason the thing promised should be fulfilled yet because it conceiveth thus much that the things of God are not fully comprehended by humane reason and that the truths of God are infallible whether it comprehend them or not will first beleeve and rest on the promise and then afterward consider how it may be so farre as is fit to be understood by reason Hence it is that albeit reason as it is now corrupt will still be obiecting and will be satisfied with nothing but what it may know by sense and by demonstration from Artificiall Arguments yet Faith even above and against sense and all naturall reasoning will give credit unto and rest upon the bare naked divine witnesse of the Word of truth for his sake that doth speake it Secondly there is a certaintie of Evidence namely when the thing beleeved is not onely said to be true and good but a man doth finde it so to be by sense and experience and is so evident to mans reason convincing it by force of Argument taken from the Causes Effects Properties Signes Contraries and the like that it hath nothing to object against the thing propounded to be beleeved The certaintie of Adherence is the certaintie of Faith The certaintie of Evidence is the certaintie of Assurance The certainty of Assurance and evidence is of excellent use for it maketh a man fruitfull in good workes and doth fill him ful of joy and comfort therefore it must by all meanes be gotten yet it
THE CHRISTIANS DAILY WALKE in holy SECVRITIE and PEACE Being an Answer to these Questions 1. How a man may doe each present dayes work with Christian Chearefulnesse 2. How to beare each present dayes crosse with Christian Patience Containing familiar Directions Shewing 1. How to walke with God in the whole course of a mans life 2. How to be upright in the said walking 3. How to live without taking care or thought any thing 4. How to get and keepe true peace with GOD wherein are manifold helpes to prevent and remove damnable Presumption also to quiet and to ease distressed Consciences First intended for private use now though importunity published for the common good By HENRY SCVDDER Preacher of the Word The fourth Edition corrected and amended by the Author Thine eares shall heare a voyce behind thee saying This is the way walke ye in it Isa 30. 31. LONDON Printed by I. B. for Henry Overton and are to be sold at his Shop at the entring in of Popes-head Alley out of Lumbard-street 1631. The Epistle to the READER THE searching out of Mans true happinesse hath exercised the wits and Pens of many Philosophers and Divines with a different successe 1. Some by a mistake of the end â—ave erred about the meanes All their enterprises have ended in Vaâ—itie and Vexation whilest they have caught at the shadow of fruit 〈…〉 a hedge of thornes and have neglected the trâ—e it selfe whence the â—uit might have bin gathered with â—re certaintie and lesse trouble I maruaile not at Varroes report of 288. severall opinions about this subiect when I consider Mans naturall corruption whose understanding is so darkned that as those Sodomites were weary in seeking the doore of Lâ—ts house so in vaine have the wisest Heathen sought the happinesse which though like blind men they groped after it they could never find And his spirituall appetite and taste is so distempered that hee car iuage of the chiefe good no better then a sick-man can doe of the 〈…〉 meates 2. Others having the eyes oâ— their understanding lightned and their senses exercised to discerne both good and evill have concluded that mans true happiness consists in the soules enioyment 〈…〉 God by an holy conformity and 〈…〉 communion with him For What else is true happinesse then the enioyment of 〈…〉 chiefe good And that God the chiefe good appeares in this that all the properties which raise up goodnesse to the highest top of perfections are in God onely For he is the most pure perfect uniuersall primary unchangeable communicative desirable and delightfull good the efficient patterne and utmost end of all good without whom there is neither naturall morall nor spirituall good in any creature Our conformitie to him the Apostle Peter expresseth when hee saith that the Saints are made partakers of the Divine nature That is they are renewed in the Spirit of their minde and have put on the new man which after God is created â—n righteousnesse and true holinesse So that they have 1. A new 〈…〉 in their understanding faculâ—e that they know God not oneâ— as Creatour but as Redeemer 〈…〉 of the world and whilest they beâ—â—ld as in a mirrour the glory 〈…〉 the Lord with open face they are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. This knowledge is begun in this life in the knowledge of Faith and shall be perfected in the life to come in the knowledge of sense this is in a glasse that shall be face to face Secondly they have a new life in their will and affections that is they have disposition and inclinations in their hearts sutable and conformable to the directions of the Word This the Apostle Paul intended when he said of the Romans that they had obeyed from the heart the forme of doctrine whereunto they were delivered He saith not which was delivered unto you but whereunto you were delivered that is the Word is as a mould whereinto being cast you are fashioned according to it Hence it is that the Saints are said to be Sealed with the holy Spirit because as the Seale leaves its print upon the Waxe so the Spirit makes holy impressions in the soule this is called the writing of the Law in our hearts in allusion whereunto the Apostle compares the hearts of beleevers to Tables the Ministers to Pennes the Spirit to Inke without which the Penne can write nothing and the affections or Conversation of these beleevers to an Epistle and this is said to be read and understood of all men when they walke as examples of the Rule 2 Cor. 3. 2. 3. Hence it is that godlinesse hath a selfe-sufficiency ioyned with it 1 Tim 6. 6. Because a man is now in Communion with GOD whose face when a man beholds in righteousnesse hee shall be satisfied with his image Ps 17. 15. Hence comes that peace of Conscience joy unspeakeable and glorious and that holy triumph and exultation of Spirit which you may obserue in the Apostle Paul Having briefly shewed what this conformitie and communion with God is I will adde one or two words more to make it manifest that onely those are truely happy which are in this estate I may spare quotations of Writers who concurre in this opinion None of sound iudgement have denyed it the best Schoole-men have determined and concluded it and there is good reason for it For 1. mans utmost end is that it may be perfectly well with him which hee can never attaine unto without communion with God who is the chiefe of Spirits and the best of goods Other things are desired as subordinate to this The body is for the Soule as the matter for its forme or the instrument for its agent Humane wisedome and morall vertues are desired not for themselues but for the fruite that is expected by them as glory pleasure and riches Fame or glory is desired not so much for it selfe as for the opinion of others whence it s called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wordly and bodily pleasures are excessively desired as drinke in a Feaver or Dropsie better it is to be without the malady then to enioy that remedie Riches are desired not for themselves but for the sustenance of life Life is not so much desired for it selfe as for the enioyment of happinesse which when a man hath sought in the labyrinth of earthly vanities after much vexation and disquietment of spirit hee must conclude that it is onely in that truest and chiefest good which is the fountaine whence true delight first floweth and the obiect wherein at last it resteth Secondly That is mans happinesse in the possession and enioyment whereof his heart resteth best satisfied So farre a man is from true happinesse as hee is from full contentment in that which hee enioyes The Bee would not sit upon so manyflowers if shee could gather
leave his Children as in another case he left Hezekiah to try them and to know what is in their hearts Fourthly God withdraweth himselfe for a time that they may learne to esteeme more highly of his favor and to desire it more when by the want of it they find by experience what an Hell it is to be without it And that they may bee more thankefull for it and be more carefull by studying to please God for to keepe it when they have it This holy use David and the Church made of Gods forsaking them as they thought for a time It made them seeke more diligently after God promising that if hee would turne to them they would not goe backe from him resolving by his grace to sticke more close unto him But know this to your comfort when God doth most withdraw himselfe and forsake you it is but in part and in seeming and but for a time He may for the causes before rendred turne away his face and forbeare to shew his loving countenance but he will not take his loving kindnesse utterly from you nor suffer his faithfulnesse to faile What God said to his afflicted Church that hee saith to every afflicted member thereof For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath have I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the LORD thy Redeemer Hence it is that in your greatest extremities your faith and hope shall secretly though you feele not their working preserve you from utter despaire As it was with David and with our Blessed Saviour who albeit these words of theirs to God Why hast thou forsaken mee argued feare and want of sense of Gods love yet these words My God my God doe argue a secret affiance and hope And whereas you say that no mans griefe or troubles are like yours partly by reason of outward afflictions and partly by inward temptations and distresses give mee leave to deale plainely with you It is a foolish and a most false speech Talke with a thousand thus troubled they will all say thus No mans case was ever as mine is Nor so bad will any that have but common sense thinke this to be true Most of these must needs be deceived You feele your owne distresse but you cannot fully know what another feeleth If you would rightly looke into the distresses of others who were better than your selves according as they are recorded in the Scripture you would not thus thinke As for outward afflictions upon whom did God ever lay his hand more heavie then on his servant Iob Had not S Paul also his trouble without of all sorts and terrours within c. And if you consider sorrowes feares and distresses of all sorts were yours such as Davids were or more than his I pray what meane these and many moe the like speeches My bones are vexed my soule is vexed but thou O Lord how long I am weary with my groaning mine eye is consumed with griefe it waxeth old Why standest thou a farre off Why hidest thou thy selfe in time of trouble How long wilt thou forget mee Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of ioynt My heart is like waxe it is melted in the midst of my bowels My strength is dryed up like a potsheard my tongue cleaveth to my iawes and thou hast brought me to the dust of death My bones waxe old through roaring all the day For day and night thy hand was heavie upon me There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is their any rest in my bones because of my sinne Mine iniquities that is the punishment of mine iniquities are gone over my head they are too heavie for me Thus and much more doth he complaine I am weary of my crying my throat is dry Mine eyes faile while I wait for my God So Asaph My sore ran and ceased not my soule refused to be comforted What thinke you now Were not Iob Paul and David in Gods love and favour notwithstanding all this It may be you will reply howsoever the matter of their trouble might be greater than yours yet they could remember God they could pray to him they had faith and confidence in God in their distresses al which you want therefore herein your case is worse than theirs Consider your selves well I speake onely to you that are wounded at the very heart for sinne and it is to be hoped that in some measure you shall find the like grace faith and confidence in you which was in thē If you see it not bee grieved for the want thereof Indevour to doe as you say they did in their distresses onely be not discouraged and all shall bee well But take notice I pray you that sometimes David neither did nor could pray as he conceived of his owne prayer any otherwise than in roaring and complaining at which time he saith hee kept silence But when hee could confesse his sins and pray then hee had some apprehension that God had forgiven him his sinne And for all Asaphs remembring of God yet even then he was troubled and his spirit was over-whelmed and hee saith his soule refused comfort and David saith unto God when wilt thou comfort mee I grant it was his fault yet it was such a fault as was incident to one beloved of God Moreover I deny not but that Iob and David had faith and hope in God but these graces in them were of times over-clouded with unbelife and distrust as doth appeare in their many passionate distempers at which times yet their faith appeared to others in their good speeches and actions intermingled rather then to themselves And the Prophet confesseth that those his faithlesse complaints were in his haste and from his infirmities How say you now Is it not thus with you Are you not like others of Gods children Off and on up and downe you would pray and cannot you would beleeve but as you thinke cannot you would have comfort but cannot feele it Onely you feele a secret support now and then and now and then you doe see and feele a glimpse of GODS light and comfort for which you must be thankefull which you must cherish by all meanes with which you must rest contented waiting untill God give you more You should know and consider that this is an old cunning device of Satan to make you beleeve that your case is worse or at least much different from the case of any others because hee knoweth that while he holdeth you thus conceited no common remedy which did cure and comfort others can cure and comfort you For you will still aske Was ever any as I am And if Gods
is not of it selfe so strong nor so constant nor so infallible as the certainty of Faith and Adherence is For sense and reason since the fall even in the regenerate though they will lay some foundation in the Rules of Faith to proceed by yet erring in or misapplying the rule are weake variable and their conclusions are not so certaine as those of pure Faith Because Faith buildeth onely upon Diuine Testimonie concluding without reasoning or disputing yea many times against reasoning So that notwithstanding the excellent and needfull use of Assurance and certainty of Evidence it is Faith and the certainty of Adherence whereby even in feares and doubts a man cleaveth fast to the promises and is that which we must trust unto and is the Cable wee must hold by lest we make ship wracke of all when wee are assaulted with our greatest temptatioÌ„s for then many times our Assurance leaveth us to the mercy of the winds and Seas as Marriners speake If you have Faith though you have little or no feeling you are yet sure enough of Salvation indeede though not in your owne apprehension When both can be had it is best for then you have most strength and most comfort giving you chearefulnesse in all your troubles but that certainty of Faith and cleaving to the naked word and promise is that to which you must trust See this in the examples of most faithfull men for when they have beene put to it it was this that upheld them and in this was their faith commended Abraham against all present sense and reason even against hope beleeved in hope both in the matter of receiving a sonne and in going about to offer him againe unto God in Sacrifice He denyed sense and reason he considered not the unlikelihoods and seeming impossibilities in the iudgement of reason that ever he should have a seed hee being old and Sarah being old and barren or having a seed that he should be saved by that seed sith hee was to kill him in Sacrifice He onely considered the Almighty power faithfulnesse and soveraigntie of him that had promised he knew it was his dutie to obey and to waite and so let all the businesse thereabout to rest on Gods promise For this his faith is commended and hee is said to be strong in faith Iob and David or Asaph shewed most strength of Faith when they had little or no feeling of Gods favour but the contrary rather Iob had little feeling of Gods favour when for paine of body hee said wherefore doe I take my flesh in my teeth and in anguish of soule he said Wherefore hidest thou thy face and takest me for thine enemie Yet then this certainty of faith which made him cleave unto GOD made him to hold fast and say in the same Chapter Though hee slay mee yet I will trust in him When David said to GOD Why hast thou forgotten mee His Assurance was weake yet even then his Faith discovered it selfe when he saith to his soule Why art thou disquieted within mee Hope in God who is the health of my countenance and my God You see then that the excellencie of Faith lyeth not in your feeling but as the Psalmist speaketh by experience in cleaving close unto the promise and relying on God for it upon his bare word For he saith It is good for mee to draw neere to God I have put my trust in the Lord God this was it which secretly upheld him and kept him in possession when as you may see in that Psalme his Evidences and Assurance was to seek Wherefore Beleeve Gods promises made to you in Christ and â—est on him even when you want â—oy and feeling comfort For â—aving Faith you are sure of heaven though you be not so fully â—ssured of it as you desire It will â—e your greatest commendation when you will be dutifull servants and children at GODS Commandement though you have not present wages when you wil take Gods word for that Those are bad servants and children which cannot go on chearfully in doing their Master or Fathers will except they may receive the promised wages 〈◊〉 least in good part aforehand Oâ— every day or except they may have atleast a good part of the promised inheritance presently and in hand Feeling of comfort is part of a Christians wages and inheritance to be received at the good pleasure of God that freely giveth it rather than a Christian duty To comfort and stay ourselves on God in distresse is a duty but this joyous sense and feeling of Gods favour is a gracious favour of God towards us not a duty of ours toward God It is from too much distrust in God and too much self-respect when wee have no heart to goe about his worke except we be full of feeling of his favour Hee is the best child or servant that will obey out of love duty and conscience and will trust on God and wait on him for his wages and recompence Though want of apprehension of Gods favour and of feeling of comfort may be accounted a great misery yet it is not to be judged a proofe of no grace or of no true Faith Thirdly when you say you cannot feele that you have faith or hope you meane as in deede many good soules doe you cannot finde and perceive that these graces bee in you in truth which if you did you would not doubt of your salvation My answer is If faith and hope be in you then if you would judiciously enquire into your selves and feele for them you may finde and feele them and know that you have them For as certainly as he that seeth bodily may know that he seeth so he that hath the spirituall sight of Faith may know that he hath Faith Wherfore try and feele for your Faith and you shall finde whether it be in you yea or no. For this cause 1 Try whether you ever had the necessary Antecedents and Preparatives which ordinarily make way for the seed of Faith to take deepe root 2 Consider the nature of saving Faith and whether it hath wrought in you accordingly 3 Consider some consequents and certaine effects thereof First hath the Law shut you up in your owne apprehension under the curse so that you have beene afraid of Hell And hath the Spirit also convinced you of sin by the Gospell to the wounding of your conscience and to the working of true humiliation causing the heart to relent and to desire to know how to be saved and if after this you have denied your selfe and received and rested on Christ according to the nature of true Faith as followeth then you have Faith If you doubt you were never sufficiently humbled then reade Chap. 16. Sect. 6. Secondly Consider rightly the nature and proper acts of Faith lest you conceive that to be faith which is not and that to be no faith which is You may know wherein true saving Faith consists by
was felt witnesse your owne experience for before the hammer and fire of the Word was applyed to your hearts you had no sense of it and never complained thereof You must not call a heavie heart a hard heart you must not call a heart wherein is a sense of an indisposition to good a hard heart except onely in â—omparison of that softnesse which is in it sometimes and which it shall attaine unto when it shall bee perfectly sanctified in which respect it may bee called hard Whosoever hath his will so wrought upon by the Word that it is bent to obey GODS will if he knew how and if he had power this man whatsoever hardâ—esse hee feeleth his heart is soft not hard The Apostle had a heart held in and clogged with the flesh and the law of his members that it made him to thinke himselfe wretched because hee could not bee fully deliverd from it yet wee know his heart was not an hard heart Amongst those that are sanctified there remaineth more hardnesse in the heart of some than in others and what with the committing of grosse sinnes and a cursorie and slight doing of good duties and through neglect of meanes to soften it the same mens hearts are harder at one time than at another of which they have cause to complaine and for which they have cause to bee humbled and to use all meanes to soften it But it is false and dangerous hence to conclude that such are not in state of grace because of such hardnesse in the heart For as GODS perfectest Children on earth know but in part and beleeve but in part So their hearts are softened but in part SECTION 7. Removall of feares rising from doubts about falling from Grace THere yet remaine many who though they be driven up into so narrow a corner that they cannot reply to the answers given to take away their false feares and doubts but they are inforced to yeeld that they find that they now are or at least have beene in state of grace they now see they have beleeved and have beene and it may bee now are sanctified yet this they feare that they either are already fallen or shall not persevere but shall fall away before they dye Touching falling away from grace first know that of those that give their names to Christ in outward profession there are two sorts The first sort are such who have received onely the common gifts of the Spirit as first illumination of the mind to know the mystery of Salvation by Christ and truâ—y to assent unto it Secondly Together with this knowledge is wrought in them by the same spirit a â—â—â—hter impression upon the affections which the Scripture calleth a taste of the heavenly gift and of the good Word of GOD and of the powers of the world to come By these gifts of the Spirit the souâ—es of these men are raised to an abilitie to doe more than nature and meere education can helpe them unto carrying them further then nature or art can doe by working in them a kinde of spirituall change in their affections and a kinde of reformation of their lives But yet all this while they are not ingrafted into Christ neither are deepely rooted as the Corne in good grouÌ„d nor yet are throughly changed and renewed in the inward man they have at best only a formâ— of godlinesse but have not the power thereof Now these men may and oft doe fall away not onely into some particular grosse sinnes of which they were sometimes after a sort washed but into a course of sinning falling from the very forme of godlinesse and may so utterly loose thoâ—e gifts received that they may turne Papists Anabaptists or may fall into any oâ—her Heresie and in the end become very Apostates yet this is not properly a falling from grace It is onely a falling away from the common graces or gifts of the Sâ—irit and from those graces which they did seeme to have and which the Church out of her charitie did judge them to have but they fall not from true saving grace for they neuer had any For if ever they had beene indeed incorporated into Christ Iesus and had beene sound members of his body and in this sense had ever beene of us as the Apostle Iohn speaketh then they should never have departed from us but should no doubt have continued with us The second sort of such as have given their names to Christ are such as are indued with true iustifying faith and saving knowledge and are renewed in the spirit of their minde whereby through the gracious and powerful working of the sanctifying Spirit the Word maketh a deeper impression upon the will and the affections causing them not onely to taste but which is much more to feed and to drinke deepe of the heavenly gift and of the good word of GOD and of the powers of the world to come so as to digest them unto the very changing and transforming them by the renewing of their mindes and unto the sanctifying of them throughout in their whole man both in spirit soule and bodie so that CHRIST is indeed formed in them and they are become new creatures being made partakers of the divine nature Now concerning these It is not possible that any of them should fall away either wholly or for ever Yet it must bee granted that they may decline and fall backe so farre as to grieve the good spirit of GOD and to offend and provoke God very much against them and to make themselves guiltie of eternall death They may fall so farre as to interrupt the exercise of their faith wound their Conscience and may loose for a time the sense of Gods favour and may cause him like a wise and good father in his iust anger to chide correct threaten them making them beleeve hee will turne them out of doores never to receive them into his heavenly Kingdome untill by renewing their faith and repentance they returne into the right way and doe recover GODS lo-ving countenance towards them againe That you may understand and beleeve this the better consider what grace God giveth unto his elect and how and from what they may fill also you must observe well the difference that is betweene the sinning of the regenerate and unregenerate together with their different condition wherin they stand while they are in their sinnes In the first act of Conversion I speake of men of yeeres and discretion GOD by his Word through his holy Spirit doth infuse an habit of holinesse namely an habit of Faith and all other saving graces this every childe of GOD receiveth when he receiveth that holy annointing of the spirit that which the Scripture calieth the Seede remaining in him Secondly God by his gracious meanes and ordinances of the Gospell doth increase this habit and these graces Now because every man
excellency of Christian Experience 126 127. F An answer to them that question their Faith because they want feeling 590 Many doe not feele they have Faith because they feele not for it 603 How a man may know that he hath Faith 621 Reasons why many without cause thinke they have no Faith 584 Many presume they have Faith but have none 614 Reason for which many thinke they have Faith but have not 463 Who may Fall from grace and how 683 A regenerate man may Fall farre backe but not quite away 685 Grounds of difference betweene the Fals of men truly sanctified and others 688 Whence it is that a true Convert cannot Fall quite away from grace 695 Of Religious Fasting 68 A generall Reason of Fasting 72 Reasons why the body must be afflicted in Fasting 73 Reasons why the soule must be afflicted in Fasting 74 Who are to keepe a publike Fast 76 Who may keepe a private Fast 77 How oft we must Fast 78 How long we must Fast 80 Preparation to a Fast 82 How to keepe a Religious Fast 84 c. What to doe when a man is interrupted in his private Fast 142 Motives to oft Fasting 143 Directions what is to be done after a Fast 145 Cautions touching Fasting 146 Needful fear before coÌ„version 485 Holy Feare after conversion 486 Causlesse Feare 488 The kindes of causlesse Feares ibid Strange effects of Feares rising from naturall distempers 489 There is some difference between the regenerate in those Feares which arise froÌ„ melaÌ„choly others 490 Difference betweene those Feares which arise chiefly from melancholy and those which arise from trouble of conscience ibid Grounds of false Feares 495 Feare of punishment must be turned into trouble for sinne 498 Feares of sinning against the holy Ghost removed 527 Feare that because the heart condemneth God will condemne much more removed 529 Feare of being reprobates removed 531 Feare that God will not have mercie because they have let passe the time of their Conversion removed 540 Feares arising from doubts of Gods love removed 576 c. Feares through conceit of being in worse case than any other removed 561 Feares that God loveth them not because they thinke their prayers are reiected removed 576 Feares from doubting of faith removed 581 Feares of not being sanctified because they thinke they were never sufficiently humbled nor have repented removed 626 Reasons why some feele more sense of Feare and horror in their first conversion than others 627 Feares that a man is not sanctified because he is pestered with worse thoughts than ever removed 637 Feares of not being sanctified because of falling into grosse sinnes removed 656 Feares that they are not sanctified because of sense of dulnesse and deadnessein spirituall duties removed 665 Feares of not being sanctified because of sudden dulnesse after fresh feeling comforts removed 670 Feares of not being sanctified because out-gone by others removed 671 Feares of not being sanctified because of hardnesse of heart removed 677 Feares of falling away from grace removed 681 c. Feares taken from thinking the heart is deceitfull removed 727 Feares from present fainting removed ibid Feares because we doe not our part removed 729 Feare from want of such graces where of God hath absolutely promised removed 676 Feares through want of peace of Sanctification removed 744 G Convincing reasons to prove that there is a God 647 God doth never wholly forsake his children 566 Once and ever in state of Grace 685 Reasons why man being once in state of grace can never fall quite from it 701 Reasons why many thinke they have lesse grace now than in their first conversion but mistake 714 H What is the cause of Hypocrites well-doing 341 Disswasives from hypocrisie 361 365 Meanes against hypocrisie 373 Grounds of false hope discovered and removed 444 I Meanes to strengthen the Inner man 133 Rules to direct Inferiours 62 Causes of error in Iudging of a mans state 754 Of Iudging and condemning of a mans selfe 126 L ATable of Duties commanded and of Vices forbidden in the Morall Law 90 c. No man must abuse Christs lenity 620 Signes to know when God giveth good things in love 265 Directions for sanctisying the Lords day 147 M What Meditation is 195 The distinct acts and parts of Meditation 198 Rules for meditation 202 Cautions about the matter of meditation 203 Motives perswading to meditation 211 Meanes of Mortification 131 O When it is that a man obeyeth out of conscience and love to Christ 340 Weakest performance of duties is lesse dangerous than whole omissions 551 P A description of Christian Patience 286 Inducements to patience 286 287 Meanes of Christian patience 288 Vpon what grounds arguments may be taken to worke the heart to patience 291 292 What peace is in generall 414 The peace of GOD explained and magnified by the opening of Philip. 4. 6. 7. 415 The different sorts of peace of God 421 Reasons proving the excellency of the peace of God 432 The impediments of peace 437 Whence presumption and false peace doth arise 441 Signes of false hope and false peace 476 An excellent helpe to peace of conscience 765 Meanes to get and keep true peace ibid How to know in time of peace to hold out in time of persecution 725 How to be kept from dastardly feare in time of persecution 723 Reasons of due preparation of the heart to prayer 32 How to bee disposeà in the act of prayer 35 God heareth prayer many wayes 578 Cautions to be observed in preparation and in prayer 37 Signes of distempered thoughts thorough worldly businesse to prayer 42 Remedies against distempered thoughts in preparation and in prayer 43 How to know when thoughts of worldly businesse are distractfull in preparation in prayer 45 Remedies against the said distractions in preparation and in prayer 47 Pride is a manifest hinderance of Christiâ—â— Comfort 764 765 Grounds of presumption discovered and removed 437. unto 481 Rules of holy carriage in prosperity and when men have good successe 245 246 Good effects of prosperity 247 Doubts of Gods love because men prosper removed 559 Presumption of Gods love because they prosper removed 448 Presumption ariseth either from false grounds of hope or from true grounds misapplyed 442 Presumption that God will save a man because he made him removed 444 Presumption of escaping Hell because men thinke they have it in this life removed 445 Presumption they shall ever be wel because hither to they have escaped evill removed 446 Presumption they shall be saved because as great sinners as they have bin saved removed 450 Presumption of Salvation by Popes Pardons pennance and merit of workes removed 452 Presumption of salvation because God is mercifull removed 454 Presumption from universall Redemption removed 456 Presumption of Salvation because as men thinke their faith and repentance is good when it is not removed 462 Presumption of repenting hereafter removed 475 R How to read the Word profitably 187 Who must
from the marriage-bed and the like Thirdly Abstaine from all worldly labour as upon a Sabbath day for worldly busines the cares thereof doe as well as worldly delights distract the thoughts and hinder humble devotion and a ceasing there-from giveth a full opportunitie to holy imployments the whole day Therfore the Iewes were commanded to sanctifie a fast And that yearely Fast called the day of Atonement was upon perill of their lives to be kept by a forbearance of all manner of worke Now albeit the Ceremonials of that day are abolished in Christ yet forbearing worke as well as meate and drinke being of the substance of a Fast doth remaine to bee observed in all such as may properly be called Religious Fasts Thus much for the outward fast you must be as strict in observing the inward Begin the day with prayer according as I directed you to doe every day but with more than ordinary preparation with fervency and faith praying for Gods special grace to enable you to sanctifie a fast that day according to the Commandement Then apply your selfe to the maine worke of the day which hath these parts 1 unfained Humiliation 2 Reformation together with Reconciliation and 3 earnest Invocation The soule is then humbled the heart rent and truly afflicted when a man is become vile in his owne eyes through conscience of his owne unworthinesse and when his heart is full of compunction and anguish through feare of Gods displeasure with godly sorrow and holy shame in himselfe and anger against himselfe for sinne These affections stirred doe much afflict the heart To attaine this deepe humiliation know that it is to be wrought partly by awakening your Conscience through a sight of the Law and apprehension of Gods just judgements due to you for the breach of it which wil break your heart and partly by the Gospell raising up your heart to an apprehension and admiration of the love of God to you in Christ which will melt your heart and cause you the more kindely to grieve and to loath your selfe for sin and withall to conceive hope of mercy whence wil follow reconciliation reformation and holy calling upon God by prayer To worke this Humiliation there must be First Examination to find out your sinne Secondly a Accusation of your selfe with due aggravation of your sinne Thirdly Iudging and passing sentence against your selfe for sinne Sinne is the transgression of the Law and revealed will of God Wherefore for the better search and finding out of your sinne you must set before youthe glasse of the Law for your Light and Rule And if you have not learned or cannot beare in minde the heads of the manifold duties commanded or vices forbidden then get some Catalogue or Table wherein the same are set downe to your hand which you may reade with pausing and due consideration staying your thoughts most upon those particular sinnes whereof you finde your selfe most guiltie If of those many that are you doe not meete with one more fit for this purpose or which you shall like better then use this Examinatorie Table in manner as Followeth But expect not herein an enumeration of all particular sinnes which is beyond my skill nor yet of all the heads of duties or kindes of sinnes which would require a volumne but of those which are principall and most common yet hereby if your Conscience be awake it will be occasioned to bring to your thoughts those other not mentioned in the Table if you bee thereof guiltie The first Table of the Law concerneth duties of love and pietie to God the performance whereof tendeth immediately to the glory of God and mediately to the salvation and good of man The first Commandement concerneth the setting up of the onely true God to your selfe to bee your God Examining your selfe by this and so in the other Commandements thinke thus with your selfe Doe I know and acknowledge the onely true GOD to be such a one as hee hath revealed himselfe in his Word works namely One onely Infinite Immateriall Immutable Incomprehensible Spirit and Everlasting Lord God having beeing and All-sufficiencie in and from himselfe One who is simply full of all perfections and uncapable of the least defect being Wisedome Goodnesse Omnipotencie Love Truth Mercy Iustice Holinesse and whatsoever is originally and of it selfe Excellent The only Potentate King of Kings Lord of Lords of whom through whom and to whom are all things The Father Sonne and holy Ghost God blessed for ever Amen Doe I Beleeve his Word in all things related commanded promised and threatned therein and that his holy and wise Providence is in all things Have I Him and his Word in continuall remembrance Doe I esteeme and exalt God in my heart above all so that it doth humbly adore him at the very mention and thought of him making my selfe to be nothing in mine owne eyes yea esteeming all creatures to bee nothing in comparison of him Have I given religious worship to him onely Have I beleeved in him and in him onely Have I sworne by him as there hath beene cause and by him alone Have I prayed onely unto him and have I sought to him and to obtaine helpe of him only by such meanes as he hath appointed giving the glory and thanks of my being and well-being and of al other things which are good unto him Is my Conscience so convinced of the truth Authority of God that it holdeth it selfe absolutely bound to obey him in all things that it doth incite to that which is good restrain from that which is evill encourage me in well-doing and check me when I doe ill Is my will resolved upon absolute and unfained obedience to doe whatsoever God commandeth to forbeare whatsoeuer hee forbiddeth to subscribe to whatsoever he doth as well done and have I borne patiently all which either by himselfe or by any of his creatures hee hath inflicted upon me Have mine affections beene so for God that I have loved him with al my heart loving nothing more than him nothing equally to him Doe I hate every thing that is contrary to him Hath my Confidence beene onely in him and my expectation of good from him Have my desires beene to him and for him longing above all things to have communion with him Hath it beene my greatest feare to offend him or to be severed from him Hath it beene my greatest griefe and shame that I have sinned against him Have I reioyced in God as in my chiefe Good Hath mine anger risen against whatsoever I saw crosse to his glory Have I beene zealous for God And have I made him the utmost end of all mine actions Hath my whole outward man as tongue senses and all other active powers of my body been readie to professe the true God and to yeeld obedience to his will Or contrariwise Am I not guilty of denying of God in word in workes or at least in heart
a kind of Spirituall swoone and in such like cases But a man must not judge himselfe to be dead because wheÌ„ he is asleepe or in a swoone he hath no feeling or sense of life Whether is it necessary that a man should finde all these marks of uprightnesse in him if hee be upright No. Albeit if he were in case to judge himselfe and try himselfe thorowly he might finde them all in him yet if hee finde most or but some of these he should stay himselfe upon those untill he finde the rest Take heed that you doe not as many hearers and many readers doe when they heare and see many signes given of this or any other needfull grace If they cannot approove themselves by all they will make a question whether they have the grace or no. One may give you twenty signes of naturall life as Seeing Hearing Talking Breathing c. What though you cannot prove your life by all yet if you know you feele or breath or moove you know you are alive by any one of these What is to be done when you cannot now finde that you are upright wheras heretofore somtimes you did hope that you were Doe not presently conclude you are an hypocrite but looke backe unto former proofes of uprightnesse And though you have for the present lost your evidence and assurance of Heaven yet give not over your possession of what you have nor your hope A man that hath once had possessioÌ„ of house and lands if his state be questioned will seeke out his evidence and suppose that he hath laid aside or lost his evidence thereof yet hee is not such a foole as to give over his possession or his right but will seek till he finde his evidences or if he cannot find them will search the Records and get them forth thence So must you in this case you must seeke for your evidence againe And intreat your Lord that he will please to give you a new Copie out of his Court-rouâ—â— in Heaven wherein both your name uprightnesse is written Howsoever cleave fast to God and to his promises Resolve not to dare to sinne wittingly nor yet to give over your indevour to walke in his wayes and you shall not be long before you shall know that you be upright or if you attain not to this yet be sure the LORD will know you to be his though you doe not so certainely know that hee is yours But of this more when I shall speake of peace of Conscience But in trying my uprightnesse I finde many of the signes of hypocrisie in me I doe not finde my selfe to be so universall in my respect to all Gods Commandements as I should I doe not hate all sinnes alike I finde my selfe inclined to somesinne more than other and I am readier to neglect some dutie than other I cannot so throughly seeke GODS Kingdome as I should I am readier to finde fault with others than to amend my owne c. I finde that I am not so constant as I ought to be in good duties and I have too much respect to my selfe in all that I doe and too little to Gods glory In reading all the notes of hypocrisie except the last I finde hypocrisie nay much hypocrisie to be in mee Must I not therefore judge my selfe to be an hypocrite No. For truth of uprightnesse may bee in the same person in whom there is sense of much hypocrisie Nay this to feele hypocrisie with dislike argueth truth of uprightnesse Indeede if you felt not thus much you might feare you were not upright All that you have said if it be true onely proveth that you have hypocrisie remaining in you and that you feele it You must remember that I told you that not the having but the raigning of hypocrisie maketh an hypocrite Besides a man may have an universall respect to all Gods Commandements and yet not an equall respect to all If you see and bewaile your sinne and fight against your hypocrisie when you feele it assure your selfe you are no hypocrite What if a man finde indeed by these notes of hypocrisie that it doth raigne in him He must know that he is for the present hated of God and in a damnable estate yet his state is not desperate If the hypocrite forsake his hypocrisie become upright he shall not dye for his hypocrisie if this be true of a sinners for saking of all sinne then it is true of this in particular of forsaking his hypocrisie but in the uprightnesse wherein he liveth he shall live What Christ said to Hypocriticall Luke-warme Laodicea that I say to all such they must be zealous they must amend and be upright hypocrifie is as pardonable as any other sinne to him that is penitent and that beleeveth in Christ Iesus Isaiah 1. 11. 16 18. By this which I have written you may plainly see 1 That you ought to be upright 2 What it is to be upright 3 Whether you be upright or no. It concerns you therfore to hate and avoyd hypocrisie and to love and imbrace sinceritie Which that you may doe make use of these motives and means which follow in the next Sections SECTION 3 â—ouching disswasives from Hypocrisie and motives to Vprightnesse IF you would abandon hypocrisie consider the disswasives â—…ken from the evills and misâ—…efes that accompany it where â—…raigneth And how troubleâ—…e and noysome it is where it is â—…ough it raigne not First Hypocrisie taketh away the goodnesse of the best actions â—…ey are good onely in name 〈…〉 in deed The repentance and â—…dience of an hypocrite is none because it is fained his faith is no faith because it is not unfained his love no love because it is not from a pure heart without dissimulation Conceive the like of all other the graces and good actions of an hypocrite Secondly All the goodnesse and actions of an hypocrite are together with himselfe wholly lost Such as Preaching Hearing Praying Alms-giving Building of Hospitalls Colledges Bridges c. Thirdly hypocrisie in whom it raignes doth not onely take away all goodnesse from the best gifts and actions and cause the losse of all reward from GOD but it pâ—ysoneth and turneth the best actions into most loath somâ— and abominable sinnes Insomuch that in those good works wherin the hypocrite seemeth to makâ— haste to Heaven he doth run posâ— to Hell For such allowed hypocriticall holinesse is worse thaâ— professed wickednesse it is so odious in GODS eyes and nostrels that for it he will plague those in whom it ruleth with his severest judgements For the hypocrisie of men professing the truth doth bring the name religion and best services of God into disgrace and contempt and causeth the best actions and best men to be suspected For such as have not spiritual wisdome to judge rightly doe stumble hereat and forbeare the said good actions and
that if hee offer grace to day who can tell whether he wil offer it to morrow Or whether he will offer it again Who knoweth whether God will take him from the meanes of Salvation or will take the meanes of Salvation from him All this our holy and wise God hath revealed in his Word to make men wise to take the opportunity and time of grace while it is offered Wherfore whosoever have let slippe their first times offers of grace have sinned plaied the fooles egregiously for which they have cause to be much humbled But for you to conclude hence that the date and time of your conversion is out hath no sufficient ground For it is not possible for you to know that your time of conversion is past all recoverie But you shold rather for the present time beleeve and hope that it is not past Indeed to presume to put off receiving grace untill to morrow is foolish and dangerous but if God give you time till to morrow that you live and it can be said to day so long as you yet live and the externall meanes of Salvation are not taken from you either in their exercise or out of your remembrance but you doe yet live to heare what God hath commanded you to doe and to heare what good things hee yet offereth unto you with Christ or if the meanes be taken from you or you are detained from them by sicknesse c. so long as you yet live to call to remembrance what God hath commanded you to beleeve and doe you cannot say the time is too late If you would yet condemn your selves for refusing grace heretofore and would be now willing and desirous to accept of it Moreover would you now with all your heart use the meanes of Salvation and indevour to beleeve and repent if you thought it were not too late And doth it grieve you that you have let slip the opportunitie And would you gaine and redeeme that lost time if you knew how Then I dare in the name of God assure you that the date of your conversion is not out It is not too late for you to turne unto the Lord. While it is to day I may boldly say harden not your heart which if you doe not you must know that now is an acceptable time now is the day and time of your Salvation At what time soever GOD doth send his Minister unto you by whom GOD doth beseech you they intreating you as now I doe in Christs stead that you would be reconciled to GOD this is the acceptable day if you will be intreated by them The day wherein GOD will accept of you is not past Moreover at what time soever and by what meanes soever any man shall humble himselfe for sinne and aske grace the date of Gods acceptance of him is not out Learne this in the example of Manasses and many other who had refused grace in their yongertime yet were converted in their age You have Gods expresse words for it who saith From the dayes of your fathers that is for a long time Yee are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them Returne unto me and I will returne unto you saith the Lord of Hoasts That place in the Proverbes rightly understood doth not contradict any thing which I have said nor yet serve for that for which it is alledged For by refusing there he meaneth a constant and obstinate refusing of wisedomes counsell untill such time that God hath broughtsome misery on them theÌ„ they should call upon him By calling upon him in that place is not meant a hearty praying with godly sorrow for sin making request for pardon and for grace but a crying or howling rather like those in Hosea under the sense of Gods judgements praying in truth onely to be eased of it For at what time soever a sinner shall repent GOD will turne to him And whosoever looketh towards Christ the true Temple shadowed forth by the materiall Temple at Ierusalem and confesseth his sinne and asketh pardon God will pardon for so hath he promised But may not a man pray too late and seek repentance in vain as Esau did who found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with teares Did not the foolish Virgins seeke to enter into the Bride-chamber but were not admitted And doth not our Saviour say many shall strive to enter in and shall not be able No man can aske grace and forgivenesse of sinnes too late if he aske for grace and power against sin heartily But a man may aske a temporall blessing or the removall of a temporall evill when it may be too late As for Esaus carefull seeking of repentance you must understand it not of his owne repentance from his prophanenes and from other dead workes but of his Father Isaacks repentance he would have had his father to change his minde and to have given him the birth-right which was already bestowed upon Iacob Read Gen. 27. 34. 38. Whereas the foolish Virgins did assay to enter into the Bride-chamber when the doore was shut know that this is a parable and must not be urged beyond its generall scope which is to shew that formall professors of Christianitie such as have onely a forme of godlinesse without the power of it they although they will not live the life of the righteous yet they could wish their end might be like theirs And because of their outward profession of Christs Name in this life they securely expect eternall life but because before their death they did not provide the oyle of truth and holinesse therefore at the day of Iudgement they shall be disappointed of entering into Heaven which in the time of their life they did so much presume of The like answer may be given unto that place alledged out of Luk. 13. 24. Yet unto that place more may be said You mistake when you say that Christ saith many shall strive to enter and shall not be able He saith Strive to enter in at the straight gate for many I say to you shall seeke to enter in and shall not be able he doth not say many shall strive to enter There is great difference in the signification of the Greeke words and so there is betweene striving and seeking signified by them Seeking imports onely a bare professing of Christ such as is shewed in giving the name to Christ comming to Church hearing the Woâ—d and receiving the Sacraments For thus did the men spoken of by our Saviour who are said not to be able to enter But to strive to enter is to doe all these and more it is to strive in seeking for him that they take up their crosse and follow him they give their hearts to him as well as their names they are heartie and sincere in Praying Hearing Receiving they strive to subdue their lusts which offend Christ
it were with a forced wil and constrained yeelding against the will but howsoever it may be with much opposition and conflict yet you must so beat downe the opposition that when you give consent you bring your will to doe it readily and freely with thankfull acknowledging your selves much bound to CHRIST all the dayes of your life for that he wil vouchsafe to make you such an offer When consent is rash faint and not free this will not hold for good any long time but when your consent is advised compleate and free out of true love to CHRIST as well as for your owne benefit the knot of marriage betwixt Christ and you is knit so fast that all the lusts of the flesh all the allurements of the world and all the powers of Hell shall not be able to breake it By this which hath beene said touching the nature of Faith many who thought they had faith may see that yet they have none For they onely beleeve in generall that there is a Christ and a Saviour who offereth grace and salvation to mankinde and hereupon they presume This generall faith is needfull but that is not enough it must be a perswasion of Gods offer of Christ to a man in particular that the will in particular may be induced to consent There must likewise be that particular consent of will and accepting of CHRIST upon such tearmes as he is offered They that receive Christ aright enter into the marriage covenant resolving to forsake all other and obey him and to take up his crosse and to indure all hardnesse with him and for him as shame disgrace povertie hatred and spite in the world and all manner of misusages this they consent to and resolve upon for the present and from this time forward for the whole time of their life which things many neither did nor intended to doe when they gave their names to Christ they onely received him as their Iesus one by whom they did looke to be saved and honored looking that he should endow them with a faire ioynture of heaven but they did not receive him as their Lord. In doing thus they erred in the essentials of marriage For they erred in the Person taking an Idoll Christ for the true Christ They erred in the forme of marriage they tooke him not for the present nor absolutely for better for worse as we speake in sicknesse and health in good report and ill report in persecution and in peace forsaking all other never to part no not at death Wherefore Christ doth not owne these foolish Virgins when they would enter the Bride-chamber but saith I know you not For because there was no true consent on their part they had no faith and their contract or marriage with Christ was only but in speech but was never Legall nor consummate By this which hath beene said others who have Faith indeed may know they have it namely if they so beleeve the Covenant of Grace established in Christ that with all their harts they accept of him and it so that they will stand to it on their parts as they are able and rest on it so farre as it concernes Christ to fulfill it For this is Faith Vnto this some fearefull soules will reply If we have not Faith except unto assent to the truth we doe also receive Christ offered with a deliberate entire and free consent to rest on him to be ruled by him and to take part with him in all conditions then we doubt that we have no Faith because wee have so hardly brought our selves to consent and finde our selves so weake in our consent and have beene so unfaithfull in keeping promise with Christ Truth fulnesse and firmenesse of consent of will to receive Christ may stand with many doubtings and with much weakenesse and sense of difficultie in bringing the heart to consent For so long as there is a law in your members warring against the law of your minde you can never doe as you would If you can bring your hearts to will to consent and obey in spite of all oppositions this argueth heartie and full consent and a true Faith Nay if you can bring the heart but to desire to receive Christ and to enter into Covenant with GOD made mutually betweene God and you in Christ and that it may stand according to the offer which he maketh unto you in his Word even this argueth a true and firme consent and maketh up the match betweene Christ and you Even as when Iacob related the particulars of an earthly Covenant into which he would have Laban enter with him Labans saying I would it might be according to thy word gave proofe of his consent and did ratifie the Covenant betwixt them If you can therefore when God tenders unto you the Covenant of Grace willing you to receive Christ in whom it is established to enter into this Covenant If I say you can with all your heart say to GOD I would it might be according to thy word The Covenant is mutually entred into and the match is made betwixt CHRIST and you And whereas it doth trouble you that you cannot be so faithfull to Christ as your Covenant doth binde you it is well you are troubled if you did not with all make it an argument that you have no Faith for in that it heartily grieveth you that you cannot beleeve nor performe all faithfulnesse to Christ it is an evident signe that you have faith You must not think that after you are truly married to Christ you shall be free from evil solicitations by your old lovers Nay sometimes a kinde of violence may be offered by spirituall wickednesses unto you so that you are forced to many evils indeede against your will as it may befall a faithfull wife to be forced by one stronger then she yet if you give not full consent unto them and give not your hart to follow them your husband CHRIST will not impute these rapes unto you Yet let none by this take liberty to oftend Christ in the least thing for though Christ love you more tenderly and more mercifully than any husband can love his wife yet know ye he doth not doâ—e on you he can see the smallest faults and sharply though kindly rebuke and correct you for them if you doe them presumptuously But he esteemeth none to breake spirituall wedlocke so as to dissolve marriage but those whose hearts are wholy departed from him and are set upon and given to something else If you thus looke into the nature of faith I speake to a soule troubled for sinne you may know and feele that you have it 3. You may know a lively faith likewise by most certaine consequents and effects I meane not comfort and joy which are sometimes felt and through your fault sometimes not but by such effects which are more constant and more certaine and may be no lesse felt than
flesh but after the Spirit And as for weeping at crosses sooner and more than for sinnes this doth not alwaies argue more griefe for one than for the other For weeping is an effect of the body following much the temper thereof also sense apprehendeth a naturall object or matter of bodily griefe in such sort that the body is wrought upon more sensibly then when a spirituall object of griefe is onely apprehended by Faith Wherefore bodily teares flow easily from sense of crosses and more hardly from thoughts of sinne For spirituall obiects doe not ordinarily worke passions in the body so soone or so much as bodily and sensible obiects doe Griefe for a crosse is more outward and passionate thence teares but spirituall griefe is more inward sad and soaking in which cases teares lye so farre off and the organs of teares are so much contracted and shut up that they cannot be fetcht or wrung out but with much labour When you are bidden in Scripture to mourne and weep for your sins nothing else is meant but to grieve much and to grieve heartily as they doe who weepe much at outward calamities Besides it is not unknowne that even in naturall griefe dry griefe is many times greater than that which is moistned and overfloweth with teares And some softer effeminate spirits can weep at any thing when some harder spirits can weepe at nothing As the greatest spiritual ioy is not expressed in laughter so neither is the greatest spirituall griefe expressed in teares God regards the inward sighing of a contrite heart more then the outward teares of the eyes An Hypocriticall Saul being overcome with kindenesse and a false-hearted Ahab being upon the racke of feare may in their quames and passions weepe and externally humble themselves and that in part for sinne when a deare child of God may not be able to command one teare The time when Gods Children have most plentie of teares is when the extremitie and anguish of griefe is well over namely When their hearts beginne to melt through hope of mercy Zach. 12. 10. And as for leaving sinne altogether Who ever did in this life Who ever shall Sith there is no man that liveth and sinneth not But mistake not you may through GODS grace have left sinne when yet sinne hath not left you For whosoever hateth sinne and resolveth against it and in the Law of his minde would not commit it but is drawne to it by Satan and by the law of his members and after it is done doth not allow it but disclaimes it with griefe this man hath left sinne And if this bee your case It may be said of you as the Apostle said of himselfe It is not you that doe evill but it is sinne that dwelleth in you that doth it Many yet complaine They cannot Pray Reade Heare Meditate nor get any good by the best Companies or best conference which they can meete with They are so dull so forgetfull so full of distractions and so unfruitfull when they goe about or have beene about any thing that is good that they feare they have no grace at all in them yea it maketh them sometimes to forbeare these duties and for the most part to goe about them without heart It is not strange that it should be so with you so long as there is a Satan to hinder you and so long as you carry about the old man and body of sinne in you Moreover Doe you not many times goe about these holy duties remissely negligently onely cursorily and customarily without preparation thereunto not looking to your feete and putting off your shooes before you approach unto Gods holy things and holy presence Doe you not many times set upon these holy duties in the power of your owne might and not in the power of Gods might or have you not beene proud or too well conceited of your selves when you have felt that you have performed good duties with some life or are you sure that you should not be spiritually proud if you had your desirein doing al these Further doe you not mis-call things calling that no Prayer no Hearing c. or no fruit because you doe them not so well nor bring forth so much as in your enlarged spiritually covetous desires you long to doe and have If it bee thus with you then first mend all these faults confesse them to GOD and aske mercie Next bee thankefull for your desires to Pray Reade Heare c. And for your longing to doe all these as you should Prosecute these desires but alwayes in the sense of your owne insufficiencies and in the power of Gods might then all the forementioned duties shall bee performed with lesse difficultie and with more fruit and comfort Yet because in all these duties you travell to heaven-ward against the hill and your passage is against Winde and Tyde and with a strong opposition of enemies in the way you must never looke to performe them without sense of much difficulty and little progresse in comparison of what you aime at in your desires It concernes you therefore to plye your Oares and to apply your selves by all meanes to worke out your Salvation with feare and trembling I meane with feare to offend in any the aforementioned duties not in feare that you have no grace because you cannot performe them as well as you should and would For sith that you feele and bewaile your dulnesse deadnesse and unprofitablenesse in holy services it argueth that you have life because no man feeleth corruption and disliketh it by corruption but by grace I am sure that such as have no true grace can and doe daily faile in all these duties but either they find not their failings or if they doe yet they complaine not of them with griefe and dislike If you heartily grieve because you doe no better your desires to doe as you should doe are a true signe of grace in you For that dutie is alwaies well done in Gods account where there is truth of indevour to doe it well and true griefe that it is done no better And whereas you say that by reason of want of spirituall life in holy duties you have beene made to neglect them altogether I pray what have you got thereby but much griefe â—â—d unrest But tell me how is â—â— with you are you pleased with your selfe in your neglect or is it so that you can have no peace in your hearts untill you set your selves diligently to do those duties again as well as you can If so it is a signe that you are not quite destitute of saving grace Others when they have beene at holy exercises and in good company have felt joy and sweet comfort therein but afterward oft-times much dulnesse hath suddenly seazed upon them Which maketh them fear they have not root in themselves and that their joyes and comforts were not sound This dulnesse after fresh-feeling-comforts
also in praying much for peace unto him who is the God of peace the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation then shall you have peace and much good shall be unto you For it is GOD that speaketh peace to his people wherefore assuredly his answer to him that asketh peace will be an answer of peace even this peace which passeth all understanding GOD shall give you peace and with it glory even a glorious peace Thus having directed my Pen not onely to you in particular in this tract of peace but sith it is judged fit to be publike both in this and the other directions to a daily walke unto all other that need and desire it you may see the excellency of peace together with the impediments furtherances and meanes of peace Shâ—nne the Impediments improve the furtherances and I dare assure you that albeit in this life you may still feele a conflict betweene faith and doubting betweene hope and feare and betweene peace and trouble of minde yet in the end you shall have perfect peace and in the meane time though I cannot promise you to have alwaies that peace which will afford you sense of ioy yet God hath promised that you shal have that which shall keepe your hearts and mindes in Christ And what would you have more Thus I have endevoured to satisfie your godly desire I have of purpose written much in as few words as the points in hand would well beare I did it the rather not onely because writing is tedious to mee but because I know that you are established already in these truths wherefore these may be sufficient to helpe you unto distinct notions of the most necessarie things that belong to a Christian life and to put you in remembrance I have omitted many allegations of Scriptures and have forborne to write out most that are alleaged It was partly for haste partly for mine owne ease and partly because it would have made this Booke to be too big for a vade mecum to carry about with you but I considered that you are much conversant and well read in the Scriptures and you may turne to the places both in the line and in the marâ—ent for you will finde that for the most part the life of each point in hand lyeth hid in the Text of the Scripture alledged I thanke God I have reaped much benefit to my self in studying and Penning these directions I pray God that â—ou may reap much good in reading of them Now the God of hope fill you with all ioy and peace in beleeving And the God of peace that brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus that great Shepheard of the Sheepe by the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good worke to doe his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen A Table of the chiefe things observable in this BOOKE A DOubts of Gods love because of grievous Afflictions removed 554 In what cases God usually doth not Afflict his children 559 The ends why God doth grievously Afflict his children 563 A Caution in becomming All things to all men 215 How to walke with God Alone 184 Fit meditations when we Apparell our selves 21 Rules how to Apparell our selves 22 Cautious to the directions about Arising and apparelling 27 How to Awake with God 19 Fit meditations when wee Awake and arise 21 22 B Fit meditations at going to Bed before sleepe 180 When a man loveth Brotherly 234 Benefits of Brotherly love 233 How Brotherly love is expressed 235 Meanes to live and love Brotherly 239 Motives to Brotherly love and communion of Saints 242 C How a man should carry himselfe as before God in his particular Calling 55 Difference betweene Care and Carefulnesse 384 Adescription of lawfull Care ib. A description of Carefulnesse ib. True properties of provident care whereby it is differenced from Carefulnesse 387 c. When Cares of this life are inordinate 393 Gods children should not take thought or be carefull about any thing 396 Disswasives from carefulnesse 399 Why no man should be Carefull about earthly things ibid Why no man must care about successe in any thing 401 The evill effects of Caring about successe in any thing 405 Meanes to be free from Carefulnesse 409 The condition of a true Christian even when he hath sinned differeth from that of a formal Christian when he sinneth 688 How a man should be have himselfe in all Company 213 How a man should make good use to himselfe by all Company 218 Meanes of good speech and carriage in all Company 225 Rules wherby a man may well order himselfe in evil Company 228 How to be kept from infection of sin by bad Company 231 How to demeane a mans selfe in good Company 234 What is to be done after a man hath beene in Company 244 Motives to Brotherly love and Communion of Saints 242 How a man may know that he hath beene sufficiently humbled and prepared for Conversion 630 None can know that the time of his Conversion is past 542 None must bee troubled though they know not when nor by whom they were Converted 631 What grace God giveth in the first Conversion 686 What Conversion and true repentance is 474 Men over-gone with trouble of Conscience are most unfit to iudge of their owne estate 767 An excellent helpe to peace of Conscience in the former câ—se 765 c. When the Conscience is troubled it is good to lay it open to some faithfull and skilfull Christian ibid Rules touching opening a mans state to others when the Conscience is troubled ibid How to keepe the Conscience tender 480. 679 How to walke as in Gods sight under Crosses in all adversity 273 Rules how to passe by or beare lighter Crosses 274 Rules how to beare all Crosses 275 Of bearing Crosses thankefully 313 Of bearing Crosses fruitfully ib D How to begin the Day well 28 29 How to walke in the sequell of the Day after it is well begun 53 How to end the Day well 179 Reasons why naturally all are unwilling to Dye 585 Reasons why some are more fearefull to Die than others ibid Causes why Christians are too unwilling to Dye 587 Helpes against feare of Death 588 Difference betweene the sinning of the regenerate and unregenerate 688 E Rules for Eating and drinking 64 In what order a man should ascend to the knowledge of his Election 518 Whence it is that the Elect may backeslide aud how farre 685 The Elect never fall from the first infused grace 688 Some thinke they Endevour to doe well yet doe not 324 What Endevour is in generall ibid Some thinke they Endevour not when yet they doe 326 What is true Endevour ibid A mans Endevour in some caseâ— may be as true when yet he cannot performe it as in some other cases when he can performe it to the full 327 The